The Christ in Prophecy Journal

Truth of the Christian Worldview: John Dewey

John Dewey

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Who is John Dewey and how has he socialized the American educational system?

During the last weekend of June each year, Lamb & Lion Ministries conducts a Bible conference in the Dallas, Texas area, with 2010’s themed Defending the Faith. The opening speaker was Brannon Howse, the Founder and Director of the Worldview Weekend Foundation, an organization that sponsors Christian worldview conferences all across our nation every year. Brannon is also the author of eight books and is the host of a nationally broadcast radio program which features his biblical commentaries on current events.

Brannon’s topic at our conference was “The Truth of the Christian Worldview” (watch). He began by explaining that a worldview consists of the basic values that determine a person’s decisions. Thus, a person with a Christian worldview would be one who believes in God, believes in the Bible as the Word of God, believes that Jesus was the Son of God, believes that Man is basically evil, and believes that faith in Jesus is mankind’s only hope.

Brannon emphasized that there is a worldview war going on between Christianity and five other predominant worldviews, namely: Secular Humanism, Cosmic Humanism (better known as the New Age Movement), Post-Modernism, Islam and Marxism. He then began to elaborate on the key individuals who have undermined the Christian worldview here in the United States. Brannon’s presentation was based on his latest book titled Grave Influence. In the book, he presents 21 persons who are undermining America and impacting the world from the grave.

Brannon Howse

Brannon Howse on John Dewey

When did the great transformation in America happen? It largely and aggressively began in 1933 when John Dewey, the father of modern education, signed the Humanist Manifesto which started the social society in America.

Dewey went to Russia in 1920 to study the Karl Marx way of education and then came back to America to teach it at Columbia University. John Dewey was involved in helping start the American Communist Leftist Union, which is known today as the American Civil Liberties Union. When John Dewey brought the Frankfurt School to America in 1933, that’s when the speed towards Socialism really began to speed up.

The Frankfurt School were German intellectuals who had been in Germany and started in 1923 what we now call the Frankfurt School. They helped lay the academic and worldview foundation for the acceptance of Adolf Hitler. They taught Friedrich Nietzsche who declared, “God is dead, and not only is God dead but we can smell his rotting corpse.” What did he mean? We’ve killed the idea of God in the conscience of the people.

Friedrich Nietzsche

My friends, we have largely killed the idea of God in the conscience of a whole generation, and we are about to reap the consequences. I fear that our next holocaust beyond the murder of 53 million babies is going to be active euthanasia, particularly for the rationing of health care. I have asked my radio audience to send me stories of active euthanasia in this last week and I have been flooded with nurses and family members and hospice workers detailing active euthanasia.

It has been this generation that has been taught the ideas of Nietzsche, who is one of the most read authors on college campus today. “God is dead!” He taught that it doesn’t matter how you live. The highest calling in life is to serve the State. Nihilism means life has no meaning aside from serving the State, and when you can longer serve the State, you are not a productive human resource. You are just in the way, and the right to die is now becoming the duty to die.

Multiple generations now have been taught the life-boat scenario. It goes, there are five in the life boat but there are only provisions for four. Who the least valuable is must go over the side for the good of the group. And, my friends, educators, parents, professors who taught this to one generation after another are going to be the ones to find themselves being thrown over the life-boat.

Nietzsche said we need spiritualize cruelty. The Frankfurt schools studied Nietzsche. Hitler studied Nietzsche. Hitler liked to have his picture taken staring at a bust of Nietzsche. Hitler had the works of Nietzsche edited and handed off to Mussolini. And so, when the Nazi party came to full power, the Frankfurt school folks got nervous and they left Germany and came to America at the invitation of John Dewey in 1933.

Resource

Defending the Faith June 2010 ConferenceDefending the Faith June 2010 Conference DVD Album
Get back to the Word and the absolute essentials of the Christian faith by learning how to defend what you believe in this 6-part conference album!

  1. “The Truth of the Christian Worldview” – Brannon Howse
  2. “The Truth of the Bible” – Mike Gendron
  3. “The Truth of Creation” – Dr. Jobe Martin
  4. “The Truth of the Divinity of Jesus” – Eric Barger
  5. “The Truth of the Resurrection” – Dr. Ron Rhodes
  6. “The Truth of the Virgin Birth” – Dr. David Reagan
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Dr. Nathan E. Jones

As the Internet Evangelist at Lamb & Lion Ministries, Nathan reaches out to the over 4.5 billion people accessible over the Internet with the Good News of Jesus Christ. He also co-hosts the ministry's television program Christ in Prophecy and podcast The Truth Will Set You Free.

6 CommentsLeave a Comment

  • I definitely do not support abortion or euthanasia.

    However I made the decision to give no more medical aid to my dying father other than to keep him pain free and hydrated. I approached the NHS specialist, not he me.

    Dad was receiving oxygen, and was really restless, after consulting a specialist, I asked for it to be switched off. Dad immediately became settled and calm.

    Mum and I were offered pillows, blankets and a bed for the night. I said ‘ no, not that long, I shall ask Jesus to take him quickly’. They left the room, dad opened his eyes in wonderment – what he saw was special… ? He looked around at everyone, then closed his eyes and went home to be with Jesus.

    The team were still at the desk making our arrangements for the night. They looked at me in amazement when I told them that Jesus had answered my prayer, and taken him home.

    My 93yr old mother-in-law was in such a terrible state for years, and worse for many months. She belonged to Jesus, and I earnestly prayed to quickly end her suffering and come for her.

    If she had been a horse in a field, they would have ‘put her down’ out of compassion. There are others I was not related to. Modern medicine can keep people living, but the question is ‘what life?’

    My ‘lifeboat’ contains my sons and their families. I wouldn’t have to be asked to leave.

    For those who would criticise me, hope and pray to never be in that position. This issue is not as ‘cut and dried’ as we would like it to be.

  • Beautiful and emotional life story, E.I. – thanks for sharing!

    I as well am totally against abortion or euthanasia as well. But, after working for years in a nursing home in the "final ward," it is so clear that we are artificially keeping people alive (if one could call it that) out of our own fear of death.

  • Thank you Nathan!

    I worked as an auxiliary nurse in a nursing home. Perhaps, like me, you had to sign the official secrets act? I think I can safely say that your term ‘artificial life’ is my own experience.

    Modern western society has been privileged to expect our families to live long lives; death is nowhere near as common as it was not so long ago. Without Jesus, death has a fierce sting, and the fear of it is what keeps people like former Israeli PM Ariel Sharon ‘living’.imo

    MARANATHA!

  • Christianity does not necessarily entail a man who is automatically evil. It might be worth looking up what St. Irenaeus had to say on the matter. We are not born "evil" per se (babies are not evil), but flawed. The Earth is where we make our souls, not from an intrinsically flawed, fallen man (which presumes we have sinned before we even have) but from a sort of neutral clay. I offer this just as an example; that the doctrine of the fall isn't the only historically "Christian" one.

    Also, your understanding of Nietzsche is a very literal one. He didn't necessary mean that God should be dead, but that God as a total means of understanding the world, could not hold. This is more important now than ever, when we are surrounded by different beliefs and different degrees of belief. Even if you are a creationist, you still use medicine and adhere to hygiene routines which are routed in an understanding of science. The statement that "God is dead" is meant to shock and appaul. But all it really means philosophically is that your worldview no longer revolves solely around the creator. It is not a statement of intent, it is a reflection on how mankind's view has changed. Individuals might still look to the creator, but as a unifying force, religion isn't as powerful as it was in fuedal times; those good old fuedal times when everyone lived like the Amish and women were treated like livestock.

    And falling back on the old "well, Hitler read him, so he must be bad" thing is somewhat cheap. Hitler mis-read his ideas about supermen; he saw them as an excuse to promote racial supremecy. Nietzsche's concept of the over-man could just as easily be interpreted as an ideal of spiritual enlightment; he said that modern man is between beast and over-man, and that we are constantly striving to be more than we are born with. There's nothing immoral or nihilistic about that concept. So before falling back on the whole "he inspired Hitler" thing, let's also remind ourselves that Hitler considered himself a Christian, and that Christian suspicion of Jews was widespread in Europe during the 19th Century, not just in Germany.

    As for the abortion topic, as a somewhat secular European I'm not touching that one. It just always strikes me as bizarre that for your people, the screams of the yet-to-be-born ring louder than the cries of the poor or those dying in wars overseas, when it comes to what deserves the most moral indignation. I wonder if Emperor Constantine had corrupted Christian thought on the sanctity of life, in the same way he did Christian pacifism, if abortion would even be an issue among Christians such as yourself?

    Thanks for your time and God Bless.

    – some British troll.

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