Ben Zornes

1 John 1:6 – Do the Truth

October 16, 2020 By Ben Zornes Leave a Comment

If we say that we have fellowship with Him but walk in darkness we lie and do not the truth.
1 John 1:6

John is concerned about a few errors which have cropped up in the early days of the Christian church. John shows us a wonderful example of the truth that fighting wolves is doctrine in action. The first wolf he fights is that of the Nicolaitans. Their namesake, Nicolas, was––according to the early church father Irenaeus^⁠1––one of the first seven deacons. They believed they could follow God while indulging in all sorts of fleshly and carnal activities; most notably, they practiced ”spouse-sharing”. In Revelation, we’re told the Lord hates the deeds and doctrine of the Nicolaitans (Rev. 2:6, 15).

So, John in continuing the contrast of light and dark of verse 5 points out that since darkness is not at all in God, it is nonsensical to think that we His children can walk in darkness and still have fellowship with the Light. The Hebrew word for “walk” הלך, carried the idea of one’s manner of life. That sense is continued here in the Greek.

Through the Life manifested in the flesh, Jesus the Christ, we enjoy fellowship with God who is Light. John is teaching that our union with God will result in moral reformation in our “walk” or manner of life. To put it in more systematic theological terms, our justification leads to our sanctification, and to claim that you have fellowship with God while continuing the pursuit of your dark deeds of lust is a lie. We should also note that this lie is presented not doing the truth. An application of this verse is that the truth is something which we should act upon. We should “do the truth” by not walking in darkness, and presuming to also enjoy fellowship with the triune God.

¹Against Heresies – Chapter XXVI.3

Trumpity Doo-Dah

October 15, 2020 By Ben Zornes Leave a Comment

Introduction

We’re just shy of election day, and I now add my voice to the general cacophony that is the 2020 election. I have no grand delusions that my voice will be a bugle call, but I am not one to miss out on the fun so here goes. What follows is in two sections, first, what is a Christian to make of this year of our Lord 2020. Second, should conscientious Christians feel bad about voting for Trump?

Dark Mysteries

You might not understand why we Calvinists can remain quite happy, jubilant, and even laugh heartily at all the twists of providence which this year has brought. It bakes down to this: either God is on the throne, or He isn’t. Because He is on the throne, the Calvinist looks at this year and says, “Thank you, Lord.” Bible believing Christians can give thanks for every inch of this year that seems to be drunk-driving while high on amphetamines.

We don’t always get to know the “why” of the circumstances God sends our way. But we most certainly can discern what should be the takeaway from these ominous thunderclouds: our sanctification. God wants us to become more like Christ through this year. He ordained it all. He created you for good works which He prepared in advance for you to do. We’re not told that those good works will be done under conditions of sunshine and roses. We not told the circumstances of when our good works will need to be done. We just told that God has ordained them beforehand so that we would walk in them (Eph. 2:10).

One of the most important things Christians need to keep in mind––not just in light of the pandemic panic, the riots, and the incredibly polarized political climate, but all the time––is that the fundamental Christian confession, “Christ is King” is a political statement.

I’ve said it before, and will continue to bang that drum. Call me a one trick pony, one-note wonder, or narrow minded, Christ is King is not just a quaint theological statement. It is not just bumper sticker material. It is a claim on every sphere of human life, including our civic and political life. Christ shed his blood to save the world, and the world through Him shall be saved. It will be saved as it repents of its child-sacrifice, its sexual preference for sexual perversion, its greed, its injustice, its lust. It will be saved when we as individuals, families, towns, and nations bend our knees and confess that Christ is Lord.

We must remember that God has raised up Trump and Co., and if He wills it He will unseat Him. Whoever sits in the Oval Office come January, they are there by God’s design, for His glory, for our good, and because God is telling a story that ends with all His enemies defeated.

Vote for Trump?

So, in light of that foundation of peace because of God’s sovereignty over all things, how should we vote? I was vocally against Trump in 2016 (though I was pretty sure he was going to win). I didn’t trust him as far as I could throw him. In my mind, he was a New York liberal with an R next to his name. So imagine my surprise at the amount of pleasure I’ve enjoyed as I beheld the Trump administration roll out policies other conservatives had campaigned on and never delivered. He also was tenacious in fighting not only the Democrats but the media and the squishy, moderate RINOs. He had a battle on many fronts, and has commended himself well in the execution of the office which the American people elected him to perform.

So yes, I will be casting my ballot for D.J. Trump. I seriously considered Kanye (more seriously than I’d like to admit), but as others have noted, it is imperative for conservatives to re-elect Trump with a decisive electoral and popular vote.

Here are a few reasons why conservative Christians can vote for Trump with a clear conscience. But first an important rabbit trail. We should get out of the habit of calling voting a “sacred right.” It most certainly is a right, but calling it sacred? Give me a break. Ideally, we’d have honorable men to vote for, but we’ve sent our kids to government schools for the last fifty years and are shocked that honorable men aren’t the result. It’s like expecting to harvest corn in Iowa after sowing thistle. You get what you get. I’d much rather be voting for Pence (which we kind of are), Cruz, Sasse, or John “Fresca” MacArthur (if he’d run). Vote. But don’t make a bigger deal of it than you should.

Second, clear consciences come from being right with God. It comes from evangelical faith in the Good News that Christ holds the scepter of the universe. By His decree, this is the battle we are in, these are the candidates we have before us. The Lord has put us on a high-wire, riding a unicycle, and then throws us a ball and a knife and we need to determine which one to grab. So here are the rock-ribbed reasons to pull the lever for El Trumpo.

Judiciary

Trump has completely remade the judiciary and filled it with originalists, who aren’t there to legislate the law, but to rule as to the constitutionality of the laws which the knuckleheads over on capitol hill, or at city hall, have cooked up. In our recent dust up with our Mayor and City Council it is evident that the pandemic has exposed how essential it will be to have common sense justices at every level to rule on the nonsensical and tyrannical laws which we have yet to imagine. Amy Coney Barrett is the tip of the spear, but we are talking a generation worth of judges that will rule on whether a mom can force her five year old boy to take estrogen pills against the father’s will. We are talking about whether your church will be allowed to stay open when Gov. Newsom begins the climate change lockdowns. We are talking about whether you will be thrown in the clinker for mis-gendering someone.

Anti-War

I said this over on Twitter the other day:

No matter your opinion on Trump, no getting around the fact that he's been the most anti-war president of our (millennials) lifetime.
— Ben Zornes (@benzornes) September 29, 2020

News agencies like to cover bad things. They get more eyeballs if there’s a fire, a fight, a riot, or a rainstorm. They don’t get clicks (and revenue) if it’s a slow day in Mayberry. Trump has brokered an extraordinary peace deal in the Middle East, which if it were any other President, he would have received all the Nobel Peace Prizes. His administration took ISIS out with remarkable swiftness and as little loss of life as possible. Libertarians ought to turn out in droves to vote for Trump based on his anti-war policies alone.

Pence 2024

Follow me here, this reason is simple: even if you gag a bit at Trump, Pence is teed up, and ready for a 2024 run (regardless of what happens in a few weeks). That said, his standing will be much stronger if he runs as the sitting VP. His debate performance the other night showed that he has the toughness, patience, and conservative bona fides to be a great President someday. It became readily apparent in the debate the other night, that he has played a massive roll in guiding the Trump admin. Think of voting for Trump as a drawing Australia in the board game RISK; you might not like it, but in the long run, you’ll be better poised for global conquest.

A Slingshot to the Left

If there were a soundtrack behind this reason, it would not be ominous creepy music from a Halloween horror movie. It would be some slappy bass notes from Mo-town. In other words, take it all in stride, tap your toe and go on with your life. What I’m trying to say is I’m not a prophet of doom and gloom.

If Trump loses, the Republican party will not slide to the right. Bet the farm on it right now. It will slingshot to the left like a ferrel dog released from a cage. The argument will go that Republicans need to appease the progressive gods, and must atone for its sins by disfellowshipping the likes of Cruz, Crenshaw, Graham, etc. Evangelicals, MAGA-folk, and Tea Party Republicans will be the scapegoats.

Trump has proven a better defender of conservatism than many who have been conservatives in name only. If you don’t like the GOP with Trump as the figurehead, you’ll like it even less if the folks over at the Lincoln Project get their grubby mitts on the control levers of the party. They will bow low to the Biden administration, and we will have Mitt Romney (or as Biden fondly calls him, “You know, the Mormon”) as the candidate in 2024. Now that would be some serious doom and gloom.

Vote Like Free Men

You are men and women who are in a country which has enjoyed the greatest degree of freedom and prosperity ever enjoyed in human history. If you would continue to enjoy those freedoms it will not be through hand-wringing, wondering what people will think about you if they find you voted for Trump. They will have voted for Biden, whose character is just as sketchy is Trump’s. This moment requires courage. Courage to not fear man. Courage to vote for Trump in irony, knowing that a vote for him is a vote for continuing to oppose him where he veers wrong.

The hand we’ve been dealt is a tricky one to play. I still take issue with Trump on many points. He is abysmal on LGBT issues (lighting up our embassies in the flag of sodomites for instance). Planned Parenthood is still dismembering babies, and we’re still paying for it, and they are still donating to exclusively Democrats.

However, a vote for Biden/Harris is a vote for crushed skulls of nine-month-old babies. It is a vote for more progressive nonsense, where terms like sexual preference will be extremely offensive overnight, even through everyone was fine with using it ten minutes ago.

Either way it goes in a few weeks, Christians need to do three things. Faithfully read and hear the Scriptures––Genesis to Revelation––do what it says, and then teach our nation to do likewise. But here’s my prediction, Trump in a landslide electoral victory. But I am not a prophet, nor the son of a prophet.

Photo Credit by Charles Deluvio on Unsplash

The Need is Power

October 14, 2020 By Ben Zornes Leave a Comment

AW Tozer, with that prophetic cayenne pepper of his, once said, “Protestantism is on the wrong road when it tries to win merely by means of a united front. It is not organizational unity we need most; the great need is power.” He is most certainly right. Politicians gerrymander coalitions through compromise and back-room deals. Corporations zig-zag to the whims of their customer base. Churches and denominations who are concerned about drawing the crowds fudge on the doctrines of our faith.

But, the success of the Gospel doesn’t hang on our ability to organize ourselves, our appeal to the masses, or our perfect harmony singing Kumbaya around the campfire. Rather, the Gospel hangs on the power of the Spirit in the living Word. As the Word is preached, as the Word is poured upon the head of covenant children and converts, as the Word is eaten in this bread and wine the Spirit makes it all potent.

Not just at Pentecost, not just in our moment of pandemic panic, but through all history the Church’s need is power from on high. Power to preach the efficacious Word with boldness. Power to resist sin in our lives, families, churches, and nations. Power to overcome the enemies of the Gospel. Power to be witnesses unto Christ, both in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to every nation, tribe, and tongue (Cf. Acts. 1:8). After all, in this meal we shew forth the Lord’s death (1 Cor. 11:26). As we eat this meal in faith, through the Spirit’s power we are witnesses. And this is our testimony, declared with power to the world, which we testify by this bread and wine: Christ died, Christ arose, and Christ is King of this world.

So come in faith, and welcome to Jesus.

Which Father = Which Table

October 13, 2020 By Ben Zornes Leave a Comment

The Lord has prepared this table for His people. But there’s another table, a table of devils. Paul tells us we can’t partake of both (1 Cor. 10:21). It’s an either/or. However, you can eat this meal in such a way that you are in fact partaking of your own damnation (1 Cor. 11:29).

But the question about whether you are eating this meal worthily or to your own damnation is not one of looking deep into yourself with “very serious thoughts.” The question is a matter of Fatherhood. Who is your father?

If the devil is your father, you’ll partake of his table wherever you are and whatever you’re doing. You’ll even come to the Lord’s table, and because the father of lies is your father, you’ll eat this meal as a liar. You’ll lie to yourself. You’ll lie to others, putting on the appearance of a moral citizen. You’ll lie to God, thinking He won’t see that your heart is charred over like a marshmallow left too long over the campfire.

But if God is your Father, you are partaking of Him, because you have partaken of His Son. Have you been baptized into Christ by faith? Then you are reckoned as one with Christ. The Father God looks upon you as a beloved child. He sees you and all He sees is the radiant righteousness of Jesus.

The devil was once your father, and so all you partook of was lies and murder and theft. But You have been adopted, God is Your Father, and so you partake of Him here and everywhere. Right now and for all eternity. So who is your father? That tells you everything you need know about which table you are seated at.

So come in faith and welcome to Jesus…

Your Next Footfall

October 12, 2020 By Ben Zornes Leave a Comment

The Christian life has been described by some as a “long obedience in the same direction;” that direction being towards Christ. Of course, the opposite of this is true as well: the reprobate’s life is a “long disobedience in the same direction.” That direction being towards hell.

What all this tells us is that your next step is a step towards glory or a step towards damnation. Apostasy doesn’t happen overnight. It is one unconfessed sin after another. It is one step of compromise after another. It is one selfish indulgence after another. It is one bitter vendetta after another. And each of those steps are the result of a dead heart that hates God and loves itself. The way of the transgressor is hard (Pr. 13:15), but it’s the only path they’ve ever known. Even their footfalls that outwardly appear to go more or less the right direction are steps of self-glory and vanity.

But if you step towards glory, if you obey, it is only because you’ve first been turned away from your sin and turned towards God. If you turn to seek after God, it is because God first sought you and turned you. And if God has turned you, even your sin and disobedience become another opportunity to move forward in obedience by confessing that sin, identifying it as the damnable iniquity that it is, and following hard after God, as His right hand upholds you (Ps. 63:8)

So what direction have you been headed? Have you, like David, ordered your steps in God’s word (Ps. 119:133)? Or have you, like Solomon warned, been walking in a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof is the way of death (Pr. 14:12)? So do as John commanded us, “walk in the light, as he is in the light (1 Jn. 1:7).”

The biggest lie we tell ourselves is that our minor sins, our small shuffles of rebellion, our so called little white lies are somehow not a big deal. The Apostle James taught us that if we break one part of God’s holy law we’ve broken the whole thing. If you’ve been turned, God gives grace that you might turn in obedience to Him by confessing your sins for what they are. God then upholds you as you continue to seek after Him, no matter how slow your progress may be. So order your footsteps to seek His face.

Edible Hope

October 7, 2020 By Ben Zornes Leave a Comment

Despair, foreboding, fear, and anxiety are the fruit of the vine which has sprung up in our nation. We would not acknowledge Christ and His Gospel as our Lord and our Light, and so we have reaped what we’ve sown. But here is hope. Edible and drinkable hope. Hope which you can hold in your hand, hope which will leave a tang on the tongue.

Hope is not wishful thinking. Hope is certainty. When we eat this meal together we are memorializing, remembering, carrying out a renewal of the central truth of the world in which we live. A dead Man once rose from the grave. When we eat this bread and taste the earthy richness of grain turned into sustenance, we are tasting the reality that Christ was buried like a grain of corn, and sprang forth as the first man of a new human race. When we drink this wine and taste the sun-ripened sharpness, we are tasting the reality that Christ drank the entire cup of God’s wrath, and now all you feel is the sunny pleasure of the Father’s joy.

In truth, this meal bids unbelief be gone, it dispels dark clouds of foreboding, it underscores Christ’s Word to us, “Fear not, little flock, it is Your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom.” Your Father invites you to taste true hope. Here is our hope: Christ died for you. Christ rose for you. Christ reigns as King of the world for you. The Father now calls You His child, for you come to Him by faith in Christ.

So come in faith and welcome to Jesus…

The Absurdity of Covenant Breaking

October 6, 2020 By Ben Zornes Leave a Comment

There’s a Grand Canyon between covenant keeping and covenant breaking. To use a wedding ceremony as an example, the couple makes vows: the man to provide and cherish, the woman to obey and respect, etc. A faithful marriage is always marked by trust in the word of their vows, and then adherence to those vows. Unfaithfulness to those vows results in all manner of malformations; whether divorce which shatters the vows into splinters, or what modern society has cooked up with the insane notion of open marriage, which makes as much sense as saying square circles. So when we administer this covenant sign to a child we must remember that faithlessness in the covenant is an absurdity.

We don’t bring our children to the Lord to be baptized so that they can then go and live in total opposition to what is vowed here today. God says in this sacrament, “This one is mine.” To which the faithful child, as she grows, learns to say, “And You are mine.” God enters into covenant with this child welcomes her into the covenant by grace, and by God’s grace, He will uphold her to keep this covenant.

So welcome covenant child to Jesus Christ…

Self-Control for Future Fathers & Mothers

October 5, 2020 By Ben Zornes Leave a Comment

Self-control is the basis of all good earthly governments. Of course, we must note that self-control isn’t something which you do. It’s a grace which the Spirit of God works in you. Dead men have zero self-control, nature moves them wherever it pleases, grinding them back into the dust from whence they came.

But in a twice-born man, the Spirit gives the grace to control your desires, appetites, affections, and impulses. This need for self-control doesn’t dissipate with age, evaporate when you get married, or get shelved when you retire. The temptations you face may morph and change as you grow and mature, but the need for restraint on your sinful desires will not and cannot be outgrown.

Without grace, our impulses and desires won’t be restrained, and anarchy is the eventuality. But by the command of the Word and empowerment of the Spirit you are enabled to be self-controlled.

Fathers especially need to bear this in mind as they raise their sons and daughters. Your sons need to learn not to whine and pester their mother for snacks, to not aimlessly peruse the Vanity Fair of social media, and need to learn to control their strength so as to dig trenches, build dams, erect sky-scrapers, and create economies.

Your daughters need to learn to not burst into tears when something upsets them, or bat their eyelashes for the adrenaline rush of attention; instead they must be taught to control their glory and direct it into paint colors, gloriously spread tables, thoughtfully crafted outfits, and happy and healthy offspring.

All of this takes self-control. To resist sin, and to pursue righteousness. Thus, if a man or women, family or empire is to stand, they must do so by laying down their life in Christ, and being resurrected in the power of the Spirit.

We have become a people controlled by every wind of whim and every breeze of doctrine. We are, in many ways, not anchored to God’s Word and so we drift to our own indulgences. If we would have our families stand firm, our cities remain peaceful, and our nation endure in justice we need self-control in each of our individual lives. We need the Lord to grant us grace to restrain our sinful desires, and strengthen our muscles to do the good works He has prepared in advance for us to do.