“Who are the wise men?”
In a public address yesterday, Trumpet columnist Ron Fraser made the point that as news of prophetic significance occurs with greater frequency, the headlines we read in mainstream newspapers will increasingly remind us of headlines from the Plain Truth during its heyday, and they’ll read more and more like Trumpet headlines. So true—watch for it.
Consider this Exhibit A. Take a look at this from Peggy Noonan’s latest column:
Mr. [Leslie] Gelb, president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations and fully plugged into the Democratic foreign-policy establishment, wrote this week that the president’s Asia trip suggested “a disturbing amateurishness in managing America’s power.” The president’s Afghanistan review has been “inexcusably clumsy,” Mideast negotiations have been “fumbling.” So unsuccessful was the trip that Mr. Gelb suggested Mr. Obama take responsibility for it “as President Kennedy did after the Bay of Pigs.”
He added that rather than bowing to emperors—Mr. Obama “seems to do this stuff spontaneously and inexplicably”—he should begin to bow to “the voices of experience” in Washington. When longtime political observers start calling for wise men, a president is in trouble. It also raises a distressing question: Who are the wise men and women now? Who are the Robert Lovetts, Chip Bohlens and Robert Strausses who can came in to help a president in trouble right his ship? America seems short of wise men, or short on those who are universally agreed to be wise. I suppose Vietnam was the end of that, but establishments exist for a reason, and it is hard for a great nation to function without the presence of a group of “the oldest and wisest” who can not only give sound advice but help engineer how that advice will be reported and received. … There is the growing perception of incompetence, of the inability to run the machine of government. … Americans demand baseline competence. If he comes to be seen as Jimmy Carter was, that the job was bigger than the man, that will be the end.
Achingly on-target. Long-time Trumpet readers are sure to recognize the link to a prophecy we often draw attention to. Read Isaiah 3:1-4. It says that God has removed from America “the prudent, and the ancient … the honourable man, and the counseller.” God says that in their place, “I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them.” We are witnessing the dangerous resulting void in skilled, seasoned leadership today.
You can read some of our commentary on these verses in many of our articles, including several in our June/July 2006 print edition.
