Ben Zornes

Living and Dying to Show the Preciousness of Christ

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Humorless Justice

Humorless Justice

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A Narnian Expedition

On a recent road-trip with the family, we were listening to the radio theater version of Lewis’ The Magician’s Nephew. One phrase stood out to me, and began working its way from there to here. The line was this:

“Laugh and fear not, creatures. Now that you are no longer dumb and witless, you need not always be grave. For jokes as well as justice come in with speech.”

C.S. Lewis, The Magician’s Nephew, pgs. 118-119

For those who’ve not read the Narniad (and really, shame on you), the context is that Aslan has just created the world of Narnia. He’s selected certain creatures to be endowed with the gift of speech. The instructions he gives them are met with vocal assurances from the creatures at their eagerness to obey; but as their response dies down, a Jackdaw accidentally responds “too late” and his squawk stands out awkwardly. The creatures are unsure what to do at this humorous accident, and try to hold back their laughter. Aslan delivers the above quote.

The creatures are welcomed to laugh at their friend’s accident, and the Jackdaw laughs along…seeing the humor of his mistake. Gravity and jollity aren’t enemies, in other words.

Frowning Justice

Justice is in high demand right now. But what many are clamoring for when it comes to justice is a frowning justice. A justice that can’t smile. A justice that can be wielded. Our society has picked up on the fact that we are living in the midst of great injustice, diagnosing a symptom. But the solution proposed is that justice is simply the by-product of holding power. In many respects this seems to be true. If you have enough money, prestige, and don’t have any embarrassing tweets from 2011 you can get off easy.

Once in power, the levers of justice are adjusted to try to remedy what that particular party perceives as injustices. Whether it be anti-war types protesting drone-bombings of Iranian weddings, or black people protesting police brutality, or libertarians demanding commuted sentences for Marijuana dealers we see that the party in power thinks it is their job to recalibrate the scales of justice to favor their cause, while penalizing those opposed to their cause. This is just an evidence that we have taken off Lady Justice’s blindfold. The modern personification of Lady Justice would need to be scowling on one side of her face, while winking on the other. “Rules for thee, but not for me” and all that.

This is just proof that we don’t have justice, we have a tangled web of misplaced loyalty, denial of objective truth, and at the heart of it all: envy.

The Left Can’t Meme

Nowhere is this borne out more clearly than in the adage, “The Left Can’t Meme.” As the madness descends, we can see that what would have been satire 2 years ago is now an actual headline. A man is allowed to flash his genitals in a girls locker room, and instead of being arrested he is given trophies for his athletic accomplishments, and if you do not applaud you are a bigot, and you should be banned for violating the Community Standards of Facebook.

Try cracking a joke at the DMV employee and you’ll taste how our government officials make it rather hard to believe that they aren’t dumb & witless creatures. You must take this pandemic seriously. Children must be masked at school to keep us all safe. But as Gov. Newsom showed, he takes this policy so seriously that he attended (along with 80,000 others) the NFC Championship game without a mask. He can’t be serious. Trudeau is currently hiding from truckers which he once stated should receive Canadians’ praise for their bravery. But the irony is lost on these men. Closer to home, we conservatives bemoan how we are losing our nation, but skip church to make sure we don’t miss a minute of the big game.

Perhaps we should amend the adage: “The Godless Can’t Meme.” For indeed, the fool says in his heart there is no God, and can’t see how stupid he is for using the gifts of speech and reason he’s received to string together such an inane word salad, without any croutons.

Jokes & Justice

And so, I return to that quote from Lewis. Jokes and Justice come in with speech. Adam’s first words were a poetic pun. Eve’s hearkening to the Serpent hinged on his clever play on words. Cain complained that he could not bear his punishment, using the same word that is used later in Scripture for “forgive”; in other words, Cain says, “My punishment is greater than I can forgive.” Of course it is greater than he could bear or forgive, that’s why the Lamb must be slain.

In our pursuit of justice, whether in our homes, churches, or civil government we must remember that we are made in the image of the King of Joy and Righteousness. We are to imitate God’s gravity and joy as we carry out the matters of justice placed in our jurisdiction. After all, as God’s justice was satisfied in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for sinful man, God was playing the greatest joke. You can’t kill God. The grave swallowed up Christ, but then He rose, swallowing death and the grave in victory.

This means when you are disciplining your children, you should never lose your cool. When solving a dispute between your children, you should not yourself be so grave as to be a gloomy cloud on the proceedings, leaving the situation more glum than it began. Instead, bring the joy that the truth of justice does not exist in a world without the truth of mercy.

We are people of the Word. We have been given speech. May we not miscarry justice nor be so light-hearted as to take nothing seriously. Otherwise, the Ox in heaven will rightly tease one another and say, “What are you, dumb as the damned?”

Let’s Go Brandon

Let’s Go Brandon

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Background

We should get two things out of the way first. If you don’t know what the phrase “Let’s Go Brandon!” means, you should simply type it into your search engine and find out. I’m not here to do your homework for you. Secondly, in what I shall proceed to say I would to highlight that this is not some Victorian disapproval of salty language. I am in favor of salty language. I think there is a place for it. I think evangelicals would do well to lightly salt their language far more often than they typically do. But like salt…salty language can be overused, misused, or abused.

That said, we should not be swept off our feet. Keep your wits about you, particularly in this flood of lawlessness that surrounds us on all sides. Remember what Tirian told Eustace, “Do not scold, like a kitchen-girl. No warrior scolds. Courteous words or else hard knocks are his only language.” You either speak with kindness or sternness. If someone is your guest you treat them with good manners. Good manners are simply “love in the trifles” as someone once said. If, however, you are speaking to an opponent and enemy, you do not befoul your language to scold them. You speak stern and hard words, to make them understand you mean business and you will not be a cupcake in engaging them.

The chants of “F*** Joe Biden” which broke out at college football games were quite a PR blow to an administration that needs young voters, and whose approval ratings are already cratering less than a year in power. The crowds shouting this taunt were, it should be noted, mostly college students at a football game to have a good time. They were not soldiers in arms. But viral videos are the weaponry in the battle for keeping our nation free and prosperous. So such viral moments should not be discounted out of hand. For the last several weekends “F*** Joe Biden” has been a trending topic on Twitter and across social media platforms. We should at the very least take notice the shifting winds.

The hilarity of seeing a prized voting bloc ridicule the Biden administration was doubled when an NBC sports babe was interviewing a NASCAR driver after his win, and misheard (or just as likely tried to cover up) the “F*** Joe Biden” chants by saying that the crowd was chanting “Let’s Go Brandon.” Which thing they most certainly weren’t shouting. But thus was born a new motto for the GOP, and those fed up with the encroachments on liberty which the Oba–I mean Biden administration seem hell-bent to implement.

Corrupt Communication

As Christians, we must obey Scripture. We should speak as Scripture directs. Paul tells us: “Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers (Eph. 4:29).” And: “Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man (Col 4:6).” Now, this doesn’t mean that Christians should never speak with sternness, with provoking language (i.e. just study the prophetical books of the OT). We should let Scripture shape and determine how we rebuke and reprove evildoers and tyrants.

The nearest the apostles come to such language as we are discussing here would be when Paul wishes that the Judaizers would castrate themselves. We might call this episode an instance of apostolic saltiness. The Judaizers wanted the Gentiles to compromise on a matter of Gospel freedom, and Paul was not about to capitulate to those who wanted to include a small dose of self-righteousness with the free Gospel of grace.

Contrast this with threatening someone with an unwanted sexual act. That is what saying “F*** you” means. I know, definitions are so passé these days, but that is the meaning of the phrase in question. The prophet Ezekiel comes closest to this, I believe, when he says this to the adulterous house of Israel:

Wherefore, O harlot, hear the word of the LORD: Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thy filthiness was poured out, and thy nakedness discovered through thy whoredoms with thy lovers, and with all the idols of thy abominations, and by the blood of thy children, which thou didst give unto them; Behold, therefore I will gather all thy lovers, with whom thou hast taken pleasure, and all them that thou hast loved, with all them that thou hast hated; I will even gather them round about against thee, and will discover thy nakedness unto them, that they may see all thy nakedness. And I will judge thee, as women that break wedlock and shed blood are judged; and I will give thee blood in fury and jealousy. And I will also give thee into their hand, and they shall throw down thine eminent place, and shall break down thy high places: they shall strip thee also of thy clothes, and shall take thy fair jewels, and leave thee naked and bare.

Ezekiel 16:35-39

Notice, however, an important distinction. The chants of the mob are prone to being fickle. They have the habit of shifting their ire to a new target ten minutes later. The prophetic voice, however, speaks hard words against religious, political, and economic tyrants. The prophets were equal opportunity offenders. While we should not join in the chants of these wandering sheep of America, what we should note is that the fact that our pulpits have been devoid of prophetic voices for decades has led to college students at football games being far more prophetic than our pastors have been.

We are called to honor the king. But the church must also oppose him when he is not carrying out his office in true justice and righteousness. The church is commanded to sing the Psalms, and so pray to God that the Biden administration would be caught in their own traps (Ps. 9:15). We should pray, along the lines of Psalm 137, that even as this administration has overseen the execution of untold thousands of unborn babies, may the heads of their babies be crushed on the rocks.

In other words, why opt for the the crass language of a dissipate culture when we have the more forceful language of Scripture? The blunt force of the Church’s prophetic office is like a hypersonic missile, while chants of “F*** Joe Biden” hold the rhetorical power of a fly-swatter. So, joining in the chanting is out of the question. But Christians must recognize that it is because we adopted a Precious Moments piety that has led to such an abysmal condition of a once free and Christian nation. As we hear the chants we should hear our own indictment for failing to preach and live a hot Gospel. We should feel the rebuke of the Lord for sending our children to the pagans for their education. We should feel the hot wrath of God’s anger over permitting that woman Jezebel to waltz in midst without calling for her to be tossed from the window.

Corrupt Politicians

When evaluating the Biden Administration, which is an unmitigated disaster on all fronts (moral, cultural, fiscally, etc.), it is right to be outraged. That heat rising to your face when the Dept. of State announces that today is “National Pronoun Day” is righteous anger. That ire over another print run of monopoly money is just indignation that they are stealing from your great-grandchildren.

They are running our country into the ground, and they deserve all the ire that they are inviting upon their own heads. You can’t pull out the pillars of righteousness and and expect the building to remain standing. The way in which we oppose them is to do the thing which will most anger them. Do not consent to their programme. Just like we ought not to go along with the juvenile chants of college students, Solomon’s words to his son apply here as well: “My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not (Pro 1:10).” They want to monitor your bank account, your health status, your health decisions, and if you’ve misused your right to free speech. They want you to applaud drag queens giving a show at the local middle school. Consent thou not. Do not go along with their inane edicts, with their pronoun confusion, with their fiscal necromancy, or with their failure to protect our nation from the threats of communist China. For too long we have gone along with these evils, and now if ever you needed courage to do so, now is the moment to not consent in this national folly.

When You Must Say “Let’s Go Brandon”

One other thing to be noted. There was a post making the rounds that claimed that some Canadian agency was requiring its employees to agree to NOT say “Let’s Go Brandon.” Snopes labelled this as a false rumor. But, let’s ask ourselves, why is it unsurprising that something like that even seemed plausible? We are already in the clown-car, shouldn’t be surprised at all the white face paint and red noses.

If, however, something along the lines of that fake news were to genuinely begin to happen, it would be incumbent upon you, to preserve free speech for future generations, to work that phrase into your daily conversation in multiple instances. Like Daniel opening his windows to pray after Darius’ boneheaded decree, so too you should zig when they tell you to zag. Buy one of those “Let’s go Brandon” shirts. Put the bumper sticker on your car. Wear the face-mask with the motto plastered on it.

In sum, we must not join vigilante crowds and their profane chants, even in innuendo. However, as Christians, we must quit abdicating our role to disciple the nations. Part of discipling the nations is giving them the salt of prophetic truth. They’ve had the bland cram of MSNBC. So give them Pauline Gospel salt. Give them Isaiah’s vibrant vision of God’s holiness. Stand your ground. Sing the imprecatory Psalms. And if they tell you that you must not, under any circumstances say, “Let’s Go Brandon,” you should let loose a most cheerful “Let’s Go Brandon” followed by “Solo Dei Gloria.” In short, don’t stoop to juvenile language when you have the double-edged sword of God’s Word.

A Tinder-Box Nation

A Tinder-Box Nation

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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

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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.

https://twitter.com/LeahBSassy/status/1425559770627457025

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

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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

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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

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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 (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 humans’ 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.

Ben Zornes