Hubris. . .

Hubris, a noun, meaning overbearing pride or presumption; arrogance or excessive pride, presumption or arrogance (originally toward the gods), or overbearing pride or presumption.  It originated in ancient Greece, where it was considered a dangerous character flaw that threatened to provoke divine punishment.  Though it has its roots in Greek and not in Christianity, it has a textbook example in the fall of Adam and Eve.  This took place not primarily because of the enticement of the serpent (devil) but the desire of Adam and Eve to be like, if not to actually be, God.  That presumption happened because Adam and Eve had distanced themselves from the Word of God.  It remains the singular problem of sin today.  We do not hear God's voice nor do we heed it.

That hubris led all of humanity to be cast under the shadow of death and for the perfect pleasure of Eden to be interrupted and their lives ordered by a harsh labor to fall upon both husband and wife and all those who proceed from their union.  The hubris of those who refuse to hear and heed God's Word is still not without consequences today.  Look at the empty shell of Christianity left when liberal and progressive church bodies have set aside God's Word and listened to another voice over God's.  Words, especially liturgical and creedal words, become mere words without meaning or influence.  They become part of the noise of the world instead of being the heralds of the Kingdom who bring God's order to the chaos, His life to death, and His restoration to what has gone astray and lies lost in the maze of error.   

Scan across the the ruins of Protestantism and the uncertainties and diversity of Evangelicalism and you find the same hubris in the willingness to either ignore or set aside what God says in favor of the internal voice of feelings or the prevailing views of society or culture.  It is even voiced in religious terms when, for example, the trans person speaks of being "born again" by their affirmation of a gender different from their body or DNA.  In place of God and His Word, the glorification of desire has eroded not only the definition of marriage but its purpose, replacing procreation with pleasure.  The embrace of climate change in the extreme in which man is viewed as an intruder and interloper in creation is but another example in which the voice of God is silenced and the views of society replace God's Word.

Distance from God's Word is the first step to departing from that Word.  As soon as we become embarrassed or even ashamed of what God says, we are ripe for casting aside His voice and replacing it with the myriad of voices from within and across the landscape of culture and society.  It is as if Eden's conversation with the temptation of self and the world dominated by the devil is being replicated over and over again as moderns become uncomfortable with God's Word.  We do not need to rewrite the Scriptures if we can succeed in ignoring it and setting it aside in favor of the voices of others.  The crisis of Christianity is not that orthodox Christianity has lost its soul but that too many Christians seem to be comfortable living outside the sphere of orthodox Christianity, with a truth that appeals to them but is unknown to God.  The Church will not be undone by the likes of Satan and his power but the Church can be diminished in the world as those who claim to be God's no longer hear or follow the voice of their Good Shepherd.

You do not need to sit on a mountain top or dress oddly or demand sacrifice to play God.  Indeed, all you need to do is to honor the Lord in public piety but ignore what He has said.  This is surely what the Lord was talking about when He says they honor Him with their lips but their hearts are far from Him.  I wonder if this is the shape of the future for those who once claimed not only to love the Word of God but to heed it and now do neither.