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.

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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.

Concerning Caitlyn Jenner at Fox News

 If anybody had any doubts about whether or not conservatism had lost its way, this should convince them. Too often, conservatism has proven to just be slow progressivism. Without Christianity at its heart, that’s always what it ends up being. And what I’ve seen online from people in the past couple of years has shown me that it has fueled the rise of nationalism on the right. I’m seeing, even among scholars, a lot of right wing rejection of the label and concept of conservatism, in favor of nationalism. And it is bringing with it elements of white supremacism and antisemitism. It all comes down to the question: what is the foundation of your beliefs about right and wrong? More specifically, what is the truth, and where does it come from? Conservatism, even as framed by Edmund Burke and Russell Kirk, is insufficient. Even Russell Kirk was such a naturalist that he left room for the idea that conservatism can function in an anti-Christian society, where another religion such as Hinduism lay at the heart. But Hinduism, like all false religions, merely leads to death, no matter whether or not you put a veneer of conservatism over top of it. Merely natural revelation, without the Bible, is insufficient to govern a people and form a culture rightly. All that is true, good, and beautiful, is rooted in the character of God, and is expressed in his Creation derived from Him. Post-Fall, it impossible to sufficiently attain the true, good, and beautiful apart from His written Word. And so any society and culture that rejects the Bible, attempting to govern itself some other way, is always destined to eventually fail.

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Our Chosen Slavery

 It is fine to tell Americans and Canadians that they need to become ungovernable, particularly in relation to the tyrannical powers that always seek to overstep their God-given bounds in their control over us. This is a problem that has needed correcting for a long time in the West. The problem, though, is that Americans and Canadians in general live in rebellion against God. Tyranny always arises and gains strength first and foremost because a person or a group of people refuse to live in obedience to God. Lawlessness with regard to God always leads to slavery under the hands of men. We are currently slaves, because we refused to “worship and serve…the Creator, Who is blessed forevermore” (Rom. 1).

Do you want to be free from tyranny? Then kiss the Son (Psalm 2). Submit to and live in obedience to King Jesus. Take responsibility for your own life, do what he tells you to do, love and worship him in faithfulness, and live to promote his kingdom. There is no such thing as autonomous free will. There is no such thing as absolute freedom. You will either serve God, or you will serve a multitude of false gods. There is no other way.

Doctor Strange and the Will to Power

 Potential spoilers for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. 

I suspect that the scene on the streets of New York that involves Doctor Strange and America Chavez fighting Gargantos appears early on in the film. America and Gargantos, while fighting in another universe, pass through one of America’s portals into the current MCU universe, and Doctor Strange joins the fight. This is the first time that Doctor Strange and America Chavez meet. We see later in the trailer that Wong engages the battle, trying to lasso Gargantos. It is more than likely that he is the one who ends up bringing its rampage to a halt. It is after that scene from the trailer that he lectures Doctor Strange for having opened up the paths between universes and creating that situation.

The MCU has been quite open in its intention to go a more “Woke”, that is, a Cultural Marxist, direction. It was first embarrassed by the fact that in the comics Wong was actually Doctor Strange‘s servant. The solution to that was to make him a sorcerer himself, and to ignore his history as a servant. Making him Sorcerer Supreme was a step even further in a Woke direction. It was a deliberate, anti-western and anti-American imperialism and colonialism move, in the same vein as what was done in Thor: Ragnarok. The same philosophy also ran as a thread throughout the second Guardians of the Galaxy movie. Ego was cold, ruthless, and narcissistic in his colonizing of other planets, just as Odin was in his warring against others. 

Doctor Strange himself, in both the recent Spider-Man movie and the upcoming Doctor Strange movie, represents the Western, American white male, acting as he sees fit, with no respect for how his actions may affect others. He acts according to the principle of the Will to Power - whatever he desires to achieve he should be allowed to achieve, simply because he desires it. There is no transcendent standard of right and wrong by which he must be tethered.

In the scene where America Chavez is suspended in the air and a star portal opens behind her, she is actually being tortured by Wanda and the monster in front of her is something manifested by Wanda. Wanda is doing this in order to get her children from another universe.

America Chavez is a character who, in the comics, has two mothers rather than a father. Even though she comes from another planet, she resembles a Hispanic woman and is regarded as being Hispanic. And she herself is a homosexual. A close look at the trailer shows that she is wearing a rainbow flag on her jean jacket, as an intentional mark of LGBTQ representation. That this has some importance with regard to her being tortured should be very obvious.

The automatic assumption with regard to the Illuminati is that they are a good counsel looking to correct the bleed between the universes. But it could be that they are in fact of evil or questionable intent, or that some of the members are corrupt in their intentions while others are good. I suspect that this version of Professor Xavier is not the one from the Fox universe, but maybe an evil version. When in the trailer he says, “We should tell him the truth,” we should question whether or not they actually will. The Illuminati seems in part to be made up also of a version of Baron Mordo from another universe, Reed Richards, Captain Carter, some version of Tony Stark, an alternate version of T’challa, and maybe even the version of Doctor Strange, Defender Strange, as seen in the trailer. The latter sacrifices himself in some fashion, turning into Zombie Strange.

Which is true, free will, or determinism? In Liberal Western culture today, our god above all gods is individualistic free will. What modern Western man desires above all things is a world where no god exists, no one to whom each man must give account. This was at the core of the Loki show, just as it has been for countless movies and TV shows over the past few decades. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness will continue to explore that.

But if we are to accept free will, which form is right? Is it the Western, American Will to Power, or is it that of the Marxist? There is no difference. When the existence of God and any transcendent truth have been rejected, all that’s left is power. All that’s left is a vacuum where not even love can exist. All that’s is left is meaninglessness, nihilism, death, and chaos. Such a vacuum always leads back to tyranny.

If there’s one lesson should be learned from the past few years, it’s that the pursuit of individualistic free will, a life fully liberated from the one true Sovereign God, only leads to the worshiping of false gods, of other created things, a life where no freedom exists at all, a life of slavery.

Sic Semper Tyrannis

 Resistance to tyranny is fundamental to the Christian faith. From the Hebrew midwives of Egypt in Exodus, to Daniel and his friends in the Book of Daniel, to the disciples in the New Testament, to Jesus himself, we are given examples in Scripture to follow. Whenever the State begins to violate human freedom, then it is the duty of Christians to resist.

Mad at the Church

 The person who rejects organized religion doesn’t then have no religion. What he has is his own religion that he has organized around himself, where he is the center of it all instead of God.

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God doesn’t in His Word pretend that churches are full of sinless people, and He doesn’t suggest that we should pretend that. He’s very open in His Word with His rebukes toward the churches in the New Testament as well as Israel in the Old Testament when they were sinning wickedly. We see this in the New Testament especially in 1 Corinthians and Galatians, as well as in the letters to the churches in Revelation 2-3. God is as angered when people sin against us as we are, and he doesn’t want us to be naive about how evil people can be.

Whatever anger or disappointment you may have toward ministers, church leaders, or other believers for mistreatment you may have suffered from them, God is in agreement with you. He is shares your anger and disappointment.

Nonetheless, the Church was created by God as the means by which He ministers to individual Christians and demonstrates His grace and power to the watching world. While some local churches may become so wicked that they can no longer be considered a part of the universal body of the Church (Rev. 1-3), that never happens to every local church. Some sin will always exist, there are no perfect churches, and yet God always maintains His presence and witness throughout the world through groups of faithful but flawed believers.

It is the duty of all who profess faith in Jesus Christ to join and attend a local church that teaches the Bible correctly and that seeks through all its ministry to be obedient to Scripture. To be a part of a local church is, very simply, what it means to be a Christian.

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Anger towards God, and distrust towards God, aren’t things you can just ignore until they go away. They don’t just go away. There’s only one option in dealing with them: you have to go to God in worship and prayer and study until you have the thing dealt with for good. If you don’t, they will just hang around and mess up your life until you do.

Dispensationalism and the Gospel

 One of the major teachings of the New Testament is that Christ’s death on the cross was a complete and fully sufficient sacrifice to save men from their sins. What the Old Testament sacrifices could not do, Jesus did in His suffering and death. The New Testament then tells us that if a person now tries to turn back to the Jewish sacrificial system, in doing so they reject the work of Christ, the Gospel, and God Himself. For Dispensationalism then to teach that the Jewish sacrificial system will be reestablished with God’s blessing during the Tribulation is for it to contradict the Gospel. Scripture goes to great lengths in saying the exact opposite of what Dispensationalism teaches.

Alcohol

The Bible encourages drinking alcohol. See Deut. 14:22-26 and the wedding at Cana. It also condemns overdoing it. The distinction is clear in Scripture. And so on that basis, you cannot forbid drinking. Scripture stands against temperance.

Another angle on this is the fact that Scripture condemns the use of things that are in and of themselves evil. Adultery and other sexual sins, theft, murder, etc. It also makes very clear that alcohol is not one of those things. The abuse of a thing does not make the proper use of a thing evil. The fault there lies in the user, not in the thing used.

And what is the proper use of alcohol? To drink it with gratitude before the Lord for this gift that He has given you to enjoy. There’s no support in Scripture for needing to find some merely practical use for a thing in order to justify it. Pragmatism isn’t Biblical either; God gives us lots of things just to make us happy.

The Natural Order

 It was from Adam that God took the substance that He meant to fashion into woman, indicating that as man was formed first and as woman sprang from man, so man is to be her head. He from the dust, she from him. He directly from the Former’s hand, she indirectly and through him. “Adam,” says the apostle, “was first formed, then Eve” (1Ti 2:13). Therefore, says he, she is “not to teach nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.” Thus, again, he states the gradation: (1) the head of the woman is the man, (2) the head of the man is Christ, (3) the head of Christ is God (1Co 11:3). Further, he adds that “the woman is the glory (or ornament) of the man”; for, says he, “the man is not of the woman; but the woman of the man. Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man” (1Co 11:8-9). Such is God’s order of things; such His assignment of place and rank to the creatures that He has made. We may be sure that there is a reason for this gradation, not merely a typical [typological], but a natural one, whether we fully understand it or not. We cannot alter this law and be blameless. We cannot reverse it and not suffer loss. The construction of our world’s fabric is far too delicate and complex for man to attempt the slightest change without dislocating the whole. One star displaced, one planet thrown off its orbit, will confound the harmonies of space and strew the firmament with the wrecks of the universe. [Likewise,] one law lost sight of or set at naught will mar the happy order of God’s living world below.

In one age or nation, man treads down woman as a slave; in another, he idolizes her and sings of her as of a goddess. Both cases inflict a social wrong upon the race, in the latter case as truly as in the former. And who can say how deep an injury—both spiritual and social—has been wrought and how fatal an influence has been sent forth, by that fond sentimentalism that, impregnating our poetry and coursing like fever through the veins of youth, not only “costs the fresh blood dear,” but saps the whole social system, nay, propagates a principle of subtle ungodliness and creature-worship in its praise of woman’s beauty and idolatry of woman’s love.

- Horatius Bonar

The Good Samaritan

 Luke 10. Jesus’s parables often have multiple applications. While it’s clear that the parable of the good Samaritan has in focus what it is to love one’s neighbor, it was of particular application to the Jewish leaders of that time. While the priest and the Levite refused to help the troubled man, keeping the law to love one’s neighbor as one’s self, the Samaritan did keep it. A non-Jewish man keeping the law of Israel’s God, the God with whom they alone were in covenant, would have been shocking and offensive to them.

Jesus’ point in the parable was to highlight Israel’s failure to keep covenant with God through obeying His law, to show the possibility of a Gentile keeping it, and to illustrate God’s turning away from Israel to the Gentiles.

“(F)or when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them) in the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel” (Rom. 2:14-16).

The point of Romans is God’s salvation of the whole world, not just the Jews, and that their shame in the Gentiles being saved instead of them might draw the Jews back to God.

But the Jews consciously rejected Jesus, as they had His Father repeatedly throughout the Old Covenant. Likewise, they rejected His apostles, who came to them as a last-ditch effort to save them from the coming wrath that they deserved. In the end the apostles turned from the Jews to the Gentiles, fulfilling the prophecy that all the nations would come to worship Israel’s God.

“So when the Jews went out of the synagogue, the Gentiles begged that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath. Now when the congregation had broken up, many of the Jews and devout proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas, who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God.

On the next Sabbath almost the whole city came together to hear the word of God. But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy; and contradicting and blaspheming, they opposed the things spoken by Paul. Then Paul and Barnabas grew bold and said, ‘It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first; but since you reject it, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles.  For so the Lord has commanded us:

“I have set you as a light to the Gentiles,

That you should be for salvation to the ends of the earth.”’

Now when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord. And as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed” (Acts 13:42-48).

Jesus Himself had turned away from walking among the Jews openly when they had determined in their hearts to kill Him (John 11:54). In doing so, He imitated Yahweh’s repeated turning away from Israel throughout the Old Covenant, whenever they turned back from following Him, choosing their fallen state in Adam, their state before Abram left Ur, their state before Yahweh delivered them from Egypt, and the state of the pagan nations surrounding them. They repeatedly chose to live in wickedness, worshiping the false gods like the nations, as if they were not in covenant with Yahweh. As a result, Yahweh repeatedly turned His back on them, leaving them to the consequences of their sinful desires and actions, and bringing judgment upon them for it. And yet every time they repented and turned back to Him, He returned to them and gave them another chance.

Jesus came as Yahweh’s final prophet to His beloved people Israel. Israel would reject Him and crucify Him, as their ancestors had rejected His Father. And yet the plan all along was that the whole world through Israel might come to Yahweh, and the Jewish people themselves turn to God in Christ. Today God’s people, the Church, are comprised of Jews and Gentiles who have put their faith alone in Jesus Christ for salvation. All are joined together in the one Olive tree (Romans 11), for there is no other means by which any man might be saved than the work of Christ.

Colossians 2

A couple of short thoughts on Colossians 2:

1. Paul is speaking to the Colossians specifically as a group of Gentiles, i.e. uncircumcised.

2. Jesus’s circumcision of which Paul speaks here was His death on the cross.

3. Merely removing the foreskin was not enough to purify mankind. The whole body was/is corrupt and had to/has to die.

4. In the act of water baptism, a person is united with the death and resurrection of Christ. The benefits of Christ’s work become ours through the rite of baptism.

5. Baptism and faith are not at odds here. Both are present. Jesus trusted in God, and so must we.

6. Being raised with Christ, all our transgressions of God’s Law have been forgiven. Not only have we been forgiven, the Old Testament legal requirements that kept Gentiles away from God have been done away with entirely through Christ’s death and resurrection.

7. By His work, Christ has usurped the principalities and powers (the rulers and authorities), subjugating them to His own rule and dominion. Consequently, they no longer are able to command or make any legal claim against those of us who are in union with Christ. All the courtroom arguments against us they may try to make are thrown out of court.

No doubt there is enough there to rub different folks the wrong way, at different points. But Paul isn’t simply throwing out a variety of vague, disconnected references to salvation. He is making a coherent statement about the work of Christ, specifically as it relates to the Gentiles.

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“So you’re saying baptism somehow saves us, whatever you mean by that. Aren’t you then saying that we’re saved by our good works, our work of getting baptized?” It’s a common response.

But nobody actually baptizes himself, does he? Usually a minister applies water to the person’s head and says “I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Or he dips the person in a pool of water and says the same. The minister baptizes you. It isn’t something you do; it’s something done to you. God is working through the minister as his tool to save you, just like he sanctifies you when the minister preaches God’s Word to you. The fact that you are listening in no way means you earn sanctification. You wouldn’t even be listening if God hadn’t first inclined your heart toward Him and made you want to listen. All the credit goes to God.

Things Scripture Doesn’t Say, Pt. 2 - Getting Saved

 Scripture nowhere says that a person needs to know the exact moment at which he got saved. Are you right now trusting in God to save you? That is the only thing you need to know. At what point in the past that began to be true is not a question you need to answer.

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There isn’t a single verse of Scripture that speaks of becoming a Christian as “asking Jesus into your heart”. And that cheesy, sentimental, romantic way of talking about salvation has probably turned far more men off to the Gospel and the Church than we might think.

Things Scripture Doesn’t Say, Pt. 1 - Only Christian Music Is Allowed

 Scripture nowhere says that it is a sin to listen to “secular” music, music that doesn’t aim to be specifically Christian, or music that doesn’t mention God or the Bible. It’s true that if a person is saved they should at least sometimes want to listen to music that speaks accurately and positively about God. Scripture commands us to sing praises to God, and to “sing to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs”. But it doesn’t say that is the only kind of singing you’re allowed to do. There are types of music that a Christian shouldn’t want to listen to - if you find yourself wanting to listen to songs like “WAP”, then something spiritually is wrong with you, and you need to repent and correct course on some things. But if there isn’t anything particularly contrary to God’s word about a piece of music, then God has given you the freedom to listen to it. All good things ultimately come from Him, and He puts those things in the world for you to enjoy.

Most Christian music over the past hundred years or so has been terrible. If you don’t like it, then it probably means you have good taste. “For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another” (Gal. 5:13). You don’t have to abandon Christianity to enjoy good art - so don’t use it as a excuse to do so.

It Isn’t About You

 In Reformed circles we often like to tell people “it isn’t about you” (“it” being the Gospel, or the worship of the Church, or anything related to Scripture). In our narcissistic age, this certainly has its need. But while God is clearly concerned about His own glory, and often puts wicked men in their place, I think we tend to push this further than Scripture gives us the right to. Salvation is about us, in that it’s us He’s saving. Scripture is filled with statements about the love, the kindness, the mercy, and the goodness of God directed toward us. Scripture tells us that He sent His Son not just to satisfy His own righteous demands, nor simply to bring Himself glory, but out of His love for mankind. His loving acts in this world are not just self-focused, nor focused at those impersonal parts of His creation, but focused on us. “What is man that you are mindful of him, or the son of man that You should care for him?” (Ps. 8). And this is clear in Calvin as well. Using one quote to illustrate:

“For in administering human society he so tempers his providence that, although kindly and beneficent toward all in numberless ways, he still by open and daily indications declares his clemency to the godly and his severity to the wicked and criminal. For there are no doubts about what sort of vengeance he takes on wicked deeds. Thus he clearly shows himself the protector and vindicator of innocence, while he prospers the life of good men with his blessing, relieves their need, soothes and mitigates their pain, and alleviates their calamities; and in all these things he provides for their salvation.”

God’s point often in His rebukes in Scripture is to show His glory, to show His place as God exalted above man and all creation in all His being, and to show that His care for all things is His free choice. But He has chosen. He everyday cares for mankind freely, willingly, gladly, lovingly. And when sin came into the world, the thing that might prevent the giving of His love, He gave even more, that no impediment might stand in the way. In our arrogance we might need a reminder sometimes that we aren’t the center of the universe - that we are not God. But the true God has set His love upon us in such a way that He can call us His children, His friends, and the inheritors of the universe He has created and upheld.

“He will not always strive with us,

Nor will He keep His anger forever.

He has not dealt with us according to our sins,

Nor punished us according to our iniquities.

For as the heavens are high above the earth,

So great is His mercy toward those who fear Him;

As far as the east is from the west,

So far has He removed our transgressions from us.

As a father pities his children,

So the Lord pities those who fear Him.

For He knows our frame;

He remembers that we are dust.

As for man, his days are like grass;

As a flower of the field, so he flourishes.

For the wind passes over it, and it is gone,

And its place remembers it no more.

But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting

On those who fear Him,

And His righteousness to children’s children,

To such as keep His covenant,

And to those who remember His commandments to do them.” (Ps. 103).

I wonder if as Calvinists we don’t sometimes strive with men more than God Himself. Inasmuch as we do, it is a thing of which we must repent. If we have truly been recipients of His grace, how can we do otherwise? 

Does this really arise from a zeal for the glory of God and a love for our neighbor? Or is it merely a lust for power and authority that isn’t rightly ours, with a sadistic need to tear others down? If it is the latter, and sometimes I think it is, then our own salvation must be in question. We are not reflecting the character of the God we claim to be in union with, but rather something of the devil. True godliness speaks not only truth, but in love and humility. 

Thanos and the Scarlet Witch: To Covet Godhood

 At the end of Avengers: Infinity War, we see that Thanos has gone to live in a mountainous region far from civilization in a cabin alone. And at the end of WandaVision, we see that Wanda has done the same. In both cases the camera seems to pan down toward the cabin(s) from a distance, and the fact that the last scene in WandaVision mimics that of Infinity War suggests we are to see a parallel between the two figures. There is a contrast in the two, though. Whereas Thanos comes out of his cabin from the inside and sits down on the steps, having completed the work he intended, Wanda begins sitting down on the front steps, arises, and goes inside her cabin, where we find she is still busy at work constructing her desired reality. The two figures are mirror images of each other. 

But the similarities don’t stop with their visual presentations.

We see in both characters the sort of willful individualism and isolation which is always the tendency of a person failing to deal with their pain and disappointment correctly. Both individuals sought to use their power to construct reality according to their own liking. The power they sought exceeded what they had any right to, and both showed themselves to lack the wisdom and goodness necessary to wield that power properly. No one person can ever have the qualities necessary to rightly conduct another person’s life, let alone multiple other lives. And the desire to do so always reveals a hateful narcissistic evil that can only lead to death. “You will never be a god,” Loki tells Thanos. And this is the heart of all of the occult: it is an arrogant hatred of the one true God, and a desire to kill Him and take His place.

The point of the end of WandaVision, then, is that Wanda has become her abuser, her persecutor, and the very thing she hates. “You took everything from me,” Wanda tells Thanos in Avengers: Endgame. Wanda does the same to the citizens of Westview in WandaVision, and the last scene of the show suggests she hasn’t yet learned to deal with her losses.

As Holy to the Lord

 The Pledge of Allegiance was written by a Socialist, and did not originally have the phrase ”Under God” in it. The Pledge is about religious devotion to the State, such that no Christian should say it, nor should it be recited in church in a worship services. Flags in church buildings are equally an abomination.

While I’m on the subject, I would also voice my disagreement with good Reformed men on the subject of sacred space, including Peter Leithart. It is true that space does not become ”magical”, and we should be careful to make that clear. But certain spaces can and should be set apart as holy for the worship of God. To set up such spaces is a mark of civilization resulting from the work of the Holy Spirit and the triumph of the Gospel. It is when you start declaring everything as equally sacred, in a pagan sense of being magical or even literally “god”, that you can know that the glory of God has departed from you.