There is an aspect of 'human nature' which calculates the 'odds' of who is likely to win, and takes that side.
Such calculations will lead to joining the side of mainstream modern materialistic Leftism... At least, if we look no further ahead than our mortal lives, and no more widely than our-selves and our short term pleasures - because mmmL offers as its ultimate destinations only despair, familial and cultural suicide, and personal death.
So - evil makes us happier in the short term; at the cost of damnation; and this damnation will be self-chosen, salvation and Life Eternal will have been deliberately rejected.
(Because that is the greatness and the curse of modernity - we know what we do.)
Otherwise, if we personally do not want what mainstream materialism offers; and then we will come into conflict with the powers of the world.
And in this conflict we will be pretty much on our own - because even if we are members of a really-Christian church, such churches are all (individually or, in theory, collectively) less powerful than the forces of evil (and most churches are very small and weak, in worldly terms).
So given that the odds are high that fighting or in any other way resisting will fail; what should Christians do?
The answer is to fight and resist; but in what way will depend on the person, and the context. Fighting, especially one against many, may take many possible forms. But that we must fight and resist is clear from our own intuition.
I think it is a massive error to talk about fighting and resisting in a macho way - by focusing on fists and guns, for example; because such activities are (at best) restricted to a small percentage of one sex; and an out-numbered, out-organised, out-spent and out-equipped individual will (nearly always) be defeated anyway.
The other thing is that it is likely we will defeated and humiliated - we may be forced to say or do things we know to be wrong.
But Christians are equipped with the infinite power of repentance; which means that no matter how many times we are 'broken', no matter how may times we are defeated and unconditionally surrender to evil - or actively support and promote evil. We can and should simply repent our sin, we will be forgiven, and we start over again: fighting and resisting.
The point is not so much winning, as not being defeated; and the point is not so much not being defeated in our bodies and actions, but not being defeated in our souls.
A Christian should be indomitable, and all Christians are able to be indomitable - perhaps most of all those who are weakest and least likely to suppose that they can win by worldly power.
This is why, in Tolkien's Lord of the Rings; Hobbits - the weakest of all races - were chosen to save the world; and why only Hobbits were capable of doing so. A good Hobbit could easily be defeated, again and again; but they were so humble they never could be humiliated into mental surrender; so a Hobbit never was 'turned' to the side of evil by the apprehension of overwhelming power - as happened with angelic Maia, High Elves and Numenorean Men.
I needed this. Thanks.
ReplyDelete@Adamoriens - You're welcome; thank you for letting me know.
ReplyDeleteThe simple truth is that if we don't fight the spreading darkness we succumb to it, but we have to fight it without hatred or we succumb to it in a different way. It's a narrow path but we were told it would be. An important thing is to refuse to use the language of those who distort reality through their corrupt ideologies because once you do that you're on the back foot. Perhaps all we have to do is just state the truth as we see it and then let whatever happens happen.
ReplyDeleteThank you Bruce and William. I have been long determined not to give in, but have had to face that I have a great deal of rancour. What has worked for me recently was to stop all exposure to news and almost all Internet interaction - over the past 3 months - including this website. There is usually something better I can be doing I find. But sometimes communicating directly with fellow dissenters directly is, as you say in another post, the only option we may have soon. Anyhow I have noticed that in direct conversations with close friends I have managed lately to do better at what William in his comment calls walking the narrow path. In think I am able to be clearer and less emotionally driven because I have simply stopped going to the Coliseum AKA the media. ;-)
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