An excellent encapsulation of the reality of what I have sometimes termed the value-inversion from Francis Berger - an excerpt...
The dark forces seem intent on destroying the virtual world they have erected to hide Reality... They want to bring it all down - in one fell swoop. All the idols they deified - society, economy, politics, freedom, equality, humanity - are being pulled down, one-by-one.
For decades they worked to remake society, to make it kinder, gentler, and more accepting. They raged against social constructs, against oppression, against marginalization. They fought for an open world that would include everyone and everything but the Divine and those who live by the Divine; a society that would inevitably emancipate everyone - even the oppressors.
That society is now anti-society.
For decades they argued for open borders, the free movement of goods, the mobility of labor - all for the gradual but imminent enrichment of the world. Tens of millions have been shut out of work these past few months. Debts continue to increase. The infrastructure continues to crumble. People are going hungry. Yet stock markets around the world are once again close to all-time-highs.
That economy is now anti-economy.
And politics is now anti-politics. Nations are anti-nations. Laws are anti-laws. Culture is anti-culture. Religion is anti-religion. Truth is anti-truth. Beauty is anti-beauty. Virtue is anti-virtue. Goodness is anti-goodness.
Why? Because humanity is now anti-humanity. Humanity is not aware it has become anti-humanity. Humanity is unaware of nearly all antis. The bulk of them see nothing but pros.
Anti-humanity silently longs for its anti-savior. And when the anti-savior appears, the End Times will finally arrive.
I think that all of these things you (Francis) mention (the human ones, such as economy, government, etc.)... are things which are destined to fall one way or another. I think that God wills them to fall...that is part of now living in a "new world" (for some decades/centuries... the dividing line is not clear cut and there was a period of overlap of the old and new world, which gave rise to many of the contradictions, absurdities and incoherencies which we are mostly well aware of). All of these institutions belong to the "old world", are predicated upon "old modes of thinking and understanding", and so HAVE TO GO, and WILL GO, and that brute fact is and always was something we men had no way of halting.
ReplyDeleteWhat is still in our hands, and will be for a few generations, I believe (I am not apocalyptic, in an ultimate sense), is the historic task of making sure that this new world (which will ultimately not resemble much the old one, not in any humanly meaningful way) is built upon lines which are pleasing to the LORD.
What the adversary is doing, as always, is taking something which was the LORD`s plan (the massive evolutionary shift in consciousness, and the subsequent shift in human life and the society woven around that life to sustain and nourish it) and trying to sully it... to make it such that it intensifies the satisfaction of his private perversions. But the adversary is not behind the "destruction" of the old world. That is not in his power. What is in his power, is to persuade, beguile, seduce men into making a "mess of it". But ultimately even this "mess" will be limited, for the LORD does not create "worlds" which are suceptible to a fundmental degree of destruction by the adversary. Our Father is a Master Creator, the adversary is a petulant and aggressive, but ultimately impotent, child who can only go so far (although that "so far" can, of course, be very far indeed... especially in terms of bringing about out horrid individual damnation).
Gary, outstanding comment. Thank you! I agree that God is guiding things and He won't let man or the devil deter His purposes and plans. He will accomplish what He set out to accomplish, will we join in or fight it?
ReplyDelete-Andrew E.
Indeed, Andrew.
ReplyDelete"A man's heart deviseth his way: but the Lord directeth his steps." Proverbs 16:9