In his book, The Other Worldview, Peter Jones explores the clash between the Christian faith and modern culture. He presents a compelling case for why the church should embrace the gospel’s unique perspective on social justice and cultural engagement. By doing so, he argues that Christians can effectively spread their message and make an impact in today’s world. The central theme of Jones’ book is that Christianity offers a unique worldview that differs markedly from most other philosophies.
He outlines this worldview as one of “the kingdom of God,” a term used to describe God’s rule on earth. According to Jones, this kingdom stands in stark contrast to the secularism which has become increasingly popular in our current society. Secularism places ultimate value on things like material possessions and individual autonomy, while Christianity values relationships between people and service to others. Jones then delves into what it looks like for Christians to live out their faith each day within this different worldview. He calls it “living missionally”—that is, living life intentionally with an outward focus on how we can serve those around us.
This involves actively engaging with our culture by seeking to understand it first before trying to change it—a practice he refers to as “cultural discernment”. Finally, Jones emphasizes the need for unity among believers as they attempt to live out their faith in today’s world.
•Peter Jones argues that there are only two worldviews that underlie how we interpret the world – “Oneism” and “Twoism.”
• Oneism is associated with ancient paganism and it has overtaken the Western cultural structures rooted in biblical truth (Twoism).
• Onism is a lie that has been presented as an explanation of human existence. In the United States, millennials are the first generation to be immersed from birth with such a coherently antibiblical system.
•Carl Jung is an important figure in the history of religious thought.
• His influence can be seen in the rise of paganism and “spiritual but not religious” beliefs in modern society.
• The term “perennial philosophy” refers to the belief that all religions share a common origin and goal.
• This philosophy has been promoted by influential figures such as Prince Charles, Joseph Campbell, and Huston Smith.
•In the 21st century, Western culture is increasingly fascinated by ancient mythology and spiritualities, including many forms of Oneism.
• This trend is evident in the popularity of yoga, meditation, and other Eastern practices; the mainstreaming of the New Age movement; and interfaith efforts by religious leaders.
• Jungian psychology has played a role in this shift, with its emphasis on breaking free from traditional constraints and exploring one’s “instinctual being.”
• The result is a society that is more open to diverse sexual identities and practices.
•Hollywood and the media have been manipulating the rising generation on the issue of sexuality in recent years.
• Pansexuality is a pretext for a much larger agenda.
• The sexual agenda is just a visible symbol of a powerful, century-long deconstruction of the Christian worldview and its replacement with a pagan Oneist cosmology, of which sexuality is a sacrament.
•Sexual boundary-breaking and excesses in today’s culture are due in part to the resurgence of an ancient Oneist worldview that views sexuality as a spiritual act.
• This change can be seen in the way we openly celebrate what would have shamed many previous generations.
• The biblical understanding is that though sexual sin is indeed an issue of immoral behavior, it’s even more an expression of a religious commitment.
• Sexual inversion of the created order is an embodied manifestation of Oneist worship and cosmology.
•There is no inherent limit on what, who, or how many can be married.
• The rejection of sexual individualism was at the core of Christian culture.
• The West is rapidly re-paganizing around sensuality and sexual liberation.
• Through technological advances in medical science, deadly diseases have been eradicated.
• Millions have been lifted from poverty and have gained access to education and health care, leading to longer, more prosperous lives.
• Wayne Baker believes that Americans are solidly bound together through 10 core values.
Rieff wrote, “the rejection of sexual individualism” was “very near the core” of the Christian culture. Today, that same core is being challenged by a resurgence of Oneist thinking that celebrates sexual freedom and expression as a spiritual act. This challenge is manifested in the way our society celebrates what would have shamed many previous generations, the increase of sexually liberal values, and the open acceptance of different sexual identities and practices. The West is quickly transforming from a traditional, Christian society to one that is more open to diverse beliefs and practices, with sensuality and sexual liberation at its core.
There is, therefore, no inherent limit on what, who, or how many can be married—why limit an important aspect of human self-realization to one man and woman, or to only two consenting adults?
•Many have given up on formal marriage due to insecurities, with 50% of women living with a partner they’re not married to (up from 35% in 1995)
• Couples often wait too long to have children, resulting in record levels of infertility
• Emotional health is declining as the family collapses, with suicide now surpassing car crashes as the leading cause of death for Americans
• One third of American employees suffer chronic and debilitating stress
•Despite the initial optimism of the “I’m Okay, You’re Okay” generation of their parents, millennials face 16 percent unemployment, crushing debts for sometimes worthless degrees, a 20 trillion dollar government deficit they did not create, and oppressive taxes.
• To turn their fate around, millennials face the painful task of delaying their lives. In order to pay off their student loans or just to survive, marriage, children and homes of their own will have to wait until a solid economy comes back.
• The sexual freedom Jung advocated was certainly given to young people born after the Sixties revolution. They have access to limitless sexual fantasy in free pornography woven into the fabric of our culture via the internet on personal computers and smartphones.
• In this age of streaming video and widespread Internet access pornography use has become increasingly widespread—among both men and women..
•In Coming Apart: The State of White America 1960–2010, Harvard political scientist Charles Murray shows that since the 1960s America has become deeply divided.
• A new lower class has all but abandoned four principles of the cultural success of America’s founding—honesty, industry, marriage, and religion, which Murray calls “virtue” and on which all segments of the population once agreed.
• This new lower class is separated from the new upper class, “a hollow elite” that has profited from the founding values without retaining the conviction to insist upon them.
• Just a few examples of losing the classic sense of virtue include: The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), in its 2014 general assembly, supported same-sex marriage and ordination of homosexuals while turning down support for “pro-life” principles and favoring abortion; The National Cathedral in Washington D.C., in a special Sunday service marking Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Pride Month hosted Rev Dr Cameron Partridge who was born female but now identifies as trans-man;
• Murray concludes that unless a civic “Great Awakening” takes place among the “hollow elite” to rediscover and put into practice founding principles, America will become a nation of two classes: a hollow elite and a newly impoverished lower class, and this ‘chasm’ will not be closed until America becomes a nation of no classes, as in the Gilded Age.
•Oneists describe civic or political issues that hide a spiritual program below the surface.
• Some phrases that describe aspects of Oneism are: transgressing or denying boundaries, breaking taboos, abolishing “either/or”, non-duality, and oneness—all is one.
• Oneists feel the necessity of obliterating the Twoist distinctions God has placed in creation.
• On the edges of evangelical orthodoxy, Brian McLaren has stated that we need to move beyond our binary thinking. Church historian Diana Butler Bass calls for a “religionless” and “creed-less” Christianity where God is defined in less dualistic terms.
•Michael Boyle of La Salle University argued that the term “evil” should not be used to describe ISIS, as it is too simplistic.
• Jung believed that individuals should decide what is good or evil, and there is no ultimate distinction between Creator and creation.
• Transhumanism sees the end of biological evolution in favor of the evolution of the mind, as the human and machine are joined.
•The New Age is a spiritual phenomenon that arose in the 1960s in response to the deconstruction of secular humanism.
• It is a combination of Eastern and Western spirituality, and has been growing steadily since its inception.
• Conservative Christians have largely rejected it, calling it a cult, but it has continued to grow in popularity.
• Ken Wilber is one of the most prominent voices within the New Age movement, and he advocates for an “integral vision” which combines all aspects of life into one understanding.
•Herbert Marcuse redefines Marxism in the 60s to include “polymorphous sexuality” and the activation of “repressed or arrested organic, biological needs.”
• This new Marxism seeks to destroy Christian culture and replace it with a pagan cosmology.
• The goal is the complete remaking of human identity.
• Quantum physics suggests that there is no need for a specially created universe, that humans help run the machine, and that matter is intelligent. Physicist Fritjof Capra argues that science proves that “living nature is mindful and intelligent.”22 Thus there is no need of the old creationist notion of a specially created universe “with overall design or purpose.”
•Jean Houston is an influential visionary who has had a long career as a teacher and author in human development through mythical spirituality.
• She studied religion with theologian Paul Tillich and learned that beneath the surface crust of consciousness, we all seem to be encoded with this vast mythic and symbolic universe—the internal imaginal reality.
• Houston’s vision of a coming utopia is an expression of the cosmology we’ve been describing—and it would make Carl Jung most proud.
• Yoga is one of the first small steps Westerners often take into the vast and exciting ocean of altered consciousness, discovering a refreshed view of themselves. Yoga is an excellent practice for those seeking to transcend the mind/body duality and, like meditation, it creates a psychic relaxation and expansion of consciousness.
•The goal of yoga is to promote the union of Atman (the individual soul) with Brahman (the greater soul), which is not a personal being but a spirit force.
• Yoga takes you beyond healthy bodies and into a spiritual realm where you can achieve inner peace.
• Mindfulness meditation is a Buddhist technique for the suppression of desire that helps practitioners pay attention to their surroundings without reacting to any events. I