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His key message is that contemporary Western man is sunk in despair because he no longer believes in the existence of truth, and he no longer believes in truth because he no longer believes in the God of the Bible. insight that for modern man, religion, morality, the meaning of my life, and all things that distinguish my life from the life of an animal, are no longer in the realm of truth. The line of despair remains as airtight as in Schaeffer’s day, but since the most characteristic response nowadays is rage instead of despair, we may rename the line of despair to the line of rage. But for my money, Francis Schaeffer’s deep love of Western man, his deep love of the noble parts of the Western tradition, his deep compassion for ordinary and extraordinary people caught in the evil contemporary system, his erudition in the things of God, and his ability to deliver the goods make him the Christian apologist par excellence.

The Herodians were a sham aristocracy, the Sanhedrim was a bogus priesthood, and the insurrectionary plots of the Zealots were suicidal copes for people who refused to wake up and smell the Roman coffee. The word tribute comes from the word tribe, and “tribute” is what a subjugated tribe pays to the dominant Tribe as an acknowledgement of its submission. The only political choice remaining for the Jews was whether to make a sign of submission by paying the tribute, or to be forcefully reminded of the fact that they were subjugated by the legions of the dominant Tribe. It was to fully face the fact of political subjugation and discard the “copes” of a sham aristocracy, a bogus priesthood, and mad fantasies of political rebellion.

I wake often at 3:00 AM in a state of intense misery, feeling as though the best thing would probably be to die soon, and telling God that would be OK with me. I still laugh at comedy, chuckle at the antics of the dog, rejoice in the innocent inadvertent penetrating insights of the grandchildren, partake the peace of the garden and of the sky, wonder at the day’s anamnetic discoveries and revelations of philosophy and theology, lose myself ecstatically in sublime music, and so forth. It made me wonder this: if, as seems evident, the assault in 2020 from all sides on every institution and organ of Christendom is demonically coordinated and intensified, and has been approaching some sort of climax, then is it not likely that many devout Christians – especially those of us who, like all orthosphereans, are *publicly* devout, and so act as evangelists, missionaries, or apologists – are suffering particularly acute demonic oppression? In ancient Israel, angels were understood to be the shepherds of men; in parables, the shepherd then is an angel, the sheep his human flock.

I’d like to share with The Orthosphere my favorite Christmas song, “För Redeliga Män” “För Redeliga Män” is often sung by a girl-choir, as it is in the video above, but the young ladies are joined by a young man who represents the stellar lights that flash in the deep darkness of the heavens just before dawn on Christmas Day. That was when I sang, for three or four seasons running, with the Scandinavian Christmas Choir at UCLA in the first half of my undergraduate career before a long detour after which I redeemed myself. (In the current cultural climate, the costume would lead to my being lynched, even without the white, conical cap, as seen in the video.)