CYPRESSWOOD CHURCH OF CHRIST
October 31, 2010
25424 Aldine-Westfield, Spring, TX. 77373
www.blakehart.com/cypresswoodbulletin.htm
CONTINUE TO PRAY FOR:
God’s will for our congregation Various relatives, friends, and co-workers
Our nation, military and leaders The persecuted church
IT‘S A SALVATION ISSUE - 1
“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matthew 6:33).
Humanity is incurably religious. When we study cultures, we look at various aspects of that culture including its history, economics if known, various artifacts, and its religion. Religion has been a part of history since the beginning. Various cultures have attempted to explain how it all started. The Assyrian king, Ashurbanipal, had a library in which a number of creation stories were found. Included in this were the Enuma Elish, the Atrahasis Epic, and the Gilgamesh Epic. Each had develop some type of mythology in which a god or gods are doing something in some way. The mythology of the Greeks is much more famous with gods up there, down here and down under. The Romans had their gods and also turned many of the Caesars into gods. India and most of the nations of the Far East have numerous gods. Egypt had their gods and the ten plagues were an attack and destruction of ten of them.
We cannot understand a culture without understanding its religion or religions. This is more important today than what many think. Just consider the recent attacks at Ft. Hood and the attempted car bombing in Times Square. Both the news media and politicians did not want to expressly say that these were done by Muslim extremists even after it was clear that both were Muslims. They attempted to blame it on stress, the loss of income, or some other factor.
The media and politicians have been in the forefront of ignoring the religious aspects of culture (1). Our state department tends to ignore it as well. In the late 1970s, the Shah of Iran was opposed by the U.S. government. Our government supported the mullahs who were successful in the overthrow of the Shah. What they failed to understand was the theology of Islam and the consequences.
Europe use to have a strong Christian influence, not that it was perfect. There were the religious wars that cause destruction but eventually were stopped. After that it became nationalism that caused European wars. After the French Revolution, secularism began to develop. Religion was forced out of the public view. The state church was in name only, and while people attended church, the religious ideals were being slowly ignored. By the 20th Century, we see the consequences of both nationalism and secularism. Two horrible wars and the death of millions destroyed Europe. They now turned away from religion to secularism completely. Many magnificent church buildings are visited by tourists but rarely by locals. The European Commonwealth decided in drawing up a constitution that it would not make reference to its Christian past. In an interview on Book TV, Melanie Phillips stated that prison ministry in the Britain was done by Muslims, many of which she feared were radical; but the church was nowhere to be seen (2). Because of this, Christianity is virtually ignored and ridiculed. Some Christians have lost their jobs for just wearing a cross.
In the United States, the secularists want us to be more like Europe where religion plays little, if any, role in political decisions, unless of course it supports those decisions. Recently the Catholic bishops were told by a politician to stay out of the abortion debate and yet were told by that same politician to be involved in the immigration debate. Confused?
While we live in a religiously plural society, the Judeo-Christian ethic is the dominant idea in our culture. This is where the conflict is; the battle between the secularist view and the Judeo-Christian view. We still see the Judeo-Christian view in action but one has to wonder if we understand where it comes from. We have so compartmentalized our lives that we act one way in church and another way at home and still another way at work. There are those who know that there is right and wrong, and live by those standards, yet do not understand from where it comes.
Now I don’t want you to think that the whole place is falling apart, but I do want us to be concerned about where we are at this time. On the one hand, there is a desire to seek God. We see it in our troops who have sought out God in war zones. We see it churches that are growing as they seek to spread the good news among the postmodern world. On the other hand, there is the more public activity of the secularists who want to eliminate the Judeo-Christian ethic from public view. We see this in how politicians view those whose beliefs contradict theirs. We see it in how people who should not be in power are in power and abuse their position with their co-workers and employees. It is not that this is new but it appears to be heighten in today’s culture.
We will explore some of this over the next few weeks. Why is there a conflict, what are the consequences, and what can we do as Christians? Surprisingly, we might find ourselves being drawn back to scripture, and see that the world we live in is more like the 1st Century than we think.
George B. Mearns
(1) See Joseph Loconte, Obama’s Fantasies, copied 5/29/2010 at www.standpointmag.co.uk and Faith, Doubt, and U.S. Foreign Policy, copied on 6/22/2010 at www.american.com; David Kupelian, Intimidation nation, copied 5/28/2010 at www.wnd.com; David Aikman, Islam and the White House, copied on 6/8/2010 at http://onenewsnow.com
(2) Heard on May 23rd as she talked about her book, The World Turned Upside Down, Encounter, 2010.