Israel's insatiable desire to be like the Canaanites finally lead them to adopt an entire catalog of idols. In so doing, they became universal idolaters. And as a result, they could no longer think God's thoughts after him, nor did they desire to do so, but became slaves to the evil world and life view of the pagans. 36th sermon in the series on conquest, compromise, judgment, and restoration and exposition on the book of the Judges. Our old covenant reading this morning coming from Judges again, Judges chapter 10, Judges chapter 10, one verse only, one verse only, verse six, Judges chapter 10, verse six. Beloved of the Lord, by inspiration of God, the prophet writes, and the children of Israel did evil again, in the sight of the Lord, and served Balaam, and Ashtoreth, and the gods of Syria, and the gods of Zion, and the gods of Moab, and the gods of the children of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines, and forsook the Lord, and served not him." Paul writing to the church at Corinth in his second epistle, 2 Corinthians chapter 11, the first four verses, 2 Corinthians 11 verses 1-4, by the same spirit, so does Paul write, Would to God ye could bear with me a little in my folly? And indeed, bear with me. For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy. For I espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest by any means has the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety. So your mind should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that cometh preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit which ye have not received, or another gospel which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him. Thus far as the reading of God's most holy, inerrant, and finally authoritative word, the grass withers, the flower thereof fades away, but the word of our God stands forever." And again is his holy word expounded unto us this morning. After Tola and Jer, the minor judges, as was Israel's depraved custom, they returned quickly. They returned again, the scripture says, to the worship of false gods. And God is careful to record just which gods He gives a catalog. He hasn't done this before, but here he gives a catalog of exactly which gods Israel had chosen to serve. In fact, the diversity of gods and their number had increased since the first time Israel departed from God to such an extent that it is enough to boggle our minds. In fact, they couldn't get enough. Note the catalog of false deities. Seven distinctive categories in total. Balaam, Ashtaroth, the gods of Syria, the gods of Zion, the gods of Moab, the gods of the children of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines. Commentator and theologian Adam Clark comments, he says, Israel became universal idolaters, adopting every god of the surrounding nations. Balaam and Ashtaroth may signify gods and goddesses in general. And these are enumerated. the gods of Syria, Bel and Saturn, or Jupiter and Ashtar, gods of Sidon, Ashtar or Venus, the gods of Moab, Chemosh, the gods of the children of Ammon, Milkon, gods of the Philistines, Dagon. These are called gods because their images and places of worship were multiplied throughout the land. Now it seemed as if Israel couldn't get enough of these gods and goddesses. And so, in a frenzied fit of apostate desire, they jump headlong into the polluted world of Canaan's gods and goddesses. According to the Encyclopedia of Philosophy on the Canaanite Religion, the writer explains this, he says, so it seems the Israelites initially worshipped Yahweh alongside a variety of Canaanite gods and goddesses, including El, Ashtar, and Baal. In the period of the Judges and the first half of the monarchy, El and Yahweh became conflated in a process of religious syncretism, the blending. As a result, El became a generic term meaning God, as opposed to the name of a worshipping deity and epaulets such as El Shaddai came to be applied to Yahweh alone, deconstructing the worship of El and strengthening the position of Yahweh. Features of Baal, El and Ashtar were absorbed into the Yahweh religion, Ashtar possibly becoming embodied in the female aspects of the Shekinah or Divine Presence and Baal's nature as a storm and weather God becoming assimilated into Yahweh's own identification with the storm. So you see this syncretism, this blending of Yahweh with the pagan gods, which actually would then nullify the true God of scripture. So again, the burning question is why? Why would Israel blend these pagan gods with the true gods, the true God with these false gods, resulting in the utter rejection of Yahweh by replacing Him, finally replacing Him, forgetting Him and replacing Him with false gods. Didn't they know, didn't they understand what the consequences would be once they rejected the true God of the universe? What brought them to this point of total rejection? Well, having been brought back to their senses through the deliverance of other judges, the question is again asked, how then could they now negate all that had been done to utterly reject the true God of Scripture? The question that we have to ask is, didn't He deliver them in the past? Didn't He deliver them over and over and over? Had He not consistently, miraculously, and wonderfully been with them throughout their existence, even showing them undeserved mercy after they willfully plunged themselves into the abyss of evil and pagan worship time after time after time after time? Now, if the apostles' warning to the Corinthians is to be taken seriously, then these historical events are for our learning just as much as they are for ancient Israel's instruction. So, pointing back to the days of the wilderness sojourn, Paul tells the New Testament church through the writings to the Corinthians that everything that happened then, and this is something that's very important, everything that happened to Israel then is for us to learn from today. That has to be understood before we go further. That means that those events in the book of the judges in the books of the prophets, in the book of Moses. All those events are for our learning today, and we need to take a careful assessment of that. So Paul is establishing a general principle. He is saying that even in the face of Moses, which would include all of God's delivering judges, Israel was prone to apostasy. The old Adamic nature is always prone to apostasy, and we, in the New Testament, still have that old Adamic nature. Therefore, we are still prone to Israel's sins. And we don't like to think like that, but that's the way it is. Notice what Paul says to the church at Corinth in 1 Corinthians 10, beginning in verse 6. Now these things, he says, the things in the Old Testament, were our examples to the intent that we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them. As it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed and fell in one day three and twenty thousand. Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted and were destroyed of serpents. Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured and were destroyed of the destroyer. Notice verse 11, now all these things, how many things? All these things. All these things happened unto them for examples and they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come. Verse 12 actually sets forth the modern warning. Notice he says in verse 12, Wherefore, in light of everything I just said, let him that thinketh, he standeth, take heed, lest he fall. And that's the problem with Israel. They thought that because they had God at one point, that God delivered them at another point, that they could now do whatever they want. It's just not that way. Paul also warns the Corinthians that there may be a time when they are introduced to another Jesus. a synthesized Jesus, one who is synthesized with the paganism of the world. And once you synthesize paganism with the gospel of Jesus Christ, you no longer have the gospel of Jesus Christ, and therefore, you no longer have salvation. In fact, what you have is damnation. And he tells them that when this introduction is made between paganism and Christianity, that the people that call themselves Christians may very well embrace it as the truth of God or even God Himself. Because once there's a syncretism, once that synthesis is made, you can't tell the difference anymore. You lose all sense of your moorings. Adam Clarke again comments, he says, The punishments which God inflicted on Israel furnish us with evidences of what God will inflict upon us. if we sin after the similitude of those transgressors. The Reverend Howies adds this, he says, from Israel's examples, the apostle warns the Corinthians not to be secure, notwithstanding their distinguished privileges, lest imitating their sins, they should be exposed to like punishment. He cautions them against the indulgence of their appetite. Dissatisfied with the manner, the Israelites lusted after flesh to eat. against such luxury they must beware, and particularly avoid the idle feasts or sacrifices which could not but have the most fatal consequences." So Israel had not only embraced the philosophy of the Canaanites, they embraced their practices which eventually crept into their worship, corrupting it and bringing upon them the wrath of God. Because ideas, philosophies, have consequences. And once you embrace a philosophy, you embrace the practice. Once the Canaanite philosophy was fully accepted, it infiltrated every aspect and element of the Hebrew life. Of course, it didn't happen overnight. Nothing happens overnight. Everything happens by degrees. Here a little, there a little. A little apostate there, a little apostasy there. And all of a sudden, before you turn around, you're a Canaanite. It is absolutely, therefore, essential to understand that what happened to Israel can indeed happen to us. In fact, I submit that in a very real way, at least nationally, and in many circles ecclesiastically, it has already happened to us. And we, at this point, in this time, in this history, are in the midst of it to the extent that the Canaanite philosophies have infiltrated every aspect of our being and life's activities. Modern Christianity is in the midst of the deepest apostasy in the same way that Israel was by worshiping not the one true God, but a myriad of gods, embracing a myriad of philosophies, gods and goddesses, generally known as what is commonly called secular humanism. Man wanting to be his God, choosing what is right as opposed to what is wrong. So what exactly has our nation and the modern church succumbed to that patterns ancient Israel's apostasy from God? What exactly did we embrace that patterned Israel? Now, the overall reason is fairly simple. Modern Christianity has lost much of its theological and philosophical moorings. And that's because they have been infiltrated with secular humanistic philosophies. Modern Christians, most modern Christians, can no longer think God's thoughts after him because they no longer have the discipline for what is called cognitive theological intensity. By this I mean, They have lost the will and desire to contemplate God and His word in light of the world around them deeply. Everything today is superficial. Well, Jesus loves me, and this I know because the Bible tells me so. Have a nice day. See you next Sunday. We have lost that deep contemplation of God because we have embraced so much of the noise of the world around us. that we have forgotten how to deeply contemplate God. And this results in a complete deterioration of deep and contemplative biblical thinking, which results in the deterioration of Christendom itself. That's where we are today. Much of modern Christianity's worldview is a doctrine given by the traditions of secular men and not out of the Bible. And this makes modern Christianity a mere shadow of what it once was. Now, while many Christians have abandoned deep thinking about God, they have readily embraced many of the ideas proposed by the deep thinkers of secularism as well. So they exchange deep thinking about God to embrace deep thinking about the philosophies of the world. It is this slide from Godly Thinking to secular thinking, this blend that has caused Christendom to follow the way of ancient Israel. Educator, theologian, and author, and someone I respect dearly, a friend, the Reverend Kevin Swanson, explains it this way. Listen very carefully. The mass apostasy of the last six generations is largely due to secular education, where children have been set at the feet of the great pagan philosophers and literary giants for a dozen years or more. Instead of providing a rich education in scripture and Christian authors, students are subjected to a confused mixture of writings from pagans and Christians and expected to sort it out. Many parents and teachers do not understand the potency of the pagan thought communicated in the great books, as they subject the children to Greek philosophy, the transcendentalists, and the humanists of various stripes. Over the last two centuries, millions of Christian parents have been cruelly disappointed by the outcome of their children's education after giving them over to Christian schools and colleges that give them undue, uncritical support for the classics. which means the pagan philosophers. Generation after successive generation, he continues, children have apostatized from the faith in droves and this form of education is a major cause, end quote. Canaan may have not had a conscious strategy for subverting Israel. Nevertheless, whatever they offered was enough for Israel to abandon the God of their fathers and the Lord of heaven and earth. Now let's consider Israel's errors. The first of Israel's errors was to integrate themselves with the pagan world of the Canaanites, their philosophies, and their practices. Instead of advancing God's agenda and taking dominion and his concepts of reality, bringing it to the Canaanites, Israel remained passive, resulting in the advancing of Canaanites' ideas on Israel. So Canaan was taking dominion while Israel sat back and embraced their philosophies. Now please note, the power of ideas or the power of philosophy, it's enormous. It's enormous. As a man thinketh, so is he. So when you Bring an idea. If that idea is embraced, it changes the entire dynamic of the person. Ideas have tremendous consequences. Not only are ideas not neutral, they are either good or evil. There's no such thing as a neutral idea. It's either a good idea or a bad idea. It's either ethically conformed to the word of God or it is not. There's nothing in between. It's either God-centered and approved by God, or man-centered and antagonistic against God and His sovereign majesty." Rev. Swanson again comments, he says, "...all ideas are not equal in truthfulness or merit. Some ideas are downright dangerous and destructive. The greatest wars of all time are fought in the realm of ideas. They are intense, drawn-out conflicts that in the end define the world we live in." Israel's problems, like today's modern Christian, is that they embraced and lived by pagan ideas and philosophies, which determined their every thought and action, even to the extent of their worship. And maybe they didn't even understand what they were doing. Maybe they didn't even identify how they had gone astray. When Adam decided to rebel and declare himself as God, knowing good from evil, humanism was born. And when humanism was born, so too were her children born. Rationalism, nihilism, existentialism, empiricism, utilitarianism, all of which can be explained in this way. Man is the ultimate authority in truth. Rationalism. Man is the ultimate authority in reality. Nihilism. Man is the ultimate authority in law. Existentialism. Man is the ultimate source of salvation, empiricism. Man is the ultimate center of worship, utilitarianism. If Canaan would have kept its ideas within its own pagan framework, without it being adopted by Israel, things would have been very different. But once Israel adopted Canaan's ways, every fortress of truth was compromised. The foundations were destroyed. Once the syncretism came to fruition, And Yahweh was blended with Baal. The foundations of Christendom were destroyed. And today, once we blend secular humanism with Christianity, the foundations of Christendom are also destroyed. If paganism was never adopted by the modern church, things would be different today. But you look at the world around you today, and you have to ask the question, why are things the way they are today? Because Christendom has adopted the way of the pagan. Swanson again comments, he says, the breakdown of our civilization is a direct result of humanistic ideologies which have swept through the church, the state, the school, and the wider culture, end quote. As Henry Van Til so often stated, culture is religion externalized. Think about what your culture is. What religion is our culture showing forth? Whenever we examine the world around us, we see the outward expression in almost every institution of civilization of this secular, humanistic, religious, and philosophical underpinnings. What we are seeing is the expression of mankind's faith in secular humanism in action. Israel was called to Canaan for one reason. You are born for one reason. It's to impress God's truth upon the Canaan culture. You see, Israel was called to conquer Canaan. so that Canaan could be one day like a watered garden, not a polluted stream of man's rebellion, and man's humanism, and man's debauchery, and man's blasphemy. That's not why we've been called here. That's not what the church is here for. The church is never to adopt the ways of Canaan. And we see it again, and again, and over, and over, and over. Every time we turn around, another denomination falls to another blasphemy, another debauchery, another pagan culture. But it didn't happen overnight. It didn't happen just in a moment. It happened by degrees. So Israel was called to conquer Canaan, not that Canaan would conquer Israel. It seems apparent, however, that Israel was incapable of achieving this because they lacked the spiritual fortitude to sacrifice themselves for the glory of God. I do not want to be like ancient Israel. Instead of influencing Canaan, she was influenced by Canaan. Instead of taking dominion over the land of promise, she was overtaken by the dominion action of Canaanite philosophical arsenals. So where has the modern church, in particular, gone wrong? How have we gone wrong? More importantly, do we even know that we've gone wrong? Can we even see where we've gone wrong? Because we're just as much a part of the problem as the apostate church. We can never say, us and them. We still have old Adam, just like them. It's only by God's grace that we haven't fallen completely off the boat. So where has the modern church gone wrong? How have we, we've got to put ourselves in this equation, how have we bought into the Canaanite philosophy without even knowing it? You see, that was the problem. They couldn't even identify their apostasy until it was too late. And this tells us that they didn't have a strong foundation in Yahweh. Their religion was superficial. No deep cognitive thinking on God and His laws. And without this deep contemplation, serious study, and watchfulness, they couldn't build nor maintain a strong theological foundation against the infestation of Canaanite philosophy. Think about yourself. Think about you. How many hours do you spend deeply contemplating God or reading His scripture? Now, I know you have to go to work eight hours a day. But what about the other eight? Well, I'm sleeping. But what about the other eight? Well, that's taken up with the study of the other thing. Well, figure it out, incorporate God's Word into your life, because if you don't, you are susceptible to the ways of the Canaanite. And so, Israel's weak foundations were easily compromised by the philosophy of the Canaanites. You see, the philosophy of the Canaanites never sleeps. And if you think that your children, your grandchildren, are getting enough of God's Word on Sunday alone, then you have already drunk deeply into the ideology of the Canaanite. Now, one of the particular issues facing Christian families today concerns their education. The Christian family can be divided into three groups. Those that send their children to secular government schools, these are thoroughly pagan from the root to the branch. Secondly, those that educate their children in the classical Christian school. This model mixes paganism, literature, art, science, and philosophy with Christian thought. This too is a problem because this is syncretistic. This syncretistic model undermines the pure teaching of scripture by placing God's truth on par with pagan truth, whereby the student cannot really tell the difference. And you start a child very young with that confusion, and for the rest of his life, he will be confused. Thirdly, then there's the home educator's model. Now, this too can be very compromising if the scripture is not the foundation of all learning. You can't say, I'm going to educate my child at home and then go out and get all the pagan books because that's what the school districts are telling you how to bring out. You can't ask the question, what is the state demand of a first grader, second grader, third grader? What is required? Who cares what the state requires? What does God tell us? Solomon declares, almost as a warning to those that might begin that long slide into pagan thought. He says this in Proverbs 1.7, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. If you want your child or yourself to learn anything, to know anything, you begin by honoring God. You begin with the fear of the Lord. But fools despise wisdom and instruction. So once you send your child off to some secularized educational program, You're giving them over to fools who despise knowledge because they do not have the fear of the Lord. Note how Solomon implores the simple ones, those that are easily seduced, to be focused upon the word of God for all knowledge. In Proverbs 1.20 and following, wisdom crieth without. She uttereth her voice in the streets. She crieth in the chief place of concourse. In the opening of the gates in the city, she uttereth her word saying, how long ye simple ones, Will ye love simplicity? And the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge. Notice what he says. He's saying this to you. Turn you at my reproof. Behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you. I will make known my words unto you. And those words are known unto us in the scriptures. And then knowing the scriptures and having a biblical world and life view, then we can look at the world around us and properly assess what is happening. And therefore, reading, writing, and arithmetic will take a whole new luster, because it will be couched in the fear of the Lord. Solomon obviously was an educator, educating his sons in the fear of the Lord. And he continues in Proverbs 4, 7 and 5, 1, he says, Wisdom is the principal thing. Therefore, get wisdom. And with all thy getting, get understanding. My son, attend to my wisdom, and bow down thine ear to my understanding. that thou mayest regard discretion, and that thy lips may keep knowledge." You see, what Israel failed to understand was that the philosophy of Canaan was no match for the truth of God's Word. But we have been taught, we have been told, we have had this impressed upon us that man's wisdom, man's science, man's knowledge is the pinnacle of truth. Foolishly, Israel held Canaan's ideas above God's in the hope that one day, perhaps, through the combined knowledge of pagan thought and God's thought, they might actually be God. But they were wrong. They were dead wrong. Solomon confirms this in Proverbs 21.30. He says, there is no wisdom, nor understanding, nor counsel against the Lord. So what are some of the specific ideas undermining Christendom today? And who are the men proposing these ideas who have been, by our culture, elevated to the level of divinity by both the secular world and the world of modern Christendom? Who are these people? What were they pronouncing? What were their ideas? Who were they? In man's denial of God's legitimate right to be God, he has sworn to devote his entire life to replace him. Man wants to be as God, and the only way he can be God is to replace God or kill God. And he does this, and he has been doing this effectively for years. He does this by infecting mankind with his ungodly humanistic ideologies in the hope that one day he will actually take God's place as the supreme ruler of the world. This plan began in the garden after the fall, and it has been with us ever since. There's nothing new under the sun. Throughout history, however, it has gained momentum to the point of critical mass, and we are at a point which is critical. Now, at certain times throughout history, this paganism, this secular humanism increased. Other times, as God raised up godly men, it was stifled. some who were God-fearing men of great sobriety and godly fear. These were men who God brought to bring a little bit more of sobriety so that the secular humanistic ideologies wouldn't break out as a fire among thorns. Now, one such period of sobriety was during the Reformation. The European Reformation was no stranger to the influx of paganism into both the universities and the overall culture as a result. It was within the universities during that time, which remain up until now, where we see the steady erosion of Christian faith and influence. Swanson explains it this way. He says, humanism began to exert its influence through these universities, the first of which was the University of Bologna, established in 1088. Think about it, 1088. By the 1270s, There was also the universities in Paris, Oxford, Toulouse, Montpelier, Cambridge, Padua, Naples, Salerno, Salamanca, Coimbra, and Lisbon. These academic institutions were established largely on humanistic ideas that served as the foundation for a humanistic renaissance." End quote. And what do Christian parents want so much today? Send the children to the university. But it's not a university. It's a multiversity. Many gods, many gods, many goddesses. And beware, because they are trying to inculcate you into their ideologies. By the mid-1200s, Thomas Aquinas, a so-called Christian man, a hero among many, began to unwrap his defective system of theology by syncretizing sacred theology, as he called it, with humanistic philosophy. Breaking from the Augustinian view of knowledge, where Augustine said, believe that you may understand, Aquinas, a hopeless Aristotelian, a Greek philosopher, turned the tables by claiming that man can reason by his own mind, by the use of his own mind, reason himself to believe. Aquinas believed that natural fallen man could build a reliable system of philosophical knowledge based on human reason, thus denying the total depravity of man, denying the fall of man, denying Adamic, the Adamic nature of man. He believed that man was capable of coming to truth apart from God's special revelation. Man could be his God. Man could save himself. Swanson again weighs in. Aquinas proposed two kinds of systems of knowledge, one sacred and the other secular, which he called philosophical." Aquinas' ideas paved the way for man to divorce God's truth from mathematics, music, art, science, history, economics, and every other element of civilization. It happened as early as the 1200s, probably even before. But he began to restructure all of the elements of civilization whereby they can be explained and should be explained and only properly be explained through secular ideas. This disconnection between God's truth and man's truth paved the way for secular philosophy to take control over the entire Western world. Aquinas believed that God's truth could be compartmentalized to the realm of spiritual having nothing to do with the areas and institutions of the world at large. Think about the churches today. Well, we just preach the gospel. We don't want to get involved in economics, politics, art, science, history. Those are the devil's realm. That is Aquinas' compartmentalization, where he's divorcing God in his sovereign, universal majesty from everything else in the world and sticks him sequests him in the four walls of the ghetto church, never to be seen in the real world. And that's what we have today, and that's why we have it. According to Swanson, as secular philosophers took ownership of epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, law, social theory, and political theory, sacred doctrine was left with, well, almost nothing. So in time, rational Christians would reject the doctrine of the Trinity, the inerrancy of Scripture, the virgin birth, and ultimately the supremacy of God and His law. Today, even the plainest of biblical declarations are questioned and rationalized away by man who would be his God. How many times have you heard someone say, well, did God really say that? Sounds familiar, doesn't it? Well, it doesn't really mean that. We can be Christians and be part of the happy, rainbow, LGBTQ plus community. because the Bible is not really condemning that. Or I can be ethically compromised because it's pragmatic and the Bible doesn't really say anything about that kind of practice. You see, the natural consequence of this slide into the darkness of humanism finds itself in the teachings of men such as, and here's the list. See if you could pick out some of the most famous because they're all famous. Rene Descartes, John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, John Dewey, Karl Marx, Friedrich Nietzsche, Charles Darwin, John Paul Sartre, Sigmund Freud, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Jeremy Bentham, Ernest Hemingway, and even Shakespeare with his confused synthesis of pagan and Christian worldview. These are the giants of humanistic thought ranging from atheism, rationalism, nihilism, existentialism, pantheism, transcendentalism, hedonism, utilitarianism, escapism, and pragmatism, all the way to Darwin's evolutionary materialism. That's what our culture, your world, is made up of. Why? Because the Christians have compartmentalized God into the church. Now, this is what we've received by these men. Thomas Aquinas, he paved the way to a man-centered philosophy known as rationalism. I know, so I may believe. Rene Descartes formed the humanistic philosopher. By his teaching, reason was divorced from revelation. I think, therefore I am, which is actually stating that man is the measure of all things. John Locke formed the humanistic theologian. Sadly, with John Locke, he was a Puritan. His father was a Puritan. And yet he forms the humanistic theologian. He is credited with the social contract, Unitarianism, anti-Trinitarianism, and the doctrine by which he argues against original sin, where man's mind is a blank slate, the tabula rasa. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, he formed the humanistic society. His claim to fame was the child-directed state education. Does that sound familiar? who say that the state-run government schools can teach the child better than the parent. Have you ever heard a Christian parent say, well, you know, I can't teach math, so I have to give it over to the state. I can't teach science, so I'll just give it to someone over who's better than me at that. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, a profligate, wicked, reprobate of a man, advocated revolution and socialism, which is what the schools teach today to these very same children. Call him Marx. He paved the road to tyranny and mass murder. He perpetuated class warfare, which is what we see today. If you disagree with someone today, you're a racist. That's Marxism. And yet you have Christians after Christians after Christians voting for the Marxist political party. He perpetuated class warfare. And in his 10-plank declaration of the Communist Manifesto, He advocated the abolition of private property and freedom. Ralph Waldo Emerson. He formed the humanistic person. When I was in college, we read everything that he wrote, because I was in a socialist school. It was the multi-university for me. His concept of the inner voice of relative truth led to the Romantic era, which was a slide into Eastern religions and Hinduism. Self and nature was his god. Jeremy Bentham, a real nutbag, he had himself stuffed and put in a glass case after he died so people could look at him. And you can go online and you can look at what he looks like. He formed the humanistic ethic. If there was ever an oxymoron, there's one right there. A humanistic ethic? His utilitarian law believed that whatever works, whatever promotes the general happiness for the greatest number Right doesn't matter what it is. So if I think that killing a hundred people to save a thousand is good You better not be amidst the 100 Charles Darwin Formed the humanistic scientist. He is famous for his idea of the survival of the fittest for him science was the source of truth not revelation and This led to social Darwinism in multiple disciplines and was directly responsible for the murder of thousands upon thousands of people. Friedrich Nietzsche formed the humanistic psychology. He believed that might makes right and that man could become a superman. Man becoming God, there it is. John Dewey prepared the way for atheistic education. Education was only for the purpose, to express purpose. of providing servants for the state military industrial complex. It was never about education, but it was all about indoctrination. And you think about it, when somebody says, the public schools are failing, you remind them, no, I'm sorry, they are very successful, thank you very kindly, they are doing exactly what they set out to do. Jean-Paul Sartre formed the humanistic culture He said that existential man was to be an isolated, alienated individual living by his own rules. Man desiring to know good from evil according to his own rationality. And this led to rebellion, terrorism, and the sexual revolution. And we see this in such songs as Frank Sinatra's, I did it my way. Forget about God, I did it my way. I'm going to structure the church my way. I'm going to structure my life my way. Many Christians follow this idea when they denounce or neglect membership in a faithful congregation because they believe that there are none that meet their personal criteria of fidelity or theological intellect or holiness. So it says, I'm going to do it my way. I'm not going to follow the scripture. I'm going to do it my way. And these are just some of the ideas that perpetuate today's modern culture. And the church has bought into so many of these hook, line, and sinker. All right, so how do we combat this onslaught of this modern Canaanite propaganda? How do we deal with this? Because at this point, it's overwhelming. Is it not? Is it not overwhelming? So how do we combat this? Well, first, we have to recognize the extent to which we have been indoctrinated into the pagan agenda. Secondly, we have to get serious with God. We have to get serious about worship, about our contemplation of God, about our study of the scriptures, and especially about education. The way we do this is by identifying and then applying a strict biblical worldview to what we subject our children as well as ourselves to. Remember, the children went astray in Israel because the parents were lackadaisical. So how do we do this, you moms and dads? And this goes for moms and dads too, not only the children. But have your child, have your children submerged in godly books and studies, which have Christ at the center and not man. Insulate them by introducing them to godly books, literature and poetry, wholesome movies, music. Have them become bathed in the things of God, As they get older, you can begin with some of the great Christian classics. You know, children love to sing. Sing the Psalms, sing the hymns. Have a singing week where on Wednesday, for the next 10 weeks, you get together around the dessert table and you sing the great hymns of faith. Inculcate them. As they get older, you can begin with some of the great Christian classics. Be sure to introduce them to the heroes of the faith. They need to be acquainted with the early church fathers, the faithful men of the Middle Ages of the Reformation. They need to be acquainted with the Puritans and those of our own modern age who were faithful and those that are contemporaries who remain faithful. Talk with them about what God is doing in the world and why he's doing it and where they fit in into that equation. Now these biographies that you read to them, and biographies are great because Real people doing real things for a real God with real results, with real problems and real victories. Kids love stories. Biographies are great. And they will act as both a guide to their character and life's purpose as they see themselves in those faithful men and women. Finally, as a note of caution, do not teach so that your child can know the many things of the world. I think that's what we fall short in. We think that we have to teach them all the things that the world knows. They'll figure that all out. They'll figure that out all by themselves. Don't be like the pagans. Don't be like Israel. Teach them with a God-glorifying purpose that their life is to glorify God. Too many parents coast through the education process just to get through the 12 years, just to make sure they cover all the bases, all the bases by the way, that the secularists have strategically planned so you would indoctrinate your child according to their agenda, even though you're schooling them at home. Remember, when you inquire about what a child should learn at any given age, you will get the agenda of the Canaanite. Teach so as to give them a godly direction so that when they finally are introduced to the works of the Canaanite humanist, the existentialist, the atheist, the nihilist, the rationalist, the empiricist, the evolutionary materialists, the hedonists, the pantheists, and the pragmatists, they will be able to immediately, immediately distinguish between good and evil and construct a plan to unseat them and their destructive ideologies. You know, if you ever work in a bank, they don't give you counterfeits to identify. They give you all real money, not that it's real, but they give you real money so that when you finally get a false piece of paper, you can identify it right away. Now I'll leave you with some concrete suggestions. For those of you that have older children, even those in college, if you, young men, young women, have not read these books, you should do so. You should make it your mission. For those of you who are just starting out or who are already on the road, this list may be of some assistance. Here it is. Most of you have read this one, Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. And Grace Abounding to the Chiefest of Sinners. Great book for the kids. A great book. The Confessions of St. Augustine. The Biographies of the Reformers, the Scottish Covenanters, and the Puritans. There are dozens of those, which are exciting. And you don't have to read it word for word. You could embellish. You could give them the idea as you read it to younger children. But read it. Fox's Book of Martyrs. Fair Sunshine. Those speaking about what men and women did for the faith, giving their lives for a conviction about God. Athanasius' work on the Incarnation. Thomas Kemper's The Imitation of Christ. Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion. The Westminster Standards and the Ancient Confessions and Creeds of Christendom. Have them read some of Owen's works. They are hard. They're difficult, but just give them an idea of what's out there. Introduce them to the books of Christendom, the works of Richard Baxter, very practical works. If you do not own a volume set of the works of Richard Baxter, you do not have a complete library. And you won't know how to navigate the world around you without that work, because that work takes the Bible and makes it alive. It speaks of ethics, how to maintain your sobriety in company, what to educate your children with, how to speak, how to listen, what to see, what not to see, how to shop, how to do this, how to do that. It is incredible. Read the Puritans. Read what they've done, right and wrong. Maybe you can move on to investigate perhaps some of Rushduny's works, some other works of our modern day theologians that are faithfully seeking to advance the kingdom of God. And since the humanist agenda has captivated the entire Western world with this wicked depiction of art and music as well as literature, you should expose your children to godly art and godly music. Groom them now so that in the years to come, they will not depart from the faith as Israel did by forgetting God and falling prey to the worship of idols. If this is to be realized, it will be realized only in the subsequent generations of the faithful. That means you. May God help the church of Jesus Christ to recapture Western civilization for the glory of God and the advancement of his kingdom. And this she shall do by God's mercy unto the praise of the glory of his grace. Amen.