The pagans of yesteryear were more orthodox than the professing Christians of many in our day. Christendom had so saturated the world in 17th century England that the most reprobate sinner knew his catechism. He knew what he was rejecting and he knew that he was rejecting it. He did not reject the existence of God or His claim over him per se, he rejected his duty to obey Him. He did not dispute the duty, he simply failed to fulfill it. This is not a better situation for the unconverted per se, at least not eternally, but it is a better situation for society in general and arguably better for even the unconverted in the meantime as it provided the option of repenting of their unrepentance.
"Everybody was ostensibly a cultural Christian. Almost all of them had been baptized in infancy into the church. But the Reformation had been so thorough and so widespread that everybody knew the categories: these are the converted people and these are the unconverted people... In these days, it appears from how Baxter talks to them that he is fully expecting the unconverted to identify themselves as unconverted: 'Yes, I'm a Christian. Yes, I'm baptized. Yes, I go to church. And Yes, I'm unconverted." — Douglas Wilson, Plodcast #426: Why Aren't More People In Jail
Christendom does not guarantee that everyone will be Christian in the sense that they will go to Heaven when they die, but it doe guarantee that everyone will be Christian in the sense that they will belong to the visible church and have to break with it in the invisible recesses of their heart. It required an honest rejection of the claims of Christ without rejecting His right to claim them.
Oh, that we may once again live in a land where the most unconverted neighbor is conversant in the catechisms. This brings the weight of the law to bear on everyone, even those who do not claim to worship its Giver. This is Calvin's second use of the law with it acting as a restraint or a deterrent to the behavior of those who were not believers, and whose depravity could otherwise manifest into all manner of lawlessness. Those who oppose Christian Nationalism on Christian grounds are depriving pagans of their opportunity to be better men.
They shall come mild as monkish clerks,
With many a scroll and pen;
And backward shall ye turn and gaze,
Desiring one of Alfred's days,
When pagans still were men.
— G.K. Chesterton, The Ballad of the White Horse
Unbelievers and believers used to have more in common. Pagans knew enough to know that they were looking for answers. In that, they and the Christians agreed. Life had a meaning somewhere out there and we are all obligated to obey whoever it turned out to be and whatever it is they wanted from us. They disagreed as to who or what it was, but agreed on the premise that there must be a who and a what in order for everything else to hold together.
C.S Lewis' Christmas Sermon for Pagans emphasizes the same sentiment as Chesterton does here. Give me a good ol' fashioned pagan any day compared to what we have now. The intelligentsia of the enlightened modern man refuses to look up for answers. While the old fashioned unbelievers saw animals in the stars, they at least were looking in the right direction. Modern unbelief doesn't only refuse to believe in the one, true God, but fails to believe or take the time to consciously concoct an alternative. That doesn't mean they don't have a belief system, but highlights the fact that they don't know that they even hold to one.
"The modern world is filled with men who hold dogmas so strongly that they do not even know that they are dogmas. It may be said even that the modern world, as a corporate body, holds certain dogmas so strongly that it does not know that they are dogmas." — G.K. Chesterton, Heretics
The problem with modern man isn't that he has become modern, but that he is no longer a man.
No comments:
Post a Comment