SUNDAY DEVOTION: The Remnant

You are carrying a very old torch

These are the times that try men’s souls. So wrote Thomas Paine on December 19, 1776, after early victories in the Revolutionary War had given way to defeats and despair. It is important to remember that the birth of our nation was never a sure thing, but depended on the courage and steadfastness of our founding fathers.

I recently read through the book of Acts with my children. At the beginning of the story, the disciples of Christ were discouraged and demoralized. They had only recently seen the depths of despair as their leader, a Man they believed was God incarnate, had been brutally executed. Now they knew He was alive, and had conquered death, yet still… now what?

Eleven apostles and a handful of men and women who had followed Jesus to the end waited in Jerusalem for direction. Against them stood the Jewish religious establishment and the pagan Roman Empire. With them were the truth of the gospel and the Holy Spirit.

By the end of Acts, the apostles had spread the gospel throughout the known world, and St. Paul was on his way to a meeting with Caesar Nero. Just over two centuries later, Emperor Constantine would end the official persecutions of Christians, and by the end of the 4th century AD, Rome was officially Christian. Western Civilization was born out of the combination of God’s revelation to Israel, the empiricism of the Greek philosophers, and Roman conquest to carry it to the corners of the earth.

This era of movies, television, and social media has left us with very short attention spans. We expect things to happen immediately, if not sooner. The idea of laying the groundwork for a project that will not be finished for generations seems very strange to us. Yet it is a mindset we must somehow regain if we are to preserve Western Civilization for our children’s children.

For most of the 20th century, the American people had the courage of their convictions. We believed that our nation was a force for good in the world, one that had been uniquely blessed by God. We understood that the invocation of “God Bless America” carried with it responsibilities of virtue and good works. When the Cold War ended in 1991, we thought we had won, that the end of history had come, and the story was over.

Yet the vices of communism, socialism, and totalitarianism were not defeated. In fact, they had sneaked in America’s back door when we weren’t paying attention. Now our own society is infected by the same vices at all levels. Is it fair for us to implore God to bless America, when today America stands for racial divisiveness, child genital mutilation, and worldwide warmongering?

Ruth Graham once said that if God didn’t judge America then He would have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah. Indeed, I believe that we are experiencing that judgment now. We must accept that we are a dwindling remnant of Western Civilization and of Christendom. The Silent Majority might still have had power and influence in 1984, but we are a different country now, and those of us who still believe in the principles of 1776 are a clear minority. I do not say that to discourage you, rather to embolden you. If you have survived the propaganda and the psyops to this point, then cheer up, because that means God has put you right where you need to be to begin taking back our culture.

Reconquest might not be quick or easy, but it is necessary. It took the Russian people 74 years to undo the Bolshevik Revolution —an entire lifetime of dissidents suffering and fighting to keep the torch of freedom alive.

Yet 74 years might be a best-case scenario. By the 8th century AD, the Christians of Spain had been defeated time and time again by Muslim invaders, to the point where only one tiny disorganized region remained free. How long could they hold out against the Muslim hordes? In 718, Pelagius the Visigoth defeated a Muslim army and established the independent kingdom of Asturias. Just fourteen years later, Charles Martel defeated the advancing Muslims at Tours, preserving the Christian Frankish kingdom from being overrun as well. However, the Reconquista would not be complete until Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand conquered Granada in 1492.

Consider the faith of the Spaniards who fought for nearly 800 years to retake their homeland. That’s a scale of time that is entirely unfathomable to us today —America herself is not quite 250 years old. Those men and women had faith —faith in God, faith in themselves, and faith in the rightness of their cause. That is the faith we need today. We need to take the long view, and work today so that our children and their children will be in a position to rebuild the civilization our fathers bequeathed us.

Just one week after Thomas Paine published the first issue of The American Crisis, General George Washington crossed the Delaware River in the dead of night to defeat 3,000 Hessian mercenaries in the service of King George III. This small but pivotal victory bolstered the spirits of the American patriots, giving them the courage and steadfastness they would need to continue their fight for freedom. The Revolution would still see many ups and downs, but the perseverance of our founding fathers was blessed in the end.

May God give us the same perseverance and courage as the eleven apostles on the morning of Pentecost, of Pelagius of Asturias, of George Washington, and of the many Russian dissidents who continued fighting for liberty even in the darkest days of Soviet communism. These are once again the times that try men’s souls, and I pray we will walk worthy of those who came before us.