RABBIT CHASING
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Does God exist? Why does God allow evil? Does God speak to us today? Is suicide the unpardonable sin? What does the Bible say about homosexuality? What is predestination? Is cremation ok for Christians? Is baptism required for salvation? What happens to our souls at death for Christians?
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RABBIT CHASING SERIES manuscript: a christian worldview
You can read the combined manuscript of all three videos from Pastor Steve Scoggins's Rabbit Chasing Series: A Christian Worldview.
Click the + sign to read.
The Christian World View Versus The Secular World View
My granddaughter was recently registered for public preschool. She is four. They asked her two questions. “What was her gender assigned to her at birth? What is her gender identity now?” She is four!
Chuck Colson Quote from “How Then Shall We Now Live: Colson quotes are in italics.
Understanding worldviews is extremely important. Our major task in life is to discover what is true and to live in step with that truth. As we saw earlier, every worldview can be analyzed by the way it answers three basic questions: Where did we come from, and who are we (creation)? What has gone wrong with the world (fall)? And what can we do to fix it (redemption)? Chuck Colson
Most in America are basing their lives on a secular world view.
Let’s look at the first of the three basic questions: “Where did we come from and who are we?”
1. Where did we come from and who are we?
Christian man and fifteen year old daughter went to Disney World’s Epcot Center. She was no longer interested in church. He began to see why in their reactions to presentations there. Evolution was referred to in most exhibits.
“That’s science, Dad,” Katy said patiently, as if teaching a child. “Science is things that are proved.” “Most of it was more like philosophy. Most of the exhibits here share one version of the truth, even when they’re talking about different things. It’s a story more than anything, and it goes like this: By chance the universe came into existence, by chance Earth was just right for life to exist, by chance life developed into birds and bees and butterflies, by chance human beings came along, and by chance human beings turned out to be so smart that all the world’s problems will someday succumb to our technological prowess. End of story. Hallelujah, amen.” “But scientists can prove all that, Dad. No one can know for sure about God.” “Come on, how can anyone ‘prove’ that the universe came about by chance? Everything I know about the universe, including my incredibly beautiful daughter, indicates to me that Somebody designed it. Created it.”
Until the 1960’s, secular scientists claimed the universe was eternal and needs no creator.
Carl Sagan once said: “The cosmos is all there is, or was, or ever will be.”
Then the evidence became clear that there was a beginning, described as a big bang.
The new theory hit the scientific world like a thunderclap. It meant that the idea of an ultimate beginning was no longer merely religious dogma. Science itself now indicated that the universe burst into existence at a particular time in the remote past. Big bang theory delivers a near fatal blow to naturalistic philosophy.
How does Earth happen to be so special? Is it just coincidence? Luck? Or was it designed by a loving Creator who had us in mind from the outset? If Earth were even slightly closer to the sun, all its water would boil away, and life would be impossible. On the other hand, if Earth were only slightly farther away from the sun, all its water would freeze, and the terrestrial landscape would be nothing but barren deserts. And it’s not only the landscape that is affected by the position of our planet. The processes inside our bodies also rely on these hospitable conditions. The chemical reactions necessary for life to function occur within a narrow temperature range, and Earth is exactly the right distance from the sun to fall within that range.
In 1966, at a landmark symposium at the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia, a group of computer specialists showed that the probability of evolution by chance processes is essentially zero, no matter how long the time scale. They presented their findings to the nation’s biologists. The charge was led by Murray Eden of MIT and Marcel Schutzenberger of the University of Paris. At first, the biologists were angry at the upstart computer whizzes for invading their territory. But the numbers could not be denied. And after the symposium, chance theories began to be quietly buried. As a result, today it is common to hear prominent scientists scoff at the idea that life arose by chance. The famous astronomer Sir Fred Hoyle compares it to lining up 1050 (ten with fifty zeros after it) blind people, giving each one a scrambled Rubik’s Cube, and finding that they all solve the cube at the same moment.
*Suppose a Las Vegas dealer were to deal himself four aces five times in a row. Would you conclude that was cheating and impossible?
Holes in the theory of evolution:
1. Darwin said that if evolution is true, the fossil record will contain millions of transitional species. They have found none! The geological records show all invertebrates in the world suddenly appeared in the Cambrian strata of rock with no ancestors before them, which is totally inexplicable to evolutionists.
The late Christian evangelist Francis Schaeffer used to offer an argument against evolution that was simple, easy to grasp, and devastating: Suppose a fish evolves lungs. What happens then? Does it move up to the next evolutionary stage? Of course not. It drowns. Living things cannot simply change piecemeal—a new organ here, a new limb there.
2. If evolution happened in the past, why can’t we see evolution happening today?
Most scientists refer to changes within a species as proof of evolution. We need to understand the difference between “micro evolution” and “macro evolution.” A dog can breed with another canine like a wolf, but a dog cannot breed with a cat. All changes occur within what the Bible calls “kinds.”
3. The theory of evolution goes against the second law of thermodynamics, which says that things break down, going from complex to simple.
Darwin spoke of the simple cell evolving to something more complicated. That “simple cell” he saw under a microscope is now known to be incredibly complex. The DNA in a single cell contains enough information to fill four 30 volume sets of Encyclopedia Britannica.
Darwin himself saw the complexity of our bodies. The creation of our eyes was supposed to have occurred by light hitting skin, making it sensitive and desiring to respond. Darwin saw the complexity of the human eye, that one small factor out of balance would cause it to no longer function and said that the mere thought of explaining the formation of the eye caused him to shudder.
With time, things don’t become more complex, they break down. Wood rots, bodies degrade etc. In evolution, one has a theory that goes against an observable and provable law.
4. The design in creation points to a designer.
The classic “watch illustration.” Suppose a native in the jungle came upon a watch. He saw its hands move in an orderly fashion. He opened its cover to see wheels moving and in place. He would not throw the watch and say, “There is not a watch maker.”
Evolution has basically been proven to be untrue. Why is it still taught and held on so dearly? Here are quotes from evolutionists as to why it is still taught:
Professor T.L. More, a vocal evolutionist says, “The more one studies paleontology, the more certain one becomes that evolution is based on faith alone.”
Professor D.M.S. Watson, another evolutionist says, “Evolution itself is accepted by zoologists, not because it has been observed to occur or can be proved by logically coherent evidence, but because the alternative-special creation- is clearly incredible.”
Sir Arthur Keith said, “Evolution is unproved and unprovable. We believe it only because the only alternative is special creation which is unthinkable.”
What is dangerous about the theory of evolution?
We are only one species in the evolutionary chain. We are not special, “made in the image of God.” The life of a dolphin or spotted owl is as important as the life of a baby in a mother’s womb.
Oliver Wendell Holmes: “I see no reason for attributing to man a significance different in kind from that which belongs to a baboon or a grain of sand.”
Only humans, according to the Bible are made in the image of God. Genesis 1: 26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over [g]all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that [h]moves on the earth.”
Jesus taught that humans are more valuable than animals.
Matthew 6:26 Look at the birds of the air: They do not sow or reap or gather into barns--and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?
Carl Sagan received a treatment for cancer that was developed with animals dying in the process. He almost didn’t take it because of his belief that animals were of equal value. But he chose it when it was his life at stake. He died two years later at age of 62.
The place where the clash of world views is most clearly seen is in the issue of abortion. We can take the life of another human if it makes our life uncomfortable.
Evolution is based on the survival of the fittest and the fact that we are moving upward past weaker gene pools of the past. It was the belief in evolution that fueled the Nazi scientists who experimented on what they considered an inferior race, the Jews, in order to build a master race.
Margaret Sanger combined the secular world view with racism in her organization, Planned Parenthood.
According to a study published in the American Journal of Public Health, black women have the highest abortion rate in the country at 27.1 per 1,000 women compared with 10 per 1,000 for white women. Because abortion was meant for African Americans to begin with, so it’s natural that they would not care about the people they are trying to exterminate. Margaret Sanger, the founder of the nation’s leading abortion supplier, Planned Parenthood, once said: “We don’t want the word to go out that we want to exterminate the negro population.” Perhaps not coincidently, nearly 80 percent of Planned Parenthoods are located in black and Hispanic communities today.
Eph. 2:10-God created us for good works
John 17:3- We are here to know God. Adam and Eve walked with God.
Mark 1:17- “follow me and I will make you fishers of men.”- We are here to know Him and Make Him known
-Romans 1:18-23-18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who [d]suppress the truth in unrighteousness, 19 because what may be known of God is [e]manifest [f]in them, for God has shown it to them. 20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and [g]Godhead, so that they are without excuse, 21 because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23 and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like [h]corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things.
Conclusion: In Acts 17, Paul spent time showing how absurd the beliefs of those who worshipped idols were in Athens then he called for them to change their minds. “Repent” = change your mind.
The four reasons why evolution is dangerous should lead us to lovingly and respectfully get people to think through the holes in the theory of evolution. Evolution is the basis for the secular world view. Once we have shown them the fallacy of what they have been taught, we then share them God’s story. It makes a lot more sense.
What Went Wrong with People and The World? Christian World View Series
(Italicized words are from Chuck Colson)
Romans 3:23
Last week we saw how the secular world view answers the questions “who are we and how did we get here” with a theory of evolution that says we are the product of random chance. There is no God. We are only advanced products of evolution. Ultimately life has no meaning.
Our task is to contrast that with our view from the Bible. This world is a creation of God. Humans are special creations made in the image of God. Therefore we are to treat humans with dignity. We are to honor the God who created us.
The second question Chuck Colson said we are to ask if we are to discern a worldview is this: What went wrong with the world?
The answers given by the secular world view are actually logically contradictory.
On the one hand, since we are only evolutionary products in a world being shaped by the survival of the fittest, there are no moral standards. I can sleep with anyone I want to. I can put anything into my body. I can abort any baby. No one can say my actions are wrong.
The evolutionary teaching of the survival of the fittest would imply that if you are robbed at gun point, that is an example of the stronger surviving. If a ruling class of Nazis decides to eliminate a people they determined to be inferior like the Jews, that is helping produce the master race.
But if you are an evolutionist being robbed, you will cry out, “That’s not right!” It is hard to find a defender of the holocaust today.
Honest people admit that we have a
sense of right and wrong written in our hearts. The Bible describes that in Romans
2:14-15 – “So, when Gentiles, who do not by nature have the
law, do what the law demands, they are a law to themselves even
though they do not have the law. 15 They show that the
work of the law is written on their hearts. Their consciences confirm
this.”
Francis Collins said that the existence of the conscience is unexplainable by evolution. Reading CS Lewis’ argument for God based on the existence of the conscience brought him from Atheism to being a Christian.
Christians view the problems in our world as being deeper than secularists would admit.
Most secularists believe that people are basically good. If they are given the right environment, then they will make the right choices.
This was the motivation behind the great public housing moves made by LBJ. First class living places like Cabrini Green in Chicago were built to give the poor a new start. Those shiny places soon became crumbling housing projects full of graffiti and crime. In a second wave “urban renewal”, Cabrini Green was torn down!
Many secularists do not see those who commit crimes, even violent crimes, as “sinful.” They are victims of bad environments or “mentally ill.”
Chuck Colson visited a “progressive penitentiary just outside of Oslo. It was a model maximum-security facility. “I was greeted by the warden, a psychiatrist with a clinically detached attitude. As she showed me through the sterile surroundings, which seemed more like a laboratory than a prison, she touted the number of counselors and the types of therapies given to inmates. In fact, we met so many other psychiatrists that I asked the warden how many of the inmates were mental cases. “All of them, of course,” she replied quickly, raising her eyebrows in surprise. “What do you mean, ‘all of them’?” “Well, anyone who commits a violent crime is obviously mentally unbalanced.”
Chuck presented the Gospel and dealt with sin. A female guard thanked him for plainly speaking about sin. He found out within a few weeks that the same guard was brutally raped and killed by prisoners.
If environment is the problem, then the cure should be to attack the “root cause” of bad neighborhoods, prejudice (fill in the blank here), ban hate speech, give politically correct education, and then give therapy to those who murder people.
If something has gone wrong in a person’s life, it must be someone else’s fault. They are victims.
A woman entered a hot-dog-eating contest in a Houston nightclub. In her rush to outdo the other contestants, she ate too quickly and began to choke. Did the woman shrug off the mishap as a natural consequence of her own zany behavior? No, she decided she was a victim. She sued the nightclub that sponsored the contest, arguing that the business was to blame because “they shouldn’t have contests like that.”[13] The victim ploy can be attractive because it frees us from having to admit to wrongdoing.
The Bible teaches that all have sinned. Romans 3:23. The Bible says that we all are born with a sin nature that moves us toward sin and away from God. Ps, 14:2-3 – “The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.”
Romans 7:18-19 – “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.”
“Prone to wander, Lord I feel it!”
Even though most secularists believe we are an accident of evolution, they have a set of right and wrongs. On the one hand there are no moral standards because we are only the process of chance. But on the other hand there is a great concern for “justice” causes: social justice, racial justice, economic justice, etc. In reality they do believe in moral standards, they just have a different set of rights and wrongs than Christians do.
Rousseau’s most influential work, The Social Contract, opens with the famous line, “Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.”[5] He called on reformers to set people free from the chains of institutions, rules, customs, and traditions.
A person who listens to their conscience is experiencing repression. The only thing left that is “sinful” is to call something sinful. Political correctness now defines Biblical moral standards as “hate speech.”
“Guilt” is something hazardous to mental well-being, an artificial constraint from which we need to be liberated. As a result, today’s younger generation does not even understand the vocabulary of moral responsibility. Is it surprising, then, that we now see kids who show no remorse when they violate the rights of others, from trivial things like stealing a sister’s blouse to horrific crimes like gunning down a classmate?
This centering on self-esteem and self-satisfaction has proven destructive to institutions like marriage.
“If this marriage is not giving more benefit than cost, I am out of here.” What happens if you or your spouse becomes seriously ill and needs caring for? Can you imagine any mother that could not think at some time that their children bring more discomfort than satisfaction in their lives?
How does the secularist view natural disasters and diseases? Since we are the product of random chance, it is simply “bad luck.”
To understand the Christian world view on what went wrong in people and the world, we have to go back once again to the creation story in Genesis.
Chuck Colson does a great job in summing up what went wrong based on the Bible:
Scripture teaches that God created the universe and created us in his image, created us to be holy and to live by his commands. Yet God loved us so much that he imparted to us the unique dignity of being free moral agents—creatures with the ability to make choices, to choose either good or evil. To provide an arena in which to exercise that freedom, God placed one moral restriction on our first ancestors: He forbade them to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The original humans, Adam and Eve, exercised their free choice and chose to do what God had commanded them not to do, and they rejected his way of life and goodness, opening the world to death and evil. The theological term for this catastrophe is the Fall. In short, the Bible places responsibility for sin, which opened the floodgates to evil, squarely on the human race—starting with Adam and Eve, but continuing on in our own moral choices. In that original choice to disobey God, human nature became morally distorted and bent so that from then on humanity has had a natural inclination to do wrong. This is the foundation of the doctrine that theologians call original sin.
The Bible says that the problem with the world is sin. We have taken our free will and chosen to sin against God’s good moral standards. Everyone has sinned. Put a lot of sinners together and you will have a lot of pain.
James 4: 1-2 – “Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? 2 You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war.”
Colson’s answer also has the germ thought that explains suffering in the world. The fall of Adam and Eve had consequences for the entire world. We became a fallen planet.
Genesis 3: 17-19 – “Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’:
“Cursed is the
ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it All the days
of your life.
18 Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you,
And you shall eat the herb of the field.
19 In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread Till you
return to the ground.”
Romans 8: 20-22 – “For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; 21 because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.”
The world God created was perfect. Only after sin entered the world did sickness and disasters arise. Next week we will see what God is doing and will do about the fallenness in this world.
Conclusion: We are living in a world of sinful people and a fallen planet. Today’s subject only lets us diagnose the problem. Next week we will finally get to the solutions offered by the secular view and by the Good News found in the Bible. Today we are looking at the question “what went wrong. With that in mind:
- Which world view better fits what we see in the world?
- Are people basically good and should we therefore abolish the police?
- Does the new moral thoughts lead to more happiness and fulfillment?
How do we fix it?
We know something is wrong in the world. We also sense something is wrong in our lives.
Pascal, the French philosopher and mathematician said, “There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of each man which cannot be satisfied by any created thing but only by God the Creator, made know through Jesus Christ.”
People are going to sad lengths to find something to fill this hole in their lives.
The newspapers this week (May 2021) featured a shirtless photo of a young actress who claims to be transgender. She had surgery to appear to be a man. At the same time, 60 Minutes did a section on teenagers who had the same surgeries and later regretted it and returned to their original gender designation.
Solomon was a king who started right then strayed from God. He was the richest, most successful king in Israel’s history. Yet after years of being away from God he spoke of the meaningless in his life. He had most of what the world is seeking now to fill this void yet it left him empty.
Ec. 1:12 I, the Teacher, was king of Israel, and I lived in Jerusalem. 13 I devoted myself to search for understanding and to explore by wisdom everything being done under heaven. I soon discovered that God has dealt a tragic existence to the human race. 14 I observed everything going on under the sun, and really, it is all meaningless—like chasing the wind.
15 What is wrong
cannot be made right.
What is missing cannot be recovered.
16 I said to myself, “Look, I am wiser than any of the kings who ruled in Jerusalem before me. I have greater wisdom and knowledge than any of them.” 17 So I set out to learn everything from wisdom to madness and folly. But I learned firsthand that pursuing all this is like chasing the wind.
18 The greater
my wisdom, the greater my grief.
To increase knowledge only increases sorrow.
I said to myself, “Come on, let’s try pleasure. Let’s look for the ‘good things’ in life.” But I found that this, too, was meaningless. 2 So I said, “Laughter is silly. What good does it do to seek pleasure?” 3 After much thought, I decided to cheer myself with wine. And while still seeking wisdom, I clutched at foolishness. In this way, I tried to experience the only happiness most people find during their brief life in this world.
4 I also tried to find meaning by building huge homes for myself and by planting beautiful vineyards. 5 I made gardens and parks, filling them with all kinds of fruit trees. 6 I built reservoirs to collect the water to irrigate my many flourishing groves. 7 I bought slaves, both men and women, and others were born into my household. I also owned large herds and flocks, more than any of the kings who had lived in Jerusalem before me. 8 I collected great sums of silver and gold, the treasure of many kings and provinces. I hired wonderful singers, both men and women, and had many beautiful concubines. I had everything a man could desire!
9 So I became greater than all who had lived in Jerusalem before me, and my wisdom never failed me. 10 Anything I wanted, I would take. I denied myself no pleasure. I even found great pleasure in hard work, a reward for all my labors. 11 But as I looked at everything I had worked so hard to accomplish, it was all so meaningless—like chasing the wind. There was nothing really worthwhile anywhere. (NLT)
People are looking to the wrong things to fill the God shaped vacuum. Solomon tried what we are being told will bring life and found his life to be meaningless:
1. Education and Wisdom did not fill the void in Solomon’s life. Ecc. 1:12-18
The world points to college degrees as a way for self fulfilment.
There is no link between your education level and your personal happiness, says a new mental-health research study published by the British Journal of Psychiatry.
The team discovered that the odds of happiness were equivalent throughout all levels of educational attainment.
Lead author Professor Sarah Stewart-Brown said: “These findings are quite controversial because we expected to find the socioeconomic factors that are associated with mental illness would also be correlated with mental wellbeing. So if low educational attainment was strongly associated with mental illness, high educational attainment would be strongly connected to mental well-being. But that is not the case.”
Solomon said 18 The
greater my wisdom, the greater my grief.
To increase knowledge only increases sorrow.
2. Pleasure did not fill the void in Solomon’s life.
Solomon set no boundaries for himself in both wine and women. Yet he was still empty while away from God.
Removing sexual boundaries has not made us healthier or happier. We have growing divorce rates and higher rates of STDs.
Removing barriers to drug experimentation and alcohol consumption has not made us healthier or happier. We are in the “opioid crisis’ and have a growing number of people addicted to alcohol or drugs or pornography.
2 Peter 2: 18 They brag about themselves with empty, foolish boasting. With an appeal to twisted sexual desires, they lure back into sin those who have barely escaped from a lifestyle of deception. 19 They promise freedom, but they themselves are slaves of sin and corruption. For you are a slave to whatever controls you.
3. Things did not fill the void in Solomon’s life.
Solomon thought the more houses and possessions he had, the happier he would be. He became the richest king in Israel’s history, yet he was still empty while he was away from God.
Every time we turn on the television set or open a magazine or newspaper, we are bombarded with the gospel of commercialism: that for every need, every insecurity, every worry, there is a product for sale that can satisfy our need, pump up our self-esteem, soothe our worry. Advertisers devote huge budgets to hiring psychologists to probe the human psyche and pinpoint our deepest needs and longings. Then they craft seductive images and phrases designed to hook us, to beguile us into thinking that buying their product will satisfy those fundamental needs. And since those deepest needs are religious, what ads really trade on is the universal longing for redemption. “You’re in good hands.” Still others suggest the blessings of the Promised Land: “We bring good things to life.” “Be all you can be.” Colson
Jesus said, “Life does not consist in the abundance of things.” Luke 12:15
4. Fame did not fill the void in Solomon’s life.
Solomon was so famous, leaders from all over the world came to meet him. He was known as the wisest man alive in his day. Yet he was empty away from God.
We could all name actors and rock stars who committed suicide. Yet the illusion that if you become famous, you life has meaning is being held out today more than ever. There are more ways to become “famous.”
A person can become a social media influencer if they have enough people following them on social media. With you tube, you can be a “star” without going through the doors that were required in the past.
Even teenagers plunge into despair if they do not have enough “friends” on line or if they do not get enough likes from what they post.
Fame is so fleeting! The top names of today will very soon be forgotten.
More than a decade ago I had the privilege of being on the same cart as Steve Bartkowski in a captain’s choice tournament. I was excited to tell my boys. During the late 70’s and early 80’s he was the most popular QB in Atlanta’s history. I told them, I just played golf with Falcons greatest QB ever! They replied, “You played with Michael Vick?” They had never heard of Bartkowski.
People are turning to the wrong Saviors to fix their lives.
1. Some believe that science will solve all of our problems.
Science often creates more problems than it solves. We get bigger bombs,
Science itself gives no moral guidelines for our genetic experimentation. How do we decide which traits we want? Do we want to create a super-Einstein or a super–Mother Teresa, or even a class of subhuman slaves to do our menial work? These questions presuppose a standard of values, which science itself cannot provide. Colson
2. A growing number of people are turning to the occult or in magic as their “savior”. This question was all over headlines in the internet in May 2021: Why are women becoming witches?
The article says “Humans have always turned to magic when they feel helpless”. Newsweek reported in 2018 that there were 1.5 million involved in Wicca, the name for witchcraft as a religion. (There are only 1. 25 members of the PCUSA)
A related article went viral in May 2021:
Seattle-based Bri Luna, aka @thehoodwitch, has 472,000 followers on Instagram. On her website, thehoodwitch.com, her profile picture shows an attractive young woman wearing a black dress that reveals both tattooed cleavage and one tattooed thigh, holding a crystal ball in a ring-bedecked hand. The image is fiercely sexual and deliberately powerful, but this is a power that is linked to magic, which, she says, is open to all who choose to claim it: “The universe is vast, and we need as many healing information sources as possible. It is time for us to awaken and tap into the deepest parts of ourselves and into the natural magic that is offered to us by this very planet we inhabit.”
Bri Luna is a magical influencer, whose posts appeal to the increasing number of people — especially young women — who self-identify as witches, and who account for the 6.8 million Instagram posts with the hashtag #witchesofinstagram.
3. Some people believe the government will meet all our needs.
AS we move leftward in our governing, we are telling people that the government will take care of you all of your life. Just trust the government to meet your needs and tell you what is safe to do and the right things to say.
The march toward government being the savior too often leads to Marxism. Marx’s has had disastrous results for millions, leading to war, massacre, and labor camps. “Apply Marxism in any country you want, you will always find a Gulag in the end,” says French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levi.
4. Some people believe that Self is the only savior you need.
There is a constant stream of “self- help” books. Some consider it ‘weakness” to look beyond yourself for help.
The poem “Invictus” captures this spirit of a person needing no one but themselves:
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
….I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul.
The New age movement goes further than self-reliance. It declares that every human being is god. You are divine. Shirley MacLaine stood on a beach in her autobiography and shouted at the wind “I am God!” I am sure the sea gulls were impressed.
The Christian Answer: Jesus meets all our needs:
He is put forth as our Savior and Lord
He meets our need to be loved. (John 3:16 and the Parable of prodigal Son in Luke 15.)
He offers Forgiveness with a good reason to believe it. He died for our sins and rose again.
He offers us Eternal life. He takes away the sting of death.
He is also Lord. He will run my life better than I would. Go back to the instructions. Matthew 7:24-27.
Our entire faith is based on a historical event with strong historical proof. It is not a matter of a better story or a better opinion. There is an empty tomb that declares Jesus is Savior and Lord!
Conclusion: All we ask is the freedom to share the Gospel. We don’t demand that America enforce one religion, even Christianity. Just give us the chance to give the case found in the Bible and that case will make more sense than what the world is saying. I have said that I want religious freedom in Iran and Saudi Arabia. Compare Jesus and Mohammed and Jesus wins every time. The problem is the Bible is not allowed. Sadly, political correctness may soon make it where the Bible is not allowed in America. Let’s fight for freedom and be proactive in sharing the Christian world view.
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