The Narcissist Leader, pt. 2

Some theologians - as well as some pastors and other leaders - have an air about them of sternness, rectitude, and distance.  To be in their presence may be an honor and would surely be edifying, but it would make a person nervous, leery of making a mistake or saying something wrong.  That would not be the case with Luther, who - however ferocious he could be in print - was jovial, self-deprecating, and fun to be around in person.

Some leaders are so taken with their sense of authority, their lofty status, and their pride that they lift themselves up over those they are leading, coming across as cold, superior, and unpleasant.  Emperor Charles V, who opposed Luther at Worms and Augsburg, was said to have a dour personality and a sour disposition.  Someone with great power, of course, can lead that way, intimidating his followers and using force and rewards to keep them in line.  But for people to follow voluntarily - of their own free will - and to develop personal bonds of loyalty, they almost always need to like the person they are following, to have affection for the person as well as the cause. -- Gene Edward Veith

The Narcissist Leader

 The urge to save humanity is almost always a false face for the urge to rule it. -- H.L. Mencken

Whether at the level of politics or one on one personal relationships, the person who thinks you absolutely need them to survive is the person you need to run from. Narcissism is deadly and evil.

J.C. Ryle, On Parenting In Love

 Train up your child with all tenderness, affection, and patience. I do not mean that you are to spoil him, but I do mean that you should let him see that you love him. Love should be the silver thread that runs through all your conduct. Kindness, gentleness, long-suffering, forbearance, patience, sympathy, a willingness to enter into childish troubles, a readiness to take part in childish joys, —these are the cords by which a child may be led most easily, —these are the clues you must follow if you would find the way to his heart. Few are to be found, even among grown-up people, who are not more easy to draw than to drive. There is that in all our minds which rises in arms against compulsion; we set up our backs and stiffen our necks at the very idea of a forced obedience. We are like young horses in the hand of a breaker: handle them kindly, and make much of them, and by and by you may guide them with thread; use them roughly and violently, and it will be many a month before you get the mastery of them at all. Now children’s minds are cast in much the same mould as our own. Sternness and severity of manner chill them and throw them back. It shuts up their hearts, and you will weary yourself to find the door. But let them only see that you have an affectionate feeling towards them, —that you are really desirous to make them happy, and do them good, —that if you punish them, it is intended for their profit, and that, like the pelican, you would give your heart’s blood to nourish their souls; let them see this, I say, and they will soon be all your own. But they must be wooed with kindness, if their attention is ever to be won. And surely reason itself might teach us this lesson. Children are weak and tender creatures, and, as such, they need patient and considerate treatment. We must handle them delicately, like frail machines, lest by rough fingering we do more harm than good. They are like young plants, and need gentle watering, —often, but little at a time. We must not expect all things at once. We must remember what children are, and teach them as they are able to bear. Their minds are like a lump of metal— not to be forged and made useful at once, but only by a succession of little blows. Their understandings are like narrow-necked vessels: we must pour in the wine of knowledge gradually, or much of it will be spilled and lost. “Line upon line, and precept upon precept, here a little and there a little,” must be our rule. The whetstone does its work slowly, but frequent rubbing will bring the scythe to a fine edge. Truly there is need of patience in training a child, but without it nothing can be done. Nothing will compensate for the absence of this tenderness and love. A minister may speak the truth as it is in Jesus, clearly, forcibly, unanswerably; but if he does not speak it in love, few souls will be won. Just so you must set before your children their duty, —command, threaten, punish, reason, —but if affection be wanting in your treatment, your labour will be all in vain. Love is one grand secret of successful training. Anger and harshness may frighten, but they will not persuade the child that you are right; and if he sees you often out of temper, you will soon cease to have his respect. A father who speaks to his son as Saul did to Jonathan, {1Sa 20:30} need not expect to retain his influence over that son’s mind. Try hard to keep up a hold on your child’s affections. It is a dangerous thing to make your children afraid of you. Anything is almost better than reserve and constraint between your child and yourself; and this will come in with fear. Fear puts an end to openness of manner; —fear leads to concealment; —fear sows the seed of much hypocrisy, and leads to many a lie. There is a mine of truth in the Apostle’s words to the Colossians: “Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged”. {Col 3:21} Let not the advice it contains be overlooked.

We Were Made For You

 Worship precedes service. This basic Biblical principle was one I was taught early on in life. But the priority of worship goes even further. Our worship of God, both corporate and individual, must precede: 

Culture

Relationships

Politics

The news

Theological precision

Your job

Entertainment

Online debate

And I could go on. Your communion with, and adoration of, the one true God has to come before everything else. And when it doesn’t, your life inevitably becomes disordered. Not only does your view of God become warped, so does your view of and treatment of your neighbor, Christian or otherwise.

This, in fact, is the testimony of Romans 1: “For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened” (vs. 21).

Cur Deus Homo?

 Because Jesus was and even now is fully man, you can carry your problems to Him and He can and will understand and sympathize with you. And because He is fully God, He can take on your problems and do something about them.

Theology matters. A right Christology matters.

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.