The worship of creation
Seeming endless
But it will end
And every knee shall bow

Thoughts of a coincidental existence
And a futureless world corrodes into the
Spinal chord of the narcissistic man
A paradigm shift for worse
My ego is my god
Given authority by the enlightenment
Of science
The enlightenment of the age of freedom
Freedom – the name in which we legalize all
The name in which we tolerate all

Credibility for truth, image for substance
Weakness and failure
Unbearable elements in life
Subtly opposed through an endless flow of
Constantly replaced trends, neither allowed
To mature nor to fade
The surroundings
A mirror reflecting the signals
Of admiration that makes my identity
A constant egocentricity providing a
Purging of anything threatening popularity

The peak of this shallowness
Displayed by the so-called stars
In their quest for self-actualisation
This beautiful people experiencing
The illusion of narcissistic prosperity
Uncritically and boundlessly admired
Simply for their own sake

–Extol, “Paradigms”–

—

Dr. Leland Ryken, Worldly Saints (Zondervan, 1986), ch. 5: “Family.”

Dr. Hugh Pyle, The Truth About Rock Music (Sword of the Lord, 1985).

David Wilkerson, Set the Trumpet to Thy Mouth (World Challenge, 1985), ch. 4.