DEFENDING THE FAITH #309 AMERICA IN 2067: A LOOK AT OUR TURBULENT FUTURE by Bill Nugent In the summer of 2067, a gray haired, athletically built man led two of his grandchildren up to the top of a wooded ridge overlooking a field. He pointed to the far side of the field and said "Do you see that old, wide concrete slab with rusty iron bolts sticking up from several sections of it?" The kids replied "Yes." Then grandpa said "That's the ruins of an old gasoline station and convenience store. People used to drive their cars onto the slab, which had fuel pumps, and they pumped gasoline into their cars. "You could buy a brand new car for $30,000 back then, fifty years ago, in 2017. Of course, the cars were gasoline powered asphalt crawlers, not the anti-gravity, self-piloting vehicles we ride in today. Those were the days, back in '17. Heck, nowadays, you can't even buy a decent restaurant meal for $30,000." The kids laughed. Grandpa continued his history lesson to his grandchildren, Ian and Sara. "After they loaded up on gasoline, the people went into the nearby convenience store and bought junk food. They bought sugary cookies and pastries that were made with GMO flour and loaded with pesticide residues. It's not even legal to sell that junk anymore. In fact, my mom, who was your great grandmother, worked as a clerk at a convenience store early in this century. She accepted payment in paper money and coins. They called it 'cash.' "Life fifty years ago was primitive and brutal, in more ways than one. Cancer was a dreadful killer. It was a slow, lingering death. Cancer was largely caused by de-natured, chemical laden junk food and tobacco. You know - 'garbage in, garbage out.' That wasn't the worst of it. Junk food was bad enough. The real scandal was junk education. Kids were forced by truancy laws to attend schools, those slaughterhouses of the mind called 'public schools.' "They didn't teach much reading, writing and arithmetic. They wasted a lot of time teaching philosophy of the postmodernist, atheistic kind." At this point, Ian spoke up and asked "What's postmodernist philosophy?" Grandpa hesitated and said "To explain that, I have to go back another fifty years before 2017. I have to go back to the 1960s, the time of your great-great grandparents. There was a major revolution in America in the 1960s. That's when America went from a modern society to a postmodern society." "You see, there are really just three basic philosophical worldviews: the Judeo-Christian, the modern and the postmodern. "The Judeo-Christian worldview maintains that there are moral absolutes and these absolute truths are given to us by God by revelation and are written in the Bible. Biblical morals include the Ten Commandments, the teachings of Jesus, the sacredness of human life and the dignity of man. God's commandments apply to all people at all times in all cultures. Moral absolutes are universal, objective truths. America was founded in 1776 as a Christian country. The Judeo-Christian worldview was dominant. "The modernist worldview claims that moral absolutes can be discovered by human reason alone without the aid of divine revelation. Modernism, since it arose in post-renaissance Europe, was nevertheless influenced by Christian concepts of justice and morality. Modernism is also dependant on Natural Law as a starting point for its reasoning. Modernists looked to nature rather than the Bible but they still believed in moral absolutes. The absolutes were manmade principles derived from rationalism, empiricism and pragmatism. America became predominantly modernist during the period roughly from 1870 to 1960. Famous modernist philosophers were Descartes, Hume, Locke, Voltaire, Rousseau, Hegel and the American pragmatist, William James. "The postmodernist worldview claims that no moral absolutes exist. Morals are simply made up by the will of each person. This is radical existentialism and moral relativism. American culture and education, especially the universities, made the shift from modern to postmodern during the 1960s. "Do your own thing" became a definitive slogan of the 60s. "Perform random acts of kindness" was popular by the 1990s. "Postmodernism is irrational, emotional, sophistic, barbaric, pessimistic, existentialistic and radically individualistic. Postmodernism is so scattered and atomized that most commentators define it only in terms of linguistic analysis and deconstructionism but those are only the putrid eruptions of the postmodern sore. Once a person embraces moral relativism, there's no real search for truth. Linguistic analysis and deconstructionism are merely ways of tinkering with language and literature which are just the tools of knowledge, not knowledge itself. Postmodernist philosophers include Nietzsche, Heidegger (Hitler's favorite), Camus, de Man, Derrida and Sartre. The ancient Greek Sophist philosophers taught many things we would call postmodern. The Bible says 'there is no new thing under the sun' (Eccl. 1:9). "By the 1970s and 80s the ideals of the 60s revolution became mainstream. The rejection of moral absolutes, the embrace of fornication, the acceptance of abortion and the promotion of the gay agenda radically transformed America. Fornication brought single motherhood and the severing of the bond between father and child. By 2017, the U.S. was a caricature of its former self and was postmodern in most of its education and culture. "God's standards do not change. God gave us moral absolutes by revelation. The mass murder of the unborn by abortion is serious sin. American postmodern culture accepts many practices that God abhors. All humankind is accountable to God and will be judged by God in the afterlife. At this point Sara spoke up and said "That's quite a history lesson, grandpa. Why do you think all those educated people went on to believe in postmodernism which sounds so silly and confusing?" Grandpa replied: "That's actually an easy question to answer. They embraced postmodernism because they believed the Darwinian evolutionist claim that human beings are evolved from apes and have no souls and life ends with utter loss of consciousness. Darwinism is the origins myth of atheistic materialism. Public schools became temples of the church of Darwin. "People saw no real purpose in life because they thought they had no future. They believed that when they die, the lights go out and all thoughts cease. They thought there was no God, no lawgiver, no law enforcer, no redemption of humankind, no life after death. They were really in despair, though they wouldn't admit it. They embraced nihilism which is the philosophical zero point. Nihilism is the postmodernist concept of futility and nothingness. "Things began to change when Darwinism crumbled. By the early 21st century, which is more than fifty years ago, the Intelligent Design Movement was in full swing. As science progressed, microbiology began to show the utter complexity of even the simplest living cell. A cell could never form by chance even in a trillion years. Secular scientists, to say nothing of the religious scientists, saw this clearly and it could not be denied. Other evidence against Darwin in genetics, the epigenome, comparative anatomy and the fossil record mounted against the secular origins myth called Darwinian macro-evolution. "It was enough to make the priests of the church of Darwin sweat bullets and rip their hair out remorselessly as their theory fell in a scientific tailspin. As they say 'if dogs could whistle, the world would be a chorus.' Darwinism fell and with it fell both modernism and postmodernism. "People took a new look at Christianity, the faith that built America. The Christian faith is revealed in the Bible and proven by fulfilled prophecies and profound miracles. There is great revival of the Christian faith in America today and many millions of souls are being saved. "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved" (Rom. 10:13). " Right now, in 2067, the world is in a desperate state of transformation and political upheaval. Millions are turning to Christ but millions more cling to the old ways of despair. The great dictator of the world government is seeking to crush Christianity. The Bible predicted this time of tribulation that occurs just before the second coming of Christ." Grandpa and the grandkids, Ian and Sara, walked down from that wooded ridge at the end of their afternoon hike, confident that God writes the end of that great story called human history. Over a billion people, all around the world, turned to Christ in the mid 21st century and were spared the despair and social chaos of the postmodern secular endgame. This happy multitude repented and received forgiveness of sins at the end of the age. They will gloriously welcome Christ at His second coming. Steps to salvation:
Jesus said "Ye must be born again" (John 3:7).
1) Believe that God created you and loves you and sent the Messiah (Messiah is Hebrew for Christ) to redeem you.
2) Believe that Jesus Christ came to die for you, to take upon Himself the penalty of your sins (Isaiah 53:5-6, John 6:29, Romans 4:5, First Peter 3:18).
3) Turn from sin and call on the name of Jesus to receive forgiveness of sins (Romans 10:13).
4) Receive Jesus as Savior and experience the new birth (John 1:12, Acts 2:38).
5) Follow Jesus Christ as Lord (John 14:15).
Prayer to receive salvation: "Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved" (Romans 10:13).
To receive the salvation that Jesus purchased for us at the terrible cost of His suffering and death on our behalf I invite you to pray this simple prayer: "Dear heavenly Father, I thank you for sending Jesus, the promised Messiah, to die for my sins. I admit that I am a sinner. I repent of my sins and I ask you to forgive me on the basis of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I ask you to fill me with your Holy Spirit to empower me to serve you under the Lordship of Jesus Christ, Amen." If you prayed this prayer in the humble sincerity of your heart then you have received everlasting life, which includes power to live right in this life and entrance into heaven in the afterlife!
Bill Nugent, Overcomer Ministries of Fort Mill, South Carolina, USA
Christian book, Lawful or Legalistic by Bill Nugent available in paperback!
Info and ordering link available at his website: www.bnugent.org
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