John Lennon released his song, Imagine, in 1971. Some of the lyrics contained in the song are as follows:
- Imagine there's no heaven
- No hell below us
- Imagine there's no countries
- And no religion, too
These lyrics sound a lot like someone wanting to create a Utopian society. Utopia, by definition, is an "imagined place or state of things in which everything is perfect." The people advocating the pursuit of such a place believe in "perfect worlds, worlds free of conflict, hunger, and unhappiness." In general, they "imagine" the way to get there is through implementing the things mentioned in Lennon's song. The idea of there being no heaven, no hell, and no religion go hand in hand with each other. On June 25, 1962, according to CNSNews, "the United States Supreme Court decided in Engel v. Vitale that a prayer approved by the New York Board of Regents for use in schools violated the First Amendment because it represented establishment of religion. In 1963, in Abington School District v. Schempp, the court decided against Bible readings in public schools along the same lines." Since 1963, according to education expert William Jeynes, "there have been five negative developments in the nation’s public schools: academic achievement has plummeted, including SAT scores, increased rate of out-of-wedlock births, increase in illegal drug use, increase in juvenile crime, and deterioration of school behavior." This is all due to the removal of just two tenants of religion; prayer in school and Bible reading. Obviously, when you remove prayer and Bible reading you, effectively, remove the God you are praying to and the words He has written to us. Therefore, you remove the foundation behind what is good and evil. The consequences of that are you now have no God to be accountable to and no Heaven and Hell to aspire to or avoid. And when there is no God, man becomes his own god. It is a perfect example of Judges 17:6 which says, "In those days Israel had no king; all the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes." And when you have people acting as their own gods and doing what is right in their own eyes, you get further conclusions like this from Jeynes: "Other facts included a comparison between the top five complaints of teachers from 1940-1962 -- talking, chewing gum, making noise, running in the halls and getting out of turn in line – to rape, robbery, assault, burglary and arson from 1963 to present." Unfortunately, one thing you can add to this list is mass shootings. And before I forget, we have to address the idea of there being no countries. There are those today that advocate open borders. With no borders you have no countries. With no religion, no God, no Heaven, no Hell, and no countries, you have no order. The result of this isn't Utopia, it is chaos!
However, in all fairness, there is a segment in Christianity that seems to have a similar desire to create Utopia on earth, only from a Christian perspective. Because of all the problems created by removing Bible reading and prayer from public schools (and society at large), Christians end up trying to reclaim these things. When you see things like the legalized murder of unborn children through abortion, sexual immorality of various types, the silencing of truth through political correctness, redefining marriage, the advocating of ungodly worldviews like Communism and Socialism, and the removal of anything pertaining to God, in general, or Christianity, specifically, you rightfully get upset and are moved to action. In that sense, I can understand why Christians are motivated to engage these areas in hopes of aligning them more with biblical truth. However, we have to ask ourselves one question, "If we reclaim America for Christ and reverse all these trends, will it directly lead to people coming to saving faith in Jesus Christ?" If abortions ended, marriage was once again defined as the union of a man and a woman, sexual immorality came to a halt, political correctness was stopped, and all the godless, secular worldviews and economic systems were banished to history, would the Kingdom of God increase by even one person? Possibly, but I say it wouldn't change all that much. Prior to 1962 and 1963, when school prayer and Bible reading were removed, did that automatically mean everyone in the nation was saved? No. If that were the case we would not have had the incidents that led to the removal of school prayer and Bible reading. This is because getting someone to behave properly doesn't mean they have had an encounter with the living God of the Bible, Jesus Christ. Throughout the Bible, we see what the problem is with mankind and it is not lack of the proper religious and societal structure as to what is right and what is wrong or how to behave. The problem is that our hearts are wicked. Our hearts are so wicked that it was the reason that God destroyed all life on the planet (Genesis 6:5). The prophet Jeremiah said just as much and even wondered if anybody could truly understand why our hearts are so wicked (Jeremiah 17:9). And the Apostle Paul clearly illustrated that "there is no fear of God before their eyes." He said this about both Jews and Gentiles; those under God's law and those who were not under it. Yet, all of them were sinners who had fallen short of the glory of God. It is because they were all spiritually dead to God; absent of the Holy Spirit indwelling them. They needed a change of heart by coming alive to God through faith in Jesus Christ. When He changes your heart, whether you are operating under a system of godlessness or godliness, you will be led from within by God. The goal is not to create Utopia by removing God from society. Neither is the goal to reclaim America for Christ by getting people to behave properly. The goal is to "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation (Mark 16:15)." This can be done in any and all circumstances. Imagine that!
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