PANIC-BUYING
I went to Fully Booked to buy whatever books on Martial Law to preserve its truth and was told that they’re all out of stock. My visit confirmed the headline, “Fear of history revisionism as Marcos family returns to power sparks panic buying of Philippines history books.”
Since the unthinkable happened, “a group of scholars have pledged to combat attempts to falsify history….as (the presumptive) has called for a revision of textbooks that cover his father's dictatorship, saying they are teaching children lies.”
How did we get to this situation when eyewitnesses to its atrocities are “eyewitnessing” its whitewashing? Other than the disinformation campaign, people blame the educational system as well as the missed opportunities especially of the Aquino presidencies who could---and should---have done what Germany did with the Holocaust by making it illegal to deny its truth. And now, a generation has grown up and another might grow up thinking that the 70,000 detained, 34,000 tortured, and 3,240 killed were just political propaganda.
Failure to teach the truth to the next generation has a precedence in Scriptures. In the Old Testament, Joseph was a great leader who helped spare Egypt from the suffering that comes with a great famine but “(e)ventually, a new king came to power in Egypt who knew nothing about Joseph or what he had done.” (Exo. 1:8 NLT) Someone forgot to teach the new king which resulted in the en masse enslavement of God’s people.
Speaking of God’s people, they, too forgot to teach their children about the God who saved them. This is not surprising given how they themselves forgot the teachings. Hence, “there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel.” (Joshua 2:10 ESV)
During the intertestamental period, God’s people did not forget but they added “literally thousands of new commandments.”
And then in the New Testament, some preachers were preaching “another gospel” (2 Cor. 11:4) which was “contrary to the one” (Gal. 1:8) Paul taught them.
Two thousand years later, some of us are still forgetting to teach, still adding new commandments, and still preaching a contrary gospel.
We are failing to teach the Truth about God’s wrath by always talking about His mercies when He is both.
We are adding by saying politics has nothing to do with our walk with God. Look at what’s happened to the testimony of the evangelical community. We already do not have much impact on society, more so now. We have shown how we are no different from those who do not follow the Truth.
We are changing the Truth by reacting (and rightly so) against the SOGIE bill, but silent and even supportive of state-sponsored violence.
Perhaps it’s time that we do our own panic-buying of the Bible. Let us empty the shelves of book stores and fill our hearts and minds of its Truth---the whole Truth---before a generation grows up thinking that the Word is just another kuwento ni Lola Basyang, if it isn’t already.
I went to Fully Booked to buy whatever books on Martial Law to preserve its truth and was told that they’re all out of stock. My visit confirmed the headline, “Fear of history revisionism as Marcos family returns to power sparks panic buying of Philippines history books.”
Since the unthinkable happened, “a group of scholars have pledged to combat attempts to falsify history….as (the presumptive) has called for a revision of textbooks that cover his father's dictatorship, saying they are teaching children lies.”
How did we get to this situation when eyewitnesses to its atrocities are “eyewitnessing” its whitewashing? Other than the disinformation campaign, people blame the educational system as well as the missed opportunities especially of the Aquino presidencies who could---and should---have done what Germany did with the Holocaust by making it illegal to deny its truth. And now, a generation has grown up and another might grow up thinking that the 70,000 detained, 34,000 tortured, and 3,240 killed were just political propaganda.
Failure to teach the truth to the next generation has a precedence in Scriptures. In the Old Testament, Joseph was a great leader who helped spare Egypt from the suffering that comes with a great famine but “(e)ventually, a new king came to power in Egypt who knew nothing about Joseph or what he had done.” (Exo. 1:8 NLT) Someone forgot to teach the new king which resulted in the en masse enslavement of God’s people.
Speaking of God’s people, they, too forgot to teach their children about the God who saved them. This is not surprising given how they themselves forgot the teachings. Hence, “there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel.” (Joshua 2:10 ESV)
During the intertestamental period, God’s people did not forget but they added “literally thousands of new commandments.”
And then in the New Testament, some preachers were preaching “another gospel” (2 Cor. 11:4) which was “contrary to the one” (Gal. 1:8) Paul taught them.
Two thousand years later, some of us are still forgetting to teach, still adding new commandments, and still preaching a contrary gospel.
We are failing to teach the Truth about God’s wrath by always talking about His mercies when He is both.
We are adding by saying politics has nothing to do with our walk with God. Look at what’s happened to the testimony of the evangelical community. We already do not have much impact on society, more so now. We have shown how we are no different from those who do not follow the Truth.
We are changing the Truth by reacting (and rightly so) against the SOGIE bill, but silent and even supportive of state-sponsored violence.
Perhaps it’s time that we do our own panic-buying of the Bible. Let us empty the shelves of book stores and fill our hearts and minds of its Truth---the whole Truth---before a generation grows up thinking that the Word is just another kuwento ni Lola Basyang, if it isn’t already.