The United States of America was formed in 1776 and founded on a radical principle; one that had been floating around the English speaking world for quite some time. It was a radical notion that all men are created equal and endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights.
This idea rocked the European nobility in particular because it was seen as a threat to their comfy if occasionally dangerous positions. It was bad enough that their squabbles among themselves ever so often cost one or the other of them their heads. That was just the hazard of being nobility. But the very idea that the ignorant rabble might want to get into the power game horrified them. Why, farmers and shopkeepers might make themselves presidents and prime ministers and start telling the dukes and barons and viscounts what to do. Pamphlets began circulating espousing the "divine right of kings." But ideas like those of John Locke and the evidence provided by the fledgling United States which was founded on the ideas of Locke and other egalitarian philosophers, were powerful and found an eager audience among the downtrodden and oppressed.
By the mid 1800s, particularly in America, there had grown to be a powerful prejudice against the ruling classes. The
fading nobility and upper classes of Europe and America, desperate to reestablish the idea of hereditary ruling classes, seized on
Darwin and Marx as tools to change things back. The new "scientific" doctrine of survival of the fittest was, for them, proof that genetically superior persons and their offspring were endowed by nature itself with the capacity to rule. By layering Darwin atop Marx they could make the argument for the idea of a ruling class being "natural".
This of course was a thinly veiled bit of propaganda, useful in making the case that there should be but two classes -
the leaders of the people class and the proletariat. It was also a nice bit of philosophy that justified the leader class's privilege and prestige. It was little more than a recycling of the "divine right of kings" argument.
Socialism was seen
as a way to restore the divine right, if not of kings, then at least of
genetically superior smart people. There's a reason so many progressive /
socialist countries have dynasties. Entitled tyrannies are Satan's
favorite form of government. Centralized power means Lucifer has fewer
people to deceive in order to do the most evil with the least effort. And make no mistake
about it. Satan, per his original dispute with God, believes that free
will is dangerous and that the way to handle humans is by rigid control.
Little images of God running loose with their creativity and their ability to choose he argued were just too dangerous to order and stability. The
old devil believed we needed someone like him to tell us humans what to do (and more
importantly, what not to do.) It's why the old monarchies and the new socialist societies have had such
lovely Gestapos, KGBs, Pravdas, pogroms, genocides, gulags,
extermination camps and reeducation centers.
THAT
is the great controversy of our world - freedom vs tyranny.
Christianity vs Progressivism, BF Skinner, Freud, Nietzsche, Marx and
Darwin vs Jesus, Locke, Lewis. and White. God never intended that there should be a ruling class. He warned the Israelites against choosing a king. The very first king of Israel quickly proved that God was right about monarchies.
And yet today, down near the end of the world or at least the end of the humans on it who seemed determined to exterminate themselves, we wonder after the Beast, looking for a god of stone and fire, made in our own image. We seek gods we think we can control - human surrogate gods that reassure us that our fate is in our own hands and that no matter what horrors we commit along the way, we will have our utopia on our own terms. A utopia established by our own works, without submitting to any God, especially to a God who thinks we shouldn't sin and who won't come down at our insistence that He make Himself visible to us and behave like we think He ought to. We say, "If there was a God, then he would......" and then name something God would do if they were Him.
And yet today, down near the end of the world or at least the end of the humans on it who seemed determined to exterminate themselves, we wonder after the Beast, looking for a god of stone and fire, made in our own image. We seek gods we think we can control - human surrogate gods that reassure us that our fate is in our own hands and that no matter what horrors we commit along the way, we will have our utopia on our own terms. A utopia established by our own works, without submitting to any God, especially to a God who thinks we shouldn't sin and who won't come down at our insistence that He make Himself visible to us and behave like we think He ought to. We say, "If there was a God, then he would......" and then name something God would do if they were Him.
The thing is, God actually did come down and make Himself visible to us and showed us His character. And what did we do? Because He didn't do it the way we thought, because He didn't come with power, fire, thunder and lightning to destroy our enemies and praise our leaders as we thought He ought to, we crucified Him. But for all our efforts to pound God into submission, to make Him into our image, God remains His own larger-than-life self, and we remain petulant children throwing tantrums before Him.
It explains the temper tantrums by the human supremacists among us when they don't get their way. It also explains the temper tantrums by the human supremacists when they do get their way and some of us don't genuflect to them in obeisance because they won.
Ultimately, it comes down to the fact that the actual God, the one not make of stone, and human narcissism, is, as CS Lewis described Him, "...not a tame lion." There are no levers we can pull, no magic incantations we can say that will make God dance to the tune we want to play.
And that frightens people, or at least the ones who place no faith in Him who created us. So they look around for someone to blame, someone to put into reeducation camps, someone to imprison, torture and kill in a vain attempt to silence their own fears. It's always about power because the great deception that the devil has perpetrated is that seizing power for yourself is the only way to protect you from the consequences of your sins. But we cannot sin with impunity for the wages of sin is inevitably, death.
And that frightens people, or at least the ones who place no faith in Him who created us. So they look around for someone to blame, someone to put into reeducation camps, someone to imprison, torture and kill in a vain attempt to silence their own fears. It's always about power because the great deception that the devil has perpetrated is that seizing power for yourself is the only way to protect you from the consequences of your sins. But we cannot sin with impunity for the wages of sin is inevitably, death.
And that really frightens them and makes them dangerous. But as I keep telling people, Jesus is coming soon and it's not a conquest this time around. It's a rescue mission. After the world immolates itself and has time to rest a thousand years, then we will return to an Earth made new without dictators, princes and potentates. No tax man, no police, no armies, no funeral directors.
Progress will be in our own hands after all. God built that wonderful gift of self-determination into us. Now that the sin has been cleansed from us and we have seen first hand what comes of evil, no one will need to be coerced, bullied, or thrown in jail to keep the peace. No one will desire to have power over anyone else. Mankind will be free to build, explore and create things we can only imagine and some things we aren't able to imagine. As my friend Steve used to describe it, "Always another tomorrow." I could really get into that, you know?
© 2021 by Tom King
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