Around this nation (the United States) and probably around any nation you could name, are large numbers of people who have good hearts and good heads, who lead peaceable lives providing for their families, and who are the backbone of civilization.
However, looking around-and it doesn’t take any effort-many of us get the powerful sense that our civilization, particularly in the West, is in rapid and profound decay. Some of you know what I mean, and some of you think I’m being judgmental, hateful and bigoted.
Rachel Maddow recently stated that JRR Tolkien’s masterpiece, “The Lord of the Rings” is a favorite reference of “far-right” and “ult-right” personalities*. Of course, anyone with half a brain, believer or not, would reject this claim immediately, but the comment, made by a spokesperson for the media companies which control the minds of half the population of the U.S. and the Western world, is a symptom of just how much we have been taken down a river towards a colossal water-fall, at which point there will be no turning back.
What is “far-right” about “Lord of the Rings”, except in the rabid, seething hatred of an alleged news reporter? I’ll tell you: it’s dualism. It’s the conviction that there are such things as absolute good and absolute evil; that the two are in complete opposition, and that the good can and will ultimately prevail. Tolkien was a Christian man (two counts against the book in Maddow’s eyes-the third being that he was white) who wanted to express his faith and the need to fight to ensure the triumph of good over evil.
(Photo by Elisabeth Pieringer on Unsplash)
Isn’t it ironic that Maddow’s “news” comments personify the very battle Tolkien observed?
Isn’t it ironic that Maddow’s “news” comments personify the very battle Tolkien observed? We shouldn’t have any problem identifying which side her allegiance is on. Such persons and such media corporations have so polluted the minds of millions who are unable to think for themselves that to them, the ones destroying America and the West are the epitome of correctness, and the people who want to bring it back from the brink of disaster are the enemy. Here’s what God has to say about that:
Woe to those who call evil good
and good evil,
who put darkness for light
and light for darkness,
who put bitter for sweet
and sweet for bitter (Isaiah 5:20).
Where does this attack on our culture and way of life come from? We could blame politicians for selling us and our land for profit. We could blame the entertainment industry for creating a pop culture which has us all on a self-destruct mission. We could blame our ministers for being so determined to keep the money rolling in that they’re unwilling to speak the truth of God’s word. We could blame ourselves for being so preoccupied with entertainment and with the everyday details of our lives that we’ve let the wicked take over. All these things are true, but ultimately, we should blame the originator of all this division and chaos, “the father of lies”:
You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it (John 8:44).
Behind it all is the one who has been opposed to our God from the beginning. This explains why God has been removed from our institutions. It should be no surprise to us that when half the population is believing and embracing the lies pushed by those who have spitefully and hatefully rejected God, the enemy of our God and of our souls is at work. When we see a political party (the Democrats and some Republicans) determinedly working to divide a nation against itself, for example by attempting to ignite a race war (as in Maddow’s comments above) and by trashing our heritage, history and culture, and nature itself (I mean gender and godly sexuality) in the process, we can be sure that at the back of it all is the devil himself.
Fuel for Faith, Food for Thought 