I want to warn you up front that this post will be longer than usual, but I am convinced this post will be worth your read.
I am not a prophet and do not claim to be. However, I do believe I see what the future beholds and I do not like what I see for the generations to come. It is tough enough being a family, a parent, a student, or a leader living for Christ in today’s world. Although God always leaves a remnant, the world itself is not getting any better. When I say the future, let me for the sake of time cap it at 100 years from now. On a natural level, I don’t think you will find a man wearing a tie in the future. I would compare it to the way in which today we view wigs worn by men in colonial times.
But the future spiritual landscape is my main concern in this post. I would encourage you to read some background passages such as 2 Peter 2 which speaks of false teachers and their destruction and Jude 1 which speaks to the sin and doom of godless men. Below are the two key verses found in each passage.
But these people blaspheme in matters they do not understand. They are like unreasoning animals, creatures of instinct, born only to be caught and destroyed, and like animals they too will perish. – 2 Peter 2:12
But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves. –Jude 1:10
Notice the descriptive words that various translations of Scripture use to describe such men: unreasoning, unthinking or irrational animals, creatures of instinct, brute beasts. I think in the future, we will witness a land full of inhumane mutants or beasts (as you will read below, these men are humans stripped of all virtue). What events lead up to these occasions? How do we get there? Sure, these type of men have always existed, but I think in the end days, we will witness a multitude of brute beasts. Also, let’s not forget about the beast mentioned in Revelation. Perhaps he is the beast of beasts and forces others to receive the mark of the beast.
I want to share a long excerpt with your from Chuck Colson’s book, How Now Shall We Live? I am going to italicize some key words that I want you to center your attention on.
“The great Christian apologist C. S. Lewis warned that the rise of scientific naturalism would lead to the ‘the abolition of man,’ for it denies the reality of those things central to our humanity: our sense of right and wrong, of purpose, of beauty, of God. And if we deny the things that truly make us human, then we will create a culture that is, by definition, inhuman. If we treat morality as subjective feeling, then moral ideals will be relegated to the private realm, and the public realm will be stripped of all morality. If we deny the reality of the virtues that make us superior to beasts, then those virtues wither away, reducing to the level of beasts. Thus while science has created technological advances that make life easier and healthier, when science is confused with the philosophy of scientific naturalism, it destroys the very things that make life worth living. We gain control over the natural world at the cost of our own souls. Lewis foresaw this predicament clearly. ‘For the wise men of old,’ he wrote, ‘the cardinal problem had been how to conform the soul to reality, and the solution had been knowledge, self-discipline, and virtue.” The purpose of life was defined in terms of the growth of the soul, and there was an abiding moral standard to which to conform. But for the contemporary technical mind-set, ‘the problem is how to subdue reality to the wishes of men: the solution is a technique.’ This mind-set acknowledges no abiding standards, so there is nothing to check the human desire for control and domination.”
Let me start with the abolition of man. In recent times past, there was a worthwhile push to abolish slavery. The battle that lies ahead is one in which we will need to push that man himself not be abolished.
In his article, “Transgender Identity-Wishing Away God’s Design,” Owen Strachan brilliantly explains the “brave new order” or “how our culture now views the body.” Bear with me as I provide you with another long excerpt with more italicized words that I wish to highlight.
“Over the last 50 years, American Christians have watched as our society has fashioned a brave new order for itself. Feminism and the sexual revolution have transformed the American home. Many men have lost any sense of responsibility for their family. They’re tuned out, passive, and self-focused. Many women feel great tension between their career and home. They are told by secular lifestyle magazines to pursue perfect “work-life” balance, but it’s hard to find. Increasingly, the sexes are in competition. These troubling developments represent phase one of the transformation of men and women.
Phase two is the spread of the homosexual movement. Led by celebrities in the 1980s, the homosexual movement built off of the momentum of the feminist push and the sexual revolution. It sought to mainstream homosexual behavior. Men and women, it assumed, were not different in any meaningful way. The moral constraints of the biblical worldview had already been cast off. Romantic love was not subject to any shape or design. It was just a feeling. As such, it had no duties, no covenantal dimensions, and no enduring commitment. If it persisted, great. If the feeling of love died out, then the relationship died with it.
In phase one, gender roles were recast. In phase two, romantic love was recast. In phase three, the body itself is recast. “Transgender” ideology is grounded in the idea that the body isn’t an essential part of our being (a viewpoint known as essentialism). Our “gender identity” is fluid, a social construct that can change. We may well be a man trapped in a woman’s body, for example; our identity does not necessarily match our body. In such instances, many “transgender” people opt for reconstructive surgery so their identity fits with their body (an essentialist view, ironically).”
Have you made the connection yet? In a land where man is stripped of virtue and objective truth, man doesn’t have to be man. Man can be a woman, an animal, or anything else he desires to be. The Bible tells the truth. Man became beast.
We already live in a somewhat inhuman world. A world where you can ride the subway for two hours and not witness one human being speaking to another. A world where people are so self-inundated and self-absorbed with their phones, their beats, and themselves to the point that others are not considered because they are not seen. A world where people are politically correct robots that lack personality. We are staring ourselves into oblivion and paying the social price. When communication goes out the door, relationships are impossible. And ultimately, it is a relationship that God desires us to have with him.
For man, the only constant is change. The great thing about God is he is immutable or unchanging. A.W. Tozer writes in The Knowledge of the Holy, “there can be no mutation in the moral character of God, so there can be none within the divine essence.” Whereas man is both mutable and mortal, God is neither. Tozer states, “each man appears for a little while to laugh and weep, to work and play, and then go to make room for those who shall follow him in the never-ending cycle,” but that “God differs from His creatures in being self-existent, self-sufficient, and eternal.” God does not grow or develop. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Heb 13:8).
Man can change himself into a beast, but God will remain the same. God is holy and there is no such thing as God becoming better or worse. All of God’s promises are yes and amen so His word cannot change either (2 Cor 1:20). We really have two choices: (1) Change ourselves into what we want to be, or (2) Allow God to conform us into the beautiful image of his Son. Become a beast or become the man or woman God desires you to be.