Toby J. Sumpter's Blog, page 48

A Message for the Mayor & City Council of Moscow, Idaho

“Then Jesus said to those Jews which believed on him, if ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (Jn. 8:31-32).

Introduction
There is a long tradition in the Christian Church in which ministers of the gospel delivered sermons that were directed to kings and governors and judges. Moses preached to Pharaoh. Jeremiah was called by God to preach to nations and kingdoms. Paul preached to a number of Roman Governors. John Calvin dedicated his Institutes of the Christian Religion to the King France. And you can read whole collections of sermons from early American preachers full of messages to the governors of the colonies. 

So, Mayor Lambert, Counsellors Bettge, Kelly, Laflin, Sullivan, Taruscio, and Zabala, this message is respectfully for you. The Bible is clear that Christians owe magistrates honor and obedience in the Lord. And the Bible is equally clear that we are to pray for all who are in authority, and this is with the goal that we may lead quiet and peaceable lives in all godliness and honesty. I have had the pleasure of meeting only three of you, but I want you to know that you have all been in my prayers, especially recently. 

An Ocean of Opinions & Feelings
My message for you today is fairly simple, but it has enormous ramifications. It’s sort of like gravity – once understood and formulated, you realize it affects everything. And the message is based on a question that I believe has been pressed upon you all in recent days. It’s a question many rulers and officials have asked over the centuries, especially in moments of uncertainty and crisis. In fact, it’s inscribed in the Bible, in the mouth of the Roman Governor Pontius Pilate when Jesus was on trial before him and a mob had gathered. The question is, “What is truth?” I imagine you all have been asking yourselves and one another that same question in the midst of this coronavirus crisis. We all have. What is truth? Are the data models being circulated true? How bad is the virus? How quickly does the virus spread? Are the numbers we are seeing true? Can it be treated? Can it overload our hospitals? What is truth? 

I can only imagine what you have been through over the last number of weeks. I can only imagine that you have received more input from your constituents than ever before. No doubt, you have received advice, counsel, pleas, denunciations, theories, angry outbursts, maybe even worse. And my message for you is that the only way forward, the only way out of this mess is the truth. Jesus said, “if ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (Jn. 8:32). 

But in order for truth to set you free, you must know what truth is. And unless the answer to that question is something firm and fixed, something that does not change, something that goes all the way down and reaches all the way up through all of reality, you will always be adrift in a story sea of opinions and preferences and emotions.

Bedrock Truth
For the last fifty years or so, our culture and universities have declared that truth is whatever you want it to be. Whatever is true for you, is true for you, and whatever is true for me is true for me. We call this relativism or subjectivism. Everyone is their own sun, and their truth, their story, their reality is whatever they choose to make revolve around themselves.

But what you are finding is that this theory simply doesn’t work in the real world. No doubt you have been bombarded with many truth claims in recent days. Many citizens have no doubt been sharing their realities with you – with varying degrees of correspondence. But what you are no doubt finding is that these various claims to truth are competing and in many cases in direct contradiction. The pressure is on you, and the fact of the matter is that you cannot make everyone happy. Right now you have many business owners and freedom loving citizens upset, and when the isolation orders are lifted you will no doubt have many who are upset because the threat is still in their opinion very grave. But the fact of the matter is that the coronavirus cannot be both likely to kill hundreds of thousands of Americans and likely to only kill tens of thousands of Americans. The coronavirus cannot be likely to overrun hospitals and not likely to overrun hospitals. One of those is true and one is false. Or some other fact is true and both are false. You have been and are being forced to take sides, to choose which claims you find more plausible, more likely to be true. And this is because truth is by its very nature fixed, firm, immoveable.

Truth does not vary from day to day. Truth does not change. It is the same on Monday and Wednesday and Friday. It is the same this year and next year. Our understanding of truth can certainly change. We change. But truth does not change. Two plus two is four all of the time. 

But in order for truth to be true there must be a bedrock that it rests on. That bedrock is what we call reality. This is why we say that someone who denies basic arithmetic or gravity is in the process of denying reality. And this is why we say that reality doesn’t care about our feelings. Reality doesn’t care what we believe. You can believe you can fly with all your might, but flapping your arms wildly and jumping off the roof of your house cannot change reality. Gravity doesn’t care. 

But you cannot insist on these bedrock facts without also insisting on their origin. Where do bedrock facts come from? Where does truth come from? One of the root causes of our relativism – claiming that truth is whatever you want it to be is the theory of evolution. You cannot hold that absolutely everything in the universe accidentally came from nothing, and then by millions of years accidentally mutated and adapted into being andhold simultaneously that truth is fixed and changeless. You cannot hold that everything has changed and then arbitrarily decide that something cannot change.

If evolution is true then “might makes right” and “survival of the fittest” really is the only law. To say we evolved into caring about the weak or caring about truth doesn’t matter. Who cares? Maybe one of the more enlightened protoplasm once thought that they were the height of evolution too. But if evolution is the law, evolution doesn’t care. Mutation doesn’t ask for permission. Mutation doesn’t care about love or justice or mercy. It really is random and arbitrary, mindless and heartless. 

Is There a Law-Giver?
So this is my message for you. And it is in the form of a question: What is truth? 

And there really are only two options. Either there is no such thing as truth. Everything evolved, and therefore everything is an accident and meaningless mutation. Or else there is such a thing as truth because this world was created. It was designed. And therefore, it has meaning because it was meant. There are laws of nature because nature has a law-Giver. 

And this is not something that is a particularly religious opinion. This fact, this truth was permanently etched on the history of our nation in the Declaration of Independence, which states that sometimes it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve political bands and to assume a separate and equal station, which the “laws of Nature and of Nature’s God” entitle them to. The Declaration of Independence acknowledges that Nature has laws and that Nature has a God. That was part of the basis for America deciding to declare independence from Great Britain. The same document closes by stating, “And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the Protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.”

And so the question that ought to occur to us occasionally is: What were the founders of our nation actually relying on? When they risked their lives in declaring independence from Great Britain, were they actually relying on a real and true thing, the “Protection of Divine Providence,” or would it have been just as true for them to say they were relying on cotton candy, pink balloons, or the Easter Bunny? Is what they wrote true? And if you say it was true for them, then you might as well say it wasn’t true at all. It doesn’t matter if they had warm fuzzies in their belly when they wrote it, if it isn’t really true. It doesn’t matter if they felt deeply about it, if it isn’t really true. Remember the one who believes very deeply that he can fly by waving his arms wildly while jumping of his roof. Reality doesn’t care about our feelings. It only cares about what is real, what is true. So again, I ask you, what is truth?

The Truth-Teller Meddles
Logic and sound reason say that truth, for it to be true, must actually correspond to reality and must be as firm and unchanging as reality, and therefore, reality must have an intelligent and intentional origin. If there are laws of nature that are true, then nature must have a law-Giver. Or, if there is truth that is firm and fixed, then there must be an ultimate Truth-Teller.

And so we come to point: the only way through the fog of human opinion, the only way through the storm of prejudice and preference and paralyzing fear is with the truth. If everything is just flux and mutation and change, then everything is just emotion, opinion, and it doesn’t matter. But if truth – true truth really does correspond to reality, then truth really does out. Truth really does matter. There may be a storm, there may be uncertainty, but it really does pay to be as close to the truth as possible. The truth really does set you free.

But this really is the terrifying thing about truth. Truth is not arbitrary or selective, and truth cannot be cordoned off in a special room for special circumstances. If you decide to embrace Truth, not just true-for you, scratch-and-sniff truth, but true truth, you should be prepared for the fallout. And it really is a wonderful fallout, but it’s also quite bracing. It’s the only safe place to be, but it will not stop with Covid-19 or the laws of nature. And what I mean is that if you embrace Truth, you must be willing to tell the truth everywhere, and in everything. And this really is the central offense of truth. It’s why people, for all their lip service to truth, really don’t prefer it at all. Everyone is fine with truth-telling so long as is it doesn’t get personal, so long as the Truth doesn’t get to meddling. But the Truth does get to meddling.

How can you say you believe in truth when it comes to gravity or mathematics or logic, but when it comes to whether you have always told the truth, you won’t have it? But there it is anyway. Have you always told the truth? To your parents, to your employers, to your spouse, to your children? Will you embrace the Truth or not? Or how can you say that you want to know the truth about Covid-19, but you do not want to know the truth about whether an unborn baby is really a human being? How can you say that you want to know the truth, but you are not really interested in knowing anything about the Maker of the Universe, the Creator God? 

The Jesus who said that truth sets us free, is the same One who said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except by me.” It really is an extraordinary claim, an exclusive claim. Many people say that they think Jesus was a good, moral teacher, but very few of them wrestle with this claim – that He is the truth, and that He is the Way, the only Way to God. That same Jesus was crucified on a Roman cross for all our lies. He was betrayed for all of our betrayals. And He rose from the dead in order to make all things new. 

Conclusion
George Washington once said “It is the duty of nations and as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God … and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history: that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord.” George Washington said nations are only blessed that acknowledge God.

The preamble to the Idaho State Constitution says, “We, the people of the State of Idaho, grateful to Almighty God for our freedom, to secure its blessings and promote our common welfare do establish this Constitution.”

If this is true of nations and states it is no doubt true of cities – cities like our wonderful Moscow, Idaho. But that is the question. Is it true? Is it really true? Do we need God’s blessing on the city of Moscow in order for Moscow to thrive? Do we need His help in this time of crisis? And if so, have we asked Him? Have you formally, publicly acknowledged this truth?

You have our prayers. 

In the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Amen.

Photo by Andrew Lang on Unsplash

Mirth or Mourning?

Ecclesiastes says that sorrow is better than laughter, and the heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth. But Ecclesiastes also recommends mirth: it says there is nothing better for a man than to eat, drink, and be merry and rejoice in the wife of his youth. 

So, are we supposed to mourn and or laugh? Are we supposed to go to the house of mirth or mourning? As with so many biblical exhortations that may seem to us to be in tension, the answer is yes. The answer is both. Some of this can depend on circumstances: Paul says to mourn with those who mourn. And so Christians ought to mourn the slaughter of the unborn, all death and sickness and suffering, loss of work and livelihood, and all sin and evil. And yet, the Bible also says: rejoice always, and again I say rejoice. Give thanks always and for all things. 

Ultimately God is the only one who holds these things together perfectly. He is perfectly, infinitely grieved over sin and evil and suffering, and He is perfectly, infinitely full of mirth and joy and laughter. In Him, there is no contradiction between these, just as there is no shadow of turning or change in Him. God is never reacting; He is perfect and infinite and so He is all that He is all the time. We cannot duplicate this infinite perfection, and yet we are nevertheless commanded to imitate the perfection of our Father. And so there is great blessing for us in pursuing these things together, holding them together by faith. 

Are you tempted to make light of hardship and suffering and just laugh it off? That really is foolish. Ask God to give you the wisdom to be found in the house of mourning. Are you more tempted to gloom and sorrow and worry more often that not? That really is unbelief. Direct your heart to be merry and find God’s wisdom there. And perhaps in this moment in particular, plan to spend some time working at both things: make time to grieve sin, suffering, and death, and then plan to set a festive table and rejoice before the Lord with all your might. And do it all before the Lord asking Him to grant you the mind of Christ. 

Photo by Ice Tea on Unsplash

Romans 13, Corona Slavery, & Our Gods

Introduction
One of the glorious gifts of this Corona-Crisis is the revelation of our gods. And with that revelation is pouring in the returns that our gods are, as usual, impotent, moody, tyrannical, and indisposed.

Jack Boot Diversity
What are those gods? Their name is Legion, but let’s start with multiculturalism and diversity. This is the god of secular human harmony and unity. Let us call this god Jack, short for Jack Boot Diversity. This is the attempt to have unity apart from the blood of Christ. And what did that get us? It got us officials in New York City urging everyone to carry-on like normal all the way into March. Why? Initially it was to avoid canceling or postponing a huge China Town parade in February. The New York Surgeon General, a New York Representative, and even Chinese New Yorkers reassured everyone that there was no reason to be worried about the virus in New York City. Nothing to see here, people. Find a large crowd and breathe deeply. Mayor De Blasio was even encouraging people in New York to go to the movies on March 2. Then came the lock-down and a pretty intense outbreak of the disease and finally Governor Cuomo came in with his fascist policies and threats.

Here is the hot air of human wisdom on display: ignorant, arrogant, utterly powerless but ultimately full of threats of violence. And this is the same wisdom trying to turn enemies into friends, trying to deal with generations-old enmities and envies and rivalries. Please note the careening messaging, the arrogance, and then the threats. This is like passive aggressive parenting on a grand scale. Go to the movies! Go home! If you try to go to church, we’ll lock you up and take your building permanently.

But do not miss the fact that it is this same careening insanity at work with the religions of climate change and sexual perversion. We have all the same ingredients and woe betides. The numbers, the statistics, the data, the data models, scientists and doctors preening madly in front of the screens telling us that people are dying and millions more will die soon if you don’t do something extreme now. Trannies and sodomites are committing suicide. You must stop telling them they are in sin. You must not call on them to repent. You are causing them to die. And if you keep driving cars and eating beef, our fancy models indicate that millions or thousands or at least seven people might die from something at some point, you hater. We’re not exactly sure, but you have to do something drastic right now or else you don’t care about humanity. Do you want people to die? Love your neighbor. This is why bakers and photographers and florists have been forced to bake the cake, take the pictures, and provide flowers for the sodomite weddings or else. All hail Jack Boot Diversity: harmonious unity or else.

And Now For Some Wisdom from John Calvin
Of course leaders can be wrong, and this doesn’t destroy their authority. But when they are wrong and refuse to acknowledge it, that does begin to corrode their reliability. And when they have shot themselves in the foot a few times, the reluctance of many to follow can only be followed up with threats. And this is what we call an abusive power.

It’s striking that many who are urging complete submission to magistrates, and counseling only self-examination and repentance, even if the magistrates are being harsh and unwise, would hyperventilate if the same counsel were given to a wife under the authority of a harsh and foolish husband.

So for example, a friend shared this quotation from Calvin’s Institutes on submission to magistrates. And it really is good, but notice the analogy he draws (the breaks are inserted just for ease of reading):

“This feeling of reverence, and even of piety, we owe to the utmost to all our rulers, be their characters what they may. This I repeat the oftener, that we may learn not to consider the individuals themselves, but hold it to be enough that by the will of the Lord they sustain a character on which he has impressed and engraven inviolable majesty.”

“But rulers, you will say, owe mutual duties to those under them. This I have already confessed. But if from this you conclude that obedience is to be returned to none but just governors, you reason absurdly. Husbands are bound by mutual duties to their wives, and parents to their children. Should husbands and parents neglect their duty; should the latter be harsh and severe to the children whom they are enjoined not to provoke to anger, and by their severity harass them beyond measure; should the former treat with the greatest contumely the wives whom they are enjoined to love and to spare as the weaker vessels; would children be less bound in duty to their parents, and wives to their husbands? They are made subject to the froward and undutiful. Nay, since the duty of all is not to look behind them, that is, not to inquire into the duties of one another, but to submit each to his own duty, this ought especially to be exemplified in the case of those who are placed under the power of others.” 

“Wherefore, if we are cruelly tormented by a savage, if we are rapaciously pillaged by an avaricious or luxurious, if we are neglected by a sluggish, if, in short, we are persecuted for righteousness’ sake by an impious and sacrilegious prince, let us first call up the remembrance of our faults, which doubtless the Lord is chastising by such scourges. In this way humility will curb our impatience. And let us reflect that it belongs not to us to cure these evils, that all that remains for us is to implore the help of the Lord, in whose hands are the hearts of kings, and inclinations of kingdoms (Dan. 9:7; Prov. 21:1; Pss. 82:1, 2:10; Isa. 10:1).” (IV.20.29)

Did you catch that? Calvin says the duty of obedience owed to magistrates is one and the same as owed to other authorities. And he is addressing situations where the mutual responsibilities are not being kept. What happens when a father is harsh or a husband treats his wife with “greatest contumely” — which means “greatest insolence or insult” — what happens then? Calvin says that the duty of each is not to look behind them (at the duties of others) but for each to submit to his own duties. And finally, he says that when we are tormented by wicked authorities, our first instinct ought to be to recall our faults and receive it as scourging from the Lord and call on Him to deliver us.

Equal Weights
First off, the fact that you cannot type the words “wives submit to your own husbands, like Sarah who obeyed her husband, calling him ‘Lord'” without inciting riots in the social media streets is telling. But if you say “Romans 13,” people break into reverent, hushed tones like you’ve dropped some atomic truth bomb — shouldn’t that give all of us some pause? Why doesn’t 1 Peter 3 have the same effect? If you write for some mainstream “Christian” magazine or blog, the unspoken assumption among most editors is that if you insist on bringing up those (ahem) passages, you will do so with great care and caution, swaddling everything with warbling bubble wrap, yellow warning tape, and flashing yellow lights, listing all of the many exceptions before and after and thereof, relating horror stories and anecdotal cautionary tales, rendering the whole thing pretty off limits and don’t actually try this at home.

It goes something like this, “Of course what the Apostle Paul meant when he said submit [insert muddled Greek word study here] has to be understood in the context of “mutual submission.” In our day with so many abusive fathers and husbands and pastors, we want to be very careful to make sure everyone knows that this should not be misunderstood. Submission to those in authority must be thoughtful, careful, and constantly on guard for abuses or anything that might seem hard, painful, awkward, or inconvenient.”

Ok, maybe that’s a little on the nose, but that’s the basic spirit of the thing. But what happens when we’re given the Romans 13 mic drop? Nothing quite so cautious. Perhaps, we may have an occasional allusion or reference to extreme abuses like Nazi Germany or North Korea, but the assumption is largely, that whatever we are experiencing in America or the UK or Europe is largely within the realm of reasonable. Romans 13, everybody, submit to the authorities.

Right. I agree with Romans 13. But the same God who inspired Romans 13 also inspired Ephesians 5 and 1 Peter 3 and Titus 2 and 1 Timothy 2 — you know, the passages that prohibit women from exercising authority over men in the church? The passages that exhort wives to submit and obey their husbands in everything, even the disobedient ones, and be really into homemaking and babies?

My point is that you can tell a culture’s gods by the verses they put extra precautions around. You can say, “citizens submit to your judges and police officers,” and everyone yawns. But if you say, wives submit to your husbands, everyone waits for the exceptions and precautions. And if you don’t give them, you will be considered reckless and insensitive. Don’t you know how many women have been abused by Hard Complementarianism and Biblical Patriarchy?

But don’t you know how many millions have been butchered at the hands of civil magistrates? And yes, we can point to the Russian gulags and German concentration camps, but we can also point to the Planned Parenthood gulags and the American concentration camps.

The irony is deep and thick. Many of the same “pro life” civil magistrates that insist that abortion is the law of the land, and that they are doing everything they can to stop it, in full submission to Roe v. Wade, are the same who have declared states of emergency over less than a handful of deaths in their state over fear that many others *might* die. This is hilarious and glorious, if not also appalling. The gods are being revealed. But when all of this insanity is over, there will not be one “pro-life” governor with an excuse, and there shouldn’t even be an excuse right this minute. Do governors have emergency powers or not? Can they suspend ordinary constitutional rights when lives are in danger or not? Over 3,000 babies are legally executed in our nation every day. Don’t tell us you can’t do anything to stop that. Heh.

But don’t miss what Calvin says we ought to do when confronted by wicked authorities. He calls on citizens to recall their sins and faults. He calls on citizens to repent. Now, this section is not all that Calvin says on this topic. He recognizes that all human authority is limited authority and not absolute. Lesser magistrates have duties to protect those under them. But my point is that we must have equal weights and measures here. If you would start hyperventilating if a pastor urged a wife with a harsh husband to begin by considering her own faults and see what sins she has to repent of, then you cannot participate in this conversation. You do not know what authority and submission are.

At what point would you counsel a wife to be an Abigail and go behind her husband’s back? At what point would you encourage a 12 year old boy to imitate the young Jesus and go to church despite the expectations or instructions of his parents, since he must be about his father’s business? Wherever that point is, it should be consistent with your thoughts on this corona-moment and submission to civil magistrates. Biblically speaking, the honor and obedience due to superiors is one and the same, adjusting for the various jurisdictions that God has assigned.

Conclusion
Let me be clear: Romans 13 really is in the Bible. But so is 1 Peter 2 which also requires Christians to submit to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake, whether to kings or governors (1 Pet. 2:13-14). And so let jaywalkers beware, unless of course you don’t count crossing the street before the little green walk sign turns on. But why not? People do get hit by cars you know. Do you even care about human life? But of course that passage also goes on to require slaves to submit to their masters, even the harsh and abusive ones. But nobody seems to be that excited about 1 Peter 2 either. So when is it permissible for a slave to disobey his master? When is it biblically permissible for a slave to disregard instructions or runaway or organize an Underground Railroad? I’m not saying these questions are all easy to answer, but I am saying that a bunch of Christians are acting like it is. They seem to think that slaves can pretty much revolt for any cause, since they will not admit that slavery is ever acceptable. And they think that wives may seek shelter if a husband raises his voice above the sound ordinance that the Commies in Spokane, Washington just passed for those worshiping Jesus outside of the Planned Parenthood there.

The point is that you cannot pick and choose. Does God establish authority or not? And if that authority is limited and delegated by God Himself, at what point may that authority be disregarded or defied? There are not easy answers, but let us be utterly sure that the gods of our nations will not be providing any of them — the gods of science, the gods of data, the gods of diversity, or the gods of economic boom. They love tangling people up in doubts and fears and envy and lust. But all of it is slavery since idolatry is always slavery. But the irony is that many of the same people who insist that God would never allow for slavery, never, ever, ever — they are perfectly fine with citizens enslaved to their states, locked in their homes and locked out of their businesses, so long as it is done in the name of that great goddess of safety and health. All rise!

Photo by British Library on Unsplash

 

Light in the Dwellings of Israel

“They saw not one another, neither rose any from his place for three days: but all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings” (Ex. 10:23).

Introduction
There is something glorious here for us. The pagans were struck with darkness and could not rise, could not go out, could not move for three days, but all the children of Israel had light in their homes. The text doesn’t tell us exactly how this worked. It doesn’t say if there was some kind of massive cosmic miracle taking place or if the darkness was simply less intense in Goshen, such that the lanterns and candles actually worked or whether there was some other supernatural light being given. But either way, this moment is glorious. There was thick, paralyzing darkness in Egypt, but all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings. 

The implication seems to be that there was still darkness in the land of Goshen, but that while Israel had to stay home, there was a relative blessing in the midst of the plague. Everyone was stuck at home, no one could go out, but where there was an additional darkness inside the homes of the Egyptians, all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings. Everyone had to stay home, but there were two very different experiences of that darkness. In one experience, there was no variation, only darkness, inside and outside, all the way through, but in the other experience, there was significant variation. The darkness was on the outside, but there was light on the inside. All of the children of Israel had light in their dwellings. 

It is still unclear exactly what has happened in our land, in our world, and what is happening. Whatever your views of this current moment, whether you are more concerned about the virus, or more concerned about the panic, or more concerned about government overreach and loss of civil liberties, or if it’s some or all of the above, whatever your opinions, whatever your concerns, the message is that for those who know God through Christ, no matter the darkness outside, there should be light in your homes, light in your families, light on the inside. Whatever the darkness, whatever the hardship, whatever the cause, you can say it however you like, but your sentence should end: but all of the children of Israel had light in their dwellings. But all the people of God had light in their homes. 

So my question is: if you call yourself a Christian, if you profess faith in Jesus Christ, is there light in your home? Is your home full of light? When the story is told of these days, will it be said of you and your family, that even though the world was full of darkness, the people of God had light in their dwellings? What is your home like? What is your family like? What is your marriage like? Is it full of light? Is it a joyful place to be? Is it a comforting place to be? Or is it fearful, biting, angry, grumpy, cold, or distant?

The Light of the Word 
The people of God should always have light in their homes because they have the Word of God in their homes. “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path” (Ps. 119:105). In Ephesians, it says, “For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light… Speaking to yourselves in psalms, and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Eph. 5:8, 19-20). Do you want light in your home? Then you must have the Word open, and you must have no fellowship with the works of darkness. You must have no fellowship with the works of darkness on the internet, on Netflix, or in your heart. But rather you must expose them, hate them, repent of them. And instead you must read the word, sing the word, and obey the word. The Word is light. If you put a garbage can over a lamp, it won’t give any light. So open the Word. Open it and read it. Read it out loud. Let it shine. Read all of it. Commit to obeying it. Do whatever it says with joy. And sing the Word, or start learning how if you don’t know how. And notice that singing the word is how it dwells in you richly. That’s how you turn the dimmer switch up to full blast. Do you want the word to shine in your home brightly? Then sing the word loudly. Do it with thanksgiving always and for all things. When the Word is in your mouth and in your heart, your home will be full of light. 

The Light of Fellowship
The people of God should always have light in their homes because they have fellowship with God and one another in their homes. “This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not practice the truth: but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 Jn. 1:5-7). Again, you cannot say you have fellowship with God and walk in darkness. You cannot serve God and mammon. You cannot love God and love the world or the things in the world (1 Jn. 1:15). If anyone loves the world, the love of God is not in him. And a bunch of church-going people really need to hear this word. You go to church, you sing in the choir, maybe you are even in leadership, but you do not love God. You love the world. You are full of the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, and you do not know the Father. 

How can it be that a land full of so many professing Christians is so corrupt and so thoroughly wicked? How can it be that cities full of so many church going people murder so many babies, by the thousands, every single day? The answer is that there are many people in this land who think they are Christians, but they are not. They are full of darkness and there is no light in them at all. They do not have fellowship with God, and they are walking in darkness. They are liars. And this is evident in their relationships with God and those around them. They have constant bickering with their spouse, tensions with their children and parents and co-workers. Why do they not have fellowship with those around them? Because they are walking in darkness. 

But the promise is right here: If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. And many Christian people don’t even know what that fellowship is like. Do you know the joy of Christian fellowship? The peace? The glorious freedom of having no secrets, no bitterness, nothing to hide? Many people have settled for an average American home, which is not the same thing as a Christian home. A Christian home is full of light, full of joy, full of peace, full of fellowship.

And do not misunderstand: Christian fellowship is not sinless, but it is fellowship that is constantly being cleansed by the blood of Christ. And this happens by confession and forgiveness: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Do you want light in your home? Then confess your sins. Do you want light in your family? Then forgive your dad, forgive your spouse, forgive your brother, your sister. And get back into fellowship with God.  

Conclusion: The Light of Christ
Of course, all of this is pointing ultimately to Christ Himself. The light we are talking about, the light we want in our homes, in our families, in our marriages is not some impersonal force, some mystical power, some religious experience or feeling. No, the light we are talking about is the presence of a person. And that person is Jesus of Nazareth. He is the Light of God. He is the Word of God, and since He is the Son of God, He is the One who grants us fellowship with God. No one comes to the Father, except through Him

If want light in our homes, we must have Jesus in our homes. And this is not just a nice religious saying. This is not me saying that you need traditional family values in your home. This is not me saying that you need to try harder or turn over a new leaf. No. We need Jesus in our homes. The reason Jesus has been largely banished from our public square is because we didn’t want Him there. And we didn’t want Him there because we have largely ignored Him in our homes.

“In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in the darkness; and the darkness did not comprehend it… That was the true Light, which lightens every man that comes into the world” (Jn. 1:4-5, 9). You cannot have a home full of light unless you have Jesus in your home. And if you have Jesus in your home, there is nothing that can make your home dark. 

This is just another way of saying what Paul says in Romans 8: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? For I am persuade that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:35-39). 

And if you have that kind confidence, then your life will be full of light, your home will be full of light. How can you have that kind of assurance? How can you have that kind of confidence? The only way to have that kind of assurance is to have Christ dwelling in your heart, Christ living inside of you. Christ in you, is the only hope of glory (Col. 1:27).

But how can Christ, a man, dwell inside you? How can Christ be in our homes and in our families? The answer is Christ is risen from the dead. Christ rose victorious over all sin, all death, all decay, all tyranny, all guilt, all shame, all darkness. And He rose with healing in His wings. He rose with endless life and light to bring. He rose to make all things new. He died so that your sin might die in Him, and He rose so that you might rise with Him. 

So the free offer of the gospel is that if you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead, then you will be saved. His light will shine on you. His light will fill you. And Christ Himself will come and dwell in you and drive away all the darkness. 

This is what we need our land right now. Do we want the public square full of Christian light? Then our homes must be full of Christian light. Do we want the darkness of abortion, the darkness of sodomy, the darkness of economic insanity, the darkness of government tyranny driven back? Then let there be light in our homes. That light is the Light of the Word, the light of fellowship with the Father and the Son, the light of Christ filling our hearts and our homes. 

In the coming years, let it be said of these days, that though they were very dark, all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings. All the people of God had light in their homes. The Christian homes were full of unexplainable joy. 

And Amen.

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The Father Almighty & Abdicating Fathers

Christians are people of first principles, and we must be people of first principles especially when the world around us is shaking, crumbling, or has gone mad. What do we mean by first principles? The Apostles’ Creed is a wonderful statement of first principles. We believe in one God, and this God is both our Father and He is Almighty. He made all things, He rules all things, and He does so as our loving Father. And that love has been manifest and proven in the death and resurrection of His only begotten Son, the pouring out of His Spirit in the Church, the fellowship of the saints, and our firm hope of resurrection glory.

But these first principles are rich with meaning and wisdom. For example, the fact that God is Almighty, means that all authority flows from Him, all “might” flows from Him. The fact that He rules as our faithful Father informs how we understand His authority and all other authorities. He has established the authority of magistrates in the city gates, elders in the church, and fathers in the home. And they all answer to Him, the Father Almighty. 

In moments of crisis or uncertainty, it is particularly important that every authority take responsibility. This is not a moment to sit back and watch other authorities. Each has a different jurisdiction, but part of the love that we owe God and our neighbor is bound up in each jurisdiction fulfilling its duties before God. Magistrates must guard their people and punish evildoers, elders must proclaim the gospel, feed the sheep, and guard the flock, and husbands and fathers must love their wives and children and provide for them and teach them.  

While nearly half of the world is currently shut down by the orders of civil magistrates, elders and husbands and fathers still retain their authority directly from God. The Word is clear that we are to honor, pray for, and submit to magistrates in the Lord. But the Word is equally clear that elders are to shepherd the flock of God, and fathers are to love and provide for their families. There must not be any abdicating or relaxing of these duties or jurisdictions, especially in times of uncertainty or when there may be tensions between them. Love is keeping God’s commandments. And when we have obeyed with simplicity of heart, we are free to live with a clean conscience before God. 

This reminds us of our need to confess our sins.

“We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments: neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the prophets, which spake in thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land. O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee, but unto us confusion of faces…” (Dan. 9:5-7)

Father, we confess that we are nation of abdicators and blame-shifters. Like our father Adam, we have made excuses and blamed others for our own failings, rather than taking responsibility and repenting joyfully. This includes the proclivity of men in our land to abdicate their responsibilities to lead, protect, and provide, leaving wives, daughters, sisters, and mothers insecure, unprotected, exploited, exasperated, and rebelliously desperate to take up the slack. Father, we acknowledge that it is a curse to be ruled by women and children, and we acknowledge that we have not only insisted on this curse, but we have celebrated it as enlightened, sophisticated, and virtuous. Father, we further confess that all of this abdication has left us completely vulnerable to fear and anxiety and tyranny. We confess that we have sinned this way in our city gates, in our churches, and in our homes, and we confess that we deserve all the calamity and turmoil that we are getting. And so we cry out for mercy in the name of Jesus, for the sake of His precious blood. Deliver us from this curse because Christ bore our curse on the cross. And pour out Your Spirit that we might see our sin clearly, confess it honestly, and forsake it entirely. Father, we know that if we in the church give any kind of pass to sin in our own lives, this prayer will be ineffectual, so we silently confess our individual sins to You now. Selah. 

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Perfect Fear

“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction” (Prov. 1:7).

This is true all of the time, but it is especially true when people are tempted to fear other things. 

A Christian is someone who has come to know the greatness and holiness of God to such an extent that everything else pales in comparison. This does not mean that a Christian is not tempted to fear other things, but when a Christian hears the voice of his God, he is comforted and his fears are relieved. 

“And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matt. 10:28).

But we live in times where there is no fear of God before the eyes of many. Babies are murdered and many who know better are more afraid of not being re-elected than they are of standing before the Living God and giving an account for their lies and inaction. Sexual immorality is celebrated as freedom and diversity, when it is nothing short of slavery and the monotony of death. Our leaders flaunt their own wisdom, defying the clear laws of God, establishing their greed and injustice, not caring for a moment about the last moment when they will stand naked before the throne of God. 

“And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment” (Heb. 9:27). There are no do-overs in eternity, and there really are no do-overs in history. There is only the eternally holy God who hates all evil, and there are sinners without anywhere to hide from His gaze, and there is Christ the only refuge, the only covering, the only the shelter. 

Hidden in Christ in God is not a place of no fear at all. It is a place where perfect love casts out all carnal fear, all fear of death, all fear of man, all fear of judgement and suffering. But that perfect love is God Himself and therefore it is full of perfect fear – a fear that hates all evil, a fear growing in wisdom, a fear full of joy. 

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A Message on Plagues

Joel 1-3

Introduction
The prophecy of Joel is about a coming disaster in Israel, the hope of repentance and reformation, and the promise of international justice. We do not know the full nature of the hardship we are facing, but we know that it is from the Lord. It is for our good, it is for His glory, and it is part of His plan to fill the earth with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. But one of the great lessons of Joel is the centrality of worship to all of life. Joel confronts our national sin of thinking that worship is not related to plagues, politics, economics, and family life.

A Summary: The Locusts & the Acquittal
The book opens with the word of the Lord describing a locust plague of epic proportions (1:2-4), but by the end of the book the Lord is declaring the condemnation of Egypt and Edom and the acquittal of the bloodshed of Judah (3:19-21). So we need to know how Joel gets from locusts to the judgment of nations. A big clue is found in the canonical run up to Joel. It’s striking that Daniel foretells the coming of four kingdoms (Dan. 2: image dream, Dan. 7: four beasts). In the latter vision, Daniel sees a lion, a bear, a leopard, and a great beast representing four empires (Dan. 7:2-23ff). And Hosea follows also promising that God will be to Israel like a lion, a leopard, a bear, and a wild beast (Hos. 13:7-8). So when Joel tells us that four kinds of locusts are coming, we should take note (Joel 1:4, 2:25). On the one hand, locusts are one of the plagues of judgment that God promises to send on His people if they forget Him and break His covenant (Dt. 28:38-42). Foreign nations are also described as devouring locusts in various places (Jdg. 6:5, 7:12, Jer. 51:14, 27, Nah. 3:17). Putting this together, I take Joel to be describing an actual, literal locust plagues (past, present, or future), but he is also clearly using that to foretell the invasion of foreign nations (1:6, 2:2-11, 20). And this is confirmed by the resolution of Joel’s prophecy being the great judgment of the nations in the Valley of Jehoshaphat (3:2-12, 19). So the judgment of locusts is a sign of an international crisis facing Israel. 

Whatever it is that we are facing in this moment – whether it is a plague of a virus or a plague of complete panic or both, biblically literate Christians should ask what is God saying to us? And for that answer, we must look to His word and not the newspaper and not our best guesses. 

A Famine of What?
What is striking about the book of Joel is how he connects the judgment of God to the international political situation they are facing. And one way to see that is by noticing what’s missing. There are at least two major things missing in the book of Joel. There’s a great plague coming, and repeated calls to lament, wail, fast, sound the alarm, cry out, mourn, and return, but the prophet does not dwell on “what” they should cry out, mourn, return from. There are a few hints, but the sin of Judah is not described in much detail. So a great deal of the message of Joel is: you know what you need to do. Turn, cry out, repent. You know what you need to do. This is what true repentance and conviction looks like. When God is at work, you know exactly what needs to be done. 

Second, the effects of the locust and invading nations are not what you’d expect. Yes, there’s “wasted land” and “food is cut off” (1:10, 16) and the earth has become a “desolate wilderness” (2:3), but that isn’t the worst of it. 

“Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth. The grain offering and the drink offering have been cut off from the house of the Lord.” (1:9). 

“Be ashamed, you farmers, wail you vinedressers, for the wheat and the barley… Gird yourselves and lament, you priests… for the grain offering and the drink offering are withheld from the house of your God” (1:11-13). 

“So rend your heart and not your garments return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness; and He relents from doing harm. Who knows if He will turn and relent and leave a blessing behind Him – a grain offering and a drink offering for the Lord your God?” (2:13-14). 

Or after the promise of returning the years devoured by the locusts, Joel says: “You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God…” (2:26). 

The real crucial issue for Joel is not merely the sin itself, nor the material, economic, or political effects of plagues and invasions – the really crucial issue is the lack of worship in the temple, the lack of grain and drink offerings, the lack of praise from God’s people. 

 “The Lord also will roar from Zion, and utter His voice from Jerusalem; the heavens and earth will shake; but the Lord will be a shelter for His people, and the strength of the children of Israel. So you shall know that I am the Lord your God, dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain… And it shall come to pass in that day that the mountains shall drip with new wine, the hills shall flow with milk… a fountain shall flow from the house of the Lord…” (3:16-17). Where does healing and fruitfulness flow from? The house of the Lord. 

It slowly becomes clear that the real famine, the real tragedy caused by the locusts and invading armies is the lack of worship. It’s not hunger and drought first and foremost – the lack of harvest means a lack of worship.

Other prophets dwell on the precise sins and consequences (e.g. greed, injustice, idolatry, sexual immorality, etc.). It isn’t that Joel doesn’t care about those things, it’s just that he knows the root problem is the lack of true worship of the true God. Joel says that it’s lack of true worship that leaves them prey to the nations (2:19). It’s lack of satisfaction in God’s good gifts that leaves people vulnerable to sin. But when He sends the rain and the fruitful harvests, it is precisely so they will remember the Lord and rejoice in the Lord and so not be overrun by their enemies (2:21-27). The worship of God is their fortress.

The Spirit of God & Calling on the Lord
Joel’s description of God’s salvation is really quite striking. And what’s striking is the order of events recorded in chapter 2, leading up to the pouring out of the Spirit (2:28). There was a very clear historic fulfillment of that promise in Acts 2 as Peter noted – which incidentally means that the “wonders” of earth, blood, fire, and smoke are symbolic of the great cataclysm of the end of the Old Covenant era, culminating in the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in 70 AD (e.g. Is. 13).  

But Paul quotes this same passage in Romans 10: “if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved… For “whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.” (Rom. 10:9-13)

This teaches us that Joel not only had a historic fulfillment at Pentecost, but Paul teaches us that Joel also gives us general description of Reformation and Revival. But what’s striking is that when the people mourn their sin and turn to the Lord, the joy of the Lord fills their hearts and it’s in that moment that they know that the Lord is their God – and then after that, the Spirit is poured out in power. First, the Spirit is poured out then people call on the name of the Lord to be delivered from their enemies (2:32). In other words, people don’t call on the name of the Lord in order to receive the Spirit; they call on the name of the Lord because they have received the Spirit. This is true in the moment of conversion and the whole process, but it is also true for Reformation and Revival – the cataclysmic cultural and political turning of nations back to God. 

The order of reformation and revival according to Joel is this: Mourning/repentance — Joy — Worship — Knowledge — Spirit — Deliverance — Justice.  

The Spirit is poured out because God’s people have turned to Him and rejoiced in Him and in His good gifts and come to know Him. Of course God’s Spirit is at work in every step of the way – we can do nothing apart from God, but there is the work of conversion and there is great deliverance from enemies. 

Conclusion
The Spirit is not a genie that we summon up. The Spirit is poured out with power on those who seek God with all their hearts, who rejoice in Him, who study His word and His ways. Joel teaches us that when God’s people turn away from Him, the central thing they have turned away from is worship of Him. And so He removes His blessings from their midst, and the central sign of that judgment is the removal of public worship from their midst. If we were ever in any doubt about whether we are under the judgment of God, let there be no mistake: we are under the judgement of God because we are not worshipping God together this morning. He has taken away the grain offering and drink offering from the house of God. 

But if we will call on the name of the Lord. If we will turn back to Him with all our heart, and seek His word and seek His ways, He will pour out His Spirit upon us once more and we will call on the name of the Lord and He will deliver us from all our enemies. 

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A Table for the Undeserving

“And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to His disciples, “Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” When Jesus heard that, He said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’ For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.” (Matt. 9:11-13)

You have heard many times that this meal is for sinners. But there are at least two ways to get this wrong. One way is quite common in the church today, and that is the assumption that since this meal is for sinners, anyone can come and who’s to say who can’t? Everyone is a sinner after all, and so, stop being so judgy. The problem with that approach is not that they welcome the sick; the problem is that they refuse to give the medicine. It turns out that lots of people like their sin-sickness and don’t want to get better. But Jesus clearly says here that He came to call sinners to repentance. Repentance means change. It means confessing your sins honestly and turning away from them. 

Another way to get this meal wrong is also common in the church today, and that is the functional assumption that even though Jesus said this meal is for sinners, what He really meant was that it’s for those sinners who aren’t really as bad as all the other sinners. Or, in other words, it’s actually for the relatively righteous. But it really isn’t. This meal is for sinners. It’s for people who have failed, for those who have dishonored parents, committed adultery or murder, for those who have lied and stolen. And it’s for those who have a high view of themselves and think they are quite good and Jesus must really be thankful for them. It’s my duty to inform you that you are not good, and that Jesus doesn’t need you. And this is good news. 

Jesus calls you to lay all of your sins down, all of your pride down, and repent. Jesus is the head of this table, and He only eats with sinners and tax collectors. If you know you don’t deserve to be here, then you are most welcome. 

So come and welcome to Jesus Christ.

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Harvey Weinstein, COVID-19, & Democracy Now

Introduction
Benjamin Franklin famously warned that “Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote!” Later, when the Constitutional Convention had concluded, in 1787, someone asked Franklin: “Well, Doctor, what have we got—a Republic or a Monarchy?” Franklin warned, “A Republic, if you can keep it.” 

This sentiment was shared by many of the founding fathers:

“A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine.” – Thomas Jefferson

“Pure democracy, like pure rum, easily produces intoxication, and with it a thousand mad pranks and fooleries.” – John Jay

“It is one of the evils of democratical governments, that the people, not always seeing and frequently misled, must often feel before they can act.” – George Washington

Notice the concerns: democracy is mob rule, stealing rights, and tends to function like intoxication, drunkenness, mad pranks and fooleries, feelings driving actions. 

Sound familiar?

Decisions Based on Feelings
I’m writing at a moment in which much is still unknown about Covid-19. It could turn out to be a significant health crisis or not so much. But that’s actually my point. We have been convinced, as a nation, to take some enormous, cataclysmic actions, without clear data or evidence. What is driving these actions? Feelings. Why do I say that? Because we simply do not have good data, and the data we have is extremely varied. Yes, the virus is contagious. Yes, it is a novel strain for which it would seem human beings do not have natural or built up immunities. And yes, many people have died from it. Yes, all that is true. But welcome to planet earth. Welcome to a world where death is part of the curse of sin. Does this make us complacent or apathetic? Not at all. Christ has come to reverse the curse, and those of us who call ourselves Christians should be at the forefront of protecting and promoting life as much as we possibly can. 

But Christians also believe in truth. We believe that the truth sets us free – free to live, free to work, free to study, free to invent, free to explore, free to serve, free to love. But partial truths bring doubts, uncertainty, and guessing games. Thus, we are faced with the partial truths of widely diverging data. What are we to make of the Chinese propaganda machine? They call their concentration camps “vocational rehabilitation centers,” and they are currently holding a Christian minister, sentenced to 10 years in prison for “conspiring against the government,” when his highly publicized writings and sermons were simply the traditional Christian message. We have questionable statistics from the most powerful communist regime in the world, fairly terrifying statistics coming out of Italy (an aging socialist nation), other appalling statistics from Taliban Iran, and comparatively encouraging statistics coming out of South Korea. What do we know exactly about this virus? It’s highly contagious, spreads fast, is particularly dangerous for the elderly, immune compromised, or others with lung issues. But that’s all we know. 

We don’t really know the mortality rate. The mortality rate of confirmed cases is not a real mortality rate if many cases go unreported. We do not have a statistical base, a large random sample of the population, to project reasonable numbers from. Are most cases mild or severe? Are many cases mild enough to be mistaken for a bad cold or influenza? Do we know? The simple fact is that we do not know. In all likelihood we will know in the coming weeks and months and years, but until then, it cannot be said that we are acting upon facts. At best, we are acting based upon partial truths, but without the entire picture or a great deal more of the picture, we simply cannot know what it is we are dealing with. We are making decisions without reliable data. And in the absence of facts and truth, what we are left with is guesses and feelings. And both are notoriously biased.  

Of course the comeback is: better safe than sorry. But as my good friend Douglas Wilson likes to say: there is no situation so bad that you cannot make it worse. So, yes, absolutely agreed: better safe than sorry. But how shall we define “safe?” Are we merely talking about safe from the novel coronavirus? What about safe from the repercussions of panic, economic depression, scientific and medical stagnation, or making radical governmental concessions? Did the Patriot Act truly make us a safer people when the government was granted greater surveillance powers in the aftermath of 9-11? Did those FISA courts really come through for liberty-loving Americans over the last few years?

I’m all for taking precautions. Wash your hands. Stay home if you’re sick or immune compromised, but shutting down entire cities? Banning businesses from operating? Will we actually be safer or just sorry?

And Now For Something Completely Different… But Not Really
When Harvey Weinstein was charged with sex crimes, America barely blinked. An old Hollywood creep was most likely getting what he deserved. He has produced smutty films for decades, and no one was really shocked at the thought of him acting out the culture of his films in real life. And I agreed. Throw the book at him. 

However, I have to admit that I was fascinated by his lawyer, Donna Rotunno and her line of defense. First of all, she repeatedly wanted to distinguish between sins and crimes – admitting that her client Weinstein had certainly sinned but insisting he had not committed crimes – a distinction you hardly ever hear out loud in public, unless you accidentally stumbled into a Christian reconstructionist conference somewhere in the back hills of California. But secondly, she repeatedly claimed her client was the victim of a mob, the #metoo movement, and was stripped of due process and therefore unable to get a fair trial. Ultimately, the New York Supreme Court jury disagreed, and Judge James Burke sentenced Weinstein to 23 years in prison on two counts of sexual assault. And one is tempted to assume they got it right, except for the fact that at the sentencing, Judge Burke explained his more severe sentence: “This is a first conviction, but it is not a first offense.” 

Wait. What?

The judge said, out loud, that Weinstein was getting a harsher sentence because he was actually guilty of more than was actually proven in court. And then you start to wonder if Donna Rotunno’s comments have some validity: “That (23-year) number spoke to the pressure of movements in the public. That number did not speak to the evidence that came out of trial.” And well, that’s kind of what Judge Burke actually said. 

Don’t get me wrong. I think Harvey Weinstein should be convicted of every crime that can be proven he committed. And if he sought my counsel, it would include confessing every crime he ever committed. And I’m one of those old-fashioned Christians that thinks some of those Old Testament civil penalties still make good sense for violent and sexual crimes. But I also believe in old-fashioned justice, and justice is based on evidence, facts, testimony, witnesses, you know, the truth and nothing but the truth. 

This is why the Bible says, “You shall not follow a crowd to do evil; nor shall you testify in a dispute so as to turn aside after many to pervert justice” (Exod. 23:2).

Conclusion
And here we return to the dangers of democracy, the dangers of following a crowd to do evil, of mob justice: feelings driving actions. It seems likely that Weinstein is getting something in the neighborhood of what he deserves, but the precedent is not at all helpful. Mobs are like blind squirrels: they can occasionally find a nut. But mostly they do lynching. Does anyone remember the Brett Kavanaugh hearings?

Plato noted this millennia before the founding fathers: “And is it not true that in like manner a leader of the people who, getting control of a docile mob, does not withhold his hand from the shedding of tribal blood, but by the customary unjust accusations brings a citizen into court and assassinates him, blotting out a human life, and with unhallowed tongue and lips that have tasted kindred blood, banishes and slays and hints at the abolition of debts and the partition of lands.” 

This has been my objection to the #metoo movement from the beginning. I have no doubt that many women have been mistreated and many men have committed crimes against them. I only want to insist on justice, due process, fair trials, and decisions based on truth – for the protection of everyone involved. Because mobs have a bad habit of turning on themselves. As our second president, John Adams, once wrote: “Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself.” As Robespierre, the French Revolutionary, found out the hard way.

I do not know what tomorrow will bring, whether the news of a cure or highly effective treatment or more terrifying statistics and increased economic declension. But I do know that Covid-19 is not the only contagious virus being spread. Panic-2020 is another novel virus hard to contain. In the last letter Alexander Hamilton ever wrote, he actually warned that “our real disease…is democracy” – the rule of the mob, the liberties of the minority sacrificed on the altar of the opinions and feelings of a majority. As Lord Acton once said: “The one prevailing evil of democracy is the tyranny of the majority, or rather that party, not always the majority, that succeeds, by force or fraud…”

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Notes on Reformation

Ezra & Nehemiah

Introduction
Many of us recently read through Ezra and Nehemiah in the Bible Reading Challenge, and these books have a lot to say to us about the work of Reformation, which is what we are about. 

The Text: “Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia… Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: All the kingdoms of the earth the LORD God of heaven has given me. And He has commanded me to build Him a house at Jerusalem which is in Judah…” (Ezr. 1:1-2)

Summary of the Text: Ezra and Nehemiah take place after the 70 years of exile foretold in Jeremiah (Jer. 29:10), beginning around 539 B.C. While modern Bible commentators tend to date Nehemiah much later (100 years!) because he calls the king “Artaxerxes,” I’m inclined to read that as a throne name (like “Caesar” or “Pharaoh”) because Nehemiah refers to Ezra the Scribe being there with him (e.g. Neh. 8). Ezra also references Nehemiah (Ez. 2:2), which verse incidentally also mentions Mordecai, strongly suggesting that the “queen” in Neh. 2:6 is none other than Esther (making Ahasuerus, Darius, and Nehemiah’s “Artaxerxes” all the same king). Regardless of how one takes the chronology, the books record the rebuilding of the temple (Ezra) and the walls of Jerusalem (Nehemiah), the blessing of God on their work, the challenges they faced, and provide us a number of lessons on the work of Reformation.

Worship First 
The goal in both books is the rebuilding of the temple and the city (Ez. 9:9, Neh. 12:27, 40), but both books make it clear that worship is central and drives the whole project. This is why we have said for years that worship is at the center of what we are about, but the reestablishment of faithful worship is always related to (re)building cities (Tit. 1:5, Rev. 21:2). 

Ezra describes the reestablishment of worship in two stages: first is the altar (Ez. 3:2-6), then the rest of the temple (Ez. 3:10, 6:15). In the New Covenant, the altar roughly corresponds to evangelism and conversion (Mt. 28:19). True worship is in spirit and in truth (Jn. 4:23), which means that the only kind of worship that God receives is the kind offered with clean hearts and lips (Heb. 13:5). And the only way to have a clean heart is by the blood of Jesus Christ washing it clean (1 Jn. 1:9). “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved” (Rom. 10:9).

The temple roughly corresponds to corporate worship (1 Pet. 2:5). When people gather together for worship, there must be an order that everyone can follow. We see in Nehemiah’s covenant renewal service many of the same elements of worship we use: there is a platform/pulpit where the Scriptures are read (Neh. 8:4), there is time for explaining what the Scriptures mean (Neh. 8:7-8), all the people stood for the reading (Neh. 8:5), the people respond with “Amen” (Neh. 8:6), and worship includes lifting hands as well as kneeling/bowing down (Neh. 8:6). Worship is ordered according to Scripture not according to our preferences. 

Expect Enemies & Detractors
“Now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the descendants of the captivity were building the temple of the LORD God of Israel; then they… weakened the hands of the people of Judah and troubled them in the building, and hired counsellors against them to frustrate their purpose…” (Ezr. 4:1, 4-5). There is also a progression of resistance in Nehemiah: from grief (Neh. 2:10), to scorn (Neh. 2:19), to indignation and threats of violence (Neh. 4:1, 8). They not only sought to work political trouble, but they also successfully turned some prophets against the work (Neh. 6:10-14), including the corruption of the High Priest (Neh. 13:7-8). Jesus told His disciples to expect the same: “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake” (Matt. 5:11). “Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for so did their fathers to the false prophets” (Lk. 6:26). Paul warned the Ephesian elders that “savage wolves will come in among you” (Acts 20:29). “For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls” (Heb. 12:3, cf. 1 Pet. 4:12). The presence of enemies is not a sign something has gone wrong; it’s a sign we’re doing something worth fighting.  

Varying Degrees of Understanding
In the work of reformation there will be those who don’t fully understand what we are up to, but who are still trying to help. “And next unto them the Tekoaites repaired; but their nobles put not their necks to the work of their lord” (Neh. 3:5). This is like the time the disciples saw someone casting out demons who was not with them, and Jesus said to leave him alone: “he who is not against us is on our side” (Lk. 9:50). Likewise, Paul rejoiced that the gospel was being preached even by those who did so out of envy and strife and selfish ambition (Phil. 1:15-18). Others will really put their backs into the work: “After him Baruch the son of Zabbai earnestly repaired the other piece, from the turning of the wall unto the door of the house of Eliashib the high priest” (Neh. 3:20). Paul was a Johnny-come-lately, but he saw that God had allowed him to far outstrip all the other apostles in terms of work accomplished (1 Cor. 15:10). We should glory in our varying gifts, and not worry too much about the messiness of people.

Marriage 
Both Ezra and Nehemiah end addressing marriage problems (Ez. 9-10, Neh. 8:23-31). Marriage and family are not just one of the things that Christians do, it is right at the center of human civilization. It is always high stakes, but when you are trying to rebuild a civilization, you cannot be working off of different sets of blueprints and this relates more broadly to the problem of worldliness (Js. 4:4, 2 Cor. 6:14-18). Many people object to the idea of applying biblical law to society, and they often point to Old Testament laws that sometimes allowed for the death penalty for adultery (Lev. 20:10) or a rebellious son (Dt. 21:18-21). The problem with this objection is that it assumes the relative insignificance of the family. But marriage and family are like a civilizational nuclear plant, and God’s sanctions match that volatility. 

Conclusions
Ezra and Nehemiah remind us that our task is to build on Christ the solid rock, the only foundation stone that can never be moved. But another way to say this is that Christ is the Chief Builder. We want to build what He is building, and nothing else. Otherwise all of our work is in vain (Ps. 127). But if the blessing of God is on it, nothing can stop it. How do we seek that blessing? Clean hearts, full of joy worshiping the Lord. That joy is only possible if we are walking in the light of forgiveness and fellowship (1 Jn. 1:4-7). And that joy is our strength (Neh. 8:10).

Photo by Fons Heijnsbroek on Unsplash