Leo Tolstoy, the Russian novelist and reformer, observed, "To believe is as essential as air and water." Men and women down through the ages have never managed to escape their built-in need to express faith. As Ralph Waldo Emerson states, "We are born believing. A man bears beliefs, as a tree bears apples." Whether they have faith in self, in an ideology, in another person or in a cause, men are drawn to seek an object for their trust as a moth is drawn to a light on a dark night.

    The 20th-century secular person is no exception. Because we are created in the image of our Creator, we come equipped with a God-given design that draws us, often imperceptibly, to find an object, person or cause to serve and to worship. Indeed, faith, defined as the act of placing one's trust in an object considered worthy of one's allegiance and service, is a psychological necessity. We must fill this God-shaped vacuum in our hearts if we are to avoid life's most dreadful prospect: a meaningless existence. Man is designed to serve and to trust. Therefore, "he must choose,... not whether he will serve, but which God he will serve, the God who made him or the gods he has made.”1

    Sadly, the 20th-century secular man has chosen to serve the gods he has made. Pascal observes that "it is natural for the mind to believe, and for the will to love; so that, for want of true objects, they must attach themselves to false."2 These false gods are many: materialism, technology, hedonism, the pursuit of power and prestige, self-actualization, and on and on. I will not attempt to catalog the endless expressions of the spirit of secularism. Rather, I hope to accomplish two things in this chapter.

     First, I hope to give the Christian communicator insight into the thought patterns of the secular person. If we are to communicate the gospel with boldness, sensitivity and relevance to our generation, we must appreciate how the spirit and assumptions of secularism affect that person's response to the gospel message. What are the most common points of disagreement between the secular person and the gospel message? Is that person even asking the right questions, the kind answered only in Jesus Christ? And if not, how can we get him to start? The answers to these questions will help us to fulfill our role as ambassadors for Christ more effectively.

     Second, I hope to equip the Christian communicator to challenge the assumptions of secularism boldly and confidently, especially as they touch on the perceived relevance of the gospel. The gospel must shine the light of eternity into the heart of the secular person, exposing his assumptions as dangerous misreadings of the human condition. We must be ready to challenge these men and women with an accurate biblical analysis of their predicament before their creator. If evangelism is the offering of the cure to a terminally ill patient, we must help the patient to realize the true nature of his disease.

 Seeds of Secularism

     The Oxford English Dictionary defines secular as "belonging to the world and its affairs, as distinguished from the church and religion," and "not concerned with or devoted to religion, caring for the present world only." Secularism is defined as "the doctrine that morality should be based solely in regard to the well being of mankind in the present life, to the exclusion of all considerations drawn from belief in God or in a future state."3 This tendency to care for the present world only, to exclude all considerations drawn from belief in God or in a future state, are the thought seeds of secularism.

    These seeds were germinating in the soil of Adam's heart as he renounced his creature status and rebelled against his Creator. These seeds broke ground and bore the bitter fruit of Cain's decision to be the judge of his own values as he murdered his brother Abel. Generations later we find the family of Cain, "by the erection of a city, and the invention and development of worldly arts and business...laying the foundation for the kingdom of the world"4 (Genesis 4:16-26). By the time we reach Genesis 11, we find the human race permeated with the spirit of secularism, reasoning, "Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name; lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth" (Genesis 11:4). This tower of Babel was to serve as the first monument to man's independence from God. The Lord intervened and dispersed these ancient secularists, graciously confusing their language to prevent further hardening of their sin of rebellion through their ungodly association.5

     But the seeds of secularism live on, for at the heart of this philosophy is the rejection of the Creator by the creature, Paul speaks of this rejection in Romans 1:25: "For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator...."

     This is idolatry, man's attempt to order his life around that which is less than God. While God has designed man to serve and worship Him alone, secular man, often unknowingly, serves and worships various aspects of the created order. While God has designed man to be finite, dependent and insufficient apart from Him, secular man lives instead in a world of illusion, inaccurately perceiving himself to be infinite, independent and self-sufficient. The secular person supposes that his autonomy is real, making himself the author of his own existence, judge of his own values and, of course, master of his own destiny. Sadly, however, this independence is a figment of his fallen imagination. As Paul states, "But they become futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools" (Romans 1:21,22). The independence and self-sufficiency of the secular person is comparable to the "freedom" of a man falling off a cliff. On the way down he is free to wave his arms, kick his feet or recite the Gettysburg Address if he wishes. But the illusion of his "independence" will inevitably be exposed, as the reality of gravity turns this supposed freedom into a tragic one-way trip.

     Thus, the spirit of secularism is nothing less than a theological problem of misplaced worship. As Karl Menninger states, "Secularism is idolatry, the worship of the means as if it were the end.”6 It is one expression of man's attempt to fill the God-given void in his heart, a void which will refuse to be filled except through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

 Mastery and Self-Sufficiency

     The most crucial consequence of man's fall into sin was that he began to relate all matters of truth and morality to himself, instead of to God. But his enthronement of self demands an exaltation of human beings far beyond the limits set by God. Man was never designed to be the center of his own universe. He is not capable of assuming the role of final reference point, interpreting for himself right and wrong, truth and error, by the compass of his five senses and his fallen conscience.

     The secular philosophy is nothing less than a glorification of the self-deification introduced into the human race through Adam's rebellion. Rather than recognizing that the creature will surely be crushed under the weight of assuming the role of "self-sufficient master of the universe," the secular man has applauded this perspective and seeks to further these illusions. To this end, He has admirably succeeded. The spirit and assumptions of secularism have so penetrated and permeated our western culture that Carl Henry has commented, "We live in a generation captivated by the temporal and seduced by the sensate, a generation whose hallmarks are the loss of the transcendant and the surrender of the supernatural."7

 The Illusions Exposed

     At the heart of this assumption of secularism is man's mortal fear of finiteness. The secular person cannot deal rationally with his own mortality and human limitations. The reason for this fear is that men and women are created in the image of God with a built-in sense of eternity. Man has a gnawing suspicion that there must be more than this life, but his secularized world view will not allow him, at least logically, to pursue this suspicion much further. As a result, the secularist lives with a non-verbalized, subconscious fear of his own finiteness.

    Instead of confronting this anxiety, the secular person marshals a vain attempt to convince himself that he is not finite. Harry Blamires, in his book The Secularist Heresy, gives us an insightful analysis of this outworking of man's fear of finiteness. He says, "It is man's special tragedy that the God-given impulse to transcend and transfigure the finite should be perverted into a demonic zeal for disguising the finite as absolute."8

     Blamires notes that the secular man ingeniously manages to treat the finite cause-and-effect world, including his own life and mortal condition, as though they were indeed infinite and, therefore, the source of ultimate satisfaction for the "eternity in his heart."

     Describing the mental gymnastics necessary for such an accomplishment, Blamires states, "He adjusts his mind and his will, not to the finite as it in fact is, but to the finite as he would wish it to be.”9 The secular man glorifies the temporal as an end in and of itself as an exercise in wishful thinking. Secular man has learned to make the best of this fallen world. He has devoted all of his ingenuity and resources to the task of filling his God-shaped vacuum with counterfeit gods that, to be sure, supply a measure of counterfeit relief, but are just as sure to disappoint eventually. Ralph Barton, a successful satiric writer, committed suicide in 1931. He left this note: "I have had few difficulties, many friends, great successes. I have gone from wife to wife, house to house, visited great countries of the world; but I am fed up with inventing devices to fill up 24 hours of the day."

     Secular man has mastered the art of creating an intellectual and cultural climate that ignores the issue of what Blamires calls "the finitude of the finite." As a culture and as individuals, most of the 20th-century western world has failed to recognize and deal with the finiteness built into the human condition. "Man behaves as though he were not a dependent creature with a limited and temporary existence in a limited and temporary universe.”10

     Of the questions of death, suffering and guilt, Deitrich Bonhoffer comments in Letters and Papers from Prison, "It is now possible to find, even for these questions, human answers that take no account whatever of God.”11 Such an attitude of self-sufficiency if grounded in pride. As Blamires puts it, "Pride in all its forms is the rejection of finititude.”12 C. S. Lewis observed, "Pride leads to every other vice. It is the complete anti-God state of mind."

     This attitude of self-sufficiency approaches outright arrogance in some, but in most it reveals itself as a subtle, yet efficient insulator of the individual from the harsh realities of the "finititude of the finite." The secularist is a master of what social psychologists call "selective perception." As Simon and Garfunkle sang in "The Boxer," “A man hears what he wants to hear, and disregards the rest." This principle guarantees that one sees only what he wants to see so that his life-operating assumptions are safely insulated from the challenges of life's uncertainties. Pascal observed over two hundred years ago, "Between us and heaven or hell there is only life, which is the frailest thing in the world.”13 He added, "Nothing is so important to man as his own state, nothing is so formidable to him as eternity; and thus it is not natural that there should be men indifferent to the loss of their existence, and the perils of everlasting suffering.”14 The secular person has been so ingenious and inventive at ordering reality to avoid the implications of this truth that life's uncertainties no longer prod him to consider the issues of one's eternal destiny and need for God.

     How can men and women consistently practice such an unnatural, short-sighted analysis of their human condition? How can many continue to ignore or treat as irrelevant the message of good news that resolves the problem of alienation from their Creator and determines eternal destinies? Although it is impossible to probe fully the deception of the sin-sick human heart, Blamires offers at least a partially satisfying answer to this question. He suggests three ways in which the cultural climate of the 20th century West insulates people from the reality of their finiteness and thus inhibits an accurate assessment of their real problem and its only resolution in the gospel. Let us examine these three components.

 Remoteness of Man From Nature

     The secular person imagines himself as dependent only on other human beings for his survival. By and large, 20th-century western man has failed to recognize God's gracious design in nature that provides for man's every need. The relative success of man's technological feats to control the natural order has given many the idea that we humans are doing just fine fending for ourselves. There is no disease or problem that will not one day eventually fall to the superior might of science and technology. Occasionally a drought or an earthquake will impress some with the inherent uncertainty, finiteness and dependency of the human condition. But instead of taking this revelation to heart, secular man reaffirms his faith in the ability of science and technology to shield him from life's uncertainty.

     Of course, we should move ahead with a greater technological capacity to fight disease and to harness the natural order for the human good. The point I am making is that man's distance from the awesome power of nature and his technological progress in harnessing it for man's temporal benefit insulate from appreciating the true dependent and finite nature of his human existence.

 Disassociation From Disease and Death

     At a conference I attended, a speaker discussed how the gospel's offer of eternal life and victory over death found listening ears and prepared hearts in the first century. He explained how these men and women appreciated their finite status only too well. The average life expectancy was well below fifty years. Life was full of uncertainty. Death was out in the open. Nearly everyone in the Middle East in the first century had seen a member of his family die or had at least seen a dead body, the speaker noted. Then he asked us to raise our hands if we had actually seen someone die. Only a handful of the eight hundred people acknowledged that they had.

     The Census Bureau reports that one out of every one person will eventually die. Your insurance agent and local funeral director are counting on that fact. But because society increasingly insulates us from death's harsh reality, few consider the need to prepare for life beyond the grave .

     Jonathan Edwards, the great 18th-century Puritan author and preacher, wrote more than two hundred years ago that men and women are "greatly deceived about the things of another world." He also stated, "Some flatter themselves with a secret hope that there is no such thing as another world."15

     One day as I was eating lunch with a young medical doctor, we began to discuss the gospel. He admitted that he was not a believer, and he did not seem to be open to the gospel. I asked him if he witnessed death much. He commented that he saw someone die almost every week. I then asked him if he ever wondered where he was going when he died. He laughed and said, "Of course not. What good would that do?" I responded that it might be good to know where we were going, especially if there really were a heaven and a hell. He shrugged his shoulders as if these were irrelevant considerations. He then smiled and said, "I guess I'll worry about it when I get there."

     In an interview with People magazine, psychologist B. F. Skinner was asked, "What advice do you have for those who are afraid of dying?" He responded, "What arouses fear is not death itself, but the act of talking and thinking about it, and that can be stopped. We brood about death most when we have nothing else to do. The more reason we have to pay attention to life, the less time we have for attention to death. A properly executed will can give you the satisfaction of knowing your possessions will go to the right people, and you can extend the life of part of yourself by donating any organs that might still be useful. When those things have been done, it is probably better not to think about death.”16 Skinner's attitude is typical of those adhering to secularist assumptions. Just ignore death and it might go away; besides, what can we do about it.

    The secular person is devoid of a realization of his own finiteness and the finality of eternity. Thus, it is no surprise that the gospel, offering hope beyond the grave and answers to questions of one's eternal destiny, is perceived as irrelevant by many secularists.

 Diversions, Diversions, Diversions

     Few of us are content to sit down and contemplate the mysteries of life. Our hurry-up, get-it-done-yesterday culture is not designed to give people time to reflect on life's unanswered questions. As I have shared the gospel in the university community, I have been amazed at the many students who remark that they never have an opportunity to discuss matters of eternal significance. They claim that they just do not have time.

     Video games, movies, sports events, every possible diversion under the sun is pursued with gusto. It is not surprising that even in difficult economic times, the entertainment industry does well. Pascal accurately assessed this curious tendency: "Nothing is so insufferable to man as to be completely at rest, without passions, without business, without diversion, without study. He then feels his nothingness, his forlornness, his insufficiency, his independence, his weakness, his emptiness. There will immediately arise from the depth of his heart weariness, gloom, sadness, fretfulness, vexation, despair."17

     The diverted person, intuitively aware of this truth, has taken a raincheck on dealing with his real needs and as a result does not have a sense of the inherent relevancy of the gospel as the answer to those needs. This is why we find few people preoccupied with their concern over their alienation from their Creator, the certainty of their death and the uncertainty of what lies beyond the grave. Sure, a thought here and there may pop into one's mind as he sees a tragedy reported on the news, walks by a cemetery or feels the tug of an unfulfilled need of the heart, but these thoughts fall short of recognizing his real need, which finds its resolution in Jesus Christ.

     At best, the secularist may feel a nagging uneasiness in the face of his desire for security and meaning. But the fallen human heart is a master at keeping the truth of the human condition under wraps. The secular person, laboring under the illusion of his own mastery and self-sufficiency, is intent on modifying reality in order to avoid its challenge to his finiteness and his corresponding need for God. A guilty conscience, restless heart or tragedy should point him to his need for God. But instead he finds his resolution to these concerns in an affirmation of faith in man's ability to take care of himself, or in a commitment to shallow diversions.