GET OUT THE DITCH, BRO..........An Ancient Hope, part 1

You might think the world changed on July 4th, 1776. I love my country's birthday, I do. It sure is a cool spot on the historical chart. But look, I see it as a great place to be catapulted back to ancient time, not to slip forward to a sliding scale of thought that makes all things new, the value measure, and intellectual trends, foundations on sand. Christian theology was borne to a new world by those who sought out to form an environment for their children, to grow in understanding and reason, shaped by a philosophic language that was a gift from the ancients, not just passed forward to generations of a reformed Christianity, but in greater part, Western Civilization. Could they observe us today, one would see a dismayed group of Greeks, horrified at the ignorance and the shrugging off of centuries of intellectual history.

So, why do we care? Recently I listened to Hugh Hewitt discuss this very concept with two smart and valuable intellectual giants, John Mark Reynolds and David Allen White. In that conversation lies the answer. "People who care about the fact that their children and grandchildren are buying into a set of lies that are awful, that are destroying our nation and destroying our children and grandchildren, need to go to deeper causes for those lies and find viable solutions that can create the kind of culture that produces 1776 instead of 1966". A good place to start is an introduction to classical and Christian thought that can be found in a new book by John Mark Reynolds, titled "When Athens Met Jerusalem".

Today, we find ourselves treating symptoms manifested from lies, not willing to confront and educate about the core disease, to perform preventative care, if you will. The affliction is a rejection of some basic ideas bought into by the Founding Fathers, and we don't even know we have rejected those ideas. For various reasons, the modern world is obsessed with progress and obsessed with that which is new. We are heading down a road, on which, we have no idea where we are going. No guidance! No sense of where we've been! We have veered off into a ditch! Where were the guideposts? Did we see them but not understand their importance?

It is clear understanding of reason and reasonable thought, handed down for centuries by ancient philosophers, an intellectual endeavor that will lead one to Truth, capital "T" Truth, objective, outside the self, eternal Truth. There is the road map that we found less than appetizing to consume and ignored what would have kept us out of the proverbial ditch. It's clear, the Founding Fathers and most of the great minds of the past recognized the source of wisdom. It is clear we do not, by our infatuation with things constantly new and seeking constant change, have any idea how to get out of the ditch. Study to show thyself! Get out the ditch, bro! B.C.