If you’re a returning reader of this blog, thank you for choosing to spend some time reading. I’ve decided that the time has come for putting out more encouragement and instruction for the building up of believers, and the conviction of unbelievers.

Recently, I’ve been doing a history podcast with a brother in Jesus. For our most recent episode, I spent two weeks studying the period of history known as “the Renaissance”. The term, “renaissance,” is what I believe is the Italian word for “rebirth,” and labels the era and movement of a rebirth of Greek, Roman, and Christian ideas, beliefs, and practices that were adopted by mostly educated men in the 15th to 16th centuries AD.

As I was thinking about how we can learn from the events of the Renaissance in our time, I concluded that there is one huge commonality between these two eras. Looking at what resulted from this aspect of the Renaissance can help us predict what will result from our unbelieving world’s style of ungodliness, and how we should respond to it as believers.

Humanism and Transhumanism

To either catch you up or remind you of what’s going on in our prevailing society’s thinking and behavior, we are being faced with a relatively new religion and ideology that is actually motivating the most powerful people in the world. And these people are the one’s who have a leading influence on the messages that are being received constantly by the vast majority of people engaged in the popular media. The religion I’m speaking of is called “transhumanism”. It is the contemporary version of the religious and cultural movement that emerged during the Renaissance known as “humanism.”

Humanism was a response to the discoveries of the ostensibly profound and timeless literature, culture, and arts of the ancient Greeks and Romans. When the educated men and scholars of the Renaissance era studied these things, they found in them the answers to achieving their dreams of the ideal societies. In so doing, they were also rejecting the disintegrating and old medieval order that was dominated by the Roman Catholic Church, the feudal system, and the overwhelming ignorance and superstition that enslaved the great mass of the European population.

Their aim was to adopt these Greco-Roman attitudes and ideas in order to perfect their understanding and use of the world, so they could be as prosperous, powerful, and happy as possible. And rather than relying on the Church to provide such a life for them, they were motivated by the belief that there was an innate ability in human beings to achieve their fullest potential in enjoying the happiest life possible. Basically, it was the pursuit of heaven on earth mainly through the use of human reason, strength, and passion.

Such is the underlying impetus of the majority of the world’s social elites, and their millions of unwitting followers. Although they rarely promote their fundamental beliefs to the majority of media users, they share a common vision for the world that is summed up in the name “transhumanism.”

Transhumanism is the religious ideology which holds that humans can reach their fullest potential if they fuse themselves with the most advanced technology of the day. In fact, this movement doesn’t merely seek to improve humans, but to transform them into a new race of creatures that are part human, and part computer.

And this movement isn’t some crazy, obscure, conspiracy. I could cite several of the most brilliant and influential minds of the world that promote this, including Bill Gates and Elon Musk. In spite of their attempts to make such an idea seem as though it would be for the good of the majority of the world, it’s actually an attack on the very nature with which our Creator endowed us.

And so to see what kind of results came of such a man-centric, idolatrous, and innovative movement, it’s good for us to examine what happened with the efforts of the Renaissance humanists.

The Dehumanizing of Humanism

As I’ve already said, the pursuit of ultimate happiness on earth solely for man’s sake, and with reliance on human reason and power, ironically denies what it ultimately means to be human. Thus, for many of the humanists of the Renaissance, to turn completely on the Church in favor of the largely deistic and pagan philosophies of the Greco-Roman world was to throw out the baby with the bath water. To be fair and accurate, a vast number of the leading humanists of the Renaissance remained committed adherents of the vast majority of Roman Catholic beliefs and practices. And yet, even they plummetted headlong into the debased direction of a reliance on, and trust in, natural human reason and willpower to know God, earn peace with Him, and to be like Him on earth.

The reason that the rejection of the God and Father of Jesus is the rejection of true humanity is because in and through Jesus Himself is the ultimate humanity revealed. It is only in knowing and acting like Jesus that people can be fully human, since the original purpose of mankind was to represent God in moral character, reason, and rulership over creation. Contrary to this, humanism sought to achieve mere earthly happiness apart from ultimate reliance on, devotion to, and worship of God. Instead, it pursued its temporal, earthly, goals, ultimately out of a profound worship of humanity. Human autonomy and selfish ambition were the primary motivations for most of the humanist endeavors. Having lowered God to a place of less than primary importance, and setting man as the center of the universe, they foolishly rejected their original purpose for even being human.

In spite of this flagrant rebellion against God’s order for humanity, we must admit that the humanists and their associates achieved remarkable things. Through their proud, idolatrous, and selfish ambitions, much deep thinking, and toilsome work, the Renaissance humanists accomplished some of the greatest feats of history. A prime example is the flourishing trade centers of the Italian city-states, which became some of the most wealthy and prosperous societies in the world. Again, there are the numerous translations of ancient manuscripts into known languages, including the vernaculars, and especially those of the holy Scriptures. The most notable is Erasmus’s Greek translation of the New Testament. Further, we can remember the invention and widespread use of the most important inventions of this time, including ocean-going sails, the nautical compass, the printing press, and the production of gunpowder. Perhaps most popularly, during this time the humanist artists and architects created the most realistic and beautiful works of art that had been made in recent times. Think of the Sistine Chapel, the many cathedrals, and the multitudes of paintings and sculptures crafted by such men as Michaelangelo. Finally, during this time, the truth of the solar system being heliocentric rather than earth-centric was verified through observation, and the incomprehensible vastness of the universe was explored.

Many of these things were very beneficial to people, and contributed to human happiness, health, and peace. However, since most of them were done not for the glorification of Jesus, but for the glorification of fallen men, they failed to provide most people with anything of eternal and spiritual value. As Solomon says in Ecclesiastes, if anything is done with no fear of God, it is empty and worthless. Rather than improving human nature, it actually further defaces the essential image of God with which man was originally created, and intended to represent. Such is the case with the new religious ideology of transhumanism.

The Transhumanist Tyrant and the Christian Response

Although not many Christian leaders are talking about it, transhumanism and its subsidiary movements pose a major threat to our western world, and to believers in Jesus. As stated previously, although it isn’t popularly advertised, we see its preparatory influences all around us, setting up for the impending unleashing of the full-orbed transhumanist technologies. The greatest example of these is the rapidly increasing use and development of artificial intelligence (AI). Although this can surely be used to make life easier, it’s also leading to the negligence of careful thinking, deep personal relationships with people, and the temptation to a diversity of sins, earthly pleasures, and paths to destruction.

What the leaders of transhumanism envision for AI is that eventually, it will do virtually everything for us, and we’ll be so integrally linked to it that we’ll be able to access it simply by thinking. Yes, I’m speaking about putting a computer in your brain. And what will this do? Make people more obsessed with themselves, and further removed from any thought of the true God.

We already are experiencing the damaging influences of semi- or proto-transhumanism. Nearly everyone is consumed by their smartphones and/or computers, as they constantly use social media, news platforms, video sites, and video games to attempt to live in a better, idealized, and digitized world where they are masters of their destinies, and they can have any pleasure they want, when they want it. Do you not think that, given the opportunity, most of them would gladly accept access to instant use of the information they want, or the means to obtaining the material goods they want? Of course they would. And this would be the fruit of what transhumanism claims to be the advancement of human happiness and prosperity. No, this would be even deeper enslavement to sin.

So, how are we as Christians to respond? Of course, I could just say something biblically obvious like “preach the gospel more,” but this won’t suffice. What I propose is a new and truly Christian version of the Renaissance. Much of the successes of the enemies of the gospel, godliness, and goodness are due to the failures of western believers to “go back to the sources” of our holy Bibles and historical teachings.

In the Renaissance, this was the motto of humanist scholars who were discovering ancient documents of the Greco-Roman world, which hadn’t been studied or used in centuries. In our time, one of the chief problems and tragedies of western believers is their severe ignorance of, despising of, and disobedience to, Scripture. Thus, there’s a desperate need for us to wake up, confess our pride and foolishness, and devote ourselves to the teachings of the Lord and His apostles as never before. We need to be reading and studying our Bibles every day, and not just with a short devotional that takes 5 to 10 minutes. We need to be feasting on God’s Word to gather and enjoy the riches of the Lord’s wisdom, knowledge, and power. This will be the engine that drives us to combating the growing threats of the God-hating world around us, and will equip us to become more like Jesus, and ready and willing to preach His gospel.

And let me add, we shouldn’t leave it at the study of Scripture. We should remember that there are dozens of generations of believers who lived before us, studied the Scriptures, and applied them to their specific situations, which we also will experience in this world. Thus, we must not only be students of God’s Word, but also of the teachings and lives of the shining examples of Christian living that walked this earth before us. There must be a rebirth of devotion to Scripture, understanding it, applying it, and of learning from the writings and documents of fruitful believers who are now in heaven. Finally, we, as the humanists were, shouldn’t simply close our eyes or minds to the works of unbelievers, but should be open to learning from the great unbelieving thinkers and workers of history. This is because all truth is God’s truth, and wisdom can be known and used not only by His children, but by the children of the devil.

For the Lord’s glory and honor, I call you “back to the sources,” so we can combat the encircling tentacles of our secularistic, humanistic, increasingly pagan, and proto-transhumanist world. In so doing, we will be able to grow in Christlikeness, be better servants of others discipleship, and be bolder and more effective preachers of the gospel.