Are the Vandals at the gate?

[The following thought-provoking essay was written by a friend of mine, whose grasp of both doctrine and history always make me sit up and pay attention when he offers a viewpoint. Here are his thoughts on the upcoming election and his reasons for casting his vote for John McCain. As always, your thoughts and feedback are welcome.]

 

…The new dark age may already be upon us.   As an amateur historian, I am often impressed by observing that cultures and civilizations often meet their demise suddenly and (to them at least) unexpectedly.  Alexander and fall of Darius’ great Persian empire, Attila and his sweeties (Huns), the Vandals before the gates of Hippo (quick Augustine write a book explaining all this), the Byzantines and the Arab Muslim invasion (conquering from Iran to Spain in a century), Lindisfarne and the Vikings (it helps to have some berserkers),  the Mongols and the Khwaresmian Empire (just look it up – I like the part where the Mongols drank the blood of their horses from their flanks), Montezuma (a lot of good your revenge did you) and Cortez,  Hitler and his 1000 year Reich, Bill Maz (using hidden vigorish, not to mention the green weenie) and the 1960’s Yankees — are a few of the many examples in history when the world suddenly changes.  And the nice life of the losers ends.

 

Americans always presume that their comfortable lives will continue as things have for years.   History (and Scripture) teaches otherwise.  With the ascension of Obama, Pelosi and Reid’s supermajority will all that change?   With the most radical Socialist government since 1932, will we descend into a new dark age?  Will our speech be silenced?   Will preaching the Gospel be a hate crime as it is in Canada?  Will our guns be confiscated?   Will our children be required to go to government schools for indoctrination?  Will all the evils of paganism be forced upon us?  Will the economy crash?  Will we experience what Augustine and the monks of Lindisfarne experienced, the loss of civilization itself?

 

Is America doomed?  Europe is already doomed — with Europe’s welfare states dying both economically and demographically (quick, name the most common boy’s name in Belgium?  In Amsterdam?  In Malmo Sweden?  What is the fifth most popular name in the United Kingdom?  If you said Mohammad, give yourself a free beer!).  Europe, with a birth rate of 1.4 or less, is losing population.  It is tough to support the welfare system without kids!  European Muslims, with a birth rate of 3.5, are doubling in population.   Soon, Shria law will rule in Europe and America will stand alone.  And stand alone with what?  Obama?!   Am I wrong?   Well, check back with me at the end of Obama’s presidency in 8 years – if I don’t have a more bushy beard and 3 more wives, then I was wrong.

 

OK, so maybe I am over reacting.  Maybe things won’t be so bad.  Maybe only a few more thousands of babies a year will be aborted than under Bush (and what’s a couple of punctured heads to get upset about), maybe only a few more guns (like shotguns) will be outlawed.  Maybe the new Supremes will only seem to look like Janet Reno, maybe it will be good if our daughters are in the draft, maybe only normal homosexuals (like Patrick Elias) will be able to get married at Manchester RP, maybe I will like to belong to a union this time.  We can all adapt to that. 

 

So yep, I am voting for McCain.  I know many conservative Christians are sitting this one out with some waiting for the worst to happen so America and the Republicans can learn their lesson.  Except it took over 1000 years for western civilization to come out of the dark ages.  Augustine’s Hippo never recovered.  The problem was, Augustine’s Rome voted for Obama or stayed home or voted for the Constitution candidate (these guys felt good about themselves when the Ostrogoths wacked off their heads).

 

Certainly our refuge is in the Lord and His provision in Christ.  We must be like Habakkuk and live by faith (Hab 2:4) though the Chaldeans come.  But if Habakkuk had the vote, what would he have done (WWHD?)?