Ben Zornes

Living and Dying to Show the Preciousness of Christ

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A Tinder-Box Nation

A Tinder-Box Nation

I’d like to present a few instances of what we in the pastoral profession call “bald faced lies.” Our custom is to confront such lies when we see them and then pronounce judgement upon them. We’ve come to a point in our nation that we are simply accustomed to being lied to. However, the play being run on us is getting us to simply yawn at the lies, not seeing them as the infestation of termites eating away at the pillars of truth and justice, and so the roof will soon collapse in on us.

Lie One

The first lie I’d like to point out is the bonkers math proposal of the Biden infrastructure bill. Now, many of these journalists regurgitating the talking point–not to mention the politicians who are spinning it–wouldn’t recognize infrastructure if they were holding a shovel full of asphalt and told to fill that pothole on 6th St.; but that’s beside the point. The point is that they have no shame in telling laughable lies, right out in the open, with the national news networks’ cameras rolling.

The lie is going something like this: “The $3.5 Trillion infrastructure bill will cost us zero.” Now, even someone who graduated from a public high school can run the numbers on that and conclude that $3,500,000,000,000 ≠ 0; unless that new math is even weirder than I’ve heard tell. Now, this infrastructure bill is crammed full of nonsense, like funding a studying as to how to tax us for each mile we drive. They are going to take our great-grandchildren’s money, in order to study how they can take more money from us for freely moving around. The striking thing is that Biden, Pelosi, and MSNBC are spewing this lie about it costing zero as if we should be assured by it. And sadly, the lie will work. The bill, or another one just slightly less bad, will pass, and your descendants will wonder what it was like to drive across country without being taxed.

Lie Two

Recently, a garbled new transbender defense of their “life-style choices” has been circulating. They are now saying that a “trans-woman” is biologically woman because their brain is “wired” to see zemselves as a woman and “viola” that makes them biologically female. So, it isn’t their genitals that determine their biological gender, it is their brain.

Remember when the ancient sages of the GQBLT faithful proclaimed: “I was born this way.” The new prophets have clarified for us that we should exposit that dark saying to mean “I was born this way, because I think I was born this way.” Which is, if the irony is not lost on you, what we were saying, lo those many years ago; in other words, this is a deliberate choice of the mind and will, not a biologically destined lifestyle.

We should be mindful that lies never come alone. They’re a herd creature. They fester and spread and multiply. It wasn’t enough for those advocating for “trans-acceptance” to hate their own body, they must destroy the meaning of the body itself. Thus they defy the created purpose for the various members of our bodies. They have lied about their bodies, and now they’re lying about their minds, all because they believe the lies about their soul: “ye can be as God.”

Lie Three

The last lie I’d like to highlight is from this Biden photo-op:

This is Biden getting his booster shot. Tell me, you who have eyes to see, what the hell is happening here. This is the sort of propaganda that makes Stalin & Mao smile. A set piece designed to look like the White House; a fully vaccinated president dutifully wearing a mask, while receiving another dose (if that indeed is what they gave him). All this while the oft praised progressive Scandinavian countries have almost entirely rolled back any COVID restrictions. The lie, which this photo perfectly embodies, is that the freedom which we Americans claim to love has been a farce. The Federal Government has its talons sunk deep into every sphere of our life, and we will not be free until they say we are free….and that’ll come with the aforementioned tax on each mile you drive in your 1995 Ford F-150.

Sweep Away the Lies

The prophet Isaiah once pronounced this judgement unto Judah: “Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place (Isa 28:17).” Did you catch that? The Lord will sweep away the refuge of lies.

These, our beleaguered times, are times of falsehood. The fundamental lie beneath all these other lies is that the liars will stand firm forever. The Lord tells us otherwise. The refuge of lies our nation is living in will soon be swept away. If we continue to tell ourselves that God does not see, God does not notice, God is far off, we will soon find that our 2×4 framing, the floorboards, and the joists are rotten through and through. Our national habitation won’t be able to endure even a slight summer breeze, let alone the fierce wrath of Jehovah.

The only way out is truth in the inward parts. The reason these lies are allowed to endure and fester and grow is because we are a guilt-ridden nation. We have lied to ourselves and each other. We have thought that our own arm has gotten us all this prosperity and blessing. We have not taken heed, and now we are poised for a great fall. Unless we turn. Unless we stop telling ourselves lies.

The one who has a clear conscience, walking in the truth of Christ’s forgiving grace, is like a damp forest, the sparks of our lying elites can’t kindle. But here we are, a tinder-box nation. We’ve bought the lies, spun the lies, and now our house is lies…it will soon be swept away. Best to move out before that happens, and the only way out is to come to the truth.

A Thread for Women

A Thread for Women

I’d start with Tit. 2:4, where older women are tasked with teaching younger women to be “husband-lovers” & “children-lovers.” The love which a Christian woman has received through Christ should overflow primarily towards her husband & children.

This isn’t just a cultural norm, it’s rooted in our created nature, as Paul notes in 1 Tim. 2:13, the man was made before the woman. However, Eve was deceived before Adam was.

This might lead women to be fearful that only God’s wrath awaits them. Paul assures women that salvation is still offered to them. As they hope for this salvation, that hope is exemplified in their obedience through bearing & rearing their children (1 Tim. 2:15).

Paul’s phrase here is troubling to modern minds, “she shall be saved in childbearing.” But the nub is this, a woman not only receives the Gospel in faith, but is restored to true womanhood by receiving the Gospel.

She no longer despises being in subjection to her own husband, but sees the glory of bearing & rearing children. It’s no coincidence that hatred of children has come along with the West’s rejection of Christianity, particularly among women.

Calvin comments on this passage: “God values this obedience (of childbearing) more highly than if, in some other manner, she made a great display of heroic virtues, while she refused to obey the calling of God.”

In other words, though Eve sinned––& thus pain was joined with childbearing––faithful women don’t eschew the pain, they endure it in faith. Trusting that by their faith, they shall be used of God to fill this world with generations of faithful saints.

Grace restores nature. Women fell by Eve’s sin, into the pain of childbearing & rearing. Christian women believe that God is remaking the world in Christ, and their faith leads to good works. Primarily this looks like having & holding babies.

So, women nurturing their children, being “home-focused”, submitting to their own husbands (not men in general––that’s another topic entirely) are all acts of faith. This can be abused by churlish men, but women like Abigail (Cf. 1 Sam. 25) show how to endure such men.

Nevertheless, we do no service to Christian women by persuading them that loving their husbands & children are optional parts of their Christian duty. Rather, this is the central duty of what it means for a woman to be obedient to her faith in Christ.

Paul makes a similar point, but directed towards men, when he says, “But if any provide not for his own, & specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, & is worse than an infidel (1 Tim. 5:8).”

Again, all this to say, we’re saved by grace alone. And that grace restores us to our true creational glory. Men are made true men. Women true women. Only unbelievers will despise these truths.

Originally tweeted by Ben Zornes (@benzornes) on August 12, 2021.

Claiming Your Conscience

Claiming Your Conscience

They Want Your Conscience

It must be pointed out that these lockdowns and mask mandates are not morally neutral. The State (whether local, state, or federal) is making a claim on your conscience. Regardless of where you stand on masks & lockdowns, you must note that you are being told to act a certain way in order to be moral. You must mask up in order to love thy neighbor. A busybody at the grocery store just scolded my mother-in-law (from South Africa) the other day for not wearing a mask, despite the fact that she recently recovered from COVID. The lady told her, “This is about caring for each other.”

Again, they are making a claim on your conscience. You are being told that by celebrating Thanksgiving with your family and friends a few weeks ago, you were heartless and unfeeling. You are being told that it is morally wrong to go about open faced; no cheerful smiles are to be seen lest we get the sense that we can have joy in the midst of a trial. You are selfish for planning to fellowship with other believers this Christmas season.

Our overlords are not treating each of us as free men. We are being told what to do, and being scolded for not saying “Yes sir.” We’re being treated like children, and not like grown men. In raising my children, when I give an instruction (say to stop whacking the Christmas ornaments) it is not because I want my children to simply conform to my every edict. I require obedience of them, not for the sake of ensuring that they always obey my every word, but so that one day they can make wise decisions, restrain their sinful impulses, and learn to be mature men and women.

Our Rulers

But these last several months have shown us that our “rulers” indeed think of themselves as rulers, not as those who serve at the pleasure of the people. They have conveniently forgotten that bit about governing by the consent of the governed. In our form of government––which isn’t perfect, but has a biblical bedrock underneath it, and sprung from the soil of Protestant theology––our elected leaders are not “above us.” The constitution is.

What we see playing out repeatedly with each episode of fresh mask mandates, lockdowns, and now the roll-out of vaccines is that our bureaucratic (often unelected) officials are making a claim on your conscience. Instead of presenting us with the relevant information, allowing for vigorous scientific debate, and making humble recommendations. They have opted for the boot of authoritarianism. Comply. Don’t question. Follow the experts. We know best. You are subjects not free citizens.

But what is most evident is that every stripe of approach across the world has failed to contain this virus. What it has contained is many people’s consciences to operate as free men and women. If you can’t see the arbitrary and speculative nature of all these measures, your conscience has been claimed by the state. The latest joke is that even folks who receive the vaccine will need to mask up.

What’s Been Unreported

So ask yourself this, when was the last time you heard a major media source highlight the good news of how many people have now recovered from this virus? Crickets? I sure haven’t, send it my way if you have. Why are we still threatening imprisonment and fines for people who have now recovered? Why are we not outraged at the formative years of a generation of little children being shaped to fear interaction with other humans? Why was Walmart deemed essential, but not the mom and pop gift-shop on the corner of main street?

Instead of honestly presenting the most up to date information available to us, trusting us to make wise decisions on our own, we have been treated like cattle. Here’s an interesting tidbit. Before any state issued a stay at home order, the general population had already altered their travel habits, and those who were able freely opted to start working from home. Once it became clear that this virus wasn’t as deadly as initially thought, we were confronted with a choice. The risk of a fairly mild virus (for most people), or the risk of prolonged isolation, loss of income, and loss of educational quality.

We’ve not been allowed to choose. We’ve not been trusted to make wise decisions. And on the whole, we’ve not bothered to protest this treatment. Why? Because we gladly let the administrative State (unelected Public Health Directors, City Planners, CDC czars) to make a claim on our conscience.

Come to Christ

Christians. The only claim on your conscience is God’s Word. It commands to not forsake the assembling of ourselves together. It commands us to partake of the Lord’s Supper together (which my state’s Governor has suggested should be suspended indefinitely). It commands us to pray for the King. It commands us to defend the poor. It commands us to resist tyrants. It commands us to come to Christ, have our sins forgiven, and in baptism be assured of a clean conscience. This clean conscience then is at liberty to make wise decisions, as a free creature of Almighty God.

Theonomic Hand-Grenades

Theonomic Hand-Grenades

Bombs Away

So, let me pull out this little pin, here, and lob out some OT passages and see what happens. You, uh, might want to plug your ears, the comments on this thing could get a little noisy.

The priest shall shut up him that hath the plague seven days:

Lev. 13:4, 31, 33, 50

And Miriam was shut out from the camp seven days: and the people journeyed not till Miriam was brought in again.

Num. 12:15

My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my sore [plague]; and my kinsmen stand afar off.

Psa. 38:11

Then the LORD struck the king, so that he was a leper until the day of his death; so he dwelt in an isolated house. And Jotham the king’s son was over the royal house, judging the people of the land.

2 Kings 15:5 NKJV

Three other instances are worth including here, as we simply survey the pertinent texts. First, when Aaron interceded for Israel after Korah’s rebellion, we are told that “he stood between the dead and the living; and the plague was stayed (Num. 16:48).” Phinehas similarly interceded (with a bit more force) when he killed the fornicators in Numbers 25:8, and we are told, “So the plague was stayed from the children of Israel.” Third, the Lord sent judgement on judgement Israel for King David taking a census; when David sees the destroying Angel (and the accompanying pestilence) he runs to the place, purchases it from the Jebusite, and offers sacrifices: “David built there an altar unto the LORD, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So the LORD was intreated for the land, and the plague was stayed from Israel (2Sa 24:25).”

Now For Some Combustible Material

What we see from all this is a clear principle of separating sick from healthy, the dead/dying from the living. There is also a principle that decisive action on the part of the the priests or king is appropriate. But note this: the healthy are not quarantined. Separation is the key throughout the Levitical law, and in the case of infectious diseases this hold true. The clear distinction, typologically, is between what is clean and unclean, holy and unholy. Of course, the main goal of these texts is to reveal Christ, and theologians have generally interpreted the leprosy laws in Leviticus 13-14 as a grave reminder of the insidious and spreading nature of sin within the individual and community.

Viruses are real life parables of what sin does morally.

Think of what Jesus said when He rebuked the Pharisees, reminding them that it isn’t the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick (Mt. 9:12). See what Jesus did there? He took the common sense (we might better call it natural revelation) principle, and applied it morally. Of course morally-speaking, all of us are not merely sick, we are dead. Only Christ can make us alive by giving us repentant faith. Which is the Lord’s main point.

The Gospel is at the heart of both these OT & NT texts. And because the Gospel is like yeast in a lump of dough it can’t help but apply to everything and effect everything. Christ separates the sinner from his sin, by taking our infirmities down to the grave and rising again to give us eternal life.

And because He is now the universal King we should also note that to think that we get to make up our own principles and laws now would be to miss the pith of the Gospel: Christ, by His death, resurrection, and ascension is the lawful Lord of planet Earth.

Breaking the Eighth Commandment to Keep the Sixth

In the current COVID-craze, we have effectively done the opposite of a general equity application of these texts. We have not isolated the sick, nor even a step further by isolating the vulnerable. We have told those that are whole to hole up, hunker down, and mind your manners until “wiser-heads” give us permission to come out again. The staggering thing in this is that in an effort to preserve life (i.e. keeping the sixth commandment’s principle of preserving––not taking––life) we have driven a snow-plow right through the eighth commandment’s prohibition against theft.

We have weighed models of loss of life to the virus, and considered that stealing the livelihoods of millions of people across the nation and globe are worth the price of saving projected lives. Essentially, this is instituting an arbitrary hierarchy within God’s moral law. Stealing is better than killing, theft is better than murder.

Despots delight to deal in such rigid either/or’s. God’s law, on the other hand, is perfect, converting the soul. It tells us to preserve life, and not take a man’s life by stealing his millstone (Deu. 24:6). It tells us to take compassion on the healthy community by sending the leper outside the camp; or, in modern terms, quarantine those who are infectious. God’s law harmonizes perfectly. Man’s law is like the time that a bassist I played with was playing a Bâ™­instead of a Bm…the result was what you might call discordant.

There is no Biblical basis for quarantining a healthy population. We’ve been told we must all “stay home to stay safe” in order to love our neighbor. But this once again inverts how God’s law specifies the way in which we are to love our neighbor in the midst of an outbreak of an infectious disease. Further it is a violation of God’s law to steal livelihoods, life-savings, and stable households. This whole pandemic episode is a fresh demonstration that when man thinks he knows better than God, he makes a tangle worse than that box of old computer cables in the attic.

In all of this, we should mark that God has been exceedingly kind to us. This virus, this economic collapse, this societal unease is God’s goodness towards us. He is reminding us––like the stunning flash and bang of a hand-grenade––of the fragility of our health, our finances, our society, our empire. He does this so that we might repent of our self-assurance and self-confidence and then build our lives and society on the sure Cornerstone of our brother who once bore all our infirmities, but who now sits at God’s right hand.

Pill Poppin’ Christians

Pill Poppin’ Christians

Orcs and Elves

Aged women are given explicit Apostolic instruction to be “not given to much wine (Tit. 2:3).” A deacon’s (and probably elder’s) wife is, among other things, to be sober, νηφαλέους (1 Tim. 3:11). The entire congregation is commanded to not be drunk with wine, but filled with the Spirit (Eph. 5:18). Sober-mindedness is a frequently commanded virtue. God wants His people clear-headed. That’s the virtue which is being admonished.

Now, is wine the only way in which sober-mindedness is compromised? Of course not. Is wine expressly forbidden? Of course not. Wine stands in for other forms of mood/mind altering substances. And we should not forget that wine is a blessing from the Lord, given to make the heart of man glad (Ps. 104:15). That blessing should be embraced without blushing.

But the devil likes the blessings God gives. He loves to mangle and corrupt them, and bids us do the same. The blessings God gives can be corrupted from the means of enjoying God’s grace and goodness, and turned into a means of self-worship. The same wine that can gladden the heart can also turn one into a drunken brawler (Pro. 20:1). Orcs were once elves, mind you.

The Heart Problem

The problem isn’t the substance, it is the human heart. We love to concoct ways to mangle God’s blessings. Our rebellion turns the means of enjoying God’s blessings into idolatrous ends. The heart is the problem, not the stuff. Lust in the heart is the problem, not wine in the cup.

God has laden this world––like the ranch dressing on my french fries––with blessings. Medicine ought to be the result of the faithful labors of doctors and researches, taking those blessings and converting them into means of healing, restoring, and alleviating suffering. Broken bones healing more rapidly. Hearts being strengthened to pump a few decades longer.

However, assuming that medical discoveries are clean as the wind-driven snow is like assuming that leaving your wallet next to you on a New York subway while you take a nap is a wise decision. One of the ways in which we’ve placed ourselves unreflectively in the hands of modern medicine is by imbibing psychotropic drugs.

Without much objection we have turned to treating human suffering, mental grief, energetic activity, and gloomy moods with little pills. These little pills, by design, alter mood/mind. And one in six Americans are taking them. Most indications are that women are twice as likely as men are to be taking antidepressants. So, are these pills blessings which Christians should freely enjoy, or a mangling of medical care?

Anti-Sin not Anti-Science

First, we should insist that being anti-sin is not equivalent to being anti-science. Christians have historically led in scientific discovery, and done so as a means of glorifying God. However, as secularism has overtaken the scientific and medical professions, Christians need to have their BS-meters on high.

In the arena of psychopharmacology we should be especially on guard. Sins have been rapidly redefined as medical/biological disorders, and some sins (like homosexuality) have been removed from the psychiatric diagnostic manuals under pressure from the GQBLT lobby. The psychiatric community is very wishy-washy on what constitutes mental disorders. They are also very cowardly when society scolds them for diagnosing societal lusts as forms of mental derangement. Just look at all of our sexuality/gender confusion. The psychiatric community has essentially said, “Nope, nothing to see here.”

But consider this quote from one of the “founding fathers” modern psychopharmacology:

Those of us who work in this field [psychiatry] see a developing potential for a nearly total control of human emotional status, mental functioning, and will to act.

Nathan Kline

In other words, psychotropic drugs were developed with the express purpose of controlling human’s emotion, mental frame of mind, and will. But even Kline warned of overmedicating, and modern psychologists themselves are admitting that “there is vast agreement that [psychotropic drugs] are grossly overprescribed, do not treat any known diseases, and provide only superficial relief.”

These medications––which alter mood, cognition, etc.––if beneficial are recommended only for short periods; yet the evidence shows that once someone begins taking antidepressants or other sorts of behavioral drugs, they are on them for long stretches of time. Couple this with the fact that there are ZERO tests which can be run to determine whether the patient in question actually needs these medications.

In other words, what may be helpful for some very extreme cases––usually for short periods of time––is not even recommended by modern psychiatrists for the average person, nor is it advised for this form of “treatment” to be long term. I won’t go into how there is a revolving door between the FDA and the pharmaceutical companies, but the concern I’m raising is that Christians in particular have been gullible in receiving a form of “treatment” from a discipline of medicine whose express purpose is in conflict with Scripture’s mandate to be sober-minded.

Add to all this the reality that the church simply goes along with the redefining of sins as mental/emotional disorders. Pastorally, even when counseling someone who is not dealing with sin as the direct cause of their melancholy (i.e. tragedy as opposed to transgression), the suffering individual doesn’t need to be told that a pill can help them deal with grief. A pill won’t overcome the temptations that arise as a result of grief. Prozac can’t mortify the flesh or vivify the Spirit.

Christians and Their Pills

Many Christians have thoughtlessly begun partaking of this pharmaceutical sacrament. Without reflection, or acknowledging the worldview origin of such drugs, they have joined with the world’s programme of treating mental and emotional frames of mind as something to be treated rather than the battleground in which God calls us to cultivate holiness and mortify sin.

Furthermore, regardless of denominational background, our nation is paedo-pharmaceutical. Pre-schoolers are the fastest growing market for consuming antidepressants, and more and more children are growing up taking medication for behavioral issues. Our culture wants our children to come to the table of psychotropic drugs and commune long into adulthood.

So, what should Christians think about all this? Our starting point is obedience to the Risen Christ. Which means, we should start by affirming that we are to be obedient to His command to be sober-minded. This means we are all called to sober-mindedness regardless of how we feel, regardless of our emotional or mental condition, regardless of the pain of our circumstances. Secondly, we should repent of thinking that joy will return to us if we take our pills. Joy doesn’t come in a bottle of pills.

The fear and anxiety and joylessness which plague Christian women are not going to be fixed by medicine. Fear is cast out by resting in the love of the Father. Anxiety is soothed by the peace of conscience brought by understanding the Sovereign goodness of God over all matters. Joylessness is cured by confessing one’s sins, and turning in evangelical faith to salvation offered in Christ.

One final word, when facing grief, suffering, or mental anguish we are going to be assaulted with a host of temptations. Will we look to Christ, or will we look for escape? The escape can take many forms, but increasingly, it takes the form of a handful of pills. The escape which psychiatric medication offers comes with a long list of so called “side” effects. But the Gospel offers joy and deliverance by facing the trial in faith. As the old hymn reminds us:

The flame shall not harm thee,
I only design, thy dross to consume
and thy gold to refine.

We know this because Jesus suffered the most poignant anguish ever faced by any human ever. He did not seek escape. He did not medicate his emotions. He did not resign his will to the prescription of his therapist. He refused the gall. He yielded to the Father’s will, and the Father gave Him glory in return. Something a prescription can never fill.

Click Here for My Review of “Spiritual Depression”
More Like Texas

More Like Texas

Heartening News

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

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).

Sodom Would Be Proud

Sodom Would Be Proud

What was Sodom’s sin?

Some simpering exegetes aim to prove that Sodom’s sin wasn’t homosexuality. They do this by pointing with limp-wrists to Ezekiel 16:48-50:

As I live, saith the Lord GOD, Sodom thy sister hath not done, she nor her daughters, as thou hast done, thou and thy daughters. Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. And they were haughty, and committed abomination before me: therefore I took them away as I saw good.

Ezekiel 16:48-50

In God’s rebuke of Jerusalem, He chastises them for being worse than Sodom, but this in no way is intended to take the edge off of the vileness of Sodom’s transgressions. Being less worse is no praise.

We are then told what Sodom’s sins were. The first one stands out––sort of like a drag queen reading to children at your local library. Pride. I’ve heard Christian GQBLT “allies” interpret this to mean that what God hated in Sodom was that they were bigots, sort of like those toothless sign wavers in Taylor Swift’s gay-pride music video. In other words, it wasn’t because of the sodomy of Sodom that God rained down fire and brimstone; rather it was their bigotry and inhospitality. They shift this passage to pillory those who believe men shouldn’t sexually abuse each other’s bodies. The pride of us narrow-minded, intolerant Christians is what God hates. Perverse sexual desires and actions aren’t the problem. Intolerance is the problem. Bigotry is the problem. Pride is the problem.

Celebrating Pride

Pride. Hmm…where have I seen that celebrated recently. I could swear I’ve seen some small mention of Pride in some obscure corner of our society. Oh wait, practically every company has changed their logo this month to the “gay-bow”. Galveston painted their crosswalks with it. Our embassies were lit up with all the variegated sparkle and shine of gay propaganda. #PrideMonth is trending on social media. Retailers rolled out t-shirts, underwear, bubble-gum, and anything they could hawk they have.

Pride is being celebrated. One marvels at the effective branding of the GQBLT community. If only some Christians had the same motivation and imagination. Nevertheless, pride is the word which sodomites have chosen to head their parades of shame. Pride. The very thing which Ezekiel labels as the initial sin of Sodom.

Contrary to the gymnastical minds of effeminate exegetes of this passage, the pride of Sodom was the bud which led to the abominations. Pride thinks it is an authority unto itself, but it also comes to think that it can do whatever it wants and get away with it. This is the haughtiness of Sodom. Their pride combusted into gluttonous ingratitude, slothful indulgence of every whim, disregard for their neighbor, and all this inevitably snowballed into treating your fellow man as a thing to be consumed. After all, pride says, “I am god!”

Thus, it is no surprise that modern sodomites have taken for their motto the very sin which is at the root of all their abominations. Sodom itself would be proud.

Pride Goeth Before Destruction

But here’s the problem with pride, no matter what month it is. Pride is destined for judgement. Pride insists it can do whatever it wants. Pride insists on being its own authority.

As an example, if I go into my garage and grab a screwdriver, declare that it is a hammer, and proceed to try to frame a wall with it, any onlooker would think to himself, “Something’ ain’t right with that boy.” No matter how many nails I try to get in, no matter how vigorously I maintain that my screwdriver is a hammer, no matter how much glitter I throw as I frantically try to get that tool to work, it is a project doomed to failure.

This is precisely what every anal penetration, every scissoring, every genital mutilation surgery, and every new letter they attach to their string of sexual identities is. It is a knowing rebellion to God’s design for them and how He made the world. Their haughty rebellion insists that if they cover it in more make-up, attempt more vigorous sex positions, get companies to alter their logos for a month, pop-stars to plug GLAAD, and legislators to pass nonsensical “equality laws” that somehow nature will be what they wish it was.

But they know better. They know how God made them. They know that God calls them to worship Him. They know that to Him alone belongs glory. They know that He is the One who designed them, and the end for which He made them is His glory and their happiness.

But they insist on their pride. Every abominable act being flaunted at gay parades is itself the ripe fruit of pride. But this fruit is poison. No matter how much you insist it tastes good. No matter how loudly you scream that those who warn you are bigots. No matter what laws earthly governments pass. Your pride will not ease your conscience. It will only rub like the grit of sandpaper until your conscience is simply a callous where your conscience used to be. And then…your pride will swallow you, it will damn you, it will accuse you, and there will be no escape from the heat of God’s wrath.

A Different Parade

But this is not the way it needs to end. To take the parade metaphor…you can simply turn around, go against the flow, and there––at the other end of town––another parade is ready to begin. It is a parade that is generally poorly attended, but the food is better, as well as the company. The word at the head of that parade is humility.

The One who leads it bears the scars to prove that the path of humility and submission to the Father leads to true glory and exaltation. He invites you and me to join in His triumphant train, and go conquer the world. Your pride must stay. Your abominations can’t come along. But the pace of this parade, you will find, though rigorous will be just quick enough for you to keep up, but not so slow that you get singed by the brimstone.

When the Polis is Your Governor

When the Polis is Your Governor

I grew up in Colorado. We moved there the same year the Rockies had their inaugural season, and I’ve rooted for the home team ever since. Though I moved my family to Northern Idaho, and have lived here happily for nearly four years now, I have kept a close eye on my home state. I’d like to make a few observations, and hopefully light some fuses.

God’s sense of humor and irony is uncanny. When He tells His stories and picks which characters will do what He makes no mistakes. Some people who like to put fancy terms on such phenomenon call this Nominative Determinism. The Bible is full of this irony (i.e. Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joshua, etc.), but so is history. Trump won an unlikely victory. Jeff Flake proved to be a flake. Rosa Parks. William Wordsworth. Anthony Weiner. Usain Bolt. Or less famously––but it’ll serve my point––one bloke was caught robbing an Ice Cream Shop and his name was Conor Fudge. This WaPo article contains a collection of these “Perfect Fit Last Names”: “Mrs. Just taught political science, a Mrs. Deutsch taught German and a Mr. Francois taught French.” My dad once told me that he went to school with a fella humorously named Dusty Rhodes. All this to point out that I think Colorado’s current Governor is no exception to this divine sense of irony.

He is the first openly gay governor, governing the state which first issued marriage licenses to gay “couples.” His name? Jaren Polis. You probably don’t need to be a Greek scholar to know that Polis is Greek for city. More on that irony later.

But first some history/context. Colorado was first (along with Washington) to legalize pot. It was one of the first in line to force the issue of GQBLT “marriage” on the entire nation (despite the State constitution being amended by Colorado citizens to ban same sex mirage). Gov. Polis recently signed the “Red Flag” gun law, which allows the police to confiscate a law abiding citizens guns simply because someone thinks they might use them illegally; in order to regain possession of their arms, they must prove that they aren’t a criminal; ah, that great paragon of the progressives’ framework of justice: guilty until proven innocent. A bill is currently working its way through the Colorado house which would mandate that abstinence not be taught as part of sex education in public schools.

Of course, we must not overlook the token instance (which is becoming all too common throughout our country) of the Drag Queen being invited speaking to 10 year old school kids, without the school informing parents of this––ahem––”guest”. Most recently––as if Coloradans’ minds weren’t addled enough––Denver is working on legalizing psychotropic mushrooms…

Now, why is Polis’ name a perfect fit for the character at the helm of this state during this remarkable slide into debauchery, greed, perversion, and human pride? Because the City of Man will always descend into the lowest depths of hell while it thinks it is attempting to build a tower into the heights of heaven. The Polis of Man has been the Governor of Colorado for a long time now.

Coloradans for decades have not wanted the inconvenience of going to church on Sunday mornings. After all, the mountains beckoned. Or the Broncos game kicked-off at 11am, and the guac can’t eat itself. I recall driving to church with my family as a young boy (way back in the 90s mind you), and often seeing the soccer fields full of families who had gotten up early to take partake of the sacrament of extracurricular activities. For all the natural beauty of the staggering Rocky Mountains, you’d think Coloradans were blind to the Creator whose majesty outshines those purple mountains.

But the problem lies close at home for those who claim the name of Christ. Colorado is home to some of the world’s largest evangelical organizations. Yet we might note that the net effect on Colorado has been negligible. Why is that? Is it because despite the presence of these mega-organizations, the focus has been on building their empire abroad rather than the often harder work of building the empire of Christ in their own neighborhoods, communities, and state?

It is easy to think that because an evangelical organization’s acreage has grown, that so has their fruitfulness in their own homes and churches and neighborhoods. But are the leaders of these organizations leading their children to faithfully walk with Christ? Are their pulpits full of men who preach with boldness the whole council of God? Are they courageous enough to resist the rot of secularism, or have they capitulated to the gender pronoun confusion? Have they made a stand, not merely politically, but in their places of work, worship, and recreation? Trinidad, CO has been the sex-change capital of the world, but all too many Colorado churches have been doing sex-change operations in the pulpit for years now. Men enter the pulpit to become simpering effeminates, or worse, women enter it brazenly pretending to the office of prophet. The Apostle John might say something like, “I hold this against you, you tolerate that woman Nadia Bolz-Weber.”

The church in Colorado has all too often been at best a whimpering spectator to all these atrocities, at worst it has been a shameful accomplice. Faithful Christians in Colorado ought to start causing a ruckus. The sort that Elijah caused for Ahab. The sort that Paul caused for the Ephesians. The sort that Jesus caused for the Temple money-lenders. The sort that Luther caused in Wittenberg. The sort that Whitefield cause for New England.

The City of God, the New Jerusalem, the Kingdom of our God and of His Christ is a foregone conclusion. It will come, and nothing the Polis of Man endeavors to do will stop the onward march of Christ’s Kingdom of peace, purity, and joy. The Polis of Man will not stand, for it is built on the shifting sands of individualism and the envy which refuses to give God the glory. The Polis of Man has been the governor of Colorado for far too long, long before the current Governor was even out of diapers. And unless faithful Christians determine to play the man and oppose this parade of worsening evils, the Polis of Man will govern Colorado for generations to come.

May God bless the faithful in Colorado with resilience in their battle against darkness, and may they take courage in the fact that they fight a war that is already won.

Ben Zornes