Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Christian Podcast Central

Home
Evangelical - Sponsored
The Summit Lecture Series: Making Sense of Your World with John Stonestreet, Part 3

The Summit Lecture Series: Making Sense of Your World with John Stonestreet, Part 3

Last updated on: July 12, 2016 at 8:00 am by Christian Podcast Central

The Summit Lecture Series: Making Sense of Your World with John Stonestreet, Part 3 2016-07-11T11:39:06-08:00 Christian Podcast Central

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The Summit Lecture Series Slider

There are three questions that bother me in regards to where our society is headed. We discussed the first two last week (How do we define truth? What do we consider beautiful).

The third question that concerns me is:

What’s going to happen to western civilization?

Now, I try not to be a “Christian Alarmist” and go around telling people that the world is about to end and there is nothing you can do about it except wait for the rapture and buy my book (though I would appreciate you buying my book… but that’s another point).

But, I do want to be a “Christian Realist”.

What I mean by “Christian Realist” is that I do acknowledge the reality that, by all indications, sometime within the next two generations, the end of Western Civilization as we know it will end.

The world is changing and the dominant cultural civilization for the past 500 years or so is reaching its end.

But, let’s contextualize this a bit: all civilizations come and go; and ours has been around for a long time. It’s also historically proven that there are rules to the longevity of a civilization – if you do certain things, the civilization grows, and if you fail to do those things or do other things, it dies.

In light of all this, there are several theories as to what might end Western Civilization before the end of the 21st century:

Islam – however, 1) the Islamic growth rate has actually curbed downward in recent years. And more importantly, 2) As British historian Arnold Toynbee once said:

“Great civilizations are not murdered. They commit suicide.”

In other words, we can say that the problem with western civilization is that Islamic culture is going to take over the world. But, historically, civilizations don’t take over other civilizations, but rather they weaken themselves to the point of oblivion.

Other possible ideas as to why western civilization is nearing its end are: The current and future generations aren’t being equipped to mature properly and “grow up” and face truth; Traditional family values aren’t held closely and protected as they have been for the past several centuries; Our lack of a solid work ethic has made western countries dependent on other societies; We are becoming more technologically advanced without the parameters of right or wrong to work within… in other words, maybe we shouldn’t do everything that we think of.

Yet, when I look at the world, I see two indicators that are empirical and inarguable, no matter what worldview you happen to hold. I call them the “Two D’s”: Debt and Demographics.

Image: Patriot Net Daily

A society cannot survive if it is constantly rolling over more and more debt, which our entire civilization is doing. Then, in the European Union, for example, you have countries that actually need to be propped up that are actually propping up other countries, even though they shouldn’t have any participation in that side of indebtedness.

Personally, if you are a person who is in a lot of debt… I mean in WAY over your head, as we are as a nation and civilization… what does that say about you? It says you are not responsible, make bad decisions, and most of all you don’t know how to delay gratification. You don’t live for the future, you live for the current moment. And, if you do everything you want at the moment that you want it, then you never think about long-term consequences.

This is what debt reveals.

And, civilizations cannot survive if all the individuals, all their leaders, and their governing bodies cater to the people’s immediate desires.

We will discuss the second “D”, demographics, next week in addition to more ways of making sense of your world!

Summit Lecture Series

western civilization

Worldview

Previous Post

July 11, 2016

The Daren Streblow Comedy Show Mini-Cast 150: Summer Boredom & Clayburn Cox

Next Post

July 12, 2016 A Christian Approach to the 2016 Presidential Election

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Brad Stine Has Issues Christian Podcast Central Classic Podcast Experience God Life Grounded Ouxano Parent Like You Mean It The Protest Show with Thor Ramsey The Summit Lecture Series Uncategorized What You’ve Been Searching For

Select a Month July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 June 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz