Biblical Audio Commentary – Compromise: The Devil’s Hegelian Synthesis

Biblical Audio Commentary – Compromise: The Devil’s Hegelian Synthesis

Transcript:

Many people have heard the term Hegelian Dialectics and have possibly also listened to various people discussing them.  However, if you’re like me, despite having numerous encounters with this phrase, perhaps it still hasn’t hit home with you exactly what it means and what its implications are.

I came across a useful article written over ten years ago on this subject that helped clarify it for me.  If you’re not totally understanding what Hegelian Dialectics is, maybe the Commentary today will help.  To that end, I’ll include various quotes from the article titled: Hegelian Dialectics: The Devil’s Winning Tool, which you can access at the link I provide in the Transcript.  The author website for this and other articles is here.

Georg Wilhelm Hegel (1770-1831) was a liberal German philosopher who led the German Idealist movement, turning his back on orthodox Christianity and holding to a type of pantheism. He denied that there is such a thing as absolute truth. He said it is “narrow” and “dogmatic” to assume that of two opposite assertions, one must be true and the other false. He rejected the Bible and proposed that man is on an evolutionary journey . . .

The sentence which should pop out at you in this paragraph is: He denied that there is such a thing as absolute truth.  That’s right out of the serpent’s playbook going all the way back to the Garden, so you can see where this discussion is heading.

The Hegelian system works on the concept that begins with a THESIS.  The thesis is an idea or quality that has generally been in place for some period of time and is accepted as truth.

What happens in this world when a generally accepted truth is prevalent?  Inevitably there must be some force that resists it.  This resisting force presents a so-called alternative truth contrary to the original.  This is called ANTITHESIS.  We might also label it as anti-truth.

There obviously cannot be two competing truths regarding the same issue which are both true.  Typically what happens is that a compromise is called for whereby the two sides come together to arrive at a more-or-less halfway point that everyone can accept.  This is called SYNTHESIS.  Note that this compromise produces a new so-called truth that is less than truthful from the original thesis, i.e. the real truth.

A couple examples may help.

Biblically the position true Christians take is that abortion in any form is a non-starter because of the fact that humans are made in the image of God, i.e. imago Dei, and that all life has value because of that. This would be our thesis, i.e. the absolute truth that we believe and have adhered to over the ages.

Along come Satan’s minions, and they declare that abortion is a woman’s absolute right, i.e. her body, her choice.  There is no consideration for the unborn child because he is defined simply as a fetus or a harmful clump of cells no different than cancer.

As the world turns and America in particular falls further from Christianity as the underpinning religion necessary for our nation to retain its character, the rise of the Communist Left insists that anything Godly is hurtful and intolerant.  Satan’s politically useful idiots agree and legislation incrementally advances.  Can’t have prayer in schools.  Must remove the Ten Commandments that harm innocent eyes and minds.  And, oh by the way, unlimited abortion must be the law of the land.  This is the antithesis, i.e. the alternative truth held up as sacrosanct by those in this camp.

This leads to a standoff.  On the right we have the absolute position that abortion is ungodly and should remain completely illegal.  On the left we have the ungodly proponents of abortion who want unfettered access to it.  How do we resolve this now-political problem?

At this point the church has been like the proverbial turtle faced with danger.  It pulls its head into its shell and sings Kumbaya within its four walls.  No help there for the few politicians who would like to do the right thing.

A committee is proposed in Congress, and a compromise position is reached.  The politicians on the right agree with their colleagues on the left that sixteen weeks is a good number beyond which no abortions can be performed.  In order to achieve this minor victory, they capitulate to abortion in any circumstances up to that sixteen-week point.  This goes to court and Roe v Wade is the result.  Abortion becomes the law of the land.  We now have synthesis.

But note what has occurred.  The hard and fast truth that those on the right adhered to has shifted notably to the left.  This sixteen-week marker becomes the new truth, i.e. the new thesis.

What happens then?  The process begins again.  At the end of it, naturally, there is compromise with the antithesis crowd.  As a result of that a new synthesis is arrived at, which has moved the needle leftward once more.  Eventually, there is no Godly position on the right, as it has been completely shifted left and lost.

There are a couple other terms that describe what happens in Hegelian Dialectics.  One is the ratchet effect.  Discussion about this phenomenon usually centers around economics or politics.  Here is one definition:

This phenomenon gets its name from the mechanical device called a ratchet, which allows motion in one direction only. Just as a ratchet prevents backward movement, the ratchet effect ensures that government power advances inexorably, never retreating to previous levels.

In this case the motion in the one direction is inevitably leftward.  If the two political sides are small government as the thesis and large government as the antithesis, the ratchet will always move toward larger government as the synthesis.

If we have a controversy in America such as what occurred after 9/11 concerning freedom versus security, freedom being the thesis and security being the antithesis, then we end up with the Patriot Act compromise which ratchets left as the synthesis to erode our freedoms.

Another quote from the original article I cited earlier helps put a lot of this into perspective:

Observe, again, that deception is inherent in the dialectic process. Those who initiate and oversee the process have an objective, and they know that it will be resisted, so they resort to deception, especially at the beginning, to break down resistance to the goal. In the case of theological modernists, they present the new theology as a minor issue at first, hiding their real agenda. In the case of Marxists, they describe their desired political system in deceptive terms. They make promises that they have no intention of keeping; they hide the fact that liberties will be curtailed.

Another way of looking at all this is through something called The Overton Window.  I first encountered this term in reading the book by Glenn Beck with that title.  From the book page description on Amazon, this is what it says concerning the process:

There is a powerful technique called the Overton Window that can shape our lives, our laws, and our future. It works by manipulating public perception so that ideas previously thought of as radical begin to seem acceptable over time. Move the Window and you change the debate. Change the debate and you change the country.

Here’s how one website describes how the Overton Window works:

To get an idea of how the Overton Window can change over time, think about the Prohibition Era. Just a few generations ago, the sale and use of alcoholic beverages was made illegal by federal law, suggesting that this policy was safe inside the Overton Window. But fast forward to today when people poke fun of the folly of Prohibition and virtually no politician endorses making alcohol illegal again. The Overton Window has clearly shifted, and Prohibition is no longer within its borders.

Compromise happened in this instance.  The thesis of Prohibition was eroded by the antithesis that no one should be kept from consuming alcohol by federal mandate.  The synthesis arrived at was the repeal of Prohibition laws to the fast forward complacency today that advocates for not only legal marijuana use but the removal of any drug laws keeping people from freely using whatever they want.  Note what happened in Oregon:

Three years ago, Oregon became the first state in the country to decriminalize illicit drugs. Now, it’s becoming the first state to reverse course and reinstate criminal penalties for use and possession.

They actually went too far, but it’s probably too late to put the genie back in the bottle given what a lawless, drug-infested mess Oregon has become.

Do you remember that phrase I highlighted earlier about how those who use these techniques don’t believe in absolute truth?  I’ll give you one more quote from a Lutheran pastor who recognized what was happening in his theological training, yet fully embraced it.  In his courses, this pastor was challenged to think through his theology in order to stretch his faith so as to move it to a deeper level.  The instructor told the students this was necessary when his Marxist comments were challenged by the more conservative members of the class.

“THIS [challenge] REALLY WAS DECEITFUL BECAUSE THE AIM AND INTENTION, AS I CAME TO KNOW LATER AS A MORE SOPHISTICATED INITIATE, WAS NOT TO ‘STRETCH OUR FAITH’ BUT TO MOVE US FROM THE HISTORICAL FAITH INTO THE ‘NEW THINKING.’ We all knew this was a great shift; that’s why it was so traumatic; but we presented it as representing only minor doctrinal differences. It actually involves an entirely different way of thinking. I have said many times to my conservative friends: You don’t understand; they think in an entirely different way. You think in terms of one thing which is true and the opposite which is false. They have adopted a dialectical way of thinking in which there is no true and false, only thesis, antithesis, and synthesis. They have effectively adopted Hegel’s dialectical way of thinking. There truly are no absolute truths within their system. They will discuss things with conservatives in a way that gets their opponent to think that they are discussing which of two positions is right. All the while the real issue for them is that there is no certain answer”

Deceit is at the heart of this process.  It must be employed in order to accomplish the Leftist objectives.  Notice the use of “they” in this quote.  They are the people seeking to divert from the truth into deceit.

We saw this in spades as the COVID so-called pandemic was unleashed in order to coerce people to take the vaxx.  I’ve talked about this at length elsewhere.  The point is that in 2019 and the couple years following the Globalists were ready to move their agenda forward.  They employed Hegelian Dialectics to shift the thinking of the populace of the entire world from one that thought humans have natural immunity to a place where most people think they must take a vaccine for protection and to preserve their very lives.  This is now the new norm, i.e. the new thesis.  It has set the stage for another major disease outbreak for which they just happen to already have a vaccine ready even though the illness isn’t quite identified yet, so they call it Disease X.

The bottom line is that “they” are always moving the needle away from the Godly position in the interest of gaining greater control over the populace.  This control is much easier to achieve with fewer people.  Thus, the vaxx for COVID plus future ones that will continue killing people, as well as incapacitating them through horrible side effects, making them more susceptible to doing whatever the authorities demand.

The final end game is a world prepped for the Antichrist to step onto the end-times stage.  Almost everyone at that time will be conditioned through the constant deception and the lack of absolute truth to do whatever this man of perdition says.  He’ll direct them to take his satanic Mark and they will readily comply.

Hegelian Dialectics is definitely a tool of the devil.  Just remember how it works.  Thesis is typically the position on the right that Satan wants to change.  Through his minions, he proposes an alternate position on the left which is the antithesis of what has gone before and been accepted as truth.  In this case, a new “truth” is brought forth.  So as to move forward in whatever sphere this is being used, whether religion, politics, or culture, a compromise is inevitably reached between these two polar opposites called synthesis.  This position is inevitably a dumbed down – watered down – arrangement.  It always moves the needle leftward to the place where there is no moral, ethical, or Godly position any longer.

The most important thing we can do while we wait for the Rapture is to never accept the premise of these lying minions.  When they open their mouths, they speak the words of their father who wants to deceive and corrupt all who will listen.  For instance, when they spout off about climate change, there’s no point in debating any aspect of it.  Its real purpose is to move us toward a controlled society.  Plus, as it turns out, all the recycling and environmental policies we’ve been subjected to over the years have been a ruse, none of which have benefited the environment in any way.

At the very least in all this, we who love the Lord can be alert to the falsehoods perpetrated upon us.  We can step back and say, “No thank you.  And, oh by the way, do you know Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior?”  I guess if we do that, it’ll at least throw them off their game a little.

And isn’t that really what we’re to be doing as we wait for Jesus’ return?  Aren’t we supposed to be about the Lord’s business?