WHEN in the course of human Events, it becomes necessary….
On the Post Modern Plague
byVanderleunonJune 17, 2019
“Communism is not new. It is, in fact, man’s second oldest faith. Its promise was whispered in the first days of the Creation under the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil: “Ye shall be as gods.” It is the great alternative faith of mankind. Like all great faiths, its force derives from a simple vision. Other ages have had great visions. They have always been different versions of the same vision: the vision of God and man’s relationship to God. The Communist vision is the vision of Man without God.
“It is the vision of man’s mind displacing God as the creative intelligence of the world. It is the vision of man’s liberated mind, by the sole force of its rational intelligence, redirecting man’s destiny and reorganizing man’s life and the world. It is the vision of man, once more the central figure of the Creation, not because God made man in his image, but because man’s mind makes him the most intelligent of the animals. Copernicus and his successors displaced man as the central fact of the universe by proving that the earth was not the central star of the universe. Communism restores man to his sovereignty by the simple method of denying God.” — Whittaker Chambers
Might makes right precedes any god. It exists in the godless animal kingdom.
Walt GottesmanJune 17, 2019, 3:45 PM
Just read most of that same quote a few minutes before clicking on your post here. It was on p. 327 of Paul Kengor’s 2017 book titled: “A Pope and A President – John Paul II, Ronald Reagan, and the Extraordinary Untold Story of the 20th Century.” Kengor noted that President Reagan had cited it in a speech in Orlando on March 8, 1983. That’s too much of a coincidence for me not to leave a comment.
There is much in that well-researched book about parallels in the lives of those two men of faith and how they worked together to liberate people behind the Iron Curtain. The might of the Soviets and their Warsaw pact allies gave way before the faith of millions of people in Poland and elsewhere in Eastern Europe and Russia.
I find Kengor’s nearly 600 page book to be a stirring read with surprising facts that have current relevance. Am about halfway through it and have learned much.
Recommended!
DennyJune 17, 2019, 5:54 PM
The Post Modern plague is still the same as the ancient one. It’s idolatry, and making yourself your own god is the very worst example.
“Every one of us, even from his mother’s womb, is a master craftsman of idols. – John Calvin
Dave GJune 17, 2019, 8:59 PM
If only someone had the guts and funding to make Witness a limited series. Such a beautifully written book. Chambers character arc is fascinating and worthy of an actors talent over several seasons. Too bad it will never happen.
Former LurkerJune 18, 2019, 6:00 AM
Who says the animal kingdom is godless?
Dr. JayJune 18, 2019, 7:56 AM
“The Doctrine of Original Sin is the only one which we have 3,000 years of empirical evidence to back up.” — G. K. Chesterton
RichardJune 18, 2019, 8:03 AM
Unfortunately, the Education racket in this country was commandeered decades ago by the Cultural Marxists. Were this not so, the grim history of communism would have been exposed and condemned early on in grade school curricula. Historical accounts such as those depicted in The Black Book of Communism would have been rigorously taught and revisited throughout the critical kindergarten through high school cognitive formation period. That such lessons were not taught is no accident or casual oversight. Nothing is more damnable than what the so-called education system has done and continues to do to this nation’s children. Lose your children, lose your future. Communists have always understood this.
Of course God is the central question of history. The commies in Russia harvested the great sins of their backstabbing, second-rate nation, and usurped the promises of the Christian and Jewish faiths. The results are heresy.
The West encompasses man within the universe of Divinity. Not Divine himself, but grafted into the Tree. Western kings sat at the side of God, but the orientals sat “as gods”. Russia has that uncomfortable place of being some in the West, but mostly in the Orient.
They are a swarthy bunch of rats, aren’t they? The only thing that softens them is the grace of their women. If I were Russia, I’d break that land into 2 pieces: European Russia and Asian Russia.
Don’t get me wrong: the Asian continent is the seat of the great religions. But, as with many things that are superior, one’s home is only the starting point. Christianity made Europe and the West. Those who ignore that simply don’t understand history.
RayJune 18, 2019, 8:37 AM
The teachers will never give up their copy of “A People’s History of the United States” by Howard Zinn. You should really read this book to see what your children are being taught.
John DenneyJune 27, 2019, 12:18 PM
Some say man is basically good; others, that man is evil.
I say man is conflicted, being created in the image and likeness of God, and thus having an innate sense of justice and righteousness, but at the same time being born wanting not, “Thy will be done”, but, “My will be done”, as anyone who has ever dealt with a two-year-old knows.
Good vs. evil is a spectrum; people can be nudged one way or the other. Say you’re walking down the street and find a wallet stuffed with cash, credit cards, and the owner’s contact info. One part of you says, “Finders, keepers; losers, weepers!” and the other says, “Do the right thing”. Maybe, “I’ll just take a few dollars for my trouble and return everything else.”
But we’re all sinners in the Lord’s eyes, which see anything less than perfect righteousness as evil. Yet He loves us, and provides the Way to be counted as righteous. My distillation:
25 WORDS
Listen to these fifteen words,
The Gospel of Jesus Christ:
Christ died for our sins
Then rose from the dead
Just as the prophets said.
Real World Address for Donations, Mash Notes and Hate Mail
Gerard Van der Leun
1692 MANGROVE AVE
APT 379
Chico, Ca 95926
Green Pants Interior by Klahn
Who Am I? by Carl Sandburg
My head knocks against the stars.
My feet are on the hilltops.
My finger-tips are in the valleys and shores of universal life.
Down in the sounding foam of primal things I reach my hands and play with pebbles of destiny.
I have been to hell and back many times.
I know all about heaven, for I have talked with God.
I dabble in the blood and guts of the terrible.
I know the passionate seizure of beauty
And the marvelous rebellion of man at all signs reading “Keep Off.”
My name is Truth and I am the most elusive captive in the universe.
Duty, Beauty, Liberty, Country, Honor, Family, Faith — Plus a few simple easy to follow rules for guys
Men saw the stars at the edge of the sea
They thought great thoughts about liberty
Poets wrote down words that did fit
Writers wrote books
Thinkers thought about it
Take it where you find it
Can’t leave it alone
You will find a purpose
To carry it on
Mainly when you find it
Your heart will be strong
About it
Many’s the road I have walked upon
Many’s the hour between dusk and dawn
Many’s the time
Many’s the mile
I see it all now
Through the eyes of a child
Take it where you find it
Can’t leave it alone
You will find a purpose
To carry it on
Mainly when you find it
Your heart will be strong
About it
[Chorus]
Lost dreams and found dreams
In America
In America
In America
Lost dreams and found dreams
In America
In America
In America
And close your eyes
Leave it all for a while
Leave the world
And your worries behind
You will build on whatever is real
And wake up each day
To a new waking dream
Take it where you find it
Can’t leave it alone
You will find a purpose
To carry it on
Mainly when you find it
Your heart will be strong
About it
[Chorus]
Change, change come over
Change come over
Talkin’ about a change
Change, change
Change come over, now
Change, change, change come over
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I see my light
See my light
See my shining light
I see my light
See my light
See my shining light
“Communism is not new. It is, in fact, man’s second oldest faith. Its promise was whispered in the first days of the Creation under the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil: “Ye shall be as gods.” It is the great alternative faith of mankind. Like all great faiths, its force derives from a simple vision. Other ages have had great visions. They have always been different versions of the same vision: the vision of God and man’s relationship to God. The Communist vision is the vision of Man without God.
“It is the vision of man’s mind displacing God as the creative intelligence of the world. It is the vision of man’s liberated mind, by the sole force of its rational intelligence, redirecting man’s destiny and reorganizing man’s life and the world. It is the vision of man, once more the central figure of the Creation, not because God made man in his image, but because man’s mind makes him the most intelligent of the animals. Copernicus and his successors displaced man as the central fact of the universe by proving that the earth was not the central star of the universe. Communism restores man to his sovereignty by the simple method of denying God.” — Whittaker Chambers
Gerard Van der Leun
Comments on this entry are closed.
Might makes right precedes any god. It exists in the godless animal kingdom.
Just read most of that same quote a few minutes before clicking on your post here. It was on p. 327 of Paul Kengor’s 2017 book titled: “A Pope and A President – John Paul II, Ronald Reagan, and the Extraordinary Untold Story of the 20th Century.” Kengor noted that President Reagan had cited it in a speech in Orlando on March 8, 1983. That’s too much of a coincidence for me not to leave a comment.
There is much in that well-researched book about parallels in the lives of those two men of faith and how they worked together to liberate people behind the Iron Curtain. The might of the Soviets and their Warsaw pact allies gave way before the faith of millions of people in Poland and elsewhere in Eastern Europe and Russia.
I find Kengor’s nearly 600 page book to be a stirring read with surprising facts that have current relevance. Am about halfway through it and have learned much.
Recommended!
The Post Modern plague is still the same as the ancient one. It’s idolatry, and making yourself your own god is the very worst example.
“Every one of us, even from his mother’s womb, is a master craftsman of idols. – John Calvin
If only someone had the guts and funding to make Witness a limited series. Such a beautifully written book. Chambers character arc is fascinating and worthy of an actors talent over several seasons. Too bad it will never happen.
Who says the animal kingdom is godless?
“The Doctrine of Original Sin is the only one which we have 3,000 years of empirical evidence to back up.” — G. K. Chesterton
Unfortunately, the Education racket in this country was commandeered decades ago by the Cultural Marxists. Were this not so, the grim history of communism would have been exposed and condemned early on in grade school curricula. Historical accounts such as those depicted in The Black Book of Communism would have been rigorously taught and revisited throughout the critical kindergarten through high school cognitive formation period. That such lessons were not taught is no accident or casual oversight. Nothing is more damnable than what the so-called education system has done and continues to do to this nation’s children. Lose your children, lose your future. Communists have always understood this.
Of course God is the central question of history. The commies in Russia harvested the great sins of their backstabbing, second-rate nation, and usurped the promises of the Christian and Jewish faiths. The results are heresy.
The West encompasses man within the universe of Divinity. Not Divine himself, but grafted into the Tree. Western kings sat at the side of God, but the orientals sat “as gods”. Russia has that uncomfortable place of being some in the West, but mostly in the Orient.
They are a swarthy bunch of rats, aren’t they? The only thing that softens them is the grace of their women. If I were Russia, I’d break that land into 2 pieces: European Russia and Asian Russia.
Don’t get me wrong: the Asian continent is the seat of the great religions. But, as with many things that are superior, one’s home is only the starting point. Christianity made Europe and the West. Those who ignore that simply don’t understand history.
The teachers will never give up their copy of “A People’s History of the United States” by Howard Zinn. You should really read this book to see what your children are being taught.
Some say man is basically good; others, that man is evil.
I say man is conflicted, being created in the image and likeness of God, and thus having an innate sense of justice and righteousness, but at the same time being born wanting not, “Thy will be done”, but, “My will be done”, as anyone who has ever dealt with a two-year-old knows.
Good vs. evil is a spectrum; people can be nudged one way or the other. Say you’re walking down the street and find a wallet stuffed with cash, credit cards, and the owner’s contact info. One part of you says, “Finders, keepers; losers, weepers!” and the other says, “Do the right thing”. Maybe, “I’ll just take a few dollars for my trouble and return everything else.”
But we’re all sinners in the Lord’s eyes, which see anything less than perfect righteousness as evil. Yet He loves us, and provides the Way to be counted as righteous. My distillation:
25 WORDS
Listen to these fifteen words,
The Gospel of Jesus Christ:
Christ died for our sins
Then rose from the dead
Just as the prophets said.