Being pagan is akin to having a knife against a gun [I Sam 17].

One of the aphorisms in Military Science Fiction is “Never bring a knife to a gun fight”. The tacticians note that David used a range weapon — a sling — against a heavily armoured man with a sword. David was offered the same technology: Saul offered his armour and his knife. But David had not tried them, so used the tools of his trade.

Some of this depended on skill — but a lot depended on God. David stood as a champion on an ancient battle field: he made history and at the same time he reminded the pagans there was a God in Israel.

I will add this: I love the stories of David. I always have. When I was a young boy the narrative captured me: well before I read of nine fingered Bilbo and the crack of doom or the fate of the Old Believers in the Gulag, I was reading this. The stories of such adventure and risk and triumph stiffen the spine and encourage us to do our duty before the LORD. They are examples of the best and most noble: in this case of a warrior who is going to lead his people, and is beloved by God.

To not allow these stories because they are racists to the Philistines, or disrespect the pagan wisdom, is to deny part of which is in us. Which is to have the courage to face our Grendel, or our Goliath.

When the words that David spoke were heard, they repeated them before Saul, and he sent for him. And David said to Saul, “Let no man’s heart fail because of him. Your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.” And Saul said to David, “You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him, for you are but a youth, and he has been a man of war from his youth.” But David said to Saul, “Your servant used to keep sheep for his father. And when there came a lion, or a bear, and took a lamb from the flock, I went after him and struck him and delivered it out of his mouth. And if he arose against me, I caught him by his beard and struck him and killed him. Your servant has struck down both lions and bears, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, for he has defied the armies of the living God.” And David said, “The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” And Saul said to David, “Go, and the LORD be with you!”

Then Saul clothed David with his armor. He put a helmet of bronze on his head and clothed him with a coat of mail, and David strapped his sword over his armor. And he tried in vain to go, for he had not tested them. Then David said to Saul, “I cannot go with these, for I have not tested them.” So David put them off. Then he took his staff in his hand and chose five smooth stones from the brook and put them in his shepherd’s pouch. His sling was in his hand, and he approached the Philistine.

And the Philistine moved forward and came near to David, with his shield-bearer in front of him. And when the Philistine looked and saw David, he disdained him, for he was but a youth, ruddy and handsome in appearance. And the Philistine said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. The Philistine said to David, “Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the field.” Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the LORD will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head. And I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the LORD saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the LORD’s, and he will give you into our hand.”

When the Philistine arose and came and drew near to meet David, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the Philistine. And David put his hand in his bag and took out a stone and slung it and struck the Philistine on his forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell on his face to the ground.

(1 Samuel 17:31-49 ESV)

Consider, for a second, what is it that makes one a History maker. It is not necessarily the preaching of the lead singer of the now defunct band Delirious [1]. It is fidelity to the commands of Christ. It is prayer. It is standing. It is doing our duty. Much of which is never going to be noticed: one of the few things I have learned about being a father is being around matters more than peak experiences. The children interpret quality time as you being absent.

And this requires faith. The pagans cannot comprehend belief and cannot fight it: those with faith can. Consider Ottoman expansion that stopped at Lepanto. The Ottomans were motivated (as they always have been: the same thing happened at Anzac cove) by paradise and the promise of salvation to those who die in battle. The Christians fought for their faith, and because the alternative was death or slavery and a slower death [2].

But Pagans? The ancient religions of Persia? The secular states of Northern India? Crumbled. What frightens me at present is that Osama is right about Obama: it is not the amount of weaponry you have but your willingness to use them. Our Islamic enemies don’t care about the rules of civilized warfare and use everything from Chlorine gas to throwing gays of columna and getting children to execute Copts pour encourager les autres.

If we deny there is a God then we will, probably, as Tom Kratman points out, lose.

Theft of the word “bright,” while it doesn’t quite rise to the level of linguistic matricide (the malicious murder of one’s mother tongue), so common in PC circles, is still an exercise in intellectual dishonesty. It’s hardly the only one. For example, it is often claimed that there’s not a shred of evidence for the existence of God. This is simple nonsense; there’s lots of evidence, some of it weaker and some of it stronger. Some of it is highly questionable and other portions very hard to explain away. (And one of our favorite bits revolves around just when and how Pius V knew that the battle of Lepanto had been won, at the time it had been won, and in the absence of long-range communications. Look it up. Really.)

Evidence, in any case, there is. What there isn’t is absolute, irrefutable proof,. To use the word “evidence,” when what you mean is “irrefutable proof,” is intellectual dishonesty of quite a high order, much worse, much more vile, than simple theft of a word. It’s even worse, in its way, than the intellectual dishonesty of failure to note, when discussing poisons, that toxicity is in the dose.

But then if “brights” are not required to be “bright,” if a disliked religion must give way even if it opens up the world to a loathed one, how can we expect “evidence” not to mean “proof” or dosage to matter to toxicity?

And some would insist, still, that the contradictions claimed to be in the New Testiment render it invalid.

Ahem.

Note, at this point, that we have still not claimed that, in fact, there is a God. We may, and do, believe that there is, and believe that there is evidence that there is. But there is no absolute proof, a point we’ve already readily conceded, and we see no point in arguing for what cannot be proven.

Still, we can’t help but note that much of what masquerades as disbelief in God is really just disapproval. Consider the following pair of claims on the subject, voiced, along with some others, by Hitchens during a debate with Dinesh D’Souza:

1) People are badly designed. No god could be so incompetent.

2) Earth is not paradise. Most of humanity has lived in misery for most of mankind’s existence, though things are somewhat improved now. No god could be so heartless. No real god could have permitted Auschwitz.

These are the criteria by which a god should be measured, his similarity to Himmler, in some particulars, and Stalin, in others?

Ahem.

Never mind. Let “brights” be not very bright. Let dosage not matter to toxicity. Twist word meanings. Make Stalin a god, too. Why not; it’s been done before and likely will again.

Even so, never go to a gunfight without a gun and, if you intend to win, never go to a religious war without religion. You’ll lose.

Our leaders have lost the faith, and are telling us to be silent, or we will be counted as enemies. We may have found ourselves, if you will, with Goliath as our Champion, and cheering on the side of Grendel. But that is not our role. We have to bear witness to the truth. Even if that is seen as hatery: for in this time living, even quite imperfectly, for Christ will serve as a warning.

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1. Worship leaders and musos concentrate on the performance, and the feelings, and are not that good a bunch of theologians. Their role is useful in church, but they at best are Bach composing the music: not Luther, Calvin or Xavier preaching repentance, with fire and brimstone.

And I should add in this time we are fire and brimstone deficient.

2. The Ottomans used the dhimmi rules to encourage the Orthodox and Jewish minorities to be loyal to the Empire. Much of the cultural riches in that time was left from the Byzantines and the Jews: a fair part of Turkey and the Levant was Christian and Jewish. Pogroms against these groups have led to the Muslims being “Christian free” and “Jew Free”, and as a result their society is getting more destructive. One can see parallels with other neo pagan periods in both the West and in India and China.