The Egalitarian Impulse of Atheism

As I mentioned in my sermon on the parable of the rich fool (Lk. 12), here are five biblical principles of wealth that must be recovered.

1. Everything we have is a gift from God.
   
2. We are accountable to God for how we steward His gifts.
   
3. God blesses everyone immeasurably, but God distributes His blessings unequally.
   
4. God ordinarily blesses faithfulness with prosperity.
   
5. Our hearts are easily tempted to forget God in prosperity.

This is what the secular, atheistic mind cannot tolerate. It's just not fair. It's just not just. Despite what they might tell you, sinners don't want their sin to be tolerated. They want their sin to be celebrated. And they want their sinful ways to be just as fruitful as the way of the righteous. But that's not how it works.

It is this fundamental rage against God and the "unfair" way that He works in the world that drives virtually all secular ideology. One of the most powerful ideological forces of our day is egalitarianism: the attempt to flatten out all differences and rid the world of diversity. The only diversity allowed is the sort of diversity that makes everything the same. Here are just a few examples of how egalitarianism manifests itself:

• Multiculturalism is based on the assumption that no culture is better than another. In this way of thinking, a tribe of cannibals are just as noble as the Christian culture that produced Bach and a thousand other good things.
  
• The feminist and LGBT movements are based on the assumption that men and women are completely equal and interchangeable. Birth control and abortion are essential to the sexual revolution because they are seen as the great equalizers.
  
• Communism and socialism are based on the idea that no one should have more than anyone else. The government is seen as the great savior that will right all the wrongs of inequality. These systems are based on greed and envy, which have always resulted in mass murder.
  
• The egalitarian impulse is how we got participation trophies and affirmative action and girls in the boy scouts.

The only effective strategy against these movements is repentance and a return to the word of God.