Pop culture has had its effect on several generations. There was a time when people were born, lived and died in their small town. They went into the family business, met and married someone local, and had children. They lived a full life knowing that their children and their children’s children would carry on likewise behind them.
Today is different. We are exposed to other cultures, places, things and people on a daily basis. We are losing our local identity and, instead, are taking on a global sense of community.
We read the same books, we listen to the same music, we watch the same movies and we indulge in the same foods and hobbies. Most telling of all, is that we watch the same television programs. Television (whether it is cable or streaming from a provider) has a profound effect upon us. When watching video, our brains are in a receptive mode whereas when we read or otherwise engage in learning, we are in a questioning and analytic mode.
We sit and watch and have the content poured into our heads. There is no interaction, no questioning, no response needed. We just allow someone else to influence us without much thought.
Watching Youtube channels are a little different as you can leave comments and ask questions and many, many people do. Likewise, in many instances, the creators come back and answer those questions or other viewers chime in. So, for this, it seems as if allows for some analytic thought to occur. It’s a little like getting together with a group of friends to find how what they are doing that day/week/month/year.
However, it is still a form of pop culture. I’ve noticed, for years and decades now, that younger people in other countries are losing their accents. I’ve noticed that, in the United States, in regions with traditional accents, those accents are being lost as well. We are all beginning to sound alike, to look alike and probably to think alike, too.
While there is much to be happy about when people get along together, there is also something to mourn about when individuality is lost. As long as we are different, we all have something unique to add to the mix. When we all begin to look and think alike, to the extent we no longer bring something different to the table, innovation slows down.
My husband and I have talked about how, for years, we see that much of television, movies and music has become merely remakes of what has come before. That is not true of all but it is true of much if not most. This is where we lose our ability to create new things. We settle for a “new” version of the old. It sometimes feels as if there is nothing new under the sun.
This is not the first time that mankind has come together in a global way. The first time was in ancient times. Mankind grouped together in one place and decided to build a city that reached to the heavens. They wanted to be as God and do what pleased them.
When God saw their plan, he knew that, with a common plan and language, mankind could do anything they wanted to do. Since the heart of man was evil and had been since the fall in the Garden of Eden, those plans would not be good and true. Their plans would create evil that would effect the earth on a global scale.
So God decided to create various languages so that individuals would group together but that the whole of mankind could not understand one another. He then scattered mankind over the world. That has been how we have been ever since. Cultures and languages unique to the spot in which we landed.
Things started changing when mankind started exploring. They found the New World and individuals from all countries started flooding in. The New World became the Melting Pot as all the cultures would come in and blend. This is reminiscent of metals that are melted together and which form something new and different and, sometimes, something stronger than the individual parts.
So the cultures started dissolving and a common language started emerging. Pop culture created the mold in which the “melted” elements could form.
So, here we are today. We are once again using a common language and bond to create a culture which will reach to the heavens. We want to do everything that we wish to do, without thought to consequences. We want to deny that there is a consequence; to deny that there is a heaven and a hell. Since the heart of mankind is still wicked, the result this time will be the same as it was before.
Will God step in once again? According to the Bible, yes, he will. This time it will be with judgement and not merely a scattering as before. Our technology has grown too much and too quickly for a mere confusing of language to stop us this time.
Is this time imminent? Yes, maybe so. We have been living in the “end times” since Jesus left the earth to go back to heaven (where he serves as his believers advocate to God the Father.) So, the answer has to be, yes, though it could mean a second from now or centuries or more down the road.
However, God’s judgement is for individuals as well as for the world as a whole. Our measure for judgement is the length of our lives. Those lives are not measured in centuries but in seconds, minutes, hours, days and years. We have this moment but nothing promised beyond. We plan our goals and work toward them but life (and death) can step in and stop us in our tracks. So, as individuals, our “end time” is at any moment.
Speaking for myself, absent the redeeming grace of Jesus, my judgement would be Guilty beyond a doubt. I’ve broken the Commandments in both thought and deed. I don’t even have a good excuse, so Guilty as charged. I richly deserve the everlasting punishment that is planned for those who have not measured up to God’s pure standard.
I would not be alone in this punishment. Instead, each and every one of you would be with me, too. You see, we can never measure up and God cannot have imperfection in his presence. It is a dilemma without an answer that mankind can solve.
It took God himself to find a way. His way was to send his son, Jesus, to become a man. To live his life as we do with all of the same temptations we face. Jesus lived our lives but did it without sin. He, alone, was the one man to measure up to perfection. He could have lived out his life and then gone on to spend eternity with God the father.
But that wasn’t God’s plan. God sent Jesus to become a willing sacrifice. Two things are important in that statement. Willing and sacrifice. Jesus had to be willing to give up his own life so that others could join them in eternity. Think of that. How many of us would be willing to die so that other’s souls would be spared? I know that some courageous individuals will give up their lives so others can continue to live. But to do so for the nebulous thought of spiritual eternity? I can’t say I know anyone, myself included, who would do so on our own.
The other word, sacrifice, means giving up something to help someone else. In this case, the something was his own life and the someone else was every single one of us. So great was his sacrifice that the willing shedding of his sinless blood could cover all of mankind and atone for their sins. Just as Adam’s sin was enough to condemn us all at the start.
To change the verdict from Guilty to Innocent is not very difficult to do. It only takes an individual to understand how Jesus lived and that he died for your sins. You can accept his sacrifice, thank him for it, and acknowledge that he stepped in as God to do so.
Because he was God and his life was lived sinlessly, death could not hold him. Three days after his death, he raised to life again. Because Jesus promised his believers that they would share along with him, this resurrection foreshadows that which awaits his believers as well. After accepting Jesus’ free sacrifice on your behalf, acknowledge that he is God and ask him to direct your path from then on and you, too, will live in eternity.
From that moment on you, like me, are covered by grace. When the moment of judgement is upon us, God will look at the list of our sins and only see the blood of Jesus Christ. Not Guilty will be our verdict and we will move on into eternity with God.
There isn’t anything you can say or do or buy and finagle to get the same result. All you can do is accept the free gift that Jesus gave to you two thousand years ago.
I urge you to do so now as this moment will not last forever. You have the moment now but who knows what will happen a minute, hour, day, year from now? The world keeps turning and people keep dying and, frankly, there is nothing new under the sun. Our days are fleeting and like a wisp of smoke. Nothing to hold onto and grab. With nothing of note that will be talked about centuries from now.
Take the time now, while you are thinking about it. If you aren’t sure, then ask God to give you assurance, Because he will do so, if you ask.
Ecclesiastes 1:9-11
What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.
Is there anything of which one can say, “Look! This is something new”? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time.
No one remembers the former generations, and even those yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow them.