Understanding Our Times and Knowing What to Do

1
Understanding Our Times and Knowing What to Do

• 1 Chron 12.32

And the sons of Issachar, men who understood the
times, with knowledge of what Israel should do
Cf. Lk 12.54-56
2
Signs of a Culture in Decline

• Increasing Secularization of our Culture

• Secular Society (Post-Christian Society)
  Worldly, earthly, profane, non-religious,
  unspiritual.

3
Signs of a Culture in Decline

• Increasing Secularization of our Culture

• Historical Revision of our Heritage

• Reconstructing history to appear more secular

Alexis de Tocqueville I think I can see the
whole destiny of America contained in the first
Puritan who landed on those shores
4
Signs of a Culture in Decline

• Increasing Secularization of our Culture

• Historical Revision of our Heritage

• Biblical Illiteracy

5
Signs of a Culture in Decline

• Increasing Secularization of our Culture

• Historical Revision of our Heritage

• Biblical Illiteracy

• Breakdown of the Family

• Redefining family

• 1960s -- Free love easy divorce

• 1970s -- Teenage pregnancy lost its stigma

• Single parent households

in 1960 9.1 of homes with children
in 1991 28.6 (17 million kids)
(In inner cities Over 50)

• 1980s Single-motherhood acclaimed as good

• 1990s -- Homosexual marriage accepted

6
Signs of a Culture in Decline

• Increasing Secularization of our Culture

• Historical Revision of our Heritage

• Biblical Illiteracy

• Breakdown of the Family

• Attack on the Institution of Marriage

• When marriage means everything, it no longer
  means anything.

7
Signs of a Culture in Decline

• Increasing Secularization of our Culture

• Historical Revision of our Heritage

• Biblical Illiteracy

• Breakdown of the Family

• Attack on the Institution of Marriage

• Hostility Toward Christianity

• Not freedom of religion, but freedom from
  religion

8
Signs of a Culture in Decline

• Increasing Secularization of our Culture

• Historical Revision of our Heritage

• Biblical Illiteracy

• Breakdown of the Family

• Attack on the Institution of Marriage

• Hostility Toward Christianity

• Acceptance of Immoral Leaders

9
Signs of a Culture in Decline

• Increasing Secularization of our Culture

• Historical Revision of our Heritage

• Biblical Illiteracy

• Breakdown of the Family

• Attack on the Institution of Marriage

• Hostility Toward Christianity

• Acceptance of Immoral Leaders

• Radical Individualism

10

• Radical Individualism

• Tendency to isolate yourself from community and
  withdraw into your own little circle of family,
  friends and work

• Freedom to determine your own mores to live as
  you personally see fit.

• Unconcern for the common good

• Detachment from authority

• Autonomous man answers only to himself

11
Signs of a Culture in Decline

• Increasing Secularization of our Culture

• Historical Revision of our Heritage

• Biblical Illiteracy

• Breakdown of the Family

• Attack on the Institution of Marriage

• Hostility Toward Christianity

• Acceptance of Immoral Leaders

• Radical Individualism

• Postmodernism and Moral Relativism

• Modernism Truth can be known through reason and
  rational thinking.

• Postmodernism Truth is relative and can never
  be known.

12
Signs of a Culture in Decline

• Increasing Secularization of our Culture

• Historical Revision of our Heritage

• Biblical Illiteracy

• Breakdown of the Family

• Attack on the Institution of Marriage

• Hostility Toward Christianity

• Acceptance of Immoral Leaders

• Radical Individualism

• Postmodernism and Moral Relativism

• Value-neutral Education

If you ask what is the good of education, the
answer is easy that education makes good men,
and that good men act nobly (Plato)
13
Signs of a Culture in Decline

• Increasing Secularization of our Culture

• Historical Revision of our Heritage

• Biblical Illiteracy

• Breakdown of the Family

• Attack on the Institution of Marriage

• Hostility Toward Christianity

• Acceptance of Immoral Leaders

• Radical Individualism

• Postmodernism and Moral Relativism

• Value-neutral Education

• Religious Pluralism

• Mix and match religion

14
Signs of a Culture in Decline

• Increasing Secularization of our Culture

• Historical Revision of our Heritage

• Biblical Illiteracy

• Breakdown of the Family

• Attack on the Institution of Marriage

• Hostility Toward Christianity

• Acceptance of Immoral Leaders

• Radical Individualism

• Postmodernism and Moral Relativism

• Value-neutral Education

• Religious Pluralism

• The Devaluing of Human Life

15
Signs of a Culture in Decline

• The Devaluing of Human Life

• Clinical abortion, euthanasia, in vitro
  fertilization, cloning, embryonic stem cell
  research

• Several issues

1. Self-interest and personal autonomy the
ultimate virtue.
2. Who is the creator of life?
3. A lack of compassion a callous contempt for
life.
16
Signs of a Culture in Decline

• Increasing Secularization of our Culture

• Historical Revision of our Heritage

• Biblical Illiteracy

• Breakdown of the Family

• Attack on the Institution of Marriage

• Hostility Toward Christianity

• Acceptance of Immoral Leaders

• Radical Individualism

• Postmodernism and Moral Relativism

• Value-neutral Education

• Religious Pluralism

• The Devaluing of Human Life

• Hedonism and the Endless Pursuit of Pleasure

17
Signs of a Culture in Decline

• Increasing Secularization of our Culture

• Historical Revision of our Heritage

• Biblical Illiteracy

• Breakdown of the Family

• Attack on the Institution of Marriage

• Hostility Toward Christianity

• Acceptance of Immoral Leaders

• Radical Individualism

• Postmodernism and Moral Relativism

• Value-neutral Education

• Religious Pluralism

• The Devaluing of Human Life

• Hedonism and the Endless Pursuit of Pleasure

• Increasing Prosperity and Education -- Cf. 1 Cor
  1.18-25

18
Signs of a Culture in Decline

• Increasing Secularization of our Culture

• Historical Revision of our Heritage

• Biblical Illiteracy

• Breakdown of the Family

• Attack on the Institution of Marriage

• Hostility Toward Christianity

• Acceptance of Immoral Leaders

• Radical Individualism

• Postmodernism and Moral Relativism

• Value-neutral Education

• Religious Pluralism

• The Devaluing of Human Life

• Hedonism and the Endless Pursuit of Pleasure

• Increasing Prosperity and Education -- Cf. 1 Cor
  1.18-25