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on being her most consistent and full-orbed proponents of the Truth with which she is
entrusted. For though the Church is not identical to the Western Tradition and indeed
must sometimes stand against it, she has contributed a great deal to it, and it is very
valuable to her. If it goes down under this assault (considered as an attack on the very
possibility of truth claims), she will go down with it (in so far as making a very
particular set of truth claims is the essence of her mission). If she survives intact, it will
survive with her, as the best of classical Greece and Rome did when she preserved them
in monastery libraries in the Middle Ages. If she survives by acquiescing in its
destruction, she will be transformed into something that can no longer be called "the
household of God, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and support of the
Truth" (1 Tim. 3:15).
God of course will not allow that ultimate acquiescence and transformation to
happen, for He always preserves a faithful Remnant; but nevertheless, much damage
will be done if we are not vigilant. It has already been done, in our failure sufficiently
to arm our young people and prepare them to defend themselves against this new
threat, and in our slowness to realize the need to supplement our old apologetic,
directed against a Modernist foe who has long been passe. Yet there is reason for hope
that such vigilance may be fruitful even without appealing to remnant theology. If
there is no objective difference between gold and iron pyrite, people are not going to
commit themselves to serious prospecting. And I have a sneaking suspicion that with
no foul lines, no bases, and no way to keep score, this free play of the mind is a game
that will quickly produce an ennui more intense and a disillusionment more deep than
any we have seen since the collapse of Rome. Boredom and Barbarism may then seem
to be the only options available. We may in fact be entering such a time already. It is
surely part of our calling to keep some memory of both Western Civilization and
Christian Truth alive and vibrant enough to serve as a viable alternative to those terrible
choices in that day.