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'There is nothing new under the sun. What has been done will be done again. History merely repeats itself.' These are the words of King Solomon, considered to be the wisest man who ever lived, written in the book of Ecclesiastes verse 1:9 of the Bible. I pondered on this as I sat and watched a documentary hosted by Duck Dynasty's patriarch, Phil Robertson, called Torch Bearer.
In this film, which premiered at the Cannes film festival last year, he brings to light the debauchery resulting from mankind's own self focus. The film shows us a time line of warfare, and the fall of man, dating back to: Adam and Eve, The Roman Empire, Christ's death, burial, and resurrection, the genocide of the Jews during Hitler's rule, the Civil Rights Movement, and on into the recent wars we've suffered through in today's society.
Sitting on the sofa, in my living room, with my family and watching this documentary, I realized the things I see on the nightly news today should not necessarily be so shocking that they are burdensome to my inner peace. Looking over time shows these things are to be expected because man has not changed since the beginning of his fall. Phil Robertson said that "man left to himself begins to turn inwardly and eventually becomes his own god." I remembered then, a book I read about the life of Adolf Hitler, who was raised by a strictly religious mother, but eventually grew away from the faith he had been guided to follow, and claimed himself to be the "Messiah," at the height of his rule.
Adolf Hitler truly believed himself to be a sort of divine being simply because he was a man who had no one to contest him in his proclamation.
In the Garden of Eden, Eve believed she could eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and know as much as God in Heaven. In other words, though God had strictly forbidden she and Adam not to eat the fruit of this tree, she wanted to be her own type of god by following her own desires. She too, did not have Adam to contest her decision to commit the first sin, therefore; setting in motion the process of mankind's consistent downward spiral.
Osama Bin Laden felt he was actually doing the work of God by eliminating as many American lives as his resources allowed during the attack on the two towers of the World Trade Center, and the Pentagon on September 11th, 2001. Having much support from his followers in a terrorist group called the Al Quaida, Bin Laden felt uncontested in his deadly efforts. By taking it upon himself to determine the fate of many American lives, and saying they no longer mattered enough to continue living, he made himself into a sort of god.
We honor people like Christopher Columbus with a holiday set aside to remember his contributions, as if he were some sort of hero. If you really take a look at Mr. Columbus, and the evils he committed, which have been deliberately swept under the rug, you will see that he was not a person of such honorable character. Yes, indeed Columbus decided to become his own type of god in a sense, and determine the destiny of the natives living in America at the time of his "so-called" discovery. He went as far as to kill infant children by taking them by the legs and bashing their bodies against the stones. We all know that America was overtaken by Columbus and his country, even after being given a welcome to come in and share from the natives. They believed no land should be owned by man because it belonged to everyone. In history it is said that the land was colonized with his arrival, but how is a country colonized when there are already citizens who have established the it?
There are many in this world who have the potential to self-destruct, though they may not have done the things identical to the aforementioned people in this article. Those who would rather weed out the ones in their lives who push them to do better by telling them things they may not necessarily always want to hear, have a tendency to govern themselves, and decide what rules they want to follow. Usually these rules are judged on a curve because we always give ourselves more allowances than we do others. But why hold everyone else to a higher standard than we do ourselves?
Man, left alone to the depravity of his mind, will turn back to the ways of his nature. This natural way of doing things is sadly comparable to a beast in the wild. We need others who will help to keep us accountable to our actions, and encourage us to push through our fears. If we don't have these people we are otherwise destined to self-destruct.
