Toby J. Sumpter's Blog, page 6

Christ the Nazarene

Acts 23:25-24:9

Prayer: Father, please grant us Your Holy Spirit now to lead us into all truth: the truth of this Word so that we might have truth in our inward parts, so that the truth might set us free, so that the truth might revive and refresh our land. Do this now because we ask for it in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, who is the Truth, Amen. 

Introduction
As we have seen throughout out study of the Book of Acts, Jesus is pleased to build His kingdom through the adventures of controversy, mobs, near escapes, false accusations, beatings, and trials. He is the main actor. In the Old Testament, one of the types of this adventurous, unpredictable hero was the Nazirite (like Samson). As we will see today, that is probably related the name of the city Nazareth, where Jesus was from. 

The Book of Acts teaches us that our duty is to be faithful to Christ, to Jesus of Nazareth. There are certainly wisdom calls along the way, but faith sees Christ ruling and reigning over history, pushing the story forward, and faith obeys even when the path is through the storm. He rules the wind and the waves, and He turns the hearts of kings. Christ is the Nazarene – the Nazirite, the devoted servant of God, our Judge and the Governor of all Time. And we see this at work even in the pagan courts and the Jews accusing Paul of sedition.   

The Text: “And he wrote a letter after this manner: Cladius Lysias unto the most excellent governor Felix sendeth greeting…” (Acts 23:25-35)

Summary of the Text
Remember, a plot to murder Paul was just uncovered and Claudius Lysias has ordered an armed escort of 270 soldiers to take Paul in the middle of the night to Caesarea (Acts 23:23-24). This letter accompanies Paul to the governor, explaining the plot (Acts 23:25-27). Claudius Lysias claims to have rescued Paul since he was a Roman citizen (Acts 23:27), neglecting to mention that he had initially commanded him to be scourged without a hearing (Acts 22:24). Claudius Lysias explained the Jewish council, his judgment, the plot, and his invitation to Paul’s accusers to present their case before Governor Felix (Acts 23:28-30). Having arrived and reading the letter, Felix agreed to hear the case when Paul’s accusers arrived (Acts 23:31-35). 

Five days later, the Jews arrived with their lawyer Tertullus to present their case (Acts 24:1). Tertullus is a Roman-trained lawyer and layers the flattery thick, crediting Felix with “great peace” and “worthy deeds” and “providence” and “kindness” (Acts 24:2-4), despite the fact that extrabiblical sources indicate his harsh suppression of the Jews. Tertullus accused Paul of being a “plague,” involved in sedition among the Jews, and a ringleader of a sect of “Nazarenes” (Acts 24:5). Like Claudius Lysias, Tertullus spins the story of Paul’s arrest, claiming that they were only in the process of following their Jewish law, when Lysias seized Paul “violently,” which Felix can confirm if he asks the Jews himself, and the Jews all agreed (Acts 24:6-9). 

Biblical Principles of Justice
Despite manifest corruptions and paganism in the Roman system, there was nevertheless a semblance of biblical justice: a fair trial required the presence of both the accused and accusers, multiple witnesses, evidence, testimony and cross examination of both sides. “One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin, in any sin that he sinneth: at the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall the matter be established” (Dt. 19:15). “The one who states his case first seems right, until the other comes and examines him” (Prov. 18:17).

Related, is the biblical requirement of “equal weights and measures” “Thou shalt not have in thy bag diverse weights, a great and a small. Thou shalt not have in thine house diverse measures, a great and a small. But thou shalt have a perfect and just weight, a perfect and just measure shalt thou have: that thy days may be lengthened in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee” (Dt. 25:13-15, cf. Lev. 19:35-36). This applies formally in a court of law, but it also applies informally in how we work out disagreements. God requires His people to treat one another the way they want to be treated and prohibits all spin, lies, flattery, and lynch mobs, whether in person, voice, text, or online. Biblical principles of justice also err on the side of mercy. If there are not two or three witnesses, biblical justice requires us to let it go.    

Nazarenes & Nazirites 
While Tertullus supplies no evidence, his central accusation against Paul is that he is a leader of a cult called the Nazarenes (Acts 24:5). There’s always been a fair bit of discussion and confusion over this title “Nazarene,” first appearing in Matthew’s gospel, “And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene” (Mt. 2:23). The trouble is that there is no verse in the Old Testament that says that exactly. Some take it as something of a pun on the description of the Messiah “branch” [netser] (Is. 11:1), which Child was associated with the northern region of Galilee (Is. 9:1-2) where Nazareth was located. 

Others suggest some connection with the Old Testament Nazirite vow (Num. 6, cf. Num. 13), in which a man was “separated” to lifelong or temporary priestly service to the Lord (e.g. Samson). And Paul was sponsoring Nazirite vows in the temple when the riot broke out (Acts 21:24, cf. 18:18). Perhaps the city of Nazareth in Galilee was named after this office and the Messianic themes, blending both into the associations of “Nazarene.” 

It is also likely that there were thousand year animosities and rivalries at work: remember the northern and southern kingdoms divided after Solomon’s death and there was periodic civil war until the northern kingdom was conquered in 722 B.C. The Samaritans were syncretistic Jews from the northern kingdom (2 Kgs. 17:27ff). And by the first century, Galilee was a bustling marketplace of trade and productivity with ongoing antagonisms with the wealthy priestly classes associated with the temple in the southern region of Judea. In other words, “sect of the Nazarenes” was probably something of an ethnic and/or political slur. This likely played some part in the blindness of their persecution. In other words, the trouble may not have been merely about religious influence but also cultural and economic. 

Applications
Flattery is a form of lying malice, clothed in a veneer of kindness, either avoiding a topic that needs to be addressed or else trying to get something from them. This can take place between friends or in business dealings: spinning the truth, shading the truth, avoiding the truth.  

It is double-minded or what we call ulterior motives (Prov. 12:2). “A lying tongue hateth those that are afflicted by it; and a flattering mouth worketh ruin” (Prov. 26:28). Flattery can be a justification for real evil. But Paul was careful not to use flattery in his presentation of the gospel (1 Thess. 2:5). 

When “providence” is assumed to be the prerogative of man, the only recourse is human manipulation, flattery, lawfare, and various forms of tribalism and animosity. And all of this is only intensified when real and perceived harm has been done. “They” and “we” and “friend/enemy” distinctions quickly become polarizing and weaponized. Spinning the truth can feel particularly justified when the “other side” seems to be playing fast and loose with the truth and principles of justice. 

Think about Peter during the trial of Jesus being questioned: “And when he was gone out into the porch, another maid saw him, and said unto them that were there, This fellow was also with Jesus of Nazareth. And again he denied with an oath, I do not know the man. And after a while came unto him they that stood by, and said to Peter, Surely thou also art one of them; for thy speech bewrayeth thee” (Mt. 26:71-73). Peter lied when he was accused of being associated with the Nazarene. He lied because he at least momentarily believed that things were out of control. But Jesus was still in control even when He was on trial. Even though injustice and lies were being perpetrated, Jesus was ruling even that to bring about justice and truth. 

But Jesus is the Lord of history – the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End – and He was guiding this story (the flattery and lies of the Jews, the corruption of the Romans) in order for Paul to preach the gospel, even in the midst of the machinations of unbelievers. 

And the same thing is still true for us today. Christ is the true Chief Captain, our Great Nazarene. He is ruling and turning the hearts of kings and judges and CEOs today. So you must tell the truth, do justice, and love mercy – and follow Jesus of Nazareth.  

Prayer: Father, please help us to fix our eyes on Jesus so that we might not be distracted by the storms around us. Give us the courage to do our duty, to tell the truth whatever the consequences, to do justice even when it seems like losing, and we ask You to vindicate us, prove to all the world that we belong to You, and we ask this in Jesus’ name, who taught us to pray…

H-1B Visas & Miss American Pie

Introduction 
Well, on Christmas Eve I was accused of joining the ranks of Ebenezer Scrooge, along with Elon Musk. This wasn’t exactly on my wish list or on my bingo card for that matter, but St. Nicholas brings us gifts in all shapes and sizes. My friend Andrew Isker replied to a tweet of mine about the “fixed pie” fallacy, and he suggested that my thinking would crush the Bob Cratchits and Tiny Tims of America through the greed of corporate American. Then what followed was a goodish chorus of yowls and shrieks accusing me of “prosperity gospel,” of being Joel Osteen, and “blasphemy.” What had I said? I had written, “In God’s world, the “pie” of resources, job creation, and opportunity keeps expanding. This is part of the meaning of Christmas. If God can become man and save us from our sins, no eye has seen what God has prepared for those who love Him. Loaves and fishes, y’all.” 

Now, I’m happy to grant that it’s certainly not my most poetic post ever, and I’ll also admit that it even verges on the sentimental. But there it was Christmas Eve, with the lights on the tree sparkling and I was all dressed up for our Christmas Eve service. And well, perhaps the general bonhomie of the moment had gone to my head, but in my defense, there is something absolutely sentimental about the Christmas story. Peace on earth, goodwill toward men? I mean, the angel just starts announcing that to poor shepherds out in the fields. And I mean, poor shepherds; you know, shepherds oppressed by Roman and Jewish tyrannies, shepherds who had probably been kicked to the curb by society, shepherds passed over by first century DEI policies. They were probably even white. How can you say “peace on earth, goodwill toward men?” How can you sing such a thing every Christmas while kids are dying of cancer and London is being overrun by radical Muslims? But the reply comes that I was saying that bit of “Christmas goo” in direct connection to an Elon Musk tweet that was related to immigration policy. In effect my tweet was read as the equivalent of those cringey TGC He Gets Us commercials about Jesus being a lonely skateboarder whose only car was his mom’s minivan and it didn’t even have the heated seats.

Look, I’m not saying I was doing something particularly clever, but I don’t think I was doing something so dumb or foolish (or blasphemous) as I have been accused of. So what was I doing? Two things very simply: cheering on something good Elon said and getting the anti-capitalists to shriek. But in order to explain, we need to back up and get a running start.

H-1B Visas
So this particular skirmish erupted over Trump’s appointment of a gent named Sriram Krishnan as Policy Advisor for Artificial Intelligence at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, who will be working closely, we have been told, with another gent named David Sacks, incoming “Whitehouse A.I. & Crypto Czar.” Laura Loomer kicked off some of the dustup referring to Krishnan as a “career leftist,” opposed to Trump’s America First agenda, accusing him of wanting to remove all restrictions on immigrant students who “can come to the US and take jobs that should be given to American STEM students.” And she shared a screenshot of Krishnan saying he wants to remove “country caps for green cards / unlock skilled immigration” saying that would be “huge.”

David Sacks chimed in with a point of clarification, saying that Krishnan was only talking about “country caps” limiting certain countries, but insisted that Krishnan wants an entirely merit-based program, where “a limited number of highly skilled immigrants” may be hired by American companies. And Sacks protested, “Sriram is definitely not a ‘career leftist’!” 

This is all related to what is called an H-1B visa, allowing US employers to hire foreign workers with specialty education and skills, the largest category of visas granted in the United States for guest workers. And this is all particularly intense right now following the German terrorist attack by a 50 year old Saudia Arabian psychiatrist at a Christmas market last week in Magdeburg. High skill workers, in other words, may not have American values or interests in mind. No matter that the Saudi Arabian psychiatrist was apparently fairly anti-Muslim, but he was a psychiatrist, and that probably should have been our first clue, so there’s that.

But a fair bit of ink (or digits) has been spent decrying “high skill” immigrants over the last week or so because at the very least, in the current climate of multicultural globalist fascism, there is less and less stomach for the risks. As was pointed out to me recently, ousted Syrian dictator Assad was an Ophthalmologist in London for a few years before being recalled to Syria to bury many of his people in mass graves. In other words, there are at least two major red flags on the H-1B visa discussion for many: First, how many jobs are being taken from skilled Americans? And second, how many Americans will have to die from similar terrorist attacks? It has also been pointed out that the H-1B visa program has become something of a burgeoning industry of indentured servitude, where less than skilled immigrants are brought into various sectors, given minimal training, with the explicit or implicit threat of deportation should things not work out. So the question of perverse incentives looms large as well.

Following the X thread a little further, entrepreneur and investor Joe Lonsdale founder of Palantir Tech and others, chimed in saying, “My friend Sriram is America First. For USA to have the highest standard of living, generous govt services and strongest military, we need to recruit the best and brightest and build the best companies. I’m against more low-end H1B immigrants; but let’s win at the talent game.” Which Elon Musk shared and added, “The “fixed pie” fallacy is at the heart of much wrong-headed economic thinking. There is essentially infinite potential for job and company creation. Think of all the things that didn’t exist 20 or 30 years ago!” And enter yours truly. I was cheering on that tweet when I was called Ebenezer Scrooge. Following so far?

Miss American Pie
There’s a whole bunch of stuff tangled into this discussion, tectonic plates under tectonic plates so to speak, and not many are pointing them out. Vivek Ramaswamy came out swinging the day after Christmas arguing the hard truth that American companies often prefer foreign workers because they frequently have a better culture of creativity and hard work. Vivek wrote: “Our American culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence for way too long (at least since the 90s and likely longer). That doesn’t start in college, it starts YOUNG. A culture that celebrates the prom queen over the math olympiad champ, or the jock over the valedictorian, will not produce the best engineers.” Vivek even accused a bunch of us of growing up watching “Saved By the Bell,” which may have been a bit below the belt. Auron MacIntyre replied, “Turns out the ‘waste’ that DOGE wanted to cut from America was Americans.”

First off, let us put in a good word for the based bros. The Republican establishment has scammed Americans so many times with empty promises and smooth words that one can hardly blame them for being jumpy, angsty, and bit, shall we say, uncorked. The Republican establishment has lost all credibility. They lost it like Jack Nicholson lost his mind in that one Stanley Kubrick flick. So we have some sympathy with the crusaders and anons and based bros. We do not condone all of their rhetoric. We are not especially approving of their red eyed avatars and whatnot. But when you kick people in the head for several decades, one does imagine that the head is beginning to ache.

But there is no situation so bad that it is not possible to make it worse. Like I said, I have sympathy for the “end all immigration period” position. I would not be sad if our leaders decided on it for the time being. When the frat house is descending into Animal House chaos, it’s probably a good idea to generally end the influx. But this is not about “white people” saving their race; remember, it was a bunch of white people that did this to us. No, this is about a particular historical incarnation of Christendom in this place.

At the same time, Vivek and Elon and Krishnan have a point. If all you do is stop the influx, you’re left with our current cultural malaise. Now there are certainly some wisdom calls to be made about how to address that malaise. Some of the malaise is coming from that head-kicking via mass immigration. So ease up on the head-kicking and lighting people on fire on the metros and maybe some Americans get better grades in school. Others are pointing out that the plan really must be a more wholistic one of rebuilding American culture over decades. And sign me up for that. But if a non-woke businessman like Elon says he still needs access to some very high skill workers, why would we want to slow him down? He bought X, the very platform allowing us to have this banter. To demand that Elon slow down seems like cutting off the branch we’re sitting on. 

At the same time, we are the people who let this head kicking happen. We have been popping pills, funding an exploding porn industry, chopping up our babies and selling their parts for money, and letting these corrupt, Madhatter politicians pay us off with welfare checks and food stamps. Which is to say that if weaponized immigrant globalism has become a cancer, we have been smoking crack and snorting arsenic like in that one Quentin Tarantino movie.  

In other words, Miss American Pie has gotten obese and tumorous, which is not at all what we mean by the “pie” expanding and infinite resources.

Conclusion: Loaves & Fishes
Despite people accusing me of a prosperity gospel, the story of the loaves and fishes is not about easy-believism, name it and claim it, like some kind of Kenneth Copeland television special. In fact, one of the crucial elements of the miraculous feedings in the gospels is Jesus’ command to the disciples: “You feed them.” The situation was one in which Jesus commanded His disciples to get to work. Yes, in the midst of their work, Jesus did something miraculous that we cannot build business models off of, but the principle stands: in the midst of our faithful, obedient labors, God blesses and provides. He gives us our daily bread. And if Jesus were here, he’d say, stop pointing fingers at the Commies and the Jews, get to work. 

When the “American Pie” (and by this we mean American prosperity and opportunity) is run by the federal government, that really is a Joel Osteen prosperity gospel pyramid scam. “Just send your checks to the IRS, and we will multiply your sack lunches into a communist utopia.” And those who see all the solutions coming from federal regulations, that’s just another version of that statist prosperity gospel. But the way God made the world is such that whenever a man takes responsibility for his own needs and the needs of his own household, he generally produces more than he consumes. And when there is a widespread culture of that, the American Pie increases. And therefore, within the limits of the Ten Commandments, we should want to maximize the freedom of local men to make local decisions about how to provide for their people, including their businesses. 

Historically, this has been why the “county” was the most basic unit of government in America. One historian says that in the 17th century, when an Englishman referred to his “country,” it was likely that he was referring to his county. This is why historically land laws and property taxes and basic criminal law were all the jurisdiction of local counties. So if we want our country to preserve and recover a right love of places and people, as opposed to being bulldozed into a multinational economic zone, the power and responsibility for most meaningful decisions must be reasserted by local counties. If Washington DC is where everything important happens, our communities will continue to be treated like franchises. In order for a true Christian economy to flourish, one where family and community are at the center, you have to return the authority to local communities. 

Lastly, it seems plain that big corporations have leveraged and abused H-1B visas for a kind of cheap indentured servitude. And while the loopholes and corruption allowing that should absolutely be stopped, we need to spend a lot more time and energy ending all the regulations, taxes, and codes heaped up on business owners. We should incentivize hiring American workers, but we should do that primarily by making it easier to train, hire, and retain American workers. Endless health codes, safety codes, insurance requirements, and mindless red tape and wage laws and taxes (not to mention, entitlement and laziness among some Americans) makes it harder to train, hire, and retain them. It’s understandable, good even, for conservatives to be jumpy about all of this, but it seems odd to accuse Elon of being Ebenezer Scrooge and anti-American. 

So Merry Christmas and peace on earth, goodwill toward men.

The Sin of Sloth & the Protestant Work Ethic

State of the Church 2025

Gen. 1:26-28

Introduction

“The hand of the diligent shall bear rule: but the slothful shall be under tribute” (Prov. 12:24). To the extent that Bible-believing Christians have lost authority in the West, one clear reason is because of our sin of sloth. 

Cotton Mather once said, Christian religion begat prosperity, and the daughter devoured the mother. And Deuteronomy warned of the same tendency: “And thou say in thine heart, My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth” (Dt. 8:17). Pride says ‘what my hand has gotten, my hand can get again’. Presumption says, what my hand has gotten, I don’t need to get again. And finally, Sloth says, what my hand has gotten, I just can’t get again.

Sloth is not merely laziness. It is a kind of despair about work, a kind of retreating cowardice and resentment of the blessing of work. Repentance means that we need a recovery of the Protestant Work ethic, but we cannot have the Protestant Work ethic apart from Protestant grace. A Protestant Work ethic apart from Protestant grace is a recipe for burn out, but Protestant grace is fuel that never runs dry. And Protestant grace is rooted in the doctrines of Creation & Redemption.   

The Text: “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion…” (Gen. 1:26-28)

Summary of the Text

God made men and women in his own image for dominion (Gen. 1:26), and that image and dominion means the work of fruitfulness and rule over creation (Gen. 1:27-28). We were made for dominion, and dominion means work. And what we see here is that this work is a blessing(Gen. 1:28). Sin has made our work harder and more difficult (Gen. 3:16-19), but we were made for work, and we were made for the rewards of good work (Gen. 2:11-12). This is central to being made in God’s image; God worked in creation, so we work. 

We know that work is still our central task because it was repeated to Noah after the flood (Gen. 9:1), and because Jesus is the fulfillment of Psalm 8: What is man (Heb. 1-2)? Man is the creature God created for dominion – for good, rewarding work, and Christ has restored that blessing to us as the new Adam who accomplished the Great Work of our Redemption. We are saved by grace through faith, but this salvation means that God is at work in us restoring us to work (Eph. 2:8-10, Phil. 1:6, 2:13, Tit. 2:14). In this way, it is perfectly biblical to say that work is the meaning of life, and sloth is rebellion against our creation and redemption. 

The Destruction of Sloth

The way of the sluggard is difficult: “The way of the slothful man is as an hedge of thorns: but the way of the righteous is made plain” (Prov. 15:19, 20:4). The way of the sluggard destroys: “He also that is slothful in his work is brother to him that is a great waster [lit. great destroyer]” (Prov. 18:9). “Slothfulness casteth into a deep sleep; and an idle soul shall suffer hunger” (Prov. 19:15, cf. 19:24, 21:25). The way of the sluggard is cowardly and full of excuses: “The slothful man saith, There is a lion without, I shall be slain in the streets” (Prov. 22:13, cf. 26:13). “The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render a reason” (Prov. 26:16).

Jesus roundly condemned the wickedness of the slothful servant in His parable (Matt. 25:26). And the apostles warned against it as well, “Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord” (Rom. 12:11). “That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises” (Heb. 6:12).

Deceptions of Sloth

Part of the deception of sloth, perhaps especially in the modern world, is that technology allows us the illusion of work. You can drive around, be on your computer, on the phone, and manage a very busy schedule, but “busy” is not the same thing as fruitful. A farmer who studies seeds and soils and fails to actually plant may have been busy but was ultimately slothful. This is like the guy who is constantly making plans for work but never actually executing them. Diligence and industry are not just a matter of staying awake or going to work; they are matters of intelligent work, good work, the right work at the right time. 

The Latin word for sloth is “acedia,” which can refer to a kind of spiritual despair in the face of God’s goodness. Faith sees God’s world as teeming with opportunity, fruit, gold, and possibilities. But acedia is blind to the goodness and increasingly despairs in seeing anything as worth the effort. Dorothy Sayers said sloth “believes in nothing.” Rushdoony said, “Sloth means no love for God and no holy joy… acedia empties the world of God’s presence and replaces it with oneself.” Here we see how a culture that congratulates itself for all its great accomplishments can end up so melancholy. Self-obsessions are the path of sloth and depression. But if this world is God’s gift, how can you be lazy and sad?

Sloth is fundamentally a form of treachery to the Lord Jesus. “For ye are bought with a price: therefore, glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s” (1 Cor. 6:20). And when you are exhausted at the end of a long day, remember the lesson of the unprofitable servant: “So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do” (Lk. 17:10). Christ bought us with His precious blood, a price we can never repay.

Applications

Work as unto Christ: “Not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart; with good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men: knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free” (Eph. 6:6-8). Don’t say, “I deserve/we deserve…” All is grace.

The seeds of sloth begin in the heart when obedience and righteousness seem like heavy burdens and inspire disgust or resentment. Why do I have to work so hard? Why do I have to work so much? Why does no one appreciate how hard I’m working? “The slothful hideth his hand in his bosom; it grieveth him to bring it again to his mouth” (Prov. 26:15). The great irony is that work is food, work is blessing.

Some men are lazy by sitting on the couch all day, but other men are lazy by filling their days with worthless things (meetings, video games, social media). In general, you should be aiming to do hard things. You should be thinking about how to get a little more done. Why? Because it is for Your King. While men can become obsessed with fitness, the glory of men is their strength and often doing something physical is good practice for the rest of life. Beware of lots of “guys nights out.” Of course there’s a place for friendship, but focus more on shoulder to shoulder working at some project.

Women are warned in Scripture about being chatty Cathys: “And withal they learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house; and not only idle, but tattlers also and busybodies, speaking things which they ought not. I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully” (1 Tim. 5:13-14). This is why our general approach to women’s ministry is highly homebased and decentralized, aimed at serving and meeting needs (meals, showers, etc.). Some women’s ministries are busybody conventions. Of course there’s a place for friendship, but focus more on shoulder to shoulder working at some project.

Let each one bear his own burden (Gal. 6:5): you are an industrious lot in general – a lot of you are extraordinarily productive and fruitful, which means that there will be temptations to coast or to draft on the diligence of others (“drafting” is leveraging the vibe of someone else’s success). But Western Civilization is in shambles; we have work to do before we die. We are getting the world ready for the King. We don’t have time to coast. Don’t draft spiritually either. 

Finally, remember the Sabbath. Sabbath makes really good sense when you’ve been working hard for six days. But if a day of rest seems a little legalistic, that may be a sign that you haven’t been working hard enough. And in the New Covenant, our Sabbath is on the first day of the week: we begin with grace and the grace is so good, we hit the ground running every Monday. 

Photo by Tekton on Unsplash

Christmas Eve 2024: Worship Him

One of the central themes of Christmas is worship. When Mary entered the house of Elizabeth, she burst into song: My soul magnifies the Lord! Simeon sings that He can depart in peace because his eyes have seen the salvation of the Lord in the infant Jesus. The angel announces the glad tidings to the shepherds, and then a whole army of angels bursts into song: Glory to God in the highest. And then after the shepherds went and found the baby lying in the manger, they return to their flocks glorifying and praising God. And the wisemen, when they found the house where the child was, they came in and fell down and worshipped him, presenting their treasures.

Christmas is all about worship. And so our Christmas hymns agree: O come let us adore Him! Let all mortal flesh keep silence and with fear and trembling stand // Christ our God to earth descendeth, our full homage to demand. Glory to the newborn king! Gloria in excelsis Deo! O ye heights, adore Him! Angel hosts, His praises sing; pow’rs, dominions, bow before Him, and extol our God and King! Let no tongue on earth be silent, every voice in concert sing! Come and worship, come and worship: worship Christ the newborn King! As with joyful steps they sped to the lowly cradle bed, there to bend the knee before, Him whom Heav’n and earth adore, so may we with willing feet ever seek Thy mercy seat. 

The word worship means to fall down, to bow down, to prostrate. In the ancient world, this was literally what subjects did in the presence of their king. This posture represented complete reverence, complete service, complete submission, and often, when there was genuine affection between the subject and the king, it was also heartfelt devotion, loyalty, and love. In the older wedding liturgy, the husband would give his wife a ring and say, “With this Ring I thee wed, with my body I thee worship, and with all my worldly goods I thee endow.”

And so, Christmas, rightly understood is an extended Call to Worship. The whole thing, the weeks of Advent leading up to this night are the bells ringing, O Come All Ye Faithful, joyful and triumphant, Come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem: come and behold Him, born the King of angels: O come let us adore Him! Mary sang. Simeon sang. The angels sang. The shepherds praised. The wisemen fell down and worshiped. And so the Call to Worship comes to you. What will you do? 

If you are here tonight, you may think: well, I’m here aren’t I? Maybe you go to church every Sunday. You might say, I sing the songs. I kneel down at the confession of sin. But if that was all there was to it, would we really need all these songs, all the festivities, all the gifts, all the food? No. Think about Mary, Simeon, the shepherds, and the wisemen. Notice that all of them are worshipping in the midst of significant interruptions to their lives. Mary is pregnant out of wedlock. Simeon has been waiting many years and is now facing death. The shepherds have left their flocks. The wisemen have traveled far from home. Crisis pregnancy, old age and dying, employment uncertainty, and foreigners far away in strange land. And what are they all doing? They are worshipping. 

Despite their circumstances, they have found something more significant, more important, more consuming than everything else. But it’s even more than that. It is actually the child that they are worshiping who has caused the interruptions to their lives. He is the One who has freely come into the world at that moment and burst into their lives. But with the eyes of faith, they are able to see Him as their Lord and King, making all the pain and trouble worth it. It’s like the birth of every baby in this world. It’s painful and bloody and worth it. 

So it is with all the trouble in this world, all the pain and heartache. In the Christmas story, Christ comes, bringing all kinds of trials and difficulties and interruptions, and the faithful respond by recognizing Him and worshipping Him. And the same message is now proclaimed to you. Your difficulty, your pain, your uncertainty, your loneliness, your waiting – it is all from the Lord. It is all sent by the King. And so what will you do? Christ is born. The King is come. He rules all things. He has orchestrated every detail of your life: your marriage, your family, your trials, your pain, your situation. The message of the angels is still the message of all gospel preaching: Christ is born. Christ is King. And if you seek Him, you will most certainly find Him. 

Herod heard all of this from the wise men, and he said he wanted to worship him. But of course Herod had no intention of worshiping Jesus. He saw Jesus as a threat to his reign, to his kingdom. And when the wisemen didn’t return to tell him where they had found this King, Herod sent and had all the baby boys put to death in Bethlehem. And these really are the only two options: true worship and life or else false worship and murderous destruction. 

So what are you doing? You may say you are a worshiper of Christ the King, but are you? Are you growing in peace and joy and obedience? Or are you angry and jealous and stressed? And maybe you say that you want that peace and joy, but you just don’t know how to get it. The answer is this: worship Him. What do I mean? I mean bow down. I mean truly, fully submit everything you are to Him. Tell Him that He is your Lord, your Master, your King. Tell Him that all that you are is His. Tell Him you are His subject, His servant, and that you will humbly accept whatever His assignment is all your days. 

The trouble and trials of this life are sometimes sharp and painful, but the heaviest burden of all is fighting against Jesus. As Jesus said to Saul on the road to Damascus: it’s hard for thee to kick against the pricks. So Christmas is all about worship, and by this we mean: bow down. Bend your stiff neck. Kneel down. Fall down. Put your face on the ground. And bring your treasures and present them to the King. Do not hold anything back. What is your gold and frankincense and myrrh? What are you afraid to lose? What are you afraid He might not take away? Lay it down. Lay it all down. 

But know this: you are laying it down before the One who was once found by shepherds lying in a manger. Your King has come down. Your King has been born into this world. And when you kneel down in true humility, you find that you have come face to face with your King. You do not serve a King who does not sympathize with you in your weakness. He is a kind and gracious King. He only takes what must be taken so that we might reign with Him. And He only sends the trouble that is required so that we might be born again and live with Him forever. Your King is good, and He ultimately proved it on Calvary; He is worthy of all of your worship. Christ is born. So worship Him. 

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

Beholding the Glory

Jn. 1:14

Prayer: Almighty God, our Father, You have set your glory above the heavens, but the whole earth is full of your glory. And You have done this so that we might know you, love you, and enjoy You and all of Your good gifts forever. So give us Your Spirit so that this Word might open our eyes to behold Your glory and so be transformed more and more into Your glory. Amen.  

Introduction

As the Church has meditated on the nature of knowing God, we have come to summarize this pursuit as the three transcendentals: truth, goodness, and beauty. You might think of these as truth is what we are to believe, goodness is what we are to desire, and beauty is what we are to enjoy. And the idea is that these three are interconnected: what is true is also good and beautiful; what is good is also true and beautiful; and what is beautiful is also true and good.

This text is one place we see something of this notion: in Christmas we have the truth, goodness (grace), and beauty (glory) of God fully revealed. The first two are often emphasized, but frequently we don’t know what to do with beauty. Many Christians have been particularly leery of beauty. Beauty seems to be deceptive. It can trick people into sin, like the fruit in the garden, like a seductress. While that is true, truth and goodness have their own deceptions, and God created world full of His glory and beauty and requires us to grow up into it. And Christmas is one time during the year, we get to practice.  

The Text

“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth” (Jn. 1:14).

Summary of the Text

This verse is talking about the incarnation; “incarnation” means “made flesh.” The word for “Word” is logos, and logos was the Greek word for “order, meaning, word, or reason.” Aristotle used it to describe the content or principal argument of a speech, and other philosophers used it to describe the principle of origins, the “seed” of the universe. John famously opens his gospel, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (Jn. 1:1). John says that this Word created all things, echoing some of the philosophers, but when he says that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, he is exploding philosophical categories. 

In the ancient world, the logos was distant, abstract, and impersonal, but the gospel says that the principle of all order and reason and meaning and creation is God with us, God made flesh, and not only that, but a particular man, in particular flesh. The universal has become particular and personal. And He has dwelt or literally, pitched his tent (“tabernacled”), with us. And in so doing, He revealed the glory of the Father to us. As the hymn says, “veiled in flesh the Godhead see, hail the incarnate deity!” But the emphasis really must be on the “see” not the “veiled.” This text says that the incarnation is the perfect revelation of the glory of the Father, and Jesus will insist on this later: “he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?” (Jn. 14:9)

And in the incarnation, the gospel says that we have seen a glory that is full of grace and truth. The glory of God is not a distraction from grace and truth; it is the revelation of grace and truth. In other words, truth and goodness are beautiful and glorious. And truth and goodness that are not beautiful are not really fully true or good. Sometimes this is because our truth and goodness are faulty, and sometimes this is because our eyes and tastes are faulty, and sometimes it’s a little of both. 

Why Should Christians Care About Beauty?

1. Because God is beautiful: “we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father” (Jn. 1:14). “And [Moses] said, I beseech thee, shew me thy glory” (Ex. 33:18). “Who is this King of glory? The LORD of hosts, he is the King of glory” (Ps. 24:10). “One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in his temple” (Ps. 27:4).

2. Because God loves beauty: “And thou shalt make holy garments for Aaron thy brother for glory and for beauty” (Ex. 28:2). “And he garnished the house with precious stones for beauty: and the gold was gold of Parvaim” (2 Chron. 3:6). “And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed singers unto the LORD, and that should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army, and to say, Praise the LORD; for his mercy endureth forever” (2 Chron. 20:21). “Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name; worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness” (Ps. 29:2). “He has made everything beautiful in its time” (Eccl. 3:11). “And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory” (Is. 6:3).

3. Because God intends for His people to share in His beauty: “And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us: and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it” (Ps. 90:17). “The glory of young men is their strength: and the beauty of old men is the gray head” (Prov. 20:29). “In that day shall the LORD of hosts be for a crown of glory, and for a diadem of beauty, unto the residue of his people” (Is. 28:5). “To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that He might be glorified” (Is. 61:3)

Applications

1. Because God is the most beautiful and the source of all beauty, pursue beauty with holiness. This is part of what Christmas is supposed to remind us to do: lights, candles, carols, wreathes, the Christmas story, bows, cookies, presents, new clothes, family, generosity, and feasting. But make sure your heart and words match the glory. Nasty words and attitudes are like puking on the presents. Understood rightly, beauty helps us honor God and one another.

2. Read and listen to great stories and some poetry and symphonies. Beauty is about fittingness/timing. “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver” (Prov. 25:11). Of course the Bible is our great Epic poem, but find stories to read out loud: Chronicles of Narnia, Lord of the Rings, John Buchan, ND Wilson, Wodehouse, Shakespeare, Mark Twain, and listen to Handel’s Messiah a few times. 

3. Delight in God’s creation: when Job wanted to know God, God came in the storm of His glory and showed him the glories of creation. There’s a tree in your living room full of light. And that’s to remind you that there are trees and lights everywhere constantly: stars overhead at night, sunsets and sunrises with clouds dancing in the light, fields, water, canyons, animals, colors, smells, tastes, sounds, textures, children, spouses, friends, grandparents. God made this world to meet us in it, to draw our eyes to Him. And then just to prove it, He came down and dwelt among us and took away our sin and conquered death and Satan, so that we might behold and enjoy His beauty forever.

Prayer: Father, I pray that our celebrations of Christmas this week would be particularly potent celebrations. I pray that they would be full of truth, goodness, and beauty, and I pray that they would make us more like Jesus. May our homes be places of forgiveness and light, and may our neighbors and families see it and be drawn to Your light, in Jesus’ name, who taught us to pray, singing…

The Woke Right Civil War

Introduction
So James Lindsay recently tried to pull a fast one on what he and others are calling the “woke right.” He took selections of Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto and substituted some words, under the pseudonym Marcus Carlson (ha), and managed to get it published in the American Reformer, a newer conservative online journal. I thought it was kind of funny, even if it ultimately looks like he changed too much of Marx’s text to make his point clearly. But regardless, James Lindsay has made it his raison d’etre to accuse the “new right” of adopting leftist ideology and tactics, such as dividing the world into superficial classes of people and reducing politics to power dynamics.

At the same time, closer to home, my friend A.D. Robles (among others) has been referring to something called “Woke Wars 2.0” apparently describing the recent skirmishes surrounding antisemitism and Kinism in the Christian Nationalist orbit. Presumably, the new “woke” in this telling are actually the James Lindseys and James Whites denouncing this “new right” as racists and antisemites. If the BLM riots were “Woke War 1.0,” and consisted of gnostic witch hunts and struggle sessions, trying to get white people to admit they really did have secret racist thoughts deep, deep down in their heart (where?) and trying to get males to acknowledge they really were misogynists, “Woke Wars 2.0” appears to them as the same thing with antisemitism and Kinism only this time from supposed fellow conservatives. So interestingly, we have something of a conservative “civil war” with both sides calling the other side “woke.” At the very least, conservatives apparently agree that it is very bad to be “woke,” but the question is who is right and perhaps more importantly who will win?

A Very Short Overview
Before cannonballing into the melee, a quick philosophical overview is called for: remember, “woke” is modern slang for Marxist. Karl Marx swiped Hegel’s dialectic theory, which was that history moves forward via ideas that clash and collide resulting (inevitably) in greater truth (thesis + antithesis = synthesis). While Hegel was a theist and idealist and saw all of this as orchestrated according to the mind and will of God, Marx postulated a dialectical materialism: that history moves forward through the collision and re-synthesis of purely material realities, principally economic classes (working class + capitalist owners = socialist utopia). In Marx’s view, these material forces collide because the rich and powerful systematically oppress the poor and weak. Why this is not OK in a materialistic universe is never really explained, but Marx said that eventually the workers of the world would unite in revolution and throw off the chains of their overlords, take collective ownership of all property and means of production and destroy every vestige of capitalism, including things like marriage, family, private property, and religion – all of which Marx alleged were props and whips for Capitalist oppression. Following me so far? 

In the early 20th century, some of Marx’s ideological descendants said that Marx was right but that he didn’t take it far enough. Not only were the oppressed those without money and property, they were also every sort of minority: women oppressed by the patriarchy (traditional marriage), blacks oppressed by whites (capitalist wealth built by slavery), and of course homosexuals and (eventually) every sexual minority imaginable (apparently including furries) constantly being oppressed by all that heteronormativity. So the new tagline became something like, “Help! Help We’re being repressed!” 

Marx and all his ugly stepsons hate hierarchy. They are radical individualists, statists, and revolutionaries. This is why abortion has been the sacrament of the revolution: women must be “free” from the natural consequences of sexual promiscuity, free to compete with “the patriarchy.” This is why DEI policies have been enforced from workplaces to universities: sexual and racial minorities must be given places of priestly prominence. Likewise, the push for unlimited immigration and multiculturalism are liturgies of this cultural revolution. Large groups of homogeneity are considered threats to peace and harmony because large groups of homogenous people create “hegemony” – centers of power, and power is always used to oppress and subjugate. All power must (in theory) be divested in order to “empower” the powerless. It is also why you must believe all women, except Crystal Mangum and Potiphar’s wife. 

Of course, in the middle of the revolution very few of the leaders have ever felt it was the right time to actually divest themselves of power. Turns out, in order to accomplish said revolution, there must be certain enlightened leaders pulling the levers of power, all in the name of the will of the people (of course) and only as long as it takes to bring the socialist utopia into being, which it also turns out, takes longer than anyone imagined and has never actually happened. This is how you get something like Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau condemning America for refusing to elect a woman president, but then he is not resigning and divesting himself of power, as the male chauvinist pig he (apparently) is (although his administration seems to be crumbling at the moment). 

Who is the Wokest of Them All?
So the question is: have conservatives adopted any of these categories or tactics and is there really a Woke War 2.0? My answer is “yes” and “yes,” but both sides are doing it. While the accusation is perhaps being launched rather recklessly in some quarters, wherever conservatives are not grounded in the truth of God’s Word, they are necessarily drifting woke, which is to say: if your politics is not chained to an immoveable rock, when it comes to giving an account for why we should do what you think we should do, whatever your reason, it’s not because God said so. And that means your answer has to be some variation of because I said so, because we said so, because science said so, whatever. Whenever your politics is not grounded on God’s Word in Scripture, you are going the gnostic route of hunting for secret, mystical knowledge, whether in the caverns of Philosophy or the ruminations of Dominion voting machines or the whims of Anthony Fauci and the high priests at the CDC. 

A true “conservative” is someone dedicated to preserving and defending fundamental realities that do not shift or change. This would include things like the fixed realities of male and female, marriage only between one of each, sanctity of all human life from conception to natural death, and the public honoring and enforcement of the Ten Commandments. And this is because the Creator said so. This is because the Lord God Almighty has spoken, and He did not stutter. And this means recognizing both individual, inalienable rights from the Creator as well as hierarchical and covenantal realities that bind people together in families, churches, nations, and other social institutions. Even though there is ebb and flow in these institutions, they are natural (and therefore basically good) and create various inescapable hierarchies in the world because God Himself has granted authority to the heads of those covenantal entities. While that authority can always be abused, these natural hierarchies are good in so far as they are instituted by the Creator and under the personal Lordship of Jesus Christ and therefore are limited and accountable to Him and His Word. 

The fact of the matter is that everyone has been swimming in this progressive Marxist swamp for the last 80 years. What Rusty Reno has called the “post war consensus” really is a thing, and nobody is fully immune. And that post war consensus really was laced with Marxist heroin: in the name of preventing World War 3, the liberal establishment agreed to demote Christianity for a bland Judeo-Christian deism and began a full scale assault on marriage and family as the bedrock for national identity. In its place, a multicultural, multisexual ethic was embraced, and the boomers largely bought it for the price of a booming economy, Winnebagos the size of Vermont, and lots of cheap sex on the side. 

And the thing to notice is that in the name of preventing the abuses of power of the Nazis and Fascists and Communists, the West largely embraced an inverse form of identity politics. Instead of Aryan hubris, we chose multicultural hubris. Instead of nationalism, we chose globalism. Instead of monogamy, we chose polyamory. Instead of orthodox Christianity, we chose a privatized, castrated state religion based on the myth of neutrality and the salvation of secular statism. But both sets of “identities” are fully capable of being weaponized and exploited by powermongers. Identity politics cannot save us from our sins or usher in world peace.

So a bunch of guys on the right are rightly bothered by all the newly arrived parasitic Republicans longing for the glory days of 1990s secular liberalism. And please note here that I’m using “liberal” in its old Lockean sense: liberalism as in the secular democracy of the last couple hundred years divorced from explicit Biblical truth. But that project is the moldy toadstool (the Enlightenment) that grew the fungus we now affectionately refer to as the “post war consensus.” And James Lindsay appears to be among these so-called conservatives that talk about “inalienable rights” but refuse to say why they are inalienable and where they come from. If you will not tell us where these so-called rights come from, what makes your ideas better? What makes you right? And more importantly, if you are agnostic about where our inalienable rights come from, then your version of conservatism can be manipulated and exploited, just as it has been over the last hundred years. You can’t rewind to 1995 or even 1945, embrace the myths of state neutrality and secularism end up somewhere else. And when you accuse people of being racists and antisemites, your accusations are suspect because you have no standard to point to. By what standard? If you have no fixed, transcendent standard, then you are drifting woke. All your philosophical sophistication is a gnostic struggle session. And we’ve had enough of those, thank you very much.

On the other hand, those on the “radical right” who are talking about “using the power of the state to crush radical leftists” need to spend a lot more time defining that power and the objects of that vengeance. This is where the James Lindsays of the right have a point. And this is where James White has a very good point. There is such a thing as racial vainglory and racial animosity. There is such a thing as fleshly pride, spite, vengeance, and wrath. There is such a thing is true hatred of Jews. There is such a thing as a bunch of white boys flopping on the soccer field crying “Help! Help! I’m being repressed!” Just because the leftists have weaponized sins and victimhood and falsely accused us of being racists and bigots and homophobes for decades, doesn’t mean that those sins don’t exist or that no one on our side harbors them. And for a bunch of so-called Christians to go suddenly agnostic about the real version of those capital “S” sins is to join James Lindsay in his philosophical labyrinth. 

Conclusion
We are Christians. We are conservatives. This means we believe in absolute standards of right and wrong, good and evil. This is why the sudden right wing love affair with anonymous accounts on social media is kind of mind boggling. And yes, I know about the long and venerable history of Junius Brutus, Publius, and Hebrews (but it’s Paul). And so if you are saying good and virtuous things online that might get you in trouble with your woke employer, I get it, but your wife and pastor should know who you are. But if you’re MemeLord578, and you’re using the anonymity to say things to people you would not otherwise ever dream of saying to someone in person, that’s what we would call hypocrisy and sin. And you are acting like the BLM rioters with your words. And if you’re encouraging social media mobs, yes, that’s woker than a Biden supreme court appointment prancing around in a Broadway musical. Stop giving James Lindsay such easy targets.  

And besides, all of this is the central tactic of Satan, the Accuser. Not only is he the Accuser, he is also a liar, and the father of lies. Satan has been accusing and manipulating sinners of real sin and fake sin since our first parents stumbled out of Paradise six thousand years ago. And all his sons are full of evil, brawling, lust, malice, envy, and hatred. Which is why our side is exhorted: “To speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, shewing all meekness unto all men. For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another” (Tit. 3:3-4). 

The answer to all satanic lies and condemnation is the Cross of Christ. If you think the BLM and MeToo struggle sessions were evil and unseemly, don’t you know that Satan’s guilt tripping makes those look like kindergarten playground tiffs? But you can’t fight accusations like a kindergartner: Did too! Did not! The only comeback that works is the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ. His blood answers every stain of real guilt, and His righteousness answers all the lies. We need the sword of the Spirit, and that sword is only found in the rock of His Word.

The Justice & Faith of Joseph

Mt. 1:18-25

[A video of this message is available here.]

Prayer: Father, you know that we are in desperate need of just and faithful men like Joseph. So please used this text to confront our disobedience and our blind spots, and grant us grace to hear your word and obey it for the blessing of our families, church, city, and nation. In Jesus’ name, Amen. 

Introduction 

Our culture has descended into such sexual debauchery, it is sometimes difficult for us to understand the intense trial that Joseph faced in the unexpected pregnancy of his betrothed wife. It was a scandalous betrayal with potentially massive repercussions for his reputation and livelihood, but like his ancient namesake, he was patient and judicious, and God blessed him immensely, leaving us a faithful example to follow. This is an example for all of us, and particular example for the men. We need the justice and faith of Joseph.

The Text: “Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost…” (Mt. 1:18-25).

Summary of the Text

Betrothal was a legally binding contract in the ancient world that required a divorce to break, but it was still prior to the marriage consummation. So, when Mary was found pregnant, presumably by immoral relations with another man, Joseph, being a just man, determined to divorce Mary but to do so quietly in order to minimize her punishment and shame (Mt. 1:18-19). It was while he was carefully contemplating this action that the angel of the Lord appeared to him and informed him that Mary’s story was true, and the son she was carrying was the Messiah by the Holy Spirit, to fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah (Mt. 1:20-23). So, at great risk to his own livelihood and reputation, Joseph obeyed the Lord and went through with the marriage, but did not consummate the marriage until after she had given birth, and indicated his wholehearted, obedient faith by naming his adopted son Jesus (Mt. 1:24-25). 

The Law of Betrothed Virgins

In the law, it was required that a woman present herself honestly to a potential husband, and if she was presented as a virgin, but later found to have not been, her husband was free to divorce her and she could be liable to the death penalty (Dt. 24:1, 22:20-21). This is because marriage is the building block of all human society: if there is not honesty and loyalty there, you will not have it anywhere. This is why adultery also carried a possible death penalty – unfaithfulness to the foundational covenant is a murderous attack not only on your own family but also your neighbors and nation. This is why a betrothed woman who slept with another man was also liable to a death penalty, if she did not “cry out” to indicate her unwillingness (Dt. 22:23). We have been brainwashed into believing that sex is just a meaningless action between “consenting adults,” but marriage and sexual union is the nuclear reactor of social and political life. If your neighbor says he’s playing with plutonium and uranium in his basement, you don’t give him a pass because it’s “in the privacy of his own home.” Marital and sexual infidelity never stays private. And we are living in the nuclear fallout of the sexual revolution. This is why God’s law prescribes such intense maximum penalties. You are playing with explosives.

In this case, Scripture says that Joseph was a “just man,” which means that he was aware of the law of God and committed to obeying it. When Mary came to him pregnant, perhaps trying to explain that it wasn’t what it looked like, Joseph would likely have believed that Mary had in fact slept with another man. By being inclined to divorce Mary “quietly,” he was choosing the minimum penalty, not charging her publicly with the crime that it appeared she had committed. While it doesn’t appear that the Jews were ordinarily allowed to enforce death penalties under Roman rule (Jn. 18:31, although Acts 7), there would at least have been severe social and religious repercussions, for Mary and for Joseph, affecting livelihoods and reputations (e.g. Dt. 22:21, Jn. 8). Some commentators suggest that Joseph would have needed to move away in order to do it really quietly.

While He Thought on These Things

The justice of Joseph is also illustrated in his immediate response to these things. He is thoughtful and gracious to a woman who has apparently betrayed him and brought massive scandal upon him. In the ancient world, a betrothal was a legally binding contract because there was often a great deal of business that needed to be completed as part of a marriage: lands or houses sold or purchased, major vocational and economic matters settled, etc. It’s likely that Joseph was not only tempted to be broken hearted, but he may have been in a position to lose a lot financially and vocationally. As a carpenter, would he be out of business? Would he need to move away? And if he only divorced her quietly, without publicly charging her with adultery, then he would have still taken a loss. Why had Mary betrayed him? Why didn’t he publicly charge her? In the face of a massive disappointment, crisis, and potential public scandal, Joseph was thoughtful (Mt. 1:20). He didn’t fly off the handle or blow up. He didn’t make a snap or rash decision. We need men who are judicious and thoughtful like Joseph – not rash, not wrathful, not despairing. 

You might be wondering why he wasn’t considering just marrying Mary. It’s likely that wasn’t a good option because: A. He had no idea who the father was and what kind of scandal or trouble that would bring and B. If it was obvious that the baby wasn’t his, it could appear to some that he had actually prostituted his wife, potentially bringing even more shame and scandal on both of them and their families and their people. We could also add a third reason that Joseph had no reason to believe or trust Mary at this point, if she had done it this time, what would prevent her from doing it again?

While he thought on these things, inclined to divorce his “adulterous” betrothed wife quietly, he received a word from the angel of the Lord in a dream (Mt. 1:20). And the word he received was not exactly the kind of word that made everything better. It certainly exonerated Mary from any crime, but all the same potential scandal and reputational matters remained. It wasn’t exactly a story that would be helpful to most people, at least initially. Which is why the angel’s primary command is: “fear not.” The assignment was not really easier, but it was clear. We need men who know their duty and fear not.

Applications

God does not ordinarily send messages by angels in dreams. But notice that if He does, He will speak clearly. God does not “chirp and mutter” like pagan wizards (Is. 8:19). “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them” (Is. 8:20). And Jesus is a greater Word than all the angels (Heb. 1). The Word of God is a lamp for our feet and light to our path. The law of God tells us what to do. What is your duty? God has spoken clearly in His Word.  

Joseph was a just man, and a model for this obedience. In a world blown about by suspicions, accusations, manipulation, hurt, rage, and real betrayal, imitate the thoughtful obedience of Joseph. The assignment may not be easy, but Scripture is clear. Be patient, kind, forgiving, and just. Be faithful to your marriage vows; honor the marriage bed; love purity. And wherever you have sinned: tell the truth and confess your sins. And if something immoral has happened, “cry out” (Dt. 22:23-27). Cry out if have done something; cry out if something has been done to you. “He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy” (Prov. 28:13).

The First Christmas was a real scandal, a trial, a massive interruption in the plans of Joseph and Mary. It wasn’t like anyone expected, and it did not come like a gentle sunrise. It came more like a storm. We face interruptions and major disappointments too. Things often do not go as expected (from traffic, to financial trials, to cancer and death). And the temptations to anger and fear are significant. But those are the responses of idolatry. They assume that God is not in control, and they assume that your anger or your fear are up to the challenge. But you are a lousy god, and your anger and fear only make things worse. When you are tempted in these ways, consider praying the Lord’s Prayer: meditate on the fact that you have a faithful Father in Heaven: honor Him and His Kingdom and His will and His provision and His grace. 

And you can do this because Jesus was born to save His people from their sins. 

Prayer: Almighty God, our Father, we confess that You are God and we are not. You are in control of all things, and we are not. And we confess that You are faithful and good, and that our peace and security is found only in You. We confess our angry outburst, our bitterness, and our anxiety as pitiful attempts to control our lives, and we confess it as idolatry, pretending that we can be gods. And we rest in Your Fatherly provision. Hallowed be Your name. We serve Your Kingdom, Your Will, and Your glory, and not our own. And so we commit ourselves to You using the words our Lord taught us to pray, singing…

Barrenness & the Virgin Birth

Lk. 1:34-38

Prayer: Father, we ask that the same Holy Spirit that overshadowed Mary and brought Your Son into this world would come and overshadow us now, that this Word may bear great fruit in our lives and in this world. Let it be according to this Your Word, in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Introduction

One of the central historical facts surrounding the birth of Christ is the virgin birth. Isaiah foretold this (Is. 7:14, Mt. 1:23). And Mary conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and apart from the ordinary contribution of a man. 

But when this was first announced to Mary, the angel also highlighted the conception of her cousin Elisabeth, who was called barren. This indicates that the virgin birth is in part the culmination of the theme of barrenness and its healing found in the Old Testament. When we consider the meaning of the virgin birth, Scripture instructs us to consider the theme of barrenness. 

The Text: “Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee…” (Lk. 1:34-38).

Summary of the Text

Having announced that Mary will conceive and bear a son named Jesus, and that He will be the Messiah who will reign on the throne of David forever, Mary askes how this is even possible since she is a virgin (Lk. 1:31-34). The angel says this will happen by the Spirit overshadowing her, since this son will be called the Son of God (Lk. 1:35). The angel also announces that Mary’s elderly cousin Elisabeth is six months pregnant with a son, even though she was well known as barren, proving that with God nothing will be impossible (Lk. 1:36-37). And Mary accepted the assignment from the Lord in obedience to His word (Lk. 1:38). 

Barren Wombs (and Ground)

Barrenness is a theme that goes back to the entrance of sin into the world and the curses pronounced in the Garden: “Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children… And unto Adam he said… cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee…” (Gen. 3:16-18)

Here we learn that the curse of sin will affect the fruitfulness of the woman’s womb and the ground. And the two things go together: barrenness is complete inability or great difficulty in bearing fruit (Ex. 23:26, Dt. 7:14, 2 Kgs. 2:19-21, Ps. 107:34). And barrenness becomes a common trial in the story of Scripture, beginning with all three patriarchs: Sarah was barren (Gen. 11:30), Rebekah was barren (Gen. 25:21), and Rachel was barren (Gen. 29:31). But also the wife of Manoah was barren (Jdg. 13:2), Ruth was apparently barren (Ruth 1:4), and Hannah was barren (1 Sam. 1:2), culminating with Elisabeth (Lk. 1:7). 

But the stories illustrate at least two things. First, the pain and helplessness of barrenness: “There are three things that are never satisfied, yea, four things say not, It is enough: The grave; and the barren womb; the earth that is not filled with water; and the fire that saith not, It is enough” (Prov. 30:15-16). Barrenness is like a festering wound, a constant ache. But second, in every one of these stories, the helpless emptiness is repeatedly interrupted by the joy of God’s provision: “He maketh the barren woman to keep house, and to be a joyful mother of children. Praise ye the Lord” (Ps. 113:9, cf. 1 Sam. 2:5). 

The Barrenness of Sin

All of this is one of the signs of the barrenness of sin and the fruitfulness of salvation. Sin makes everything fruitless and impossible, and we are powerless to change it. And yet the Prophet Isaiah announced in the midst of Jerusalem’s shameful destruction and powerless exile: “Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the Lord” (Is. 54:1). The prophet instructs those afflicted with the barrenness of sin (and all its effects) to fix their eyes on God and break forth with singing, believing that He will make them fruitful. 

A little later, the same prophet foretells the salvation of Israel in terms of the barren giving birth: “Shall I bring to birth, and not cause to bring forth, saith the Lord: shall I cause to bring forth, and shut the womb? Saith thy God… For thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing stream…” (Is. 66:9, 12). Like a river suddenly flowing in a desert, the virgin birth is the answer to all our barrenness.

Applications
1. As you celebrate Christmas, remember that you are celebrating God breaking into history in order to do what is impossible. The hardest thing, the most impossible thing is reconciling defiant sinners to a holy God. But we often get this backwards in our hearts and minds: we think the barrenness in our material lives is the impossible thing but God just forgives sinners easy-peasy. But it’s actually the other way around: physical healing is relatively easy, but our sin, our spiritual death and barrenness is the impossible thing. 

Justice required the wrath of God to be poured out on a perfect man, but there was no man who was perfect and no man who could survive the wrath of God. Think about that: the impossibility of our salvation. But what was completely impossible for us, God has done for us in His own well-beloved Son. The one born of the virgin is the Son of God: fully man in our place, fully God to bear God’s wrath. The justice due for our sin was the most impossible thing, reconciling sinners to a holy God was impossible for us, but with God now all things are possible. God can and will make everything fruitful. He is for you.

2. Barrenness is a curse, not a lifestyle choice. We reject all voluntary barrenness, even as we sometimes must accept it from the Lord. At the same time, remember the apostolic injunction to “mind thine own business” (1 Thess. 4:11). Don’t be nosy, and don’t assume the worst. This can apply to marriage, bearing children, and other personal matters (e.g. medical/health). 

Also closely related, remember that fruitfulness is to be defined biblically not materialistically. Eight kids that are poorly cared for and hate Jesus is not more fruitful than three kids well-loved and walking in the Light. And sometimes the hard assignment of fruitfulness is no kids and loving your community well, and sometimes there are seasons of different assignments. And we must learn to say to it all, “Let it be according to Thy word.”

3. Finally, singing is required. Right after this scene in Luke’s gospel, Mary visits Elisabeth and breaks into song: “My soul magnifies the Lord!” She is of course singing because she has seen the reversal of the curse (as does Hannah in 1 Sam. 2). But Isaiah urged the Jews to sing while they were still in exile, while they were still experiencing the effects of the curse because God will surely make all things new. Whether now in this life, or in the life to come, He will wipe away every tear, and He will make everything fruitful. The vision of the New Jerusalem in Revelation is a river with trees of life, full of fruit on both sides. So you must sing, which is to say, you must rejoice always and in all things. In the midst of pain and suffering and disappointment, sing louder in faith because the virgin has given birth, because the barrenness of sin and death has been broken. 

Prayer: Father, wherever we have given in to despair, please forgive us and grant us hope. Wherever we have given in to rage and wrath, please forgive us and give us contentment and gratitude, resting in Your goodness, trusting that You are for us. And we ask for this in Jesus name, who taught us to pray, singing…

The Line of Promise

Mt. 1:1-17

[A video is available of this message here.]

Prayer: Father, you’ve recorded these names for our good and your glory. You want us to remember with You, Your faithfulness to all generations. So by Your Holy Spirit, use these words to remind us today so we might be full of courage to obey You in everything. In Jesus’ name, Amen

Introduction

As we prepare to celebrate Christmas, it is encouraging to look backwards and see the faithfulness of God over so many generations leading up to the birth of Christ. It is that same covenant faithfulness that is promised to everyone in Christ. God still promises to be our God and the God of our children after us, until the earth is full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. The coming of Christ as human, born into a human family, is the fulfillment of God’s promise and the guarantee of its fullness.

The Text: “The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of Davd, the son of Abraham…” (Mt. 1:1-17).

Summary of the Text

When Matthew begins with the “book of the generation” (Mt. 1:1), this is a call back to one of the organizing structures of Genesis: “This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him…” (Gen. 5:1, cf. 2:4, 6:9, 10:1, etc.). The genealogies in Genesis 5 and Genesis 10-11 each record 10 generations: Adam to Noah and Shem to Abram, covering a little over 2000 years, tracing the promise of the “seed of the woman” (Gen. 3:15). 

Matthew picks up his genealogy at Abraham and the patriarchs (Mt. 1:2), but he highlights some of the surprises, beginning with the twins born to Tamar by her father in-law Judah (Mt. 1:3). Five generations later, Salmon begot Boaz by marrying the Canaanite prostitute Rahab from Jericho, and of course Boaz married Ruth the Moabitess, a cursed people (Mt. 1:4-5, Dt. 23:3). Boaz was the great-grandfather of King David, who begot Solomon by Bathsheba, who had been the wife of one of David’s mighty men, Uriah the Hittite, murdered by David’s command (Mt. 1:6-7, 2 Sam. 23:39). There were fourteen generations of kings from David to Jeconiah, when Judah was conquered and carried into exile in Babylon (Mt. 1:7-11, 1:17). And there were another fourteen generations from Jeconiah to Jesus Christ, born of the virgin Mary, the wife of Joseph (Mt. 1:12-16, cf. 1:17). 

A Motley Crew

Perhaps the first thing that stands out is how motley the line of promise is: incest, prostitution, intermarriage with a cursed nation, adultery, murder, slavery, homelessness, and pregnancy out of wedlock are all right on the surface. And that in turn implies all the other “normal” sins and failures of these descendants of Adam. Were there angry outbursts, lies, betrayals, spiteful words or acts? Yes, all of it. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and this family tree is no different (Rom. 3:23). 

But this is the line of promise, the line of the King. What a way to begin the gospel of the King. You don’t make up a religion this way. And so what it actually highlights is the mind-blowing grace of God. Athanasius says that when a great King enters a city it honors the whole city, and when God took on human flesh, He honored our pitiful race. 

Notice also that while God works through a family line, there is nothing “pure” about it. As the New Testament labors to demonstrate, the line of promise is by faith not by flesh: “For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith” (Rom. 4:13). It was not through the law, in the sense that it was not by families perfectly keeping the law or achieving greatness by human striving. Ishmael was a picture of human striving, but Isaac was the son of promise (Gal. 4:23, 28). 

Natural sons or not, the power is in the promise of God, not our family name or bloodline or accomplishments. And the motley nature of the line underlines this point. You wouldn’t plan the salvation of the world with this family tree, but God did because of His grace – to underline the firmness of His promises. His purposes are sure. He cannot be stopped. 

And You Are Heirs

But the other point of these genealogies is to underline God’s love for His people. When you read the genealogies, don’t just think “weird names I can’t pronounce.” Think people, families, children, stories that God loves and has promised to never forget. We carve the names of our loved ones on stone to signify that they were and are beloved and worth remembering, but even the greatest men will be forgotten like Ozymandias in the sands of time. But we serve the God who has sworn to never forget His people. He ordered the names of Israel engraved on precious stones on the breastplate of the High Priest (Ex. 28:9-12, 21). And He has written the names of all of His people in the Lamb’s Book of Life (e.g. Phil. 4:3, Rev. 3:5); they are even engraved on the palms of His hands (Is. 49:16). 

He first made that promise in a Garden six thousand years ago to a heartbroken couple who had thrown all of God’s grace away. And that promise was kept to Abraham and his descendants over thousands of years, all the way down to a young virgin named Mary. But the promise was that the curse of sin and death would be completely undone, reversed, and healed. This is why we sing: “He comes to make His blessings flow, far as the curse is found.” 

God promised Abraham that through him, all the families of the earth would be blessed (Gen. 12:3). God did not send His own Son into the world to condemn the world, but that through Him the world might be saved (Jn. 3:17). All those who trust in Christ are sons and heirs of God: “And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Gal. 3:29).

Applications

Honor your people, beginning with your own parents. If God can use this family tree to save the world, He can use your family tree. Abortion? Adultery? Abuse? Apostacy? Welcome to planet earth, and welcome to the family of Adam. 

God created the natural family, and there is something good and glorious about it – even with the curse of sin, there are cathedral ruins that can be remembered and honored. We do not honor sin, but we honor every vestige of the glory of God. And wherever Christ has come, the rebuilding and healing can begin. Faith sees possibilities and opportunities amidst the rubble; unbelief only sees failure and what might have been.

As you celebrate, remember that you are celebrating the birth of the King into your family, which it turns out is more like your family being reborn into the family of the King. By faith in Jesus Christ, you have been grafted into the line of promise. And it flows in both directions: You are Abraham’s children; your children are Abraham’s children. This family tree is now your family tree. This is your inheritance in Christ. Do not say, you have no family, no people. 

Jesus said that whoever does the will of His Father are His mother, and sisters, and brothers.   

Jesus Christ is the tree, and all who believe are fruitful branches in Him because He knows them all by name.

Prayer: Almighty God, our Father, please drive this grace and truth into our hearts and minds. Drive away the doubts and fears of the Evil One. Give us the confidence that belongs to those who belong to You. And may our homes be places of this true nobility. And we ask in Jesus’ name, who taught us to pray, singing…

Photo by Anne Nygård on Unsplash

Revoice for Nazis

Introduction
So a few years ago, Lucy once again offered to hold the football for Charlie Brown, and by this we mean that homosexuality was offered to conservative Christians under the guise of “gay celibate friendship” and “side B Christianity.” A conference called “Revoice” was hosted by a PCA church with a tagline about helping LGBT minorities find a place in the church, including one talk about bringing “Queer Treasure” into the New Jerusalem. 

The same play is currently being run again, but this time on the dissident right, what some of us are calling the Dank Right or Reich, as the case may be. This is the black tapeworm attempting to attach itself to the Dissident Right – a wide ranging coalition of folks fed up with the woke/DEI Left forcing their so-called tolerance on our kids with puberty blockers, Drag Queens, and lockdown orders. But like Nikibrik the Dwarf making deals with hags and werewolves, the Dank Right has apparently decided that since liberals accused Trump of being Hitler, and he got re-elected, maybe we should go dumpster diving for some of his super powers. The offer is self-confident white boys, political power, and dressing up werewolves with 80s shades.

The Dank Reich
The setup is what many are calling the “Post War Consensus,” a broad agreement following World War 2 that the holocaust was so evil and heinous, that everything must be done to “never again” let that happen. The deep irony is that within a generation of that oath, the United States Supreme Court legalized a holocaust against the unborn, which has dwarfed Hitler’s cruelest designs. But much of the 20th century liberal project became intertwined with this post war consensus: since Hitler perpetrated his evils in the (false) name of Christianity and did so in the name of blood and soil, family and nation, love and loyalty of those sorts were framed as the great evils: the deliberate destruction of the Christian patriarchal family via the sexual revolution and secular-statist multiculturalism, were all part of that post war project to avoid another world war and all the atrocities that came with it, which really was a Faustian bargain with the devil. 

In God’s great kindness, the last 10 years have seen an increasing unmasking of this Marxist and Communist agenda, with the LGBT jihad and social justice riots culminating in the Covid Charade and BLM marches. Suddenly, burning down Minneapolis was acceptable, but Christians gathering for worship were being fined and persecuted. Even many so-called conservative Christians joined in elements of this statist “gospel.” Thus began the great Red Pilling moment. The 20th century liberalism project was not about freedom and tolerance and democracy. It was about a creeping totalitarian deep state trying to destroy our Christian way of life in the name of [checks notes] preventing World War 3. 

And when you’ve been lied to about so much, it’s tempting to think everything has been a lie. Was Hitler as bad as everyone says he was? Was America really the good guys? And when someone points out that a Jewish rabbi runs Pornhub, some Fed and three naïve anons on X start suggesting that maybe Hitler was on to something. Meanwhile, Islam continues to grow in cultural and political power in Europe and the UK, and straight up Hamas-style antisemitism is on the rise in the West.

It’s against this backdrop that the conservative Reformed world has been rocked by some of this as well. There have been attempts by kinists to infiltrate the Reformed world for decades, marked primarily for their belief that mixing races is unnatural and sinful, or at the very least that we have some moral obligation to preserve the color of our skin. While Stephen Wolfe has characterized his Christian Nationalism project with a carefully defined notion of “ethnicity,” a shared love of people, place, history, and ways of life, he appears to have left himself open to kinist-types to attach themselves to his mission. In my neck of the Reformed Hundred Acre Wood, we have churches in the CREC where all of this is actually being flirted with. So this isn’t academic or speculative at all. From Mein Kampf book studies to conspiracy theories surrounding Jewish cabals to secret discussion groups (“don’t tell the elders about this…”), multiple CREC sessions are actively engaged in ministering to people flirting with this gunk. This is why Douglas Wilson was already addressing all of this back in July, including referring obliquely to the now infamous Holocaust meme, mocking Jews for complaining about hard work. All of this is the backdrop for the Antioch Declaration, which was needed regardless of whether the pastoral situation in Joel Webbon’s church had blown up. 

In other words, for people to think that the Antioch Declaration or Doug Wilson’s blog post or James White’s podcast fire alarms are them being obsessed with one pastoral situation in Texas is to betray a massive myopia. You’re so vain, you probably think this podcast is about you… heh, not hardly. There may be specific cracks in the dam we’re noticing, but the real point is the massive flood of spite pouring down the mountain side toward the dam.

T-Levels or Something Else?
In response to Doug Wilson’s discussion of the Antioch Declaration on CrossPolitic, Joel Webbon suggested we drop the “Revoice for Nazis” phrase. He granted that if someone was actually harboring hatred for Jews in his heart but promised not to shoot up any synagogues the phrase would be warranted, but Joel wondered what the use of it is when we’re talking about guys questioning the Post World War 2 Consensus, historical matters related to the holocaust, or wanting to point out that Judaism is worse than many evangelicals think, etc. Revoice was about dudes indulging sodomite fantasies or at least gay cuddling, how is questioning the historical narrative doing anything like that? And the simple answer is: if that was actually all that was going on, Joel would be right. If all that was going was historical revisionism, I would completely agree. The problem is that isn’t the only thing going on. From Nick Fuentes to Candace Owens to Corey Mahler at the Stone Choir podcast, we have more than just historical opinions at work. 

I responded to Joel saying, “Joel, for whatever it’s worth, I appreciate all of this, but let me throw one more scenario into the mix. What about the dude who doesn’t think he likes guys at all? He just likes wrestling and weight lifting with the dudes, and he thinks that thrill he feels is his T-levels rising, when in actuality there’s something else going on? It’s that same sort of thrill some of the guys get sharing pit viper memes and Samuel Holden WBS videos. The Revoice vibe is not just hate; it’s also lust for a transgressive thrill. So no, unfortunately, we can’t retire “Revoice for Nazis” until we’re done flirting with Hitler and white supremacy. And I’m not saying you’re doing that, but my threads say it’s way too common in our circles. Cheers!”

Some people said this was me calling wrestling or weight lifting gay, but that would be dumb. Again, if all we are talking about is calm, reasoning surrounding the historical evidence for particular historical claims, Joel would be right. But that isn’t what we’re talking about at all. We’re talking about a spiteful resentment that animates the lives of these guys and their social media posts, threads, and replies. Let me underline this point one more time: simple, rational historical study and analysis full of the fruit of the Spirit is not what I’m talking about here. Please carry on doing responsible, historical research in the joy of the Lord. Of course, you could still end up believing something false or untrue, but if you embrace historical falsehood honestly and cheerfully, you might not be eligible for certain jobs, but that isn’t church discipline material. What I’m talking about is historical study with spite, historical discussion with a sledgehammer, historical discussions full of obscenity, rancor, and rage. And it really isn’t as far from real gayness as many might think.

Back in the Revoice days, I brought a similar point up about men obsessed with appearance and aesthetic details. And I had to make a similar distinction. Of course, a man who cares about his appearance is not necessarily being effeminate or gay, but there absolutely is a kind of obsession with appearance that is feminine and therefore effeminate. It is the glory of a woman to be beautiful; she is the glory of man. And yes, of course, a woman can be sinfully vain and sinfully obsessed with her appearance as well. But generally speaking, a man should spend less time in front of the mirror. Likewise, aesthetic details: of course, there are godly and masculine musicians, artists, actors, craftsmen, and so forth, and they are of necessity concerned with aesthetics, but again, there is a kind of resentful fastidiousness that is unnatural and bending toward metrosexual gayness. There is a reason why sodomy is so prevalent in the arts. It is not necessarily so, but there is a temptation there, that needs to be flagged and warned against. A pastor that doesn’t warn his parishioners about the homosexual temptations that will be faced in a theater department or art school or in women’s collegiate athletics, isn’t doing his job.  

White Boy Flamer
But White Boy Summer has been the same sort of thing. First off, the whole thing is as gay as socks on a rooster. A bunch of dudes sharing pictures and memes of themselves in pit viper shades and calling each other “kings”? Talk about campy. And of course, I’m not saying that those things in themselves are any kind of sin. My point is that when people start doing things that are just a couple of ticks off, pastors need to notice and keep an eye on things. And the thing to keep an eye on is a dark turn, a little bit of angsty poison, a snarl. And right on schedule, the Samuel Holden White Boy Summer video captured this perfectly. There it was “just having fun” – all those carefully curated clips, set to an emotionally moving soundtrack, gushing sentimentalism, and then, like a turd in swimming pool, a shot of Hitler walking away and some fascist regiments goose stepping, all woven into images of Americana-Christian men standing up against Woke nonsense. 

Some very well-meaning pastors have busted BS detectors, such that they can’t tell when “I just have questions/concerns/opinions” are actually cover for bitterness, spite, wrath, rivalry, and envy. If you think one brief shot of Hitler in an otherwise sappy call back to a different kind of America is not an act of spite, you’re not paying attention. If you think laughing at a holocaust meme is mostly harmless fun, there’s a gold mine in Nigeria I’d like to sell you. 

Paul covered this with Timothy centuries ago: “As I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia, that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine, neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions, rather than godly edifying which is in faith: so do. Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned: From which some having swerved have turned aside unto vain jangling; Desiring to be teachers of the law; understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm” (1 Tim. 1:3-7).

In the first century, Paul warned Timothy that the wrong sort of men desiring to become leaders will become obsessed with fables and endless genealogies, ministering questions, rather than godly edifying, pure hearts, good consciences, and faith unfeigned. “Vain jangling” is a great King James-ism, and it applies handily to much of what passes as discourse on social media. But notice what Paul warns against: would-be leaders ministering questions. “They just have questions,” is not enough information. Some men “just have questions” because they are sidling in for positions of leadership for ungodly reasons, and godly ministers in the tradition of Paul and Timothy are required by God’s Word to charge those men to shut up. 

However, some men are saying, there’s no sin in “noticing” that Jews run significant portions of the porn industry or George Soros is a Jew who has funded many modern atrocities, and I would agree. No sin in “noticing” all by itself. Not at all. The sin is the noticing with three helpings of spite. The sin is noticing and throwing elbows. The sin is noticing and seething. Why do you keep bringing it up? Why does that guy keep posting about it online? Why are you on your fifth podcast about it? Why the metrosexual obsession? And when he says, oh, no reason, I’m just curious about history, all of your pastoral hackles should be up. Why? Because of 1 Timothy 1. And then the pastor who is about to be exasperated with me says, “OK, OK, I asked him about it – I asked him if he harbors any bitterness against the Jews,” and he said, well, maybe I did just little bit last Thursday but not anymore. I’m just really interested in the historical discussion.   

If you’re a pastor and you think your job is done, you’re a fool. If you were asking about porn and lust, would that really be the end of it? Bitterness is rarely a sin that self-identifies as sin, especially inside the Church. People know they’re not supposed to be bitter, so they try to cover it with Bible verses and pious excuses. “I’m not bitter, I just have a righteous hatred for the damage the porn industry is doing to our young men.” “I’m not bitter, I’m just sick and tired of how Big Pharma has poisoned millions of Americans.” “I’m not bitter, I just like to use the serrated edge like that Wolf Douglas Wilson.” Some of this depends upon the tenor of those replies. But some of it is right there on the surface, snarling and festering. Sometimes you really can’t tell, and you simply warn the guy to be careful and watch out. But the guy mocking James White and Douglas Wilson doesn’t need a follow up exam, He needs a blunt rebuke to the face. He needs his pit vipers taken away along with the car keys to his X account. 

As I wrote in an article five years ago, evangelicals have often created something of a “Gay Greenhouse,” idealizing feminine piety and insisting that men imitate it with sappy Jesus-is-my-boyfriend worship music, always “sharing” feelings and emotions, and often valuing feminine aesthetics in colors, tidiness, and neatness – and then we’re shocked when men start having strange temptations. The Dank Right is in the process of doing the same thing with dissidence, rebellion, and spite. Sure, we’re not full-blown White Supremacists or Nazis, and maybe we’re not technically kinists either, but we’re Side B Nazis. And again, let me underline the point: it is not questioning the historical narrative. The point is the angst, the wrath, the spite. And a bunch of us are seeing it in spades, with X accounts that say things like “1689” and “Reformed Calvinist” and “Theonomist” and “Christian Nationalist” in their bios. Maybe they’re all Feds and bots, and I certainly hope so, but apparently they think our threads are good waters to fish in. Why is that you think?

Conclusion: Necessary and Unnecessary Conflict
Many are saying that all of this is an unnecessary conflict, and I agree that there are folks that I consider friends who are not antisemites or racialists (that I’m aware of) who have apparently decided to make this some kind of turf war. And to those brothers, I would underline my point again: this is not about historical study or revisionism. If you’re reading up on Churchill, feel free to carry on, so long as you’re fulfilling all your other responsibilities: rejoicing in the Lord always, working hard, loving your wife, honoring your parents, and training up your children in the Lord. If it’s a true hobby, and you’re full of the joy of the Lord, feel free. Just keep your eyes out for the wackos and don’t get worked up when we’re launching missiles at the wackos. If you’re not a wacko, we’re not shooting at you. And if you really care about honest historical research, you really should join us in scaring away the Feds and wackos. They will only get in the way.  

But there are two other categories of folks out there. There are the folks who don’t really care that much about the Post War Consensus, but they have taken empathetic umbrage over the fact that Douglas Wilson and James White and others have pointed out this problem to others. These are probably the vast majority of the White Boy Summer fans, who are generally happy people and thought the pit viper memes were just good fun and feel that the Moscow Mood caught a bad case of the boomer grumps. But the problem has never been the pit vipers or white boys having fun – viva la white boys as they probably say in France. The problem was the fanning of the transgressive lust, the angst, and the spiteful elbows being thrown. And again, if you don’t know what I’m talking about, I refer you to the replies to Pastor Wilson and James White and myself on X. I know it’s a tall order, but can’t we figure out a way to have fun and mock liberals that doesn’t also attract neo-Nazi sympathizers? 

Finally, while it may still be a fringe minority, there really are some full blown antisemites and racists out there stirring up hatred and wrath. Here I’m talking about the folks who are openly saying that Hitler was a Christian Prince, the holocaust really was just work camps that Jews complained about, and all Jews are evil scoundrels because of something in their Ashkenazi genes. That really is of its father the devil, hating and murdering from the beginning. And we have no option but to continue the long war against that seed of the serpent. That is a necessary war, regardless of your religious or political affiliations.