Letters to my Children. Use the Entire Circle

Dear Mark, Christina, Melissa, Robbie, Keith and Tiffany - 

We live in a secular society, particularly in the Western world.  Those who espouse a secular society almost demand that we separate anything related to spiritual beliefs from the decision-making process. People who are  nominated for a political position or interviewed for a job are sometimes questioned about their spiritual beliefs, and often are criticized for allowing religious beliefs to influence their decisions. Canada is wrestling with the role of religious influence in society; you can read about the latest ruling from their Supreme Court here. 

Secularism is not new, the secular world view was the basis for the Enlightenment period of the 1700's and 1800's. One of the leading secular philosophers was Immanuel Kant, a German philosopher. My interpretation of his belief is illustrated by this figure. He believed that we must make decisions and explain the world we live in by science, only using the physical world. 

The rapid push toward secularism in the West is establishing a first: we are the first society that tried to remove God totally from the public domain. Ancient China, Egypt, Assyrians, Babylonians, Greeks, and Romans - each of these societies had gods they worshipped. They may not have worshipped Jehovah, but they did have gods. The west is rapidly removing God and gods from the public square. Scary

Is it right or even possible to try to separate our lives as the figure proposes? I believe that we must use the entire circle seamlessly as we live life. The triune God must be a part of our lives.

1. God created us as unique human beings with body mind and soul. He created us with an individual plan for each of us and shapes us so that we can be successful achieving that plan. I believe that when we separate God from our decision-making process we find ourselves unable to answer basic questions like "Why do I exist?" "What is my purpose in life?" "Where did this world come from?" Why is there evil in this world?" "Is anyone or anything controlling this world?"

2. Eternity should drive our living. I discussed this here. 

3. Separating God from everyday life leads to an absence of truth. Without a biblical world view which says that that God is involved in our world on a continuous basis,we try to answer the questions of life from the viewpoint of government, education or science and soon find ourselves with multiple conflicting answers - none of which is true or complete.

4. Conflicting answers, resulting from the absence of God in the decision-making process result in multiple "truths." Which means that in our age of extreme individualism, everyone's answer to a question is "truth." When everyone's (conflicting answers) are truth there is no truth. 

5. The opposite of a secular society (one that excludes science and government and education from the decision-making processes) is as harmful as a secular society. God created mankind and everything in the universe, and He said, "It is good." God created the world and us for his pleasure. He intended for us to live in the world, to populate it, to sustain it, to be creative and inventive and to work. And He wants to be a part of us and this world. Sin, which impacted the world, beginning in Genesis 3:1 causes our work and our  stewardship of the world to be difficult, but sin did not change God's desires for us and this world and a relationship with Him, which is possible through Jesus.

I will write in a future post on why the secularization of society may result in a spiritual awakening that will advance the worldwide church similar to the growth during the first century.