Glen Frey is dead. David Bowie and Alan Rickman died last week. I can recall that when the Eagles arrived in NZ for their farewell tour a fair number of those who remember the 1970s (the first time: history is repeating, as a farce, at present) went to see them as a nostalgia thing.

As if we were still 17. We are not.

And we are not supposed to be 17 forever. We are supposed to leave the childlike behind, and understand the elementary doctrines, and then move further into doing the work of Christ.

Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgement. And this we will do if God permits. For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned.

Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things—things that belong to salvation. For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you still do. And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

(Hebrews 6:1-12 ESV)

This “news” — famous people die, at any age, and I guess your mid 60s is now fairly young to die — is on the front page of the local fishwrap. But this is part of the transition. When I was 7, Frey and his cohorts were 19 and 20, and set off the counter-cultural revolution. They took the teachings of the progressive intellectuals from the post-war generation and their existentialism seriously: they ignored those who fought them during the same area. They read Sartre, not Lewis: Leavis, not Solzhenitsyn.

They rejected God. They rejected the elementary things of God. The consequences of their policies we see now. By the time I was 19, the culture had turned angry, and the Eagles were replaced by the Buzzcocks.

So what can I say to the Boomers alive? Cast off the useless things of this world, and repent. You cannot take your toys and your pleasures into the grave. And you have to take responsibility for your actions.

No, the boomers didn’t plan or execute this. They/Me were the idiots who were the tools of these people that truly changed the world.

That’s true. But you were not merely willing idiots, you were enthusiastic and proud idiots. Frankly, it is amazing that any Boomer has anything to say beyond: “I’m sorry, we were totally wrong, I wish you guys good luck.”

Instead, we get “it’s not MY fault”, “it’s not OUR fault”, and “because you’re unhappy with what we did, you’re whiners and therefore just as bad as us!”

That neither surprises nor impresses us.

Well, the consequences of apostasy are dire. If there is a sin against the Holy Spirit it is the conscious rejection of Christ, despite being called, shriven, and having a place in the community.

The knot of the question is in the word, fall away. Whosoever then understands its meaning, can easily extricate himself from every difficulty. But it must be noticed, that there is a twofold falling away, one particular, and the other general. He who has in anything, or in any ways offended, has fallen away from his state as a Christian; therefore all sins are so many fallings. But the Apostle speaks not here of theft, or perjury, or murder, or drunkenness, or adultery; but he refers to a total defection or falling away from the Gospel, when a sinner offends not God in some one thing, but entirely renounces his grace.

And that this may be better understood, let us suppose a contrast between the gifts of God, which he has mentioned, and this falling away. For he falls away who forsakes the word of God, who extinguishes its light, who deprives himself of the taste of the heavens or gift, who relinquishes the participation of the Spirit. Now this is wholly to renounce God. We now see whom he excluded from the hope of pardon, even the apostates who alienated themselves from the Gospel of Christ, which they had previously embraced, and from the grace of God; and this happens to no one but to him who sins against the Holy Spirit. For he who violates the second table of the Law, or transgresses the first through ignorance, is not guilty of this defection; nor does God surely deprive any of his grace in such a way as to leave them none remaining except the reprobate.

If any one asks why the Apostle makes mention here of such apostasy while he is addressing believers, who were far off from a perfidy so heinous; to this I answer, that the danger was pointed out by him in time, that they might be on their guard. And this ought to be observed; for when we turn aside from the right way, we not only excuse to others our vices, but we also impose on ourselves. Satan stealthily creeps on us, and by degrees allures us by clandestine arts, so that when we go astray we know not that we are going astray. Thus gradually we slide, until at length we rush headlong into ruin. We may observe this daily in many. Therefore the Apostle does not without reason forewarn all the disciples of Christ to beware in time; for a continued torpor commonly ends in lethargy, which is followed by alienation of mind.

In this discussion of generations and blame, we have to recall that there is a remnant. The silents produced liberal theologians who were poison, and Foucault, who called poison good. But they also had Francis and Edith Schaeffer. The Boomers had many lousy leaders: those praised by the world, but there was also the move towards conservatism that meant that my early 20s (and their middle age) had some sanity before the politics of identity took over. The entryists — those socialist activists — were taking over the institutions then. They waited until they had power to go full fascist.

But by their acts you can judge, and the consequences of their acts will show the value of their policies. So let us not just sit and write, but do good. Let us preserve the church. Let us influence this culture. Perhaps we can bring it back from the brink.

For the boomers would blind us, and deny there is light, as night again falls on the West.