Christianity is true; and it is desirable to be a Christian because it is true and not because practising a Christian life is socially expedient --- but Christianity is also political, because a faith-full Christian can never be corrupted unless he himself chooses to become corrupted. By contrast, non-Christians can be corrupted merely by compromising them: that is, by persuading or coercing them to do something against their beliefs. And that is easy to achieve: it is almost certain to succeed.
This is the main strategy of the current evil world elite - they are creating, incrementally, a society of inversion: good is bad and bad is good, ugly is beautiful, dishonesty is truth - truth is hate... and so forth. Inversion is encouraged by propaganda and implicit messages embedded in most of the arts and entertainments; Goodness is prosecuted and inversion is subsidized, rewarded and - increasingly - compelled.
Living in such a world, amidst the confusions and pressures, every individual is sooner or late (and usually sooner) compromised. (He is nearly-always compromised in a public fashion: but he is always compromised in his private mind, by his own knowledge.)
That is he does or says something, many things, in-line with the mainstream system of secular Leftism and therefore against whatever positive moral system he believes (because inverted morality works against all forms of morality). Indeed, he builds, brick by brick, an edifice of lies; he finds himself first defending then promoting sin; he denigrates good people and good ideas; and of course he engages in one or many of the prevalent sins of our age, which are sexual.
By adulthood, the typical modern person is loaded with a baggage of subliminal guilt and shame, and deeply confused by the harshly enforced but incoherent and constantly changing morality of political correctness.
If that person is secular or non-Christian then he is always and inevitably painted into a corner, he is hedged by thorns, he is crushed by his own conscience; he is not wanted by anyone except, of course, as a slave to the evil masters of The West - and he therefore spends his life in an attempt (usually mostly successful) not to think or be aware, to live in a state of distraction and intoxication, until overwhelmed by death (conceptualized as extinction of consciousness).
In such an impossible situation, the non-Christian does not merely give-up and go-along-with the dominant system of evil; he actually embraces it - and this is the whole and necessary purpose.
Because ultimately, evil can only win when it is invited into the hearts of men.
Merely getting people to go-along-with evil is all-but useless in an eternal perspective (and the evil rulers have exactly that perspective - they are deadly serious about their work); individuals, groups, nations and ultimately the world must be induced to want evil, to volunteer for evil, to demand evil and to complain and protest when evil is not supplied (evil freely available, for all, equally...).
But if that trapped and suffocated person is, or becomes, a Christian; it is a case of 'With one bound, Jack was free!'*
By repentance, any individual is forgiven; forgiven anything and everything. And repentance is unbounded, it is infinite.
No matter how much the individual is compromised, no matter how often he is compromised or in what way he is compromised; no matter how deeply he is surrounded and smothered by his own sins - he can instantly and completely free himself by repentance. And he can do so again and again, without any limit.
And he knows it.
So the whole international interlocking system of corruption and inversion is in vain. The individual Christian can defy it all, and win.
Small wonder that real Christianity is the arch-enemy of the evil ruling elites. No matter how small and weak are the organized churches, how few and powerless are individual Christian - real Christians are indomitable, because although they can be tormented and killed, they cannot be defeated.
*Signifying the way that the hero of a boys adventure series would immediately and implausibly escape the impossible predicament of the previous week's 'cliff-hanger' ending.
7 comments:
"With one bound, Jack was free!"
Amen. Repentance is the key to true freedom and joy.
Bruce, you have really given the world a gift. I have been a long time reader (almost every post, I think) and I have read along as you have moved through a progression of different ideas, but what you have landed on, the simplicity with which you have explained life and our divine heavenly family are nothing short of a miracle. I do hope more people read your words in the future.
Thank you for your hard work!
This is the sort of post that truly lightens the heart. Sadly, American Christianity has no truck with the idea of repentance being ever available and ever free. American churches would SAY they believe and teach this, but in practice, it's quite different. If a man sins and repents and then later sins again, the church's first reaction is, "Well, you should doubt your salvation. Your actions show that perhaps you're not a true believer. Like a swine, you're returning to your filth." And so begins the crushing cycle of guilt and despair to which you alluded.
Thank you for this post.
@Kirk Forlatt:
Not as God sees does man see. The burden of skepticism and mistrust from one's fellows after repeated lapses from accepted norms is hardly peculiar to one country or time. It is one of the burdens of mortal life, a demotivator and a crusher of self-esteem, from resistance to which it is difficult to draw strength.
We can refuse to engage in it ourselves when we see such injustice done to others, and not abide it in our fellows, preaching against it by example, if we have the fortitude.
Actually, it's spelt "compromise," even in America.
@Wm - Corrected.
But I hope you don't come here for accurate spelling - I can't do it! Even when I know what is correct, my typing leads me astray. I prefer to spell these 'ize/ ise' words with an ess, even when a zed is optional - but my fingers always type a zed.
I suffer the same problem as CS Lewis and Alasdair Gray (the Scottish author about whom I wrote my MA by reseach - which included reading-through a life-time of diaries, letters and first drafts, all riddled with misspellings).
“You will be required to do wrong no matter where you go. It is the basic condition of life, to be required to violate your own identity. At some time, every creature which lives must do so. It is the ultimate shadow, the defeat of creation; this is the curse at work, the curse that feeds on all life. Everywhere in the universe.”
This is what Wilbur Mercer tells Rick Deckard in "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" by Philip K. Dick.
@dl - Good quote - I read that book back in the eighties, after seeing Blade Runner (greatest movie ever?) and went on to read about another eight or ten of PKD's books. A brilliant writer - but too depressing to re-read...
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