A religion built around Self is the purest form of Humanism – and the death of us all.
"Man is certainly stark mad; he cannot make a flea, and yet he makes gods by the dozen."
~Michel de Montaigne
"The more I study religions the more I am convinced that man never worshipped anything but himself."
~Sir Richard Francis Burton
"Every man builds his world in his own image.”
~Ayn Rand
“Their ways are futile and foolish. They cut down a tree and carve an idol. They decorate it with gold and silver and then fasten it securely with hammer and nails so it won't fall over. There stands their god like a helpless scarecrow in a garden! It cannot speak, and it needs to be carried because it cannot walk. Do not be afraid of such gods, for they can neither harm you nor do you any good.”
~Jeremiah 10:3-5
"The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried."
~G. K. Chesterton
Whose image?
Most Christians (and many others in the world) believe that God created man “in His own image” (Gen 1:26). Yet what have all of us done, since the beginning of creation, but the exact opposite? We have created “God” in our own image. As you can see by the title, I have left uncapitalized the word ‘gods’. This is because, of course, none of these gods are the true God. Skeptics like Rand, Burton, and de Montaigne, quoted above, recognized this far easier than do many Christians, even though they did not even believe in a God.
A quote from the movie “The Usual Suspects” says, “the greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.” I disagree. I think his greatest trick – that is, the most widespread with the deepest consequences – was to convince man that men are gods, and God is man. The serpent in the garden used two tactics to bring about the downfall of man: he attacked the nature of God, and exalted the nature of man. He questioned God by saying “did God really say...?” He contradicted God by saying “you will not surely die!” He plants discontentment in the hearts of Adam and Eve, by convincing them that God is holding out on them – “if you eat the fruit, you’ll become like gods yourselves!” It is this temptation that is the breaking point. The truths of the serpent’s words were powerful even in their perverted state: man would indeed know good and evil – as God did – but unfortunately, they would not have the capacity to be responsible with this knowledge. It is our confusion of good and evil that has been the source of all death over the millennia.
This denial comes in stages: first, man recognizes that evil exists (the knowledge of good and evil). Then, he recognizes that he is helpless against that evil (recognition of our nakedness). Then, he hides himself from God – choosing prideful and fearful self-preservation over humble, faithful salvation. Finally, he sets himself up in a seat of power in his little bush, adorned in his fig leaves, denying God’s authority. This is his way of self-justification, denying that he is evil and in need.
Self as god.
There are millions of lies that man believes. However, the ones he is most willing to believe are the ones that tell him he’s better than he feels he is. The lie addresses the feeling of helplessness that we all feel because of sin, but it does not solve it. It covers it up like a chain of fig leaves – a stunningly insufficient garment indeed. Those that wear their fig leaves may feel comfortable enough all day long. They may feel confident that they have gotten away with eating the fruit, and that the serpent was right – they will not surely die. However, when evening comes, and God walks through the garden, suddenly they are afraid!
In what ways are we self-centered? There are those that are honest about it. The Satanists have but one commandment: “Do as thou wilt.” A Secular Humanist Declaration, the third installment of the Humanist Manifestos, states “secular humanism places trust in human intelligence rather than in divine guidance.” At least the latter is honest enough to admit that “human beings are prone to err.” There are a number of both humanist and mystical lines of thought that promote “self-actualization”, the drive to realize all of one’s potential. Certainly all these people would not shy away from the fact that they are “self-centered”, for they do not see it as a bad thing, but as an ideal to be desired.
At the other extreme, we have those that are trying to completely be rid of self. These are they that abandon themselves to the unknown, hoping to escape the prison of self. Unfortunately, the unknown awaits them. They do not reject self in humility, but rather in pride and striving. They do not do it in trust, but in fear. And so, as they leave themselves, they do not become servants of the God of mercy and faithfulness, but bound by the spirit of religious pride and fearful striving. If, for example, they find the struggle against their own flesh too great, where are they to turn? If they realize they are still human and not transcending as they ought, what do they have but hopelessness?
All sin is selfishness.
There isn’t a sin listed or implied in the Bible that can’t be boiled down to selfishness. When we serve ourselves, we sin. When we sin, we serve ourselves rather than God. Even when we serve a false god, we serve our own image, for we have re-shaped the True God into something small and unworthy, while we shape whatever other god we please into something powerful.
In the United States, we have a culture that works against unselfishness. We are individualistic, materialistic, anti-authority, entitled, and greedy. We honor success over character, productivity over relationship, and freedom over boundaries. A central tenet of our culture is “to thine own self be true”, which despite the language is not from the Bible, but rather from Shakespeare (in advice given to Hamlet). We are setting ourselves up for failure.
While every culture in the world (being a conglomerate of selfish people) nurtures the sin of selfishness, we find it especially hard to put God and others first because of what we’ve grown up valuing. Instead of submitting our cultural values to God, we change our entire theology to fit our selfishness. Apostasy comes in fast, and churches have lines of reasoning such as “God must be okay with homosexuality in our culture [even though He condemns it repeatedly in the Bible] because God made me/us/them this way.” When asked how they know God made them this way, they’ll say “that’s the way I’ve/we’ve/they’ve always felt,” or something to that effect. The entire theology is based upon feelings, and upon our own decision of what God approves of or doesn’t approve of. In another example (so as not to pick on only the liberal churches), Baptists can decide that God disapproves of rock music so severely as to send someone to Hell for listening to it, and Catholics can claim to have the authority to change the Sabbath day for the sake of tradition, worship the saints and Mary, and have graven images in their houses of God. Charismatics can claim that the Holy Spirit made them drunk enough that they couldn’t go to work the next morning, and United Methodists can change the words of the Bible and hymns to make sure we read and sing about Jesus, the “child of God” rather than the “son of God”, so as not to be sexist. All these false doctrines and heresies don’t just get written into the church law books by the sneaky devil – they are what happens when we re-create God in our own image, so that we feel better when He’s not walking through the garden. Self-righteousness is our fig leaf.
What does the Real God require of us?
If God is truly God, and has all authority, we should be accountable to Him. We are not God’s equals, we are His subjects. No amount of false doctrine or lukewarm living will change who God is – it will only change who we are, and how we will react when He comes. It also changes how we treat others: we either treat others well to make ourselves feel better or look better, or we treat others quite poorly because we already feel better than them.
We are all – Christian and atheist and everyone in between – concerned with ourselves first, and then our fellow man. We all know it’s a good thing to take care of your fellow man, because we all hold up the belief that the best things in life are what result in the happiness of mankind.
What does Jesus say about it? When asked what the greatest commandment is (asked by a lawyer to test/trap Him), Jesus summed up “all the law and the prophets” into two simple, easy-to-remember commandments:
1. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and all your mind,” and
2. You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matt 22:36-40)
We might look at the Ten Commandments and be encouraged, because we think we’ve kept most or all of them pretty well. We might look at them and dismay, because they’re just too hard (especially with the standards that Jesus raised them to in Matthew 5). But we can look at these two commandments and see that it’s as simple as JOY:
Jesus first;
Others second;
Yourself last.
Of course, it’s never that easy. We find ourselves drinking the YO-J pretty soon, if we’re not operating in the grace of God. Let’s just take it in steps. In order not to re-create God in our own image, we have to discover who He really is (and always has been). So,
STEP 1: (GET TO) KNOW GOD.
This requires all your heart (even the parts that don’t want to know Him because you’re afraid of what you’ll find), all your soul (your will and emotions, submitted and in check to Him), and all your mind (your intellect, thoughts, and reason – not abolishing it, but exercising it under control so that it is useful for good rather than for selfishness). The Deuteronomy verse that Jesus quotes (Deut 6:5) also adds that it will take all your strength – that means we should take control of our own body and its desires (see Rom 6:12-14 and 1 Corinthians 9:27).
If we work on this step as our first priority, the other steps fall into place. They are not necessarily sequential steps, since we’re always going to be able to learn new things about God, and grow closer in our relationship with Him. We will be able to work on this step while we do the others, but if we put this first, but we will see progress in each of the other two:
STEP 2: SEE OTHERS (WITH GOD’S EYES)
Step 1 is to love God, and Step 2 is, as Jesus said, “like it” – to love others. We already know that’s it’s a good thing, but we’re all baffled (when we forget step 1) how hard it is to really do – we can only do it for a little while, with a little effort, and we might even be doing it for other reasons. If we get the order right, though, we see that it’s because of how we see God (as He is) that we are able to see others the way He does (with true selfless compassion). If you did a study of all the prophets (as well as the Psalms and many other parts of the Bible), you’d find a central theme of fighting for the oppressed and caring for the needy (start in Isaiah 58 if you want specifics). This is part of who God is, and it will become part of who you are as you get to know Him.
STEP 3: BE YOURSELF (KNOW WHO YOU ARE)
God is not looking for you to reinvent yourself. After all, He did make you in His image in the first place. We have to be willing to get rid of some things that we’ve let define us, but we’ll find the things that He defines us by. We’ll find that our inner selves, our personalities, gifts and talents, strengths (and even weaknesses) are all created by God for His purpose and glory. I’ve already found great fulfillment in getting essays like this down, because I know He’s gifted me with teaching and with words, and helped me write things down for the benefit of others. You’ll find that it’s more fulfilling to be who you’re supposed to be in Christ, than to serve your own selfish ambitions – not just because you’ll be doing good things, but because you’ll be doing things that only you could do.
We have to let the first two steps come as a higher priority – if we know who God is, and we see others the way He sees them, we know what we can and should do with our lives. If we try to start with ourselves, and eventually move on to others, not only will we accomplish hardly anything for others and lose ourselves in the process, we’ll forget God. That is, until He comes walking in the cool of the day.
Man fears the just God: “I heard you, and so I hid. I was afraid because I was naked.” Yet what was God’s first question? It is not “what have you done?” – that comes later. The first question is “where are you?” His priority is not to judge us for what we’ve done, but first and foremost to be with us. He wants to see us succeed, to see us overcome evil with good, and to be who we are meant to be.
The cure to the religion of Self is not another religion. It is rather to “love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love your neighbor as much as you love yourself.” Every culture, tribe, nation, and tongue on earth will find the way that God intended them to glorify Him, and it is the most fulfilling life that anyone can find. As we begin to live this way, the very love that He showed us will transform the world through us.
