The Consequences of the Philosophy of Man

'If it feels good, do it'!

'God made me this way; if He hadn't wanted us to.......................He wouldn't have...................!'

The Creator DID make us a certain way, with emotions, feelings & certain interlocking body-parts; not only that, He pronounced it all good! If He hadn't wanted 'this', then why did He do 'that? We can reason within ourselves, like philosophers have for years as to the whys & wherefores, but what it ultimately comes down to, especially for the Christian; 'is it right?' According to the written Revelation of His Word, who is Absolute, there is right & there is wrong, good & evil!

There are those, even within Christian circles, who have been telling us for years that the Scriptures are out-dated, that many of the principles within don't apply to this age! 'This is the Age of Grace', they say, 'not the Age of Law!' They try to tell us that what wrong for them ( in that culture in particular ) is not wrong for us, in this day & age. Some will not this as 'Relativism' right away, but even though this would be a liberal theology just decades ago, it is becoming more & more accepted, even among the more conservative!

Many who have adopted this theology, or the resulting life-style, have paid the price & are continuing to be plagued by their choices! Divorce rates among Christians are probably as high, if not higher than those who do not claim that belief system. The Institutional Church is continually plagued by many of the same problems that any 'secular' business or corporation would face. For the most part, except on certain days of the week, one might be hard-pressed to tell the difference between many Christians & 'unbelievers'; in fact, one might note that in some cases, the 'unbeliever' acts more Christ-like than those who claim to be Christians!

When faced with the uncertainties we encounter in this new age, one might wonder why we face these dilemmas; why is it so hard to discern between the True Believer, the true Christian & one who simply goes to church every Sunday, between those who actually follow in the footsteps of Jesus & those who simply espouse 'Sound Doctrine'? What kind of philosophy would tell us that it is more important to believe in Heaven & Hell ( Eternal Conscious Torment ) than it is to feed the starving & take care of the widow? It is not difficult to see from the pages of Scripture which of these doctrines Jesus & His disciples upheld!

'Philosophy is the study of the general and fundamental nature of reality, existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language ( from the Wikipedia article on the subject ).' While there is nothing inherently wrong with the study of any of these subjects, Western theology, or philosophy in general has been greatly, if not wholly been influenced by Hellenistic ( Greek ) philosophy. The famous Greek philosophers, while some may have accepted the truths of Christianity at some point in their lives, were yet, even in their 'conversion', influenced greatly by their pagan philosophies!

Though it is without doubt that we WERE created with certain varying emotions & differing feelings, though it is gloriously true that this was made for that & NOT the other, that all this WAS pronounced good, there were also rules laid down! This Law was not given simply to show people that they were, by themselves incapable of adhering to the commandment; it was written on our hearts & inscribed on our minds to play the part of common sense! To ANYONE with common sense, not JUST the Christian, it should be clear that this does not normally work with that, what is wrong ( evil ) for one is wrong for everyone. Some may seem to get away with it, but in the long run, the same price is usually paid; the piper always demands his pound of flesh!

So, what, you might well ask, are the consequences of the philosophy of man?

Just look around you; these are the consequences of the philosophy of man!

Charles Haddon Shank