Repairing the Ruins

Passed Through Fire

Douglas Wilson

hen the ancient Israelites came into the land of Canaan, they found themselves confronted with the worship of Moloch, the god of the Ammonites. One of the features of this religion's cultus was the ritual sacrifice of children. It would be easy to assume that such a horrific religion would have no appeal at all to outsiders, but the assumption would nevertheless be wrong. In Scripture, the personification of Wisdom tells us that all who hate her love death (Prov. 8:36). Those who will not serve the God of wisdom will always wrong their own souls, and of course the souls of their children. In a flight away from the living God the only direction to go is eternal death. Consequently, the worship of Moloch was prevalent enough to present a snare to Israel, and in the later history of Judah, the practices of this monstrous religion even became "mainstream."

God warned the Israelites repeatedly against this horror, but tragically, many times they simply would not listen. As Ezekiel states, "Moreover you took your sons and your daughters, whom you bore to Me, and these you sacrificed to them to be devoured. Were your acts of harlotry a small matter, that you have slain My children and offered them up to them by causing them to pass through the fire?" (Ezek. 16:20-21).

To consider such practices when they are thousands of years old is certainly unpleasant. But to encounter them in our own time is appalling. But America's eyes are averted; she does not care to encounter her own callousness. The most appalling thing about our times is how few are appalled at the meatgrinder we call modern childhood.

Consider how covenant-breaking America treats her children. The first thing to notice is how her young must run the abortion gauntlet in order to successfully become one of these children. Those who do not survive can take, if it were possible, some posthumous solace in the great contributions they were forced to make to our health through the scientific research conducted on their small bodies. Fetal tissue is plentiful these days, and you don't want that kind of a resource wasted. If they make it into our midst (and millions have not), they are then shuttled off to some licensed bureaucrat-approved daycare (nothing but the best!) when they are just a few weeks old in order to begin their contributions to the regimen of modernity. As the children grow older, their parents turn them over to an electronic babysitter which subjects the kids to a constant barrage of porno-sadistic images. These children have been well-trained and early to demand three things from this entertainment parental authority must be defied, property must be blown up and destroyed, and people have to take off their clothes.

The disintegrating families of these children, on this side of the television's glow, also contribute to the general chaos. Countless thousands of children are growing up without a father or stable home of any kind. Drug abuse and violent disruptive behavior are rampant. Sexual confusion and familial perversion abound. Heather currently has two mommies, and it won't be long before Heather has three daddies and a pimp.

This is all done informally, preparing the kids for their stint in the government schools. These schools are a complex nationwide network of buildings dedicated to the ongoing exclusion of Christianity from the life of the mind. They are formally and legally bound to teach those children abandoned there that the existence of the eternal Father is irrelevant to the process of acquiring what they are pleased to call wisdom. But the Bible says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; a good understanding have all those who do His commandments. His praise endures forever" (Ps. 111:10; cf. Prov. 9:10). It does not say that the "fear of the Lord is one option among many in a pluralistic society." Because these schools refuse to acknowledge that the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, they have not only banished any reverent mention of our Lord's name, they have also banished wisdom. The results of banishing wisdom are seen daily in the newspaper.

Jesus taught that the greatest commandment involves loving God with all our minds we must love Him in how we think . The government schools were established in order to require children to disobey this commandmentthe greatest commandment. The government schools are attacking the truth, and doing so in the name of a lie. Our nation is clearly under the judgment of God. Even the Christians who do not approve of these mind brothels are required to pay taxes for their maintenance and supporttaxes which propagate lies. The children are sent there to learn lies. Fine buildings are erected in order to keep the rain off while the lies are told. There is little doubt that God is very angry with our nationeven many Christians have their children enrolled in these places.

Our nation's rebellion against the God of heaven is seen very clearly in our goverment schools. If God is pleased to grant reformation to our culture, one of the first places our repentance will be seen is in a massive turning away from statist, covenant-breaking education. But if Americans refuse to repent of their rebellion, the words of Scripture will no doubt come to pass. "Let there be none to extend mercy to him, nor let there be any to favor his fatherless children" (Ps. 109:12).