We Will Learn

 

I think the fact that many Australian, and indeed American Christians have never experienced colonization in their lifetime, or their recent ancestor's lifetime, or serious invasion of their nations by armed forces, or subjugation by other peoples, gives them a very skewed perspective on world affairs, especially in places like the Middle East. At the very least it causes many of them to have zero, or very little, sympathy for conquered peoples, and very little understanding of what that is like for people.

But the rising demographic changes in western nations causing the decline of European Australian or American power and influence in their own nations, alongside the rising authoritarianism of our governments, co-opted by globalist elites, who are anti-Christian, and anti-European, means that many western Christians in AUS and US and beyond are about to find out what it is like to be ruled by another culture that hates you, wants your land and wealth, and considers you troublesome for not being ok with this.

One of the most basic spiritual laws of our world is, "You reap what you sow." God made this law. The failure of western Christians to properly repent of our ongoing military dominance of weaker powers (most Aussies aren't even aware of this reality), or learn from reason why we should, means God is setting the stage for us to learn from experience.

I think it was Confucius who said, "There are three ways to learn wisdom: One is by contemplation, the second is from the teachings of others, the third is from error and experience. The first is most noble, the second less noble and the third least noble." I may have paraphrased him a bit. Australian and American Christians have, in the main, refused to learn from the first two means. To paraphrase the Proverbs again, "The only hope of the foolish is to learn from bitter experience."

I am reading the history of Byzantium at the moment. After decades, indeed centuries, of nonsense and degraded culture God gave the Christian civilisation in Syria (part of the Eastern Roman Empire) over to dominance of the Saracens (Islamic conquerors). If we think we are so special as to avoid a similar fate, we guarantee our need to learn from experience, that we are not so special.

It's possible to see the world from the experience of the conquered by thinking about it and reading history explaining what it is like. If you do, it will change your mind on countless issues and help you see many ways you have been propagandized. Most people refuse to do this uncomfortable work though. So, they set themselves, or their children, or grandchildren up to learn this horror from experience.

The Bible teaches that God disciplines those he loves, who are called by his name (c.f. Heb. 12). This means that if we do not learn from him quickly, he will discipline us by getting our attention. And before anyone responds that Hebrews 12 is directed at individuals, God directs this same teaching to nations as well, he said this to Israel in the Old Testament,

“13 The people did not turn to him who struck them,
    nor inquire of the Lord of hosts.
14 So the Lord cut off from Israel head and tail,
    palm branch and reed in one day—
15 the elder and honored man is the head,
    and the prophet who teaches lies is the tail;
16 for those who guide this people have been leading them astray,
    and those who are guided by them are swallowed up.
17 Therefore the Lord does not rejoice over their young men,
    and has no compassion on their fatherless and widows;
for everyone is godless and an evildoer,
    and every mouth speaks folly.
For all this his anger has not turned away,
    and his hand is stretched out still” (Isa. 9:13-17).

He also disciplined Egypt, trying to warn them several times to release his people, before he severely punished them. And he has warned that he will punish Babylon for their evil in the world as well. Whether this is ancient Rome, ancient Judea, or a future empire or nation, it shows that in the New Testament God still punishes nations.

If we do not learn, he will teach us. Our nations have committed and are supporting great evil in the world. We think we are exempt from what happened to other nations that did this in the past. We are not.