Ben Zornes

More Like Texas

January 16, 2020 By Ben Zornes Leave a Comment

Heartening News

Some heartening news out of that state that has a lone star on its flag, Texas.

1/ Three towns in Texas recently voted in favor of becoming "sanctuary cities for the unborn.”

Six other Texas towns have also recently passed similar versions of an ordinance aiming to outlaw abortion. But what exactly do these ordinances mean?https://t.co/1cHg5CtYij
— Texas Tribune (@TexasTribune) January 16, 2020

These towns have voted to outlaw abortion in their town. In other words, Planned Parenthood, or other murder mills, will not be allowed to operate in the city limits of these towns. This is a profoundly important, and courageous step which these small towns have taken. Of course liberals and pro-aborts will howl about how unconstitutional this is, and there will certainly be legal wrangles to be had. However, this is precisely the sort of thing which Christians magistrates should be doing.

Falling Under Their Own Gravity

Liberal cities have, for decades, had city councils passing all sorts city regulations, which can be described with the french term le hogwash. Seattle hands out free hypodermic needles. San Francisco bans plastic straws. Fort Collins permits public toplessness for women. New York City put the kibosh on large soda cups. And the list could go on.

City magistrates are allowed to do such things. Now, the wisdom or folly of their decisions is often revealed downstream. Then it becomes someone else’s problem. But that is fortunate for politicians because if there is anything they love it is “problems”. It’s what keeps them in business, like cavities for dentists. So, if liberals are outraged by these Texas towns, they have every right not to live there, under such patriarchal oppression. If they choose rather to live in the utopia where plastic straws (that pariah of a functioning society) have been banished, go for it. “It’s a free country, man.”

Many twitterers (who think him/her/them/zir/xirselves quite witty) point out how these Texas city councils are a bunch of old, white men making decisions about women’s bodies, and how dare they. But, the same crowd is quiet when it comes to city councils who are not at all qualified to make environmental decisions about plastic use, soda consumption, or how sex works. Remember, these are the same people who can’t tell the difference between a boy and girl. These are the same people who raise the taxes higher and higher, yet can’t figure out why people are moving out of their cities and states. These are the same people who will soon realize that their slaughter of their offspring has affected the birth rate to a point of no return. Then their strawless, sodaless, citizenless, lawless utopia will be replaced by a civilization with much more restrictive laws than we puritanical Protestant ever dreamed up. Outlawing abortions will pale in comparison with being forced to wear burkas.

Bloodshed & Guilty Consciences

Now, this ties in with the protestant doctrine of the lesser magistrates. God has given the sword of justice into the hand of His deacon of justice (cf. Rom. 13). They are called to maintain piety, justice, and peace. A city council which refuses to maintain those will soon find themselves overrun by impiety, injustice, and unrest. These old, white Texas men, have taken a daring step to ensure that their towns have babies, so that those babies can grow up, get married, be productive, and take care of the aged. The hatred for offspring which the left displays when such news breaks is a tell, which even a beginning poker player could discern. These people don’t love their neighbor. These people don’t care for others. They are consumed with guilty consciences, and the only way for an unregenerate conscience to be assuaged is to see others die. Guilty consciences always lead to bloodshed.

However, the blood that they shed only adds a greater weight to their burden of guilt. That blood cannot take away their sin. That blood cannot offer them forgiveness. That blood testifies against them, accuses them, drips from their hands. Only the blood of Christ can assuage their guilt. Only the lamb of God can take away their sin. Only Jesus can assure them, “It is finished.”

So, what these small Texas towns have down should be an example to small towns across this nation. We do not have to go along with the blood-lust of godless men. We must not. It is well within their rights for godly civil servants to outlaw murder. Further, not only should we outlaw abortion in our cities and states, but we should call the liberals bluff. They scoff on twitter and say, “Oh, so you won’t mind if we send all the fetuses to you?” To which the answer should be a rigorous adoption system (with good vetting so children don’t end up in abusive homes). If they don’t want the blessing of productive humans, we’ll take them. Which means the churches need to have a flush adoption fund.

Adoption is, after all, God’s idea (Gal. 4:5).

Sins Great and Small

January 13, 2020 By Ben Zornes Leave a Comment

Big sins are built on the backs of a thousand little sins. Sequoia sins like murder, adultery, embezzlement, apostasy, or fraud don’t grow overnight. They arise out of a thousand lies you tell yourself. A thousand minor compromises. A thousand squints at the clear lines of God’s law. A thousand fudging of the numbers in our moral accounting books.

Imagine roaring down the highway at night, in an unfamiliar area, and suddenly right ahead of you is a paper sign across the road. The font is tiny, and to make things worse the font is Comic Sans, but it reads: “Bridge Out!” As you careen to your death in the icy river below, you won’t be thinking to yourself, “What a legalistic sign!”

Rather, if you’re careening towards such danger, you want to have warning signs up ten miles down the road. You want flashing lights. You want a sign that lights up with a big orange glow, visible from Pluto, when your headlights hit it. You want signs to warn you if you start hurtling down the path towards disaster.

King David once prayed, “Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression (Psa. 19:13).” Are there sins of resentment which you are treasuring up? Are you telling yourself lies about your motives for hanging out with certain friends? Have you justified watching some questionable movies under the pretense of “understanding the culture”? Have you cut corners at your job? Have you gone to bed angry at your spouse, or kids, or others?

If you feel the prick of conviction from those questions, remember that that conviction is a road sign, warning of a calamitous fall awaiting those who recklessly and willfully plow forward. A disastrous fall will come to the haughty man who refuses to heed the warning sign; but grace, upon grace, upon grace is given to the humble man who repents and flees from the little sins, and thus is kept from great sins.

Book Review: “The Gluten Lie” by Alan Levinovitz

January 7, 2020 By Ben Zornes Leave a Comment

The Gluten Lie: And Other Myths About What You Eat by Alan Levinovitz
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

My record on food fussiness is well established. In short, I think we should eat just about everything with gratitude––even processed foods. Those who invoke the verse about our bodies being the temple of the Holy Ghost to justify their food anxieties and fears need the gentle correction of a holy raspberry.

Yes, now I remember, this is a book review. The Gluten Lie traces how food myths gain credence and become gospel, despite scientific evidence to the contrary. For instance, in the 80s we were told, “Fat is bad.” Then come to find out, it was the scientific studies funded by the margarine companies that were actually bad. Levinovitz has done a lot of deep diving on the complicated relationships between food, science, politics, dietitians, and how the general public is often having its chain yanked by the representatives of these various interest groups.

Perhaps his most helpful insight is how so many dietary gurus turn food and the enjoyment thereof into a sort of religious system. Priests declare foods clean or unclean, and if you eat “bad” food you must repent by purging out the unwholesome. For a faithful Protestant, we should have no qualms about saying, “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, so pass the gravy.” Instead, many Christians have gone along with the crunchy trends, thinking that they are pursing sanctification, wen in fact they are following an alternative religion.

A really helpful book on how to think about food, and about the many food myths that snake oil salesmen are peddling.

Other Book Reviews

God Invites Traitors

January 6, 2020 By Ben Zornes Leave a Comment

If you’ve ever sinned, you’ve committed treason against the Most High King. You have blessed Him with your mouth, while your heart was far from Him. You’ve broken His law over and over again. You’ve murdered your brother in your heart. You’ve committed adultery. You’ve coveted. Other gods have caught your attention and captured your adoration. You’ve cherished your secret sins, and lied to yourself about them, making a mockery of your God who sees it all.

But this God, against whom you’ve rebelled, invites you to His Son’s wedding feast. He invites you to sit at His table, to sup with Him, to laugh at the jokes told, to join the chorus, to wear the finest attire which He has provided. He invites you to come, free of charge, with no fine print, with no hidden agenda, with no dagger waiting to slit the throat of traitors like you.

He offers to not only forgive your offenses, but He offers to forget Your offenses, reckoning You as righteous as His Son Jesus is. He does this for those who come. And the only way to come, is in His Son Jesus.

He is the white robe of righteousness. He is the meal. He is the judge who acquits you of all your high crimes, pays your fines, clears your record, and puts His record in its place. He is the bridegroom, that invites all of us black-as-sin roughnecks to be, corporately, His beloved bride. The Father has invited you to come and be clothed, be fed, be united to His Son. And though you might think all of this is too good to be true, the Spirit assures you that all of this good news is meant for you. It is yours. And all of it by free grace alone.

So come in faith, and welcome to Jesus…

Regret and Train-Watching

December 30, 2019 By Ben Zornes Leave a Comment

Whether you had a good year, or a bad one, an eventful one, or a forgettable one, there is a high probability that there are some days, maybe even weeks, which you regret. The ending of the year (let alone a decade) can bring to some of us a whole host of regrets.

You find yourself beset by a sin which you want to be rid of. You wrecked a relationship––seemingly beyond repair. You fell far short of your goals. You’re not who you wanted to be. You broke promises. You stumbled terribly. You make mess of things at school, or work, or family.

Dwell too long on such things, and you’ll soon find yourself keeping company with the demon regret. Regret is the devil’s version of repentance. Feel bad. Have dark, gloomy, brooding emotions. Wallow in a sense of not-quite-guilt, but not-quite-sorrow. However, regret isn’t the same as repentance. It is faux-repentance.

Regret sits at the train station watching the train you should be on pull out. It waves a melancholy farewell, sighs, and then shuffles onto the wrong train. Repentance, on the other hand, isn’t an idle train-watcher. When once it realizes it’s on the wrong train, it races to catch the right train.

Regret will maybe acknowledge failures; but confess them as sin, forsake them, overcome them? Never. But repentance sees sin for what it is, grieves it, confesses it, and by the Spirit, labors to mortify sin and vivify righteousness. Get off the wrong train, and get on the right one. So don’t spend the final days of this decade in regret. Repent of your sins, and get busy with what God has called you to: righteousness, holiness, and the fear of the Lord.

If you’ve fellowshipped too long and too often with the melancholy demon of regret, it’s time for a break up. Or if you’ve invited him to live in your basement, so that on really hard days you can have something to commiserate with, it’s time to kick him to the curb. Regret will never ask you to forsake your vices and sins. It will never rebuke you. It will never startle you out of your selfishness.

So, ask God to forgive you for turning your ear to enjoy the sob song of regret, rather than hearing and heeding the Word of the Gospel and repenting. Rather than a world sorrow which leads to more and more regret, ask God to give you a godly sorrow which leads to true repentance and faith.

Christmas All Year Round

December 25, 2019 By Ben Zornes Leave a Comment

I’m gonna keep this one short. You should be with your family and friends, eating a slab of fudge, or smoked brisket, or downing some mulled wine.

All I want to remind you of on this Christmas day, is that Christmas is a year round truth. Yes, the month-long crescendo which leads up to Christmas morning is a wonderful reminder of the long wait for Christ’s first advent, and the joy which geysered forth that first Christmas morning. It is a month which should be full of giddy excitement, anticipation, and gladness. God has come to make us His temple, His dwelling place. But Christmas isn’t just for December.

That first Christmas was when God planted the flag of conquest on the human race by taking for Himself a body. This means he intended to claim this planet for Himself. Christmas is a political event. Man’s kingdom––long ruled by the prince of darkness grim––has been overthrown, and is now ruled by a Man, like us, but One who died and overcame death and will never die. This Man is ruling at God’s right hand, for He came to bring the Kingdom of God. So remember, that this day is a reminder that Christ is King. Not in theory. Not in wish. Not in some esoterical “higher consciousness”.

No. Jesus Christ is King of planet earth. Now. The flag has been planted. The campaign of conquest marches on. And one day every knee will bow before Him, and every tongue will confess that truth. Which is why we, His people, ought to celebrate like crazy. So from my family to yours: have the holliest, jolliest, merriest Christmas, for Christ the Savior is born.

Hopes and Fears of All the Years

December 24, 2019 By Ben Zornes Leave a Comment

Years ago, the church I attended had an interim pastor, whose name I don’t remember, who was from Australia. That is unimportant to the story, but I mention it anyway. Free of charge. Anyway…he served through the Christmas season that year, and I recall that his Christmas Eve sermon lingered on that phase from the carol O Little Town of Bethlehem:

“The hopes and fears of all the years, are met in thee tonight.”

What a great line. In the tradition of the pastor from down under, I’d like to run over the implications of that phrase.

Think of those 4000 years from Eden to Bethlehem, from Adam to the Second Adam, from ruin to redemption. Right after the fall, we see Eve overjoyed that she has conceived a child, a seed, and she must have hoped that this was God’s fulfillment of His promise. But her hopes were soon disappointed as this first child became the like the serpent: a murderer.

Noah was a preacher of righteousness in the midst of a world dwelling in the macabre caverns of indescribable wickedness and corruption. So God overthrows the world, and in a sense, starts over with Noah. But soon the hopes of mankind being restored to Eden are dashed to pieces.

Mankind builds a tower to the heavens. God thwarts their purpose. God calls Abram out of the moon-worshippers of Ur; he believes God through all the windings of his sojourns.

Down through the ages, the story runs, and it seems like the coils of the serpent are inevitable. Egypt enslaves the people of God. But God delivers them. But they soon show that the serpent’s poison is in them. They rebel, they wander, they conquer the promised land, then they do what is right in their own eyes, and are like toddlers who so easily forget.

They offer bulls, goats, and sheep without number. They demand a king, rather than God being their king. God grants their request, and the king is possessed by an evil spirit. God gives them good king David, but despite his (and his son’s) reign being quite glorious, they both falter, sin, fail.

The hopes of the believing Israelite were often brought to the brink. At one point, there’s only one child left in the Davidic line. Over and over, their fears seem to grow large, while their hope seems to fail. But every time, God brings about an unexpected deliverance. Foreshadowing His greatest triumph.

Cain wasn’t the savior, nor Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, or Daniel. Through wanderings, exiles, slavery, idolatry, sin, triumphs, conquests, and defeats, God was bringing all the hopes and fears of His people to focus on a single point in history. After Malachi’s prophecy there were 400 years of prophetic silence. Their hope had grown dim, their fears had multiplied.

And then a cry is heard. A child was born. Mankind’s hope for salvation from sin had finally been answered. Mankind’s fear of damnation had finally been silenced. So look towards that little town of Bethlehem, where––two thousand winters ago––a child was born of virgin. In that manger is laid the bread of life from heaven. In that stable is the hope of all the earth. In that boy is the king who would conquer all our fears. Joy and peace had finally come to earth, and His name was called: Immanuel. God with us. In Him all your hopes find their answer, and all your fears are cast out, but His perfect love.

Grinnin’ & Singin’

December 23, 2019 By Ben Zornes Leave a Comment

The heavens are not silent. We know that night and day without ceasing the seraphim, those angelic creatures which surround the Lord’s throne, cry, “Holy, Holy, Holy.” Unbelieving scientists even recognize that the universe is a noisy place. The stars are buzzing and humming away at frequencies so diverse we need very precise instruments to catch the faintest hint of their song.

When the heavenly host came down to Bethlehem heralding the glad tidings of Christ’s birth, they invited mankind to join their chorus. The Son of God had come, and should man remain silent? The world, which had remained under the dark lord’s tyranny since the fall in Eden, was now invited to follow this Child-king as He conquered the Enemy and ushered in His kingdom of peace.

Now, when Christ died, rose again, and ascended to the Father’s right hand, it might seem to the unbelieving eye that nothing had changed. But, indeed, everything had changed. God had become a man, died in mankind’s place, overcame death, and ascended to the throne of the universe. The early church while retaining the Hebrew Psalter, also began to compose hymns of praise to Christ. It became a singularly feature of the Christian faith: we sing.

And our singing is our weaponry. We sing good news. We sing “born that man no more may die.” We sing, “He rules the world with truth and grace.” We sing, “O come let us adore Him, Christ the Lord.” We sing, “The kingdom of this world is become the Kingdom of our God and of His Christ.” We sing, “The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.” We sing, “To free us all from Satan’s power when we were gone astray.” We sing, “Rejoice, rejoice.”

In other words, after all the shopping is done, after all the presents are wrapped, after the egg nog is poured in the mugs, after all the cookies are decorated, after the turkey is in the roaster, do not neglect to sing. After all, we have something to sing about. Sin is forgiven. Death is defeated. The works of the devil have been destroyed. The King of kings has come. He sits enthroned, swaying the scepter of the universe. Christians are to go about grinnin’ and singin’, telling all the world about this good news of man’s salvation in and through Christ.

So, sing, sing, sing. With big grins. Sing, and don’t worry about using your outdoor voices. Sing like men made free. Sing like men who will live forever in glory. Sing like those know that death has no sting. Sing, because the dragon is cast down. Sing, because Christ was born in Bethlehem. Sing, because Christ is King of kings, Lord of lords, and we are His people. Hallelujah, indeed.