The Strange Death of Europe: Like the Days of Noah

“It is always better to know the truth.”  As I plodded through David Murray’s important book, The Strange Death of Europe, I had to remind myself of that.  The truths he documents are painful.  As a young Christian, I felt privileged to visit Europe, having been inspired by the book  Here I Stand (Roland Bainton), the story of Martin Luther.  Luther had courageously proclaimed the forgotten truth that in Christ we are justified by faith apart from the works of the law, a simple but revolutionary truth that changed the worldview of Europe.  Though the cost of that changed worldview included bloody wars, Protestant Europe gave rise to modern science, the end of slavery, the spread of the Christian gospel to the world, and the American revolution, with a government established by “We the people.” The historical benefits of Christian Europe are beyond measurement, so it is especially tragic to see it collapse and die from suicide.

So, what is happening in Europe today?  The first quote from Murray’s book astonished me: “Europe today has little desire to reproduce itself, fight for itself or even take its own side in an argument.” But why would this be?  Murray finds two main reasons for this strange death. 

“The first is the mass movement of peoples into Europe, bringing their own cultures and languages. Europeans found ways to pretend this could work.  The story of the ruling elites of Europe promoting mass Muslim migration is familiar: anyone who has visited Europe in the past thirty years can tell you.  There has been a push for “multiculturalism” despite the objections of 70-80% of the population. Murray quoted Samuel Huntington here: “Multiculturalism is in its essence anti-European civilization.  It is basically an anti-Western ideology, in which modern Europeans are happy to be self-loathing in an international marketplace of sadists. Only the nations of Europe and their descendants allow themselves to be judged by their lowest moments.”  The effects of this are always in the news, whether in murderous acts by foreign-born terrorists, the rape culture of immigrants (100% of the rapes in Sweden), or the anti-American political statements by London’s current Muslim mayor.  In 2012, as Murray noted, only 44.9% of London residents identified themselves as “white British.”

Second, "at the same time Europe lost faith in its beliefs, traditions and legitimacy… Europe is now deeply weighed down with guilt for its past.” Today, Murray continues, European civilization is “no longer accumulating, but living off a dwindling cultural capital. The greatest source of such energy came from the spirit of the continent’s religion.  It drove people to war and stirred them to defense.  It also drove Europe to the greatest heights of human creativity.” What happened?  Murray points specifically to the German theological school of “higher criticism” which undermined confidence in the trustworthiness of the Bible, and then to the growing dominance of atheistic Darwinism, both scientific and social. “Europe has still not found a way to live with the loss of belief and faith.  Europe had lost its foundational story.”  At the end of the book, Murray expressed his doubt that Europe would eventually have any “soft landing.”

Okay: Europe is currently settling onto the ash heap of history, while America is struggling with similar trends in the promotion of “multi-culturalism,” as well as unrestrained migration by those hostile to American values, as well as hating Christians and Jews generally.  
This is all very depressing, and very sad.  But many of us as Christians realize that we live in the Last Days before God’s Righteous Judgment.  These days actually are like those Noah lived in before the Flood, as described in Noah’s Boys in the City of Mother Earth, and the upcoming Noah’s Boys and the Jewel of Havilah.  So what lessons can we take from the Strange Death of Europe?  What hope or direction can we find in the Bible for our nation, or for us personally?

Psalms 9:17 says: “The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.”  The sad truth is that Europe has forgotten God, and their godlessness has consequences.  Their Christian consensus evaporated long ago, though beautiful cathedrals still remain as tourist attractions.  

So how should we as Christians respond?  Certainly, we grieve for what has been lost.  We can pray for the godless generation in Europe and elsewhere who have no idea what they are missing.  This may be seen as an opportunity to present Christ as the Only Answer, the only Hope of the world to a lost generation.  However, the Bible indicates that the Lord is Returning Soon: our time is short. 

G.M.Horning



Comments

Post a Comment

What others are saying...

“Noah’s Boys—Because sometimes things end in catastrophe.”

— S. Macbeth

“Finally! A Noah’s story for adults!”

— Enoch’s Valley News

“Realistic, yet hopeful; sheer fun!”

— J. Springfield

Popular posts from this blog

On Being a Den Mother: Mom Horning Story #7

Image
Being a Mother was a position I looked forward to for years.   I was the younger child in the family, and the youngest, by far, in my whole “cousinship”; so I had almost no association with anyone smaller than myself.   My neighbors had tiny relatives who visited on occasions and captivated me—entirely.   They were cuter and much more fun than the kittens and puppies I knew, so I always volunteered to push them in their buggies or rock them to sleep.   Those offers were seldom refused as they usually arrived sticky and cranky after sitting for hours in the un-air conditioned sedans of our youth. When I had children of my own, I encouraged them to bring friends to our house to play, and young guests at meal times, after school and overnight were no rarities.   We moved frequently in our early married life and our two older sons did not participate in Cub Scouts, but when we moved to Indianapolis they joined the Boy Scouts.   The Cub Scout troop had just graduated into t
Read more
Image
Escape from Mother Earth is coming!  Though its publication has been delayed for a year; it is now planned for release later this year, with lavish illustrations. The adventures take place in the doomed Antediluvian World, in the perilous final years before Noah's Cataclysmic Flood, a time much like our own. In Escape from Mother Earth, a simple test of a new hydraulic pump leads the three plucky lads into an unexpected disaster, and then to an exciting series of adventures in the lost City of Mother Earth. In this tale, Japheth, Shem and Ham encounter mighty behemoths, actual giants, seductive beauties and treacherous politicians. By keeping their faith in the God of the Patriarchs, the boys overcome every challenge, maintaining their good sense of cheer even in the face of impending disasters. Also planned for release later this year is another illustrated adventure: The Jewel of Havilah. The author thanks all of you for your patience, but is confident you will find the stories b
Read more

Carved in Stone: Geologic Evidence of the Worldwide Flood

Image
This is the book I have waited years for--a genuinely evidence-based textbook on Geology. The author, Dr. Timothy Clarey, does not, like most geologists, begin with the worn-out presumption of gradualism--that the rocks beneath our feet were slowly laid down over millions and billions of years. Instead, he freshly examines the actual physical evidence of cores drilled in recent years.  Interestingly, this evidence actually supports biblical catastrophism!  This book represents a paradigm shift in geology, an exciting departure from the tired doctrines of unimaginative tenured professors. Pointing to the example of the vast sedimentary depositions that occurred in the Mt. St. Helens eruption forty years ago this week, the author lays out the evidence in a stepwise manner.  He begins with the movement of tectonic plates, and moves on to the vast sedimentary layers that make up the bulk of the surface of the earth. In the old geology model, these layers were identified by certain key fos
Read more