Ben Zornes

Living and Dying to Show the Preciousness of Christ

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Cultural Commentary

Keeping Radioactive Waste in Your Backpack

Keeping Radioactive Waste in Your Backpack

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Last week some lurid details came to light about a certain right-leaning journalist, Glenn Greenwald. Videos were leaked (although he reshared them initially himself) of him participating in the sort of kink that gay men are fond of participating in. There were fishnets, there was degradation, there was all the creep that is common in that degenerate world. But as the video came to light, Glenn sought to soothe the conservative conscience by telling us that the acts in the video were between consenting adults and the real scandal is that these videos came out because he spoke out against Israel. But conservative influencers, from Candace Owen to Charlie Kirk, came to his defense. “He’s done incredible work, and though I don’t agree with what he did in private, it shouldn’t be leaked.” Some even continued the trope…this was blackmail from the joooos!

As an aside from the main point I’d like to make, imagine filming consensual kink, and then when it gets leaked to social media complaining that you’re being blackmailed. Either it is blackmail or it was consensual and nothing to be ashamed of. Which is it?

But this brings us to see that we live in a moment where our attempt to keep “the political” safely away from “the spiritual” is reaching its inevitable impossibility. You can’t carry around radioactive waste in your backpack and then wonder why everyone around you starts growing tumors, and the babies start having extra limbs. Sin cannot be siloed off. Sin really does seep into everything.

I’d been planning to comment on this, and then, as if to help me underscore my point, NT Wright records this interview where he comes out in support of the sad necessity to kill unborn babies in certain cases. Wright thinks that everyone should feel a bit ashamed at having to abort a baby conceived from rape, but it is for the best. See for yourself how he argues his position.

This after a barrage of other scandals in conservative evangelicalism involving sexual failure (Lawson, Brown), ethical failure (Webbon, Buice, Chappell). What all this should cause us to remember is that one sin doesn’t sit politely in its naughty little corner, minding its own business. Sin, ungodliness, and error affect the whole man.

Thus, whether it be a journalist who at times has been a co-belligerent for conservatives causes, or whether it be a well-respected theologian, you can’t treat significant degeneracy (in the case of Greenwald) or serious moral blindness (in the case of Wright) as if it was a matter of indifference. Should we plant tulips or peonies in the flower bed? No, this really is more like asking should we have raw sewage run down Main St. or should we rather invest in a sewage treatment plant? So-called private sin has a pernicious quality of becoming public. What’s done in the dark will be brought to the light. That’s Bible truth. But in addition to this it should also be remembered that, in this sickly age of unyielding commitment to tolerance, degenerate sin in private weighs the individual down with a load of guilt, shame, and fear of the coming wrath of God.

This is why Solomon often cautions his sons and students in this way:

A violent man enticeth his neighbour, and leadeth him into the way that is not good.
Proverbs 16:29 KJV

Evildoers feel guilt for their sins and crimes. But there is a funny quirk found in the sinful mind. It believes that if it can convince and entice others to go along with their error, the guilt will be diffused. This is why criminals run in gangs. This is also why criminals hang out in the halls of Congress. We justify ourselves in our own sin if we can convince others to either join us in our sin or gloss over our sin. But neither “everyone does it” or “everyone was cool with it” is not a blockade which will stop the righteous judgement of God. As the Psalmist says, “The LORD is known by the judgment which he executeth: the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands (Psa 9:16).”

All of this to say, those who call upon the name of the Lord ought to not treat their own sin lightly. Don’t tolerate it. It blinds you. It entices you to entice others to join you in your sin. It clouds your moral clarity. It causes you to live in fear, and this means you are easily manipulated and easily duped. Kill your sin.

Consequences Have Actions

Consequences Have Actions

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There is a sandstorm of discussion taking place right now regarding the propriety of the project of confronting people who posted statements in social media like “too bad he missed”, “better aim next time”, “we almost got rid of him”, etc. This project has largely been undertaken by @libsoftiktok.

As I see it, there are two main objections. First, isn’t it hypocritical to cancel people while objecting to cancel culture? Second, why go after average joes and ruin their lives instead of focussing on more powerful people?

So, on the first question. The problem with cancel culture is that people lost their jobs, reputations, even freedom in some instances for exercising first amendment liberties. It is one thing to express an opinion that is disagreeable to many, or even most, people; but this doesn’t mean that someone should be removed from their position for expressing their opinion. But in this case, people are expressing their approval for a political assassination, their joy in the prospect of Trump’s murder, and their hope that someone else is successful in what amounts to an act of terrorism. This is a world of difference from being cancelled for expressing unpopular opinions. Those being confronted with their vocal support for a bullet being aimed at Trump are egging on a rain of more bullets aimed in every direction. They are hastening us towards lawlessness and war.

As regards the second question, the average joe being held accountable for hooraying the assassination attempt is perhaps the most potent way, as I see it, to break the spell which the progressive brain worm has cast upon a large majority of our nation. Yes, the removal or making irrelevant of the head honchos in the progressive movement would be significant, but from a strategic standpoint that’s not attainable. Thus, accountability fastballs, high and inside, are quite appropriate, even for the worst batter on the other team. Another revealing aspect is that many of the people being exposed for their fondness for political assassinations are school teachers. In other words, the trope that these are just lowly grandmas that need their phones taken away is not entirely the full picture. Many of these folks tasting the bitter pill of accountability (perhaps for the first time in their lives) have been filling schoolchildren’s minds with their mush. This is not an insignificant detail.

Remember, the principles of war require that when you score a victory you pursue the enemy. If you’ve scattered them, don’t allow them to regroup. Conservatives are all too content to play nice, and imagine they are being quite gentlemanly by allowing their political opponent to regather. I do not want to live in country where political assassinations are normal or celebrated; countries like that tend to have very little bread on the grocery store shelves. We live in troubled times and this means we will have to do the hard work of making foolish people defend their indefensible public statements.

Furthermore, making people face the consequences for their foolish words is a biblical principle. Consider these Proverbs: He that winketh with the eye causeth sorrow: but a prating fool shall fall (Pro 10:10). A whip for the horse, a bridle for the ass, and a rod for the fool’s back (Pro 26:3). A reproof entereth more into a wise man than an hundred stripes into a fool (Pro 17:10).

So then, prating fools need to face the rod of reproof, and this should be done in the hopes that the reproof sinks deep down into them. Reproof is redemptive. Those who repent and seek forgiveness should be given forgiveness freely. But we must not forget the significance of making fools face consequences for their folly: “Smite a scorner, and the simple will beware: and reprove one that hath understanding, and he will understand knowledge (Pro 19:25).”

That Dawkins Clip

That Dawkins Clip

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If you haven’t seen it yet, Richard Dawkins made quite the statement in a recent interview. In responding to the growth of Islam in England and Europe he admitted, wistfully, that he misses the charm of Christendom. Here is what he said:

We find before us, class, a helpful little lesson for us mere mortals. Secularists have claimed for a long time that there is no supernatural powers (divine or malevolent) out there. So, imagine their shock when they grab a live outlet and find that there are indeed powers and principalities. This is precisely what is happening. Christ’s reign holds Satan at bay; the dragon is bound in regards to his ability to deceive the nations. But this does not mean he doesn’t still prowl looking for a tasty snack of deep fried atheist.

Islam is rushing in upon Europe. Like a spring high tide which catches beachgoers at unawares, the inheritors of Western Civilization are finding out what those sea-walls and levies which they worked hard to tear down were for. The raw and brutal power of Islamic conquest has come upon them. Along with it is an insistence on righteousness by works. These works are defined by the greed, lust, and ambition of the loudest voice interpreting Muhammed. This brutalizing power will soon replace the bells of Christendom with the eery adhan. The atheists and secularists have insisted that human power is enough to save us, and now they find a human power which is more powerful than them, with more fervent will to rule, and greater numbers of offspring. And behind it all is the doctrines of the devils.

So it comes dawning upon them that perhaps the mercy and grace of Christ is actually what made Christendom flourish like the garden of the Lord. Jesus really is the chief cornerstone. But these foolish builders, like the Pharisees before them, rejected Him. And now the find the crushing stone of judgement coming upon them to grind them into dust.

Yet hope is bright, for Christ still reigns. And He reigns over an Islamized Europe. In fact, He reigns over population imploding Japan, too. He reigns over the disputed wheat fields of Ukraine. He reigns over the rainbow painted streets of San Fransisco. He reigns over every bloody temple known as Planned Parenthood in Lower Manhattan. And, my train of thought has left the station we’ll keep it going, Christ even reigns over the nation of Israel.

The point is, Christian Europe must die in order for it to live. It must follow the Savior. And this demands that men like Richard Dawkins must bend his knee and follow Christ’s humility. Jesus humbled Himself so that He might be raised into glory. And if Dawkins wants glory too, he must see that the glory of Christendom which he pines for is found in the humiliation of the God-man 2000 years ago outside of Jerusalem. There, in Him, is all our hope and righteousness. The cross is the spike which will crush the serpent head of Islamic lies. There, in Christ, is the wisdom which all philosophers must ground their thinking upon. Jesus is the Victim which ends victimhood and oppression through the glad tidings of sins forgiven.

Cultural Christianity is downstream from a born again Christianity. And this comes to us as a gift of grace which we receive by faith. The secularists have called deep heaven down upon their heads, and they must now either be crushed by it’s weight, or call out for salvation.

Alphas & Incels

Alphas & Incels

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Help Lord 

The Psalmist once said this, “Help, LORD; for the godly man ceaseth; for the faithful fail from among the children of men (Ps. 12:1).”

Masculinity is feared by our modern world. Virtues like assertiveness, decisiveness, and determination are not allowed to be expressed, unless it is by a Marvel She-ro. The last few decades has given rise to two deviant forms of masculinity. You’ve got the Alphas, who are a reactionary movement to feminist indoctrination. This form of masculinity is like a body builder full of ‘roids whose physique a bizarre exaggeration of maleness, but it is entirely without function. It’s like the evil step-brother of the trans-woman.

The other deviant form of masculinity, is that of the incel. Where the alpha has embraced the life of reactionary irritation of the hoes, the incel has resigned himself to his fate of being unlucky with the ladies. But taking the path of resignation or reaction will only bring a man to inverted or subverted masculinity.

The evolutionary software that runs modern mindsets doesn’t have any concern whether male or female first emerged out of the primordial ooze. In fact, in that framework we’re all just interchangeable ooze. But Scripture reveals our true origins; man was fashioned from the dust, inspired by the very breathe of His Creator God, and then given a task to tend and defend a garden; God then graciously put a woman by Adam’s side, which came from Adam’s side. This order of our origin is not an insignificant detail. God made man. God made the man first. God gave man a specific task. God gave a woman as a precious aid in that project. Every king needs his queen, after all.

Alphas

I’d define Alphas as men who think that masculinity is asserting themselves in the procurement of their desires. If there’s something they want, they take it. This has been championed by popular figures. Men instinctively know their meant for danger, risk, assertiveness, bravery, and initiative. The appeal of the alpha-lifestyle is that is marked by instant gratification.

There are shades of virtue here, but they’ve been hijacked by the desires. Diligence in working out, assertiveness in relationships, and emotional stability are disciplines which men should cultivate. But the alpha takes the tool of these virtues as a weapon to procure his desires. Usually women & wealth.

The problem is that the alpha-lifestyle inevitably leads to an ego-centric self-preservation & self-gratification. It becomes the brat in the candy aisle, throwing a tantrum for not getting the treat he wanted.

Incels

Involuntary Celibates, or Incels, are a real problem. But I think the problem isn’t as straightforward as some might paint it. The caricature is that an Incel is a sloppy, greasy, overweight nerd who can’t get lucky with the ladies, while still living in his mom’s basement, playing Minecraft, with cheeto-dusted fingers. While personal hygiene, strength of character, and economic accomplishment might contribute to his problem attaining success in courtship, it is not the lone explanation. 

There are young men who are well-off financially, physically fit, and are, on the whole, respectable men. But modern feminist thought has made it so that women believe they deserve to date a man who is a ten across the board. Chris Hemsworth’s body. Elon Musk’s wealth. Ryan Gosling’s personality. Harry Styles’ musical ability.

But the temptation of the incel is to be like Adam in Eden and blame the women. It’s everybody else’s fault. It’s the economy. It’s the slutty girls. It’s the controlling mom. It’s the school system. The incel needs to refuse to be a victim.

There is no glory in victimhood. A young man’s glory is his strength. Too many young men have contented themselves with being NPCs. They’re ok with being a background character in the story. The first thing an incel must begin to cultivate is to not give a rip about what script the world handed you. You must take the script God gives you in the Bible. That requires you to a life of diligence, truth, purity, rigor, blood, sweat, tears, and righteous conquest.

Quit Ye Like Men

You live in a day when worship of the strong gods has returned. Christ-less men have sought these gods out, erecting them in the high places. The Alphas think that in bowing before Baal they shall procure power over their enemies. The Incels grovel at the throne of Aphrodite’s porn, content to watch with glazed eyes the prowess of other men. 

But Christian men are not to be so. Peter commands this: Add to your faith virtue (2 Pt. 1:3). Virtue is the fuse which detonates the force of virtues. Virtue is the greenhouse in which virtues can be cultivated. Christian men look in faith to Christ, and then are to add or furnish their bodies to be vessels for the virtue of the Spirit of God. Wicked men, whether alphas or incels, cannot conceive of how excellent moral virtue is when it is combined with faith.

The Spirit enables great exploits. By the Spirit a man is able to pull down towers of error. To break lions jaws. To tend the garden of his family. To win a maiden without force or fraud. To defy the gods of the age. To disobey the godless in order to obey his god.

True manhood is not found in grasping after your life, or bemoaning that you are the victim. You want life? Then die. Die in Christ.

Manhood doesn’t mope about its circumstances. It sprints towards the danger. It doesn’t speculate that there’s a lion outside, and so justify lack of assertive action. Manhood doesn’t perform self-aggrandizing touchdown dances. It steadily pursues to add to faith virtue. Young men, you must heed Paul’s exhortation to the Corinthian church: “Quit ye like men, be strong.” Not with the strength of horses and chariots. But with the strength that arises from faith in the name of your God. The God who sent His Son to live and die in our stead, that we might live and then die only to live forevermore in the joy of His righteous life.

The Girardian Toothpaste

The Girardian Toothpaste

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Introduction

The recent shooting in Nashville is one more instance of how the USA is not only a bit frayed along the edges, but it is unravelling. This tragedy is a tragedy on a number of fronts, and this tragedy has been a mask-off moment for the entire Trans/Woke project. We should all be praying for the family of the victims, as well as the family of the shooter, and the authorities as they work through this difficult time. The police are to be lauded for acting so quickly and running to the danger. That is precisely what you want to see law enforcement do during a moment like this.

An Apocalypse

But it shouldn’t escape our notice that we are living through an “apocalypse”. This is a time of unveiling. All our dead works, all the sneaky, secret sins done in the dark are coming to the light. From Trump’s election, to COVID19, to the Summer of Riots in 2020, to the chaos that was the 2020 presidential election, J6, Mar-a-Lago raid, train derailments, Russia/Ukraine, etc.. Welcome to the world in the year of our Lord 2023. When Covid-19 came on the scene, and we all were trying to figure out what on earth was happening, I remember Pastor Doug reminding our congregation that we should pray something along the lines, “God don’t let up until we repent.” All of this is a revelation of what we get when we forsake Christ & His Word.

This recent tragedy, and more so the reaction to it, is showing how far down the rot goes. A Trans shooter targets a Christian school she once attended, and the media contorts in every which way to avoid stating the obvious facts of the case. Every other shooting gets the “Gun Control Now” treatment, this one gets a “Christians caused this” treatment.

The arguments have ranged from “Tennessee passed anti-trans laws, and thus they only have themselves to blame,” to “Gee, that Christian school must not have had enough thoughts and prayers to protect them.” News networks are offering apologies for misgendering the shooter. Christian outlets are chiding evangelical parents about how to talk with their kids about school shootings, as if all our kids needed was a good chat in praise of center-left gun policies.

Our nation is like a bungee cord stretched over too much junk in the back of an ’84 Ford F150. This event is like shoving one more box in, it’s all about to go sproing. The trans movement now has a martyr messiah, if they so choose. The conservatives now have a scapegoat, if they so choose. One side can choose to deify Audrey Hale, the other side can pour all their fury upon her. And so it will go on. You can’t put the Girardian toothpaste back in the tube.

What Then Should we Do?

But here is what conservative, Evangelical Christians (which is my target audience) must realize. The Trans movement has successfully evangelized and now is mobilizing a generation. They fear that the planet is going to perish in draught and floods. They hate their material bodies. Our Christless culture insists on sacrificing their offspring to demons. They will not stop their diet of porn, psychotropic drugs, and escapist recreational drugs. They will not stop until you applaud them, and join in their madness.

This is not a time for playing cute. This is not a time of peace, but it is a time to have your feet shod with the Gospel of Peace. The madness which has engulfed our culture will not be stayed by insipid praise choruses or trite sermons with no substance. It won’t be cured with bandages, this will take the surgery of true sweeping repentance.

We are adrift in the flotsam and jetsam of moral relevance, subjective truth, and gnostic philosophizing. The foundations are removed, and this is the fruit of what we’ve sown. But the Good News is good news for this world. All the rivalry, all the Marxist dialectic, all the shame, all the warfare is ended because of Good Friday. Christians must not retreat from their commitment to the proclamation of the Gospel and the subduing of the nations to obey all of Christ’s commands. Rather, we must repent that we have been so anemic in our own obedience to Christ’s commands.

Through Christ, your sin is forgiven. Eternal life is your inheritance. Christ has made you complete in Him, binding you fast in the cords of His eternal love. So, stop dilly-dallying with your sin. Stop resenting your neighbor. Stop fearing the edicts of tyrants. Pick up your Bible, take your family to a church that preaches and sings from that Bible, and tell the world: Christ is Lord. Do it with joy. Do it even when they threaten, mock, and deride. Stand firm, quit yourself like a man. There is an incoming tide of human wreckage, the result of the lies of the Trans agenda, and we must be ready to minister grace & peace, by resisting the lies with the truth of God’s word.

A Word to Trans

But in all this I want to clearly say to trans folks, no matter how mangled your body, no matter how empty you feel, no matter how angry you are at your parents & society, no matter how fearful you are of laws being passed to ban puberty blockers, Christ has a word for you. It is a word which rings with compassion, and stings with truth. You will not be complete trying to escape your body. Testosterone or estrogen will not bring you fulfillment. Plastic boobs or a grafted penis will not result in joy.

Christ died to give you life, to take your shame, to make you truly human. If you regret the steps you’ve taken to transition, the church will happily bear the burden of your sin, and welcome you to Christ and the forgiveness He offers. Christ died so that you might die in Him, and He arose so that you might live in Him. Christ invites you into the joy of His Salvation, but leave your sin, leave your pride, and be free of your burden.

Elites & Conspiracists

Elites & Conspiracists

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The elite (UN, WEF, MSM) want you to think of the world as they envision it: unity under their direction. Conspiracists (Ye, Jones, Qanon, etc.) want to convince you that the real world has been taken from you by the elites, & you must follow them to see through the veil. The former is a vision of the world based on luciferian vanity; the latter is a vision of the world based on satanic envy. The truth is that rebellious man will always try to erect a tower of his own magnificence, for his own pride & glory. He wants mankind, without reference to God, to be the uniting principle of the cosmos.

This inevitably leads to the wickedness of “The Great Reset” variety. Other men, rightly perceiving the wickedness of totalitarianism, set out to withdraw into a mystery religion that can see through all the smoke & mirrors. But in order to arrive at their secret knowledge you must adhere to their envy, resentment, & bitterness.

The Christian must look at the totalitarians & the conspiracists through the Word. The Secular Globalist project is damnable for its pride. The Conspiracists are damnable for their envy. Both must be called to repentance. There is probably more wickedness in the halls of globalism than even the conspiracy theorists imagine.

There is probably more truth in the conspiracy theories than the MSM will ever admit. But your job, as a Christian, is to see the world according to Scripture. Christ has bound the Strong Man & taken his stuff. The world is Christ’s. Not the vanity of the elites, nor the imaginings of the shock jocks can thwart the advance of Christ’s Kingdom.

Obedience But Only After 15 Weeks.

Obedience But Only After 15 Weeks.

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The Republicans in DC have decided, with Lindsey Graham as their mouthpiece to pursue passing legislation which would ban abortions after 15 weeks. Here he is in his own words:

Now, on one hand I applaud him for not sitting on his hands post-Dobbs. The Dobbs ruling wasn’t a final victory. Roe until Dobbs was like the pre-season, and now we’ve got a 50 game season to decide the champion.

However, as my tweet of this video articulates, the GOP has decided to couch their moral reasoning in two things: the opinion of the average American voter, and what the coolest nations over at the UN doing. If your teenager made a decision like the GOP has made here, you’d probably respond with the cliché about jumping off a cliff if all their friends did. Public opinion polls are not where our morality should be derived from. Morality can’t be decided by a vote. Morality must be transcendent, or else it will be transient. Scripture should be the basis for our civil laws and how we understand morality, justice, and equity.

Regardless of whether this bill has a shot of even coming close to passing, our elected officials are not tasked by God to execute justice and peace only insofar as public opinion will go along with it. Our standard for what constitutes murder shouldn’t be drawn on the basis of where other 1st world nations draw the line.

As we await more information on this bill and the strategy behind it, the concern which we ought to raise is that it will be very easy for pre-Dobbs pro-life politicians to weasel their way (post-Dobbs) into a spot where they can preserve their pro-life credentials while sidling away from language such as “from conception”. They can now look reasonable, respectable even, without having to continue the fight further.

Make no mistake, I hope every GOP member of congress supports & votes for this bill, and it would be a wonderful step forward if it became law. But it is also rife with temptation to stop there. The Bible doesn’t tell us that compliance to God’s law in 62.5% of cases is good enough. Rather, Moses promises Israel, “But if thou shalt indeed obey his voice, and do all that I speak; then I will be an enemy unto thine enemies, and an adversary unto thine adversaries (Exo. 23:22).” The GOP should take heart, and by faith walk in the promise of those words, regardless of how many Handmaid’s Tale costumes are on the capitol steps. We are to obey all that God commanded us in His Word, not just to the extent that Gallup tells us will satisfy voters during the mid-terms.

The GOP should be pressed to clarify that this is just step one of their plan to ban abortion from conception. Is that a steep political hill? Yes. Does that matter? No. God’s Word condemns half-hearted obedience far more than just rank disobedience (Jer. 3:11). In other words, keep a close watch on how this proceeds, and don’t step off the gas.

Ben Zornes