Friday, November 26, 2010

Secular Fundamentalism, Profane Prophecy and Its Godless Social Engineering

While many secular scholars mock the prophetic writings of the Old and New Testaments as being irrational and fundamentalist, and too many Christians seemingly chime in by eschewing the idea of a literal fulfillment of such apocalyptic predictions, especially when it comes to great events like the Rapture of the Church (1 Cor. 15:51-52; 1 Thess. 4:13-18), the Great Tribulation (Jer. 30:1-7; Rev 6-19), the Second Coming of Christ (Matt 24:30-31; Rev 19:11-16), the glorious Millennial Messianic Kingdom of the future when the people of Israel will finally receive the full benefits of all of their covenants promised to them which will also bless the entire world beyond human imagination (Isa 2:1-4; Mic. 4:1-4; Rev 20:1-6), and the ultimate Eternal State in which there will be a new heavens and a new earth (Isa 66:22; Rev 21-22), perhaps it is time to look at this another way to illustrate why such notions are far more relevant than many might presume. Contrary to popular academic thinking, modernity would not exist without such an apocalyptic worldview. Modern man, and this is especially true of the academics, has imbibed deeply from such apocalyptic wells without the slightest consideration as to where this has all come from. He has placed his future hope in a man made eschaton where science and politics has been hotwired with eschatology by secularizing and profaning the Christian faith. In the process of so doing, he has converted himself into a secular fundamentalist that has been far more apocalyptic and barbaric than most Jihadists could ever imagine.

The fact of the matter is that progressivism, various brands of western socialism, fascism and even communism itself, are all steeped in a modern philosophy of history that is deeply rooted in this apocalyptic Judeo-Christian tradition. While some may emphasize the gradual perfectibility of man over time, others, like the Marxists for example, emphasize a more drastic, apocalyptic millenarian view of history, both of which stand in sharp contrast to the Greco-Roman mythology of Eternal Return, i.e., that history was a vicious circle which mirrors Nature’s life and death annual cycles. As such, under the Greeks and Romans, history was never seen to be the basis of a future redemptive hope, but viewed as something to escape from. What the Greeks and Romans were looking for was not a future redemption within the confines of the historical process, but an a-physical, timeless beyond where suffering and death no longer held sway over the material body. In other words, the progressive, linear concept of time and the hopeful modern orientation toward a goal directed historical future are all based on countless biblical prophecies which predict such an end time scenario going all the way back to the prophet Isaiah who prophesied that the nations will finally one day “hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks (Isaiah 2:4; Micah 4:3).” This prophecy has become the very symbol of the United Nations. Indeed, the whole point of the Old and New Testaments strongly teaches a progressive revelation of God within the confines of history. It is this particular view of history that modernity has wholeheartedly adopted into its own way of thinking, yet has abandoned the religious milieu in which such ideas were originally born.
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"The problem is that progressives, socialists, fascists and communists are all attempting to bring about this radical transformation of the world through mere politics, racism, environmentalism, political correctness, multiculturalism and the redistribution of wealth"
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The problem is that progressives, socialists, fascists and communists are all attempting to bring about this radical transformation of the world through mere politics, racism, environmentalism, political correctness, multiculturalism and the redistribution of wealth. All the while they make fun of the miraculous that is often found on the pages of the Scriptures, incredibly, they naively believe that they can bring about a collectivist utopia upon the earth through sleight of hand processes known as secularization and profanization. Through secularization they have taken apocalyptic notions from the Bible and transposed them into worldly political affairs by gutting the religious element. Through profanization they have taken such sacred ideas and have reduced them to the merely profane or mundane by shucking the religious reverence associated with them. Faith, hope, change, transformation and a “yes we can” attitude are thus removed from their religious foundations, and transposed into empty political rhetoric that captivates the unsuspecting and takes everyone involved down the proverbial garden path.

,Thus, surprisingly enough, at the end of the day, modern man has become a secular fundamentalist. Furthermore, the 20th century has proven beyond reasonable doubt that this is the worst of kind of fundamentalism there is wherein state sponsored cults have been responsible for the biggest genocides that history has yet to witness, all of which uncannily foreshadow the Great Tribulation of the prophetic future, and the rule of the coming Antichrist (1 Thess. 2:1-13; Rev 13). In their modern unbelief, progressives, fascists, socialists and communists have taken the apocalyptic burdens of Bible prophecies upon their own secular shoulders. This in turn unwittingly opened them up to the practice of horrific social engineering schemes that made the 20th century one gigantic collectivist secular slaughterhouse which affected the lives of hundreds of millions of people, many far worse than others. They took salvation into their own hands, and tried to convert history itself into an evolutionary forum in which collectivist man will develop himself into an entirely new man not beset by limiting or unfavorable circumstances. Because of secularization and profanization however, such physical limitations and unfavorable circumstances are completely disassociated from the biblical concept of a fallen world. The problems therefore that trouble man have nothing to do with sin against an infinite holy God, but rather is seen as the haphazard result of chaotic evolutionary processes which can optimistically be overcome by rearranging the ‘literal’ materialistic causes of such defects – whether they be economic, biological or environmental, etc.
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"Socialistic engineers have often left behind a staggering body count – quotas which even radical Jihadists have fallen far short of"

.The upshot of all this is that in the process of rearranging and correcting the materialistic causes of the so-called human condition, socialistic engineers have often left behind a staggering body count – quotas which even radical Jihadists have fallen far short of. Worse is that since such social engineering schemes have all been done in the name of progress, science and collectivist politics that has everyone’s ultimate good in mind, such shocking numbers have largely been cleansed of all its blood. It was Stalin who famously pointed out that the murder of a handful of people is a tragedy, but the killing of millions is a mere statistic. Thus modern man’s apocalyptic philosophy of history is in fact built on the blood of a lot of a common folks who just got in the way. Redemptive power over history is therefore a modern illusory fantasy far more radical than the so-called rational science and secular politics that its proponents often proclaim. Building up the eschaton with the blood of hundreds of millions of people is not much of a future to look forward to.

This outstanding modern problem, which most people are even unaware of thanks to more than 150 years of socialistic-communistic-fascist propaganda, is summarized best of all by British scholar Rolf Gruner, “modern man’s understanding of history has a religious ancestry without itself being religious. That is to say, it has retained the features such as the linear conception of time and the notion of history as a goal-directed process, but has jettisoned the sacred and supernatural context in which alone they had once made sense.” In other words, without an all-powerful transcendent Creator who is sovereign over all of history, and who can even bring about the resurrection of the dead, not to mention the future apocalypse, a linear concept of time that views history as a goal-directed redemptive process makes no sense whatsoever. Even worse is that such secular ideas loosed from their religious moorings also degrades all previous generations to the status of a mere means to a future end that none of its peoples will ever be able to share in for the simple reason that they were born at the wrong time. It even justifies the sacrificing of past generations, which more than a few modern social engineers have been all too willing to be engaged in. As is usually the case with them, the end justifies the means.

This in fact is the ultimate vanity of all vanities. As such Rolf Gruner stresses further that “the very secularity of their thought creates at least one great obstacle to their undertaking. It prevents them from justifying evil in the eyes of those who are affected by it. A man who suffers here and now cannot be consoled by being told that his misery serves a purpose in that it plays its necessary part in ensuring a glorious future for generations still to come. What matters to him is his life, and perhaps that of some of his contemporaries and immediate successors, not the life of people who will be born when he has been long dead; why should he have any interest in being a means to their happiness or perfection? In this respect traditional Christianity is on much stronger ground … for according to its teaching each individual has access to a state of bliss in a future life to which his suffering in this life is essentially related.” Indeed - so much for the modern push on social justice and community agitation.
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"The Christian has not been called to be a social engineer or a community organizer, but to be a missionary of God’s glorious grace to a dying and sinful world"
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Perhaps just as important in all this is that neither is it the Christian’s responsibility to bring about the apocalypse. That will all come in due time according to divine determination, “it is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority (Acts 1:7).” In other words, the Christian has NOT been called to be a social engineer or a community organizer, but to be a missionary of God’s glorious grace to a dying and sinful world. In fact, most social engineering of the Christian is to be accomplished through prayer (1 Tim 2:1-7), which is far more effective in changing people than politics will ever be. Neither does such prayerful social concerns violate the image of God inherent in all people, something which most moderns are not restricted by since they believe in evolution.

In conclusion, Jesus had a parable to perfectly summarize this particular conundrum,

"Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field: But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way. But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares? He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn." (Matt 13:24-30).”

The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!



Lucifer - The Original Fascist
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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

[Seen this? I saw it on the net. Joe]

PRETRIB RAPTURE POLITICS

Many are still unaware of the eccentric, 180-year-old British theory underlying the politics of American evangelicals and Christian Zionists.
Journalist and historian Dave MacPherson has spent more than 40 years focusing on the origin and spread of what is known as the apocalyptic "pretribulation rapture" - the inspiration behind Hal Lindsey's bestsellers of the 1970s and Tim LaHaye's today.
Although promoters of this endtime evacuation from earth constantly repeat their slogan that "it's imminent and always has been" (which critics view more as a sales pitch than a scriptural statement), it was unknown in all official theology and organized religion before 1830.
And MacPherson's research also reveals how hostile the pretrib rapture view has been to other faiths:
It is anti-Islam. TV preacher John Hagee has been advocating "a pre-emptive military strike against Iran." (Google "Roots of Warlike Christian Zionism.")
It is anti-Jewish. MacPherson's book "The Rapture Plot" (see Armageddon Books etc.) exposes hypocritical anti-Jewishness in even the theory's foundation.
It is anti-Catholic. Lindsey and C. I. Scofield are two of many leaders who claim that the final Antichrist will be a Roman Catholic. (Google "Pretrib Hypocrisy.")
It is anti-Protestant. For this reason no major Protestant denomination has ever adopted this escapist view.
It even has some anti-evangelical aspects. The first publication promoting this novel endtime view spoke degradingly of "the name by which the mixed multitude of modern Moabites love to be distinguished, - the Evangelical World." (MacPherson's "Plot," p. 85)
Despite the above, MacPherson proves that the "glue" that holds constantly in-fighting evangelicals together long enough to be victorious voting blocs in elections is the same "fly away" view. He notes that Jerry Falwell, when giving political speeches just before an election, would unfailingly state: "We believe in the pretribulational rapture!"
In addition to "The Rapture Plot," MacPherson's many internet articles include "Famous Rapture Watchers," "Pretrib Rapture Diehards," "Edward Irving is Unnerving," "America's Pretrib Rapture Traffickers," "Thomas Ice (Bloopers)," "Pretrib Rapture Secrecy" and "Pretrib Rapture Dishonesty" (massive plagiarism, phony doctorates, changing of early "rapture" documents in order to falsely credit John Darby with this view, etc.!).
Because of his devastating discoveries, MacPherson is now No. 1 on the "hate" list of pretrib rapture leaders who love to ban or muddy up his uber-accurate findings in sources like Wikipedia - which they've almost turned into Wicked-pedia!
There's no question that the leading promoters of this bizarre 19th century end-of-the-world doctrine are solidly pro-Israel and necessarily anti-Palestinian. In light of recently uncovered facts about this fringe-British-invented belief which has always been riddled with dishonesty, many are wondering why it should ever have any influence on Middle East affairs.
This Johnny-come-lately view raises millions of dollars for political agendas. Only when scholars of all faiths begin to look deeply at it and widely air its "dirty linen" will it cease to be a power. It is the one theological view no one needs!
With apologies to Winston Churchill - never has so much deception been foisted on so many by so few!

[I agree with the above. And pretribulation raptiles hate MacPherson's "The Rapture Plot" - which I bought at Armageddon Books online - more than any other book!]

The Ignorant Fishermen said...

Dear Anonymous,

Most of the saints who signed the Nicene Creed were Pre-Millenialists. After Constantine, when the Roman state merged with the Catholic Church, Pre-Millenialism was slowly replaced with A-Millenialism, which was largely based on Augustine's abstract Greek philosophical conceptions that were far out of step with the prophetic-historical emphasis of both the Old and New Testaments. As far as the Rapture goes, they recently uncovered an ancient rapture statement that goes back to the 670's at the latest, or the 370's at the earliest. In light of the A-Millenialism of the later years, this ancient rapture statment more than likely goes back to the 300's.

Thank you for your post!

All the best in Christ,

RMM