Zeitgeist

Zeitgeist is a German or Germanic term found in books going back to the 18th century.  Within a translation of the German Philosophisches Journal in 1794, the English translation reads on page 302, “Zeitgeist also works on the national spirit.  Every age has its own imagination.”  Zeit is the German word for “time” and geist is the German word for “spirit.”  Combined it means, “spirit of the time or age.”    The Oxford Learner Dictionary defines zeitgeist:

the general mood or quality of a particular period of history, as shown by the ideas, beliefs, etc. common at the time

The term was popularized in philosophical usage by the German philosopher, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel.  On August 27, 2020, Antje Allroggen writes in DW (Deutsche Welle), which is a German public, state-owned international broadcaster:

[I]t is generally agreed that Hegel was the first philosopher to recognize and address the dimension of change, which he termed “becoming” (“Werden“), in all its fullness. He believed everything in the world was in constant motion: every individual life, nature, history, society. This results in each epoch having its own particular zeitgeist, or general spirit. One historic epoch is not randomly followed by another; instead, there is a principle of logical evolution.

The concept of zeitgeist is a scriptural concept that is in fitting with the terminology, “this world” (touto aion) or “this present world.”  Aion (“world”) is “age” or “epoch,” speaking of a characteristic period or time.  That’s how zeitgeist fits into the “spirit of the time.”  “This world” is found 38 times in the New Testament.  “Present world” is found twice, but very representative of zeitgeist in those two instances.  I would contend that the philosophical thinking that arose defining zeitgeist, started with the concept which was in scripture.

God’s Requirements

God requires man, and especially genuine believers, to understand or discern the spirit of the times or age, the zeitgeist.  In order to obey God, follow Him, and represent Him according to His will, one must discern the zeitgeist.  This is an implication or assumption of scripture.  People can and should know this.  I would contend that many do, but they embrace the spirit of the age.  They lap it up and luxuriate in it rather than obey the God ordained relationship to it.

Jesus first uses “this world” in scripture in Matthew 13:22, when He says:

He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful.

The thorny ground is an unbeliever in this context of the parable of the soils.  “The care of this world” chokes the word with this person.  Instead of embracing God’s Word, he embraces the spirit of the age, the zeitgeist.  Unsaved people choose the zeitgeist over God’s Word, will, and way.

The Opposite Happening

Many churches today offer the spirit of the age to their church goers or attenders.  They lure people with the zeitgeist.  They fill up a trough of the cares of this world for their church people to lap up.  In church growth seminars, the leaders promote or offer to their audience this as a means of church growth.  They give away thorn seed for thorny ground to ruin the soil and damn souls, all the while saying that this is God at work, deceiving these people.  These church leaders promote this kingdom instead of the next and then call it the work of God.

In another parable in Luke 16:8, Jesus says:

And the lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely: for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light.

Children and God of This World

The Lord Jesus distinguishes the children of light from “the children of this world.”  These are the children characterized by the spirit of this age, something unfortunately and diabolically that churches promote today and yet call it “light.”  Jesus says in John 8:23:

And he said unto them, Ye are from beneath; I am from above: ye are of this world; I am not of this world.

True believers, like Jesus, are not of this world.  Those “of this world” are not believers.  Instead of following Jesus, they follow the “god of this world,” who is not Jesus.  In 2 Corinthians 4:4, Paul says:

In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

Be Not Conformed to this World

A classic passage in a pivotal context in Romans, the Apostle Paul commands in Romans 12:2:

And be not conformed to this world.

This is crucial.  Someone conformed to the spirit of this age is not presenting himself a living sacrifice unto God.  His sacrifice is at least rejected by God.  He will not receive just any offering, just like He disrespected Cain’s offering in Genesis 4:5.  God will not accept something that smacks of the spirit of this age.

To not conform to the spirit of the age requires knowing what is the spirit of the age, that is, what conforms to “this world.”  Genuine believers should and will know the zeitgeist and reject it.  Scripture assumes we can know this.

As the Gentiles Which Know Not God

Other phrases, texts, and contexts communicate the required discernment.  Paul, writing to the church at Thessalonica in his first epistle, says (1 Thessalonians 4:5):

Not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God

The Thessalonians and every other church are not to obtain their life’s partners “as the Gentiles which know not God.”  There is a way that the world thinks and does things that is different than what the church or godly people do.  It isn’t just doing something or having “the lust of concupiscence,” which is intense fleshly lust, but a way that corresponds to that.  Believers acquire their spouses in sanctification and honor.  That way is vastly different than “the Gentiles which know not God.”  Those two ways cannot be the same, or even close.  So what’s different?

Strange or Foreign

Scripture doesn’t say what is different, but the two ways have a nature, characteristics, or attributes that believers can and should discern.  True believers through history have been doing this, discerning these differences.  A word that characterizes “this world” in the Old Testament is “strange.”  That is a King James Version word that means “foreign.”  Sometimes something on your plate doesn’t look like part of the food served.  It is foreign or strange, so you don’t eat it.

Whatever is “strange” in the Old Testament doesn’t fit with God’s people.  Zephaniah 1:8 says:

And it shall come to pass in the day of the LORD’S sacrifice, that I will punish the princes, and the king’s children, and all such as are clothed with strange apparel.

What are these princes or king’s children doing in this verse that God will punish?  They wear strange apparel or clothing.  The passage doesn’t say what it is.  It assumes that someone can and should know.  God requires application of such principles.  This assumes that God’s people can and should know.

The Application Required

“Strange apparel” is clothing that embraces or smacks of “the spirit of the age” or “this world.”  Do believers know what this is?  People who profess to believe have known this through the centuries.  Professing believers seem to have become unable or ignorant for discernment of these differences or issues.  God will still judge and punish.  This principle is throughout scripture.  It has not been renounced or rescinded like some of the dietary restrictions in the Old Testament.

Do you reader understand what I’m talking about in this post?  Many churches don’t get it anymore.  Why?  Leaders don’t teach it.  They act like the spirit of the age can’t be discerned.  If it isn’t spelled out in exact language, then it is ‘beyond what it is written’ (cf. 1 Cor 4:6), which it isn’t.  Scripture teaches this.  Someone might “play dumb,” but that game isn’t true and it won’t work in the end.  God requires the discernment of the spirit of the age and to act appropriately.

More to Come