Those born within the past few decades may lately find themselves gazing across the current cultural wasteland wondering who took a wrecking-ball to the place. Where did all the nice neighbors go? And who set up the den of evil in the schoolyard? And why are we asking self-evident questions like “What is a woman?” Perhaps we recall the glory days of cheap real estate, steady jobs, and bright future prospects. The days when average Christians could expect to be carried to the skies on flowery beds of social conservatism.
In the words of the immortal poet — “Nobody told us there'd be days like these.” Except they did. We just didn't listen.
On the one hand nobody looks forward to the dusk of a prosperous age. On the other hand, the reason we’re in this mess to begin with is because the prosperity of mid-twentieth-century Christianity meant that no one had to think very deeply about anything. Concessions were made that should not have been. Lentil fields were surrendered that should have been died on. John Quincy Adams may once have said “I am a warrior, so that my son may be a merchant, so that his son may be a poet.” But the reality is that most merchant’s sons end up living in their parent’s basement.
Also, warriors tend to write the best poetry.
Tremors
As a result of the previous generation’s shallow biblicism, most Christians today lack a basic response to the godless undertow currently running underneath modern culture.
For some, the decline of religion in the West corresponded to the moments in which cultural Christianity seemed to have had its wings clipped. For example, when prayer was eliminated in the public square, when evolution began to be taught in schools, when Roe V. Wade was enshrined in law, when multiculturalism overwhelmed national identity, or when the wokism rose from its grave to feast on the living.
But while these moments weren’t insignificant — no one ignores the engine light when it's blinking — if we think that all we need to do to restore our nation is to recover those particular moments, we’re thinking deeply enough. Those moments were symptoms of an ancient cancer that continues into our own day. A cancer that Dr. Peter Jones (author of The God of Sex, and One or Two) describes as the merging of the material and transcendent. Jones’ argues that not only does religion NOT poison everything, it guards everything from the most fatal poison of all: pantheism.
For Jones, and for Scripture, the first step towards heaven or hell begins with a “Oneist” (pagan) or “Twoist” (theistic) view of the world. Is God part of everything around us? Or is he above and beyond us? Does he declare himself? Or can he be realized through various forms of spiritual attunement?
The reasons Jones’ thesis is so compelling isn’t just because he’s unusually perceptive, but because his structure is based on the biblical reality of Romans 1:18-32. This passage of Scripture, for those who aren’t familiar with it, is the single most cohesive explanation as to how a perverted view of reality (where there is no distinction between creature and Creator) inevitably leads to perverted human relationships.
Since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.
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Romans 1 chapter proves an existential bombshell on a number of levels.
First, we are presented with a true and compelling narrative by which to assess reality. There is one God who possesses both divine nature and eternal power. There is also the product of this one God — namely, his one creation, which bears witness to God’s divinity and power. So we have God and creation — related but distinct entities. God is no more essentially a part of his creation than a watchmaker is part of the second hand on his watch. He is intimately involved with it. His image is stamped all over it. But he is in no way dependant on it.
So far all of this might seem obvious. But remember, where we go from the intersection of “One” or “Two” is either a step towards the God who lifts shame (V.16) or to the lesser gods that give it (V.24).
Second, notice that Romans 1 doesn’t present itself as simply one possible narrative among many but as a definitive account of reality. Where is the root of all evil? It emerges in the moment where man exchanges the radiant glory of God with his own lesser light (vv. 22-23). Again, the first of a long line of perversions begins when worship is directed horizontally, to creation (we are all God), rather than vertically, to the Creator (there is one God).
This exchange sets off a chain reaction of idolatrous decisions, which results in ever-thicker blindness. This blindness isn’t due to ignorance, but from sustained and intentional suppression of what creation is trying to tell us about God. Notice, their thinking “became futile,” their foolish hearts “were darkened,” and they also “became fools.” The path of idolatry and shame isn’t a straight cliff-dive into chaos but a gradual slide downwards as more and more truth fades from view.
People often think that worldview is an optional feature, like a fitbit or a beach umbrella; it don’t mean anything and it doesn’t lead anywhere. But that’s not how Romans 1 presents things. Rather, it conveys that we are created as inherently worshiping beings — the question is whether we will worship according to a “Oneist” or “Twoist” scheme.
Third, Paganism is an either or package. If you want to get rid of transcendence, you must choose the degradation of imminence. Cliffs degrade under the long years of wind and wave. Metal degrades as rust eats away at it. And so our humanity — the dignity of a creature made to worship God — wears away as we suppress the knowledge of him and turn our worship towards created things.
If etiquette prevent us from worshiping stones like the old pagans, then we will worship like new pagans. We will worship our passions. We will offer up pornography, homosexuality, pedophilia, beastiality and whatever else our passions demand of us. We will offer our children, our education, our nation, our politics, and our religion.
Now stop and consider the consequences of this fealty to passion.
When God gives someone over to lust, that means there is no longer any regulating body. Total autonomy may not sound like a bad thing. But consider the parents who, as a consequence of their rebellion, give their children over to junk food. It is the last weapon against persistent disobedience, and also the most potent and fearful.
If you’re wondering why all-age drag shows have become popular, this is why. Sex is no longer confined to a domain but is in the process of extending to everything and everyone, no matter their age. Recall in Genesis 19 that, “All the men from every part of the city of Sodom—both YOUNG and old—surrounded the house. They called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them.” Sodom was identified as a city of degradation by the totalitarian rule of sex. There were no restraints. The tireless pursuit of their passions was the expression of their worship.
So we shouldn’t be surprised that the forces of wickedness are now flooding towards the point they have always attacked — antithesis. Good and evil, black and white, male and female, poor and rich, fat and thin, foolish and wise — the strategy is to convince themselves us that there is no difference. Difference suggests antithesis, and antithesis haunts our dreams. And so we must continue to suppress.
There seems to be an belief among progressives that they are still in control of their senses. But what they aren’t counting on is that part of God giving us over to a debased mind means withdrawing any further light that would prevent our descent. Apollo’s curse on Midas for shutting his ears to beauty was a pair of donkey’s ears. In similar fashion, God’s judgment agains persistent unbelief is to “give [us] over” to moral insanity.
If you don’t think we’re here, consider the existence of abortion (75,000 murdered children last year) and medically assisted suicide (10,000 murdered disabled, depressed, and forgotten people murdered last year) in Canada. And we actually have the audacity to celebrate these as steps of enlightenment and progress. That is blindness. And it is also God’s judgment.
The biggest lie going these days is that there will be no reckoning for our rejection of nature, truth, and beauty. But if we are supposed to remember Lot’s wife, than neither should we forget the fate of her hometown.
“Then the Lord rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah—from the Lord out of the heavens. Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, destroying all those living in the cities.”
The fate of Sodom and Gomorrow is instructive. There will someday be a reckoning. The water behind the dam will finally burst with God’s wrath against those who rejected him.
Until that day however, God’s offer of mercy and grace still stands. His Gospel — His Christ — is a banner of freedom and hope to all who will trust in him.