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Kevin Swanson has studied popular culture for over 25 years. He worked as a disc jockey for many years en formats ranging form Contemporary Christian music. Rock, Country, Oldies, and New-Talk. He has served as a judge at six national film festivals. He is a pastor husband and fathers, speaker, mostra'n més radio host, and author of many books including his most recent, Apostate: The Men Who Destroyed the Christian West. mostra'n menys

Inclou el nom: Kevin Swanson

Obres de Kevin Swanson

The Second Mayflower (1997) 42 exemplars
God Made Animals (2019) 15 exemplars
Freedom (2015) 13 exemplars
The Story of Freedom: (2019) 7 exemplars
Preparing the World for Jesus (2020) 5 exemplars
How the World Runs Textbook (2022) 1 exemplars
Worldviews in Conflict Set (2015) 1 exemplars
Taking the World for Jesus (2017) 1 exemplars

Obres associades

Funny Business; A Collection of Hard-Working Cartoons (2006) — Art director, algunes edicions22 exemplars

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male
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USA
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homeschooled

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Ressenyes

The first book I've finished in the new year. I enjoyed it. I highlighted a lot but it's a nook book not a kindle so I can't share my highlights here. I will however, most likely add some quotes from the book to the site. It was interesting and worthwhile. I would recommend to anyone who is interested in culture from a Christian point of view
 
Marcat
LTSings | Jun 29, 2020 |
LT Worldviews in Conflict, Kevin Swanson 8/11/16

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7/31/16 CBC
Worldviews in Conflict
Published by Generations with Vision, 2015
Kevin Swanson

pgs. 130-131 (the place of the law)
Western Christianity has produced a weakened church because it has abandoned the centrality of God in ethics. An improper view of God’s law (the setting of law against grace) has resulted in a general failure to love the law on the part of evangelical Christians. While we are not justified by the works of the law, there are still several good uses of the law. The reformers from the sixteenth century listed three uses:

1. The law convicts the sinner of his sin (Romans 7:7).
2. The law gives believers a rule of obedience by means of which they show love to their Savior (John 14:15, 15:10).
3. The law restrains evil men from the most destructive forms of immorality.

When the church refuses to preach the law of God, there must be a loss of power in the ministry. Without the law, few if any will really be convicted of their sins and come to Christ. They may come to a church where their ears are tickled, but what they need instead is to truly face their sin and run to Christ in repentance.

Without the law, Christians will cease to mortify their sinful flesh, forsake the world, and live a godly life. Jesus defined “love” as keeping His commandments (John 14:21). Those who have sinned much and repented are those who have been forgiven much, and they are those who love much and will keep His commandments (Luke 7:37-50). Without the law, one will not see and recognize much of his sin, and he certainly will not love much by keeping God’s commandments. When the Spirit of God comes to a person and regenerates him, the change does not stop at the heart. It must work its way into the man’s behavior and affect his relationships and institutions. This is accomplished by the Word of God, which in its entirety is “profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17). Christianity loses much strength and relevance to the world around it when it refuses to use God’s law as a rule of obedience in the believer’s sanctification.

Without the law, it is doubtful that evil will be restrained, whether that evil is a common criminal or a tyrant. This is very much what we are facing in the twenty-first century—the rise of crime and tyranny. The church is being lessened in power and influence in the lives of unbelievers and believers alike. How sad it is for the church to in any way minimize the authority of God over man’s ethics. This is especially so when the external test of true religion is simple obedience to the major dominating themes of the law of Christ—avoiding fornication (Acts 15:20, 29; 21:25), bridling the tongue (James 1:26), and taking personal care of the fatherless and widow in the church and the family (James 1:27; 1 Timothy 5:1-15).

pgs. 142-143 (zeitgeists and the law)
Sounding the Cry for Reformation
Those still upholding the Christian worldview are faced with attacks on every side. The antithesis that marks this age includes such wayward ideologies [zeitgeists] as pluralism, ethical relativism, feminism, socialism, egalitarianism, scientism and evolution, nihilism, and materialism, to name a few. The Christian heart can no longer be separated from the Christian mind and the Christian life. God requires of us a renewing of the mind, and a refusal to conform to anti-Christian thought patterns and lifestyles (Romans 8:1-2; Romans 12:2). More than that, He requires us to cast down all imaginations that oppose the wisdom of Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5). Every human thought must be brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, whether they are thoughts about education, scientific study, marriage relationships, sexuality, economic theory, cultural life, or politics.

A Christian worldview without law simply cannot be considered a world and life view. Likewise, Christian teaching without law makes God’s grace of no account. Grace loses its relevance without a law standard and a Lawgiver. Of course, we can never be justified by the works of the law, but without the law, there is no standard to which man is held accountable. As the law defines sin, and the Spirit convicts us, we are driven to Christ for salvation from sin in faith and repentance. The preaching of the law is essential. Law without grace is troublesome, as is grace without law. The teaching of the law must rest on the mercy seat of Christ. The ministry of God’s law must be incorporated into our families and churches, but this cannot be done outside of the context of Christ’s atonement. Paul himself includes applications of the law only within perpetual reminders of God’s forgiveness and mercy in Christ.

Lives of non-Christian philosophers 2, 65-Descartes, 71-Locke (began with strong Christian upbringing), 84-Rousseau, 101-Marx, 166-Darwin, 187-Nietzsche, 203-Dewey/Hall (apostasy), 222-Sartre

Worldviews in Conflict

Preface—purpose of this high school course: to understand ideas that run counter to biblical thinking [to counter them and not to be seduced by them]
Part I Welcome to the War
Introduction—their parents named them “John”; western and Christian schools have replaced Christian literature with humanist
2 Christianity permeated western culture, then man-centered humanism began infiltrating, first with a few thinkers, then writers and artists, then these ideas taught in universities, and to society at large by entertainers and popular culture, intensified hugely by internet
3 THE TIME HAS COME TO REFORM AND REBUILD THE IDEAS AND EDUCATIONAL SYSTEMS THAT MAKE UP THE WESTERN WORLD
3-4 …most people reading the great [famous] philosophers find it hard to follow the thread of their ideas. Sometimes they will say one thing, and then contradict themselves more or less in the next paragraph…
4 early US colleges had classical curriculum (non-Christian)
4 Christian thinking dominated western civilization 500-1200 (no cannibalism, etc., 3)
4 literature shifted from Christian to humanist, READ 4
4 current school curricula are classical
5 Yet for some reason, even Christian academics are reticent to criticize the major humanist thinkers…
6 join Great Conversation?! Great CONFRONTATION! [Playground or battleground?]

Chapter 1 The War of the Worldviews—the two worldviews are in life and death conflict
9-10 “A worldview is a collection of ideas relating to God, life, origins, ethics, knowledge, and reality.” (K: how we view the world (as though there is a God who has revealed Himself, with expectations; is life for my fun primarily or His glory?)
10 two opposing worldviews: the Bible versus human reasoning/tradition (humanism); sola Scriptura/fide [A Christian worldview asks, “Lord, what will You have me to do?” while a humanist worldview asks, “What do I want to do (for mankind or me?)”]
10 Reformation led to Dutch Reformed Church, Scotland Presbyterian Church, Lutherans of Germans and Scandinavia, (indirectly) to Congregationalists, Baptists, Methodists, etc; USA with Puritans, Presbyterians, and Baptists forming strongest religious base!
11 Humanism arose countering Christianity, under leadership of Erasmus, differed on centrality of God in man's reality
12 Aquinas (1225-1274, before Erasmus) created defense for humanist Greek philosophy, separating philosophy (perhaps classical Greek thinking would be better designation) from theology, developed two categories of human thought, philosophical knowledge and theological knowledge
13 Descartes (rationalist) upended thought beginning with God—changed it to beginning with man—cogito ergo sum; Augustine (d. 430 ad): “I believe in order to understand”; rationalist man made himself the reference point in his thinking
13 John Locke and Francis Bacon (father of scientific method, empiricists, followed rationalists); Bacon abandoned Bible as fundamental block (source, presuppositions) for truth
16 Horace Mann and John Dewey worked hard to incorporate humanism into newly secularized and government-funded education
17 modern democracies successful centralizing power (into man)
19 Humanist Manifesto I 1933
20 We live in a day where art and entertainment celebrate the worst forms of decadence…
22 Despite the fact that church attendance remains as strong as ever, the culture continues to decline... ...widespread Christian approval of Suzanne Collin’s Hunger Games trilogy and J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter...
23 Culture is religion externalized. 38

Chapter 2 Who will be God?—crux of worldview conflict is sovereignty—man or God?
30 God is central focus of our lives, and the source and determiner of truth, reality, ethics, and beauty
32 Our concern (in this course) is the condition of the Christian faith
32-34 crux of worldview conflict is sovereignty—man or God?
K—man’s original and continuing problem is “I will be as God”

Part II Worldviews in Philosophy
Introduction

38 (James!) In a world of hypocrisies and lies, there is only one way to determine the true creed of a people. Observe their life and culture.
39 The fault for the failure of faith lies with men who failed to disciple the nations...

Chapter 3 Thomas Aquinas (1225-74)—paving the way to a man-centered philosophy
41 “The universities revived the humanism of the Greeks and Romans, creating a new synthesis of humanist and Christian thought”
42 Aquinas (1225-74) was the intermediary link between old Christian Europe and the increasingly secularized, humanist Western world
43 Aquinas proposed two systems of knowledge: one sacred and the other secular, or philosophical. This broke from the Augustinian view of knowledge...Credo ut intelligam, or "Believe that you may understand." ... ...believed that natural man in his fallen state could build a reliable system of philosophical knowledge on "human reason."
44 Aquinas dealt a heavy blow to the Christian faith in the Western world, as men began disconnecting math, music, culture, and science from the framework of knowledge revealed in Holy Scripture.

Chapter 4 THE FIRST BATTLE FRONT—recognizing the authority of God
49 Job
51 “The first humanist theory claimed that the minds of men held some mutually agreed-upon innate truths against which all other truths are judged. These ideas would be used to judge all truth claims, even though they rested upon no other final authority source than the minds of men. This was Rene Descartes’ rationalist approach. But the problem with this approach is that it’s difficult to find innate truths on which all people would agree. Then, some Christians would attempt to use these ‘innate ideas’ to confirm the truth of the word of God.” “The second humanist theory, described by John Locke, held that truth is established by empirical sensation. Again, some Christians would attempt to use this method to defend the truth of the Word of God.”
51-2ff Attacks on the Authority of God
53 The first wave in this formidable attack undermined the authority of the Word by using Descartes’ rationalism and Locke’s empiricism to develop a form of knowledge ‘built up on human reason.’”
57 “Postmodernists are spending their time denying the truth of any basic presupposition. They build a worldview of ‘fragmentation, indeterminacy, and intense distrust of all universal or ‘totalizing’ discourses.”
59 “Before we look to tradition, history, the opinions of men, or scientific studies concerning debt, we should look up the word in a Bible concordance.”

K—whatever the Bible says is so; it is the final authority for all matters of faith and practice.

Chapter 5 RENE DESCARTES (1596-1650)—start with self/doubt (forming the humanist philosopher)
64 In the 13th century, Thomas Aquinas proposed two distinct systems of knowledge: one which is revealed through sacred doctrine and one which is build up on human reason. Four centuries later, the philosopher René Descartes (1596–1650) accepted this proposition, dedicating his life to the search for the first principles that would form the building blocks for a humanist, man-centered worldview apart from the use of Scripture.
65 Descartes has been often dubbed the father of modern Western philosophy, the philosopher that with his skeptic approach has profoundly changed the course of Western philosophy and set the basis for my modernity… In shifting the debate from “what is true” to “of what can I do certain?,” Descartes shifted the authoritative guarantor of truth from God to Man.
66 We cannot begin to know anything with certainty without first assuming God’s existence and fearing him.

Chapter 6 John Locke (1632-1704)—start with blank human mind, then add experience (forming the humanist theologian)
72 But [Locke’s] attempt to separate faith and knowledge could never succeed since knowledge can be defined as a justified, true belief. And what is belief but the faith that something is true.
73 Historians Charles Taylor and Jerome Seigal have claimed that Locke's “Essay Concerning Human Understanding” marked “the beginning of the modern Western conception of the self.”
75 How can the autonomous human mind, apart from God and His revelation, derive any certain knowledge from mere experience?

Chapter 7 Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)—forming the humanist society
82 Rousseau is the pivotal philosopher who gave birth to the modern age, which historians generally agree began in 1820.
82 Rousseau was the first to [combine} the assertion of his right to reject existing order in its entirety...recognition of the huge part instinct, intuition, and impulse play in human conduct (Paul Johnson)
84 Rousseau was a wicked man
85 In the end, humanists miss the root of social problems, so their solutions remain unsatisfying. Because man is sinful, a change of social system will never be enough to make the world what it ought to be.
85 ...the state is supposed to protect everyone, while the individual is left to “obey himself alone,” which is the goal of humanism. Of course, this is not real freedom; this is sin. In fact, it was the original sin.
87 [Rousseau] had to reject family and church community as important elements of the human social system.
89 Rousseau goes on to describe education as “the most important business of the State.”

Chapter 8 Karl Marx (1818-1883)—paving the road to tyranny and mass murder
104 Kevin Swanson’s SOLUTION Man's fundamental problem is that he has sinned against God by transgressing God’s laws. Thus, the problem of lost liberty is solved only when we address the problem of sin, which can only be solved by the sacrificial, atoning work of Jesus Christ. Liberty – a release from slavery – comes mainly by discipling the nations through the teaching of the Bible and working it into the warp and woof of life.
105 For thousands of years, education was considered the responsibility of families, churches, and small communities and was carried out under their auspices.

Chapter 9 Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)—forming the humanist person
119 The Pew Forum Research Center estimates that a quarter of Americans believe in reincarnation and find spiritual energy in physical objects such as mountains, trees, or crystals.
120 “Trust your heart” and “follow your heart” is the creed of American popular culture and literature. In philosophical terms, this creed echoes romanticism, irrationalism, and relativism. In Emerson’s own words: “To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men—that is genius.”
121 “He who trusts in his own heart is a fool” (Pro. 28:26). Moreover, God does indeed make known his words of truth (Pro. 22:10-21).

Chapter 10 The Second Battle Front—the ultimacy of God in ethics
128 Humanism is nothing more or less than a proud declaration and defense of the natural autonomy of the sinful heart. ... [Humanism is] unstable because it has no basis in [time-tested] tradition or transcendent truth. It does not effectively provide for the integrity of the individual without in some way violating the rights of the many, or vice versa.
129 Twenty-first century culture holds the law of God revealed in the Ten Commandments in almost universal contempt...
129 Upending God? (couldn’t find)
130 Where are the churches that will exercise church discipline against those leaders who commit to evil agendas? … The church is simply unable to preach with a unified voice against evil promoted by the wider culture. It has no standard, no message, and therefore very little gospel to bring to the culture. In its ethical paralysis, the church slowly is morphing into the culture, conforming to its thought patterns and practices. As this happens, the church slowly dies, becoming largely irrelevant to the day-to-day life of individuals. Western Christianity has produced a weakened church because it has abandoned the centrality of God in ethics. An improper view of God’s law (the setting of law against grace) has resulted in a general failure to love the law on the part of evangelical Christians... While we are not justified by the works of the law, there are several good uses of the law... Without the law, Christians will cease to mortify their sinful flesh, forsake the world, and live a godly life... Christianity loses much strength and relevance to the world around it when it refuses to use God’s law as a rule of obedience to the believer’s sanctification. LAW 130, 143
130-1 See above
132 [Modern man] cannot imagine submitting to a law so objective that it will determine how he will discipline his children, how he will spend his time, how he will worship, how he will entertain himself, or how he will engage in his business and politics...
134 [Isa. 5:24-rottenness rejected the law of the LORD] is a prophetic word for this day of ethical ambiguity in the pulpits of church, school, and media. This is a day in which evil is made to look good, and the people wander around through a wasteland of ethical confusion. It’s evident in popular music, movies, novels, and documentaries. The murder of children is called “choice.” The murder of the elderly is “humane.” Sexual sin is described as “gay” and rejoicing…
134 Where the law of God has been abandoned, the consciences of people can no longer make fine distinctions between good and evil...
135 The men who built this country understood that governmental authority was limited by God, especially in its reach into the family, church, and private property. However, such belief is almost entirely foreign to the modern Christian…
136 This is a day in which social demands have squeezed out the authority and application of the laws of God (Mt. 15:8-draws nigh with mouth). There is far more interest in accommodating changing practices of society than in obeying the laws of God…
137 Autonomy, root problem “tricks” by which we substitute our will for God’s (justifying this evil calling it good); this is man’s original and continuing sin

September 4,18 2016 purpose: to better understand the great temptation
The root sin
“Ye Shall Be as Gods”
Genesis 3:1-24; Luke 16:15
Jdgs. 21:24; Pro. 6:16-18; 13:10

Tricks by which we justify (rationalize, spiritualize) substituting our will for God’s
This frees me to do my will over God’s (this is autonomy, humanism)
There is some truth to all of these!
The woman being deceived (I Tim. 2:14)—both were guilty
I am obeying in principle; it is an application thing (generational). Some truth to all of these!
I must go by my conscience (over authority)—“priesthood of the believer”!
I am loving versus being legalistic.
I must stay away from the edge (“flee youthful lusts”).
I don’t see what’s wrong with it, and good people are doing it.
I don’t see that in the Bible (you’re being legalistic to apply that to me).
I read in the Bible, “He has given us richly all things to enjoy” (I Tim. 6:17), “drink a little wine” (I Tim. 5:23). (Take the whole counsel of God as the context.)
I am not being understood (“I can’t get by on that little sleep”—II Ki 7:4-if we die we die).
I am trying to make my wife happy.
(added) I am contextualizing. You cannot be popular and happy.
I don’t see that culture is bad. It isn’t—the world is (“the bad part of culture”).
I am respecting the ancient landmarks.
I am not limiting how God might choose to work.

138 Standards (“minor issues” to create divisions and hate my brothers, would sacrifice unity for my opinion)
139 …it would be nothing short of arrogant for any Western Christian to think that he has been completely untouched by the shrapnel thrown off by the enemy’s attack. A careful look at our hermeneutics, our theology, our worldviews, and our lives would reveal great inroads of humanist autonomy into the Christian faith today.
142-3 (zeitgeists and the law)
Sounding the Cry for Reformation
Those still upholding the Christian worldview are faced with attacks on every side. The antithesis that marks this age includes such wayward ideologies [zeitgeists] as pluralism, ethical relativism, feminism, socialism, egalitarianism, scientism and evolution, nihilism, and materialism, to name a few. The Christian heart can no longer be separated from the Christian mind and the Christian life. God requires of us a renewing of the mind, and a refusal to conform to anti-Christian thought patterns and lifestyles (Romans 8:1-2; Romans 12:2). More than that, He requires us to cast down all imaginations that oppose the wisdom of Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5). Every human thought must be brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, whether they are thoughts about education, scientific study, marriage relationships, sexuality, economic theory, cultural life, or politics.

A Christian worldview without law simply cannot be considered a world and life view. Likewise, Christian teaching without law makes God’s grace of no account. Grace loses its relevance without a law standard and a Lawgiver. Of course, we can never be justified by the works of the law, but without the law, there is no standard to which man is held accountable. As the law defines sin, and the Spirit convicts us, we are driven to Christ for salvation from sin in faith and repentance. The preaching of the law is essential. Law without grace is troublesome, as is grace without law. The teaching of the law must rest on the mercy seat of Christ. The ministry of God’s law must be incorporated into our families and churches, but this cannot be done outside of the context of Christ’s atonement. Paul himself includes applications of the law only within perpetual reminders of God’s forgiveness and mercy in Christ.
143 The real need is a change of heart

Chapter 11 Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832)—forming the humanist ethic
147 [Both Jeremy Bentham and his better known disciple John Stuart Mill] rejected biblical law outright, instead advocating a new ethical theory based upon human reason. It was known as “utilitarian ethics.” They set the stage for the ethical and political liberalism that dominates 95% of civil governments in developed nations today.
149 [JSM] is generally considered the father of political liberalism.
150 Bertrand Russell, the secular godson of JSM, is probably the most famous atheist of all time…
152 …Bentham’s Principles of Morals and Legislation opens with this important radical statement: Nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters—pain and pleasure. It is for them alone to point out what we ought to do, as well as to determine what we shall do.
154 …utilitarianism recommends that action which will produce the most pleasure or happiness for the most people in the long run.

158 Homosexuality is wrong because God says it is wrong in His Word (Gen 19:1-11; Lev 18:22; 20:13; Jdgs. 19:16-24; Rom 1:18-32; I Cor 6:9-11; I Tim 1:8-10). There is no other basis by which to establish morality. …the separation of human reason from the authority of sacred doctrine created the realm of “natural law.” … the separation of human reason from the authority of sacred doctrine created the realm of “natural law.” However, if one uses only “natural law,” he may eventually use it to excuse all kinds of sin. What might have been considered “natural” in the year 1600 is quite different than what is considered “natural” in 2000.
159 Biblical law is careful to preserve the family as the foundation of human society in order to mitigate the sort of destruction we are experiencing now in the Western world. That is why there are laws against sexual sins (Dt 22:22-25, 28; Lev 18:6-17, 22; 20:10-12, 15).

Chapter 12 Charles Darwin (1809-1882)—forming the humanist scientist
164 The Oxford Latitudinarians of the 17th century gave birth to the Unitarians of the 18th century, who gave birth to the Agnostics and Atheists of the 19th century.
166 By his own admission, [Darwin] was a sadist and he took great delight from torturing and killing animals. He especially loved to kill birds by pounding on their heads with a hammer…
173 According to multiple recent polls, Charles Darwin is considered the most influential person in the world presently.
175 The road to [contemporary] atheism almost always began in a biology class or with some form of Darwinian thinking.
177 Of the thousands of museums and science centers in America, there are fewer than five which maintain a young earth, creationist perspective. … 200 years ago, about 95% of Christianity was confined to Europe and America. Today, professing Christians in the West comprise about 15% of the total number of Christians in the world (and these continents represent about 16% of the world population).

Chapter 13 Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)—forming the humanist psychology
187 …and his insanity would have tarnished [Nietzsche’s] image, except that his biographers and other academics have worked over time to prop up his reputation.
188 .. “self-realization” or self-actualization,” which was strongly influenced by Nietzsche’s notions of striving and self-creation… “humanist psychological movement”…
189 Enter Richard Wagner’s revolution in music. This was crucial to the massive cultural revolution of the 19th and 20th centuries that came of age in the 1960’s. Somebody had to incarnate Nietzsche’s idea of Dionysus into music, where the force of emotion would overpower the orderly organization of melody and content.
191, 193, 195 Kevin Swanson’s critique without proof texting every point (legitimate bias)
194 Nietzsche’s “will to power” is exactly opposite the Christian story of redemption.

Chapter 14 JOHN DEWEY (1859-1952)—preparing the way for American education
203 Nietzsche was the philosopher who prepared Germany for the modern age. John Stuart Mill introduced Great Britain to modernity, and John Dewey was America's philosopher.
207 Dewey: Education is all about training the individual to fit into the social entity of the state...
207-8 one and many
208 The humanist model sees no need for the fear of God or the honor of parents, and it displaces the covenant bodies of family and church with the all-consuming state. This is why modern teenagers are generally expected to rebel against their parents while conforming to the standards of popular culture and the uniform social systems incorporated by the socialist state. They are trained to break the fifth commandment, yet still maintain order in their social institutions.
209 A biblical worldview maintains the delicate balance between the individual and his society... 400 years ago, the church took about 10% of a family's income, the state took 5%, and the family retained about 85%. Today, the church gets 1 to 2%, the state takes 60-75%, and the family retains 30% [develops sphere sovereignty a little without calling it that].
209 John Dewey’s basic philosophical approach bridges the gap between modernist rationalism and postmodernist relativism, in which modern man crosses the epistemological divide between optimism and pessimism. Two centuries earlier, Descartes began with doubt, hoping to find certainty. Now John Dewey comes full circle, endorsing a philosophy of doubt in his book called The Quest for Certainty. He struggled valiantly to strike the happy medium between skepticism and dogmatism.
213 When humanist man arrives at full self-consistency, he loses any and all transcendent purpose for life... Certainly [humanists] had made impressive progress at this stage—perhaps the most progress in 2,000 years...

Chapter 15 Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980)—forming the humanist culture (existentialism, debauchery, terrorism)
222 The spirit of rebellion was strong in the early 1900's, not only in Jean-Paul Sartre, but also in Earnest Hemingway, whom we shall discuss later in the course. It was a cultural rebellion defended by G. Stanley Hall in his book Adolescence (1904). Later in the twentieth century, James Dean popularized teenage rebellion on the movie screen in Rebel without a Cause (1955), the sixties took it into mainstream culture. A century later, this teen rebellion is normative, and the institutions of media, culture, school, church life, and family life are all structured around the expectation of adolescent discontent. In the early years of the twentieth century, Jean-Paul Sartre served as the prototype of the man who cursed his father and did not bless his mother.
224 Descartes had his temporary fling with fornication, and Rousseau had a child out of wedlock, but Sartre's life was one continuous fifty-year legacy of debauchery.
227 There are two kinds of humanism. The first turns the individual into a god, and the second turns the social unit into a god. … To be free, for Sartre, is to be alone. It is to be constrained only by self and by no other necessity. Sartre summarizes his philosophy nicely in his play, No Exit, with the aphorism “Hell is other people.” Existentialism is the worship of self.
229-231 ...Sartre’s major contribution to our world was human alienation. … The famed writer-director Woody Allen captured existentialist attitudes and perspectives exceptionally well in his plays... Play It Again, Sam...
231 Cain became a vagabond on earth and built a city of anonymity where a man would be lonely in a crowd.

PART III WORLDVIEWS in LITERATURE
Introduction
243 From now on, true Christians [must] engage the battle of ideas in the academy.
243 Great literature shares more than propositions, but also attitudes and heart trajectories.
244 What makes our times different from other eras including that of the Greeks and Romans is that we are dealing with a culture that has strayed from faith, not one that never had it.
244 Ian Murray summarizes the work of the English literary giants of the 19th century in his book The Undercover Revolution. In case after case, Murray points out the movement of many writers to a secular worldview, and the tremendous influence these literary men had on the hearts and minds of millions in England.
245 R. L. Stevenson Raised in a faithful Christian home with the very best of nurture…
246 Before the humanist renaissance swept through Europe, the old Scottish church maintained strong generational continuity in the faith.
246 Trajectories
247 In 1952, Dr. Wilbur Smith from Westminster Chapel noted the strident apostasy among the literary giants...

Chapter 16 THE THIRD BATTLEFRONT—the ultimacy of God in reality
249 However, the purpose of this course is to analyze worldviews presented through philosophers, literature, and culture.
250 Control of reality is the business of an authority.
252-60 Sovereignty/free will

Chapter 17 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (1564-1616)—non-Christian assumptions of story more powerful than story
263 ...he is hugely influential in the decline of the Christian West.
267 The Puritans opposed the work of Globe Theater until it was demolished in 1644. … WS’s view of reality, God, the future state, sin, and atonement is hard to pin down...

269 We should be asking the heavy questions. What is the view of reality presented here? What is the ultimate cause of everything that happens?... reality

Chapter 18 NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE (1804-1864)—turning America from orthodox Christianity
373 NH (1804-1864) was a 19th century literary giant who perhaps did more to shift the American culture away from its national heritage than anybody else.
374 Without exaggeration, the Puritan faith amounted to one of the strongest expressions of Christian orthodoxy in the 17th century.
383-4 In chapter 3, the Reverend Wilson preaches a gospel of damnation and repentance, carefully avoiding any mention of things like faith, grace, and Christ. … ...where the Bible is described as the "Hebrew" scriptures. Imagine a Christian Bible without the NT! … There are two gospels presented by NH in the story, both counterfeits. On the one hand, the gospel of NH's pseudo-Puritans is law without grace, and repentance without faith in Jesus Christ. … Set against the pseudo-Puritan gospel is the gospel of Hester and Hawthorne, which should be familiar to most Americans. This gospel teaches Love without Law...
387 Either NH deliberately misrepresents the Christian gospel or he misunderstands it. … The Scarlet Letter is a no-holds-barred attack on the seventh commandment.
391 ...wedging their not unsubstantial persons, if occasion were, into the throng nearest to the scaffold at an execution.
416 The discipline of the family in those days was of a far more rigid kind than now. The frown, the harsh rebuke, the frequent application of the rod, enjoined by Scriptural authority...
417 [Hester saw the children] disporting themselves in such grim fashions as the Puritanic nurture would permit; playing at going to church, perchance, or at scourging Quakers; or taking scalps in a sham fight with the Indians...
461 It is remarkable that persons who speculate the most boldly often conform with the most perfect quietude to the external regulations of society.
482 "Heaven would show mercy," rejoined Hester, "hadst thou but the strength to take advantage of it."
483 "… Lost as my own soul is, I would still do what I may for other human souls! I dare not quit my post, though an unfaithful sentinel..."
485 But Hester Prynne, with a mind of native courage and activity, and for so long a period not merely estranged, but outlawed from society, had habituated herself to such latitude of speculation as was altogether foreign to the clergyman. … For years past she had looked from this estranged point of view at human institutions, and whatever priests or legislators had established; criticizing all with hardly more reverence than the Indian would feel for the clerical band, the judicial robe, the pillory, the gallows, the fireside, or the church. The tendency of her fate and fortunes had been to set her free. The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers—stern and wild ones—and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss.

The minister, on the other hand, had never gone through an experience calculated to lead him beyond the scope of generally accepted received laws; although, in a single instance, he had so fearfully transgressed one of the most sacred of them. But this had been a sin of passion, not of principle, nor even purpose...
487 Such was the sympathy of Nature—that wild, heathen Nature of the forest, never subjugated by human law, nor illumined by higher truth—with the bliss of these two spirits! Love, whether newly-born, or aroused from a death-like slumber, must always create a sunshine, filling the heart so full of radiance, that it overflows upon the outward world.
503 Into this festal season of the year—as it already was, and continued to be during the greater part of two centuries—the Puritans compressed whatever joy they deemed allowable to human infirmity; thereby so dispelling the customary cloud, that, for the space of a single holiday, they appeared scarcely more grave than most other communities at a period of general affliction.

But we perhaps exaggerate the gray or sable tinge, which undoubtedly characterized the mood and manners of the age...
(504) Their immediate posterity, the generation next to the early emigrants, wore the blackest shade of Puritanism, and so darkened the national visage with it, that all subsequent years have not sufficed to clear it up. We have yet to learn again the forgotten art of gaiety.
508 These primitive statesmen...seem to have been not often brilliant, but distinguished by ponderous sobriety, rather than activity of intellect. They had fortitude and self-reliance...were well represented in the square cast of countenance and large physical development of the new colonial magistrates.
521 Among many morals which press upon us from the poor minister's miserable experience, we put only this into a sentence: “Be true! Be true! Show freely to the world, if not your worst, yet some trait whereby the worst may be inferred!”
521 This unhappy man [Roger Chillingworth] had made the very principle of his life to consist in the pursuit and systematic exercise of revenge; and when, by its completest triumph consummation that evil principle was left with no more Devil’s work on earth for him to do, it only remained for the unhumanized mortal to betake himself whether his master would find him tasks enough, and pay him his wages duly. … It is a curious subject of observation and inquiry, whether hatred and love be no the same thing at bottom.
523 ...a new truth would be revealed, in order to establish the whole relation between man and woman on a surer ground of mutual happiness.
526-537 Consider the wonderful sermon by Cotton Mather (to contrast with N. Hawthorne).

Chapter 19 MARK TWAIN (1835-1910)—popularizer of the American independent (rebellious) spirit
539 For most of his life, Mark Twain cloaked his atheism in humor, doubtful language, and mockery at the more dysfunctional elements of 19th century Christianity.
539 In these letters from Satan to the archangels, Mark Twain held nothing back. Among other assorted blasphemies, he called the Bible a compendium of “blood-drenched history…and a wealth of obscenity; and upwards of a thousand lies.” … He exhorted women to “the high privilege of adultery.”
539 Without question, Twain was a powerful influencer and a pioneer for the anti-Christian, anti-morality, anti-family agenda that dominates our world today. … Twain may have “gently” mocked Christian traditions in Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, as some biographers put it. But Americans wouldn't be ready for Letters from the Earth until the nation had grown up on Huckleberry Finn.
542 Whereas Hawthorne mocked a certain form of Christianity, Mark Twain has little use for any of it. His protagonist sees no need to atone for his guilt, while Hawthorne's Dimmesdale and Hester Prynne made and attempt at self-atonement to no avail.
542 What Mark Twain fails to mention is that Southern slavery was born out of the English and Spanish Christian apostasies.
542-546 What the Bible says about slavery
547 To put this in historical perspective, neither Shakespeare or Hawthorne openly mocked the idea of God’s judgment... ...Huck is redeemed by ignoring his conscience (as well as Christian morals) altogether. Thus he is free to make up his morals as he goes along.

Chapter 20 ERNEST HEMINGWAY(1899-1961) and JOHN STEINBECK (1902-1968)—plunge into open Anti-Christianity
561 In this course, we are tracking the trajectory of an entire civilization.
562 [Hemingway's] maternal grandfather was a friend of D. L. Moody and a graduate of Wheaton College, the evangelical “mother ship” of a new breed of Christian colleges...
564 Breaking the fifth commandment is the heart and soul of the cultural and social revolution... It is the undoing of a civilization. …the “new adolescent” was created on October 12, 1943 when 30,000 frenzied girls swarmed into Times Square in New York to meet the pop idol, Frank Sinatra.
567 As with Nietzsche, [Hemingway] struggles to identify a fragment of a purpose in life.
570 Of Mice and Men may be the clearest and most consistent incarnation of the destructive ideas of the modern age.
571 I suppose the most shocking aspect of this book to the Christian mind is the unrelenting abuse of God’s name, which comes in almost every paragraph...

Chapter 21 PANDORA’S MACHINE—the popular culture (mass media) becomes purveyor of corruption to all within
580 The hard work of the humanist philosophers from previous centuries was effective in in turning the ship of our institutions and civilizations. … But how could a few philosophical highbrows pack such punch? … God uses powerful evil forces to accomplish His will in the destruction of large empires that exalt themselves in their pride.
581 Ideas work their way into the wider culture, as billions of people absorb these ideas by one means or another and then live out those ideas...
582 That is where cultural machines take over. Since 1900, unprecedented technological and sociological changes produced new mediums of communication. Powerful television and radio networks have enormous influence over the minds of the masses. We could think of this as the centralization of power when it comes to the communication of ideas…
582 ...the same movies, the same television programs, and the same worldview. Aiding this cultural machine were the large age-segregated public schools, teen culture, and a willing public. … Mass media replaced the church and the family as the major source of information transfer, worldview education and cultural formation... Somewhere in the last century, cultural leadership moved away from the family and church and into the hands of Nashville's music executives, from J. S. Bach to Eminem.
584 ...Katy Perry started out as the daughter of a Christian pastor in Santa Barbara, California. By her own admission, she grew tired of singing “Amazing Grace”… Miley Cyrus was raised in the SBC. She played the part of “Hannah Montana” in her early teens, winning the hearts of millions of little girls... ...become famous for her sexual perverseness...
586 Bob Dylan and Mick Jagger effectively captured Sartre’s alienation of man in two of the most enduring rock songs of all time (“Rolling Stone” and “Satisfaction”). The John Lennon-Paul McCartney song “A Day in the Life” is often recognized as “the greatest Beatles song” and perhaps “the greatest song ever written.” The composition introduced a mass audience to nihilism, at the same time celebrating the recreational use of drugs. Among the most popular songs of all time is Frank Sinatra's "My Way." Recorded in 1966, the song remained on the charts a whopping 75 weeks. This song is one of the clearest representations of Sartre's existentialism ever produced in mass culture. According to these lyrics,, man will define himself by his own choices, when he insists on doing it My Way." The song also reflects a virulent rejection of God's revelation, with these words, "to say the things he truly feels, and not the words of one who kneels." This is the raw humanism of John Dewey, who refused to bow before God in fear, humility, and reverence.

When Debby Boone sang, “It can’t be wrong when it feels so right” in the wildly popular song “You Light Up My Life,” she captured the hearts of millions. The hit became the most successful single of the 1970’s in the US, and set a record for most weeks at the top position of the pop charts.
588 The fourth most popular musician of all time (by sales)—after the Beatles, Elvis Presley, and Michael Jackson—is Madonna (nee Madonna Louise Ciccone). She was raised in a devout Catholic family... The fifth … Elton John. A professed homosexual...
591 And the most popular entertainment media is no longer music or movies—there were 270 million computer games sold in 2008. Teenagers are tempted to relate to others more by short, meaningless text messages than by phone or face to face.
591 Is the Church Accommodating the Apostasy? What has the church done to halt the recent cultural landslide? Generally, the Christian church has made many pitiful attempts to borrow the medium created by the mass culture to express the church's own message. This is often called “contextualization.” If the world offers a nihilistic [rejecting all religious and moral principles in the belief that life is meaningless] form of expression, the church frequently employs it. The world creates music forms that convey irreverence and destructive attitudes, and the Christian church is quick to borrow these forms. What they don’t realize is that these cultural forms are strong symbols, representing things that do not accommodate the message of the church. Generally the music created in the past fifty years openly rejected the fear of God and honor for parents. When these forms are taken into the church to accommodate songs about Jesus, they drag these associations with them. Is it any wonder hen the church is seeing higher and higher rates of youth abandoning the faith? As long as the church tries to contextualize with a culture that is fast moving towards self-destruction, it cannot very well save the culture.

If culture can be described as religion externalized, Christians should make it their priority to learn and live a biblical worldview. Then they will effectively communicate their worldview by way of culture—through music, movies, dress, language, etc. They must realize the points at which the Christian worldview opposes other worldviews. Then they must set a better trajectory incorporating those ideas into cultural expression.

As long as we are immersed in the cultural devices formed on the wrong worldviews, our thinking and living will never conform to the Word of God. Nor will we live in His power: Romans 12:1-2. … Pseudo-Christian music bands use obscene words, yet land positive reviews in Christian magazines for their “Christ-haunted lyrics.” …

Without a firm grasp of OT and NT law, Christians will slowly adopt the pagan ways of the culture around them, whether it be homosexuality, witchcraft, self-mutilation, or the hundreds of forms of idolatry found in society. … If there is to be faith and a civilization after the postmodern storm blows through, it will be found with those who have held with white knuckles to the hope of the resurrection of Christ and the ethics found in the Word of God.

OBJECTIONS 53, 72, 73, 138, 142
TYPOS 144, 521, 540, 581, 591
… (més)
 
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keithhamblen | Oct 17, 2016 |

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