Rise of Secularism and Christian Engagement

Psalm 2

The Voice Of Rebellion

1          Why do the nations rage, And the people plot a vain thing?

2          The kings of the earth set themselves, And the rulers take counsel together, Against the LORD and against His Anointed, saying,

3          "Let us break Their bonds in pieces And cast away Their cords from us."

 

^{Matt 22:15} Then the Pharisees went and plotted how to trap Him by what He said. ¹⁶ They sent their disciples to Him, with the Herodians. "Teacher," they said, "we know that You are truthful and teach truthfully the way of God.

You defer to no one, for You don't show partiality. ¹⁷ Tell us, therefore, what You think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?" ¹⁸ But perceiving their malice, Jesus said, "Why are you testing Me, hypocrites?

¹⁹ Show Me the coin used for the tax." So they brought Him a denarius. ²⁰ "Whose image and inscription is this?" He asked them. ²¹ "Caesar's," they said to Him. Then He said to them,

"Therefore, give back to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." ²² When they heard this, they were amazed. So they left Him and went away.
"Therefore, give back to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." ²² When they heard this, they were amazed. So they left Him and went away.

Christendom and the U.S.

1^st  Amendment History

The US Supreme Court since the mid 20^th century has interpreted the First Amendment as if it requires this "wall of separation" between church and state. Meaning, it not only prohibits the government from adopting a particular denomination or religion as official, but,  in violation of the free expression clause, has regularly ruled to limit religious expression in the public sphere from prayers to passive displays of the 10 commandments which had been allowed the first 150 plus years of the nation.

At the time of the adoption of the constitution and its amendments, the universal sentiment was that Christianity should be encouraged, but not any one sect.

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,"

messers. Nehemiah Dodge, Ephraim Robbins, and Stephen S. Nelson, a committee of the Danbury Baptist association in the state of Connecticut.
 Gentlemen
 The affectionate sentiments of esteem and approbation which you are so good as to express towards me, on behalf of the Danbury Baptist association, give me the highest satisfaction.

my duties dictate a faithful and zealous pursuit of the interests of my constituents, and in proportion as they are persuaded of my fidelity to those duties, the discharge of them becomes more and more pleasing.
Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship,

that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, i  contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a wall of separation between Church and State.

Adhering to this expression of the supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience, i shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore to man all his natural rights, convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties.

i reciprocate your kind prayers for the protection and blessing of the common father and creator of man, and tender you for yourselves and your religious association, assurances of my high respect and esteem.
 Th Jefferson Jan. 1. 1802.

 

When government reaches beyond its divine boundaries by promoting or restricting faith the spiritual vitality of the people suffers.

God did not sanction the government to be the guardian of the soul.

The Church has the divine assignment to be the presence and voice of God in society.

 

S.116 Australian Constitution
The Commonwealth shall not make any law for establishing any religion, or for imposing any religious observance, or for prohibiting the free exercise of any religion, and no religious test shall be required as a qualification for any office or public trust under the Commonwealth.

Similar phrasing to the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America.
The establishment clause is concerned with "the governing authority giving legal advantage to one religion over another, whether by financing it, coercively enforcing its belief and practice, or privileging its adherents in some way."

The English parish council system right up to the membership of the House of Lords, favours the established Church.  The House of Lords is drawn from the peerage and is made up of Lords Spiritual and Lords Temporal. The Lords Spiritual are 26 bishops in the Established Church of England.

The first clause does not say 'a religion' or 'any religion', just 'religion', so some perceive the founders and writers of the United States Constitution to have meant that there is to be a complete division, a wall of separation, between government and religion in every and any form.

The Australian experience of Church and State has allowed a tradition of the Government being able to extend some help impartially to all religions rather than having an extreme limitation of helping any religious person, religious viewpoint, or religious organisation at all.

Occasional media references to "the separation of Church and State" has led many to erroneously believe that this concept is enmeshed in the Australian Constitution.

But:
religious people vote
every person has a religious orientation
candidates for elections cannot be divorced from their own particular worldviews

 

Henry Parkes, who framed the Australian Constitution, defined secular education as neither without God nor without religion, but rather without denominational sectarianism. 

 

Give to God what is God's

Freedom of religion should not mean the same as freedom "from" religion.

God expects His people to be the light and the salt of the earth.

The Church gives God all He so rightfully deserves—their very lives.

 

Developing Split of Spiritual and Secular

Three forces developing from the Enlightenment period

Secular Humanistic Philosophy (Knowledge sector & Reason)

Evolutionary Theory and Materialism (Science & Reason)

Modernization (Wealth accumulation & Media)

Division of Sacred and Secular

Secularism – Max Weber perceived secularization occurring because of a consequence of modernity's rationalization because rationality no longer gave space to religion thus creating a "disenchantment of the World."

History of the rise of secularism

Renaissance (14^th and 15^th centuries)

Scientific Revolution (16^th and 17^th centuries)

Enlightenment period (18^th century)

Industrialization and Modern period (19^th and 20^th centuries)

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) – proclaimed God as dead indicating that enlightenment thinking had killed him in the sense Western culture had excluded him from public life.

 

Genesis in the Enlightenment

Age of Reason – Thomas Paine (1794)

Darwinism – Evolutionary Theory & Materialism

Before Darwin (1700's) there was an idea of the world moving from primitive to the more complex

Darwin (1809-1882) gave it a scientific setting

Origin of Species (1859)

There is a philosophical commitment to the idea of progress of humanity

 

Humanist Aldous Huxley (Ends and Means)  said he and his contemporaries did not want government or morality. So they chose evolution in order to shut the mouths of those who believe in special creation.
Swedish embryologist, Soren Lovtrup in Darwinism: The Refutation of a Myth,  suggests that he believes that some day Darwinism "will be ranked the greatest deceit in the history of science."

Secularizing factors in modernization

Science is objective

Science can give humanity a true understanding of the world

Reason can be the basis of morality and law

Universal truths can be discovered through reason only

Science , technology, and education can solve humanities problems

Views contrary to reason not respected or even tolerated

 

Three primary carriers of modernity  (Hunter, 1994)

The first is "industrial capitalism" with its "applied rationality" and "rational control."  (also communism, et. al)

The "modern state" as the primary purveyor of a "rationalistic or bureaucratic form of social organization" with its compartmentalization rather than the integration of knowledge. 

The third is the "knowledge sector" with its "institutions of culture formation and reality definition" …universities, the mass media, and the arts.

 

Influence of Modernism on Culture
Dependence on reason & science from a closed worldview

Wealth accumulation and self-sufficient perspective

Popular media and technological influences

Knowledge sector's pursuit of truth from a closed worldview perspective

 

 

 

 

Modernisms Influence on Christianity
Emphasis on self as the center of human life

Knowledge and education through science and reason is enough for ethical and moral decisions

Material well-being given priority

Religion relegated to sub-conscious experiences, needs, desires and feeling.

 

Where churches lost it.

Biblical Criticism

Liberal scholarship denies inspiration

Modernization & belief in "science" as answer

Religion redefined (see section on religion)

Subjective or psychological

Evolutionary

Secularism

Religion seen as a personal matter

Religion pushed to the fringe of academic pursuit

Religion seen as not important

Spiritual aspects of humanity down-played or ignored

 

 

Division of Sacred and Secular

Two-tiered division
Result: This has given rise to secularization of science and the mystification of religion.

Science – deals with the empirical world using mechanistic  processes based on  the certitudes of sense experience, experimentation and proof from observation of natural law.

Religion – religion was relegated to faith in dreams, visions, inner feelings, subjective thinking, and exceptions to natural law, e.g. miracles and spiritual realm.

 

Christian worldview should dissolve the excluded middle by:

Not confining God to the supernatural realm only or removing the spiritual dimension of our world completely from our understanding

Not viewing the world as simply a system of autonomous scientific laws

Recognizing both the spiritual and physical nature of our world and of people

Recognizing God is involved in human history, affairs of nations, peoples, and individuals.

 

Christian Perspective

Humanity is both Spiritual and Physical

(Body, Soul, Spirit)

 

 

Secularism – "the process by which sectors of society and culture are removed from the domination of religious institutions and symbols."

Religious institutions have less influence in society

Religious symbols have less meaning in society

"As there is a secularization of society and culture, so is there a secularization of consciousness." (Peter Berger, The Sacred Canopy)

Secularism – Religion for the first time in history has lost its validity for the individuals in the society. (Peter Berger, The Sacred Canopy, 124)

An increasing number of individuals have a philosophy and worldview that does not involve a religious dimension.       Or so it is claimed. (Romans 1:18-3:20)

Secularization Beyond 2000

Social scientist is the 1960s and 70s were predicting the demise of religion in the Western world because of the growth of secularism. (Berger)

Although secularism is still growing and having an impact in the West, the U.S. has particularly not followed the trend at the pace most thought would happen.

It is argued by some that as secularism progresses, people  become disenchanted with disenchantment (Berger).

It is recognised that world-wide, people are more religious than 30 years ago.

Ramifications of Secularism

With evolutionary theory it provided grounds for an epistemological shift from creator/creation, design and purpose to understanding the universe as a product of chance and random relations that trigger chains of cause and effects.

Gave rise to the denial of moral absolutes.

God became remote as in Deism

God's existence denied as in Atheism

Science becomes the authority

Secularist worldview became a rival to a religious worldview which became marginalized as a product of particular historical cultural and socio-economic contexts.

Reduce the influence of religion in society

Rely on reason and science

Religion is marginalized as a way to answer ultimate questions and provide ethical and moral norms or sanctions relative to a culture.

Secularism works against Christian principles by putting self and reason above revelation and belief

Secularism's increases the marginalization of Christianity to be simply a self-help crutch for the weak minded

Public morals become increasingly personalized and privatized

Morals become relative

Reliance on instrumental reason to find "truth"

Scientific method to find "truth"

 

Secular          Spiritual  Division

Psalm 2

The Voice Of Rebellion

¹               Why do the nations rage, And the people plot a vain thing?

²               The kings of the earth set themselves, And the rulers take counsel together, Against the LORD and against His Anointed, saying,

³               "Let us break Their bonds in pieces And cast away Their cords from us."

 

Psalm 2

The Voice Of Rebuke

⁴               He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; The Lord shall hold them in derision.

⁵               Then He shall speak to them in His wrath, And distress them in His deep displeasure:

⁶               "Yet I have set My King On My holy hill of Zion."

 

Antony Flew Surprised by the realisation that "There is A God."

There were two factors in particular that were decisive. One was my growing empathy with the insight of Einstein and other noted scientists that there had to be an Intelligence behind the integrated complexity of the physical Universe. The second was my own insight that the integrated complexity of life itself—which is far more complex than the physical Universe—can only be explained in terms of an Intelligent Source.

 

Flew said,  "With every passing year, the more that was discovered about the richness and inherent intelligence of life, the less it seemed likely that a chemical soup could magically generate the genetic code." "Two noted philosophers, one an agnostic (Anthony Kenny) and the other an atheist (Thomas Nagel), recently pointed out that Dawkins has failed to address three major issues that ground the rational case for God. As it happens, these are the very same issues that had driven me to accept the existence of a God: the laws of nature, life with its teleological organization, and the existence of the Universe."

 

Psalm 2 The Voice Of Rebellion         The Voice Of Rebuke

The Voice Of Redemption

⁷ "I will declare the decree: The LORD has said to Me, ' You are My Son, Today I have begotten You.

⁸ Ask of Me, and I will give You The nations for Your inheritance, And the ends of the earth for Your possession.

⁹ You shall break them with a rod of iron; You shall dash them to pieces like a potter's vessel.' "

 

The Redemption in Jesus

⁷ "I will declare the decree: The LORD has said to Me, ' You are My Son, Today I have begotten You.

 

The Resurrection of Jesus

⁷ "I will declare the decree: The LORD has said to Me, ' You are My Son, Today I have begotten You.

 

The Reign of Jesus

⁸ Ask of Me, and I will give You The nations for Your inheritance, And the ends of the earth for Your possession.

 

The Return of Jesus

⁹ You shall break them with a rod of iron; You shall dash them to pieces like a potter's vessel.' "

 

 

 

 

The Voice Of Reasoning

¹⁰             Now therefore, be wise, O kings; Be instructed, you judges of the earth.

¹¹             Serve the LORD with fear, And rejoice with trembling.

¹²             Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, And you perish in the way, When His wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him.

 

 

The context of the early Christians

The Roman Empire was very diverse ethnically and religiously

Christianity came into a world where moral standards were very low and relative

Christianity showed its value in the midst of diversity, moral, ethical, economic, and political challenges

Christianity started in A.D. 30 at Jesus death and by A.D. 350 it is estimated that approximately 60% of the Empire were Christians

 

Early Christians examples to the world

Centered on Christ – how much he valued humanity

Lived its beliefs

Recognized Christ's attitudes and emulate them

Shared its beliefs

Adhered to living in peace even at their own expense

Engaged in overcoming infanticide

Held to a higher standard of morals

Served the sick in times of plagues

Offered a belief system of love and hope

Started schools for common people

 

The second century Epistle to Diognetus asks, "Do you not see Christians flung to the wild beasts, to make them deny their Lord, and yet unconquered? Do you not see that the more of them are punished the more their numbers increase?"

 

Psalm 1  Blessedness Bookends in Psalms 1 and 2

1.     Blessed is the man Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, Nor stands in the path of sinners, Nor sits in the seat of the scornful;

² But his delight is in the law of the LORD, And in His law he meditates day and night.

³ He shall be like a tree Planted by the rivers of water, That brings forth its fruit in its season, Whose leaf also shall not wither; And whatever he does shall prosper.

⁴ The ungodly are not so, But are like the chaff which the wind drives away.

⁵ Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.

⁶ For the LORD knows the way of the righteous, But the way of the ungodly shall perish.

It takes Sense

It takes Separation

It takes Saturation

Engaging in a Secular World

Four keys to engaging a secular world

Live for Christ – represent Christ's attitude

Love for people – practice sacrificial love

Serve people – treat them as people created in God's image

Share Christ – through spiritual and physical service

Justin wrote, "Though we are beheaded, and crucified, and exposed to beasts and chains and fire and all other forms of torture, it is plain that we do not forsake the confession of our faith, but the more things of this kind happen to us so much the more are there many others who become believers and truly religious through the name of Jesus."

 

Christian keys to engaging a secular world

Live for Christ – represent Christ's attitude

Mt. 7 – Lives build on Christ, the rock

Rom. 12:18 – Live in peace with all people

2 Cor. 5:15 - He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.

Gal. 2:20 - I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.

Gal. 5:25 – live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.

1 Pet. 2:24 - He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.

 

Christian keys to engaging a secular world

Love for people – practice sacrificial love

Jn. 3:16-17 – Same love Jesus had for people

Mt. 5:43-44 – love your enemy

Jn. 13:35 – they will know you are my disciples by your love for each other

Jn. 14:15, 21 – if you love you keep commandments

Jn. 15:13 – greater love has no man than this than to lay down his life for another

Jn. 15:17 – commanded to love one another

1 Thess. 3:12 – abound in love for all people

1 Cor. 13 – Love in practice

1 Cor. 16:14 – Let all you do be done in love

Eph. 4:2, 15 – love with humility and speak truth in love

Serve people – treat them as people created in God's image

Mt. 20:28 - just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many."

Jn. 13 – Jesus' example of service

Mk. 10:44 – a slave to all

Gal. 5:13 – serve one another

Gal. 6:10 – do good to all people

Phil. 2:17 – poured out as a drink offering in service

1 Pet. 2:16-17 – use freedom to honor all people

1 Pet. 4:10-11- serving to glorify God