Is Bad News a Good Sign That a Counter-Revolution is Coming?
Sep 30, 2022 by David Fowler
I received two communications this week—one from a pastor upset over yet another drag queen show in our state and one about an over-the-top FBI raid of a Catholic pro-life advocate’s home. I see these situations as the harbingers of a counter-revolution that has long been coming. History tells me it will be glorious. You and I have the opportunity lay the foundation for it.
To see the glorious revolution that lies ahead, one must first put away the thinking of the humanist historians who have taught us. Modern-day Humanists believe history is the individual historian’s subjective interpretation of facts they subjectively deem relevant. There is no objective meaning behind anything taking place in time and space, because there is no objective standard by which to judge anything.
Second, we must heed what Stanford historian Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy noted about the narrow perspective of today’s historians. He rightly said that today’s historians break down the past into smaller and smaller bits and, therefore, lose any sense of direction. Of course, to the humanists there can be no direction.
Those who take the Bible seriously don’t believe any of that. From God’s perspective, an objective history has always been going on and is still going on. It is going precisely in the direction He intends.
If that is true, then the communications I received this week might seem horrifying, especially to that minority of evangelicals who do not expect an imminent return of Jesus. But I submit that a broader, God-centered perspective on history is needed.
I hope you will follow along as I present the historical pattern I see taking shape that ends with a glorious counter revolution against the French Revolution that has taken place in America.
Stepping back more than 100 years, in 1891 Christians in Europe gathered to consider what course they should take as the cosmological revolution of the French Revolution whose convention theme was “No God, No Master” began to spread through the continent’s borders.
The gathering was called the First Christian Social Congress. The opening remarks entitled, “The Christian Religion and the Social Question,” were given by Abraham Kuyper, Dutch theologian, founder of a Christian political party in The Netherlands, and later that nation’s prime minister.
In 1898, Abraham Kuyper gave the following warning about the French Revolution to the seminarians at Princeton:
No one paid heed.
On October 12, 2018, I published a commentary making the following observation regarding those pounding on the doors of the United States Supreme Court when Justice Brett Kavanaugh was being sworn in:
What I didn’t appreciate then was that the file marked “French Revolution American Style” was stamped “closed” and sent into storage on June 26, 2015.
On that day, the Court released its decision in Obergefell v. Hodges declaring there is no reality to man and woman upon which matrimonial relationships are predicated. This is what I wrote about that two weeks ago:
With the poison of the French Revolution having brought about the death of God in America, Kuyper’s vision was fulfilled. The God-denying worldview of the French revolution has swept the globe.
Following the Storming of the Bastille, the French Republic was established on strictly humanistic grounds. That is what I see now taking place in America, reflected in the communications I got this week.
For example, drag queen shows, a pageantry of transgender ideology, is simply the next evolution of Obergefell’s premise; it visibly blurs for us even the material/physical distinction between man and woman and is teaching its worldview to children.
In addition, the authoritarianism of the “new republic” was demonstrated by the FBI’s raid on the home of a pro-life Catholic. Such should be expected when there is no God, only the state and the law it makes.
Any claim by anyone to any truth beyond that declared by the state—which is what those who oppose abortion and insist there is an ontological and metaphysical distinction between male-female believe—must be eradicated lest non-state sponsored and declared “truth” spreads. Examples must be made of them. To the proverbial guillotine they must go.
This section of my analysis is not cheery unless one is living on the right side of history, God’s. I call this stage by the same name given that which followed the establishment of the new French Republic, the Reign of Terror.
What the American-style Reign of Terror looks like I don’t know. I expect the milder forms of it will be things like cancel culture, FBI raids, losing one’s job, clients, or customers, and protests outside the homes of culturally despised politicians, judges, and policy advocates.
I pray that is as bad as God sees fit to let things go. But He knows what is needed for His counter-revolution to take place.
I believe at some point in the preceding stage—our current state—God will step in to change the direction of things.
I could not say what follows but for what I see as the pattern repeatedly recorded in the Bible and even thereafter with the Papal and Protestant Reformation and the formation of Western Civilization.
I came to the pattern again Tuesday morning as I read Isaiah and his warning to Assyria, the “destroyer” of nations (33:1, emphasis supplied):
In other words, this is what I see happening at some point. Even as Robespierre sent people to the guillotine and later had the guillotine turned on him, those who have been the leading advocates for the American Reign of Terror will become its victims. Some of that is happening now, viz Hollywood elites turning against their own. Chrissy Teigen, Will Smith, and Harvey Weinstein are a few examples.
This stage is further described by Isaiah a few verses later (10-13):
Perhaps more Americans will soon be ready “hear” what God has “done” and “acknowledge [God’s] might,” unlike when Kuyper spoke at Princeton Seminary.
With all the foregoing as context, I think another revolution—a counter-revolution—is coming. I think it will be full of Divine glory. I also don’t expect to live in this world long enough to see its conclusion. I know in saying this I am in the minority among evangelicals.
But I believe, when the whole of Scripture and its portrait of the history of salvation is considered—from “In the beginning” to the last verse of Revelation—the present is simply another turning in the already-begun “last days” of the new creation the risen Jesus ushered in.
I believe God is, above all, faithful to Himself and, therefore, He is going to get what He wanted in Genesis 1:28. It is spoken about in many places in the Old Testament—a day in which the knowledge of the glory of God fills the earth (Numbers 14:21, Isaiah 11:9, 27:6, Psalm 72:19, and Habakkuk 2:14).
Here, I enter a realm of unknown—not historical facts—but is it possible that God, having allowed the poison of the French Revolution to fill the earth, may think it time for a cosmologically grounded soteriology to fill the earth as its cure?
Did Jesus really come that the “zeal of the Lord” would accomplish a decrease of His government and of peace contrary to Isaiah 9:7?
When and on the basis of what fact in history did Christians decide things were as good as they would ever get, which I submit would have to be considered the Christendom of Eastern and Western Europe prior to the Fall of Constantinople, and all had to go downhill from there? Something read in the newspaper over the last half-century or in something the Bible says about itself?
To borrow Kuyper’s thought about the poison, what if the cure, “having once entered the system at a single point, in due time must necessarily pervade the whole organism?”
I pray it is so, and I pray I have contributed something to that cure today.
David Fowler served in the Tennessee state Senate for 12 years before joining FACT as President in 2006.
To see the glorious revolution that lies ahead, one must first put away the thinking of the humanist historians who have taught us. Modern-day Humanists believe history is the individual historian’s subjective interpretation of facts they subjectively deem relevant. There is no objective meaning behind anything taking place in time and space, because there is no objective standard by which to judge anything.
Second, we must heed what Stanford historian Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy noted about the narrow perspective of today’s historians. He rightly said that today’s historians break down the past into smaller and smaller bits and, therefore, lose any sense of direction. Of course, to the humanists there can be no direction.
Getting on the Right Side of History
Those who take the Bible seriously don’t believe any of that. From God’s perspective, an objective history has always been going on and is still going on. It is going precisely in the direction He intends.
If that is true, then the communications I received this week might seem horrifying, especially to that minority of evangelicals who do not expect an imminent return of Jesus. But I submit that a broader, God-centered perspective on history is needed.
I hope you will follow along as I present the historical pattern I see taking shape that ends with a glorious counter revolution against the French Revolution that has taken place in America.
First, America’s French Revolution Predicted
Stepping back more than 100 years, in 1891 Christians in Europe gathered to consider what course they should take as the cosmological revolution of the French Revolution whose convention theme was “No God, No Master” began to spread through the continent’s borders.
The gathering was called the First Christian Social Congress. The opening remarks entitled, “The Christian Religion and the Social Question,” were given by Abraham Kuyper, Dutch theologian, founder of a Christian political party in The Netherlands, and later that nation’s prime minister.
In 1898, Abraham Kuyper gave the following warning about the French Revolution to the seminarians at Princeton:
[A]lthough on the American continent, in a younger world, a relatively healthier tone of life prevails than in senescent Europe, yet this will not for a moment mislead the thinking mind. It is impossible for you to shut yourselves off hermetically from the old world, as you form no humanity apart, but are a member of the great body of the race. And the poison having once entered the system at a single point, in due time must necessarily pervade the whole organism.
No one paid heed.
Second, The French Revolution American Style is Complete
On October 12, 2018, I published a commentary making the following observation regarding those pounding on the doors of the United States Supreme Court when Justice Brett Kavanaugh was being sworn in:
The anti-God, Enlightenment thinking that fueled the French Revolution ended with its leader, Maximilien Robespierre, being subjected to the guillotine, and its terror was only brought to an end by the tyranny of Napoleon.
With respect to America, in 1959, historian Roland Van Zandt wrote, “America’s French Revolution has awaited the twentieth century.” And I think he was right, though off by maybe 75 to 100 years or so.
With respect to America, in 1959, historian Roland Van Zandt wrote, “America’s French Revolution has awaited the twentieth century.” And I think he was right, though off by maybe 75 to 100 years or so.
What I didn’t appreciate then was that the file marked “French Revolution American Style” was stamped “closed” and sent into storage on June 26, 2015.
On that day, the Court released its decision in Obergefell v. Hodges declaring there is no reality to man and woman upon which matrimonial relationships are predicated. This is what I wrote about that two weeks ago:
Same-sex marriage is the apex of the view that sterile sex is fundament to a “correct” understanding of human beings [expressed in Roe]. It is the repudiation of the cosmology in Genesis 1 and 2. It is the rejection of a Trinitarian understanding of the nature of reality in toto. In sum, nothing remains of Christianity when the Church accepts Obergefell as law.
With the poison of the French Revolution having brought about the death of God in America, Kuyper’s vision was fulfilled. The God-denying worldview of the French revolution has swept the globe.
The Third Stage of Revolution—Establishing the New Republic in America
Following the Storming of the Bastille, the French Republic was established on strictly humanistic grounds. That is what I see now taking place in America, reflected in the communications I got this week.
For example, drag queen shows, a pageantry of transgender ideology, is simply the next evolution of Obergefell’s premise; it visibly blurs for us even the material/physical distinction between man and woman and is teaching its worldview to children.
In addition, the authoritarianism of the “new republic” was demonstrated by the FBI’s raid on the home of a pro-life Catholic. Such should be expected when there is no God, only the state and the law it makes.
Any claim by anyone to any truth beyond that declared by the state—which is what those who oppose abortion and insist there is an ontological and metaphysical distinction between male-female believe—must be eradicated lest non-state sponsored and declared “truth” spreads. Examples must be made of them. To the proverbial guillotine they must go.
The Fourth Stage of the Revolution—The American Reign of Terror
This section of my analysis is not cheery unless one is living on the right side of history, God’s. I call this stage by the same name given that which followed the establishment of the new French Republic, the Reign of Terror.
What the American-style Reign of Terror looks like I don’t know. I expect the milder forms of it will be things like cancel culture, FBI raids, losing one’s job, clients, or customers, and protests outside the homes of culturally despised politicians, judges, and policy advocates.
I pray that is as bad as God sees fit to let things go. But He knows what is needed for His counter-revolution to take place.
What Takes Place Next—God Terrorizes the Terrorizers
I believe at some point in the preceding stage—our current state—God will step in to change the direction of things.
I could not say what follows but for what I see as the pattern repeatedly recorded in the Bible and even thereafter with the Papal and Protestant Reformation and the formation of Western Civilization.
I came to the pattern again Tuesday morning as I read Isaiah and his warning to Assyria, the “destroyer” of nations (33:1, emphasis supplied):
Woe to you who plunder, though you have not been plundered; and you who deal treacherously, though they have not dealt treacherously with you!
When you cease plundering, you will be plundered; when you make an end of dealing treacherously, they will deal treacherously with you.
When you cease plundering, you will be plundered; when you make an end of dealing treacherously, they will deal treacherously with you.
In other words, this is what I see happening at some point. Even as Robespierre sent people to the guillotine and later had the guillotine turned on him, those who have been the leading advocates for the American Reign of Terror will become its victims. Some of that is happening now, viz Hollywood elites turning against their own. Chrissy Teigen, Will Smith, and Harvey Weinstein are a few examples.
This stage is further described by Isaiah a few verses later (10-13):
“Now I will rise,” says the Lord. “Now I will be exalted, now I will lift Myself up.
You shall conceive chaff, you shall bring forth stubble; your breath, as fire, shall devour you.
And the people shall be like the burnings of lime; like thorns cut up they shall be burned in the fire.
Hear, you who are afar off, what I have done; and you who are near, acknowledge My might.”
You shall conceive chaff, you shall bring forth stubble; your breath, as fire, shall devour you.
And the people shall be like the burnings of lime; like thorns cut up they shall be burned in the fire.
Hear, you who are afar off, what I have done; and you who are near, acknowledge My might.”
Perhaps more Americans will soon be ready “hear” what God has “done” and “acknowledge [God’s] might,” unlike when Kuyper spoke at Princeton Seminary.
The Counter-Revolution that is Coming—Putting Pessimism on the Run
With all the foregoing as context, I think another revolution—a counter-revolution—is coming. I think it will be full of Divine glory. I also don’t expect to live in this world long enough to see its conclusion. I know in saying this I am in the minority among evangelicals.
But I believe, when the whole of Scripture and its portrait of the history of salvation is considered—from “In the beginning” to the last verse of Revelation—the present is simply another turning in the already-begun “last days” of the new creation the risen Jesus ushered in.
I believe God is, above all, faithful to Himself and, therefore, He is going to get what He wanted in Genesis 1:28. It is spoken about in many places in the Old Testament—a day in which the knowledge of the glory of God fills the earth (Numbers 14:21, Isaiah 11:9, 27:6, Psalm 72:19, and Habakkuk 2:14).
Here, I enter a realm of unknown—not historical facts—but is it possible that God, having allowed the poison of the French Revolution to fill the earth, may think it time for a cosmologically grounded soteriology to fill the earth as its cure?
Did Jesus really come that the “zeal of the Lord” would accomplish a decrease of His government and of peace contrary to Isaiah 9:7?
When and on the basis of what fact in history did Christians decide things were as good as they would ever get, which I submit would have to be considered the Christendom of Eastern and Western Europe prior to the Fall of Constantinople, and all had to go downhill from there? Something read in the newspaper over the last half-century or in something the Bible says about itself?
To borrow Kuyper’s thought about the poison, what if the cure, “having once entered the system at a single point, in due time must necessarily pervade the whole organism?”
I pray it is so, and I pray I have contributed something to that cure today.
David Fowler served in the Tennessee state Senate for 12 years before joining FACT as President in 2006.
