Marriage
Will the Cult of Self Take Down Western Civilization?
One of the advantages of older age is being a ring-side spectator to change–over a lifetime.
You saw things when you were young. You encountered change in your middle years. And in the latter portion of your life, you have a much bigger perspective on how cultures and nations go through powerful changes over time.
During my lifespan, both the United States and, indeed, our entire Western culture, has morphed from one worldview and its norms to another that is threatening its very existence.
To put it simply, we’ve retreated from being God-centered (or respecting) societies to self-centered ones.
Will this cult of self eventually take down Western Civilization?
There are voluminous examples I could use to demonstrate the movement from God-centeredness to self-centeredness in the West:
- The removal of prayer and biblical truth in education, replaced with secularism and self-help.
- The focus on feelings and emotions over critical thinking and wisdom.
- The attack on Christian holidays (like Christmas) and the growth of pagan ones (like Halloween).
- The pursuit of pleasure through materialism as opposed to godliness via service.
- The growth of laziness and apathy in contrast to past generations’ focus on hard work and study.
Recently I’ve been thinking about two other “institutions” of Western culture that are being swamped by our narcissistic, self-seeking cultural tide.
Marriage Ceremonies and Funeral Services.
Marriage Ceremonies
First of all, many Westerners are taking marriage outside of churches into parks, beaches, and other private settings. I understand the beauty of nature and the desire to consummate the wedding ceremony in a lovely place. But many that are doing it are leaving God back at the church.
And many marriage ceremonies today are conducted by “friends” not ministers–cheapening the meaning of marriage as a God-made institution that should be formalized in God’s name. Instead, marriage is just a man-made contract where anything goes–and vows (which should be made before a Holy God), mean little or nothing.
I’ve talked to many young people–including those with a Christian heritage–who now share a pagan concept of weddings. They say, “It’s all about us. We will go where we want, say what we want, and make the focus on us and our love.”
That’s not how my wife and I thought in 1976. We were committed to Christ and wanted to honor and glorify Him in all situations (1 Corinthians 10:31). When we planned our wedding, every decision was made based not on self-desire but how we could be pleasing to the Lord and give Him praise.
We held the ceremony in a church. We asked a minister to perform it. We asked him to preach the Good News to those in attendance. We used the reception to talk about our calling in ministry, had people pray over us, sang worship songs, and deflected all the wonder of our new union back to the One who had chosen us for each other and should receive all the credit.
It wasn’t any different from Russell Wilson pointing to heaven after a touchdown pass. “Do all to the glory of God.” We didn’t even think about what would puff up ourselves or “make us happy” as Cam Newton does in his Superman dance after he scores a touchdown.
That’s the cult of self. Wilson’s deference to God is the humble, God-glorifying display.
Many weddings today reflect the cult of self. No wonder the institution of marriage is dying.
Funerals (Memorials)
I’ve officiated at numerous funerals or memorial services during the past four decades. In my early years, they were all held in churches or funeral halls. At the service, there was often a solemnity and dignity over the reality of death. Ministers not only eulogized the deceased, but also spoke to the living about making sure they were right with God and ready to face their own mortality.
I was once invited to officiate the wedding of a non-believing family at our local cemetery. The one-follower- of-Christ in the family asked me purposefully to preach the Good News to his relatives and glorify God in the service. I was glad to do so, and many were touched by my words.
After I finished the address and they were lowering the body into the ground, I wandered over to the grave sites of some family members. A young woman who’d attended the grave side service approached me there and said: “I really appreciated your words. How can I give my life to Christ to have hope of eternal life?”
Over the graves of my ancestors I led this young woman to Jesus.
God had been glorified through the event.
Recently I’ve attended some memorials that seem to have a different motive. They’re themed with what the deceased “liked”–sports teams, hobbies, interests etc. with little or no mention of God and eternity. At these events, friends and families so praise the dead person that they are hardly recognizable.
It’s all about them. The cult of self strikes again.
I don’t think it’s wrong for funeral services (mostly solemn) to move toward memorials (predominantly celebratory.) There’s a good and healthy balance. But when God, heaven and hell, and our mortality and accountability are left out, then the event simply becomes a self-centered party that loses the whole meaning of being ready to face your Maker.
Let’s now take this to a higher level.
Europe’s Christian civilization is dying even faster than America’s and is also being replaced by the squishy cult of self. Listen to Joe Cunningham’s prophetic perspective:
“Way back in the day, and we’re talking centuries, Europe was a hotbed for the expansion of Christian ideas and philosophies. They were the foundations of European culture, government, and way of life. It influenced kings and empires, dictated the ways of life of millions for centuries.”
“The greatest empire the world had ever known, the British Empire, was built upon that foundation which stemmed back to the earliest days of Christendom. France, Spain, even Germany built legacies on top of the essential pillars of the faith.”
“Did they lose their way at times? Absolutely. But those foundations were there. They were fighting for something greater than people – they were fighting for identity, for country, for God, and for king. But, beginning late in the 20th century, those ideas were being tossed aside in favor of humanism [self]. The result of this transition has led to social program after social program that has left a lot of Europe broke and on the verge of collapse. “
“Via the Wall Street Journal: ‘Europe is dying because it has become morally incompetent. It isn’t that Europe stands for nothing. It’s that it stands for shallow things, shallowly. Europeans believe in human rights, tolerance, openness, peace, progress, the environment, pleasure. These beliefs are all very nice, but they are also secondary.'”
“What Europeans no longer believe in are the things from which their beliefs spring: Judaism and Christianity; liberalism and the Enlightenment; martial pride and capability; capitalism and wealth. Still less do they believe in fighting or sacrificing or paying or even arguing for these things. Having ignored and undermined their own foundations, they wonder why their house is coming apart.”
“Ultimately, what makes Europe’s downfall so imminent is that it does not seem to recognize, as the Left here in America doesn’t, that it’s their own policies within this modern era that are killing them.”
“The focus has been placed on the individual in such a shallow way while ignoring the individual in a deeper, meaningful way. They focus on how we feel, what we do, and how we can be fair to one another. Meanwhile, they ignore the very basis of humanity. The need for something greater than ourselves to believe in. The need to be part of something greater.”
“Big government types love to tell us that we can belong to the government, but the government is shallow. It, too, focuses on the shallow person, not the greater person underneath. It cares little for religious liberty because religion can offend you. It says ‘belong to us, but don’t claim a national identity. You’re not American, you see. You’re not British. You’re not French. You’re not Spanish or German. Your identity comes from your race, sexual orientation, gender, or whatever else we can think of. But we never belong to a nation.'”
“That has to change. In Europe and in the U.S. It has to change because society cannot build deep and lasting foundations on things that are so shallow.”
Amen, Joe.
There’s nothing more shallow than self. It’s limited to you–sinful you. On the other hand, there’s nothing bigger than God–the glorious and holy Creator and Savior of all that there is.
The Western world needs a Christ-centered revival that will once again re-shape all that we do.
If we don’t experience it, the cult of self will kill us.
The Real Meaning of Changing the Definition of Marriage
It was both interesting and agonizing to watch the legal collapse of American morals and marriage from thousands of miles away–in Asia.
I was in Mongolia and then China when the US Supreme Court changed the five thousand year definition of marriage through Obergefell vs. Hodges. Both of these Asian nations are “rising” countries where the Good News of Christ is bringing increased morality and positive changes to many peoples’ lives.
But America–my home nation–is a “falling” nation where the current rejection of our Christian heritage is breath-taking and is bringing about the demise of a once great nation.
While in Asia, I pondered the consequences of what is taking place in the United States. Here is the real meaning of changing the definition of marriage.
1. The world has changed–not to be legally renewed in my lifetime.
Changing the definition of marriage in the world’s only superpower will cause a flood of nations to follow suit in the coming years–causing the Western world to release its moorings from the Judeo-Christian traditions that made it great and prosperous. The world will dramatically change as a result by decreasing and hurting children and tearing apart the family fabric.
It’s already been fraying due to easy divorce, co-habitation, and dead-beat dads–but this could be the deathknell. And because SCOTUS wrongly legislated a “right” to same-sex marriage in the Constitution, this means that only a Constitutional Amendment (CA) can change that.
CA’s are rare. It is not likely that this decision will be reversed in my lifetime, if ever. Marriage may never be the same again on planet earth until Jesus returns to make all things new.
2. Secularism has triumphed (for the present time) in American culture.
As I pointed out in my 1989 book Leadership for the 21st Century: Changing Nations Through the Power of Serving, there are three worldviews that are battling for supremacy in the 21st century. The first is the biblical faith which is multiplying via loving persuasion in South America, Africa and Asia, but receding in the West.
The second is radical Islam which is terrorizing the world of the Middle East, North Africa and across Central Asia–trying to establish a regional or global caliphate.
The third is secularism or atheism which controls China, North Korea and Cuba via communism and many Western nations by way of secular philosophy. Atheism uses education, the media, and the power of government (especially the courts) to champion its man-centered ideas of hedonism.
The rejection of biblical, covenant marriage in the USA is a huge victory for the secular cause. The war of values will continue, but it’s uphill now for people of faith.
3. Cultural Christianity is dead in the urban cities and rural America will be forced to follow.
Though the nation is divided over the marriage issue, and the Supreme Court decided the issue prematurely via judicial fiat, the fact that marriage was altered in thirteen states and then rammed through the courts indicates that the Christian consensus on basic moral issues is a thing of the past. Our heritage of Christian truth is no longer strong enough to stop the tide of sin.
This is especially true in our cities–urban areas–which have gone secular in the past few decades. Cultural Christianity is no longer dominant by legacy or default. In many of the southern states, cultural faith is still the norm in many aspects of society, but the SCOTUS decision will force them to change. The North has defeated the South again–and this time in the battle of family morality.
The one area of the country that has been a restraint on ungodly behavior (the Southern States) will now be forced to accept the way of the world.
4. This was never about marriage, but the degrading and destroying of the image of Christ.
If we think the Obergefell v. Hodges decision was simply about marriage, our view is too narrow. No, it was the next battle in a long string of conflicts designed to degrade and destroy Christianity in American life. This is a culture war with many fronts: right to life, human sexuality, prayer in schools, Ten Commandments, the war on Christmas, morality on television and in the movies, and now marriage.
As Franklin Graham said recently, “All the things of God are under attack.” That’s true because the architect behind the degrading and destroying of biblical faith is not a human being or movement–but the Devil himself.
In America, that means we’re battling for the future of 320 million souls.
5. President Obama’s “transformation of America” is now complete.
President Obama did a major victory lap after the Supreme Court decision, and even illuminated the White House with the colors of the rainbow. This is because, whatever the motivation, his stated goal of “transforming America” is nearing completion. It contains three main elements:
- Economy – putting the USA on pathway to socialism (especially through the Affordable Care Act).
- Military – downgrading America influence in the world and weakening the military.
- Social – destruction of Christian morals (immigration, drug laws, right to life, sanctity of marriage, etc.)
6. Persecution of Christians has arrived on our shores. First silencing then sentencing.
It’s notable that even a secular progressive, Kirsten Powers, a columnist for both USA Today and the Daily Beast, has recently written a book on how the secular left wants to silence all faith-based speech in our nation. In The Silencing: How The Left is Killing Free Speech, Powers details not only how secular-progressives aim to win the war of ideas, but are committed to completely silencing anyone that disagrees.
Guess where that strategy comes from? It’s not Hollywood, but from the darker forces behind the human voices.
Because of the Satanic relationship to atheism, there is no interest in a marketplace of ideas. Just like the political arm of communism, secularists want a monopoly on speech and ideas. Increasingly, the voices of the Church and Scripture will be shouted down and removed.
After the SCOTUS decision, a number of newspapers announced they will no longer publish articles in favor of traditional marriage. The silencing has begun. So has the persecution. Bakers, florists, and anyone else who will not participate in a same sex marriage will be made to pay for their faith.
The next battles will involve outright persecution of the Church over tax exempt laws, and many other issues. Are you ready to suffer and stand up for your beliefs?
7. American exceptionalism is dead – now only a historical reality.
What made the United States of America a unique and exceptional nation for two hundred years was the blessing and fruits of its unique Christian heritage and ideals. Faith powered morality. Morality gave birth to freedom and liberty. And liberty produced success, innovation, entrepreneurship, wealth and many other blessings that came to us as a nation when we honored and followed God’s ways.
Turning away from this exceptional faith and its fruits will bring exceptional calamity to a nation that was once “the light of the world.”
As we become like other nations in turning away from God, we sabotage our unique leadership and role in the world. All that’s left is the history of exceptionalism–not the practice.
8. We are living in days parallel to Jeremiah – shallow revival then judgment.
The prophet Jeremiah lived during a time of the decline of a nation. In his early years, he participated in a glorious religious revival under the leadership of the godly King Josiah (2 Chronicles 34). But that revival was shallow–and near the end of Jeremiah’s life, the southern kingdom of Judah turned away from its God-given roots and was destroyed.
I participated in the last “American revival”–the Jesus Movement and charismatic renewal of the 1960s and 70s. It was wonderful and many lives were changed. But it also did not go deep enough to renew the biblical foundations of the American nation.
Will America experience the same fate of decline and judgment as experienced by the prophet Jeremiah?
9. God’s blessing is being removed from our nation – He is not answering our prayers.
The Harbinger by Jonathan Cahn is a prophetic book warning US citizens that God’s blessing is being removed from this nation if we do not pray, repent, and return to the Lord.
Many people are praying. I have participated in many movements of prayer in the past few years. But God is not answering those prayers because we are not turning to Him in sufficient numbers to confess our sins, change our lives, and plead for the healing of our land (2 Chronicles 7:14).
10. It is time to flee the public schools.
This may seem extreme, but changing the definition of marriage means that the secular indoctrination of the public schools will be acute during the coming years. Christian children will be persecuted, ridiculed, and labeled as bigots if they do not toe the new morality line.
It’s time for the Church to evacuate the schools for private and home education where they can train their children in God’s ways and not let them fall prey to a the worldly system. Some will stay to shine the light. But most need to flee–for their own safety and salvation.
11. This could be the Church’s finest hour. We will find out who the real believers are.
The great upside of our cultural demise is that God could use it to awaken the American Church to her finest hours of prayer, worship, evangelism, mercy and social impact. In the coming years, we will truly find out who the followers of Jesus really are. There will be no fence-sitting, no cultural Christianity.
Some may even die for their faith as they take a stand for Christ. This could be the time of America’s greatest revival–as the people of God return to Him and become channels for his power in our backslidden land.
12. The future is all about birthrates — physical and spiritual.
It is sunset in America at the present time–a time when life is ebbing. Same sex marriage will deflate both physical birthrates and spiritual ones amd increase the looming darkness.
If America is to be revived again, then we must restore the American family through a love of children and a renewal of marriage and family–and we must evangelize the nation with many through spiritual births.
Is it really sunset in America? Only God knows. The future is all about birthrates.
Which side will multiply the most?
Tearing Down America
It’s been an interesting week of presidential announcements. Hillary Clinton tweeted her presidential run then gaffed badly that she’s “fought women and children all her life.” Maybe that was an honest statement if you consider her views on abortion.
Marco Rubio also jumped into the race as a fresh, young, and articulate US Senator. If either he or Ted Cruz is elected to our highest office, they will make history as the nation’s first Hispanic president.
We certainly need a fresh leader for a hopeful future—not a return or carry-over from the past. In fact the next president will face a daunting assignment.
Stopping the tearing down of America.
If the present administration has succeeded at anything, it has been to greatly accelerate the tearing down of a once great nation. Now that we are heading into the seventh year of the Obama administration, and he is no longer running for office, it much easier to look at the president’s record and understand what he really meant when he said he wanted to “fundamentally change America.”
I will not judge his heart. Only God knows it. But the Bible is very clear that people are “known by their fruits.” Based on that wise axiom, what is the actual legacy of the Barack Obama presidency?
Instead of America being built up, we are in the process of being torn down. From a polling standpoint, nothing indicates this more than the steady reading that 70% of Americans believe that we are going in the wrong direction and only 30% believe we are headed the right way. This statistic has held constant for the majority of the Obama years.
Regardless of his motivation or desires, this means that Americans believe that we are being “torn down” not “built up.”
How so?
Using a preacher’s method of a three-point sermon where the words all start with the same first letter, let’s look at three critical areas of American life that the current administration is inadvertently or consciously tearing down.
Moral Tear Down
As a spiritual leader, this one is the most important to me because morality, which comes primarily from faith in God, leads to freedom or liberty which in turn brings blessing to a family, neighborhood, city of nation.
The Obama Administration has been the greatest accelerator of immorality in the history of our country, and that’s probably for two reasons: 1) Barack Obama was elected at time when powerful immoral forces in this nation were gaining momentum in the culture, and 2) Our president is primarily a secular man who pays lip service to biblical faith, but actively promotes secular values.
Now that the election gig is over, and he is free to be himself, we are witnessing a breathtaking assault on the traditional biblical values that made America unique in world history. The tearing down includes:
- The assault on children via abortion. Barack Obama is only the third president in all of American history who is pro-abortion, and the only one who radically championed late term abortions while in the Illinois Senate. Baby-killing has become passé and even applauded during the Obama years. Hillary Clinton, beholden to NARAL and Emily’s List, would do the same.
- The destruction of the five thousand year biblical covenant of marriage—the only American president to do so after he lied about changing his mind. In the Clinton roll-out video, she jumped on the same theme—which will further destroy the nuclear family in America.
- The failure of our nation’s first black president to mobilize the black community to rebuild the African-American family. This is such a tragic loss. Barack Obama could have been the man to call black dads home and encourage African American women to avoid pregnancy without marriage. Instead, he played the race card for years while black families disintegrate at mind-numbing speed.
- Opening our porous southern border for criminals, gangs, terrorists, and even unattended children simply for the sake of gaining Democratic votes. Immigration chaos is truly a moral issue that is destroying the social fabric of many cities and states.
Monetary Tear Down
The crony capitalist redistributive policies of the current Administration have soared the national debt to over eighteen TRILLION dollars, failed to create good wage jobs in a sputtering economy, and placed put a huge regulatory drag on the United States economy.
Obamacare is not only a health care disaster, but a huge noose on families, businesses, invention and innovation—and one of the most deceptive taxes ever foisted on the American people. And its enforcement agents are the hated IRS.
Barack Obama is primarily a statist who does not believe in liberty and free markets. His environmental policies torpedoed the Keystone Pipeline for no good reason and have not allowed America to become energy independent—a crucial position to hold in the 21st century. Instead, hopes of windmills and failed electric cars have put the brakes on one of our country’s most dynamic sectors—the new fossil-fuel explosion. All that’s been “renewed” in America has been our dependency on foreign oil and loss of clean coal jobs.
At best, America is treading water as we head toward a debt cliff. At worst, we are speeding toward the greatest economy collapse in the history of the world—driven by a man who little about lean budgeting, judicious use of debt and job creation.
Military Tear Down
Maybe the most glaring tear down of American society that has occurred under the Obama watch has been down-sizing and demoralizing of the United States military. Though the Bush invasion of Iraq can be argued both ways, no one can argue that when George Bush left office, Iraq was stable, our US forces were extended but strong, and the most volatile part of the world, the Middle East, was under control.
Not anymore. The Middle East is burning and in turmoil:
- Barack Obama failed to support the freedom movement in Iran in 2009. Now we are pushed around by genocidal and terror-supporting ayatollahs and are on the verge of allowing the world’s most powerful terrorist state to develop a nuclear weapon. If you were committed to ushering in Armageddon or World War III, there is no more helpful thing you could be doing right now than being taken to the cleaners by Iranian diplomats.
- With Hillary Clinton’s approval, we toppled the Gadaffi government in Libya, allowed our ambassador to be killed, and now chaos reigns in that nation.
- We said that Yemen was a “model” of our policy to reform the Middle East, and now it looks more like the Middle Ages than a stable part of the Middle East.
- Hundreds of thousands of people have died and been displaced in Syria and Iraq. By bringing our troops home too early, we released the draconian serpent of Isis to behead Christians and quickly become the new Nazis on the planet.
- We antagonized our friends (Israel) and have emboldened our enemies (Jihadists).
- Our American military is said to be at the lowest point of morale in a generation due to our feckless policies of appeasement, experimenting with sexual rights on the battle field, and telling our courageous chaplains to stop talking about God.
Morally, monetarily, and militarily the American nation is being systematically torn down. It would be easy to blame that breakdown on our leaders at the top. There’s just one problem.
We voted for them–twice.
It’s time to pray. It’s time to repent. It’s time to choose new leadership that will build up our nation, not tear it down.