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Isn’t it amazing to hear seemingly sophisticated people saying things that seem to lack common sense? Does common sense even exist anymore?
Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #15 of Discerning What Is Best, a podcast applying unchanging biblical principles in a rapidly changing world, and a Christian worldview to current issues and everyday life.
The idea of “common sense” goes back to Aristotle and, generally, refers to a kind of basic awareness or ability to perceive, understand, and judge in a manner that shared by nearly all people.
But for there to be common sense, people need to believe certain thing in common. In other words, they, and the culture they produce, embrace certain understandings, what the philosophers call “presuppositions,” about God, humanity, the created order, right and wrong. We order our lives around such presuppositions.
But we now live in an upside-down age that defies presuppositions rooted in Christian faith. Consequently, we live in an irrational age. Pretty much, like the days of Noah, people do whatever they want to do, when they want to do it, with whom they want to do it. This sounds good. Sort of sounds like freedom.
But what we’re doing doesn't add up. No matter if you measure by history, religion, moral philosophy, nature, or common sense, the answer is the same: a lot of what we’re doing is irrational, i.e., it makes no sense.
Why? Because so much of what we’re doing jettisons concern for right or wrong, defies faith and reason, and is disconnected from reality as God designed it.This is the very definition of irrational.
Freedom is a wonderful thing, a blessing, and a gift from God to humanity. God created us with free will. It’s part of being made in his image.
But freedom works best, guided by belief in God, individual responsibility, and personal accountability. For freedom to thrive, it needs a culture wherein moral concerns remind us that life is best when lived within divine parameters.
The Scripture says it like this: “You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love” (Galatians 5:13).
But these are old ideas, ones contemporary culture no longer recognizes. We want no one, least of all religion or even duty to God and country telling us what we cannot do.
Freedom to act with a moral compass of our own devising, freedom to do what’s right in our own eyes is what we want, and we’re chasing after this wind with all we’re worth.
This podcast is about Discerning What Is Best. If you find this thought-provoking and helpful, follow us on your favorite podcast platform. Download an episode for your friends.
And I don’t just mean “bad people,” the violent, the murderer, the rapist. Certainly, they act with no regard for anything but their own gratification, rage, or emptiness.
Nor do I mean just the bold, often articulate, or creative, secularists, atheists, or hedonists among us. We know them today. If not “celebrities,” they’re called “influencers,” a term that means individuals who post their shallow values online, day in and day out, for millions of followers to read and emulate.
But these celebrity influencers are not a cause but a symptom. They’ve become who they are because they’ve been enabled by a culture enamored by the beautiful people, their high rent looks, or outrageous behavior, or material excess.
So, when I say we’re riding hell-bent for leather into irrationality, I don’t mean just the wayward ones out in la-la land. I mean “us,” our culture.
Contemporary culture—meaning our “way of life”—seems bent upon finding ways to embrace, even promote ideas, attitudes, values, and practices earlier cultures, and earlier generations in our culture, considered lacking in common sense. Indeed, in much of this, contemporary culture is celebrating irrationality.
Some of the ideas, attitudes, values, and practices we’ve recently embraced are irreverent, some are immoral, some are ill advised, and some, at least at one time, were illegal.
I say, “recently embraced,” but Solomon reminded us in the book of Ecclesiastes that there are no new practices under the sun, just old ones recycled (Ecclesiastes 1:9).
Of course, what one calls irreverent, immoral, ill advised, or illegal depends upon one’s worldview. What you believe—your presuppositions—about God, life, and truth influences what ideas, attitudes, values, and practices you consider legitimate. This is the prime reason contemporary culture celebrates irrationality. It does so because the current cultural zeitgeist, or “spirit of the age,” has jettisoned the idea of moral absolutes in favor of a new (ironically) absolute called “moral relativism.”
According to moral relativism, ultimate truth doesn’t exist…or if it does, it can’t be discerned or defined. And moral relativism also rejects the existence of clearly knowable, objectively established truth. In place of ultimate truth, or knowable, objective truth, contemporary culture affirms the idea, “There is no truth” or “What’s true for you may not be true for me.”
Consequently, since we can know nothing for sure, we cannot believe anything for sure. If we can know nothing and can believe nothing for sure, what we believe and, therefore, what we do does not matter.
A culture that does not believe in objective truth is vulnerable. Well, actually it is wide-open, to subjective “truth.” In other words, if we don’t believe truth is determined outside of us than it must be OK to determine it within us.
But this idea doesn’t work well, because human beings have depraved hearts and minds (Jeremiah 17:9; Romans 1:28), so, what’s inside us is not strawberries and cream but darkness, a capacity for and an inclination to evil.
Scripture repeatedly describes human beings as created good and for good. Yes, humanity by God’s design started out well. But with what’s called the Fall, human beings gave over their hearts to sin and depravity.
Scripture uses phrases like “willingly ignorant” or “deliberately forget.” We forget on purpose what is right (2 Peter 3:5). We are influenced by sin’s “powerful delusion” (2 Thessalonians 2:11). We “suppress the truth by…wickedness,” we function with futile thinking and foolish hearts, and we “exchange the truth of God for a lie” (Romans 1: 18, 21, 25).
We’re so good at this we “invent ways of doing evil” and in terms of our evil ways of life we “not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them” (Romans 1:30, 32).
This approach to what’s right allows us to determine what to do based upon personal experience, or the new catch phrase—“fairness”—as opposed to deciding what’s righteous or what’s best, based upon biblical doctrine (Philippians 1:9-11), Church teaching, history, or even “natural law.”
So, if we want to have our cake and eat it too, or if we think “just the right amount of wrong” is a sustainable lifestyle, then what’s to stop us from joining Frank Sinatra and singing the classic humanist anthem:
“And may I say, not in a shy way
Oh, no, oh, no, not me, I did it my wayFor what is a man, what has he got?
If not himself, then he has not
To say the things he truly feels
And not the words of one who kneels
The record shows I took the blows
And did it my way
Yes, it was my way.”
My way…
If we want to get an abortion, it’s my way.
If we want to say heterosexual relationships outside monogamous marriage are OK, well then, “If you can't be with the one you love honey, Love the one you're with.”
If we think we can win not just a race, we can beat the races, than why not gamble with abandon? Life is just a crapshoot anyway so let it ride.
If we want to believe life began by chance and that human beings are descended from some animalistic humanoid, it’s my way.
If we want to spend beyond our means including spending other peoples’ means (our children and grandchildren), there’s no piper to be paid, no reckoning. It’s all going to work out. It’s my way.
If we think God is an unnecessary hypothesis, that we can live life, and apparently the afterlife, without him, then what’s stopping us from creating our world and our future in our image? It’s my way.
And that’s the problem. We’re creating an increasingly scary world with a scarier future.
Celebrating irrationality is not rational.
Our culture cannot sustain itself indefinitely with this kind of pell-mell rush to senselessness. Yet lemming-like, we keep running toward the cliff.
But God is still the God who created reality. If we want to celebrate rationality, to exercise common sense, do it God’s Way.
Well, we’ll see you again soon. For more Christian commentary, be sure to subscribe to this podcast, Discerning What Is Best, or check my website, r-e-x-m as in Martin, that’s rexmrogers.com. And remember, it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm.
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2022
*This podcast blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact me or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com/, or connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers.
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I used to think today’s version of the Scripture’s “false prophets” were just shyster preachers. But the Devil is more subtle. Think about it. Who do we watch, and to whom do we listen? Who are the most influential purveyors of false ideas in American culture today?
Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #5 of Discerning What Is Best, a podcast applying unchanging biblical principles in a rapidly changing world, and a Christian worldview to current issues and everyday life.
Every day, present-day “false prophets” intentionally and effectively attack the core beliefs and values of the Christian Church and American culture.
This is a growing existential threat, for Judeo-Christian values no longer provide a “sacred canopy” over American culture. Historic, foundational biblical values are no longer ascendant, respected, or even referenced by a vast cross-section of society.
So false prophets now practice their craft with little resistance.
The New Testament contains many admonishments about individuals who (2 Peter 2), motivated by greed or arrogance, attempt to speak for God, (Jude 4).
The Apostle Peter also cites “false teachers,” who propagate “destructive heresies.” Peter warned us these are people who ‘will bring the way of truth into disrepute and…will exploit you with stories they have made up” (2 Peter 2:1-3).
Scripture says, “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves,” (Matthew 7:15-16)
False prophets are people who speak untruth while at times claiming they speak for God and his Word.
Present-day false prophets—wolves in sheep’s clothing—are thriving. They promote ideas, philosophies, and ideologies contradictory to biblical teaching, antithetical to Christianity, subversive to the Church, and destructive to a free culture.
Present-day false prophets are exercising considerable influence
--in public schools --on university campuses
--on political stages
--in media entertainment
–through social media
--via bestsellers
--in corporate training sessions
--in government
--even in the US military.
Some false prophets are what’s now called, “online influencers,” people operating lucrative websites, video channels, or social media sites, marketing lies, especially to young people.
Who are these false prophets? Well, they can be intellectuals/professors, politicians, activists, or celebrities.
Present-day false prophets market political correctness, woke cancel culture, open hostility to a biblical worldview of law, order, and justice. They tout grand nihilistic ideologies and economic or racial determinism. They celebrate rebellion in the name of absolute freedom. They promote tribalistic identity politics and a culture of fear, and they sow chaos, madness, division, and discord, for these conditions are their path to power.
Present-day false prophets are active every day in the nation’s schools from kindergarten through graduate university, promoting anti-biblical views of human sexuality, sharing ideas with grade schoolers that are so perverse I haven’t stated them in this podcast.
Present-day false prophets use critical race theory to teach reductionist racial division, animosity, and victimhood. Some promote racism in the name of “anti-racism.”
Among entertainment celebrities, false prophets present selfie-dominated hedonism, i.e., wear fewer clothes with each Instagram picture, hop in and out of intimate relationships, and live for self-gratification, as demonstrated in their latest TikTok video.
The message many celebrity-false prophets offer is the sexual revolution and materialism writ large. It’s Keeping Up With the Kardashians.
This podcast is about Discerning What Is Best. If you find this thought-provoking and helpful, look for us on your favorite podcast platform. Download an episode for your friends.
False prophets believe in no truth, no right and wrong. But their “no truth” philosophy has practical consequences:
- If no truth > no life-changing Word,
- No truth > no Holy God,
- No truth > no law and order, no justice = only lawless riots, crime,
- No truth > no sin = only a non-judgmental anything goes, all problems are psychological, therapeutic, So there is no forgiveness, no remedy, no hope,
- No truth > no freedom = no inalienable human rights…that leaves only power.
The battle today is not between Republicans and Democrats.
Neither Democrats nor Republicans are ultimately or sufficiently committed to lasting objective ideals. They are about power too.
Consequently, neither Party’s politicians—at least most of them—are positioned to put up much resistance, so neither Party is going to slow the influence of present-day false prophets.
In fact, our challenge today is spiritual not political, and there are no political solutions to spiritual problems.
The battle today is between a morally relativistic, humanistic vision of society that acknowledges no truth versus an historic Judeo-Christian vision of society that acknowledges the Sovereign Creator God of the Bible.
I don’t know if we are yet in the “end times” the Bible talks about, though some believers, including my Mother, believe that we are and she may be correct.
But either way, these are dark days, and our days are likely to get darker, but we need not despair.
God is not surprised by 21st Century issues any more than he was surprised when Lincoln prayed in the White House during the Civil War.
Present-day false prophets—celebrities, influencers, ideologues—may challenge the Church, they may enjoy a season of cultural success, but the end of their false ideas is certain, for God is still God.
Pastor John Piper said, “The shape of error is always changing. You can’t preach enough negative sermons to stay ahead of it. And you don’t have to. The best protection against the darkness of error is the light of truth.”
The best way to respond to untruth is with the truth that sets us free (John 8:32):
How do we do this?
- Discerning truth from error (Phil. 1:8-9).
- Speaking the truth in love (Eph. 4:15).
- Being ready always to give an answer (1 Pet. 3:15).
- Participating in a ministry of reconciliation (1 Cor. 15:11-21).
- Praying for grace and unity in the Church (Eph 4:1-16).
Well, we’ll see you again soon. For more Christian commentary, be sure to subscribe to this podcast, Discerning What Is Best, or check my website, r-e-x-m as in Martin, that’s rexmrogers.com. And remember, it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm.
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2022
*This podcast blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact me or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com/, or connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers.
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Our culture long since discarded the idea of objective truth, i.e., something is true or false no matter our feelings about it. I’ve understood this for a long time.
What did not occur to me until recently is that loss of truth brings with it loss of trust. If there is no knowable truth, just uncertainty, truth claims, lies and falsehoods, then what or who can you trust?
This introduces another level of dysfunction. You carry Who can I trust? into every interaction: Is this news fake, Is this business dishonest, Are these election results valid, Is this health info correct? Then we get litigiousness, lawlessness, even an inability to engage in bona fide relationships because, well, no one is trustworthy.
At best, we muddle through.
At worst, some fall into anxiety, disillusion, alienation, anomie, hopelessness. It’s why there’s so much talk today about mental health, even among gifted, wealthy young athletes, and especially among youth. Kids are committing suicide because their lives have lost meaning.
Truth and trust are not just philosopher topics. Their loss affects us every day.
But there is a remedy. Read your pennies: “In God We Trust.”
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2021
*This blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact me or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com/, or connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers.
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The Nashville bomber, who damaged 41 buildings and injured 3 people, reportedly believes shape shifting, blood-sucking reptilian humanoids are invading earth to control the human race. He apparently thinks these lizard aliens hang out in the local park.
Some of the Capitol Building invaders, damaging the seat of democracy and causing the injury or death of 5 people, were adherents of QAnon, a collection of conspiracy theories arguing an underground cabal of Satan-worshipping, pedophile, liberal elites control everything globally, including the deep state clandestinely running the US government, funded by their human trafficking sex ring.
It is said that truth is the first casualty of war. Now it is a casualty of peace. American culture has been jettisoning belief in truth, i.e. moral absolutes, since at least the 1960s. “Post-truth” and “truthiness” are now part of our vocabulary.
When truth disappears, there’s nothing left but superstition, fakery, myth, talking points based on emotion not evidence, and outright paganism.
American culture and many of its leaders have been seduced by the dark side and are now sadly the victim of our own unforced errors, self-inflicted wounds, bad choices. Satan, the father of lies, is having a field day. How else can we explain lizard people?
This is not simply a problem of the Left but also the Right, not a problem unique to one party but not the other. Hypocrisy is rampant across the board.
So, “if the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?” (Psalm 11:3).
Jesus said, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32).
Focus upon this, test what you hear, think critically not emotionally, learn and use a Christian worldview to critique every political leaders’ values, statements, and actions, do not look to government or politicians as your source of hope, do not mistake your politics for your faith.
Our Christian friends in the Middle East and North Africa have lived for decades in countries and cultures where government is not friendly to them. They put their faith in providence not politicians and politics. We can learn from them.
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2021
*This blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact me or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com/, or connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers.
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© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2020
*This blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact me or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com/, or connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers.
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A 2:23 min video I recently recorded with Manna Media, thinking about our culture's battle against the idea of truth...and now the consequences. I've lived this experience in "my day." Still am. Some of you have lived it too and will recognize the trends.
Scripture says, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free" (John 8:31, NIV).
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2019
*This video may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact me or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com/, or connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers.