Ben Zornes

Living and Dying to Show the Preciousness of Christ

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Pill Poppin’ Christians

Pill Poppin’ Christians

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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

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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

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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

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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.

Sluggish Repentance

Sluggish Repentance

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This week, Governor Cuomo of New York signed the Reproductive Health Act into law, while the legislature joyfully applauded. This act does three things; first, it moves abortions from the penal code to the public health code, effectively decriminalizing most instances of the death of an unborn child (whether through an abortion or through a violent act on the mother). Second, it expands who may perform an abortion from physicians to any “health care professional.” Third, and most heinous, it removes the current 24-week ban on abortion, and allows a baby to be aborted at any point of a pregnancy if the fetus isn’t “viable” or the health of the mother is in danger. The cash-out of this law is that a psychiatrist could diagnose a mother who is nine months pregnant as “mentally endangered” by the birth of the child, and her midwife could give the baby a lethal injection, induce birth, and dispose of the carcass without anyone facing any criminal charges. To make it all worse, Governor Cuomo lit up the World Trade Center tower pink in celebration of this atrocity.

Now, I want to commend our congregation for all of your activity to fight for the unborn. You’ve marched, shared articles online, volunteered at pregnancy centers, called representatives, and adopted orphans into your homes. However, we live in a nation where such an atrocity can take place, and the national guard isn’t mobilized to put a halt to such a miscarriage of justice. Further, this slaughter of the unborn takes place daily less than a mile from here in our local hospital. 

NY State needs repentance. She and our nation remain under God’s judgement, and deserve to become a smoking crater. If we desire our nation to come to repentance, we must exemplify true repentance. Have you deleted the apps you use to access porn? Have you sought forgiveness from the friend you slandered? Have you finished the job you promised to get done but left half-done? Have you stopped making excuses for why you keep committing that same sin? Have you fled from your sin, burning down every bridge of temptation as you go? If we are so sluggish and sloppy in our repentance, should we expect NY and our nation to do any different?

Further Thoughts

The preceding was the text for an exhortation I gave to our congregation this past Sunday, and I have some further thoughts. The besetting sin of evangelical Christians is niceness. We want to be thought of as nice people. We know we are called to kindness, compassion, and charity. But we should never confuse these virtues for the counterfeit vice of neutered niceness.

Niceness is the quickest way to dull the edge of the prophetic sword. At the recent March for Life in DC I saw many signs expressing the sentiment: This Feminist is Pro-life (or something along those lines). The problem there is that it is precisely because of feminism that we even have the blood on our hands of 61 million slaughtered babies. Feminism is en vogue of course, but the problem with trying to sidle up to worldly mindsets in order to advance God’s kingdom, justice, and righteousness is they are running the opposite way. It’s like inviting the other team’s linebacker to carry the football for one play. If you hand him the ball, he’s not going to run to your end-zone.

Secondly, Christian leaders and laypeople alike reacted to the NY bill by reminding us that we shouldn’t simply say “Abortion is murder” without also saying to pregnant mothers, “We’re here to help.” This seems to me that we have forgotten that the church is to have a prophetic voice. But we have substituted the prophet’s raspy rebuke of sin, with the panderer’s mealy-mouthed niceties.

Of course we should offer to help mothers who are considering an abortion. I don’t think I’ve ever come across a church that doesn’t have some association with ––or support in some way––pregnancy centers. We are already doing what our evangelical leaders are rebuking us for not doing. They are the ones, however, who have failed to point the bony finger in rebuke of NY’s sin. What NY did was an egregious sin. It provokes a holy God to fierce wrath to see children unjustly butchered, while politicians applaud.

Remember, we ought to take the plank out of our eye, so that we might see clearly to remove our brother’s speck. This does not imply that once we deal with our own sins that we are to leave our brother in his sin. If you see your fellow-state overcome in a sin, rebuke him, in order that he might be restored. Christians…do not be afraid of the prophet’s voice. The prophetic voices of men like Wilberforce was how slavery was abolished. That was how Israel was often brought to repentance. We do ourselves no favors in the cause of advancing the Kingdom of God, by setting down the prophetic sword which says, “New York rests under the judgement of God for the bill they just passed.”

All of this comes back to what my exhortation to our congregation was, repent. We must turn from our sins, in such a way that unbelievers see that we are serious about forsaking sin. Let your light so shine…our light is that we have seen how dark our sin is, and turned from it, and now call all peoples, states, and nations to turn from sin.

Morality is Compulsory

Morality is Compulsory

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At the Sound of the Sackbut

Thousands of Starbucks are closing down today in order that their employees might––at the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimer––fall down and worship the false god that Secularism the king hath set up. “Now, now,” you might say, “Starbucks is only doing mandatory racial sensitivity training for their employees, there aren’t any idols here!”

Let me change the scenario in an effort to show the hypocrisy of progressivism, and the inescapability of the morality that flows from what we worship. Say that Chic-Fil-A closed down a large portion of their stores in order to train their employees in the biblical view of marriage––i.e. one man and one woman, monogamous for life. Do you imagine that virtue signalers everywhere would </praise hands emoji>? Would they # their approval of Chic-Fil-A’s moral leadership and initiative? Do you think Buzzfeed would run an article, “Chic-Fil-A raising awareness for monogamous marriage is so adorbs, we can’t even”?

Mind you, if Chic-Fil-A required their employees to undergo a day of morality training, New York would feel invaded. The ladies on The View would be in––what my Grandma always called it––a tizzy. Jimmy Kimmel wouldn’t put any funny jokes in his nightly lecture monologue. We would hear all about the intolerance, the heavy-handed “preachy-ness” of what Chic-Fil-A was doing, how they were shoving their views down their employees’ throat.

Guilty Without A Trial

But make no mistake, this is precisely what Starbucks is doing today. Granted, it is Starbucks’ prerogative––as a private company––to run their company as they see fit. However, we must not be naïve here. The “training” that will be given today will not be starting with “If you’d turn in your Bibles…!” Rather, the priests of secularism will hand out their packets to the circle of disciples, and intone on the evils of white privilege, how damaging micro-aggressions are, and how guilty everyone needs to feel for Western Culture. The employees who called the police in the first place––who probably were a bit too trigger happy in making that call––have now brought down the wrath of the gods on all of Starbucks’ employees, and all must pay penance in order to appease.

Take your local Starbucks barista––let’s name him Tony––a mop-heaired college student who remembers your order most days, makes corny jokes, and hums Queen ballads while getting your Frappucino ready. He grew up in north Missouri, is pursuing veterinary medicine at the local state college, and has never been biased toward other ethnicities. He is going to be reprimanded for “implicit biases” he never knew he had. Further, he’ll be given material that explains what his moral framework should be making as it regards interacting with other ethnicities. He will be treated as guilty, without any sort of trial, and made to make amends for crimes he did not commit.

Worship & Morality Go Hand in Hand

We see in this that whatever an individual or group worship, will always influence their moral framework and behavior. The NFL has made it clear that they believe Nationalism should take center stage, and are requiring their employees to pay dutiful homage to the “Stars & Bars,” suppressing any other moral framework that would offend Nationalistic ardor (or perhaps to be more accurate: the bottom line).

Humans are moral beings, and we cannot escape the impulse to define right from wrong. The fall has, of course, rendered our moral judgement rather cloudy. We think we can willy-nilly define good and evil based on the standards of our own preferences and judgement. The reality is, however, that moral right and wrong are not in our purview to define. Wisdom and judgment come from above. Good and evil are not ours to define. We are to learn right from wrong from God and His revealed will, found in His Word. Starbucks is not doing something morally neutral here. They are making it clear that justice and morality must be taught, but they are turning to progressive & marxist categories to define and describe.

If you worked for Starbucks, today it would fall to you to stand upright and not attend the worship service unto Secular values. Today you should pull a Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. This isn’t about addressing the sin of racism. If it was, Starbucks would have invited Al Mohler, John Piper, Tim Keller, or Voddie Baucham to preach a sermon from Scripture outlining why racism is sinful, and how the answer is found in repentance and trust in Christ for forgiveness of our sins and reconciliation with each other. Christians who are interested in racial reconciliation must stop letting people who don’t love Jesus define the standards for how we deal with sins between various ethnic groups.

Finally, Jesus is the only way out of the messes we humans make. When we look with a dark eye towards our fellow human it is because we have reduced Jesus to merely a moral teacher amongst moral teachers; His opinion is set on the equal with the opinions of our own sinful hearts. Jesus is not a moral teacher, He is the Messiah and thus, the moral standard which condemns all of our hatred, strife and enmity towards our fellow man. It is only in Him that we will find grace to bend the sword of racial animosity into the sickle. We should not applaud when the secularists and the humanists fall down in worship of Nebuchadnezar’s statue.

Remember, secular morality is nothing other than works righteousness. It believes man can save himself. It believes that if we have enough training, we can deal with sin in the human heart. It cannot be done, and that Idol is turned to dust by the Rock of Ages. Morality flows from what we worship. If we would have truly moral morality, we must forsake the false gods which we are being instructed to pay homage to.

By the way… for the record, Chic-Fil-A closes down one day, every week, in order to teach their employees about morality.

Serpentine Coils

Serpentine Coils

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The serpent beguiled Eve in the Garden; it was she, in her beguiled state, who gave Adam to eat of the fruit and thus he too was deceived and fell. The dragon went for the weak one, and having won that precious crowning jewel of creation uncontested, the whole kingdom fell under his jurisdiction. This was one of the worst aspects of mankind fall from God and grace. Satan turned Eve from being the submissive helper of Adam, into the very instrument by which the he intended to ensnare Adam. She was given to be his helper, she was deceived and became the bait.

Today the twittersphere is awash in the latest obligatory hashtag ceremony in worship of “femininity.” #InternationalWomensDay. Make no mistake, this is not a celebration of women or of femininity. It is a sacrifice of it. It is largely a publicity stunt to grow the brand of women (and Bruce Jenner) in showbiz. It isn’t an exercise in praising women who exemplify the meek and quiet spirit which is precious in God’s sight; it is a demand that women be more like men.

Be loud.

Be firm.

Be you.

Objective standards of virtue, elegance and beauty are not the centerpiece of the festivities. Rather, it is a liturgy of self-deifying actualization…”eat this fruit, ye shall be as gods.” They are not applauding women who are actually exhibiting what a glorious thing a woman truly is. They are praising women who are the antithesis of femininity and womanhood. Our culture is trying to make the sopranos sing bass, and then wonder why the whole choir is flat.

Out of fear and cowardice, men have abdicated the grunt work of standing against injustice, and left it for the womenfolk to do. Our culture insists that womanhood is a state of mind, a journey of self-discovery, that anyone with enough money can attain unto. At the end of the day, what we most certainly do not have is the precious gem, far above the price of rubies, that is a virtuous woman.

#InternationalWomensDay is not praising women who love, honor, and obey their husbands. How do I know? Because most of these starlets “raising awareness” for women’s causes regularly get into bed naked with a man other than their husband for the gratification of movie-goers. And this is the source of her income. Not the fine handiwork of her spindle, fine linen, scarlet clothing, hard work, and tireless enterprising.

Our culture is not rising up and blessing virtuous women today. Instead, we are celebrating women who praise, donate, and promote the butcheries of abortion providers. Every woman is a potential mother of kings, and a queen of nations. But these hashtag activists who want to empower women, insist that the primary sacrament of empowered womanhood is the desecration of the greatest work of womanhood: that of bearing and raising her offspring. International Womans Day is a celebration of women who hate their husbands and fathers, and who sacrifice their babies in order to attain unto self-actualization. Recognize what this really is. The coils of the serpent are being fastened more firmly around the neck of the weaker vessel.

God made the woman to be man’s helper. Men must not give way to the fear of (wo)man. The failure in Eden was largely due to Adam’s failure to first of all defend His bride from the serpent, and secondly, by simply “going along” with the whole diabolic strategy. In our day, as in every age, God wants men to be fearless of their foe, and fear God alone. Men must do battle with the serpent; his serpentine coils are strangling our women with the lie of becoming something opposite of what God made them to be and bear. God made them to be queens, and to bear his image.

They are queens by acknowledging the rightful order of authority, with Christ as head over it all. Her submission to her husband is to be indicative that we are all “under God.” Further, she bears God’s image by being like the Church. The church humbles herself and trusts entirely to her bridegroom, Christ; God says that a woman with this meek and quiet spirit is precious in His sight, because it is a parable of how the Church obeys her Lord and master. The Church is also fruitful, and thus women should not spurn that they are physically designed to bear children in the image of God, and nurture them to love and fear God. The Church is commanded to make disciples, and a mother does this in miniature as she raises her brood. All of this is glory, but only for those with eyes to see.

A Narnian Approach to Cultural Engagement

A Narnian Approach to Cultural Engagement

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These are the notes from a talk I recently gave. You can listen to the talk by clicking the button.

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The Supermodel Who Became a Babushka

For centuries, Modernism has made attempt after attempt to fit the universe into a tidy Excel spreadsheet. Everything was premised on nature as a closed system with no room for the supernatural or miraculous. Reason was the center. But the goddess reason still could not account for such things as courage, love, and man’s sense of morality; logic demanded that all causes need a causeless Cause, and every motion needs ultimately to be explained by an unmoved Mover.

Modernism has now morphed into the disgruntled and skeptical curmudgeon we call Postmodernism. Reason alone couldn’t hold the universe together, so rationally the only explanation for the universe is irrationality.

[In Narnia] You come away equipped to fight the right enemy, the right errors, and most importantly in the right way.Modernism viewed the cosmos as a machine; humans were the only beings with enough reason to peer behind the curtain and explain how and why the machine grinds away. Without a Creator outside of creation, this view of the cosmos as a machine deteriorates into a view that the cosmos are chaos. That is postmodernism.

Modernism worshipped the goddess of reason; postmodernism is left to grovel at the altar of raw appetite. Feelings, impulses and desires are the only thing that make sense to a world that has no Cause to give it purpose. If there is no explanation, all that is left is experience. If there is no transcendent, there is only the imminent. So, eat, drink, be merry…smoke pot, become a woman, or a dragon, or an alien, make love, take love, and be swallowed up by the meaningless. Modernism was the supermodel which enamored the whole earth, but now she is a babushka.

What would Narnians Do?

Lewis, while not explicitly aiming at the postmodernism of 2018, gave us Narnia. In reading through the Narniad, he envelops the reader with a sense of joy, epitomizing courage and cowardice, heroism and heresy, villains and virtues. You come away equipped to fight the right enemy, the right errors, and most importantly in the right way.

Episode 1

King Lune of Archeland admonished his son, “For this is what it means to be a king: to be first in every desperate attack and last in every desperate retreat, and when there’s hunger in the land (as must be now and then in bad years) to wear finer clothes and laugh louder over a scantier meal than any man in your land (The Horse and His Boy, pg. ?).”

The lesson here is that there will be engagement with enemies. This is a non-negotiable. Thus, a true Narnian spirit is one that leads with courage and sacrifice. In the face of a fight, the instinct is to run to battle and not away. Even in the hardest of circumstance, a Narnian does all this jovially and sets the example of resisting moroseness and despair.

Episode 2

While in Underworld, as the witch has almost lulled the heroes into an enchanted sleep, Puddleglum rouses himself to stamp out the magical fire (burning his foot in the process). Notice that his argument is not an appeal to reason, but an appeal to beauty:

In striving to persuade, sometimes the best way to win an argument is not with a syllogism but with a good story, along with the aroma of personal sacrifice.‘“One word, Ma’am,” he said, coming back from the fire; limping, because of the pain. “One word. All you’ve been saying is quite right, I shouldn’t wonder. I’m a chap who always liked to know the worst and then put the best face I can on it. So I won’t deny any of what you said. But there’s one more thing to be said, even so. Suppose we have only dreamed, or made up, all those things—trees and grass and sun and moon and stars and Aslan himself. Suppose we have. Then all I can say is that, in that case, the made-up things seem a good deal more important than the real ones. Suppose this black pit of a kingdom of yours is the only world. Well, it strikes me as a pretty poor one. And that’s a funny thing, when you come to think of it. We’re just babies making up a game, if you’re right. But four babies playing a game can make a play-world which licks your real world hollow. That’s why I’m going to stand by the play world. I’m on Aslan’s side even if there isn’t any Aslan to lead it. I’m going to live as like a Narnian as I can even if there isn’t any Narnia. So, thanking you kindly for our supper, if these two gentlemen and the young lady are ready, we’re leaving your court at once and setting out in the dark to spend our lives looking for Overland. Not that our lives will be very long, I should think; but that’s a small loss if the world’s as dull a place as you say (The Silver Chair, pg. 182).”

What we learn from Puddleglum is to “man up,” and never be seduced by the enchanting words of godless worldviews. Further, in striving to persuade, sometimes the best way to win an argument is not with a syllogism but with a good story, along with the aroma of personal sacrifice. Puddleglum is a faithful reminder that, “Aslan’s instructions always work; there are no exceptions (The Silver Chair, pg. 121).”

Episode 3

In High King Peter’s fight against Miraz, we see noblesse oblige exemplified. Narnians refuse to “fight dirty.” Although intrigue, deception and manipulation are commonplace in Miraz’s camp, it was not to be found in Narnia’s. Honor before life. Edmund even remarks: “Oh, bother, bother, bother, need he as gentlemanly as all that? (Prince Caspain, pg. 208)” We should go above and beyond to be above reproach; but notice, Peter still fought. It is not bad form to fight fervently for the truth, it is bad form to fight dirty…but worst of all is to not fight at all.

Simultaneous to this episode, Aslan, Lucy, and Susan are romping through Narnia feasting and celebrating (cf. pgs 210-218 of Prince Caspian). Their train grows larger with each stop as the misery of Telmarine fear, lies, and intrigue are thrown off for the joy, gladness and merriment of Narnian rejoicing. We win by laughing and feasting.

Episode 4

In the Voyage of the Dawn Treader, the heroes find themselves rescuing a man from a “dark Island.” He is terrified and begs them to flee. Reepicheep responds: “Compose yourself and tell us what the danger is. We are not used to flying.” He informs them that this is the  “Island Where Dreams Come True.” Everyone is mortified. ‘[They realized] what it would mean to land on a country where dreams come true. Only Reepicheep remained unmoved. “Your Majesty, your Majesty,” he said, “are you going to tolerate this mutiny, this poltroonery? This is a panic, this is a rout.” “Row, row,” bellowed Caspian, “[…] You can say what you like, Reepicheep. There are some things no man can face.” “It is, then, my good fortune not to be a man.” replied Reepicheep. (The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, pgs. 156 & 157)”

Despite Reep’s adjuration that they not flee, a terror begins to descend on them, and it seems all hope is lost. It is at this moment of utter darkness and terror that Lucy petitions, “Aslan, if ever you loved us at all, send us help now (The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, pg. 159).” Even if our nerves fail us, our fears beset us, our foes overshadow us, we ought to always turn to God in prayers of deliverance.

Of course, we should be like Reepicheep and be quite unfamiliar with retreating. After all, the armor of God makes no provision for the backside. The implication is that retreat should be a foreign concept to Gospel work. Reepicheep was a Narnian Jonathan Edwards, with eternity stamped on his eyes.

Episode 5

When the orphan, Shasta, first meets the Narnians, here is how they are described: “Instead of being grave and mysterious like most Calormenes, they walked with a swing and let their arms and shoulders go free, and chatted and laughed. One was whistling. You could see that they were ready to be friends with anyone who was friendly and didn’t give a fig for anyone who wasn’t (The Horse and His Boy, pg. 55).” One prevailing thread here as we watch “Narnian cultural engagement” is that they are overwhelmingly carefree. Ready to befriend, and not at all concerned about the applause of man. Indeed, they were free men.

Bold Ambassadors, Living Peaceably

Narnia, of course, is not our standard, Scripture is. What Lewis has done is embody Scriptural attitudes, manners, and worldview into a vibrant story. We are pilgrims on this earth (1 Pt. 2:11). Scripture paints a picture of how the people of God should interact with the unbelieving world. We are to approach it as if we are, in fact, ambassadors, and thus we should be bold. Notice that at the end of the description of the armor of God we have this prayer request appended:

Ephesians 6:18-20

Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints; And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel, For which I am an ambassador in bonds: that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.

And in the book of Acts it was a frequent prayer of the early church that—even in the face of persecution—God would grant them boldness; they were after all servants and ambassadors of the King of kings.

Acts 4:29

And now, Lord, behold their threatenings: and grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word.

Furthermore, our desire for our enemies is not that of violence, but of Gospel peace. We are to desire, and strive for, their conversion. The peace which we proclaim is not compromise with the world, but the Gospel that Christ has overthrown the kingdom of darkness and now rules the world with truth and grace. We are inviting them to the feast of the conquering King.

Romans 12:18 

If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.

John 13:35

By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.

Living in God’s World

As ambassadors, then, we should take great comfort and courage in the fact that this is God’s world; He is king, creator and sustainer of it. Furthermore, we know that every human we meet with has a knowledge of God Almighty. In the reprobate we know they have devised all sorts of schemes to repress this knowledge, and thus their idolatry, ingratitude and fornication (see Romans 1:18-32); in the regenerate, obviously this knowledge has been revealed in Christ and by grace, believed upon.

This is God’s world. God’s rules are at play here, not the rules of man’s autonomy. Tirian, the last King of Narnia, embodies this mindset, when he reminds Jill (on the cusp of a seemingly hopeless battle), “Courage, child: we are all between the paws of the true Aslan (The Last Battle, pg. 106).” For a Narnian Christian, underlying everything is a rock solid confidence in the sovereign power of the Lord Jesus over all things.

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