Where Has the Love for God Gone?

The Enlightenment

Introduction

In a general sense, our nation has had a history of people who are “God-fearing”. While this does not translate into New Testament Christians (as most follow the false teaching of man’s origins), it has created a relatively moral society. The reality that Americans are more “religious” than for example Europe is easily demonstrated.

However, of the past few decades, the appreciation for at least the idea and authority of God and the acceptance of the importance of His Word has waned. Over a series of three articles, we will examine this question of where this love for God has “gone”. This week, we turn back the clock a couple hundred years.

Only a Few Hundred Years Ago

Before the 16-18^th^ Centuries, the world had a world-view which is commonly described as “mysticism”. This is not entirely fair, for this description tends to be conflated with the pagan superstitions and gods created from the mind of man of eras long past. The key element which described this period was the attribution of world events to the supernatural.

This, in and of itself, is not a bad thing. In reality, the very world itself is attributed to the supernatural (e.g. the Creation (Gen. 1, 2)). God’s hand in the affairs of men has been ever present, including the rise and fall of nations (Rom. 13), as well as the furtherance of His Will and spread of His Word.

A Dangerous Shift

In the 16^th^-18^th^ Centuries, however, the popular notion shifted to the philosophy of Rationalism. This philosophy sought to do away with the mysticism of the past and provide rational explanations for the universe in which we live. This was both good (removing pagan superstition) and bad (removing the miraculous). Even those who claimed belief in God sought for a “rational” explanation for everything. Such a pursuit is what gave us: evolution, the Bible as a “comprehensive” and redacted work instead of being inspired, “mental illness” to explain demon possession, and all sorts of natural theory to explain miraculous events.

A Devastating Result

The result has been devastating. To deny the creation is to make the world seem a cosmic accident. To remove the miraculous removes also the power of Biblical promise. How does one find value in the promise of eternal life when the miracles have lost their power? In time man would come to believe he had explained the unexplainable and could therefore create a perfect world with his own genius.