Jared Longshore's Blog, page 19

So Moses and David French Walk into a Bar

As Bunyan did many years back, I laid down to sleep and dreamt a dream. But in mine, David French and Moses walked into a bar. The bartender, taking one look at the flowing beard of the lawgiver, said, “No, no you don’t. We don’t serve your kind. We’re a free establishment.” French nodded in agreement, pointing Pharaoh’s Foe to the door, while taking a sip of a pinot noir labeled Korah’s Reb. There was something about censers, fire, and incense. And, alas, I woke.

Blessings from Louisiana

The recent actions in Louisiana are a double blessing. There is the blessing of the law itself, signed by Governor Jeff Landry just last week, and the second blessing, namely the opportunity afforded to us by these proceedings. The law states that all government schools, both K-12 and the universities, must hang the 10 commandments in their classrooms. So, there is reason number one to give thanks, little Johnny will have a bit of the Old Testament added to his studies. The second blessing is that this development affords us an opportunity to examine where we stand. The lines can get muddled every now and then. But here God blows the clouds away and we are afforded the opportunity to see whether we are standing with the normies or with radicals like David French.

As Governor Landry signed the this bill into law, he said something eminently reasonable, “If you want to respect the rule of law, you’ve got to start from the original law giver, which was Moses.” Some might say that Governor Landry was doing the Christian Prince shuffle. And maybe so. But, let’s not scare anybody off at the moment with such a conclusion. Let’s just say that he was saying something that has been said by more Christians than you can number down through the ages. Take Johannes Althusius, “If you would deprive political and symbiotic life of [the Decalogue] and this light to our feet, as it is called, you would destroy its vital spirit. Furthermore, you would take away the bond of human society and, as it were, the rudder and helm of this ship. It would then altogether perish, or be transformed into a stupid, beastly, and inhuman life.”[1]

That’s right, if you send Moses out of your establishment then you will be disestablished. Many insist on running in the other direction. For them, Moses would strip society of her liberties. But, strangely enough, if you were to take a stroll by the Supreme Court building, guess who you would find front and center engraved up there in the marble? That’s right, Moses. Not only Moses, but Moses with the Ten Commandments there on his right hand and on his left. Just below the meek son of Amram, you will find these words engraved in marble: Justice the Guardian of Liberty. 

The Standard of Liberty

Justice indeed is the guardian of liberty. If you throw out law and justice, it will not be long before your freedoms go limping along like some jungle animal with a bad case of gastritis. And now we have come to the nub.

French would agree that justice is the guardian of liberty but on the wrong plane entirely, the secular one. He demonstrated this plainly in his recent opinion piece at the New York Times entitled Thou Shalt Not Post the Ten Commandments in the Classroom. After quoting the bit from Governor Landry about respecting the rule of law via Moses, French retorts, “Ah, you would teach respect for the rule of law by defying the Supreme Court?” French is referring to the 1980 Supreme Court case Stone v. Graham, which struck down a Kentucky law similar to that of Louisiana. 

There is a simple reply to French’s rhetorical: precisely. Glad we are now on the same page. You indeed teach respect for the rule of law by siding with Moses when magistrates oppose him. You side with the man engraved in the marble of the building when the justices inside contradict him. French appears to have no category for such a higher law to which man should appeal. Which is to say, French has no standard of justice above the court to guard the liberties we cherish. He would certainly appeal to man’s standard, the court’s standard, and the legislature’s standard. But we are Christians, after all. The vox populi vox dei option is out. Rutherford settled this matter many years ago: “Truth to Christ cannot be treason to Caesar.”[2]

A Real and Spiritual Power

In his opinion, French goes on to lament the “belief that the Ten Commandments have a form of spiritual power over the hearts and minds of students and that posting the displays can change their lives.” Well, paint me green and call me a pickle! I will have to stand with the son of Jesse—

The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: The testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart: The commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes (Psalm 19:7-8).

This is not a matter of the instrumentality of classroom posters. Granted, if you never read the “Got Milk?” poster, that one with Brett Favre sporting the milk mustache, then you will never be induced to go for a gallon of the dairy product. If French attempts to retreat to such a claim, that he was only speaking of the insufficiency of classroom decor, then he will be guilty of the motte-and-bailey. He doubts the spiritual power of the law of God, unhitching from the Old Testament, as the fellow once said. 

[1] Althusius, Politica, 147.

[2] Rutherford, Lex Rex, 17.

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Baptism and Dry Bones

Ezekiel was wise in his reply. When asked if dry bones could live, he responded, “Lord God, you know.” People think it strange when we trust that our children will be among the righteous at the resurrection of the dead. “Aren’t they, like all sons of Adam, born dead in sin?” Well, yes, they are. But our God not only raises the dead. He has promised to raise us and our children from the grave. This He signifies to us in baptism for in it He swears an oath that this child will walk in newness of life.

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Alchemy and the Full Smeagol

Man has long been in search of the philosopher’s stone, that instrument with which you could turn base metals into gold. With a flick of the wrist, you’re a wealthy man. That may sound like falling into chocolate pie. But, let’s face it. If we were to lay hold on such a device, we would go full Smeagol before you could say my precious.

Proverbs 13:11 says, “Wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished: But he that gathereth by labour shall increase.” You may, indeed, gain something through being shallow, hollow, and vacuous. After all, people paid money for Taylor Swift’s last album. But whatever gains you receive from empty sorcery will turn to ashes. Judas got his thirty pieces of silver for his worthless plan. But he didn’t hold on to them very long.

If you would flourish like the green tree, then you must renounce all attempts at alchemy. You may think that alchemy is long gone. But this witchcraft is still with us. There’s parental alchemy, homemaking alchemy, educational alchemy, financial growth alchemy, physical fitness alchemy. This voodoo has many applications. In principle, it is any attempt to raise a crop, be it a crop of children, widgets, or straight A’s, apart from the Son of God who is life and gives life.

The Proverbs text says that the man who gathers by labor will increase, and the Hebrew word for “labor” is literally hand. The point is not that technology is out and you have to build everything manually. The point is that, whatever your particular plow, you do have to put your hand to it. You have to be in the game, in the saddle, tending to the matters at hand.

When you do so, you will be the one who increases. You will be substantial, sturdy like the oak and full of sap.

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The Key to Dealing with Madmen

“If you or I were dealing with a mind that was growing morbid, we should be chiefly concerned not so much to give it arguments as to give it air.”

“The last thing that can be said of a lunatic is that his actions are causeless. If any human acts may loosely be called causeless, they are the minor acts of a healthy man; whistling as he walks; slashing the grass with a stick; kicking his heels or rubbing his hands. It is the happy man who does the useless things; the sick man is not strong enough to be idle. It is exactly such careless and causeless actions that the madman could never understand; for the madman generally sees too much cause in everything. The madman would read a conspiratorial significance into those empty activities. He would think that the lopping of the grass was an attack on private property. He would think that the kicking of the heels was a signal to an accomplice. If the madman could for an instant become careless, he would become sane.”

Chesterton, Orthodoxy

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Grateful for Bread and Wine

Many people think that man errs by giving too much thanks for God’s physical gifts and not enough thanks for His spiritual ones. But these people will be surprised in the resurrection. We will discover there that, along with our skimpy gratitude for things that cannot be put into a box, like forgiveness, the Holy Spirit, and new hearts, we also should have been far more grateful for mashed potatoes, children’s laughter, and car heaters in the winter.

I don’t deny that we often misuse physical things. But that is not because we are too grateful for them; it is because we are not grateful enough.

This table reminds us that Christ actually tied our enjoyment of his very body and blood to physical bread and wine. As He took the bread, He said, “This is my body.” Given the controversy in the church over this phrase, a controversy that has lasted for hundreds of years now, you can imagine one of the disciples leaning over to Jesus and asking Him, “Lord, do you really want to say that?”

Indeed, He did. In doing so, He taught us to give thanks for the good physical gifts He created. This bread and wine do not change into the body and blood of Christ. You are the one who changes at this table. Here, God teaches us to go from strength to strength and from faith to faith. The only way to get more of Jesus is to eat the bread in faith and taste the wine in hope. This very physical meal points to our very physical Savior, who died and rose bodily. This sacrament leads the way in showing us how all of God’s good physical gifts are from Him, through Him, and to Him. So come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christ. 

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Five Foundation Stones of Christian Nationalism

As our public discourse about Christian Nationalism rolls along, it will be easy to lose sight of how basic the idea is. So here are five foundation stones for Christian Nationalism. These are not the only foundation stones. But they are basic concepts, which if not held, it would be hard to call oneself a Christian Nationalist. Plus, good things come in fives. Five fingers to a hand. Five loaves fed five thousand. Five stones in the hand of the son of Jesse as he walked in the valley of Elah.

One: The only stable nations are those in which the temple of God is built. The goal is not to equate the Christian Church with the Christian nation. The simplest way of distinguishing between the two is to see that the civil magistrates may not lay hold of the keys of the kingdom, the sacraments given to us by Christ. However, it should not surprise us that God appoints and speaks to his Zerubbabels as much as his Joshuas, the former being the governor of Judah in the time of Haggai the prophet, and the latter being the high priest. God had a word for both of them and how could He not? What good would a Jerusalem be without a temple? And what good would the temple be without Jerusalem’s walls? A bit of an easter egg here, Zerubbabel means offspring of Babylon, the nation from which Zerubbabel sprang to rebuild the stable city. If you are tempted to think that the godless nations are the stable ones, remember that God has them spit up rulers to govern nations in which God dwells.

Two: Magistrates rule as delegates of the Triune God. Secular man frets that this will increase the magistrates power, when in truth, it will restrain it. This is one of the key truths employed by Junius Brutus in his Vindiciae Contra Tyrannos. Face it, with a title like that, everything old Brutus said in the work is obviously right. So believe him when he says, “the Holy Scripture does teach that God reigns by his own proper authority and kings by derivation, God from Himself, kings from God, that God hath a jurisdiction proper, kings are His delegates.”[1] Modern and secular democracies, all souped up on the demos, would happily exchange the theos of Brutus for the people. It would go something like this: “the people reign by their own proper authority and kings by derivation, the people from themselves, kings from the people, that the people have a jurisdiction proper, kings are their delegates.” There is a kernel of truth in that bowl of words, namely what Rutherford teaches in his Lex Rex, that God makes the king through the people and not directly apart from the people. But, our current sickness is not that of having civil authorities established direction by God apart from the people. No, the long-term ailment which has left us bedridden is the old vox populi vox dei virus.

Three: Magistrates are to be obeyed when they obey God and not otherwise. This third foundation stone is fairly simply in principle, which is where I intend to leave it for now. There is plenty of work to do on the various applications of the principle. If you ask, “Well, how are we to know if the magistrate indeed is obeying God?” There is a principled answer to this question as well, namely, the revelation of God, both general and special. This is an idea as old as Christendom, be it Augustine or Aquinas. God has revealed His standard to us in a general way and He has done so through the prophets and the apostles. Anyone who takes point number three seriously will be in a pickle to argue that we should neglect on form of God’s revelation when it comes to our civil affairs. 

Four: In a Christian Nation, there exists a covenant between God, the magistrate, and the people. We see this very thing with Joash in 2 Kings 11:17, “And Jehoiada made a covenant between the LORD and the king and the people, that they should be the LORD’s people; between the king also and the people.” This is in keeping with the instructions laid down by Moses many years before—”Thou shalt in any wise set him king over thee, who the LORD thy God shall choose: one from among thy brethren shalt thou set king over thee: thou mayest not set a stranger over thee, which is not thy brother” (Deuteronomy 17:15). Moses proceeds to give stipulations for the king, including the duty of fearing God and observing His law. This covenant idea is not merely an ancient one. It is one deeply rooted in our own tradition as Glenn Moots has noted in his fine work Politics Reformed: The Anglo-American Legacy of Covenant Theology. Moots sees traces of the covenant idea in the constitution, Declaration of Independence, state constitutions, as well as presidential and holiday proclamations. Brutus’ Vidiciae, a copy of which sat in John Locke’s library, not only explains the necessity of this covenant idea but demonstrates its role in warding off tyranny.

Five: The newness of the new covenant does not alter these truths. There are some who will nod in agreement with all that has been said thus far, but then proceed to speak of the discontinuity between the old and new testaments. “Yes, all that you say is true up to the time of Christ coming to His people,” the sentiment goes. Granted, there indeed is a newness to the new covenant. But nothing about that newness requires that any of the foundation stones be hauled off to the dump. Brutus says it well—

“Although the form, both of the church and the Jewish kingdom be changed, for that which was before enclosed within the narrow bounds of Judea is now dilated throughout the whole world, notwithstanding the same things may be said of Christian kings, the gospel having succeeded the law, and Christian princes being in the place of those of Jewry. There is the same covenant, the same conditions, the same punishments . . . as the former were bound to keep the law, so the other are obliged to adhere to the doctrine of the Gospel, for the advancement whereof these kings at their anointing and receiving do promise to employ the utmost of their means.”[2]

[1] Junius Brutus, Vidiciae, 6.

[2] Brutus, Vindiciae, 14.

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Sacramental Clothes for Adam and Eve

When Adam fell, God did not wash his hands of him. Rather, he made promises to Adam and his children. As God executed his graciousness to him upon his fall, our Lord did not leave His grace without a sign. He cut animals and clothed Adam and Eve. God would protect them. And he would have them walk with a sign of His protection and covenant love. Baptism serves as just such a sign. In it, God says to His people, “Fear not, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by name. You are mine.”

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Prayer With Some Dirt on It

One of the problems we face is that we don’t like to have any dirt on our prayer. By the same token, we don’t like to have any prayer on our dirt. I don’t mean that our prayers should be unholy, of course. We pray by the Holy Spirit. But He did come down to earth at Pentecost and inhabited the likes of us, who, after all, were made from the dirt.

To restate our problem: We float our prayers in the realm of generalities and abstractions. We pray about pride, or lust, or covenant promises to a thousand generations. But we do not pray about the arrogance that walked right out of our mouth in that conversation on Tuesday with Jeff outside of Rousaers. We do not pray about that young lady, a member of the covenant community, who is showing signs of being boy-crazy and adopting her makeup habits from scantily clad Instagram influencers.

I say we do not pray about such particulars. But we do worry about them. We do try to fix them. We do talk about them with others, and mull over best approaches to rectify such problems. But, without prayer, all of those attempts to set things right, won’t do anybody any good. 

So here is the plan: If you look around and see that things are not what they ought to be, (and you will have plenty of opportunity for such an observations), then make it your first priority to talk to the Lord about it. Ask Him to fix the particular. If it is not rectified right away, bring the matter up with Him again. If it persists, then endure in prayer. If you do, then you may find that you have followed in the footsteps of our father Jacob, who wrestled with God, and prevailed.

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Aunts Will Be Aunts

I never see this relative without thinking how odd it is that one sister – call her Sister A – can be so unlike another sister, whom we will call Sister B. My Aunt Agatha, for instance, is tall and thin and looks rather like a vulture in the Gobi desert, while Aunt Dahlia is short and solid, like a scrum half in the game of Rugby football.

P. G. Wodehouse, Jeeves in the Offing

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A Toast to the Death of Doubt

The Lord’s Table is a declaration of war against unbelief. This table is where doubts go to die. At it, we proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes. And the proclamation we make is not like that made by some misguided legislator who thinks he can fabricate standards according to his own will and mind. Those standards are vacuous, groundless, vain, and without authority. We, however, proclaim a historical fact that holds history itself together. We declare an event that informs every other event. 

The death of the Son of God grounds reality as we know it. To commune with Christ in His death is to be a true human, to know and enjoy the truth, to have the lights turned on. To not partake at this table is to be lost in the starless night, to flee away from life itself, to starve and die. 

Even so, this table will not leave unbelief alone. Doubt does not hound this table. But this table does hound doubt. Like our Lord, this table is no respecter of persons. It looks to vanquish doubt wherever it is found. So you must come welcoming the death of whatever doubt remains in you. Advent season reminds us that we commune with the Lord who has come. He is here whether man recognizes Him or not.

It is not as if this table needs your faith. It is your faith that needs this table. It is not as if man found and flipped the switch that called forth our Lord’s Advent. No, Christ has come. Christ has died. Here He is and what will you do? Well, there’s only one thing for you to do. Come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christ.

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