SINCE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION IN THE SEVENTEEN-NINETIES, a great lie has motivated every social upheaval. It is the fiction that humanity is perfectible. And if man is perfectible, if human nature is malleable, then enough social force, applied to the right people, can turn planet Earth into a Utopia. It’s the same old same old. “You shall be as God knowing good and evil.” There is nothing new under the sun.
Nevertheless the consequences of this lie have been devastating. The French Revolution plunged Europe into the Napoleanic Wars. Millions died as maurauding armies wasted the continent.
The same lie motivated the 1917 Russian Revolution. The goal was a “workers paradise.” (Notice the Utopian language). Another 27 million plus died. That was followed by the forced starvation of millions of Ukrainian farmers, then WWII.
The same lie motivated the Communist takeover of China in 1948. The cost was growing, but none of the utopians seemed to notice or learn from the past. Driven by a blind faith in human perfectibility another 80 million plus died.
None of this stopped Pol Pot from attempting another workers paradise in Cambodia in the nineteen seventies. Once more, up to half of the population died.
Behind each of these revolutions, and the one now attempting to shaping American culture, is the belief that human nature can be changed. Stalin expressed this boldly at a media banquet in Russia.
“The ‘production’ of souls is more important than the production of tanks,” [Stalin] said, explaining that the communists desired not only to remake the world of politics and economics, but to reshape human nature according to the dictates of left-wing ideology. “And so,” he continued, “I raise my glass to you, writers, the engineers of the human soul.”
America’s Cultural Revolution, Christopher Rufo
Notice: Stalin thought he could “reshape human nature according to the dictates of left-wing ideology.” That’s a colossal lie. That’s like saying I will turn steel into water. Human nature is fixed by God. It is fallen. It is essentially self-centered, proud, irrational, acquisitive, and selfish. It has been that way since the Fall and will not change until Christ returns.
The French Revolution changed the nature of revolutions. Every revolution since has been purely secular, guided by reason and Enlightenment philosophy toward a secular utopia. And the result inevitably has been blood in the streets.”
Sunshine, Glenn, Slaying Leviathan.
Is it any surprise that the same utopian ideals motivate us to think that we can turn a boy into a girl? Its ugly, and its totally disconnected from reality.
What prompted this blog is the exact opposite in the Book of Numbers in the Bible. When Israel left Mt Sinai for the Promised Land. God went with them in a pillar of cloud and fire. In chapter ten the journey began. But then the next fourteen chapters records seven colossal covenant failures by God’s people. (See Numbers 11, 12, 13, 16, 20, 21, 25). They include complaining, rebellion, and the worship of Baal in the midst of orgies.
The number seven is significant. It is the number for fullness or completion. The message is clear. Humanity is in a bad way. The measure of our sin is “complete” or full. We cannot save ourselves. We desperately need a Savior. Human nature is not malleable or changeable. Only God can change it, and until he does we must do the best we can with what we have in the context of the reality of an fallen universe.
When he appears we will be like him for we will see him as he is.
1 John 3:2
Then holiness will be our total and permanent possession. Sin will be impossible, and “utopia” will be our possession.
Our forefathers understood this. They understood human nature. They knew it was not malleable. Therefore, they designed a civil government that would harness the limitations of human nature for the good of all. That is our Constitution. They rejected all forms of utopianism. Like Jesus, they knew that the poor we would always have with us. They understood that attempts to eliminate poverty, or unequal outcomes through socialism, would just impoverish more people even as it put power in the hands of an arrogant, sinful minority.
I have said all of this because this “lie” is the underlying assumption of the progressive elites in the United States, and it left unchecked, it will bear onerous fruit
What can we do? Understand the lie. Learn to recognize it. Then reject it.
Second, preach the gospel. It is the power of God for the salvation not only for individuals, but for entire nations. Cultures change from the bottom up, one heart at a time, by the power of the Holy Spirit. Until that happens hope in God’s future promises. There is a utopia, and it is much better than anything man can devise. But, it is God’s doing, and it is the other side of the resurrection. And if you believe the gospel, you will participate in that coming utopia.
That is Good News!
