Christian Philosophy 

The Conflict of the Ages [i]

 

 

by Howard Carter

 

 

 

And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever (Dan. 2:44).

 

Jesus is in absolute control of filling the universe with His glory, says Paul in the book of Ephesians.

Ø      It might seem hard to believe sometimes when you look out at what is happening in the world and when you read a newspaper, but Jesus Christ is in control.

Ø      Though the economy is failing, nations are at war with one another, all sorts of things are happening, and it seems God has gone on holiday, Jesus Christ is still Lord. He is in control and is filling the universe with His glory.

Against the Kingdom of God we see all sorts of forces functioning. Mighty forces are at work today. I don't want to get theological. I just want to point out some of what is happening around us in the world today.

                                 

CONDITION OF SLEEP

“It was while the leaders slept that the enemy came in and sowed the tares”(Mt. 13:25).

 

And there is a condition of sleep in the Church today. The attitude is, "Everything will be okay. The sun will rise tomorrow like it did today. One day Jesus will come and usher in a wonderful new age. We'll just sit quietly and patiently until Jesus comes."

Ø      That kind of premillennial dispensational teaching has lulled the Church into a false sense of security and into a false understanding of the end times.

Ø      With God's help in these days by His Spirit, we are going to see that broken.

 

God wants us to understand that we need to awaken out of sleep, to be alert to what He is doing.

Ø      We need to understand what is happening in our schools. We need to understand what is happening in our government.

Ø      We need to understand the nature of the forces against us, even in Christendom.

 

Back to the early Church - We need to understand that if we are returning to the character and type of the early Church, then the conditions that prevailed at that particular time are the very conditions that will prevail at this time and make the Church what it was then, and more.

Ø      The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church, and the conflict of the ages is upon us right now. And the Church is asleep!

 

POST-CHRISTIAN ERA

 

We are living in a post-Christian era; the age of technology has come upon us. Tech­nologists say that we do not need any light from outside: we make our own light. If there is a problem, we find the solution.

Ø      Man is capable of remaking his world. For any disaster, science and technology can find the solution. And the place for God has gone!

 

If we were to go into some areas and quote God, it would sound like pornography to them.

Ø      Yet we as Christians think our government is pro-Christian; we think our society is influenced by Christian principles.

Ø      I want to remind you that we are living in a POST-CHRISTIAN ERA. The government, the society, the world are basically humanistic.

Ø      Two-thirds of the world is controlled by communism, one-third seriously influenced by it.

Ø      Meanwhile, Christians think next year will be like last year, except that we will be bigger. They build bigger churches. They make it possible for larger crowds to gather together, and God is trying to say,

"That is not where it's at. The day of the Lord will catch you like a thief in the night."

 

We need discernment - It is only as we, by the Spirit of the Lord, have some understanding of the nature of the conflict, and the forces currently ar­rayed against Jesus in His Body, shall something stir within us to bring the needed changes.

Ø      If Jesus' first coming was marked by an onslaught of demonic power, by the might of the Roman army against Him, and by the religious systems rising up to destroy Him,

Ø      how much more shall those same forces be multiplied against the revelation of God's corporate Man - against the revelation of the Word become flesh - in this day.

We need to understand what these forces are. Is it possible to frighten God's people? Then, God helping us, we will do it. For a holy fear is a good thing.

Ø      Something must be given us by the Spirit of God to stir us out of our lethargy. We put up with our little disagreements, fuss about "this" and get hurt over "that." We are easily upset, and all the time God is seeking to use every circumstance to prepare us.

"And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed."

 

Where is the Kingdom coming from? It is coming out of people, the good seed of the children of the Kingdom.

è The Christian's statement is simply, “Jesus Christ is the Lord, and beside Him there is none other."

è Jesus Christ is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.    

There is nothing higher than the throne of God. Yet the forces opposing Him find their expression in Genesis chapter 3, when the serpent says in verse 4,

"Ye shall not surely die, for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, know­ing good and evil."

The fall of man at that particular time introduced into this planet the conflict of the ages, and I want to say to you that it is a war to the death!

 

THE CONFLICT OF THE AGES

 

Rousas J. Rushdoony, a prominent theologian, shared the following quote in one of his messages:

“Some years ago, a very prominent attorney said,

‘The major political confrontation in the 1980's will not be between liberals and conservatives, socialists and antisocialists,

but between Christianity and humanism.

It will be war to the death, and everything will be done to disguise from Christians the reality of that battle so that at the time when it really matters, they will halt between two opinions."

 

Do you imagine that in the 1980's, at the critical time when the battle counts, the lines are going to be so clearly drawn that all the Christians will be on one side and all the humanists on the other?

Ø      Let's not be that foolish or naive. The situation shall be so blurred in that day that many who are not informed and do not understand will not be able to distinguish between light and darkness, day and night, right and wrong.

Ø      In fact, if you look at Genesis 3:5 "Ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil ", the word "knowing" there is very simple - "

è determining for yourself" what is right and wrong.

 

Isn't that what has happened in the world today?

Ø      Men have rejected the law of God and the ultimacy of the throne of God. By taking from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, man has become his own god so that he determines right and wrong, good and evil for himself.

We in Australia are facing the pressures of humanism as at no other time in our history.

Ø      Prior to the election that followed the Labour government's dismissal from office, I wrote an article in which I men­tioned a number of bills that were already approved by the House of Representatives but had not passed the Upper House in which basic freedoms had already been removed, but nobody had seen them or said anything.

In those bills, basic Christian principles were rejected and Christian philosophy repudiated. In that parliament, in a Labour cabinet of some twenty-seven, there were over twenty who were recognized and practicing humanists. Yet many say, "Well, what does that mean?"

 

WHAT IS HUMANISM?

 

Jesus Christ is Lord. Anything less than that, any rejection of that, finds its stimulus in a humanistic philosophy that says, "There is no Lord"; "There is no God"; "Man is his own god."

Ø      Man chooses his own standards, his own way, and rejects all influence that comes from the philosophy of Christian religion.

Ø      Humanists are not just pushing a barrow of their own philosophy;

Ø      they are committed to the overthrow of the philosophy that says, "There is an ultimate; there is an absolute; there is a Kingdom and God is the King!" When we boil this down,

what does "humanism" really mean?

Ø      Basically, humanism is a rejection of the ultimacy of God's throne and its replacement by the thrones of men.

 

Genesis 3:5 says,

"For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened and ye shall be as gods."

That is,

Ø      God will be like you, and you will be like God. You will be as high as God. You will be as great as God. You will be equal with God. Everybody else will be equal with you, and you will have the right to determine for yourself what is good and evil.”

I want to list five clear-cut statements of the differences between Christianity and humanism.

 

THE THRONE OF GOD

 

1.    Christianity says that the throne of God is the starting point.

-        "Beside Me," said the Lord, "there is none other."

-        Human­ism says, "Man is god."

-        Jesus said, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God."

 

That means He is Lord of all. There is a word for every situation. That word comes from God, not from man.

Ø      His Kingdom is absolute, and the Christian believes it is incumbent upon him in every situation to submit to the throne, not to his own will and his own way.

 

The Roman Advent - Let me put it another way. Once a year in the Roman empire they would have a celebration called Advent.

Ø      The object was to recognize the coming to power of the emperor, and in every part of the empire they did so with this proclamation:

"There is none other name under heaven by which man may be saved, but Caesar."

That was the proclamation at Advent.

 

So when Peter said,

"There is none other name given under heaven among men whereby a man must be saved, but Jesus" (Acts 4:12),

that was a declaration of war!

Ø      Either Jesus is Lord, or Caesar is Lord.

 

It's not a title that is at stake. The issue is real.

è Who is Lord? who is King? Who exercises power?

è Jesus is totally God. Jesus is totally Lord.

 

The subtlety of the Roman approach was that they tried to disguise the issue from the Christians. They said,

Ø      "Cooperate with Caesar and everything will be fine. No problem with you calling Jesus, 'Saviour.' We need a saviour." In fact, one of the emperors made it very well known that he prayed to Jesus.

 

Paul wrote and said that God had made this same Jesus both Lord and Christ. Philippians 2:10, the statement of the Church, was that a time would come when every knee would bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. At his baptism, a convert was required to confess the lordship of Jesus Christ.

Ø      It was a declaration of war because for Caesar to be lord meant that the state had authority over Christianity.

 

It may be a little premature, but if you have ears to hear, you will know that the comfortable ride of Christendom under state patronage will not last indefinitely.

è You and I have to make up our minds in this day who is Lord.

Ø      For Caesar to be lord, the state exercises authority over the Kingdom of God, which may sound all very well,

Ø      "We get recognition and we get protection." And yet, it is like the limerick:

There was a young lady of Niger,

who smiled as she rode on a tiger,

They returned from the ride

With the lady inside

And the smile on the face of the tiger.

 

The ride might be adventuresome, but the Kingdom of God has cooperated with the kingdom of Caesar in days gone by with disastrous results. If this is a declaration of war, so let it be!

Ø      I am not aware of a time when the Kingdom of God has not been at war. Polycarp was eighty-five when he was arrested and taken before a Roman tribunal. They said to him, before they took him into the arena to die, "Come on, Polycarp, deny the Lord Jesus Christ. Say 'Caesar is lord,' and we'll let you go free. Just say, 'Caesar is lord. "

Ø      He looked at them and said, "Eighty and five years have I served the Lord, and He has not denied me. Why should I deny Him?" And he died.

The issue is the lordship of Jesus Christ.

 

TRUTH IS ABSOLUTE

 

2.     Christianity says that God's word and His person comprise the truth. Where is the truth to be found? Where is the absolute to be found? Where does the standard begin? What's the measuring rod?

Ø      The measuring rod is the word of God and the person of Jesus Christ. I want to say it that way because in Jesus you find the word become flesh. And you become aware that the word is living.

 

In Hebrews 4:12 it says that the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword.

Ø      The very context there indicates that the word is more than the Bible. There is truth personified in a person. And

Ø      the dynamic of the Kingdom of God is found in Jesus. He is the limit of it; He is the breadth of it. When you want to understand what the Kingdom of God is like, there He is, become flesh for all to see.

 

Christianity says

Ø      God's word and His person comprise the truth, and that is where it begins.

 

Humanism, on the other hand, says,

Ø      "'Truth' is what works and is useful to me." In other words, "I determine what is truth."

Nietzsche said, "A lie is often more useful than the truth. Therefore, to me, it is more truthful than the truth."

Ø      So the humanist says that truth is both pragmatic and existential - pragmatic in the sense that its only value is in its practical applications. Consequently, the humanists determine whether an idea is valid by whether it is practical. Do you know what that is?

Ø      Situation ethics! Situation ethics says that something is right in one situation but wrong in another.

 

Truth is absolute. Truth is truth.

Ø      But to the humanist, truth must be not only pragmatic but existential.

It comes out of man's own experience, not from above, not from a higher source, not from an ultimacy, but from a relevancy, as it suits him.

 

EDUCATION IS OBJECTIVE

 

3.     Christianity sees education as a discipline under a body of truth. - When I talk about "education," I don't simply mean in the school, but also in the home and in society. In the community of God's people there is a need for education.

Ø      Education for the Christian lies in whatever framework and place that it is found, under a body of truth.

Ø      It is objective, it is God-given, it is not man-made or man­originated.

 

Humanism, by contrast, sees education as a freedom from restraint, a freedom from any absolutes, a freedom from any body external to himself.

Ø      Great inroads have already been made by humanism. Let me illustrate it this way.

-        In the United States, the men who established state control of education were Unitarians.

-        The first thing that marked these men was a hatred of Jesus Christ and a rejection of every influence Christianity had on children. Charles Sumner, the abolitionist Senator from Massachusetts, said to Horace Mann, "We must remove the serpent's coil from around our children."

 

By "the serpent's coil," he meant biblical faith.

Ø      Right through educational philosophy, the seeds that were planted then are still around today.

Ø      That is, the ultimate goal is the removal of biblical faith as the center of our philosophy and educational system and the resultant embracing of humanism.

Recently, there was a court case in Ohio concerning the right of Christian schools to exist. There is a concerted attack today against all Christian schools.

 

We are in the midst of the conflict of the ages that began in the Garden of Eden and will conclude with the fulfillment of Daniel 2:44. We need to understand the issues.

Ø      If we do not understand what is happening in the world today and appreciate the forces that are arrayed against the Church, then a condition of sleep will continue in the Church so that when the great conflict comes, we will not really under­stand the issues and we will halt between two opinions.

Ø      Instead of walking in the light, we will walk the route of expediency and take the easy way out.

Ø      If God's word and His person are truth, then every realm comes under His authority.

 

But humanism says that education is for self-realization. It allows the child to express himself because innately in every child there is "truth."

Ø      Because truth is existential, it is found in each individual. Every man determines the truth for himself.

Ø      Simply put, the philosophy of existentialism is "Do your own thing!"

 

Submission to that philosophy means allowing the child to "express himself." I am appalled when in Christian circles I see little children of two, three and four exercising their independence and parents allowing them to do it.

Ø      By expressing themselves in that way, they are expressing original sin; they are expressing their fallen nature.

As far as I am concerned, from the earliest age possible it is required of Christian parents that they provide the framework of truth for their children. After a time of understanding, truth will have been formed in their lives and become flesh to them.

Ø      We say, "When they get older, they'll be disciplined," but by a failure to form that life at an early age, we produce a tension of two big forces that will face the child in later days.

 

DIVINE STANDARDS

 

4.     Christianity says that godly standards are to be attained. - There is a standard that is higher than us all. There is a mark to which we are to climb, a goal that we are to attain - and we are measured by that standard.

Humanism says, "The school, the world and society are to measure up to the children's needs." And so the pupil grades the teacher!

Ø      In the United States, in many of the universities and colleges, they have a system in which as the teacher, lecturer or professor goes from college to col­lege to lecture, the students mark him. That is, they give him grades on his teaching ability and on how he comes across.

Ø      Consequently, a register is kept of the teachers who get top grades by the pupils and those who get poor grades.

Obviously, the top-grade teachers are the ones in demand. So what are we doing? Simply developing a system in which the pupil grades the teacher.

 

That is the society in which we are living today.

Ø      Christianity says that God's standards are to be attained

Ø      but in humanism those who should be under authority judge the parents, the teachers and the world.

If the system doesn't measure up to their humanistic requirements they burn it down.

 

GOD'S WILL VS. MAN'S WILL

 

5.  Christianity says that man's will must be broken to God's purpose. That is, we bend to God.

Ø   It is interesting that, at the very time when Satan thought he had Jesus bowing to his will, Scripture says, "that it might be fulfilled." Even when Satan thought he had finally made it, God's will was still being done.

Ø   It is brought out in Paul's writing and in Peter's sermon. Peter says, "It was according to the determinate council of God that Jesus was cru­cified."

Satan said, "I thought I had done it," but God did it. God allowed it that the Scriptures might be fulfilled.

 

Humanism says the world must be broken to man's will, and the child's will is paramount! Don't cross your children; their will is paramount!

Ø      Everything must be broken and remade to suit man's will so that he can be uninhibited and unrestrained.

 

In the 1960's there was a march on Washington by a group of highly educated young radicals. Their rationale was simply this: "The world has imposed standards upon us so that our true self is lost."

Ø      The motto in those days was "Find yourself," and there was a lot of teaching about the alienation of youth.

Ø      The argument was that only when you throw off all the re­straints can you really find your true self.

They had a philosophy that all the world's teaching and all its standards were really false, because they were imposed upon man - even things like toilet training!

Ø      So on this march to Washington, these crowds of young people fouled the streets to demonstrate that they had found themselves!

 

FALLING INTO THE ABYSS?

 

Darkness gets darker and the extreme of man's fall and the fallacy of his philosophy increases day by day.

Ø      Meanwhile, the Church pulls the cover over its head, buttons up its vest against the tempest and gets into a little huddle to protect itself from the environment, somehow believing it can escape.

Ø      The conflict of the ages is upon us! The future will bring a direct confrontation - not between socialism and anti­socialism; not between liberalism and conservatism - but between Christianity and humanism.

 

What will happen to the Universites - Rev. Rushdoony reports that the president of Berkeley University decided it would no longer be called a university, because "university" means "one law."

Ø      It would now be called a "multi-versity" because there are many laws.

Ø      One of the first things they did was to offer a course in magic, and they now have a masters degree in magic.

Ø      Anything goes, and the net result is a breakdown of all the vital educational studies.

Just take science, for example. The philosophy of causality in science - that is, that everything has a cause - has now given way to the "science of probability," and even that today is broken down.

Ø      Now the science of probability, if that is the correct way to express it, is giving way to other, even more nebulous and insecure philosophies.

A number of the scientists of today believe that science is breaking down.

 

Reject the throne of God and you reject the universe. Reject the universe and you reject the ultimacy of the purposes of God.

Ø      We can look out upon a Christian world that with gluttony is feeding upon the grace of God, enjoying what God has done for them,

-        with little or no understanding of what Peter meant when he said,

-        "Save yourselves from this untoward genera­tion."

The fact of the matter is that God, in these days and these hours that remain,

è wants to lift the blinders from our eyes and put some moral fiber in our backbone.

è He wants us to realize who we are and what we are.

And in spite of all that is developing there is victory for the Church.

 

SIX POSITIVE STEPS

 

Basically, the central issue is

Ø     the throne of God versus every man being his own god.

è     Now you can say, 'Jesus is Saviour,"

è     but the right confession is, 'Jesus is Lord."

If He is not lord of all, He is not Lord at all.

 

On that basis, then, we offer six affirmations:

 

1.     As Christians we affirm the ultimacy of the throne of God.

-        There is no way whatever that man's declaration that "Caesar is lord" will rock the throne.

-        That throne is unshakable, immovable. That throne is absolute and ultimate. Man can say what he likes. "He who sits in the heavens shall have them in derision" (Ps. 2:4).

 

2.    As Christians, we affirm the cosmic purpose of Jesus Christ.

-        By "cosmic," I mean "total world view."

-        We are not just "redeemed." Ultimately, the purpose of that redemption is that all things may center in Jesus Christ.

Every knee shall bow.

The whole of creation is going to be affected in time in the purposes of God.

 

3.     The covenant community has a ministry of reconciliation.

-        By this we simply mean that

-        the purposes of God will be brought to pass by a com­munity of God's people in covenant together, demonstrating the way, the truth and the life.

And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed!

 

4. As Christians we affirm that the family is the basic  institution of God.

 

5. We affirm individually and cor­porately that obedience is the key to blessing.

 

6.    We affirm our eschatology of victory - that is, the doctrine of last things is a doctrine of ultimate victory.

 

Let us wake up! - We would be naive if we simply imagined that the Church, continuing on its blind, lethargic and indifferent way, would be able to produce anything in the last day,

Ø      even if it were alert enough to recognize that it was the last day.

 

God is raising up a people, and He wants to judge His people.

è     Just as obedience is the key to blessing,

è     cursing is the result of disobedience.

God is not hanging over the balustrades of heaven, waiting to hand out a blessing to the obedient and a curse to the disobedient.

 

It happens to be a law:

Ø      "To obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams" (1 Sam. 15:22).

To give lip service to what God is doing today is not enough.

Ø      "This people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honor me, but have removed their heart far from me" (Is. 29:13).

 

God is calling people to repentance so that, in their understanding of the nature of the conflict, they shall be ready –

Ø      not in defense, for the Kingdom of God has never been on the defensive. But they shall be ready, alert and on the attack.

And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed (Dan. 2:44).

 

"The major political confrontation in the 1980's will not be between liberals and conservatives,

socialists and anti-socialists,

but between Christianity and humanism.

It will be war to the death, and everything will be done to disguise from Christians the reality of that battle so that, at the time when it really matters, they will halt be­tween two opinions."