Maybe I’m in a mood but I fear that we’re losing. But then again maybe we always were. Maybe we’re supposed to lose in order to get better later.
Right now, same sex couple are marrying in California and some capitalist somewhere is making money by creating same sex couple wedding cake toppers. Outpatient abortions occur every minute. The Bible is labeled hate speech. Religious freedom is sacrificed at the altar of political correctness. Embryos are destroyed with the cheerful goodwill of the public with the promise of cures. Evil is simply a personal choice.
Secular humanism is on the march to become the prominent faith of our time. Its advances are unheralded because they’re still separating out their opposition. Silence is still their ally. Our doom has not been widely discussed and argued by the intellectual giants of our time but quietly measured out in beakers by unquestioned scientists working “for the public good.”
You either believe man is here to serve God or serve man. God or man?
You believe men can be remade as gods or you don’t. You believe that man is simply and only the most evolved animal on this particular planet or you don’t.
I don’t.
Right now, we are witness to the clash of the two irreconcilable faiths of our time and I don’t think I’m going out on a limb here by saying that we’re losing. The one side seems to have all the commitment and drive to reshape the culture to their own vision. And our side seems filled with Kitty Genovese Americans.
Just for background, Kitty Genovese was a New York City woman who was attacked, stabbed, and raped, and ultimately murdered as 38 neighbors did nothing despite hearing her cries. One man turned up his television to drown out her cries. Others said they were afraid to get involved. The case came to epitomize apathy in New York City.
We know something bad is happening right now. Right outside our window. But we turn the television up to drown out the cries.
Their side seems bent on promoting their vision while our side is too silent to even negotiate the terms of surrender. We think ‘if they just leave my family and I alone all will be right.’ We don’t want to be labeled as nutty. We don’t want conversations to stop when we walk in the room. We hide our views and our beliefs away while the other side argues with self righteous passion. Maybe, we don’t believe we’re right anymore – not the way we used to.
I sometimes avoid newspapers because I don’t want to hear the cries I would hear from the stories. I excuse myself from conversations that I see are going against what I believe. In short, I turn up the television because I don’t want to hear how the other side is reaching their markers with stunning ease, how another hill has been gained.
This crisis has been mounting for decades and we’ve reached, I believe, the tipping point. Victory is within their grasp. They’re unfurling their banners for all to see.
Our society has been the focus of concentrated evil in so many ways externally and internally and the result is that the horrors of recent years are unparalleled. My children will one day ask me what I did while the world was on fire. I don’t want to say I turned up the television.
God help us in these times.
June 17, 2008 at 5:05 am
Duh.
What? Did you think Christ skipped up Golgatha with glee?
We, the Church, must follow in His footsteps. In the last days, things are supposed to get bad. We lose before we win. Christ died before He rose.
This is commonsense. Rejoice, the hour of our death approaches. Soon, all things will end, and only God’s peace will remain.
This is commonsense, unless you’re under the impression that “Apocalypse” means “summer vacation.”
We’re supposed to lose, that’s the whole point. That’s how we win, if you remember.
June 17, 2008 at 5:22 am
Matthew,
Great article! I want to tell my children that when the world was on fire, Mommy carried buckets. As many as I could.
Eo,
Tell the truth. You are a big fan of the book “How to make friends and influence people book”, right? I knew it.
June 17, 2008 at 5:27 am
E.N.
“Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.”
Listen. Learn.
June 17, 2008 at 1:04 pm
Mmm. Interesting comments. I agree with Matthew’s post. No, we can’t just sit back and hit the volume control on the television. We have work to do and in the tasks set before us we are, I hope, trudging up Golgotha along with Jesus. End times? We’ve been in end times since Jesus died. Read the Old Testament and you’ll find “concentrated evil” described in those pages, too. We consider ourselves crucified when the mainstream media exhibits bias in reporting and their portrayal of Christians as idiots. Have we *really* been martyred yet? Have we needed to create catacombs in this country? No. We’ve got a ways to go, I believe.
I must confess that I am one who would rather turn the volume up. Let them get theirs in the end, you know? But I’m married to a man who is a fighter. He truly marches in the army of God, both by his quiet strength and when needed, by being vocal and engaging in intelligent and reasoned debate. He does this whenever the opportunities present themselves – whether with a daughter enamored of a nationally known psychic, or a granddaughter sharing a bed with her boyfriend. He works the fields he finds himself in . . . and makes it pretty darned uncomfortable for me who would rather just smooth the waters and make everything nice. He is a peacemaker, not a peace lover.
There is work to be done, but we must start with ourselves and those closest to us. I don’t like it one bit, but I hope when I grow up – and I’m 52 years old – that I’ll be much more like my husband, not afraid of the convictions I claim.
June 17, 2008 at 2:52 pm
“…I don’t think I’m going out on a limb here by saying that we’re losing.”
I wish I could contradict you here. Eo makes some good points; I hope he’s right.
June 17, 2008 at 2:56 pm
Eo,
Why don’t you stand on a street corner with a sign screaming that the end times are here. There are some in every age who think it’s the end time and every fool of every age believes it.
June 17, 2008 at 7:04 pm
Eo – you may well be right. This strikes me as no reason at all not to fight one’s way down, to the very end, and be faithful under fire. We will never make Earth into Heaven, but that’s no reason to sit idly while it becomes Hell. We’re the Church Militant, not the Church Supine.
Time to put “A Man for All Seasons” on the Netflix queue.
June 17, 2008 at 8:52 pm
I think you are right Matt AND I think that most people are absolutely in denial about it happening.
The weirdest part is that many are embracing how the world is changing.
But we must remember too, that ours is not the first time this has happened. Imagine the faithful living through the French Revolution, or the Russian, or the Nazi tragedy. And those are from our own time.
A Chinese curse is that you live in interesting times. I am not at all certain that the end is near, but it does appear that we are in and headed for interesting times.
June 17, 2008 at 10:17 pm
Why is it that our first instinct is to walk away from public conversations that we know contradicts our views? Why, when people make comments about my family size, do I feel like I’m in the wrong? Why are we so afraid to be considered “nutty”? And, doen’t even mention homeschooling…
I agree with your post, Matthew. And, I’m afraid that I suffer from the same symptoms that you do.
Food for thought (and action) for the day. Thanks!
June 17, 2008 at 11:23 pm
Each age of the Church has faced her struggles and will continue to do so. I don’t know that the evils of this age are so much more concentrated than in previous ages, or if the horrors of recent years are unparalleled. I can think of many ages where the Church faced serious crises, some internal and some external, and even when the Church in a particular area was destroyed. Then again, what does it matter in terms of our response? Whatever the evil, we are to fight it, and with our lives. This may not mean giving up our life, as it rarely does in the U. S. But it certainly does mean changing our lives and making sacrifices.
Jesus asked if there would be any faithful left when the Son of Man returns. St. Paul exhorts us to conquer evil by doing good.
Our children have a right to expect us to witness to the truth with our lives. They have a right to ask what we did when the world was on fire, as it always is, and we ought to be able to say that we fought the good fight.
Here is a place to begin: find out how many of the companies that are listed in your 401K or your 403B that are contributing to the culture of death. Then dis-invest, even if it means closing your retirement account. Do you want to live your retirement years off the profits of companies that are killing people? How are you going to explain that one to the Just Judge? Find out what companies and charities contribute to Planned Parenthood, and boycott them and send them a letter telling them why. Start with Sonic fast food and Wells Fargo financial and the Susan B. Komen cancer charity.
Be doers of the Word, and not just hearers.
Bob Hunt
June 18, 2008 at 1:29 am
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E.N.
“Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.”
Listen. Learn.
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*sighs*
Why is my tone always misinterpreted? Maybe I shouldn’t use any anachronisms in my wording.
I was issuing a message of hope in a tongue-in-cheek way.
I haven’t the slightest idea how my post could’ve been taken as offensive, or my gallows-humor misconstrued.
June 18, 2008 at 1:35 am
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Eo,
Why don’t you stand on a street corner with a sign screaming that the end times are here. There are some in every age who think it’s the end time and every fool of every age believes it.
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Rita, was Christ then a fool? How about St. Paul?
The end times are always near, and one day, they shall be near for everyone, at once. In the meantime though, for each and every one of us, they are as near as our own death.
And that’s never very far off.
June 18, 2008 at 1:36 am
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Eo,
Tell the truth. You are a big fan of the book “How to make friends and influence people book”, right? I knew it.
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Christine, how’d you know? ;-P
June 18, 2008 at 1:39 am
Might be a good night to watch
the 300 again, Mr Archbold.
This is a battle we’re meant to lose eventually in order to win the war.
Or rather Christ wins,we get to hold His water cup if we make the cut.
June 18, 2008 at 1:47 am
I don’t think it’s as dire as some predict, nor do I think we ought to be rejoicing in some triumphant apocolyptic death march.
It’s a numbers game, and we will win. Might get tough for a while. Just do your best with your family each day.
After all, this is only the kingdom of man.
June 19, 2008 at 3:47 pm
CMR- Matthew 10:19-20 When they hand you over, do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say. You will be given at that moment what you are to say. For it will not be you who speak but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.