By Jim Mettenbrink
In our task to restore the foundation of the nation that has been eroded we considered the causes of indoctrination of Secular Humanism (man is his own god – primarily via public education at all levels) increasingly for nearly a century, and more recently the influence of its child, Postmodernism (no absolute truth). Actually beginning in the Enlightenment (17th & 18th centuries) the discoveries revealed via science combined with the advance of the Industrial Age (machines – late 1700s), European man (eventually all of the west) became increasingly self-sufficient. G.J. Holyoake, who coined the term “secularism” (1851), stated that the doctrine of morality “should be based solely in regard to the well-being of mankind in the present life, to the exclusion of all considerations drawn from a belief in God or in future life” (1845). We do not need God – we do it ourselves!
Yet in his 1830 analysis (Democracy in America) of the USA, Tocqueville wrote, “America is still the place where the Christian religion has kept the greatest real power over mens souls….” By the 1930s, Humanism’s influence was infused into American culture. In 1978, Constitutional scholar, John Whitehead wrote, “Secular Humanism poses a serious constitutional quandary because its purpose is to eliminate traditional theism as a significant aspect of reality by forcing traditional theism from the arena of public discourse and American institutional life.” How did this happen in a nation that was founded with a deep reverence for God and the Bible?
God warned ancient Israel of forgetting Him, rejecting Him. Causes: (1) self reliance – “Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments, His judgments, and His statutes which I command you today, lest—when you have eaten and are full, and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them; and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold are multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied; when your heart is lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God….Then it shall be, if you by any means forget the Lord your God, and follow other gods, and serve them and worship them, I testify against you this day that you shall surely perish. (Deuteronomy 8:11-14, 19).
(2) Failed parenting – “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up…. (Deut 6:6-7; re:vv8-15).
How is it that 28% do not believe God exists and of those who do, 30% do not believe Jesus is deity? The short answer is we forgot God. The longer answer is we failed to teach our children. Woe to us if we do not repent – humbly turn back to God, submitting to His will as stated in the Bible.