“The
emergence of a civilization in which knowledge moves freely and almost instantaneously
throughout the world… has spurred a renewed investigation of the wisdom
distilled by all faiths. This panreligious perspective may prove especially
important where our global civilization’s responsibility for the earth is
concerned. Native American religions, for instance, offer a rich tapestry
of ideas about our relationship to the earth.”[1]
Al
Gore, Earth in the Balance
"We
should... help in the development of a global consciousness... to
change the world for the better."[2]
Mikhail Gorbachev, founder of Green Cross
International
"We commit
ourselves to... a civil society which respects environmental and social
justice." UNESCO's
Declaration
on the Role of Religion in a Culture of Peace
On Earth Day, April 22 (Lenin's
birthday), 1990, I sat near
the altar in a mainline Presbyterian church watching a strange ceremony. At
one point, the members of the youth group stepped forward to present
their offerings:
“I bring to our Mother, the Earth,
the gift of a new beginning…”
“I bring to our Mother , the
Earth, the birth of a new consciousness.”
“I bring to our Mother, the Earth,
the gift of immortality that you may live forever cherished by your beloved
children.”
The congregation responded to this
pagan ritual with a standing ovation.
Earlier in the program, a young woman minister
had danced her interpretation of the Creation story. Throughout the graceful
performance, a voice narrated the creative acts of a female deity. At
one point, “she” gave birth
to earthly life -- here the dancer crouched on stage and "birthed" an inflated
globe.
Nature worship in the church? A Mother
Goddess in Place of God our Father? Could
this be happening in a supposedly conservative Presbyterian church?
Grieved, I thought about the spreading delusion prophesied in the Bible, when
lawlessness would soar and people would reject sound doctrine and follow teachers
who tickle their ears (2 Timothy 4:3-4).
Might this be such a time?
The
National Religious Partnership
for the Environment
(NRPE) would say no. This umbrella organization for various religious groups,
including World Vision and other members of the
Evangelical Environmental Network,
would most likely approve such nature worship. Its mission statement calls
for more of the same spiritual blend:
"We seek
to weave the mission of care for God’s creation across all areas of organized
religion, and to do so in such a way as to contribute scope of vision, moral
perspective, breadth of constituency, and endurance of struggle for all
efforts to protect the natural world and human well-being within it."
ONENESS
IN THE
MILLENNIAL CHURCH
The National Religious
Partnership shares the basic principles outlined in UNESCO's
Declaration on
the Role of Religion in a Culture of Peace. Funded by globalist leaders
such as Ted Turner, it joins Al Gore and Gorbachev in a worldwide effort to
implement a global management system that would control
the world's natural and human resources according to socialist principles.
Keep in mind, God
calls us to enjoy and care for His creation as He would. As steward of His magnificent
creation, we need to follow His guidelines which rule out waste and abuse. But
to Gorbachev and others, environmental regulations serve as a practical means
to manipulate behavior and mold beliefs that fit UN standards for
collective thinking and exclude Biblical
Christianity. At the "end of the cold war," the futuristic minds of
The Club of Rome summarized the strategy:
"In searching for a new enemy to unite us, we came up with
the idea that pollution, the threat of global warming, water shortages,
famine and the like would fit the bill...."[3]
In this context, it makes sense to celebrate
Earth Day on Lenin’s birthday.
After all, the green movement was born through a merger of radical environmentalists,
feminists, Marxists, and peaceniks in the sixties. Many saw Buddhism, Native
American spirituality and witchcraft as inspiring models for their green agenda.
In a classroom video titled Spaceship
Earth: Our Global Environment, Rock singer Sting summarized their
reasoning:
"The Indians believe that the spirits live in
the trees, that the spirits live in the river, that the spirit is in the
air. I think we used to believe that in the past... and... if there's a
spirit in a tree, you don't just chop it down and burn it."
It also seems strangely fitting that Easter
and Earth Day share the same busy weekend in this millennial year.
Many "evangelical environmentalists" have already redefined the gospel,
implying that Jesus died on the cross to redeem the planet, trees and wolves
as well as people. They encourage their followers to
confess sins against the earth,
not disobedience against God, and they conform the significance of the cross
to fit the new multicultural consciousness of our changing culture.
In other words, the "old rugged cross,
so despised by the world" doesn't fit. A cross that not only joins believers
to Christ, but also severs His followers from the rest of the world would offend
the global community. Such "separatism" clashes with the envisioned solidarity.
In
fact, many would find the yin-yang a
far more fitting symbol for today's spirited quest for planetary consensus and
sustainable communities.
Around the world, opposites are
merging and old absolutes are recycled. Young and old envision peace on
earth, unity in diversity, social equality, and a global bio-family sharing
resources equally on a finite planet. They demand that the Church walk hand
in hand with their brave new world into the sunrise of the new millennium.
It’s an alluring vision to people
trained to dream, imagine, flow with the crowd, and reject all contrary facts.
But it's not reality. Human nature hasn’t changed. And God has not revoked His
Old Testament warnings concerning climate, rain, and a healthy planet. He still
tells us that sin, especially spiritual compromise, reaps drought, famine
and war, not peace and prosperity.
PAGANISM BLENDS WITH EASTER
But liberal church leaders ignore such offensive
truths. Seeking a more popular image, a United Methodist Church in our neighborhood
advertised an "Interfaith Holiday Fair" on Palm Sunday a few years ago. Troubled,
I stopped by to see the show. The
throbbing drum beat of the multicultural band greeted me in the crowded parking
lot. A table at the entrance displayed various books promoting the United Nations,
peace education, and earth-centered religions. Beyond this propaganda for world unity, stretched a large hall with
tables dedicated to the world's religious traditions.
Judging by the crowd around its table, the
Baha’i display seemed most popular. I recognized some of its books and earth-centered
literature from UN and global conferences I had attended. The leader’s missionary
zeal drew surrounding spectators into enthusiastic dialogues that emphasized
the unity, relevance and earth-saving power of the Baha’i faith.
The Buddhist table offered more children’s
stories on peace-making and conflict resolution. I scanned some of them:
Learning the Skills of Peacemaking,
a classroom book on "communicating, cooperating, and resolving conflict," had
repackaged the pantheistic view of spiritual unity into a popular lesson on
global activism for elementary age children.
How the Children Stopped the Wars
amplified the same message: Adults had created wars and conflict. Now it was
up to the children to envision peace. Buddhism would prepare the way.
Towering over the Hindu display stood a
large poster inviting interest in the Hindu mantra "OM Sweet OM."
Below it, stacks of books invited browsers. Titles such as
The Journey of a Master, Swami Chinmayanda, In the Footsteps of Ghandi,
and the Bhagavad Gita, left little
doubt what world view they taught.
"Hinduism
is not a religion," explained a woman wearing the traditional Indian sari. "It
is a way of life."
ANCIENT SYMBOLS FOR A CROSS-LESS EASTER
I found the “Christian” display a
distance away from the center of activity. Near it, a group of children sat
in a circle threading yarn around two sticks forming a cross. Each was making
an “Eye of God”—a popular craft representing the eye of the Egyptian god Horus. Two other children were petting a living Easter bunny crouching
in a cardboard box. The table itself was decorated with Easter eggs, and among
them I saw five children's books. But titles like
And God Created Squash and
Did Jesus Wear Blue Jeans seemed as
trivial and unholy as the colored eggs that surrounded them.
I looked in vain for a Bible, and
found only a picture book that mentioned the resurrection.
The Easter Story did show that Jesus
was crucified and rose from the grave. But the real purpose of His death—to
deal with sin—was ignored. It ended with this incomplete, and therefore misleading,
message, “This is why Christians celebrate Easter. We remember that Jesus gave
us His life because He loved us.”
I picked up another picture book,
An Easter Celebration: Traditional customs
from Around the World, and
began to read: “Long before Jesus
walked on the earth, people celebrated when spring arrived. In ancient times,
people thought the times of the season were guided by spirits or gods and goddess.”
Apparently, the author wanted to show the children that “the ancient Celts,
Persians, and Greeks” preceded God's hand in history and should be considered
more credible than the Bible.
Two years later, Al Gore, who calls
himself a Baptist, wrote a similar message in Earth in the Balance.
Notice how he chastises Christians for their uncompromising faith and blames
them for the demise of goddess worship:
“The richness and diversity of our religious
tradition throughout history is a spiritual resource long ignored by people
of faith, who are often afraid to open their minds to teachings
first
offered outside their own system of belief.
“The spiritual sense of
our place in nature . . .
can be traced to the origins
of human civilization.
A growing number of anthropologists and archeo-mythologists... argue
that the prevailing ideology of belief in prehistoric Europe and much of
the world was based on the worship of a single
earth goddess, who was assumed to
be the fount of all life and who radiated harmony
among all living things....
"[Ceremonial sites] seem to confirm the notion that a goddess religion
was ubiquitous throughout much of the world
until the antecedents of today's religions---most
of which still have a distinctly masculine orientation--swept out of
India and the Near East, almost obliterating belief in the goddess.
The last vestige of organized goddess worship was eliminated by Christianity....
[I]t seems obvious that a better understanding of a religious heritage
preceding our own
by so many thousands of years
could offer us new insights...."[4]
(Emphasis added)
Al Gore was
wrong. No "religious heritage" preceded God's sovereign reign over the affairs
of man. He gave people the freedom to rebel and worship other gods but didn't
stop judging their sin or withholding rain when their faith turned from their
Maker to idols.
Throughout history, spiritual compromise
has been a constant temptation, and our Easter traditions show the timeless
trend toward unholy alliances. While the constant pressure of persecution kept
the early Church pure in faith, the shift to cultural acceptance in the Roman
empire brought compromise. Then as now, the Christian's goal changed from
pleasing God to pleasing man. Soon, the
politically correct church
had traded purity for popularity and adopted the "abominable" practices of its
pagan neighbors.[5]
Take a look at some of them:
Easter, the name:
According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, "the 8th century derived
it from that of the Anglo-Saxon spring goddess Eostre,"[6]
whose name, in turn, might have come
from "eastre," meaning spring. Once again, pagans honor her as the "goddess
of dawn," one of many fertility goddesses celebrated during their spring equinox.
Easter bunny and
eggs: According to The Woman's Dictionary
of Symbols & Sacred Objects, "The Goddess' totem, the Moon-hare, would lay
eggs for good children to eat. ... Eostre's hare was the shape that Celts imaged
on the surface of the full moon, derived from old Indo-European sources."[7]
While the historical record is too
sparse to provide factual details, the
Pagan Home Website offers the following description:
"Eostre, a Germanic Goddess,
is associated with both spring and sunrise. Tradition has it that Eostre,
saved a bird whose wings were frozen from the harsh winter by turning it
into a magickal, egg laying hare. Eostre was a maiden whose aspects of renewal
and rebirth brought about the reappearance of bright spring flowers, baby
chickens fresh from the shell, baby bunnies from their winter dens and the
reoccurrence of the plow in the field. In some European traditions flowers
grew from her footprints.
"Pagans lit new fires at dawn
to cure ills, renew life and protect the new crops. In some cultures this
sacred day included the ringing of bells, singing of songs, and decorating
of hard boiled eggs. Eggs were a symbol of both the sun god (the golden
yolk) and fertility (the white shell symbolizing the White Goddess) and
were used both as talismans and eaten in ritual. The eggs of wild birds
were gathered and these eggs are recreated today with the dyes used in Easter
celebrations. The weaving of Easter baskets harks back to the weaving of
birds' nests, a necessity prior to egg laying and the continuation of the
life cycle."
Hot Cross buns:
Some link them to the goddess Eostre, and suggest that the distinctive crossed
lines on top represent "Wotan's cross," not the cross of Christ.[8]
Others simply attribute the symbol to the Wiccan "quartered circle:" four equal
lines pointing from the center to the spirits of the north, east, south, and
west -- or to the basic element: earth, water, air (or wind), and fire. In Native
American traditions, it forms the basic pattern of the medicine wheel
and plays a vital part in major rituals. (see Circle in
Symbols and their meanings)
Countless
pagan sites add mythical details that bring life to the bare bones of history.
Their stories may tickle the imagination, but they will never bring the wisdom
and understanding needed to follow God in a world that has traded truth
for myth. The apostle Paul's letter seems as relevant today as ever:
"For the time
will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their
own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for
themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the
truth, and be turned aside to fables. But you be watchful in all things,
endure afflictions...."
2 Timothy 4:2-5
SEEING THE CREATOR
Biblical
watchfulness comes by seeing everything else -- good and evil, beauty and corruption --
through His eyes. That's only possible when we have recognized our need for
His redemption, have trusted in the victory of His cross over sin and death,
have received His life, and have given our lives over to Him.
Then, as we follow Him,
He shows us the wonders of the exchanged life: His strong and wonderful life
for our weak and failing life. For God "made Him who knew no sin to
be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."
(2 Cor. 5:21) Looking at Him in the light of the cross, we have the wisdom
and strength to follow His way, care for His planet, and love one another with
His eternal love. "Blessed is the people whose God is the Lord!"
When I survey the wondrous
cross
On which the Prince of glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.
Forbid it, Lord, that I should
boast,
Save in the death of Christ my God!
All the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them to His blood.
Were the whole realm of nature
mine,
That were a present far too small:
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.
See also
The Cross: Feared, Banned, Trivialized...
yet Triumphant
The Triumph of the Cross |
Do you believe in Easter?
Facts about the
Resurrection of Jesus Christ
Images of the Cross in God's
Creation
[1]Al
Gore, Earth in the Balance; Ecology and
the Human Spirit (Houghton Mifflin, 1992), pages 258-259.
[2] Michail
Gorbachev, Plenary speech at the 1996 State of the World Forum in San Francisco.
[3]
Alexander King & Bertrand Schneider, The
First Global Revolution (New York: Pantheon Books, 1991), 115.
[4] Gore, page,
258, 260.
[5] Deuteronomy 18:9-12.
[6] Encyclopedia Britannica,
Vol. 7 (Chicago: William Benton, 1968), page 865b.
[7]Barbara G. Walker, The Woman's Dictionary of Symbols
& Sacred Objects (San Francisco: Harper, 1998), 377.
[8]Ibid., page 64.
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