Humanism (also known as progressivism) is based on relativism and the idea that human advancement is the solution to injustice, war, and suffering. Like most worldly reasoning or false teachings in the church, there some truth in this reasoning. The Christian and Biblical world-view that God uses people to accomplish His will, including peace and justice. The Christian understands that man is made in the image of God, Imago Dei.
26 Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over 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. (Genesis 1:26-27)
Where Secular Humanism breaks from Biblical Christianity is an understanding of man’s need for and dependence on God. This is rooted in the framework of Relativism. And so this week we are considering Relativism and Humanism together. Relativism, especially when it pertains to morality, is devasting to society, and we are seeing this devastation in the west.
In cooking, you may say I prefer something spicy while another prefers something mild. That is a relative reference to food. When you apply this to truth and morality, it has devastating consequences. How does one determine what is good and what is evil? In the United States, we are taught to love our neighbor, in Cambodia, they eat their neighbor, which do you prefer? If you remove God as the moral foundation and moral law given, who determines which is good?
We must have a fixed point of reference to; otherwise, we are continually moving a moral goalpost based on preference. Relativism is disorienting. One of the most disorienting situations I can think of is when I’m sitting in my car at a stoplight, or parking space, and the car next to me begins to move. Immediately my foot smashes on the brake and then I begin to find a fixed object like a tree or building to reorient myself.
Moral Relativism makes movable what God intends to be fixed and immoveable. In fact, in Relativism, everything is moving. How does a person, much less a society fixate itself? It cannot. So what begins to happen is the elitists, kill the “imago dei” and place themselves as gods. And it is at these points in history when the very things that humanism claims to provide answers that they are at their worst. We’ve killed more people through war and violence in the 20th century than the previous 19 centuries put together
I. The Root of Relativism is found in the Garden
15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, "You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die." (Genesis 2:15-17)
The first thing to say is that “knowing good and evil” does not refer to the possession of information like one would “know” the capital of Virginia or know the periodical table. It is an active phrase, and refers to discernment between good and evil, or more simply, making judgments.
There was no magic in the fruit that one could eat from and have informational knowledge. The temptation was not to achieve omniscience. The tree represented for Adam the choice between submitting to God’s law or pursuing moral autonomy: to fear the Lord (the beginning of wisdom), or making himself the judge. This is what the serpent used to tempt Eve: “You shall be as gods, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:5). That is, you shall judge for yourselves.
Thus when Adam and Eve ate of the Tree of Knowledge, relativism was born. They made God irrelevant in their own hearts and placed themselves on the moral throne. The immovable law of God was now perceived as moveable by man. God was no longer the fixed point of reference for morality and discerning what was good and what was evil. Adam and Eve killed that part of the imago dei. Man is expelled from the garden, sin separates us from God, and we are born spiritually dead.
“The problem with the Christian faith is not that it has been tried and found wanting but that it has been found difficult and left untried.” G.K. Chesterton
There’s something else here as well. Their primary purpose in life was not to enjoy themselves in this garden but to love God. In eating of the fruit, man's life lost meaning. Now think about that for a moment. We’ve asked what it means to be made in the image of God, but what does it mean to be fully human? To be human involves not just expressing the things that derive from God’s image. It also involves obeying the designs of the one who made us. That is where relativism fails and where secular humanism becomes so destructive.
II. Humanist Objections
“It is interesting that relativists have shunned absolutes but demand compliance with relativism as an absolute.” Ravi Zacharias
The relativist would say that all truth is relative. This is in itself a relative. Relativism is the child of secular humanism because humanists demand to guide the agenda of progress apart from God. Today's humanism holds to a self-reliant, self-elevated sense of value and ethics that rejects God.
The American Humanist Association defines humanism as: "A progressive philosophy of life that, without theism and other supernatural beliefs, affirms our ability and responsibility to lead ethical lives of personal fulfillment that aspire to the greater good of humanity."
The humanist will claim there is equal value among every person. However, in order for there to be equal value among all people there has to be something equally true of every person. What happens if certain people are "flawed" in the humanist eyes? The irony is that in pursuit of "greater good" the dissenters of the "greater good" must be quieted or extinguished. Humanism leads to a devaluing of human life, not an empirical and equal value. Only our connection to the imago Dei does the value of human life become intrinsically elevated.
The hit song by John Lennon, "Imagine" is a manifesto of the humanist mind.
Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people living for today
Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people living life in peace
III. The Folly of Humanism
21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. 24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! (Romans 1:21-25)
In the Study Jesus Among Secular Gods, there are 4 main reasons humanism has failed, continues to fail, and will fail.
1. Humanism is Proud. The humanist believes in denying God he is alleviating himself of moral responsibility to God. In fact, he will elevate himself above God. Part of humanism is a mantra of progress that ultimately and historically leads to further destruction. 1 Peter 5:5 tells us that God opposes the proud, but shows favor to the humble.
2. Humanism lacks moral humility by not understanding or acknowledging the condition of the human heart. We inherently want to make our own rules, can you imagine the results if that was the mantra of schools!
3. Humanism undermines personhood. "Man made in the image of man loses his brokenness for dignity. When we are our own creator we actually lose the purpose, meaning, and value in life. That is why doctors today can tell a mother that her child who shows signs of down-syndrome has lesser value and can be aborted.
4. Humanism misplaces its hope for the future. You cannot just live in this world and still find meaning.
“The decision of every human heart is either self-reliance or God reliance.” Vince Vitale
Where do you put your hope for the future and the future of your future generations? In secular humanism, you are your own and only savior. “The funeral at which true living begins for each of us is burying of one's own pride and self-sufficiency.” Ravi Zacharias
But when he came to himself (Luke 15:17)
How do you differentiate between good and evil? That is directly related to meaning and our relationship with God. When we come to a place of understanding that meaning is directly connected with our creator and that he created man in his own image. Without God we are headed toward spiritual death and desperately need rescued. Do you know the One that made you and made you in His image? He desires for you to come home today
Take it to the Cross
Close
Pray
Sermon Notes
1. The Root of Relativism is found in the Garden
2. Humanist Objections
3. The Folly of Humanism
Study Questions
1. Do you think we are making progress as a society? Why or Why not?
2. Jesus conquered sin and death by enduring suffering. If Jesus overcame Satan and evil through suffering, should we expect that our path will be different? (See Ephesians 6:12)
3. How does a humanistic worldview fail to offer hope during hardship and difficulty?
4. How does being made in the image of God give all people inherent and equal value
5. How would our lives look different if we really believed humanity is headed for spiritual death and in need of rescue?
