These are old X posts, from August and November of 2024.
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A thread on Conquests Second Law: Conquest’s Second Law states, roughly, “Any organization not explicitly and constitutionally right-wing will sooner or later become left-wing.” What Robert Conquest recognized in this law is that it takes more effort to build than to tear down, more courage to do what is right than what is wrong, and more conviction to stand for truth than to fall for lies. There is no way around this reality: It is simply hard to be faithful and do the right thing in a fallen world. 1/5
Or to put it in a slightly different way, in a fallen world, it is easier to sin than do what is right. Being wicked takes little effort; doing what is right takes energy and commitment. We see this in parenting: we do not have to teach our kids to sin; we do have to train them to be kind, self-controlled, grateful, generous, etc. Sin always has momentum on its side. There is such a thing as moral and spiritual entropy, and it’s seen in all kinds of ways. 2/5
Why do once great nations and empires slide and usually end up destroying themselves from within? Why do we see some professing Christians cave into obviously destructive cultural trends and forsake the faith? Why have so many Christian churches, colleges, schools, and other institutions fallen for wokeness? There is almost always a great deal of pressure to abandon what is good, true, and beautiful for what is easy, relevant, and popular (cf. Romans 12:1-2). 3/5
Unless we are very clear, courageous, and explicit in our convictions, we will have a hard time standing firm. Most people are sheep, easily steered and manipulated by worldly powers, popular influencers, celebrities, etc. Most people are too timid and cowardly to not jump on board with “the latest thing” the media serves up. When individuals and institutions apostatize from the faith, it usually does not happen all at once. It happens gradually, then suddenly. 4/5
The book of Hebrews (which is one long, extended warning about apostasy) encourages us to “pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away” (Hebrews 2:1). The drifting is often imperceptible at first, like a frog in a pot slowly brought a boil. The Scriptures are filled with exhortations to stand firm for just this reason. As Chesterton said, a man can fall over in many directions, but only stand upright in one. 5/5
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Conquest’s Second Law states, roughly, “Any organization not explicitly and constitutionally right-wing will sooner or later become left-wing.” This sociological (and I would add, spiritual) law has been used to explain why conservative institutions often go leftward and why once-Christian institutions often apostatize. If you don’t stand firm, you fall. If you don’t fight, you will lose. If you don’t know what you believe and why, you will be carried along by the culture’s shifting Overton Window.
But the law applies not just to institutions, it applies to individuals and families as well. A professed Christian who is not locked in and completely submissive to biblical authority (in principle) will eventually drift away from the faith. Satan will find his weakness, his soft spot, and get a hook into him in that precise spot. Satan will find the piece of Christian teaching that embarrasses him and use that to drive a wedge between him and the rest of the faithful.
Families that are not explicitly and enthusiastically committed to biblical faith and church life will eventually fall away too (probably in the next generation), for the same reason. The soft underbelly will eventually get exposed, perhaps by political pressure or the influence of pop culture or inappropriate priorities (eg, elevating sports above Lord’s Day worship). The parents will not teach the whole counsel of God to their children, and then the gaps in their worldview will get filled in with content from the culture in a way that is contrary to the faith. They will not build up their children’s spiritual immune system, needed to ward off a worldly infection, and so some heretical virus will contaminate them.
A good example of this is the Bible’s creation account. Suppose a pastor or parent is embarrassed by the traditional reading of the early chapters of Genesis as history. So those chapters get reinterpreted as myth. Next thing you know, some form of Neo-Darwinian evolution has crept in to fill the void left by rejecting Moses. But this undermines the Bible’s overall sex ethic, because so much of what the Bible (especially the NT) teaches about sex and marriage is rooted in the historicity of details of the creation account. This allows confused views of gender, shaped more by the culture than Scripture, to come in, leading to other compromises, and eventually the faith is lost.
Conquest’s Second Law explains why a person who tries to mix conservative theology and progressive politics will almost always end up adopting progressive theology as well in the long run. The progressive part of his worldview eats up the conservative part of his worldview. The conservative part of his worldview takes much more effort to defend and maintain, and the energy needed to do so is drained by the progressive side of his worldview. Obviously, people also move in the other direction, from progressive to conservative, but it takes an energetic and purposeful act of repentance to do so. Those who “go with flow” always move from right to left, from conservative to progressive, from faithful to worldly.
This is why Scripture is full of commands to remember God and guard the faith. Anything taken for granted will soon be lost. Any complacency will lead to defeat. Any compromise will be exploited. Any truths forgotten will be lost. The Christian life is a fight and only those who battle to the end are saved. Those professed Christians who are ashamed of what they are fighting for, those professed Christians who do not deeply love the truths they are fighting for, will be beaten.
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