GLOBALIZATION, 30.04.2018

We will try to look straight into our present reality. 

Globalization was much aspired even from the 70s of the last century. It sounded like through globalization, people would become happier. Let us first define globalization to see what it means.   

“Globalization is the process of uniting or convergence of economic, social and cultural norms, habits and principles in countries where the economy and society had pronounced national features before.

Sociologists define globalization as the summation of all the processes through which the peoples of the world are being united into one society. 

In the book Consequences of Modernity, Anthony Giddens writes, “Globalization can… be defined as the intensification of worldwide social relations which link distant localities in such a way that local happenings are shaped by events occurring many miles away and vice versa.”

In 1992, Roland Robertson, a Professor in Aberdeen University, defined globalization as “compression of the world and the intensification of the consciousness of the world as a whole.”  

However, opponents of globalization are oftentimes correct in thinking that globalization can eventually erase the unique cultural features of many peoples, which in general is not good. 

One of the main negative outcomes of globalization is that Christian society is exposed to secularization. Because of this, the society on the whole becomes more secular. A lifestyle of human reasoning, human rules and philosophical approach crawls in. The society in general starts to lose Christian values; people accept other values that move their souls far from salvation. Father God, Jesus the Savior, the Calvary, the Cross, remission of sins, salvation, justification through the blood of the crucified Christ… these and other expressions of such kind become strange and unimportant in our society that is called Christian.  

If mankind wants development, happiness, joy and peace through globalization, let it be; but why do we need to achieve it at the cost of disrespect of biblical commandments? First, Christianity cannot be called a religion, which even many Christians try to assert without realizing. Christianity is not a religion, but a lifestyle of harmony and order with our Creator and the only true way of living. 

Today the search of mankind took them so far that they try to live without God in the world created by Him. 

Today many famous people have joined the propaganda of globalization, because of which their followers change their worldview and start to see the future accordingly. For some reason, today the minds of celebrities and other famous individuals exercise demonic influence on their followers, and people in general want to live without God; they see their future independent, free, without following the decrees of the Bible, as if they have followed them enough and now are tired of it. Today many reputable personalities in culture, politics, science and sociology, many professors and scientists have become advocates of globalization. And for some reason, this always involves putting God aside and focusing on man instead. 

They think that by denying God and developing better social conditions for people they will make them happier. 

Yes, advocates of globalization try to convince that this is a means to make mankind happy; that wars will cease, the world will become a peaceful place, and all the nations will unite around one idea. On the surface, one can think if this truly becomes a reality, everything in this world will fall into its place – there will be no enmity between peoples and religions; and mass murders, terror and diseases will eventually cease. 

The whole education system that raises the future society of this world is soaked with this strange teaching. It has become a conviction; and it is even fearful that many bright minds blindly believe in it and have expectations and hopes regarding the era of globalization. They think if they feel themselves free and self-ruled, even the laws of nature will stop negatively affecting mankind. They think if they stop believing God, He will cease to exist! In fact, God and the devil will not cease to exist because of people’s unbelief.  

Don’t the definitions of globalization remind us of a biblical story in Genesis 11, verses 1 to 7? I will read it. 

1. Now the whole earth had one language and one speech. 

2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there. 

3 Then they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar. 

4 And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.”

5 But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. 

6 And the Lord said, “Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them. 

7 Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.”

So people said, “let us make bricks and bake them”, and they used it instead of stones. And what is a brick? It is the work of human hands, a baked clay. And clay is earth or soil, the same substance man was made of. Baked bricks symbolize the work of man, all that man does; and stone symbolizes everything created by God. After all, the Bible compares stone with the Word of God. Even more, Peter refers to a Stone of Stumbling; the people who go against it, - which means those who do not accept or obey the Word, - stumble and fall. Such people have replaced the Word of God with human activities, laws and ideas. This is the spirit of Babylon and one of its signs is replacing the commandments of God with commandments of men. 

Then in Genesis 11, they said, “let us build… a tower whose top is in the heavens”. This means that people want to climb to heaven or reach the heights, but they want to do it in their own effort, by their decisions and through their means. What else they said? “Let us make a name for ourselves!” Another sign of the spirit of Babylon is making a name for itself; those who are influenced by it are not interested in giving glory to God; instead, they think of glorifying themselves. 

People do everything in order not to accept God as the Creator. People are ready to do anything to be free the One Who watches over them and shows them the way; they want autocracy. Unfortunately, if you run from God, you will not find autocracy or autonomy; you will find yourself under the authority of the devil. If you want to become self-ruled, then run from God, live as you want, write your own laws, live according to them and do whatever you think of… And what? Do you think it will make you happy and fulfilled? No, of course not! Believe me, when you have done this, you will fall into such boredom and grief that even life will become a burden for you. You will become overladen, gloomy and boring; many fearful thoughts will start visiting you. 

Let us answer the following question, without any philosophy: can mankind, through their laws, globalization or self-rule put an end to sickness and death? Or can people change the seasons of the year through self-invented laws, self-rule or globalization? No matter how much you exercise development, or how often you apply science, no one can change the constant realities of nature, which God created in 6 days. 

Some will say, “Today mankind has achieved many things. They can make a man and change the laws of nature.” However, even though mankind has attempted to act like God, all it does is only dangerous games with the laws, precepts and commandments of God. 

Mankind plays with the natural phenomena; they try to make a being in their own image; they look for ways to do what only God the Creator can; but they lose all the time. And all these tests turn into troubles for mankind. 

Isaiah 47, verses 10 through 13 speaks about this: 

10 “For you have trusted in your wickedness; You have said, ‘No one sees me’; Your wisdom and your knowledge have warped you; And you have said in your heart, ‘I am, and there is no one else besides me.’

11 Therefore evil shall come upon you; You shall not know from where it arises. And trouble shall fall upon you; You will not be able to put it off. And desolation shall come upon you suddenly, Which you shall not know.

12 “Stand now with your enchantments And the multitude of your sorceries,

In which you have labored from your youth, Perhaps you will be able to profit, Perhaps you will prevail.

13 You are wearied in the multitude of your counsels; Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, And the monthly prognosticators

Stand up and save you From what shall come upon you.

The reason is, mankind is called to do the things God has ordered them. They are called to fellowship with God, to worship Him and rejoice in Him, because He is the source of all happiness. He is the love, the joy, the happiness, the true meaning of existence of whole mankind. He has the answers to all the questions in life. 

Unfortunately, mankind knows so little about their Creator. 

Unfortunately, man, living in the creation of God, chooses to walk by the order of the ruler of this world. 

And mankind cannot succeed in what is forbidden by God, no matter how hard they try. It will lead to defeat and disgrace. Construction of the Tower of Babel was not a vision from God, but a new religion based on three statements: 1) replace God with the works of men, 2) make a name to glorify mankind, bring development and reveal human pride, and 3) strive to heaven, to the heights, and lift up ideas of men. 

This story happened more than 4.000 years ago. Our history shows many instances, when mankind tried to bypass the only Creator, choosing gods or objects or phenomena of worship for themselves, like signs of the zodiac, for example. People try to rule themselves. Unfortunately, all this leads to downfall and disgrace of mankind. People go further and further from their true calling… because in fact, man is created for God!  

Let us see how God describes this in Isaiah 48, verses 16 through 19: 

16 “Come near to Me, hear this: I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; From the time that it was, I was there. And now the Lord God and His Spirit Have sent Me.”

17 Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, The Holy One of Israel: “I am the Lord your God, Who teaches you to profit, Who leads you by the way you should go.

18 Oh, that you had heeded My commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river, And your righteousness like the waves of the sea. 

19 Your descendants also would have been like the sand, And the offspring of your body like the grains of sand; His name would not have been cut off

Nor destroyed from before Me.”