The word has gone mad. Anyone with half a brain would have to agree. I thought it was bad that people would defend their right to murder their own children, but things have suddenly taken a major turn for the worse. In the space of a couple of years we have moved from the idea that a person can change their gender to the rabid promotion and defence of men as the new model of women. We’re seeing a doubling down on the insanity and vilifying of those who do not participate in this bold act of self delusion.
Well known sports brands such as Nike choose a man to advertise sports bras and are surprised and hurt when the common man rejects this ideology. There are many more examples of the madness that currently reigns, but I think the point is easily made and none of us need to dwell on the details of the madness, it really isn’t good for the soul.
In attempts to counter many of these ideas through Scripture, reasoning, debate and even straight up condemnation, I have come to realise that I was really just hacking at the fruit. You see, every one of these crazy delusions are but “fruit” that grow out of a certain mindset or set of beliefs. We could wear ourselves out hacking at fruit without any true effect. Fruit farmers depend on the fact that fruit will grow again after they are picked from a tree, and often the tree is made to grow better and stronger by chopping off limbs. If you want to stop the fruit you need to kill the tree, and the only way to do that is to attack its root. Hacking at the branches will probably only make things worse, the tree will grow stronger and only bear more fruit.
We see this happening all the time. Standing “against” ideas such as the trans agenda or abortion, for example, has not only had the effect of polarising the different sides but has also increased the intensity of the disagreement without converting any significant numbers to either side. This is obviously counter productive.
So I have been thinking about the root of these issues and have come to the conclusion that they are all fruit of the same tree. The thought that sits at the root of (in my opinion) it all is the idea that there is no God.
This is the fundamental issue. If there is a God it affects the very deepest and most fundamental part of our identity and everything else flows out of this.
A worldview where there is a God and Creator provides humanity with meaning, purpose, order and accountability. In this world view it is possible to say that all creation has meaning and purpose, there are truths/laws that govern creation, that the Creator determined those laws, and that we will be held accountable, or at least that there will be consequences when those laws are transgressed.
Remove a Creator from the world view and we are left with having to use our own reason to determine the meaning, purpose and value of everything. In this world it is possible to argue for the interchangeability of male and female, because modern technology has made it possible for women to compete with and even outdo men in many areas of life (and vice versa, it seems). No longer is it necessary to swing a sword in battle, office jobs are a playing field where male strengths are not required. The modern world has largely become a place where technology can overcome the limitations of each gender and unfortunately also make redundant the unique strengths.
Each life is now no longer a precious gift given by the Creator, but merely the result of chance and time. Sex is nothing more than a physical act driven by hormones and our evolutionary urges, and can be enjoyed without consequence or limitation.
Love becomes a euphemism for sex and is a purely physical and selfish experience, driven by lust.
There is no divine intent, no plan, no meaning.
In this world, this purely physical, material world, the human becomes god.
This is the death that follows eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, there is no tree of life here.
This is nothing new, at least not in modern times. Atheistic (humanist) societies have left their mark on history. Marx kicked off a slew of new ideas founded on the principle of atheism which have brought death and destruction like never before. Socialism, fascism and communism have killed more people and brought more misery than any other ideas ever.
Today, in the West, we are not facing an enemy as coherent and obvious as socialism but the root is the same. The ideas of evolution and an origin of life which does not require a first cause, a Creator, have been pushed so strongly and taught so ubiquitously that anyone who has graduated from high school in the last 50 years accepts the idea of evolution without a second thought. The consequences of this have been devastating. Instead of building society with regard to the intent of a Creator, man has been left to his own reason.
This is true even in large parts of the Christian world, and as a consequence we see the rise of humanistic ideas in the church. Issues which are simply understood and explained in the context of creation have become acceptable by way of man’s reason.
Paul explains this phenomenon in his letter to the Romans (chapter 2, emphasis mine):
The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.
Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.
Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
Here lies our battle. Starting in our own minds, we need to dismantle and abandon the atheistic strongholds which we have been force fed to date. Turn away from and reject the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Embrace the tree of life and eat from it. Then we need to start banging the drum, without shame or condemnation, reminding the world that there is a Creator God. This is the fundamental issue, and without it we cannot accomplish any meaningful change or success. Paul also explains why things have gone so crazy in such a short time, “Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind”. Until the world repents of their world view and embraces the knowledge of God, their lot will be a depraved mind and we will be fighting a losing battle. This is also why we need to make sure we completely reject this world view, because it will taint how you see everything else, it is at it’s heart anti-Christ.
This atheistic mindset has largely been empowered and made possible by the ideas of evolution and abiogenesis. (Any reasonable person would have to reject atheism unless it was able to answer the fundamental questions of how we got here. The existence of a creator is logically self evident, and it wasn’t until evolution provided a narrative that had the right mix of reason and faith that man was able to reject the idea of a creator with any credulity.)
When you reject the idea of evolution and abiogenesis (life arising all by itself by chance), you will face, perhaps even in your own mind, serious opposition. That is because it represents the spirit of the age and by rejecting it you are really doing spiritual warfare. You will face condescension and scorn, as well as claims that you are contradicting accepted or “settled” science and therefore being a complete religious weirdo. This narrative has been pushed so strongly over the years that we never hear any challenges to the evolution based mindset, except maybe from “far right Christian fundamentalists” and other “religious fanatics” but in fact there are a myriad of voices in the scientific community who have been speaking out against evolution for a very long time. The Evolution Cruncher is a good place to start (PDF download). I have also compiled a Youtube playlist with some of my favourite videos about this.
Do not cave to this opposition. We are fighting for souls! Instead, gird your loins, put on the helmet of salvation and stand your ground. Let those around you see your light, and shine on them the truth of their identity in God. Everyone is valuable, life has meaning and purpose, and you are fearfully and wonderfully made. Jesus came to save you from the total trainwreck of living in your sin, and it is not too late.