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The questioned being pondered is, “What are some modern secular issues with religious diction, faith-based stances, and Christianity as a whole, and, as a Christian, how is it possible to evangelize in a globalizing culture that is passionately against hearing about, learning about, or accepting Jesus Christ as the Messiah and savior of humanity from sin?”

The earth, and its inhabitants, seems to be diversifying its belief systems with every new dawn. First world society is lauding Federal/Global regulated Individualism as the branded faith of twenty-first century in modern secular culture. We consider that the elements of all religion today can be broken into monotheism, polytheism, and atheism. Monotheism has in its tool belt pantheism and panentheism. Polytheism has in its tool belt the power of tolerance and coexistence which has been captivating the western world since the dawn of the internet, but dating back to ancient Roman, Egyptian, Babylonian, and as far back as Mesopotamian civilization. Lastly, atheism which is the denial of any deity or deity structure is a denial of outer dimensions and the supernatural while focusing solely on isolated individualism. For record, despite human-like beings existing prior to Mesopotamia we must agree that the facets for understanding modern societies, cultures, and peoples must stem from a recognition that humans vastly differ from the era of written language and civilization to their previous anatomical relatives.

What seems to be a commonality between evolved atheists in modern America is that they coat themselves incidentally in polytheistic (and sometimes monotheistic) attributes promoting tolerance and coexistence while choosing to personally decide that the existence of a God or gods is no different than themselves being that God or a part of those gods. This isolated and self absorbed perspective has been referenced in modern internet slang as, “having main character syndrome” which is a hilarious comparison considering the absolute flood of endless hedonistic entertainment coming from secular globalism. Opposing popular agnosticism beliefs… atheism cannot provide morality, or the regulation of civility, if brought to its ultimate fruition. Morality, in atheism, will always be self-proclaimed will and self-discovered morality that derives itself from personal experience while ignoring every other perspective until its relevance presents itself at an unavoidable crossroad in that unique persons life.

What has been a human commonality amidst polytheists in the world since ancient times is the exposure to culture and the recognition of differentiating culture. Knowing that five thousand years ago Mesopotamia was a diverse hotbed of culture gives us a beautiful reflection of mankind within the United States today. This massive civilization was ran by the Sumerians and located in Africa between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. This is widely accepted by most historians, scholars, and theologians as being the dawn of sophisticated human civilization. We are told of an ancient Hebrew story about a man named Abram from the southerns lands of Mesopotamia, Ur, who brought about the theory that, “all is one”. This named, “God” of Abram (soon to be named Abraham) became the father of modern world religion. Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and branches of each all credit the Mesopotamian native Abraham as founding the monotheistic faith. This trump card allowed his bloodline to amass such an influence that the world and humanity as a whole would forever be changed.

Collectively over thousands of years there became one God, one creator, and one Father of this faith that was worthy of defending to the mortal grave and beyond. We can very seldom agree on the exact timeline preceding Abraham that leads to Noah and eventually Adam, but Hebrew text gives us a fairly accurate guess that Adam’s existence or human beings existence would have been between 3900 BCE (BC) and 4250 BCE (BC). This accounts for Abraham being born sometime between 2150 BCE (BC) and 1850 BCE (BC). The total years between Adam and Noah is 1,656, and the years between Noah and Abraham is 422 and ten days. These records between Adam to Abraham make 2,078 years. If Abraham lived between 2150 BCE (BC) and 1850 BCE (BC), then Adam and the dawn of human beings as we know them would be between 3928 BCE (BC) and 4228 BCE (BC). When adding 2021 years to these numbers we get a historical window of years ranging from 5,949 and 6,249. Ironically, according to a survey performed in 1658 CE (AD) by Rev. James Ussher, and published/printed by Matthew Carey in 1801 CE (AD), the total years from Creation and the life of Adam added up to 5,775 years (from 1801 CE (AD)), or 5,995 years as of 2021 CE (AD). This accumulation of years performed decades ago happens to land right in the median range of modern understanding in reports regarding father Abraham of all modern monotheistic religion.

Truly, it should be known that respecting Father Abraham and his history is a very important element of being human and understanding humanity and her vast history today. In slight recap, the history of monotheism can be found ‘in the beginning’, or in Genesis, for all modern religion, and also this history can be recognized as the dawn of a Spiritual War that still rages on today. Polytheism, though the lens of Christianity, was the natural/inevitable result for humanity to make sense of a world full of sin in which the creator once walked with man. God’s decision to remove himself from the sin of man caused the world to seek worship within itself and within the stars. Generation after generation man wandered aimlessly towards a God until the life of Abram. From Adam, to Noah, to Abraham, his son Isaac, and his son Jacob the message of the creator managed to stay in tact through oral traditions until Moses brought the law of God to man in hopes of reuniting God’s chosen people with the creator through acts of righteousness. Sadly, even these acts of righteousness were not enough to cleanse the wickedness of sin in man over the generations until Jesus of Nazareth stepped onto the pages of History. Adam’s existence began a shift in how humans perceive themselves and the world surrounding, but Abrahams existence launched humanity into a new era of modern civilization as we understand it today.

A believer in Christianity can see this event of Monotheism, or the recognition that all is one, through Hebrew culture as being the first step in a beautiful story of mankind reuniting with God after the original sin of Adam and Eve in the Garden, but in the secular culture this dawn of religion is seen as the moment in history where all war stems. Whereas traditional belief assumed that there were none like Adam and Eve, archaeology claims that there were. Christianity widely acknowledges that all man is designed to worship and was created in the beginning to do so. This theory of default programming is hard to deny when studying the uniqueness of the individual. In other words, because Adam and Eve sinned God left the presence of mankind.

Some questions to beg would be, “Can an animal sin? Is an animal that is incapable of self-reflection, planning, linguistics, and philosophy capable of performing sin? Was the birth of Adam and Eve the moment in history on earth where sentient turnover within Nature allowed creatures of earth to be able to not only understand God, but to walk and talk with him? Was the sentient transformation in early mankind simultaneously emerging the accessibility for sin through communications with evil? Did this inward transformation of Adam and Eve create, by their own free-will opportunity for sin? Once the presence of God left man after the incident with the apple in the garden of Eden it was not long before the offspring of Adam and Eve began worshipping the sun, moon, oceans, etc in pursuit of connecting with the viewable yet mysterious, and unexplainable world around them thus forming polytheism. This evidence is explained in scripture as corruption on earth leading to the time of Noah. Many secular historians would argue that Polytheism and humanities nature for curiosity is what evolved into monotheism, but Christianity, Judaism, and Islam vastly disagree with this hypothesis. The loss of God’s presence upon man allowed for the awe of creation to ultimately take the place of the Creator. Humans eventually took it a step further to replace themselves as the Creator which can be seen through ruins of Egypt, Babylonia, and Mesopotamia.

Now, religious wars today can be broken down much further than a primitive interrogation of, “which god do you serve?”. America reveals character traits within this Federally regulated Individualism by calling for people to latch on to any political battle as a religious stance on good versus evil. Propaganda within the media has been used for decades now to push beliefs and control tensions within and without country borders. To understand, we must review the choices of people who have wished harm or caused harm due to abortion rights, civil rights, marital rights, financial equality rights, vaccination rights, and on and on. People will erase their own families from social existence over warlike disagreements between capitalism, socialism, communism, fascism or any other government designed for mass control. If we follow the God of Money, then we can trace it towards the spreadsheets of payments that track armies, weapons, and kickbacks given and received from what we thought were opposing parties. The era of technological advance has clearly driven a wedge between foundational philosophical belief systems that cannot be undone. Choosing to follow and worship God is now seen as a conservative stance while abiding by the laws of majority rule and Individualism is the common liberal approach. Modern politics is indeed a poison for the masses, but the roots of policy is surely a result of one philosophical ideal or the other. There is either a creator, or there is not. Sin and Satan are real, or they are not.

The nuances delivered between competing belief systems in modern societal governance, aka Globalism, will always divide brother against brother as it comes to one brother out-benefitting the other. Every modern economy is designed that way. The truth is that only faith in Jesus can set us free thus leveling the playing field. No system ran or created by any man or group of men will endure against the nature of sin. There can be only one king, and my hope is that the king chosen is sinless. No collected consciousness will prevail against the armies of Satan if not backed by the power of the Holy Spirit. Do you not see that money buys power, or money buys armies and weapons? People who worship money will follow to the ends of the earth if they are promised a piece of the fortune in return for service. In other words, the countries with the best governing principles do not win wars. The countries with the most powerful armies win wars. The country with the most resources to trade and the company that is most self-sustaining will win the wars. Policies do not win wars, and policies to not keep countries strong or great. Individualism is nearest the exact opposite faith and philosophy of Nationalism.

One major issue with modern Christianity is truly not the faith itself, but the generational stigmas and the self-fulfilling stereotypes associated with it. To note, in this context Catholicism is not modern Christianity. I am referring to any form of Christianity outside of a non-denominational status. Modern Christianity, and the movement of revivals within, are much more in line with first-century followers of Jesus than in recent generations. A non-denominational approach to Christianity is the closest current affiliation with first-century believers. A sad element associated with this first-century revival is that it does not exist in every city. For reference, some foundational characteristics of the first century church can primarily be found in the book of Acts shortly following the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus. Collectively, the principles exist throughout the entire New Testament. In Acts, Peter and John are focused on ensuring that the communal/socialistic support of the church with the body is seamless and without integral question. This integrity can be seen thought the story of Ananias and Sapphira. One thing is for sure, and that it is known that the first century church was not a proponent of Capitalism.

Following this awareness of first-century integrity comes the issue with diction. Even back in the first century there was an apostle named Stephen who was stoned to death for not renouncing his faith in Jesus and his calling to pursue evangelism. Even with the most pure and humble diction an audience can reject you. This is looked at as being a people with ears, but who cannot hear. This is in tandem with people who have eyes, but cannot see. If these idioms do not anchor in your soul, then you may be the lost in reference. The inability to see and hear is what Jesus was referring to when he had to leave certain villages and towns who were unable to accept the gospel truth along with the miracles of internal and external healings that Jesus had to offer during his time on earth.

In the secular world diction is everything. This is the key that unlocks the doors to the confusion of nuance. Diction surpasses the definitions and meanings of the words themselves. Diction, in the right narrative, can even surpass the power of appropriated tone when it comes to paralleling oneself with the narrative of the unbelieving masses. Controlling the diction of the masses is the first step in controlling desired outcome regarding Individualism amidst the common man.

In the logic of a believer of Jesus Christ, diction is very important. The words we use, the meaning behind them, and the emotional tonal power of the phrases can bring upon life and or death. This truth is unavoidable in the life of a believer, yet the world covers its ears and gnashed its teeth at the thought of hearing anything that could potentially disprove its narrative of coexistence and tolerance. This is not tolerance in the way of accepting all, but it is tolerance in the way of accepting only things that pop culture deems acceptable. This wavering collected consciousness is more unstable than francium. Diction, as a regulated system, is the removal of the freedom of thought, expression, and art.

Lastly, how is it possible to evangelize in a world that is hellbent on pursuing selfishness? How is it possible to evangelize to a culture that will blacklist you from all social medias while simultaneously preaching tolerance and coexistence? How is it possible to bring the good news that Jesus is the Messiah and that sin is not only real, but able to be lifted from your mind, heart, soul, and spirit? How is it possible to share the gospel in any credible fashion without immediately being riddled as a ‘radical’, ‘irrational’, or ‘loony tune’?

Well, the truth is that today is no different than the time of Jesus when it comes to the heart of man and the existence of sin in the world. Sin today is no worse than the sin of Jesus’ time. Sin can be eradicated from ones life, family, and generations throughout the power of faith in Jesus and the Holy Spirit of peace, joy, and renewal. Jesus did not use technology or social media to preach the good news. Jesus walked. Jesus brought the good news from city to city. Jesus blessed all those who he approached, and who were willing to listen. This is the God of acceptance. This is the true God of tolerance. With Jesus, coexistence is actually possible.

The world, the prophets of Individualism, and propositions of modern secular culture will forever falsely reflect the benefits of God and Christianity without ever truly giving God the credit or the worship that He desires from His creation. Biblically, that is the way of the world and the nature of sin. And so, the modern issues with Christianity may be held within the refracting stigmas unintentionally created by the imperfect people of/within the church and of the body of Christ, but there has never been a better time in the age of man to follow Jesus fully. If you had the ability to start over spiritually, to be reborn, and to have all of your sin removed would you not take it? Would you pray today that Jesus removes the sin from your life? Would you pray for the Holy Spirit to bless you with truth, discernment, and clarity regarding yourself and the modern world around you? Would you take a leap of faith and choose to follow Jesus today?

As always, God Bless.

James Arthur Ferguson