Wednesday, April 06, 2005
---Civilization Takes Another Leap
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,152273,00.html
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,152176,00.html
http://www.anncoulter.org/ (this week’s commentary: “The Emperor's New Robes”)
Is it significant that the English language uses the same word for both judicial and sexual misconduct? We say “sexual perversion” and “perversion of justice”. Why? A reflection of the similarly severe consequences of both to our social structure? Certainly neither can be tolerated if a society is to survive for any length of time. And here we are, as citizens of the American Republic, suffering under both kinds in apparently unlimited abundance.
Before you look the other way while your judicial institution passes judgment on the Ten Commandments, think about how many human empires have fallen to dust since the Ten were written down.
The truth is, Civilization doesn’t actually work. It never has. It was a failure from the beginning---how many human civilizations have lasted more than a few hundred, perhaps a thousand years? Certainly none will last forever. If insanity is to be defined as trying the same thing over and over, fully expecting it to work “this time”, then our species is in serious trouble, if that wasn’t obvious from other observable parameters. I think we are able to continue to convince ourselves to keep trying the same mistake again and again, and to believe that Civilization is The Thing To Do, because at the end of every generation, we destroy the evidence. God instituted the Fifth of the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:12) for a good reason.
Civilization doesn’t actually work, because the concept is flawed from its foundations up. It would require that we replace God’s Judgment with a mindless paper automaton of laws, sufficient to predict and counteract all the enormous number and ever-evolving variety of ways that an ill-motivated human can discover to cause evil and chaos. It would also require that we replace God’s Justice with some sort of administration for the impossible system of laws made up of men who, although evil and sick with power, are to be expected to act in the interest of the governed instead of for the personal political and financial gain of the administrator.
Worst of all, the very idea of human government apart from humanity’s Creator requires that we separate ourselves from God’s Presence. Civilization’s founding principle is the lie (John 8:44), and its driving ambition is evil. Evil is a terrible basis for a government. Remember the Third Reich? The Soviet Union? But maybe it will work next time.
Given a few generations at best, a given attempt at government most often differs from hell only in duration. Been in a court of law in the U.S. lately? Nor is the perversion limited to the judiciary. Had an elderly relative’s insurance near the finish line while they were under extended care in a hospital lately?
How do we escape this worst of all bad ideas? How do we fix this? By returning to God’s Kingdom, and submitting to the King He has placed on its Throne:
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http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,152176,00.html
http://www.anncoulter.org/ (this week’s commentary: “The Emperor's New Robes”)
Is it significant that the English language uses the same word for both judicial and sexual misconduct? We say “sexual perversion” and “perversion of justice”. Why? A reflection of the similarly severe consequences of both to our social structure? Certainly neither can be tolerated if a society is to survive for any length of time. And here we are, as citizens of the American Republic, suffering under both kinds in apparently unlimited abundance.
Isaiah 10Why can’t we make a government that lasts? Why does every system either fail outright and disappear or become degenerate and abusive or succumb to the madness of power? While we can argue indefinitely about whether or not the American Republic has or hasn’t arrived at its “Rubicon” moment, there is no reason at all to believe that it is headed in some other, more constructive direction. Babylon, Assyria, Greece, Macedon, Rome, all gone. There is no reason to believe that any of the current crop of government systems will fare any better. Where else would we go for hope for the future? France? Saudi Arabia? China? It’s all been done, most of it more than once. In fact, in all of human history, the Truth is the only form of government that hasn’t been tried.
1 Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees, 2 to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people, making widows their prey and robbing the fatherless. 3 What will you do on the day of reckoning, when disaster comes from afar? To whom will you run for help? Where will you leave your riches?
Before you look the other way while your judicial institution passes judgment on the Ten Commandments, think about how many human empires have fallen to dust since the Ten were written down.
The truth is, Civilization doesn’t actually work. It never has. It was a failure from the beginning---how many human civilizations have lasted more than a few hundred, perhaps a thousand years? Certainly none will last forever. If insanity is to be defined as trying the same thing over and over, fully expecting it to work “this time”, then our species is in serious trouble, if that wasn’t obvious from other observable parameters. I think we are able to continue to convince ourselves to keep trying the same mistake again and again, and to believe that Civilization is The Thing To Do, because at the end of every generation, we destroy the evidence. God instituted the Fifth of the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:12) for a good reason.
Civilization doesn’t actually work, because the concept is flawed from its foundations up. It would require that we replace God’s Judgment with a mindless paper automaton of laws, sufficient to predict and counteract all the enormous number and ever-evolving variety of ways that an ill-motivated human can discover to cause evil and chaos. It would also require that we replace God’s Justice with some sort of administration for the impossible system of laws made up of men who, although evil and sick with power, are to be expected to act in the interest of the governed instead of for the personal political and financial gain of the administrator.
Worst of all, the very idea of human government apart from humanity’s Creator requires that we separate ourselves from God’s Presence. Civilization’s founding principle is the lie (John 8:44), and its driving ambition is evil. Evil is a terrible basis for a government. Remember the Third Reich? The Soviet Union? But maybe it will work next time.
Given a few generations at best, a given attempt at government most often differs from hell only in duration. Been in a court of law in the U.S. lately? Nor is the perversion limited to the judiciary. Had an elderly relative’s insurance near the finish line while they were under extended care in a hospital lately?
How do we escape this worst of all bad ideas? How do we fix this? By returning to God’s Kingdom, and submitting to the King He has placed on its Throne:
Isaiah 9We admit our mistake, and accept Him by faith:
6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, [a] Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this.
Romans 3:We re-admit His Presence into our lives:
23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
John 14:We become God’s Nation:
26But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.
Exodus 19:6
You will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.
1 Peter 2:9
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
Matthew 16:18
…and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hell will not overcome it.
Labels: Bible and Religious Commentary
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