PastorRog's Blog

A long time ago, on a continent far, far away, a man named Thomas Aquinas exerted much influence upon the theology of the western church by teaching that man's fall was only moral in nature and not intellectual. In other words, when man sinned, it only affected his morality and not his intellect. Out of this, the humanist era and philosophy was born, in which we are currently living. In fact, I would venture a guess that we are seeing the height of humanist thinking in the modern world. Now, some of you are probably asking, "What exactly does he mean by humanist thinking? Glad you asked!
Humanism is the belief that the human brain is the final arbiter of truth. It is the belief that on his own, man can find, define, and weigh the value of truth. When Aquinas taught this, he opened up a world in which man must now define truth for himself and rely upon his own faculties and abilities to find truth and meaning. This philosophy was, at the time, tempered by a very strong belief in God and in his complete goodness and holiness. It was, and still remains, a sort of Theistic Humanism in which God exists, but His truth must pass the test of human reasoning.

Now, I know one of you is thinking, "Doesn't that put man in the place of God?" And you would be correct. This is the fatal flaw of Humanistic thinking. If God's truth must pass the test of human reason, than God is reduced to whatever human beings can reasonably understand. The entire knowledge of God is determined by our reason and our standards. The huge elephant in the room that is ignored in this thinking is that man is the creation, and God the creator. If God's truth is dependent upon our capacity to understand it, then God himself cannot conceive, or create at a level higher than the simplest person on earth.

As I said before, the early stages of this humanist thinking was tempered by the fact that these people had a VERY DEVOUT love of God and a very thorough knowledge of the scriptures, so it never really go too far out of hand, until today. Now, we have the philosophy of humanism that is very much alive in the world today, but no longer do we have the principles of scripture and a devotion to a higher power tempering it. Now, humanity is defining its own "truth" left and right but can't seem to keep from tripping over itself in the process. Science is viewed as God, able to give all the answers. Education is the religion that is supposed to train you to overcome the world and better yourself. And morality is completely ignored, because it is seen as completely subjective and personal, with no bearing upon the greater good. Immoral acts are seen as the product of an uneducated mind, so that more education is all that is needed to keep a terrorist from flying a plane into a building.

For hundreds of years, western civilization flourished because this humanist thinking was tempered by a belief in God and an acceptance of his righteous decrees. In fact, colonial America and the early American leaders/philosophers were driven by a belief that humans must strive to understand as much as possible about life and God. They trained their minds feverishly and sought to use their intellect to SERVE GOD. Now, people see the intellect AS GOD.

Unfortunately, as I stated earlier, we are seeing the apex of humanistic thinking in the world today. The last time a philosophical system reached its apex was during the Greek and Roman Empires. After that, the dark ages, where man was once again searching for a bearing on life. The Roman Empire fell and brought about a change in the world's philosophy and so Humanistic thinking will eventually fall and the world will be forced to look to something other than ourselves for meaning and truth. In case you missed what I said, America is the apex of the humanistic empire. The thinking, the way of life, everything is centered around the individual so that the community loses all relevance in light of personal pursuits.

The late 20th century Christian philosopher Francis Schaeffer predicted that eventually Western Society would be reduced to two terrible values of Personal Peace and Personal Prosperity. Congratulations America, you've made it!

With the average household holding almost $10,000 in credit card debt alone, America is quickly sinking into a pit from which there will be no escape. Americans make more money than 98% of the world and yet, we continue to expect our government to fund our happiness and ensure our prosperity. God has been left behind and the result will be a fall. We don�t know when, but just as Rome's society abused its privileges and eventually lost its moral center, so America is following the same path.

The Answer: It is not about you!

What is the Christian life? Is it about me? About others? About being a good person? About salvation? What??? All of those answers are a part of the Christian life, but if we are going to boil it down to the absolute core of what the Christian life is about, then we have to arrive at a place that is not popular or comfortable for us spoiled Americans. It is not about me, it is about God. We were created by God, for God. We are his. We were created to reflect God's glory in creation. We have all failed to do that because of Sin. God, because of his love and his holiness, took care of the sin problem by sending his Son to die on the cross. This is where many get tripped up in today's world. We often quote John 3:16 as the core of Christian belief.

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whosoever believes in him will not perish, but have everlasting life."

This is a wonderful scripture, one of power, truth, purpose, and by itself, incomplete. Yep, I said it...INCOMPLETE. When that verse is taken in isolation, the Christian life is about me. Christ came FOR ME. God's love is about ME. Salvation is all about ME. This should fit right in with our society today. The problems arise when we read the rest of scripture. Lets look further at John 3, in fact, lets just look at the following verses...
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God." (John 3:17-21, NIV)

Now, do you notice something at the end of verse 21? Eternal life has been offered through Christ, FOR GOD'S GLORY. It is not about us, it isn't about God saving us only, but ultimately, it is about God glorifying HIMSELF. The best way he could bring glory to himself was by redeeming his creation that had as Romans 3:23 said "sinned and fallen short of the GLORY of God." We failed to reflect the goodness, holiness, and righteousness of God and so God gave us another chance and a way to do so. This is through his Son Jesus Christ.

So, in conclusion, your life, your salvation, your Christian walk, is NOT ABOUT YOU. It is about Glorifying God. Always has been, always will be.