“We sleep safely at night because rough men stand ready to visit violence on those who would harm us.”
― Winston S. Churchill
As has been shown in the past our history is replete with the necessary evil of the use of violence in order to maintain the peace and continue the apparent tranquility of our society. It is "those who would harm us" for which we prepare, practice, hone skills and maintain armed forces. Evil surrounds us and frankly those who hate us really want what we have. They may want it because it represents an evil to them that must be destroyed, or they want it because they have been denied it and they feel that it is their right to have. Jealousy, envy and greed are terribly negative emotions that are rife with bitterness but form a motive force for many who come to our shores.
Many Americans have lost sight of the foundations formed in the discussions and debates of the Founders and the weaving of the goodness, wisdom, justice and understanding of Scripture into the The Declaration of Independence, The Constitution and the eventual Rule of Law with its base in British Common Law. A metaphor for the surrounding nature of evil is illustrated in the use of "dikes" by the Dutch to keep the ocean at bay. Much of the land reclaimed and made use of in this tiny nation lies below sea level and is able to be inhabited and used as farmland because the ever advancing sea is held back by a system of dikes that funnel any intrusion by water into channels that ultimately lead to the wind powered pumps which are found all over the nation. We see them as being so picturesque and colloquial that we forget that their form is actually also their function. These structures take wind power and turn it into pumping power to hold off the ever present and always possible destruction by flood waters.
The metaphoric windmills of America are the wise words of Scripture and the promise of Gods protection that are found in the pages of Holy Writ. Obedience to His laws and His ways provide promise both individually and corporately for the nation. When we arrogantly and with bloated pride declare ourselves to be free of His laws and His expectations, we find ourselves without the pumps working on our behalf and the dikes crumbling before the death delivering incursion of an unforgiving and unrelenting sea. Sin brings death and when we are awash in it we are in danger of being in such depth that drowning is inevitable. The Ark of Noah is more than just the stuff of legend but representative of our spiritual state and our need of rescue. The next flood of evil may engulf us all and God may have removed His Ark of protection and allowed our nemesis to come courtesy of our own sealing of our fates. We have been foolish and have broken our promise of service to Him and are allowing those that curse the name of the one true God to join in this enterprise known as America. We ignored His direction to "come out from among them and be ye separate" by allowing them into our land. The flood is now in the tens of thousands a year of those who would drown us or deny us life through other forms of murder, assured in their minds that they are serving a God in doing so. "Thinking themselves to be wise, they have become fools". I pray that this line is not the final epitaph of America.
- Dr. Jim Garrow -