Morality
The Gods of the Western World and Where They Are Leading Us
A few years ago I had the privilege of traveling around the USA speaking in Revive America Seminars as a part of the Impact World Tour.
One of my messages was on the subject of idolatry–something we don’t think much about in the Western World because we associate idols with altars and statues.
One Sunday in Hastings, Nebraska (it happened to be Super Bowl Sunday), I gave a message on idolatry which led to hours of repentance and confession. Many pastors even came forward to admit to their people that they’d gotten swept up in the sin of idolatry.
So what are the gods of the Western World and where are they leading us? How do I know if I’m personally involved in modern forms of idolatry?
Five thousand years of recorded human history reveal mankind’s penchant for worshipping idols or false gods:
- The Sumerians of ancient Mesopotamia are the world’s first recorded civilization (at least 2800 B.C.). Each Sumerian city was ruled by local priests who sacrificed to the gods of nature (sun, moon, rivers) and also fertility (Ishtar).
- The Egyptians were famous for their statues to the sun god (Ra) and numerous other deities. In fact, nearly all of God’s judgments upon Egypt during the Exodus were judgments against their idolatrous worship of false gods (Exodus 8-14).
- The Greek and Roman Empires ruled the known world from the ninth century B.C. to the 5th century AD. The Greek historian Herodotus (c.484-425 BC) claimed that the gods of the Greeks had been adopted from Egypt, and many modern scholars agree. Classical scholar C. Kerenyi lists 370 Greek gods that might have gone by 646 names.
- During their zenith, the Romans accepted and expanded the Greek pantheon. This led the Apostle Paul, sharing the Good News of Jesus in Roman-occupied Athens around 60 AD, to remark: “I notice that you are very religious” (Acts 17: 22). He was talking about idol worship.
- The Mayas and Aztecs, as reported by Father Bernardino de Sanhagun in the Florentine Codex, worshipped the forces of nature and supernatural and human counterparts. What stunned the Spaniards upon their arrival in the New World were the immense ritual slaughters that were taking place—human sacrifice—at regular festivals averaging 2,000 victims a day, and on special occasions, exceeding 20,000.
Those are a few glimpses of ancient idol worship. Gods and idols everywhere and even gross human suicide/murders to the idols of the day.
There is still a plethora of ancient idol worship in the modern world, especially in Africa (animism) and Asia. “Folk Hinduism” lives up to its reputation as one of the world’s largest idol-worshipping religions involving possibly 330 million gods. (That’s nearly one for every three people in India.)
John Noss explains how it works in many parts of the sub-continent:
“The ordinary villager, who in his everyday life takes no thought for the morrow of a subsequent existence, is content to worship the village gods to whom he looks for rain, bountiful harvests, and escape from plague…There are, as it were, two religions: a work-a-day religion to meet the requirements of everyday existence and a higher religion…which the ordinary man does not attempt to understand.”
I’ve been to many Hindu and Buddhist temples in that part of the world. Hundreds of millions of people in the 21st century still bow before idols and offer incense and food offerings to the gods.
Idolatry is both ancient and modern.
Here’s an important point to ponder: Human beings are the only part of creation that worships or creates idols. Land animals don’t make idols. Sea creatures don’t worship idols. No other part of animate or inanimate creation give themselves in love and devotion to gods.
Only humans.
It’s as if we were uniquely made to worship someone or something.
The Bible tells us this Someone is not the sun, moon and stars, or any part of the created world. We were designed to worship the True God who made it all. He is our Creator and also our Savior (from sin).
This brings us to the fundamental definition of idolatry: Giving supreme time, attention and affection to anything that takes the place of God.
Human beings were created with a God-shaped vacuum inside. We can either give God his rightful place in our hearts and lives (Matthew 22:37-40) or we can fill that space with other things.
Idols.
In the Western World, under the guise of science and progress, most people do not worship ancient gods and idols. Most of us don’t frequent temples and burn incense nor do we bow to pieces of wood.
But because man will worship, we have our own set of gods or idols.
One New Testament verse is the key to understanding the idols of the Western world– 1 John 2:15-17:
“Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away, and also its lusts. But the one who does the will of God abides forever.”
“Do not love…the things in the world.” In other words, worldly things. That’s the definition of secular–being worldly rather than spiritual minded.
Polytheistic religions like Hinduism, Buddhism and animism produce “spiritual” idols or false gods. The religion of atheism or secularism doesn’t tout spiritual things, but because of the God-shaped vaccuum in every human heart, worldly people are driven toward secular idols or gods.
Let’s call it secular idolatry. The West is full of it–and according to 1 John 2:15-17, I believe the secular idols of the West center around three (though there are many more).
1. The Idol of Sex (lust of the flesh)
Can anyone honestly deny that sex in all its forms is one of the supreme obsessions of worldly people? It is a multi-billion dollar industry on the Web and nearly half of American men admit to being addicted to pornography. What are the supermarket tabloids luring you towards? What is becoming increasingly mainstream on television and in the movies?
Sex. This secular idol’s primary “temple” is the movie theater with supermodels and movie stars being the temple prostitutes. Of course, it’s not a new form of idolatry. The Greek and Roman bathhouses were full of fornication, homosexuality and adultery during their day and a significant number of Roman citizens were bi-sexual. As pointed out by Bill O’Reilly in his best-selling book Killing Jesus, Julius Caesar was the poster child of sexual indulgence with homosexual escapades and numerous adulteries (e.g. Cleopatra).
Secularists fill their God-void by “lusting after the flesh.” Erotica is a primary god in current Western civilization.
2. The Idol of Entertainment (the lust of the eyes)
The second Western secular idol is the god of entertainment which primarily involves the eyes. We have gone from being a “giving” culture (Judeo-Christian) to a “getting” mentality which focuses on pleasure. 2 Timothy 3:1-14 says that worldly people are “lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.”
Pleasure comes in many forms, but entertainment is high on the list. People want to “feel good” and being entertained fits the bill in many forms including music, television, movies, and sports.
In fact, probably the most obvious temples to modern gods in the West are sports stadiums and rock concert halls.
I remember when Christians used to be called “fanatics” and sports people were “fans.” (Obviously, the first label is worse than the second.) Today, it’s reversed. Look at the people in most sports stadiums on Sundays and you will see people that really love their gods (fanatics). They wear special costumes, dye their hair, paint their faces, and shout their lungs out.
If only Western churchgoers (fans?) had such passion for the True God.
3. The Idol of Money (the boastful pride of life)
The final idol of the Secular Trinity is the one that makes everything possible–wealth or money. If personal pleasure rather than pleasing God is the emergent god of the West, then money is the ticket to its fulfillment.
Money is the substance which allows us to boast about our lives. We are keeping up with the Joneses! We have made it because we have a good job which makes us look good and provides wealth to purchase the “things” that make us happy.
Money is the new American Dream. Tony Campolo amplifies: “We want more and more of what we need less and less of.” It’s what most Westerners live for–a comfortable lifestyle fueled by wealth that allows them to pursue hedonistic pursuits.
Generations ago American towns and cities were built around churches i.e. the centrality of worship to God. The cathedrals of today are not churches (they’ve been buried by the skyscrapers). They are shopping malls, areas of commerce, and high-rise temples of Wall Street finance.
And you thought that Europe and America had become irreligious? Abandoned all gods?
Nope. People will worship. It’s just that the gods have changed. They’re not made of wood or stone. They’re made of flesh, celluloid and paper and we lust after them with our bodies, eyes, and bank accounts.
Of course, it their proper place, all these things are fine. Sex is wonderful in a godly marriage; We all need some restful entertainment at times; Money can be used to serve God and bless people. But when these things become supreme desires, affections, and time wasters, they turn from being tools into idols.
The Super Bowl is a great example of Western idol worship. You have great athleticism (entertainment), promoted by by scantily-clad cheerleaders (sex), raking in billions of dollars in advertising (money). No wonder it’s the most watched Western TV extravaganza each year.
All three Western idols are involved.
One of the clearest truths of the Bible is that God judges all false gods or idols. He doesn’t want people to hurt themselves by worshipping things that don’t satisfy them or bring Him glory.
And where are the idols of the Western World leading us?
- Consuming sexual lust is multiplying venereal diseases and destroying the family unit.
- The opiate of entertainment is making us fat, passive and uninformed.
- The love of money is leading us to a debt-laden financial collapse of biblical proportions.
What must we do?
The book of 1 John ends with these words (1 John 5:21): “Little children, guard yourselves from idols.”
That includes Western ones.
How the Sexual Revolution Changed the World
There are numerous events or movements that have changed the course of history. In the last two hundred years, the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, abolition of slavery, the Civil Rights movement, World Wars I & II and the Information Revolution come to mind.
Another one that I lived through was the Sexual Revolution of the 1950s to 70s. I know it’s not on the usual radar screens of earth-shattering events, but I believe it should be.
What really happened during the 20th century Sexual Revolution? What are its lasting effects? How has the Baby-boom-led sexual revolt changed the world as we know it?
Some of the answers may surprise you.
When we think of life changing events or movements we don’t normally think of sex. It’s a pretty basic yet wonderful aspect of human experience, and in my opinion, one of the greatest gifts from God for expressing human love.
That’s why most songs center around sensual love either from a desire or lament standpoint.
Many years ago, I noticed in the Old Testament that though all sins are equal in their motive (selfish and lawless), they are not equal in their ramifications or consequences. In fact, the clear teaching of the Bible and human history is that deviating from God’s wise boundaries of a man and woman experiencing sexual love in marriage is extremely hurtful and destructive.
That’s why the Old Testament elevates sexual sins above some others. Just peruse chapters such as Leviticus 18 or 20 and you will get the picture. Sexual sin is bad. It hurts and defiles people. That’s why God told the nation of Israel to hate it, avoid it, and legislate against it.
God does not want human beings to suffer the dreadful consequences of perverting his beautiful gift of sex.
Enter the 1950s. The world had just experienced two dreadful wars in which a total of 76 million people died (16M in World War I and 60M in World War II). That was about 4% of world population at the time. Millions more were wounded, displaced, some nations reduced to rubble, with psychological damage unfathomable.
Out of that devastation, a time of calm prevailed in the Western nations where GIs came back from the war, got married, had kids and begun to live more “normal” lives. At the time, a strong Judeo-Christian world view coupled with an evangelical awakening led by Billy Graham and others gave credence to biblical norms in sexual activity.
Most men and women married. Fornication and adultery were generally frowned upon. Homosexuality, incest, and pedophilia were seen as taboo. The Baby Boom generation–now the second largest generation in American history–were about to arrive.
I was one of them, born into a normal, religious home in 1953. Those were the days of “Leave It to Beaver,” “Ozzie and Harriet,” and “Father Knows Best.” That would all change in the late fifties through seventies when I graduated from high school.
The change seemed to start in Hollywood and the music scene. Famous actors and musicians began to sleep around. Stars like Elvis Presley, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and others encouraged the young generation to rebel against the old, traditional (and biblical ways). The rebellion appeared to be against God, various authority figures, and sexual norms.
I remember the mini-skirts rising, the pot and sex parties, Woodstock, Playboy, and on and on it went. A new world was being created where sex was simply my desire for you, baby, to “Light My Fire.” Today, almost anything goes sexually without hardly the blink of an eye.
That movement of “sexual freedom” has changed the world–and not for the good. Here are some of its incredible global consequences.
Atheist Growth
Sexual anarchy seems to go hand-in-hand with those who do not believe in God or a Higher Power to whom we are accountable. Of course there are some exceptions to that rule, but can anyone honestly argue that those who break the biblical boundaries of sex are partly running from God?
The statistics make it clear. Over the past fifty years, atheism has doubled in America from 7 to 14 percent of the population and many people now claim “No religion.” This has given birth to a relentless attack upon biblical faith by the media, government, Hollywood, and militant atheist groups who are trying to secularize every aspect of American culture.
Last week an Army chaplain was reprimanded for giving Christian literature to GIs during a “Suicide Prevention Week.” The American military–once a bastion of biblical faith and defense of liberty–is quickly becoming our biggest social experimentation grounds.
It all has its roots in the Sexual Revolution.
Disease Explosion
One of the medical fruits of the Sexual Revolution has been the growth of new diseases due to illicit sexual activity. At last report, the Revolution has spawned 26 brand new venereal diseases.
An estimated 1.5 million people died from AIDS-related illnesses in 2013, and an estimated 39 million people with AIDS have died worldwide since the epidemic started. Sub-Saharan Africa bears the biggest burden of HIV/AIDS, with almost 70% of the global total of new HIV infections for 2013.
Let that sink in. 76 million people died unnecessarily because of Hitler, Stalin and Mao. But half that many (39 million) have died unnecessarily in our lifetime simply due to one STD we call AIDS.
History is littered with tribes, nations and civilizations that either declined or died due to sexual perversion. The Incas, Aztecs and Roman world come to mind. The modern Sexual Revolution is taking us down the same path, albeit being retarded by advances in modern medicine.
History’s Biggest Holocaust
One of the most tragic fruits of the Sexual Revolution was the revival on the ancient sin of abortion–killing an innocent baby in the womb simply because it is unwanted. As people slept around and sex started to multiply beyond marriage, something had to be done with the unwanted fruit of unrestrained passion.
Enter the tragic and legislative stupidity of Roe v. Wade in 1973. It came about for one primary reason: to get rid of the evidence of sexual chaos and evil. Abortion wasn’t new, it was just pagan–an ungodly practice revived in the modern world–to keep the Revolution roaring without “problems.”
The Guttmacher Institute estimates that between 1 and 2 billion human beings have been aborted in 20th and 21st centuries. That makes the Sexual Revolution abortion machine the greatest holocaust of all time.
Take a moment and weep over that statistic. At least a billion innocent children sucked apart or cut to pieces on the altar of selfish indulgence. Makes Hitler look like a piker.
Destroying Marriage and Family
Can anyone deny that “sexual liberation” is one of the main causes of the destruction of marriage and family in the past fifty years?
In former times of biblical mores, men and women either got married and kept sex in marriage because it was the right thing to do, or, if they weren’t believers, the man wanted sex and the woman wanted children. Both of those motives produced wholesome family units, with a mom, a dad, and kids.
I saw an article today that appeared a week ago in the Washington Post that shows how the Sexual Revolution has destroyed the America family. It’s called “The Unbelievable Rise of Single Motherhood in America Over the Past Fifty Years” and is based on studies by Princeton’s Sara McLanahan and Harvard’s Christopher Jencks.
It explains, for example, that more than 70 percent of all black children today are born to an unmarried mom, a three-fold increase in that rate since the 1960s. You can read the article here.
Hey, what happened in the 1960s? Oh yeah, there was the Sexual Revolution where men started sleeping around with whoever would have them, then split the scene. What was once sinful is now the new awful norm–kids without parents and diseases galore.
Ask the children if that kind of sex is “liberating” to them. In most cases, it sentences young ones to a life of poverty and lack of good role models.
Rising Narcissism and Anarchy
An awful lot of rioting is happening around America these days due to racial tension and exploitation. I know this can’t be directly attributed to the Sexual Revolution, but let’s be reminded of this: The essence of the Revolution was rebellion against authority–God, parents, police and others. At the root of the original movement was a spirit of anarchy and chaos which said, “I will do what I want with my body or to others.”
A couple generations later, that same spirit is once again manifest in American streets and neighborhoods.
Mushrooming Financial Debt
What does sexual promiscuity have to do with trillions of dollars of debt?” More than we realize.
I learned this consequence of the Sexual Revolution by looking at various charts. For example, if you read the Washington Post article you’ll notice a number of graphs that the authors use to demonstrate the rise of single motherhood and dissolution of the family. They show the uptick beginning in the fifties through seventies then exploding upward to the present time.
It’s exactly the same graph as the uptick in illicit sexual activity i.e. the Revolution. America’s debt bomb mirrors our sexual confusion. So what’s the connection?
People who cheat in marriage or relationships will do the same thing with money. When you’re living for pleasure or the next conquest, it’s all about the “now” without thought of the future. In the financial realm, the same spirit is in operation–living for today and not saving for the future.
In other words, the same character that rebels against God-ordained sex will do the same thing with finances. Lack of self control in one inevitably produces lack of self control in the other. The graphs are the same.
For hundreds of years, most Americans believed in God’s ideal for marriage and family. During that era, they also generally practiced his principles of financial stewardship. Debt was taboo and limited. So was illicit sex.
When the Sexual Revolution erupted fifty years ago, it produced the debt mentality that now enslaves us in trillions of dollars of borrowed money–both personal and corporate. Sexual atheists beget financial atheists. Unfortunately, they now occupy the power structures of our once wiser nation–with a day of reckoning coming.
That’s how the Sexual Revolution changed the world.
We need a new Jesus Revolution to reverse it.
A Tortured Report and Forgotten American Value
I think everybody in the universe now knows that Democrats in the United States Senate recently released a 6200 page report on what they call torture. Enhanced Interrogation Techniques (EITs) were done on select jihadist extremists for a few months following 9-11 to try and save American lives.
It’s been a major story on the mainstream media for the past week. They call it “The Torture Report.” I call it “A Tortured Democratic Report That Will Cost More Americans Lives.”
Why is the report tortured, and what forgotten American value does it blatantly overlook?
As you now know, Republicans on the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee refused to participate in the 40 million dollar project, pushed by Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein (CA), because they smelled a rat that reeked of selective memory, hypocrisy and lying for political ends.
President Obama also weighed in on the report on December 9 while speaking to Jose Diaz-Balart on the Spanish version of MSNBC (Telemundo). He said, “We took some steps [in torturing jihadist detainees] that were contrary to who we are, contrary to our values.”
Before we analyze that statement, let’s recount the history.
History
On September 11, 2001, the United States homeland was savagely attacked by Muslim jihadists who believed that they would each be rewarded with seventy virgins in heaven for murdering innocent people.
They wickedly and premeditatively killed nearly three thousand American citizens of many races on that fateful day–the greatest slaughter on American soil since Pearl Harbor. They would have murdered more people if it weren’t for some brave passengers aboard American Flight 93 who thwarted their plan to fly a plane into the Capitol Building.
Their goal, according to one official, was to “decapitate” the American nation–financially (Twin Towers), militarily (Pentagon), and politically (Capitol Building–the assumed target of Flight 93).
This barbaric act by Al Qaida, and its leader, Usama bin Laden, fanned into flame the Global War on Terror that is still being fought in many parts of the world.
Lies and Hypocrisy
Erick Erickson of Redstate reveals the essence of the deception involved in the Democratic Report:
“Democrats, who spent a number of years being advised of what the CIA was doing to extract information from enemy terrorists, released a report claiming we were torturing bad guys. Further, they claimed that we were gaining no valuable information from that torture.”
“Individuals in the intelligence community have pointed out, mostly to deaf ears in the press, that (1) these same Democrats were well briefed for years; (2) there were no objections at the time; (3) we did, in fact, learn useful intelligence that kept us safe; and (4) none of the intelligence officers who were involved in the interrogations of the bad guys were interviewed by the Democrats.”
That’s what makes it a tortured report. Former Vice President Dick Cheney called it a “piece of crap.”
I agree.
And very expensive manure at that. Think how many poor children could be fed or educated with 40 million dollars.
The Democratic Party, now pumping their chests about American values and sniveling about us owning up to past mistakes, are, first of all, lying about the history. The former head of the CIA’s enhanced interrogation program, Jose Rodriguez, has stated publicly they he and others from the CIA briefed all the principles involved at least forty times during the months following 9-11.
Rodriguez says that none of our national leaders at that time questioned their activities or asked them to stop what they were doing to extract information from terrorists that could save American lives. In fact, they asked him to “do more if necessary” to get the information that might prevent further attacks.
In all, twenty-six radical jihadists were interrogated using EITs. Only three, including the mastermind of 9-11, Khalid Sheik Mohammed, were water-boarded.
Ten years later, leaders like Dianne Feinstein, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, appear to have selective amnesia about any of those meetings, their lack of concern about EITs, their support of the techniques, and the complete legality of the program.
Amazing how a desire to score political points damages brain cells.
On Monday, December 15, Megan Kelley interviewed a psychologist, James Mitchell, who helped design the Enhanced Interrogation Techniques Program and used it on Khalid Sheik Mohammed and other terrorists.
The interview with Dr. Mitchell was one of the most poignant and honest interviews I have ever seen. You can watch it here. The highlights:
- Dr. James Mitchell talked in great detail how the EITs were used, humanely, sincerely, and legally to get information from terrorists who killed our fellow citizens. I was struck by the great care they took to guard the dignity of evil men–something the terrorists never did in killing our countrymen.
- All of the terrorists walked away from the EITs with no permanent damage, thus, no torture. The people killed in the Twin Towers did not walk away. They jumped from hundreds of feet, burned to death, or died in crushing rubble and pain.
- Dr. Mitchell was visibly angry that the Democrats never called him to get his side of the story and that they had “cherry-picked” aspects of the information to showcase their political temper tantrum.
- He now has death threats because of the exposure the report gave. He knew that a “fatwa” would be issued because of the release of the report. He knew that other Americans would die because of the chicanery of the Senate Democrats and their staffers.
- Dr. Mitchell did not strike me as a political man. He is a normal guy who loves his country and only got involved when he realized it was the least he could do to avenge the loss of thousands who died. He reported abuses of the program (as did others) and felt the use of EITs were not only legal, but truly the “moral high ground” if we hate evil and want to save lives.
As both Dick Cheney and James Mitchell clearly stated, the enhanced interrogation techniques that were used after 9-11 were appropriate, self-correcting, humanitarian, legal, held to high standards, left no permanent damage and were necessary to break the back and plans of evil people.
The American people agree. A recent Pew poll found that 56% of Americans believe the EITs helped save lives, 51% think the CIA methods were justified, and that “the public expresses the most doubt not about the CIA methods and program itself, but about the Senate committee’s decision to release its report”.
The CIA tortured no one. They acted humanely and justly in the context of war.
The Democrats, by exposing CIA and civilian patriots and ridiculing the means they used to defend America, are the real traitors here.
What they did was dishonest hypocrisy.
American values
Our president, vice president, Dianne Feinstein, and numerous other Democrats stated that the reason for the release of the report was about values, taking the high moral ground, and having the integrity to own up as a nation when mistakes were made.
Mistakes and abuses are always made because we are human beings. When good people or nations make mistakes, they are nothing compared to the barbarity demonstrated by those who intentionally hurt others.
As Americans, with a 230 history of civil polity based on biblical principles, we always take the moral high ground compared to the Hitlers, Stalins, Mao Tse Tungs, or Usama bin Ladens of the world. We value life, property, nations, and all human rights–and work hard to protect them.
There is no moral equivalence with the bad guys. We believe in human dignity which comes from God.
Evil people do not.
And we are at war. During human warfare, normal civil rules are suspended to combat evil. When our enemies commit murder, or are war criminals, they forfeit their normal human rights. We are morally mandated to do everything possible short of torture (causing permanent physical or pschological damage) to save the lives of the innocent.
God calls that “justice.”
By the way, in a God-fearing nation, wise leaders go after the bad guys and protect the good guys. In a godless nation, it’s reversed: Good guys are punished and bad guys treated leniently.
I guess that tells you who the Senate Democrats are. They blasted the good guys (American interrogators) and victimized the bad guys (murderous jihadists).
Remember that next time when you listen to bloviating politicians.
And when an American president implies that we shouldn’t use strong interrogation tactics on human beings that murdered 3000 of our fellow citizens, and lectures us that this is “against our values,” remember this:
A supreme value of a God-fearing nation and government is to hate evil (Proverbs 8:13).
The Democrats seem to have forgotten that most basic of truths.