1982 Sermon - Part 2

Christians, that certainly is true, but nevertheless they founded the country on the base that there is a God who is the creator, now I come to the next central phrase, who is the creator who gave the inalienable rights. We must understand something very thoroughly. If society, if the state gives the rights, it can take them away. They're not inalienable. If the state gives the rights, they can change them and manipulate them, but this was not the view of the founding fathers of this country. They believed, though not all of them were individual Christians, that there was a creator and that this creator gave the inalienable rights. This upon which our country was founded and which has given us the freedoms which we still have, even the freedoms which are being used now to destroy the freedoms. The reason that these freedoms were there is because they believed there was somebody who gave the inalienable rights, which indeed therefore limited the power of the state and the government specifically by these inalienable rights. But if we have the view that the final reality is material or energy, which has existed forever in some form, we must understand this view never, never, never would have given the rights which we now know and which unhappily I say to you, those of you who are Christians, too often you take all too all as much for granted. You forget that the freedoms we have had in Northern Europe after the Reformation in the United States is an extended extension of that as would be out of Australia or Canada or New Zealand and so on. You forget that the freedoms which we have are absolutely unique in the world. Occasionally some of you have gone to university, have been taught that these freedoms are rooted in the Greek City States. That is not true. All you have to do is read Plato's Republic and you understand that the Greek City States never had any concept of the freedoms that we have. Go back into history. The freedoms which we have, the form freedom, balance of government, all these things, they are unique in history and they're also unique in the world at this day. What we have and take so poorly for granted is unique. It was brought forth by a specific worldview and that specific worldview was the Judeo-Christian worldview and especially as it was refined in the Reformation, putting the authority indeed at a central point, not in the church and the state and the Word of God, but rather the Word of God alone. All the benefits which we know, I would repeat, which we have taken so easily and so much for granted, are unique. They have been founded on this certain worldview that there is a creator there to give the inalienable rights and this other view over here, which has become increasingly dominant of the material energy final worldview, shaped by pure chance, never would have, could not, has no basis of values in order to give such a balance of freedom that we have known so easily and which we unhappily, if we're not careful, take so for granted. We're now losing those freedoms and we can expect to continue to lose them. If this other worldview continues to take increased force, power in our country, we can be sure of this, I would say it again, inevitably, mathematically, all these things will come forth. There's no possible way to heal the relativistic thinking of our own day, if indeed all there is is a universe out there that is silent about any values. None whatsoever. It is not possible. It is a loss of values and there's a loss of freedom, which we may be sure will continually grow. A good illustration is in the public schools. This view is taught in our public schools exclusively. By law, there's no other view that can be taught. I'll mention it a bit later. But by law, there is no other view that can be taught. By law, in the public schools, the United States of America in 1980, in 1982, legally there is only one view or reality that can be taught. And that is that the final reality is only material energy shaped by pure chance. It is the same with the television programs. Public television gives us many things that many of us like culturally, but is also completely committed to a propaganda position that the last reality is only material or energy shaped by pure chance. Clark's Civilization, Brunowski, Descendant of Man, Carl Sagan, Cosmos, they all say it. The new one that's on says it with great dogmatism. There is only one final view of reality that's possible. And that is that final reality is material or energy shaped by pure chance. It's about us on every side, and especially the government, and especially the courts have become the vehicle to force this anti-God view on the total population. It's exactly where we are. The abortion ruling is a very clear one. The abortion ruling, of course, is also a natural result of this other world view, because with this other world view, human life, your individual life, has no intrinsic value. You are a wart upon the face of an absolutely impersonal universe. Your aspirations have no fulfillment in the what-isness of what-is. Your aspirations damn you. Many of the young people who come to us understand this very well, because their aspirations of humanists have no fulfillment, if indeed the final reality is only material or energy shaped by pure chance. The universe cannot fulfill anything that you say when you say it is beautiful, I love, it is right, it is wrong. These words are meaningless words against the backdrop of this other world view. So what we find is the abortion case should not have been a surprise, because it boiled up out of, quite naturally, I would use the word again, mathematically, this other world view. In this case, human life has no distinct value whatsoever, and we find that the Supreme Court, in one ruling, overthrew the abortion laws of all 50 states, and they made this form of killing human life, because that's what it is. The law declared that this form of killing human life was to be accepted, and for many people, because they had no set ethic, when the Supreme Court said that it was legal, for many people in the intervening years it has become ethical.