Tearing Down the Lessons of History

Tearing Down the Lessons of History

A statue of Captain James Cook stands in Sydney’s Hyde Park on August 25, 2017, as Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull calls to change colonial-era monuments and the date of Australia Day, in attempts to better reflect the country’s indigenous past, as a ‘Stalinist’ excercise in re-writing history.

WILLIAM WEST/AFP/Getty Images

As the American left continues to push for the removal of historic statues, Australian liberals have begun discussing the prospect of following suit.

By Jack Wood • September 3

Less than two weeks after the riots in Charlottesville, Virginia, their repercussions are beginning to be felt across the world. Plans to take down a statue of Civil War general Robert E. Lee resulted in a deadly clash between white supremacists and Antifa vigilantes. The incident brought major attention upon the policy of taking down Confederate statues and sparked debate about whether or not to spread this trend to other parts of the country.

The tide of anti-historical feeling is now beginning to swell beyond U.S. borders. The political splash in Charlottesville is sending ripples as far abroad as the United Kingdom and Australia.

On August 27, the Australian Broadcasting Channel reported on the rise in anti-colonial sentiment in the wake of America’s protests. A number of statues representing some of Australia’s most prominent national figures were defaced by unknown vandals. Among them, statues of explorer James Cook and Gov. Lachlan Macquarie were sprayed with slogans denouncing these historic monuments as glorifying genocide and racism.

This comes after recent discussions by the city council of Sydney to remove such statues due to their potentially offensive nature to indigenous Australians.

The memorial to British Naval officer and explorer Capt. James Cook was erected in 1879 and still stands proudly today in Sydney’s Hyde Park. Cook used to be remembered fondly by textbooks as a hero of Australian history. Yet a growing number of vocal protesters are up in arms over its plaque, which reads: discovered this territory, 1770.

They claim that this short statement spits on the memory of the country’s original inhabitants, the Aboriginal people, who they believe have lived in Australia for a least 40,000 years. Putting aside this archaeological misconception, their argument is merely an attempt to rewrite history.

Captain Cook’s epic voyage resulted in great leaps in both naval innovation and general understanding of the planet. With the backing of the British government, he was given directions to chart the east coast of the “unknown southern land” (Terra australis incognito). This continent was already known to Europeans as it had been previously visited by a number of explorers in the years leading up to Cook’s journey.

But his discovery was legitimate because the area was new to the British peoples. Yes, the land was inhabited by indigenous natives; however, the feat of sailing halfway around the world and charting a dangerous coastline, unknown to white Europeans, is absolutely remarkable and most definitely worthy of the word “discovery.”

Another monument that is in danger of being torn down, and was subjected to the same vandalism, is the statue of Gov. Lachlan Macquarie. Considered to be one of Australia’s “founding fathers,” Scottish-born Macquarie is now being accused of terrorism, attempted genocide and racism.

Such claims contradict everything that is known about this man. Upon arriving in Australia in 1809, Governor Macquarie set himself the task of bringing Australia into the new century economically and back to the morals and values of the British Empire culturally. He revitalized the agricultural system of the territory and established the first Australian bank. Under his governorship, he reestablished the British rule of law and set in place a high degree of moral standards.

His attitude toward the indigenous Australians was very liberal for his day. He was recorded as having looked up to emancipationist William Wilberforce and former governor of Australia Arthur Phillip, a man known for his strong objection to the mistreatment of Aboriginal Australians. As his memorial states: “He was a perfect gentleman, a Christian and a supreme legislator of the human heart.”

Both Cook and Macquarie stand as examples of the might of British power and the integrity of the empire’s moral character. The level of the morality of men such as these was greater than we see in today’s leaders, and through them, God was able to bless the British peoples and fulfill the prophecies found in Deuteronomy 33:13-17.

However, the heart of the issue at work here is not about the individuals memorialized in metal. It is a rejection of British imperial history and a growing anti-colonial bias.

Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry has written often about the importance of remembering this history. In his book The Former Prophets, Mr. Flurry criticizes those who would deny the truth and importance of history: “Today we hear many academic voices telling people that learning history is of little or no value. This is a dangerous trend that may be too entrenched ever to correct. This educational plague is rampant among the American and British peoples.”

Now many in Britain and America are destroying, quite literally, their own history.

The Bible clearly shows us that there are evil forces in the world. There is a devil and he hates the nations of America and the British Commonwealth with a venomous passion. For decades, he has been using his considerable powers of deception to tear down America’s and Britain’s reputation. His hatred for these nations partly lies in the moral codes upon which their greatness was founded.

Mr. Flurry continues in The Former Prophets, quoting from the introduction of Winston S. Churchill’s biography Marlborough:

“[Churchill] rejoiced in Roman virtues of order, justice, fortitude, resoluteness, magnanimity.” Our nations live today because great leaders learned and practiced these heroic virtues! “These were British virtues too …. [Churchill] cherished, as a law of history, the principle that a people who flout these virtues is doomed to decay and dissolution ….”

Today, there is a massive shift in the public perception of the colonial era of the English people. Mankind is rejecting the values of the British Empire, values based on the Bible, and thus they reject the history of this once mighty nation.

The recent outcry against the historic statues of men like Cook and Macquarie is only an outward indication of the hatred toward a more moral past—and ultimately toward God.

The truth is, men like Cook and George Washington did not make these nations great. God did! And He did it, in part, using some of these men.

This truth was once commonly acknowledged in America, Britain, Australia and elsewhere. “We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven,” said Abraham Lincoln. Too often “we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own.” They were not!

These men had flaws and weaknesses. By tearing down these statues and history, these protesters are tearing down our nations’ connection with God! You must see the danger hidden within this trend!

God has a spectacular plan behind the rise of Britain, America and other nations. By destroying that history, these protesters are making it harder to understand that plan, to understand what God is doing on Earth, and, ultimately, to connect with God.

But you can understand that plan! It is clearly spelled out in our free book The United States and Britain in Prophecy.