Wig’s Word of God Today 6-8-2011
And from your own group, men will come forward perverting the Truth to draw the disciples away after them. Acts 20:30
God will arise for battle; the enemy will be scattered; those who hate God will flee. Psalm 68:2
Consecrate them in the Truth. Your Word is Truth. John 17:17
Acts 20:28-38, Psalm 68 & John 17:11:19
Thirty-three years ago today, Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn gave a speech at Harvard University that rings true throughout the Word of God in our Scripture study this morning coming form the central theme of Truth. Today seems to symbolize even more than any other year of its anniversary because this is its 33rd year since the speech was given representing in my eyes the complete life of Christ Jesus. Keep this in mind as you read just a small excerpt from the speech below and remember the One Who lived sinless for these 33 years lived in COMPLETE Truth establishing a New Covenant of Love and Truth for Humanity to be Redeemed by.
The world has become a distorted place where the flash and flare of media has destroyed people’s perceptions of living in Harmony with God, not just here in America but throughout the world. Thirty-three years ago today, ironically enough, a Russian writer who changed the course of history by bringing down the “Iron Curtain” through his writings of the Soviet prison system and horrific treatment and lies portrayed by the Soviet Communist Regime because he knew in his heart that “the Truth will set” Humanity “free.” This Truth is the theme Humanity will garnish a complete enjoyment of existing in harmony with one another to accomplish living in the Will of God enjoying His Graces of faith, charity and love.
The title of his commencement address was “A World Split Apart” and has as much impact in today’s world than any other time in our history. My insertion of parts of his speech today is done in succession with key strategically placed elements where his discussion of living in Truth is necessary to embrace the Will of God. His speech alone was twelve pages of 12 point type and exactly 6, 136 words long. May we learn to live in Truth never forgetting or thanking God who created us.
You can enjoy the speech by clicking on this link: http://www.columbia.edu/cu/augustine/arch/solzhenitsyn/harvard1978.html
June 8th, 1978 Harvard University Commencement Address by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn- (not in its entirety )
“Harvard’s motto is “Veritas.” (meaning truth) Many of you have already found out and others will find out in the course of their lives that truth eludes us if we do not concentrate with total attention on its pursuit. And even while it eludes us, the illusion still lingers of knowing it and leads to many misunderstandings. Also, truth is seldom pleasant; it is almost invariably bitter. There is some bitterness in my speech today, too. But I want to stress that it comes not from an adversary but from a friend.”
‘A World Split Apart’- “The split in today’s world is perceptible even to a hasty glance. Any of our contemporaries readily identifies two world powers, each of them already capable of entirely destroying the other. However, understanding of the split often is limited to this political conception, to the illusion that danger may be abolished through successful diplomatic negotiations or by achieving a balance of armed forces. The truth is that the split is a much profounder and a more alienating one, that the rifts are more than one can see at first glance. This deep manifold split bears the danger of manifold disaster for all of us, in accordance with the ancient truth that a Kingdom — in this case, our Earth — divided against itself cannot stand.”
‘Well being’- “When the modern Western States were created, the following principle was proclaimed: governments are meant to serve man, and man lives to be free to pursue happiness. (See, for example, the American Declaration). Now at last during past decades technical and social progress has permitted the realization of such aspirations: the welfare state. Every citizen has been granted the desired freedom and material goods in such quantity and of such quality as to guarantee in theory the achievement of happiness, in the morally inferior sense which has come into being during those same decades. In the process, however, one psychological detail has been overlooked: the constant desire to have still more things and a still better life and the struggle to obtain them imprints many Western faces with worry and even depression, though it is customary to conceal such feelings.”
“Active and tense competition permeates all human thoughts without opening a way to free spiritual development. The individual’s independence from many types of state pressure has been guaranteed; the majority of people have been granted well-being to an extent their fathers and grandfathers could not even dream about; it has become possible to raise young people according to these ideals, leading them to physical splendor, happiness, possession of material goods, money and leisure, to an almost unlimited freedom of enjoyment. So who should now renounce all this, why and for what should one risk one’s precious life in defense of common values, and particularly in such nebulous cases when the security of one’s nation must be defended in a distant country? Even biology knows that habitual extreme safety and well-being are not advantageous for a living organism. Today, well-being in the life of Western society has begun to reveal its pernicious mask.”
‘Socialism’- “it is almost universally recognized that the West shows all the world a way to successful economic development, even though in the past years it has been strongly disturbed by chaotic inflation. However, many people living in the West are dissatisfied with their own society. They despise it or accuse it of not being up to the level of maturity attained by mankind. A number of such critics turn to socialism, which is a false and dangerous current.
I hope that no one present will suspect me of offering my personal criticism of the Western system to present socialism as an alternative. Having experienced applied socialism in a country where the alternative has been realized, I certainly will not speak for it. The well-known Soviet mathematician Shafarevich, a member of the Soviet Academy of Science, has written a brilliant book under the title Socialism; it is a profound analysis showing that socialism of any type and shade leads to a total destruction of the human spirit and to a leveling of mankind into death. Shafarevich’s book was published in France almost two years ago and so far no one has been found to refute it. It will shortly be published in English in the United States.”
‘The Turn’-“To such consciousness, man is the touchstone in judging and evaluating everything on earth. Imperfect man, who is never free of pride, self-interest, envy, vanity, and dozens of other defects. We are now experiencing the consequences of mistakes which had not been noticed at the beginning of the journey. On the way from the Renaissance to our days we have enriched our experience, but we have lost the concept of a Supreme Complete Entity which used to restrain our passions and our irresponsibility. We have placed too much hope in political and social reforms, only to find out that we were being deprived of our most precious possession: our spiritual life. In the East, it is destroyed by the dealings and machinations of the ruling party. In the West, commercial interests tend to suffocate it. This is the real crisis. The split in the world is less terrible than the similarity of the disease plaguing its main sections.
“If humanism were right in declaring that man is born to be happy, he would not be born to die. Since his body is doomed to die, his task on earth evidently must be of a more spiritual nature. It cannot unrestrained enjoyment of everyday life. It cannot be the search for the best ways to obtain material goods and then cheerfully get the most out of them. It has to be the fulfillment of a permanent, earnest duty so that one’s life journey may become an experience of moral growth, so that one may leave life a better human being than one started it. It is imperative to review the table of widespread human values. Its present incorrectness is astounding. It is not possible that assessment of the President’s performance be reduced to the question of how much money one makes or of unlimited availability of gasoline. Only voluntary, inspired self-restraint can raise man above the world stream of materialism.”
So we ask in prayer: Dear God, we pray today we look back on this speech as a learning tool for Humanity to further embrace our decision to surrender to the Your Glory for all things. In Jesus Name we pray. Amen.
God Bless His Truth for America,
Thomas Joe Cruz-Wiggins
Romans 8:28
“Spirit led God inspired Christ fed“
Humanity Eternally Free
Rise up o’ lonely ones
Be not afraid of Thee
My Truth is lived for everyone
Humanity Eternally Free
© Thomas Joe Cruz-Wiggins June 8th, 2011 @ 5:21 AM EST
