1968— The vehicle ahead of you in the university town traffic is a Volkswagen microbus that sputters and weaves away from the traffic light. Out the driver's window a whiff of odd-smelling, unhealthy smoke wafts its way back to your nostrils.

Psychedelic paintings of flowers, long-haired men and glazed-eyed girls bedeck the sides, but the item that catches your eye is the bumper sticker bearing the mantra of the college-age subculture of the hippie era: "Question Authority."

2005— The vehicle ahead of you in traffic is an old Volvo. It doesn't drive any straighter, but it doesn't sport the weird paintings of the driver's VW microbus of the '60s. Still the bumper sticker proclaims the same student-now-professor's motto: "Question Authority."

But just what do you mean, question authority?

"Question Authority" as a motto in the 1960s and today means to challenge traditional authority—of the government, corporate and religious "establishment" and particularly to question the authority of God and the Bible. For decades this philosophy has epitomized the dominant force within higher education and the culture of the bulk of America's and the rest of the world's universities. Increasingly, it has trickled down to secondary and even elementary schools.

Enter college or university and your mind and moral values will certainly face the onslaught of this aggressive mind-set. Enter the halls of higher academia and you enter a cultural and moral war zone.

How solidly grounded are you in the true culture of the Bible right now? How will you fare after four years of college? Want to obtain a useful education and remain spiritually strong? Then you'll need to get a different bumper sticker.

Hippies, sex and drugs

A portion of the 1960s and early 1970s youth viewed themselves as a generation in rebellion. They spawned acid rock music and all its subsequent versions as angry battle hymns for their rebellious mood, spirit and actions, including the antigovernment and anti-Vietnam War riots of the late '60s.

But another, darker rebellion fueled what came to be known as the hippie movement: the drug and sexual revolution. It forged acceptance within mainstream culture of the recreational use and abuse of mind-altering drugs—a cultural character of the youth of every decade since.

The sexual revolution was also called the "free-love movement" —but read "lust" for "love" to understand the real meaning. This rebellion attacked God's law of sexual morality. It gave us bad news galore: soaring divorce rates for those who bothered to marry, social acceptance of unmarried couples living together and the many miseries of multitudes of unwed single mothers.

Aided by the militant feminist movement and other dark forces in society, the hippie movement has brought us today to a frontal attack on traditional marriage and the social acceptance of virtually any form of sexual perversion.

This profound cultural sea change came from following a 1960s proverb: "Think for yourself and question authority." It was coined by American psychologist, author and advocate of the psychedelic drug and sex culture Timothy Leary, who provided the voice of the misguided, odious bumper sticker message.

The shapers and molders of today's college professors wanted their students to question all forms of traditional authority, but specifically to question the authority of the Bible and the existence of God.

The April 8, 1966, cover of Time magazine echoed this approach with what was then a shocking headline: "Is God Dead?" The cover article referenced the proclamation of late 19th-century philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, who adamantly proclaimed, "God is dead."

If you don't know who Nietzsche was, you will. He was perhaps the key foundational thinker for what became the hippie subculture and for much of higher education today. The "God is dead" thinking is the core of the "question authority" movement.

Think for yourself

When the politically correct educators in college culture today tell you to "think for yourself," be advised— they don't mean it. As a vertical thinker using your sure knowledge of God's existence and His law, if you thought for yourself, you would see right through their faulty arguments advocating all sorts of sinful behavior.

As the great King David of old sang to God in his youth: "You, through Your commandments, make me wiser than my enemies; for they are ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers, for Your testimonies are my meditation" (Psalm 119:98-99).

Many of your teachers and professors view themselves as the enlightened ones and view you, the true Christian, as the gullible, shackled, restricted and foolish one. They have much to learn!

A blatant statement comes from a Web site of a 21st-century advocate for the nonbiblical, postmodern, liberal lifestyle. His claim for the course he teaches summarizes the bumper sticker only too well:

"In this course, we will explore challenges to authoritarianism and work towards the creation of the 'Question Authority Coalition and Education Project' . . . We will evolve new statements for public dissemination. We will leave the class prepared to soundly thrash the Bible thumpers while defending their freedom to be stoopid" (maybelogic.org).

But we must ask this: Who made this world's postmodern college professors boss? No one did. As rude a shock as it may be to many of them, they are not the governors of our morality, arbiters of our faith or the gurus of our biblically guided opinions.

There is One who is our "Boss"—and He died for our sins and the sins of our teachers and classmates to become that Boss—or Lord and Teacher (John 13:14-15). He has set you and me a perfect example—that we should think as He thought and do as He did.

The true values

As vertical thinkers, we strive to see things as God sees them. We shape our opinions with the objective truth of God's law and Word. Our motto could be expressed as "Recapture true values." And here is a basic list of key true values taught in the Bible that you will hear questioned and challenged during your higher education.

God is sacred. Atheistic evolution was a critical first step in creating a culture of sexual and behavioral abandon. Their thinking is: If there is no God, then there is no moral law, no evil and no guilt. In short—anything goes. A related concept, the practice of elevating "mother earth" or "the environment" to be virtually and actually worshipped, is also wrong. Yet that's exactly what many militant environmental activists do.

Human life is sacred— as clearly taught by the Sixth Commandment, "You shall not murder" (Exodus 20:13). Abortion and euthanasia are in direct conflict with divine law. Likewise, mankind is the only life form made in the image of God (Genesis 1:26-28). Thus, to elevate animal life to be equal in value to human life is wrong. Yet that's what militant animal rights activism stands for.

Marriage is sacred— as in one man married to one woman. In Christ's own words: "He who made them at the beginning 'made them male and female,' and said, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh' . . . Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate" (Matthew 19:4-5). Anything other than the divine formula for marriage is wrong.

Human sexuality is sacred— and that sexuality is to be expressed only in divinely sanctioned marriage, not before or outside of marriage. Sexual expression is expressly forbidden by God in any variant (1 Corinthians 6:18-20), except within the divine institution of marriage, and there He commands it (7:2-5)!

Divine law is sacred— and is called "holy and just and good" (Romans 7:12). Yet higher education "experts" ridicule God's law as evil, arbitrary and restrictive. And what do they propose as rules for society? Answer: Their own law of political correctness. But, we ask again, who made them boss so that they should get to make the laws? From where is their moral superiority over the rest of mankind?

Truth is sacred. As a prudent, dedicated and faithful young person, you are being set apart (sanctified) by the truth of God's Word (John 17:17). Truth is truly objective. But beware—today's philosophy of "postmodernism" says that truth is relative, that each person has his own "truth" and that each one's truth is as good as another's truth. Wrong!

So why is the truth of the Bible considered "stoopid" as compared to the postmodern professor's truth? It's like saying all men are created equal, but some are "more equal" than others!

The history of our time told 2,000 years ago

How does a culture lose its moral compass so completely? How can those paid to educate young minds so lose their grip on true wisdom and common sense? Answer: Question Authority—as in reject and deny divine authority.

God gave one great educator, Paul the apostle, the insight to chronicle long ago how a culture collapses. The last half of Romans 1 tells how people "suppress the truth in unrighteousness," and bring about a dark age of immorality (verses 18-32). Here is the step-by-step formula:

1. Deny the existence of God.

2. Deny the authority of God—say there is no objective moral law to tell right from wrong.

3. Make new gods of oneself and nature.

4. Promote "freedom" for any kind of sexual activity in opposition to marriage, which God created and established for our good.

5. Exert tyrannical ridicule and pressure on any who question the new, postmodern authority.

6. Suffer the consequences of sexually transmitted epidemics and the pain of murderous misery launched by nations with no moral conscience.

The result is that everybody does what is right in his or her own eyes. True values are categorically rejected. And today, leading this charge into an age of futility and tyranny is a devastating proportion of higher education. As this reprobate culture gains momentum, there will be only one solution. And that good news is the soon-coming, "vertical" event when Jesus Christ descends from heaven to salvage and save humanity!

Question whose authority?

In the meantime, you have an education to obtain and a life to live. Navigate your way through school via a close relationship with God through daily prayer and a clear knowledge of His law in your mind from the study of the Bible. Totally defeat false moral arguments with the power of divine authority and godly logic.

And when you see the next postmodern, professorial "Question Authority" bumper sticker, create a new one in your own mind: "Question Whose Authority?" Question theirs. VT