The West Is Dead. Long Live the West.

The other day I read Robert Capon complaining about a kitchen knife that was as dull as dialectical materialism. Marx got his version of that from Hegel, modified it so as to make the commies responsible for the deaths of tens of millions, thus making the consequences of dialectical materialism anything but dull. Hegel — back when his dialectical method was as dull as a kitchen knife — taught that a thesis would produce its antithesis, the two of which would then collide, making a synthesis. Still with me? After that, the synthesis would assume the role of a new thesis, producing a new antithesis. They would collide, producing a new synthesis, and so it would go on, with world history ratcheting itself up to the waiting future glories, which turned out to be, for Hegel, Napoleon on the back of a horse. Must have been some horse.

I do have a point, and I am getting to it. Cool your baby jets.

Like all heresies, this dialectal one succeeds by isolating some aspect of the truth, and highlighting it as the expense of other truths. Heresies are caricatures of partial truths. History doesn’t ratchet forward by means of theses, antitheses, and syntheses. Not a bit of it. But there is a recurring cycle that defines human history, and the archetype of this was the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

The key to human history is the pattern of death and resurrection, and this is why faithful believers who are staring at the approach of 2014 with a baleful eye need to cheer up quite a bit. And by “cheer up” I do not intend for anyone to adopt the unsupported optimism of an insufferable optimist. I am talking about understanding history in gospel terms, not panglossian terms.

Think of it this way:

“Christendom has had a series of revolutions and in each one of them Christianity has died. Christianity has died many times and risen again; for it had a God who knew the way out of the grave” (The Everlasting Man, p. 250).

Too many Christians are stuck in the third verse of Longfellow’s poem, and need to finish the song.

And in despair I bowed my head:
“There is no peace on earth,” I said,
“For hate is strong and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.”

It is too easy to identify with a recent meme making the rounds — that this was a country founded by geniuses and run by idiots. It is not hard to come up with multiple examples of this — and then to read the story as though it were simply a sad and sorry death story instead of a death and resurrection story.

Far too many of us have lamented with the Psalmist, “I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree” (Ps. 37:35). And when the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do (Ps. 11:3)? Their eyes are fat like grease, and their press secretaries lie like dead flies on a window sill. And get away with it!

But remember. God knows the way out of the grave. And not only does He know the way out of the grave, it has been His plan and intention to govern all history by this means. He leads us, always, out of the grave. But first it is His glorious intention to bring us to that grave, and we must always trust Him as we approach it. He has done this countless times for us. He has done this great thing over and over.

I have written this before, and trust that I will have occasion to write it again. The West is dead. Long live the West. And while there are qualifications I could make here — for western civilization is not the same thing as the kingdom of Heaven — I will pass by all such qualifications in serenity and peace. I do this because all the animus that western civ draws from the ignorati is because it reminds them of the kingdom of Heaven.

Consider the broader context of the “green bay tree” passage.

“Wait on the Lord, and keep his way, And he shall exalt thee to inherit the land: When the wicked are cut off, thou shalt see it. I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree. Yet he passed away, and, lo, he was not: yea, I sought him, but he could not be found” (Ps. 37:34-36).

Wait on the Lord. Stop chafing, and start rejoicing. Keep His way, follow His Word. What will He do? He will exalt you to inherit the land. The wicked are going to be cut off, and you will see it. Though the wicked currently have their luxuriant leaves, hang on. We have plenty of leaf bags right here, and our gospel pick-up truck is full of rakes.