Kosmic Thinking: Your Subtle Enemy; John 15:17-18
In verse 18 the focus shifts. Verses 18-25 deal with the enemy of the believer who is abiding in Christ. There are three enemies of the spiritual life in Scripture. Two are outside of us and one is inside. These are the devil and the cosmic system on the outside, and the internal enemy is the sin nature which has an affinity and attraction to cosmic thinking. When Jesus says, "If the world hates you," He uses a very precise word in the Greek—KOSMOS [kosmoj]. There is a certain type of thinking in Scripture called cosmic thinking. The root meaning of KOSMOS in Greek thought was order, something that was orderly and thought out. It is used three ways in Scripture: for the orderly universe, especially the earth; it is used in a figurative way, the technical term is an economy, i.e. when you speak of something that is a part of something else, the parts of a whole; but when we speak of the world what we are really talking about is the inhabitants of the earth, and that is when you speak of the system and that is what is inside the system, so the whole stands for the part. So the world can refer to the inhabitants of the earth, as in John 3:16. Third, it is used to refer to Satan's realm of evil—he is the god of this age, the leader of this cosmic system. When we think of the term "evil" we often think in terms of something heinous, but the Scripture uses the term in a different way. The most insidious evil in all of history is religion. Any religion that emphasizes morality as a way to God's favour and approval is insidiously evil. The most evil people are religious people because they teach that you can have a relationship with God apart from Jesus Christ. The Scripture teaches that there is salvation in no other name than Jesus Christ, and that we are saved by faith and not by works. Then to teach that one's works can gain approval with God is a direct lie and if it is followed it will end up in eternal condemnation. Nothing can be more evil than that because it will cost a person his eternal destiny. So evil is not necessarily that which looks bad, it may be clothed in the garb of goodness, altruism, righteousness, generosity, welfare, etc.
Definition: The cosmic system is Satan's orderly, cohesive and multifaceted (they may be opposite one another, e.g. different world religions may teach what appear to be opposing points but nevertheless are part of Satan's cosmic system because they promote this often as an agenda) system of thinking which include a purpose, a policy (based on works, so there is a direct distinction and antagonism between biblical Christianity and all the world's religions), and a structure of authority designed to subvert the human to gain control over the world he now rules. This cosmic system includes the whole variety of world religions—all of which are man's attempt to gain God's approval through his own efforts, his own works, Christianity is a relationship with God based upon the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. The cosmic system includes the whole gamut of religion, philosophy, culture, political theories (the psalmist says it is better to trust in God than in kings), economic theories, and ethical systems. Here are a vast number of ways of organizing cosmic thought, but at the centre of all of these competing philosophies and religions are two characteristics which define cosmic thinking: a) arrogance, or autonomy, from the Greek words AUTOS and NOMOS meaning self-law; that ultimately man centres authority in the universe in the creation itself rather than in God. Man wants to be the one who defines the purpose and meaning and significance of life, and he claims to be the one with the ability to provide that. This is exemplified by Satan and his five "I wills" given in Isaiah 14. It is an assertion of independence from God—that I can define the issues of life, solve the problems of life, on my own and independent from God; b) an antagonism to the truth: antagonism to Christianity, antagonism to doctrine, expressed in John 15:18 by the word "hatred." This is an important word because it tells us that as believers the cosmic system around us that permeates everything that we are involved in despises us as a believer, it hates us as a believer, and the believer is walking around from the moment he trusts Christ as saviour with a bulls eye right in the middle of his forehead and the world system is aiming at him day in and day out. The problem with most Christians is that they would rather compromise and assimilate with the world system to avoid being a target, rather than relying exclusively upon God. According to the Scripture there are only two competing ways of approaching life: God's way, expressed in the Bible and is called doctrine, truth, light, wisdom, and sometimes referred to as divine viewpoint—on every issue of life from music, art, law, personal life, marriage, etc.; every subject is addressed in the Word of God. So the Bible presents God's way of looking at life. Then there is man's way which is called earthly, natural, demonic, darkness, the lie, and foolishness. Again, the root idea of cosmos is an orderly systematic approach to life, and so the cosmic system, then, is antagonistic and hateful of you as a believer and continually roars against you to get you to compromise with it.
"If the world hates you [and it does], you know that it has hated me before it hated you." Satan is the ruler of this cosmic system and throughout history God has provided various protections for the human race from the incursions of Satan and the demons so that the human race can survive in the angelic conflict. God provided protection in the Old Testament at Sinai when He gave the law, and before that through the various covenants to provide a framework of legal protection so that if man operated within those establishment principles there would be a measure of protection from the evil that would ensue. In the period prior to the flood there was the Satanic attack on the human race when the "sons of God" [fallen angels] took for themselves wives in an attempt to destroy the genetic purity of the race and thus prevent God's plan of salvation. God had to judge the earth at the flood, Later He had to judge it at the tower of Babel and scatter the languages in order to protect man. The God called out the nation Israel through Abraham in order to provide a specific nation through whom He would work His grace initiative plan. Primarily the way He did this in the Old Testament was through the divine institutions.
The divine institutions
- Individual responsibility. We are responsible and accountable for our own actions no matter what they might be, no matter what the environmental pressures might be, what the genetic pressures might be. Everyone has freedom to succeed or freedom to fail. Freedom is very important because without freedom there is no way to move forward in the spiritual life. Freedom includes the right to privacy, to make your own decisions and to suffer your own consequences for both success and failure. To the degree that we lose privacy to that degree we lose freedom.
- Marriage, which is the stabilizer in society. It was instituted in the Garden of Eden and designed to be between one man and one woman. It was not designed to be between members of the same sex. It provides stability for the home life so that children can grow up in an environment where there is a measure of security through their developmental years and to develop a measure of stability in their lives so that that can be productive as adults.
- The family.
- Human government, which was established in the Noahic covenant at the conclusion of the flood when God delegated the responsibility of judicial decisions for capital punishment. National distinctions were established at the tower of Babel when God divided the race through languages—the division into people groups and tribes and nations. Whenever nations begin to expand and become an empire they begin to dominate other groups, they always take on messianic complexes, much like they did the tower of Babel. There is a theological reason for why they built the tower of Babel. They wanted to assert their independence from God, it was cosmic thinking. They were not going to obey God and scatter and fill the earth but instead stay in one place and build this tower so they wouldn't be scattered. They were taking a position against God, so it was arrogance independence from and hostility to God. That is worldliness. The parallel today is the United Nations which is nothing more than a modern example of the tower of Babel and the attempt to unite mankind internationally against God. The purpose of government is to protect the personal rights and freedoms of the citizen. It is fundamentally to restrain evil and criminality within a nation through a police force and to protect the nation from an external enemy through a strong military. It is not the purpose of government to provide security. God defines the purpose of government, not man. As soon as we look to man to define the purpose of government it is sociology, and the collective opinions of man as the basis for the function of government is the sphere of cosmic thinking.