Surely the heavens above you, and the earth beneath your feet, will one day pass away;
but the words that I speak will never pass away."
--Jesus
“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be... and there was.” Genesis 1:1,2
But Chaos, always a clear and present danger, lurks ever ready to upend order.
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| Image from L.A. Times |
Order and Chaos
From the very beginning, we are told that Speech Brought Order Out of Chaos.
In a series of lectures on the Bible’s account of Beginnings*, Dr. Jordan Peterson, professor of clinical psychology at the University of Toronto, details how the foundational principles of all life are encapsulated in this ancient text. The importance of understanding these principles as the guiding force of civilization cannot be overstated. For example,
- by revealing God as the Ultimate Authority of organizational structure, a pattern of Dominant Hierarchy was established that provides a framework to build families and societies upon.
- “Thou Shalt Not…” established a measure for truthfulness.
- Cain and Abel demonstrate the difficulty both of receiving correction and mastering destructive urges.
- Noah and the Flood teach that by aiming to live by the highest possible Good, one can find a way out of the world’s overwhelming problems while saving a life or two.
- Ham’s curse shows the severity of mocking the sanctity of Fatherhood and
- the Tower of Babel puts the lie to “too big to fail.”
Remarkably, many other cultures throughout history and around the globe have similar stories demonstrating, without doubt, that despite cultural and language differences humanity, in cooperation with Nature's God, has figured out the things that work to sustain Life on Earth.
These “natural laws” engraved in the narrative of human experience were encoded, through speech, into the greatest organizational/governing structure in the history of mankind, namely the US Declaration of Independence and Constitution to provide order, stability and prosperity to its citizens.
But Chaos, always a clear and present danger, lurks ever ready to upend order.
Recent events in the USA demonstrate. The U.S. Constitution stipulates that to qualify to be a U.S. President one must be a Natural Born Citizen. The Framer's relied on a historical document titled "The Law of Nations" for definitions on citizenship and state building. Author Emer de Vattel subscribed to the sanctity of fatherhood by defining Natural Born Citizen as: the citizenship of your father at the moment of your birth. So, if your father was a Kenyan citizen at the moment of your birth, you are a Natural Born Kenyan citizen. If your father was a Cuban citizen at the moment of your birth, you are a Natural Born Cuban citizen. If your father was an American citizen at the moment of your birth you are a Natural Born Citizen of the USA. For, you see, paternal Natural Born Citizenship transcends maternal, geographical and political arguments.
Several candidates from both political parties in the 2008 and 2012 USA elections were not Natural Born Citizens and in electing Barack Obama to become the President of the United States of America a Portent (a sign or symbol of something ominous) to Chaos was inaugurated. Not because of his political ideology or obscure background, but by breaching the natural, historical and customary use of language, chaos has begun to bring confusion and disorder to society.
Because the citizens of the USA were unwitting, unwilling or unaware of what was happening to the violent breach in the order of the Rule of Law chaos has gained a foothold and is rapidly eroding natural order:
-Consider the vitriol and hatred when “debating” what bathrooms a school child should use…
-Consider that some municipalities place heavy fines on those who misidentify a person's preferred gender.
-Consider that there are now an infinite number of “genders” which one could misidentify…and be fined for.
-Consider that government feels empowered to control the speech of its citizens.
-Consider that the sacred institution of marriage has been ridiculed into Oblivion.
-Consider that the US military has become the experimental and engineering laboratory for social tinkering.
-Consider that people will violently protect the “rights” of illegal aliens to live off the largesse of American taxpayers while defending the “right” to slaughter US citizens in the womb.
-Consider that demanding free speech on a college campus can be considered “microaggressions” of hate speech.
-Consider that a few overpaid professional athletes can create havoc and disrupt a unifying national tradition.
-Consider that our nation's youth are clamoring to have the government take away more and more of their freedoms.
-Consider how fearful we've become to speak out against noxious ideas like transgenderism, intersectionality, white privilege, institutionalized racism, political correctness, toxic masculinity, social justice and multiculturalism.
“Truth reduces the terrible complexity of a man to the simplicity of his word, so that he can become a partner, rather than an event. To tell the truth is to bring the most habitable reality into Being." -Dr Jordan Petersen, 12 Rules for Life, An Antidote for Chaos
Alas, consider how Chaos has savaged truth speech, fractured partnership and is turning what once was the greatest “habitable reality” into a nightmare.
Now more than ever, Followers of Jesus must speak (and live) the timeless Truth of Jesus' words to a world gone...chaotic! If ever we needed Speech to bring Order out of Chaos, it is now in the Words of Jesus!
