Dogma
Dogma
By Jack Kinsella
The dictionary defines ”doctrine” as ”a set of true beliefs that define the parameters of a belief system.” So then, ”doctrine” can be either true or false, relative to the standards of the belief set.
It is the same in politics as it is in religion. The “Truman Doctrine” was rooted in the belief system that the only way to stop communism was to prevent its spread. The “Truman Doctrine” was rooted in the belief that democracy and capitalism were superior to communism and a state-managed economy.
Doctrine’s twin sister is “dogma” which is defined as “absolute beliefs that transcend reason.” Dogma is no less binding that doctrine, with the exception that doctrine relates to a belief set, whereas dogma can itself become a belief set.
The rules that define capitalism are called ‘capitalist doctrine’. The rules that define Marxism are called ‘Marxist dogma’. The reason is because capitalism has been proved true in both theory and practice.
Capitalism is essentially the world’s economic fall-back system. When there is no other system in place, capitalism naturally flows in to fill the vacuum. Every underground economy is capitalistic – the most pure example of capitalist doctrine would be a prison system.
Everything inside a prison system operates on the principle of capitalism – currency can be anything from food to cigarettes to other contraband. Some inmates become bankers, others collection agents. If there is a buyer, a seller, and a medium of exchange, that is capitalism.
So, as you can see, ‘capitalism’ has a doctrine. Marxism, which cannot exist independently, operates according to principles that defy both logic and reason.
Marxism never makes it into a prison economy. There is no room in prison for the kind of Marxist dogma that dictates that the poor deserve a portion of the spoils of the rich.
America is a capitalist society currently being operated according to Marxist dogma – which explains why Obama’s plan to dump a trillion dollars into the economy made things worse, instead of better.
It is a dogmatic belief among those on the Left that government is the answer to any problem. It is a ‘dogmatic’ belief because it is a) absolute; and b) transcends reason.
Fedex, Purolator, UPS, DHL and a hundred other courier services owe their existence to the fact that the US government runs the Post Office. Nobody doubts that. If you “absolutely, positively” wanted to be sure your package gets delivered overnight, would you take it to the Post Office?
Obama is the single biggest purveyor of liberal dogma to ever take a seat in the Oval Office. He has made expanding the reach of federal government into private life the exclusive goal of his administration, almost to the point of obsession. (Maybe not even ‘almost’)
This is a perfect example of an absolute belief that transcends reason. Obama once cited the Post Office to prove that government health insurance wouldn’t bankrupt the private insurance industry:
“I think private insurers should be able to compete. They do it all the time. I mean. If you think about it, UPS and FedEx are doing just fine. It’s the Post Office that’s always having problems.”
If ever there were a case of faith transcending reason, Obama made it with that statement.
Assessment
I caught a snippet of a TV news report in which San Franscisco mayor Gavin Newsom was criticizing a decision made by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Newsom spearheaded the ‘sanctuary city’ movement wherein the city refuses to enforce US immigration law.
Typical of dogmatic liberal thinking, the ‘sanctuary city’ movement is dedicated to the proposition that people who disobey laws they don’t like, such as immigration law, will magically become law-abiding citizens if not prosecuted for their initial crime.
But since liberal dogma is rooted in an absolute belief that transcends reason, what happened instead was the city became a magnet for street gangs. So the Board of Supervisors voted to extend the sanctuary protections to include juvenile gang members charged with felony crimes.
This was even too much for Gavin Newsom. In the sound byte I heard, Newsom seemed genuinely incredulous:
“The sanctuary city was never designed to be in any way, shape or form a framework where people can commit crimes and be shielded against those crimes,” said Newsom. “I mean that’s perverse, it’s absurd.”
Of course it is absurd. It is also the next logical step in liberal dogmatic thinking. Liberal dogma explains how California can remain liberal in spite of the wreckage liberal dogma has wrought on the once-most successful state in the Union.
It explains why inner-city blacks continue to vote for liberal Democrats even as their cities crumble around them. It explains how the Obama adminstration can claim that 250,000 new taxpayer-funded government jobs can be counted as positive job creation.
It is an article of liberal dogmatic belief that civil-service jobs are better than private sector jobs anyway. They pay better, they provide better benefits and it is almost impossible to get fired. So of course the creation of a quarter-million new government jobs represents hope and change.
Another word that lends itself well as a substitute for liberal dogma would be liberal delusion. Delusion is defined as;
“a persistent false psychotic belief regarding the self or persons or objects outside the self that is maintained despite indisputable evidence to the contrary.”
I’ve often pondered the ‘strong delusion’ Paul spoke of in his second letter to the Thessalonians. There was a heresy circulating the church at Thessolonika to the effect that the Lord had come, and that the Day of Christ was at hand — and that they had been left behind.
The ‘Day of the Lord’ refers to the Tribulation judgment. The ‘Day of Christ’ refers to the Millennial Reign that follows. What was concerning the Thessalonians was that they had missed the Rapture, this is how Paul opened the discussion:
“Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto Him” (2nd Thessalonians 2:1)
Paul then outlines the sequence of events leading into the Tribulation Period. First comes ‘a great falling away’ from the faith that will clear the way for the man of sin to be received as a messiah-figure.
Paul says that ‘mystery’ of iniquity doth already work. Paul used the Greek word “musterion’ which means ‘to shut the mouth’ — in the sense of silence imposed by intiation into secret religious rites.
It sounds like a perfect substitute description for dogmatic liberal thinking. Liberal dogma says that the same government that runs the Post Office can successfully run the entire US health care system. But the same liberals who make that argument have Fedex and UPS account numbers taped to the inside of their desk drawer.
But liberal dogmatic belief is that this time, it will turn out differently. It’s like renting “Old Yeller” over and over again, hoping that this time, they won’t shoot the dog at the end. It is a ‘musterion’ to anybody — but those initiated into liberal dogmatism.
Paul says that first comes the “musterion” — an atmosphere of sin and rebellion so pervasive that people will believe what they know to be a lie, simply because the lie better suits their preferred ideology. But Paul says that the musterion is currently restrained:
“For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only He who now letteth will let, until He be taken out of the way,” Paul writes in verse 7.
The word “letteth is translated from Paul’s original Greek “katcheco” which means.;
“to hold fast, keep in memory, possess, seize, retain, stay, take or withhold.”
(See if you can make sense out of verse seven’s katcheco without finding a reference to the indwelling Holy Spirit as the “He’ in this verse and the ‘taken out of the way’ meaning anything other than His ministry of restraining evil.)
So, following Paul’s sequence of events aimed at assuring the Thessalonians that they had not missed “the gathering together unto Him” first comes the musterion, then the removal of the katcheco and, then shall that Wicked (anomos) be revealed.”
The KJV makes ‘that Wicked’ a personal pronoun — it refers to an individual anomos, which means,
“one not subject to Jewish law, by implication, a Gentile, positively wicked, without law, lawless. transgressor, unlawful, wicked.”
Paul says that the anomos will be embraced by them that perish (apollumi) meaning;
“to destroy, die, lose, or perish” BECAUSE “they received not the LOVE of the truth, that they might be saved.”
Liberal dogma is a delusional ideological worldview that embraces ideological absolutes that transcend reason that is rooted in the rejection of traditional values as outdated and irrelevant.
Hope is therefore defined by change. And since ‘change’ is, by defintion, a state of constant alteration, hope remains a constant because it is a hope for change. Does that make your head hurt? It’s supposed to. It is a delusion that only works if you have no love for the truth.
So first comes the musterion, then comes the removal of the katcheco, followed by the revealing of the anomos whose dogma will be embraced by the apollumi. But as long as the katcheco remains, liberal dogma will remain a musterion.
Until He be taken out of the way. Because that’s the next event in Paul’s sequence. Along with the vessels He indwells.
Maranatha!