Arming for Spiritual War

God-less 'congregations' planned for humanists

There is a religious 'gathering' which takes place in Cambridge Massachussets, and according to the Washington Post, it looks like this; "The monthly schedule is church-like, with its parenting classes, guest speakers and small group meetings to hash out shared beliefs. But God isn't part of this Cambridge congregation. "

Greg Epstein, the humanist chaplain at Harvard University, is building a God-free model of community that he hopes helps humanists increase in numbers and influence. Epstein sees potential in research showing that there are more people with no religion. In the latest American Religious Identification Survey, released this month, 15 percent of respondents in 2008 said they had no religion, compared to 8.2 percent in 1990. Epstein believes that group includes large numbers of people who are humanist, but have never identified themselves that way and can be reached.

If you look through the numbers with your biblical world-view (lenses), you'll see that religion is indeed universal, as per God's Word (Ro. 1:18-32), and that humanism, which places man in the position of being his own god at the center of his own life, is indeed a religion, which is also man-made and defined as; "a body of persons adhering to a particular set of beliefs and practices: usually involving devotional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs." Make no mistake about it, humanism along with atheism have a comeback of sorts in American culture, making tremendous strides among media and academic elites, infiltrating every sector of society once again, even to the point of ironically establishing humanist "churches," all under the guise and direction I'm sure of the "prince of the power," and "prince of the air."

As Epstein added, "There are so many millions of people out there who basically share our views, that we've got room for everybody. What we're doing here has got to grow even more." I wouldn't be surprised if it did just that. Rather than atttack Epstein and humanist congregations politically however, we are instead exhorted by scripture to follow and do as our blogging motto states in 2 Cor. 10:3-5, "For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ."

Where does that spiritual war begin? For us individually and as a corporate local body at CCC, it means PRAYER. Let's roll-up our collective sleeves, get on bended knee together, beginning this Sunday, as we join our brothers, sisters and friends from Pines Baptist Church for a concert of prayer at 6PM. I encourage all of you consider rearranging your schedules and doing all you can to be there and partake in one-hour of the power of the Holy Spirit as we begin in a new and fresh way as family, to "pull down" our nations "strongholds," including those of bogus humanist church congregations.