Wars between civilizations are a definite thing to avoid. We had them with the Crusades one thousand years ago. They suit the political aspirations of some. More recently, we have had them again with the “wars on terror” throughout the Middle East. These were led by the Neo-Conservatives, firstly the Bush family, and then the Obama/ Hillary and Biden camp. Australian politics has gone right along with this, no matter which of the two main parties.
Surprisingly, at least to me, Trump
reversed the trend, being the first US president in recent history not to start
a war, and he ended all the wars America was running when he came to office. He
brought peace to the Middle East (including Israel), which today is building an
economic block of sovereign nations. No other recent American president would
have allowed this to happen. He kept his ways lawful while in office, despite
constant illegal actions against him. His presidency was costing criminals too
much money. Wars have not been about security, but about control of all our
lives and about money laundering in high places.
These were wars pivoting one major
civilization against another. Humanity is very prone to propaganda in this
matter, which is often posited in religious terms. The Crusades and the recent
wars on terror were similar in this regard, making the wars almost righteous.
But they violated the core teachings and the person of Christ.
Another civilization war looming on the
horizon is between East and West, the Anglo-American nations and China. How
many times have we been through this East-West civilization war in past
millennia? With the failure of the press today to report honestly, there is
plenty of searching for truth in alternative media. Unfortunately, this has
become necessary, but caution must be exercised. Who is the enemy and cause of
the many problems today? Some progress is being made on bringing to book
corruption in our societies, and I believe there is much more progress to come.
But we don’t want to jump out on the pan into the fire, where the
neo-conservative drums beat once again, this time against China.
All our societies are a mixture of good and
bad, with government and private sector corruption. We have seen this openly in
the last few years in Western society and China is no different. It’s a complex
nation, dealing with healthy hopes for the future, but also with dark sides
fighting to take over again. Which nation is different? So yes, we must be real
and deal with threats that emerge domestically and globally. We can’t be naïve,
to turn away from them and pretend they don’t exist. But we also must take great
care that these threats don’t morph into scapegoating/ political opportunism
that brings many people to destruction. This is humanity’s basest common instinct.
We see this kind of division everywhere, being manufactured and manipulated by
the powers that control the masses.
That is basically how they crucified Jesus.
The crowd was moved from “Hosanna” to “crucify him” in just one week, even
without social media bots. But they certainly had “bots” moving among the
crowd, stirring up the sentiment the rulers wished for, intimidating, censoring,
and punishing those who wouldn’t comply. Peter was even drawn away by it and
cursed Christ. This is how fickle, ignorant crowds can do the bidding of the
wicked. We are all playing out the same drama today. Who will be faithful, to
go with Christ up Golgotha? And rise with him.
“As wise as a serpent and as harmless as a
dove.”
There seems to be two main concepts
competing for the Christian centre in dealing with unknown or multifaceted
nations like China. One is “the enemy of righteousness,” in which Christians are
God’s agents of truth to confront evil civilizations, many times with our
armies. This can take on an “end-times” flavour, where God confronts the satan
(Gog and Magog) in a decisive battle before Jesus returns. This flavour of
Christianity can coincide nicely with neo-conservative politics.
The other view is that Christians are salt
and light in a world of conflict, living out peace and cohesion in fractured
nations, bringing the healing that overcomes satan’s destructive plans for
humanity. Of course, this peace-making role, this drawing the world together in
cooperative rather than hostile relationships, is done in the context of the
faithful witness of self-giving holiness and truth. It may be called a harmony
between left and right wing. The church lays down her life to give to the poor
and include the marginalised, wounded, and her enemy, and yet is conservative
in theology in protecting the truth upon which life itself is built. We can see
both in Jesus.
The church cannot live in this world
without conflict. Light must necessarily conflict with darkness. Jesus said,
“Don’t think I came to bring peace, but a sword” and John said, “the light
shines in darkness, and the darkness cannot overcome it.” John’s passage was a
wonderful recreation passage: showing the church is here to renew the world, as
a second word spoken into the world, just as God spoke in Genesis 1. This is a
conflict of truth against lies. But it’s a conflict we don’t fight the world’s
way. We fight it by giving our lives, not by taking lives. The Sermon on the Mount
describes this is more detail. This way of living is our “sword” against evil.
Wars between civilizations today, as a way
of achieving the righteousness of God, would likely be the same as in the first
century, when many Jews saw that as the answer to Rome. Jesus would likely respond with “you don’t
know what spirit is motivating you.” This spirit of ascribing unrighteousness
to another and not seeing it in ourselves, has been with us since Genesis 3. We
could say it is the essence of the serpent’s victory over humanity. God is the
one we must call upon for victory.
Besides, it could be the case that Russia, China
and others are cooperating in overcoming the new world order. They hate the
control, wars, the defunding of development that lifts the poor, the financial
corruption and the regime changes of the oligarchs, as much as many of us do. In
a psyop war, things never are as they at first appear. As Christians, we
should be used to sting operations: overcoming the enemy with false messages,
in hiding from the serpent the real intent of God. God did this by coming in
weakness. Today he comes in the sick, the homeless, the one in prison, the
hungry, to expose and defeat the corruption on the enemy.
For further reading, see matthewehret.substack.com/p/americas-forgotten-constitutional
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