The Times They Are A Changing

17 March 2008 - Submitted by Tony

In my lifetime, I have witnessed a great falling away in Christianity, particularly in the countries that make up what was once called western civilization. E.g. England, the USA, Australia, NZ etc. These countries can no longer be termed Christian; they are now characterised by being materialist and secular. The post war economic boom of the 50s, 60s and, to a lesser extent, the 70s has contributed to this. Those were times of great upward mobility for all people, so therefore they felt they no longer needed God. This is the “world view” of most people my age.

However, in the words of Bob Dylan, “the times they are a changing”. That upward mobility in reality ceased during the changes of the mid 80s to late 90s. There is no longer free education.

The costs of increasingly “user pays” education is on the rise. Because of the rising need for “credentials”, higher and higher levels of education are demanded for any given job. For the educated worker, the true cost of getting into any given job has escalated at a far greater rate than the wages for the actual job. For the uneducated worker, inflation adjusted wages have fallen dramatically over the last 30 years. For the first time, probably since the 1840s, children cannot expect, on average, to do as well materially as their parents.

Consequently among younger people there is an increased interest in spirituality. Satan is aware of this. Perhaps he even brought this about through manipulation of the world economic system in order to suit his purposes. One problem he had with secular materialism is that while it caused people to cease worshipping God, it also caused them to cease worshipping him. As secularism fails, Satan too has his outreach programs. We witness this in the increased influence of the New Age in our schools, universities government departments and even business. Thus the focus for the future will go back to how it was in the past. Not secularism versus spirituality because everyone will embrace spirituality. The focus in the future will become what it was in the past. The true God verses the false god. Truth and error will be the determinant of our salvation and the focus of our outreach. I have observed the beginning signs of this already in the churches.

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