Before the Secular Apostasy within Christendom (the Marx, Freud, Darwin train-of-thought that crept in & split Christendom into Modernists & Fundamentalists, as well as giving rise to atheism)there were rumblings of these roots.
The Pagan Apostasy within Christendom gave us Catholicism. This occurred with the "conversion" of Emperor Constantine. He tasked Lactantius with making Christianity more appealing to pagans.
Then came Emperor Justin the Apostate, who tasked Iamblichus with modeling a paganism in the mold of Christianity. What emerged after these 2 back-to-back events gave us many of the paganistic rituals within Catholicism, and some Protestantism still, today.
The Reformation scaled back the Pagan Apostasy within Christendom. It did 3 things:
1- Placed the Bible into the hands of the people
2- Led to a movement for freedom of conscience
3- Encouraged scientific empirical investigation of the Creation
Lucifer countered with the counter-reformation
The Rumblings of the Roots of the Secular Apostasy began as the counterfeit to the Great Awakening, ---the Enlightenment.
The Great Awakening was the birth of Evangelicalism.
It modified the Reformation by re-focusing on concepts of Salvation, re-focused the freedom of
conscience movement into Missionary zeal & shifted focus less on studying the Creation and more on the idea of New Birth.
The counterfeit of Lucifer to this was the Enlightenment....sort of the Great Awakening without Religion. It gave rise to agnosticism rather than outright atheism---the age of Voltaire vs. Wesley.
And science without a God gave rise to uniformitarianism, Lamarckism, etc. by the late 18th & early 19th century.
A transitional Link between the age of agnosticism (like deists Ben Franklin & Thomas Jefferson of the time) and the future wave of outright atheism was the likes of Thomas Paine and his The Age of Reason.
By the time that Origin of the Species (Darwin) Das Kapital (Marx) and The Ego and the Id (Freud) came along the groundwork had been laid by the Enlightenment....paving the way for the firebrand Nietzsche (famous for declaring "God is dead").
Hence the Secular Apostasy within Christendom that led to splitting into 2 camps. Modernists (liberals, or today they call themselves "progressives") and Fundamentalists (conservatives).
How would Paul describe the flames of the Enlightenment?
The Pagan Apostasy within Christendom gave us Catholicism. This occurred with the "conversion" of Emperor Constantine. He tasked Lactantius with making Christianity more appealing to pagans.
Then came Emperor Justin the Apostate, who tasked Iamblichus with modeling a paganism in the mold of Christianity. What emerged after these 2 back-to-back events gave us many of the paganistic rituals within Catholicism, and some Protestantism still, today.
The Reformation scaled back the Pagan Apostasy within Christendom. It did 3 things:
1- Placed the Bible into the hands of the people
2- Led to a movement for freedom of conscience
3- Encouraged scientific empirical investigation of the Creation
Lucifer countered with the counter-reformation
The Rumblings of the Roots of the Secular Apostasy began as the counterfeit to the Great Awakening, ---the Enlightenment.
The Great Awakening was the birth of Evangelicalism.
It modified the Reformation by re-focusing on concepts of Salvation, re-focused the freedom of
The counterfeit of Lucifer to this was the Enlightenment....sort of the Great Awakening without Religion. It gave rise to agnosticism rather than outright atheism---the age of Voltaire vs. Wesley.
And science without a God gave rise to uniformitarianism, Lamarckism, etc. by the late 18th & early 19th century.
A transitional Link between the age of agnosticism (like deists Ben Franklin & Thomas Jefferson of the time) and the future wave of outright atheism was the likes of Thomas Paine and his The Age of Reason.
By the time that Origin of the Species (Darwin) Das Kapital (Marx) and The Ego and the Id (Freud) came along the groundwork had been laid by the Enlightenment....paving the way for the firebrand Nietzsche (famous for declaring "God is dead").
Hence the Secular Apostasy within Christendom that led to splitting into 2 camps. Modernists (liberals, or today they call themselves "progressives") and Fundamentalists (conservatives).
How would Paul describe the flames of the Enlightenment?
Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
2 Timothy 3:7
Summary:
1) The Pagan Apostasy (gave rise to Catholicism)
1a) The Reformation tried to clean up Christendom with reforms
1b) The Great Awakening tried to bring revival to Christendom
2) The Secular Apostasy (gave rise to the modernist wing of "Christendom")
2a) The roots of this was in the Enlightenment, a "godless" counterfeit to the Great Awakening
2b) The Fundamentalist wing of Christendom became the defenders of the Word of God
2) The Rumblings of the Secular Apostasy--the Enlightenment--gave us the bloody French Revolution
3) The Secular Apostasy gave us the bloody Bolshevik Revolution & the bloodshed of the following Marxist revolutions from China to Latin America (Marx). The Sexual Revolution leading to abortion on demand (Freud). And Hitler's Holocaust via Eugenics, an offshoot of evolution (Darwin).
Finally...Ye shall know them by their fruits. Matthew 7:16....
What were their fruits?
1) The Pagan Apostasy led to the infamous Inquisitions & Papal persecutions2) The Rumblings of the Secular Apostasy--the Enlightenment--gave us the bloody French Revolution
3) The Secular Apostasy gave us the bloody Bolshevik Revolution & the bloodshed of the following Marxist revolutions from China to Latin America (Marx). The Sexual Revolution leading to abortion on demand (Freud). And Hitler's Holocaust via Eugenics, an offshoot of evolution (Darwin).