LEARNING DAILY

 

Colossians 2:8, See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.

 

In the last page of the blog, the sermon about “woke-ism” was briefly summarized. Remember it has become a philosophy that is trying to remove God from all aspects of life and replace it with a different system of beliefs. A biblical worldview is being replaced with a broad acceptance of all beliefs being true, there is no absolute truth, and the individual decides truth for themselves. The verse from Colossians 2:8 was taken from the Listener Guide and is necessary to understand what it means in light of the message of “woke-ism”.

 

Paul’s warning us today “to be on guard against, to be alert, to all philosophies, religions, and traditions that emphasize humans functioning independently from God and His written Word” (Life in the Spirit Study Bible). He is warning us about false teaching that would be strong, especially in the Last Days. It is important that we understand one of the strongest philosophies against biblical truth today – secular humanism. Yes, this philosophy has been around for a long time. Yes, it has become the established thought that inspires the center of thought in secular education, government, and most of the news and entertainment media throughout the world; that would include most of society in general. This is what Paul is telling us to be careful, the thoughts and teachings that are false teachings that deceive people into believing God’s Word, His truth, is false, is no longer relevant, and to be discarded.

 

The philosophy of humanism actually began with Satan’s lie that humans can be like God in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:5). Romans 1:25 would say that humanists, “exchanged the truth of God’s Word for a lie, and worshipped the creature rather than the Creator”. Humanism teaches man evolved from a single-celled organism and the universe exists only because energy and matter were shaped into their present form by impersonal chance (Life in the Spirit Study Bible).  We hear often that “woke-ism” is socialist in nature, cultural Marxism (Listener Guide). The teaching of Karl Marx was that people would be happier without God and would be better off if wealth was shared. Therefore, the belief in a personal God and the inspiration of the Bible is rejected. That being said, humanists believe that human beings have the ultimate authority concerning moral choices. God and His Word are no longer the standard for right and wrong, for good and evil.

 

This thought system is being taught in the public schools in order to improve human behavior. How is that working out? Human behavior is also going to improve (so the humanists promise) through the redistribution of wealth. Again, I ask how that is working out? They teach that a person can do whatever makes them happy, brings them pleasure, or seems good for society as determined by their leaders. Biblical standards and morals are ignored, rejected. Humanists would say that mobs taking merchandise from stores, open theft, violence and all that we see in the news is okay.

 

Christian parents, teachers, pastors must do all we can to protect our sons, daughters, grandchildren from this indoctrination by exposing its error and instilling biblical teaching and standards of right and wrong. Paul refers to “human tradition” which is a reminder that simply because a teaching is preferred or even historical does not mean it is God’s truth; it may be simply human teaching. Compare everything to the Word of God. Our focus needs to be on truth found in His Word and on Jesus Christ – never on human deceit or preference. So, once again, I remind you, encourage you to make the reading/studying/meditating on God’s Word a preference for you each day. Do not put it off until later or when you find time. We are in a time of great deceit and you must make it a priority to take a few extra minutes to spend in prayer with your heavenly Father.