If evil people get hold of a good idea does it not stand to reason that they will abuse and distort it to their own selfish purposes?
Before I answer who the evil people in question are or might be i will talk about some good ideas that are or may be subject to such abuse.
The Left have the good idea that people should care for one another and help each other, for no man is an island.
The Right believe that individuals should take responsibility for themselves.
I would say that both are good ideas, but as selected by both wings of the political spectrum they are forced into a false dichotomy which is simply not logically required.
So who are the evil people that would abuse such ideas?
Scripture is clear. There is none righteous, no not one. Jesus, by way of a casual throw away line, while talking about the gift of God said to his disciples "if you being evil, can give good gifts to your children . . . . " Matthew 7:11
He took the evil of men for granted.
As regards politics what do we see?
That men should look out for one another became a license for mass murder under Marxism. For what was to be done with those deemed unwilling to do so? And now people foolishly want the State to do everything for them, not only keep then fed and sheltered, a requirement I, as a former Leftist might still find valid, but to give their empty lives meaning and happiness, and if the government cannot do this they expect the governments of the Left these days to punish those who dare afflict their feelings, hence the madness which is Political Correctness. And they think that the nature of Man can be remade, re educated, to change man into something better. Such Utopian fantasies are always totalitarian
That men should be responsible for their own welfare morphed into "I'm OK, to hell with you ,mate."
Any kind of justice in the cried of the poor is written off as the politics of envy, as Jim Bolger, former New Zealand Prime Minister did back in the 1990's after the welfare state was severely cut in this country. He either had no clue as to the plight of the poor, or did not want to have any clue of such. Scripture calls this the deceitfulness of riches where by a rich man thinks he got rich by his own moral merit and thus his wealth is a sign of his own righteousness. There is very little in this world which is more foul than such an attitude. and of course the purpose of preaching individual responsibility is to keep the workers at their benches
Now I am a generous man, when both sides of the spectrum hurl accusations to each other I agree with them all, except where logic render them contradictory.
Because all are evil and all abuse everything in some way or another - even if only by means of making an idol out of it to ignore God the Spirit - it follows that it is empty self righteousness for a political party or wing to accuse the other side of being evil while trumpeting either by word or attitude that they themselves are not, for all are evil.
Thus political factionalism is always self righteous, arrogant and just plain foolish
some parties are more evil than others perhaps?
Well, perhaps indeed. But do we vote for the lesser evil?
that empowers the lesser evil if they win the election, and as power corrupts they become a greater evil than previously.
It might in the short term be saner to have a lesser evil in power, but only in the short term, and the debasement of all political parties, to be met by the self righteous naivete of new parties who think they will be different - truly there is nothing new under the sun! will indeed continue
Of course the corruption might only be a conceit and arrogance of a Prime Minister who has been in office for too long - and be assured I myself have seen this in my own country of New Zealand, but would that we could be so lucky as to have evils only come singly instead of clusters, as they always do
So what is the solution?
The Age of Reform, as I might call it, starting in the 18th century, is coming to an end as the reforms themselves unravel. and they unravel because or giving you neighbour a fair break is contrary to human nature and humans can only pretend against their own selves for so long.
My parents' generation were lucky enough to live under the humane reforms of this Age of Reform at its very peak. My parents were too young for world War II and had a lifetime of prosperity previously undreamed of until their deaths in 2007 and 2009 respectively. And they were not wealthy, but working class all their lives
This state of affairs is now unravelling and I need point to no evidence for what is plainly visible.
It is said, often by those who really should know better, that all it takes for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing.
If true then evil will triumph. And indeed it will. For there are no good people. I like to say that if I ever met a good person I would kick his backside and tell him to get moving, he has a world to save. But I speak in ironic jest, for there really are none.
God Himself will let Man drink the cup of his rebellion to the bitter dregs, and at some point He will remove or allow to be removed whatever it is that restrains (2 Thessalonians 2:1-4) Man from the full viciousness of his own nature.
And when in this instance all hell is let loose this will be the Great Tribulation and Christ will return only at the end of it.
Get involved in politics and be corrupted by it? Ignore politics and suffer at the hand of those contemptible or naive people who still enter it? Try to fight a rearguard action as the engineers in the Titanic did whose effort at the pumps kept the ship afloat for some 2 and a half hours?
Well this last assumes that Law is the solution to man's predicament, which it never was. To demonstrate this fact so deeply denied by men, all ,men, for i a m convinced that legalism it is which is the way that leads to death , (Proverbs 14:12) this was the very reason God gave the Law in the first place. And of course there is still the price of corruption to be paid. Is it to be said that no greater love had a man, or woman, for his nation that he gave his life to the political process that he be corrupted by it all while holding back great evil?
As the saying goes, damned if you do, damned if you don't. There is no solution whatsoever not when the solutions - liberal democracy - are falling apart before our very eyes
So what remains?
the classic gospel,
Repent and believe and be led by the Spirit
Before I answer who the evil people in question are or might be i will talk about some good ideas that are or may be subject to such abuse.
The Left have the good idea that people should care for one another and help each other, for no man is an island.
The Right believe that individuals should take responsibility for themselves.
I would say that both are good ideas, but as selected by both wings of the political spectrum they are forced into a false dichotomy which is simply not logically required.
So who are the evil people that would abuse such ideas?
Scripture is clear. There is none righteous, no not one. Jesus, by way of a casual throw away line, while talking about the gift of God said to his disciples "if you being evil, can give good gifts to your children . . . . " Matthew 7:11
He took the evil of men for granted.
As regards politics what do we see?
That men should look out for one another became a license for mass murder under Marxism. For what was to be done with those deemed unwilling to do so? And now people foolishly want the State to do everything for them, not only keep then fed and sheltered, a requirement I, as a former Leftist might still find valid, but to give their empty lives meaning and happiness, and if the government cannot do this they expect the governments of the Left these days to punish those who dare afflict their feelings, hence the madness which is Political Correctness. And they think that the nature of Man can be remade, re educated, to change man into something better. Such Utopian fantasies are always totalitarian
That men should be responsible for their own welfare morphed into "I'm OK, to hell with you ,mate."
Any kind of justice in the cried of the poor is written off as the politics of envy, as Jim Bolger, former New Zealand Prime Minister did back in the 1990's after the welfare state was severely cut in this country. He either had no clue as to the plight of the poor, or did not want to have any clue of such. Scripture calls this the deceitfulness of riches where by a rich man thinks he got rich by his own moral merit and thus his wealth is a sign of his own righteousness. There is very little in this world which is more foul than such an attitude. and of course the purpose of preaching individual responsibility is to keep the workers at their benches
Now I am a generous man, when both sides of the spectrum hurl accusations to each other I agree with them all, except where logic render them contradictory.
Because all are evil and all abuse everything in some way or another - even if only by means of making an idol out of it to ignore God the Spirit - it follows that it is empty self righteousness for a political party or wing to accuse the other side of being evil while trumpeting either by word or attitude that they themselves are not, for all are evil.
Thus political factionalism is always self righteous, arrogant and just plain foolish
some parties are more evil than others perhaps?
Well, perhaps indeed. But do we vote for the lesser evil?
that empowers the lesser evil if they win the election, and as power corrupts they become a greater evil than previously.
It might in the short term be saner to have a lesser evil in power, but only in the short term, and the debasement of all political parties, to be met by the self righteous naivete of new parties who think they will be different - truly there is nothing new under the sun! will indeed continue
Of course the corruption might only be a conceit and arrogance of a Prime Minister who has been in office for too long - and be assured I myself have seen this in my own country of New Zealand, but would that we could be so lucky as to have evils only come singly instead of clusters, as they always do
So what is the solution?
The Age of Reform, as I might call it, starting in the 18th century, is coming to an end as the reforms themselves unravel. and they unravel because or giving you neighbour a fair break is contrary to human nature and humans can only pretend against their own selves for so long.
My parents' generation were lucky enough to live under the humane reforms of this Age of Reform at its very peak. My parents were too young for world War II and had a lifetime of prosperity previously undreamed of until their deaths in 2007 and 2009 respectively. And they were not wealthy, but working class all their lives
This state of affairs is now unravelling and I need point to no evidence for what is plainly visible.
It is said, often by those who really should know better, that all it takes for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing.
If true then evil will triumph. And indeed it will. For there are no good people. I like to say that if I ever met a good person I would kick his backside and tell him to get moving, he has a world to save. But I speak in ironic jest, for there really are none.
God Himself will let Man drink the cup of his rebellion to the bitter dregs, and at some point He will remove or allow to be removed whatever it is that restrains (2 Thessalonians 2:1-4) Man from the full viciousness of his own nature.
And when in this instance all hell is let loose this will be the Great Tribulation and Christ will return only at the end of it.
Get involved in politics and be corrupted by it? Ignore politics and suffer at the hand of those contemptible or naive people who still enter it? Try to fight a rearguard action as the engineers in the Titanic did whose effort at the pumps kept the ship afloat for some 2 and a half hours?
Well this last assumes that Law is the solution to man's predicament, which it never was. To demonstrate this fact so deeply denied by men, all ,men, for i a m convinced that legalism it is which is the way that leads to death , (Proverbs 14:12) this was the very reason God gave the Law in the first place. And of course there is still the price of corruption to be paid. Is it to be said that no greater love had a man, or woman, for his nation that he gave his life to the political process that he be corrupted by it all while holding back great evil?
As the saying goes, damned if you do, damned if you don't. There is no solution whatsoever not when the solutions - liberal democracy - are falling apart before our very eyes
So what remains?
the classic gospel,
Repent and believe and be led by the Spirit
