Worldview #3–Secularism

As noted in Worldview #1-The Foundation of Truth and Worldview #2-Var står det skrivet?, Evangelical theology places a high value upon the Word of God, the Scriptures–the Bible. We place a high value upon the Gospel, and we desire for that Truth to pervade all areas of our society down to our hearts. Our great challenge is that we live at tension with those who oppose that effort– those from the secular camp. The secular worldview desires to remove all vestiges of Christianity, the Bible, in fact all religion from the public view–from the government, from schools, and from the public square–to erase all traces of God from the public’s eye. In modern parlance we would say that secularism (secular humanism) is censoring the Good News. Obviously, these two worldviews, Evangelical theology and secularism are irreconcilably opposed. Yes, secularism is an adversary then to an Evangelical worldview. 

For some time now, the ideology of progressivism has been consistently moving further to the left. Where is God in the leftist agenda? He isn’t; at least not the True God of the Bible. Secularistic “doctrine” is increasingly void of a divine, omniscient, sovereign, righteous, yet loving being who seeks to have a relationship with mankind. Secularism is also absent a holy Creator who will ultimately hold His Creation accountable. When is the last time we have heard a member of the progressive left making a case for any one of the tenets of their platform and justifying it in light of Scripture? It seldom if ever happens. Even if Scripture is incorporated into any defense, it is contorted beyond recognition. Secularists strive to undue God’s good order. Bowing to the sovereignty of a moral God doesn’t just imply obedience… it requires it!

The preservation of the present-day self requires a resistance of absolute truth. Rejection of any outside moral agency is fundamental as secularism requires autonomy. When there is nothing upon which to anchor truth our carnal GPS will pull us away from our true north of God. When men obey the biases of self it is deemed wiser by these intelligentsia to follow “enlightened” philosophers who themselves despise God. 

Today there are many false shepherds and pastors who enjoin that philosophical distortion, who embrace abortion and sexual fluidity, who hold to raw humanism, and in doing so they too deny the True God. They are wrong, and their viewpoints stand in opposition to Biblical orthodoxy. They claim to be genuine when in fact they serve the other side. 

Secularists mostly fail to argue from a position of legal, constitutional, biological, moral, or Biblical basis. Rather, they argue from the autonomy of self: self-declared, self-legislated, and self–adjudicated.  They claim to hold the moral “high ground” based on a combination of emotions, feelings, and popular opinion. So, is secularism a worthy opponent? The Bible tells us that Christ wins in the end, so ultimately secularism is a doomed opponent, though it will deceive many along its wide road to destruction. In the end secularists may identify some behaviors and thoughts as “sin,” of sorts, but those would not be sins against God, but rather against their own subjective moral code–sins against “self.” Still, secularism is indeed an enemy to Evangelical truth. We have irreconcilable differences and that will not change. 

In the end secularism is a stubborn combatant which will always seek to obscure the truth, wherever it can, to serve its agenda. I suppose they think if it is hidden, they will not be accountable to it. “For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light lest his deeds be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been done by God” (John 3:20-21). Secularism will continue to present an alternate truth, and an alternate reality. In that light it will continue to be an affront to the Christian faith. 

For the present, we live in a secular world, and it will not go down without a raging fury.
Sounds familiar? It should; it has plagued mankind since the Garden, and throughout time.

Listen to how God describes it:

“Woe to the rebellious children,” declares Yahweh, 

            “Who execute counsel, but not Mine, 

            And make an alliance, but not of My Spirit, 

            In order to add sin to sin,

For this is a rebellious people, false sons, 

            Sons who are not willing to listen 

            To the law of Yahweh,

            Who say to the seers, “You must not see,” 

            And to those who have visions, “You must not behold visions for us of what is right, 

            Speak to us pleasant words, 

            Behold visions of illusions.

            “Get out of the way, turn aside from the path, 

            Cease speaking before us about the Holy One of Israel” (Isaiah 30:1, 9-11).

People still prefer to be deluded with fairy tales, and rationalization of self-expression, rather than new life in Christ.

God help us to speak Your Truth… in love!
And, may we surrender no ground!