In the history of the world, there have
only been two approaches to life. One approach is to base life on God’s ways
and words, the other to base it on our own ways and words. Whether it is the
division between Isaac and Ishmael, or Billy Graham and Richard Dawkins, the
dichotomy has always existed. All social issues, all life decisions and their
implications rest upon the fundamental question of whether or not we are going
to do things our way, or God’s way.
Never has this been so true as it
is today. The greatest battle facing our generation isn’t terrorism or
financial insecurity. It isn’t education or ignorance, peace or war, but the
battle between the Church and the Cult of Love. It is the single most pressing
issue in our culture today, because it is the same ancient struggle that began
in the Garden of Eden; will we choose God’s will or our own?
I will begin by defining The Cult
of Love and end by defining the Church. I’m unsure exactly where the conflict
began in relation to America, though I suspect that it’s rooted in postwar
Europe. Nationalism lost its savor amongst the war weary, the economy began to
take a more global shape, and mass communication allowed us to be more in touch
with the world around us. In a new way, isolated peoples were confronted with
the reality of other cultures, other races, strange religions and beliefs. The
rift between cultures that had been invisible to many for centuries was
stripped bare. Simultaneously, the world’s powers began the bitter war over
democracy and communism. As is the case for anyone who endures prolonged
conflict, there was a cry for peace, an end to war and animosity, and a surge
of civil rights. A new banner, painted on the base of postmodernism, was flying
over the west, the banner of human unity.
The Sexual Revolution gave the Cult
of Love a refreshed vitality, luring many young intellectuals into its pews.
Beyond mere discussions of economic systems and political opinions, the old
enemy was rearing its head in the bowels of this cult’s ideology. Underlying
all of the platitudes about peace, all the passionate discourse about
brotherhood was the assumption that mankind was basically right, and God was
basically wrong. The archetypical conflict reemerged in the bright faces of
baby boomers.
The central doctrines to the Cult
of Love are following: the acceptance of all faiths as equally valid, the
acceptance of all forms of sexuality and gender as equally valid, the basic
goodness of mankind, care for the poor, social and income equality, and the
rejection of traditional authority. A combination of Syncretism and
Universalism, as promoted by a number of influential pop-culture figures in
America, is the tip of the spear for the Cult of Love. This religion attracts
people because it offers all the nice parts of religion and leaves out the
uncomfortable parts. The Cult of Love therefore rejects the existence of Hell
and sin, and replaces them with heaven and humanism. Its main downfall is that
a belief in everything is essentially a belief in nothing. They believe that
all religions are right, and therefore none of them are right because they only
give partial pictures. I’ve addressed this in, “The Parable of the Soda Can.”
From the foundation of ambiguous
religion comes ambiguous sexuality. A society’s view on sexuality is mostly
influenced by the religion of the society, or lack thereof. For the Greeks and
Romans, orgies, pedophilia, homosexuality, and infidelity were social norms,
reflected in the lustful mythology they invented. The Cult of Love uses sex as
the bait and hook to their ideology. Get young people addicted to their version
of sex and they will cling to the Cult like a junkie to a seller. In our
society, billions of dollars are poured into the peddling of sex, from
pornography to sex slavery. It’s about the rebellion against God’s version of
sex, the version that is exclusive to marriage. The Cult of Love screams that
anyone who feels sexual attraction to another person should be able to express
it. Except, they use the word love, dirtying its real meaning by reducing it to
romance. As our divorce rate proves, love is more than sex and romance. As our
obsession with porn proves, love and sex aren’t synonymous. This ambiguous
sexuality delivers pain, disease, bitterness, and disillusionment. Just as the
Proverbs say, those who follow that path will end their life with a groan.
The Cult of Love confuses many good
people by its trumpeting of social justice. The hands of the Cult have given
countless meals, hours of education, and medical supplies. In themselves these
things are good, but there is a more insidious end to the philanthropy that
those who align themselves with the Cult may not even know. Instead of giving
food to show that God loves a person, food is given to show that mankind loves
that person. The apparent meaning is that life is through humanity, but the
implied meaning is that it isn’t through God. It’s like the Pharisees mocking
Jesus’ charity to the poor by saying, “We also can give to the needy, but
without you.” At the root is the same old battle; we have chosen our way and
forgotten God’s way.
It’s my belief that we will see the
culmination of this Cult of Conformity, in the face of a world united under the
creed of man. At first it will solve economic woes and quell the surge of wars,
just as every young tyranny does. As the adolescent and old flock to its
shelter, hiding beneath the shadow of its wings, an ineffable loyalty will be
birthed. Love for humanity will morph into love for one man, the symbol and
hand of the human race, because the Cult of Love is not only the Cult of
Conformity, it is the Cult of Idolatry. Humanity
needs something to worship, and it’s common for us to worship other men. History
proves our affinity for despotic leaders, from Caesar to Napoleon. The
desperate song of unity and safety will be answered, as it was by Hitler, with
the exultation of a world leader. Then
the parades and galas, documentaries and textbooks will applaud the beginning
of the Golden Age, the Age of Man. Men and Women will wipe their teary eyes as
their hearts swell with patriotic love for one nation under humanity.
That, however, isn’t the end. No
happy ending will accompany that story, because the face of the world diplomat
will be unveiled as the face of the world conqueror. The protector of choice
will become the enforcer of oppression.
Suddenly, the masses that murdered and slandered the people brave enough
to speak against the Cult of Love will face the same sword they offered to
others. It will be loyalty or death. That’s where the Cult of Love leads,
because when mankind imagines they are fighting for their own will, they are
actually fighting for that of the devil. Then, the movement of Love will stop
being a soothing melody and become a cruel joke, a brutal irony that breaks the
bones of its minstrels. The flocks of people who hide under the shadow of
Satan’s wings will waste in the grip of his talons.
The Church is God’s answer to
fallen humanity. In the most basic terms the Church is God’s family and God’s
nation. Just like the tribes of old, those who believe in Jesus are members of
a nation family. We have a capital, the New Jerusalem, a King, Jesus the
Messiah, a Father, a Brother, a culture, a set of laws, and common blood, Jesus’
blood. Where the Cult of Love establishes unity on man’s terms, we establish it
on God’s terms, and the Church is therefore far superior. While the Cult of
Love tries to quench fires of racial animosity with common humanity, the Church
extinguishes them with a common Christ. Just as an army with a higher goal will
out fight a band of mercenaries, so will the Church of God out love the band of
religious mercenaries known as the Cult of Love. Eventually the Church will
always win because we follow the God who is love, while they follow the god
fallen from love.
To be less poetic, the Church’s
central doctrines are as follows. There is only one valid faith and only one
true God, human sexuality is narrow because it is a sacred representation of
God, all mankind has fallen from God, unity in God, the care of the poor and
needy, and equality in value, not in function.
As I stated earlier, Syncretism and
Universalism are really the belief in nothing. The Church is the stark
opposite, the only reasonable alternative to the smokescreens of western
mysticism. By nature religion is narrow, just as a road must be relatively
narrow to be a road. This is because all roads, and most religions, have a
destination they are supposed to reach. For the Hindus its Nirvana, the Muslims
Paradise, and for the Atheist it may be death. God’s Church is heading towards
God, literally and metaphorically. In the literal sense every Christian should
want to be physically near God, which is either fulfilled when they die and are
in heaven, or when Jesus comes back to the earth to set up His nation.
Metaphorically, every Christian should want to be like God in word and deed. Just
like we change our hairstyles and clothes to match celebrities, a real
Christian adapts their habits to those of Jesus. To sum up, the end goal of the
Church is to be with God and to be like Him. We are to be as narrow as God, and
it was God who said, “I am the way the truth and the life, no one comes to the
Father except through me.”
God made sex, and therefore
understands it much better than we do. As religion is narrow for the sake of
reaching a goal, sex is also narrow to an end. Homosexuality and many other
forms of sexuality our culture endorses are excluded from the Biblical standard
of sexuality because they keep people from reaching the intended goal. That end
is firstly to show something about God, and secondly for procreation. Sex
unites two humans in a mysterious way, cementing the bond of marriage.
Christian sex speaks of the utter devotion God shows in relationship. That’s
why monogamy is infinitely more beautiful than so called liberated sex. Marriage
gives us the opportunity to see a piece of God’s faithfulness. A non-sexual
truth is shown to us through a sexual lens. We have foolishly assumed that since
sex with one person is good, sex with multiple persons is better. It’s like the
boy who thinks it would be better to have three girlfriends instead of one, but
quickly finds out how much of a problem it presents. We are wired to be
sexually monogamous, and when we aren’t it kills the joy and life that sex is
supposed to bring. Godly sex raises the value of a person, but the sex our
culture offers lowers a person’s value. The Church, therefore, endorses
monogamous, heterosexual, marital sex because it best reflects God and
dignifies those who participate in it.
Christianity is diametrically
opposed to humanism. The Church, unlike the humanist, acknowledges the fact
that all of humanity is fallen, flawed in many ways. Our shortcomings are
painfully clear, and any sane person can see that something is wrong with the
human race. Humanism tries to fix that by denying the core issue, human
sinfulness, and replacing it with self-esteem. The Church finds its esteem in
Jesus. Our confidence isn’t based on our own goodness, but the goodness that
Jesus works through us. We can pray longer, give more, suffer more, and
understand more because its God power that propels us, not human grit.
The Church finds its unity in God. This
hardly needs explanation; it undergirds all we’ve been discussing. The Cult of
Love finds unity in humanity, and like humanity, that unity will ultimately
fail. The Church has a solid unity because ultimately, just as God is one, the
Church will be one. All differences aside, the Church is one Church; there is
only one Body of Christ.
Defending
people in poverty is an essential doctrine in Christian thinking, though unlike
the philanthropy barons of today, we don’t stop at merely filling someone’s
stomach. Christian philanthropy is meant to introduce men, women, and children
to the Nazarene who feeds the five thousand, not just the fish and bread that
He breaks. What good is a hot meal if the recipient spends eternity in a hot
hell? What good do new clothes do if their owner stands naked before God when
they die? Generosity is the communication of the God who bubbles over with
kindness and goodwill toward the weak.
The Church doesn’t value equality
in the way that our culture does. Just like Jesus, who didn’t view surrendering
part of His glory in becoming human something to be despised, the Church is
called not to covet equality. There are two reasons that the Church values
submission. First, it’s a frame of mind that’s consistent with reality. It’s
doubtful that we will experience total equality in any capacity, and if we can
be satisfied without it, our life will be much better. This isn’t to say that
the Church bows to injustice, quite the opposite; we turn injustice on its
head. We take away the power of the oppressor because we free the soul of the
oppressed. Oppression is about control, and when a person isn’t bound in fear
and hate, their oppressor has failed in their aims. Second, if the whole Church
submits to each other, then everyone is protected, everyone belongs. We have
leadership, but our leaders are called to serve the people they lead, not lord
over them. This is another fundamental difference between the Church and the
Cult of Love. The Cult of Love trumpets equality, but when it gains power it
enforces tyranny. Their focus is essentially selfish; the defense of
entitlement and self defined rights. When these rights are gained they will
lie, steal, and kill to keep them. The Church knows that humans forfeited their
rights when we rebelled against God. Human rights can only exist when endowed
by the creator, as our founding fathers knew well. The Church is, or should be,
focused on serving other people. We are willing to give up our rights to help
our fellow believers. We are willing to restrain our desires and strengths so
our families and neighbors can come to God and experience the dignity that He
gives. The Cult of Love will always fail in establishing equality because they
topple tyranny with tyranny. The Church will prevail because we topple tyranny
with the holy bondservant Jesus.
The Cult of
Love is seducing America, but we have the opportunity to break free from her
poisonous doctrines. The Church is the gift of God to America, the only alternative
to the pantheistic tyranny emerging today. As a society we are at the fork in
the road where we must choose between God and humanity. We must decide between
the self-centered crusade of humanity and the inevitable rule of the Just King
Jesus. If America chooses the Cult of Love, she will be destroyed, but if
America chooses Jesus again, we may see God’s mercy and the restoration of the
country we love.
