{"id":43219,"date":"2012-12-24T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-12-24T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/key-thinkers-define-freedom-apart-from-god\/"},"modified":"2012-12-24T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2012-12-24T00:00:00","slug":"key-thinkers-define-freedom-apart-from-god","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/key-thinkers-define-freedom-apart-from-god\/","title":{"rendered":"Key Thinkers Define Freedom Apart from God"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Os Guinness traces our contemporary idea of human freedom that &quot;began in the Renaissance &hellip; blossomed in the Enlightenment and rose to its climax in the 1960s.&quot; The classic statement of the Renaissance view is that of Pico della Mirandola, as he imagines God addressing Adam: &quot;You, who are confined by no limits, shall determine for yourself your own nature &hellip;. You shall fashion yourself in whatever form you prefer.&quot;<\/p>\n\n<p>Throughout the centuries this same view of human freedom&mdash;limitless potential apart from God&mdash;has been expressed by other key thinkers.<\/p>\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n\t<li>Leon Batista Alberti: &quot;A man can do all things if he will.&quot; (<em>15th century, Italy<\/em>)<\/li>\n\n\t<li>Karl Marx: &quot;Man is free only if he owes his existence to himself.&quot; (<em>19th century, Germany<\/em>)<\/li>\n\n\t<li>Friedrich Nietzsche: &quot;If there were gods, who could bear not to be gods? Therefore there are no gods.&quot; (<em>19th century, Germany<\/em>)<\/li>\n\n\t<li>Herbert Spencer: &quot;Progress is not an accident, but a necessity. Surely must evil and immorality disappear; surely must men become perfect.&quot; (<em>19th century, England<\/em>)<\/li>\n\n\t<li>Walt Whitman: &quot;One&#39;s-self I sing, a simple separate person.&quot; (<em>19th century, America<\/em>)<\/li>\n\n\t<li>John F. Kennedy: &quot;Man can be as big as he wants. No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings.&quot; (<em>20th century, America<\/em>)<\/li>\n\n\t<li>Ayn Rand: &quot;Man&#39;s destiny is to be a self-made soul.&quot; (<em>20th century, Russian-American<\/em>)<\/li>\n\n\t<li>E.O. Wilson: &quot;Humanity will be positioned godlike to take control of its own ultimate fate.&quot; (<em>21st century, America<\/em>)<\/li>\n\n<\/ul>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[409],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3450,3802,3954,3978,4017,4018,4186,4394,4486,4552,4772,4900,4929,5276,5303],"tax_ctp_topics":[386,388],"class_list":["post-43219","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-atheism","tax_ctp_tags-disobedience","tax_ctp_tags-false-teachers","tax_ctp_tags-fear-of-god","tax_ctp_tags-free-will","tax_ctp_tags-freedom","tax_ctp_tags-humanism","tax_ctp_tags-lostness","tax_ctp_tags-modernism","tax_ctp_tags-obedience","tax_ctp_tags-rebellion","tax_ctp_tags-secularism","tax_ctp_tags-self-reliance","tax_ctp_tags-will","tax_ctp_tags-worldview"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - 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