Outline For Building-up And Equipping The Body Of Christ

This Biblical Christianity website encourages people to know and to live, God’s Word; thus enabling us to live now as God intended for us to live, and preparing us for eternal life in God’s kingdom.

Site Navigation:This left-column outline contains links to website pages and sources pertaining to helping the Body of Christ gain the potential for which God designed it. The menu below pages down to the individual sections of this outline from which you can navigate to other web pages. There is a fourth level to some of the third level or decimal elements of this outline that is hidden, to view this level click on the (c) symbol in the outline; to hide the fourth level, double-click upon it (I found out, the last time I checked, that Mozilla's Firefox browser doesn't support this fourth level expansion feature, sorry).

The Bible Versus Modern Humanism

Humanism that had its beginning in the fourteenth century did not suddenly reject the truth of God’s Word, this rejection came about slowly by various groups and individuals. In 1933, one such group of people recorded their rejection of God and the Bible in a document called the Humanist Manifesto I – John Dewey was one of them. This manifesto was revised in 1973 and 2003, and they still clearly reject a belief in God or the supernatural; they have some high ideals and aspirations, but they discount God altogether. They therefore have a worldview that is in direct opposition to a Biblical Worldview.

There need not be any antagonism between parties who hold these different views because many on both sides of the issue still wish for and seek the best for all people. Neither group has any way of definitely proving their viewpoint, but must rely upon the information that is available to them to decide for themselves and to persuade others. This is why a correct understanding of God’s Word is so crucial in developing our Bible Worldview.

The following is from WorldBook 2003 encyclopedia:

Philosophy:

Medieval philosophy. During the Middle Ages, Western philosophy developed more as a part of Christian theology than as an independent branch of inquiry. The philosophy of Greece and Rome survived only in its influence on religious thought. . . .

A system of thought called Scholasticism dominated medieval philosophy from about the 1100's to the 1400's. The term Scholasticism refers to the method of philosophic investigation used by teachers of philosophy and theology in the newly developing universities of western Europe. The teachers were called Scholastics. The Scholastic method consisted in precise analysis of concepts with subtle distinctions between different senses of these concepts. The Scholastics used deductive reasoning from principles established by their method to provide solutions to problems. . . .

Humanism:

Humanism was a cultural movement that flourished in Europe from the 1300's to the 1500's. The movement, which began in Italy, helped characterize the Renaissance, an age of reborn interest in the arts, education, and the classical culture of ancient Greece and Rome. . . .

John Dewey and Humanism:

Dewey, John (1859-1952), was an American philosopher and educator. He helped lead a philosophical movement called Pragmatism (see PRAGMATISM).

Dewey was strongly influenced by the then-new science of psychology and by the theory of evolution proposed by the English scientist Charles R. Darwin. Dewey came to regard intelligence as a power that people use when they face a conflict or challenge. He believed that people live by custom and habit. In most situations, it is sufficient to think and act as we have done in the past, but some physical and social situations present problems calling for new responses. According to Dewey, we cannot solve such problems by habitual action and thought. We must use intelligence as an instrument for overcoming any obstacles. Dewey's philosophy is thus called instrumentalism.

Dewey believed that knowledge is a means of controlling the environment, hopefully to improve the quality of human life. He wrote widely on art, democracy, education, philosophy, and science. In his writings, Dewey always focused on the same problem – how to close the gap between thought and action. Dewey's interpretation of science shows how thought and action are united. He considered science as a method for inquiring into the behavior of things. The results of such inquiry are the joint products of thought and activity. Dewey regarded activity as conducting experiments under controlled situations and thought as those theories that guide our experiments.

In every area of life, Dewey called for experimenting and trying out new methods. As an educator, he opposed the traditional method of learning by memory under the authority of teachers. He believed that education should not be concerned only with the mind. Students should develop manual skills. Learning must be related to the interests of students and connected with current problems. Dewey declared that education must include a student's physical and moral well-being as well as intellectual development.

The following is from A Parent’s Handbook for identifying New Age Religious Beliefs, Psychotherapeutic Techniques, and Occult Practices in Public School Curriculums, by John F. Ankerberg, K. Craig Branch, and John F. Weldon.

How and Why Did Affective Education and Psychotherapy in the Classroom Become acceptable? . . .

But how did we ever arrive at our current situation? Why are educators now using psychotherapy in the classroom in place of traditional learning methods? In part, it is because the educational establishment has abandoned long-held Judeo-Christian premises about education for humanistic and now, increasingly, transpersonal ones. p. 41-42

The First Wave (This quote is in the same book, but taken from an article written by Tal Brooke, M.Div. entitled Education: Capturing Hearts and Minds for a New World pp. 70-71

In the 1930s, the reality of influence in the schoolroom spurred John Dewey, the father of American progressive education, to write My Pedagogic Creed. In it, Dewey depicts public education as a massive behavior-shaping tool. Dewey knew that you could sway the beliefs of a whole generation in the classroom and thereby alter the course of a nation. While Roosevelt was introducing welfare programs, Dewey saw the public school system as an ideal platform to proselytize his radical socialistic views. Regardless of what the parents believed, it was only a matter of time before the successive generations took over. It was a quiet way to remake the world.

But John Dewey’s ideas did not just come out of a vacuum. He was influenced by an insider group of intellectuals in England known as the Fabian Socialists. Dewey was an American ally of this clique. The Fabians had an agenda of gradualist global penetration by using education as a key tool of influence in this process. (See end note for "The Fabian Agenda.") Dewey, who remained close with Fabian leaders, had his own circle of academic disciples at Columbia University, especially Kilpatrick and Counts, who influenced textbooks and school curricula for decades. Through Dewey’s influence, Harold Laski, right before becoming chairman of the British Fabian Society, lectured at Columbia Teacher’s College for a semester in 1939 amidst John Dewey’s best and brightest disciples.

What did all this mean for American public education? Columbia Teacher’s College influenced other graduate schools and colleges of education. Before long, progressive education, the Dewey-designed tool for reshaping America, was a public school reality all across America.

Dewey knew that to penetrate the existing social order a united front of educators who embodied the new viewpoint needed to emerge from graduate schools. These teachers of teachers would then influence future teachers. Among the new views was a national self-criticism that spurned narrow patriotism for a broader globalism. At the same time traditional values, from parental authority to the validity of established religion, were to be questioned and ultimately dethroned.

The Hydra—The Many-Headed Monster of Secular Humanism -- How to Make Sense Out of Our Increasingly Secular Society by Dr. Steven C. Riser

Introduction

Is it possible to be practical when talking about the world of ideas, especially when considering various philosophical and religious worldviews? Since what we think affects what we do, both individually and collectively, it is not only practical but also essential if we are to be like "the men of Issachar" and "understand the times" in which we live (1 Chr. 12:32). The aim in this article is to be brief, understandable and accurate as well as biblical and practical. It isn’t an easy task when dealing with the way that people think, but let’s try.

In Greek mythology, the hydra was a nine-headed serpent slain by Hercules as one of his twelve labors: when any of the heads was cut off, two others replaced it. There is a "hydra" loose in our contemporary culture and it is not a myth; this hydra, this many-headed monster, which is even more dangerous is called secularism, and it threatens you, your faith, your family, the church and our nation. The sad fact is that America is becoming increasingly influenced by secularism, which shows itself in a variety of ways; each one can be likened to one of the many heads of the hydra. The term hydra has come to be known as: any persistent evil with many sources or causes.

We may know the meaning of secular, but what is secularism? The addition of the suffix "ism" changes a word into a system of thought which affects the way in which we look at life. This system of thought is called a worldview. Secularism is the dominant "ism" of our society.

Secularism at its root is ignoring the eternal. It is living for this world only as if there is no God and no eternal consequence for our actions. It is the mark of a fool. "A fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God’" (Psalm 14:1). It is not living in light of eternity. It is easy to see how this kind of thinking is a logical outgrowth of denying God’s existence (atheism).

The monster is secularism, but what do the various heads of the hydra represent? What are the components of secularism? The following "isms" contribute to our increasingly secular society. (Some of these ways of thinking are old, some are new but they’re all compatible with and reinforce the dominant worldview in our culture: secularism.) . . .

Conclusion

What do all these "isms" have in common? They have all rejected the love of God as revealed in the Gospel of Christ and they have all rejected the wisdom of God as revealed in His Word–the Bible. . . .

If we want to avoid becoming the proverbial frog in the kettle, we must not allow the world to squeeze us into its own mold but rather we must allow God to transform us by the renewing of our mind (Rom. 12:1-2). . . . Only the "sword of the Spirit" can slay the secular monster called the hydra.

Dr. Riser listed twenty elements of secularism which we couldn’t include, but one of them was secular humanism. Secular, meaning of or relating to the worldly or temporal and not overtly or specifically religious, and especially those elements of warfare that the enemies of God have raised up to opposed His rule over mankind. These are the elements that we are trying to explain and expose so that God’s people can be warned and protected from their use and /or being exposed to them. This in turn is being faithful to engage in this conflict as the apostle Paul exemplified for us: "I entreat you when I do come [to you] that I may not [be driven to such] boldness as I intend to show toward those few who suspect us of acting according to the flesh [on the low level of worldly motives and as if invested with only human powers]. For though we walk (live) in the flesh, we are not carrying on our warfare according to the flesh and using mere human weapons. For the weapons of our warfare are not physical [weapons of flesh and blood], but they are mighty before God for the overthrow and destruction of strongholds, [inasmuch as we] refute arguments and theories and reasonings and every proud and lofty thing that sets itself up against the [true] knowledge of God; and we lead every thought and purpose away captive into the obedience of Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed one), being in readiness to punish every [insubordinate for his] disobedience, when your own submission and obedience [as a church] are fully secured and complete" (2 Cor. 10:2-6).

Whenever we are deceived by the enemy into believing or using any of his implements, we injure ourselves and put ourselves in a position for further deception. God’s people need to be awakened to the schemes of the devil and those who follow him, and the extreme danger this imposes.