Dear sitetest,
Having read Mr. Archbold’s blog for a few years, I can assure you that he has a good idea of just how ugly things can get. He also knows that God is bigger than the worst of it...and that, ultimately, we spend eternity with that God who loves us with a merciful and greater love than we can even imagine.
Those who know history understand great periods of horror. Many of us, including Mr. Archbold, understand that we are presently heading in the direction of great horror. However, we should not lose our faith in Him who cares for us...nor our sense of humor. For some reason today, I recalled the story of Saint Lawrence, an early Christian martyr who “was tied on top of an iron grill over a slow fire that roasted his flesh little by little, but Lawrence was burning with so much love of God that he almost did not feel the flames. In fact, God gave him so much strength and joy that he even joked. “Turn me over,” he said to the judge. “I’m done on this side!” And just before he died, he said, “It’s cooked enough now.” Then he prayed that the city of Rome might be converted to Jesus and that the Catholic Faith might spread all over the world.”
We understand that we may be heading to the greatest horror the world has yet to see...but God IS with those who trust in Him.
;-)
...and God WILL bring good out of all of it!
;-)
I don't regularly read Mr. Archbold, and can only comment on what's in this essay. Here's the part with the overly optimistic assertions:
“I know where the country is going. I'm not going there and neither is my family.”
In one sense, that may be true. The country is going to hell in a handbasket, and Mr. Archbold will keep his family from joining the country in those nether regions.
But in another sense, it's entirely too optimistic. As the country goes to hell, we will be in for hell on earth. Not the eternal damnation sort of hell (but I'm not sure that Mr. Archbold means that about the country, anyway), but the grinding misery that may very well come our way.
“The Church will continue to exist whatever happens to this country.”
Yup. But we live in THIS country, and whatever happens to this country will affect us all. Possibly quite negatively.
“The country's barreling downwards and when it hits bottom it's going to explode like shrapnel. My job is to protect my family from the flying pieces. And then we'll start gathering the pieces.”
This borders on wishful thinking. When our country “hits bottom,” or at any point along the way, Mr. Archbold, and any of us, may be hit by those flying pieces, and we might not survive to start gathering up those pieces.
In fact, there might not be much to gather up. He assumes that there will be something left onto which to rebuild. Maybe eventually, but quite possibly, not in his lifetime nor that of his children.
“The only good news in all this is that I think that we'll hit bottom awfully quick because we're heading there awfully fast.”
This, too, is optimistic. I'm kinda thinking that the crisis will be relatively drawn-out, like slow torture. There are all sorts of tricks to be pulled out of the anti-Christ’s sleeve, and the sleeves of his enablers in the ruling elite. I figure, after the actual fall of the economy, the media and the elites will deny it even happened for the first four or five years, even as folks are dying of starvation.
And then, once we hit bottom, as others have pointed out, there's no guarantee that we'll make any meaningful recovery.
Your points about heaven and funny saints are all very well and good - I've heard the St. Lawrence story on uncounted occasions since I was maybe 14, I'm 52 now - but they're a little irrelevant to the question of whether or not Mr. Archbold is overly optimistic.
sitetest
My big concern is that we as a nation is heading towards a second civil war. Just look at the sales of guns since Tuesday’s election.