A Truth Inconvenient

 


A piece by Larry Johnson from a publication called Sonar 21 does make an interesting and valid point regarding the general public perception of the foreign wars waged by America and the public perception being, as he points out, is that every war overseas and in foreign lands in which America has been engaged has been for the just and noble cause of not only protecting our own selves but also advancing the cause of liberty and offering multitudes the opportunity to experience the freedoms and prosperity that we have enjoyed and while I myself do not know the circumstances of what began the first world war or why America was even involved in that war, most will not deny that our wars with the Axis powers (Germany, Italy, and Japan) during World War II were just in their cause and Europe, which had become largely occupied by Hitler, largely welcomed the aid of the allied forces in liberating them from the Nazis, nor will most claim that our initial overthrow of the Taliban in Afghanistan and shortly afterwards, the overthrow of Saddam Hussein and his Ba’athist Party in Iraq were necessarily without justification, but while we saw ourselves as liberators of these nations who were no doubt under tyrannical rule, Johnson in his piece does point out an inconvenient truth that most may not agree with:
 
 
 
We never saw ourselves as imperial invaders. We simply were going “over there” to provide freedom. At least that is what we told ourselves. While many of the people of Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Afghanistan and the Balkans would beg to differ, the American mindset in the aftermath of World War II is that our use of military force in foreign theaters had a noble purpose.
 
The American overseas military missionary adventures always required a villain. In Vietnam it was International Communism. In Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Syria it was international terrorism [1]
 
 
 
Now, before I continue, I must point out an errant claim on Johnson’s part in which he claims that we had direct involvement in the overthrow of Quadaffi in Libya and of Assad in Syria; we were never directly involved with the overthrow of those two regimes like we were with the overthrow of Hussein in Iraq and the Taliban in Afghanistan but the difficult truth that Johnson does point out is that the people of the aforementioned nations that we were at war with did not and still do not necessarily see us as liberators but as imperial invaders and that is not to say that we invaded or waged war against those nations with evil intent or with the intent of occupying them indefinitely; I am in no way attempting to make that argument but the point that needs to be made is that, aside from some exceptions, the reason why many, and perhaps most of the people of the nations that we did declare war against and invade did not see us as liberators but as an imperial power who occupied and attempted to impose our way of life upon them is because they are of an entirely different culture than we are and possess a mindset and manner of thinking that is different than ours.  They have simply accepted that the system under which they live, whether it be Communism or Sharia law, is just a way of life for them without any understanding that it doesn’t necessarily have to be that way for them because they don’t really know of any other life outside of the culture in which they have been born into and brought up in and so when they suddenly find that system and way of life to which they have been accustomed being shaken, it can be a very frightening and traumatic experience for them and they will fight with everything they got to retain and even restore to themselves that old way of life no matter how shaken or shattered it might be and we would do the same ourselves if we found our way of life being shaken or even shattered; we would stop at nothing to keep what was not stolen from us and take back and restore what was taken from us.
 
There is a reason why, despite our efforts at regime changes, that the nations that we may have intended to transform into lands of liberty like our own are still not free nations and that is because we have failed to transform and change their cultures and in order for there to be a change and transformation within their cultures, there must first be a transformation and change in the way that they think and in their mindset and that is not something that happens overnight.  It is something that takes time, may face great difficulty, and can even be dangerous.  It is something that may even take generations to do before enough people will ever be ready and conditioned to receiving the liberty and freedom that our own nation seeks to offer to them and until that happens, they will never be ready for the liberty and freedom that we ourselves have been blessed with knowing.  Liberty is not often something that we can simply establish by military might alone.  It often takes far more than that.
 
It takes far more than just the forceful overthrow of a dictatorship or system of government to free a nation.  A people whom we seek to liberate must first be made ready for that liberty and that requires a change in the culture before there can be a change in the government.
 
In the meantime, the only thing that can be done is offer refuge to any who are earnestly seeking escape from the tyranny that they have been born into and are living under which is done through the use of asylum programs designed for those seeking to escape ethnic, racial, political, and religious persecution. 
 
Now, I know there are those who will point to a number of instances in which the use of military force brought a liberation that was quickly embraced by the people, but that was only because the people that were being offered liberty were ready and conditioned in their hearts and minds to embrace that liberty.  That is why we were able to successfully liberate ourselves from Great Britain.  That is why slavery was ended by the civil war.  That is why we were able to successfully liberate Europe from Hitler during WWII.  And that is why we were able to prevent the Communists from taking over the entire Korean Peninsula during the Korean War.  But if the people to whom liberty was offered and given had not been ready to receive it, slavery still would have persisted in America, America would still be under British rule, Nazism would have still persisted as a political power and influence throughout Europe, and Communism would still bear rule in much of the world.
 
I don’t know how many of you out there are familiar with the movie Ben-Hur and I am not talking about any recent remakes, but to the 1959 classic starring Charleton Heston (if any of you out there still happen to know who that is).  About twenty minutes into the film, the character Sextus, a retiring tribune, tells Messala, the incoming tribune (and the treacherous villain of the film):
 
 
 
“you can break a man’s skull,
You can arrest him and throw him in a dungeon,
but how do you control what’s up here?
how do you fight an idea?” [2]
 
 
To which Messala, after an interruption, later replies:
 
 
“Sextus, you ask how to fight an idea. Well, I’ll tell you how:
With another idea.” [3]
 
 
 
And that is a truth that I believe is better understood and applied by the enemies of our liberty than it is by many champions of liberty and freedom as we have been led to assume that the people of the nations against whom we have waged war in the name of spreading freedom will gladly receive the freedom and liberty that we offer but that is not always the case.  You can bomb the Taliban into oblivion.  You can assassinate all of the Communist and Fascist dictators and oligarchs in the world you want, but if the people over whom they have borne rule cannot persuaded to embrace a philosophy of liberty and freedom and if they have no understanding as to what that is supposed to mean, then they will just simply raise up more Islamic and Communist rulers in place of the ones who have been taken out because they have not beforehand, been conditioned in their hearts and minds to reject the totalitarianism that they have lived under.
 
Our enemies understand that America is too powerful to be taken over and subjugated by force and its people too accustomed to a life of liberty to be forcibly subjugated to their rule and their ideas and even if a nation like China or Russia were to succeed in invading America, they would still find governing America to be a very difficult endeavor because even if they were to succeed in taking over the land, they still will never be able to conquer the people if they fail to capture the minds and hearts of the people and the people will still continue to resist their rule and their ideas.
 
That is why our enemies, both from without and within, have been waging war against America not through the use of arms but with ideas different and contrary to the philosophy of liberty upon which America was built, founded, and established and it has been a war that has been waged for far longer than we realize going back not just decades, but almost since its birth.
 
Every time that our enemies have tried to destroy us from without, they have failed to do so which is why they have attempted to infiltrate, corrupt, sabotage, and destroy us from within because they understand very well that what they cannot destroy from without, they must attempt to infiltrate, corrupt, and destroy from within and what has worked largely to their advantage is how ignorant we have become of what liberty actually is and where it begins.
 
We may labor hard tirelessly and endlessly to maintain the fruits or end results of liberty (economic, political, academic, and even social) but what we have largely failed to is to maintain within our lives the very source of liberty that the liberties that we experience, enjoy, and have even taken for granted are produced.  What most fail to understand is that liberty does not begin from without.  It begins from within and if liberty begins from within, then so does tyranny and before economic, political, academic, and social freedoms can be taken away, the mind, heart, and soul must first be enslaved because if the mind, heart, and soul are not first captured, then neither can our economic, political, academic, and social liberties; certainly not without a firm resistance and eventually any efforts to suppress those liberties and freedom will be destined to fail and they who seek to control every aspect of the lives of the people whose hearts, minds, and souls they have failed to capture will find it very difficult, if not impossible, to govern them and that is what led to the eventual collapse of the Soviet Union and the overthrow of Communism throughout most of Europe.  That is what will lead to the eventual collapse of Ayatollah regime in Iran, the CCP in China, why Communism in South East Asia will eventually come to an end, why it will end in Cuba, North Korea, and Venezuela, and it will be the reason why Islam’s centuries long iron grip throughout most of the Mid-East will loosen significantly, if not evaporate altogether.  It is also the reason why the Communist government in Ethiopia cannot exact the power over the people there that it otherwise might.
 
It is also the very reason why the Papal Ceasars lost control over half of Europe to the reformers and before then, why the Paganism of the Roman empire was subdued by Christianity, why the Romans found it difficult to govern Judea, and centuries before that, why the Seleucid kingdom found it virtually impossible to govern the Jewish people; the Syrian kingdom being virtually driven out of Judea by the Maccabees for those of you who happen to be familiar with the account and which can be found in the apocryphal texts of 1 and 2 Maccabees. [4, 5]
 
If you wish to know whether or not the hearts, minds, and souls of a people have been successfully captured and conquered, examine the difficulty or ease with which the respective powers that be are able to govern and how many concessions to the people they must make to retain their power over them.  Even if the powers that be conquer the land and routinely kill, torture, and imprison the people for not complying with their every whim, if they have not conquered the minds, hearts, and souls of the people, the power they wield over them will eventually be broken and in its place will arise a power that is more of like-mind with the desires and will of the people.
 
But when the minds, hearts, and souls of a people are enslaved, so then will they be enslaved socially, economically, academically, and politically and as long as the powers that be have a firm hold of the heart, mind, and soul of the people, they will have a firm hold on power and that is why tyrannical powers will do all that they can to withhold, hide, and suppress anything that might turn the hearts, minds, and souls of the people over whom they rule away from them.  The age-long war between the forces of liberty and tyranny did not begin with military might.  It began as war of ideas; that age-long war beginning even before the creation of this world and it began in the heavenly realm when a certain angel called Lucifer, a covering cherub more specifically, who served at the throne of God became so lifted up in his pride that he thought he could make himself equal with the God who made him and share in the very glory that belonged to God alone and when he tried to claim for himself equality with God, the Lord God Almighty cast him and all who side with him from their places in Heaven. (Is. 14:11-21, Ezek. 28:12-19)
 
Afterwards, the Lord God Almighty created a world that was free of evil and in that world there was nothing but goodness, happiness, peace, harmony, and contentment and there existed a perfect harmony between God, man, and nature, and there existed an uninterrupted fellowship between man and his Maker.  Over this world and the newly created earth, God gave man dominion over all things (Gen. 1:26) and there was nothing withheld from him except for one thing and that was a fruit from a certain tree called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, having been warned of God that in the day that they ate of it, they would surely die (Gen. 2:16-17, 3:3) but Lucifer, who now became known as Satan crept into this new world in the form of a serpent and there prevailed over the mind of the first woman Eve by causing her to believe that there was wisdom, knowledge, and even power being withheld from her that would no longer be withheld if she would but eat of that fruit, and falsely assured her that she would not die if she ate of that fruit (Gen. 3:4-5) and then after eating of that fruit, she also gave some of that forbidden fruit to Adam, the first man and her husband who was with her at that time and he ate of it as well (v. 6) and after having ate of that forbidden fruit, the only thing that they were enlightened to was the shame of their nakedness that they had never seen nor noticed before (v. 7) but they never received the wisdom, knowledge, nor divinity that they had been promised, nor were they spared the sentence of death as the serpent had assured them, but instead, the sentence of death was pronounced upon them as they had been warned (v. 19) to which they would eventually succumb, for it was in the day that sin entered into them upon the eating of that forbidden fruit that they became subject to death, for it is in sin that death has its power, but the sentence of death did not stop there as the sentence of death was also passed down from them to all of mankind because we are all descended from them and by way of descent, we have inherited from Adam and Eve the sin that entered into them; sin not being merely confined to our actions or even what we say, but defined as the corrupted condition of our nature that we inherited from Adam and Eve (Rom. 5:12) into whom it first entered and it is a condition that does not just influence what we say and do but also defiles our thoughts, corrupts our motives, and darkens our hearts which is why it is written that we are not defiled by the things from without, but by what is from within (Mt. 15:11, 17-20) and it is that from within that causes us to sin and as a consequence, we are all subjugated to death (Rom. 6:23) and it is to the bondage and tyranny of sin and death to which we are first find ourselves subject and it is from sin that every form of tyranny and bondage arises and is produced and this tyranny found its way into the world by way of an idea and the idea that sin and death found its way into the world through was the idea planted into the mind of Adam and Eve that greater and better things were being withheld from them by their Creator but that idea was a lie and it was the lie by which Satan was made not only liar and a murderer, but also the father of lies (Jn. 8:44) because the lies he told to the first woman Eve were the first lies ever known to man and it was also by this lie that he not only led mankind into sin and death, but it was also by this lie that he diminished the dominion that was once given to man and claimed for himself lordship over the nations, kingdoms, empires, and peoples of the earth (Mt. 4:8-9, Lk. 4:6-7) which is why he is called the prince of this world (Jn. 12:31, 16:11) and in doing so has ever through his many devices and temptations increased sin, evil, and death throughout the world and but not only has man through the disobedience of Adam been subjugated to death because of sin, but all of creation itself has also been made to groan and travail in pain to this day because of sin (Rom. 8:19-22) which is why there is so much death, evil, suffering, anguish, misery, grief, and sorrow throughout the world and worse than even that, because of the sin that is passed down from Adam to us, we are born inherently sinful and because of sin are born estranged from our Creator and because we are inwardly defiled by sin, we will always continue to sin and fall short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23) which is why we can never place our trust in our own merit to gain His favor or to deliver us from the judgment that awaits all sin because our merit is corrupted and defiled by sin that is within us because God requires nothing less than moral perfection which is sinless because God, being without sin and Holy, cannot allow into His Kingdom, which is without sin, anything that is sinful or in sin or else the Kingdom of Heaven would be defiled by the taint of sin just as the earth itself has been defiled but we are not without hope nor are we without redemption for the Lord God Almighty is not willing that any should perish or be sentenced to eternal damnation, but that all would come to repentance (2 Pet. 3:9) and His offer of redemption and the forgiveness of all sins to any and all who are willing to receive it is where liberty begins and by which comes the end of tyranny and oppression because liberty must begin from within before we can ever experience its effects because God is not seeking a change in just our outward actions or even in what we say, but what He demands of us is that we surrender ourselves to the inward changing of our minds, hearts, and souls because it is in the heart, mind, and soul that tyranny and oppression begin which is why it is in the heart, mind, and soul that liberty must also begin and it begins through the forgiveness of sins by which our souls are redeemed from what would otherwise be an eternity of unrelenting torment in the darkness and fires of Hell and by which we are inwardly transformed and made anew and into people who no longer desire to do those things that are evil and displeasing in the sight of God but into those who desire only to do that which is good, right, and pleasing in His sight and the means by which we receive this redemption and transformation is found in none other than the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the only begotten Son of God (Jn. 3:16) and who is Himself God (Jn. 1:1) having come to us in the flesh as a man (Jn. 1:14) to take away the sins of the world which He did by offering Himself up to take upon Himself on our behalf the demanded penalty for all sin which is death and He, being without sin (2 Cor. 5:21, Heb. 4:15) on behalf of sinful man, surrendered Himself to death and to the shedding of His blood upon the cross on which He was crucified and after having purchased our redemption by His death, was raised again from the dead so that we by our faith in Him will be justified in Him (Rom. 4:25) if we will but call upon His name so that we might be saved from what would otherwise be a terrifying everlasting punishment if we will but call upon His name (Rom. 10:9, 13) and believe in our hearts that God raised Him from the dead (Rom. 10:9) for it is by calling upon His name in sincere repentance that salvation is granted and our souls made clean from sin thereby liberating us from the threat of eternal damnation and with that cleansing comes a new spiritual transformation (2 Cor. 5:17) that causes us to no longer desire to follow after selfish and worldly pursuits but after those things that pertain to the Kingdom of Heaven,
to no longer take pleasure in those things that are evil and displeasing in the sight of the Lord, but in that which is good, right, and pleasing in His sight,
to no longer desire to walk in the lies of this present world, but only in the truth that comes from Christ Almighty, (Jn. 14:6) no longer placing our hopes in the things of this present world, but looking forward to that new and better world to come, (Rev. 21-22)
to no longer rely on worldly resources, men, or even our own power, abilities, skills, and wisdom for our needs and provision but upon God who is able to meet all of our needs, (Mt. 6:33) recognizing that the resources of this world and even the people He brings into our lives are but instruments and vessels through which God meets our needs and that the skills, power, knowledge, and wisdom by which we might acquire our provision are provided and instilled in us by God,
to no longer fear what men can do to us, but rather fearing the God before whom we will have to one day give an account for how we lived our lives, (Mt. 10:28)
to no longer look to corruptible institutions within our society for direction and order in our lives but to God who, by His written Word has given us laws and precepts to be applied to our lives and which serve to produce and maintain an ordered life, and who, by His Holy Spirit which comes to dwell within us upon repentance, establishes in our lives a course and direction in our lives to pursue for His glory,
to no longer seek our own glory but the glory of God,
to no longer rally behind corruptible men, but instead behind the incorruptible God in Heaven bearing in mind that those men and women God raises up for our edification are but instruments and servants of His for that respective purpose to which He has called them,
to no longer seek to align ourselves with the things of darkness but only with the things of the light,
to no longer trust in the wisdom of the world but only on the wisdom and knowledge that comes from above, (Jas. 1:5) nor depend on corruptible earthly authorities to swiftly administer justice, but only in the power of God to deliver us from evil.
 
And it is this new inward transformation that reconciles us to our Creator (2 Cor. 5:18) from whom we had once been estranged and just as our souls are cleansed from sin and our spirits regenerated in Christ Jesus thereby liberating us from the eternal tormenting punishment that must come upon all who remain in their sins and it is this very change, if received by enough people, that potentially can bring about a change for the better in entire households in the manner of how they are run and maintained, and from there, the nature and condition of entire neighborhoods, communities, states/provinces, and entire nations, which then will have an impact and an affect upon the course of the culture and society; how education is taught, how businesses and corporations are operated, how news is reported, the quality and nature of entertainment that is produced, and finally how politics and civic governance are conducted.
 
The beginning of tyranny in the world began with an idea and it was an idea that was founded in a lie that Satan used to cause Adam and Eve to commit the one transgression that subjugated they and all of mankind to the tyranny of sin and death and if Satan is the source tyranny and if tyranny began with a lie, then liberty also begins with an idea and that is the idea that God, and nothing else nor anything apart from Him, is the source of liberty and what makes Him the source of liberty is that He is also the source of truth for He Himself is truth (Jn. 14:6) and in whom truth has its origins and it is by truth that we are set free (Jn. 8:32) from spiritual darkness and that deliverance from spiritual darkness and eternal damnation is found in Him who is the truth and because He is the truth, He is also the way out of sin, death, and eternal damnation, and when we embrace Him as our truth, we should desire then to turn away from the things of sin because once again, anything that is sin brings death for when we do all that we can to minimize sin in our own lives and in the world, we are also minimizing the power of death.
 
Each and every one of us is born with a most fateful choice to make and a choice that not only affects the course of our very lives, but also where we will find ourselves in the life that comes after our bodily deaths and that fateful choice is whether or not we are willing to accept the idea of whether or not God or another force is the source of our liberty and the source of all truth and which idea we side with will determine whether or not we will be a free people or an enslaved people and whether or not we will enter into a Kingdom filled with happiness, peace, contentment, and joy before the Lord God Almighty or if we will be cast into an eternity of an ongoing and unrelenting torment beyond imagination. 
 
If you have not done so already and wish to know what perfect liberty is like and not only that, but want to be assured that you will be delivered from the punishment and judgment that is to come and must come upon all sin and upon all evil, then I urge you reader to call upon the name of our Lord, Savior, King, and God Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins and it is only but a sincere prayer of repentance away:
 
 
 
"Lord Jesus I need you.
 
 
I realize that I am a sinner
who has fallen short of the glory of God
and that my goodness falls short
of your standard of Moral perfection.
 
Please forgive me of all of my sins.
Come into my heart and into my life
to be the Savior and Lord of my life.
Make me into the servant and follower
that you want me to be.
In your name Lord Jesus, I pray.
 
 
Amen."
 
 
Know that God is not concerned with the words that you use to call upon Him forgiveness, but with the attitude of your heart and if you have, with all sincerity, have asked Christ to forgive you of your sins, placing your trust in Him only for your salvation and in nothing else, then your sins are forgiven and your place in Heaven is certain.
 
 
 
End notes:
 
 
 
1.  Larry C. Johnson, “America’s Insularity Is A Threat To Its Survival,” Sonar 21, January 22, 2023
https://sonar21.com/americas-insularity-is-a-threat-to-its-survival/
 
2.  Ben Hur, MGM studios, 1959, 20:08-14
https://tubitv.com/movies/100028628/ben-hur
 
3.  Ibid. 21:51-24
 
4.  1 Maccabees
https://ebible.org/pdf/eng-kjv/eng-kjv_1MA.pdf
 
5.  2 Maccabees
https://ebible.org/pdf/eng-kjv/eng-kjv_2MA.pdf
 
 
 
Scripture references:
 
 
 
1.  Isaiah 14:11-21, Ezekiel 28:12-19
 
2.  Genesis 1:26
 
3.  Gen. 2:16-17, 3:3
 
4.  Genesis 3:4-5
 
5.  Genesis 3:6
 
6.  Genesis 3:7
 
7.  Genesis 3:19
 
8.  Romans 5:12
 
9.  Matthew 15:11, 17-20
 
10.  Romans 6:23
 
11.  Matthew 4:8-9, Luke 4:6-7
 
12.  John 12:31, 16:11
 
13.  Romans 8:19-22
 
14.  Romans 3:23
 
15.  2 Peter 3:9
 
16.  John 3:16
 
17.  John 1:1
 
18.  John 1:14
 
19.  2 Corinthians 5:21, Hebrews 4:15
 
20.  Romans 4:25
 
21.  Romans 10:9, 13
 
22.  2 Corinthians 5:17
 
23.  Matthew 6:33
 
24.  John 14:6
 
25.  Revelation 21-22
 
26.  Matthew 6:25-33
 
27.  Matthew 10:28
 
28.  James 5:1
 
29.  2 Corinthians 5:18
 
30.  John 8:32