JOYFUL JOTTINGS 24

IDOL MOMENTS

From Stalin to Kosovo, to Luxemburg is not so very far

(New Life, Melbourne, July 1, 1999)

We all know what idle moments are; but what of idol moment ?

They are one of the distinguishing characteristics of the 20th century.

We had them in World War II. When Hitler seemed to many, the very incarnation of evil, and that bad man had to be overthrown, on beaches and elsewhere, there was, together with this commendable resolve, a tendency to forget the rest.

What is it like ? It resembles a cricket team who, having heard that the other side has a fine spin bowler, fails to observe the fast bowler, who promptly bowls them all out. There is MORE THAN ONE form in which evil can present itself. It is TRUE there is ONE mainspring; but that is merely a catalyst. The devil is a foreign power to the human heart, but like the Normans in England in 1066, he occupies much territory. He has many minions, plots, plans, strategies, devices (II Corinthians 2:11). He has an armoury and a diplomatic 'wing' (cf. II Cor. 11:13-14), even able to transform himself into (the appearance of) an angel of light. There are many who wilfully proceed to betray their 'homeland', their own souls, to him, despite the warning and the remedy available in that Conquering Christ (Philippians 4:13). As to HIM, His great conquest was on the Cross to which Pilate so VERY reluctantly consigned Him (John 19 traces the wanton stages), as do so many more, who tread under foot the blood of the everlasting covenant, and count it an unclean thing, not fit for their dainty souls, which nevertheless deserve what Christ took, and will bear what they do not transfer to His willing heart (Galatians 6:14, John 8:24,39-44 ).

It is never wise so to concentrate on one evil (thing) that you neglect other perils from the moral abyss. When you remember that one of the chief methods of enemy infiltration this century has been the highly successful ploy of trying to depersonalise the devil, the accuser of the brethren, the antagonist against Christ, our protagonist, then with the natural (and quite correct) human desire for ONE, to find the base and basis of various things, there is this vulnerablility. Thinking JUST this ONE evil must be obliterated, they tend to forget the OTHER ones, and the source of all, not only the devil, but that fertile human soil which, when sin is on trial as the gardener (the total norm), brings forth flowers of evil abundantly.

So was it in WW II. Hitler was IT, 'that bad man'. Hence the fact that another mass murderer whose delusions were at least as bad, whose vindictiveness was quite possibly considerably worse, whose manipulation was even more gross through craft and subtlety, M. Stalin, was available for help did not seem out of place. Not at all. HITLER HAD TO GO, SO STALIN HAD TO COME. He was that NECESSARY ALLY. Thus to remove a plague of rats, you ask in a million tigers. It was of course hopelessly immoral, to foster this festering hand which had blood in its every wrinkle. That handshake cost the COLD WAR, in which a partially frustrated USA, with large largess and constant effort, managed to provide Russia  the ally, with MANY friends made through, not least, the wartime association, with what ? Why with the atomic bomb.

That allowed for a partial stalemate in the sea of Sargasso of human affairs, M.A.D., mutually assured destruction. Now it is being practised with another idol moment: that of China, to which in the last little while has seen bequeathed (but no, the land is not dead yet!) from the USA, those neat little warheads which would make war by China on Taiwan so delightful, for a change (unless something rather wonderful should intervene to deliver that delicacy from the post-Mao maw). CHINA'S MARKET, like STALIN'S HAND (and his army of course with it) is so NEEDED, says the idol (which of course is programmed with suitable philosophic software), that
 

• ...'most favoured nation treatment of COURSE must be given to it, even if those people, what are they called ? the ones who do not like the government, are shut up in tongue and body. It costs a little to do business, after all ... Ah yes, those dissidents, that is the term! Sad about them, but manfully, one must pay the piper who plays the tune, what!'

It all begins to sound like a British Colonel putting Empire above what it supposedly stood for. The sound and the song is familiar. It is that of an IDOL MOMENT.

We have had others too, in this cultural, commercial, diplomatic mode. Thus there were the 'sixties with their LIBERTY TO LOVE (which meant liberty to be a slave to lust, or bust), and that IDOL MOMENT became that of the FREEDOM FROM THE FAITH in which President Kennedy, in a sort of side-show, had some sort of Shangri-La fame for his free-wheeling life style. The pope ? doesn't count. He merely is 'GOD ALMIGHTY ON EARTH', according to the New York Catechism; but what is one or more gods when the divine is already downgraded to size in another IDOL MOMENT, so that He becomes a sort of PEN PAL, who shares, and like some modern teachers, is transformed into a sort of resource person to help you become whatever will give you a sense of fulfilment.

In yet another IDOL MOMENT, the children, who follow all this with multitudinous footsteps, are now beginning in not a few cases to find their zeitgeist, their zest, the answer to their quest, that ESSENTIAL SELF-FULFILMENTthat is so guaranteed to them, especially in the UN Child Rights Convention (see The Other News, Appendix 1), in killing. What is the code then for this ? Look.
 

• 'This is nice, it gives something almost surreal, because the virtual reality screens on their computers are SO limiting, and to actually DO it, to follow the instructions, the advice, the trend of their trendy play, are they not more for ... well, shut-ins ? So here we go, let's overthrow school and friend, with guns and bombs, and let's do it in Europe and in the US.'

The SELF-FULFILMENT IDOL is here!

We could go on, but the point is clear. Joining the AVIARY OF IDOLATRY, in which major religious movements are found in these so seductive 'birds of paradise' (see Barbs, Arrows and Balms, Appendix IV, Repent or Perish Ch.5, esp. pp. 102ff.)) are all the other disingenuous IDOL MOMENTS. Together, the IDOL BIRDS and IDOL MOMENTS  proceed of course to the UN and to the concept of international, irreligious government, which will not presumably hesitate to define 'religion' long enough to make itself not TOO religious; for after all, has not the South Australian Government allowed just such a last ditch double-speak folly, in defining religion out of court, before the questions are asked! (For that abysmal folly, incredibly allowed by a largely sleepy people, it would seem, see That Magnificent Rock, Ch.8). THEN of course, the way cleared, they bring in their own under another name. So it goes.

Already the purpose and acceptability of religious ideas is being shown remorselessly WITHOUT ANY REASON, in the UN Document on Religious Discrimination (see The Other News loc.cit.).

In the Old Testament one could see some of the same follies. The Jews had their innings, and the Gentiles are now about at the end of theirs, as we have shown elsewhere in dealing with the Olive Tree (q.v. in Index). Thus one of the Kings of Judah showed the prototype procedure for this. Amaziah (II Chronicles 25), after divine aid in subduing an enemy nation, had the incredible seeming luxuriance of folly to take some of their 'gods' home with him, the little objects, as crazy to worship as is the human body, the sop centre of many now. The prophet asked him this:

"Why have you sought after the gods of the people, which could not deliver their own people out of your hand?" (25:16).

His penalties were many: he became proud, challenged another king (that of the Northern Kingdom, itself awash with idols on the boat of his own State) who humiliated him in word
(II Chronicles 25:18) and in deed, then in treasure too. His episode ended when a conspiracy arose and he was slain by servants! This was not a single, or solitary case. Indeed, perhaps worse in this genre was the case of Asa, who having had a prodigious victory over a massively outnumbering Ethiopian army, through divine aid freely given to a covenant people, called on a godless nation to help him win the next war, as if he had neither memory nor gratitude (II Chronicles 14:6-16:10).  THAT reminds one of WW II, and Stalin... Said the prophet to him:
 

·       " Were not the Ethiopians and the Lubim a huge host, with very many chariots and horsemen ? Yet because you relied on the Lord, He delivered them into your hand. For the eyes of the Lord run to and from thoguht the whole earth, to show Himself storng in behalf of those whose heart is loyal toward Him. In this, you have done foolishly; therefore, from now on, you shall have wars.

·       "Then was Asa angry with the seer, and put him in a prison house, for he s in a rage with him, because of this thing..."

Asa developed an incurable foot disease, as if he had loved to wander, and even then, he did not seek the Lord, but rather turned to the physicians, fine in their place, but ONLY UNDER GOD. In this state, he died.

IDOL MOMENTS are quite wonderful if you seek humiliation, abasement, folly and weakness. There is little better.

The West played with such moments in WW II, and inherited the Cold War, and a Russia so helped, despite the absurdity of its irrational philosophies, that it could even fool about in Kosovo, threatening the fitful peace there with its pretensions, while spending US pocket money to support itself in 1999.

How weak is this weakness, and how confused are these who play with idols, in their IDOL MOMENTS!

As it says, "How weak is your heart!" (Ezekiel 16:30). This word here, given by the Lord through the prophet, is dealing with the  fitful infidelities to the faith and footloose wanderings of a disloyal nation; and as to her, her work is presented as that of an "imperious harlot", abusing the only divine covenant available to man, with the imaginary volatilities of desire.

 

IDOL MOMENTS ?

The joy of the Lord is not so: it is unalloyed, uncloyed, fashioned on faithfulness, abounding in purity, fostered in loyalty, fresh with the dew of heaven and lifted like the huge sails of ocean yachts, with the breezes of His beauty, which play upon the deeps of His understanding.

Man without understanding is indeed, as Proverbs declares, like the beasts. In the understanding of the Lord is a joy which surpasses, like that of an apprentice who, slaving to make something in art, suddenly finds himself the personal comrade of a master whose artistic powers startle and delight, educate and ravish, for whom the brush is a baton, and the world a an orchestra.

THAT, it is in art: this, it is in life! No wonder that the apostle Paul says this: "REJOICE EVERMORE" (I Thess.5), and that David is moved from the heart to declare:

• "I will extol You, my God, O king, and I will bless Your name forever and ever. Every day will I bless You, and I will praise Your name forever and ever. Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; and His greatness is unsearchable."

 
 

The End

·       Yes, this is an end note concerning the beginning, where Luxembourg was mentioned. It appears from Time Magazine, July ?, that the US has appointed a new ambassador to this duchy. Many are the organisations in protest concerning morals and the expression of tactlessness or the testimony of decadence or the like. The ambassador, according to New Life, Melbourne (July 1, 1999, p.3), is well-known not only as rich but as homosexual in orientation.

·       It is true that in some political sense, the US is a free people. It is equally true that the reference to God Almighty in the Constitution does not bind to which conception is in view: the invented type or the testimony of reality with evidence, in the Bible.

·       Hence the US may indeed have a President, who, having confessed to such outrageous conduct in Office and at work, that the Senate had long to consider whether to keep, reject, rebuke or simply accept him, and did the last, and having expressed his great gratitude to the Senate, now proceeds during a recess because of a public holiday, to make this appointment on his own account. According to New Life (from EP News), the Senate had refused to confirm the ambassador. Nevertheless, the appointment made so dextrously, cannot, it appears, be revoked until the end of the year 2000, even by the Government of this free country.

·       Thus the US, with the IDOL of self-defined freedom, is free to dismiss divine sanctions, and so to represent itself internationally, if it will. Where that liberty becomes autonomy, anti-Biblical and so anti-God, for there is but one God, it is indeed idolatry to apply its dismembering sanctions to the people. The United States is free not to rebuke a President whose deplored conduct was long sustained in Office, at Office and it appears,  at work, so that unfettered, he may thus repay. It is free to make clear, nationally, what are its standards.

·       God also is free. He however is entirely free. Thus in Jeremiah 34:17 ff. we find that, dissatisfied with the moral failure in Israel, brought to new depths of insolence before His very face, and noting that they withheld liberty to the oppressed, HE proclaimed LIBERTY. THEY would not keep the moral code. HE would therefore APPLY IT. EACH had liberty!

·       Yes as in the French Revolution, in entire disregard of God, and in the American one, with a highly attenuated style of commitment to His word, there is liberty to proclaim. THEY PROCLAIM FOR THEMSELVES LIBERTY. God adds His. In the case of Israel, it went like this:

"Therefore thus says the Lord, 'You have not obeyed Me in proclaiming liberty, every one to his brother and every one to his neighbour. Behold, I proclaim liberty to you,' says the Lord - 'to the sword, to pestilence, and to famine! And I will deliver you to trouble among all the kingdoms of the earth. And I will give the men who have transgresed My covenant, who have not peformed the words of the covenant which they made before Me ... I will give them into the hand of their enemies and into the hand of those who seek their life..."
 

·       The American affair in Luxembourg is merely one of a numerous series of follies at the moral level. 'It is wrong to criticise immorality, to insist on morality, wrong to be so narrow as to seek to maintain standards of righteousness, Biblically defined, in the nation.' So goes the message of 'liberty', which thus becomes the oppression of righteousness, the declaration in moral tones of unrighteousness and the  proclamation of the code of another god, who is not the Maker.

·       One recalls the policy, evidently backed by President Clinton, to allow unabashed homosexual approach in the Army, one that ran into some trouble not least for practical reasons, concerning combat efficiency. The endeavours to limit various bodies in their Staff selection, as if Biblical morals were no longer an option to the employer, is indeed a liberty proclaimed, but not to the free and not to those oriented to the Bible and to the physiological realities of our race, or the rationally attested and supernaturally demanded standards, supplanting all immoral 'morals', founded on fantasy only, and the whim of the moment.... (Cf. The Kingdom of Heaven ... Ch.3, The Other News 19 , Romans 1:23ff., II Timothy 3:1-5.) It is a proclamation of liberty to be stripped of revenue, or to sin; to be forced into servitude to the slavery of sin or its acceptance, or to close the doors. It is liberty to be slaves, and penalty for the free.

·       Perhaps America too, with many nations like her, who verge on this precipice of aggressive immorality, priding themselves on their moral credentials as free, will find that God too has liberty.

·       It is to be hoped that the US will repent before its wealth is dashed -

 

as was that of Great Britain, betrayed by some advanced in new fashions of 'morality' in atomic matters, recruited in the days of her power, AND BY MANY ECCLESIASTICS -

and its name is as diminished in battle as was that of the French nation, in its treble over-running by Germany, in 1870 and  in the World Wars I and II. The French in many ways did a fine job in the wars; but their national heart was troubled by their being over-run so soon. The 'goddess of reason' taken irratinoally through the streets of Paris in the Revolution, all too clearly defined their lack of definition of liberty. They used and gained the liberty of the sword as Napoleon fell.

Is it felt that because the Moslems have the wrong God (The Shadow of a Mighty Rock, pp. 989ff., 1080ff., 50ff.) that they are altogether worse than those who name the right one, and defile His commandments, reverse His rulings, defy His utterance and promote the contrary! Disgusted with the rebellions of Israel in the days of Amos, God told them they were as the Ethiopians to Him: that is, their special beauty before Him was as alien as those who made no profession (Amos 9:7). It is Russian roulette to play with God, and when it is with His word that the game is on: then the only difference is this, that the explosion is sure to occur.
 
  One is reminded of Jeremiah where the riot act is read: "Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal and walk after other gods whom you do not know, and then come and stand before Me in this house which is called by My name and say, 'We are delivered to do all these abominations' " (7:9-10).

Sufferance is one thing; promotion is another, and demotion is a third. Let those who have ears, hear.