Understanding Logos

by Kenneth Francis (August 2023)

To reiterate something that I have written in my books and essays over the years: The most profound sentence and concept in the history of humankind is the opening line of St John’s Gospel: ‘In the beginning was the Word.’

In its original Greek, with multiple morally and aesthetically positive meanings for human flourishing, the Word means Logos (Logic): God, Christ Jesus Incarnate, Truth, Love, Reason, Beauty, The Good, Objective Moral Values and Duties, etc.

Logos points to everything meaningful with purpose that is objectively morally good, holy, and pure. To say that there is a more profound statement than St John’s opening sentence would be illogical, as Logos has to be applied to such a sentence in order to make such a statement, therefore it precedes all lesser-profound statements.

Logos was/is an eternal, all-powerful spiritual entity who had the power to bring the universe into existence and later enter humanity as a half human/half Divine Godhead. But there are serious consequences for peoples and nations that turn their backs on Logos. A few examples to consider: The American Empire has never been in such a state of moral decay, thanks to the current Administration.

One could cite numerous examples, but here are two: A headline in March 31, 2023 in Breitbart read: ‘Joe Biden Celebrates ‘Transgender Day of Visibility’ Days After Trans Shooter Murdered 6 at Christian School’. (It is worth noting that President Biden made no mention of the massacre that occurred five days earlier at a Christian school in Nashville, Tennessee, after a transgender shooter allegedly murdered six individuals, including three children.) Another headline last month in American Thinker, read: ‘Two men rent a uterus then demand baby’s death when confronted with unexpected issues.’

Across the sea in Germany, both spiritually and socially, we see a society that is also in ruins. In July 2013, The Huffington Post ran a story with the headline, ‘Bestiality Brothels Are Taking Germany by Storm.’ Church attendance is also at an all-time low.

In many other European countries, there are major mental-health problems on top of a deluge of social decay ranging from homelessness to conflict with uncontrolled mass immigration and much more.

In the anti-Logos UK, a Christian father removed his nine-year-old daughter from school after being horrified by what she was being taught in compulsory sex education lessons. The teachers wanted to show her a video of a boy getting an erection and ejaculating, as well as lessons about anal sex and masturbation.

And in the predominantly anti-Logos Far East, having introduced a one-child policy in 1979 (via forced abortions, sterilisations and fines), China is now struggling to boost its falling birth-rate. The same applies to Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea (‘suicide central’), with extremely low birth rates even without any one-child policy.

Those who reject Logos from rising, do so at their peril. Why? Because, as mentioned above, Logos is logic, and to pursue something illogically, ultimately leads to failure both individually at a micro level to a wider macro level of societies that are in a state of inverted flux. To illogically build a cheap house on marsh lands might save lots of money but will result in the house sinking in a few months or years’ time; whereas a house built logically (Logos) on a rock, will last a lifetime if maintained.

When someone rejects Logos, he or she acts illogically; hence, their actions backfire. This is usually seen when someone overplays his or her cards. In Eastern religions, it’s called Karma, bad Karma, in particular (what goes round, comes round). And when someone cheats or hurts his/her fellow human being, subsequently they consciously or subconsciously feel the pain of guilt. This feeling emanates from a disordered soul in a state of spiritual darkness in its abandonment of Logos.

Don’t assume that the psychopath sleeps soundly at night or doesn’t descend into states of depression or mental turmoil. According to jail inmates in Harbour Hill Prison in Dublin, Ireland, the Irish double-killer, Malcolm Macarthur (a big fan of anti-Logos philosopher Fredrich Nietzsche), was afraid of the dark and slept with the light on in his prison cell. He probably suffered horrific nightmares from his murderous deeds. And when Nietzsche rejected Logos, he spent his last years mentally deranged in bed.

The graveyards of this world are jampacked with despots who rejected Logos, all of whom carers ended in failure. Dictators, mad men like Caligula and Nero, secular revolutions, unjust wars and lockdowns, serial killers, et al, failed miserably. The anti-Logos Pol Pot had people who wore glasses (bookish, intellectual types) rounded up and killed. Some years later, suffering great pain when Logos came round and bit his rear end, the des-Pot, needing glasses, was almost blind before he died. Mr Pot was unaware the universe has a moral order.

In the 20th and 21st centuries, the rejection of Logos has resulted in sexual decadence and amoral anarchy. The result can be seen on the Skid Row boulevard of broken dreams of the West, where a zombie apocalypse of “tranq” (xylazine) addicts, swaying from side to side lifelessly, their hands twitching uncontrollably, heads and torsos hunched forward, on the needle-drenched sidewalks of Democrat-run Philadelphia’s Kensington neighbourhood and beyond.

And in the UK, when a child is asked who is his/her father, the kid often replies: “Do you mean the one living with me now?” This, to quote Solzhenitsyn, is what happens when a society has forgotten the Logos.

We also see it in ancient times with the destruction of nations and empires: Babylon, Egyptian and Gnostic/Pagan cults, Greek gods, Sodom and Gomorrah, Pompei, Pagan Rome; all the way up to the age of Darwinian-secular mumbo-jumbo, the Woke ideology of literary theory and cancel culture.

Although the ancient Greek pagans never got to fuse Logos with theology, they nonetheless understood the meaning of the former on certain moral matters. In the structure of the Greek Tragedy, a type of 5th century BC Athenian theatre, a form of conventions in a play or story go full circle with usually a tragic denouement (what goes round, comes round). In other words, to repeat: Reject Logos and the Karma police come knocking.

Many years ago, I worked in a media outlet were some of the male staff were devout Christians. This surprised me, as most mainstream media types are atheist anti-Christians. When I asked them what brought them to God, they told me that in previous employment during their toxic atheist days, they partied all weekends and sniffed buckets of cocaine, not to mention promiscuous sex with multiple, one-night-stand partners. The result was they all had nervous breakdowns and suffered horrific mental illness; hence, they begged Christ for forgiveness and reverted to Christianity. Most of them, a lot happier in their ‘new’ life, got married and had children.

But don’t take my word for it. The following Bible verses say it more eloquently than I, and in fewer words: ‘Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!’ (Isaiah 5:20); He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind: and the fool shall be servant to the wise of heart’ (Proverbs: 11:29); ‘For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind ….’ (Hosea 8:7); ‘Whoever sows injustice will reap calamity, and the rod of his fury will fail’ (Proverbs 22:8).

Critics of the reliability of the above theistic logic and who instead favour the scientific method, should consider the following: Stanford President Marc Tessier-Lavigne will resign effective August 31, 2023, according to communications released by the University Wednesday morning. He will also retract or issue lengthy corrections to five widely cited papers for which he was principal author after a Stanford-sponsored investigation found “manipulation of research data.” But it is potentially worse than this, as those investigating such corruption are at risk of turning the backs on Logos in favour of handsome bribes to refrain them from investigations. Bribes from wealthy sources with vested interested infused with evil. If God does not exist, then anyone can be bought at the right price. And this is where Logos is our only reliable source of informing us of the Truth. In the end, Logos wins.

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Kenneth Francis is a Contributing Editor at New English Review. For the past 30 years, he has worked as an editor in various publications, as well as a university lecturer in journalism. He also holds an MA in Theology and is the author of The Little Book of God, Mind, Cosmos and Truth (St Pauls Publishing) and, most recently, The Terror of Existence: From Ecclesiastes to Theatre of the Absurd (with Theodore Dalrymple) and Neither Trumpets Nor Violins (with Theodore Dalrymple and Samuel Hux).

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