Restoring Eden
This is a quote Frank Turek made when confronting an atheist who sees utopia as the ultimate goal we should strive for while using moral arguments to get to this goal. The atheistic view states there is no moral high ground. What is good for me doesn't mean you should view it that way. Your right and truth can be something else and it's equally as good.
This is Frank's response.
"As an atheist, you're trying to say there is no God, which means there is no standard of rightness but I'm saying this is my personal standard of rightness. This would mean if somebody else comes along, say Hitler or Stalin, and say, Kyle, if there's no standard for rightness beyond you or me, then I can do whatever I want, including killing you to get what you have.
"...the problem it seems to me is I know and you know, right? You know what's right and wrong and I know it too and I don't need to believe in God to know that. I just need there to be a God to justify it. Let me put it this way. A lot of atheists say, 'look, I know right from wrong.' And I agree, you know right from wrong but that's like saying I can know what a book says and deny there's an author which is true. Bbut there would be no book to read unless there was an author. The same is true when it comes to morality. You can know what the right thing to do is and deny there's a God but there would be no right thing to do unless there was a God who decreed what is right and wrong."
- Frank Turek
In my view, this is why there is so much chaos going on in the world today on college campuses and all over. The youth scream to be heard their view while emphatically yelling don't push morals on them. Well, if there are no morals that have an absolute right and wrong, their own screaming to be heard means nothing. You have stated you want no moral absolutes. This means, what you are doing makes no sense, has no meaning beyond your bubble. Supporting Hamas' murder of jews (which by the way is backwards, it's Hamas who is enslaving children and using them as shields and raping them), supporting such evil as this, shows how deranged the youth really are. Without morals that have external standards that cannot be moved or swayed, you wind up creating a society of chaos. This isn't a matter of "Old People destroyed our society, it's their fault!" No, the fault lies squarely on divorcing morals from human living. With no right and wrong, everyone's truth is valid and accepted, it creates a destructive force that kills. Why? Because more often than not, human desire is selfish, demands control, everyone wants to take for themselves. This is a known fact about human nature. We are selfish. If morals are stripped from the equation and there is no longer a governing external force to check us with, history repeatedly shows what that outcome is.
Human nature leads to death. That nature is animalistic, greedy, self serving, debased, craving control over others. We deny this is true but our actions scream loud and clear. College campuses with no check on student behavior shows this even now. Their screams and chants for jewish people to die is proof. Where is the tolerance you were so vocal about before? You scream for inclusion, that everyone should have an equal voice, and by your definition, nobody can be held accountable for actions. How does this agree with your ideology that everyone's truth is relevant? It seems backward and hypocritical in light of events all over the world displayed by youth. Your voice and screams are swallowed by your own hypocrisy on what is right and wrong. OLD people are not the problem!
YOUR VIEWS are the problem! Your views are what is causing chaos. Your views are what starts wars! Your views deny any sense of accountability! Your views require misery without hope. Your views scream antisemitism! Lets lay this evil, and yes it is evil, at the foot of those who scream for chaos. It's at the doors of Colleges and Universities who teach this very thing!
History is repeating itself. Venezuela, Germany, they were great, prosperous countries. But when their universities began teaching the youth socialism and the freeing of morality and God, it led down a path so destructive, the effects are still with us today. Germany was led into a deceptive lie and her people bought it. Some of the most horrific crimes against humanity was justified there, wicked experiments and torture was given the ok because it justified the end result. Why? Because it was taught that morals were the hindrance of man. Christianity stood in the way of human progress. It's moral code was a violation against scientific expansion. It was to be cast off because it was evil. This is what was taught in universities, the same as it's taught now.
Oscar Wilder, a famous playwright author in the 1800s, when he was on his deathbed, stated he was glad he had no morals and believed there was no God. Otherwise, his sexual relationships with children would haunt him.
Without morals that are grounded externally, society caves to immoral darkness. This includes the most horrific deeds we can think of. You cannot say something is evil when you have no standing on what is right or wrong. You can say it's determined by society but so was Hitler's stance. His society said killing in the name of creating a supreme race was good. It's what they were taught once moral conscience was left at the door. To argue this way shows how flawed your thinking is and is grounds for doing anything and everything, including raping children, murdering someone you don't like, destroying and rioting because you simply don't like someone. This is anarchy and is being pushed by Universities across the world, not just in the USA.
The youth want to blame us older generations for their problems. Well, we didn't have this problem you have. We had morals. But little by little, this was pushed out and replaced with the insane thinking that you can live a life free of conscience. This leads to all sorts of problems, especially mentally. Your mind knows by nature itself what is right and wrong. It's ingrained in you. But by programming and desensitizing of pureness, you are now in a state of flux, a state that your mind knows it doesn't belong it and is confused. It creates chaotic realities leading to anger, anxiety, suicide, and problems that cannot be fixed with a drug or a therapist who says you're ok the way you are. If they say otherwise, they lose their license now.
This is by design. This is called controlling the population by controlling the youth. You're being controlled and don't even know you've been manipulated.
Freedom comes by actually latching onto the notion there is a higher power that has standards that are external to us. When we can fix ourselves on this external law of right and wrong, the internal chaos stops. We are now aligned to something that has purpose and design. We are no longer in flux, in a state of imbalance.
One look at how things are oriented, how things are designed, screams purpose. It screams there is no probable way things came into existence by chance. It's impossible. There is a Creator who has ordered the Universe and created by design us. And we were made specifically to image Himself for His pleasure as a Father who smiles at his children. Humanity was created by God for God, through God, to Image himself so he could get the pleasure of watching his creations mimic and partner with Him. This was the whole purpose.
I've heard this view is very self-centered, arrogant, and narcissistic. Why then should we want to be in a relationship with such a creator?
Because your view on this subject is twisted. The correct view is to see it the same way a father and mother have children. Why do they? They plan for it most times and desire it greatly so they can have a family. Is that narcissistic? Before you try and say yes, you may want to look up what that word means.
Family is one of the most rewarding and fulfilling things this world has to offer. It is companionship that transcends simple interactions with one another. It encompasses all the greek words for love. It is in essence, the purpose for humanity, to come close to God in family and partner with Him for He is the father who loves to give good gifts to His children, to experience life together.
This is what Eden was and is meant to be again in the end. God wasn't far off after creating Adam and Eve. He walked in the cool of the day with humans. They were physically present together. They had the most intimate connections that no other humans have experienced. This was the purpose of our existence, to be connected with God, knowing we mattered, had a purpose, and were included in God's family that also included His heavenly beings that were created before us. You can find this in Job when God asks Job where was he when the angels shouted for joy at the creation of the world.
We are here for a purpose and that purpose is to image God, to walk with Him, to fellowship with others as family. This was the purpose of Eden. It was God's place on Earth, we as humans, were to mingle and fellowship with Him.
I don't think we understand the enormous importance of this. Eden was inhabited by more than Adam and Eve. In ancient thought, gardens, mountains, the most remote and beautiful places were reserved for the home of gods. Eden is described as both a garden and mountain place in several places in the Bible. It is also described in ways that transcend heaven and earth. I like to view it as an in-between place.
Eden was God's home but was also placed here on Earth so we as mortal flesh could fellowship with Him and those with Him as one family. This was the most natural thing for God to think. Where He was, we were supposed to be there too. That whole idea shattered when Satan got jealous and deceived Eve. He didn't want humans in the same place as himself. We were mortal. How dare God look at us as equal to him!
But this was the design for Eden and for us as humans. It is also the fulfillment of Revelations. Eden returns and we are restored to the position we were supposed to have in the beginning.
Our entire purpose as human beings is to image God in the physical realm, partner with Him, and fellowship as family. Those who are in the world and are not following God... they are still family! The biggest lie we are told by Satan is that as Christians, we should avoid the world and look at it with judgemental eyes.
In God's eyes, we are all the same. We are human. We were created to be His family! It's just that those who are not in a relationship with Jesus are estranged family members on a different path than the one God designed for our benefit. And because of this, God experiences the pain of loss a parent experiences when children walk away from them in anger and rebellion.
This is the choice we make as children of free will God imparts to us as being given part of His character. The choice is always ours to make for it defines what love is. Ultimately, love encompasses God's whole being, imparting that love to us. It is what all the laws of the Bible hinge on. It is the greatest law for it defines God and thereby defines us as a family. We cannot live a Christian life without first loving our neighbor. It simply doesn't work that way.
In the same breath, we acknowledge a broken world where rebellion is here, pushed by external forces Paul preaches on endlessly, that spiritual warfare we wrestle against. They want us to destroy ourselves out of hatred for God's view of us. They will never stop till God's judgment falls on them in the end.
Our view must first be on family. Our mission, Jesus calls us to, is to the world, the estranged family members who are lost. He cries for all of them and by extension, do we have that same heart? Do we view people as family? This is why Jesus gave the great commission. It is to bring the estranged back to the family, out of the clutches of the darkness.
At heart, morality is God's heartbeat in human life. He has imprinted Himself, his identity, on the hearts of men and women, knowing right and wrong. He is crying for the lost to seek Him out, to stop being led by the lies of the dark forces whispering in the ears. Their desire is for the destruction of humanity, however that can be achieved. If teaching humans more ways to be evil that will lead to suicide and murder, the better. The desensitizing of moral goodness is at heart, supernatural evil playing their hands. They are masterminding universities and governments, establishing in hearts of men to see morals as evil. And thereby, creating a system of chaos to destory humanity faster while discrediting God and His followers, Christians.
It's the job now of the true Christian, who knows the love written on their hearts, to walk into that darkness, armor on, and speak truth to the lies that permeate this world, the poison killing the youth literally. We are the force God appoints to combat evil with love.
That force is shown in our willingness to stop hiding in our churches being plastic people! Who aren't afraid to confess to others our sins and who we are. We are the same! We are flawed people who simply know we are forgiven and have a relationship with the God of the universe. Paul says to give a reason for our faith. Well, here it is! Our lives are evidence! Our hearts of passion should look different, so different it draws the attention of others. We are called foreigners to this world because this should be what we represent. A foreign life that doesn't mimic the world but the love and passion of Yahweh.
We get so sucked up in this life's problems and foolish ideas and entertainment. But if we train our attention to look up first, to align with the one who is giving us life, if we drink of that fountain, we are renewed. We know beyond a shadow of a doubt our purpose, our identity, and our mission. It is to partner with God in restoring Eden, restoring the family by being Jesus to this lost world.
How do we do this?
First, pray. We can do nothing if we aren't aligned with God's will. When we are in communion with Him, the planning and execution just works. Time and time again, this is the case. It is one more evidential sign God is real and active. If it happens only once or twice, it's a coincidence, right? But what if this happens over and over and documented? Well, guess what? It is documented in churches across the entire world throughout history.
Now speak in boldness. Don't rely on our own strength because it fails us all the time. Rely on God, knowing we are weak and frail humans who have a heart of sin. It is God who gives us strength in this time. Speak in love but in truth and watch the Spirit fall on the people with conviction and power. This is not some magical wordy thing I'm saying. This is me saying, if we obey God's calling to speak, He will do the rest. And as documented in many places, and just watching ourselves, we will see the evidence. I have personally seen the power of the Holy Spirit rip through people at the simple obedience of sharing my story. God said to speak, I did, and watched in utter shock, the movement of the Spirit. I did nothing but obey and speak, knowing my words mean little. But what offering I gave, I gave because it was God's will for me to do. And in that moment in time, my faith was strengthened a hundred fold for God's promises do not return void.
This is the hope and evidence of the Christian life. It is the promises God gives when we submit and obey to what he calls us to do. This is the true relationship of a Christian with our maker. It is an exciting adventure built on evidence, on faith, on purpose, of a destiny built not on frail hope but one of experience!
Christianity is not a dead religion! It is fired by willing partners of God who by their hearts and mouths, sparks a fire of revival, casting a blazing light into darkness.
This is how we restore Eden.