All human beings are religious by virtue of their being created in the image of God. This ineradicable religiousness, when animated by Unbelief, takes a wide variety of forms. In our culture, dominated by secularism, the form of religion most favoured by almost everyone who lives and breathes is an unholy reverence for the State or government. The attributes of deity are thus imputed to government. In reality there is no such thing as unbelief--just false belief.
Most of the attitudes and beliefs, hopes and desires, which rightly should be expressed towards our Creator, are transferred to the State. Our culture looks to the State as redeemer. Name any social problem: the immediate consensus is that the government is competent to deliver us from it. Our culture looks to the State as father and mother. Enunciate any lack or need and immediately, reflexively, without thinking folk cast their petitions up to our civic god to provide and care for us. Our culture looks to the State as uber-parent--the Parent of all parents. Do children need an education? Our government must provide it. Do our children need medical care? The government will deliver it. Are we becoming obese? Petitions for government to correct us and protect us from ourselves flood into Wellington.
It is this perverse idolatry of secularism which convinces Christians more than anything else that the outlook for our country is not good, unless as a people we repent and return to the Living God. Christians know that our Creator is a jealous God. He will not share His glory with another. The ordinary means of punishing a people for idolatry revealed in Scripture is that God smashes the false gods. Those who reverence false gods likewise perish. This would suggest in our case that our government will be collapsed before us and revealed to be an impotent false god.
We are very aware that secularist pagans, when they read such warnings, immediately resort to ridicule and mockery. Nothing has changed much down the ages. The idea is that because judgement does not fall tomorrow, it never will. (II Peter 3:3--7. Approximately 35 years passed from the Ascension of our Lord to the days of vengeance upon Jerusalem--that great and terrible day of the Lord. Our Lord and the prophets and apostles had warned repeatedly of what was to come. But since it did not come immediately most assumed it would never come. A very grave mistake. The same mistake is still being made today.)
God does not leave us without testimony and warning. One of the ways He warns us is to parade the impotence of our government before our eyes virtually every day.
To a people who look to the government as the educator of their children, our Lord shows us how incompetent and impotent the state schooling system is. One "graduate" in three leaves functionally illiterate. As uber-parent, the government established in 1870 that attendance at school would be compulsory. But on any given school day 10 percent of children are absent, most without adequate explanation. The response from our pagan secular culture: double down and demand more from the State. Petition our god and pray to it harder, longer and louder.
Incidentally this is the reason advocates of more circumspect and limited government so quickly arouse the ire of opponents. What the limited-government folk are advocating is tantamount to blasphemy; it strikes at the ground of hope in the culture; it treats the god with disrespect, if not contempt. The flecks of foam spray so readily because the fundamentalists amongst the "government is our god" majority see it as the ultimate insult to our everywhere-acknowledged-god; thus it represents a strike at the very fundament, not just of society, but of being itself.
The two most common works of salvation sought from our god-government are the promulgation of laws and regulations to force people to be righteous, holy, and good; and, to spend more money to pay them to be good. Often both are intertwined. Thus the liturgy of the secular government-as-god religion has been summarised aptly by Ronald Reagan: "if it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it."
Yet repeatedly God warns us and testifies to us, showing us how impotent, incompetent, and just what a false hope our god-government really is. These warnings are so common that our culture regards them as "normal". Here is just one prosaic example from yesterday. It has been determined that using cell-phones while driving leads to dangerous behaviour on the roads, even causing accidents and deaths. So, duly and right on time, the people bowed their knees and interceded with the government for help. The god of our secularist culture delivered. It promulgated a new law proscribing cell-phone use while driving. Paeans of praise were duly raised to the idol. Our god had once again heard the cries of the people and delivered us all. Meanwhile, the servants of our god began to work to put the law into effect.
The result one year on? No change. None. Next to nada. According to the NZ Herald:
Drivers are flouting the ban on hand-held cellphones - new figures show a phone-related car crash almost every two days, dozens of injuries and five deaths last year.
There were 182 crashes caused by motorists on phones between November 1, 2009 - when the use of hand-held phones in cars was outlawed - and December 8 last year. Five people died while 12 of the crashes caused serious injuries and 46 of the crashes caused minor injuries, according to the figures released by the Ministry of Transport to the Herald under the Official Information Act.
The figures are only a slight improvement on the previous year - before phones were banned - when there were 254 crashes, five of which were fatal.
Do we heed the warning from the Living God about the weakness and impotence of our god? No. As we have always done, we rapidly move to double down. We do this without even thinking. It is now reflexive, woven into the DNA of our secularist culture.
Transport Minister Steven Joyce said last night it was still early days for the ban and that legislation was never "an immediate silver bullet on the road".So true. So true. Tell us, Why can't our wonderful god change human behaviour? Surely it has enough money. Surely it can engage in some more educating, parenting, counselling, cajoling. Why can't you make us all righteous? Maybe you have become distracted? Maybe you have had to turn aside to relieve yourself?
"If that was the case, then once we passed a law, there would be no speeding and no drink driving. The reality is, all these initiatives involve law-making, enforcement and a behaviour change from drivers," Mr Joyce said.
We know that this sort of blasphemous sarcasm drives people nuts. "How dare you mock our god. How dare you imply that government is weak. Why, if it is, it is only because of the incompetence of the current high priest and his colleagues. We will toss them out if they persist in their weakness. We will vote someone in who truly respects and reverences our god."
As Christians we do not despise civil government. We see it as a holy institution, ordained by God Himself. But we insist that it stick to the work and duties God has ordained for it. But if long ago the people stopped fearing and honouring God, they will put a weight upon government and demand a glory from it that it cannot possibly bear. Our jealous God will then crush it and us under the weight of its own arrogance and pride. If we open our eyes, the warning signs are on every hand. The next hundred years will unfold the woeful tale.
No comments:
Post a Comment