“For My people have forgotten Me, they burn incense to worthless gods And they have stumbled from their ways, from the ancient paths, to walk in bypaths, not on a highway,” (Jeremiah 18:15)

For the most part, the Western world in general and America in particular, has stumbled and strayed, not from the “good-old-days,” but far from the ancient paths.

How does a nation ever come to the place of being ruled by the worst kind of people? The answer is by straying from the ancient path which first manifest by removing God and the historical-cultural values of that nation. 

Earlier this month, Xi Van Fleet, who was a little girl during the Cultural Revolution in China, spoke during a school board meeting in Leesburg, VA condemning the school board for the critical race theory curriculum it is imposing on young students.

In a video that has since gone viral, she said, "We are teaching our children to be social justice warriors and to loathe our country and our history. Growing up in China all of this sounds remarkably familiar. The Communist regime use the same critical theory is to divide people. The only difference is that used class instead of race. This is indeed the American version of the Chinese cultural revolution," she said at the time.

On the program "Hannity," Van Fleet expanded on her warning to America as a onetime victim of mandated Maoist indoctrination: "I just want to let the American people know that what is going on in our schools and in our country is really a replay of the cultural revolution in China," she said, calling the similarities "terrifying."

 "[Critical race theorists] use the same ideology, the same methodology, even the same vocabulary. The ideology is cultural Marxism."

At school in Maoist China, Van Fleet recalled being divided into groups of "oppressor" and "oppressed' based on what social class the student came from.

The same is happening today in schools and other institutions, except it is based on White and non-White races, she noted.

Chinese dissenters from the Maoist doctrine were labeled "counterrevolutionary", as dissenters in America are labeled "racist" – a moniker that in both regards is "like a hat that fits all" that can ruin one's life and livelihood.

Van Fleet added that the left's intent on "cancel culture" and "canceling" everything from public statuary to references to uncomfortable historic events, to historic figures they deem flawed is the same thing that Mao sought when he essentially erased thousands of years of Chinese cultural history.

"We basically canceled the whole Chinese civilization pre-Communism and we changed our school names, street names, store names, even our personal names," she said.

"Wokeness – to be specific – we used class wokeness in China," she also recalled.

"Your level of wokeness determines your chance to get a promotion or to get benefits and who decides your level of wokeness? The party leaders," she said, implying the same can be said in the United States for people and workers who do not ascribe to their moral superiors' intended ideologies.

"Critical race theory is not antiracism. It itself is racist. It is divisive, destructive and it is dangerous."

According to Pastor Wade Burleson, “If you wish to destroy a country, you must first remove the belief that individuals are accountable directly to their Creator. 

“During the 1966 Cultural Revolution in China, the Marxist leader Mao Zedong led the Chinese young people in murderous destruction of "Old Values" in China. The "Four Olds" were:

• Old ideas
• Old customs
• Old culture
• Old habits

“Young people who terrorized the citizens of China were known as RED GUARDS. Any building owners (evil landlords), bougies (those who wore pointed shoes and tight pants, giving evidence of individuality and wealth), or believers in God were enemies of "the precious Leader Mao Zedong." The OLDS would be arrested, tortured, and killed. An estimated 2,000,000 people died during the Cultural Revolution. 

“Within just a few short years, China turned from a meritocracy (leaders with merit) to a kakistocracy (leaders without merit).  

“Chinese students during 1966/1967 were pressed by their Marxist government to attack the "Four Olds" and those who held them by erasing through forced reprogramming that an individual is accountable to God. 

“The government is god.

“The Maoist government told Chinese students that school admissions would no longer be based on merit (math scores, language scores, etc.). Merit, said Mao, is an evil concept. Chinese junior high, high school, and college entrance exams were canceled. Students were assigned to a school based on district, not merit.

“The students in China during the Cultural Revolution were taught that all their problems in life were based on class distinctions, and victimology became the cultural norm. Those "black" families (not color, but class) were not truly RED (communist) and must be punished for the sins of their forefathers who owned Chinese buildings, companies, and land during China's past. These bougies made evil capitalistic money off the backs of Chinese factory workers. "Mr. Mao will make things right!" they said.”

Wrong! God alone makes this world "right." 

The United States, beginning with the Church, must have a radical spiritual awakening and reformation that takes us back to the ancient path, the old ideas, the old customs, the old culture, and the old habits that are God-centered, Christ-honoring, global-missions minded, and biblically based, or we will find ourselves being sent off to re-education/sensitivity training camps to awaken us from our “unwokenesss.”

The prophet Jeremiah relayed the word of Lord for his day and tragically, it sounds 21^st Century like in its relevance.

 “Thus says the LORD, "Stand by the ways and see and ask for the ancient paths, Where the good way is, and walk in it; And you shall find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’” (Jeremiah 6:16)

Where do we find the “ancient paths”? The answer is given by Jesus in Matthew 6:33, “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you.”

Jesus went on to say in Matthew 13:52, “And He said to them, "Therefore every scribe who has become a disciple of the kingdom of heaven is like a head of a household, who brings forth out of his treasure things new and old."  What Jesus was saying was that life in the kingdom can only be built or extended out into the new to the degree that what we are doing is anchored in the old.

The true, biblical ancient path leads us to the Ancient of Days. We are introduced to the Ancient of Days in Daniel 7:9, "I kept looking until thrones were set up, And the Ancient of Days took His seat.” The Ancient of Days is the King eternal, whose kingdom is also forever. The kingdom of God isn’t an impersonal domain presided over by an uncaring ruler, who has a position but no power, who would if he could, but by Almighty God, our Heavenly Father. His kingdom is not a newfangled creation of biblical scholars but is as eternal as the God who runs it. The Person referenced in Daniel 7:9 is to be understood as God the Father, as distinct from the Messiah, the Son of God, who in Daniel 7:13, is “one like the Son of man brought unto him.” God the Father is called the Ancient of Days not only because he is from everlasting, and without beginning of days; but chiefly because He is permanent, and endures forever; His years fail not, and of His days there will be no end.

This Ancient of Days King is not a manipulative manager, a demanding tyrant, or a big-time bureaucrat, but a Loving Father. Although the Ruler of the Kingdom is the Everlasting Father, yet it became incarnational in history in Jesus. The kingdom was Jesus message and methods because the kingdom was in Jesus and Jesus was the kingdom.

Jesus is the only way of access to God and acceptance with him. He is the way to experience all the blessings of the King and His kingdom. He is the way to the Father and to eternal happiness. He is the living way which always continues and is ever the same. The way of the kingdom is a plain, pleasant, dangerous and difficult, but a safe and secure way, and therefore THE ONLY WAY.

We can heed Jeremiah’s word and “ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it and find rest for our souls”. Or we can continue to hurtle toward destruction by joining ancient Israel and defiantly declaring, “WE WILL NOT WALK IN IT!”