Episode 23 details the fundamental choice and its major elements which will all be called to make as we come to the end of our present materialistic age.

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Transcript
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The Future of the Teachings of Jesus

12. The Present Conflict

The Decision and Its Elements (Ep. 23)

The teachings of Jesus vs the teachings of secularism. When the new teachers of Jesus look at our 21’st century world they are immediately confronted by the challenge of present-day secularism. In the past secularism simply ignored God and religion, but in the 19th and 20th centuries it assumed a more militant attitude and now seeks to replace religion and the religious way of life with its own secular perspective. Religion is confronted with an age of scientific minds and materialistic tendencies that do not believe in God and religion. In fact, the secular elite have declared war on religion; they seek to destroy true religion and take its place in the hearts and minds of the people. Followers of Jesus and all other religious souls must realize that we now face a struggle for existence that we did not seek but has been thrust upon us by the evil forces of Godless secularism. We must recognize this secular war on religion, fight it, and ultimately triumph over it.

Multi-faceted choice. This conflict that our world now faces is fundamentally a spiritual one. The basic choice that confronts us is between spiritual religion and philosophic secularism. It will ultimately come down to a choice between the teachings of Jesus and the teachings of secularism. We are coming to a time of decision where everyone will eventually be forced to choose which way they will go. We already see this happening in the lives of many who are forced by social pressure, economic necessity, and political coercion to follow secular dictates that override their natural rights, moral precepts, and personal freedoms. The growth of secular totalitarian states increasingly empowers the secularists to coerce us into giving up our moral and religious lifestyle and adopt their secular ways. This choice we face between the way of Jesus (and all true religions), and the way of materialistic secularism is real and cannot be avoided.

Following are some of the major elements of this choice:

The existence of God. The first and most basic question struggling humanity must answer is, “Does God exist?” Most of the great religions of the world teach the existence of a transcendent Deity, a God to be worshiped and served. The religion of Jesus begins with the affirmation of the existence of God, our loving heavenly Father. With secularism this is not so. It ignores or denies the existence of God and teaches that such beliefs are mere superstitious relics of the past that have no place in our modern scientific world. They insist that such illusions must be given up in the face of our ever-advancing scientific knowledge. Committed secularists even seek the removal of “God” from all public discourse. At the most basic level we must choose whether we will live our lives as believers in God or as non-believers.

Freedom of the individual. Jesus taught that God has bestowed upon every individual person the freedom to choose the direction their lives will take. This is a God given freedom and no one has the rightful power to take this freedom from us. Radical secularism denies individual freedom and seeks to force others to live their lives according to their collectivist mandates. They seek the creation of secular totalitarian states and coercive economic policies by which they may deny the natural liberties, prerogatives of will, and potentials of personality bestowed upon us by God. This is a great evil! We are called to choose between God’s way of individual freedom or the way of coercion by secular authorities and institutions.

Doing the Father’s will. As a child our relative free will is naturally directed towards the service of self. However, as we grow and develop we naturally become more thoughtful of others and feel the urge to serve them and eventually to serve something and someone greater than ourselves. In this way a fundamental conflict arises. Will we continue the exclusive service of self or will we increasingly learn to also serve others and ultimately choose to serve God. The answer of Jesus and all true religionists is that we should put God’ will first and our personal will second. Jesus clearly depicted this fundamental choice in the prayer he prayed in the garden of Gethsemane, “not my will, but yours, be done.” (Lk. 22:42) The affirmation of the true follower of Jesus is, “It is my will that your will be done.” In stark contrast, the choice of the committed secularist is to reject the will of God and true righteousness and continue the exclusive service of self. Self or God? This is the fundamental choice we face as free will beings.

The religious way of life and faith. The life of Jesus provides us with the ideal example of living the human life religiously and by faith. He lived a life of reverential and worshipful devotion to God and was wholly committed to the Father’s service. He taught us to put our trust in God’s over care, guidance, and protection. He urged us to live our lives manifesting religious and spiritual values, to increasingly show forth these values, which he identified as the fruit of the spirit, in our daily lives. Such values are far too numerous to list but some important examples include: faith, love, service, mercy, ministry, truth, beauty, goodness, righteousness, humility, meekness, peacemaking, a pure heart, justice, fairness, honesty, kindness, forgiveness, generosity, loyalty, hope, altruism, courage, temperance, and self-control. Secularism denies the validity of religious faith and teaches humanistic secular values in the place of religious values. These values of secular humanism are good in themselves; they include tolerance, social service, democratic government, civil liberties, science, and education. The problem is that these values are pursued exclusively and in opposition to spiritual and religious values. Our choice is to live life religiously and by faith or to live a Godless life guided exclusively by self and purely secular values.

Religious based morality. For the committed secularist there is no transcendent order, no spiritual world, no God, and therefore no God ordained morality that they must observe. For them all morals are relative and there is no higher moral order that they are obliged to discover and follow. They are entirely free to choose their standard of right and wrong, good and evil, or even to decide that there is no standard at all. Thus, they are left free to decide upon their own what is good and right and to do as they please. In general, they adhere to the belief that the ends justify the means, leaving them free to commit any evil act so long as it serves their chosen and supposedly superior moral end. In contrast, the religion of Jesus insists that we choose moral ends and moral means to achieve those ends. This then is our choice: Will we seek to live a moral life doing what we believe is good and right, or will we choose to ignore moral precepts, serve self, and do as we desire regardless of its effects on ourself and others.

Summary. In summary, we must recognize that we live in a time of great confusion and conflict. The teachings of Jesus and the Judeo-Christian heritage of the West is now facing its greatest challenge. A militant secularism which has been growing in strength and power for well over 300 years now seeks to destroy spiritual religion and the religious way of life. At its core this is a spiritual conflict that will ultimately come down to a choice between the teachings of Jesus and the teachings of secularism. This choice is multifaceted and involves many elements. Some of these basic choices are: belief in the existence of God, the affirmation of individual freedom, doing the Father’s will, living life religiously and by faith, and living life in obedience to a God ordained morality. The true religionist affirms each of these elements while the committed secularist ignores or denies them. The power of secularism is growing in our world and each individual will ultimately be forced to make the spiritual decision whether to follow the way Godless secularism or the way of Jesus.

 

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