- Jul 21, 2018
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No doubt, Protestantism led to the secularization of society. However, few note the pernicious, harmful ramifications of the paradigm shift in Protestantism today. Our work (Thy Kingdom Come: Re-evaluating the Historicist’s Interpretation of the Revelation) documents numerous sources in support of our thesis. In addition to our sources, Dr. Steve Turley comments on the pernicious effects of secularism in his book, President Trump and Our Post-Secular Future: How the 2016 Election Signals the Dawning of a Conservative Nationalist Age,
“Scholars have long recognized that secularization is rooted in the notion of modernity. Modernity is comprised of the philosophical commitment to scientific rationalism as the sole objective mechanism for political, economic, and cultural management. Rooted in such rationalism, modernity sees all pre-modern societies, particularly those governed by religious commitments, as inherently irrational, and thus asserts itself as the one true political, economic, and cultural meaning system for all nations and peoples. In the twentieth-century, the West has proclaimed liberal democracy as the ultimate political system, the Soviet East proclaimed communism as the ultimate economic system, and Italy and Germany declared fascism as the ultimate cultural meaning system.”
Here we have support for our thesis that secularization fostered a form of liberal authoritarianism in the West and such oppressive regimes as communism and fascism.
In The Quarterly Journal of Economics, November 2018, under the article, Religious Competition and Reallocation: The Political Economy of Secularization in the Protestant Reformation, by Davide Cantoni, Jeremiah Dittmar, and Noam Yuchtman, we read,
“religious competition shifts political markets where religious authorities provide legitimacy to rulers in exchange for control over resources”
The authors’ thesis conveys that the Protestants consorted with the kings of the earth to favor secular projects instead of religious. In essence, they had intercourse with the kings of the earth to take away the church’s influence in society. By any rational account, this fulfills what John states about mystery Babylon,
“Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great harlot that sitteth upon many waters: With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.” (Revelation 17:1-2)
The article continues,
“Graduates of Protestant universities increasingly took secular, especially administrative, occupations. Protestant university students increasingly studied secular subjects, especially degrees that prepared students for public sector jobs, rather than church sector specific theology. Second, it affected the sectoral composition of fixed investment.”
In other words, the dissident Protestants sifted society away from church sector to public sector occupations. This shift enhanced the state’s ability to develop nationality, to increase its wealth, and expand its markets, which inevitably lead to the illustration of the rider of the white horse that “went forth conquering and to conquer.” This shift took peace from the earth as the Protestant nations fought over the world’s resources in their colonization of other dominions, depicted by the rider of the red horse. Their machinations in prices of goods and services led to surpluses and famines, as illustrated by the rider of the black horse. In due course, their economic upheaves in distant colonies led to great hardships for the indigenous, illustrated by the pale horse rider.
“Scholars have long recognized that secularization is rooted in the notion of modernity. Modernity is comprised of the philosophical commitment to scientific rationalism as the sole objective mechanism for political, economic, and cultural management. Rooted in such rationalism, modernity sees all pre-modern societies, particularly those governed by religious commitments, as inherently irrational, and thus asserts itself as the one true political, economic, and cultural meaning system for all nations and peoples. In the twentieth-century, the West has proclaimed liberal democracy as the ultimate political system, the Soviet East proclaimed communism as the ultimate economic system, and Italy and Germany declared fascism as the ultimate cultural meaning system.”
Here we have support for our thesis that secularization fostered a form of liberal authoritarianism in the West and such oppressive regimes as communism and fascism.
In The Quarterly Journal of Economics, November 2018, under the article, Religious Competition and Reallocation: The Political Economy of Secularization in the Protestant Reformation, by Davide Cantoni, Jeremiah Dittmar, and Noam Yuchtman, we read,
“religious competition shifts political markets where religious authorities provide legitimacy to rulers in exchange for control over resources”
The authors’ thesis conveys that the Protestants consorted with the kings of the earth to favor secular projects instead of religious. In essence, they had intercourse with the kings of the earth to take away the church’s influence in society. By any rational account, this fulfills what John states about mystery Babylon,
“Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great harlot that sitteth upon many waters: With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.” (Revelation 17:1-2)
The article continues,
“Graduates of Protestant universities increasingly took secular, especially administrative, occupations. Protestant university students increasingly studied secular subjects, especially degrees that prepared students for public sector jobs, rather than church sector specific theology. Second, it affected the sectoral composition of fixed investment.”
In other words, the dissident Protestants sifted society away from church sector to public sector occupations. This shift enhanced the state’s ability to develop nationality, to increase its wealth, and expand its markets, which inevitably lead to the illustration of the rider of the white horse that “went forth conquering and to conquer.” This shift took peace from the earth as the Protestant nations fought over the world’s resources in their colonization of other dominions, depicted by the rider of the red horse. Their machinations in prices of goods and services led to surpluses and famines, as illustrated by the rider of the black horse. In due course, their economic upheaves in distant colonies led to great hardships for the indigenous, illustrated by the pale horse rider.
