You see what You Want to See

I read this article back in July 07 and it really took me aback. I fit perfectly with what he is talking about. One of the many believers trying to see our Nation repent before judgment comes. To hear him say that what we are seeing is some of the judgment itself was not something I had thought of.

Recently the family watched the unknown history of the 20 century. It starts just before the scopes trial, in the 20’s. But to see the Christian church of that time had fully embraced the state as an instrument of salvation took me aback. It was not even a point the movie was trying to make. But it was very clear the Christians of that day were a powerful voting block that wanted to use government for “good”. Because their idea of "good" was based on mans reasoning and not Gods word it was missing the mark to say the leaste.

Now I can see that for a very long time so much of what I was trying to restore was a counterfeit version of Christianity. I was trying to restore ethical values minus the King and his standard as the source of the morality.

So its like the culture has been on a slide downhill. But all I was trying to do would have been to push the culture back up the slide a little ways. Now no doubt, that is a better place than where we now are. But it would eventually have to come to where we are, and then continue going down hill. Because it is still on the slide. A combination of Americana and the residue of Christianity. Without Gods Law as a standard you will become pragmatic, you will lose your bearing. I do understand now that so much of the church climbed onto the slide in the mid 18oo's.

Now I see that God wants his people to move off the slide all together and onto a foundation based on his word. Its gonna be one family at a time, one church at a time. Botkins statement that we are living in a transitional period as we move from error to truth is so dead on.

From Douglas Wilson last july "Away from the Judgment -- and Back to the Sin"

...There are countless examples of this. Consider for a moment the abortion carnage. We still think that abortion-on-demand will cause God to visit us with some horrible judgment. But we should consider for a moment the possibility that this judicial frenzy is a blow from the hand of God. Our Supreme Court is clothed in black robes and blindness. In the abstract, if someone were to tell us about a nation that executes a million and half babies a year, legally, the conclusion ought to be that this was the result of God’s anger with them. What did they do that He would visit this horror upon them? Of course, more judgment is to come, but rightly considered, the judgments have already begun to fall...

...Instead of seeking to persuade others that we should confess these sins lest God respond in judgment, we in the church should begin to confess the sins for which these things are the judgment. This is hard for us because when we think back to the time before this cultural meltdown began, we do not see a self-satisfied complacency which angered God. Rather we see a paradise of traditional values. Conservatives like to look back at that golden age, before the Beatles came to America, before Harriet divorced Ozzie and left him for a New Age lesbian. We want to think that we had it good back then, but we threw it all away. But we actually were in high rebellion against God back then, but liked to pretend we were not. This means that in the judgments that have befallen us since, God is stripping away our illusions. And about the only people today who are seeking to retain those older illusions are the Christians. More than a few Christians are urging us to try to get away from the judgments – and back to the sin. But the prophet Jeremiah warned about the sin of healing the wound lightly, crying peace where there is none. But this is what we in fact do...

whole thing here