Ankerberg Show

Dr. John Ankerberg: Folks, when you leave your home each day, do you realize how much our radical secular culture has influenced how you live and think? You may be surprised that it has influenced you more than you realize. For example, our secular culture is trying to redefine or rid us of even believing in God. My guest today, Dr. Erwin Lutzer, former pastor of Moody Church in Chicago, writes in his new book, *The Eclipse of God*, just as the moon obscures the sun's light during an eclipse, radical secularism has obscured the light of God. Yet God is still God, even when we no longer see or acknowledge him.

Today, we live in a world where radical secularism has redefined God's moral standards, and we are watching the unraveling and destruction of our culture. We have seen an increase in violence, treachery, the abuse of the law, sexual perversity, drug use, and suicide. Radical secularism continues to make more changes in our morals, laws, and education, and this darkness is being protected and normalized while light is being vilified and criminalized.

This is not just the clash of worldviews, but the clash of spiritual forces that affects us all. The God of the Bible is watching and weighing us on his scales of justice. To learn how our secular culture affects us but won't ever redefine or change God, join us for this edition of the Ankerberg Show.

Welcome to our program. I'm John Ankerberg, and I'm really glad that you joined us today. My guest is Dr. Erwin Lutzer, as you've just heard. Some of you that have read history, you probably remember Friedrich Nietzsche, who claimed that God is dead. You have read a lot about Nietzsche. You've even lectured on Nietzsche. Tell us why Nietzsche said that God is dead.

Dr. Erwin Lutzer: Nietzsche was living at a time when secularism was overcoming Europe. My book is entitled *The Eclipse of God*, and God was certainly being eclipsed. The Enlightenment was kind of a mixed bag. In other words, on the one hand, it opened up thinking, but on the other hand, people thought that they could do without God.

So Nietzsche looked about and said, there are gravediggers that have buried God. And I asked myself the question, who might he have had in mind? Well, he certainly would have known about Karl Marx. Karl Marx attacked God as ruler, Darwin attacked God as creator, and Freud attacked God as lawgiver. So these men have greatly influenced our society and our culture.

John, you and I understand that philosophers have had a great impact on countries and on whole societies, and certainly the three that I have just mentioned continue to have an impact. So one of the things that we can talk about is what these three men taught, and then we certainly as the program goes on, we're going to show how wrong they were and give an alternate solution.

Dr. John Ankerberg: Yeah, let's start with Marx. What did he try to implement?

Dr. Erwin Lutzer: Marx was concerned about the fact that the Industrial Revolution had actually separated two groups of people. There were the landowners, there were also the factory owners, and then there were what he called the proletariat, which were the workers themselves who were being paid, who owned nothing. So Marx saw that, he saw that workers were exploited, and they certainly were. And so he said to himself, what is the answer going to be? And because of his answer, much of the world, as you well know, has come under the heel of Marxism.

Dr. John Ankerberg: Yeah, let me help you out with that a little bit too. Number one is he also thought that God was a fantasy. Number two is he thought this was an economic problem. He saw the elites knocking off the proletariat down here, the proletariat were working so hard and the elites were getting all the money. And this is something that even today people don't realize. Yeah, whoever you call the elites, they're going to control what the proletariat make. And you got to say, human nature is good all the way from the proletariat to the elites. That's never been true.

Dr. Erwin Lutzer: You know, John, the reason that he wanted to abolish private property is because he thought if people didn't own anything, you're right, everybody would live together in harmony. The reason he wanted to abolish God is because God was being used to keep people bound in their servitude and being told, "Be faithful now because in the future in heaven, you're going to be rewarded."

So God had to be abolished, but also the family had to be abolished. And the reason is because the family was a unit of oppression. Men oppress their wives, parents oppress their children, and then they took them to church and God was the ultimate oppressor. If we abolish religion and if we take children from their parents and train them independently by the state, then of course they're going to grow up finally knowing the truth that there is no God, etc.

Now, what's important to recognize is this: Marx was saying the loyalty that you have to God is a loyalty that has to be given to the state. Now, obviously, he also promoted the idea of a revolution because the bourgeoisie, the owners, they aren't going to give up what they have voluntarily. So he advocated a revolution and we know what that was like in Russia.

Dr. John Ankerberg: A complete revolution would mean the fact is the government and everything else would have to be torn down and you start over.

Dr. Erwin Lutzer: Exactly. And so what you have is millions of people killed in Russia, millions of people killed in China. But then, did the utopia that Marx outlined take place? Of course not. What you now have is a new group of rulers who actually have everything under their control, and what you have is an oppression that no one probably could have predicted.

Why oppression? Because Marxism can't stand the fact that people might have a loyalty to God and not a complete loyalty to the state. Furthermore, Marx says in the *Communist Manifesto* that Marxism does away with all eternal truths, and so what you have is this kind of chaos and the only way that you can take care of the chaos is by the boot in the face, as it is sometimes said. And what we need to do is to see the tremendous error that he propagated.

Before we get to the errors of Marxism, which are huge, let's also talk about Darwin. You mentioned Darwin. Darwin gave people the idea that we don't need a creator. Now, he himself may have still believed in God, but future generations said, "You know, we can do without God and we can account for creation in other ways."

Now, here's the point that I make in the book *The Eclipse of God*, the book that we're talking about. I have a quotation there from Darwin who said that the baboon is our grandfather. Now I want everybody to take a deep breath and let's just think together. If the baboon is our grandfather, we have no argument against abortion, no argument against euthanasia, no argument against infanticide, because we do that for animals. And so you actually have the devaluation of the human life to the level of animals, except that we're a little bit more developed. And then the idea developed, well, since there is no actual creator, we can recreate ourselves. I can be born a man and I can recreate myself and say that I'm a woman.

Dr. John Ankerberg: Yeah, but talking about this recreation, the fact is Hitler actually used Darwin's theories for what he was doing in Germany.

Dr. Erwin Lutzer: Yes, exactly. Eugenics. Because what it was saying and what Hitler said was, what we need to do is to get rid of the inferior race, namely the Jews, so that we can also establish and hurry up the evolutionary process.

By the way, I just throw this in at no extra cost, we began talking about Nietzsche. Is it any wonder that Hitler kept a copy of Nietzsche next to his bed and gave a gift to Mussolini, the books that were written by Nietzsche, who proclaimed the death of God? And Hitler said, "Why cannot we be as cruel as nature?" And so the powerful always ruled over the non-powerful.

Dr. John Ankerberg: I'll throw you one more and that is the fact is in the fourth chapter of *Mein Kampf*, you'll see a lot of Darwinism.

Dr. Erwin Lutzer: Exactly. And then the third philosopher that you mentioned is of course Freud. Now Freud also believed that God was a fantasy of the imagination, people seeking a father figure. But then he came up with the pleasure principle, namely that sexual enjoyment is the highest kind of happiness, so there should be really no restrictions.

John, one of the things that we'll discover in society as we are experiencing an eclipse of God and leaving behind the teaching of Scripture and the teaching of creation, one of the things that we are going to encounter is undoubtedly pedophilia. And I say that because it's a logical consequence.

In fact, in my book, I talk about someone who gave a lecture and says that pedophilia is inborn in people. The lecturer said that they should not be able to act out their fantasies, but that we should just simply accept them. But what argument can we give against it if we are animals and if we are simply trying to restrict someone who is born as a pedophile and he can't express himself? That's why you find throughout history and in false religions, children so often being offered to the goddess of sexuality.

Dr. John Ankerberg: Kinsey kind of copied Darwin and actually promoted it and came up with a word called intergenerational sex, which is a polite euphemism for child rape because the pleasure principle goes all the way down to the bottom. Children can start having pleasure as soon as possible and all the way through life.

Dr. Erwin Lutzer: And you know what Kinsey did I wouldn't even mention on a program like this. Horrible. And the Bible says in the 16th chapter of the book of Ezekiel, God says to the pagans and to Israel, "You have offered your children to the gods." And also in the Bible it says that these false gods, these idols, it says, were demons.

So what you have when you have the final stage of a moral breakdown in a society is children are being misused, they are being trafficked, and God is going to judge us very severely for that. I'm reminded of the words of Jesus, speaking of children, he says that if any of you cause one of these little ones to stumble, it would be better for him if he had a millstone around his neck and he were drowned in the depths of the sea.

And I want to say to anyone who's listening, if you are involved in the sexualization of children or the abuse of children, you had better stop right away, go for help, and cry up to God for forgiveness because you are touching something that is very special to the Almighty.

Dr. John Ankerberg: Erwin, let's go to the bottom line here. Marx, Darwin, and Freud each put a nail into the coffin of God, apparently thinking they were doing mankind a favor. These ideas contributed to the eclipse of God that you're talking about right here, the eclipse of God, and the fact is, where were they wrong?

Dr. Erwin Lutzer: As Dostoevsky said, if God doesn't exist, everything is permissible. There are no guardrails anymore. So the evil of the human heart can come forth and do the most despicable things. Why? Because there is no God, there's no morality as Marx taught, and the result is disaster.

And of course, Marx thought, "Oh, all that you have to do is to change the environment and you can therefore change the person." No, you can't. In Russia and even in China, they have not been able to chisel the idea of God out of the human heart because you and I are born with a God consciousness.

So without an understanding of sin, without an understanding of the Gospel, these philosophers, and there are lots of others as well, misled millions and millions of people. And the bottom line is, you're a human being, figure out meaning for yourself, there is no transcendent meaning, there is no God to whom you are accountable, and the result, of course, is chaos and violence and poverty, because if people don't have to work, then of course they won't work, and what we have today are horrible, horrible consequences.

Dr. John Ankerberg: Now, let's go to the bottom line here is the fact is you have done a lot of lecturing at some of the cathedrals in Europe, especially in Germany because you've done Reformation tours talking about Luther. And you have these beautiful cathedrals all through Europe, and when I visited them and you go to the church on Sunday, they're empty.

Dr. Erwin Lutzer: Yes, exactly. And it's Nietzsche who predicted that. I have the quotation in the book where he said the cathedrals of Europe have become the tombs of God. And of course, as a result of that, you have Nazi Germany, you have communism in Russia, you have communism in places like China, and wherever it has gone, it has failed and it's brought about human misery, and it can be no other way.

Dr. John Ankerberg: Yeah, and I would just say those that think that Darwin got everything right is that they need to look up the fact of what DNA is and they also need to look up what RNA is and scientists that can look through their test tubes today and they can look at that, they can't even figure out how that could come into existence through just a random association. There's no way.

Dr. Erwin Lutzer: Like is often said, it's like believing that there was an explosion in a print factory and the result was a Webster's dictionary. Absolutely impossible. But I want to say a word to all those of you who are listening today. Maybe you have been enamored by some of the philosophers of the past and particularly those philosophers that have tried to draw us away from God. One thing those philosophers cannot do, and they are unable to do, is to prepare you for death.

Now, of course, they will tell you that after you die there's nothing to prepare you for because there is no existence after death. But you know that there is and I know that there is. The question is, how are you going to face death and eternity?

Can we just talk about that for a little while? Many years ago, there was a man who told this story. He said that when he was a boy, he would leave his village and go across to another village, but to get there he had to go through a very deep valley. Now, there was a trail through the valley, so during the day he was able to do that. He stayed in the village where he was working for several days, and then he would come back.

But one Saturday evening, it was getting late and he wanted to go home and as he got to the valley in the darkness, he was full of fear. I mean, he was a boy of about fourteen. Because there had been all kinds of rumors about what was in the valley. There were ghosts in the valley, there were people hiding in the valley. As he got to the valley with his heart pounding, he suddenly heard a voice. It was the voice of his father. His father knew that the boy would be afraid to go through the valley alone, so the father went across the valley, met his son, and brought him home.

You know, the Bible says this: when you die, you are going to be in eternity. Are you going to find someone there to meet you? I'm talking about a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Because Jesus was both God and man, he was able to come from God, from heaven, and he came to our earth as a man, and now he is there to help us across what the Bible calls the valley of the shadow of death.

As a matter of fact, you remember David in Psalm 23, he said, "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for you are with me." The Bible promises that Jesus is there for those who trust him, those who believe his word. He said, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes on me, though he were dead, yet shall he live, and whosoever lives and believes in me shall never die."

One other truth that I want you to remember. Jesus said, "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd knows his sheep by name." Imagine that. You die, Jesus is there to greet you on the other side of this dark valley and take you with him forever. Will you receive him as your Savior?

Will you today say, "Lord Jesus, I acknowledge my sinfulness, I acknowledge my fear of death"? Some of you may be very near death and you might even know it. "I acknowledge my fear, but I want you to forgive my sin and take me to my heavenly home." Only Jesus can do that. There's nobody else out there like him.

Father, I pray that many right now might believe on Jesus. May they trust him. And we thank you today that we have a Savior who takes us across the valley to our heavenly home. Give them that assurance based on your promises, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Dr. John Ankerberg: I hope that you listen carefully to what Erwin was saying, and I hope that you'll join us again next week. Next week our topic is going to be this: people tell me all the time, "I believe in God." You know what? I've come to believe that that statement is largely meaningless. Why? Because after they tell me that, they never live like they believe in God. There's nothing connected to those two statements. Is that you? We're going to talk about that next week. I hope that you'll join us. Stay tuned. John will be right back.

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