The Source of Chaos

 

Biblical Truth

Ephesians 4:18–19 (ESV)  They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.

Romans 1:18–23 (ESV)  For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

Paul speaks of those who have “given themselves over” to sensuality, but he also records that “God gave them over” to their sinful desires—an expression of His wrath against their denial of Him. When God is denied, society does not stay the same. It degrades.

A Brief Historical Path

How did Western culture arrive here? It happened step by step over centuries:

•  1517 – The Reformation grounded identity in Scripture and the God who reveals Himself there.

•  18th Century – Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778) argued that people are intrinsically good until corrupted by society, and that a person’s true identity is found within himself. This shift from Scripture to self is the seed of modern individualism.

•  The Romantic Self (late 18th–early 19th centuries) – Poets like Wordsworth, Blake, and Shelley popularized Rousseau’s ideas, championing inward feeling and idealized nature as the guides to true morality.

•  The Plastic Self (1800s) – Nietzsche declared that life is a power struggle and invited us to rise above human nature. Marx argued that human nature is malleable—shaped by economic systems. Darwin blurred the line between humans and animals, erasing humanity’s special status before God.

•  The Sexual Self – Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) placed the sex drive at the very core of human identity. Before Freud, sex was for procreation and pleasure within its proper context (Proverbs 5:19). After Freud, sex became who we are.

•  The Technological Self (20th–21st centuries) – Technology gave us the ability to control our environment and ultimately our own bodies. What was once fixed by nature—weather, seasons, biology—now seems negotiable. While there have alwasy beent hose who have gone against their nature (Deuteronomy 22:5 addressed cross-dressing as an abomination thousands of years ago), technology now seems to make the it achievable to have our outer body changed to match our feelings.