Genuine Christianity results in a radically countercultural worldview. There is no way around this fact. The heart of Biblical Christianity is “God first.” The heart of today’s culture is “me first.” One need not be a philosophy scholar to recognize the law of non-contradiction at play here. Either it is God first or me first, but it cannot be both at the same time.
I recently fell into the cultural trap when I found myself praying that God would reveal to me what His plan for my life was in reference to certain circumstances swirling about me. I basically kept begging God to show me what he has for me. Feeling stressed and at times sorry for myself, I wanted to know how God would help me. This seems innocent at the surface, but the truth hit me like a brick after many months of praying in this general way and not receiving peace. The Lord then showed me, “Shelli, it’s not about what I have for you, but what you have for me,” He seemed to say. I realized that God was impressing on me this thought, “My life is to be spent for His sake – no matter the cost. The answer is not in finding how God fits into my plan and my life, but how I fit into God’s plan!”
Stepping back from my own encounter with the false worldview of self-centeredness, I began to ponder what has happened in recent times. Most of the marketing to which we are constantly exposed urges us to buy what will help us feel better about ourselves and give us a sense of fulfillment of our self-determined needs. We are prodded to buy gadgets that can be customized to our lifestyle and our personality, and that can satisfy our every whim. As Christians, we need to discern the empty philosophy behind this strategy, and boldly determine to think as God will have us think – even if that means dismantling in our own lives the pull of the marketplace. I know it can be difficult to imagine that the general marketplace could be wrong, but remember that we do not use the world as our compass. God’s unchanging Word is our standard.
What is the source of the “me first” culture in which we find ourselves? I believe it can be traced back to a pantheistic view that followed the period of modernism. A New Age type of thinking recently invaded our culture. The crux of this pantheism is explained well by Dean Halverson (2003, 177),
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As the existence of a transcendent God who created all things is denied, which is what the New Age movement does, then the objectivity – the solidness, the otherness – of external reality is diminished. When that happens, then the role of the individual in shaping reality increases in importance.
Pantheism is a belief that everything is God. Divinity is one, and people are an emanation of that “oneness.” Pantheism dangerously says that God is not “other than us” or “outside of us,” but that He is the same as us. Since we are divine (of course, it takes much contemplative meditation and striving to realize this), we have much to do with reality. In fact, Pantheists believe that we – in essence – create our own reality.
A pantheistic framework flowed easily into the idea of hyperindividualism that is so prevalent today. Matthew Vos (2010/2011, 22) explains,
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Another social change influencing schools and students hails from the hyperindividualism saturating the Western world. Television advertisements promote products that can be created, customized, and ordered to reflect the “real you.” Cars, iPods, computers, and pizzas can all be fashioned to your image and to your liking.
The culture’s worldview shifted easily from a general paradigm of pantheism to the specific problem of hyperindividualism. We humans have a much too inflated sense of ourselves and our role in reality when compared to God and His role in reality.
People in general have largely come to believe that the stuff of life is supposed to reflect us and be what we want it to be. We have come to feel that everything ends with us. Actually, we are not the end of the line. We are designed to point to God; the purpose of our lives is to glorify Him. Though we are yet sinners, we were created in His image (Genesis 1:26). The point of living is to make God the most important thing. It follows that the stuff of life is to reflect Him, too. Romans 1:20 declares that the entire creation tells us things about God.
Do we see the difference in thinking presented to us? It is not that the stuff of life points to us, but that we point to God. In turn, we harness this creation and use all He has given to bring glory to Him.
I realize now that the purpose of my life is to be used by God for His renown. My purpose is not to conform my experiences and circumstances to fit what I deem as a good or comfortable life (hyperindividualism streaming from pantheistic thought). The culture can present to me whatever slick marketing messages it wants, but I know that the Maker of Reality is my Maker. I am not an emanation from God; I am a creation of God. My life will be spent bringing glory to Him for as long as He gives me the strength to do so in this world, and then He will supply the strength for me to do so forever in the world to come! May we quit trying to manipulate circumstances to “create the reality” we desire, and –instead – gratefully endure all things as God is exalted.
References:
Halverson, Dean. 2003. The Illustrated Guide to World Religions. Bloomington, MN: Bethany House Publishers.
Voss, Matthew (2010/2011). “Kids These Days” in a World of Change. Christian School Education, 14 (1), 21-23.