During the last number of years, our modern
western societies have come to worship at the altar of several
'great truths' which are not supposed to be challenged. Those who
do dare to challenge these 'great truths' are ignored by
colleagues, continually undermined, subjected to sarcasm and
often mocked as 'unenlightened' and 'unintelligent'.
As Christians it is helpful for us to categorize these 'great
truths' which our society has chosen to bow down before because
they reveal little short of a fiendish and satanic conspiracy to
isolate true believers and to make mockery of the kingdom of God!
Let us look at some of these modern 'sacred cows':
1. LIBERAL VALUES
It has become some sort of a badge of respectability for modern
politicians to proudly boast that they support "liberal values".
In fact, in a democracy, it seems that a politician cannot get
very far without 'doffing their cap' in the direction of
liberalism. Liberalism has come to mean:
a. Non-judgmentalism, anything goes, and who are we to be
critical?
b. Strong authority is, at best, highly suspect and is best
avoided and opposed.
c. The freedom of individuals is more important than any religion
or creed.
d. All criticism is destructive (apparently, except where
liberals decide to be critical of non-liberals!)
e. No culture is better than any other culture, except cultures
which are plainly illiberal.
The origins of Liberalism are not entirely easy to trace, many
point the finger at twentieth century British atheist philosopher
Bertrand Russell, others look at sexual rights anthropologist
Margaret Meade, but the influences are much, much older than
that. The Universities of 17th-19th centuries enlightenment
Europe certainly played a role in popularizing a new breed of
philosophical and political thinking which strongly challenged
the dogmatism of the church and the whole concept that human
beings are answerable to an all-powerful God.
But I want to look at influences which are much older than
those:
The Korah of the Old Testament plainly displayed liberalism in
opposing the authority of Moses. Korah claimed that all
Israelites had equal authority with Moses, which has led to the
oft-repeated comment that Korah was 'the first democrat'.
Korah plainly hated the authority which the Lord God had granted
to Moses. Korah organized a council or committee of 250 (Numbers
16:2) and he obviously felt that these people should be
joint-decision makers!
'They gathered together against Moses and Aaron, and said to
them, "You take too much upon yourselves, for all the
congregation is holy, every one of them, and the LORD is among
them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the congregation of
the LORD?"'
(Numbers 16:3)
Undoubtedly Korah and his 'committee' felt that the authority and
decisions of Moses and Aaron were harsh and did not take the
wishes of the people into account. We may well guess that this
group were also somewhat 'soft' on sin and judgment: here is
an early example of 'liberal values'! But the punishment of
Korah and his followers was dreadful, they were swallowed up in a
dreadful sudden earthquake (Numbers 16:31-33).
But there is a much earlier example of an attempt to spread
anti-authoritarian liberal attitudes in the Old Testament! After
the Lord God had warned the first couple not to eat from the Tree
of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, Satan appeared as a snake,
suggesting to Eve that if a thing looked good (the forbidden
fruit), hey! it must be worth trying out! Who is that Lord
God anyway? You have a right to enjoy yourself and to conduct
your own experiments, in fact, doing so will increase your
knowledge and wisdom and you will become like gods yourselves!
(Genesis 3:1-14). Here we see a very clear example of
anti-authoritarianism and a liberal attitude which rejected the
concept of sin - don't forget the third plank of liberalism:
(c) The freedom of individuals is more important than any
religion or creed!
Our modern western societies are steeped in 'liberal values' -
so, lets be clear : why are these "values" such a stench
in the nostrils of Almighty God? My earlier suggested planks of
liberalism tell us:
If we say that judgmentalism is always wrong then we would have
to say, What right has God got to judge us?
If we say that strong authority must be evil, we are also
rejecting God's authority.
If we say that the "freedom" of individuals is more important
than any religion or creed we are directly confronting and
opposing the revelation of the Holy Bible!
Likewise if we say that all criticism is to be avoided.
If we say that no one culture is no better than any other, that
is not necessarily wrong except that the term 'culture' has come
to also include the religion espoused by a particular culture.
But Christianity claims excusive truth about God and
salvation, therefore Christians must continue to be determined to
evangelize to those of other cultures.
2. ABORTION
It is God's prerogative alone to take life, although, in the
light of the Old Testament revelation to ancient Israel, He has
certainly allowed for Capital Punishment for very serious
offences, for self-defence and even possibly for war against a
plainly evil adversary.
Now there have always been a few evil people who have chosen to
take the lives of small children, whether through the cruel
exposure of unwanted new babies or through the more organized
systems of pagan child sacrifice. It is probably true to say that
everybody in today's western society would unanimously condemn
the evil of allowing small infants to 'pass through the fire' to
Molech in some pagan societies of the past, and yet, today it is
commonly believed that the exposure of newborn girls still takes
place in China, yet this is as nothing compared to the countless
thousands of tiny tots who are murdered in the womb! I refer, of
course, to the practise of abortion. This wholesale slaughter of
tiny babies (we should avoid the term 'foetuses' which seeks to
de-personalise these children) is on such a scale as to make
ancient child sacrifice appear quite insignificant! Moreover,
this is now state sponsored in many nations . Very young
unmarried girls are being actively encouraged to have an abortion
if they become pregnant, and yet the teaching of moral
responsibility is avoided. There was never such a thing as
state-sponsored child sacrifice even in the most despicable pagan
city states of 4,000 years ago!
Loathsome as this thing is to many of us, I need to make this
clear: doctors are paid a good salary (often by the
government) for carrying out abortions on an absolutely huge
level right across such 'advanced' nations as the UK, USA,
Canada, Australia. most of Europe and many other nations as well!
I DO NOT HAVE THE FIGURES IN FRONT OF ME BUT WE ARE TALKING ABOUT
SEVERAL HUNDRED THOUSAND TINY, UNBORN INFANTS PER YEAR!
In complete contrast to this, if a pregnant woman was harmed in
ancient Israel and she lost the baby as a result, the offending
person could have faced the death penalty!! This starts to
show us God's attitude to the harming of little children in the
womb. But there is more:
When Israel entered the promised land, One of the reasons that
they were forbidden from learning the ways of the surrounding
nations was, in fact, the appalling practise of child sacrifice.
Child sacrifice was (and is) an abomination to God. Just look at
some of these Scriptures which reveal God's oft-repeated contempt
for those who feel that they have the right and authority to
sacrifice the lives of their own children: Lev 18:21; Deut 12:31;
Deut 18:10; 2 Kings 16:3; 17:17,31; 21:6; 23:10; 2 Chron 28:3;
33:6; Jer 7:31; Ezek 20:31.
There is no doubt whatsoever that abortion has become one of the
'sacred cows' which must not be challenged in the western world.
Here in the UK this so extreme that if a supporter of pro-life
rings into one of those radio 'just ring in' discussion-type
programmes which are discussing the protection of small children,
his or her call will not even be considered, if it is
discovered that the caller intends to attack abortion But if
an anti-abortionist should somehow still manage to reach the
programme presenter, they will receive very short-shrift, brief
and rude treatment.
So how does abortion attack the kingdom of God?
Because every little child who is born is a potential child of
God with the real possibility of inheriting Eternal Life through
the appopriation of Jesus Christ! Satan knows this and - make no
mistake - he is the real author of the murder of tiny children.
In contrast to that, the human family is a God-ordained
instituition. God intended that parents of small children do
their utmost to protect those children. But God's
intentions are not thwarted that easily and I have little doubt
that all aborted little ones are even now in heaven. This would
mean that one of Satan's most fiendish plots against human beings
has only assured that these tiny ones will certainly
inherit Eternal Life.
3. EVOLUTION
I have written a lot about evolution elsewhere on this site (for
those who are interested, some links at the article conclusion).
But I must say just a little more here.
It must be considered absolutely astonishing that a theory which
is not only unproven but is unprovable and which
flies against the great weight of observable evidence including
the evidence of millions of fossils continues to have influence
(although, I feel increasingly little among leading scientists,
biologists and geologists). The general public remain largely
uninformed of the huge crisis which has been gradually gathering
pace for the last 15 years in the scientific community on the
subject of evolution. The number of leading scientists who feel
that evolution must be challenged appears to be growing year by
year. Encouraging too that these challengers of macro-evolution
are among the 'leading lights' of science, including the
brilliant molecular biologist, Michael Behe.
In fact, one of the reasons that I feel there is a need to say
little more here is that there is a huge amount of
information on the internet, much of it from scientists
which attacks evolution.
But evolution is the huge lie which got accepted because of the
very enormity of the lie! This great lie does away with
the need for people to feel any moral responsibility for anything
they do in their lives; if God did not create the world, He
presumably cannot exist so why obey Him? There are many people
out there who really do reason as shallowly as this.
So evolution is another great 'sacred cow' of the modern
world which must not be challenged no matter what.
It is, of course, especially easy to see how this 'great
truth' of our society attacks the kingdom of God. The theory
says that there is no Creator God, and that everything we see all
around us gradually evolved from lifeless matter. So moral
responsibility is largely removed and it should be no surprise
that Darwinist racism and mis-explained 'survival of the fittest'
was the very base from which Hitler, Stalin and others have
operated. Incidentally, the racism of Darwin is now swept
under the carpet despite its profound influence on the 20th
century.
Sadly, evolution has caused a gradual, drip, drip, drip erosion
of trust in the Christian Faith even among men who are supposed
to be Christian leaders; I recently came across a most horrifying
British survey of 103 Roman Catholic priests, Anglican bishops
and Protestant ministers/pastors which showed that: 97% did not
believe the world was created in six days, and 80% did not
believe in the existence of Adam and Eve. (News item in
ReligionToday for 1999-DEC-29. They quoted the Conservative News
Service. Original source of data was not specified). While the
total number polled was very low (103), this is still a sickening
statistic of a horrendous lack of faith among British so-called
"Christian leaders". Obviously, few if any evangelicals were
polled, but I would like to see around 750 such leaders polled in
order to get a more accurate picture.
4. THE EMANCIPATION OF WOMEN
Is not the emancipation of women a wholly good thing? Our
society tells us so, and no British politician dare challenge it
unless he wants to risk being fired!
But, first of all, let me make it abundantly clear that women are
made in the image of God and they are fully equal with men
(by the way, Charles Darwin whom we mentioned in the last
section, firmly believed that women were inferior to
men).
One's attitude here will depend on whether we believe that there
is a Creator God who has given a revelation to Mankind, or
whether one rejects supernaturalism and feels that human
reasoning is all we have.
The movement for the emancipation of women which developed during
the 20th century has had a huge impact on society; whereas
earlier centuries at least loosely accepted biblical principles
that a woman's role is as loving support for her husband, as
mother of the children with, perhaps, a more specific role to
'train them up' than men have, the women's emancipation movement
has encouraged women to think that there is no reason why women
themselves cannot have a career and be 'breadwinners'. One of the
results of this is that married women have moved into the
work-force in their tens of thousands.
Many married women (affected by the new social climate which
tells them that they should have active lives outside of the
home) are now discontented to be at home with the
children.
The very large-scale movement of married women into the work
force which has occurred during the last 25 years or so has been
accompanied by several social effects, especially in certain
countries:
1. Ever-spiralling divorce figures.
2. Increasing juvenile crime, often involving mere children of
9-10 years (particularly in the UK).
3. A marked problem of male unemployment (especially among men
over 40, and especially in the UK).
4. An alarming rise in teenage pregnancies.
Now, is there really no connection here between some of these
things? Traditionally it was more often than not the influence of
a mother who kept her children out of trouble, while
moulding them into decent and honourable young citizens, but this
effect is certainly going to be diminished if the mother is busy
at work! What about the incredibly high divorce figures? Are we
going to be utterly naive and refuse to admit that attractive
married women in the office are going to be noticed by their male
work colleagues whether married or not?
So how does the emancipation of women attack the kingdom of
God?
It attacks it for some of the very reasons we have already noted:
God is both designer and supporter of the human family unit with
a husband, wife and children. Moreover, although some active
'womens rights' people may baulk at it , He really has given
guidelines in the Holy Bible which, if followed, will tend to
make families stronger and more unified.
"Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be
joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh" (Genesis
2: 24)
The principle of 'one flesh' is the biblical principle of
marriage. Like it or not, the picture of the 'constant closeness'
of marriage partners comes across in many texts. The apostle Paul
also stresses the need for husbands and wives to avoid the
possibility of sexual temptation arising by being constant
in their marital union (1 Corinthians 7:1-5). The biblical
picture of a wife being a close support at her husband's
side is far different to the very separate existences of some
modern working couples!
Then there is the responsibility to correctly train children
'in the way that they should go', and there are so many
biblical texts on this that I would not know where to start. But
in our society, it seems to me, that parents of young children in
particular are inclined to place them in any nursery/child care
unit during the working day and are willing to pay a good fee for
doing this, apparently without even considering that such young
children are nobody's responsibility except the
parents!
5. REBELLIOUS TEENAGE CULTURE
Perhaps this fifth point is not so much a 'sacred cow' of our
societies but it is certainly something which is part and parcel
of our society and to the people of eastern cultures it seems
very odd. We appear to have just accepted it and never challenged
it. Yet we should be angry that scores of people in the music,
media and fashion arenas have made a small fortune by the
exploitation of our young people for their commercial ends; the
result has been the complete alienation of our young people from
their own parents.
It should be realized that for hundreds of years teenagers did
the same as their parents did - there was no generation gap. They
listened to the same music as their parents, read the same papers
and magazines and went to the same sort of leisure activities.
But this quite suddenly and dramatically began to change with the
'bobbysoxer girls' who screamed with excitement when Frank
Sinatra sung. But things quietened down again for a numberof
years until the Rock n' Roll revolution from 1956. The huge
flocking of young people to the record shops and to rock concerts
began to give some shrewd marketing and advertising people the
mighty vision of a huge teen culture which could be financially
exploited. Suddenly young people in countries like USA and Great
Britain had more money to spend than they ever had before and
some of these shrewd businessmen decided that they wanted some of
it!
This new culture - which would continue to drive a wedge between
young people in the West and their parents - became reinforced
with the arrival of The Beatles in the early 1960's. Peer
pressure certainly helped to sustain the impetus - what young
person does not want to be part of the 'in group' in their
school or college? Even worse, young people read more and more
about their favorite pop and rock groups in their teen culture
magazines and they wanted to copy them as much as possible; this
opened the door to the entry of drugs into accepted teen culture;
after all, were there not some trashy 1960s magazines and papers
which brazenly showed pop stars taking marijuana or LSD?
Some of our western teenagers came to almost idolize some of
these groups and singers, and if they took drugs, well,
hey! they must be good!
This has now reached the stage where young people no longer even
seem to speak the same language as their parents (and certainly
not their grandparents)! But I think that all of us who are
parents are responsible for having just allowed this huge
alienation to have taken place. Even worse, the greedy people who
brazenly sold our kids junk-value music, clothes, literature and
worse of all.....morals (under the lying pretense that it
was better than their parent's standards) have now started
turning their attention to pre-teen kids of 8-12.
It is not difficult to see how the alienation of young people
from traditional values in the Christian West amounts to an
assault on the kingdom of God!
In Israel it was a very serious offence if young people
rebelled against their parents authority, but we have now
departed so far from this that the former statement seems quite a
surprising evaluation for many people; we have come to see the
ongoing alienation as a mixture of cute, amusing and inevitable,
and numerous teen-targetted television programs make this tragic
generation gap a subject of humor and comedy. The very odd thing
is that we tend to be critical of some eastern and Islamic
cultures where young people are not subject to this rebellion and
alienation and where they still walk in loving submission to
their parents!
The thread of the need and the requirement to love, teach and
discipline our children is so strong and so emphasized throught
the Bible that it is almost superfluous to quote the Scriptures -
we all know them! Proverbs 22:6 is a good example of
frequently repeated biblical warnings to raise kids
properly:
'Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old
he will not depart from it'
(Proverbs 22:6)
Of course, it is only fair to point out that never in human
history has our adversary made a more determined bid to drive a
firm wedge between young people and their parents than he has
from the mid-20th century onwards, but once this insidious
campaign got under way, many of us - yes, certainly
including myself, I put my hand up and freely admit it - have
been slow to react.
Looking back on it, it seems a huge mistake not to have withdrawn
our own children from the public school system, but I was
undecided on that, and my wife opposed it. We now only have one
child in our care but she is fostered and we are not legally able
to withdraw her from the appalling, atheism-assuming UK state
school system.
6. HOMOSEXUALITY
Homosexuality/Lesbianism is another 'sacred cow' of the
Western world in this 21st century. Any opposing it are
immediately looked upon as die-hard bigots of the worst kind!
It's assumed everywhere, certainly in the mainly liberal world of
the media, that homosexuality is simply an 'alternative
lifestyle' and we are not to judge it. As in the case of
abortion, any attempting to air anti-homosexual views on various
radio 'just ring-in' discussion programs receive very short
shrift and are branded as 'living in the past'. The
prejudice is so strong, that even in the wake of AIDS (though
certainly not all of AIDS has been caused by homosexuals), it is
very hard to get a hearing for a viewpoint, however moderately
expressed, that homosexuality is a perverse lifestyle which the
young should be protected from. Indeed, on the contrary, the
government now states that 'gay rights' people should be allowed
to enter schools and speak to older school children, making a
brief case for homosexuality as one possible lifestyle!!
The apostle Paul makes some very interesting comments about
homosexuality in Romans 1:24-27. The preceding verses seem to
make it plain that God allows a society who willfully
rejects His revelation to bring curses upon
themselves:
'Because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as
God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and
their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they
became fools.'
(Romans 1:21-22)
Here, without doubt, we see the origins of many things, including
evolution, idolatry and liberalism!
But no society has willfully rejected the Lord's
revelation more than the societies of Europe and America; we must
realise that churches and chapels were full to overflowing in
Britain and America just one hundred years ago, but such devotion
to God has now greatly waned, especially in Britain. This
effectively means that - as a society - we have rejected God in
favour of secularism and anti-God liberalism. This applies far
less to the eastern world where the name of Christ has not been
widely known, so it is less true that God has been rejected.
Indeed, we do find that secularism, liberalism and deviant sexual
behavior has been especially accepted in those countries
where much has been known about the revelation of God and Christ!
I maintain that this is what we should expect to
find........
'For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even
their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature.
Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman,
burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing
what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of
their error which was due. And even as they did not like to
retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased
mind, to do those things which are not fitting'.
(Romans 1:26-28).
Again, God is the Creator of the human family unit in which men
and women come to love each other and produce children, seed for
His kingdom: this was always God's intention. Things which set
out to destroy this God-given pattern are warring against the
kingdom of God.
So we have looked at six things which have become 'sacred
cows' in the formerly Christian nations, and it should be
clear to all who call themselves by the name of Christ how these
things are at direct odds with, and directly attack, the very
clear principles we find revealed within the Holy Bible.
Museltof
2004.