By: Gen. Jim — 8/13/18
“For those whom He foreknew, He predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son…” (Romans 8:29).
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is good and acceptable and perfect will of God” (Romans 12:2).
To see why being born again (as in John 3:3,5) is such a crucial virtue in our time, examine for a moment the sheer bloody history of the 20th century in which men/women moved by various ideologies and “isms” – capitalism, nationalism, communism, fascism – have killed/murdered millions upon millions of their fellow human beings (I need to add to the list Muhammadanism, i.e. militant Islam).
It has rightly been said that the great moral failure of our time has been the willingness of man/women-boys/girls to become passive members (meaning brainwashed; the taking of human life is never considered “passive” but “aggressive”) of anonymous masses in mindless conformity. With scarcely a moment’s reflection, they have handed their “freedom” of mind/spirit over to ruthless governments/religions. One author has said, “We rush to escape from freedom.”
I have video footage of China’s cultural revolution egged on by the Chinese communist party – 1966-1976, a decade during which the self of the individual was virtually annihilated from intellectual and creative activities. Basic human instincts, sensitivities, thinking perceptions and judgments were repressed and extreme forms of socialist – realist and romantic – revolutionary representations of reality became the compulsory basis of all creative endeavors. There was, of course, a personal choice – be part of the revolution or be anti-revolution. Those who chose the latter paid dearly, usually dying! This was the same under may “isms” (capitalism killed its millions but more subtle; but pitted against, say, communism on the battlefield, blood ran deep).
Brainwashing (a word that is hardly used these days but nonetheless true) conditioned the individual to be subservient to a clearly defined hierarchy of authorities. Those who exposed this point out, unless intent on challenging the Party and facing the consequences, anti-Party individuals had to hide or die or go to prison.
China still slaps anti-Party Christians in prison today. But the underground Church is the largest in the world!
When God created man He intended for them to be “conformed” to His way, His will. But man being a free moral agent, he/she can choose otherwise, as Romans 12:2 shows: “BE NOT CONFORMED TO THE WORLD.” Social conformity demanded by the cultural Revolution was engineered by strategies for “ideological” control, hence, rebels were relentlessly and effectively SILENCED!!
During the CR there were ongoing criticisms on both sides, hence, the creation of the “oppose spiritual pollution” campaign – the “party” is god! Worship it and live; oppose it, DIE! The rich, the famous and the nothing were all under the ALL SEEING EYE of the Party.
Conform: to be similar or identical; to obey; comply;
Conformity: harmony, agreement, compliance, obedience.
I like the way the New Amplified Bible reads: “Do not conform yourselves to this age…” We here in the West don’t’ appreciate what we have, which, by the way, is slipping from us. Actually there is a renewal of socialism out there as I write. “Progressivism” is very much part of the US government, but the name “wokeism” is being introduced. It is suppose to probe the human soul, bring forth a better way of government blah, blah, blah! BULL! It’s the same o garbage as yesteryear. It’s suppose to being the delights of “freedom” of the imagination to expand the nations of both the collective body and individual self… without violence. Well and good. But this has already been tried and failed. Whats new?? Many will greet this with a yawn at best. I do believe in true community (Ekklesia) if God is front and center – not men who lie, cheat, steal. It was existentialist philosopher Karl Jaspers who penned, “evil is the rock on which every (man-made) system shipwrecks.”
There is no clear answer, no theodicy, no way of understanding that eliminates the insult poses to the human spirit; we MUST be BORN AGAIN of incorruptible seed (which is Christ Jesus – 1 Corinthians 15:50; Romans 1:23; 1 Corinthians 15:52).
Today’s world is not too interested in socialism or wokeism, they are more interested in self-pleasure: SEX! If Freud’s Phallus-in-wonderland world strikes us as excessively “sexual” it is largely because those sexual – erotic dimensions of life were repressed in his time. Not so now. Millions are being brainwashed to believe men/women was specifically created to have sex, hence, conformed to twisted philosophy.