Toby J. Sumpter's Blog, page 63

Pride Farmers & Despising the Shame Storms

Introduction

We are not merely living in an uncivil moment. The growing incivility of right and left, so-called Trumpian-style politics, Twitter mobs, the #metoo accusation-fest, Democrat bloodlust and economic insanity, and the viciousness of media attack dogs is not just a rough patch in American relations. It is the static electric charge that necessarily builds in a land of guilt and shame. The guilt and shame are real and they must be discharged, and as Rene Girard taught us (and the Bible before him), the desire to be clean, to be free of the shame, the envy to be justified must erupt in violence against innocent victims — scapegoats. This is built into the very fabric of the world. As static electricity builds in the atmosphere and must discharge, so guilt and shame build and must discharge on societal scapegoats.

Helen Andrews has a fascinating new article up at First Things entitled Shame Storm, chronicling her own personal experience of our cultural descent into the media psycho lynch mob dimension. Andrews’ analysis is as erudite as it is ultimately empty. The Christian response to this moment must not be a semi-pious stoicism, bracing and ducking, and vaguely “trusting God.” Yes, of course Christians must trust God, but an evangelical and biblically informed response to this moment must be a deliberate, thoughtful, courageous, and joyful despising of the shame. Until Christians lean into the “shame storm,” until they see the forces of shame for what they are and walk into the shame storm gladly, Christians will continue to find themselves chased by fear of the mobs.

Different Kinds of Shame

Helen Andrews’ essay is illuminating and terrifying in its exposition of the lay of the land, but she ultimately fails to comprehend the true nature of the shame storm and therefore offers an ultimately vacuous consolation. In the first instance, she substantially underestimates the capacity for human rage — and by this, I don’t mean that she understestimates the surface level spite and grotesque reputational smearing and utter disregard for truth — she clearly understands that perfectly fine. What I mean is that she appears to underestimate how deep it all goes. She appears to underestimate what’s driving it all. She gets the highest macro level right and all she appears to offer in the face of the storm is a bland moralism that echoes like an empty ketchup bottle. In all seriousness: God bless her; she’s been through media Hell, and I don’t mean to make light of that in the slightest. I also don’t doubt what she testifies — that God used the public shaming to do good in her life. But if her greatest consolation has been found in the Stoically chastened but unrepentant sodomite Oscar Wilde, she is of all men (and women) to be most pitied.

In fact, what Andrews has offered, I assume unintentionally, is actually a small sample of the very virus she so loathes and despises. What causes the shame storm? Guilt and shame. Oscar Wilde is no comfort to any Christian. He was one of the early pride farmers. And pride, when it is in full bloom, brings nothing but shame. Helen, how can you say it doesn’t matter whether you are innocent or guilty? It does matter. It absolutely matters. Real shame and true guilt are the low pressure and high pressure systems colliding in the air. They are the static electric build up in human society that cracks the black sky open. Shame rages and guilt thirsts for blood.

There is a holy shame, a gracious shame — the shame that rightly accompanies real sin, biblically defined. That shame tells sinners to repent, to turn to God in holy fear, to cry out for forgiveness in Christ — a forgiveness which is freely offered to all who call out in truth, a forgiveness that is accompanied by unfathomable glory that covers all our shame.

But hardened sinners feel no shame. They grow numb to shame. They sear their consciences with hot irons as they press on in sin, so that they come to feel nothing, growing utterly accustomed to the darkness. And as they plumb the caves of corruption, hardening their hearts, they come to rejoice in their sin. “Who leave the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness; who rejoice to do evil, and delight in the frowardness of the wicked” (Prov. 2:13-14). They search for sin like it were treasure, rejoicing to do evil, and so they grow utterly shameless; they glory in their shame. They celebrate their depravity. They toast their toxicity. They celebrate their carnality. “For they sleep not, except they have done mischief; and their sleep is taken away, unless they cause some to fall. For they eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the wine of violence” (Prov. 4:16-17).

And therefore, a necessary element of that pride is shaming those who will not join them in their corruption: “For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries: Wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you” (1 Pet. 4:3-4).

In other words, the logical end game of disobeying the message of holy shame is shaming those who will not celebrate sinful shame. Glorying in sin ultimately requires sinners to speak evil of those who will not join with them. Any and all dissent must be silenced.

In God’s world, holy shame accompanies guilt. It is possible to feel false shame for something someone else did or for something embarrassing that is not sinful, but I’m speaking here specifically of the shame that rightly accompanies true guilt for real sin. Guilt is the objective reality of wrong doing — the debt you owe for transgressing the law of the holy and living God. And the wages of sin is death (Rom. 6:23). Guilt necessarily and in all places cries out for blood. Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin (Heb. 9:22). This is why human cultures the world over have always had blood sacrifices of some sort, including human sacrifice and child sacrifice. Human beings instinctively crave blood for the remission of guilt. The primal bloodlust of man is rooted in his guilty conscience. Cain killed Abel not just because he was jealous. Cain killed Abel because Cain was guilty. Cain didn’t offer a blood sacrifice to God, and therefore, in his guilt, he craved blood.

Now put this bloodlust together with shame. Men and women in sin are set to drift and wander toward hard-hearted shameless evil. This is the natural default of fallen man. This doesn’t mean that every unbeliever is as evil as they could possibly be this minute, but it does mean that apart from God’s gracious intervention, they will grow more sinful and more proud of certain sins as the months and years go by and more and more jaded toward any testimony against their sin. Of course the image of God is never fully eradicated from people, and this means there is still real glory being manifested even while truth is being suppressed beneath all the bumptious japery. But sinful men are still able to work up quite the bumptious japery — you know, like ironic mustaches and dietary fascism.

The Hunger of the Herd

Now one more piece to the puzzle: not only is all of this true, but man also has a deep herding instinct, which some of us call covenant reality and others prefer to pin on the preening zoological brutes these pride farmers are imitating. And speaking of pride farming, the exact nature of this enterprise is a complete farce, but in the dark, where this activity is done best, preferably after 6 jello shots of something moonshiney, it has the effect of keeping all the mood rings somewhere in that ambient equipoise. The point being that all the shame and guilt is really there burning on the insides of these pride farmers, but when they plant pride, they are actually planting shame and guilt and therefore the only thing coming up is rage and pain and a growing frantic twitch — which they wrap in swaddling clothes and continue calling their PRIDE. Rinse and repeat.

And this is where the mobs come from. This is Antifa, riots, Twitter blitzkriegs, media shriekfests, school shootings, and the rest, and abortion and sodomy are the planned liturgical blood-lettings. Tattooing and piercing are the mild sedatives that many take to keep the Perversion Parkinson’s to a minimum — a little blood and pain for that quick rush to the head from the kudos and selfies on Instagram.

Now this is the point of all of this: Every human society must have blood, but since there is only One source of healing blood, all the other blood is like salt water for the thirsty. It feels like the hit that was needed and five minutes later isn’t enough. It’s never enough. This is why abortion has gone from being “safe, legal, and rare” to being a fundamental “human right.” We’re not merely going up against ghouls, we’re going up against vampires. They must have blood to keep up the habit. They must have blood to stay alive. They cannot sleep unless they have done evil. Mischief is their bread and wine. They are addicted to blood. Which brings me to the point of all of this.

How Deep the Rot Goes

The industrial shame complex has exploded and shows no signs of abating. And this is because it really is an industry. Pride farmers grow shame in order to keep their bloodlust alive. Only they think what they are growing is glory and the holy ground must be watered with industrial strength blood which has no hormones in it, unless of course you were using those hormones for sexual deviance, in which case, the more the better.

Helen Andrews deftly traces the sick media #metoo cycle erratically dry-heaving accusations and rumors like a sorority girl during rush week. One facebook friend who shared Andrews’ article remarked that this was why he is not on Twitter and why his Facebook security settings are set on Super Duper Extra Secure. And to be sure, I’m somewhat sympathetic with this instinct.

But all of this means that this is not just an unfortunate moment of incivility. This is not a sociological phenomenon that can be explained by economic forces and forgotten flyover zones. This is not an ethnic thing or even a philosophical thing. This goes all the way down to the core of human nature. You can’t murder 60 million babies in a country and then one day just decide to stop and move on. The blood of the innocents cries out from the ground to the Lord. Our land is cursed and defiled; it is filled with the bodies of infants. It reeks with our abominations. You can’t vote a solution to this mess. The storm is not going to simply blow over. And turning our security settings to MAX is really a futile and ultimately worthless exercise in naivety. You don’t fight demons by changing the locks on your doors. Good luck with that.

The only answer to this darkness, this growing cacophony of rage, this bloodlust, this industrial pride farming is despising the shame through the cross of Jesus. Helen Andrews has no answers. Surely, God is in the shame storm, and surely He works all things for good. But just hope it blows over? It won’t. It can’t. How could it? The only solution is the cross of Christ, the blood of the only innocent man in the history of the world — the infinite, eternal, holy God become man, become one of us, with the express purpose of bearing our sins and shame in His body on the tree. By His stripes we are healed. Jesus took our shame when He was betrayed by His friends and when He was falsely accused and maligned by the mobs. He took our shame when He was beaten and whipped and when He was mocked and a crown of thorns was hammered into His head. He took our shame when He was stripped naked and nailed to the cross to slowly die for sins He didn’t commit. But not only that, but He did all of it despising the shame.

“Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Heb. 12:2).

Despising the Shame

The task of Christians today and at all times is to look unto Jesus who endured the cross for our shame, and He did so by thoroughly despising the shame of the cross. With no disrespect to Helen Andrews, what she offers is an enormously insightful summary with terrible advice. The answer is not to grit your teeth and hold on tight when the Twitter mobs come, when the media vampires come, when the shame witches come. No, the answer is to laugh in their face. The answer is to smile at the shame storm and then break into a grin and then chuckle and then belly laugh. Why do the nations rage? Why do they plot vain things? He who sits in the heavens laughs. He holds them in derision. He mocks them to scorn. He has set His King on Zion, His holy hill.

We fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, and when we do so, we see Him laughing at His enemies for the small swarm of hysterical fleas that they are. Twitter mobs are a mist. This is not a moment to hope our nation turns over a new leaf and magically learns the art of civility. This is the moment to tell the grave truth that we are a leprous and rabid hog. Humanly speaking it can only get worst from here. But the cross really is the center of all human history. And the cross marks the spot where all shame and guilt meet their definitive end. When Jesus said it is finished, it really was finished. Where sin was paid for, there is no condemnation, there is no more shame. And if there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus, then there is no shame when torches and pitchforks show up at our house. Let the videos go viral. Let the twitters shriek. Christians must learn to despise the shame like our Savior did. And this is why the truth or falsehood matters. Every true accusation of sin has been answered by our Savior’s blood, and every false slander is answered by the righteousness of our Savior, which we wear like the perfect and invincible armor that it is. This is the sure and solid ground of Christian confidence and courage. And it is the ground from which we fight. We lift up the cross of Jesus, despising that shame because it is our glory.  And whether they strike us down or the Lord gives us the field, we are more than conquerors.

Let them shriek, let them hyperventilate, let them sob on their fainting couches, let them feign shock and astonishment. Christians must learn not to care. We don’t care what they think. We care about the truth. We care about the truth of the gospel. But sinners have a vested interest in playing the shame game, and Christians need to walk away from the table. We don’t need to play their game. We don’t need that currency. We have a Savior who has covered our shame, and now we aren’t afraid of anything or anyone anymore.

Photo by Sheshan R on Unsplash

What’s Wrong with #MeToo?

Notes from my talk at Collegiate Reformed Fellowship February 11, 2019

Introduction

According to Wikipedia, the phrase seems to have been first used by Tarana Burke, a social activist, around 2006. But the hashtag began to go viral in October 2017, touched off by the sexual abuse allegations against Harvey Weinstein. Actress Alyssa Milano may have been the celebrity who gave the push it needed to get off the ground. She tweeted the hashtag around noon on October 15, 2017, and it had been used more than 200,000 times by the end of the day, more than 500,000 times by October 16. On Facebook, the hashtag had been used by more than 4.7 million people in 12 million posts during the first 24 hours. This was followed by Gwyneth Paltrow, Ashley Judd, Jennifer Lawrence, and Uma Thurman, and others joining in.

Harvey Weinstein & His Ilk

After making movies that exploited women for decades, in October 2017 Weinstein was accused by more than a dozen women of sexual harassment, assault, and rape, and on May 25, 2018, he was charged and arrested for “rape, criminal sex act, sex abuse, and sexual misconduct for incidents involving two separate women.” 

Let’s begin with stating emphatically that men are sinners, and men sin against women frequently. The Bible does not hide this fact. Rather, God’s word acknowledges this evil and seeks to protect men and women from this (e.g. Gen. 34, Ex. 21:10-11, Dt. 22:25-27ff, 2 Sam. 13). In a culture that celebrates lawless sex, fornication, adultery, homosexuality, pornography, and even 50 Shades of Abuse as popular entertainment, I do not doubt for a moment that a majority of the women in the #metoo movement have been mistreated and/or harassed in some measure by bosses and boyfriends, brothers and fathers, even pastors and police officers. And let us state with absolute clarity that this is evil and wicked. The Bible teaches clearly that women are to be honored and protected and cherished (1 Pet. 3:7). God forbids even a man from lusting after a woman in his heart (Mt. 6). The Bible requires a man to nourish and cherish his wife as his own body, just as Jesus does the church (Eph. 5). The Bible requires a man to provide for his family, and failure to do so is the equivalent to apostasy (1 Tim. 5). The duty of husbands and fathers and brothers and pastors and civil magistrates to honor and protect their daughters and wives and sisters and members and citizens, and this includes the duty to take all necessary precautions to protect them, to report sinful or criminal activities to the appropriate authorities, and to execute justice speedily as defined by the Bible. 

Failure to Actually Repent

Is there widespread sexual harassment and abuse of women in our culture? I would argue that there is plenty of evidence to make it highly likely. What must we do in such a situation? We must repent of our sins. But this means that at the top of our list of sins to repent of would need to be the sins of abortion and every form of sexual promiscuity: pornography, Sports Illustrated swimsuit calendars, pornographic scenes in movies, what passes for clothing in many hip department stores, and most modern swimwear. Men need to repent of supporting all of these things, and women need to repent of participating in them. Sin is always the insistence of no brakes. But you cannot cut the brake lines when it comes to your pet sin (an immodest dress or a roving eye at the beach) and then magically command the brakes to work when it comes to how you will treat the women around you or how you will be treated at work or school. You cannot insist that you be left alone to follow your heart and do what feels good and then suddenly object when someone else is doing that. So this is the first problem with the #metoo movement: it fails to address the problem at its root. While I do not doubt there may be a few exceptions here and there where this movement has unearthed something that was dealt with from the root, biblically, the movement as a whole is a big distraction tactic to the extent that it isn’t actually telling the truth about the source of all the harassment and assault. 

Failure to Get Real Justice

And this leads to the second failure, which is that #metoo fails to get real justice. 

It fails to get justice by making no attempt to distinguish between sins and crimes. The word “abuse” is an amorphous and ill-defined term that under-reports certain heinous crimes (rape, for example) and over-reports things that might merely be matters of rudeness, thoughtlessness, or naiveté. And it all gets lumped together. This is a real travesty to the women who have suffered actual violent crimes. But the Bible makes a clear distinction between different kinds of wrongs, different degrees, and different jurisdictions. This is because God knows that various wrongs and hurts are better dealt with by different means. If you have a doctor who prescribes chemotherapy for every ill, you better run away. But you should have the same opinion of those who want every single thing reported and investigated by the police. The civil magistrate is ordained by God to punish crimesand protect the innocent (Rom. 13), but God has also established the Church and the Family as spheres of legitimate authority and ministry – particularly for dealing with sins. Some acts are both sinful and criminal and so they need to be dealt with by all the jurisdictions in various ways, but some acts are only sins and not crimes. The point of this is not God going easy on sins or crimes. The point is that God knows better than we do what justice actually is. He requires just weights and measures: “life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe” (Exod. 21:23-25). 

Related to ignoring the distinction between sins and crimes, there is no attempt in the #metoo movement to judge allegations of crimes with biblical justice. While we may readily assume that many (if not most) allegations are true (given the heart of man and the state of our culture), it is still the case the women may sin and commit crimes by falsely accusing men and ruining their lives (Gen. 39:7ff). This is why the Bible requires that every accusation be confirmed by two or three independent witnesses (Dt. 19:15). It’s important to note that the Bible considers various forms of verifiable physical evidence as a “testimony” (Dt. 22:13-21), and so this could include things like DNA, fingerprints, rape kit data, etc. The Bible does not require there to be 2 or 3 witnesses to reportsomething. The Bible requires 2 or 3 witnesses to convictsomeone. And a charge against an elder cannot be publicly recorded or officially “received” unless there are two or three witnesses (1 Tim. 5). Related to due process also includes the right of the accused to defend himself, to cross examine witnesses/testimony, the duty of judges to inquire diligently into matters, and the punishment of false witnesses (Prov. 18:17, Dt. 19:16-21). If a witness cannot be cross-examined or is unwilling to face the consequences of being proven false, it cannot be considered credible evidence/testimony. 

On the one hand, to the extent that we have allowed our justice system to drift away from biblical norms, we have created a situation where justice is not being carried out swiftly for the guilty or false witnesses, and we thereby tempt women and others to take matters into their own hands. But on the other hand, I’m convinced that this is a calculated move by some leading the movement to lump every charge indiscriminately together in order to justify mobs. And the mobs are not after justice. A mob, by definition, cannot do justice. Mobs are for destruction, revolution. The point of this is simply to tear down God’s established authorities. It is a popular temper tantrum. All it wants is whatever it wants right now. 

The #metoo movement fails to get real justice by encouraging the frenzy of posts and articles and “outings” whipping up the *feeling* of having done something, but without any certainty that anything has actually been done. It is not justice to merely go on social media and say that you too were sexually harassed or abused or share someone else’s post or story. In many cases, this is a fleshly response, an electronic middle finger to the abuser, but not real justice. This frequently backfires on real victims, leaving them without real justice. This movement is not about helping real victims, but rather, a few powerful people are using the collective outrage, coopting the power of the mob to accomplish a few particular goals. The hashtag movement creates a false sense of “having done something meaningful,” when in reality I wonder how many women have done a #metoo post, felt an initial rush of exhilaration, feeling courageous and brave and maybe even something like “peace,” and now months later the old feelings of depression and desperation are coming back because no real justice was done, nothing has changed. Social media movements don’t necessarily mean anything has actually been reported to appropriate authorities, investigated thoroughly, or adjudicated properly. 

Finally, to the extent that the #metoo movement has churned up a frenzy and fears, alongside a collapsing of biblical and judicial categories, we need to at least recognize the high probability of at least some men being falsely accused and falsely convicted in the court of human opinion. Justice Brett Kavanaugh barely survived one such witch hunt that ultimately produced no plausible allegations of any wrong doing after multiple investigations. 

Failure to Provide Healing

We could list everything we have already listed as part of the problem of failing to bring actual healing and reconciliation. God’s justice is His prescription for healing and reconciliation. He is the great physician; he knows what we need. This means that sin and crimes need to be distinguished biblically so that we have a true diagnosis of the problem and appropriate treatment. This leads us to establish whose jurisdiction the allegations fall into. Is this a sin and a crime that needs to be handled by multiple jurisdictions? Or is this only a sin that needs to be handled by the family or the family and the church? Do we need a band-aid or chemotherapy or a cast or a round of antibiotics? Finally, the point of witnesses and evidence and careful inquiry and cross-examination is to protect the truth at every level which is the way of freedom and healing. The truth really does set people free, but bundling all allegations and accusations into an amorphous hashtag and the vague heading of “abuse” leaves women in the bondage of uncertainty. Some things need to be prosecuted and full biblical justice should punish the guilty; some things need to be covered in love and forgotten; and other things would fall somewhere in the middle. Part of the background in all of this are certain false assumptions we have inherited from pagan psychoanalysis (Freud). Freud taught that the root of all evil was essentially repressed pain, and his false gospel teaches that simple venting of pain brings about healing. But turns out that’s a pack of lies.   

Why Should Christians Care?

Remember that every time the world diagnoses a problem, there is always an implied solution. Or to put in more religious terms: whenever the world identifies a sin, they are always getting ready to offer you a Savior. Christians should care that an alternative gospel is being preached and infiltrating the Church. The real problem is sin, biblically defined. The real solution is the gospel of Christ. Every sinner deserves the death penalty, and Jesus paid it for us. Every sin and crime will be punished in the cross or it will be punished forever in Hell. Obedience to God seeks an approximate human justice to be applied in this world, but our ultimate hope is in the absolute justice of standing before the Living God who searches the hearts and will bring everything to account. 

Not only is the blood of Jesus sufficient to wash away our guilt, but the good news of the gospel is that the blood of Jesus covers all our shame. Human justice is important and God honoring, but apart from the peace of Christ that comes from His blood covering our guilt and our shame, human justice will never be enough, it will always fall short. But in the Cross, we have the certainty of perfect justice and perfect mercy and perfect peace.  

It is right and good that families and churches and local communities teach the whole Bible in order to properly protect our wives, sisters, daughters, and children abuse and assault and harassment, but it’s a statist lie that insists we must have a “national movement” or that a law must be passed in Washington D.C. to do something meaningful. Rather, if we teach the whole Bible, there will be no shortage of opportunities to talk about these things, and when faithful churches and civil magistrates obey God in their duty to discipline impenitent sinners and punish criminals, we are teaching wisdom to our children and warning evil doers. But the attempt of various churches, ministries, and Christians to ride the #metoo wave, pretending to be able make distinctions in that mob is a fool’s mission. All the attempts I have seen by otherwise wise and godly men have been confused and troubling. The Church should reject #metoo and embrace the gospel, the whole counsel of God, and biblical justice. These are sufficient for our needs. 

This is the only foundation for building/rebuilding a society in biblical justice. This is the only way of freedom and justice and healing for women and men.

Photo by Yang Deng on Unsplash

You Are Not a God

Perhaps one of the most central ways Christians are called to stand against the world in our culture is our refusal to trust in ourselves and in particular, our feelings. There is so much emphasis in our world on self – self-esteem, self-care, believe in yourself. And therefore, we are urged to obsess with ourselves, and especially with our feelings – how do you feel? How do you really feel? Are you happy, sad, hopeful, joyful, depressed, miserable? And there are industries built around the analysis of feelings: counselors, seminars, books, charts, online tests dedicated to exploring who you really are and how you really feel. 

But you need to realize that this obsession with self and feelings is based on the assumption that you are a god. The obsession with self, the obsession with how you are feeling in this moment, how you are feeling about your day, your job, your marriage, your kids, your life – the assumption is that your feelings are these magical windows into your soul, that they are perfect representations of who you really are and whether you are really doing well and living up to your full potential. But these assumptions are false. You are not a god. You are not a goddess. Your feelings are not perfect windows into your soul or trustworthy oracles of how your life is going. Your feelings, like the rest of you, are fallen and sinful. Your feelings are liars. Your feelings are fickle. Your feelings can enslave you. Your feelings are a dark jungle. 

And all of this really is good news because you are not that important. You are not God. Your feelings are not that important. Your feelings are not your gods. Remember the words that we sing based on Psalm 42: “O my soul, why are you grieving? Why disquieted in me? Hope in God, your faith retrieving, He will still your comfort be. I again shall laud His grace for the comfort of His face. He will show His help and favor, for He is my God and Savior.”

What did David do when he was down? He preached to his feelings. He told his feelings to hope in God, and proclaimed to himself that God is his comfort. And instead of focusing on himself and his feelings, he turned to God in praise, proclaiming that God is his only God and Savior. David knew he could not save himself. His feelings could not save him. Only God could save him. You are not a god — you are not that important. But there is a great God who saves silly, self-obsessed sinners. And this is good news.

Photo by Christopher Campbell on Unsplash

Governor Northam’s Inside Out Logic

Most of you have seen the Virginia abortion circus over the last few days with Kathy Tran admitting that her bill would allow abortions during labor and Governor Northam’s follow up comments in a radio interview describing how in certain cases infants might be born, resuscitated if the mother desired, and then a discussion would ensue about what would be done with the infant. What many do not know is that Virginia already allows abortions up through 9 months of pregnancy including during delivery. What Governor Northam was describing, having practiced as a pediatric neurologist since 1992, is what already takes place in the state of Virginia.

As Michelle Goldberg calmly assures us in her New York Times opinion piece, “No, Democrats are not trying to legalize infanticide.” And this is because infanticide is already legal in Virginia. What the failed bill that Tran was defending would have done is lessen the current restrictions on that practice. Current Virginia law requires three physicians to sign off on a late term abortion, agreeing that continuing the pregnancy would result in the mother’s death or “substantially and irremediably impair the mental or physical health of the woman.” The proposed legislation would have removed the requirement for the two additional medical opinions as well as the words “substantially and irremediably” from the current law.

In other words, Governor Northam was not describing something that might happen in Virginia. He was describing something that currently happens in Virginia and something that he has likely witnessed and signed off on. The fact that Northam is a pediatric neurologist only makes all of this more vile and disturbing.

As we were discussing all these happenings, my daughter pointed out something recently that relates to all of this: In Pixar’s 2015 InsideOut, the beginning of the story opens at the birth of the baby. As the new parents look at their baby, a little spark of light ignites inside her, and her feelings come alive — specifically, initially “Joy” (the personified emotion in her mind), allowing her to open her eyes and see her parents for the first time in an (apparently) authentic human way. But notice the order and causation implied in the scene: the parents look at their baby happily, the spark ignites in the baby’s brain, and then the baby sees her parents. Apparently, in this Pixar/Disney mythology, when a baby is welcomed and wanted, then a baby gets feelings and thoughts and becomes fully human.

But what was before that moment inside the baby’s head according to Pixar? Nothing. Blackness. Darkness. It was empty. There was a baby body without feelings, emotions, thoughts, awareness — not fully human. In other words, before that moment there was no authentic human experience to worry about. Of course this is entirely false scientifically as well as biblically. Ultrasound technology show us babies bouncing and kicking, sucking their thumbs, and studies suggest that babies hear and recognize sounds as early as 16 weeks gestation, specifically responding to the sounds of the father’s and mother’s voices.

But biblically, the Word is even more clear: “I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them.” (Ps. 139:14-16)

Ultimately, the value of a human life is not found in our appreciation or welcome of that human life, or even in the feelings or awareness of the human being. The value of human life rests in God’s appreciation and welcome of that particular life. His eyes see our substance, our being, who and what we are even before we are formed. He has written all our days. He is our author. And He has written all of our stories, even those with severe deformities, chromosomal disorders, and those conceived by acts of sin. What — will you tell the Author of the universe that He cannot write the story He wants to write?

Eleven years ago, doctors told my wife and me that our (other) daughter would likely be born with severe disabilities, deformities, and disorders. We were shown ultrasounds that suggested all of these things. We were asked to abort her multiple times. Seasoned pediatric specialists looked at us with incredulity and disgust when we said that abortion was not an option. Today, our daughter is perfectly healthy. She is a beautiful fifth grader. She’s beginning gymnastics this week. And my point is not that all the stories are this easy or fun. My point is that we simply do not know the story that God can tell. And it is a monstrosity to try to grab God’s pen to write our own stories. We inevitably lie and destroy and kill when we do. But even the hardest stories God writes are some of the most beautiful.

Governor Northam and Delegate Tran have simply described what is already taking place in many states. They have determined to be the authors of life. They have claimed deity for themselves. But you cannot claim deity and then everything be Ok. You cannot claim to be a god and there be no innocent blood shed. Idolatry always deceives, deforms, destroys life. But if you think you are a god, then you are under the delusion that you are the master of your own fate, that you can speak realities into existence. If you want your baby, you can call light out of the darkness in her mind. And if you do not want your baby, you need not worry because it has no feelings, no emotions since your almightiness has not deigned for this to be so.

But you cannot stop there. You must also begin making proclamations about what marriage is, what male and female are, what money is, what good and evil are. And the great thing is that pretty soon, green will be red, and up will be down, and squares will be circles, and two plus two will be three on Wednesdays and seven on Friday. This is inside out and upside down and backwards and utterly insane.

In other words, the good news is that we still live in God’s world, the Lord Jesus died and rose again and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, and therefore insanity never works in the long run.

Minimum Wage Hatred

In George Gilder’s fascinating book Life After Google, he makes this simple but profound statement: “In every era, the winning companies are those that waste what is abundant … to save what is scarce” (p. 56). In the case of Google, Gilder argues that Google decided to “waste” electronic storage space by giving it away for free (driving everyone in the world to their sites and services) in order to save what was most precious to consumers: time. And so Google became a one stop shop mammoth where anything and everything could be available in micro-seconds through RAM chips housed in massive buildings packed full of water-cooled servers. 

My point here is to simply apply the true principle to states and free markets, and minimum wage laws in particular. When an employer/employee relationship is formed, this same principle that Gilder describes is at work in miniature. Each party is “wasting” what is in abundance in order to save (or gain) what is scarce. In the case of a fellow who has invented a widget, he might start out making the widgets himself and selling them, but if it’s a really useful widget the demand for widgets may come to exceed what he is able to make in the time that he has. In such a case, he has a scarcity of time and an abundance of money. In order for his company to “win” (in Gilder’s terms), the owner must waste what he has in abundance (money) in order to save what is scarce (time).

The fellow looking for work has an abundance of time (he’s unemployed) and a scarcity of money (obviously). So, a work agreement is basically a relationship in which abundance and scarcity are traded. The employer “wastes” what he has in abundance (money) paying wages to the employee in exchange for his abundant free time.

Now the point of this little economics lesson (offered entirely free, I might add) is that this is why minimum wage laws are actually hatelaws. Minimum wage laws hate the image of God, hate the way God has distributed gifts and treasures in different measures in different people and in different places and times, and they hate the freedom God grants to man to use his gifts and resources in the way he sees fit. 

So for example, here in Idaho, Representative Sue Chew has recently introduced House Bill 55 in Boise. Her bill proposes to raise minimum wage to $8.25/hr in July of this year, to $10/hr by July 2020, and finally to $12/hr beginning July 2021. I would humbly suggest that we call Rep. Chew’s bill the Idaho Progressive Hate Bill (or IPHB, if you prefer). 

First off, why are minimum wage laws so popular? Why do politicians mention this in stump speeches and introduce these bills, thinking that people will be impressed and excited? Why don’t these suggestions get people laughed off the stage? The answer is that people are greedy. People naturally want more money, and they don’t care where it came from. Actually, I think a whole lot more people might care if they knew that minimum wage laws simply are an organized form of theft. All governmental price fixing is governmental overreach, tyranny, and theft. But the theft is running in a number of directions, at a number of different levels. And since it’s mugging a number of different people, lawmakers hide behind the veneer of ignorance and compassion – but theft, even organized, legal theft is a form of hatred for all that. 

Second, Christians should know better. Minimum wage laws are not only wicked, they are stupid. Why? Because they are bad math. You can’t magically create money out of thin air. You cannot demand that value appear out of nowhere. Someone has to pay. The business has to pay, and that means fewer employees, which in turn means more unemployed people, which in turn means families with less income, eventually resulting in more homeless people and broken families. Not only this, but the government demand that hourly work be worth a certain amount is a great way to make sure it isn’t worth that amount at all, which in turn effects actual productivity and outcomes. What kind of services, what kind of widgets get produced when people are assigned the grades before they turn in the test? In general, you’ll get the quality of work that is barely acceptable. If everyone has a guaranteed B plus as long as they don’t flunk, then you can bet that the class average is going to hover right on that D minus line. 

Of course the cries go up that Christians should care about the poor, the minorities, the oppressed, the hourly wage earners. And minimum wage laws promise over and over again to help the poor and those at the bottom of society. But this is a pure fabrication, a complete falsehood. In fact, minimum wage laws only ensure that there will be fewer jobs for those very same people. Is it better for there to be 10 jobs at $7.25/hr (the current Idaho minimum wage) or 6 jobs at $12/hr (Rep Chew’s proposed end goal)? That’s the choice. Every time you hear “raise the minimum wage” you should think “less jobs for poor people.” Minimum wage laws do not help the poor, they oppress the poor. They are forms of hatred of the poor. Every form of price fixing, value by fiat creates inflation because the values are not based on real quality and actual supply and demand, in other words, not based on the real world that God made. Inflation is the other side of the oppression. As prices rise, the poor are even further impoverished. Not only are their fewer jobs but everything costs more because we elected government thugs who command it to.

In this way, we should think of minimum wage laws as what David Chilton called “institutional unemployment.” In Productive Christians in an Age of Guilt Manipulators, he argued that these laws mean that it is illegal for people who are willing to work for less than the minimum wage to sell their labor and illegal for someone to buy it at that price. In other words, the state has prohibited the free trade of one man’s abundant time for another man’s abundant money.  

Minimum wage laws are classic bureaucratic tyranny. Who do you think you are to tell me what my labor is worth? Who do you think you are to tell some business man what it should be worth to clean toilets or flip burgers or write a computer program? And who are you to prohibit our free trade of the gifts God has given? How is that any of your business? Well… the answer is that’s the sort of thing people start doing who have a god-complex. They think it is their business because they think they can fiddle with the private affairs of free citizens and “help” them and “fix” their problems. But only the living God has the right to speak into private lives like that. It’s terribly ironic that we can watch Hillary or some other anti-life politician pontificating about government overreach when it comes to regulating or (gasp) prohibiting the murder of unborn babies, but they do not blink or miss a beat when it comes to the government interfering with wages and prices. 

The name for all of this is hatred– hatred of the image of God. Christians must repent of supporting minimum wage laws and all price fixing and unjust taxation. They must repent of their bad math, repent of their greed, repent of their hateful “compassion.” But fundamentally, Christians must repent of looking to the state for blessing on our businesses and labors. Christ laid down His life and bled and died to set men free so that they could build free civilizations with free markets. But the State demands the blood of innocents so it can “save” the world through its tyrannical meddling.

And that’s a really bad deal.

Photo by Natã Figueiredo on Unsplash

Under the Mercy

[image error]1 Kings 21:17-29

[Note: you can find the audio for this message here.]

Introduction

There was no one like Ahab, who sold himself to work wickedness in the sight of the Lord, committing abominations, following idols, and stirred up to great evil by his wife Jezebel. And yet when Ahab humbled himself before the Lord, the Lord relented from the immediate judgment he had promised. This story reminds us that God’s merciful kindness is great.

Summary of the Text: Getting a running start, remember that we first met Ahab in 1 Kings 16 when he became King of the northern kingdom of Israel (Samaria), and we are told that Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel that were before him (1 Kgs. 16:33). Under Ahab’s reign Jericho was rebuilt, with the foundations dedicated in the blood of two sons (16:34). Recall the animosity of Ahab for Elijah, beginning with Elijah’s announcement of a severe drought on the land (17:1), followed by the great showdown between Ahab’s prophets of Baal and Elijah three years later (18:17-46), and the great manhunt for Elijah forcing him into exile in the wilderness (19:1-21). Just before our text, Ahab has displayed manic-like bouts of rage and depression, where the Lord gave great military victories, but Ahab failed to deliver a crushing blow and he went home to his house in a furious displeasure (1 Kgs. 20:43). Following this, Ahab tried to buy Naboth’s vineyard, but failing that he once again throws a royal fit on his bed (21:4). And it is after his wife, Jezebel, has orchestrated the lynching of Naboth that our text picks up with the Lord instructing Elijah to go to Ahab and pronounce His sentence of the utter destruction of his family (1 Kgs. 21:17-24). The narrator once again reminds us (as if we needed reminding) that there was none like Ahab who did wickedness in the sight of the Lord (21:25-26). But when Ahab tears his clothes, puts on sackcloth, fasts, and goes about in humility, the Lord takes notice and tells Elijah that Ahab has humbled himself and therefore the judgment will be postponed (21:27-28).

Arise and Go Down to Meet Ahab

This whole story really is astounding. First off, put yourself in Elijah’s shoes — being sent yet again to Ahab. Ahab had married Jezebel – daughter of the king of the Sidonians and champion of Baal worship (1 Kgs. 16:31). Remember all the prophets murdered, and all the prophets still hiding from Ahab and Jezebel (1 Kgs. 18:13). Remember Jezebel’s oath to kill Elijah and him running for his life (1 Kgs. 19:2-3). Remember Elijah’s exhaustion and deep discouragement after the Mt. Carmel showdown (1 Kgs. 19:10). Remember how so many in Israel had turned away from God (1 Kgs. 19:14). Remember Ahab’s awful attitude (1 Kgs. 20:43, 21:4). Remember Jezebel’s plotting and Naboth’s murder – and think of Naboth’s family. The assignment of going to Ahab yet again to announce God’s judgment would have been very hard. What good would it do? Why tell him of his wickedness again? There was no one who had sold himself to work more wickedness in the sight of the Lord than Ahab (1 Kgs. 21:25). Even Ahab’s initial greeting is utterly disheartening and dripping with hatred: “Hast thou found me, O mine enemy?” (1 Kgs. 21:20). Are there people in this world, in your life that seem to be in the same category? Could they be more hard-hearted? Could they be more antagonistic? Could they be more of an enemy? Is there something in you that says, Why bother? What good will it do?

Bright Light for a Dark World

Part of our problem is that we have been fed the lie that we must choose between law and grace, high standards and mercy. But that is the one thing, as Christians, we must not do. There is no radical grace apart from the law establishing our pitch-black guilt, and there is no pure mercy apart from the high standards we have utterly failed. “Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other” (Ps. 85:10). “Grace, mercy, and peace be with you from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love” (2 Jn. 1:3). Mercy and truth, righteousness and grace can only be rightly held together in Jesus Christ. Otherwise, well-meaning people will veer between crushing legalism and sentimental licentiousness. We will swerve between pure condemnation and pliable accommodation. But this means that every refusal to hold mercy and truth together is a rejection of Jesus.

This is why we insist on proclaiming the horror of sin in all of its hideousness because Jesus was crucified for our hideous sin. “But there was none like unto Ahab, which did sell himself to work wickedness in the sight of the Lord, whom Jezebel his wife stirred up. And he did abominably in following idols…” (1 Kgs. 21:25-26). The message from Elijah was not sugar-coated; it was direct and harsh in its delivery (1 Kgs. 21:20-23). The point of this is not to encourage you to deliver this exact message to every pro-abort person in your family, office, or Facebook feed. The point is simply that we must name sin biblically – hatred, adultery, murder, lust, idolatry, prostitution, abomination, vile affections, perversion, unnatural affection, shameful. All our excuses, all our blaming, all of our “victimologies” and rapidly multiplying “intersectionalities” of victimhood are attempts to lighten certain sins, and this is fundamentally an attack on grace, an attempt to rob the world of God’s merciful kindness. We name sin in all of its hideousness because Jesus endured the hideousness of the cross. We proclaim the darkness of sin so that the light of complete forgiveness might shine on every man. We speak the truth in this love (Eph. 4:15).

For His Merciful Kindness is Great

“This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting” (1 Tim. 1:15-16). So the first application is straightforward: What have you done? What have you thought? What have you said? What have you looked at? What have you failed to do? Do you think you are beyond the reach of God’s mercy? Do you think that it is so dark, so disgusting, so shameful that God cannot have anything to do with it? But the Bible is the story of God’s grace. This is why we should love the genealogies. Long lists of sinners, mostly unknown to us, beloved to their God. The only difference between the saved and the damned is pride. The saved were not better people, the damned were not worse. The saved humbled themselves, cast themselves on God’s mercy, but the damned refuse His offer. If God notices the fleeting, desperate humility of Ahab will he not notice you when you call out to Him? If God saved Paul to show forth all longsuffering, then this was a pattern for you.

But all of this is also for the world. I had begun preparation of this sermon before Governor Cuomo signed the New York abortion law this last week. But here we are. What is your attitude toward the other Ahabs and Jezebels of this world? On the one hand, we must be praying that God raise up Elijahs who will go to Governor Cuomo and tell him the hard truth. We ought to be praying that God will raise up Elijahs to walk into the New York legislature and proclaim the vileness of their actions. But having proclaimed these dark truths and having walked out of those chambers, if those same brazen and bloodthirsty men and women fall to their knees in grief-stricken repentance, we must be praying that those Elijahs are the kinds of men who would gladly walk back into Cuomo and his goons and announce that their sins have been forgiven. Could you do that?

Do you hate sin because you love grace? Are you eager for their forgiveness?

 

 

Photo by Alex Mihai on Unsplash

Including Our Children

[image error]As you know, all the baptized are welcome and invited to partake of this table with us, including baptized children. This is because the Bible says that all of Israel was baptized in the cloud and the sea and ate spiritual food and drink in the wilderness, and those things were written as examples for us (1 Cor. 10:1-11). All of the new Israel, all who have passed through the waters of Christian baptism are invited to partake of this spiritual food. But there is a warning here for all of us: old Israel did not receive the covenant promises in faith and so they were judged. And Paul says that those who do not honor Christ at the Lord’s Supper are judged by God: some get sick and some die (1 Cor. 11:29-33).

So we do not welcome our baptized children to this table because it is cute or because it is entirely safe. As Mr. Beaver said to Lucy, “Safe? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the king, I tell you.” Jesus says to let the little children come to Him and not to prevent them, and so we want to obey Him in this. But this should never be a flippant or casual thing; it is a joyful thing but not a thoughtless thing. If we are not teaching our children to trust Christ, to know Christ by faith then we are actually asking God to judge us and them.

But the point of the warning is not to erect an electric fence around this table. The point is a repetition of the good news you have heard over and over. There is only way to the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous. There is only one safe place for sinners, and that is in the shadow of the cross. So come in faith, come teaching your children to believe. And children, you are invited to trust in Jesus with us.

So come and welcome to Jesus Christ.

 

 

New ebook Marriage Militant: 25 wedding homilies available here.

Photo by Anton Darius | @theSollers on Unsplash

With Many or Few

[image error]Throughout the Bible, one of the consistent lessons we are taught is that numbers are not a problem for God. He can save with many or few.

Israel was saved from Egypt through the ministry of Moses and Aaron. Gideon had three hundred men against thousands. David faced the giant by himself. Jonathan and his armor bearer took on a Philistine garrison. Daniel was faithful in Babylon. Jesus chose only twelve disciples.

Or think about the provision of God: when Israel was hungry, God sent manna and quail and brought water out of a rock. Elijah had birds bringing him food for many days, and the widow had a barrel of flour and a jug of oil that just wouldn’t quit. Elisha ministered to a woman whose oil multiplied. Jesus fed the five thousand and then as if to underline the point, He fed another four thousand.

The lessons are there for us over and over and over. On the one hand, we must not shirk our duty, and this includes not overcommitting to duties that we cannot actually perform. But God frequently gives us more than it seems we can perform, and He must be trusted to provide the means to perform our duty. When the disciples saw the crowds and that it was dinner time, they suggested sending the people away, but Jesus told the disciples, no, you give them something to eat.

And so it is that whenever we are told to feed the multitudes of children in our home, we know what comes next. When we are told to take the land, we know what our God will do, if we will trust Him. Whether it is the evening news and the latest atrocities of the Philistines or whether it is the latest round of hardships in your family or the heavy load of responsibilities you have been given, what is that to God? He is not limited by your resources, your energy, or your wisdom. He can save with many or few.

And remember the three friends who defied the Babylonian king: they said whether they lived or died, God would win. And so it is with us: our lives are living sacrifices of praise, offered up to the One who purchased them with His blood. He bought us; He knows what we are for. So whether we live or die, whether we succeed at this particular thing or not, Christ has conquered, Christ will win, and He will save with many or few.

 

 

New ebook Marriage Militant: 25 wedding homilies available here.

Photo by mari lezhava on Unsplash

When Gillette Got Religion

[image error]So in the whole Gillette Ad schizmandoo the issue is not fundamentally that a razor blade company cannot give moralistic lectures to the public. Private companies are free to stand on whatever soapbox they like and holler like the dickens and pay millions of dollars for their hollering to be dutifully spread about. Nor is the issue particularly with what Gillette actually said or portrayed in the ad, though there are some suspect elements. Gillette is free to do whatever it wants to try to sell more razor blades.

My problem boils down to all the Christians saying they thought the ad was good and fine and what’s the big deal. And the big deal comes down to the question: by what standard?

Whenever anyone stands up and starts giving Sunday School lessons, people oughtta stop and say, now which church is sponsoring this Sunday School class? And the issue is not that Mormons can’t say true things and Muslims can’t teach true things or even that secular humanists (that more recent of our beloved religious sects) can’t say true things. But when Muslims or Mormons give us moral lectures, we know what standard they are appealing to. The problem is the ludicrous attempt of the secular humanists to blend in with all the other religious dignitaries with their fingers crossed behind their back, and the mind-boggling gullibility of all the Christians crossing themselves and bowing reverently with those big precious moments bubble eyes.

Here’s what I mean: the story arc of the commercial is a straightforward gospel presentation, following the basic structure of fall-redemption-glorious future. The commercial opens in self-examination with a number of scenes of bullying kids, leering men, demeaning women, fighting boys, culminating in the summary declaration of our great “fallen” predicament: “boys will be boys” echoed down a row of men standing at grills. The center of the commercial comes as the voice-over says, “But something changed,” and a news anchor appears on the screen announcing allegations of sexual misconduct. News reporter windows multiply on the screen, each delivering allegations of sexual abuse and harassment. And the voice-over says, “And there will be no going back.” Then the commercial begins reciting the creed: “We believe… in the best in men…” and begins showing us the fruit of this change: men holding other men accountable, men defending women and children, culminating in the final line, “the boys watching today will be the men of tomorrow.”

Now, quite apart from the fact that in 10 years (or less) the high priests of the woke church will have to inform us that this ad was hateful, bigoted, and patriarchal for the absence of cross dressers and trans-amputees, Gillette is still telling us the current edition of the woke gospel story. The turning point in the commercial is a clear allusion to the #metoo movement and all the public allegations of sexual misconduct. The thing that changed, the turning point in history, was apparently a bunch of people started going public with their accusations and the media started reporting the accusations. The media are the evangelists and the “cross” was the courage and shame of all the women coming forward. This is what changed. This is what has apparently caused a great cultural regeneration, because now “there will be no going back.” Everything has changed. America has changed, and now we will be better men who hold one another accountable, stand up for the weak, and not countenance degrading and dishonoring looks and comments. Why? Because of #metoo and because Gillette believes in the best in men.

So it is the preachy Sunday School lesson proselytizing in the name of a false god and a false gospel that bothers me. But that would just be par for the course if it weren’t for all the Christians celebrating the ad and acting all confused by the push back. Now, let me also hasten to add that I have been quite pleased with all the healthy pushback and backlash, but there really have been enough naive bubble eyes from Christians who really ought to know better to justify another firm bugle blast. And even in many of the strongest rebuttals, there have been lingering strains of the rot of humanism that infects our land.

The point is not that men are basically good, and Gillette unjustly accused men of sin. No, the truth is actually far worse than Gillette portrayed. This is why #metoo is such a lying, putrid sham. If #metoo actually wanted to deal with the sin of men, it would have to take on the idols of our land. But the Gillette did not take any sledgehammer swings at any of the most precious idols in our culture – you know, the ones causing the most significant mistreatment of women and children. It took no shots at actual sexual promiscuity, hook up culture, sodomy, divorce, Sports Illustrated swimsuit calendars, or pornography. It did not defend monogamous life-long heterosexual marriage, nor did it insist on the defense of unborn life. Men have sexually exploited women. Men have walked out on marriages and children. Men have broken their promises. He have forced, encouraged, condoned, and paid for the murder of their own children. Spineless men have protected men’s rights to these wicked things by law. But you know if the Gillette ad had confronted any of those more serious male sins, the liberals would be running around with their hair set on fire. But what this should tell thoughtful Christians is that Gillette is not really interested in taking down bullying and sexual harassment. They actually need it to continue to some extent so they can keep trying to sell razor blades off the more minor expressions of it. If they really wanted to see bullying end, there would have been a scene depicting a man running into a Planned Parenthood and rescuing his wife and unborn child from a man dressed in white scrubs. That’s where some of the worst bullying is happening in this nation. Instead, this ad is a bland moralist virtue-signaling attempt to sell razor blades.

[image error]But the reply comes: can’t a Gillette ad just tell us *some* truths? Does it always have to be about abortion and sodomy? Isn’t it true that leering at women and bullying kids is bad? Can’t they just say that? It’s just a commercial. They can’t say everything in every commercial. Sure, I’m all for honoring women and children, but I am utterly committed to God’s standard for the whole project, which is perfect, good, holy, and unchanging. Unlike Gillette, which ran an ad not too many years ago in which a number of ladies donned shapely blue uniforms with the company’s name emblazed on their hindquarters. Hmmm… I says to myself… Hmm. Likewise, the mother company of Gillette, Proctor and Gamble, gave over a million dollars to Planned Parenthood and other abortion-supporting organizations worldwide last year. So sure, Gillette is free to run a hypocritical, moralistic ad and try to sucker people into buying their razors. But Christians need to see the moralistic hypocrisy and laugh.

But the fundamental questions is: by what standard? Where did you get these preachy morals? Where did you get this “virtue”? Why should men honor women and protect children? In the name of which god do you appeal? To the extent that Gillette joined the whole progressive woke movement it has essentially called upon the world to honor women and protect children in the name of Molech and Aphrodite, the oh-so benevolent gods of child sacrifice and sexual deviance. And there are still Christians puzzled: But don’t we believe in honoring women and protecting children too?

Yes, of course we do. But we must not do so in the name of any other god. First of all because it dishonors the true God to honor any other god – the gods of the nations are all idols, and second, because you will always end up dishonoring women and dismembering children when you try to honor and protect them in the name of Molech and Aphrodite. The worldview matters. The god of the system matters. The ultimate standard matters. Idols always disfigure. Idols always maim. Idols always crush. Don’t take the cookie. The advertisement is a false gospel, full of lies. It’s a pretentious, greasy-haired car salesman trying to sell you a lemon.

Do men need to be the best they can be? Of course. Have men committed wicked atrocities? Absolutely. And this is because men are far worse than woke humanism will admit. But the truth is that men are so infected with sin that they need to die. They must die because they have sinned and the sin goes all the way down. Sinful men are toxic. So are sinful women. The whole human race is toxic. We are loaded with the toxins of rebellion and lust, such that we hate one another and use one another and violate one another, and at the root of it all is a Hellbent animosity for the God who made us. But that God in His great mercy sent His perfect Son, His righteous Son, His beloved Son to stand in our place. We do not believe in men. That will just get you more abuse, more leering, more lies, more violence in the end. No, we believe in The Man, the God-man, Jesus Christ. We believe that He played the man. He stood in our place. He went to war with our animosity with God and one another. He destroyed the animosity by the shedding of His own blood. The only completely Righteous Man took our shame, our guilt, our sin — all of it. The only Perfect Man took our lecherous looks, our blood money, our violent thoughts and acts, our sexual exploitation, our hypocrisy, our broken vows. The only Innocent Victim took it all and it was utterly condemned in His body on the tree. Every true accusation of sin was completely crushed on the cross, so that men might be forgiven, washed clean, absolved, and acquitted.

This free offer of the gospel is that every man who looks to that Dead Man will be saved. Whenever a man looks to that Man impaled on the cross, the toxins of sinful manhood are drawn out and applied to Him instead of us. The death those sins deserve is paid for in the death of Jesus. And we are set free because that Dead Man is not dead anymore. He died so that every sinful man might die in Him, and He rose from the dead so that every man who looks to Him in faith might live again. And so everything has already changed. Everything changed two thousand years ago, when Jesus died for sinful men, when Jesus cried, It is finished, when Jesus walked out of the tomb alive forever. That is the only way for men to become new. Men must be forgiven and given completely new hearts. They must die so that they can begin to live. And when God washes men clean and gives them new hearts, those new hearts love God’s word, they love His standard, and they begin loving those around them in Jesus’ name.

So no thanks, Gillette, I’m not a member of your lame-school church. Jesus died and rose again to make men new. #Metoo is zombie Mormonism with the shakes. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Jesus. There is no authority except from Him. Therefore, you and all your wokedness have no moral authority here. I defy your inane and worthless gods. They couldn’t conjure up any virtue even if Elizabeth Warren were playing her ancestral drums after three beers on Instagram.

 

 

New ebook Marriage Militant: 25 wedding homilies available here.

Sure Mercies in the Cup

[image error]“Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? And your labor for that which satisfieth not? Hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight inself in fatness. Incline your ear, and come unto me; hear and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David” (Is. 55:1).

The point is not whether you eat bread or drink water. The point is not whether you eat steak or drink fine wine. The point is whether your soul is really satisfied. The point is whether your soul can find any joy. And Isaiah says that the source of real delight, real satisfaction is found in listening. The only price is inclining your ear. If you listen, the food is free. If you listen, it’s all you can eat. If you incline your ear, the food will satisfy your soul.

This is why you often hear us remind you that the Word goes with the Sacrament. If you don’t hear the Word, if you don’t listen to the Word, the food cannot satisfy. But if you hear the word, if you believe the word, if you listen and incline your ear, you will eat and your soul shall live. There is nothing magical in this bread. This is just normal wine. But when we listen to the Word of God, when we love the Word of God, what we hear is the declaration of an everlasting covenant, the sure mercies of David in the broken body and shed bled of Jesus Christ. He died to take away our sins. He died and rose again to make all things new. When you hear that and you believe that, this table is that sure promise for you to eat and drink freely.

So are you hungry? Are you thirsty? Are there things in your life that need to be made new? Come, everyone who thirsts, and you don’t need any money. All you need are ears. All you need to do is listen. All you need to do is hear and believe, and when you eat this food, you are eating the promises of God, the sure mercies of David in Jesus, and your soul will delight in fatness.

So come and welcome to Jesus Christ.

 

New ebook Marriage Militant: 25 wedding homilies available here.

Photo by Kelsey Knight on Unsplash