1984 and the Erasing of History

Saturday, May 1, 2021

Shalom, to you my Friend and Co-Minister in the Great Commission...

In 1948, the British writer, George Orwell, released his dystopian novel, 1984. Based on the example of Soviet Communism, 1984 presented a totalitarian state where the government or party takes control of every facet of life. One of the functions of the state was to rewrite or erase history. Orwell wrote:
"Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. History has stopped."

We are watching a similar dynamic at work in America and in much of western civilization. In the past year, we saw statues of America's founders and past heroes, Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln being pulled down, vandalized, destroyed - not by a foreign army, but by Americans.

We've witnessed American classical works of literature and art being named for censoring or cancellation - Gone with the Wind, To Kill a Mockingbird, Huckleberry Finn. Recently the Disney corporation labelled episodes of the Muppets as dangerous. Several books of Dr. Seuss were, in effect, banned, and Mr. Potato head became gender neutral.

In George Orwell's science fiction nightmare, the rewriting of history was done by a government agency. But in America and modern culture, the campaign to rewrite history is not limited to any specific governmental agency. It's being carried out as well by big business, big tech, radical organizations, the media, Hollywood, Congress and state legislatures, influencers, and the culture at large. Why? The answer is found as well in the pages of Orwell novel:
"Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.
Imagine that there was a group of people with the power to erase an individual's memory. What would happen? If the individual loses his memory, then he also loses his identity, and his ways, and his future. Thus, by erasing the past, one can create an altered future. If you can change the past of a nation or civilization, you change its identity, its course, and its future. Thus, the issue of what history America's children will be taught is not just academic - it will determine the nation's future. And if you can rewrite the history concerning God, His Word, Messiah, the Gospel - you can create an un-Christian, anti-Christian future - thus the end times.

All the more, the word of God tells us to Remember. And in a time such as this, with massive forces seeking to erase remembrance, the past, and the foundations of God - we must all the more consciously set our task at remembering, all the more grounded in the Word, all the more rooted in our faith, and closer in prayer. This month, make this your aim. And remember as well, that we are called not only to remember the ways of God - but like Elijah in a nation that had forgotten it's God... to remind them.

Your brother and co-laborer

in His love and service,

Jonathan

See Message: The Hosts of Baal