Today’s Culture Was Inevitable

The average Christian is shocked by where today’s culture is.  I hear people talk about what has happened in the last 10-20 years as if they are surprised as to how crazy everything has become.  Think about some of the happenings we have witnessed lately that seem mind-boggling to say the least.

• Public officials openly state that a baby in a mother’s womb is not a human being.
• Parents are giving there newborn child a “gender neutral” name so that the child can choose its gender when it gets older.
• Government officials have declared that we only have 12 more years of life on the planet.
• Children are being given gender-altering drugs without parent consent.
• Males transgendering to females are now dominating many women sports.
• Schools have announced that they are changing Mother’s Day and Father’s Day recognition to “Acknowledgement Day”  so that “we as a community recognize that our families are not made up of any particular combination of people and that we are no longer subscribe to a binary world.”
• Legislatures have passed bills that allow for an abortion right up to the time of birth and, at the same time, they have voted down bills that will require medical attention be given to a baby that survives an abortion.

You can add to these realities such things as:

• Suicide rates are skyrocketing, especially among young people.
• Mass shootings continue to dominate the headlines and show little, if any, value to human life.

I could go on and on with examples absurd things that are now fully acceptable in today’s postmodern, secular society.  However, should we be shocked or horrified by what is seen as “normal” in today’s world?  It is my conviction that, even though we should be broken-hearted by where we are as a society, we shouldn’t be shocked.  In fact, today’s culture had to become what it is today because of the philosophy of education that has dominated schools at all levels for over 100+ years.

Secular philosophy has to lead to a culture that has no direction or sense of truth, beauty or goodness.  In 1927, President Bell of St. Stephens College described the youth of his day in what must have been shocking to Christians who were listening to him.

We are sending forth graduates with diffused minds, scarcely fit to take command of their own lives or to cooperate in the development of a social state; drifters into conformity and essential human futility; easy victims of specious crowd psychologies; followers of what seem easy ways out… 

As I read this many years ago, I thought he was accurately describing the youth of today.  There is no question that today’s young people are “drifters into conformity” and they have become victims of “crowd psychologies.”  Bell went on to state,

They esteem themselves only creatures of their environment and so they tend to become just that.

When children and youth sit under hours upon hours of teaching based on evolutionary thought, it is inevitable that they see themselves as something that exists as the result of time and chance.  Bell then explained what is the result of this type of thinking.

They have little of no perception of standards — truth, beauty or goodness; they have no goals of purposeful perfection with which to estimate values or by which to gauge achievement.  All things are to them relative — relative not to absolutes but to expediency.  

Truth means to them little more than a body of observable facts; beauty, conformity to fashion, goodness, doing those things that will make one comfortable or popular. (emphasis mine)

He concluded his description of the youth of his day by placing the blame on the adults not on the condition of the youth.

Out of our most able youth, capable of high adventure, we are manufacturing mental and ethical jellyfish.

The title of today’s post is “Today’s Culture Was Inevitable.”  In reality, it was totally predictable.  We shouldn’t be surprised at any of the “craziness” we are witnessing all around the world today.  I am convinced it is because secular education has produced a completely secular society.

The term secular has been a topic in many of my posts over the past several years. As a reminder, the term, secular, means non-religious.  Secularists claim that they are not against religion or the concept of God.  They simply say it has no bearing on public life.  So, secular education teaches everything from a man-centered worldview.  God is totally irrelevant; which is another way of saying He doesn’t exist.

When education takes place on the premise that God doesn’t exist, somethings are inevitable.  Here are just a few of what is the predictable results of secular thinking and teaching.  If God is ignored or denied:

• there can be no universal absolute truth.
• man must be a product of nature and cannot have any value higher than any other element of nature.
• life can have no overarching purpose and, therefore, cannot produce real significance.
• there can be no absolute moral values.
• there is no such thing as evil because that would mean that there is a universal good.

Jim Denison recently noted,

In the 1960s, we shifted form “us” to “me.”  Truth is what I say it is; morality is what works for me without harming others.

As President Bell clearly stated, we are manufacturing young people who have become secular beings who decide for themselves what is right and wrong or true and false.  We are seeing what Paul warned about in a letter to young Timothy take place before our very eyes.

But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: for men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, basters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unforgiving, slanders, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power.  2 Timothy 3:1-5 (NKJV)

How can this take place in society?  In the last days, does Satan invent some type of special dust that he sprinkles on people to act this way?  No, this is the inevitable result that has to take place when children and youth are educated in a way that ignores and/or denies the existence of God.  I have said it before and it begs repeating again.

Secular education can and does occur in any form of education.  It is the dominant philosophy in state/government (including charter) and most private schools.  However, I have also seen it in some Christian and home schools and even in some churches and Christian homes.

If we have any chance of seeing these trends reversed, Christians must repent and beg God’s forgiveness for giving our children a secular education that is based on human wisdom.  The home, church and school must provide children and youth with an education driven by a biblical philosophy of education (I refer to it as Kingdom Education).

I am excited to announce that I just finished filming 10 more video lessons on key aspects of kingdom education that will soon be uploaded to the Kingdom Education Ministries membership website.  When edited and uploaded, it will bring the total number of video sessions to 42.  These videos along with the articles, booklets and other resources available to KEM Prime Members are designed to help parents, church leaders and Christian educators strengthen their biblical worldview and philosophy of education.  If you or your school wants more information on how to become a KEM Prime Member, click here or email me at [email protected].  A special thanks goes to Pastor James McMenis and the staff of Word of God Ministries for their partnership with KEM in producing these resources.