Interlocked Week 9

Lesson 2 Week 3: Applying Pagan Worldviews to Scripture

Quick Review:

1. Continuity of Being:

Genesis 3:5 “5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.””

Satan removes creator-creature distinction.

Promises Eve can become a god.

2. Fate & Chance: Satan calls God a lesser name.

Genesis 3:1 “1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?””

Satan tries to remove the sanctity of God’s name.

To create doubt God is God.

He wants to present the idea that Yahweh was not in charge, but we are.

God isn’t reigning, fate and chance are reigning. So eat the fruit and let fate have its day.

That’s the lie of Satan.

3. Satan tricked Eve into thinking she had the Ultimate Authority.

Genesis 3:1 “1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?””

Presents the lie that God is unreasonable.

Presents lie that Eve is the authority.

Her decisions benefit her.

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Today we are going to finish this discussion of pagan worldviews.

To start, let me ask, What do these pagan worldviews look like today?

Continuity of Being and Evolution:

What have you learned about Evolution in school?

Essentially, it’s just sea creatures becoming land creatures and land creatures eventually becoming humans right?

Couldn’t we boil it down to that?

At it’s roots, this is Continuity of being. A pagan worldview that muddies the unique creations God has made.

Rather than look at how unique things are, Evolution flips that on its head and tries to show how everything is the same.

Satan has even hid this behind a really powerful word.

SCIENCE!

Science is supposed to be:

Observation -> identification -> description -> investigation -> explanation.

Or

Hypothesis -> experiment -> conclusion.

So good science presents a theory based on observations.

You test that theory through experiment.

Then you present your conclusions.

Conclusions then should either defend a hypothesis or prove a hypothesis un-credible.

For example: In the 1600s, Galileo proposed objects fall to the ground at the same rate regardless of mass.

He set up an experiment where different balls roll down a incline to show acceleration.

The speed the balls traveled was dependent on the angle of the plain.

This is a hypothesis we can test today. It shows us gravity.

However, evolution, is a theory.

It’s not observable by eyewitness.

It cannot be tested or repeated in a lab.

To some extent, it shouldn’t even be considered science because we can’t test the hypothesis.

Yet its talked about today and held up as the scientific standard. The lens that we should interpret the world through.

If you go back 20-30 years ago and look at textbooks, it even calls Evolution a theory, but today, most textbooks have dropped that word and treat it as fact.

At its core too, Evolution teaches that we are all made of protons and electrons, but the only difference between cats, dogs, rocks, humans, and a tree is that our protons and electrons are arranged differently.

If we pause there for a moment what impact has this had on us?

If we reduce everything to just protons and electrons, then you as a human being essentially have no more value than the dirt you step on and slide on playing the game of baseball.

No wonder we have such darkness in our world today.

A. Euthanasia - assisted suicide. - This becomes more and more accepted because your a clump of cells going back to a clump of cells in a different form.

B. Abortion - it doesn’t matter if every born human being out of a woman’s womb has 100% always been a human. All that matters is that whether you are a human or a baby inside a womb, we are all just clumps of cells.

C. Hitler - Why could Nazi Germany kill millions in concentration camps, because only certain people have value, others don’t. Others are just worthless matter.

This is how dangerous continuity of being can be.

This is the worldviews that theories like Evolution lead to.

Here’s what we need to know this morning.

God is alone in that He is creator.

We are creature: what God has created.

Knowing that:

God is separate from the universe He made.

God created it all.

3. Genesis 1:1 “1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”

John 1:1-3 “1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.”

4. There is a boundary between man, animals, and plants. They create according to their kind.

Genesis 1:11 “11 And God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.” And it was so.”

Genesis 1:21 “21 So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.”

Genesis 1:24 “24 And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds—livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so.”

Genesis 1:27 “27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”

Man is special.

Made in God’s image

Male and female.

Two genders

Created with purpose and order mean’t to have a meaningful existence with God. Joyfully exercising responsible dominion over the world.

Having the joy of pro-creating. Multiplying ourselves into other humans by creating families.

We are special not because I say so, or your parents say so, but because God says so.

This leads us back to Fate and Chance.

II. IMPERSONAL FATE AND CHANCE:

I’ll be much shorter here, but how do we see this in our world today?

LUCK: Sometimes your lucky, sometimes your not. Is this a real explanation of why things happen the way they do?

Certainly not.

Karma: Do good, good things happen. Do evil, evil things will happen.

This is also just not true. We’ve all probably seen horrible people have things in life they never deserved.

We’ve also seen incredibly wonderful people not have things they deserve.

Why would God allow certain people to have children and not others?

The answer to this question alone disproves Karma.

Positive Vibes: If you have good energy, good things happen. If you have bad energy, bad things happen.

This sounds good, but again no…

Just recognize these things as false.

The Force: Even things like Star Wars, It uses this mysterious energy that supposedly drives all of life. But it’s impersonal and somewhat irrational.

All of this is just different sides of the same coin.

It presents the idea that humans are victims in a universe of chaos.

Everything is random and meaningless.

Just hope you get lucky or have enough good vibes.

But what does Scripture say?

God is a person

God is in control

1 Chronicles 29:11 “11 Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all.”

Acts 17:28 “28 for “ ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, “ ‘For we are indeed his offspring.’”

3. God determines history.

Romans 8:28 “28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”

Isaiah 46:8-10 “8 “Remember this and stand firm, recall it to mind, you transgressors, 9 remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, 10 declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,’”

III. Ultimate Authority is the Self:

I don’t think there is much more we need to say here other than this.

Proverbs 19:21 “21 Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.”

Proverbs 14:12 “12 There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.”

We can make all the plans.

We can do all the right things.

But in the end, it’s about God and His glory alone.

It’s not about what you think is right or wrong but what God says is right and wrong.

So let’s look at all of this in a table this morning.

*SHOW TABLE BOTTOM PAGE 16*

Look at this with me.

This is a short explanation of everything we’ve discussed over the last 3 weeks.

This will also help you see the consequences.

APPLICATION:

So what do I do with all of this today?

IF nothing else, it’s helpful to see how school’s are training you to think.

It’s also helpful to see how lost people around us likely think and feel every day.

Those without Christ certainly think life is just random, left up to chance, people are clumps of cells.

Everything is meaningless and devoid of value.

But in Christ…

We have an anchor.

Hebrews 6:18-19 “18 so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. 19 We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain,”

He is directing history.

He is setting the standards of right and wrong.

The pressure is off you and me to have to come up with the standards.

We simply trust God’s standards!

Which leaves us to the last question in this section.

Will Satan try to deceive me like he did with Adam and Eve?

100% yes.

1 Peter 5:8 “8 Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”

He is not an innocent observer, he is actively looking to destroy you.

Zechariah 3:1 “1 Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him.”

He is the accuser.

Always reminding you you aren’t good enough, aren’t doing enough, aren’t measuring up to God’s standards enough…

He is feeding you lies.

We must be alert.

Grow in understanding of God.

And build our trust in God.