Imagine two
adversaries who barely agree on anything important to them. In fact, they are
so contemptuous of each other that they totally reject each other’s credibility
or legitimacy.
Yet, their
operational alliance has achieved such success in the last 200 years that one
can easily assume that it was a carefully planned cooperative venture. Both
have reached their pre-suppositional goals. One wants control of all human
activity and the other wants proof that their vision of the future is playing
out as they prophesied.
Unfortunately,
that ‘success’ for both parties has put our country and the world at the
precipice of total disaster.
Gary North
has called this an ‘operational alliance’ in several of his books.
Democrats
and Republicans? Not even close!
Let’s call
them Secular Humanists and Evangelical Christians – and as is true in all
comparisons – I use the terms in a general sense, which means that they apply
to most, but not all individuals who might fit the categories.
Historically
speaking, America was founded 400 years ago largely as a Christian enterprise.
Consequently, a Christian culture developed which also enabled the growth of
liberty, wealth and prosperity, leading ultimately to an independent nation
which became the standard bearer of Western civilization.
About 200
years ago, an interesting coincidence occurred. It was during the early 19th
century that Karl Marx, Charles Darwin and John Darby pronounced their
‘manifestoes’. Coincidence?
Most people
have heard of Marx’s social and political theory and Darwin’s evolution theory,
but who is John Darby, you might ask?
Darby is
credited as the churchman who first pronounced the rapture theory as part of
Dispensational Pre-millennialism. Without getting into a theological food
fight, let’s just categorize it as an eschatology which expects the world to
come to such a dire condition that only Christ Himself can, and will intervene
to save the world. Eschatology is just the study of ‘end times’.
Prior to
Darby’s era, the ‘end times’ prophecy promoters were always a fringe group
within the larger and more orthodox Christian believers. It is not my purpose
here to get into all the theological details. It is much more important to
actually examine the effects of those beliefs.
During the
first 200 years of American colonial government, religion and politics
coexisted as fundamental pillars forming the culture in the daily lives of
Americans. The prominence of church leaders in the American independence
movement has been historically noted. That all changed gradually in the last
200 years, having been influenced by Darby’s theories, which have now become
mainstream in Evangelical circles, and the relentless advance of seculars in
our culture and government.
Another
factor must also be included – prior to and throughout the Darby era, the
period of Enlightenment contributed to the fashionable idea that man’s reason
is supreme and religious ‘superstitions’ should not be governing our culture or
country.
We have
arrived at last! For all intents and purposes, we are now living in a secular
humanist nation.
Both parties
have reached their goals. Those who worship man’s reason as supreme now run the
country and the world. The Darby clan pretty much runs the American church and
they have reached their goal – the country is going to hell in a hand basket,
so Christ’s return must be imminent.
Throughout
this process, one party was leaving the cultural battlefield and became
culturally irrelevant, while the other tightened its grip on every aspect of
our lives, from birth to death – and continues to do so today!
OK, that’s
the history. Now what?
In order to
solve a problem, we need to evaluate and understand what the problem is. So
what is or are the problems? Can we honestly say that everything within our
society is going in the right direction? There are some that say YES – we just
need more money!
At what
point do we stop and say: “It isn’t working?”
I, and many
others, are saying and have been saying for a long time: “It hasn’t and will
not work until we begin to follow the laws of cause and effect!”
In the
foreword to his book “Millennialism and Social Theory”, the author Gary North
makes what I considered an ironic statement. He noted that when a secular
academic finds out that his book was written by a bible believing Christian, he
would immediately toss it away as not credible. The Christian believer, on the
other hand, has zero interest in social theory. I can personally confirm the
last statement by my personal experience with various Christian churches and
study groups – they’re not interested!
Therein lies
the problem. The bible, especially the old testament, is full of social theory.
Yet, the academics won’t take the time to study those theories – and the
Christian believers, who have turned their faith into a personal pursuit of
pietism, aren’t interested because it doesn’t fit their presupposition of end
time theology.
Both parties
in this alliance live in total ignorance of possible solutions to our civil
societies’ problems, because they have already made up their minds as to what
is truth.
A plague on
both of those mindsets! Prove all things and hold on to that which is good!
It is the
purpose of this website and blog to chip away at the willful ignorance that we
tolerate in our culture and governing affairs, and begin to take small steps
toward becoming mentors and disciples in an ongoing pursuit of what actually
works – and casting off those well proven, by now, manmade utopian visions that
are proven failures, ready to be tossed into the ‘ash heap of history’!
Shall we
begin? - CL
