{"id":2688,"date":"2019-07-30T11:56:18","date_gmt":"2019-07-30T09:56:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/w3.sonofcarey.com\/?p=2688"},"modified":"2019-07-24T11:57:34","modified_gmt":"2019-07-24T09:57:34","slug":"multiculturalism-part-5-directions-for-dealing-with-the-influence-of-false-religion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sonofcarey.com\/?p=2688","title":{"rendered":"Multiculturalism, Part 5: Directions for Dealing with the Influence of False Religion"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Do not learn the way of the nations\u2026 For the customs of the peoples are delusion.
Jeremiah 10:2-3<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

What should someone do who has been converted from a culture\nthat is heavily influenced by paganism?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. They should examine every part of their lives,\nevery cultural practice, and every custom in light of the Bible. <\/li>
  2. They should cultivate a teachable spirit so that\nthey readily receive instruction in areas where demons had previously deceived\nthem by vain traditions. <\/li>
  3. They should follow the examples of those societies\nwho have been sanctified by the gospel. <\/li>
  4. They should guard themselves from the culture in\nwhich they were born knowing that it was largely influenced by demonic\nreligion. <\/li>
  5. They should happily retain any cultural\npractices that by God\u2019s grace tend to promote goodness, truth, and beauty as\ndefined by Scripture. <\/li>
  6. They should remember examples of Gentiles who\nwere converted in Scripture such as Ruth who gladly left every vestige of her\nold religion and its cultural baggage. <\/li>
  7. They should study the doctrine of total\ndepravity so that they would not tend to overemphasize the goodness of man\noutside of Christian light. <\/li>
  8. They should lean away from cultural conservatism\nsince they do not want to protect practices that are vain. <\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    What should someone do who has grown up in Christianity? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    1. They should study the precepts of false religion\nso that they can more accurately refute the errors and more persuasively\ncommunicate the gospel. <\/li>
    2. They should keep the \u201cantithesis\u201d firmly placed\nin their minds\u2014the battle between the one true religion of Jehovah and all\nother religions as demonic enemies. <\/li>
    3. They should be particularly wary of media and\nart which passes on pagan values in a subtle, entertaining manner. <\/li>
    4. They should examine themselves to see if any\nworldly or pagan practices are pulling them away from the highest love for God\nas Solomon\u2019s wives pulled his heart away. <\/li>
    5. They should deal in love and patience yet\nboldness with those who are coming out of paganism. <\/li>
    6. They should happily acknowledge any cultural\npractices that by God\u2019s grace tend to promote goodness, truth, and beauty as\ndefined by Scripture even in a society that has been dominated by false\nreligion. <\/li>
    7. They should study the doctrine of total\ndepravity so that they would not be ensnared by the spirit of this age who is\ncurrently promoting the notion that all cultures are equally good, true, and\nbeautiful. <\/li>
    8. They should lean toward cultural conservatism\nsince they want to protect practices that have strengthened believers for many\ngenerations. <\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

      As globalization has brought diverse peoples together, and\nas modern economies have brought the benefits of unprecedented wealth and\ncultural advance, Jeremiah\u2019s prophecy in chapter 10:1-8 stands to remind the\npeople of God that false religions produce a worthless way of life that will\ndegenerate a people almost as proportionally low as the gospel can raise them. Though\nthere can be glimmers of common grace, Jeremiah has almost nothing to say about\nthat. His inspired message from 600 years before Christ still fits 2,000 years\nafter our Lord: The religions of the world produce worthless cultures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Do not learn the way of the nations\u2026 For the customs of the peoples are delusion.Jeremiah 10:2-3 What should someone do who has been converted from a culture that is heavily influenced by paganism? They should examine every part of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[9],"tags":[472,358],"class_list":["post-2688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-multiculturalism","tag-jeremiah","tag-multiculturalism"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3QrZa-Hm","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sonofcarey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sonofcarey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sonofcarey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sonofcarey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sonofcarey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2688"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sonofcarey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2688\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2689,"href":"https:\/\/www.sonofcarey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2688\/revisions\/2689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sonofcarey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sonofcarey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sonofcarey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}