Unseen, infectious, makes people sick and can kill. Stalking amongst us, causing suspicion between communities, cultures and families. Perhaps these descriptions fit the threat that you see as the most serious in our time. Coronavirus? Racism? Antisemitism? Political extremism? Addictions? The enemy has been wearing masks – but now the mask is not working so well anymore!
The real threat that is destroying communities and nations from within is secular humanism.
The global levelling effect of the internet, with the communications revolution has fuelled populism and distrust of the globalist powers that have trodden down the small person. Coronavirus has stopped the world in our tracks and given everyone a motive to rethink the purpose and priorities of life. All these effects are stirring an awakening of questions. Questions about who is telling us what to believe; who is defining the news and information we get? Who is making money and manipulating us? Ultimately – what if the worldview that we have been convinced to accept is not the right picture?
The truth is coming into view for those willing to seek.
This lurking enemy must be clearly identified:
Secularism has been killing and hurting and hindering lives forever, but our society has been desperately infected with this invisible killer in recent decades. The economic boom in the west after the second world war – producing the ‘Boomers’ – also produced a materialistic culture with an accompanying addiction to comfort and convenience. Prosperous societies started to buy the deception that somehow our need of God has diminished. The activists with a determined goal of breaking the powerful influence of a Judeo-Christian worldview became invigorated from the 1950’s onward. The effect has been corrosive and destructive: Most of the past two generations have been brought up to believe the nihilistic thinking of godless evolution – producing an epidemic of identity confusion. If children are taught that they are the result of a cosmic incident and life is ultimately meaningless, it seems reasonable that millions grow up with confusion, anxiety and self-doubt mixed with lack of trust. The follow on consequences are numerous, including so called sexual liberation which has caused hurt, abuse, confusion and dysfunction; We’ve seen comfort eating on a national scale – resulting in diabetes which is a health tsunami waiting to crash our health systems; we’ve seen addictions to mind altering drugs and alcohol as people attempt to anaesthetise their pain – leading to further abuse, crime, violence and increased addition; materialism has developed to offer its own pain relief with accumulation and worship of possessions and security in financial resources.
I perceive that the 2020 Coronavirus is greatly exposing the secular humanism that has been infecting us. The pandemic is having an effect that might well see secular thinking retreat.
There are rather obvious advances in the traditional measures of spiritual and religious persuasion amongst us, such as public prayers, Bible sales, church attendance or reporting of public commentary from church leaders. These shifts don’t, on their own, indicate a meaningful shift in thinking.
There are many other signs that atheistic secular thinking is in retreat: Churches are for the first time in a generation thinking seriously about reaching their communities in ways other than gathering in a building on a Sunday morning. Prayer has been prioritised across the world – partly because in-person meetings have not been permitted – so somewhat ironically, believers have had to pray and read their Bibles on their own! This too is encouraging but still not the real evidence of a shift in the big picture.
The real shake up in mainstream thinking is the shock that our health systems and medical resources might actually not save us. The awakening to the thought that our wealth and technology can’t solve all threats; Our obsession with health and safety can’t fully protect us.
Our lives are fragile.
We have come to a point of inflection in the trajectory of our culture – where for the first time in history we have a global collapse of trust in human capacity and resources. The secularist train was already running out of steam because of internet enabled populism.
For at least a generation, prosperous societies have promoted secular humanism and one dimension of this has been the increasingly intense obsession with personal and social identity. The Bible is clear about our identity and our precious individual place in the universe, but this does not suit the political and social agendas of those who oppose truth.
The ancient Greek philosopher Protagoras stated “Man is the measure of all things.” In this statement he put in place a key pillar of humanist thinking. Most of the 20th century has seen this central idea promoted to children, young people and adults from every angle – resulting in a huge need to know who we really are!
Humanism has spawned secularism, which amounts to the dryness of life without the spirit, focusing on this age rather than the eternal. In most of the so-called developed world we have been trained through fashions, government policies and commercial pressures to esteem secularism. We have been persuaded that secular thinking is the safe neutrality between all the unknowable mysteries of the world’s religions. The secularists have used their persuasive arguments to minimise the spirit, to minimise human beliefs and life that comes from spiritual inspiration. Much of this has been argued on the basis that we must be equitable and tolerant – a level playing field for all. I believe that this has really been the lure of the candy-man to get into a cage where we deny reality and hope. Secularists claim that ‘science is pre-eminent’ but are quite happy to ignore scientific analysis when it doesn’t suit the agenda of the day.
We’ve been led to believe that it is gracious and kind to deny our heartfelt beliefs.
Humanism and secularism thrive when we accept relativism. That is that there is no absolute truth. Ultimately secularism and humanist thinking depend on relativism. ‘Your truth is good for you, and my truth is good for me.’ This feels pleasant and tolerant for as long as we are content to not really address difficult issues of morality and conflict. Relativism is essential to discourage you and me from seeking truth. We are encouraged to stop at emotionally satisfying answers, even when we know these are shallow, transient and insufficient. You just need to believe a little lie.
Before long you will be disabled from dealing with the big lies.
I believe the invisible and destructive enemy that is secular humanism is now being exposed and found wanting. We are at an inflection point in history, and an awakening is happening – as people start to think for themselves, ask questions, and begin to pray.
It’s time to unmask the enemy! It is time to take our masks off and be truthful!
Following the financial crash of 1929 there were many people who lost everything and businesses that collapsed to nothing. Yet, there were also some who began businesses that later became the biggest and most successful businesses of the century. The inner response to a dramatic change is either hope or hopelessness. Hope produces new life and opportunities, where hopelessness results in death.
John D Manwell's Blog 
Hope for the future
May 23, 2016In a season of uncertainty and when all the UK Referendum campaigners seem to be promoting fear, is there some hope?
I believe that God gives tangible direction with hope, based on purpose and His commitment to the path ahead – whether the way is stony or smooth.
An example of this from my life makes the point. At the end of 1993, after much prayer, I knew that in the year ahead (1994) God wanted me to get a new job and develop into new things. I started the year with this knowledge and I was hopeful about it! A few weeks into the year God spoke to me in a hotel room in Barcelona while I was on a business trip. He emphasized the words of Isaiah 43:19, “ See I am doing a new thing, see it now springs up.” I knew for certain that God was letting me know that he was shortly about to do a new thing. I understood that it would follow very soon after that night. Two days later when I returned to my office in England, I was called in to see my manager. He informed me that it was necessary to make my job redundant (that means to be “fired” to the Yankees).
In that moment my head spun and my heart leapt! I knew the hope of what God had already said. I was able to respond in that moment from a position of hope and deal with the situation in faith. I still had to deal with the uncomfortable emotional aspects of not being wanted by my company and of facing the prospect of not having a job. I was however, able to live with confident assurance in front of my work colleagues and to reassure and lead my family with positive and real faith. The whole transition in our lives was a testimony of faith and an example to friends and family both believers and non-believers.
A few weeks later I was delighted to walk into a better job with better pay and prospects. Even more importantly than the material results of the situation, my wife and I were ready to be released to the next level of faith and living in the Kingdom of God. We moved on to the next stage of pursuing the hope and vision that God had given us several years before regarding our long-term calling and ministry. The hope that was planted and strong in my heart on the morning that I was made redundant was real and made a definite and actual difference in the situation and the outcome.
My favorite passage in the Bible on the subject of hope is in the book of Romans: “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. The creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought to the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.” (Romans 8:18-25).
This passage is wonderfully self-explanatory, speaking of the glorious ultimate hope of our calling as sons of God. This is a hope that strengthens us through any manner of present trials or sufferings – if we will only look to, and by faith, draw from, the hope that God is holding out in front of us. This is not a small thing – this passage in Romans speaks of the whole of creation! It speaks of us as coming into son-ship; the whole of creation being liberated from decay and the final and complete freedom. The vastness and comprehensiveness of this hope is then focused down to the walk of faith as, “we wait for it patiently.”
God is calling out to the Church to understand the hope that He is offering. We are not walking in the dark and hoping that we will not trip over the furniture. We are walking in the light. As it says in Proverbs 4:18: “The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, shining ever brighter till the full light of day.”
Let God flood your heart and life with light. It’s not just a feeling of well-being. He wants you to see and understand, and that is what hope brings. Jesus is coming back. His return is the great hope for the world. Our resurrection in Him is our eternal hope. His completeness is the full light of day. Until then the light is shining ever brighter.
Ask God for real and definite hope. Learn from the Bible what he intends for believers to be and do. Let Him show you what the church and the Kingdom of God are all about. Allow Him to give you revelation to illuminate your personal path that He has prepared for you. Know for certain what He has called you to be and to do. Let Him speak the future into your life. Receive hope!
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This post is a part re-publishing of the chapter written by John D Manwell: “Hope that makes a real difference” which was first published in the book “HOPE – when everything seems hopeless” by Thomas P. Dooley, Mall Publishing Co. ISBN 1-934165-20-4
(C) Thomas P. Dooley 2008. Used with permission
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