2 Corinthians 11:3 “But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ.”
When we read the history of the spread of the Gospel we see that Satan was there as well – spreading his lies and errors. Satan was also at the birth of our nation (USA) bringing in his heresies.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, born in 1803 in Boston, Massachusetts was another figure to build upon the evil stronghold bringing in the humanistic philosophy that was seeking to destroy the Christian faith.
At this time in America’s history, latitudinarianism (people allowing latitude, especially in religion, showing no preference towards worship or creed) and Unitarianism (a religion rooted in human rationalism) stood strong with resistance to the mysteries of the Trinitarian God.
It is interesting that Harvard University had started to produce godly pastors, went on to produce a Unitarian pastor by the name of Charles Chauncy who from 1727-1787 was pastor of a church in Boston. We soon see that pastors coming out of Harvard were typically used in the theological decline.
It was Ralph’s aunt, Moody Emerson, who introduced to him Hinduism and Neo-Platonism. It was through her leanings that prepared Ralph’s thinking for polytheistic and pantheistic ideas that would eventually form the new religion called “transcendentalism.”
At a young age Emerson wrote in his journal: “Who is he that shall control me? Why may not I act and speak and write and think with entire freedom? What am I to the Universe or, the Universe, what is it to me? Who hath forged the chains of wrong and right, of opinion and custom? And must I wear them?”
In other words, what Emerson was saying at a young age is if God is the Sovereign ruler over the universe and the source of ethics, etc. then Emerson wanted nothing to do with God.
When we read something like this we cannot but think of another being who had the same mentality. “You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’” (Isaiah 14:12-14)
The American literary critic, Harold Bloom, calls Emerson, “The prophet of the American Religion.” Harold Bloom also points out that the liberal mainline churches as well as Mormonism and Christian Science owe a great deal to Emerson’s ideas. Harvard in 1866 awarded him a doctorate degree and elected him to their board of Overseers. This gave Emerson the opportunity to teach students graduating out of Harvard his anti-Scriptural ideas. Whatever is taught in our universities will soon penetrate the everyday society. It would take another 150 years to finally penetrate into our other levels of schools and churches and the culture. One could say that in the 19th century under the influence of Ralph Waldo Emerson, the Christian Worldview began to disintegrate.
With Emerson we see the beginning of the moral and social collapse of the Western world. In his book Apostate, Kevin Swanson brings out that what they wanted was the destruction of a civilization.
Because the philosophers in our universities and colleges replaced God with man-centered ideas we now find our culture and literary leaders writing and speaking about things that a few years ago would have been unthinkable.
One example is the culture that we have today with homosexual clubs in schools, as well as indoctrination of our kids in schools, entertainment on television and in the movies. We saw in our last weekly that Jeremy Bentham, the progressive philosopher, introduced the acceptance of homosexuality.
Emerson was committed to Eastern philosophy and today we have what is known as “New Age Thinking.” The Pew Forum Research Center estimates that a quarter of Americans believe in reincarnation and that there is spiritual energy located in things such as mountains, trees or crystals. We can thank Emerson for this.
The lesson here is that when we turn away from God and His Word then we open ourselves to all types of erroneous ideas. With Emerson’s philosophy man becomes a part of god. The same subtle idea that Satan gave Eve in the Garden of Eden regarding the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that if you eat it: “You will be like God.”
I was listening to a television personality sharing how she makes decisions. She said: “I trust my heart.” Often we hear this being said that “I trust my heart,” or “I follow my heart.” Where did this come from? Ralph Waldo Emerson! Emerson would look within himself for truth. He completely disallowed anything that would come from Scripture and therefore leaving man himself as the only possible source of truth.
In our Post-Modern world today what do we have? No such thing as absolute truth. Man makes his own truth. Again it brings us back to what Isaiah saw: “So justice is driven back, and righteousness stands at a distance; truth has stumbled in the streets, honesty cannot enter. Truth is nowhere to be found, and whoever shuns evil becomes a prey. The Lord looked and was displeased that there was no justice.” Isaiah 59:14-15
Emerson was a “relativist thinker.” He thought the universe was in constant flux and because of that – truth and ethics must also be in constant flux. This is why the progressives will always be replacing the old virtues with new so-called virtues, and why they say that our American Constitution is a “living document” and needs to adjust to the culture of today. But, is this right? No! Why? Because our constitutional document is based on Absolute Truth and Truth does not bend to the ‘fads’ and ‘whims’ of today’s culture.