Who do we look up to for truth and guidance?
When God gave the Israelites the commandments they virtually touched on everything that appertains to life. This is an indicator that he’s concerned with the welfare of man wholesale. This may prove hard to understand to day in a global climate influenced by many things. In a situation where we are at a loss as to the authority that we are to look up to in matters of guiding us in life. Is it the philosopher or the pastor, is it the politician or the scientist is it the journalist or the sportsman is it the celeb or the government? Where exactly should we look up to for truth and guidance in life?
Complicated society
We have increased in self awareness and it is obvious that going forward the society will continue to be very complicated to manage. People will always act based on enlightened self interest. Take for instance the development of democracy has led to a level where by the opinion of any and all counts and matters. The room is left for the fools as well as the intelligent to sell their agenda. If it is accepted well and good. The point is if you can convince the masses then you can have your way.
Conscience subjected to constant beating
But this has led to its own challenges. Lack of centralized authority leads to a sense of confusion and chaos. At this stage the most mischievous can carry the masses and sway them to a selfish angle but the mob thinking does not allow the naïve masses to detect the stealth. The societal orientation today is about a few people seeking to influence others in opinion making and advance their goals through winning the consent of majority. And so many avenues have been generated to subject the conscience to sustained beating resulting to a state of confusion at which they are vulnerable to being swayed.
Beehive tendency
At the root of the campaign is to produce a mass of people with a beehive tendency or directed by herd instinct. Directionless just marching ahead ready to be tinged by any outside force and they take a certain course. Several fronts are played in this wider scheme to rule the souls and minds of God’s people.
1. Sports. At the face of it sports and sportsmanship is harmless, nothing wrong in football, athletics name them just a lucrative industry for leisure to some and a serious occupation to others. But when we say that football is our new religion, we actually get it wrong. When we adore football stars like Ronaldo, Rooney Messi etc we create idols out of them. The fanatical following has replaced religion and a place of God in some people. The huge industry has led to massive merchandise associated with it and so all advertising has been put at the center of these sport events.
2. Arts. Man is a being intellectual, or thinking and knowing, moral, or willing and acting, and aesthetic, or feeling and enjoying and so art is as consequential to man as is living itself. It is just natural for man to appreciate aesthetic beauty in arts. But human capacity to corruption still rears its ugly head here when arts have been reduced to senseless sensuality. Acting porn real when acting has been rendered an avenue to showcase nudity most obscene.
3. Music is yet another front. The noblest expressions of the soul often find their way out of man in form of music or poetry. They communicate the depth of the soul and so what comes out is the reflection of what really is in the heart of man. The depth of decay then that our society has fallen into is therefore openly discernible in the music compositions that come out. It is disturbing the kind of moral vacuity that the contemporary music is displaying. There is a glaring dearth of creativity and solid compositions that convey deep solid and sensible convictions. Again the dragon of debauchery has been found to dominate the music coming out of our musicians.
4. Politics. I will loosely define it as art of living together as a community. Man is a being communal. The aspect of living together as a community has varied implications. The global community national and even the local, the dynamics that determine what interests people bring on the system of politics that will determine many other things. Politics then has become too central to socio-economic affairs of every people. Pursuit for power is combined with interest in economic influence as well as social status. Quite often those who seek power advance a desire for economic and other selfish gains concealed under the garb of altruism.
5. Media. This industry is central to all the other arms working very hard to shape our society in a certain way. Media will serve to convey information in advertising and will be used to influence the masses. As often as the media wants to fake an inactive role in what it dispatches, the media is not a mirror reflecting what is out there. Its role is not simple, passive transmission, but active creation, shaping, and manufacturing, through a lengthy process of selection, filtering, interpretation, and editing. The hidden arms that hold the reins of our media are not benign charities driven by the love of humanity but very aggressive lords of empires with definite agenda to pass to the populace.
6. Religion. Religion is the holiest and deepest concern for man. It is the only way that man has a way of explaining some unfortunate tragedies of life that are just won’t be explained through mere logic. We all come to this conclusion there is an authority out there beyond our limits whose being we can credit the universe. Religion has a way of influencing every spear of human life, it rules the life of man from cradle to the grave.
7. Government. Being the science of ordering the lives of people is a very influential arm. It will determine very many ways in which life will go on in a people. Their policies will influence even the way people will worship especially if freedom of worship is guaranteed. In some countries some religions are banned while only official government religion is encouraged.
As indicated all these frontiers are indicated and they have a degree of influence on a people. This blog is dedicated to ensuring that we make a godly response to contemporary issues. We therefore advance here that all these frontiers must be made subservient to God’s supreme reign. The salient command is that Love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your strength and with all your mind and love your neighbor as yourself.
Friday, April 15, 2011
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Walking the higher lane.
Goodness; the highest greatness
Someone said that goodness is the highest kind of greatness. It belongs to the dignity of human existence to aim at and to execute something great. None of us doesn’t want to associate with the great; the great will never lack company. Even many of us have this feeling that I want to be great, but how many of us cross from this want to actualize it? It is often lamented that the greatest ideas that could have transformed the world end up in the graves never to be implemented.
Our unfulfilled expectations drive us to be angry, bitter, aggressive and vindictive. The basest of us can usually be produced at the slightest provocation. And so the question remains how do we keep this path towards greatness? What is our lot here on earth so that as we leave it will be commented that a great man has left the scene.
And what is greatness?
Depending on what we define greatness, we can be great in our very different ways. George Washington and Abraham Lincoln were great in their own ways may be as statesmen. Alexander the great earned the epithet great for conquering a vast empire, Martin Luther and Mother Teresa of Calcutta are regarded as great for very different reasons. What of Nelson Mandela, Wangari Maathai?
Properly put in the right context, greatness is spoken of depending on the degree someone’s life served the positive cause of humanity. Greatness again may be a highlight of the odds one had to beat to make appreciable strides. But beginning with the former, and going to the mother of all wisdom in the universe, the fear of the Lord that is wisdom and departing from evil that is understanding. The mother wisdom further stipulates that where is the man who would wish to live long and see good, let him depart from evil and do good, let him seek peace and pursue it, let his tongue not speak evil nor his lips speak deceit for he has shown o you man what is good and what does the Lord require of you that you may act justly love mercy and walk humbly with your God. The eastern philosophy suggests that he who conquers others is strong but he who conquers self is mighty.
The greatest battle in life; to conquer self
My thesis here then is that he who conquers self is great. The greatest battle in life is the battle to conquer self. He who wins this wins the war. He is great he who subjugates self so that it can do that which he wants. The path to the higher lane is winning self and ordering it such that it can serve faithfully for the betterment of all. The path to greatness leads us to say yes here I have my right, it is being trampled upon, but what is good for all of us? The path to greatness enables us to draw the highest good possible in man. It makes us choose not to retaliate for doing so merely revenges but does not enhance our common good as human race. We walk the higher lane when we ignore evil and deliberately choose to be slaves of good.
Yes and we defeat the enemy hands down when he comes daggers drawn only to find us not ready to fight. We win when instead of fanning a quarrel we ignore and let it die. We subjugate the enemy when we let him have his way for the sake of peace.
The difference maker
My own experience is that truth is not what the world is after; in fact advocates of truth are few. Justice is foreign to people, good is a stranger but self and greed rule. The world has seen so much violence that it wants no more violent people. The difference maker will be that one who will deliberately choose to be different, believe that good can triumph over evil, order over disorder, and hope over apathy, dignity over ignominy involvement over alienation constructionists over destructionists. That justice will defeat injustice, and crookedness will be swallowed by uprightness. Have you a person whose mere presence solves problems? He seems to have this capacity to absorb desperate situations and turn them into hopeful ones. This person becomes an asset and not a liability to the world. He is a difference maker.
I am the Lord
Several times in Lev 19, God gives the dos and don’ts and finishes with “I am the Lord”. What this means is that God being our final reference we have the confidence of doing what is right and leaving it to him to do else. We can then fear him alone and do well to our fellow man as well as avoiding any paralyzing negativity in life and hope in his justice for no detail of life in the universe passes him. We will then be walking the higher lane; imagine of a world where everyone of us just goes for what is enough for self without being greedy enough to keep more than what he needs, no one deals falsely with another, lies to another, no cheating the neighbor, paying the wages to the workers promptly judging with justice without being unfair to the poor or favoring the mighty but judging our neighbor in righteousness. If everyone of us chooses not to slander our neighbor never hate our brother in the heart and rebuke our neighbor so that sin is not allowed to build in his life if we don’t take vengeance or bear a grudge against anyone but love others as self then this would be heaven on earth and then and only then would we be walking the higher lane. I intend to walk the higher lane.
Nurturing the good demon; starving the bad one
It will be hard to find a better way of expressing the good that can come out of man than living the good, doing the good and departing from the evil. Jesus did warn us that in the world there is no good, and so we ought to live as wise as serpents but as harmless as doves, and so we can be innocent in what is bad but steadfast in what is good. The good demon in us can be nurtured to produce a wholesome life. This also means starving the bad demon in us to death. It means developing the good habits while abandoning the bad ones. This way we become a great people.
Someone said that goodness is the highest kind of greatness. It belongs to the dignity of human existence to aim at and to execute something great. None of us doesn’t want to associate with the great; the great will never lack company. Even many of us have this feeling that I want to be great, but how many of us cross from this want to actualize it? It is often lamented that the greatest ideas that could have transformed the world end up in the graves never to be implemented.
Our unfulfilled expectations drive us to be angry, bitter, aggressive and vindictive. The basest of us can usually be produced at the slightest provocation. And so the question remains how do we keep this path towards greatness? What is our lot here on earth so that as we leave it will be commented that a great man has left the scene.
And what is greatness?
Depending on what we define greatness, we can be great in our very different ways. George Washington and Abraham Lincoln were great in their own ways may be as statesmen. Alexander the great earned the epithet great for conquering a vast empire, Martin Luther and Mother Teresa of Calcutta are regarded as great for very different reasons. What of Nelson Mandela, Wangari Maathai?
Properly put in the right context, greatness is spoken of depending on the degree someone’s life served the positive cause of humanity. Greatness again may be a highlight of the odds one had to beat to make appreciable strides. But beginning with the former, and going to the mother of all wisdom in the universe, the fear of the Lord that is wisdom and departing from evil that is understanding. The mother wisdom further stipulates that where is the man who would wish to live long and see good, let him depart from evil and do good, let him seek peace and pursue it, let his tongue not speak evil nor his lips speak deceit for he has shown o you man what is good and what does the Lord require of you that you may act justly love mercy and walk humbly with your God. The eastern philosophy suggests that he who conquers others is strong but he who conquers self is mighty.
The greatest battle in life; to conquer self
My thesis here then is that he who conquers self is great. The greatest battle in life is the battle to conquer self. He who wins this wins the war. He is great he who subjugates self so that it can do that which he wants. The path to the higher lane is winning self and ordering it such that it can serve faithfully for the betterment of all. The path to greatness leads us to say yes here I have my right, it is being trampled upon, but what is good for all of us? The path to greatness enables us to draw the highest good possible in man. It makes us choose not to retaliate for doing so merely revenges but does not enhance our common good as human race. We walk the higher lane when we ignore evil and deliberately choose to be slaves of good.
Yes and we defeat the enemy hands down when he comes daggers drawn only to find us not ready to fight. We win when instead of fanning a quarrel we ignore and let it die. We subjugate the enemy when we let him have his way for the sake of peace.
The difference maker
My own experience is that truth is not what the world is after; in fact advocates of truth are few. Justice is foreign to people, good is a stranger but self and greed rule. The world has seen so much violence that it wants no more violent people. The difference maker will be that one who will deliberately choose to be different, believe that good can triumph over evil, order over disorder, and hope over apathy, dignity over ignominy involvement over alienation constructionists over destructionists. That justice will defeat injustice, and crookedness will be swallowed by uprightness. Have you a person whose mere presence solves problems? He seems to have this capacity to absorb desperate situations and turn them into hopeful ones. This person becomes an asset and not a liability to the world. He is a difference maker.
I am the Lord
Several times in Lev 19, God gives the dos and don’ts and finishes with “I am the Lord”. What this means is that God being our final reference we have the confidence of doing what is right and leaving it to him to do else. We can then fear him alone and do well to our fellow man as well as avoiding any paralyzing negativity in life and hope in his justice for no detail of life in the universe passes him. We will then be walking the higher lane; imagine of a world where everyone of us just goes for what is enough for self without being greedy enough to keep more than what he needs, no one deals falsely with another, lies to another, no cheating the neighbor, paying the wages to the workers promptly judging with justice without being unfair to the poor or favoring the mighty but judging our neighbor in righteousness. If everyone of us chooses not to slander our neighbor never hate our brother in the heart and rebuke our neighbor so that sin is not allowed to build in his life if we don’t take vengeance or bear a grudge against anyone but love others as self then this would be heaven on earth and then and only then would we be walking the higher lane. I intend to walk the higher lane.
Nurturing the good demon; starving the bad one
It will be hard to find a better way of expressing the good that can come out of man than living the good, doing the good and departing from the evil. Jesus did warn us that in the world there is no good, and so we ought to live as wise as serpents but as harmless as doves, and so we can be innocent in what is bad but steadfast in what is good. The good demon in us can be nurtured to produce a wholesome life. This also means starving the bad demon in us to death. It means developing the good habits while abandoning the bad ones. This way we become a great people.
Monday, February 14, 2011
Leadership; A necessary Evil
God created man to lead not to be led
When God created man and woman, he gave them a dominion over all the creation with a command to “multiply fill the earth and overcome it”. As such then, man was designed to lead. Not to be led. The fall however caused an unfortunate turn of events. Man constituted to have fellowship with God found himself expelled from God. This was a great disillusionment for he had to device a way of surviving outside the providing hand of God. The result; the defacing of the perfect order to the deteriorated condition, and all the pain that accompany vanity, estrangement, alienation and a reactive painfulness to this awkward state of affairs. The searing of clear conscience to the deposition of decadence and evil. In this state man reacts with warlike tendencies, rapine, desire to harm and revenge the awfulness that he feels. I have always noted that sometimes an aggressive behavior is a product of unfulfilled needs. But the more the pain and reactive tendencies the more no answer seems to come. Cain for instance killed Abel; it solved nothing, the pain multiplied.
Utopian believe;all progressive philosophies
I would imagine that in a perfect world, God would be the father of us all; love would naturally flow from our hearts towards all other people. Nothing would have to kill another for food for God would provide for us all it would be a perfect order as described in Isaiah 65:17-25. There are reasons to believe that this is a possibility for somehow humanity seems to have this sense of utopian believe. That there is a perfect life somehow hidden from us and all progressive philosophies give this hope of once attaining this state through various paths. Whether through self mortification as the orient religions advocate for or joining in the government of God as Christianity and all Abrahamic religions believe. That our common humanity shares in this believe leads to our common creator’s signature inspiring in us this sense of hope that things don’t have to be as bad as they are and that we can hope that one day they will turn for good.
Depraved philosophies
Depraved philosophies however point us to absolute nothingness. For instance in Stoicism Zeno suggested that virtue and happiness can be attained only by submission to destiny and natural law. While Hedonism the doctrine that pursuit of pleasure is the highest good which you and I know it isn’t. Platonic philosophy advances that to be perfect is to be free from physical desire. Epictetus’ ethical ideal is a cynic philosopher, naked, penniless, wifeless, childless, without want or desire, without passion or temper, kindly, independent, contented, imperturbable, looking serenely or indifferently at life and death. Diogenes lived in a tub, and sought with a lantern in daylight for "a man," yet Christ who, had nowhere to lay his head went about doing good to men. All these are an attempt to guide the soul of man from this awkward emptiness to a sense of hope and meaning in life now and thereafter.
Government an alternative to secure survival
In all this then man now increasing in number had to have a system in place to secure his survival. With the cruel murder of Abel by Cain and the resultant curse on Cain, which was a byproduct of the man’s rebellion to God’s government, an alternative had to be put in place. Law came into place, it was to give guidance on how to act considerately towards other s and impose pain if a deviation is done. Law is a force that comes to compel men to do by force that which should have emanated from them from free will and clear conscience.
Leadership;A necessary Evil
Then there arose a need to have Leadership as a way to safeguard adherence to this law and ensure harmony. Leadership is a necessary evil, a product of the fall which led to people being disorganized and so a need for order. Leadership from confusion and selfishness, a capacity to harm another for selfish gain. It came from of the fall. The bible records the first government to be organized by Nimrod in Gen 10:8-12. He did it by force he was authoritarian. Government is an organized order put in place by men for the benefit of all. This should be the theoretical position. However the fall resulted in human corruption so deep that everything noble can be twisted for ignoble ends. It is for this reason that in an attempt to returning to some order man has tried various forms of government. Dictatorship, Democracy Capitalist, Communist, Socialist, Totalitarian, Monarchical, Parliamentary, Anarchy, Oligarchcal/ Plutocracy etc. In all these man has since Nimrod tried to rule another and all along the wilderness that is humanity souls have conceived these ideas and tried to run with them but to no avail. To this we have Gandhi’s idea of anarchist society, Marx’s idea of communism.
God created a human being to rule not to be ruled
Strictly speaking God created a human being not to be ruled but to rule. He is ruled because of the fall. Because a human being should ideally not be ruled then, any attempts to rule men should therefore be done with their consent. And so of all governments devised by men, democracy stands better than many. Personally I believe anarchy is the best.
Imperfections of democracy
Though democracy is the closest to the ideal, democracy pure is however not practicable for it degenerates into elective autocracy while the media can influence people so that they don’t practice what their conscience dictates but what is forced down their throats by the media. Whatever forms of government however the governing should hold the principle of fallen man true to them so they wouldn’t mercilessly govern God’s people or they wouldn’t trample on their inalienable rights. For whatever engagement that man has here on earth should lead to finding God’s grace enabling man to revert to his original plan of fellowship with God and so slowly a hope for a restored dignity and order, reasonableness and reparation that is the message of Christianity. It should usher us into his eternal kingdom. That is where true liberty is found; in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Leadership properly is God given
Leadership properly is God given grace to enable someone live an exemplary life (a life that leans to our common expectations of what is good and fine qualities imbued in us by God) that others aspire to emulate him/her or are just inspired to travel our original path that God expected us to travel. God can afford us grace enough to be able to have a positional leadership but the most legitimate leadership is born out of lifestyle that comes close to the ideal.
Man always looks for direction
For man always looks for someone for direction, inspiration, emulate or even approval. Someone will want to check and confirm that he is not in a world of his own. This makes us all want to learn as much as we can. Education itself is the process of acquiring all the necessary knowledge stored up in the society and letting it inform you in your thoughts, actions and beliefs. It is built on the maxim that history (experience) is the best teacher.
When God created man and woman, he gave them a dominion over all the creation with a command to “multiply fill the earth and overcome it”. As such then, man was designed to lead. Not to be led. The fall however caused an unfortunate turn of events. Man constituted to have fellowship with God found himself expelled from God. This was a great disillusionment for he had to device a way of surviving outside the providing hand of God. The result; the defacing of the perfect order to the deteriorated condition, and all the pain that accompany vanity, estrangement, alienation and a reactive painfulness to this awkward state of affairs. The searing of clear conscience to the deposition of decadence and evil. In this state man reacts with warlike tendencies, rapine, desire to harm and revenge the awfulness that he feels. I have always noted that sometimes an aggressive behavior is a product of unfulfilled needs. But the more the pain and reactive tendencies the more no answer seems to come. Cain for instance killed Abel; it solved nothing, the pain multiplied.
Utopian believe;all progressive philosophies
I would imagine that in a perfect world, God would be the father of us all; love would naturally flow from our hearts towards all other people. Nothing would have to kill another for food for God would provide for us all it would be a perfect order as described in Isaiah 65:17-25. There are reasons to believe that this is a possibility for somehow humanity seems to have this sense of utopian believe. That there is a perfect life somehow hidden from us and all progressive philosophies give this hope of once attaining this state through various paths. Whether through self mortification as the orient religions advocate for or joining in the government of God as Christianity and all Abrahamic religions believe. That our common humanity shares in this believe leads to our common creator’s signature inspiring in us this sense of hope that things don’t have to be as bad as they are and that we can hope that one day they will turn for good.
Depraved philosophies
Depraved philosophies however point us to absolute nothingness. For instance in Stoicism Zeno suggested that virtue and happiness can be attained only by submission to destiny and natural law. While Hedonism the doctrine that pursuit of pleasure is the highest good which you and I know it isn’t. Platonic philosophy advances that to be perfect is to be free from physical desire. Epictetus’ ethical ideal is a cynic philosopher, naked, penniless, wifeless, childless, without want or desire, without passion or temper, kindly, independent, contented, imperturbable, looking serenely or indifferently at life and death. Diogenes lived in a tub, and sought with a lantern in daylight for "a man," yet Christ who, had nowhere to lay his head went about doing good to men. All these are an attempt to guide the soul of man from this awkward emptiness to a sense of hope and meaning in life now and thereafter.
Government an alternative to secure survival
In all this then man now increasing in number had to have a system in place to secure his survival. With the cruel murder of Abel by Cain and the resultant curse on Cain, which was a byproduct of the man’s rebellion to God’s government, an alternative had to be put in place. Law came into place, it was to give guidance on how to act considerately towards other s and impose pain if a deviation is done. Law is a force that comes to compel men to do by force that which should have emanated from them from free will and clear conscience.
Leadership;A necessary Evil
Then there arose a need to have Leadership as a way to safeguard adherence to this law and ensure harmony. Leadership is a necessary evil, a product of the fall which led to people being disorganized and so a need for order. Leadership from confusion and selfishness, a capacity to harm another for selfish gain. It came from of the fall. The bible records the first government to be organized by Nimrod in Gen 10:8-12. He did it by force he was authoritarian. Government is an organized order put in place by men for the benefit of all. This should be the theoretical position. However the fall resulted in human corruption so deep that everything noble can be twisted for ignoble ends. It is for this reason that in an attempt to returning to some order man has tried various forms of government. Dictatorship, Democracy Capitalist, Communist, Socialist, Totalitarian, Monarchical, Parliamentary, Anarchy, Oligarchcal/ Plutocracy etc. In all these man has since Nimrod tried to rule another and all along the wilderness that is humanity souls have conceived these ideas and tried to run with them but to no avail. To this we have Gandhi’s idea of anarchist society, Marx’s idea of communism.
God created a human being to rule not to be ruled
Strictly speaking God created a human being not to be ruled but to rule. He is ruled because of the fall. Because a human being should ideally not be ruled then, any attempts to rule men should therefore be done with their consent. And so of all governments devised by men, democracy stands better than many. Personally I believe anarchy is the best.
Imperfections of democracy
Though democracy is the closest to the ideal, democracy pure is however not practicable for it degenerates into elective autocracy while the media can influence people so that they don’t practice what their conscience dictates but what is forced down their throats by the media. Whatever forms of government however the governing should hold the principle of fallen man true to them so they wouldn’t mercilessly govern God’s people or they wouldn’t trample on their inalienable rights. For whatever engagement that man has here on earth should lead to finding God’s grace enabling man to revert to his original plan of fellowship with God and so slowly a hope for a restored dignity and order, reasonableness and reparation that is the message of Christianity. It should usher us into his eternal kingdom. That is where true liberty is found; in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Leadership properly is God given
Leadership properly is God given grace to enable someone live an exemplary life (a life that leans to our common expectations of what is good and fine qualities imbued in us by God) that others aspire to emulate him/her or are just inspired to travel our original path that God expected us to travel. God can afford us grace enough to be able to have a positional leadership but the most legitimate leadership is born out of lifestyle that comes close to the ideal.
Man always looks for direction
For man always looks for someone for direction, inspiration, emulate or even approval. Someone will want to check and confirm that he is not in a world of his own. This makes us all want to learn as much as we can. Education itself is the process of acquiring all the necessary knowledge stored up in the society and letting it inform you in your thoughts, actions and beliefs. It is built on the maxim that history (experience) is the best teacher.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
When the Foundations are shaken
Multiplication of evil
That evil has multiplied is not a secret. That human inclination to evil is ever too real is open to all not only to behold but it can be confirmed even with the most cursory observation. The society fits the biblical declaration that every human thought was evil and every inclination of the heart was towards evil. The respect of what is sacerdotal has all but waned and we have a form of secularism that is not just dormant but it is aggressive. It is aggressive in marketing itself as the better alternative and it casts religious piety as foolishness. It dismisses any argument for morality and belittles any basis for it.
It is an age that has worked so hard to destroy every foundational basis of religion and moral uprightness by advocating intellectual freedom and liberty which has in effect degenerated to most uncalled for debauchery.
A new religion; Materialism
The reason for this is erection of a new religion; materialism. This religion models society as a mass market and nothing else. Everything is viewed in monetary terms. At the heart is a sustained campaign to encourage everyone to sensuality. An unbridled lust and which on being excited must be fulfilled. What fulfills this lust is modeled as product for merchandise in the market. Self control is discouraged; they say it is now bring it on. Delayed fulfillment is foreign to them and so sex is now not after marriage.
A mass of people who can’t, don’t and won’t think
We are in a movement a mass of people we don’t think, we won’t find time to think neither will we be allowed to think. Not with the media that models itself as the one that should think for us and throw to us what they consider as expert opinion. And there are experts for virtually anything that comes up. And the media tells us what to wear, what to eat, where to stay and virtually what to think and how to think.
This is unfortunate for hardly do we know that those who own these media outlets determine what we consume. A clique of few people determines what we will believe in their propaganda rules and what they do is to manufacture consent sublimely from us. They force us to trust in them and rely on what they give us they assume that we are lazy and unable to think and so they should think for us.
This is where we are and with automation the society is likely to become lazier in conscious decision making and so it will remain a mass of people with no direction. In the market place of ideas this is where the battle will be fought. Everyone trying to win their minds and souls, the opinion of everyone will count but the one who shouts to the top of his mouth outshouting others will win them.
The way forward; the intolerant advocacy for Christianity, tenacity and zeal
Now in this contest where does Christianity lie? The religion of the meek followers of Christ? Several reasons have been advanced to explain the rapid spread of Christianity in the first century and afterwards viz: (1) the intolerant but enlarged religious zeal of the Christians inherited from the Jews; (2) the doctrine of the immortality of the soul, concerning which the ancient philosophers had but vague and dreamy ideas; (3) the miraculous powers attributed to the primitive church; (4) the purer but austere morality of the first Christians; (5) the unity and discipline of the church, which gradually formed a growing commonwealth in the heart of the roman empire. But every one of these causes, properly understood, points to the superior excellency and to the divine origin of the Christian religion, and this is the chief cause. (P. Krapf)
Now the world has always been changed by the people who contradicted it most and the same marked indifference to the world is what will make our voice heard. The primitive intolerance to what does not glorify God must remain our non bargain-able minimum. We must tenaciously cling to Christianity and zealously market it.
That evil has multiplied is not a secret. That human inclination to evil is ever too real is open to all not only to behold but it can be confirmed even with the most cursory observation. The society fits the biblical declaration that every human thought was evil and every inclination of the heart was towards evil. The respect of what is sacerdotal has all but waned and we have a form of secularism that is not just dormant but it is aggressive. It is aggressive in marketing itself as the better alternative and it casts religious piety as foolishness. It dismisses any argument for morality and belittles any basis for it.
It is an age that has worked so hard to destroy every foundational basis of religion and moral uprightness by advocating intellectual freedom and liberty which has in effect degenerated to most uncalled for debauchery.
A new religion; Materialism
The reason for this is erection of a new religion; materialism. This religion models society as a mass market and nothing else. Everything is viewed in monetary terms. At the heart is a sustained campaign to encourage everyone to sensuality. An unbridled lust and which on being excited must be fulfilled. What fulfills this lust is modeled as product for merchandise in the market. Self control is discouraged; they say it is now bring it on. Delayed fulfillment is foreign to them and so sex is now not after marriage.
A mass of people who can’t, don’t and won’t think
We are in a movement a mass of people we don’t think, we won’t find time to think neither will we be allowed to think. Not with the media that models itself as the one that should think for us and throw to us what they consider as expert opinion. And there are experts for virtually anything that comes up. And the media tells us what to wear, what to eat, where to stay and virtually what to think and how to think.
This is unfortunate for hardly do we know that those who own these media outlets determine what we consume. A clique of few people determines what we will believe in their propaganda rules and what they do is to manufacture consent sublimely from us. They force us to trust in them and rely on what they give us they assume that we are lazy and unable to think and so they should think for us.
This is where we are and with automation the society is likely to become lazier in conscious decision making and so it will remain a mass of people with no direction. In the market place of ideas this is where the battle will be fought. Everyone trying to win their minds and souls, the opinion of everyone will count but the one who shouts to the top of his mouth outshouting others will win them.
The way forward; the intolerant advocacy for Christianity, tenacity and zeal
Now in this contest where does Christianity lie? The religion of the meek followers of Christ? Several reasons have been advanced to explain the rapid spread of Christianity in the first century and afterwards viz: (1) the intolerant but enlarged religious zeal of the Christians inherited from the Jews; (2) the doctrine of the immortality of the soul, concerning which the ancient philosophers had but vague and dreamy ideas; (3) the miraculous powers attributed to the primitive church; (4) the purer but austere morality of the first Christians; (5) the unity and discipline of the church, which gradually formed a growing commonwealth in the heart of the roman empire. But every one of these causes, properly understood, points to the superior excellency and to the divine origin of the Christian religion, and this is the chief cause. (P. Krapf)
Now the world has always been changed by the people who contradicted it most and the same marked indifference to the world is what will make our voice heard. The primitive intolerance to what does not glorify God must remain our non bargain-able minimum. We must tenaciously cling to Christianity and zealously market it.
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