The Sad State Of Pop Culture

So what do you listen to, watch, and read?  Music, television, movies, and books all influence people and shape the culture.  It is important that we understand pop culture and the influence it has on us.

Unfortunately much of modern pop culture is nothing more than a flood of debauchery.  It is filled with immorality, profanity, blasphemy, lack of dignity, and lack of respect for authority of any kind.  It is also characterized by being shallow and not serious.  It is a window into a society that is in rebellion against God. 

We should be aware that all forms of pop culture present their own worldview.  It is usually an anti-Christian worldview that is put forth in what we watch, listen to, and read.  God is often assumed not to exist or is mocked. 

The worldview of modern pop culture can be placed in three categories.  First there is an overarching secularism.  It puts man as the center of everything and allows him to pretend to be his own god.  Secularism can be called the non-religion, religion.  Then there is postmodernism.  It is characterized by a rejection of all absolute truth claims and an uncertainty about all things.   You often hear postmodernists telling us not to judge.  Finally there is nihilism.  It is characterized by a rejection of religious and moral principles.  With nihilism's rejection of religion and morality comes meaninglessness and a lack of purpose. 

When it comes to pop culture we should use discernment.  To be discerning means to be able to distinguish between good and evil, right and wrong.  Unfortunately discernment seems to be in short supply these days even among those who profess to be Christians.  Often professing Christians entertain themselves with things that are offensive to God.  We should seek to honor God in all we do, including our interaction with the popular culture. 

So should Christians avoid pop culture altogether?  No, we should be involved in the culture and try to make things better.  Christians should use the gifts God has given them  all areas of life.  We should be in the world but not of the world.  Also Christians must stand for truth and virtue even though we are in a culture that honors neither of them.

Big Brother Watching You

Recent scandals such as those of the IRS and NSA show the dangers of big government.  With access to so much information people in the government cannot be trusted.  A government with too much control and power is frightening. 

The temptation to misuse information and power is too great for people.  This applies to all people not just to those of one political party.  This is true because of the sinfulness of mankind. 

Conservatives and Libertarians have been given a great argument for small government and tax reform.  Our government should be limited, returned to that of the U.S. Constitution.  The people should have freedom and with that freedom comes responsibility. 

We should have serious tax reform and eliminate the ridiculous tax system we currently have.  We should replace our current system with a flat income tax or a sales tax.  It is interesting to note that God only requires one flat rate of 10% on the tithe.  Those with more money do not have a higher rate for their tithe.  The class warfare of the progressive tax system is not Biblical.  A flat tax or a sales tax would make much more sense. 

Thoughts On Immigration

We should have compassion on those who want to immigrate to the United States.  Legal immigrants should be encouraged and the process of law and order obeyed.  Illegal immigrants should not be rewarded because they have broken the law.

Granting amnesty to those who have come here illegally would be wrong.  It is also unfair to those who have obeyed the law and gone through the proper process.  Our borders need to be secured.  How can a country be safe if it's borders are not secure? 

We will probably end up with some sort of amnesty and our borders will still not be secure.  Illegals will also probably get access to Obamacare (after all it is a universal right) and entitlements.  This will lead the country further into bankruptcy. 

Proofs That God Exists

From what you often hear you would think that the evidence for the existence of God is weak and that the evidence for atheism is very strong.  But is this actually true?  What are some of the proofs for God?  

First of all there must be an uncaused cause.  The atheists can say this caused this and this was caused by that but at some point there had to be an independent Creator who has always existed.  Evolutionists run into the problem of how things actually began.  They have to explain how something came from nothing.  And guess what, atheists cannot explain how something came from nothing because something does not come from nothing.   

There is also the fine tuning of the world.  It is all fine tuned to work just right.  If anything was off just a little bit it could not work or exist.  This suggests intelligent design by an intelligent Designer.  The complexity of human beings offers more evidence for the existence of God.  Just the eye itself is amazingly complex.  That the eye and humans themselves could just happen by a blind process of natural selection is unbelievable. 

The world we live in also seems to have been made for humans.  It's as if someone planned this whole thing.  The world is just right for our existence.  This too is more proof that the world was created by God. 

There is also the longing for meaning and purpose that exists inside human beings.  If God does not exist then there is no purpose or meaning.  It is hard to see how we would have these longings if we were just the products of evolution.  The rational conclusion is that our desires for meaning and purpose were put there by a Creator.  We only find fulfillment when we are in a right relationship with God. 

Another proof is the universal existence of morality.  In basically all cultures there is a sense of morality.  Things such as murder, adultery, theft, and lying are pretty much seen as wrong by everyone.  If God did not exist there would be no morality.  There has to be an ultimate authority for there to be morality.  If God did not exist all things would be permissible.  Atheists have no basis for right and wrong. 

Around 90% of people in the world believe in God or gods.  This provides evidence as well that God really does exist. All these people may not have the correct belief about God because our views have been distorted by sin.  But this is evidence that we all have a sense that God is there.  It is logical to conclude that this sense of the divine was put there by God himself. 

The existence of evil also offers proof that God exists.  This may sound strange because the existence of evil seems to be one of the atheists strongest arguments.  But in reality the atheist defeats his own argument.  If there is no God then there is no evil.  Without the existence of God there is no basis for the category of evil.  The atheist has no way to be consistent and still speak of evil. 

The evidence is for the intelligent design of the universe.  Reason leads us to conclude that there is an intelligent Designer.  Those who deny the existence of God are delusional.  Atheism requires a huge leap of blind faith.  Reason leads us to belief in God.  The entire universe screams out God exists! 

Why Do Bad Things Happen To Good People?

So, why do bad things happen to good people?  What if I told you they don't?  In reality there are no righteous people (Romans 3:10).  All have sinned (Romans 3:23) and rebelled against God.  We tend to view ourselves as good, deserving God's favor and blessing.  We actually deserve God's judgment and we deserve to go to hell.  In reality people do not deserve anything good.  We should ask why good things happen to bad people.  It is only because of God's grace that much good takes place in our world.  Bad things happen to sinful people, that includes all of us.  We have no claim on God, we deserve nothing good from him. 

But what about evil?  It actually exists inside of us all.  We do not like to admit this, we would rather think of it as something outside of ourselves.  
Originally the world was created good but man chose to sin against God.  As a result  humanity and the world became fallen and under the sin curse. 

But where does evil come from?  There is the existence of the devil and demons (this is not popular to say in the western world).  The devil is called the evil one.  The devil and demons are actually fallen angels.  The devil tempts people to do evil but forces no one to do evil.  The devil is not equal with God though, God is sovereign over all things.  As Martin Luther said, "he's God's devil".  

We are still left with the question of why evil exists in the first place?  We know that God is not the author of evil and sin.  Humans are not able to fully understand the things of God.  Finite humans can't fully grasp the infinite God.  The best explanation for the existence of evil is that in some way it glorifies God.  It magnifies his justice and goodness.  The ultimate purpose of all things is to bring glory to God. 

Evil has been taken care of by Christ and his work on the cross.  Jesus lived a perfect life, died on the cross to pay for the sins of his people, and was raised from the dead (proof that he is God).  He was victorious over death, sin, and evil.  All who repent of their sins and place their faith in Christ will be saved from their sins.  Jesus will eliminate evil from the world.  The devil and all who followed him (that includes all who rejected Christ) will be thrown into the lake of fire (Revelation 20).  There will be a new heaven and new earth where everything will be perfect.  There will be no evil or bad things happening there.  This is where all believers in Christ will spend eternity. 

The Evangelicals

The modern evangelical movement began after World War II in the 1940's and 1950's.  It was started as a corrective and reform of Fundamentalism.  Key figures of the movement included Billy Graham (evangelist), Carl Henry (theologian), and Francis Schaeffer (apologist).  Evangelicalism sought to hold to orthodox doctrine while engaging the culture.  The evangelicals sought to be evangelists to the culture.  The goal was to be in the world but not of the world. 

Evangelicals believed that the Biblical worldview had the ultimate answers to life and the world.  The movement sought to be intellectually robust while retaining devotion with the heart.  Originally evangelicalism was strong on it's doctrine and held steadfast to the inerrancy of Scripture. 

But eventually evangelicalism began to drift away from it's foundations as some in the movement tried to compromise with the secular culture.  Some began to doubt the inerrancy of the Bible as well as it's sufficiency.  Evangelicalism began to move away from it's roots in the Protestant Reformation. 

In the 1980's evangelicalism began to be seen as a political movement.  Some leaders of the movement seemed to think that all that was needed was to get the right people in political office.  The problems in reality were much deeper.  The problems were really moral and spiritual not so much political. 

Also in the 1980's and 1990's the seeker sensitive movement began.  This movement downplayed doctrine.  It focused more on marketing than theology.  It was worried more about offending people than about offending God.  Also in the 1990's the emergent church began to arise.  It seemed to think that we should become postmodernists in order to reach postmodernists.  Postmodernism is the dominant belief system of our modern culture.  The postmodernists reject absolute truth claims and are characterized by uncertainty.  The emergent church began to doubt the inerrancy of Scripture, the existence of hell, that Jesus is the only way to heaven, and the sovereignty of God. 

Unfortunately evangelicalism has become much like the secular culture.  Some have even said that it has managed to be of the world but not in the world.  Many modern evangelical churches are not all that serious about things.  And not surprisingly the world does not take the evangelical church all that seriously.  It has been said that evangelicalism is a mile wide and an inch deep.  This assessment is somewhat true because evangelicals have often forgotten the mind and only focused on the heart.  Some view Christianity as life and not doctrine, but this was the slogan of the old theological liberals. 

The modern evangelical movement is in disarray.  Much of the movement really is not all that Biblical any more.  Unfortunately the evangelicalism of Graham, Henry, and Schaeffer no longer exists.  While the Fundamentalists withdrew from the world, the evangelicals became like the world.  We must hope and pray for a return to Biblical Christianity. 

The Fundamentalists

The Fundamentalist movement began in the early 1900's as a reaction against modernism or liberalism.  The name came from a group of booklets called The Fundamentals.  The Fundamentalists set out to defend historic Christian doctrines that were under attack by the liberals.  Belief in the supernatural was no longer considered viable by the liberals. 

Among the doctrines defended by the Fundamentalists were the virgin birth, the deity of Christ, the substitutionary atonement, the bodily resurrection of Christ, the second coming of Christ, and the inerrancy of Scripture. 

In it's early days Fundamentalism was a good movement.  J. Gresham Machen was a notable figure in the movement although he never called himself a Fundamentalist.  Machen was a New Testament scholar who wrote the excellent book "Christianity and Liberalism".  Unfortunately Machen was forced out of Princeton Seminary and his own denomination because he stood strong for Biblical Christianity. 

The Fundamentalist movement began to decline especially after the Scopes trial in 1925. The trial was an embarrassment for the Fundamentalists.  Clarence Darrow argued the case for teaching evolution while William Jennings Bryan made the case for creationism.  Bryan was not the best person to represent the Fundamentalists side.  Darrow was able to win the public relations aspect of the trial even though the actual case was won by Bryan. 

Fundamentalism became characterized by being anti-intellectual, separatist, legalistic, and having little social concern. They tried not to be of the world but also withdrew from the world.  They would not be involved in politics for example.  In some cases the proclamation of truth was not joined with love. At times the Fundamentalists did not come across that well to people, seeming to lack grace. 

The movement is characterized by dispensationalism (the belief in a pre tribulation rapture), acceptance of the King James Version of the Bible only, and Arminian theology (as opposed to Calvinist theology).  Often the focus of the movement has been morality instead of theology.  Morality must be based on theology because when the Christian theology falls the Christian morality will soon follow.  The movement has also been characterized by emotionalism, lacking robust intellectual thought. 

Fundamentalism started out as a fine movement that was in line with historic, Biblical Christianity.  But it eventually declined and drifted away from it at least somewhat.