ANACHRONISTIC CAPITULATION

I Was Just Thinking About - - - 

The saying that “those who forget history are doomed to repeat it” is relevant for the times in which we are living. It should be understood (based upon ASK,com) that it is actually a mis-quotation of the original text written by George Santayana (1863-1952), who, in his Reason in Common Sense, The Life of Reason, Vol.1, wrote: ”Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Santayana’s quotation, in turn, was a slight modification of an Edmund Burke (1729-1797) statement, "Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it." Burke was a British Statesman and Philosopher who is generally viewed as the philosophical founder of modern political conservatism. 

What have we learned from the past that should be of benefit for the present? One lesson suggests that it is always best to function and negotiate from a position of strength rather than weakness. In order to gain an advantage in the age of nuclear negotiation, the anachronistic capitulation would be something similar to saying; “Our British allies, through their Prime Minister Winston Churchill has advised Henry Kissinger that we should not capitulate or compromise in any way with any suspect terrorist state regarding nuclear proliferation. It is anachronistic because by definition it means: “a chronological misplacing of persons, events, objects, or customs in regard to each other.” Capitulation means “a set of terms or articles constituting an agreement between governments; the act of surrendering or yielding; the terms of surrender” (Definitions copied from Miriam-Webster Online Dictionary). Some of the Synonyms are graphic: “handover, relinquishment, rendition, submission, submitting.” If an agreement is reached with Iran and their goals for nuclear usage, it will be to their benefit because of the willingness and readiness of the participating nations to get some form of an agreement regardless of the necessity for anachronistic capitulation.

Let’s shift gears and consider anachronistic capitulation and what the professing Christian and Church is to be and do. Do either measure up to God’s requirements? In terms of righteousness as the practice of the Lord’s people, the prophet reminds them of the Lord’s words: “The Lord waits to be gracious to you, and He exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the Lord is a God of justice…And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your Teacher. And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying: This is the way, walk in it, when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left” (Isaiah 30:18-21, ESV). The key phrase is: “this is the way, walk in it.” The prevailing question is: How much regard does the contemporary Christian and Church have for the way chosen for them by the Lord? It is almost as though we are reliving the days spoken of in Jeremiah 6:16-17, “Thus says the Lord: Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls. But they said: We will not walk in it. I set watchmen over you, saying: Pay attention to the sound of the trumpet! But they said: We will not pay attention.”

If only the professing Christian and Church in the 21st Century would have the discernment and commitment of Moses, of whom it was said: “ By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin” (Hebrews 11:25-26). In the parable of the seeds that were sown, Jesus reminded us of a clear and present danger in Mark 4:18-19, “And others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.” Have you allowed that to be your undoing, your anachronistic capitulation? Consider these things with me.