Political Dualism - Americanitas
Written by Douglas Wilson
Wednesday, October 12, 2011 6:25 am
To worship is to make historical claims. Further, to acquiesce in false historical paradigmatic claims is to submit to a hidden idolatrous narrative. The two go together -- the two being worship and historical identification. Worship of the true God entails a right understanding of history (Jesus is risen is a historical claim), and worship of false gods is an attempt to establish lies about history (evolution is a risible historical lie about what happened to the whale on his way to becoming a cow).
Speaking of cows . . .
"They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt" (Ex. 32:8).
If Jesus is Lord of America, and He is, then Jesus is Lord of American history. This does not mean He approves of all the events, obviously, but rather that He is Lord of the narrative. What He blesses is blessed and what He curses is cursed. Furthermore, His interpretation is authoritative, which means that there is an authoritative interpretation out there. We don't necessarily know what that is -- indeed, we frequently don't -- but this means that relativism is out of the question. And if we do our historical spadework, within scriptural boundaries, we can get to the place where we are thinking God's historical thoughts after Him.
Since all truth is God's truth, and because all lies are the devil's, it is therefore important for us to state the true nature of America's spiritual declension. We have to state the narrative clearly and accurately. On top of that, we need to get the timetable right.
America was not founded as a secular republic. It was founded as a Christian republic. The founding rejected the idea of a national established church, and opted instead for an informal establishment of the Christian faith. Now informal establishment is not at all the same thing as secularism.
That informal establishment of Christianity continued in robust fashion down through the nineteenth century, and the shift to explicit secularism began in earnest at the mid point of the twentieth century. The inanities of secularism that surround us on every side are not hoary with age. The incoherence does not result from senility, but rather from a worldview that was barking mad to begin with.
If the lords of this age (saeculum) did not want Jesus to be Lord over the public square, then they should not have crucified Him there. He was not crucified in a corner, and He did not come back from the dead in a corner. So where is Jesus Lord? He is Lord everywhere He is alive. Is He alive in America?
What do the Christians say?
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