As Whittaker Chambers wrote over sixty years ago, “The crisis of the Western World exists to the degree in which it is indifferent to God.” Chambers – an ex-communist spy who worked for the Soviet Union and a convert to Christianity – was speaking of the anti-God vision of communism. But he was right in a broader sense as well. Communism may have been beaten back in the Cold War against the Soviet Union, but secular and irreligious “progressives” have taken up the Marxist mantle and have been very successful in muting the Christian heritage throughout Western Civilization.
In both cases, evolution has been the supposedly “scientific” basis for the vision of godlessness. Joseph Stalin, for example, was attending the Tiflis Theological Seminary when – at the age of 19 – he began reading Charles Darwin, became an atheist, and went on to join and lead the Communist Party in Russia. His method was to purge the party, and the country, of any threat to his power, promoting a cult of self-adoration while justifying his actions on the basis of “survival of the fittest.” The second highest mass murderer of all time after Mao Tse Tung, he is responsible for killing 40 million people – “for the good of the state.” Though it is supposedly a solution to the extreme poverty of lower classes, communism ends in totalitarianism, death and eventually the destruction of economies.
On the other hand, modern secularists – equally buoyed by their faith in evolution – seem to be content with incremental socialism rather than revolution. It is a creeping godless vision which still wants government ownership and control, along with the abolition of absolute morality founded on religion. History tells us that lower moral standards, moral relativism and the outlawing of God from the public square have taken us to where we are. We are not supposed to argue anything on the basis of moral principle but only on the basis of pragmatism. Why? Because God is said to not be “scientific” while godlessness is.
Knowing the enemy is critical in any fight. Courage to stand and act for right convictions is crucial to victory of any kind – whether on a cultural or a personal level. We are called upon to look beyond the cares of this world and to step out boldly for the truth of God. What keeps us as Christians from acting with the courage of our convictions is not only apathy but fear.
We need to be students all our lives, learning in order to courageously and effectively engage the culture. The truth that the God of the Bible is Creator and Savior is a thoroughly wonderful, life-giving and freedom-ringing message! The Bible encourages us to be “strong in the Lord” … to “put on the full armor of God” (Ephesians 6:10-18), to not give in to the fears that the world and the devil throw our way, and to be “ambassadors” for the truth of God, partnering together through prayer and giving to reach those who are walking in darkness!
– Mark Cadwallader, Board Chairman of Creation Moments
Photo: Whittaker Chambers, PD.
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