Many people that are disgusted by our society's current situation are sitting on the sidelines observing the fall. They have no interest in helping to fix Western society. They want things to fall apart. It will justify their existence. This situation sounds eerily familiar to someone I read about in the Bible.
There is this guy named Jonah in the Bible. It is quite the story. He hates the people of Ninevah so much that he refuses to tell them to repent on God's order. Why does he deny his calling? He doesn't want the Ninevites to repent. He knows they will and be spared God's wrath. He desperately wants them to pay the price for their disobedience.
As we read the rest of the story of Jonah, we find out that God won't leave him alone. Our plans and desires mean very little to God. His will be done. As much as Jonah wants the Ninevites struck down, God won't. When Jonah finally does warn them, he waits outside the city to see the results. Then there is the vine thing that happens, which is really cool. I won't ruin the ending.
I encourage you to pray and find out what God wants you to do in life. It might be as simple as fixing your marriage (not always so simple). If you have a good family life going on, you will be called to do more. Embrace God's will in your life. It can be scary, but that is what makes life so fun.
Our country is still majority Christian. There are still enough men and women willing to build the new foundation of the future. We keep finding like minded individuals that God puts in our lives. The reward is still there. Ayn Rand was an atheist. She never understood the thinking of Christians. She understood the evil of communism, but she never understood Christianity. That is why Atlas doesn't shrug.
I think your parallel falls apart pretty firmly at this point:
ReplyDelete"He doesn't want the Ninevites to repent. He knows they will and be spared God's wrath."
Our country isn't really majority Christian. We're just majority "likes getting gifts on Christmas and Easter Eggs are fun to color for the kids".
"Our country is still majority Christian."
ReplyDeleteNot so much. In fact hardly at all. We still hold to some social conventions, and people still go to church when it suits them, but that’s about it. Atlas hasn't shrugged because God has been gracious and is giving us more time.
I agree with you that there are still good solid men and women that would build a society on the same principles as Washington and the other forefathers, we are few. It would take an act of God to propel those to the forefront and give them positions of power. It is my prayer that He do so.
I'm saying the producers are Atlas and they won't quit because they are Christians. The time I have spent selling to businesses and hanging out in Chambers of Commerce has led me to see 90+% of these producers are Judeo-Christians. Most formal COC events I have been at include invocations and plenty of clergy involvement.
ReplyDeleteEven the businesses I have worked with on the coasts have been run by majority Christians. More Jews in New York, obviously.
You're right, but at some point even Christians will start to realize that you can build toward the future within your local community, church, and social circle while shrugging off the anti-Christian government and media as much as possible. It doesn't have to be either-or. And to the extent that the federal government works against the future of your family and local circles, (which just increased with a couple of SCOTUS rulings), you may have to work against the one to be working for the other.
ReplyDeleteWhich is pretty much what Rand's heroes did: they didn't stop producing; they just stopped sharing their production with the looters so they could put it toward a post-crash future. Since it's a science fiction book, they were able to go do that behind an invisible force field where the looters couldn't come get them. We don't have that option, but we can do things like reducing our tax contributions by putting more hours into self-sufficiency and bartering within our local circles, and fewer into working for a paycheck stub. Does that count as shrugging?
I agree. We are moving ourselves to a much smaller community. I'm sure we aren't alone. I don't see the big producers doing that though. One of large business owners I've known were the Hendricks that own ABC Supply. I just don't see them shrugging. They have done tremendous things in their community and will continue to do so.
DeleteI would disagree with you on the willingness of the American people to repent of their sin. I have tried to explain the dire nature of the threat facing this country, and the people will not listen. Nineveh repented, and Jonah was in rebellion. America refuses to repent, and the faithful obey. The parallels are not there. Another man from the Bible might fit the situation better: Lot. He was brought out of his land before it was destroyed by the Lord for the sins of its people. A people who have sinned in the manner of this land, for that matter.
ReplyDeleteThe Shadowed Knight
I can't believe it but I agree with TSK.
ReplyDeleteMore do as they see what your society has become. The tree of liberty has a rot in its heartwood. No amount of blood can feed it now. It is only a matter of time now. Those who can must take seeds and clippings and wait to sow and graft them elsewhere. The last seeds of the West, carried the world over by the tides, winds, and roads. We each have our own burden to carry. I chose this.
DeleteThe Shadowed Knight
I haven't been removed yet, so it isn't a Lot situation. I'll let you know if the angels come to remove me and family. As I said before, there are far too many Christians still involved for Atlas to shrug.
DeleteIf you are one of those waiting desperately for it to fall, you may be waiting for a while. Too many people like the owner of Chick-fil-A and Hobby Lobby still exist and fight.
I just want to be clear here where I agreed with him. I do not agree with his plan nor with what he has decided to do. I simply agree with his assessment of the situation regarding Lot first Jonah.
ReplyDeleteI agree witg you that there are Christians who are still holding their ground but we are clearly not winning. Jonah was sent to call the town to repentance and they did, the entire town repented. Lot lived amongst people getting progressively worse and was rescued out of there because there was no hope for that town. I would love to see widespread repentance but I do not. I am praying for my brothers and sisters in Christ to hold the line for as long as we are called to. We cannot fall into the evil that everyone else has been given over to. And there is a chance that we can call some out of it.
First should be versus. My phone auto corrects without permission all the time. Sorry.
DeleteI sympathize with TSK and you about the apparent deaf ear of our society. I know I'm not alone in being taught by those that grew up through the Depression. I'm also not the only reader of history. There's much to be done before our societal crash.
DeleteIt's not that I'm wishing one way or the other. I know things have been much more desperate even in our young nation. There are still a great many Christians holding the line in our country. They mostly exist in an upside down T in our country.
Just read something about this on VPopuli.
Deletehttp://www.voxday.blogspot.com/2013/06/so-they-needed-it-after-all.html
All those rich Christian businessmen sure helped on that one. The line was held? In what way? What people think is meaningless. What they do is the only thing that matters. So far, it looks like they will roll over again.
America needs to make way for the next iteration. The collapse is merely a recognition of the reality. Without a struggle, mankind becomes weak and feeble. Civilization belongs to get strong and that does not describe Americans.
The Shadowed Knight
DOMA has nothing to do with what I'm talking about. Atlas won't shrug like libertarians want him to because Atlas is Christian in America. The Christian business owners of America aren't going to just go away quietly. It's not in their DNA.
DeleteJust look at the fight that Chick-fil-A and Hobby Lobby are putting up. If they were good Ayn Randian libertarians, they wouldn't do that. They aren't the only Christian business owners doing this. I know many that are the backbone of their cities and towns.
You can wish and want to your heart's desire. It won't happen in America the same way it is happening in Europe.
I understand a desire for the second coming of Jesus Christ.
ReplyDeleteI understand expats.
I understand making observations and predictions.
But, I am finding this cheering and desire for the collapse of the freest nation in the world to be increasingly pathetic. It reminds me of our son when he was young saying foolish things about wanting war. When a young child says such things you educate him on the realities of such things. How do we as Christians have desire in our hearts for a peoples' suffering and/or death. And especially this nonsense that you will take all the goodies this great nation has to offer (goodies that the people in the country you pretend your utopia exists would sell their last possession for the possibility to acquire), pack up your ball and flee to an inferior nation. And you think you'll be respected in this new land? That your new people would what, be too stupid to understand what you represent - that you have no honor. That you gave up the land of milk and honey and cheered on its collapse because it got hard. It had to go through growing pains and you just didn't like it.
I have no respect for this. I don't pretend to think you care TSK but on my blog I'll share my opinion. I just know too many people who would say goodbye to EVERYTHING just for the hope that is the US. We had young Korean's beg for us to help them get here. We have friends in South Africa that should want to spit in your face. And I know far too many people who pray and fight for the preservation of Western civilization and the liberty that still exists here more than ANYWHERE in the world.
TSK claims he has tried to explain the dire nature of the threat facing this country and the people will not listen.
ReplyDeleteThen there is something wrong with you, not the message. Not one? You haven't changed one? How arrogant that you make assertions in response to a man who I've seen change hundreds. Your sorry ass should be asking some questions. A lot more listening and far less talking you fool.
I understand exactly what will happen. The most optimistic estimate was ~75% dieoff in the first year. That is over *two hundred million* dead in the first year, alone--which will probably include most if not all of my relatives. Do not believe for an instant that I am unaware. I know full well what it means.
ReplyDeleteAnd I do not care.
The Shadowed Knight
You're right, we would be better off with you in some other country. Have fun being ostracized at best, killed at worst, by the natives of your new country.
DeleteYes, because expats are routinely slaughtered overseas. Americans murdered, every single day, in vicious attacks by angry crowds.
DeleteIf they do not like me? I am not well liked here. Why would they be any different? I am not interested in their attitude.
The Shadowed Knight
red & SD,
ReplyDeleteDon't be too hard on TSK. No one knows how the next 20 years are going to go. First they may be much worse than TSK thinks. I say that b/c God may very well judge this nation the same way he judged his own people. As a nation we deserve nothing less.
OR things may decline to a point where the adults decide to take back over and return to our roots both spiritually and politically. IF that happens it will be up to those of us who still hold to the old ways in terms of faith in God and faith in the ideals of our forefathers that will steer the course back.
OR our nation may blunder along another generation with things slowly circling the drain and it will be our children facing these same questions in their middle years.
OR maybe we will have both a spiritual and a national reawaking in the near future and our children will enjoy the same freedoms and liberties that our grandparents had.
I know what I pray for, but I don’t know how many others are praying with me.
It's not about being hard on him. He's ignorant. Yes, ex-pats are murdered all the time. Tourists too. Read the news from Mexico. I've lived overseas. You are an outsider to them. You can't change that. I could care less if he goes and finds out for himself. He doesn't matter to me. My words are for those that will listen.
ReplyDeleteAnyones safest place to be will be among their kind. I've known people living in foreign lands for decades that are still treated as outsiders by the locals. History shows the outsiders are slaughtered first in any societal collapse. I've had the unfortunate benefit of seeing this happen and the aftermath.
Young kids need to be drafted. They are idiots about the realities of the world.
Been there, done that. I have seen the third world. I have spoken to them in their own language and was treated with suspicion. I know what it is like to be the outsider.
ReplyDeleteI did not need to be drafted. I went of my own choice. I am not some idealistic young fool, not anymore. Not after all that I have seen done, and allowed to happen. Ask Snowden how free you are.
The Shadowed Knight
Ask Snowden how free you are.
ReplyDeleteCompared to...?
That is my point; that I have to reach so low in order to compare favorably to America. I can see the writing on the walls, and I am getting out while it is still writing, and not brains.
ReplyDeleteThe Shadowed Knight
Go, who's stopping you. Visiting Cancun for two weeks is not the same as living on the economy for months or years. I'm sure you will be the exception to the rule of outsiders being killed at the first sign of societal collapse. Go to Egypt. There are very democratic.
ReplyDeleteThe NSA isn't even trying to hide the fact that they are spying on non-Americans. They are pretending they aren't spying on Americans. Other countries don't bother pretending they aren't spying on their own citizens. What do you think the odds are of you being able to legally own a gun in your third world country?
You are ignorant. It's okay. Go forth, have fun. Feel free to report back after a year of living in your third world country.