I want to look ahead one phrase to what Paul says we are to be: not "conformed," but "transformed" by the renewing of our minds. There is a deliberate distinction between those two words, as I am sure you can see. Conformity is something that happens to you outwardly. Transformation happens inwardly. You will see this at once when I tell you that the Greek word translated "transformed" is metamorphoo from which we get "metamorphosis." It is what happens to the caterpillar when it turns into a beautiful butterfly.

Since we’ve been talking about humanism this week, we also have to talk briefly about relativism because if man is the focal point of everything, then there are no absolutes in any area of life and everything is up for grabs. Some years ago Professor Allan Bloom of the University of Chicago wrote a book called The Closing of the American Mind, in which he said on the very first page, "There is one thing a professor can be absolutely certain of: almost every student entering the university believes, or says he believes, that truth is relative."1

Obviously, there is a proper kind of humanism, meaning a proper concern for human beings. Humanitarianism is a better word for it. People who care for other people are humanitarians. But there is also a philosophical humanism, which is a way of looking at people, particularly ourselves, apart from God, and this is not at all right but rather is wrong and very harmful. Instead of looking at people biblically, this is a secular way of looking at them, which is why we so often couple that adjective to the noun and speak more fully of humanism as secular humanism.

If worldliness isn’t smoking, drinking, dancing, and playing cards, what is it? If it is a way of thinking, what is a worldly "worldview"? This is something we need to approach in a variety of ways, since there is no single word that is perfectly descriptive of how the world thinks. On the other hand, if there is a word that describes the world’s way of thinking more than others, it is secularism. Secularism is an umbrella term that covers a number of other "isms," like humanism, relativism, pragmatism, pluralism, hedonism, and materialism. But it, more than any other single word, aptly describes the mental framework and value structure of the people of our time.