Author Archives: smcope

Unknown's avatar

About smcope

I am Stephen Cope, and I reside in Greenville, South Carolina. I devote myself full time to being an amateur historian, part time philosopher, and make occasional ventures into theology. Oh, I do work for money on the side because I really eating. My favorite academic interests include history, historical theology, philosophy (when I am bored), epistemology, and most important, the Bible. My spectator sport is politics. I believe the Bible is the Word of the Living God, absolute truth, inspired by the Holy Spirit, infallible, and inerrant. I believe the only authoritative source of true knowledge is found in the Word of the God, the scriptures, the 66 books of the Old and New Testament. Any claim that contradicts those words of the living God are false and are be rejected, and at any point where the words of God intersect our lives, they are to received, believed and acted upon. While I hardly live up to this standard, this is the desire of my heart, to know God's word, to live by his word, and to know Jesus Christ whom to know is life eternal. My three favorite verses in all the Bible are the following: Colossians 2:9-10, John 17:3, and John 17:17. Thank you for reading my blog, and if I can be of any service to you for Christ, please do not hesitate to contact me via the contact link. May Christ keep you in his sovereign love.

“Joy to the World: A Devotional Meditation”



“Joy to the World” is a well-known hymn sung by many Christians around the world at this time of year. Nonetheless, not as many are not aware that the hymn itself is actually based on Psalm 98 and was written not to commemorate the first coming of Christ (his birth), but the second coming of Christ, His glorious return in judgement, and in the restoration of all things.  The hymn was originally composed by Isaac Watts and published in 1719.  Watts’ hymn extols the reign of Christ and the blessings that Christ’”
rule will bring to the earth.  While we have not yet reached the consummation of all things, we do know that Christ reigns even now from His Father’s right hand and rules the nations with “a rod of iron“, and “dashes them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.” (Psalm 2:9). In view that glorious truth, consider these few observations and Biblical texts structured around an outline of the 4th stanza of this popular Christmas Hymn, “Joy to the World” When we think upon the kingship or the sovereignty of the Lord Jesus Christ, these words are a beautiful poetic expression His sovereign rule over the nations.  While this hymn these is not from the scripture and written by a man, they are a paraphrase from the scripture (Psalm 98), and reflect the scripture’s teaching on what Christ’s rule looks like.  Consider briefly what the hymn writer says about the Lord Jesus Christ’s rule of the nations.



“Joy to the World”

“He rules the world with truth and grace,

And makes the nations prove

The glories of His righteousness

And wonders of His love.”

First, consider that Christ rules the entire world, here and now, and not just the world to come.  

“He rules the world. . .”

“All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.” (Matthew 28:18)

Second, consider the character of Christ’s rule: Christ rules with truth and grace.

“He rules the world with truth and grace, . . .”

“Mercy and truth have met together; Righteousness and peace have kissed.” (Psalm 85:10)

“In mercy and truth, atonement is provided for iniquity. . .” (Proverbs 16:6)

“And the Word (Christ) became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. . . . . For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” (John 1:14, 17)

Third, consider that the nations are the Christ’s agents of providence to fulfill the work of the gospel, either in salvation or in judgement.

“He rules the world with truth and grace, and makes the nations prove;”

“Thus says the LORD to His anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have held-to subdue nations before him and loose the armour of kings to open before him the double doors, so that the gates will not be shut: I will go before you and make the crocked places straight; I will break in pieces the gates of bronze and cut the bars of iron.” (Isaiah 45:1-2)

“Thus says the LORD GOD: Behold, I will lift My hand in an oath to the nations, and set up My standard for the peoples; they shall bring your sons in their arms, and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders.  Kings shall be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers; they shall bow down to you with their faces to the earth, and lick the dust of your feet.  Then you will know that I am the LORD, for they shall not be ashamed who wait for me.” (Isaiah 49:22-23)

“Yes, all kings shall fall before Him; all nations shall serve Him.” (Psalm 72:11)

“Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, ‘The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!” (Revelation 11:15)

Fourth, consider the acts of the nations prove the character of the gospel:  The glories of God’s righteousness, and the wonders of God’s love.

“He rules the world with truth and grace, And makes the nations prove; The glories of His righteousness, And wonders of His love.”

“Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, ‘Thus says the LORD God of Israel, ‘because you have prayed to Me against Sennacherib king of Assyria, this is the word which the LORD has spoken concerning him:

”. . . Did you not hear long ago how I made it, from ancient times that I formed it?  Now I have brought it to pass that you should be for crushing fortified cities into heaps of ruins.  Therefore their inhabitants had little power; they were dismayed and confounded; they were as the grass of the field and the green herb; as the grass on the hilltops and the grain blighted before it is grown.’

“But I know your dwelling place, your going out and your coming in, and your rage against Me.  Because your rage against Me and your tumult have come up to My ears, therefore I will put My hook in your nose and My bridle in your lips, and I will turn you back by the way which you came.“

“Then the Angel of the LORD went out, and killed in the camp of the Assyrians one hundred and eighty-five thousand; and when people rose early in the morning, there were the corpses-all dead.”  (Isaiah 37:21-22, 26-29, 36)

“And at the end of the time, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my understanding was returned to me; and I blessed the Most High and praised and honored Him who lives forever: For His dominion is an everlasting dominion, and His kingdom is from generation to generation.  All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing. He does according to His will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth.  No one can restrain His hand, or say to Him, ‘What have You done?’” (Daniel 4:34-35)


“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.  Moreover, whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these he also glorified.  What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
”  (Romans 8:28-31)

Fifth, consider the character of the gospel: the Glory of Righteousness, the Wonder of Love

“But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe.  For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” (Romans 3:21-16)

“For when we were still without strength, in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. . . . . But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:6, 8)

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only Begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)

Sixth, consider that Christ shall rule the nations with His gospel.

“When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory.  All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats.  And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left.  And the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you before the foundation of the world: For I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me. I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’

And the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothed You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’

And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’

Then He will say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: For I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave me no drink. I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’  Then they also will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not minister to You?’

Then He will answer them, saying, “Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did not do it unto Me.’ “

(Matthew 25:31-45)


Perhaps now, you may want to listen to the hymn again as you meditate upon these words from Scripture. Here is one of my favorite arrangements of this hymn:

Note: I do not own the rights to this video, nor the song, nor the performance. I am sharing it solely for educational purposes. Thank you for understanding. SMC

A Lying Spirit in the Mouth of the Prophets

A Burden of Divine Chastisement against the American Evangelical Church

Church in the Twenty-first Century

“Then Micaiah said, I saw the LORD sitting upon HIs throne, Therefore hear the words of the LORD: And all the host of heaven standing, one His right hand, and on His left. And the LORD said, “Who will persuade Ahab to to go up, that he may fall at Ramoth Gilead?” So one spoke in this manner, and another spoke in that manner. Then a spirit came forward, and stood before the LORD and said, “I will persuade him.” The LORD to him, “in what way?” So he said, I will go and be a lying spirit in the mouths of all his prophets.” And the LORD said, “You shall persuade and also prevail. Go out and do so.” Therefore, look! The LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these prophets of yours, and the LORD has declared disaster against you.” II Kings 22:19-23

When I created this blog in 2013, one specific purpose governed my thinking regarding its existence.  Nonetheless, I did not share my entire perspective immediately because I needed time to test if in fact my primary reason could be validated by both Scripture and God’s providential government of all earthly events.  Seven years was required to complete that test, but the events of this year, 2020, have provided the final vindication of a burden that was placed upon my heart over eight years ago.

Throughout 2012 and 2013, God began to impress my heart with a deeply troubling and at times utterly overwhelming burden concerning the spiritual condition of the Evangelical Christian church in the United States of America.  It was a burden that virtually paralleled the events described in the Scripture cited above.  Over the course of those two years, the Spirit slowly united in my mind a collection of historical observations and interpretations, theological truths, and clear Biblical passages that would ultimately explode a “spiritual bomb” in my soul in the first half of 2013.  That “spiritual explosion”, or if I dare call it an “illumination” (not on par with the supernatural revelation of Scripture or and assuredly not some special new divine revelation) was so overwhelming I wanted to flee from its terrifying reality.  But with a force equal only to the days when the Spirit of God brought me truly to repentance from my sin and to faith in Jesus Christ as my only Savior and sovereign Lord, the Spirit pressed upon my soul this burden and COMMANDED me, not invited, not urged, not suggested, but commanded me to proclaim this illuminating and yet terrifying truth from His Word as it applies to the great events of our day.   Such was the force this burden upon my conscience that I was more terrified of the consequences of ignoring Spirit’s command than any earthly trauma I had experienced or could still experience in this earthly life.  What was this “spiritual bombshell” that exploded in my mind? I can summarize it in two statements:

First, the great Protestant Reformation of the 16th century-the greatest spiritual revival the Christian church had experienced since the days of Pentecost-had now run its course and its spiritual blessings upon western civilization were now waning like the setting sun upon western horizon.

Second, now that this great revival had run its divinely appointed course, God would now remove His gracious restraining presence against sin, and instead permit a lying spirit to animate all the institutions of our western world, but particularly those of the United States, and thus begin a process of divine chastisement that would ultimately lead the world back to the spiritual darkness of the Pre-Protestant Era of the Christian church.

Volumes would have to written in order to express in any semi-complete form all that the Spirit pressed upon my soul in those two years.  But even if I wrote pages upon pages (and I have actually done so over the last seven years), I still do not believe I could fully express all that was pressed upon my soul in those days as well as in the years since then.  In September, 2013, I summarized the burden as best as I could in an open letter delivered to several other Christian brothers.  This letter was designed as a test to determine whether other believers could observe a similar pattern.  These were the words I wrote in that letter dated the 21st of September, 2013:

“The burden itself may be expressed in two statements-one negative and the other positive-with a most pointed and personal application for myself.

The negative statement could be expressed in this form:

When this year began [2013], I received a distinct impression in my spirit that with the start of this year and possibly for many more months and years to come, prevented only by a great Spirit-led revival or the return of our Lord Jesus, this land shall experience two dreadful realities:

First, we shall witness a removing of the hand and grace of God against the spiritual hosts of wickedness.  As a result, I believe we shall see a greater manifestation of evil, unbelief, and apostasy with great sin and apostasy the likes of which ten or twenty years ago we would not have believed possible to witness in both the nation and in the church.

Second, we shall experience a more fearful reality than the previous statement, and that is we shall witness a dulling and deadening of the souls of those who profess to belong to Christ.  Much like the account in I Kings 22:22, I fear that God is sending forth a lying spirit among His professed church in our day and permitting the hearts of those who say they belong to Christ to grow cold, dim, and darkened towards the truth of God.  The reason I believe that God sends such moments of spiritual darkness among His people is recorded in Jeremiah 5:30-31 and Deuteronomy 13:3.  I shall not expound these texts in this letter, but simply commend them to you for your own meditation.

The positive element of the burden could be best expressed with two passages from the epistle to the Hebrews: 12:4 and 13:13.  Like before I shall expound these two passages in this letter, but I would urge you, my brethren, to meditate upon the words of those texts carefully.  I would like to offer one summary statement regarding both passages:

In days to come, I believe those who truly know and love Christ, His Word, His doctrine, and His commands will find that it will become harder to strive against the sin and unbelief around us, and that we may soon find that those who will heap the most shame upon us will be those who declare they love Christ, but disregard His Word, His doctrine, and His commands.

I believe that I must use with greater zeal what limited gifts and knowledge I have to proclaim the truth of God’s Word regarding the spiritual deception and declension in our own time to all those whom God has currently placed in my life.

I am an historian by training-being “afflicted” with two degrees in that discipline.  One of the few gifts God has given to me is the ability to see the past not simply in little snippets, but the ability to comprehend deeply the vast panorama of centuries of historical data-both the great as well as the seemingly insignificant events of the past-while relating it all to the larger arcs or movements which stream through the ages.  When I view the world today, I do not see it only in the context of the last few years or even the last thirty or forty years.  No, I see what is happening in 2020 through two distinct lenses:

One, I see today’s events as consequences from events that occurred one to five to even twenty centuries ago, if not longer. And yes, I do believe in causation in history in opposition to some of the more modern and even postmodern schools of historical interpretation.  But that is an essay for another time.

Two, I interpret every single historical event through the epistemological framework of the divine declarations of the Word of God.  Furthermore, I believe that the best systematic expression by the Christian church of that epistemological as well as theological framework is the theological principles affirmed in the Westminster Confession of Faith and its subordinate catechisms (American edition-1789).

To summarize, I believe the record of human history is nothing more than the reactions of men and women to God’s eternal decree to glorify Himself by accomplishing the salvation of His church through the redemptive work of His own appointed mediator-Jesus Christ-the second person of the Trinity, the Son of God who became man two millennia ago to live, die, and rise again as the representative of His own people-both Jews and Gentiles.  But I must provide some vital clarification.  I do not simply affirm this doctrine as true.  In my mind’s eye I can see many of the various historical details like pieces in a giant puzzle fitting together in a synergistic form as they pass from one generation to another.  Furthermore I can sense in my soul the spirit of each age as it passes from one generation to another, feeling the strength of that which is from the Spirit of God as well as the oppressive evil cascading from the spirit of Antichrist which was already active in the days of the Apostle John (See I John 4).  If you and I were speaking together in person I could with ease walk you through some of the various ages from the last two thousand years and show you the mechanics of divine providence to illustrate how the seemingly secular events of men and nations were actually the tools of God in accomplishing a far greater work-the building of His church.

So how does my historically conscience perspective relate to the burden that was pressed upon my soul?

That question is best answered by considering the passage at the beginning of this post as well as the entire context of I Kings 22.  In fact, if you have not read that part of the Old Testament in some time, read the entire chapter upon finishing this brief essay.  At some point I may expound this passage on my blog, but for now, simply let the force of those words from Scripture press into your mind and soul.  Through the prophet Micaiah God declared that He had determined to punish Israel and in particular King Ahab for their sins of embracing idolatry and rejecting the law (word) of God.  But note carefully these three singular observations:

First, earthly events-both present and past-are reactions to events in heaven.  To be more precise, historical events are reactions to God’s declarations in heaven.  This doctrine is the primary reason I believe in causation in history.  In short, all of human history revolves around the spoken as well as the written Word of God.  God never reacts to the actions of people on earth.  Quite the contrary, events on earth are always reactions to that which is happening in heaven.

Second, God reveals His method for destroying civil rulers as well as nations who rebel against His Word (or law).  What is that method?  He directs a lying spirit to enter the hearts of the prophets (or if I may use another term, preachers) to animate the people to believe lies and reject the truth.  Other passages in Scripture clearly teach that God’s greatest judgement upon any people is to give them over to lies and to permit them to follow those lies to their total destruction.

Third, consider that it was not just any Gentile nation that God had chosen to punish, but it was His own chosen people-Israel-against whom He had declared disaster.  It was to Israel that God sent a lying spirit designed to lead His own people into calamity.  This truth reveals that God’s judgement upon the wickedness in the world always begins with the people of God.  Indeed, one might argue from Scripture that God always judges His own people before He judges the wicked and unbelieving.  The apostle Peter affirms this truth in his first epistle when he writes, “For the time has come for judgement to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?” (I Peter 4:17).  God will punish the wicked for the multitude of their sins, but His judgement always starts with the spiritual condition of His people.  This doctrine teaches an essential truth: when God blesses His people with spiritual blessings, even the ungodly will prosper in an earthly sense.  But when God’s people experience a spiritual declension and divine judgement, the wicked are emboldened to pursue their evil designs and lawless conduct.

These three observations provide the theological foundation for the burden of divine judgement against the church of Jesus Christ in the United States.  Yet even these simple statements hardly express all that fills my heart.  Furthermore, I would not have any reader accept my testimony alone.  Thus in my next post, I intend to share a series of passages from the Scripture with little comment from myself so that all may consider these things carefully from the Word of God.

This is the burden that I have borne since 2013.

And what is the forceful command?

God the Holy Spirit commanded me that I must spend the rest of my earthly days bearing witness of this spiritual reality.  While I believe God has appointed diverse means for how I shall bear witness of this burden, my primary duty in this calling is to write of these things and proclaim to any and all who will listen and heed.  And that is this reason I created this blog.

“Who Will Remember?”

Reflections on the 50th Anniversary of the D-Day invasion.

(The following text is from a speech I wrote in 1994, when I was still in high school.  I presented the speech at a camp in the summer of that year.  While my writing is still reflective of a high school sophomore, I believe my observations and arguments are still relevant. Since I have not posted anything here for 2016, I thought this would be a fitting post for this 72nd anniversary of the D-Day invasion. SMC )

On June 6, 1994, President Bill Clinton joined world leaders in northern France to celebrate the 50th anniversary of D-Day.  He did all that protocol required of him.  He attended speeches and visited memorials.  He looked every bit the President of the United States.  The media’s attention focused on seemingly touching gesture made by President Clinton-that of placing rock in the shape of a cross on the beach.  But when it was revealed that this incident was staged, it became evident how President Clinton really felt about D-Day.  He wasn’t there to celebrate it.  The 50th anniversary of the D-Day invasion was merely a photo opportunity for our president.  All the speeches and ceremonies were nothing more than required presidential duty-just another famous date in history to commemorate.

But unfortunately, President Clinton isn’t the only one guilty of participating in the empty ceremonial style.  Today, many Americans have come to view D-Day in the same way.  It has no meaning to their lives.  It has simply joined the long list of historical dates that have a school book significance to the modern world.  We must not let this happen!  We must not allow ourselves to forget the on-going influence of D-Day!  It is an event that history will always remember, and we as Americans must never forget!

Why is this historical event so important you may ask?  First, the invasion across the English Channel was the only successful one of its kind in modern times.  Many invasions across the channel have been attempted.  Few have succeeded.  Both Napoleon and Hitler attempted to send invasion forces across the channel.  Both attempts failed.  Until 1944, the last successful attempt at sending an invasion fleet across the channel was almost 900 years before, in 1066, when William the Conqueror sailed across the channel and defeated the Saxons.

However, it could be easy to forget.  As time marches on, the miracle of D-Day will lose its grasp upon our souls.  As the date grows further away, it will become easy to simply view it as another event in history or just another date to remember for a test.  As the veterans grow old and leave us, we will lose the first-hand accounts of what it was like to hit the beaches and face the Germans.  We will lose the personal testimonies of heroism and honor.  In the year 2019, when we celebrate the 75th anniversary of D-Day, we will no longer have such people as Walter Cronkite to take us back to Normandy.  As the veterans dies, we will lose an important piece of living history.  The collection of veterans at the 50th anniversary will probably be the last time such a gathering will ever take place!

But perhaps the most important reason why we should not forget D-Day could be best summarized in the words of the great Roman orator, Cicero: “To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child.”  How can we as a nation move forward in the future if we do not know where we have come from in the past?  By forgetting the Americans who landed at Normandy, we do not only them, but us a great disservice.  How can we remain the leader of the world if we do not know where we have come from and what our past is?  The only way we can maintain our greatness as a nation is to remember the struggles we had on our rise to greatness.  It is our solemn duty as citizens to remember those who gave all they had for the fight for freedom.  But do we want to remember them in President Clinton’s way of empty ceremonies?  Do we want to treat their sacrifice as just another day’s work?  I think not.  Let us instead remember them as we should-men who did their duty.  Let us remember the soldiers, sailors, and airmen who were willing to commit themselves to fighting for the cause of freedom.  And let us dedicate ourselves, once again, to remembering them as we should.  As those soldiers on the beaches of Normandy were willing to do their duty, so let us do ours in preserving their memory and their work.  The nation that forgets its past leaders will be the nation that falls.  But the nation that remembers will be the nation that prevails.  As American citizens, let us dedicate ourselves to the task of remembering D-Day.  We must not forget.  Instead, we must remember so that we are better prepared for the problems and challenges of the future.  Let us remember the past so that we will know what we are about in the present and what we will be about in the future.

Protestantism’s Death & Liberty’s Demise

The Rise of Neo-Medievalism, Religious Authoritarianism, and the Fusion of Church & State in the West

When I first posted my stories about the ‘American Theocracy’ over a year ago, I did not expect to see such significant manifestations of this intellectual, religious and spiritual trend within the span of a year.  But throughout 2015, I have noted several surprising trends that all point to a very disturbing pattern regarding the fusion of religious ideology with political rhetoric to produce a frightening new phenomenon in the American scene.  This new movement is a form of bigotry, hatred and malice that appears very different to us who witnessed the horrifying racial, ethnic and religious hatred of the modern era, but in principle it is no different from the thoughts systems that produce Nazism, Communism, Socialism, and the extreme forms of social and economic racism in this nation’s history .  And for those of you following my stories on the American Theocracy, the struggle over these moral principles is the cornerstone of that imaginary story set in the future.
I hope to return to that series soon, but I want to take some time to relate the principles that under gird my story to our current context so that you, my readers, can better understand what I am seeking to communicate. While the origins of the story itself is only eight years old, nonetheless, I will admit that the influences upon my thinking which led to its creation were the result of twenty-four years of different streams of thought merging together together withing my own view of the world and Biblical truth within the last ten years.  These same streams bring us back to the main purpose in creating this blog in 2013.
In all fairness, before proceeding with this post, I should state for readers not familiar with all the nuisances of my theology and my thinking a key presupposition that guides my analysis of current events as well as their relationship to the past.  As an unapologetic Protestant Christian, I believe that the source of all truth is found only in the gospel of Jesus Christ as recorded in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments.  By consequence, I also believe that the fruit of a true knowledge of truth is liberty of conscience-both spiritual and material (see John 8:32).  Thus, I draw a direct line from the rise and fall of the Protestantism in the West to the rise and fall of liberty and constitutional government among the Western nations in the last five centuries.  But I am not alone in this supposition.  Many historians, both Christian and secular alike, have noted the unique and close kinship between the rise and spread of Protestantism five centuries ago and the rise and spread of personal liberty, or as it is often known, Classical Liberalism.  Alternatively,  few historians and thinkers in our day-both modern and postmodern alike-have failed to note the close parallels between the decline of historic Protestantism and the rise of the totalitarian state with its authoritarian ideologies in the last one hundred years.  Nonetheless, since the dawn of the twentieth century, this process is exactly what has unfolded in the West-first in Europe in the middle of that century, and now in the United States in our own time.  Consequently, in Europe, as Protestantism died, the old order of constitutional monarchies or constitutional ideals were replaced with Socialism, Fascism, Nazism, and Communism.  The result was a continent ravaged with with a century of war, chaos, carnage and destruction.   But now, in the early decades of the twenty-first century, that same cancer has spread to North America, and this principle is the underlying reality to all the disturbing news stories of the past year:
The CAUSE  of the death of Liberty and constitutional government in the United States is directly linked to the death and decay of Protestantism in the United States.
Several lines of historical and theological arguments could be offered to support this claim, and I hope to continue exploring these themes in future posts.  But for this article, I simply want to note the the board historical arch which unites events of this year indicating that Protestantism is dead, and consequently, our Postmodern world is quickly returning to a Pre-Protestant and Pre-Reformational status.  But there is another term I would prefer to use to describe this phenomenon:
In 2015, the world watched the first major surge of an intellectual, religious and spiritual movement that could be defined as ‘Neo-Medievalism.’  
What is ‘Neo-Medievalism’?  Obviously, the term, ‘Medieval’ is generally used by historians to describe the millennium between the ancient era of history and that of the Reformation/Modern Era which still continues to affect our Postmodern world.  But while some might simply employ that term as a chronological sense, I would argue that Medievalism was more than just a broad designation for an era of disjointed historical chaos.  Granted, few in the actual Medieval period probably used that word to describe their own thinking regarding truth, religion, and the world (they would not have even known such a term). Nonetheless, the Medieval European and Medieval Semite (occupant of the Ancient Middle East) possessed a carefully defined and highly developed worldview.  One of the great tragedies resulting from the Modern and Postmodern study of history has been the over-simplification of the exact nature of the Medieval worldview by both Christian and Secular historians alike.  The term, ‘Dark Ages’ is often used to describe that era of a thousand years as a time of backward thinking and provincial attitudes. As a Protestant, I would argue that indeed much of Europe and the Middle East (as well as other parts of the globe) were in a deep spiritual darkness, and in that sense, the world was living in a ‘Dark Age’.  But it is the height of historical ignorance to argue that somewhere intellectual thought died during that extended period of time.  If we could learn one key lesson from the events of the Protestant Reformation (which was a true intellectual revolution for the West), the European ‘Wars of Religion’ (1524-1648) demonstrated there was clear conflict of worldviews between the Medieval and the Reformational Protestant.  And that one hundred and twenty-eight year conflict of worldviews did more than just impact religious bodies.  Besides devastating much of the populace of Europe, this conflict completely changed the entire continent, giving birth to the idea of separating the church from the civil government, and religion from society at large.
When we consider the seismic impact of the Reformation to Europe, we must ask this question: what was the foundation of Medieval Thought in contrast to Reformational Protestantism?
Without over simplifying a rather complex question (and one that deserves much more study than I have given to it), permit me offer what I believe to be the one key distinctive of the Medieval worldview in contrast to the Protestant worldview.  And while I must admit that there were and still are Protestants and Catholics who may not fit precisely into this category, I would argue that such individuals are the exception to the general observable pattern:
The Medieval mind viewed the institutional church and institutional religion as the cornerstone of society (hence Medieval and Modern Catholics often approach political and economic theory from a purely collective or materialistic perspective) whereas the Protestant mind viewed the individual and his or her family as the centerpiece of human interaction (and therefore approached their worldviews from more of an individual and spiritual perspective).
Much could and should be flushed out in this definition which at the moment I will not take the time to do.  But if one considers that basic definition of Medieval thinking in contrast to historic Protestant thought, a pattern within the significant events of 2015 begins to manifest itself:
1. The U. S. Supreme Court’s decision in Obergefell vs. Hodge declared that same-sex unions were equal to more traditional definitions of marriage and therefore, should be given the same legal status by the U. S. Constitution as traditional marriage is.
This decision renewed a long standing call by ‘Evangelical’ and other ‘Christian’ conservatives that it was the responsibility of the State, as a ‘Christian entity’ to define and regulate the institution of marriage.
2. In the wake of the recent terrorist attacks linked to ISIL as well as the influx of Syrian refugees to Europe and North America, some ‘Evangelical’ and ‘Christian’ politicians have called for the implementation of Identity Cards be issued to those who do not publicly adhere to the Christian faith.
3.The open hatred expressed by some Christians towards both open homosexuals and Muslims in general is yet another reflection of the same spirit of religious intolerance and bigotry that fueled the wars of religion in Europe in the 1600’s.
4. The address of Pope Francis I to a joint session of the U. S. Congress-a first in American history, and one that was widely applauded by many self-identified Protestants and Evangelicals, despite the pontif’s ambiguity on things like the definition of marriage, the role of government in both economics and politics and a papal exhortation for Americans to embrace multiculturalism despite the fact that many Evangelicals strongly oppose such positions.
5. In recent weeks, the number of American Conservative Christians who have publicly denounced the reception of Syrian refugees by the American government to the United States as a policy that is both ‘Un-american’ and ‘Unchristian.’ simply because these refugees may hold either Muslim beliefs or simply non-Christian beliefs.
6. And lastly, but most disturbingly, calls by some Christians to embrace a total war or a ‘holy crusade’ against militant Islamic groups throughout the Middle East.
Each of these particular issues deserve more attention than I can give in a single post, but for the moment, simply consider the broad pattern that unites these events:
In 2015, we noted an unusual paradigm shift within the American political and social structure in responding to these events:
It was the political Left (not the ideological left, mind you), that became the promoter of ‘individual liberty’ as it is so badly defined in our Postmodern society, and it was the political right (and in this case, the ideological and political bloc are slowly fusing with each other) that was promoting government intervention in everything from society to economics to political power to the very definition of warfare itself.
Regardless of one’s personal views or convictions, this trend is a highly significant pattern for the student of history.  But this reality is even more troubling for the Christian who holds that the Bible is their supreme authority and that Christ is their only Lord, for here is the practical lesson we ought to learn from this observation:
The Modern world is dead, and the Postmodern world has given to us ‘The Brave New World.’  For those of you reading this blog who think that the world is still in the PROCESS of becoming the ‘Brave New World”, permit me burst your bubble right now.  Postmodernism IS the ‘Brave New World,’ and that means the ‘Brave New World’ IS NOW. And as this new paradigm works itself out in other realms of human life, the ‘Brave New World’ will appear in this fashion: the political left will defend their version of ‘personal liberty’ which might better be defined as ‘chaotic licentiousness’ and the political right will defend religious authoritarianism as the ‘divinely ordained’ means to prevent this new Postmodern ‘liberty’ from spreading.
But here is the great irony in this historical development:  It was NOT Postmodernism that killed ‘liberty’.  The rise of Neo-Medievalism that considers the church and and external or institutional religion with all its entangling totalitarianism is what is truly killing and has already killed liberty in the United States.  And this ideological foundation is fueling the conflict that is manifested by an intense hatred of many American Christians against Islam, Secularism and the inane theory of the ‘Great Left-wing conspiracy’.  This the paradigm that will govern the next fifty to one hundred years of American religion as its influence continues to grow upon American public policy.   But that reality is small in comparison to the truly frightening source of this new paradigm.  This embrace of ‘Neo-Medievalism’ by the Christian church in American is the consequence of the death of Protestantism in America.

The American Presidents: My Favorite Cinematic Portrayals

Every third Monday in February, our government sets asides a day we call President’s Day, to honor those who have held the office of President of the United States.  While as a general rule, I do not get terribly excited about this particular Federal holiday, I have had a special interest in the history of the American presidency since I was kid.  In fact, it was sometime in grade school that I memorized the list of the Presidents, and can still recite all forty-three occupants in order along with the dates that served.  (Trivia question: Did you know that while Barack Obama is the 44th President of the United States, there have only been 43 occupants?  Do you know why?  I won’t answer this question in blog, but just leave the question for your consideration).

Several months ago, I stumbled across this short video documenting all the presidents who had been on portrayed on film.  Not all of the American Presidents have had actors play them, but many of the former occupants of the White House have been played by multiple famous actors in different films.  And so, in honor of the good, the bad and the ugly who have played the famous and infamous of the American Presidency, I thought for a short blog, I would present this short video along with a list of my favorite portrayals of American Presidents in film.

First, let me say a word about the film itself.  As I mentioned, not every single President has been portrayed in films, and I am not familiar with some of clips that were chosen here.  And there are a few actors that were omitted from this film that I would have included, and other clips I would have excluded.  Nonetheless, it does provide a decent overview of actors who have played different presidents in film.

Second, let me say word about my list.  I chose every single actor, not based on the quality of the film, but on what I perceived as the individual actor’s attempt to portray the particular president in which they were cast.  Some of the films listed here were fairly accurate historically while others were based more on historical myth than historical facts.  Those films made great films, but were better propaganda pieces than true historical presentations.  So please do not think that any particular film on my list has my blessing as an historian.  Some of them really pretty loose with the facts.    Nonetheless, based on my knowledge of those particular presidents, I thought the actors did a good job at either capturing the spirit of the man or his particular role in history.  And that was my primary criterion for the list.  And so without further explanation, here is my list of favorite Presidential Actors and a short history of the American Presidency in Film:

Top Actors for American Presidents:

1. Barry Bostwick (George Washington in CBS’s mini-series, George Washington (1984), and its sequel, George Washington II: The Forging of a Nation (1986)).

2. Paul Giamatti (John Adams in HBO’s mini-series based on David McCullough’s biography, John Adams (2008)).

3. Anthony Hopkins (John Quincy Adams in Steven Spielberg’s film, Amistad (1997)).

4. Charlton Heston (Andrew Jackson in the films, The President Lady (1953), and The Buccaneer  (1958)).

5. Sam Waterson (Abraham Lincoln in the film adaption of Gore Vidal’s book, Lincoln (1988)), and Daniel Day-Lewis (in the Steven Spielberg film, Lincoln (2012)).

6. Brian Keith (Theodore Roosevelt in John Milius’ film, The Wind and the Lion (1975)) and Tom Berenger (playing Roosevelt during the Spanish-American War in TNT’s mini-series, Rough Riders (1997)).

7. Ralph Bellamy (Franklin D. Roosevelt in Herman Wouk’s The Winds of War (1983), and War and Remembrance (1988)), and Kenneth Branagh (in the 2005 film, Warm Springs, which tells the story of Roosevelt’s pre-presidential struggle with polio.)

8. Martin Sheen (John F. Kennedy in NBC’s mini-series, Kennedy (1983)), and Bruce Greenwood (as President Kennedy during the Cuban Missile Crisis in the film, Thirteen Days (2000)).

9. James Brolin (Ronald Reagan in the mini-series, The Reagans (2003)).

10. Dennis Quaid (Bill Clinton in the BBC/HBO film, That Special Relationship (2010)).

The American Theocracy: Post-Modernity and the ‘Great Collapse’

‘Holy War! The Rise & Fall of the American Theocracy, 2039-2079’ (Part 7)

By Nathaniel Lane Stewart, M. A.

The Unique Phenomenon of the American Theocratic Republic (Part 7)

(This post marks part 7 of the introductory essay from a book supposedly published in the year, A. D. 2195, and narrates an era of ‘Future history’ in twenty-first century American history known as the ‘American Theocracy’.  This post completes the second of the three ‘necessary presuppositions’ that Professor Stewart maintains as essential in understanding the rise and fall of the American Theocratic Republic.  The previous six parts can be read on this blog. SMC)

What did this convergence [the collapse of Modernity, the rise of Post-Modernity and the explosion of religious warfare] look like in the history of the world?

In a word, chaos.  And in one sense, it was the chaos of the early twenty-first century that popularized the Post-modern criticism of the Modern perspective.  After three centuries, the Modern had failed to create a ‘secular’ unifying religion so desperately craved for by mankind that excluded both a supernatural deity and the institutional church.  Thus, the Post-modern concluded that such a quest was impossible, and that the very idea of a universal claim for anything, but especially one regarding religion, was a fool’s errand impossible to achieve.  For the Post-modern, not only was religion and faith purely subjective (as the Modern claimed), but so also was reason and intellectual pursuit.  Universality was impossible on any level, and thus, for the Post-modern, paradox and contextualization became the only two absolutes mankind could believe.  As one writer of the early twenty-first century remarked, “an eternal tension between the meaning and the non-meaning must perpetually co-exist in our experience.”  This statement was the defining principle of Post-modern thought. (15)

Thus, it was completely natural that the dominate political-economic theory of the early twenty-first century was a hybrid of Libertarian-Anarchist thought regarding the civil body politic, and why by the 2020’s and 2030’s, the primary political goal of both the Neo-Libertarians and the American Gay Party was to dismantle the centralized state that the Modern had previously worshiped.  This trend in political economy was matched by a parallel religious trend which elevated the spiritual principle of the worship of the individual and his or her ego along with the individual’s freedom to express oneself regardless of cultural, social or religious norm.  The widespread acceptance of these streams of thought (that is, the Libertarian-Anarchist, Gay, Postmodern subjective spirituality) was only furthered by the Neo-Libertarian Revolution of the 2020’s, the great Tech Crash of 2031, the political triumph of the ‘Gay Rights’ movement in the 2030’s as well as the explosion of the Muslim civil wars from 2020 to the Congress of Tehran in 2036 (16).  World events appeared to parallel perfectly the Post-modern claim that subjective chaos was the only ‘absolute norm’ in a world that had abandoned all appearance of order, structure and meaning (17).

But those events were insignificant in both promoting and finally killing off the Post-Modern Era when compared to two significant events in first half of the twenty-first century.  The first was the organization of the American Evangelical-Catholic Church and the  ‘moral civil wars’ of the 2030’s and 2040’s that resulted from its organization (18).  The second major event was the publication of the novel, The Surprising Beauty of Subjective Amorality, by Marta LaGrange, in June, 2027.  Both of these events significantly altered the social and moral fabric of American society, finally completing a paradigm shift that had begun in the late 1990’s.

LaGrange’s novel was not a particularly insightful or profound piece of literature, but the philosophy expounded by the novel was perhaps the clearest literary expression of the values that had come to characterize the ‘moral chaos theories’ that became the cornerstone of Neo-Libertarian thought advocated by both the Neo-Libertarian and American Gay Parties (19).  And it was this flowering of the American Gay Culture that led to the other development of the day-the organization of the American Evangelical-Catholic Church and their ‘moral civil wars’ as they were called by some.

While Protestant Evangelicalism and Catholicism were growing closer during the late twentieth century, the political and cultural events of early twenty-first century propelled that union much sooner than some thought possible.  After the Political Plurality Act of 2028 broke up the two-party system, finally permitting both the Neo-Libertarian and Gay parties to gain more political power, the Christian right, (those that had not embraced the Gay Agenda), organized into new politically-active bloc that had one goal-gain control of the Federal government at all costs to outlaw both Gay behavior and what they termed as ‘Libertarian anarchy.’ (20).  Thus, it could be argued that it was the Neo-Libertarian revolution and the widespread acceptance of the Gay beliefs that initially led to the creation of the American Theocracy. (21)

Ironically, while both events were reacting primarily to the Post-modern world of the early twenty-first century, between 2020 and 2040, both the views of the novel and the organization of the new church also successfully killed the Post-modern paradigm.  By mid-century, most intellectuals (religious or non-religious) maintained that universality was completely impossible.  The only exception to this claim was the militant leadership of the American Evangelical-Catholic Church and the Christian Union Party, and from 2034-2060, both entities energetically promoted Christian activism against the four other competing political parties in the American Federal system (22). In contrast, the other parties simply resigned themselves to the popular belief that chaos in all forms was inevitable.  What was left of Western Modern society by 2050 (which was indeed precious little) not only cemented the belief in pure subjective chaos as intellectually superior, but it also killed off any further intellectual pursuits in the Western world.  In fact, so few were the philosophical works published between 2050 and 2100 that many scholars now refer to that era as the ‘Great Collapse’, in which Western thought finally appeared to cease to exist.

By 2060, much of Europe was dominated by the Russian Imperial Federation and was no longer a political or military influence on the global scene while the League of Islamic Republics stretched from North Africa, across the Middle East to Southeast Asia.  In the United States, six political parties were competing for political power, although none could gain a substantial majority to actually accomplish their political or civil goals.  And the disastrous effects of the Treaty of Beirut (2053) upon both the American economy and government only furthered the sense of spiritual despair and social disorder that the Post-modern Libertarian and Gay Rights Era had brought into American civil and social life.  Many desired a savior to right the wrongs, and since by that point, religion and politics had so merged in the thinking of the American political right and center, that savior needed to be both a religious and political individual.  It was into this world that Senator L. Carter McPherson and the Christian Republic Party entered, promising to restore spiritual, political, economic and social vitality to a republic that had suffered under the curse of a semi-religious subjective morass for over fifty years.  This was the unique world that produced the American Theocracy.

 

To Be Continued. . .

(15) See Kyle’s soliloquy  from The Surprising Beauty of Subjective Amorality, by Marta LaGrange, published by the Freedom Press of New York, New York City, in 2027.  Professor Stewart’s analysis of the novel is contained in the November edition of the Academic Literature Review, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 2163.

(16) Each of these events are covered fully in Chapters 3-6, 8 and 11-12 of Volume I of this work.

(17) These political and economic developments also explain the widespread popularity of the inane ‘chaos theory’ in physics during the 2030’s which became a dogma among scientists before the Theocratic Party purged most of those scientists during the 2070’s.  Today we know the ‘chaos theory’ is as absurd as Aristotelian cosmology, but sadly, it took the Theocratic Party to kill off completely the widespread acceptance of that pseudo-science.

(18) Both the organization of the new church and its militant crusades against open immorality were ultimately in reaction to the Political Plurality Act of 2028.  See chapter 10 of Volume 1 for a more thorough explanation of the consequences of that legislation.

(19) LaGrange’s novel is really two stories woven in one: the first follows the lives of two young gay men, and the second, two older lesbian woman.  The first story particularly focuses on the religious hatred and persecution endured by the young male couple and the second story focuses on how the older female couple embraced hatred and persecution against anti-gay sentiment.  Critics raved about the book, and for 8 years, the book was in the top ten of the New York Times‘ best-seller list.  The widespread embrace of LaGrange’s novel parallel’s the ‘Tea Party’ movement’s embrace of the works of Novelist Ayn Rand in the 20-teens.  So close is the parallel, that even as Tea Partiers were known to chant, ‘Who is John Galt?’, so the Neo-Libertarians and American Gay Party activists would chant, ‘Free Kyle!’ at their conventions.  The cry was a reference to the young gay man, Kyle, jailed for defending his gay lifestyle from the Bible.

(20) The term, ‘libertarian anarchy’ was used in the first party platform of the Christian Union Party in 2034.

(21) Theocratic apologists cited the presence of the ‘Gay Rights movement’ as one of the primary reasons their leaders instituted the American Theocratic Republic.  See the first Christian Republic Manifesto, published in 2043, and Carter McPherson’s Manifesto for a Christian Republic, published in 2058.

(22) After the Political Plurality Act of 2028 broke up the two-party system, the following parties developed over the next three decades, and all vied for political power within the American Federal System: 1. The Old Democratic Party, 2. The American Republican Party, 3. The Neo-Libertarian Party, 4. The American Gay Party, 5. The Corporate Business Party (later dissolved in the 2040’s, though it appeared again briefly in the 2050’s before it was suppressed in reaction to the ‘August Coup’ of 2055), 6. The Christian Union Party, and 7. The Christian Republic Party.

 

The American Theocracy: Modernity’s Failed Quest

‘Holy War! The Rise & Fall of the American Theocracy, 2039-2079’ (Part 6)

By Nathaniel Lane Stewart, M. A.

The Unique Phenomenon of the American Theocratic Republic (Part 5)

(Note: This post marks Part 6 of the introductory essay of an historical narrative, supposedly published in A. D. 2195, almost 200 years from now, on the history of the American Theocracy.  This post will continue the presentation of the second of the three ‘necessary presuppositions’ which Professor Stewart maintains are essential to understand both the rise and fall of the American Theocratic Republic.  God willing, this essay should be completed in three more posts: the next one will complete the examination of the second presupposition, the following post will examine the third presupposition and the last one offer a few a closing remarks.  The posts to follow those coming three parts on the ‘history’ of the American theocracy will provide an outline of the book and of key dates and events in the history of 21st century America. SMC)

The three distinct ages (or phases, if you will) of Modernity express well how Modernity was shaped by Christianity even as it rejected its basic principles:

1. The Age of Early Modernity (1650-1800)

2. The Age of High Modernity (German Higher Critical Thought) (1800-1900)

3. The Age of Late Modernity (or the Age of Dialectic Materialism, or the age of Secular Modernity) (1900-1950)

It is beyond the scope of this essay to expound the definition and influence of each age upon the course of human history (14).  However, such a effort on our part is not necessary for our point.  However, we cite these ages to offer to two sweeping observations regarding the ideological roots that contributed to the rise of the Theocratic government in the twenty-first century:

One, contrary to the claims of its apologists that it was proactive in its declarations,  Modernity was in reality a reactive movement towards the Christian Faith.  The rise of Modernity is directly linked to the century of religious warfare in Europe that was a result of the Protestant Schism in the 1500’s.  By 1650, it was clear that Protestantism and Catholicism must exist side by side as competing manifestations of the Christian Faith.  Thus, the rise of Modernity might best be expressed as intellectual men seeking a middle way for mankind to still experience the spiritual unity of the human race, but WITHOUT institutional religion or an organized church defining that unity of experience and perspective.  And these three ages express Modernity’s efforts to reunite Man after a century of religious warfare.

This note leads us to our second observation: The course and failure of Modernity to unite mankind WITHOUT institutional Religion.  And let us note the defining principles that illustrate the course and failure of Modernity in this quest:

 1. Early Modernity (1650-1800): Unlike its successors, Early Modernity was not a purely secular movement, but desired to find a non-sectarian, though a truly religious and a truly universal creed for all men, based upon either human reason or human observation.  Early Modernity was best expressed in movements such as Deism, Empiricism, Cartesian rationalism and Scottish Common Sense Realism.  The quest of these movements was effectively killed by the skepticism of the Scotsman, David Hume in the mid-eighteenth century.  The task would fall to the German scholar, Immanuel Kant, to restore Western man’s quest for a new religion that unified mankind in both a spiritual and institutional manner.  That new quest was opened up with Kant’s ‘Fourth Category’ regarding Man’s knowledge in which he separated faith from reason entirely, excluding all matters of faith, religion and the church to realm of the mystical and therefore freeing all rational pursuits from a religious viewpoint.  This premise opened the door to many radical intellectual developments over the nineteenth century and leads us to the age of High Modernity, often referred to the Age of German Modernity (1800-1900)

 2. German Modernity (1800-1900): Religion was not reasonable, and therefore, all intellectual exercise must be pursued without the influence of religion.  It was the German Modern who claimed that Religion and Reason, or Faith and Knowledge, were two distinct spheres which were separated by an impassable gulf, but man existed simultaneously in both.  Ergo, he must learn to segment his life into two distinct spheres-the mystical realm of religion, and the intellectual realm of reality (which religion could not to affect.)  This position effectively created what the Humanist of the sixteenth and seventeenth century was not able to create-a world where a global religion was not tied to faith or the supernatural realm, but to pure reason and human experience.  The Creed of the High Modern, the German Modern, was science, and progress, being centered entirely upon Man separated from both God and the church.  And by the end of the nineteenth century, the great apologists of Modernity were prophesying that finally in the twentieth century, this great quest a truly Humanist religion and creed, divorced of God and the church would finally and inevitably arrive in the world, creating the utopia that mankind had yearned after for centuries.

We now come to the third era of Modernity:

3. The Age of Late Modernity or dialectic Modernity (1900-1950)

This age was the shortest of the eras seeing as it offered the greatest claims of all three ages, and was viewed in its day as the fruit or climax of all that mankind had been pursuing for the last several centuries.  At the beginning of the twentieth century, the promises of the Dialectic Revolutions of Communism and Socialism, the progress of science and technology, and the great power amassed by the empires of the Europe seemed to indicate the Modern must now finally succeed in his quest.  But by A. D. 1950, the Modern world had created two massive global wars that felled ancient monarchies, overthrow centuries-old social orders, and created the birth of the most terrible form of warfare known to man-the age of the atomic bomb, which then ushered in the great ‘Cold War’ of the latter twentieth century.  And even as these catastrophes exploded around the globe, the dialectic revolutions declared as inevitable facts of science and history failed to materialize.  Thus, by the late twentieth century, Modernity’s hopes were crushed and it dreams, claims and hopes were waning quickly.  It was in this world that the Post-Modern Critic attacked the folly of Modernism.  And then, at the dawn of the third millennium, the rise of religious warfare killed what was left of the old Modern ideal.   The first forty years of the twenty-first century witnessed the Death of the Modern, the rise of the Post-Modern Critic, the explosion of Religious warfare on a global level and the spread of localism and tribalism-all of which created the convergence of ideas which led to the forces that gave birth to the ideal of the American Theocracy of the 2060’s and 2070’s.

And what did that convergence look like in the history of the world?

 To be continued. . . 

(14). For a useful survey of the ages of Modernity, see Religion Without Deity: The Progression of the Modern, 1650-1950, by E. Willard Mencken, Published in A. D. 2041, by the University of St. Andrews, Scotland.

Link

Holy War! The Rise and Fall of the American Theocracy: 2039-2079 (Part 4)

By Nathaniel Lane Stewart, M. A.

The Unique Phenomenon of the American Theocratic Republic  (Part 4)

(Note: This post marks Part 4 in a series on the history of the American Theocracy, a work supposedly published in A. D. 2195, when much of the world was governed by the Covenant of Religious Detente, a series of accords proposed by Pope John Paul III in A. D. 2121 and agreed to by leaders of Christendom, Islam and Judaism ten years later.  The author of this book, Professor Nathaniel Stewart, taught at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia during the middle of the twenty-second century, one of the few universities still left in the North American continent which was devastated by war from the 2040’s to the 2070’s.  This section continues his second observation regarding the historical significance of the American Theocracy-the unique historical and philosophical world which contributed its existence.  For the previous section of this part, see the link below.  Parts 1 and 2 can also be read on this blog.) 

The American Theocracy: Historical Context

Thus, what was this unusual convergence of ideas that occurred in the early decades of the twenty-first century (which was the result of the philosophical revolutions of both Modernity and Post-modernity) and would lay the ground work for the institution of the American Theocratic Republic in 2065?

The answer to that question can be readily found by discerning the pan-centennial flow of western philosophy from the rise and spread of Modernity, its slow morphing into Post-modernity, and the eventual collapse of Western philosophy as a whole by the 2040’s.  It is beyond the scope of this essay to provide a complete survey of these systems of thought and their impact upon the history of the world (10).  However, such an examination is not required in order to answer our query.  A simple understanding of each proposition as it moved from age to age will provide us with a more than sufficient answer to this question.  But first, let us outline the eras of the history of Philosophy as well as that of religion before explaining each position:

1. The Protestant ‘hiccup’ of the Christian Church (1517-1650)

2. The Age of Modernity (1650-1950)

3. The Era of Post-Modernity (1950-2040)

4. The Great Collapse (2040-2065)

5. The American Theocratic Republic (2065-2079)

One of the most important observations that needs to be noted is that the Age of Modernity, the Era of Post-modernity, the Great Collapse and the American Theocratic Republic can all find their origins in what historians now refer to as the ‘Protestant hiccup’ of the Christian church.  Again, it is beyond our purpose to examine these inter-historical connections (11), but we note this fact for one reason: While most of the Theocratic apologists were rather anti-Protestant in the traditional and historic sense, they were hardly loyal churchmen as was demonstrated by President L. Carter McPherson’s purge of the ‘Old Order Catholics’ in 2069 from the party apparatus (12).  So in one sense, the American Theocracy was the final gasp of a degenerate and dying semi-Protestantism. But on this point, we digress.  The two key questions we must ask are 1. How did the Protestant version of Christendom give birth the Age of Modernity, and given this fact, 2. Why was the Age of Modernity so long (1650-1950)?

The answer to the first question is actually discovered in the answer to the second question, so we shall answer the latter one first.

The Age of Modernity roughly spans the years A. D. 1650-1950.  It’s length must be credited to the fact that in 5,300 years of philosophical and religious speculation (including all Pre-Christian thought), Modernity was the oddest and perhaps most irrational school of thought ever (13).  The reason is thus:

While the Modern rejected the spiritual principle, definitions, propositions and general principles of Christendom (both Protestant and Catholic forms), its school of thought maintained in outward form the basic principles of knowledge, structure, order, rational thought, applications and ethics of Christendom, and particularly that of Protestant Christendom.  So that while many Moderns were anti-Christian in thought, they were nonetheless, quite Christian in knowledge, forms, traditions, and practices.  And herein is the greatest irrationality of the Modern.  In form, he was Christian while in spirit he was not.  It was this paradox that gave Modernity its length as well as laying seeds that would ultimately produce a cancer that will kill it entirely.

The three distinct phases of Modernity express well how Modernity was shaped by Christianity even as it rejected its basic principles:

Early Modernity (1650-1800)

High Modernity (German Higher Critical Thought; also known as the German Era of Modernity) (1800-1900)

Late Modernity (or Dialectic Materialism, or Secular Modernity) (1900-1950)

To Be Continued. . .

 

(10) Professor M. C. J. Hopkins, IV, Ph. D., D. D., held the Chair of Historical Philosophy at the University of Cambridge, England, and wrote a very fine work outlining the course of the Modern and Post-modern Philosophies.  His work, while highly devoted to the worship of the Holy Catholic Church, is nonetheless a true work of scholarship and provides a helpful survey in this topic.  It is entitled: The Historical, Existential, and Catastrophic Consequences of Collective Unbelief: An Historical Survey and Interpretative Examination of the causes and course of Protestant Sectarian and Rational Absurdities upon the history of the Catholic Church, 1500-2131.    (And this is the abbreviated title. Sadly, Professor Hopkins was never known for his brevity.)

(11) Besides Professor Hopkins’ work, see the essay, An Examination of the Parallel and Contrasting Strains with Modern and Orthodox Protestantism, 1850-2070, by Charles L. Fields, M. A., Professor of History and Philosophy, New York Ecclesiastic University, A. D. 2161.

(12) See Volume II, Part 2, Chapter 15, of this work for the historical background of the ‘purge.’  While many scholars of the church in our time claim the purge by President McPherson was purely religious in nature, the facts appear to indicate his actions were a combination of both religious ideology and political convenience.  After the National Referendum for McPherson as Supreme President of the Theocratic Republic in A. D. 2068, many Old Catholics aligned themselves with the last remnants of the Neo-Libertarians (who had subsumed all other opposition groups, including the American Gay Party) and both groups were still hoping to overthrow the Theocratic government some time between A. D. 2069 and 2070.  Recent documents have provided evidence that the Old Order Catholics had exchanged secret letters with officials at the Vatican who had promised the support of papacy in the overthrow of the American Theocratic regime.  However, these same documents show that while some church leaders favored intervention in the American political crisis, the majority did not, primarily due to the fact that much of Europe was still under Russian domination and the papacy was trying to balance both cooperation with the Russian Imperial Federation and the underground movements fighting against this occupation.  Thus, support from the Papacy for an overthrow of the American theocracy was never forthcoming, and many Old Order Catholics were either killed or imprisoned in camps during the second Neo-Nullification crisis in A. D. 2071.  Those who survived were liberated by the armies of the Eastern Alliance in A. D.  2077-2079.

(13) See Professor Stewart’s work, The Death of the State: How the German Epistemological Matrix Destroyed the Protestant Commonwealth, Chapter 5 for a concise explanation of the irrationality of Modernity.

The Protestant Reformation and Liberty of Conscience

October 31 has been traditionally observed by most Protestants in the last five centuries as ‘Reformation Day’.  It was on this day, in 1517, that an obscure monk and theological professor by the name of Martin Luther posted 95 Theses, or propositions for the debate, on the door of the town church in Wittenburg.  I am sure that Dr. Luther never thought that event would be remembered for five centuries, but in the providence of God, his actions marked the beginning of one of the greatest revivals of the Church of Christ since the time of Pentecost.  Over the next 150 years, the Protestant Reformation would spread through all of Europe, transforming entire nations and societies as the gospel under the powerful anointing of the Holy Spirit spread throughout that continent and would later come to the shores of this land.  Today, we are five centuries removed from those events, and the Protestant witness in Europe is practically non-existent, and in our nation, it is barely a whimper.  Instead, another day is honored on October 31st, a day that has its roots in both pagan practices and the traditions of the church of Rome.  But this does not mean that the church of Jesus Christ shall cease upon the earth.  Not at all, Christ shall continue to build His church, and even if the days are dark, He shall have a witness upon earth.  What did our Lord state when he rebuked the Pharisees in Luke 19:39-40?

“And some of the Pharisees called to him from the crowd,

‘Teacher, rebuke your disciples.”

But he answered and said to them, 

‘I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would

immediately cry out.'”

Christ shall always have a witness for His name and his glory upon the earth.  We can be assured of that truth!  The question each of us must ask ourselves is this: Shall we, shall I, be among that host of witnesses who shall not keep silent regarding the glory of Jesus Christ?

I urge you to consider that question carefully.

I should like to leave you with a quote written by a church historian from the early 1800’s who had a burning heart for Christ and an evangelistic zeal for souls.  Jean Henri Merle d’Aubigne was born in France in 1794, and as a young man attended college in Geneva.  Though raised in a French Protestant home, d’Aubigne was unconverted when enrolled at the academy in Geneva.  Though this was the great city where John Calvin had ministered over 2 centuries earlier, the academy had sunk into such spiritual apostasy that the teaching of ancient Greek texts of philosophers had replaced the teaching of the scripture.  But  God sent a servant to Geneva to minister to the young students there.  Robert Haldane, a Scottish missionary and evangelist had traveled to Geneva.  And there, outside of the formal classroom, Haldane held informal Bible studies where he taught the students from the word of God.  And it was during these meetings that d’Aubigne was born again.  He would go on to be well-known Evangelical preacher of his time, and would even speak in Charles Spurgeon’s Metropolitan Tabernacle.  But d’Aubigne’s greatest contribution was that he was also a church historian and wrote prolifically on the history of the Protestant Reformation.  At the beginning of his third volume, A History of the Reformation in the Time of Calvin, he wrote the following statement regarding the true source of liberty of conscience, and the serious sin committed by any any authority-church or state-in daring to stand between Christ’s absolute rule over the souls of men.  Even as we are watching our liberties in the western world slowly ebb away, let us remember that true liberty is not something that is secular, natural or even granted by the state.  True liberty is supernatural, spiritual, and comes from Christ alone when a soul is liberated from the bonds of sin and granted new life in Christ.  And when one has that liberty, not only can no man take it away, but one would sooner die for that liberty than submit their free conscience to a human authority that is opposed to Jesus Christ.  With these thoughts, I leave with d’Aubigne’s words:

“ Religion needs liberty, and the convictions inspired by her ought to be exempt from the control of the Louvre and of the Vatican.  Man’s conscience belongs to God alone, and every human power that encroaches on this kingdom and presumes to command within it is guilty of rebellion against its lawful sovereign.  Religious persecution deserves to be reprobated, not only in the name of philosophy, but above all in the name of God’s right.  His Sovereign Majesty is offended when the sword enters into the sanctuary.  A persecuting government is not only illiberal, it is impious. Let no man thrust himself between God and the soul! The spot on which they meet is holy ground. Away intruder! Leave the soul with Him with whom it belongs.”

“Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with the yoke of bondage.”  (Galatians 5:1)

The American Theocracy: Historical Context

Holy War! The Rise and Fall of the American Theocracy: 2039-2079 (Part 3)

By Nathaniel Lane Stewart, M. A.

The Unique Phenomenon of the American Theocratic Republic (Part 3)

(Note: This post marks Part 3 of a series on the history of the American Theocracy, a work supposedly published in A. D. 2195 narrating the establishment and reign of the American Theocratic Republic in the 2060’s and 2070’s.  Parts 1 and 2 can be found on this blog, and at least 4 more parts remain to come, God willing, including an outline of the book.)

The Unique World that created to the American Theocratic Republic

Part of the challenge in narrating the rise and fall of the American Theocracy is the necessity of understanding the unusual convergence of ideas that occurred in the early decades of the twenty-first century which gave birth to the American theocratic movement in the 2040’s. As noted previously, one of the common misunderstandings of the Theocratic movement is that while it was a twenty-first century phenomenon which tried to combat what it perceived as twenty-first century threats, its leaders did so with a very distinct twentieth century perspective. In fact, one of the great ironies of the movement is that while the Theocratic apologists possessed a highly refined sense of historical consciousness, their sense of history was rooted more in fiction than fact and myth than heritage (5). We will explore this strange paradox of their thought in greater detail below in our third observation regarding the character of the movement itself, but it is important to note its odd historical perspective as we seek to understand the world in which Theocratic movement came into existence.

What then was this convergence of ideas in the early part of the twenty-first century that gave birth to the American Theocratic movement? (6)

The simplest answer to that question is to note what caused this convergence, and that was two philosophical revolutions in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.  Those two revolutions could be characterized in this manner:

Mankind dethroned the one central authoritative principle that God ordained to govern all knowledge and all realms of life.

What is that one central principle?  Religion as mediated through the Catholic Christian Church is the only divinely ordained means by which all knowledge must be understood and all of life governed.

Any survey of the history of ideas from the nineteenth century through mid-twenty-first century will reveal this principle was rejected by two radical philosophical revolutions that in turn created the global desolation of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries and would traumatize three or four generations of American Christians as they tried to reconcile those revolutions with their Christian faith.

What were these revolutions that appeared to shake the very foundations of Christendom, dethroning the governing principle of religion in all matters of faith and life?

They were 1. the Modern denial of religious reason, and 2. the post-modern affirmation of irrational thought as a viable alternative to philosophical reasoning.

We in the twenty-second century understand the complete absurdity of both statements of philosophy. We have seen how they have died and Christianity still remains fully intact, unharmed, unscathed and still dominating globe, despite the fact that both schools of thought claimed the church would die before the third millennium or shortly after its onset. (7). Interestingly enough an obscure historian of the early twenty-first century understood with a keen perception the fact that the modern and post-modern systems of thought could not survive beyond the twenty-first century, and wrote as much in one of his works, describing the modern and post-modern worlds as well as the age that would follow them in these terms:

“Once the momentary belch of Modern Secularism has been expelled,

and the ethereal effusion of post-Modern Fideism has passed, then

once again the old order of (religion) will be restored, and (the church)

will reign supreme over the souls of men as it did before. . .” (8)

 It was then this so-called ‘belch’ and ‘effusion’ (forgive the crassness of the cited author who was obviously a most primitive writer) that caused so much consternation among the Christians of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries because most of them operated under the presupposition that these systems would completely erase Christendom off the face of the earth.  Of course, Christian theologians in our day have illustrated well from nature itself that God has appointed religion to be the queen among the sciences, and as the church must mediate all true religion unto mankind, we know that no philosophy of man can eradicate the church.  But most American Christians, still operating under the sad pale of sectarian, individualistic, and hybrid forms of a degenerate Protestantism, failed to the see the folly of such thinking.  And hence, by the time the traumatic events of the twenty-first century had reached their zenith in the mid-2050’s, the time was ripe for the Theocratic Party to claim that it fell to all Christians to once and for all eradicate all anti-Christian thinking from the world by use of the sword as was believed to be the only means by which godless notions could be expelled from the human race.(9)

To be continued. . .

 

Notes:

(5) See The Messianic Mission of the American Evangelical-Catholic Church (2010-2036) by J. Campbell Locke, M. A., published in 2091. Chapters 3 & 4 deal specifically with the historical revisionism practiced by Evangelical Christians from the 1970’s to 2030’s, and is a helpful study, even though Locke never gave up his ‘Semi-Protestant’ biases.

(6) See the essay, The Restoration of Religion: How Post-modernism ‘saved’ Christian Catholicity  by N. L. Stewart, M. A., for a conscience explanation of how Post-modernism killed Western Philosophy, allowing the Christian Faith as mediated through the church to once again gain intellectual dominion in the Western world.

(7) As one satirist wrote, ‘Though the Christian was traumatized in the twentieth century, the modern and postmodern should be apoplectic were they to travel forward into time and see not only that Christendom had survived their puerile attacks, but that their “infallible utopias” would not even be recognized by a young grammar school student.’ (see A Christian Antidote of Joy against the Dark Spirits of Unbelief and Folly.)

(8) The Third Codex of the Catholic Academic League (A. D. 2171) forbids the citation of writers from the so-called ‘Protestant Era’ (1517-2036), and that is why we, the author have not cited the name of the writer of this quote, This author’s works are banned from even the lower clerics as his heresies are regarded as so precise and hard to detect that only the most spiritually superior of experts can decode his sectarian language.  Such was the ‘prophetic’ nature of his writing in that he so accurately described the course of religion in the next century that churchmen of our time have deemed him inspired of the devil if not completely insane.  We the author do not think that he was moved of the devil in his writings for they are filled with too much Christian virtue to be of a hellish nature.  But his biography is clear: he suffered extensively from melancholy spirits that no doubt came from his refusal to abandon his misguided Protestantism even after most of his kind had rejected him. For further details on this writer, see Mr. Stewart’s article, ‘Heretics of the 21st century,’ in the Encyclopedia of Heresy of the Christian Church.

Since young students will be reading this work, it was necessary for the quote to be edited as it is plain his writings are far too crass for most pious Christians.  The full quote can be found in the same article.

(9).  It is worth noting that Post-modern Evangelicals, and later the Theocratic movement adopted the methodologies and practices of the Society of Jesus in enforcing religious rules upon society.  While the Order of the Society of Jesus practices such enforcement in a much more civilized manner than did the American Theocracy, the parallel attitudes are a fascinating study in comparison.

 

Personal Note from me the blogger:

Here is the full, unedited quote (SMC):

‘Once the momentary belch of Modern Secularism has been expelled, and the ethereal effusion of Post-modern Fideism has passed, then once again the old order of apostasy will be restored, and human religion in the form of Anti-Christ will reign supreme over the souls of men as it did before the fires of the Holy Spirit burned deep in the souls of God’s elect, igniting the flame of the Protestant Reformation.‘