Unrestrained and Unbridled
The State of Things
We have raised this matter before: Gradually, then suddenly. Like peering over Grandfather Mountain, getting too close until the weight of your body converges perfectly, disastrously, with the force of gravity and the angle of the rock. Gradually. Suddenly. Then.
Never Again
Never again do we need to ask how people in a particular time, in an otherwise civilized nation, can be caught up in, e.g., the 1930s German support of unquestionable evil. It is happening before our eyes. There is an apparent short-term memory loss among many across the West about the unprecedented murderous attack on Israeli civilians—including unspeakable acts against women and children.
On October 7, 2023, at 6:30 am, the hellish visage of Hamas thugs flying through the dawn skies in crudely made paragliders appeared in southern Israel. Like a scene from a dystopian fantasy, the flying armed terrorists were joined by their fellow savages in white pickup trucks, bicycles, and bands of blood-thirsty marauders on foot. These modern-day Hittite killers committed atrocities against defenseless civilians—women and children—by such savage means that the acts cannot be described without denying what it is to be human.
And now we witness the tipping point, the “gradually and suddenly” happening before us: not of outrage against those who perpetrated wickedness, but as a pretense for support of the same. So, never forget that the capacity for a mass delusion is ever possible.
I raise only two variables in the larger context to consider. I suspect that “men of goodwill” might differ in their diagnostic conclusions. Yet, the symptoms seem incontrovertible.
Unraveling Restraints
Firstly, there is a deadly unraveling happening before us. As I wrote in From Flanders Fields to the Moviegoer, Postmodernism proposed absurdity in the face of atrocity.1 And absurdity desecrated the rational and introduced the implausible as possible. Paul wrote of such times: “For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work” (2 Thessalonians 2:7). This verse is set in the larger context of a “man of lawlessness” teaching by Paul. Like other New Testament doctrines of this kind, there was both a present threat (“is already at work”) and an exponential effect that moves through history (again, the “gradually, then suddenly” factor):
“Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time” (2 Thessalonians 2:1-6 ESV).
Unbridled Threats and Lies
Secondly, the voices of evil are in ascendancy. Isaiah wrote, “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!” And St. Paul echoed this in the New Testament:
“But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people” (2 Timothy 3:1-5).
As usual, the most strident voices are the loudest. With protests against not just policy decisions but ad hominem calls for the destruction of a people—not only Israel, but America and her Allies (I have heard references to the Anglo-Saxon nations, presumably Canada, Great Britain, Australia, and New Zealand) and not only America but “white” people (a demand that seems mainly voiced by Caucasian-looking rioters), thus bolstering a new deadly intersectionality of causes. I say “deadly” because the combination of an unraveling of restraints with a normalized call for the elimination of people groups has a sinister history. These two factors are attracted to each other and, when they marry, spawn the most horrific offspring. The Unraveling is, thus, before us.
A Time to Speak
Let us reason together and consider that “There is a time to be silent and a time to speak” (Ecclesiastes 3:7). If there has ever been a time to speak truth to lies in the public square, it is now. Or we won’t have any public square.
This poor filthy sinner saved by the grace of God through the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ stands with my fellow Americans who are Hebrews by faith or lineage without caveat or apology. For those who are Israel by faith or lineage are of the line that brought the Savior to the world. Paul, a Hebrew, reminded believers of Gentile stock that they are engrafted into true Israel because of Israel. Thus, he cried: “For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh” (Romans 9:3). And the larger context demonstrates the debt of those Gentiles in the flesh, like me, engrafted into the One True Israel:
“I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit—that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh. They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen” (Romans 9:1-5).
This is why there is an intuitive Christian impulse to stand with the Jews. Whatever sad historical example to the contrary is an anomaly, not a normality. Our Lord Jesus came to us by ethnic Israel. We are, thus, their debtors in the Lord. We might differ on policy matters concerning the modern Jewish republic (or, for that matter, our own nation), but again, the chants I hear are less about rational public policy debate and more about the maniacal elimination of a group of human beings. We must never forget that anti-Semitism (against the sons of Shem) quickly turns to anti-Japhetism (against the sons of Japheth) and anti-Hamitism (against the sons of Ham). In other words, when a mob demands the death of one of us, they inevitably demand the heads of all of us. We do well to recall the central philosophical tenant of Alice O’Connor—better known by her pen name, Ayn Rand (1905-1985)—that is, that rational self-interest leads to the greater good. The current mob intimidation by Hamas-terrorist rioters screaming for death to Israel and death to America is threatening the peace and unity of our people. It is in our best interest to decry such threats and demand that the civil government ordained by God use its inherent powers to stop the madness. It is not in our best interests to be silent in the face of anti-Semitism.
As a Christian minister, I cannot be silent (though my voice is feeble and small compared to others; I don’t pretend to have even the “pulpit” I had three or four years ago, but even a tiny tin voice sounds better when placed alongside others). For we are witnessing the dehumanization of fellow Americans. As a professor and retired graduate school administrator, I cannot remain quiet in the face of fascist antagonism, largely unopposed by “prestigious” university administrators, as Jewish educators are being denied entry to their classrooms.
We speak, even if only to family and friends. And perhaps our voices together can be heard.
The Bigger Factor
We must say something else. Christ has risen, and that changes everything. Though evil flourishes, though despots sit on their thrones and dispatch their evildoers to destroy the remnants of our civilization, there is Another Power at work in the world.
“For you, O LORD, have made me glad by your work; at the works of your hands, I sing for joy. How great are your works, O LORD! Your thoughts are very deep! The stupid man cannot know; the fool cannot understand this: that though the wicked sprout like grass and all evildoers flourish, they are doomed to destruction forever; but you, O LORD, are on high forever” (Psalm 92:4-8).
“Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.’ To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” (Romans 12:17-21).
“So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding” (Romans 14:19).
“First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people” (1 Timothy 2:1).
“But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more” (Romans 5:20).
Thus, we have hope and guidance in such times. Though we cry aloud and spare not and defend the lives of those threatened, we also turn evildoers over to the Lord in prayer. We also pray that all, Jew and Gentile, will turn to the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation and for the Law of the Gospel of grace.
Will you join me in prayer?
O Father in heaven: Have mercy upon us. Deliver us from the wickedness that seems unrestrained. Send revival to overcome evil with good. In the name of Thy Son our Savior Jesus Christ I pray. Amen.
I offer an article I wrote for Carolina Journal, a publication of the John Locke Society: “The Short Journey from Denying Truth to Marching for Murderers.”
Michael A. Milton, From Flanders Fields to the Moviegoer: Philosophical Foundations for a Transcendent Ethical Framework (Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2019).