Tempered Vision

“…in the days of Herod the king” Matthew 2:1 ESV

“John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness…” Mark 1:4

“according to the customs of the priesthood, he was chosen by lot to enter the temple…” Luke 1:9

“Now they had been sent from the Pharisees” John 1:24

As we open the New Testament it is clear. This is a new world. One full of new customs, new rules, new rulers, new divisions, new everything. Herod is King but he has no genealogy or connection to King David, or any of the myriad of Northern Kings. His kingdom is founded on the might of Rome who sends its own to “help” as well. Looking at the Old Testament we don’t have baptism but the New Testament opens with a man characterized as John “the Baptist” and we are to know what that means. The Priests have developed new customs as the chief Priest is no longer compelled to enter the Holy of Holies but that privilege is done by lottery of some kind. And another group is even introduced known as the Pharisees. We are in Jerusalem but it seems as if all the signs have been moved and changed. The Greeks have come and gone. Rome has set up shop and we are not in Kansas anymore!

The Pharisees exist as the conservative party always trying to conserve what was given to the people and trying to prepare for the future conservative reign of the King of Kings as they would “Make Israel Great Again”. They had their unruly “far right” wing called the Zealots that wanted to take control faster and were significantly more willing to push the bounds of propriety. Then the Liberals were also there holding all the levers of authority and power as society was pressed ever more progressively towards the Hellenistic customs that would surely be the “right side of history.”

Coming full bore into this scene we understand that there was no going back. The quest for the old ways leaves you frozen in salt with Lot's wife watching as all that you loved is destroyed in judgment of the almighty. Leaving your husband, the only righteous man in Sodom, to fall to alcoholism as his daughters take the lead, and all future generations are plagued by immorality, idolatry, and inevitably are rejected by God.  The quest to restore all that was, is understandable but destined to failure. R.R. Reno makes that comment in his book Return of the Strong Gods, speaking of religion, “But it cannot resume its old place in society”. There is no going back to the way it was. A society bound together around depression sensibilities and a brotherhood of military hardship did not come out of easy living. How could you possibly go back to such a time. Just as Rehoboam had to simply deal with the New Kingdom to his north, re-union was simply never going to happen, even if he dreamed of it as he put his crowned head on the pillow at night. The zealots would try to create their Jewish Kingdom only to fall to the might of Rome and destroy all they loved as the flames engulfed the temple.

What do we do now? Stephen Wolfe released his book The Case for Christian Nationalism and immediately was engulfed in what can politely be called push back. I have not read his book so am not prepared to give any comment on it specifically, but I listened to an interview he did and the interviewer noted the ferocity of some of the responses. It is that which I want to comment on. As they went back and forth one of them hypothesized the reason for the aggressive response was because of the articulate nature of an alternative vision. This wedged its way into my mind and I have not been able to shake the implication of it. The thought that came full force upon me was “Are Christians merely tempering the secular vision or providing a truly unique biblical vision of the future?” As I thought upon these things the reality of Britain and Canada specifically made more sense. The “conservative” parties in these countries, as well as most of Europe, are simply less left than the parties of “progress”. Why? Is it not probable that the conservative parties really are going to the same place they just don’t want to get there as fast? They are simply tempering the vision of the left. The only real threat to the left is a truly alternative vision of what the future should be. The strength of the zealots of the right only act to slow down the inevitable beat of that future. Yet, if a truly alternative vision rears its head, it no longer functions as a matter of time but rather it threatens to derail everything.

What Christians must do is not simply temper the secular vision but provide the biblical vision of life. One centered and lived in full to the glory of God. The difference between a Christians later years and their secular neighbor’s retirement must be more than simply a few less trips to Las Vegas and a trip to Jerusalem. Is a Christian home simply one with a couple kids more than average, prayer before meals, and Sunday morning conflict? What of our Christian Communities? We must lift our gaze to see what God’s vision for us is, not merely temper our hope around a more pasteled vision of the future than our neighbors. How biblically vibrant is your five-year plan?

Coram Deo

Men Listened

Job 29:21 ESV

Men listened to me and waited and kept silence for my counsel.

It’s a tough job. The last few years I believe the hardest job on the planet has been White House press secretary. President Trump would cycle through individuals and having just watched a segment of President Biden’s Press Secretary fielding questions focused on his handling of documents and his comments all I can think is “that’s a hard job”. To speak for someone who is actively speaking and acting against what you said or will say, and then to do so surrounded by intelligent people hired to ask pointed questions. Getting through an answer seems to be a significant challenge as time and again you are interrupted.

This plays out repeatedly as hosts and guests often refuse to wait for others to finish speaking. The clock is ticking and points need to be scored, seems to be the pattern of communication espoused and taught by conservative and progressives alike. It doesn’t seem to matter the format, one on one, round table, or “press secretary” no one wishes to honor another. All clamor to find a punch line at the expense of the other, that they might win more political points, elevate their brand, and win celebrity status.

As Job found himself thrown from respectability, he bemoaned the loss of his honor. What has occurred? No one listens or cares what he thinks. The mark of someone caring for him was that they would allow him time to think about what they said, time to finish what he wanted to say, and then they would think about what he said. The inverse of this then is people not honoring and not caring is those that require a quick answer, those that refuse to allow you to finish speaking, and those that don’t bother to pause and think about what you have said. Communication has become combative and lightning fast, a blitzkrieg of words to win the day. Generations trained in the quick-witted response of television sitcoms have grown to believe they must be as quick and witty as those that had hours bent over paper compiling scripts, and they have succeeded.

As communication has become the battleground, how are we to treat others as we wish to be treated? Definitions change, do we out of respect honor new definitions and renounce the truth in favor of double-speak? Vocabulary, definitions, and communication have become the new battlefield for the hearts and minds of a generation. Is all fair in war? Christians have always held that everything is not fair in love or war. Now we must understand that Christians communicate in a certain manner and way that includes listening, contemplating, and responding. In a society bereft of love, we must learn to love in how we speak with our neighbor even when they don’t love us in return.

Coram Deo

Deterioration

Judges 21:10 ESV

“This is what you shall do: every male and every woman that has lain with a male you shall devote to destruction.”

His father and uncle started a construction business. They worked hard and it was successful. Not much to it and that was the speaker's point. How simple it was to start a business and do a good job in the fifties and sixties. This particular speaker was frustrated with the amount of government intervention that has been introduced, such that we have so few businesses because it is so fraught with legal barriers. Yet this was not the point of his argument. This was the sign of the problem. He pressed in and laid the blame where it belongs at the feet of generation after generation of men. Starting first with the boomers who would not stand against the tyranny of “small” intrusions, step by step refusing to fight the battles needed for liberty. Culture sacrificing liberty for safety. Men having their aggression and “risky” behavior bleed out of them. This is not the first time we have heard this mantra.

In 1908 the Boy Scouts were formed with the Boy Scouts of America formed in 1910. Why? Why was such an organization necessary? Baden-Powell was concerned with the decline of boys. The Disney movie “Follow Me Boys” of the 60s highlights the concern as well. Boys with too much time, no structure, and degenerating into hooligans, would never become the men their country needed. Even the Kennedy Administration would get in on the decline of physical prowess and highlight the P.E. program at La Sierra High School, giving us a lot of peg boards in gyms throughout the country. It seems every generation has complained about the next not being “man enough.” With that observation many would simply put it to this is simply how it works every generation worries needlessly about the slackening standards. My question though is different. What if they ALL are correct? It is not simply old men remembering better days with rose-colored glasses, but rather each generation is distinctly less willing to sacrifice safety for liberty, year after year, generation after generation?

The morality of the Israelites seemed to deteriorate rapidly. Even as Benjamin was egregious in its sodomy it was not distinct in its immorality. The book of Judges goes round and round, but not back to where it started. As they would fall into idolatry they would repent and come back to God, but not back to where they started. It wasn’t a simple wheel, but rather a downward spiral, getting worse every round. Then by the end of the book, they are slaughtering each other with the sentence God placed on the Canaanites, but now simply for failure to appear! Every year they had gotten worse and thought they were okay. “It’s not like it used to be” was just silly old men who did not remember reality well, but it was not. They were getting worse, each and every generation. They would get a king, but he would be one step forward two steps back. Get another king, and it would be two steps only to be followed by three steps back. Eventually you would get Hezekiah and Josiah but they would not be able to turn the tide of idolatry and immorality for more than a single generation. Hezekiah was followed by the most wicked king in Judah’s history.

How do we change? How does lasting righteous change take root? Pray, preach, read your bible and fear nothing but sin. As our society neglects all of these, what is expected to happen? Yes, we used to have two services on Sunday and one on Wednesday. Studying the reformation, you realize that the preachers were preaching twice on Sunday and three times during the week. Studying scripture and they were meeting daily. Wanting revival, wanting reform, but thinking it is going to happen on 1/5^th or 1/7^th of the effort is ridiculous! Complaining about the problem is cheap and easy. Sacrifice is hard, denying yourself, and taking up your cross is distinctly “not fun” and a trial. Changing leadership is like changing kings, the trend line does not change. Changing a people means choosing to do the work of making people upset. Sacrificing some of your social safety for the liberty that comes with obedience to the Gospel.

Coram Deo

A World of Pure Imagination

Job 4:12 ESV

“Now a word was brought to me stealthily; my ear received the whisper of it.”

Job had a rough day. All his possessions and offspring were taken from him in a single day. Later his health was also taken from him, now he was destitute in the dust of the street with dogs liking his pusing wounds. Hearing this his friends come and cry/mourn with him for seven days and nights. They cared and loved him enough to listen to his account of the evil he was enduring, and for seven days said nothing. Seeing his friend and wondering why such evil had come upon Job, Eliphaz was given an answer. Wanting to help he opened his mouth, and became a parrot for Satan.

The brutal reality of life comes upon us year by year. The fabulous joys of children being born and quieting down when, for the first time, they are soothed at their mother’s breast are cast against the children unable to breathe that first breath. Some years are harder than others and some years are so joyous you fear December 31^st! Understanding the reasons for the world into which we are thrust is the quest for which we are given the God shaped hole that dwells inside of us. In the desire for answers many fall victim to believable lies.

Looking back at Eliphaz we listen as he recounts his vision and the words that Satan whispered in his ear. Verse eighteen even has nothing that God charges angels with error, reflecting his own status. Eliphaz has his answer and begins to tempt Job to believe the lie about God and about himself. It makes sense and we want to believe that bad things happen to bad people and good things happen to good people. If something bad has happened or is happening then you have done something wrong. In this light Eliphaz tries to persuade Job to repent, confess, and turn to God for all of chapter 5. Job refuses to live in the lie that Satan has planted through Eliphaz, and the battle between Job and the unwitting pawn of Satan is underway.

For the next thirty-three chapters Satan uses Job's three friends and one passer by to tempt Job to live in a lie. Job continues in his integrity and rejects these overtures until God reveals himself in the whirlwind, silencing Job and judging his friends. It did not matter that they wanted to help, or that they had sat silent for seven days, Eliphaz and the rest had allowed themselves to be used by Satan to propagate lies and they needed Job to intercede for them or else.

Living in lies seems to be all that our culture is able to accomplish of late. As we sow more ridiculous ones day to day and it seems to be accepted. Homosexual Mirage took center stage first and with decades of good PR was able to win the public. Having lost all connection to reality, the facts of life have become suggestions, and we celebrate men beating women in sports as if it was a surprise! Will you live in the lie? Have you noticed that it isn't enough that they live in a lie? Taking their friends and falling into a dystopian nightmare of pretending isn’t enough, you must join them.

Getting Eliphaz to believe the lie was never Satan’s goal. He didn’t care about Eliphaz or the other two. He only cared about Job. Getting a Godly man to accept the lie is all that mattered to him. As you hear Satan’s parrots spinning a world of pure imagination realize it is you, he is after. He doesn’t care if the United States or Kansas gets better or worse. It doesn’t matter if a war starts or doesn’t only that he can convince you to live in the world of lies he has created. The only way to stave off the attacks of Satan is to know the Savior of the world. To read of him and study him in the word he has given. He has revealed himself that you might not fall to the father of Lies. Let us live in the reality of his life, death, burial, and resurrection!

Coram Deo

Stop and Think

Haggai 1:7 ESV

Thus says the Lord of Hosts: Consider your ways.

The steady drum of the road underneath helped to mellow our conversations. The middle seat was taken out which provided extra spacing between us and the kids. Once again, our discussion turned to the child that gives us the most concern. He had been struggling over Christmas. The extra sugar, extra toys, staying up late, and three dogs under two years, all seemed to contribute to a rather difficult few days at Grandma and Grandpa’s house. A long car ride seems to help the mind turn as miles turn into hours. The slow, steady, beat of concrete seems to help keep the mind moving without losing traction.

The book of Haggai is written by the prophet to encourage the nation to build the Temple now that they have returned to the Land of Promise. They had been in it a few years; they had built homes, sown fields and reaped them, and yet they weren’t getting anywhere, if anything they were falling behind. There never seemed to be enough and they were always in want. The prophet points to this and brings his message from the Lord, “Consider your ways….”  He says this because it is easy to fall into insanity. One of the famous definitions of insane is doing the same thing and expecting a different result. To help avoid this it is good to look and see what has been done and what has happened. To “consider your ways” falls well in with the repeated command of scripture to “remember”. Things have happened and God has moved, do you remember your lessons, did you meditate and understand the meaning of what has occurred?

Our end is coming to a year, or maybe it is better to say our year is coming to an end. As this year draws to an end and our end is one year closer, how are you doing with the tasks you have been given to do? One of the tremendous tasks given to parents is to raise children in “the fear and admonish of the LORD” (Eph 6:4). As we evaluated our year's work running down the road home, it was easy to get lost in the frustrations of another holiday of our son getting in trouble. Then we truly considered our ways. This last year we have gone on multiple dates, and left with only our oldest child in charge. This was not possible the previous year. Not because of her age but his listening. Now he listens. For all the frustrations that come from having to take a child out of church, this is not multiple times a Sunday any longer, nor is it even once a month, it is only occasionally bad. Asking Kelly how the sermon went no longer gives the eye roll because she could not catch a word, but occasionally an eye roll because she actually heard my attempt at humor! It is still hard and even heart breaking on occasion, but it is getting better.

The passage from Haggai is one directly to those who are so busy they aren’t doing the tasks God has assigned to them, and they are blind to their plight. Yet, the solution to the problem is also good for those that are overwhelmed by the task they are doing, but they don’t feel they are getting anywhere. “Consider your ways” says the LORD, and we should heed that word. The year is coming to an end and a new one is about to begin, another loop around the sun completed. For those that are giving way to the frustration of getting nowhere, and looking at a year of more and the same, “consider your ways”, is it true or are you ignoring how God has moved and brought you forward. For those like Israel, are you blindly going into another losing cycle, “consider your ways”. As we end one year of service and prepare for another, let us faithfully consider our ways, that we may serve Coram Deo (Before the face of God).

Coram Deo