The Illusions Of Modern Society And The Gospel

"If we as Christians do not speak out as authoritarian governments grow from within or come from outside, eventually we or our children will be the enemy of society and the state. No truly authoritarian government can tolerate those who have a real absolute by which to judge its arbitrary absolutes and who speak out and act upon that absolute." -Francis Schaeffer, How Shall We Then Live?, page 254. Written 1976, Published 1979.

Introduction

It's amazing how Dr. Francis Schaeffer could see what was coming in the United States with such clarity. I've included several quotes from his landmark book: How Shall We Then Live? and the accompanying video production. If you haven't read it, and watched the series, I highly recommend it.

Let's look at the illusions and presuppositions within the culture around us, and ourselves. Then we'll look at the cultural progression, media movements, and the gospel's power to transform cultures.

Are people brainwashed?

Do you ever get the feeling that people around you seem brainwashed? It's a daily occurrence for me. The television is a powerful influencer. It came with an unprecedented ability to generate culture. And oh the immoral culture it has generated. There are so many other influences though. There are so many situations that provoke us in different directions. We like to pretend that we aren't influenced by the television, the ads, or the ideas being perpetrated. But companies wouldn't pay millions of dollars for TV ads if they didn't have a power to influence the human mind. Do you know how many ads a person sees in a day? Probably hundreds.

A view based on interests of everyday people

People have a lot of focuses, like work, family, art, music, movies, vacations, sports, and so on. These interests are all fine when kept in moderation. But it's when they crowd out the center of life, Jesus Christ, that they become problematic. And are these interests crowding out legitimate yearnings within our heart, for the supernatural? To be part of something special?

God must be the center of our worldview, not off in a compartment for Sunday morning. God must be the center. God must be of first importance, even above our own families or our own lives. I think we often lose touch with the radical devotion required by God. Jesus Christ lifted two commands above all else: Love God with everything you have, and love your neighbors. That is vital. We must obey those commands. We ignore them at our own imminent peril.

Peeling away the layers of conditioning

Can we wake up to reality? Can we see past the American lifestyle to the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ? I think we can. But we have to start peeling away the layers. We have to start seeing through the lies.

So many of us are afraid of sharing our faith. We're afraid of looking stupid. I spend a lot of my time trying to get people to share their faith on social media, just by posting scripture or sharing Christian social media pictures. You'd be amazed that almost no one is even willing to do that much.

Evangelism is the number one concern of the church on Earth, it all hinges on sharing the message. The Holy Spirit convicts, but God didn't commission the Holy Spirit to float through the air to evangelize. He commissioned the twelve. And he commissioned us. It's our job. It's of great urgency too.

That is only the beginning. We also have to look at how we spend money. And we have to look at the conveniences that we're so adjusted to. We have to look at the time we spend in front of the television, and the time we spend on the computer. We should inspect what we eat, and we should look at cutting down the list of conveniences and start directing our income to the needy. If you're doing that now, great, if your not, pray on it, and start examining the budget. Do we have wants on our "need" list? It's a reasonable question. We're very used to having it easy.

Waking up from the dream world

There is a dream world and there is a real world. The dream world is materialism. The dream world is the mindset that just says keep chugging along, and never give a thought to why you exist. The dream world cries "make money!" and "be important!" Those aren't Christian values, and they are in contradiction with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

A lot of us operate on presuppositions that we haven't really thought about. Those presuppositions go into all areas of our life. They affect our spending, sex life, goals, job, mentality, our emotions, and our thinking. They affect everything.

We must examine ourselves candidly: Are we still operating on dead ideologies from the world? Do we still live like someone who thinks there is no god? Are we isolating parts of our lives that we don't want to turn over to Christ?