The occult, the New Age, humanism and Scientology are just a few of our modern answers to finding true meaning in life. What these “movements” have in common with the Bible is a fundamental belief that if we leave this planet without really finding out what life is all about, and why we are here to begin with, we must forever accept the following morbid scenario:
“If there is no existence to an answer whose question means our existence, then we are hopelessly trapped in a universe that has no meaning, no purpose and no way of escaping the inevitable conclusion that life is a concept that is as dead as our universe is dark. Our existence is thus one of only form and shadow reflecting out into a vast sea of eternal nothingness.”
False Systems
In 1903 a young man named Nikolai Lenin with a small band of followers began his assault on the world. By 1918, his band had grown to over 40,000 and together they had gained control of a country of 160 million. Communist Russia was born and its brand of government today has taken control of one-fourth of the population of the world. With the coming down of the Berlin Wall, we hope, communism was given a partial death blow.
Communism on the surface has an appeal to it, but the reality of life to those under its influence is quite disheartening. It is basically a form of society where the means of production (e.g., land, factories, resources) are owned in common and all production is shared.
In communist countries today what has the average communist citizen gained? He has really gained very little except that he can consider himself to be part of a cause. On the negative side he has sadly been sold into bondage.
To those approximately 1.5 to 2 billion souls who live under communist regimes, freedom has been stripped away. When you can’t come and go as you please, when you can’t speak whatever is on your mind and when the bookstores you visit are devoid of many of the books you might like to read, freedom becomes a dream and not a reality. We all know about the scarcity of material goods many communist countries live with. But on a far more serious note, when basic freedoms are taken away from us, we begin to lose our personhood and hope for real meaning in life.
Communism denies the existence of God, denies its society the freedom of speech and dictates to its citizens what life is supposed to be about. As these simple freedoms, which we in America so often take for granted, are taken away one by one, so too is the capacity for our freedom of thought.
With viewpoints on the issues slanted, with access to the Bible as well as certain other books of philosophy and wisdom forbidden in many countries, and a belief in God intensely discouraged and belittled, what are we left with?
The result is a society of individuals whose thinking capabilities have been greatly impaired, by virtue of having vital access to our world’s vast treasure chest of ideas withheld from them. In its place communist citizens are presented with a distorted view of the world around them.
They have been kept isolated in a chamber where total freedom of thought has only a small hope of ever entering or leaving. Imagine, the viewpoints presented in my devotionals, whether good or bad or whether you agree with them or not, will most probably never be allowed to be shared with over one-fourth of the population of our world. Clearly light is needed to penetrate such darkness.
False Movements
Humanism is heralded by its followers as the ultimate answer to all of man’s problems. Secular humanism, as it is often referred to, is a man-centered philosophy that places its confidence in the following five tenets:
• There is no God.
• Evolution is the process that brought man into existence.
• There are no such things as absolute morals.
• Man is the supreme crowning glory of the universe.
• Man is innately good.
As a result of this brand of thinking our society has seen itself going through one of the most dynamic transformations in its entire 200-plus-year history. With God vanishing from the picture, and no absolute standards acknowledged, America has traded in her Declaration of Independence freedoms for a new brand of counterfeit freedom.
In the last fifty years, the United States of America has become an increasingly humanistic society. Its proponents believe that we should be free to do anything we want to. They also believe that there are really no absolute rights or wrongs and that men by themselves can form a true utopian world. In return for following this ideology we have seen quantum leaps in the following:
• Drug addiction is now spiraling out of control.
• Abortion is now genocide of incredible proportions.
• Homosexuality is now considered to be an alternate lifestyle.
• Child abuse is now a national horror.
• Sex trafficking is now a runaway epidemic.
When freedom in a society becomes unchecked, the inevitable result becomes bondage. Humanism is beginning to not only sweep across this great nation of ours, but to sweep it away also.
In tomorrow’s part II of this devotion, we will share some thoughts on false thinkers and false freedoms.
Well said. Communism/Liberalism always destroys.