In Biblical parlance, a tzafah is qualified to keep watch upon others because he is also someone who keeps a close eye on his own "rightness" by persistently 'hearing' truth and seeking to abide by it.
Which brings us to the present.
Doug Wilson's latest certainly makes for interesting listening. He recently sought to apply some of the perspective of the late Francis Schaeffer to our current situation, and found himself deemed guilty of misinformation by various evangelical watchdogs for seeking to do so, so in this latest retort, he seeks to ask a couple of highly pertinent questions about the late philosopher's perspective and in so doing, challenge the rejection of those who believe he erred.
After a speedy review of USA 2020 to 22, we are presented once again with what Dr Schaeffer stated:
"Humanism, with its lack of any final case for values or law, always leads to chaos. It then naturally leads to some form of authoritarianism to control this chaos. Having produced the sickness, humanism gives more of the same kind of malady as the cure" (The Christian Manifesto).
This certainly clearly matches the manner of 'progress' we have seen of late - a political "idealism" that promotes certain politically correct ideals at the cost of everything and everyone else, so why have some Christians refuted such clear analysis?
Mr Wilson zero's-in on the real problem, as stated by Schaeffer himself - Christians have become too naive and ambivalent when it comes to those in authority (their motivations and goals) - they now only "see" (refer to and discuss) the parts they can extol, but not the vast holes that such leaders are always seeking to have left hidden from public view.
The ramifications of this are dire and leave the church in general entirely detached from the reality of what is actually occurring in front of us.
The poignant questions asked in the final section of this statement are exactly what we need to be addressing right now... but the air is tellingly still when it comes to appropriate, vital answers from the evangelical world.
As Schaeffer put it, his manifesto was addressed to those who stand against such neglect, such silence, such abuse. He wrote the work as he understood what was taking place - the rise of a new totalitarianism in the West that threatened us all, and had to be robustly engaged and countered by Christian truth. Leadership was "on the move" that wanted to see the annihilation of men and women fashioned in the divine image and thereby set free to live and love well. It would ensnare society in the 'freedom' of an individualism tied to the entire annihilation of the soul, which would become readily traded for a realm of continual new senastionalism - not necessarily good or meaningful, just "new".
The 'deep state' has become the common state. The reset is in play, and the minute men are back, fighting on skirmish lines to seek to retrieve what has been stolen by these raiding parties from on high, and the church, for the most part, has merely relented or remained irrelevant.
When servitude (or, in our times, just neglect) is offered up to "The Message" (political correctness in all it various tropes), then we sell-out to the entire package.
It isn't enough to treat the "words of the prophets" with nostalgia. They must punch us where it hurts until we weep tears of repentance, or we might as well just sell the store and go home. Reformation is going to cost. Healing always does.
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