By Jim Mettenbrink

Last week we scratched the hem of the impact of the religion of Secular Humanism on Christendom, that surfaced nearly 50 years ago. Over 30% of the adults admit they are atheist, agnostic or simply do not care about the standard of ethics and morality in the Bible. Far more are those who say they believe in God but in reality disregard His standard. In other words, they are functional atheists, being true to their Humanist hearts – they do whatever and whenever they desire. Even God’s standard of a stable society has been scuttled. Lifelong, heterosexual monogamous marriage, the corner stone of society as God defines it, is now treated as bilge.

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By Jim Mettenbrink

Last week, in our review of the religion of Secular Humanism in the USA, we concluded by asking, “What has been the impact on Christendom?”

That the opportune venue to indoctrinate an unwitting society with Humanism was the public school system. It began with John Dewey’s program in the 1930s at Columbia University to condition teachers.

By the 1970s, the impact was evident even in theological schools. At about the same time (1975) when the Lavista NE High School implemented a mandatory Values Clarification course for seniors, the impact of Theological Modernism rose in the Concordia Lutheran seminary ( LCMS), the most conservative of Lutheran churches. The seed of Seminex was sown in a 1973 conference that charged professors of denying “sola scriptura,” i.e., doctrine must come from only scripture (Bible). Some of the admitted doctrines were that Jesus was not necessarily born of a virgin. Adultery is not necessarily wrong. What was the origin of the professors’ foundation that they could deny the absoluteness of the Bible? And the students who accepted the changes were already primed to make up their own minds. Implicitly, the rejection of the Bible as absolute and rejected the Sovereignty of God and thereby the inspiration of the scriptures. Seminex as an independent movement lasted until 1987 but it merged with a few other synods to form the ELCA.

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By Jim Mettenbrink

This series was prompted by Israel’s King David’s divinely recorded question, “If the foundations are destroyed, What can the righteous do?” (Psalm 11:3), and recognizing how our nation has declined from a God-fearing nation to one drowning in depravity. For over 100 years Secular Humanism has progressively become the American de facto religion.

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By Jim Mettenbrink

Continuing the review of the destruction of the USA’s foundation: Our nation’s history and the preponderance of written and oral religious debates (1800-1950) among the various biblical faiths reflect the reverence the populous had for God and the Bible as His direct instruction to mankind. The century-long slide into unbelief came about by the influence of theological liberalism and the acceptance of Secular Humanism, declaring each person as his own god and pragmatic rule maker. Rules that can be changed on one’s own whim.

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By Jim Mettenbrink

Before we consider the actual entrance into Jesus’ radical kingdom, we briefly review this multi-year series which began with the biblical foundation of the USA, going back years before 1776, we have considered the ups and downs of the citizenry’s faith in God and Jesus as the divine Messiah. That this occurred in any nation at all shores up the necessity of the 1st amendment to the US constitution. At least until now, we can debate any religion with our fellows without fear of government reprisal. However, the more folks trust themselves, the less God is allowed into all aspects of their lives.

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By Jim Mettenbrink

In trying to discover what heaven is like, we learn there is little described in the Bible – no marriage, no sadness, no sin, Christians are called the bride of the Lamb, the Lamb is the light, no other light, no darkness. There is one more feature, the most important one. In heaven, Christians will be together, but never alone. Like much good writing, the best is saved til the end. Here’s the back story.

Although after wrestling with a Man (considered a Christophany), Jacob said, “For I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved” (Genesis 32:30). Yet this was not the actual face of God.

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By Jim Mettenbrink

Last week was our first look into what the Bible says about heaven, the place of eternal bliss that is not on earth or this universe. Not much. In fact, regarding our current abode, Peter, the apostle, wrote, “But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men…. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat?” (2 Peter 3:7, 10). The eternal heaven where God dwells is in a place other than this material universe. That heaven is not of this world is implied by “There shall be no night there: They need no lamp nor light of the sun….” (Revelation 22:5).

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By Jim Mettenbrink

In our consideration of what happens after death, we read that a person’s spirit goes to a place called Hades (Greek, meaning the unseen) (Luke 16:19-31) awaiting the judgment day (2 Thessalonians 1:3-10; 2 Peter 2:9) to be conducted no less than Jesus Himself (Acts 17:31; Romans 2:16). Tragically by far, most folks have chosen the road to hell (Matthew 7:13-14, 21-23), the hardly imaginable place where one’s spirit will suffer the torment of regret eternally for refusing to become a Christian and to live faithfully for Jesus.

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By Jim Mettenbrink

Last week, we considered how Jesus gave us a glimpse of hell, the eternal destiny of those who choose not to become a Christian. To illustrate hell, He used the Valley of Hinnom on the southern edge of Jerusalem, the perpetually burning garbage dump, including the remains of animal sacrifices at the Jewish temple. Imagine a south wind bathing the city with that foul odor. That His metaphor for hell was never-ending fire indicates the excruciatingly unbearable physical pain to which we can relate. However, the Bible does not state that people in hell will have bodies, only those resurrected to eternal life in heaven have that promise of an eternal body (1 Cor 15; 1 Jn 3:2). So what about the dead who have chosen hell? Yes it is a choice!

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