Cultural War or Spiritual War

By: A.M. Kisly

Have you ever wondered what the media is talking about when you hear them refer to a 'Culture War' waging in our country? What is it all about? Most understand the ‘Culture War’ as a war of competing ideas and worldviews. On one side, you have people who believe in living by a set of divinely inspired moral absolutes – or, at the very least, they believe that following such a moral code represents the best way to avoid chaos and instability.

 On the other side, you have people who insist that morality is simply a personal decision or, relativism. What is Relativism?
Relativism is the philosophical position that all points of view are equally valid, and that all truth is relative to the individual. This means that all moral positions, all religious systems, all art forms, all political movements, etc., are truths that are relative to the individual.

 Under the umbrella of relativism, whole groups of perspectives are categorized. In obvious terms, some are:
•Cognitive relativism (truth) - Cognitive relativism affirms that all truth is relative. This would mean that no system of truth is more valid than another one, and that there is no objective standard of truth. It would, naturally, deny that there is a God of absolute truth.
•Moral/ethical relativism - All morals are relative to the social group within which they are constructed.
•Situational relativism - Ethics (right and wrong) are dependent upon the situation. See Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry.
With the rejection of God, ABSOLUTE TRUTH is being abandoned and Christianity has not only become the enemy, but the target of war. The onslaught against Christian values and truth is visible daily as we watch the news or television programming. It is as plain as the nose on our faces through politics, and our higher courts decisions.

 We hear it in the workplace, our kids hear it in school, and just about everywhere we turn, we are finding a full-out war on Christianity, and Christians are now being classified as the enemy.

Jesus said, “Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.” John 15:20

  In a country once founded upon the Biblical principles, it is difficult to believe just how far we have fallen. How did it happen? Well, the first step was to throw God out of government and school and by doing so they have thrown away TRUTH!

 Now the plan is to take God out of society as a whole, thus the term a “NEW WORLD ORDER.” It is a world described in the lyrics by John Lennon’s “Imagine”, 

Imagine there's no heaven, it's easy if you try. No people below us, above it's only sky. Imagine all the people, Living for today. Imagine there's no countries, it isn't hard to do. No need to kill or die for and no religions too. Imagine all the people, Living life in peace. You may say I'm a dreamer, But I'm not the only one. I hope someday you'll join us. And the world will live as one. Imagine no possessions I wonder if you can. No need for greed or hunger a brotherhood of man. Imagine all the people, Sharing for the world. You may say I'm a dreamer, But I'm not the only one, I hope someday you'll join us. And the world will live as one. You may say I'm a dreamer, But I'm not the only one. Take my hand and join us. And the world will live, will live as one.

Sounds great, right? Wrong!

 The Bible is the instruction manual for human life and so we must find out what it says.

Proverbs 14:12
There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.

 I was studying this passage of scripture in Proverbs and ran across some wonderful expository notes by W.E. Berkley and will include some of his excerpts in the following notes:

The Bible urges us to develop such virtues as responsibility, honesty, loyalty, faithfulness and love. Whether we are reading the teachings of Christ, in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, the epistles, the writings of Old Testament prophets or the wisdom of Proverbs, we are trained in these and other virtues.

 But, not only does the Bible impart positive instruction in virtues and their cultivation, all through the Bible, there are statements DESIGNED (interesting word, and important to note) to make us aware of potential danger: Proverbial statements; lengthy illustrations, and warning signs --- designed and given, to awaken us to certain dangers. We are often informed of wrong choices, and told of the inevitable consequences. And this is the kind of statement we shall study in this article, from Proverbs 14:12 There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death."

This is repeated later, in Proverbs 16:25 THERE IS A WAY THAT SEEMS RIGHT TO A MAN, BUT ITS END IS THE WAY OF DEATH. 

This is one of the most familiar passages, often quoted from the book of Proverbs. I'm pretty sure that most of us have heard this passage before but, have we ever really sat down and studied what it means?

Think of all the implications involved. SOME THINGS JUST AREN’T WHAT THEY SEEM In light of current issues plaguing our nation, a certain path may have the endorsement and approval of the majority.... all the appearances may lend themselves to acceptance.... but, when you really study the matter and check the Scriptures, IT TURNS OUT TO BE WRONG.

 Some things are not what they seem. Some pathways may look like a smooth garden-path, winding among flower-beds; it may be attractive, appealing and agreeable. But - in the end, it's the way of death!

The way leading to destruction is usually not accompanied by a HUGE NEON SIGN that identifies it as "THE WAY OF DEATH." Some things are not what they seem. SO, LET US NOT BE HASTY OR IMPULSIVE!

Let us act like Christians using the Word of God to gain insight and make right decisions! Let us look beyond appearances, as far as we can! Let us study deeper going beyond the first impressions. Let us try to find out, FOR SURE, that which is good.

1 Thessalonians 5:21 
“Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.”

MAN IS NOT THE HIGHEST SURVEYOR OF LIFE! In our society, there are the philosophies of HUMANISM and SUBJECTIVISM and these approaches have in common, ONE MAIN FALLACY: THESE APPROACHES MAKE MAN THE HIGHEST SURVEYOR OF LIFE.

Man is set up as the highest surveyor of life; the measure of all things! The problem with this is --- that which seems right to a man, may turn out to be "the way of death!" For, "there is a way that seems right TO A MAN, but its end is the way of death!"

Man is not the highest surveyor of life! The Human Perspective vs. The Divine Perspective (here are just a few)
1. Man sees the outward appearance; God can see beyond and into the hearts.
2. Man has a limited knowledge of the past and the future: God who is eternal and the Creator of all that exists knows everything.
3. Man can be affected by prejudice, selfishness, ulterior motives; God is holy and just in all His ways.
4. Man can be tempted and fall into sin; Jesus was tempted and sinned not. When we compare THE HUMAN PERSPECTIVE with THE DIVINE PERSPECTIVE: it becomes clear that THERE IS A VAST DIFFERENCE BETWEEN GOD AND MAN.

Jeremiah 10:23
"O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps." 

Colossians 2:8 
“Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.”

WHAT EXACTLY IS TRUTH? To define truth, let’s first determine what it is not.
Truth is not error.
Truth is not self-contradictory.
Truth is not deception.
Truth cannot be defined by cultural and personal preferences, as in ‘relativism’, but based on fact and on evidence.

For instance, if the truth to me is that relativism is false, then is it true that relativism is false? If you answered no, then what is true for me is not true and relativism is false. If you answered yes, then relativism is again false.

The point being that ‘Relativism’ seems to defy the very nature of truth; namely, that truth is not self-contradictory. Truth therefore must be based on evidence.
For the Christian Worldview the ultimate expression of truth is found in the Bible, for it was Jesus who said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life..." (John 14:6). 

The real battle lies between those who believe and those who don’t. The world’s vain philosophers will deny that the Bible is an accurate account of history and dismiss the claims Jesus made.
 But to the Christian, Jesus is indeed what and who he claimed to be. He is our source of hope, security and guidance. He is the sustainer of our very life. 

It’s interesting that archeologists who have explored the world and have found the ancient ruins and documents, have been able to translate the life and customs of those living centuries ago and declared it as fact because of the evidence; but somehow have no problem dismissing the ancient documents that have been translated in to what we refer to as the Bible.

 Eyewitness accounts are what we use to determine credibility to the facts in our court of law. So why are the eyewitness accounts of those who were with Jesus and recorded in the ancient texts not deemed credible?
Simply put, there are those who don’t want to believe. They go to great lengths to change the truth, deceive the masses, and devise false philosophies so that the course of mankind will change. No accountability, no guilt, no conscience. No morals, no hope, no future. If they didn’t, they would be forced, based upon the evidence to believe that Jesus is who He claimed to be, the way, the truth and the life.

The fact is there were many eyewitnesses that saw the examples of Jesus healing the sick, turning the water into wine, raising the dead, walking on the water, calming storms, feeding the multitudes on five loaves and two fish. Were they all mad? Were they liars? Were they credible? Jesus who claimed to be divine, and foretold of his death and resurrection, either was and did, or was not and didn’t.

You are faced with the decisions of what you will believe and what you will decide about Jesus and His claim of truth because the battle rages on. We are in a furious battle, the battle for Truth! Christian Worldview matters and there are many who seek to stomp it out.

In an article by William Lind called “Next Conservatism: What is Cultural Marxism” he writes,

 “In his columns on the next conservatism, Paul Weyrich has several times referred to "cultural Marxism." He asked me, as Free Congress Foundation's resident historian, to write this column explaining what cultural Marxism is and where it came from. In order to understand what something is, you have to know its history.

 Cultural Marxism is a branch of western Marxism, different from the Marxism-Leninism of the old Soviet Union. It is commonly known as "multiculturalism" or, less formally, Political Correctness. From its beginning, the promoters of cultural Marxism have known they could be more effective if they concealed the Marxist nature of their work, hence the use of terms such as "multiculturalism." 

Cultural Marxism began not in the 1960s but in 1919, immediately after World War I. Marxist theory had predicted that in the event of a big European war, the working class all over Europe would rise up to overthrow capitalism and create communism. But when war came in 1914, that did not happen. When it finally did happen in Russia in 1917, workers in other European countries did not support it. What had gone wrong?

Independently, two Marxist theorists, Antonio Gramsci in Italy and Georg Lukacs in Hungary, came to the same answer: Western culture and the Christian religion had so blinded the working class to its true, Marxist class interest that Communism was impossible in the West until both could be destroyed.

In 1919, Lukacs asked, "Who will save us from Western civilization?" That same year, when he became Deputy Commissar for Culture in the short-lived Bolshevik Bela Kun government in Hungary, one of Lukacs's first acts was to introduce sex education into Hungary's public schools. He knew that if he could destroy the West's traditional sexual morals, he would have taken a giant step toward destroying Western culture itself.

  In 1923, inspired in part by Lukacs, a group of German Marxists established a think tank at Frankfurt University in Germany called the Institute for Social Research. This institute, soon known simply as the Frankfurt School, would become the creator of cultural Marxism. To translate Marxism from economic into cultural terms, the members of the Frankfurt School - - Max Horkheimer, Theodor Adorno, Wilhelm Reich, Eric Fromm and Herbert Marcuse, to name the most important - - had to contradict Marx on several points.

They argued that culture was not just part of what Marx had called society's "superstructure," but an independent and very important variable. They also said that the working class would not lead a Marxist revolution, because it was becoming part of the middle class, the hated bourgeoisie. Who would?

In the 1950s, Marcuse answered the question: a coalition of blacks, students, feminist women and homosexuals. Fatefully for America, when Hitler came to power in Germany in 1933, the Frankfurt School fled - - and reestablished itself in New York City. There, it shifted its focus from destroying traditional Western culture in Germany to destroying it in the United States.

To do so, it invented "Critical Theory." What is the theory? It is to criticize every traditional institution, starting with the family, brutally and unremittingly, in order to bring them down. It wrote a series of "studies in prejudice," which said that anyone who believes in traditional Western culture is prejudiced, a "racist" or "sexist" of "fascist" - - and is also mentally ill. Most importantly, the Frankfurt School crossed Marx with Freud, taking from psychology the technique of psychological conditioning.

Today, when the cultural Marxists want to do something like "normalize" homosexuality, they do not argue the point philosophically. They just beam television show after television show into every American home where the only normal-seeming white male is a homosexual (the Frankfurt School's key people spent the war years in Hollywood).

 After World War II ended, most members of the Frankfurt School went back to Germany. But Herbert Marcuse stayed in America. He took the highly abstract works of other Frankfurt School members and repackaged them in ways college students could read and understand. In his book "Eros and Civilization," he argued that by freeing sex from any restraints, we could elevate the pleasure principle over the reality principle and create a society with no work, only play (Marcuse coined the phrase, "Make love, not war").

Marcuse also argued for what he called "liberating tolerance," which he defined as tolerance for all ideas coming from the Left and intolerance for any ideas coming from the Right. In the 1960s, Marcuse became the chief "guru" of the New Left, and he injected the cultural Marxism of the Frankfurt School into the baby boom generation, to the point where it is now America's state ideology. The next conservatism should unmask multiculturalism and Political Correctness and tell the American people what they really are: cultural Marxism.

Its goal remains what Lukacs and Gramsci set in 1919: destroying Western culture and the Christian religion. It has already made vast strides toward that goal. But if the average American found out that Political Correctness is a form of Marxism, different from the Marxism of the Soviet Union but Marxism nonetheless, it would be in trouble.

The next conservatism needs to reveal the man behind the curtain - - old Karl Marx himself.” Along with this article, I will add the following video footage from October 15, 2009, the Glen Beck program on Fox News.
I challenge you to watch and listen to the “NEW WORLD VIEW” perpetrated on our society through political means and educational systems, by those who seek to destroy TRUTH. THE RADICAL TRUTH ABOUT ANITA DUNN

Our constitutional rights and freedoms are on the chopping block of the New World Order, by those who have a WORLD VIEW of CHANGE. There are those who are actively and diligently seeking to take away our rights our freedoms and our faith. When and if they achieve this goal, persecution will surely come.

The freedom to worship God publicly and to share the Gospel openly will meet the same brutal opposition and persecution that thousands of our brothers and sisters have met around the world. If America does not repent and seek after the Lord, we will continue on this downward spiral.

As Christians, repentance begins in the house of God. Our enemy knows that we have great power; it is the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives to live Godly in a corrupt world. It is the testimony of our Faith in Jesus Christ that will bring change a change that is true and everlasting.

"For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ". (2 Corinthians 10:4,5)

It is time to cast off our carnality and worldliness. It is time to get right with God. It is time, brothers and sisters, to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. Have you counted the cost for being a disciple of Christ? That's right.
Have you counted the cost for following and serving Christ? You may have never been asked or even thought about it. If you truly are a Christian, you need to count the cost. Come, Take Up the Cross, and Follow Me

Matthew 10:38-39
And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.

Matthew 16:24-25
Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.

Mark 8:34-35
And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it.

Mark 10:21-22
Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me. And he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved: for he had great possessions.

Luke 9:23-24
And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.”

Luke 14:27-30
And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish.”

Philippians 2:5-8

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

Philippians 3:17-19

Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample. (For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.)

 We are engaged in a battle, a battle for Truth and for our very souls.