The God of the West

The Pervasive Influence of Humanism

Society is shaped by humanist concepts such as existentialism, a philosophy which emphasises individual existence, freedom and choice.  It expresses the view that human beings live in an irrational universe, that life has no essential purpose and that we must make our own meaning by exercising personal freedom and choice.  People with this worldview believe that they are not answerable to anyone but themselves.

In such societies people pursue experiences, pleasure and instant gratification.  It is all about the here and now, and looking and feeling good. 

Other terms can also be used to describe aspects of a humanist society: narcissism (to love oneself above all else); hedonism (the pursuit of sensual pleasure and avoidance of any discomfort); relativism (having no absolute truth); and postmodernism (living according to what you feel is right for you).  In societies which are influenced by these ways of thinking, where right and wrong are considered merely relatives, some injustices and sins are ignored or overlooked and some are even celebrated. 

The Church has not been immune from this and there are elements within the Church that have been influenced by this prevailing humanist culture.

[Patrick Sookhdeo, The New Civic Religion: Humanism and the Future of Christianity (MacLean, Virginia: Isaac Publishing, 2016),  p.94.]

Repenting From Secular Capitalism

The Recovery of Christian Stewardship

The Christian Church in the West has in many ways lost its moorings.  It will not make progress again until it repents and returns to the fundamentals of faith.  Where can those fundamentals be found?  In Scripture, of course.  But there are also helpful doorways to Scripture available.  The most useful of these are the universal creeds (Apostles, Nicene, Athanasian).  

Many of the bulwarks of Western civilisation were built over time on these fundamentals of faith.  But the Unbelief of the West, commencing with the Enlightenment and eventually running at breakneck pace until our days, has effectively destroyed the foundations of Christian culture.  With the foundations gone, the superstructure cannot last.  If we are to avoid the inevitable calamity falling upon us--which is the judgement of God upon the apostate West--Christians and churches must return to our fundamentals--to the "once-for-all-delivered-to-the-saints faith [Jude 3].

We also need to discern what is happening in our generation and come to some understanding about what must needs be done.  It is well past the time when we could focus upon what "society" needs to do to reform and recapture the truths, conventions, and institutions of of Western Christendom which made the West so culturally potent.  Rather, we need to focus upon ourselves, our families, and our Christian communities.  We must also strive daily to conform our living (individual, familial, ecclesiastical, and communal) to the Scriptures and the fundamentals of faith revealed therein.

We Christians are now a remnant.