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Zeitgeist: The Divine Requirement to Discern the Spirit of the Age (Part Two)

Part One

Aesthetics, Feelings, and A Vibe

For many years, I’ve said that the content of doctrinal statements do not change or affect people close to what aesthetics do.  People’s imaginations of God do not relate mainly to specific doctrinal statements.  I’m not saying that’s good, but it’s just not the reality on the ground.  Aesthetics affect what people imagine about God.  The kind of music a church uses does more to form its understanding of God.

The spirit of the age, the zeitgeist conforms more to aesthetics than it does the content of theological statements.  The world system pushes or influences people according to their feelings than it does their thinking.  In fact, their thinking changes according to their feelings or experiences first.

I would contend that if a church decided to make some changes to its statement of faith, it would cause a lesser possible negative reaction than if one changed its music, dress, or programs.  This point can be seen in church growth.  Leaders of churches use the aesthetics, the music, dress, entertainment, social activities, and a general feeling or vibe to affect church growth and maintaining membership.  This trickles down to many of the decisions made in and by churches.

“Present World”

Scripture uses the terminology, “this world,” to describe the spirit of the age or the zeitgeist.  It also uses “present world” to speak of what characterizes the world in its present iteration.  In 2 Timothy 4:10, Paul writes to Timothy at the church at Ephesus:

For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica; Crescens to Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia.

Demas forsook Paul because he loved “this present world” (ton nun aiona).  The same Greek expression, but translated differently in the King James Version, is seen in 1 Timothy 6:17:

Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy.

This is the same nun aiona construction, “now world,” that is translated “this present world” in 2 Timothy 4:10.   Lastly, Paul uses it in Titus 2:12.  In this case, Paul compares the way of a believer — denying ungodliness and worldly lust, living soberly, righteously, and godly — with “this present world.”  “This present world” contrasts with godliness, sobriety or self-control, and righteousness.

Friendship of the World

The world and in its contemporary iterations, this present world, clashes with God.  It’s why James writes in James 4:4:

Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.

How does stay in good relations with the world system?  It is by conforming to the spirit of the age.  John calls these “the things that are in the world” (1 John 2:15).  Those who love the world, John says, the love of the Father is not in them.  Loving the world is loving the things that are in the world.  What are the things in the world?

Instead, Fellowship with God

When I was a child, sometimes I didn’t want to identify with my parents.  I felt ashamed to associate with these “old fogies.”  Children might try to separate themselves from the ways of their parents.  People who confess to being God’s people might separate themselves from God by not associating with His ways.  Instead, they sound, look, and act like the world.  This isn’t just committing sins, but watching what the world watches, listening to what the world listens to, and looking like the world looks.  It does this in a number of different ways.  God does not want this.

A term in scripture used to describe association with, accommodation to, and affiliation with God is “fellowship” or “communion.”  A believer aligns himself in every possible way with God, so that he fellowships with God.  He is close to God, so he considers all the ways he aligns with God, acts like God, walks with God, and in every way is on the same page as God.  A true believer is not taking into strong consideration as to whether he fashions himself with the ways of this world.

The New Roman Woman

The Apostle Paul confronts the spirit of the age.  Besides commanding, “be not conformed to this world” (Rom 12:2), Paul gets into some detail in a place like 1 Timothy 2:9:

In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array.

Paul directly deals with some detail that represents far more than what he specifically says.  In history, this woman is known as “the new Roman woman.”  The contention of historians based upon literature and archaeology was a Roman world phenomena during the time of the New Testament, a type of woman in first-century Roman society who was known for her sexual libertinism and rebellion against male authority. The Apostle Paul instructs women to dress modestly and avoid excessive adornment.

Language Too

More than ever, I hear filthy communication posing as the salty, authentic speech that qualifies as Christian.  Everything about the spirit of the age also affects the tongue.  James addresses this especially in James 3 and ends the book to title the type of speech as “this wisdom” that “descendeth not from above.”  This world produces this wisdom which in turn causes this type of speech.

Christians talked different.  Now professing Christians talk the same and they’re a bit proud of it.  Apparently true Christianity doesn’t have to change your mouth that much.  Just the opposite, if someone speaks with a philosophical bent toward the world, he’s viewed as attractive for Christ, because he’s authentic.  This is calling evil good and good evil.

The Course of This World

The Apostle Paul breaks down in other kind of detail the spirit of the age in Ephesians 2:1-3:

1 And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; 2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: 3 Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

Here Paul uses the language, “the course of this world.”  He doesn’t say what that course is, but he characterizes it so that the audience can and will make the application.  Paul emphasizes that it was how they walked, but not anymore.  One should read an inherent warning concerning the continuation on “the course of this world” for those quickened, who were before dead in trespasses and sins.

The lifestyles of Ephesian believers were “in the lusts of [their] flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh” (verse 3).  This isn’t guidance by the Word of God and submission to the Holy Spirit.  This is allowing the flesh and its desires to lead.  What is the path of least opposition?  What makes it easier to live in this world and find acceptance all around?

An Example of Hairstyle

The spirit of the age affects outward appearance as seen in 1 Timothy 2 and this is conforming to this world.  Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 11:14-15:

14 Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him? 15 But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given her for a covering.

Those claiming to be Christian were conforming to this world in their hair styles and in this case, their length of hair.  Paul confronts hair length.  Men shouldn’t have long hair.  Women should have long hair.  A Christian culture will follow this path, because it indicates God ordained design.  God intended designed distinction between male and female to cooperate with His design.

Men rebel against God by growing long hair.  And women rebel against God by cutting their hair like a man.  Both men and women today, who call themselves Christians, might argue here.  Instead they should be swift to hear, slow to argue, and slow to wrath (James 1:19).  Hair length is a mere example of how believers correspond to the spirit of the age.  Many other attitudes and practices will do this too.

Salt, Light, Identification, and Influence

Christianity should and real or true Christianity will stand out against the spirit of the age.  It will not accept any of the ways that reflect, resemble, pattern, exhibit, or associate this present world.  It will reject the blue or purple hair, the tattoos, male dress on women and female dress on men, the skin tight garments, all forms of godless, pagan music, all kinds of modern art, like surrealism, cubism, abstract impressionism, the overt resemblance to this world’s popular entertainment, and more.

In many ways, the point of avoiding the association and imitation of this present world, the spirit of the age, the zeitgeist is about not identifying with God and the Bible.  It requires being different and set apart.  People just want to fit in.  They don’t have that responsibility to speak for the Lord Jesus Christ.  No one knows they are a Christian.  They are hiding their light under the bushel (cf. Matthew 5:13-16).  These professing believers don’t have the saltiness that preserves godliness.  They don’t create a barrier for the social changes encouraged by the god of this world.

Those calling themselves Christians and their churches attempt to stay relevant with this world.  They walk to the world’s drum beat.  God doesn’t want this.  Scripture teaches against it.

Zeitgeist: The Divine Requirement to Discern the Spirit of the Age

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

AUTHORS OF THE BLOG

  • Kent Brandenburg
  • Thomas Ross

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