Anonymous Apologist

Christianity has been an integral part of western[i] culture since Roman times. It outlasted the fall of Rome, continuing to be a major feature and shaper of our culture until about 200 years ago when began a new ideology called the enlightenment[ii]. The enlightenment venerated human reason to a status never before held in human history. A church in France called Notre Dame de Paris [iii] can explain the story well. They tore down all religious features from the church and put up worship to the GODDESS of REASON[iv]. [v] The enlightenments ambitious claims concerning the capacity of human reason can be exemplified by Descartes’ famous saying ‘cognito ergo sum’.[vi] Here being is equated with reason and thus on this basis ‘Man’ becomes interpreter and measurer of ‘his’ world.[vii]

Contrary to previous generations where religion played a huge part in understanding the world, suddenly human beings became the centre, rather than God. This had numerous benefits that led to people being given the freedom to think freely and experiment freely without being damned as heretics, or as blasphemous, but it nevertheless marks the point where Christianity, and more important, the living God, was removed from his throne (by western Europeans) and in His place humankind put themselves. The events at Notre Dame de Paris mark a simple but poignant departure in the West from worship of God to out and out humanism [humanism is the belief that human beings of their own independent means will get better and better and solve all of their own problems (e.g the first star trek episodes)]

In the last 50 years or so the godlike position of human beings in western culture has reached the moon.[viii] We can see this illustrated particularly well at the time of the Beatles, and the behaviour of people in Britain during the sixties, where loose sexual behaviour ruled in an unashamed way, paralleled only by the behaviour of roman citizens prior to the civilisations decline.[ix] The behaviour at this time displays what Paul talks about in Galatians 5:19-20. Today in the west, young men and women go out every weekend to fornicate and binge drink in a way that is seen as culturally normal and acceptable. People worship themselves have no time for the true God and live in immoral and moribund ways that curse them. Fornication is such an accepted and normal part of the life of teenagers today that they do not know what the word means.[x]

Make no mistake, the current western culture is no longer Christian. The Apostle Paul warns Timothy [in 2 Timothy 3] about such behaviour ‘You must understand this, that in the last days distressing times will come. 2For people will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3inhuman, implacable, slanderers, profligates, brutes, haters of good, 4treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5holding to the outward form of godliness but denying its power. Avoid them! 6For among them are those who make their way into households and captivate silly women, overwhelmed by their sins and swayed by all kinds of desires, 7who are always being instructed and can never arrive at a knowledge of the truth. 8As Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these people, of corrupt mind and counterfeit faith, also oppose the truth. 9But they will not make much progress, because, as in the case of those two men, their folly will become plain to everyone’.

The current cultural climate in the West mirrors that of the lawlessness of antichrist warned about in 2 Thessalonians 2, ‘As to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we beg you, brothers and sisters, 2not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as though from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord is already here. 3Let no one deceive you in any way; for that day will not come unless the rebellion comes first and the lawless one is revealed, the one destined for destruction. 4He opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, declaring himself to be God. 5Do you not remember that I told you these things when I was still with you? 6And you know what is now restraining him, so that he may be revealed when his time comes. 7For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work, but only until the one who now restrains it is removed. 8And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will destroy with the breath of his mouth, annihilating him by the manifestation of his coming. 9The coming of the lawless one is apparent in the working of Satan, who uses all power, signs, lying wonders, 10and every kind of wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 11For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion, leading them to believe what is false, 12so that all who have not believed the truth but took pleasure in unrighteousness will be condemned’

Today Western culture is godless and has no parallel in its debauchery other than that of the Roman civilization at the time of its decline. May this document be a warning to Christians! Do not for a minuite assume that you are living in a Christian culture if you live in the west. You live rather in satan’s engine room. If we compare Thessalonians 2:4 with the incidents at Notre Dame at the time of the French revolution we can see that this lawlessness of antichrist has been at work in the west for a long time coming to fruition in the relativism [a small tip: in the bible relativism is called lawlessness] and immorality of western culture today. Fellow Christians, I urge you to read your Bibles, you will see clearly that the pattern of this world is not the pattern that we should be following. I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:1-2)

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[i] By ‘west’ we mean initially EUROPE particularly Greece Italy, and the Roman Empire. However over the process of history, this culture has developed and spread to USA, AUSTRALIA, and with current globalisation threatens to colonise the whole world. In this article the word ‘west’ will generally refer to the culture found in western Europe, and the USA
[ii] Whose thinkers include Rene Descartes, Isaac Newton, John Locke, Leibniz, David Hume, Immanuel Kant, etc…
[iii] Notre Dame de Paris (French for "Our Lady of Paris", meaning the church in Paris dedicated to Mary, the mother of Jesus),
[iv] During the French Revolution, on November 10, 1793, a Goddess of Reason was proclaimed by the French Convention at the suggestion of Chaumette.As personification for the goddess, Thérèse Momoro, wife of a printer, was chosen. The goddess was celebrated in Notre Dame de Paris, desecrating the church in the process.
[v] It should be noted that at this time the church in France was very bad. In 18th century France, ninety-five percent of the population were adherents to the Roman Catholic faith and, under the Ancien Régime, the authority of the Church was institutionalized in its status as the First Estate, foremost among the three estates of the realm. The power of the Roman Catholic Church came from many sources: it was the largest landowner in the country whose properties provided massive revenues from its tenants plus enormous income from the collection of tithes, a Church-levied tax on all crops produced anywhere in the country. The Church in France controlled the registry of births, deaths, and marriages, held a monopoly over primary and secondary education, and ran the hospital service. No citizen in France could live their life without the involvement of the Roman Catholic Church.
This Church control over individuals was successfully enhanced through its successful teaching that only through the Roman Catholic Church could someone receive permission to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Withholding such permission was a weapon in the hands of the clergy that brought everyone from peasants to kings to their knees, begging for the church's forgiveness on their deathbeds. But the hospitals were grossly inadequate and poorly run and by the time of the Revolution, the Church was widely seen as a body less interested in the spiritual well-being of its followers than in preserving its own privileges and wealth. The Church's difficulties were greatly added to by a deep dissatisfaction within its own ranks. A wide gap in living standards existed between members of the clergy. Senior positions in the Church were occupied by members of noble families, giving them the benefit of the Church's wealth base and enormous annual revenues. In stark contrast, the majority of priests in small communities lived in perpetual poverty.
[vi] ‘I think therefore I am’ Rene Descartes in Antony Flew, Western Philosophy (London: Thames and Hudson, 1971), p.283
[vii] Graham Ward, ‘Introduction, or, a guide to thinking in Cyberspace’ in T Postmodern God, ed. G.Ward (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2001), p.xxiv
[viii] Quite literally
[ix] See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_History_of_the_Decline_and_Fall_of_the_...
[x] Fornication is sex outside of marriage. The bible is clear about the fate of fornicators, they go to hell.