Attention Christian parents!
These men have probably influenced your family more than you realize…
A message from Kevin Swanson
Covered on this page…
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“Let’s start at the beginning”: a quick history of bad ideas.
-
“It happened in 3 steps”: why the trend of Western culture has been away from God for the past 500 years.
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“Who are they?”: the powerful thinkers and writers who gave impetus to the downward trend.
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The “Fruit Test”: how to discern the spirits and who you should learn from.
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Take Action!: key steps parents can take to help their kids keep the faith in an age of faith retrograde.
Dear Friend, If…
- If you’re a Christian parent…
- If you have kids in their teens…
- If you’ve wondered how to prepare to your kids to become cultural influencers instead of cultural casualties…
- If you’ve had pangs of fear when you’ve seen the children of others reject their parents and their faith…
- If you’ve been bothered by the negative cultural influences creeping into your church and the lives of your children…
- If you’ve wondered why the cultural trend consistently seems to be away from God…
- If you see America headed for the cliff and are wondering if you can do anything to stop it…
…then what you’re about to read might change your life. Seriously.
But first, we need to go back to the beginning. So, buckle your seatbelt. I’m going to give you a fast ride through the history of bad ideas.
Attention Christian parents!
These men are probably influencing your children more than you realize…
A message from Kevin Swanson
Covered on this page…
-
“Let’s start at the beginning”: a quick history of bad ideas.
-
“It happened in 3 steps”: why the trend of western culture has been away from God for the past 500 years.
-
“Who are they?”: the men who helped to start the downward trend.
-
The “Fruit Test”: how to decide who to learn from.
-
Take Action!: key steps parents can take to help their kids keep the faith in an age of apostasy.
Available for Preorder. Expected to ship by February 8.
Dear Friend, If…
- If you’re a Christian parent…
- If you have kids in their teens…
- If you’ve wondered how to prepare to your kids to become cultural influencers instead of cultural casualties…
- If you’ve had pangs of fear when you’ve seen the children of others reject their parents and their faith…
- If you’ve been bothered by the negative cultural influences creeping into your church and your kids lives…
- If you’ve wondered why the cultural trend always seems to be away from God…
- If you see America headed for the cliff and are wondering if you can do anything to stop it…
…then what you’re about to read might change your life. Seriously.
But first, we need to go back to the beginning. So, buckle your seatbelt. I’m going to give you a fast ride through the history of bad ideas.
Available for Preorder. Expected to ship by February 8.
Dear friend,
If…
- If you’re a Christian parent…
- If you have kids in their teens…
- If you’ve wondered how to prepare to your kids to become cultural influencers instead of cultural casualties…
- If you’ve had pangs of fear when you’ve seen the children of others reject their parents and their faith…
- If you’ve been bothered by the negative cultural influences creeping into your church and your kids lives…
- If you’ve wondered why the cultural trend always seems to be away from God…
- If you see America headed for the cliff and are wondering if you can do anything to stop it…
…then what you’re about to read might change your life. Seriously.
But first, we need to go back to the beginning. So, buckle your seatbelt. I’m going to give you a fast ride through the history of bad ideas.
Apostate
The Men Who Destroyed the Christian West
Available for Preorder. Expected to ship by February 8.
Dear friend,
If…
- If you’re a Christian parent…
- If you have kids in their teens…
- If you’ve wondered how to prepare to your kids to become cultural influencers instead of cultural casualties…
- If you’ve had pangs of fear when you’ve seen the children of others reject their parents and their faith…
- If you’ve been bothered by the negative cultural influences creeping into your church and your kids lives…
- If you’ve wondered why the cultural trend always seems to be away from God…
- If you see America headed for the cliff and are wondering if you can do anything to stop it…
…then what you’re about to read might change your life. Seriously.
But first, we need to go back to the beginning. So, buckle your seatbelt. I’m going to give you a fast ride through the history of bad ideas.
Let’s start at the beginning.
Between AD 400 and AD 1400 the Christian Gospel penetrated the entire Western world. To this day you can see the impact Christianity has made on…
- language
- art
- architecture
- music
- education
- hospitals and healthcare
- charity
- science
- political freedoms
- the treatment of women
- respect for human life
- names given to children
- and the elimination of pagan practices like widow-burning, child-sacrifice, and chattel slavery.
But after the 15th century, another religion called “Secular Humanism” began to work its way into the consciousness of the West. And this was the beginning of the three-step process that has prepared the way for the complete collapse of the Western world.
Step 1
The ideas were birthed.
First, the intellectual philosophers developed revolutionary humanist ideas which they also demonstrated in their own lives.
Step 2
They got published.
Next, the great authors and artists brought these humanist ideas into literature and art, which were then taught in the universities and high schools, corrupting the minds of the pastors, priests, political leaders, and teachers.
Step 3
We accepted them.
Finally, the ideas penetrated our culture through mass media in the 20th and 21st centuries. Much of the present-day perspectives and attitudes on culture, media, family life, and education are rooted in the destructive ideologies of the 18th and 19th-century philosophers.
The Western world chose not to listen to the Apostle Paul’s warning,
“Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.” (Colossians 2:8)
This is why our western culture has consistently trended towards evil and godlessness over the past 500 years and will continue to do so until we are destroyed, unless we recognize these anti-God ideas for what they are, destroy the idols, and return to the Truth who alone can set men free.
About now you’re probably wondering…
“What were the ideas? Who are these men?”
You’ll probably recognize most of these names.
Thomas Aquinas
René Descartes
John Locke
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Jeremy Bentham
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Karl Marx
Charles Darwin
Friedrich Nietzsche
John Dewey
Jean-Paul Sartre
John Maynard Keynes
William Shakespeare
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Mark Twain
Ernest Hemingway
John Steinbeck
“But wait a minute! I understand putting Karl Marx or Jean-Jacques Rousseau on the blacklist. But Ralph Waldo Emerson? William Shakespeare? Mark Twain? I thought these guys wrote the ‘classics.’”
Yes. Surprising, isn’t it?
But these are the men who were instrumental in shifting Western culture away from the rock-solid foundation of the Scriptures to the shifting sands of human autonomy. Not all of them realized they were doing it, but it happened just the same.
Paul, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, prophesied of false teachers like these in 1 Timothy 4:1:
“Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron…”
“Ah, come on, Kevin. Isn’t calling Mark Twain a deceiver a little strong? How would you know?”
The “Fruit Test”
Jesus gave us a very simple test in Matthew 7:15-16 that allows us to test who are agents of the truth and who is not.
“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits.”
You can put these men through the “fruit test” in two ways: 1. Look at the fruit of their ideas and 2. look at the fruit of their personal lives. It is important to follow the faith trajectory of these men as they rejected their parent’s faith and the Christian church. . . and testified openly of their anti-Christian sentiments.
This is why it is important to know that Marx’s daughters committed suicide, that Rousseau abandoned his five children on the steps of an orphanage, and that Ernest Hemingway wished to kill his father and then took his own life…just to give a few examples.
Mark Twain was especially vicious in his condemnations when he said, “The Bible is a compendium of “blood-drenched history…and a wealth of obscenity, and upwards of a thousand lies…the most damnatory biography that exists in print anywhere. It makes Nero an angel of light and leading, by contrast.”
“The old god is abolished… I am the most terrible opponent of Christianity.” –Friedrich Nietzsche
“God is a faded piece of metaphysical goods.” –John Dewey
“I collared the Holy Ghost in the cellar and threw him out: atheism is a cruel and long-range affair: I think I’ve carried it through.” –Jean-Paul Sartre
“I wish to avenge myself against the One who rules above.” —Karl Marx
What does this mean for you?
My friend, you need to get engaged in the war of ideas!
Let’s go back to where we started and talk about some key action steps you can take.
- If you’ve wondered how to prepare to your kids to become influencers instead of casualties in our anti-God culture, then begin by teaching them to critically (and humbly) evaluate the ideas that our culture is throwing at them in light of God’s word. Point them back to the source of truth.
- If you’ve had pangs of fear when you’ve seen the children of others reject their parents and their faith then CHEER UP! In Jesus Christ, we have the Truth that sets men free. Follow God’s commands from Deuteronomy 6 to love the LORD with all your heart and to teach His word to your children. BE the “good tree” and TRUST Him for the “good fruit”.
- If you’ve been bothered by the negative cultural influences creeping into your church and your kids then you need to trace those influences back to their true source: unbelief in God’s Word. The only way to successfully defeat a lie is to counter it with the truth.
- If you’ve wondered why the cultural trend always seems to be away from God and if there’s anything you can do to turn America away from “the cliff”…the answer is YES YOU CAN! Yes, we have left God as a culture and are on the verge of destruction, because we have believed and taken action on lies. But, all that we need to do is repent: identify the lies we believe, reject them, and take action on the truth. God uses the repentant to lead others to repentance and faith.
“So…What should I do now?”
If what I’ve been saying is resonating with you, then I encourage you to order a copy of my book Apostate The Men Who Destroyed the Christian West. I go over everything that I’ve been talking about here in 336 pages of greater detail.
Interested in ordering by the case? Contact my team at wholesale@generations.org and we’ll help you place an order.
What I cover in the book:
1. I help you evaluate the lives and ideas of 17 of the key fathers of apostasy in our Western culture.
2. I walk you through why their ideas were so destructive and how they are impacting our culture right now.
3. I end by showing you why the future of the West is not hopeless, that God is at work, and how you can take a part in the rebuild of our culture.
This is the 2nd edition of Apostate. Here’s what’s new:
- A new chapter on John Maynard Keynes (“Forming the Humanist Economy”)
- We’ve revised and expanded the whole book
- Updated and expanded Subject, Name, and Scripture Indexes
Table of Contents
Here are a few testimonies of how God is using this book:
“This one is the most explicit, clearly written, best supported (“epistemologically”) and by far the only non-fiction I’ve read that I couldn’t put down and was upset when I got to the end!…I have recommended this book to dozens of people and I could only wish for it to be included as mandatory reading in High school AND college to retrace the reasons for our present-day insanities.” –Paul
“I couldn’t put the book down. An unsettling account of what is happening, why it is happening and where we are headed as a civilization. The Church needs to wake up and ask God for revival in hopes of regaining lost ground.” –Douglas Miller
“Finally, a single book that clearly documents the gradual and purposeful fall of Western Civilization from within. A must-read for all patriotic Americans that want to understand the who, how, and why of America’s suicide. An incredibly interesting 500-year history of the strategy and influence of key men in their mission to ‘dethrone’ God.” –Curtis Bowers, Award-winning producer of Agenda: Grinding America Down
So here’s my challenge to you…
- Go the Generations store and pre-order a copy of the new edition of Apostate (we expect to begin shipping it out by early February).
- Read the book (if possible, with your family) and allow your own ideas and assumptions to be challenged.
- Once you get to the end of the book, contact our team at mail@generations.org and tell us what it made you think and how it made a difference in your life.
My Guarantee
If you get to the end of the book and don’t think it was worth 10 times the amount you spent on it, contact my team here, and we’ll give you your money back. Really.
Here’s my challenge to you…
- Go the Generations store and order a copy of the new edition of Apostate for 40% off through February 17.
- Read the book (if possible, with your family) and allow your own ideas and assumptions to be challenged.
- Once you get to the end of the book, contact our team at mail@generations.org and tell us what it made you think and how it made a difference in your life.
Before you go…
If the thought of trying to evaluate the ideas of Thomas Aquinas or John Locke sounds too intimidating, if you would rather just forget about what I’ve been saying and go on with life, I would encourage you to face the facts…
…you have no choice but to join the war of ideas.
Choosing to ignore the lies our culture is built on, is choosing to be brought into the traps and slavery that inevitably come from those lies. Let’s follow the exhortation of Paul to the Ephesian Church:
“And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light.” (Ephesians 5:11-13)
For Christ and His kingdom,
Kevin Swanson
Kevin Swanson
Director at Generations
Homeschooled himself in the 1960’s and 70’s, Kevin Swanson and his wife, Brenda, are now homeschooling their five children. Since graduating from his homeschool, he has gone on to other leadership positions in corporate management, church, and various non-profits. Kevin has 43 years of experience in the homeschooling movement and serves as the Director of Generations – a ministry he founded to strengthen homeschool families around the country. As a father who wants to leave a godly heritage for his own five children, Kevin’s passion is to strengthen and encourage the homeschooling movement all over the world, and to cast a vision for generations to come.
Kevin Swanson
Director at Generations
Homeschooled himself in the 1960’s and 70’s, Kevin Swanson and his wife, Brenda, are now homeschooling their five children. Since graduating from his homeschool, he has gone on to other leadership positions in corporate management, church, and various non-profits. Kevin has 43 years of experience in the homeschooling movement and serves as the Director of Generations – a ministry he founded to strengthen homeschool families around the country. As a father who wants to leave a godly heritage for his own five children, Kevin’s passion is to strengthen and encourage the homeschooling movement all over the world and to cast a vision for generations to come.
Before you go…
If the thought of trying to evaluate the ideas of Thomas Aquinas or John Locke sounds too intimidating, if you would rather just forget about what I’ve been saying and go on with life, I would encourage you to face the facts…
…you have no choice but to join the war of ideas.
Choosing to ignore the lies our culture is built on, is choosing to be brought under the bondage that comes from those lies. Let’s follow the exhortation of Paul to the Ephesian Church:
“And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light.” (Ephesians 5:11-13)
Kevin Swanson
Director at Generations
Homeschooled himself in the 1960’s and 70’s, Kevin Swanson and his wife, Brenda, are now homeschooling their five children. Since graduating from his homeschool, he has gone on to other leadership positions in corporate management, church, and various non-profits. Kevin has 43 years of experience in the homeschooling movement and serves as the Director of Generations – a ministry he founded to strengthen homeschool families around the country. As a father who wants to leave a godly heritage for his own five children, Kevin’s passion is to strengthen and encourage the homeschooling movement all over the world, and to cast a vision for generations to come.