I envision the day soon coming, the conflict that is already imminent upon is, a vision of war and tragedy carried out by those who mourn the warring and tragic condition of the human race. Whoever it must be, let the Lord guide him. Let mine army be made of those who seek peace, let justice be enacted by those of great mercy, let violence be done by those who abhor it, and let a contrite and humble heart turn the nation back to the True and Living God, never reveling in war but seeing it through faithfully nonetheless.
If America is ripe for a Caesar, pray God would give us a Constantine.
Should I be the man upon the Lincoln Memorial steps when the dust settled, speaking to a wretched and sinful nation whom I love as a mother-hen yet also will rule with the rod for the good of their own souls, I would have but one proclamation:
“I saw the crown of America lying in the gutter of the street. I picked it up with the tip of my sword. And I now cast it at the feet of the only one worthy, the only Righteous King, the Lord Jesus Christ Almighty”.
Pray for peace my friends. But when we are engaged in a war between Good and Evil, one MUST pray for total victory.
"My kingdom is not of this world..." However, we are placed in this time and nation to do the good we can, both by calling all men to repentance and faith and by defending the weak and the powerless. We have never, and will never, have excuse not to carry out the former. We may well be approaching a time when it is necessary to carry out the latter.
Go back further to the Law of Moses. There, you will find no police or prisons whatsoever. All was semi-vigilante justice with the community adjudicating disputes according to the Law.
We are paying the price for excessive punishments for minor crimes and for letting out people who committed crimes worthy of death. We have sent storm troopers into homes at 3am in order to confiscate stashes of recreational drugs and let murderers walk free after spending some time in a cage.
Historically, we had a system of perpetual slavery for imported Africans, whereas the Law of Moses limited the term to six years maximum. We paid a price for that crime in the form of the Civil War.
But similar crimes continue in the form of our current penal system. Hebrew slaves were supposed to be treated as employees when they behaved and were not to be separated from their families. US prisons are far harsher than the punishments for property crime under the Law of Moses. And Hebrew debt/crime slaves were to be granted significant capital upon release.
As Christians, we are supposed to do some forgiving, to sometimes forgo the retribution/restitution allowed under the Law given to Moses.
What the Woke Left is doing is a perverted form of what we on the Christian Right should have already done.
The reason we no longer respond to criminal acts with vigilantism has nothing to do with Christian notions of forgiveness. It's because the polity described in the Mosaic Law doesn't contemplate a strong, centralized system of governmental sovereignty capable of assuming responsibility for seeing justice done.
Police don't exist to protect helpless citizens from bloodthirsty criminals, but to protect individual criminals from righteously aggrieved, capable citizens meting out justice on the fly. This has nothing to do with forgiveness and everything to do with minimizing the risk of blood feuds emerging as a result of "self-help."
Sort of? I mean, clan heads could presumably see to it that nobody took action for the clan without their say-so. But if one clan had a beef with another, it's not as if anyone else had any business interfering. There were the Cities of Refuge, yes, but that's basically it.
Jesus was the Prince of Peace, but when money changers and merchants defiled the Temple he used violence.
The blasphemy of the Olympic ceremony was an example of this kind of desecration, and a violent response would be justified.
Jesus told His friends to sell their cloak if necessary to buy a sword. And AFTER Peter used the sword He told Peter that he’d done enough.
I come away with the lesson that violence is justified under restraint and within limits. We should use measured force to defend God’s glory in its multiple forms.
I think you hit the nail on the head.. growing inequality, unfairness, again and again.
It builds up and finally even the most peaceful human being can't help but get fed up.
Saw a meme yesterday, poke that dog with a stick, threaten it's pups, corner it and it will bite... then of course we blame the dog, knowing it was a bad animal to begin with...
Years and years of abuse, most people do not even realize why they are so frustrated and so angry and often that anger comes out sideways because we have been indoctrinated to be quiet, to not speak up, to not call a spade a spade.
De- escalate is always my first choice, step away, especially with misplaced anger or unstable ( inebriated or otherwise compromised ) individuals.
This seemingly global feeling of frustration, disorientation seems like warfare of sorts.. many have called it biblical and I agree.
The vaxxing and medicating is another indicator that things are not what they should be.
There seem to be 3 different camps... the totally unaware, those that are aware, that sit back and watch ( possibly prepare and try to raise awareness ) and those that are mindlessly acting out not aware of their actions at all or the consequences that will follow.
I hope that I will do Gods will, if and when the time would come.
Thank you! This was medicine for my heart. I am praying that God will make the way forward clear and that he will raise up the right people in the right places and time.
It is sickening that the question of whether or how to use violence is even a topic for discussion... That is how far humanity has " progressed"?
Having been in some violent encounters, and being martial art trained, I still had no idea how I would react ( no one does as it is a situation that reduces us to base instinct)
What history has shown me is that nothing good comes from violence. Period.
Violence is physical trauma transference and no utopian or even modest dreams are ever realised, even in part.
To me this is just the chapter in Orwell's Animal Farm where the animals take over and the cycle continues, or hopefully this is the end of the material realm and our awarenesses gets to go to the kingdom of heaven or at least out of this dimension....if only it was not such a slow harvest... The way it's going the wheat will all have fallen and rotted...
That violence is an evil does not make it entirely unnecessary. A society that has not the will to punish unjustified violence cannot pretend to call itself "just." And a man not willing to do violence to both protect his family from violence and to ensure they need not engage in it themselves is failing in his most basic duties.
I will leave the judgement to God ( not men or societal law) on what is justified.
I will soon be in a position where I will have to make a choice- use violence to protect my family's food sources from hungry people that are trying to " do their duty" by feeding their own families.
The drowning man will drag down the rescuer... And their are no lifebuoys.
There is no amount of physical preparation that suffices for this event and I loathe the options.
I just hope circumstances allow for some wiggle room and pray for some intervention- divine or otherwise.
Some have no desire to any duty except rape, pillage, and destroy. God gave us the gift of discernment. We know good and evil because our primordial parents ate from the tree of knowledge. Drop to your knees and watch your family tormented and tortured or pick the sword and defend what God gave you. Stop blathering about what is just and what is not. Inside you there is discernment between good and evil. If you stand idle when darkness comes to rapine, whose agent are you?
Not me. I have chosen a warrior's path, and it is equally holy to that of a monk. The angels of God enter dark places to destroy evil, and Christ came also as a sword. I appreciate this article, but I also know (from experience) that violence is wholly necessary.
Augustine tells us that all men instinctively seek peace. The problem is, due to pride, we each seek out our idea of peace, the world arranged such to benefit us. Thus, violence.
I love the spirit of this and the metaphor of the water mill, (which sounds familiar so if it is one of your own devising then take my purported familiarity as an indication of its excellence). In essay after essay on Substack and elsewhere we keep coming back to the same foundational principle: without God and our willingness to humble ourselves before a higher spiritual authority connecting each of us to each other and all of us to our higher selves and our Creator, we are nothing and degrade to our worst selves. If our leaders and the social paradigms that allow them are without God, which they obviously are, then, as your citation from Paul makes clear, they have no authority and are not fit for purpose. This in the end will be their undoing. Outstanding writing - thank you.
Thank you very much. The mill is organic political life. It is powered by faith, and it produces ordered peace. The leader who can harness that, a promise of a just social order under God, that would be powerful.
Very logical way of looking at it, I really liked this essay. To say I dislike violence is to state the obvious, yet it is never too far from Celtic-French minds for some reason as a solution of inter-national talks and such. We may like politeness but we're I'm afraid terribly barbarous in some ways (je parler sincerement), so that I wonder if this sort of law-code or thinking especially that of Justinian might work best for us.
That said, my uncertainty about my own people aside, what I like is how utterly logical and wise this essay is. I think as someone who has an abhorrence for violence on a personal level it pushes a more 'community' fraternal energy so to speak, a more communal perspective which we in this terribly divided age need more of. I hate collectivism but cannot help but think community is something we need to write more positively of these days. Too often people perceive them as interchangeable (maybe that could be the subject of a future essay of yours? I'd love to know your thoughts on it Librarian!).
That said, I think this sort of Justice is making a return, though the governments try to stop it. They've lost a great deal of control in the cities, have none in the countryside and with police on the retreat these days in larger countries such as France, USA, Canada and even some small ones like Ireland and Japan, vigilante justice so to speak will only become more common. Don't know where it will end up, I only hope to never have to deal with it (wishful thinking I imagine). Violence reduces us to our bare instincts as Justin Daws so eloquently puts it, and I truly mourn the loss of the rule of law even as I recognize that 'Natural Law' is making a return. Hopefully things will turn out well one never knows (one must remain optimistic).
Sorry for the rambling post, just hard to reply intelligently to such a topic, it can be both depressing and also enlightening to read such things. Oh and it was interesting seeing you reference the always fascinating Justinian.
"We may like politeness but we're I'm afraid terribly barbarous in some ways (je parler sincerement), so that I wonder if this sort of law-code or thinking especially that of Justinian might work best for us."
When politeness is used to avoid addressing evil it is perverse.
Which is why I’m very proud of my people, they’ve never shied away from doing exactly as you said. We Celts (Irish, Scots & Francais) are a stubborn breed who like to tackle evil head on.
I’m a Italian American, but I have every respect for both the Irish and English for getting out there and letting people know that it’s not OK for people to come here and stab our children.
Seeing you are very knowledgable about Japan, why did you put it in a smaller countries category? It's really curious to me.
And on the other note: I think building community of neighbours and frens from your locality cannot be conflated with collectivism. Also, seeing migrants in groups, or for that matter, any larger group even of teenagers, makes you realize that no justice can be served by a single man against the group.
In that sense I and some of my friend have been looking for ways to bulid a real community of friends that would help us in many ways, one of them being better able to confront injustices.
About that mill, if it's been sitting for a long while, rather than fix the broken blades first, look over the internal mechanism, give it a good greasing up, replace some bearings, check the bearing housings, and make sure it isn't hooked up to something that's going to break when you turn it back on. We have a rusty Republic that's been out of service and hasn't been maintained for a good long while. I'd take repairing that over some Son of a Bitch who claims he's the next Constantine because he's the best at lopping off heads. Not to say that's what you're arguing for.
Yes, I've been thinking about that. All of the elements are there. You have a great metaphor in the mill. It's been taken over by thugs and degenerates who not only don't maintain it, but use it for purposes it wasn't meant to be used for. So let's get our mill back and use it to make flour in service to people again. I really enjoyed your article for the visceral reaction it provoked in me. I have to think about why I had such a negative reaction to the suggestion of some kind of king or emperor. I reject completely the usurpers under which we now labor. I also don't believe the Republic has Inherent Vice any more than a well made roof has Inherent Vice. Anything made my man, a mill or a monarchy, has to be maintained.
It’s hard to believe we can escape judgment when I think of all we are guilty of as a nation, but for God’s grace we wouldn’t have made it this far. Your point about the legitimacy of this government is so right. The power given to them is meant to restrain evil, and they use it to perpetuate chaos. I thought you were on the way to making the case for our revolutionary forefathers who understood that a peaceful resolution was not possible. Sometimes you have to fight, but only after you have inquired of the Lord.
War must be, while we defend our lives against a destroyer who would devour all; but I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend; the city of the men of [America]; and I would have her loved for her memory, her ancientry, her beauty, and her present wisdom.
On a less-theocratic level, let’s look at the concept of “self-government.”
The People are sovereign
The People hire hirelings to represent what The People want as laws: legislators
The People hire executives as hirelings to enforce the laws of The People
The People delegate to the executive hirelings the authority to enforce the laws of The People
The RESPONSIBILITY (which cannot be delegated) to enforce the laws of The People, if those to whom enforcement authority is delegated refuse that delegation, the responsibility for enforcement remains with The People.
Many will erroneously call this “vigilantism;” it is not. It is accepting the responsibility of a self-governing polity.
Thought-provoking essay. The predicament is objectively and universally defining evil. If everyone believes himself to be good and everyone else to be evil, eternal conflict is inevitable.
The last bit about our current crises being the West's punishment for our various sins really hit home for me, and I've been thinking something very similar for a while. The Bible makes it abundantly clear that sin is death, and the punishment for sin is often more sin. Since we in the West have largely abandoned Christianity, our state will continue to worsen until we either repent and return to God (the Kingdom of Juda), or we are destroyed by our own vices and neuroses (the Kingdom of Israel). As the Prophet Isaiah says:
"Go then, said he, and give a message to this people of mine: Listen as you will, but ever without understanding; watch all, and nothing perceive! Thy office is to dull the hearts of this people of mine, deaden their ears, dazzle their eyes, so that they cannot see with those eyes, hear with those ears, understand with that heart, and turn back to me, and win healing. For how long, Lord? I asked. And he said, Till the cities are left unpeopled, and the houses untenanted, and the whole land a wilderness. The Lord will send its people into exile far away; wider, ever wider desolation must spread over it. Though a tenth of their number remain, it is but empty show, like leafage of terebinth or oak that needs pruning; only a remnant of it will be left, the true stock of holiness." - Isaiah 6: 9-13.
Absolute banger by my favorite substack writer.
I envision the day soon coming, the conflict that is already imminent upon is, a vision of war and tragedy carried out by those who mourn the warring and tragic condition of the human race. Whoever it must be, let the Lord guide him. Let mine army be made of those who seek peace, let justice be enacted by those of great mercy, let violence be done by those who abhor it, and let a contrite and humble heart turn the nation back to the True and Living God, never reveling in war but seeing it through faithfully nonetheless.
If America is ripe for a Caesar, pray God would give us a Constantine.
Should I be the man upon the Lincoln Memorial steps when the dust settled, speaking to a wretched and sinful nation whom I love as a mother-hen yet also will rule with the rod for the good of their own souls, I would have but one proclamation:
“I saw the crown of America lying in the gutter of the street. I picked it up with the tip of my sword. And I now cast it at the feet of the only one worthy, the only Righteous King, the Lord Jesus Christ Almighty”.
Pray for peace my friends. But when we are engaged in a war between Good and Evil, one MUST pray for total victory.
This comment got my blood going, brother. Beautifully written.
"My kingdom is not of this world..." However, we are placed in this time and nation to do the good we can, both by calling all men to repentance and faith and by defending the weak and the powerless. We have never, and will never, have excuse not to carry out the former. We may well be approaching a time when it is necessary to carry out the latter.
Go back further to the Law of Moses. There, you will find no police or prisons whatsoever. All was semi-vigilante justice with the community adjudicating disputes according to the Law.
We are paying the price for excessive punishments for minor crimes and for letting out people who committed crimes worthy of death. We have sent storm troopers into homes at 3am in order to confiscate stashes of recreational drugs and let murderers walk free after spending some time in a cage.
Historically, we had a system of perpetual slavery for imported Africans, whereas the Law of Moses limited the term to six years maximum. We paid a price for that crime in the form of the Civil War.
But similar crimes continue in the form of our current penal system. Hebrew slaves were supposed to be treated as employees when they behaved and were not to be separated from their families. US prisons are far harsher than the punishments for property crime under the Law of Moses. And Hebrew debt/crime slaves were to be granted significant capital upon release.
As Christians, we are supposed to do some forgiving, to sometimes forgo the retribution/restitution allowed under the Law given to Moses.
What the Woke Left is doing is a perverted form of what we on the Christian Right should have already done.
The reason we no longer respond to criminal acts with vigilantism has nothing to do with Christian notions of forgiveness. It's because the polity described in the Mosaic Law doesn't contemplate a strong, centralized system of governmental sovereignty capable of assuming responsibility for seeing justice done.
Police don't exist to protect helpless citizens from bloodthirsty criminals, but to protect individual criminals from righteously aggrieved, capable citizens meting out justice on the fly. This has nothing to do with forgiveness and everything to do with minimizing the risk of blood feuds emerging as a result of "self-help."
Notice the "semi". There were dampers on blood feuds in the Law of Moses.
Yeah, but clans were still basically responsible for seeking justice for wrongs done to their members and fully entitled to do so.
Yes, but the community gave or withheld permission for such action.
BTW, the notion of calling the police while a crime is occurring wasn't all that practical until the invention of the telephone.
Sort of? I mean, clan heads could presumably see to it that nobody took action for the clan without their say-so. But if one clan had a beef with another, it's not as if anyone else had any business interfering. There were the Cities of Refuge, yes, but that's basically it.
💜 it's most likely evil, not left or right because entropy is basically an excuse for evil doing.🧠🤔
Whereas the righteous recognizes.
When unavoidable bad violence comes at you, then good violence can be an answer. Simple.
Jesus was the Prince of Peace, but when money changers and merchants defiled the Temple he used violence.
The blasphemy of the Olympic ceremony was an example of this kind of desecration, and a violent response would be justified.
Jesus told His friends to sell their cloak if necessary to buy a sword. And AFTER Peter used the sword He told Peter that he’d done enough.
I come away with the lesson that violence is justified under restraint and within limits. We should use measured force to defend God’s glory in its multiple forms.
I think you hit the nail on the head.. growing inequality, unfairness, again and again.
It builds up and finally even the most peaceful human being can't help but get fed up.
Saw a meme yesterday, poke that dog with a stick, threaten it's pups, corner it and it will bite... then of course we blame the dog, knowing it was a bad animal to begin with...
Years and years of abuse, most people do not even realize why they are so frustrated and so angry and often that anger comes out sideways because we have been indoctrinated to be quiet, to not speak up, to not call a spade a spade.
De- escalate is always my first choice, step away, especially with misplaced anger or unstable ( inebriated or otherwise compromised ) individuals.
This seemingly global feeling of frustration, disorientation seems like warfare of sorts.. many have called it biblical and I agree.
The vaxxing and medicating is another indicator that things are not what they should be.
There seem to be 3 different camps... the totally unaware, those that are aware, that sit back and watch ( possibly prepare and try to raise awareness ) and those that are mindlessly acting out not aware of their actions at all or the consequences that will follow.
I hope that I will do Gods will, if and when the time would come.
I certainly do not have the answers.
There is very much an air of foreboding around us.
💯👍
Thank you! This was medicine for my heart. I am praying that God will make the way forward clear and that he will raise up the right people in the right places and time.
It is sickening that the question of whether or how to use violence is even a topic for discussion... That is how far humanity has " progressed"?
Having been in some violent encounters, and being martial art trained, I still had no idea how I would react ( no one does as it is a situation that reduces us to base instinct)
What history has shown me is that nothing good comes from violence. Period.
Violence is physical trauma transference and no utopian or even modest dreams are ever realised, even in part.
To me this is just the chapter in Orwell's Animal Farm where the animals take over and the cycle continues, or hopefully this is the end of the material realm and our awarenesses gets to go to the kingdom of heaven or at least out of this dimension....if only it was not such a slow harvest... The way it's going the wheat will all have fallen and rotted...
That violence is an evil does not make it entirely unnecessary. A society that has not the will to punish unjustified violence cannot pretend to call itself "just." And a man not willing to do violence to both protect his family from violence and to ensure they need not engage in it themselves is failing in his most basic duties.
Please show me a " just" society.
I will leave the judgement to God ( not men or societal law) on what is justified.
I will soon be in a position where I will have to make a choice- use violence to protect my family's food sources from hungry people that are trying to " do their duty" by feeding their own families.
The drowning man will drag down the rescuer... And their are no lifebuoys.
There is no amount of physical preparation that suffices for this event and I loathe the options.
I just hope circumstances allow for some wiggle room and pray for some intervention- divine or otherwise.
I’m not saying you have to like it.
Some have no desire to any duty except rape, pillage, and destroy. God gave us the gift of discernment. We know good and evil because our primordial parents ate from the tree of knowledge. Drop to your knees and watch your family tormented and tortured or pick the sword and defend what God gave you. Stop blathering about what is just and what is not. Inside you there is discernment between good and evil. If you stand idle when darkness comes to rapine, whose agent are you?
Not me. I have chosen a warrior's path, and it is equally holy to that of a monk. The angels of God enter dark places to destroy evil, and Christ came also as a sword. I appreciate this article, but I also know (from experience) that violence is wholly necessary.
My concern is for those that cannot discern, and that do not understand the consequences of their actions.
You have not addressed my concerns with your personal attacks, just validated them.
Augustine tells us that all men instinctively seek peace. The problem is, due to pride, we each seek out our idea of peace, the world arranged such to benefit us. Thus, violence.
👏👏👏
I love the spirit of this and the metaphor of the water mill, (which sounds familiar so if it is one of your own devising then take my purported familiarity as an indication of its excellence). In essay after essay on Substack and elsewhere we keep coming back to the same foundational principle: without God and our willingness to humble ourselves before a higher spiritual authority connecting each of us to each other and all of us to our higher selves and our Creator, we are nothing and degrade to our worst selves. If our leaders and the social paradigms that allow them are without God, which they obviously are, then, as your citation from Paul makes clear, they have no authority and are not fit for purpose. This in the end will be their undoing. Outstanding writing - thank you.
Thank you very much. The mill is organic political life. It is powered by faith, and it produces ordered peace. The leader who can harness that, a promise of a just social order under God, that would be powerful.
Very logical way of looking at it, I really liked this essay. To say I dislike violence is to state the obvious, yet it is never too far from Celtic-French minds for some reason as a solution of inter-national talks and such. We may like politeness but we're I'm afraid terribly barbarous in some ways (je parler sincerement), so that I wonder if this sort of law-code or thinking especially that of Justinian might work best for us.
That said, my uncertainty about my own people aside, what I like is how utterly logical and wise this essay is. I think as someone who has an abhorrence for violence on a personal level it pushes a more 'community' fraternal energy so to speak, a more communal perspective which we in this terribly divided age need more of. I hate collectivism but cannot help but think community is something we need to write more positively of these days. Too often people perceive them as interchangeable (maybe that could be the subject of a future essay of yours? I'd love to know your thoughts on it Librarian!).
That said, I think this sort of Justice is making a return, though the governments try to stop it. They've lost a great deal of control in the cities, have none in the countryside and with police on the retreat these days in larger countries such as France, USA, Canada and even some small ones like Ireland and Japan, vigilante justice so to speak will only become more common. Don't know where it will end up, I only hope to never have to deal with it (wishful thinking I imagine). Violence reduces us to our bare instincts as Justin Daws so eloquently puts it, and I truly mourn the loss of the rule of law even as I recognize that 'Natural Law' is making a return. Hopefully things will turn out well one never knows (one must remain optimistic).
Sorry for the rambling post, just hard to reply intelligently to such a topic, it can be both depressing and also enlightening to read such things. Oh and it was interesting seeing you reference the always fascinating Justinian.
"We may like politeness but we're I'm afraid terribly barbarous in some ways (je parler sincerement), so that I wonder if this sort of law-code or thinking especially that of Justinian might work best for us."
When politeness is used to avoid addressing evil it is perverse.
Which is why I’m very proud of my people, they’ve never shied away from doing exactly as you said. We Celts (Irish, Scots & Francais) are a stubborn breed who like to tackle evil head on.
I’m a Italian American, but I have every respect for both the Irish and English for getting out there and letting people know that it’s not OK for people to come here and stab our children.
They’ve lost control because they’ve lost legitimacy.
Or vice versa.
Well said
Seeing you are very knowledgable about Japan, why did you put it in a smaller countries category? It's really curious to me.
And on the other note: I think building community of neighbours and frens from your locality cannot be conflated with collectivism. Also, seeing migrants in groups, or for that matter, any larger group even of teenagers, makes you realize that no justice can be served by a single man against the group.
In that sense I and some of my friend have been looking for ways to bulid a real community of friends that would help us in many ways, one of them being better able to confront injustices.
Good point, its just I was comparing Japan with say America in size.
About that mill, if it's been sitting for a long while, rather than fix the broken blades first, look over the internal mechanism, give it a good greasing up, replace some bearings, check the bearing housings, and make sure it isn't hooked up to something that's going to break when you turn it back on. We have a rusty Republic that's been out of service and hasn't been maintained for a good long while. I'd take repairing that over some Son of a Bitch who claims he's the next Constantine because he's the best at lopping off heads. Not to say that's what you're arguing for.
The mill isn’t as rusty as people assume.
Yes, I've been thinking about that. All of the elements are there. You have a great metaphor in the mill. It's been taken over by thugs and degenerates who not only don't maintain it, but use it for purposes it wasn't meant to be used for. So let's get our mill back and use it to make flour in service to people again. I really enjoyed your article for the visceral reaction it provoked in me. I have to think about why I had such a negative reaction to the suggestion of some kind of king or emperor. I reject completely the usurpers under which we now labor. I also don't believe the Republic has Inherent Vice any more than a well made roof has Inherent Vice. Anything made my man, a mill or a monarchy, has to be maintained.
Sir - I encourage you to use Hero of the City Daniel Penny's honorific when mentioning him.
That is entirely appropriate.
It’s hard to believe we can escape judgment when I think of all we are guilty of as a nation, but for God’s grace we wouldn’t have made it this far. Your point about the legitimacy of this government is so right. The power given to them is meant to restrain evil, and they use it to perpetuate chaos. I thought you were on the way to making the case for our revolutionary forefathers who understood that a peaceful resolution was not possible. Sometimes you have to fight, but only after you have inquired of the Lord.
War must be, while we defend our lives against a destroyer who would devour all; but I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend; the city of the men of [America]; and I would have her loved for her memory, her ancientry, her beauty, and her present wisdom.
On a less-theocratic level, let’s look at the concept of “self-government.”
The People are sovereign
The People hire hirelings to represent what The People want as laws: legislators
The People hire executives as hirelings to enforce the laws of The People
The People delegate to the executive hirelings the authority to enforce the laws of The People
The RESPONSIBILITY (which cannot be delegated) to enforce the laws of The People, if those to whom enforcement authority is delegated refuse that delegation, the responsibility for enforcement remains with The People.
Many will erroneously call this “vigilantism;” it is not. It is accepting the responsibility of a self-governing polity.
Thought-provoking essay. The predicament is objectively and universally defining evil. If everyone believes himself to be good and everyone else to be evil, eternal conflict is inevitable.
The last bit about our current crises being the West's punishment for our various sins really hit home for me, and I've been thinking something very similar for a while. The Bible makes it abundantly clear that sin is death, and the punishment for sin is often more sin. Since we in the West have largely abandoned Christianity, our state will continue to worsen until we either repent and return to God (the Kingdom of Juda), or we are destroyed by our own vices and neuroses (the Kingdom of Israel). As the Prophet Isaiah says:
"Go then, said he, and give a message to this people of mine: Listen as you will, but ever without understanding; watch all, and nothing perceive! Thy office is to dull the hearts of this people of mine, deaden their ears, dazzle their eyes, so that they cannot see with those eyes, hear with those ears, understand with that heart, and turn back to me, and win healing. For how long, Lord? I asked. And he said, Till the cities are left unpeopled, and the houses untenanted, and the whole land a wilderness. The Lord will send its people into exile far away; wider, ever wider desolation must spread over it. Though a tenth of their number remain, it is but empty show, like leafage of terebinth or oak that needs pruning; only a remnant of it will be left, the true stock of holiness." - Isaiah 6: 9-13.
There’s always a chance to repent, and hope for the sake of a remnant.