"Let Us Make A Name For Ourselves"

In the generations that followed the Great Flood, there was a tower built in the land between the rivers, the land of Shinar, perhaps better known as Mesapotamia.  This was the Cradle of Civilization, located between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in the area of modern day Iraq.  It was there that men became quite advanced.  Hebrews Chapter 11 reveals the hope of Abraham.  He was looking forward to a city "whose architect and builder is God." (1) But men became impatient waiting for the city God would build so they took upon themselves the task of building a city.  It would be a city built, not to bring glory to God, but to satisfy the desires of the human flesh.

"Let usmake a name for ourselves", they said. (2)  Has that not been the theme of man down through the ages?  I walked into our new multi-million dollar public library in Columbus, Georgia recently.  Near the entrance I saw a plaque with the names of major contributors to this community structure.  It is fundamental to a race of fallen men to have an urge to "make a name for ourselves."  It is the basic tenet of humanism; stealing glory from God and elevating man.

The Tower of Babel was a religious tower.  The purpose of its construction was to reach God.  But their motive was corrupted by their desire to make a name for themselves.  There is a corner stone on many churches I've seen.  "Erected in the year ________, to God be glory".  As the years pass, the glory of God fades from the institution while the centrality of man emerges.  In a God-centered church the purpose of music is to bring glory to God, in a humanistic church the purpose o music is to entertain people.  A God-centered church has a God-centered pastor whose primary goal is to preach for the glory of God.  A humanistic church wallows in spiritually shallow waters with a pastor who is often humorous and can entertain people with catchy quotes and funny stories.

Humanism has so invaded our culture that God has been relegated to a back burner.  We are not atheistic, atheism leads to a despair that few can endure for any length of time.  Many in  the American culture are more interested in calling the shots when it comes to God.  God is placed on a shelf to be reached for at our own convenience.  Our "don't call us, we'll call you" attitude toward God indicates that we think ourselves more important than he.  The words of the Psalmist are foreign and confusing to us, "As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants for You, O God." (3) Our callings  to God are now limited to 911 calls.  We have little thirst for God but we are quick to pull him off the shelf if we are experiencing a crisis in our lives.

I have read recently of three people in the state of Georgia who are suffering from an infection called Necrotizing fasciitis.  (4) One of those is Aimee Copeland (5) who has had one leg amputated at the hip and her fingers removed in an attempt to save her life.   This is a horrifying disease for which there is no cure.  Humanism as infected our culture and the church like a flesh eating disease.  The spirit of the church is being consumed by a philosophy that makes the happiness of man a priority and conveniently ignores the glory of God. 

Liberalism in the church flowered in the mid-1800's.  Charles Darwin explained away the role of God in creation.  Humanist philosophers taught that the chief end of man's existence was his own happiness.  Religious liberals embraced the cancer of humanism when they declared their uncertainty about the existence of God, heaven or hell.  Their unbelief made it impossible for them to offer any hope beyond our earthly existence so they began to address the happiness of man in this world.  They offered a watered down version of Christianity that focused on the happiness of man in this life.  The doctrines of sin, eternal life and hell were avoided and the focus was on "Your Best LifeNow."  (6) 

A movement arose in answer to the liberals of that day and they called themselves fundamentalists.  But humanism is not selective in its choice of victims and fundamentalism also became a victim of the deadly virus of humanism.  Fundamentalists grew as a conservative movement because of their common beliefs in holding to the traditional teachings of the word of God.  They defined themselves as those who belief in the divinity of Christ, the creation, the holiness of God and the authenticity of the Bible.  If you believed in this list of essentials you were labeled a conservative fundamentalist.

In successive generations, fundamentalists began to teach that one might be saved by simply giving mental assent to a list of basic scriptural doctrines.  The measure by which one became a Christian was not the confessing of sin and experiencing a Holy Spirit- induced soul cleansing.  The evidence of one's Christianity was a simple vocal affirmative to a few basic questions regarding the nature of God.  A radical change in one's lifestyle was no longer associated with true Christianity.  A card carrying Christian was no longer expected to demonstrate righteous living or freedom from the bondage of sin.  Experiential Christianity was thrown out the door in favor of a simple "I believe." 

Liberalism set about focusing on this life instead of the next life.  The assortment of social programs developed to improve the lives of the masses are too numerous to mention.  Great declarations were made about eliminating poverty, drugs and war.  But their utopian goal was shattered when the First World War erupted and men set about to destroy one another.  The War to End All Wars was followed by another horrendous war and men began to question the idea that the heart of man is essentially good.  Then men proved how short their memories are and liberalism made another great comeback.  L.B. Johnson declared his War on Poverty.  The flower children of the 1960's demanded the end to all war.  Liberalism continues its march through the modern age.  Al Gore seems nearly insane and certainly delusional in his attempt to create a better earth.  Our first lady is strongly dedicated to manipulating the diets of our children. 

The liberal says that man must be made happy while he lives on this earth.  The fundamentalist says that man must be made happy in the afterlife.  Both have succumbed to the primary teaching of humanism:  the happiness of man.  When a fundamentalist preacher declares that a person ought to accept Christ so that he can escape the fires of hell, or so he can live in eternal bliss, is he not focusing on the humanistic idea of the happiness of man?  Should men not accept Christ because he "deservesto receive the reward of his suffering." (7)  

Christ did not walk away from the glorious splendor of heaven and submit to the humility of humanity solely to make us happy.  Christ did not drag his cross to Golgotha and allow the Romans to pierce his hands with spikes and his side with a sword only to make us happy.  Believing that or preaching that is replacing God with man as the central purpose of our salvation.  Does this not border on blasphemy? Did Christ not go to the cross and die for men because it was the only way men might be saved and thus bring glory to God.  It wasn't so much about saving us from hell or making us happy in heaven, it was all about bring glory to God.

How many today get saved as a way of making a deal with God?  It is true that salvation comes with benefits but the benefits are a byproduct.  Modern day ministers will one day be accountable for the steady stream of lies that come from their pulpits.  We are no longer being told that sin corrupts the soul.  We are no longer told that the grace of God can bring deliverance to hungry hearts.  Instead, we are being fed a steady stream of heresy.  We are being told that if we accept Christ he will make us millionaires, he will cure our diseases and dedicate himself to our happiness.  We are being sold a bill of goods. 

Humanism teaches us to look for human solutions to human problems.  We are the most over-medicated society in history.  We run to counselors instead of running to Christ.  We read self-help books written by pop-psychologists instead of turning to the word of God.  If we would only turn to the right source we could find a cure to alcoholism, to drug addiction, to sex addiction and to dysfunctional families.  But all of this is frosting on the cake.  The true motive for submitting to Christ should not be "to make a name for ourselves" or for our own happiness, it should be because doing so is the only possible way an earthly soul can bring glory to a deserving God.    

1.  Hebrews 11:10

2.  Genesis 11:4

3.  Psalm 42:1

4.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Necrotizing_fasciitis

5.  http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/story/2012-05-21/flesh-eating-bacteria/55105650/1

6.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Your_Best_Life_Now

7.  http://forallnations.wordpress.com/2008/08/22/the-worthy-lamb-history-of-moravian-missions/

Kevin Probst - Teaches History, Government and Apologetics at the high school level in Columbus Georgia.

Public Schools: Education or Indoctrination

Educators have pondered for years the achievement gap between Caucasian, African-American and Asian students. In order to narrow the gap educators have tried segregating schools, they have tried providing comparable facilities and they have politically corrected all the pictures in the text books to reveal a member of each race of people and all gender possibilities. The academic performance of the child seems not to depend so much on these issues as the attitude of their parents toward the educational process. If the parents consider the school a glorified baby sitting service then it's unlikely their children are going to perform well.

Like two ships passing each other in the harbor, Christians and secular humanists reveal two opposing viewpoints when it comes to the purpose and philosophy of education. Christians understand their responsibility in educating their children. Deuteronomy 6:5-7 reinforces the obligation parents have toward their children: "Love the Lord you God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up."

The early American theologian and Civil War Army Chaplain, Robert Louis Dabney, said, "True education is, in one sense, a spiritual process. It is the nurture of the soul." Because we are, by nature, spiritual beings we will develop our foundational concepts of spirituality during the elastic years of childhood and adolescence. Men are created to worship and worship we shall. We will either worship the one and true God or we will worship his creation (materialism) or ourselves (humanism).

The Puritan poet, John Milton, expressed the Christian view of education well when he said, "The end of learning is to repair the ruin of our first parents by regaining to know God aright, and out of that knowledge, to love Him, to imitate Him, to be like Him." Education is not the primary responsibility of the schools, nor is it the responsibility of the government or the church. It is every parent's responsibility to be sure his child is educated in the truth of God's word. Even though John was talking of his spiritual converts, 3 John 4 fits well here, "I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth." Christians believe that the sole purpose of man's life is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. We find ourselves strongly opposed to anything that blocks us from that goal.

Those who believe that government schools are prohibited from promoting religion are deceived. They are prohibited from promoting Christianity but most any other religion is fair game. The religion most commonly propagated in our public schools is secular humanism. In the 1961 case of Torcaso v. Watkins the U.S. Supreme Court defined humanism as a religion. The first Humanist Manifesto openly identifies humanism as a religion and Julian Huxley referred to humanism as a Religion Without Revelation. He taught that Christianity was fading and in its place was emerging the religion of humanism.

Many are awakening to the fact that our schools have become more focused on indoctrination than education. Our public school system is based on an industrial revolution model that came out of Prussia. It is a system that is compulsory. You must send your children to school and you must pay taxes to support the educational welfare system. Why do so many Americans think education is free? The average cost of paying for a child's education is between $10,000 and $12,000 per year. It costs a whopping $27,000 to educate a child in Washington, D.C. (http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=66)

The social agenda seems to be to convert our children to humanism. They are taught that homosexuality is an acceptable and alternative lifestyle. They are taught that marriage is no longer between one man and one woman but can include partners of the same sex and a multitude of other combinations. They are taught that we all evolved from nothing and God had nothing at all to do with our existence. They are taught that the fetus in a mother's womb is simply a mass of cells that can and perhaps should be aborted as the mother wishes. The result: the minds of our children are clouded about the existence of God, they are gender confused and they no longer believe in the value and sanctity of life.

90% of Christians send their children to government schools in which federal law forbids the mention of the name of Christ. Some of them have no choice because they cannot home school and they cannot afford a private Christian school. These parents must do all in their power to counteract the humanistic indoctrination their children are learning at school. It will require an organized effort to read and explain the Bible to their children in the home setting.

Other parents use the salt and light argument for sending their kids to public schools. They often say, "My child will be a witness for Christ.". A study done by the Southern Baptists indicates that 88% of Baptist youth who graduated from public schools left the church. Our missionaries are not converting others, instead they are being converted. They are going up against a systematic effort of organized policy and well developed curriculum that is designed to indoctrinate social servants of the state.

I am no enemy of public education. I know many wonderful Christian teachers and administrators here in Columbus, Georgia. They love Christ deeply and they are doing all they can to be a light shining in a darkened world. Most of my Christian teacher friends stay in government schools because they believe it is important to demonstrate Christianity to their students and co-workers. I agree with them but that is only half of the command of Christ. He also said, "…everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven." (Matthew 10:32) We are instructed to boldly declare the name of Christ. If you follow this directive in the government schools you will be looking for another job.

Neutrality is not an option. I am teaching my six year old son the concepts of driving an automobile. The line in the center of the road provides a parameter for travelers. If you decide to straddle the line you may lose your life. "He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters." Straddling the fence on this issue can be fatal. We must not only demonstrate the lifestyle, we must proclaim his name boldly. Don't be deceived by the politically correct approach to Christianity in government schools. If you are not for Christ…you are against him!

Christ addressed this problem in Luke 6:40 " A student is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher." When it comes to secularism, nine out of ten Christian students will cave. If our children have secular teachers they will likely embrace secular teachings, if they have Christian teachers they likely will embrace Christian teachings. Who is your child's teacher?



Kevin Probst - Teaches History, Government and Apologetics at the high school level in Columbus Georgia.