That seems to be how God has set it up - and why.
When there has been a global totalitarian coup to install a world government that is strategically and systemically pursuing evil under the flimsiest and most incoherent of rationales (birdemic, climate change, antiracism, sexual revolution) - Yet Most People Do Not Notice (and deny the obvious when it is pointed-out)...
When this is the situation, when someone has-accepted the mainstream modern (self-contradicting) basic premises of a universe without purpose or meaning; then persuasion, argument, reason, logic, evidence are all utterly powerless.
I think the best we can then do, in practice, is negative...
We can Not Encourage/ Support evil in others.
We can Not join-in with the assumptions behind the social interactions on the birdemic and peck and other Litmus Test issues (as they arise).
Because to encourage sin in others, to normalize sin - to make it an unconscious habit - is (surely?) the worst of sins.
Not to do so, may be all that we can usefully do.
(And even that little is, in practice, difficult.)
Thanks to your several essays on this matter, Bruce, I am now better equipped to understand why a large portion of my local fellow Christians are utterly blind to what is happening. Stark is the divide between those who grasp the sinister nature of the birdemic and those who follow secular authorities "religiously". This has never before happened in my lifetime in such an obvious and dramatic fashion. Your point today makes me sad, but also more confident that I've chosen the true path with Christ.
ReplyDeleteMy children are at an impressionable age. Just yesterday my daughter stood up for Jesus in a confrontation with another child. I'd urge the parents of younger children to work hard to instill discernment now. For older people Bruce is correct -- they have already made an apparently irrevocable choice.
Thanks Bruce. Your thinking and writing makes a difference.
what about people who do recognize the totalitarian coup and the leftist agenda, but do not recognize the reality of God, demons, and the spiritual (even if they say they do, they act completely under materialist assumptions, for example their reasons not to take the peck are purely related to physical health, and spiritual health does not figure at all)?
ReplyDeleteclearly there is some Divine spark left in them, since they are able to see at least the surface of these things, but the purely materialistic view will surely be conquered later on unless they face the reality of God (not to mention that all the opposition to the plan will fail for the same reason).
when trying to convince them of the necessity of focusing on the spiritual, telling them this is first and foremost a spiritual war, I have been told this is purely 'passive' and 'defeatist' and that 'doing nothing is not a plan', etc.
Yes, reason (argument, logic, evidence etc.) are powerless in this case.
ReplyDeleteBut I do not think "not encouraging evil" is all we can do. It wasn't reason that brought people to their modern opinions/views, so why should reason make them change?
I think emotion is much more powerful than reason (for most people anyway). I suggest trying to appeal to the emotional part of people's psyche instead of to the rational part.
Q: How do you convince someone he's sitting on an elephant?
ReplyDeleteA: If he hasn't noticed it himself, nothing you say is likely to help.
@K - "I do not think "not encouraging evil" is all we can do. "
ReplyDeleteNeither do I: https://charltonteaching.blogspot.com/2021/08/this-spiritual-war-is-to-be-fought-by.html
@LLO - All I can suggest is emphasizing (assuming you agree with me) that serious and real Christianity Need have Nothing to do with any church of any kind (although it may and often does); because it is often something against church (that they equate with Christianity) which motivates such people.
@Nova - We must do what lies before us. Adolescence is the difficult time, exactly because it is when people can and must take responsibility for their own spiritual being - and so many refuse this. Most adolescents disguise their overpowering desire to conform with the peer group, get maximum pleasure/ fun, and not thinking seriously At All - as 'thinking for myself'.
@Wm - Exactly. Last year we had literal dictatorship, laws invented daily or suspended for convenience - arbitrary powers, broadcast daily to the nation; but not noticed.
Indeed, even when the spokesmen for evil totalitarian dictators tell us *exactly* what they intend to do to us (Great Reset, Agenda 2030 etc) they are not believed, or these are regarded as well motivated on the basis of the flimsiest of rationales.
Nothing less than literally-Hitler announcing live on national TV that he is head of en evil regime which intends to do evil by torturing all 'minorities' to death because of racial superiority would be recognized as actual evil.
Actually, that would not be enough either:
https://www.maclehosepress.com/titles/timur-vermes/look-whos-back/9781782067825/
"@LLO - All I can suggest is emphasizing (assuming you agree with me) that serious and real Christianity Need have Nothing to do with any church of any kind (although it may and often does); because it is often something against church (that they equate with Christianity) which motivates such people."
ReplyDeleteI used to be a 'church-essential' type Christian, and I still struggle with this, but I have come to agree with you in the face of what has happened and realizing how so few that call themselves christian are really Christian. But it is hard to convince others, especially trad-types as they see it as some form of Protestantism, and of the most radical type. And I have to confess I still kind of see it that way as well and I find it hard to wrap my head around it, but on the other hand it is inconceivable that God would shut us out of His salvation. because if the church is now necessary for salvation, and the church has submitted to the world, which is controlled by the devil, then... the devil is necessary for salvation? that makes no sense. it makes much less sense than the opposite, that God is teaching us a very important lesson, and that these times are not like any other in history.
I am still navigating all of this, but I find it increasingly hard to escape your conclusion despite my previous convictions which seemed so solid - and I have been finding that many recent Orthodox saints have said similar things about what would happen to the church organization and how the faithful would more or less have to fend for themselves, and such statements coming from saints of an apostolic church are very serious and should be taken seriously, which I think we must do.
Maybe there will be a catacumb church, but I don't see it now, or how it can operate given the increased technical surveillance capabilities.
Important post.
ReplyDeleteThinking aloud, I see roughly 4 groups: (1) authentic Christians (passing litmus tests); (2) Christians-in-apostasy (failing 1 or more test); (3) secular persons passing the litmus tests (but rejecting Christ); and (4) persons enthusiastically embracing the antichrist spirit.
Who can be persuaded? Well, God only knows... However, from the list above I think we should be open to correcting group 2 and persuading group 3 for two main reasons: (a) the Great Commission is still in effect (preach and teach all nations about Christ); and (b) the "The Parable of the Wheat and the Tares," which I understand as urging us to continue evangelizing until the end and even if the field appears overrun with weeds and there may only be a single shoot of wheat left.
Finally, when not taking part in the fake-health procedures, this may elicit a "why," which we should then use as an opportunity to confess our faith. At a minimum, we should be able to articulate the gift of eternal life and a positive what-for for living. Remember: all of us will be judged on what we could have/should have done with the time, resources and opportunities we've been provided.
@Magnus - In principle I agree (although I don't think of Christians as being 'judged' in the way you seem to imply - I think we go to Heaven if we love and follow Jesus, and are prepared to make the necessary commitments).
ReplyDeleteBut evangelism is not a program, and includes the realm of 'primary thinking' . I believe Christians are more likely to help save those (few) whom they truly love (in their hearts), than those to whom they preach verbally.
Active evangelicals among Christians have fallen away over the past 18 months, just as much as other types of Christian. The problem seems to be more with hearts than with strategies.
Confessing our faith may be valuable, it depends. Most likely a simple statement of fact to explain 'why' ("I will not, because I am a Christian". [Full Stop]) is better than an explanation based on doctrine or theology; which I have observed often to be actively counter-productive among mainstream modern people.