“Say not thou, What is the cause that the former days were better than these? for thou dost not enquire wisely concerning this.”
—Ecclesiastes 7:10
THE FANTASY OF THE “GOOD OLD DAYS”
One of the tools of the enemy is nostalgia: those fond, often bittersweet, memories of the “good old days.”
Well, here’s a little advice: the good old days were never as good as the selective memory of humanity has made them out to be.
Nostalgia is revisionist history.
Nostalgia is a distraction from the present.
Nostalgia is living in the past–a past that was never as good as we make it out to be. Actually, a past that was far worse than many of us ever knew.
And while the world–and the other minions of Satan–works overtime to drum up feelings about “times gone by,” the Bible has quite another message: Forget about it.
“And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”
—Luke 9:62
Many Americans (especially older Americans) long for the “good old days.”
So many Americans talk about the 1950s like that era was an era when the world was “a better place.” The world was never a “better place” (at least not for the Christian). The world has ALWAYS been the enemy of God.
“Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.”
—James 4:4
Granted, the mystery of iniquity disguised evil and wickedness better than today and lawlessness was not as “in your face” as it is in our present time; but the 1950s were every bit as depraved as today.
Again, it was just not as out in the open as today.
“But Lot’s wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt. “
—Genesis 19:26
Nostalgia is the Enemy of Faith: Learn from your heroes’ warts
“But nostalgia is the enemy of faith. By lamenting the good ‘ole days, nostalgia tempts us to forsake the present day as beyond the scope of God’s redemption, out of reach from his intervention. And hagiography is the handmaiden to nostalgia. When we venerate the saints of yesteryear as titans of faithfulness, without paying proper attention to their sins, we elevate them to a status only God possesses. As they increase in our memory, God must decrease. Even Jesus seems unfit to tie their sandals.”
NOTE: The above is good as far as it goes. IF one holds up fallible men as “heroes,” one is bound for disappointment.
The point is this: sin has always been rampant among humans. There was never a golden age where life was all beautiful. Why do we think this way? Personally I think there is a part of us that longs for utopia–and tries in vain to create it here on earth. Perhaps its our sorrow at being kicked out of Eden and our longing for the eternal home of Heaven.
There are verses in the Old Testament advising the children of Israel to remember their heritage. There are verses in the New Testament calling on believers to remember Jesus, His sacrifice for us and the things of God.
But there is nothing about longing for remembering the good old days.
“Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,”
—Philippians 3:13
Many people don’t stop to ask the question: How did we get to the horribly wrong present?
ANSWER: It all began in the good old days.
“As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly.”
—Proverbs 26:11
The good old days never existed.
The good old days are a deception.
There is no such thing as “the good old days.” Every time the reader sees such appeals to a better time that supposedly existed sometime in the past, remember: Such talk is from enemy.
Don’t look back. Look ahead. Jesus is coming.
“Even so, come, Lord Jesus.“
—Revelation 22:20
Is Your Calling and Election Sure?
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by Jeremiah J. Jameson
–with Mondo Frazier
image: ETPR/Simon Howden, FreeDigitalPhotos.net/ETPR
© Jeremiah J. Jameson and End Times Prophecy Report, 2012-13. © Mondo Frazier, DBKP and End Times Prophecy Report, 2007-13. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Jeremiah J. Jameson and End Times Prophecy Report with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
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