"Many have said that the Church was dying when Julian proclaimed from the Imperial throne the worship of Apollo. Many would have said again, after the first triumphs of many oriental heresies, that the Church was dying; and in this sense they would have been right.

The Church was dying; but the worship of Apollo was dead.

Many would have said it when Calvinism was overshadowing province after province, and rightly: the Church was dying, but the oriental heresies were dead.

When the French Revolution had made a new heaven and a new Earth, it was quite obvious to every clear-sighted person that Christianity had come to an end.

The Church was certainly dying; but Calvinism was dead.

The Christian religion has died daily; its enemies have only died.

And what we see before us today is not a mere fashion of the praise of one century over another; but at most a rather unique illustration of the fact that the world fares worse without that religion than with it.

The Church is dying as usual; but the modern world is dead; and cannot be raised save in the fashion of Lazarus."

...The Return of Christendom, GKC.

The old dictators invoked the past. The new dictators will invoke the future---GKC