You don’t have to be an expert in social anthropology to see the significant shift in how young people are taught to engage their imaginations in the 21st century. Generally speaking, it used to be about children pretending to be astronauts in cardboard spaceships, playing “house” or inventing a myriad of make-believe games that sought to emulate real-life roles and scenarios from the past, present, and future. Yet these days, it seems, our poor kids are mostly encouraged to imagine themselves with godlike powers, a different gender, or an alternative sexual orientation.
So when did the human imagination suddenly become about playing God and creating an alternate reality for ourselves?
The simplest answer, of course, is that we’ve been misusing our imaginations since the beginning of the world. It is the infamous, oft-repeated blunder of mankind that the apostle Paul identified as one of the greatest stumbling-blocks to our relationship with almighty God (Romans 1:18-25). To be sure, our darkened self-centered imaginations have oftentimes “exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and served the creature rather than the Creator.”
The Bible, in fact, lays out the sorry history of our corrupted imaginations. It was mankind’s wayward imagination that arrogantly fueled the construction of the haughty tower of Babel (Genesis 11); and vain imagination that created so much wickedness in the world that God felt compelled to drown it in His watery wrath (Genesis 6). Imagination then went rogue and served the sin of idolatry among the Israelites who created a molten idol for worship and were severely punished for it by the Lord (Exodus 32).
Later, disobedient priests of God were literally consumed in the fire of their own presumptuous imaginations (Leviticus 10). And the Pharisees (and Judaizers) imagined that their good works and self-righteousness placed them in good standing with God, but then were confounded when their very own Messiah came to rebuke and condemn them as sons of the devil (John 8:44; Galatians 3:1).
Creating A False Reality From Our Imagination
Sadly, this abuse of the imagination is the kind of supreme foolishness that is still with us today. The growing rebellion against God and His ordained reality has caused more and more people to stray from the joyful “path of life” perfectly prescribed by our Creator (Psalm 16:11). Fed with the milk of self-esteem and human potential, our most recent generations have developed an unhealthy fixation with their imaginations in order to enhance their pride and self-satisfaction.
Sorcerers, witches, and comic book superheroes from fantasy books and Hollywood entertainment have become the latest idols of a fiction-based religion which preaches that self-transformation through imagination is the ultimate transcendence. Aiding in this escape from the mundane is the popular ritual of immersive role-playing through cosplay, LARPing or virtual-reality gaming where one can transform himself into anything he desires through our advanced technological wizardry.
Even more concerning, however, is the active recruitment of our children into this cult of imagination as a way to implant gender-changeable ideology directly into the impressionable minds of kindergartners who have no capacity for discernment. Public libraries and corporate-sponsored events, for example, are hosting various kiddie activities where men in clownish makeup and female attire read fractured fairy tales to the little ones or entertain them with highly-sexualized runway shows for the purpose of “capturing the imagination and play of the gender fluidity of childhood and giving kids glamorous, positive, and unabashedly queer role models.”
No surprise here that “capturing the imagination” is the primary conduit for administering this propaganda to our innocent ones who are sometimes encouraged by parents and teachers to freely and actively explore their sexuality, perhaps to the point of radical medical intervention to alter their developing bodies. Shockingly, due to the rabid focus on this childhood indoctrination, even the de-stigmatization of pedophilia is being argued in some college classrooms and progressive media outlets as part of the widening acceptance of “diverse sexual identities” among children.
The question, therefore, arises: How did we get to a point where such perverse use of a child’s imagination could be considered morally or ethically acceptable?
Imagination Captured By A Diabolical Philosophy
As a rule, the innate sinfulness of man has always been the main driving force behind this depraved activity, but there is also an emerging philosophy which is seeking to mold our imagination and lead both children and adults farther away from God. This diabolical philosophy is called Transhumanism, a name which quite literally condemns itself when viewed from a Biblical perspective. Instead of placing God front and center, this viewpoint focuses solely on the scientific empowerment of raw human intellect and one’s creative imagination as a means to produce (and fast-track) our own self-directed evolutionary transformation.
Rooted in ancient paganism and modern evolution, the central aim of Transhumanism is to raise the human species to a transcendent, godlike position where they can hold occult-like power over the natural world. Some transhumanists, in fact, believe that “human beings may eventually be able to transform themselves into beings with abilities so greatly expanded from the current condition as to merit the label of posthuman beings.”
As Arthur C. Clark once correctly assessed, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic,” and so it is with the wizardry of Transhumanism. In essence, the ruling techno-lords are dabbling in the dark arts of scientific alchemy to transform men and women into immortal gods that rule over a world of their own making: a shiny new technological matrix which will be built outside of God’s authority and control, if that were even possible.
It is no accident, therefore, that Transhumanism appeals directly to the postmodern philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche in advocating for the development of a technologically enhanced “superman” outside the “imaginary reality” of theism. The scientific avenues currently being pursued to create this superior race of humans, dubbed “posthumans,” involves the rapid, unchecked development of artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, and genetic engineering, among others. At the forefront of these endeavors are implantable biochips and the manipulation of genes and other matter at the atomic and molecular scale to monitor, control, and alter our DNA, as well as other biological functions.
Some of this biological tinkering may have practical application, but much of it is seeking to disconnect our relationship with God. The catalyst for this transhumanistic and posthumanistic agenda is, quite simply, the idol of human imagination and all the ideas, visions, and creations that the “evolving mind” can muster in godlike fashion for the betterment of the world. In essence, it is plain old humanism run amok within the Fourth Industrial Revolution; and it has a definite spiritual agenda: replacing God with the golden calf of human ingenuity and technology, a god who brings the false promise of sinlessness and eternal life in a newly-created reality.
The Misuse Of Imagination In Postmodern Christianity
Considering the malignant nature of this transhumanistic philosophy and its damaging effect on our society, one might wonder what the visible American Church is doing to counter this current rebellion by mankind’s imagination. Surely Christians, guided by God’s word, are in the perfect position to stand apart from the world’s influence and show people the better way (John 15:19; Colossians 3:2; Ephesians 4:17-20; James 4:4; Titus 2:12; 1 John 2:15-17).
Why, then, are some Christians rushing headlong to join forces with the world in this popular, yet vain pursuit of all things imaginative when it so often undermines the Gospel message?
Woefully, such misguided promotion of the imagination has seeped into our susceptible postmodern Christianity without being noticed. The transhumanistic philosophy, in fact, is quite similar to what some Christians are endeavoring to do within the realm of their own imaginations to create new mythologies that spiritually excite them, even if they spill into neo-Paganism or Gnosticism.
Viewing the faculty of imagination as an essential attribute of their image-bearing of God, these Christian “sub-creators” frequently insist that only by a “redeemed” or “sanctified” imagination can a believer achieve a higher level of spiritual understanding and fulfillment. It is an idea that seems to have captured their imagination more than the practice of a simple cultivated devotion to Jesus Christ and His Gospel.
This isn’t an isolated notion in the Church, either; its popularity has created a seismic shift in theology that has spawned countless books on the subject of the “Christian imagination.” A quick search on Amazon, in fact, yields at least two dozen books currently available that advocate the human imagination as one of the main elements of the “imago Dei” and how we should freely use that divine-like power.
Strangely enough (or not so strangely), you can go back hundreds of years into the Church’s history and there is few if any orthodox scholars who recognized in the Bible such a specific theological premise as the one we see argued today by some professing believers.
Contrary to these popular notions, John Calvin’s sermon notes on Deuteronomy 4:15-20 are a scathing indictment of the human imagination as clearly reflected throughout the pages of Scripture. The evil of mankind, Calvin ascertained from his extensive Biblical study, stemmed from “their own imaginations…”
“Men went astray or rather vanished away in their own imaginations, and turned all things upside down, and falsified God’s truth whenever they made any counterfeit of Him, whether it were in the likeness of man or of beast… Is it not apparent that men are worse than mad, when they take it upon themselves to shape out God’s being, seeing that no shape can be made of their own souls, which are nothing in comparison of Him?”
In other words, how foolish is it of man to dare to shape out God’s being or His ordained reality, when they can’t even rightly shape out their own souls, nor can they even understand the shape of their own souls, which are nothing in comparison to a holy triune God.
Divine Inspiration, Not Imagination
This whole controversy today has been forever settled in God’s word. It is an issue of inspiration, not imagination. Have we not been warned time and time again in the Bible that imagination is suspect in this fallen world, and that what comes out of a man is what defiles him? (Mark 7:20). We need instead to understand the shape of our souls, as Calvin contends, and seek to find that essential connection between our spirit and God’s Spirit. This, of course, can only be done by being born again and renewed by the Holy Spirit (John 3). Otherwise, we will never see the kingdom of God, a kingdom that cannot be rightly seen by mere imagination, fantasy fiction, or pagan mythology.
This is not to say without exception that the Christian’s use of imagination can’t be profitable in the course of our active, fruitful discipleship. Of course it can. But the pitfalls are unnoticed when it is considered inherently harmless or above reproach when we use it outside of God’s initiation and leading. Strict guidance from a Spirit-led application of the Scriptures is essential to the good use of our renewed mind, i.e. the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16).
Yet, still, as one Christian source points out: The word sometimes translated “imagination” (Greek, dialogismos) literally means, “the thinking of a man deliberating with himself” (Romans 1:21, KJV).
Paul, the apostle, states that idolatry germinates out of people “deliberating” within themselves instead of meditating on God’s revelation. This is gnosis spirituality which is always in contest with the Logos spirituality of the Bible. The Word finds its origin with God (John 1:1, 14). Gnosis, the basis of the New Age/New Spirituality, finds its origin in the mind and imagination of man, or perhaps might even be received from demons (1 Timothy 4:1).
When we trust too much on the imagination as a reliable means to a spiritual end, what we end up with, more times than not, is the heresy of The Shack‘s misrepresentation of God, or the gnostic spirituality of Lord of The Rings or even the man-centered “religion” of the Star Wars saga. There are obvious transhumanistic strains within these kinds of imaginary works and the underlying Gnosticism can come to fruition when we as Christians openly promote these imaginations as true spiritual enlightenment, instead of vapid worldly amusements of corrosive influence.
The Biblical View Of Man’s Imagination
Thankfully, we have the Bible to guide our understanding of how to rightly judge and utilize the human imagination apart from the philosophies of this world. The renewed inner workings of a born-again mind can be a wonderful thing to behold, and to God be the glory and praise. This informed imagination can be quite useful to devise God-honoring ways to live out our calling, express our faith, and reach the lost. It is a component of our mental faculties that helps us to fulfill the sacrificial imperatives of Christ to “go and do” as active ambassadors to the world, and is diametrically opposed to the indulgence of sitting and thinking for self-centered gain.
Indeed God has given us the faculty of imagination which mirrors in a lesser way His power of creativity, but the ability was never meant to be misused by man to create things separated from God’s creation and His revealed Truth.
God was pleased to bless Adam with the right to name the animals as someone given dominion over the earth and to freely use his creativity and imagination to assign an order that brought significance and a deeper connection to the world around him. Yet Adam did not create animals nor any other element of the world in which he was placed, nor was the human race ever given that right by God. In fact, when sin entered into the world, it was primarily through the faculty of imagination that man sought to be wise in his own eyes and to believe he could usurp God’s authority and position as Creator.
Contrary to those who promote the primacy of Christian imagination, the Bible tells us that man, time and time again, has used his imagination for rebellion against God and the suppression of His truth (Romans 1). This point does not rule out the possibility that a Christian can use his imagination for godly and edifying purposes. When God redeems an individual there is an understanding that He begins (on some level) to restore the original image of God and makes him a new creation in the likeness of God through Christ Jesus.
Yet the imagination, even for Christians, is still just an ephemeral flower of the mind and not a godlike power to create something out of nothing like an industrious factory of idols. Just as a human hand can either throw a stone or wipe away a tear, our imagination is an appendage that can be used to promote sin or promote God’s truth, lead us into temptation or lead us into a pursuit for righteousness.
To claim that imagination is the primary attribute of the imago Dei with which Christians have the right to cut a path that leads to a higher or more significant revelation of God’s truth is simply false and unbiblical. Doing so usurps the authority and power of the Holy Spirit and the Truth of God found in the revelation of Jesus Christ. Doing so places the believer into the realm of Gnosticism and idolatry and sin, and aligns him or her with the world system.
The Gospel, after all, is not an imaginary thing, but a profound event in the history of the world that deserves to be the focus of the Christian’s words, deeds, arts, and imaginations for the glory of Jesus Christ and Him alone.
