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Thanksgiving is a present state that draws upon past events.  In remembering past acts of God, Christians pledge to be faithful partners with God in the covenantal relationship in the present. Faithfulness to God (keeping covenant with God) is tied to thanksgiving. Thanksgiving grows out of a consideration of how God’s grace has impacted our lives and transformed them.  God’s grace is a continual flow of His goodness toward His people.  Thanksgiving is also continuous from our hearts to God.  Thanksgiving is a response of the human heart to God’s infinite goodness.
The Past–Our Redemption
First, consider God’s part in our redemption.  “And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled. In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight” (Col. 1:21-22). We were at one time alienated from God due to our sins.  Yet, now, He hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ.  The past regarding our redemption involves everything that God has done to save us.  Before the world began, God purposed our salvation by Jesus Christ and in one body (Eph. 2:16; 3:10-11).  The eternal purpose of God was foretold by the prophets in the Old Testament who gave us over 300 Messianic prophecies that were to be fulfilled in the details of the life and death of Jesus.  Jesus came into the world as the result of a miraculous conception which led to His birth in Bethlehem of Judea.  Jesus’ personal and public ministry began when He was of the age of thirty and was inaugurated by His baptism in the Jordan River by John the baptist.  He taught as no one had ever taught before.  He performed innumerable miracles.  He exemplified the perfect human life. He was crucified, buried and rose again the third day.  On the cross, He shed His blood for the atonement of the sins of human beings.  God loved us and gave us the best of heaven (John 3:16).  God’s grace was manifested in an unspeakable gift (II Cor. 9:15).  His love, mercy and grace made our redemption possible.
Second, consider our faith and obedience to His commands.  When we obey the gospel (Rom. 10:16; II Thess. 1:7-9; Heb. 5:8-9), we are changed.  We are saved.  When we obey the command to repent, we change our hearts and turn away from sin to God.  When we are baptized (immersed in water) into Christ, we are forgiven of our sins by the precious blood of Christ (Mark 16:16; Acts 2:38-41; Gal. 3:26-29).  When we obey the gospel, Jesus adds us to His church and we become children of God.  We are reconciled to God.  We are blessed by appropriating God’s grace and standing in His grace.  We must never forget the day of our salvation.  We must never forget the spiritual blessings that have continued to flow to us since that sacred moment.  This reflection upon past events, God’ saving acts and our obedience to the gospel, produces a life of thanksgiving.
The Present–Our Lives in Christ
“As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving” (Col 2:6-7).  Your past is affecting your present.  Your past redemption affects your present state of thanksgiving.  Thanksgiving is not something we do once in a while.  It is a fundamental way of being.  It is a state of being and not just an isolated act accomplished once a year or even several times in a year.  We must abound in thanksgiving as part of “walking in him.”  God has given us an abundance of blessings: abundant hope (Rom. 15:13); abundant comfort (II Cor. 1:5); abundant grace (II Cor. 4:15); and abundant love (Phil. 1:9; I Thess. 3:13; Rom. 5:8-9).  Generous abundance of these spiritual blessings from God produces a heart continually overflowing with thanksgiving.  To live in Him, i.e. Jesus Christ, is to live in holiness.  We are called to holiness through the gospel (I Thess. 4:7) and we imitate God who is holy (Eph. 5:1; I Pet. 1:15-16).  Holiness is tied to thanksgiving.  To live life in the Lord, we must live a life worthy of the calling given to us by Jesus.  We must be worthy of His name by which we are called (Christians).  We must live a life that pleases Him in all things. This involves:  bearing fruit, growing in the knowledge of God; being strengthened, and giving thanks.  To “walk in him” is to “live a life of fullness of consecration to God.” Being (who we are) precedes doing (acts of obedience or faithfulness (keeping covenant).  Our entire life is characterized by oneness with Jesus Christ.  Christianity is something you are and not merely something you do from time to time.  Thanksgiving is an integral part of the Christian life.  Our connection to the past (God’s saving acts and our obedience to the gospel) produces a life of thanksgiving.  The infinite supply of God’s grace to us motivates a continuous flow of gratitude to Him.  Therefore, we live in holiness and overflow with thanksgiving.  Sin against God is the height of ingratitude.  Sin against God makes a mockery of our redemption.  Sin against God involves a breach in the sacred memory of God’s saving acts.  In redemption, we are transformed to live lives that honor and glorify God.  The present life we live in Christ has been made possible by past acts of God whereby we appropriate His grace to ourselves when we obey His commandments.  This past event connects to our present in holiness and thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is not something we do once in a while, it is a way of life. It is a state of being that results from being blessed by God’s infinite goodness.

The apostle Paul warns, “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ” (Col. 2:8).  By “spoil” Paul means:  as when in war the spoils belong to the victor who takes what formerly belonged to his enemy.  In this passage, false ideas or doctrines can “take one captive” so that he/she is brought under the control of those false ideas.  Philosophy refers to the many various ideas that constitute the wisdom of this world.  Vain deceit is worthless lies.  The traditions of men are doctrines or concepts of men that have their origin in the minds of men as contrasted to the mind of God.  They become perilous to the soul whenever they contradict God’s Word or set at nought God’s Word.  The rudiments of the world refers to delusive speculations of Gentiles and Jewish theories or myths treated as elementary principles upon which a world view or philosophy of life may be based.  False ideologies are behind the social problems directly affecting marriage and the home today.  These false ideologies are creating conflict, social upheaval, social change, division, strife, agitation and destruction.  Let’s examine some of them.
The General Theory of Evolution
The General Theory of Evolution relates to biological evolution.  The theory of evolution involves: cosmic evolution, chemical evolution, and biological evolution.  The General Theory of Evolution is, “All living matter as we know it today had its origin from one primitive source.  From this spontaneously produced source, probably originating in the primeval ocean water from a combination of existing molecules and atoms, life began–and through eons of time, changes in this life form took place in a progressive manner.  From unicellular life came the more complicated invertebrate life, and from this, vertebrate life.  Finally, primitive man made his appearance and evolved into the human species of today.  (Bert Thompson, “Evolution as a Threat to the Christian Home”, in The Home As God Would Have It And Contemporary Attacks Against It, p. 276).  The General Theory of Evolution is a naturalistic explanation for the origins of human beings.  God is completely left out.  This would have profound effects on our own understanding of what it means to be human.  Human beings would be nothing but a higher form of animals.  They would not possess a soul (immortal aspect to their being) and would not be dualistic in their make-up (body and soul).  This would destroy the basis for morality.  Absolutely, anything would be permissible.  This would lead to a re-definition of marriage and the family (which is happening in our present culture).  The General Theory of Evolution and its cousin Theistic Evolution would destroy the very foundations of the home as God would have it.   Belief in God and His holy Word would be supplanted with secular humanism and the deification of man.
The Political/Social Theory of Communism
The General Theory of Evolution and Communism are both atheistic philosophies.  Karl Marx wrote, regarding Darwin’s Origin of the Species: “Darwin’s book is very important and serves me as a basis in natural history for a class struggle in history.  Not only is it a death blow here for the first time to teleology in the natural sciences, but their rational meaning is emphatically explained.” In fact, Marx wanted to dedicate his book, Das Kapital to Darwin, but Darwin declined the offer, fearing family objections.  Thus, Darwin gave considerable impetus to Communism, and today evolution is the official teaching of the Communist party in regard to origins” (Ibid, Thompson, p. 286). Communism is a political, social, and economic theory derived from Karl Marx, advocating class war and leading to a society in which all property is publicly owned and each person works and is paid according to his/her abilities and needs (Oxford Languages). Communism attacks religion and is a serious threat to religious freedom.  True religion is the basis of the Christian home.  Communists hold that man has no soul and no conscience.  Communism affirms materialism, totalitarianism, and socialism.   America is being infiltrated by communist philosophy through Cultural Marxism (see my book review of the Red Trojan Horse). One of the significant tenets of Cultural Marxism is relativity.  This false idea affirms that truth is not objective, but is subjective. The notion of relativity means that one can create his/her own reality while at the same time denying the objective truth of God’s word.   This has given rise to new definitions for marriage and the home.  Marriage is no longer defined as a monogamous, heterosexual relationship between a man and a woman.  The definition of marriage is much more fluid.  Also, the home is being redefined.  The concept of the nuclear family (Dad, Mom and the children) is being replaced with a much more fluid concept involving same sex relationships and transgendered relationships.
Feminism 
The National Organization for Women (NOW) in the booklet: The Document: Declaration of Feminism states: “Heterosexual relationships are by their very nature oppressive to women in a male dominated society.  In Western society sexual roles are defined for the benefit of men.  The woman is treated as a sexual object, a thing which exists for the gratification of the man to ensure his physical comfort and his sexual pleasure.  In the eyes of men this is a woman’s place—for Eve was created of Adam’s rib—or so the story goes” (Nancy Lehman and Helen Sullinger, The Document: Declaration of Feminism, p. 8).  Betty Friedan sees the role of the modern housewife as a “sickness, a disease…And most women can no longer use their full strength, grow to their full human capacity, as housewives” (Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique, p. 305).  This type of feminism attacks marriage (heterosexual relationships) and the home (women who love their children and their husbands) as God would have it (Matt. 19:1-9; Titus 2:1-5). Feminism has given us abortion, no-fault divorce, and destruction of male spiritual leadership in the home and the church (attack on patriarchy).  More recently, feminists have led in the separation of sex from gender which has produced gender fluidity and advanced both homosexuality and transgendered identities.  The idea that gender can be separated from one’s sex is the result of cultural relativism which advances the notion that gender is a social construct and not tied to one’s biological makeup.  Marriage has been redefined to include both homosexuals and the transgendered.
Hedonism
Hedonism is basically the love of pleasure.  The love of pleasure is condemned in God’s Word (II Tim. 3:1-5). Hedonism is behind the sexual revolution.  Hedonism involves the unrestricted indulgence of the lusts of the flesh.  Sexual relationships outside of the marriage relationship are forbidden by God and constitute fornication (Gal. 5:19-20).  Promiscuity in sexual relationships has produced “fatherless homes.”  The absence of the father in the home has significant consequences.  More women and children are living in poverty as a result. Government programs have expanded to help with shelter, food, medical assistance, counseling, and other needs.  With government assistance comes government control.  Promiscuity has produced an epidemic in sexually transmitted diseases.  Promiscuity has contributed to “unwanted pregnancies” where abortion is seen as a remedy and so abortions have taken the lives of more than 62 million unborn children since 1973 (FoxNews, Jan. 2021).  Promiscuity has contributed to a lack of respect for Christian values and so the secularization of America.  This was a primary goal of those who desired to uproot Christian moral values and replace them with hedonism as a way of undermining Western Culture and replace it with communism (a goal of Cultural Marxists: for example Herbert Marcuse.  Consider his work: Eros and Civilization written in 1955).  Pornography would have to be included in this study of the influence of hedonism on the home.  Pornography is a multi-billion dollar business in the world today.  Pornography is “the depiction of erotic behavior (as in pictures or writings) intended to cause sexual excitement.” Carl Trueman in the Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self, writes, “Pornography consists in removing real or simulated sexual acts from the intimacy of the partners, in order to display them deliberately to third parties.  It offends against chastity because it perverts the conjugal act, the intimate giving of spouses to each other.  It does great injury to the dignity of its participants (actors, vendors, the public) since each becomes an object of base pleasure and illicit profit for others.  It immerses all who are involved in the illusion of a fantasy world.  It is a grave offense. It is rightly called a deathwork, “an all-out assault upon something vital to the established culture”(Rieff).  A deathwork is an attack on established cultural art forms in a manner designed to undo the deeper moral structure of society.  Pornography is an attack on marriage and exploits the sacred intimacy reserved for marriage alone and objectifies it and merchandizes it” (Trueman, pp. 96-97).
Secular Humanism
Secular Humanism is the belief that man has within himself sufficient resources to solve his problems without help from a supernatural power or person.  It involves supplanting God with self and so the deification of self.  Secular Humanism was formalized in two documents:  Humanist Manifesto I and Humanist Manifesto II (both of which express communist ideology).  These documents deny the existence of  God and denigrate true religion. They deny the existence of the human soul affirming that science discredits the “ghost in the machine or the “separable soul.”   They affirm that science believes that the human species is an emergence from natural evolutionary forces (Pat McGee, “Humanism As A Threat To Christian Marriages”, in The Home as God Would Have It and Contemporary Attacks Against It, p. 324). McGee rightly states that humanism has infiltrated America’s educational system, religious institutions, mass media, homes, and even some churches of Christ.  As secular humanism increases, the home in America decreases and suffers from its destructive forces.  When you destroy the sacred order, you also destroy the social order.  The home is the basic element of the fabric of society.  To change the home means that society will change.  Who can deny that Americans are facing the strong currents of social engineering that threaten to destroy the home as God would have it and replace it with a humanist constructed entity not worthy of the descriptive term “home.”  The result is a chaotic, unstable society that cannot hold together.
McGee states, “The first home was established by God and is, therefore a divine institution.  It is the basic social unit in all the world and in every society.  To lose the home is to eventually lose the country” (Ibid. 313).  While we are living in threatening times, Christians know the God in whom they believe is a rock, resource, strength, shelter and force that cannot be overthrown.  God’s Word is truth.  With God and His truth, we ourselves can triumph over the forces of evil that will consume others who do not believe in God nor trust in His Word.  Christians must stand strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might!