Discernment. Noun. “The act or process of exhibiting keen insight and good judgment.” It seems an unpopular idea, not to mention a completely abandoned and forgotten one. As I struggle to unearth unifying themes from the morass of Clown World… I must assume such themes exist, and what’s happening is not merely “the will of the gods”, although there is good chance of exactly that… discernment is a concept that keeps coming up.
Discernment used to be largely optional. Today, it’s critical.
The devil operates at a significant manpower disadvantage. Scripture suggests that he led a third of heaven into rebellion, which means he’s outnumbered 2:1 not counting the primates made in God’s image. For most of history, messages were slow, diabolic allies were spread across the world and… and the devil was never able to unite humanity since God thwarted human mass communication at the Towel of Babel.
But now? Mass communication technology was coopted by the devil even before it went mainstream. By the time televisions were in every house, Communists were in every TV studio. The devil saw the advantages long before anybody else did, and there’s an implication in that: it was the solution to a problem that had long vexed him.
Meanwhile, back in the Ancient, Forgotten Old Tyme Days, most people did not need to practice discernment for themselves. Their days were taken up with the necessities of survival and/or farming. Literacy was not even a luxury, not when you don’t have any books on the shelf in the first place, let alone books that make you think.
For the times when people DID need discernment, the slow pace of life meant they could often just do what had been done for ages. Then there were institutions such as the King and the Church, who were only too happy to advise people on complex moral issues. There was no need for discernment when you had experts available and educational limitations on yourself… as if “Spearman, Rank Two, File Five” was frequently uncertain of how he should behave.
That is all gone now.
It is a sobering thought, that we were given all these labor-saving technologies in order to free us up to develop our souls beyond what humans normally could.
New ideas and ways of life are coming at breakneck speeds. Technology can make anybody capable of what was once the domain of trained specialists. The institutions are proving, yet again, to not be bastions of morality. Perhaps worst of all, nobody can stop the devil’s whispers from being heard. There are no more gates for the gatekeepers to keep.
No more shortcuts, crutches or proxies.
Consequently, modern people must practice discernment for themselves. They are not. At best, they continue to trust people rather than ideas. At worst, they define “true” as “momentarily most expedient”. From Covidisim to “Keev”, people are simply not making moral judgments of what they see and hear. They don’t have the excuse of twelve-hour workdays; they don’t have the excuse of never reading a Bible or other theological work for themselves; and they don’t have the excuse of “my actions wouldn’t matter anyway”.
To say nothing of the very long history of hostility towards people who DO think for themselves. It is good that the gatekeepers are losing their final grip; it is not good, that so many people are refusing to step up and take ownership of their own lives.
I admit, judging good from evil is not fun when you are at evil’s mercy. Discernment imposes a burden of performance upon you that you most likely cannot act upon, except to make yourself a target. Witness all the conscientious objectors to the Pfizer Jab… I didn’t see ANY happy endings.
But there’s no other way. Believers have always needed to develop discernment, but never like today. Is this picture a deepfake? Was that article written by AI? Should you care why that 25yo athlete just had a heart attack? Do you trust the science that insects are tasty & nutritious?
For a final wrench in the works, discernment only becomes possible when God’s existence is accepted. Atheism encouraged by evolutionary beliefs is exactly why many people refuse to distinguish good from evil; they come from the axion that good and evil don’t exist. I have watched some atheists act morally, to be sure, but only on the strength of either preexisting traditions or a preexisting conscience. Neither is going to hold up.
We are entering a spiritually scripted time in human history. A short period of time with a God-decreed outcome. Between here and there, your choices and beliefs will become critical, as the various principalities choose their champions and set them against each other. God has deeds that He wants done, so He looks for followers who… at a minimum… admit there’s a game being played, and proceed to make some enemies by choosing His team. That requires discernment.
Heroes wanted! but not necessarily you, if you aren’t sure what happened when your son came back from school as a girl.
Do not focus on what’s already been settled, namely, what society will be like after this time & crisis pass. Don’t reach back, either, “Benedict Option”-like, for a situation in which you CAN trust professionals with your immortal soul. Instead, test and refine your ability to discern truth from lies, along with your ability to endure in upholding the truth. This will mark you out as one of the champions, one of the spectacles, and while you won’t be thanking anybody for what you’re about to endure… once it’s over, you’ll be glad that you did.
Who wants to be “Spearman, Rank Two, File Five” when they could be something more? Turns out, most sheeple everywhere. They reject a great opportunity on the meager, pedantic grounds of not wanting to be crucified as part of the process. They choose to be nobodies.
Ye Christian, look upon the Cross and know that your own turn is coming. Though the feeling be natural, do not beg for an excuse; ask instead for a path THROUGH.
Discernment will illuminate that path. Discernment will mark you out a different from the sheeple who take no risks, make no judgments and consequently, matter so little that they don’t even need names. Discernment will bring you wisdom.
Discernment is now mandatory like never before.
Thanks for the pep talk, Gunner!
Amen