The world turns and changes,

But one thing does not change.

In all of my years, one thing does not change,

However you disguise it, this thing does not change:

The perpetual struggle of good and evil (T.S. Eliot, “The Rock”)

When I reread that recently, it struck me like never before. Why? I think it may because I read some articles from various cultural prognosticators and their themes were the same. And you might surmise what those predictions were. One side of the culture in our nation has openly declared they will cause massive disruptions if this election does not go their way. They’re promising destruction and upheaval that will make their riots ostensibly related to George Floyd and all the BLM violence, and the burning down of police precincts, and the destruction of private property, and the barricading of zones, etc.  seem like warm-up exercises.

And that terrifies me. Why? Because I would like to think that America has enough wisdom and self-discipline to not have another hot Civil War.

I would argue that we’re in a cold Civil War already. The polarization is so clear that I do not think you can reconcile parties that have completely different views of reality. When you have an entire party that thinks you can have a nation without borders, you cannot reason with such a person. (Isn’t it ironic that when the criminal shows up on such a person’s private property and loots, the criminal is met by walls, security, resistance, guns, law enforcement, and punishment?)

But somehow that paradigm is inappropriate at the national level? Anyone else go, “Huh?” That’s what I mean by a cold Civil War. The values of the conflicting worldviews are irreconcilable. One way will prevail. Neutrality is a myth.

All this is just another way of stating what the poet Eliot was driving at in verse. There are such things as good and evil. To quote the Old Testament prophet Isaiah, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!” (Isaiah 5:20 ESV).

When you have a culture that insists upon folly, divine judgment falls. It’s what is known in theology as oracles of woe. They are judgments of God upon the recalcitrance of people. But they have a purpose—to turn us to our senses and the righteous ways of God.

Encouragement: Here’s what I long for folks to understand: God desires to do good unto His people, but humility always comes before honor:

13 Oh, that my people would listen to me,
    that Israel would walk in my ways!
¹⁴ I would soon subdue their enemies
    and turn my hand against their foes.
¹⁵ Those who hate the Lord would cringe toward him,
    and their fate would last forever.
¹⁶ But he would feed youwith the finest of the wheat,
    and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.” (Psalm 81:13-16 ESV)