The Collective and The Individual and The End Justifies The Means
II Chronicles 25:1-4
1 Amaziah was twenty and five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty and nine years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Jehoaddan of Jerusalem.
2 And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, but not with a perfect heart.
3 Now it came to pass, when the kingdom was established to him, that he slew his servants that had killed the king his father.
4 But he slew not their children, but did as it is written in the law in the book of Moses, where the Lord commanded, saying, The fathers shall not die for the children, neither shall the children die for the fathers, but EVERY MAN shall die for HIS OWN sin.
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Two insidiously diabolical things are taking place right before our eyes.
*There’s a resurgence (ever so subtly) of the old lie: The End Justifies The Means. And it’s not just the ungodly that have bought into the lie. It has also begun to infiltrate the mindset of God’s people.
*The individual is being subsumed for the greater good of the collective.
Subsumed: Oxford Dictionary - include or absorb (something) in something else.
In other words, the individual gets absorbed into the “something” of a new (in our case, anti-American and anti- Biblical) social collective.
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To draw an analogy:
In a very real sense we’re witnessing the unfolding of a reworked and rebranded party-line socialism that became very pervasive in the late ‘20s, ‘30’s, and early ‘40’s of Nazi Germany.
But please, make no mistake:
As it says in Ecclesiastes 1:9-10 —
9 The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun. 10 Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us.
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We now find ourselves faced with a new philosophical landscape to traverse. When I say “new” I mean “new” to us. — When do the lines between the rights of the individual and the good of the collective begin to blur?
Our rational, logical minds want the lines drawn very clearly without ambiguity. But that is not always possible or practical in the moments of real life.
Therefore: Decisive policies, actions, and decisions with lasting and sweeping consequences should not be developed and implemented at WARP SPEED.
Just because we live in a world of the instant, the immediate, and the scientifically advanced doesn’t mean something can be/will be 95%+ effective or safe. I venture to say that for most of us we’ve learned the truth of the old adage:
HASTE MAKES WASTE.
Sometimes (perhaps more than sometimes) the haste that brings the waste is actualized at the expense of people’s livelihood and/or lives. History is littered with the lives (and deaths) of “expendables” that bore the “unfortunate consequences” for the greater good of the collective whole.
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Practically speaking let me draw upon our own national experience.
A thought —
Just because we developed a good Space Program that propelled astronauts to the Moon and back doesn’t justify glossing over the prior Nazi “scientific and medical research” that enabled aspects of our space endeavors.
That “scientific and medical research” played a costly role in the lives of “expendable” Jews and minorities. It was some of those very same “scientists” that helped us implement the necessary knowledge to develop our Space Program.
Take for example the following from Wikipedia:
“Wernher Magnus Maximilian Freiherr von Braun (23 March 1912 – 16 June 1977) was a German-born American aerospace engineer and space architect. He was the leading figure in the development of rocket technology in Nazi Germany and a pioneer of rocket and space technology in the United States.
“While in his twenties and early thirties, von Braun worked in Nazi Germany's rocket development program. He helped design and develop the V-2 rocket at Peenemünde during World War II. Following the war he was secretly moved to the United States, along with about 1,600 other German scientists, engineers, and technicians, as part of Operation Paperclip. He worked for the United States Army on an intermediate-range ballistic missile program, and he developed the rockets that launched the United States' first space satellite Explorer 1.
“In 1960, his group was assimilated into NASA, where he served as director of the newly formed Marshall Space Flight Center and as the chief architect of the Saturn V super heavy-lift launch vehicle that propelled the Apollo spacecraft to the Moon. {Albert Mohler, please take note) In 1967, von Braun was inducted into the National Academy of Engineering, and in 1975, he received the National Medal of Science. He advocated for a human mission to Mars.” — Remember the (somewhat inaccurate) movie: October Sky —
{I guess, though, we shouldn’t focus too much attention on the inestimable mayhem, damage and death made possible because of this former collective of Nazis. After all, we received a great deal of benefit from their work, right?}
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Wrong.
We simply cannot ignore past horrendous actions by cavalierly postulating —
“Well yes, it IS unfortunate it happened to all those individuals but … look at the positive benefits it achieved for the greater good of mankind.”
What happened back then does matter today. We cannot soothe our conscience by rationalizing that it was “a long time ago.” Once down that slippery slope, there’s no stopping.
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Here’s the insidious, bordering on the diabolical, aspect of the Collective vs the Individual:
When you create a “Lock-Step” collective, the individual gets absorbed for the greater good of the whole. At that point, the massive repercussions are always collectively bad.
{As - quite possibly and realistically - it will be with the coming vaccine program.}
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We are quickly morphing into a national society that believes: The End DOES Justify The Means.
And therefore …
The beneficial good of the collective becomes the excuse for the wholesale “Great Reset” of a national economy and various people groups.
The problem though is that:
The Great Reset comes at the expense of the individual. When that level of justification permeates the whole, there is no longer any possibility for individual responsibility, blame or accountability. Do you then hold the whole collective accountable?
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So …
If there’s to be any hope (no matter how temporary) it has to start with the individual.
That means I have to place myself under the living sword of the Word of God and let it perform its delicate surgery. I dare not wag my finger at anyone else if I’m not willing to admit and acknowledge my own sin.
“For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12) — The Individual
And so …
Individual accountability starts with me AND it starts with all of us.
“For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.” (Romans 14:11-12)
And as stated in our opening verses above: “EVERY MAN shall die for HIS OWN sin.”
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Here’s the bad news: Like it or not, we are a big part of the downfall that is engulfing our nation.
But here’s the good news: We, God’s people, are the only hope for the lost and dying societal environment in which we live.
“If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” II Chronicles 7:14) — The Collective
Therefore, to coin a phrase:
Let’s take the first Giant Leap For Mankind … shall we?