My father had emphasized this to me since I was a kid. A lot of what we view as “punishment” is God withdrawing Himself. The Bible as I recall specifically says God sustains everything. There’s also that verse about how unless God builds the house or guards the city the builder or the watchman’s labors are in vain. Basically if God won’t bless it even it’s totally legitimate (as far as that goes), it‘ll fail.
@Michael & Kristor - It seems that not many people recognize what has seemed obvious to me for considerably more than a decade (e.g. described in my Thought Prison book of 2011) that our civilization is *actively and deliberately* destroying itself - as quickly as the top-level ruling Establishment can convince their minions and masses to go along with this.
(Has there *ever* been a ruling class that pursued, over decades, the weakening and destruction of its own military and police forces? Of its own food supplies, energy, transportation? It seems insane - but the process is too comprehensive and sustained to be an accident.)
This incremental and purposive civilization-suicide needs no help from God.
17 March 2023 at 08:11
A commenter asked me yesterday whether God had (in effect) judged Western Civilization, found it wanting, and embarked on its destruction. This is not how it works. In this mortal life on this earthly world, entropy has the upper hand: the innate tendency is destruction, and towards death - and this must continually be staved-off by energy-consuming creative-effort. Therefore, all form and order tends towards annihilation - except when this is continually prevented. My assumption is that God has indeed evaluated ("judged") Western Civilization and concluded that it does more harm than good (in a spiritual sense); and He observes that The West has no desire to repent but quite the opposite - and is doubling-down on evil. Therefore, God has (I believe) withdrawn his previous civilization-level creative input to sustain The West; and therefore the West is being overcome by entropy. Note: God has not withdrawn his creative inputs to individual lives, and smaller human groups (i.e. at lower levels than the civilizational) - i.e. God gives help where where God's help is wanted. He will help you, me, and any families, nations, or other God-loving-groups who desire His help. But God will not (because God is Good) help to sustain The West in its determined strategy to corrupt the world in accordance with its ideology of value-inversion.
"In this entropic world; God merely needs to stop actively-sustaining a civilization, for it to collapse"
3 Comments -
My father had emphasized this to me since I was a kid. A lot of what we view as “punishment” is God withdrawing Himself. The Bible as I recall specifically says God sustains everything. There’s also that verse about how unless God builds the house or guards the city the builder or the watchman’s labors are in vain. Basically if God won’t bless it even it’s totally legitimate (as far as that goes), it‘ll fail.
16 March 2023 at 21:29
Mandate of Heaven ... withdrawn.
17 March 2023 at 00:33
@Michael & Kristor - It seems that not many people recognize what has seemed obvious to me for considerably more than a decade (e.g. described in my Thought Prison book of 2011) that our civilization is *actively and deliberately* destroying itself - as quickly as the top-level ruling Establishment can convince their minions and masses to go along with this.
(Has there *ever* been a ruling class that pursued, over decades, the weakening and destruction of its own military and police forces? Of its own food supplies, energy, transportation? It seems insane - but the process is too comprehensive and sustained to be an accident.)
This incremental and purposive civilization-suicide needs no help from God.
17 March 2023 at 08:11