We westerners live in an artificially-constructed world. I was struck by this recently as I walked passed the strewn recycling boxes in my neighborhood, and saw almost every one of them filled with pre-packaged junk food, like cookies, donuts, and frozen dishes. Down to the minutia of our everyday lives, we are surrounded by man-made things that masquerade as those which are real. The food that was once found in those packages was mostly unreal, artificial, and made in computer-operated factories. Then there are our notorious “smart phones,” which are constantly in our pockets, our hands, and our faces. We fill our minds with never-ending bits of information, most of which has no, or barely any, value to our living out of God’s Word. Those bits of information, if we’re not careful, have a tendency to lead our minds to thinking about things of no eternal value. In case you didn’t know, the Internet is guided by the hands of unbelieving enemies of God, who have programmed the web browser and website technology to pander to your basest desires. They want you to spend as much time on there as possible, and ultimately to eventually spend as much of your money on there as possible.

Apart from this general web of falsehood and deceit, there’s the further hypocrisy and artificiality of our social media accounts. Many of us engage in countless hours of time scrolling through news feeds, watching video’s, and messaging back and forth with people about whom we know only that which is revealed through their digital activity. We usually don’t hear their voice, or experience their full bodily presence in time and space. Although it can come close to knowing a person, knowing Internet acquaintances will only ever be shadows of the reality of a person. Not until we at least hear their voice, and talk to them regularly, will we ever truly know the person. Thus, all Internet acquaintances are only semi-real, and actually alter our perceptions of people. This is why it’s imperative that we attempt to get into more real-time interactions with the people we truly want to befriend online.

Overall, the more we’re consumed by the man-made things of western society, the more we divorce ourselves from the natural realities of human existence that God has set in place in this world. And this is exactly what the devil, and the evil desires of mankind, want us to do. From the beginning of creation, Satan tried to construct an alternative reality, in which God was deceitful and uncaring, and in which man was worthy of the privilege of deciding what is true and good, regardless of God’s will. This is the string of lies that he persuaded Eve to believe, and Adam to concede to. And most people still do this.

The reason I think this artificial world needs to be addressed with Scripture’s teaching more than ever before is many children of God have fallen half asleep along with the world, which is fully asleep, and living in a dreamland. The majority of western believers are so conformed to the ways of the western version of this evil age, that they take all the aforementioned things for granted, and contentedly go along with the way the rest of the world lives.

By this, I’m not implying that believers ought to cut themselves off completely from the common comforts and pleasures of western civilization, but that we need to recognize that most of these things are being used by the devil, the world, and our own sinful flesh, to distract us from giving attention to God’s will for us.

Thus, I want to examine the specific dangers that we western believers face, why they’re there, and how we need to respond to them in a godly way. I hope that this analysis will help you to avoid being further conformed to this age, but to be transformed by the renewal of your mind, as you approve that which is God’s good, pleasing, and useful will (Ro. 12:2).

The Human-Centered Reality vs. the Christ-Centered Reality

First, I want to give you a brief overview of the landscape of the western world system in which we live. I’ve already mentioned several examples of its main features, but I want to reiterate its fundamental nature, and then the distinctive traps that are used by the devil and the flesh to deceive unbelievers, and to distract and deceive believers.

The first thing to realize is that we live in a dualistic and paradoxical reality. On the one hand, the devil is still active, still deceiving the sons of disobedience, and still the ruler of this world (2 Cor. 4). The unbelieving masses of humanity still lie helpless in the power of the evil one (1 Jn. 5), and are walking according to his ways in his pride and deceitfulness (Eph. 2). Thankfully, though, Jesus is now the Lord of heaven and earth, with the authority over those two spheres having been entrusted to Him when He was raised from the dead (Mt. 28:18). His kingdom has come in seed form, and is now spreading to all the nations increasingly, as He taught in His kingdom parables. Hence, Christians are not victims, but victors over this world.

Nevertheless, since we still live in this present earthly age, we must contend with the evil spiritual forces that seek to destroy our souls. As is commonly known, these are the world, the flesh, and the devil. Although the devil is the mastermind behind the personal spirits against whom we wage war, more of our fighting happens at the level of the world.

What do I mean by the world, though? Clearly, you can understand this word in multiple senses. However, in this case, what I mean is the man-centered system of ideas, worldviews, attitudes, and ways of living that are lived out by unbelievers. Sadly, believers still interact with this system on a daily basis, which is why we always run the risk of being tempted to sin. The fact is that this world lives inside of us, since we still retain some false beliefs, and evil attitudes and desires within our fallen human frames. However, what’s worse is that the external world of unbelieving society plays on our internal sinful desires and affections to lure us into committing full-blown acts of sin on a regular basis.

Therefore, although we’ve been born again, now possess the Holy Spirit, and have upright hearts that love God and obey Him, we still fight on a daily basis against the temptations of our flesh that are often brought out by the external enticements of the world around us. What we are caught in is often described by the New Testament Scriptures as the overlap of the ages, or the age within an age. Although we are citizens of God’s kingdom, and therefore enjoy our life in heaven with Jesus at God’s right hand, we are still living in the midst of a crooked and perverted generation, and must fight the good fight of faith against the lusts of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. And we western believers have an especially tough time of it, since we are so assimilated into this new, technologically advanced, and seemingly promising society of the Internet, AI, and new heights of human comfort, pleasure, and prosperity.

Nevertheless, most of the seemingly good things we see around us are like the white paint covering the tomb of rotting corpses that lie within. Western society has countless temporal and physical benefits – easy access to food, drink, shelter, clothing, and knowledge. Most of us lack little earthly pleasure that we could want. We are well-fed, well-clothed, and well-entertained. Through the Internet, our phones, and computers, virtually every conceivable resource is available at the touch of our fingers, so long as we have enough digital capital. We can now also communicate with each other almost instantaneously, and have countless minutes of personal interaction. We can almost do anything, have anything, and go anywhere we want. Despite all these seemingly good gifts of western society, hiding underneath the beautiful, shiny, and clean-looking covering, are the real poisons that this current western world has drugged itself with.

What we see in the West is the same thing we’ve seen since the fall of mankind, but in the most sophisticated and complex form ever brought about. As I said, in the beginning of this conflict, the devil sought to corrupt the minds of humanity by deceiving them into thinking that we humans construct our own reality, with our own values, truths, and standards of behavior. And clearly, he was successful. But as part of this alternate reality of rebellion against God, humans develop its individual features in their everyday living, such as ways of work, languages, foods, family rituals, governmental structures, explanations of the world, and leisure activities. And since all these ways of life come from a fundamental attitude of human-autonomy, self-will, and idolatry, they are all in some way false representations of the features of human life that are truly pleasing to God, and beneficial for the flourishing, enrichment, and multiplication of humanity in its original, righteous, form.

Thus, as you look at all the outwardly beneficial features of the West, you’re mostly also seeing misrepresentations of things that would otherwise be useful for the promotion of God’s glory, and the spiritual blessing of humanity. Since most of the West is characterized by human pride, worship of the creation, and therefore hatred of God, the ostensive benefits of its ways of living are really just tools of human sin to carry out people’s sinful desires, and increasingly store up God’s wrath for themselves for the day of judgement. As Christians, we ought to recognize this, and live distinct, discerning, and devout lives of sound thinking, pure motives, and Christlike action.

A question about all this that should be asked is this: how can a society that does so much physical and temporal good to people’s lives be displeasing to God, and a danger to people’s eternal souls? Let’s try to provide a basic answer to this question of the West’s hypocrisy.

The Waywardness of the West

The fact is that western society was founded at its roots by men with Christian values, beliefs, and aspirations. It would take too long to recount the major events of this long and instructive history, but let me describe it in brief. By the 300s AD, the body of Christ had all but dominated the Roman Empire, the most powerful state in the western world. With the adoption of Christianity as the preferred religion of the empire by the emperor Constantine, and its subsequent proliferation and acceptance in succeeding centuries, Christianity, with its beliefs and practices, became the default way of life for the Mediterranean world, and eventually most of Europe. As the pseudo-Christian remnants of the Empire took over the tribal people of Europe, and finally the Holy Roman Empire and the Byzantine Empire became the two main powers in Europe, the foundation was laid for a Christianized network of societies, which formed the basis for modern Europe after the early 1500s.

It should be recognized that the popular form of Christianity beginning with the times of Constantine, and continuing until around the 1500s, was a corrupted form. Yet, at its foundations, it still held to at least most of the fundamental tenets of the teachings of Jesus and His apostles. Thus, since the institutional “Church” became a political force, which increasingly governed the societies of the northern Mediterranean, and of Europe, Christian principles were still taught and held by countless multitudes of leaders and common people throughout the middle ages.

The period that truly cemented the Christian foundations of western society, however, was that which included the Protestant Reformation, and the Puritan age of Britain. It was during this period, in the 1500s-1700s, that a renewed biblical Christianity became the dominant spiritual, moral, and political force in Europe. Out of Reformation Europe were formed the empire of Great Britain, and the modern nations of the Netherlands, Germany, and the Norse lands of Norway and Scandinavia. The democratic republics of modern Europe were not only based on Enlightenment ideas, but upon Christian ones, which rejected the absolute authority of monarchs in favor of the lordship of Jesus Christ. Further, the scientific revolution that was spearheaded around the Renaissance, and then further advanced in the 1600s-1700s, was impelled by the curiosity, industriousness, and ingenuity of Christian scientists and thinkers, such as Isaac Newton. Upon the scientific revolution was then built the improvements of the industrial revolution, which were based upon the discoveries of the previous one.

Although Europe, and its western society that was spread throughout the world through colonization, was far from perfect, and committed much evil, yet it also accomplished much good. If you’ll look back at modern western history, you’ll find that most of the greatest scientific, social, and political innovations were brought about based on the early Christian foundations of a just society governed by laws that promote the worship of the triune God, and the love of one’s neighbor.

By the 1800s, Christianity was again the default religion of the British Empire, the United States, and most of the Germanic nations of Europe. In fact, it would be fair to call the 1800s the evangelical century of the West, as more churches were planted, more Bible schools founded, more missionary endeavors started, more schools instituted, more hospitals built, and more people reached with the gospel in this century than in any other previous one, as far as we can tell from evidence. For the most part, to be a citizen of Britain or of the U.S. was to be a Christian, and biblical Christianity was the most revered and practiced religion in those nations. And as British and American culture spread through missionary journeys and colonization, even more of the world received the purifying effects of the Gospel, biblical teaching, and Christlike living. This is part of the reason why there are so many Christianized nations in Africa, to name one example of this expansion.

So, how did the West, which was so Christianized, come to the point of openly opposing Christianity, as it does today? The main force that started to crack the mostly solid foundations of western society in the 1700s, and then dealt the death blow in the 1900s, was secular humanism. This is that age-old religion of human autonomy and divinity. Its main teaching is that the world exists for man, and that man can do whatever he wants with it, to give himself as much pleasure as he wants. Sadly, this religion eventually infiltrated and polluted ostensibly Christian organizations, churches, and institutions. Although this infiltration earnestly began in the 1700s, with the Enlightenment, it started a significant domino effect in the mid-1800s.

Some key events in this humanization and secularization of the West include the founding of nominally Christian religions such as Unitarianism, and the American cults of Mormonism, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Christian Science. Further, the lynch-pin scientific event that accelerated the downfall of the West was the popularization and dissemination of Darwin’s theory of Evolution in the 1850s. By the early 1900s, his theory was largely applied to human beings to assert the notion that people aren’t special creatures bearing God’s image, but simply another species of animals that are continually evolving through the process of “the survival of the fittest”. Ironically, it’s this lie of humanity’s baseness that many people have used since then to justify the idea that people are rulers of their own lives, and the captains of their destinies.

Eventually, the thinking that was jumpstarted by Darwin became formulated into a philosophy of “scientism,” which says that humans can do anything they want, and know anything they want about the world through scientific investigation and advancement. This is the basis of the worldview of most average westerners today in our rapidly advancing technological society.

The Deceitfulness of Western Society

Having given a brief survey of how Christianity went from the foundation of the West, to the main enemy of the West, I want to now show you the major irony and falsehood of the society in which we live. The main irony is this – the very intellectual and procedural basis upon which secular leaders, scientists, and philosophers lay their progressive and secular pursuits is that laid by the biblical and Christian religions of the Christian West. All of the scientific, societal, and political advancements we have seen in recent decades are simply building on the social, scientific, and political systems that were constructed and improved by Christian thinkers and workers in past ages. In short, the reason the West is so advanced is because of Christian beliefs, ideas, and behaviors that were instilled in the western consciousness beginning with the Constantinian Empire. Hence, humanistic and non-Christian leaders that are seeking to advance the western way of life are using gifts given to them by Christianity in order to destroy Christianity, and promote anti-Christian views of the world and religions.

And this is where the deceitfulness of our western lifestyles comes in. There are at least two major aspects of this deceitfulness. There’s that falsehood just mentioned – that the purposes for which most of the technology, scientific, and political leaders of the West are seeking to advance western society are anti-Christian, and opposed to the Lord Jesus. Second, there’s the falsehood I pictured in the beginning of this article. This falsehood is slightly more insidious, since it has to do with the apparent goodness of the comforts and conveniences of our society, which actually are serving the world to corrupt our thinking, beliefs, and behavior.

In elaborating on this second type of deceitfulness, I’d like to point out four categories of western life that usually do us more harm than good:

  1. Mass-produced food
  2. Constant access to information
  3. Online relationships
  4. Constant access to entertainment

Let me just briefly explain each of these categories, and how Christians ought to respond to them.

First, the West has corrupted our very physical sustenance. We can get almost any category of food we want, whenever we want it. But we pay a huge cost for its convenience. The truth is that most of the packaged and pre-prepared you buy at the store or at the restaurant is barely anything like its natural and unprocessed counterpart. Most of the time, if you’re not eating poisonous preservatives, additives, flavorings, and coloring, you’re at least eating a exceedingly deficient version of the real food. For this reason, I urge you to pay attention to the food you buy, and seek to buy and eat only that food which is unprocessed, or lightly processed. The average western diet – at least in Britain, Canada, and the U.S. – is heavily filled with sugar, ultra-processed ingredients, refined carbs, artificial preservatives, and artificial flavorings. Avoid such foods – they’re mostly poison.

Second, although our constant access to information can serve good purposes, it’s a dangerous temptation for those who wish to know what’s going on with affairs they have nothing to do with, and for those who want to know things that don’t need to be known. It takes great skill and self-control to use the database of the Internet effectively. Don’t be a constant news seeker. Seek to be a better student of the good news of the Gospel.

Third, like I noted in the introduction, our social media relationships can be very deceitful. When we interact with people online, we’re often not interacting with the actual person, but with a digital disguise that the person is wearing. We must be extremely careful that we don’t treat our online friendships that are cultivated solely through messaging as real friendships – they’re not. If we want to be true friends with people, we need to seek to engage with them in ways beyond messaging back and forth. This is key if we want to form lasting bonds with people, that will fulfill the purposes for Christian friendships.

Finally, what should be most obvious is that we have too much access to entertainment, and entertainment that often purports to be able to improve our thinking. We need to be careful that all our information intake serves a good purpose of teaching us valuable information or lessons that we’ll be able to use to become better servants of the Lord and of others. It must be able to improve our thinking regarding some area of our life that can be improved. In other words, all entertainment must be redemptive and profitable for teaching or encouragement.

In closing, remember that the world we live in is dominated by the lies of the devil, and by anti-Christian ideas, beliefs, and attitudes. And this is no less true of our western society. We must be vigilant, sober, and disciplined soldiers of the Lord. While the rest of the world lies sleeping in darkness and the shadow of death, we must be wakeful, and constantly keeping on the armor of light. As we live in this present darkness, we need to shine forth the life of the Lord Jesus, so that we can awaken more sleepers, and they can enjoy the wakefulness and light of God’s forgiveness and eternal life.