2-The Rise of Homo Deus & Meo Christianity

Del Tackett 7 Threats Series with Video link

Del Tackett Threat #2 transcript

SR - Introduction

We are going over a series of articles from Del Tackett (author of the Truth Project) entitled "The Seven Threats to America in Our Times." He begins the 2nd threat by likening these threats to storm fronts. He says:

DT - Review

Here are these storm fronts (of the perfect storm) that are confronting us.

Briefly mentioning them:

1st - The Rise of the Scoffer & the Depraved Mind
      [Which we went over last month (July 30th). The recording & notes are available from the
      Education page on our website under the Sermons & Notes heading at the bottom of the page.
      The notes also have links to Del’s original material on his website.]
The…​
2nd - threat, We are going to look at today, The Rise of Homo Deus & Meo Christianity
3rd - The Loss of the Noble Male & Rise of Malevolent Compassion
4th - The Consolidation of Massive Earthly Power
5th - Rise of a Demonic Worldview & the National Rift
6th - The Addiction & Softness, the Dependency & Lostness of our culture
7th - The Attack on the Biblical Family

Last time we talked about the two regressions that occur in scripture.

The 1st is the regression, we see in Proverbs, from the simpleminded to the fool to the scoffer.

  • the simple says - "I’m ok; you’re ok" while following their own desires.

  • the fool - "I’m ok, but you’re not" and "there is no God." They call evil good; good evil

  • the scoffer is - the militant fool, "I’m ok, but if you believe in God, you’ll be canceled, punished" The scoffer sets a city aflame…​ (Proverbs 29:8)

    Proverbs 1:22, mentions all three

    How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple?
    How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and
    fools hate knowledge?

Then we talked about the regression in Romans.

We see that God’s wrath is revealed from heaven to those who: 

  • suppress the truth (though it is plain)

  • do not glorify God, nor thank Him

  • their thinking becomes futile; hearts darkened; they become fools

And then there are the three successive, progressive "giving over to" [pronouncements]

"Therefore God gave them over to": 

  • sexual impurity - male & female (heterosexual) impurity (in the 1900’s)

  • shameful lusts - following the 1960’s we see unnatural sexual impurity prominently emerge

  • depraved minds - a mind no longer logical, no longer rational,

All of this was covered in our discussion of the 1st threat.

Let’s now look at the 2nd storm front, if we want to put it that way, that is aligning in our culture at this time. It is a storm front that I call…​

(#2) The Rise of Homo Deus & Meo Christianity

July 26, 2021 - Del Tackett (modified with livestream added)

In the luxury of a culture where even the lower economic classes live like kings compared to the world’s poor, we have become immensely spoiled. We are lavished with bins overflowing with fresh fruit and vegetables in the dead of winter, aisles full of choice cut-meats, acres of shelves filled with more products than anyone could possibly want, stores with racks of clothes and shoes of every type and style and color, homes with heat in the winter and air conditioning in the summer, cars by the millions and transportation freedom to go anywhere and anytime we want. We have fast-service food everywhere and thousands of channels and entertainment of any kind 24/7 at the push of a button.

We pay thousands of dollars for a bicycle and the expensive tights. We pay almost as much for our tennis shoes. Like the kings of old with wise men and counsellors at their beckon, we have a waiting attendant named Alexa who grants us access to the store house of the world’s knowledge by simply commanding her to speak. Yesterday I raised my scepter and my demand was met with a delivery truck this afternoon.

We are lavishly wealthy and spoiled.

In all of this, it is easy to believe it is all about me.

One of the first things that happens when a culture loses the larger story of God is that there is only one story left—mine. Couple this with the explosion of at-your-service entertainment and what’s-your-pleasure technology that incorporates sophisticated algorithms to tailor everything to your surfing wants and desires, and it isn’t hard to begin to think that the universe revolves around you.

It gets complicated after this, because just as Satan essentially whispered “it’s all about you, Eve”, I am convinced we are fighting a demonic battle here as well. There are spiritual, material and worldview forces combining today to whisper the same in our ears every minute of every day.

And, just as Eve bought the lie and it led to devastating consequences, so, too, swallowing that lie will do the same to us individually and to our culture. The forces are gaining so much strength that we have raised “all about me” to the next satanic level: “you will be like God!”

This is Satan’s modus operandi (his way of doing things) to usurp God…​

Isaiah 14:12-14 (NKJV)

I use the NKJV version here because it translates the Hebrew word for "Morning Star" with a name you might be familiar with: "Lucifer"
“How you are fallen from heaven,
O Lucifer (Morning Star), son of the morning!
How you are cut down to the ground,
You who weakened the nations!
13 For you have said in your heart:
'I will ascend into heaven,
I will exalt my throne above the stars of God;
I will also sit on the mount of the congregation
On the farthest sides of the north;
14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds,
I will be like the Most High'…​"

You can see his MO as he applies it to Eve…​

Genesis 3:4-5 (NKJV)

Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Increasingly, the human heart has become the voice of the human deity—homo deus. The individual heart becomes unassailable…​ speaking divine proclamations and if you disagree, it will be considered blasphemy and you will be cancelled, punished for it.

If I say, I’m a girl, the world must now bow down to that as a divine proclamation.

A father in Canada was recently arrested because he refused to use the personal pronouns demanded by his child, the school and the government. He is considered a blasphemer.

We have been seduced by this for years with the “follow your heart”, "be true to yourself" mantra that is founded upon the same sinister belief that there is something deeply divine about me and my ultimate quest is to get in touch with it and set it free. That is almost a direct quote from Abraham Maslow who taught us all [or, at least, all our psychiatrists] that our highest goal in life was not to glorify God, but to self-actualize—the last century’s version of “follow your heart.”

Virtually every movie today plays the same theme over and over again—characters wrestle with their inner struggling selves until they find salvation in becoming true to their own hearts and then celebrate it. We may be more accurate to say “worship” it.

[Our culture has] become truly blasphemous: 

“I am the way, the truth and the life.” they say
“Not Jesus… Me.”
“I am.” they say
“Not God… Me.”

This is the rise of Homo Deus.

When a culture descends into such deep self-centeredness, it begins to collapse. A healthy culture is built upon selflessness, cooperation, trust and good-will. When selfishness reigns, lawlessness and corruption soon follow.

Daniel Webster (no relation to Noah Webster of dictionary fame) famously prophesied: 

When the public mind becomes vitiated (i.e. spoiled or impaired) and corrupt, laws are a nullity (legally void) and constitutions are but waste paper.

Homo Deus will also lead to greater and greater isolation.

Proverbs 18:1 (NKJV)

A man who isolates himself seeks his own desire;
He rages against all wise judgment.

Proverbs 18:2 (NKJV)

A fool has no delight in understanding, But in expressing his own heart.

When people believe their happiness and significance and pleasure is increasingly found in getting their own way, pursuing their own will, they will progressively become manipulators of everyone around them. (When self rules) Everyone has an agenda… always. Everyone becomes a salesman. Nothing destroys relationships more than when two people are maneuvering and manipulating according to their own agendas and scripts. We become increasingly isolated, shrinking ever so slowly into our own all-about-me throne, where we become secretly, but pathologically, lonely.

The desperate drive to control and fulfill our own will also leads to emotional turmoil. When we become invested in our own personal scripts (“If my husband would just… If my wife would just… If my parents would just… If the cute boy or girl at school would just…), and we continually fail in controlling the events and people around us, then we become possessed with negative emotions: anger, disappointment, impatience, worry, bitterness… all of which can make us either claw more desperately or give up and sink down into apathy and hopelessness… and sometime suicide.

These are the consequences of Satan’s lie.

Ah, but it is here we should see the body of Christ shine!

For we are the earthly purveyors of what a true, selfless relationship should look like. We have been on the receiving end of God’s steadfast, sacrificial true agape love. As Paul cries “Christ’s love compels us!”

But, alas, the body of Christ is increasingly beset with the same lie.

I call it “Meo-Christianity”, where we come, wittingly or unwittingly, to believe that the most important thing in Christianity is me. I am God’s endgame. It is all about me, spiritually and piously speaking, of course. The music on Sunday, the fellowship, the teaching, the Christian albums and movies, etc. etc. are basically all about me…​ and for me. I am a Christian consumer who delights in my Christian consumption. We even turn our growth and sanctification into something that is all about me. The most important thing for people to hear from me is my journey. I write diligently all about it in my blogs and posts on social media and hope everyone “follows” me.

Isn’t that a revealing word?

2 Timothy 3:2-5 (NKJV)

For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, 4 traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!

It is hard to love our neighbors when we are primarily consumed with ourselves. The most critical element in true agape love is sacrifice. Without it, there is no true agape love. And without true agape love, Paul says, we are but a noisy gong or clanging symbol that may make a big noise, but it simply fades quickly into nothing.

No one sacrifices for another when they believe it is all about them.

This is the crux of the lie…​ And this, my dear brothers and sisters, is a critical weather front in the perfect storm brewing about us.

What can we do about it?

When the world’s ultimate goal is self-actualization, is it any wonder why Christianity is attacked, not religion, Christianity. Listen, and see if this helps explain why…​

Matthew 16:24 (NKJV)

Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.

Philippians 2:3-4 (NKJV)

Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. 4 Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.

James 4:3 (NKJV)

You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.

1 Corinthians 10:24 (NKJV)

Let no one seek his own, but each one the other’s well-being.

We must heed the words of Jesus and “return to our first love” and in so doing become ports in the storm for those around us who are being swept away in its fierce and unrelenting torrent.

Colossians 4:5-6 (ESV)

Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. 6 Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.

In the research book: “I Once Was Lost”

  • Over 2,000 students [were] interviewed that had come to Christ

  • Each one progressed through [the same] five thresholds

  • 1st: They entered into a trusted relationship with a Christian

  • 2nd: They began to ask sincere questions

How Then Shall the Remnant Live? Review from 1st threat lesson

We will engage with wisdom…​
Through trusted relationships in the context of diligent, persistent prayer

We will walk not as those without hope…​
Meditate on the nature of God and His works
Remind yourself continually that the wicked will not prevail

We will stand firm for truth and righteousness
though the cost is great ([as it was for] Daniel and his friends)

We will still yield fruit in old age

Matthew 5:16

“Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven”

This takes godly sacrifice. May He grant us to do so… and soon.

Soli Deo Gloria. — https://www.deltackett.com/resources/32942/7-threats-in-our-times-2-the-rise-of-homo-deus-and-meo-christianity

Invitation

We are extending the invitation, now, to anyone who is subject to it. If you need to, Come,…​ while we stand and sing.