This morning I am working backwards. From the Bible to Keoni, and from Keoni to Vox.
It may be that we are failing because we have not one mind: the post modern culture has forgotten much. Including that without a vision the people will perish. The passages unquoted today are Ezra describing how Haggai and Zechariah preached that the temple be built, and it was: and twenty-four elders casting their thrones before the Almighty while singing “Holy is our LORD”.
But this requires that one swallows a bitter seed. For the Gospel calls us broken, sinners, and unable to redeem ourselves. It is only through the work of the Risen Christ that we can stand before God. And this the elite reject, those inside the church included.
Considering that Europe no longer calls itself “Christendom” and collectively flaunts its post-Christian status, I think it is absolutely bizarre to postulate that the roots of the civilizational suicide are to be found in Christian egalitarianism. After all, according to Christianity, there is neither Jew nor Gentile in Christ Jesus, but Christianity deems itself “in but not of the world” and does not even concern itself with interfering in the relationship between master and slave, let alone global wealth redistribution and population flows.
What you are reacting to is Churchianity and it has absolutely nothing to do with Christian theology, it is merely one of the wolves in sheep’s clothing about which the Apostle Paul warned us. Never confuse the wolf in sheep’s clothing for the sheep or the sheep-stealing thief for the shepherd.
In fact, the religion of Churchianity is the same as the religion of the multiculturalists and globalists, it is the worldly religion of Babel. The Christian perspective intrinsically takes “the nations” into account, each with their own identity and even ruling spirits. Transnational egalitarianism and globalism are not Christian; quite to the contrary, they are rabidly, viciously, feverishly opposed to Christianity. It was not Christians who made “egalite'” the motto of the French Revolution.
And don’t be surprised if the rise of European nationalism is accompanied by the widespread rejection of European post-Christianity. What you are seeing is the failure of secularism, not the failure of Christianity.
Now, a commentator at Vox reminded us yesterday that when God is angry with a society he punishes the Church first. We have rejected him: we have provoked him, and we need to turn again to him. Which will require repentance, and a single mind.
For our chief aim is to Know God and enjoy him forever.
While all of these measures would undoubtedly have varying levels of success on reversing our current descent towards dystopia, I am of the opinion that it would be far more effective to address a single issue. It relates directly to Vox’s first recommendation, restoring Christianity to it’s foremost position in Christendom. I do believe this would certainly do the trick, if we’re talking about the Christianity of antiquity and it’s former widely understood and universally accepted prohibition on usury.
Keoni forgot fractional lending and the expansion of the money supply, which has led to, if not inflation (You can control that — if your central bank has but one goal) but a fear of deflation. As if the number matters, not the provision of goods.
In this society we are encouraged to express our emotion in the channels of the mass market. We are told to buy the shirt of our football team, to get up to watch the rugby (I am writing between the semi-finals Australia and New Zealand won, and a final next week), or cheer on the new plastic heros of reality television.
So we do not consider our state, and reform our lives. So that the Gospel is drowned out by the noise of the media. So the seed Christ talks of is not taken up.
That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. And great crowds gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat down. And the whole crowd stood on the beach. And he told them many things in parables, saying: “A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears, let him hear.”
I seem to spend more time at present on the blog discussing the Church and the Gospel. Many would say I’m not qualified to do this: I don’t have a bunch of theological credentials, and my past disqualifies me from being an elder.
But those credentials now are a sign of error, and the leadership of the church still may prove false. We cannot rely on them.
We need to let the gospel take root. It is not enough to read the blogs, it is not enough to look at the devotionals. We still, barely, have a time of peace. The storm is coming, or may be upon us. We need to take the words of Christ deeply within, by prayer and meditation, because we need deep roots for the time of trial.
These nations will pass away. Christ will not. So choose not to follow the ephemeral.