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When gifts become gods

This is the second of three posts exploring how the Triune God of Christianity has been replaced with a false trinity, one that is heartless and cruel. The first was Knowledge, or its current, common form – Science. In this post, we will look at the second of this unholy trinity, Pleasure.

Living in a world created by a good and gracious God, we would expect to find kindness all around. But the level of lavish sensations we find in our universe, and in particular, this one shimmering globe, suspended in a sea of darkness, is almost inconceivable. The sheer quantity and delightfulness of created wonders are what allows this second counterfeit god to exist at all. Every one of our five senses is offered a seemingly endless variety of pleasantries here on earth. We don’t merely find things palatable, we find them captivating, alluring and enchanting. Flavors that can bring a man to tears, sights that can stun to silence, fragrances that can conjure up a raft of aching nostalgia, sounds that can soothe a troubled heart, and touches that can communicate care and tenderness.

These sensations aren’t the stolen morsels of the renegade, taken from the cupboard of God when He wasn’t looking. No, they are the gifts He’s given us to enjoy, aids to foster our communion with Him and with each other, a table spread for feasting together. But false gods always divide and conquer. They segregate the whole into isolated experiences, devoid of their intended contexts. The glutton or the addict isn’t drawn to thankful fellowship, he merely seeks the thrill his passions prompt. He indulges his lusts in isolation, never really gaining the thing he pursues. The eager cry of ecstatic children, “more, more!”, is just as forceful in the yearnings of adults. But the law of diminishing returns means their quest is seldom satisfied. And all too soon their joy becomes soul-destroying, self-inflicted slavery that tortures as it entices. 

Down through the ages various cultures have viewed Pleasure differently, but none has ignored it. The Eastern mind has looked at pleasure as an illusion that stirred the lower inclinations of our nature, not unlike the Stoics, who fought to rid themselves of its every influence. But the battle is always lost; we simply can’t convince ourselves that something’s not exquisite, when it clearly is. The hedonist and the ascetic are both alike ruled by Pleasure. The one by chains of cravings that can never satisfy, the other as he flees from delight he can’t deny. When the One Who “richly gives us all things to enjoy” (1 Tim. 6:17) is rejected, His gifts become gods that dominate. Humans and beasts both find bliss in the things around them, but the beast wasn’t made to contemplate the source. And when we lose the Giver in the things that He bestows, we become a bit more brutish with each feeding.

Of all the manifestations of Pleasure in our Western world today, one stands out above them all – Sex. “Sex sells” the popular saying goes, and its veracity can hardly be denied. So explosive is the power of sex that merely writing about it must be done with the utmost care, so as not to arouse. What product’s attractive force isn’t strengthened by a lovely or handsome model pawing it? What real-life person doesn’t get an upgrade when his life is turned into a movie? We like the lovely. But here’s the thing, sex isn’t a weapon forged in the bowels of darkness; it is a wondrous gift, given by the God of light! The problem is that the mutual attraction of the sexes and the pleasure found in procreation have been plucked by our society from the covenantal context of marriage, like a rose petal from a lovely bloom. That isolated petal, still potent in its beauty, has lost the fulness of its design. And only after it’s been plucked do we realize that the thorns below have pricked us and left us bleeding.

The Westminster Divines captured the truth succinctly: “The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” They recognized that enjoyment and delight are crucial to those made in the image of the eternally delightful One. And not just crucial, but central, the very purpose of their creation – pleasure as they glorified the Creator! This design cannot be thwarted; it will always be the core of who we are, the quest we will never cease. How tragic then that we settle for so much less than was intended, that we forsake the fountain of living waters, and hew out cisterns that can hold no water. (Jer. 2:13), that we turn from Him Who said, “Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” (John 7:38). Instead, we seek to satisfy our souls with pleasures that simply don’t reach deep enough, and run from Him, at Whose “right hand are pleasures forevermore.” (Psa. 16:11)

This is the second of the three false gods so worshipped in our world today. Next we will consider the last of this heartless trinity, Power.