The Gift of Grace and Generational Work of Building Civilization

BY PGF
1 year, 6 months ago

Material Wealth has Driven America to a Poverty of the Soul.

I’ve been reading some Machen. The introduction of his short work, Christianity and Liberalism, is an excellent snapshot of the progressive conquest up to 1915 or so. The leaps the communists have made are clear from that starting point forward. This post is random thoughts, less so on the depth of the problem, but offers, from my own negative experience, some possible solutions.

Public schooling has reduced all education to a simple tactic, obeying the State expert and paraphrasing information, willfully neglecting consideration of that information’s purpose, usefulness, or validity. But it’s gotten worse still, full of communist dogma.

That system has been so deeply ingrained that Christian education is little more than State education without the overt worship of centralized authority. However, even then, most Christian schools still teach government worship while adding veneers of wholesomeness or tradition that are also accurately described as teaching helplessness but with Christian-sounding words and themes. Changing a curriculum is not enough if it still teaches children to remain dependent on the thoughts of other men.

Under the communist program, all hope of a child later finding his true purpose and potential is gone before ten years of age. Please don’t do this to your children; don’t teach them, as the heathen religions do, to reject the honest exploration of God’s purposes in anything. The object must be for boys to fill them with the ability to do things more significant than themselves. When boys hit young adulthood, they desire to be part of something bigger than themselves, for their people.

Gone from modern society in the last 100 years or more are excellent and beautiful art of all types. Also absent is the study of science, which the Christian correctly defines as the examination of God’s creation and His created order; science should always look for God’s purpose in a thing, or science itself becomes a false religion. To the religious mind, understanding that sin exists, where evil appears in creation, does not excuse that evil for some purported greater good in the name of “science.” Science absent from God can only lead to one place; mass murder.

There are no literary works of worth, probably because people must be taught how to write but are only shown what to repeat for a grade. Writing starts with critical thought upon the ponderance of an idea. Or, it begins with something else for the creative mind; I don’t know what that is; ask them.

The purpose of this is not yet another litany of complaints but to present a few ideas we hope will help. Sadly, almost all of these suggestions come not from positive experiences but from negative ones, so untested they remain.

I’m not claiming to be a good writer here. Of course, good writing starts with reading complex and rich texts, which is not the primary, but one reason that I reject all modern translations of the Bible. Reading that educates and teaches a man to think requires work to understand and, in the case of the Holy Bible, prayer. Much of the purpose of reading should be not to assimilate information but to teach the mind to take ideas and apply them critically, teaching how to think. Don’t teach children to read things to know what is said, becoming consumers of other men’s thoughts; they must read rich and complex texts thinking for themselves. Avoiding specific texts is prudent, but reading should teach how to think, not what to think; children learn that from listening to parents daily.

One positive is that my father taught me how to read and instilled a particular love for reading, or more precisely, respect. The Department of Defense, for all its flaws, taught me how to teach myself. That didn’t come by general instruction offered to every recruit but from a small program that required not compliance with orders but problem-solving in a unique environment. But, the point is, people can be taught how to teach themselves; this is a gift of immeasurable value to impart to somebody. Teach your children neither by rote nor through informing but by showing them how to learn and teach themselves.

It’s been many years since meeting a heritage American who speaks more than one language, other than missionaries who get trained as adults. So thorough is the brainwashing that folks with language knowledge are viewed with suspicion. There may be a sound basis for that; foreigners bring foreign ideas, but Christians shouldn’t consider teaching language to their children as some anti-civilization enterprise; quite the contrary. Otherwise, why do we train missionaries in language except to bring the great truth of Christ to that people’s dying souls and meaningless religions? Much of the spreading of quality of life beyond Europe had a humble beginning in the missionary work of extending the Gospel to every creature. Giving the heathen skills and resources makes them merely a more effective enemy of Christ; they need salvation.

Missing are complex and rich music, local agriculture and horticulture, and training in religion, including the history of the Church. Everything seems geared toward repeating what some other person has discovered or produced, perhaps worthy, perhaps not, but gone is the free expression of ideas, teaching children to think for themselves and act on their own accord under the law of grace.

Material wealth has driven America to a poverty of the soul. All aptitudes of intellect and physical ability are of God. This is the root of the problem; denying God’s grace in ordinating men’s gifts or talents denies the grant’s purpose from the giver. Of course, the converted must walk by faith in using the spiritual and material facilities that God endows. Our purpose on earth is to glorify Holy God; this is why He made each individual the way they are and gives children aptitudes toward certain enterprises so that they may bring glory to God in those pursuits.

I’m not sure that American Christians believe what the Holy Bible says; the communist project has been so thorough that it’s hard to know where to start, but as with all things, prayer and the word of God must be first.

To grow children in resurgent traditional heritage America, outside help with language, music, art, natural science, etc., is needed. Other than old books, I don’t know where to get good help, but language training needs to start well before eight years old, and so does music training. Where to get training not overrun with the effects of willfully making children dumb and dependent on central authority is a huge problem even in Christian curriculum.

Civilization is gone because of the loss of classical liberal education. Just using the words liberal education causes consternation; since the War of Northern Aggression, communist demagogues have entirely destroyed the word liberal.

The point is that the simplicity that is in Christ is the foundation and root of all expression that lifts man, causing his mind to wonder at what he could create, his soul to yearn for a better day, and his heart to seek well and thoroughly the gifts that God has given not that he may walk in the uselessness of private knowledge but that he may bless his fellow man through works using the skills that God has ordained. The grace of God teaches us to share our gifts, for He shared His own Son upon a cross for our sin against Him, bringing the miracle of salvation unto eternal life in us through the resurrection. And He continues to teach us through His word and lead through His Spirit.

Teaching children to be anti-state is not enough; they must be pro-civilization and pro-culture of grace and love. Teaching children merely the basis of knowledge is quicksand over generations as each loses a small fraction. Preparing children in anything, however right and proper, without emphasis on our duty to Christ to be of service to civilization will not save the next generations.

Communism or socialism isn’t the only problematic cause. The hyper-personalization of Christianity is destroying the religion. Personal soul salvation is not the end; it’s the beginning, the launching pad from which the great faith of grace and truth in Jesus Christ is to permeate all aspects of society. Hiding Christianity away will not save it, for the agents of evil will not be satisfied with merely locking you in your church buildings or limiting you to silent prayer. Nor will they tolerate compromise within the word of God when Christians allow adding theoretical origins and hypotheses to the creation and other events in the Old and New Testaments. Evil will not stop its march if we integrate sciency-sounding excuses into the faith of the Old Testament forefathers. If science “proved” Christ never walked the earth (because that’s the direction we’re headed), would you still believe? Would you still earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints?

Though solid doctrine hid well in the heart that we might not sin against God is foundational, and teachers of the Christian religion abound, but where are the doers of the word, where are those dedicated to the Lord of the harvest, how are His fields ripe for the picking but left fallow? Hyper-personalization leading to a secret selfish religion is how Christianity shrinks to a mere ember. Evil will never be satisfied until Christ casts Himself down from the pinnacle of the temple. But the grace of the cross exists because Christ had a mission; do you think you’re immune to the onslaught of evil or that neglecting the assignments of a disciple will save you or your people?

All things come by the grace of God, for He owns all things. That simple fact produces character in the young, humility before the Creator builds love in a man’s soul. I deeply fear that God must take our material ease from us to bring us back to faith and knowledge of He who created and bestowed these things upon us.

The government has its own project of dependence, but God will not long compete with this mocking. The tremendous redemptive religion that is in Christ appears backed into a corner with enemies on all sides. Still, we reckon that’s just how Christ likes to fight, up close, personal: restorative or damning to the hearer of the word, for a man chooses his way upon contact from God, heaven or hell?

Read Joshua 23 and 24. We have gone the wrong way in all things, yet God offers a choice.

There is a longing for traditional ways, but it’s not enough to be anti-modern. There must be more than pious-sounding yet vacuous religious tenets for the building of a resurgence. With all assuredness, we begin in our own houses first. From there, the way to a future for our people is through knowledge of the giver of all graces who granted dominion to us over His creation, and becoming doers of the word in the name of Jesus Christ.


Comments

  1. On May 4, 2023 at 8:07 pm, IAB said:

    Like most boys, I read Jack London and Ernest Hemingsway’s works, and liked them (or not), judging them solely by their qualities as adventure stories. When I came to read them again in my late 20s, the mark of Marx was so clear on them I wondered how I’d missed it before. Perhaps the university education in the intervening years gave me that much insight. Growing up I’d always heard the ’60s spoken of as the years when the locusts settled on America, but now would put that at the 1880s at least… and leaving aside the destruction of the republic in Mr. Lincoln’s war.

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL

Leave a comment


You are currently reading "The Gift of Grace and Generational Work of Building Civilization", entry #34857 on The Captain's Journal.

This article is filed under the category(s) Religion and was published May 4th, 2023 by PGF.

If you're interested in what else the The Captain's Journal has to say, you might try thumbing through the archives and visiting the main index, or; perhaps you would like to learn more about TCJ.

26th MEU (10)
Abu Muqawama (12)
ACOG (2)
ACOGs (1)
Afghan National Army (36)
Afghan National Police (17)
Afghanistan (704)
Afghanistan SOFA (4)
Agriculture in COIN (3)
AGW (1)
Air Force (40)
Air Power (10)
al Qaeda (83)
Ali al-Sistani (1)
America (22)
Ammunition (284)
Animals (297)
Ansar al Sunna (15)
Anthropology (3)
Antonin Scalia (1)
AR-15s (378)
Arghandab River Valley (1)
Arlington Cemetery (2)
Army (87)
Assassinations (2)
Assault Weapon Ban (29)
Australian Army (7)
Azerbaijan (4)
Backpacking (3)
Badr Organization (8)
Baitullah Mehsud (21)
Basra (17)
BATFE (229)
Battle of Bari Alai (2)
Battle of Wanat (18)
Battle Space Weight (3)
Bin Laden (7)
Blogroll (3)
Blogs (24)
Body Armor (23)
Books (3)
Border War (18)
Brady Campaign (1)
Britain (38)
British Army (35)
Camping (5)
Canada (17)
Castle Doctrine (1)
Caucasus (6)
CENTCOM (7)
Center For a New American Security (8)
Charity (3)
China (16)
Christmas (16)
CIA (30)
Civilian National Security Force (3)
Col. Gian Gentile (9)
Combat Outposts (3)
Combat Video (2)
Concerned Citizens (6)
Constabulary Actions (3)
Coolness Factor (3)
COP Keating (4)
Corruption in COIN (4)
Council on Foreign Relations (1)
Counterinsurgency (218)
DADT (2)
David Rohde (1)
Defense Contractors (2)
Department of Defense (210)
Department of Homeland Security (26)
Disaster Preparedness (5)
Distributed Operations (5)
Dogs (15)
Donald Trump (27)
Drone Campaign (4)
EFV (3)
Egypt (12)
El Salvador (1)
Embassy Security (1)
Enemy Spotters (1)
Expeditionary Warfare (17)
F-22 (2)
F-35 (1)
Fallujah (17)
Far East (3)
Fathers and Sons (2)
Favorite (1)
Fazlullah (3)
FBI (39)
Featured (190)
Federal Firearms Laws (18)
Financing the Taliban (2)
Firearms (1,798)
Football (1)
Force Projection (35)
Force Protection (4)
Force Transformation (1)
Foreign Policy (27)
Fukushima Reactor Accident (6)
Ganjgal (1)
Garmsir (1)
general (15)
General Amos (1)
General James Mattis (1)
General McChrystal (44)
General McKiernan (6)
General Rodriguez (3)
General Suleimani (9)
Georgia (19)
GITMO (2)
Google (1)
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar (1)
Gun Control (1,672)
Guns (2,338)
Guns In National Parks (3)
Haditha Roundup (10)
Haiti (2)
HAMAS (7)
Haqqani Network (9)
Hate Mail (8)
Hekmatyar (1)
Heroism (5)
Hezbollah (12)
High Capacity Magazines (16)
High Value Targets (9)
Homecoming (1)
Homeland Security (3)
Horses (2)
Humor (72)
Hunting (38)
ICOS (1)
IEDs (7)
Immigration (114)
India (10)
Infantry (4)
Information Warfare (4)
Infrastructure (4)
Intelligence (23)
Intelligence Bulletin (6)
Iran (171)
Iraq (379)
Iraq SOFA (23)
Islamic Facism (64)
Islamists (98)
Israel (19)
Jaish al Mahdi (21)
Jalalabad (1)
Japan (3)
Jihadists (81)
John Nagl (5)
Joint Intelligence Centers (1)
JRTN (1)
Kabul (1)
Kajaki Dam (1)
Kamdesh (9)
Kandahar (12)
Karachi (7)
Kashmir (2)
Khost Province (1)
Khyber (11)
Knife Blogging (7)
Korea (4)
Korengal Valley (3)
Kunar Province (20)
Kurdistan (3)
Language in COIN (5)
Language in Statecraft (1)
Language Interpreters (2)
Lashkar-e-Taiba (2)
Law Enforcement (6)
Lawfare (14)
Leadership (6)
Lebanon (6)
Leon Panetta (2)
Let Them Fight (2)
Libya (14)
Lines of Effort (3)
Littoral Combat (8)
Logistics (50)
Long Guns (1)
Lt. Col. Allen West (2)
Marine Corps (280)
Marines in Bakwa (1)
Marines in Helmand (67)
Marjah (4)
MEDEVAC (2)
Media (68)
Medical (146)
Memorial Day (6)
Mexican Cartels (41)
Mexico (61)
Michael Yon (6)
Micromanaging the Military (7)
Middle East (1)
Military Blogging (26)
Military Contractors (5)
Military Equipment (25)
Militia (9)
Mitt Romney (3)
Monetary Policy (1)
Moqtada al Sadr (2)
Mosul (4)
Mountains (25)
MRAPs (1)
Mullah Baradar (1)
Mullah Fazlullah (1)
Mullah Omar (3)
Musa Qala (4)
Music (25)
Muslim Brotherhood (6)
Nation Building (2)
National Internet IDs (1)
National Rifle Association (97)
NATO (15)
Navy (30)
Navy Corpsman (1)
NCOs (3)
News (1)
NGOs (3)
Nicholas Schmidle (2)
Now Zad (19)
NSA (3)
NSA James L. Jones (6)
Nuclear (62)
Nuristan (8)
Obama Administration (221)
Offshore Balancing (1)
Operation Alljah (7)
Operation Khanjar (14)
Ossetia (7)
Pakistan (165)
Paktya Province (1)
Palestine (5)
Patriotism (7)
Patrolling (1)
Pech River Valley (11)
Personal (73)
Petraeus (14)
Pictures (1)
Piracy (13)
Pistol (4)
Pizzagate (21)
Police (656)
Police in COIN (3)
Policy (15)
Politics (980)
Poppy (2)
PPEs (1)
Prisons in Counterinsurgency (12)
Project Gunrunner (20)
PRTs (1)
Qatar (1)
Quadrennial Defense Review (2)
Quds Force (13)
Quetta Shura (1)
RAND (3)
Recommended Reading (14)
Refueling Tanker (1)
Religion (495)
Religion and Insurgency (19)
Reuters (1)
Rick Perry (4)
Rifles (1)
Roads (4)
Rolling Stone (1)
Ron Paul (1)
ROTC (1)
Rules of Engagement (75)
Rumsfeld (1)
Russia (37)
Sabbatical (1)
Sangin (1)
Saqlawiyah (1)
Satellite Patrols (2)
Saudi Arabia (4)
Scenes from Iraq (1)
Second Amendment (685)
Second Amendment Quick Hits (2)
Secretary Gates (9)
Sharia Law (3)
Shura Ittehad-ul-Mujahiden (1)
SIIC (2)
Sirajuddin Haqqani (1)
Small Wars (72)
Snipers (9)
Sniveling Lackeys (2)
Soft Power (4)
Somalia (8)
Sons of Afghanistan (1)
Sons of Iraq (2)
Special Forces (28)
Squad Rushes (1)
State Department (23)
Statistics (1)
Sunni Insurgency (10)
Support to Infantry Ratio (1)
Supreme Court (62)
Survival (201)
SWAT Raids (57)
Syria (38)
Tactical Drills (38)
Tactical Gear (15)
Taliban (168)
Taliban Massing of Forces (4)
Tarmiyah (1)
TBI (1)
Technology (21)
Tehrik-i-Taliban (78)
Terrain in Combat (1)
Terrorism (96)
Thanksgiving (13)
The Anbar Narrative (23)
The Art of War (5)
The Fallen (1)
The Long War (20)
The Surge (3)
The Wounded (13)
Thomas Barnett (1)
Transnational Insurgencies (5)
Tribes (5)
TSA (25)
TSA Ineptitude (14)
TTPs (4)
U.S. Border Patrol (6)
U.S. Border Security (19)
U.S. Sovereignty (24)
UAVs (2)
UBL (4)
Ukraine (10)
Uncategorized (99)
Universal Background Check (3)
Unrestricted Warfare (4)
USS Iwo Jima (2)
USS San Antonio (1)
Uzbekistan (1)
V-22 Osprey (4)
Veterans (3)
Vietnam (1)
War & Warfare (419)
War & Warfare (41)
War Movies (4)
War Reporting (21)
Wardak Province (1)
Warriors (6)
Waziristan (1)
Weapons and Tactics (79)
West Point (1)
Winter Operations (1)
Women in Combat (21)
WTF? (1)
Yemen (1)

November 2024
October 2024
September 2024
August 2024
July 2024
June 2024
May 2024
April 2024
March 2024
February 2024
January 2024
December 2023
November 2023
October 2023
September 2023
August 2023
July 2023
June 2023
May 2023
April 2023
March 2023
February 2023
January 2023
December 2022
November 2022
October 2022
September 2022
August 2022
July 2022
June 2022
May 2022
April 2022
March 2022
February 2022
January 2022
December 2021
November 2021
October 2021
September 2021
August 2021
July 2021
June 2021
May 2021
April 2021
March 2021
February 2021
January 2021
December 2020
November 2020
October 2020
September 2020
August 2020
July 2020
June 2020
May 2020
April 2020
March 2020
February 2020
January 2020
December 2019
November 2019
October 2019
September 2019
August 2019
July 2019
June 2019
May 2019
April 2019
March 2019
February 2019
January 2019
December 2018
November 2018
October 2018
September 2018
August 2018
July 2018
June 2018
May 2018
April 2018
March 2018
February 2018
January 2018
December 2017
November 2017
October 2017
September 2017
August 2017
July 2017
June 2017
May 2017
April 2017
March 2017
February 2017
January 2017
December 2016
November 2016
October 2016
September 2016
August 2016
July 2016
June 2016
May 2016
April 2016
March 2016
February 2016
January 2016
December 2015
November 2015
October 2015
September 2015
August 2015
July 2015
June 2015
May 2015
April 2015
March 2015
February 2015
January 2015
December 2014
November 2014
October 2014
September 2014
August 2014
July 2014
June 2014
May 2014
April 2014
March 2014
February 2014
January 2014
December 2013
November 2013
October 2013
September 2013
August 2013
July 2013
June 2013
May 2013
April 2013
March 2013
February 2013
January 2013
December 2012
November 2012
October 2012
September 2012
August 2012
July 2012
June 2012
May 2012
April 2012
March 2012
February 2012
January 2012
December 2011
November 2011
October 2011
September 2011
August 2011
July 2011
June 2011
May 2011
April 2011
March 2011
February 2011
January 2011
December 2010
November 2010
October 2010
September 2010
August 2010
July 2010
June 2010
May 2010
April 2010
March 2010
February 2010
January 2010
December 2009
November 2009
October 2009
September 2009
August 2009
July 2009
June 2009
May 2009
April 2009
March 2009
February 2009
January 2009
December 2008
November 2008
October 2008
September 2008
August 2008
July 2008
June 2008
May 2008
April 2008
March 2008
February 2008
January 2008
December 2007
November 2007
October 2007
September 2007
August 2007
July 2007
June 2007
May 2007
April 2007
March 2007
February 2007
January 2007
December 2006
November 2006
October 2006
September 2006
August 2006
July 2006
June 2006
May 2006

about · archives · contact · register

Copyright © 2006-2024 Captain's Journal. All rights reserved.