03/27/2021: Visioneering for the next decade: Once again, “the Kingdom of God (remnant Church) advances, victory to victory, with all of them incredibly disguised as worldly disasters.” Engage evil so as to make it happen, by His grace!// A start : Introducing a short presentation from an old friend….
I was introduced to Douglas Wilson, over 20 years ago, when the good Lord led us to the remnant church’s revolution in Christian worldview education. As a subset process, Douglas Wilson and few Christian warrior leaders in Moscow, Idaho patterned a Christian worldview school from Dorothy Sayer’s, “Lost Tools of Learning”, a mere 23 page esssay in 1947. (*A – below – bottom of this post) How long was Lincoln’s Gettysburg address?
So , check out this interview, just a little over 15 minutes perhaps in length. Twenty years ago, I recall Douglas proclaiming that the body of Christ had to get off it’s heels and onto its toes in the battle against Satan and his minions. He articulated the absurdity of the gulag public school system that we had bought into lock, stock and barrel. And you know what, speaking of S.E.A.L warriors as I posted earlier today, the little Logos school in Moscow Idaho has produced an inordinate number of amazing Christian warrior alums over the years. If you doubt the infallibility of God’s remnant Church promised in scripture, just hang out with these young adults today. Here is the link! :
Douglas recommends Herbert Schlossberg’s 30 year old book: “Idols for Destruction: The conflict of Christian Faith and American Culture.” Ironically, Scholossberg was an historican that spent many years as a senior analyst for the C.I.A. As a 25 year Green Beret , LTC (ret) cousin of mine noted about 15 years ago: The early “C.I.A.” was known as “Christians in Action.” He followed that up with: “It has gone evil!”, a statement well before its time but then he had firsthand experience that so very few have had then or since that time.
Now let me compare Schlossberg’s lightly read but highly acclaimed book with another Christian book both highly acclaimed and recently written on the best seller list : “Live Not by Lives: A Manual for Christian Dissidents” by Rod Dreher. This is also on my short list for near term Men’s groups. I can’t assess it until I’ve read it but I wonder if in fact it is a great intellectual work, but might be lacking as a hands on useful manual for local networked remnant Christian men’s groups (“base-camps”)? To use a handyman’s analogy, we don’t need to spread the knowledge to create nationwide engineering marvel “smart” houses, we need schooling in basic plumping and house wiring. Doug points out: We need to look for a hill to defend. Yes indeed, let’s get to the next step of being completely done with the charade of “secularism” attacking it for what it is: “an empty hollow idol” as Doug emphasizes. If you think he is backing off from two decades ago, notice my title of this post, that I borrowed from his presentation , a very positive Warrior outlook. As the interviewer affirms, we have a wonderful opportunity to seize God’s blessing to give the glory right back to Him!
So as I prayed at my daughter’s wedding, asking for our younger generation in particular to pray for each other, to rebuild the walls from 1) Christian marriages grounded by God at their center; 2) parents taking charge again with their children’s education ,Deuteronomy 6: 7-9 , positioned as it is right behind the “greatest commandment” ; and, 3) local Church community fellowship and relationship building. From there, with respect to Men’s groups in particular, we connect up in fellowship and absorb “best practices” in progress. In essence, we build a synergistic de-centralized inter-connected network across the country and the world. It won’t happen without prayer and faithful day to day “get your hands dirty” dedication. We need to start getting comfortable with “uncomfortable”, constantly pushing the envelope as we give up in order to serve our brothers and sisters in Christ. (including of course future brothers and sisters that we are constantly witnessing to)
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(*A) – footnote re: Dorothy Sayers – “Lost Tools of Learning”:
“In a 23 page essay written in 1947, Dorothy Sayers argues for the relevance and use of the Trivium, the classical and medieval foundation of education based on Grammar, Dialectic, and Rhetoric, taught in the order just listed. Is Sayers simply an old-fashioned fuddy-duddy? (Or as she suggests she’ll be branded, a “reactionary, romantic, mediaevalist, laudatory temporis acti praiser of times past) Her complaint is one that many can sympathize with: “although we often succeed in teaching our pupils “subjects,” we fail lamentably on the whole in teaching them how to think: they learn everything, except “the art of learning.” But what have we done to alleviate that problem?
Sayers points out, Grammar, Dialectic, and Rhetoric are not “subjects” in the usual school sense, but the means of learning subjects. She summarizes the function of each in this educational scheme:
The whole of the Trivium was, in fact, intended to teach the pupil the proper use of the tools of learning, before he or she began to apply them to “subjects” at all. First, he learned a language; not just how to order a meal in a foreign language, but the structure of a language, and hence of language itself—what it was, how it was put together, and how it worked. Secondly, he learned how to use language; how to define his terms and make accurate statements; how to construct an argument and Logic and Disputation. Thirdly, he learned to express himself in language—how to say what he had to say elegantly and persuasively.”
Taken from an Amazon review of the book, which I heartily agreed upon of course. lol
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Our founding fathers were educated largely through Christian worldview trivium methodology. I still recall being engrossed in a freshman reading of “The Federalist Papers” by Madison, Jay and Hamilton , stopping dead cold in my furious study and work routine to ask myself: “Who were these guys!?! , as in I have never read anything quite like this before!
Soli Deo Gloria!
Love,
Jimmy
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