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Tuesday, August 18, 2009

New World Religion?


"They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised..." Romans 1:25

Worshipping creation is not a new phenomenon. It wasn't even new when Yeshua walked the earth (read Jeremiah and other OT writings). The difference now is the nearly mandatory nature of it, and how so many in the church are assimilating. Especially our kids.

We have very basic TV, and we have that only because with farming, the weather forecast is essential (though they seem to be so inaccurate these days- Yah confounding the wisdom of the 'wise'?). Part of that basic package is the Disney Channel. When I was young, I would ask to spend the night with my grandma on the weekends because she had the Disney channel. I loved the movies, old and new, which were for the most part wholesome entertainment. I have seen a very sad slide into inappropriateness in the modern Disney programming, and last night was the topper.

In what I thought was just a music video by some of the Disney Channel's biggest stars, teens were singing a song about saving the planet from global warming with such passion and zeal, it looked exactly like a worship service. The lyrics were akin to 'This Little light of Mine' and 'It Only Takes a Spark'. The call was to rebel against the grown-ups who say kids can't make a change in the world by registering your name and pledging allegiance to the planet. The singers were beating their chests, closing their eyes, and raising their hands. One time the singer even reached her hand forward to the audience, essentially inviting them to help her end the agony that comes from being environmentally irresponsible.

It made me sick. Talk about proselytizing! Environmentalism is one of the fastest ways to lose your kids to the world. If we allow them to participate in events to 'save the planet', we are essentially telling them the one who created it is not able to keep it as he has promised, and we create a chasm that makes reconciling what they hear in the pew with 'reality' impossible. Rather than looking to the scriptures to see what will happen, they begin to look to the media. We make the Word a book of fairy tales by forcing it to compete with the popular and the cool.

I have written before about the church we left when the balance of actual Bible preaching was replaced with environmentalism, and the crux was a sermon about Rachel Carson (if you don't know who this is, you aren't much of an environmentalist- and you didn't go to college in the 21st century). Even after we left, we still received the newsletter, and in one 12 page issue I counted 11 articles or announcements about going green, including the whole front page of Notes from the Pastor. Not once was there a mention of sharing the gospel. In fact, the message of environmentalism fits very comfortably with the trend in churches to make all missions about compassion and enriching people's lives. Compassion is essential. Being good stewards is fine. BUT THESE HAVE REPLACED THE TRUE CALL OF THE CHURCH TO GO INTO ALL THE WORLD AND PREACH THE GOSPEL. What good is a new well to a village if they are all dying in their sins? How compassionate are we to address the temporal and be silent on the eternal?

This shift of focus is indicative of the world-wide call to address the supposed issues plaguing the planet. It is now part of our politics and even our laws. It is now something we fund whether we like it or not, as our tax dollars pay for much of the legislation commissioning studies to cut down on carbon emissions or reduce the human footprint on the planet. Some very radical environmentalists even propose killing off humans in order to save the planet. With someone willing to die for a cause, it is obviously their religion. What else is man willing to die for except what he believes in? And they are using our children and our churches and our government to make this set of beliefs mandatory, if not yet enforced in practice, at least by criminalizing the morality of those who do not agree. I'm sick to death of commercials where young children have to instruct their stupid fathers (because mothers are protected by feminism) on the new way of doing things from purchasing a light bulb to finding a green appliance.

All this makes me wonder if the one world religion of the last days will not be based on, if not centered around, the planet. There is nothing new under the sun, so the corruption of religion we have seen before will be the corruption we see again. It is also such a prevalent idea that many who call themselves believers are completely wrapped up in it, making the deceiving of the elect very easy to accomplish. We have to fight this religion of Mother earth. If the only thing our kids see is about saving the planet, that will be the core issue in their hearts, and it is not hard to imagine a generation that will have forsaken the scriptures completely for the traditions of men. It is essential to teach our kids the Bible first and most so that they are able to weed out the humanism that shows up dressed in a choir robe.

2 comments:

abauer said...

Hi Amy! I just wanted to let you know that I agree with you on this issue. Although I have never thought of the world order puttin the planet on a pedistal it isn't really all that surprising. We don't have tv here & I am happy to miss out on most of the garbage you are talking about. Yes, we do need to teach our children to be good stewards because our Father placed us in that position, but we can take it too far. We have to recycle where we are & if someone puts trash in the wrong colored bag it's no biggy. It's so sad to see people get all worked up about trash & not worrying about someone's soul. Thanks again for sharing.

Jennifer C. Valerie said...

Very insightful. Similar thoughts have been going my mind. I'm all for being a good steward of the resources that God has given to us but when I observe how the environmental protection people go about their stuff I am wary of certain of their activities. Like some months ago when they had some kind of blessing the river day here on the island and there were all sorts of religions represented and everyone had to pray in their way to their god for the rivers. WHAT!!!

Anyway that's enough ranting. I hope your weekend was great!

Stopped by to tell you about my 2nd Blogiversary celebration going on today. I'm giving away 2 gifts to 2 commenters on the giveaway post. Ends midnight tonight. Come on over and enter. Looking forward to seeing your entry.

Have a wonderful day!