The Mother of God

 The Church historically has affirmed that Mary is rightly referred to as “the mother of God”. By this is not meant that there was a time when God was not, and that He came into being sometime in history. It also does not mean that Mary created or helped to create God, whether in His whole being or just as the a second Person of the Trinity. Rather, the matter in question was this: was Jesus, the baby that Mary conceived and gave birth to, at His conception fully God, fully the Son of God, fully the Second Person of the Trinity? And that, the Church - Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant - has always affirmed wholeheartedly as a doctrine essential to the Christian faith. In that sense, Mary was the Mother of God, and as such, it is a term of reference to her the Church gladly uses.

Schmemann on Liturgical Beauty

The joyful character of the eucharistic gathering must be stressed.  For the medieval emphasis on the cross, while not a wrong one, is certainly one-sided.  The liturgy is, before everything else, the joyous gathering of those who are to meet the risen Lord and to enter with him into the bridal chamber.  And it is this joy of expectation and this expectation of joy that are expressed in singing and ritual, in vestments and in censing, in that whole "beauty" of the liturgy which has so often been denounced as unnecessary and even sinful.

Unnecessary it is indeed, for we are beyond the categories of the "necessary."  Beauty is never "necessary," "functional" or "useful."  And when, expecting someone who we love, we put a beautiful tablecloth on the table and decorate it with candles and flowers, we do all this not out of necessity, but out of love.  And the Church is love, expectation and joy.  It is heaven on earth, according to our Orthodox tradition; it is the joy of recovered childhood, that free, unconditioned and disinterested joy which alone is capable of transforming the world.  In our adult, serious piety we ask for definitions and justifications, and they are rooted in fear - fear of corruption, deviation, "pagan influences," whatnot.  But "he that feareth is not made perfect in love" (1 Jn. 4:18).  As long as Christians will love the Kingdom of God, and not only discuss it, they will "represent" it and signify it, in art and beauty.  And the celebrant of the sacrament of joy will appear in a beautiful chasuble, because he is vested in the glory of the Kingdom, because even in the form of man God appears in glory.  In the Eucharist we are standing in the presence of Christ, and like Moses before God, we are to be covered with his glory.  Christ himself wore an unsewn garment which the soldiers at the cross did not divide; it had not been bought in the market, but in all likelihood it had been fashioned by someone's loving hands.  Yes, the beauty of our preparation for the Eucharist has no practical use. ~ Alexander Schmemann, "For the Life of the World", pp. 29-30

Superstition Ain’t the Way

 I find it increasingly bizarre the kinds of things fellow professing Christians believe. So here’s a post addressing one of those things.

Superstitions and Christianity do not mix. If you are so inclined, you can break all the mirrors you want, walk under all the ladders you want, and have 1000 black cats cross your path, and it will mean absolutely nothing. Bad luck, so called, will in no way result from those things. There is, in fact, no such thing as good luck or bad luck. Luck does not exist. Everything that exists in the universe is under the control of a sovereign God, and nothing is outside of His control. Everything that happens is as a result of His divine decree and comes about by His providence. That does not mean that there are not consequences to our obedience or disobedience of His law. It also does not mean that people do not make mistakes. We’re fallible creatures, and things are going to go wrong in this fallen world. But superstitions posit the idea that there are some spiritual forces in the universe operating outside of God’s control, and that they for some reason will “get us” if we do the weirdest of things, like breaking a mirror. But this is a lie from the devil, and it is intended to keep us bound up in fear and distracted from knowing God and serving Him. 

There’s a reason why superstitions always seem to overlap with the occult. Both begin with refusing to trust in God. Then, finding ourselves in the fear of our unbelief, we are left scrambling for ways to control the world around us, a world we know in our hearts we can’t control. Superstitions and the occult are both ways men try in their futility to control the world. But they both only end in sorrow and pain.

Trust God and reject superstition. Seek to know Him through His Word. This, and this alone, is the path to peace, as we live our lives in this seemingly chaotic, sin-damaged universe.

A Quick Word on “Kinism”

 Where I stand…The term “kinism” is being thrown around too loosely these days. In the past it has meant the idea that the white ”race” is superior to all other races, to the point of suggesting that all other races are sub-human - things Scripture condemns. Scripture is also pretty hard on those who would condemn interracial marriage. I’m a conservative, because slow integration reflects Biblical wisdom. But Scripture also celebrates the coming together of all peoples in Christ. That in no way negates the fact that multiculturalism has been foisted upon us by the world elites in a foolish and harmful way.

Those who are insistent on a perpetual separation of what they call “races” need to spend this Advent season digging deep into the Book of Isaiah, and then take some time to study how God has spent the whole scope of Scriptural history from Abram on undoing the separation of peoples that occurred in the first eleven chapters of Genesis. Abram’s journey itself began the reunification of nations, a reunification process that God through the work of Christ is continuing to this day.

Going Out Like Elijah

 In 2 Kings 2, when Elijah is about to ascend to Heaven, he illustrates through his path the way Israel took in entering the land under Joshua. After Israel crossed the Jordan, Jericho, Bethel, and Gilgal all featured prominently in their conquering the land. Elijah is following their movement in reverse. He is leaving the land.

But beyond this, Elijah’s movement is that of the high priest leaving the Most Holy Place, passing out of the Tabernacle/Temple, going by or through the area of the Laver (the Jordan), and ascending to Heaven in the fire of the Bronze Altar. It symbolized his life of sacrifice to God ending, and that of a priest leaving the Tabernacle or Temple, having completed his work.

The Armor of the Unbeliever

 Frequent profanity is a veneer of bravado intended to hide deep insecurity. The goal is to get the approval of others in order to achieve a sense of security about oneself. But since the fear of man in the place of the fear of God never goes beneath the surface to the heart, the person has to keep up the facade, continuing under the self-deception that it will one day be enough.

Untangling Tulsi

 Tulsi Gabbard is still Hindu, and was sworn into office on the Bhagavad Gita instead of the Bible. She will speak of God, as if she believed in the Christian God generally worshiped in the West, or as if we all worship the same God. But she knows she’s being deceptive. She has also been wishy-washy on abortion and LGBT issues. The fact of the matter is that she to some degree supports leftist causes with regard to both. In short, while I like some of her positions, she isn’t really somebody that can be trusted. Her invitation to other Democrats to join her in leaving the Democratic Party seems nothing more than a political game to gain her attention.

Ruth, Bread, Gentiles, and Covenant

 The Book of Ruth

1. The childlessness of Naomi and her two daughters-in-law is reflective of the barrenness of Israel itself in its famine. First Israel was fruitless, and then the women themselves, left without their husbands, were themselves fruitless. In trying to escape the famine, Naomi and her family simply found the famine had followed them. Naomi reflects on her own fruitless state in 1:11-14.
2. The first turning point in the story comes when the women hear that Yahweh has turned His favor back toward Israel by giving them bread. Yahweh has remembered his covenant with his people. Ruth, who declares her covenant with Yahweh and Israel in 1:16-17, will then be given the covenantal blessing of the bread of Israel repeatedly throughout the rest of the book, until she is joined in marriage to the people of Israel. The Gentile, the foreigner who was once not a part of Israel, has now been brought near and made to be one with them (Eph. 2:11-18, Rom. 11). This is not merely symbolic of what would eventually happen in Christ, but rather one Old Testament example of the salvation of the world that God had promised to Abraham, and which would be fulfilled completely through the work of Christ. It is not mere typology.
3. Ruth is an example of the repeated testimony of Scripture, that God rewards those who diligently seek Him (Heb. 11:6). Antinomianism has no place in the covenant of God. The lazy and presumptuous cannot find Him. Rather, those who pursue Him are rewarded in their pursuit. Persistence in faith will always meet with blessing. Faith and works are not in opposition, but rather partners in the whole package of the Christian life.
4. Matthew 15:21-28 should be read with the Book of Ruth as its complement. The fact that the Canaanite woman was appealing to Jesus because of her daughter should not be missed (Mt. 15:22). Ruth was, at first, in her gleaning allowed to have the crumbs that fell from the master’s table (Ruth 2). But before long, due to her faith (Matt. 15:28), she was brought into a complete wedding banquet once only given to Israel. Though once fruitless like Israel in its famine of judgment, Yahweh blessed her with a child, giving her what she desired (Mt. 15:28). The blessings of Israel spilled out upon the Gentiles.

Giorgia Meloni, Fascist?

Is Giorgia Meloni a new Mussolini? The majority Leftist Western media would certainly have you to think so. But the media, along with the rest of the unbelieving post-Enlightenment West, is interminably unable to break out of their European Left-Right paradigm to understand a Christian Conservative social order. Without faith, Christendom is beyond them.

The Leftists, that is, the Communists and Socialists that make up the unbelieving faction of the Western world, occupy a position that holds no substantial difference from Fascism. But Fascism is not Conservatism. The philosophical basis of Fascism, Socialism, and Communism is the same, that of a denial of the knowability and ultimately the existence of God. With all three, one is in the end left with a shattered epistemology and nothing but the will to power. Not only can nothing be truly known or believed, nothing can be truly loved. Meloni, in contrast, is clearly a Conservative and a Christian. And while I would differ with her on nationalism, that is less important than the other, more central issues she is defending.

Her election is an answer to prayer, the mercy and grace of God. It is something to be celebrated. May God be glorified, and may more like her be raised up.

The Struggle of Faith

 The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it emotionally. A higher paradox confounds emotion as well as reason and there are long periods in the lives of all of us, and of the saints, when the truth as revealed by faith is hideous, emotionally disturbing, downright repulsive. Witness the dark night of the soul in individual saints...

There is a question whether faith can or is supposed to be emotionally satisfying. I must say that the thought of everyone lolling about in an emotionally satisfying faith is repugnant to me. I believe that we are ultimately directed Godward but that this journey is often impeded by emotion. -- Flannery O'Connor

Faith Works

 Unbelief and habitual sin exist in a codependent relationship with each other - the one feeds the other continuously, until a person takes steps to starve the both of them to death, for the sake of that person’s eternal life. But this is merely progressive sanctification, without which there is no eternal life.

“114. Q. But can those converted to God keep these commandments perfectly?

A. No. In this life even the holiest have only a small beginning of this obedience. Nevertheless, with earnest purpose they do begin to live not only according to some but to all the commandments of God.

115. Q. If in this life no one can keep the ten commandments perfectly, why does God have them preached so strictly?

A. First, that throughout our life we may more and more become aware of our sinful nature, and therefore seek more eagerly the forgiveness of sins and righteousness in Christ. Second, that we may be zealous for good deeds and constantly pray to God for the grace of the Holy Spirit, that He may more and more renew us after God's image, until after this life we reach the goal of perfection.”

-Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 114-115

Lost in the Multiverse

Marvel: “You know what will draw in more families? We’ll have She-Hulk dance like a whore. The kids will love that.”

She-Hulk

 The She-Hulk show has a hard time picking a vibe. Are we going for Ally McBeal, or a more dramatic legal show? Music changes a setting. And the background music here kills any Ally McBeal feel and makes it, well, a Marvel show with standard Marvel music. And that’s fine, though show is a little boring. In short, aesthetics matter. If you try throwing too many colors on the canvas without thinking carefully about how to arrange them, you’re probably going to end up with a mess that hardly qualifies as art. Pick an aesthetic and go with it. You can’t be everything.

Hypocritical Socialists

How many of those complaining about “student loan forgiveness” over the past couple of days actually refused the government bailouts during the shutdowns of the past two years? How many receive Social Security, pretending it’s just their money they’re receiving back, when in fact their money was long ago spent by the government? How many sent their kids to government grade schools or even government-sponsored universities, without loans? Not only does that Carolina Tarheel ball game exist because the school receives tax dollars from your neighbors, but they teach your kids Socialism when you send them there.

We’re all partakers of the Socialist system we’re in. There’s no reason to pretend otherwise.

The Power of the Word

 Liturgical churches (Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican/Episcopal, Lutheran, Reformed) far exceed Evangelical churches (Non-denominational, Baptist, Pentecostal, etc.) in the amount of actual Scripture read, sung, and otherwise spoken in their worship services. In terms of quantity, it’s a simple fact. Not only are the liturgies mostly made up of quotes directly taken from the Bible. The hymns often have more actual Scripture than the contemporary worship songs, or even the revivalistic hymns, for those churches that still sing them. And liturgical churches have actual Scripture readings with long passages from Scripture, whereas non-liturgical churches often won’t have Scripture readings at all, and may only reference a few verses.

“But the theology and teaching are better in Evangelical churches,” some may say. Sometimes that’s true. There’s no denying that there are serious doctrinal errors in Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. And in the old mainline churches, like the Episcopal and United Methodist Churches, there’s no escaping the amount of heresy one can hear from their “pulpits”. But the preaching and teaching in Evangelical churches often have their own share of wrong doctrine. Evangelical churches will also force testimonials on their congregations from people who don’t know enough right doctrine to keep from expressing heresy when they give their testimonies. Evangelical “Bible studies” and small groups have often been occasions for people ill-equipped to be teaching anyone to spread whatever unbiblical idea they got from whatever source to unsuspecting listeners. And then you have Evangelical preachers ranting in their sermons, berating congregations, and filling their sermons with silly, unedifying stories. When you have people thinking that their biggest sins are smoking and listening to rock music, rather than the things that Scripture actually focuses on, one has to ask: is your church really a Christian church? When your church is more intent on putting on a show in worship, and promoting the personality of your pastor, you have to ask: is your church really a Christian church? Rome is bad. But is it any worse than that?

Now I’m not naïve enough to expect every Southern Baptist pastor reading this to leave his pulpit for the last time this morning and start attending his local Presbyterian or Anglican Church. But I would ask this one question of Evangelical ministers of all stripes: why aren’t you reading more Scripture along with your sermons on Sunday morning? The above facts should be convicting. 

Some, in the back of their minds, will have a fear of “dead formalism”. But how is that worse than dead informalism? And what makes you think formalism has to be spiritually dead? Any “death” you experience lies in a lack of faith, not per se in any written liturgy, and definitely not in Scripture. Do you believe God’s own testimony that His Word is alive and powerful, or not?

How did we become deceived into believing emotions and excitement equal life? Some of the most emotion-filled places on earth are full of death. Nothing is more active than a damned heart scrambling to find the peace that eludes it.

Are you a Bible-preaching minister or not? Is your church an Evangelical church or not? If so, why is there so little Scripture in your worship services? This has to be the starting point for all men who call themselves ministers of Jesus Christ. Is there a lack of power in your preaching? Are you having a hard time figuring out why all the moral failures among your congregation continue to happen? It could be that the answer is far simpler than you realize, at least the beginning of the answer. Without Scripture, there is no conviction of sin or repentance. And your people need to have Scripture read to them, by you, every Sunday morning.

If we trust God as we profess, we must have full confidence in His Word, and its power to turn lives, and the world, upside down. Anything less is rank unbelief.

Know the Real Enemy

Western globalist elites want you to give up private ownership of everything, want you to only have access to public (socialist) transportation, want you to give up meat and eat bugs, want to normalize sexual perversion, and want to make Christianity as irrelevant as any false religion.

They also want to stop Russia.

What if Russia is the answer to our prayers for deliverance from our wicked rulers?

Random Thoughts

 In an age of Marxist iconoclasm, the blessings of historic Christian imagery should be apparent. Love, gratitude, and wisdom reflect and remember, trusting in the God Who is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Psalm 42:6-7).

**************

“Son shine will prevent sin burn!” Seen on a church marquee. And a PCUSA church at that. The mainline liberals bequeathed to Evangelicals their weak view of God, we bequeathed to them our hokey sayings, and we’re all in this together, just one big soup of silliness.

**************

Christianity “works” because it is true, because the Triune God of Scripture, who created the universe and saves people from their sins, is real. Until Jordan Peterson gets to the point where he is convinced of that, his answers ultimately will lead back to despair. God will never be content being treated as merely another foundational myth, or even as the best foundational myth, whatever that may mean.

The Heart of Revival

 True biblical revival, whenever and wherever it happens, is not primarily about emotions. Emotions are incidental to revival and inconsistent. Instead, genuine Biblical revival is about repentance for one’s sins, a heartfelt confession of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and a renewed adherence to the Law of God. Wherever revival has taken place, whether in an individual or collectively in society, these things will always be present and primary.

Law and Love Agree

Jesus‘ consistent point about the scribes and the Pharisees wasn’t that they adhered to the Law too strenuously, as something contrary to love. Rather, it was that they weren’t actually adhering to the Law at all. The Law of God, as Psalm 119 emphasizes, is an expression of God’s love for mankind. And to keep the Law rightly is to love your neighbor as yourself.

India, Fable Vs. Truth

 Thinking of this while watching the Ms. Marvel show. You have the history in India and what is now Pakistan of mothers leaving their babies out exposed as sacrifices to the gods, which still gets practiced some today. You have the Hindu practice of Sati, that of widows being burned to death after their husbands died. These things began to change after Christianity came to India in the form of missionary activity and trade with the British.

Throughout the history of the world, Christianity has been the great civilizer. And what is peddled as Islam and Hinduism today in the West is Islam and Hinduism that has been trained in what it is to be civilized by Christianity. 

And the fact that this is true is evident in where we are today in America. As people have abandoned Christianity, they have turned to killing their own children and celebrating it. For many of us, we are too far gone to know what it is to be civilized anymore.

Today’s Decision

What has happened today needs to be understood first and foremost not as a political or legal issue, but as a spiritual issue, as an act of God’s mercy. To merely regard this as a Constitutional or States’ Rights issue, or as one of political power, is to miss the fundamental reality at work. I have said often in the past that the murder of the unborn has been one of America’s greatest sins, and that we have brought the judgments of the past few years on ourselves largely due to that. Today was an act of grace, a turning of God’s favor toward us, a sign of His willingness to forgive us and heal us. It is entirely undeserved.

But it is also a test, as to what we will do with this favor. If we continue down the path of wickedness that we otherwise seem to be traveling, His judgment will come back on us worse than before. This is true of the country in its entirety as well as in its parts, whether in individual states, counties, cities, communities, families, or persons. He does not take ingratitude and the despising of His kindness lightly.

If, however, we repent and look to Him in humility and gratitude, in worship, in prayer, and in service to Him and our neighbors, His favor will continue and increase. 

Holiness manifest in obedience to God’s Law is key in this. Our abortion epidemic is an extension of the epidemic of sexual immorality in this country - the main reason we abort our children is because we do not want to accept responsibility for our sexual sins. Some of the needs in that area may be with regard to politics and laws, but they aren’t primarily so. Worship and obedience toward God are the only way. Anything else will simply lead us back to where we were before.

The Predictable “Lightyear”

The new Pixar movie “Lightyear” is coming out this weekend, and the general plot seems fairly obvious. The white male Buzz Lightyear will be an idiot, time will have passed him by as a relic of a former era, and the really competent leader, the real hero, will be the black female. Because pagans do meta social commentary and propaganda constantly. Most people, even Christians, are oblivious to it. So many college lit classes passed, so little ability to apply what we were supposed to have learned.

And then somebody I know will see it, and come back to me and say, “no, it wasn’t quite like that.” And then I’ll go see it and realize they just didn’t get it. Because this happens every time.

The recent Chip and Dale movie? Same plot. Heavy metaphor in that one. The Obi Wan show? Same thing. Reva is the real hero. The marginalized, opppressed, innocent hero. And incredibly, inexplicably, omnicompetent.

I’ve lost count of how many people have told me they loved “Thor Ragnarok” and couldn’t pick up on the fact that it was a deconstruction of Asgard as portrayed in the MCU up to that point, and more broadly a deconstruction of/a critical historical myth making about American/Western imperialism and colonialism. The white heterosexual male is always the villain. Why do you think they made Thor and Bruce Banner into such idiots, and killed off Odin? Why do you think they destroyed Asgard, and said “Asgard is a people, not a place”? All globalist Leftist propaganda. Asgard was a metaphor for how they believe America should be conceived, all ideology and no physical borders. Why do you think they shaved Thor’s head? He was put in the place of a slave. He was put into the arena, made to dance in the minstrel show to entertain his owner. It was his penance, his purgatory, as the representative of the world’s collective oppressor. They might as well have shipped him to Sakaar on the Amistad. That would teach him, for sure. Why do you think they picked a black homosexual woman to play Valkyrie, who has mostly been white in the comics? And why did she behave crassly like a man? All agenda. Then there was the character’s implied relationship with another woman. And now she’s “King Valkyrie”.

And we the crowds eat it up, cluelessly, because we’re suckered by humor.

And then on the other side, reacting to all this, is a rising white nationalism, those blaming Jewish people for the world’s ills and thinking they’re going to recover 1955 demographics.

Clowns to the Left of me, jokers to the Right, and here I am in the middle. Feel free to join me.

Living with the Reality of Sin

Most people deal with the things that haunt them - such as hurts caused by others, failures in life, addictions, a lack of peace, and a deep sense of dissatisfaction - through ways that ultimately are of no real help. Not knowing what else to do, and yet still having to cope with reality as it faces us every day, we try ignoring these things, or we add on more addictions, or we use self-deception about the facts that linger in our hearts and minds. We tell ourselves we’re good enough, but we really know that isn’t true. Or we tell ourselves that nobody’s perfect, as if that makes it okay, but we can’t get away from the sense that it doesn’t. In dealing with others, we either plaster on a shallow smile to imitate real joy, we adopt a Stoic position of coldness, or we isolate ourselves from others altogether. Deep in our hearts we all know that we are not and cannot in ourselves be enough , and we can’t get away from it. Not only do we fail to satisfy others, we fail to satisfy ourselves. And though we can’t always put our finger on it, we know that there is an ultimate standard out there to which we are accountable, something we should be striving for, and we don’t have the ability in ourselves to meet it. Instead, we try to create a false standard, a lower standard, and try to deceive ourselves into believing it’s good enough. And yet we continue to suffer the pain caused by others  in our lives, and then turn around and do the same to them as well, almost as if we can’t help it.

The Omniscient Judge

Nothing escapes the eyes of God. The temptation, especially for unbelievers, is to move through life as if God doesn’t notice sin, and as if judgment will never come. 

But it eventually will. The fact that a person thinks he can get away with evil is itself God’s judgment.

We can fool one another. But God can never be deceived.

Proposed Future Ms. Marvel Episodes

Ms. Marvel, episode #2: Word of Kamala Khan’s magical bracelet has reached the point of its origin, a small town on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. What will her parents do when they find her missing, and only a threatening message from the Muslim Brotherhood left behind?

Ms. Marvel, episode #3: Kamala Khan and the bracelet she found in her parent’s attic have been secreted away by the Muslim Brotherhood. Will Dane Whitman, the Black Knight, be able to reach her before the Brotherhood is able to sell Kamala into a life of perpetual servitude? And how was he able to resurrect so many eleventh century Crusaders to help him in his task?

Ms. Marvel, episode #4: Kamala has been safely returned to her home in America by the Black Knight, much to her parents’ delight. But what will they do when they find Kamala replacing her Captain Marvel posters with Dane Whitman posters? And how did she get her hands on that Gideon Bible she keeps carrying to school with her anyways?!?

Ms. Marvel, episode #5: Kamala has been led to Christ by her former enemy Zoe. What will she do when her parents disown her and kick her out of the house? And why is she waking up every morning with a craving for bacon?

Ms. Marvel, episode #6: Kamala, having been kicked out of her parents’ home, is now living with Zoe’s family, as she studies her catechism and prepares for baptism at the local Catholic Church. Everything seems to be going well, until she learns that her brother Aamir, having just returned from hajj, has become radicalized on his pilgrimage. Will she be able to reach him with the Gospel before things come to their logical end? Or will she need her friend Dane Whitman to come to her aid to prevent her brother’s murderous rampage?

Hegelian Disney

  With the Reva character on the Obi-Wan show, it has to be understood that Disney knew what they were doing when they created that character. And they knew what kind of response they would get. It was all deliberate. For the Left, both in media and business, it’s Alinsky tactics all the way. Never let a crisis go to waste. Any kind of attention can be turned into profitable attention, and/or attention for the sake of promoting an ideology or political/social goal. You know you’re going to get a response, because that was the point in the first place. And so you highlight the most extreme responses in the media and broadcast it loudly for the world to hear. All that matters is power and money. 

But in such a situation love and truth cannot exist, which is why the developed world is disintegrating both morally and socially the way that it is. To approach life pragmatically, only for personal gain, only for your own goals of power and money, is hate. It fragments healthy social bonds, healthy relationships. Fear, distrust, a constant state of war, a perpetual position of fight or flight, can be the only outcome.  The inevitable result is death, both individually, and socially.

Why is it that Hollywood marriages rarely last? It’s because of the commodification of the self, and of everything. When your brand is yourself, and that is what is most important to you, in a world that knows no Sabbath, humanity is inevitably lost. Man as made in the image of the Triune God fades away. All that’s left is a black hole, a vacuum that everything else is sucked into and destroyed.

When you act according to the Hegelian dialectic, you can never have anything else than the Hegelian dialectic. Peace and rest will never be the result.

Embracing Change

 There is much beauty to be found in the history of America and even further in Western civilization. But it was not perfect or idyllic. True Biblicalism and in fact true conservatism recognize this. They do not live in a world of fantasy, but courageously embrace reality as they face it. A Biblical approach and conservative approach to reality recognizes the inevitability of change, while seeking to maintain those permanent, transcendent things, those things which are essential. These are God’s Moral Law and the foundational realities of Creation before the Fall. These things transcend race and nation and are applicable to all mankind alike.

A real loss has occurred in the West and in America, and there is certainly a place to mourn over it. But God regularly shakes the foundations, and He regularly does new things. It is His practice to take the ashes of what was and to build a house more glorious than ever existed before. 

There is no regaining a fantasy that never existed and never could. And to live and obsess as if such a thing were possible is to live in romantic unbelief.

Red Wave

 I’m all in favor of a ”Red Wave”, if it actually does anything. But will we still be justifying and paying for the murder of unborn children? Will we still be flying rainbow flags at our embassies overseas? Will our borders still be running drugs and human traffickers through like turning on the outside spigot full blast? If we aren’t going to repent, then the judgment of God is just going to swing back around again in another way before too long. Let’s start hearing some honest public repentance out of some elected officials, and then I’ll start thinking some positive thoughts.

The Flood and Babel as Creation and Fall

 The Flood was a new creation, a re-creation, a new Genesis 1-2. Just as God separated the waters and the land in the original creation, so God separated the waters from the land as the Flood subsided. God preserved Noah and his family, along with representatives of all the animals on earth, so that He might through them start again with a New Creation.

Likewise, the Tower of Babel was a new Fall, a new Genesis 3. Whereas Adam and Eve sought to be like God, without restrictions, so the people at Babel would have been without restraint, had God not confused their language (11:6-7). As God drove Adam and Eve out of the Garden, so also He scattered the people of Babel across the earth. In the latter case as in the first, God’s command and intention were the same - that mankind might fill the earth and take dominion over it (1:28, 9:1). But due to Adam’s sin, this could only be fully accomplished by Jesus Christ (Eph. 1:21, 1 Timothy 6:16, 1 Peter 4:11, 1 Peter 5:11, Jude 1:25), and by those after Him who trust in Him and obey the call to fill the earth and subdue it to His Kingdom.

Sacrificing All

 In Deuteronomy 20:5-9, Yahweh gives reasons for a man to be sent home rather than joining Israel in battle:

1.) He has built a new house and has not dedicated it

2.) He has planted a vineyard and has not eaten of it

3.) He has betrothed a wife and has not married her.

And then a fourth reason, set apart from the rest:

4.) He is fearful and fainthearted.

Compare then in Jesus’ parable of the great banquet in Luke 14:18-20 the excuses given by some for not coming to the feast:

1.) He has bought a piece of land and has to go see it

2.) He has bought five yoke of oxen, and has to go test them

3.) He has married a wife.

The parallel seems obvious. Compare also Luke 9:57-62, where Jesus rejects some from following Him:

1.) “nowhere to lay His head”

2.) “Let me go and bury my father”

3.) “Let me…bid them farewell who are at my house”.

In this latter case, Jesus had “set His face to go to Jerusalem” (vs. 51). He was going to war, to conquer by His own death. But in Luke 14, it is a wedding feast. The land has been conquered, and the groom is taking his bride to the home he has set up for them. It is the feast of the Kingdom of God (vs. 15), and only those who are willing to sacrifice all will partake of it (vss. 25-33).

The Postmillennial Christian Summer Camp

 This summer, thousands of school children will descend upon Christian summer camps, where they will fellowship, worship, and hear Scripture taught, many for the first time. Many will be saved, and many will receive the encouragement they need to persevere in faith the rest of their lives.

And yet, because of the twentieth century context in which the Christian camp movement arose, many if not most of those camps will be teaching the view that the world has been gradually growing more and more corrupt, more and more ungodly, since the first century. The world is finally reaching the height of its wickedness, and Jesus will be returning to Rapture His Church soon, after which the world will enter into the Great Tribulation.

Now think about this. The Church, which began when Jesus called twelve men to follow Him, has so grown over the past two thousand years as to spread to almost every country and corner on the face of the earth. Her faithfulness has been blessed by God’s grace with the financial means to buy acres upon acres of land, on which believers have planted camps to bring even more people into fellowship with Christ and His people. And that’s just one small sliver of all that God has done for His people since our Lord walked the earth and gave up his life, the one Who in His life “had nowhere to lay His head”.

Praise God for all the good He will do in these camps. But there is hardly anything more self-contradicting than a summer camp that teaches Dispensationalism. The summer camp movement arose, and continues to exist, because Postmillennialism is true. And in spite of the erroneous end times doctrine these camps teach, the Gospel will continue to triumph, because the complete, sufficient work of Christ makes the contrary impossible.

Return to God

 All societal issues stem from that society’s failure to rightly worship and serve the one, true, Triune God. Faith, public and private devotion to Him in Scripture, song, and prayer, right doctrine, a holiness of life that fights against sin, and serving your neighbor - these are the things that matter.

All the problems that we’re currently dealing with - economic woes, drug addiction, sexual immorality, gender confusion, gang activity, an increase in violence, and so on - have arisen from our failures in those spiritual matters. And the only solution to our problems is by returning to those basic things God requires of us.

We aren’t experiencing some mystical results of something called “karma”, or something having to do with the stars, or even merely the natural results of our own decisions. The testimony of Scripture throughout is that when people abandon Him, He acts in judgment, in time and space and matter. And when they return to Him, He returns to them with love, forgiveness, and healing.

He created us, and even gave all that He could to free the world from sin. He is owed and demands our devotion to Him. There is no other way.

Why No Federal Abortion Law?

 It could just be reversed later on. And what are the chances of Congress passing that right now? Fairly slim, I’d say. We are just blessed to have the right justices currently to maybe overturn Roe. The concern of the Anti-federalists was that laws are better made on a more local level, because so many of them vary according to their application with regard to the specifics of a particular locale. One of their chief concerns also after having just come out from underneath the king was that of reverting to a monarchical type of situation, where tyranny reigned, and the rights and needs of the people were trampled on. They recognized the need to keep leaders in check, and they knew that was easier done at a local level. And that’s simply because of distance and numbers. Given the way our rights are trampled on today, a return to states’s rights would be fantastic. Then we could at least have pockets of lawful protection of the unborn. We could have states in the union that are more Christian, more Biblical, more godly, and the wicked would either have to submit or flee somewhere else. And in those states that refuse to submit to God, they could suffer for their wickedness, while the rest of us could benefit from the blessings of walking in obedience. It would also be easier pull off a secession from the Union, if we decided we no longer wanted to be associated with some of these other evil states (looking at you, California).

The righteousness of the laws of a country hinge on the personal righteousness of its citizens. Until godliness reigns in our private lives, godliness will not manifest in the government and its laws.

Our Poor, Sad, Illegitimate Supreme Court

So according to a Fox News guest, the supposed Supreme Court leaker has delegitimized the court. Listen, once you’ve advocated baby murder, you have no justification for being shocked if fifty years down the line somebody you’ve hired to help you out doesn’t take you all that seriously. You’ve already delegitimized yourself. A law court that is lawless before God has already signed its own death warrant.

Romans: Israel and Church, Election and Apostasy

 “I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not! For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew.” 

When Paul asks this question in Romans 11:1-2, he has the Book of Lamentations specifically in mind:

“For the Lord will not cast off forever.

Though He causes grief,

Yet He will show compassion

According to the multitude of His mercies” (Lam. 3:31-32).

In Lamentations, the author is mourning over the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC, which he recognizes as deserved due to Judah and Israel’s repeated apostasy from Yahweh throughout the period of the Old Covenant, which continued up until the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. And yet even in the midst of this, he has hope in the nation’s forgiveness and restoration, in whatever form that may take.

It’s this question of form that Paul is addressing in Romans 9-11. Paul makes it clear that not every last Israelite will be saved, indicated by his repeated reference to “a remnant“ (9:27, 11:5). Both the discussion of election in Romans 9 and 11 (some are chosen, others are not), as well as Paul’s illustration of olive branches cut out and some grafted back in, demonstrate that he recognizes that only certain Israelite individuals will be saved. “For many are called, but few are chosen” (Matthew 22:14). And this election, as he shows us, is of grace, not of works (Rom. 11:5-6). If it is of grace for the Israelites, how much more is it of grace to the Gentiles, who were not the beneficiaries of God’s grace to begin with (Rom. 11:11-24; Eph. 2)? 

The result, then, of Israel’s apostasy and return to Yahweh, is not a nation of Israel restored to its Old Covenant position in the end times, but an Israel, an ekklesia, of which Gentiles are as much a part as the physical sons of Abraham, from the first century into eternity (Isaiah 60).

Paul does not see the fact of election by grace to be in contradiction with the notion of apostasy, but rather a complementary truth. The discussion of election in Romans 9 itself contains within it the idea that some who, in one sense, are of the people of God, may not in another sense actually be of the people of God. The difference between the two groups according to the action of God depends upon His mercy and grace, Paul tells us. But here in Romans, as elsewhere in Scripture, Paul makes it clear that from the perspective of the individual man, continuance in salvation depends on his perseverance in both faith and obedience. Good works are essential to final salvation. Not only does he make this clear in Rom. 11:16-24, but it is emphasized throughout the book (2:5-29; 8:1-17). The mercy and grace that makes a man justified by faith puts him in such a state that while he may occasionally sin, sin does not dominate him. He becomes a man who reckons himself dead to sin through the finished work of Christ, and being in union with Christ through His death and resurrection, does not yield himself up to sin as its slave (Rom. 6).

The key question to it all is this - who does the saving? And Paul makes it clear that it is God, through election, through predestination, through calling, through justification, through perseverance, and through glorification (8:28-30). The warnings must be heeded. But the man who God has determined to save will heed those warnings and persevere until the end of his life.

And so perseverance in faith, a perseverance that Old Covenant Israel failed in, is required for final salvation. But the faith that is required is not a faith in one’s own works or obedience, but rather faith in the the One who promises to keep ahold of the man who trusts in Him, the kind of trust that perseveres in obedience.

Faith, Obedience, and Answered Prayer

If one is not a Calvinist and a Postmillennialist, then we should expect weak and ineffectual prayer to be the result. The condition for answered prayer that Scripture puts before us is that we must ask, and in asking we must believe that God will give us what we’re asking for. If we do not believe that He is willing or able, then our prayers will accomplish nothing, Scripture tells us. Unbelief receives what it expects.

But Scripture also tells us that a life of holiness is also required, and if there’s a place where the American Church fails, it’s there. But unbelief and a lack of holiness go hand in hand. We sin, because we do not trust God. We do not believe He is Who He says He is, that His way and character are right and good, or that there are consequences for our sins. Belief, faith, is the root of obedience, and where there is no obedience, there is no faith. And where there is no faith, prayers are not answered.

Boycotts of Madness

 Did you know that the upcoming Disney Marvel movie “Doctor Strange in the Multitude of Madness” will be available for viewing in India in Malayalam and Tamil? Did you know that there are languages called Malayalam and Tamil, or that they are spoken by over a hundred million people combined?

What are the chances of taking down a company as large as Disney simply with boycotts? It won’t happen.

Boycotts aren’t entirely fruitless. But I’ve been watching Evangelicals try this my whole life. All by themselves they have accomplished little, and the past few decades have proven that. If you are a believer seeking to live a holy life before God, then you have a duty to be careful about what you put before your own eyes, before the eyes of your children, and in what you recommend to others. But if you really want to change Disney, mere boycotts aren’t enough. There are three things that would do more. First, pray for change at Disney, believing that your prayer is good, and on that basis that God will answer it. Secondly, buy Disney stock, and attend shareholder meetings to make your voice heard where it counts. And beyond that, live a holy life before those around you, that the testimony of your life might demonstrate the truth of Scripture and influence others for good.

Apostate America

 Lgbtq ex-vangelicalism is what you get when you try to disciple people in a hazy, mystical, feelings-oriented, anti-intellectual and anti-dogmatic version of Christianity. When you focus on the self rather than on Christ and the facts of Holy Scripture, you are setting people up for apostasy, hardened atheism, and a ruined culture.

*************

The Parable of the Sower in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, John 15, Romans 9-11, Hebrews 6, Hebrews 10, and many other passages, testify to the fact that it is possible for a person to in some sense be joined to Christ, but later fall away, to his eternal perdition. Genuine salvation manifests in spiritual fruit, growth in grace, and holiness of life. Where such things in no way continue, we have no reason to believe that salvation exists. Any approach to the faith that excuses these things or ignores these passages in the name of eternal security fails to do justice to Scripture and does not teach the whole counsel of God. The possibility of apostasy is assumed throughout the Old and New Testaments. And one cannot rightly guide people in Biblical Christianity if he does not acknowledge this.

Moon Knight Episode Two

Marc Spector: “Where are we going?”

Khonshu: “Where the hell do you think?”

Moon Knight episode two is the Book of Genesis; Moon Knight episode three will be the Book of Exodus.

In Moon Knight episode two, our Adam, Steven Grant, meets his Eve, Layla. After they spend time becoming acquainted with each other, we then meet an elaborately constructed Garden of Eden scene in the form of Arthur Harrow’s commune. Plants are overflowing their planters in abundance; the followers of Ammit are watching nature documentaries. Everything appears to be untainted peace and harmony. As in the Garden of Eden, where no animal had yet to be slaughtered, the only food available is the fruit of the ground. In their conversation, Harrow notes that he knows Steven Grant is vegan, as he is. Harrow is the serpent, speaking lies and making accusations against Khonshu, having formerly been in service to him, as Lucifer was to Yahweh. “Hath Khonshu said?” Harrow gaslights Steven to weaken him and make him pliable, like all sociopathic leaders do, seeking to lead Steven to rebel against and disobey his master. Questions of judgment and death and innocence arise, as in Eden, along with the seed of women, children. But a Garden of Eden scene is incomplete without Eve showing up as well, which Layla does. As with Eve, she holds what the serpent really wants. But unlike in Eden, the man and the woman are both wise, and reject the lies of the serpent. Consequentially they’re driven out of the garden. A battle takes place, and just as Yahweh slew an animal to clothe Adam and Eve in Eden, blood must be shed, but in this case it’s that of a jackal. Where Adam and Eve fell in battle, Steven and Layla have victory, though one that is incomplete. The serpent still temporarily takes what the woman had.

The scene of Harrow and Steven eating lentil soup is key in and of itself, in that the soup itself refers to Esau selling his birthright to Jacob for what the King James Bible calls a “mess of pottage”, which is simply lentil stew. In that Biblical story is an undoing of Adam’s betrayal of Yahweh. Whereas the serpent used food with deception to take Adam’s birthright, Jacob merely uses food, refusing to use the enemy’s tactic of lying. Jacob, who God will later rename Israel, begins the path towards Christ, the path of undoing the Fall, and redeeming not only his own people, but saving the whole world.

In the end, we catch a brief glimpse of the seed of Israel, Steven Grant, in his slavery in Egypt, overlooking the pyramids that his ancestors built. His star of David is prominent around his neck.

Moon Knight Episode One

 So if you trace out the events of Moon Knight episode one chronologically, it begins on Thursday (Thor’s Day), and ends on Monday (Moon Day) night. And it is at the end, on Monday night, when we first see Marc Spector transform into Moon Knight.

This is significant, given that the show has at its center the relationship of Marc Spector and the god Khonshu, but further, the relationship among the ancient Egyptian gods. There is a leaving behind of the West and its gods, which formerly occupied the MCU, and moving East, which is taking place with Moon Knight, The Eternals, and Shang-Chi. And this is symbolized in the flow of days in this first episode. Marc himself is Ad Orientam; he moves from West to East.

Marc Spector’s alternate personality Steven Grant is a lowly museum gift shop employee, and neither he nor the Egyptian history represented in the museum (and by him) are taken seriously by his (largely white) co-workers. Western, post-Enlightenment peoples regard the gods as merely fiction and relics of an ignorant past - an odd thing to have in the show, given the context of the MCU. The results of skepticism of the transcendent are cynicism, hatred, and the abuse of others, all of which Steven suffers under. But the Transcendent always refuses ultimately to be ignored for long; the denial of its existence can’t last. It always finds a way to break through into the modern world. It may be represented in Moon Knight by false gods, but the principle is the same - the Enlightenment was and is a lie, and to adopt it is to deny the ultimate truth of Creation, the existence of a spiritual reality beyond Creation where the one all-controlling Creator God dwells.