Friedrich Nietzsche (NEE-chuh), a German philosopher from the 1800s, popularized the statement, “God is dead.” Sensing the drift in culture away from any religious authority, he predicted a crisis of meaning. Without God as the foundation for society, WHY will we do what we do?
His answer reflected the modern philosophy perfectly: find meaning in yourself.
Okay. Thanks, Walt Disney. Follow your heart! Search your feelings! Be good to yourself; you’re all you’ve got! Be true to yourself. Follow and speak YOUR truth.
Nietzsche’s answer to society’s despair when asking “what’s the point of my life?” was to just make up any answer that feels good. Over 100 years later and how is it going?
Pretty poorly, I’d say.
Choose your pronouns? Choose your gender? According to Romans 1, a rejection of God’s design for our sexuality is one of the last stages of rejecting God. It’s as if rejecting the most basic fact of creation is the final nail in the coffin of rejecting God.
That does not hurt God; it hurts us. It harms society to reject God.
But that’s why we are here. That is why Christians are to be salt—preserving our society—and light—shining the truth of Jesus Christ in the darkness (see John 1).
Also, that is why we are here, as in, here in church. We meet regularly to worship our God who transcends time, as well as all the waves of new philosophies that exalt themselves against Him. He remains unchanged and unbothered. He is not up in heaven wringing his hands, worried if we will like Him or not.
We don’t carry God.
He carries us.
Any philosophy that exalts itself against God will ultimately fail. Do you believe that? That’s faith, and that’s why we open His revelation regularly.
May our hearts be shaped by God’s Word. —Pastor Ryan