This year, I am not so sure I can follow this practice, though I do wish all as good a year (and years) ahead as possible under the circumstances.
Yes, I still say, fear God and dread nought!
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| A Roman trade ship, such as Paul would have sailed in; notice, the steering oars at the stern, the large square sail (poor at sailing into the wind) and the small foresail. (Source) |
But
also, I think that this year we need to take counsel in light of the
lessons of Acts 27, a case study in democracy-in-denial and hidden
agenda manipulation among and by powerful elites and their technical
henchmen, in the face of impending crisis.
The need for such a steering word was brought home to me last evening as I attended a concert on new year's eve, and had it
brought home to me just how much we need to have a spiritual,
historical model to help guide us in some very tough days that are
certain to lie ahead.
This
further came home to me this morning as I commented at UD, in response
to a pattern of ideology-driven elite domination and manipulation of our
civilisation's most prestigious institution, science. Here are my thoughts that I would like to share:
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>>Entrenched
highly ideological orthodoxies — and this includes
successful revolutionaries, whether on institutional or community scale —
that control resource flows to their benefit and which exert enormous
power in institutions and society [I was speaking here about today's
evolutionary materialism dominated science], tend to be very resistant
to what is
new and unsettling to their comfort zones and interests. Where there has
been indoctrination and polarisation, we can see this multiplied by the
problem of lack of logical thinking ability and sheer lack of awareness
of the true state of the balance of warrant on the merits of facts and
evidence.
The perceived heretic, then is a threat to be fought off,
marginalised, discredited and if necessary destroyed. By any and all
means, fair or foul.
(I find the obsession with suggestions of a threat of religious
subversion of [scientific, political, education, media and cultural] institutions long since subverted by radical secularists
slightly amusing but quite sad in the end. The key threat is
unaccountable, out of control power in the hands of elites prone to
corruption, not that this once happened with religious elites. In the
past 100 years, we saw major secularist movements and neopagan movements
of political messianism that did much the same to horrific cost. And
the welfare state of the past generation has not been a whole lot
better. [Just ask the ghosts of the dozens of millions who have been aborted for convenience.])
Where is there a solution?
Frankly, at this stage, I think things are going to have to crash so
badly and some elites are going to have to be so discredited by the
associated spreading failure, that media propaganda tactics cannot cover
it up anymore.
My model for that comes from one of the red-flag sources that will give some of the objectors [to the design theory movement in science] the vapours.
Acts 27.
What, how dare you cite that, that . . . that . . . textbook for theocratic tyranny by the ignorant, insane, stupid and/or wicked followers of that
bronze age misogynistic homophobic genocidal racist war god!
(Do you hear how your agit-prop talking points are enmeshing you in the classic trap of believing your own propaganda?)
Let’s start with, Paul of Tarsus, c. AD 59, was not in the Bronze Age
but was an appellate prisoner in chains on early Imperial era grain
ships having a hard time making way from the Levant and Asia Minor to
Rome, in the second case ending up in a bay on Crete. What followed is a
classic exercise in the follies of manipulated democracy, a case study
that will well repay study in our time.
It was late in the sailing season, and the merchant-owner was worried
about his ship in an open bay at Fair Havens, given what winter storms
can do.
The passengers were not too impressed by the nearby settlements as a
wintering place. (Sailing stopped in Autumn and opened back up in
Spring.)
The key technico, the kubernetes — steersman, more or less like a
pilot of an airliner — knew where his bread was buttered, and by whom.
In the middle was a Centurion of the elite messenger corps.
We are at ship’s council, and Paul, in chains, is suggesting that the
suggestion to venture our with a favourable wind to try to make it to a
more commodious port down-coast was excessively risky not only to boat
but life.
The financial and technical talking heads and the appeal of comfort allowed him to be easily marginalised and dismissed.
Then we saw a gentle south breeze, that would have allowed a reach
down the coast. (The technicos probably knew this could be a precursor
to a storm, but were not going to cut across the dominant view.)
Added, Dec 11, 2021, a diagram of a cold front showing how the S wind could well have been known to be a precursor to a storm from experience of cold fronts (though of course they would not have known the weather science we have today):
They sailed out.
U/D June 1 2022
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| Caught in the storm (Source) |
Worse, they were heading for sandbars off the coast of today’s Libya.
For two weeks all they could do was use a sea anchor to control drift and try to steer vaguely WNW.
Forget, eating.
That is when Paul stood forth as a good man in a storm, and encouraged them with a vision from God. By this time, hope was to be shipwrecked on a coast. (Turned out, [probably] north coast of Malta [possibly, east end].)
While the ship was at risk of being driven aground and set out four anchors by the stern from midnight on, the sailors tried to abandon the passengers on a ruse, spotted by Paul and/or Luke his travelling companion.
By this time, the Centurion knew who to take seriously and the ship’s boat was cut away. He then took the decision to save Paul and refused the soldiers’ request to kill the prisoners to prevent escape (for which their lives would have been forfeit).
So, they made it to a beach on Malta, having lost the ship in any case AND nearly their own lives.
All of which is full of lessons from history for us in our own decaying democratic polities today, and in the face of polarised voices and all sorts of hidden agenda, half- truth- at- best counsels.
It is going to take a noreaster to sort out the mess, and there is going to be a lot of serious loss to those beguiled by the bewitching counsels of those inclined to tickle itching ears with what they calculate we want to hear.
Sorry if that does not sound upbeat for a new year day, but frankly things are beyond that stage with our civilisation.
Our job now is to be the voice of sense before the storm, and to prepare ourselves to be good men or women in a storm.>>
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This of course sets the context in which I believe godly, visionary, prophetic intellectual and cultural leadership can help steer the community towards reformation and doing the right, even if that counsel is only going to be listened to after being caught in a storm has exposed the folly of the counsels that had formerly marginalised the wisdom that came from God through his people in the situation.
Let's read Ac 27, and reflect on it in that light, towards being good people in a storm.
God's richest in the year ahead, never mind the storms. END
