The Astonishing Goodness of God

The Astonishing Goodness of God

Feb 28, 2024 | Epistemology - Trust

I was struck by this phrase written by John Calvin as I’m very slowly making my way through his commentary on Isaiah. Satan is a master of deceit; he is the father of lies because lies are his native language. It doesn’t surprise us, then, that lying is how he got the freight train of misery that is life in a fallen world out of the station. The very first lie he told on earth to a human being (Gen. 3) caused the disaster we call the fall, and came in the form of a rhetorical question: “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” Even though Eve answered the question because it was so obviously untrue, it really wasn’t meant to be answered. It was an assault on God’s character, and most especially his goodness. By asking it just this way, Satan was implying God was in fact not good, that he wants to keep good things from us. He could have just as easily said, God is a big old meanie, and he doesn’t want you to be happy.

Eve replied with the truth, that it was only one tree in the middle of the garden of which God commanded they should not eat, or they would die. Then Satan brought out the shotgun of lies and let her have it with both barrels:

4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

He could have easily said, God is horrible and he hates you. He just doesn’t want you to have what he has. He’s keeping this incredible thing, this “knowing good and evil” from you, and that’s just not fair!

Down through the ages since that day, a very lot of people believe Satan. It’s only in the very next chapter when everything starts going to hell, and Cain kills his brother Abel. When God rejected Cain’s offering we’re told, “Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast.” He was probably thinking, God is a big meanie and it’s just not fair! Thus we see the beginning of the ever present temptation of sinners to believe it is God who is the liar, and that he is not good.

How many people reject Christianity because life has handed them a raw deal, and it’s just not fair? A lot. That’s why since the time of Voltaire it’s been called “the problem of evil” because supposedly it’s a problem for Christianity, and by extension, God. Evil is a problem, all right, but it’s a problem for every person whatever their faith or worldview. Throwing God under the bus doesn’t make evil any more palatable or understandable. I would argue it makes it far worse. At least if God’s there you can blame someone. Chance and matter doesn’t offer much solace that way. Evil is then just a brute fact and exists for no reason at all. Other religions have to deal with it too, but not very well. Outside of the Abrahamic religions, not one even explains why evil exists or where it comes from; it just is. And none have any kind of satisfying answer other than, just deal with it. Christianity, by contrast, has a plausible if not completely satisfying answer. At least satisfying enough to be on a continual growth track for 2,000 years because a lot of people think it is plausible enough.

Believing God is Good is Necessary for a Flourishing Life
The longer I’ve been on this journey with Jesus, now north of 45 years, the more I realize my number one sin, the worst of the worst: lack of trust in Almighty God. It requires daily repentance, and is why pretty much every morning I repent for worry, anxiety, doubt, and fear. All such attitudes reflect a lack of trust in the basic goodness and power of God. Living by faith, which means trust in God’s word found in the Bible, and not sight, is incredibly hard. We’re always tempted by Satan’s lie, and it’s amazing to me how easy it is for me to do, thus the repentance. My daily aspiration and lifelong goal is found in Isaiah 26:

3 You keep him in perfect peace
whose mind is stayed on you,
because he trusts in you.

Perfect peace is the standard; an equanimity that cannot be shaken by mere circumstances. As I said, it’s incredibly hard, if not impossible. Verse 4 puts this in perfect biblical context:

4 Trust in the Lord forever,
for the Lord God is an everlasting rock.

We can trust him! And not just for now, for every minute of every day of every week and month and year, but forever! A rock is something in biblical terms that is solid, something we can count on, that doesn’t move with every passing wind or storm. In the parable of the wise and foolish builders, Jesus compares building a house on a rock with building one on sand. When the storms of life come, guess which one stands? And how do we build on rock? We put God’s words into practice. Obedience to God is the “secret” to a flourishing life, whatever that might end up looking like. But it really doesn’t matter because perfect peace is available regardless of the circumstances, as hard as that is to believe when circumstances get really hard.

You will notice this is the case as you contemplate the rest of Isaiah 26. This is a wonderful picture of a rock life, a life that cannot be moved by whims and fancies, or by the pressures and vicissitudes of life. Here is an example:

7 The path of the righteous is level;
you, the Upright One, make the way of the righteous smooth.
8 Yes, Lord, walking in the way of your laws,
we wait for you;
your name and renown
are the desire of our hearts.

To be righteous is to live rightly. It’s the kind of life that is not bumpy, not a flight with so much turbulence the captain says over the speakers to stay in your seats and make sure your seatbelts are tightly fastened. Of course all lives in a fallen world like all flights have some turbulence, but a life lived in obedience to God means we get to our destination without worrying about going down in flames.

I learned the word flourish when I was exposed to classical education in 2010, which is used a lot in that context. I found this wonderful definition:

Flourish is a verb meaning to grow or develop in a healthy or vigorous way, especially as the result of a particularly favorable environment. It refers to a thriving state or condition, such as a plant that is flourishing due to ample sunlight and water.

The only quibble I have with this is related to “a particularly favorable environment.” Because Christianity is true, and God is God, the Almighty Creator and ruler of all things that exist, we don’t need a “favorable environment” to flourish. It’s built into the covenantal cake of His promise to Abraham in Genesis 12 that all the peoples of the earth would be blessed through him, the first of numerous promises to Abraham and the Patriarchs to bless the nations. So because we live in a fallen world, God often enables us to flourish in spite of the environment, not because of it. Our trusting Him in obedience is what allows circumstances to not determine us, but to transform circumstances for our good and His glory.

Obedience Left or Right
As those who understand and embrace the gospel, we know we can’t earn God’s favor by our obedience. That kind of righteousness is given to us because of Christ, and we are accepted only because of him. Once we know we’re accepted and no longer condemned, we can realistically walk rightly, be righteous. We have to believe, me and God, we’re good; no guilt allowed. The beauty of the gospel from an Evangelical perspective is that not only are we forgiven of our sin because Christ took the punishment we deserve, but he also lived a life of perfect obedience to the Father, and in faith Jesus’ righteousness is granted to us.

That in theological terms is known as double imputation, an extremely important concept to understand. When we are saved our sin is imputed to Jesus, and His righteousness is imputed to us. Once you believe that, and fully buy into it, you can begin to “walk rightly” without falling off either side of the balance beam. As we all know walking with God in obedience to His law is a challenge, to say the least. It’s made all the more challenging because as sinners we live in constant temptation to Satanic delusion. On one side of that balance beam, we’ll call that the left side, is the delusion of self-righteousness that leads to legalism, and on the other side, the right, is guilt and despair because no matter how hard we try we’re just not very good at this obedience thing, if we’re honest with ourselves.

In my life, I was always falling off the right side of the beam, wallowing in guilt and shame. Satan really likes those on that side because he can act like his name which means accuser. He’s great at finger pointing and making you feel like you’re a miserable worthless wretch. Almost everybody who’s had any experience with Christianity knows the great hymn Amazing Grace by John Newton. The very famous first verse goes like this:

Amazing grace! How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found;
Was blind, but now I see.

Until I decided to reference that verse, I had never looked up the definition of wretch until now. It means a miserable person, one who is profoundly unhappy or in great misfortune, or a base, despicable, or vile person. That is who we are as sinners before we were saved, not after. We can now hold our heads high as children of the King, walk without shame and guilt because Jesus paid it all, and all to him I owe, in the words of the chorus of that wonderful hymn.

Falling off the right side of the beam has the benefit of building into us a right humility, that we are indeed unworthy sinners saved by God’s unmerited favor, and our only boast in life is Christ. At the end of I Corinthians Paul writes these words that have been a life raft for me:

 30 It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, sanctification and redemption. 31 Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”

I’ve never been able to relate to the self-righteous side of the beam, but I am sure I’ve been guilty of it throughout my Christian life. If we’re ever tempted to think we’re better or superior to anyone else, that’s a sure sign we’re tilting left. Repent!

Internalizing all of this sets the stage for obedience, and the blessing by God associated with it.

Obedience and Flourishing
Because Satan is very good at his diabolical job, we Christians have a hard time believing God wants to bless us. The title of a post I wrote not too long ago indicates this, “Believe It or Not, God Wants to Bless Us.” Or, that He wants us to flourish. Life is hard, and having the habit of living by sight, we tend to think flourishing is a fluke, almost mere luck of the draw. But it is not. God promises blessing for obedience. I made some of the case for this in my post, but that deserves a book-length study. Flourishing can often include material circumstances, but God’s blessing can reach us in any circumstances, and thus true flourishing is always possible.

The morning of the day in which I write these words, I read Galatians 5 and Paul’s description of the “acts of the flesh” and the “fruit of the spirit.” The juxtaposition of two lives driven from either hell or Heaven gives a perfect description of what a flourishing life looks like or not, either heaven or hell on earth. What Paul says is inheriting “the kingdom of God” in that passage is the Jewish concept of shalom. It is that sense of peace coming from the Prince of Peace, reconciliation to our Creator God, that is the fulfillment of the live lived, however imperfectly, by the fruit of the Spirit.

Isaiah saying, “we wait for you,” is a fascinating phrase. None of this is going to be easy, nor should it be. Going against the grain, swimming upstream, is always hard, as it should be. Knowing this, we no longer whine and moan about how hard it is. Rather, we embrace the challenge because He who is in us doing the work enables us to live out righteousness. Our responsibility is to live in obedience as best we can. The result is that our affections, who we are and what we want will become focused on God’s glory, and will all be oriented toward pleasing God. Our inner being will be so transformed by God’s Holy Spirit that what Isaiah says in verse 8 will be true of us, present tense: His “name and renown are the desire of our hearts.” How that is done is how that sentence begins, “walking in the way of your laws.” It is obedience that allows us to wait for him, to have shalom despite not because of the circumstances. Only then will we be able to marvel with Calvin and the saints throughout the ages at God’s astonishing goodness.

 

Love and Reigning in Life Through Jesus Christ

Love and Reigning in Life Through Jesus Christ

Feb 21, 2024 | The Gospel

From April of 2014 to June of 2022 I slowly wrote my way through the entire Bible. It was one of the best things I ever did to show me the inexhaustible riches of God’s word found in our Bibles, what the Apostles and New Testament church called the Writings, or graphé- γραφή in Greek. The word is used over 50 times in the New Testament, always of holy Scripture, i.e., the inspired, inerrant writings of the Bible. These writings, or Scripture, are authoritative because while written by and through men, they are the very words of God. The Apostle Paul tells us how this works and the value contained in these writings:

16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3)

The Scripture Paul is speaking about is the Old Testament because that was the New Testament church’s Bible. There was no New Testament yet. It is from this verse that we get the biblical doctrine of Inspiration. It is phrased that way because the King James version translated these words as, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God…” The Greek word Paul uses there, however, is breathed out, so the writings are literally God’s breath coming through men in the form of words. Thus we call it the word of God. As Jesus said in reply to the devil suffering his temptations in the wilderness, “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” Or, on every word breathed out by God. What happens to us without food? Eventually we die. As Christians we must ask ourselves, is the word of God as important to us as food? Jesus says it should be.

The Bible’s Power to Change People
Biblical inspiration is powerful and profound, but what is more powerful and profound to me, is the effect the Writings have on the lives of the people who encounter them. Over the last few years as I’ve listened to hundreds of Christians share their testimonies, one thing every person has in common is feeling compelled to read the Bible. Even if they were reluctant initially, soon they were taken in by its unique power, realizing, often quickly, there is something divine about this book. To Paul it is this divine nature of the Writings that gives them the capacity, the dynamic aliveness, to create righteousness in God’s people. It has the power to change the way we live, from lost sinners in rebellion to God and for ourselves, to saved sinners living in obedience to God. In theology this is called sanctification, God’s work in us and through us to make us holy, those set apart for his kingdom purposes. Of course, nobody could say this better than Paul:

 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. (2 Cor. 5:15)

In addition to witnessing this dynamic in my own life, and the lives of many loved ones and friends, hearing so many people testify to seeing this play out in their journey to faith in Christ is to me magnificent. Every time I hear or witness it again, I marvel that this Christianity thing I believe in and have staked my life on, is actually true; it’s real! Mere human words on a page cannot do that.

Paul’s point about the purpose of the word of God in our lives is that it is there to change us in fundamental ways, change our being, who we are, that we may be able (thoroughly equipped) to do good works. Here in Jesus’ words is why we want to do these works:

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it (abundantly) to the full (John 10:10).

This abundant and full life comes directly from the blessings that flow into our lives from obedience to God. If the devil can convince us that what we want is more important than what God wants for us, the thief will steal from us the only life that is truly life. God by contrast wants us to reign in life through Christ. How is that done? It’s done through Christ! Romans 5:17 is one of Paul’s declarations of why we can live the abundant life:

For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!

How much more . . . . By being given the gift of righteousness by faith (i.e., not depending on our own) because of God’s grace, we can now reign in life by performing righteousness. We now are able to obey God, albeit very imperfectly, because our lives are no longer solely about us, our wants, our needs, our desires, but about Him! I heard a very simple phrase recently that packed a profound meaning in what at first blush seems so obvious:

There is a connection between what we believe and how we behave.

Well, duh! No kidding. But if we don’t behave like we say we believe, then we either don’t know what we believe, or don’t really believe it. I remember hearing a saying decades ago along these lines:

To know and not to do, is not to know.

Biblically, this is known as fruit. As Jesus says in the gospels, you will know the tree by its fruit. Good fruit good tree, rotten fruit rotten tree.

But is it really possible to change who we are, our fundamental being? Yes and no. God has no desire to make us Stepford Christians, little Christian robots who do and say all the same things. In fact, the complete opposite is the truth. God wants to make each one of us the most Jesus-like person we can be so we can become more fully who he uniquely meant us to be.

The Secret of Reigning in Life
Speaking of reigning in life through Christ, what exactly does that look like? How does that work? When I was reading through that passage in Romans recently, I wondered how many Christians feel like they are “reigning in life.” I would guess probably not many, and I think the reason is that we don’t know what it means, or we think we know what it means and our lives certainly don’t reflect that!

In my early years as a Christians I heard about something called the victorious higher life, or victorious Christian living. It seemed no matter how hard I tried, I wasn’t very good at that victorious life. Defeat seemed a far more common companion than victory, and the guilt that accompanied it. Then when I was introduced to Reformed theology at twenty-four, I learned there was a theology called perfectionism. I came across a book by the great Princeton theologian B.B. Warfield called Studies in Perfectionism that was revelatory for me. I learned this theology or understanding of the Christian life went back to John Wesley in the 18th century. He believed Christians could achieve perfect holiness, and a popular movement grew out of his teaching in the 19thcentury. By the time I’d become a Christian in 1978, few Christians promoted the idea that we could have complete victory over sin, but the echoes of that Wesleyan theology still reverberated in the Evangelical church. It became apparent over time that Christians could not in fact achieve perfection, and those who thought they had achieved it were insufferably self-righteous. Which is ironically funny if you think about it.

So back to our question. If we can’t be perfectly holy, how can we reign in life through Christ? To say we will reign has the ring of perfection to it. And Paul not only says it, but he also grandly declares it! Yet very few of us feel like the kings or queens of our own Christian life; more like paupers than princes or princesses.

The problem with knowing we can’t be perfect in holiness can easily lead to us to thinking we have the license to sin, misusing grace to think we can do whatever we want (read Paul’s horror at such a notion in Romans 6). The other end of the distortion is the irony I referred to. Thinking we are capable of pulling off the Christian life to a degree that leads to pride and arrogance, and thinking we are better than others. Jesus warned us about that in a parable to those “who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else” (Luke 18:9-14). We need to be like the tax collector, not the Pharisee, knowing we are unworthy in ourselves to even look up to heaven, and daily beat our breast and say, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” That, my friends, is the means to reigning in life through Christ! What? Debasing ourselves is a way to reign in life? Yes, through Christ! And it is not debasing, but an accurate assessment of who we as sinners before a holy God. As I often say, I should be a smoldering pile of ashes on the ground; everything else is gravy!

The secret to unlocking the reign in our lives is daily repentance. Naming our sins before God, accepting that we are utterly unworthy of the favor he bestows upon us in Christ. It’s called grace, or unmerited favor. We cannot earn it, and unlike Catholic theology, we cannot earn it by penance, by being really, really sorry, and remorseful for our sins. We are simply agreeing with God that we are wretched sinners worthy of his just judgment, condemnation and death, the wages of sin. But since Jesus the Messiah paid the price, we don’t have to! We get life eternal, and we get to start living that life in the here and now. A mystery of the Christian life is living eternal life, living in obedience to God, being completely up to us in the moment by moment choices we make, but only possible because of God’s work in us.

John gives us a promise of how we can make this work, that “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (I John 1:9). The Greek word for confess means to agree. I like to say, pardon the slight vulgarity, embrace the suck. But the next step is even more important. It is God alone who can change us; we can’t do it by mere will power. As God says to Cain, sin is crouching at our door; it desires to have us. The promise is that if we agree with God about our sin, He will purify us, cleans us, and do a supernatural work in us to make us more like Christ. Transforming ourselves is not our job, it’s His!

It’s All About Love
The key to making this a reality in our lives, the reigning part, is love reflected in service to others. If we’re going to truly great, and God wants us to be great, Jesus tells us we must be servants. And that can only be done in love. To get a handle on what this means, it’s good to remember a definition of sin made famous by Augustine then Luther: homo incurvatus in se. In English, man curved in on himself. The very essence of sin is self-centeredness. If my life is all about me, even if I’m those must upstanding moral person on earth, I am a quintessential sinner. The Pharisees are great examples of such self-righteousness. Being moral is of course crucial for Christians, meaning doing right not wrong, obeying God’s law starting with the Ten Commandments.

Jesus amplified the profoundly transformational nature of God’s law when he said it can all be summed up in love, for God, us, and others. If we’re really good law-keepers but don’t love, Paul says we’re no better than clanging symbols, all noise; basically like a two-year-old, look at me, look at me, look at me! Love is relational because the Triune God is fundamentally love and so relational. I contend, when we really work on loving others, we can learn what it means to reign with Christ because our focus then must be off of ourselves to do it. In taking up our cross, Jesus tell us we are denying ourselves. And Jesus adds, the only way to find our life is to lose it. If we grasp on to our life like a greedy beggar, we will lose it. The great irony of Christianity is that if we give our lives away, we will find the life that is truly life and reign in life through Christ.

 

 

 

We Can Rejoice in Our Sufferings

We Can Rejoice in Our Sufferings

Feb 14, 2024 | The Gospel

Christianity is the strangest thing, and one of the reasons I believe it’s true. Everything about it seems to be counter to everything I am. For some of us it takes a while, and some of us a very long while, to admit that is sin, and that we are sinners by nature at war with God. Because of this Christianity is counter intuitive to us. Everything about it seems upside down. That makes sense, though, because in a fallen world everything is upside down from the way it was created and supposed to be. We shouldn’t be surprised, then, because to counter the distortion of reality coming from sin, of course it seems upside down to us. Take Paul’s exhortation to rejoice in our sufferings. Really?

When I recently read Romans 5 all this was bubbling around in my mind. The very last thing I want to do when I’m suffering is rejoice. My typical response is to whine, moan, and complain. I don’t like suffering, so how in the world am I going to rejoice in it? It doesn’t feel good, whatever that suffering might be as I perceive it. Here is what Paul says:

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

Whenever we see the word therefore, we must ask what it is there for. In chapter 4 Paul is explaining how Abraham’s trust in God’s promises was credited to him as righteousness. He compares Abraham’s trust in God to ours who trust in Christ “who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.” That same trust that we are not right with God, that our sins, or trespasses, have been forgiven and guaranteed by Christ’s resurrection, means we can now have peace with God through Christ. It also means in that peace we no longer have to be controlled or defined by our circumstances, even if that includes suffering. Easier said than done, as we all know.

The Apostle Paul’s Life of Rejoicing
If we think our circumstances are the key to happiness, joy, fulfillment, or peace of mind, we are in for a miserable life. Having experienced seven decades of life, and counting, I can report that will never happen. And when our idea of perfect circumstances does show up once in a while, life plays a cruel joke on us, and we find getting everything we thought we wanted doesn’t fill the void after all. The reason is that only one thing can bring true satisfaction, and that is God Himself in Christ in our right relationship to our Creator. The Apostle Paul tell us what “the secret” of true contentment is:

11 I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. 12 I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. 13 I can do all this through him who gives me strength. (Phil. 4)

Because of secularism, the cultural air we breathe, people are obsessively focused on the here and now, but it offers cold comfort when the “stuff” hits the fan. Wait till you see all the “stuff” that hit Paul’s fan, and maybe we’ll think twice before complaining about pretty much anything. If we think we have it tough, let’s compare our lives with the Apostle Paul’s, this man who literally changed the world and brought untold blessings to now billions of people. Remember, if it wasn’t for the Apostle Paul nobody would likely have ever heard of Jesus. This is what God allows to happen to the most consequential man in human history:

 I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. 24 Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, 26 I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers. 27 I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. 28 Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches. 29 Who is weak, and I do not feel weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not inwardly burn?

 

30 If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. (2 Cor. 11)

How did Paul endure all this and remain content “whatever the circumstances”? He tells us earlier in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, it is through the promise of the resurrection. Speaking of the treasure we have, “the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ,” he says it is in us as jars of clay. It’s a powerful passage and he concludes with this:

16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary afflictions are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

If all the physical and mental sufferings Paul endured are “light and momentary afflictions,” what in the world am I complaining about! Quite the contrary, Paul tells us suffering does something good in us, thus we can rejoice in it.

The Benefits of Suffering
As I typed those words I thought to myself, that sounds absurd; but it’s an absolutely Christian idea. There have also been plenty of non-Christians, and philosophies and religions, who agree, but they don’t have anything to anchor those benefits: the perspective of my being in a reconciled relationship as a sinner to my holy Creator God. Not to mention our Savior and Lord who was a suffering servant. In the post-Christian West, however, suffering is to be avoided at all costs. Because they have their feet firmly planted in mid-air, secular people enjoy their lives only to the degree they are devoid of suffering and struggles. One of our most popular greetings, “How’s it going?” reveals this. Have you ever regretted asking someone this as they complain about all the woes in their life? Me too.

This is why a long time ago I changed my answer to that question. First, as I taught our children, nobody really cares how we’re doing—people care about themselves not you! Back in the 1990s my wife and I were active in the Amway business. (You youngsters probably don’t know what that is). Part of the vibe of the business was positive thinking. We were exposed to an author and motivational speaker named Charlie “Tremendous” Jones who wrote a book called, Life is Tremendous! He took the name because when people would ask him how he’s doing, he would always say, “Tremendous!” Ever since I do the same, but I use the word terrific. It’s amazing when I do that how most people perk up in surprise, often saying how refreshing that is, or asking why. It’s a great opportunity to bring up Jesus! I also consider it an act of service and blessing so they encounter the blessings of God through me. I smile, look them in the eyes, affirm their existence, and thank them for their service. I love doing that! Unfortunately, it is a rare commodity nowadays. Why isn’t everyone like that? All Christians should be, but the answer is circumstances, in which secular people live and move and have their being, instead of God.

As we saw above, Paul tells us the benefits of suffering come from turning us into different people. This change in who we are is true for non-Christians as well, as it is for Christians who are not walking intimately in communion with their Savior. Suffering affects us and alters how we see everything, and most importantly God. As an example, I will tell you about young Luna, 22, who has cut my hair the last three times at Great Clips. It was a wonderful experience being able to share the hope of God in Christ because I knew from our previous interaction that she’s not a Christian. I asked her this time if she believed in God, and she hesitated. She said she believed more in the universe, that God is a force. I asked her why, and basically it came down to life is hard. How could there be a personal God, she seemed to be saying, when there’s so much suffering. I said, at least with a personal God you can complain to him, but to an impersonal universe, not so much. Not to mention, the world is full of persons, so it makes sense God would be personal. She’s going on the heathen prayer list.

Christian Suffering Transforms the World
The Christian approach to suffering doesn’t mean we’re stoics, and that suffering is to be endured as if it wasn’t suffering. No, it’s called suffering for a reason because in it we suffer, we feel pain and sorrow, and expressing those emotionally is part of the deal. In itself suffering is not good, but a reflection of living in a fallen world among fallen people in a fallen body. It is okay to get frustrated and angry and wonder why. As we experience these unpleasant things, we then need to go to the throne of grace and give thanks for all of it. That can obviously be very difficult to do, but we must do so in obedience to God. In I Thessalonians 5 Paul tells us what that obedience looks like:

16 Rejoice always, 17 pray continually, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

Because we’re sinners and suffering is hard and unpleasant, we will not be able to do this consistently, but that’s what repentance is for. After we repent, then we pray for that endurance that produces character. That word in Greek means to be proved through testing and to remain true. In other words, we are not fair weather Christians when the going gets tough. We refuse, like Job, to curse God and die. When we remain true to our Lord and Savior, we will have hope, and as Paul says, hope does not put us to shame. That word in Greek is interesting. It literally means, to curse vehemently, a verb variously translated as shame, disgrace, bring to shame, put to utter confusion, frustrate. Once we’ve developed the character produced in us by suffering, the experience of suffering, no matter what kind of suffering it is, has no power any longer to do these things to us. We call that liberty! It won’t surprise us that this passage where Paul makes this declaration in 2 Corinthians 3 (verse 17) is about hope. We are no longer slaves to our circumstances! Even when they involve suffering.

Of the many things Christianity brought to the world, among the most powerfully transforming was this endurance in the face of suffering. Along with love and service, it changed the world from the ancient pagan world into the modern world. Caesars and all the tyrannical leaders of the world ever since fear Christians who refuse to submit to their tyranny. They have no power over Christians because death for us, as terrifying as it is, it not the end, but only the end of the beginning, for forever. Something that scares all tyrants are these words of Jesus:

Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

Most of us are familiar with the horrible persecution Christians had to periodically endure for three centuries until Constantine converted to Christianity in 313. While we as Christians love and affirm life, it is not in any way ultimate to or for us. Our hope is in God alone, in the resurrection of our bodies because we have a resurrected Savior. That, brothers and sisters, is the only true and ultimate source of liberty, and it transforms wherever it goes.

The Guardians of “The Narrative” vs. Truth

The Guardians of “The Narrative” vs. Truth

Feb 7, 2024 | America, Culture

I take this title from a piece by the great and erudite Roger Kimball where he asks if these Guardians will win. Before I discuss the Guardians, let me preface my comments by a brief history of where this idea of narrative comes from. The concept goes back to the 16th century, and it means, “a tale, a story, a connected account of the particulars of an event or series of incidents.” As such it was applied primarily to fiction, like the plays of Shakespeare, but it can apply to the ark of any story line. It’s the big picture, if you will, that helps define the meaning of the details of the picture. It’s most powerfully, and deleteriously, used in our time to push political and cultural agendas. We have Friedrich Nietzsche to thank for the initial idea that was then developed by postmodernist scholars in the 1970s and 80s when postmodernism became “a thing.”

Very simply, modernism given to us by the Enlightenment believed finding truth was attainable solely by reason. The romantic movement started pushing back against this in the late 18th century, and by the late 19th century Nietzsche pushed it off a cliff. That’s where the postmodernists (after modernism) come into the picture. They took his ideas and argued truth per se doesn’t exist, contrary to Nietzsche who believed strongly in truth. All that does exist is the meta-narrative (a culture’s big picture) and we derive our meaning of what is “true” or not from that. Basically we’re all living a novel, and whoever the societal author is (or in a culture’s case, the authors are) determines how we interpret the story. There is obviously some truth to that, but postmodernists literally believe truth doesn’t exist or even if it does it is irrelevant. These ideas were catnip for leftists, who not only do not believe in truth, but believe narratives are to be used to establish their political power.

 

This is a short video by two black liberal scholars who today are likely viewed as right wing radicals by the left. It is an excellent overview of these two poles of the metanarrative idea (they just used the word narrative). John McWhorter (on the right) says because of the way it’s misused, he hates the word narrative. Then Glenn Loury counters, explaining how narratives work and can be used in positive ways to help people interpret their past and present as a people. He acknowledges they can also be misused in ways that harm people. The black victim narrative is one such way that has created untold misery and suffering. It’s well worth a six minute and thirty second listen.

Narratives and the Will to Power
Nietzsche argued that because God was dead and Christianity no longer offered a metanarrative (he never used the word) that could hold Western civilization together, man must develop his own moral framework to accomplish that. He believed that could only be accomplished by great men he called Übermensch, often translated as Superman or Overman. He never fully defined exactly what such a man was, but he developed a complimentary idea in the will to power. I don’t know enough about Nietzsche to know how he developed all this, but the idea certainly originated with him, and fit his worldview. The attempts to interpret Nietzsche are numerous, and there seem to be as many interpretations as scholars doing the interpreting. In essence his worldview was the result of his desire to fulfill Satan’s temptation to Eve, that he could be like God knowing good and evil. In a universe without God that is kind of the only choice. You have to be your own god, and he knew that. Therefore, if you are going to mold reality to your will, you must have the “will to power,” must impose that will on matter, including human beings. It was another idea he never fully worked out.

Fast forward to today, and the modern left epitomizes the “will to power” in the use of narrative. The left and the Guardians of the narrative (the media) have completely taken over Western culture, using their influence for political power, defined as legalized coercion. Governments have the monopoly on the use of force, which makes politics a very important business. The Democrat Party and legacy media shamelessly use the “will to power” in pursuit of their ideological agenda. Their hypocrisy is so in your face it’s almost impressive. Controlling or directing the narrative has always been important and a fact of existence in politics and government, but it is critically important in the information age. The left controls the narrative, however, specifically to mold and shape opinion regardless of truth. The only “truth” they care about is what serves their ideological interests and political power. This has become more egregious since Obama became president as we learn from “the paper of record,” the New York Times.

In the Spring 2020 journal Academic Questions, Dr. David Rozado did a word frequency usage study on New York Times articles written between 1970 and the end of 2018. He was looking for progressive/Marxist buzzwords used by groups with an ideological agenda. He discovered in 2010 and the years following such words and phrases had exploded in frequency. There are numerous charts in the article graphically displaying the jump in terms such as climate change, sexism, patriarchy, transphobia, homophobia, white supremacy, and so on. Apparently, all these things became such critically important issues around 2010 that America’s “paper of record” found it necessary to endlessly report upon them. In fact, they were doing what the left always does, driving “the narrative,” but in this case it went into overdrive. Joseph Goebbels would have been impressed.

The driving of “the narrative” took steroids when Trump came down the escalator to announce his run for president in June 2015. Speaking of the rebarbarization of civilization, Kimball gives an example we’re all too familiar with:

The 2020 election . . . took place during the period of eagerly embraced Covid hysteria. That hysteria provided a justification or, more accurately, an alibi for the numerous violations of the law in the conduct of the election. The Constitution of the United States stipulates that state legislatures are in charge of determining voting procedures. But various governors and secretaries of state, from blue states mostly, swept that Constitutional provision aside in their eagerness to assure the appearance of a Biden victory. Such anomalies were noted and commented on at the time but somehow never got traction. Why? Because the media, that great tool of The Narrative, determined that it oughtn’t to get traction.

Now that the media are “Guardians of the (left-wing) Narrative,” Edward R. Morrow must be rolling over in his grave. In their latest futile effort to destroy Trump, the Guardians have pulled out all the stops on narrative building because of the danger Trump poses to our DemocracyTM if he gets elected again. Oh the horror!!! Peter Berkowitz highlights some of these efforts in a piece explaining how these people imperil the rule of law (they believe they are a law unto themselves). He writes:

[A]nti-Trumpers have been sounding the alarm continuously against Trumpian tyranny since 2016 and have picked up the pace this cycle. This gives Democrats time to grasp the grave threat and take suitable precautions. But what precautions are suitable to thwart the authoritarian conquest of America.

For those who believe Trump is Hitler, there is nothing they won’t do to try to stop him.

God obviously has a terrific sense of humor. He not only picked Donald J. Trump, billionaire New York real estate developer and reality TV star to be the primary agent of change in this moment in history, He also apparently made him unstoppable. Everything the left and the Guardians have thrown at him for over eight years has only served to make him more popular and influential. Now that is funny!

Truth Wins
“Will the Guardians of The Narrative Win?” is the title of Kimball’s piece. I don’t believe he intended this to be a rhetorical question, but I do. Of course they won’t! If we live by sight, the odds of defeating them seem impossible, but God is in the habit of making the impossible possible. For example, the Lord tells Abraham and Sarah when she’s 90 and he’s 100 that they will have a son in a year. Sarah laughs at the absurdity of it. In reply, the Lord asks, rhetorically, “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” Although not meant to be answered, Paul speaking about Abraham gives it to us anyway:

He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed—the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were (Rom. 4:17).

For the God who created everything out of nothing, raising the dead and doing “the impossible” is what he does for breakfast.

Every time you’re tempted to live based on what you see rather than trust, which leads to fear, worry, and doubt, first repent. Then remember He makes things to exist that currently do not exist. I encourage you to think about this revealed truth for a while. Not only does the truth therein apply to you personally, your life and problems and dreams, but to entire societies, or Jesus would never have commanded the Apostles to “make disciples of all nations,” not individuals. It is, of course individual people who make up nations, but Jesus was giving us the big picture, the meta-narrative, the purpose for which he came to earth. When people repent and believe on the Lord Jesus, it isn’t only for their personal salvation and holiness, or to grow the church and populate heaven, but to bring his kingdom reign to the entire earth, his blessings transforming this fallen world “as far as the curse is found.”

However, sometimes, as in the depth of the Covid scam, it appears the Guardians will win, but it is impossible for lies to ever triumph in the long run. The Negative Nellies and Pessimistic Pauls always give power to lies they do not possess. In the Trump years I’ve come to call them doomers because for them it always seems to be doom and gloom, the worst just around the corner. They have an unhealthy level of skepticism we call cynicism. I love this definition of that unhelpful state of mind: a faultfinding captious critic, especially one who believes that human conduct is motivated wholly by self-interest. If you didn’t know the definition of captious either, it means, marked by an often ill-natured inclination to stress faults and raise objections. The word nature is important. Such people are inclined to be this way because that is who they are. Christians, by contrast, should never be cynics or captious because it’s sin and it’s not who we are in Christ. So if you’re a cynic or given to cynicism, stop it! If you’re given to doom and gloom, repent, and pray for God to give you a spirit of trust in his almighty power. If Romans 8:28 is true, then all things in our lives, both personally and societally, work for our good and his glory. If you believe that, I mean really buy into it, circumstances, including other people, will have no power to control you, specifically your emotions and peace of mind. As the prophet Isaiah says,

You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you (Is. 26:3).

There is a reason truth will always win eventually: Jesus. He who is the Truth (John 14:6) will make sure of it. But it’s bigger than that. Our confidence, even optimism, is based on what happened when Christ ascended to the right hand of God after his resurrection. As he says in the Great Commission, all authority had been given to him, therefore go. We go and work and plan and make it happen not in our authority and power, but in the authority and power of Jesus Christ. He is now reigning over all things toward his glorious ends in a new heavens and earth until every last enemy is vanquished, the last being death. Knowing this, we understand that the Guardians are spitting into a gale force divine wind. They don’t have a chance.

 

Must Listen Interview of Tucker Carlson with Russell Brand

Must Listen Interview of Tucker Carlson with Russell Brand

Feb 1, 2024 | Western Civilization

I’ve recently decided to get active on Twitter/X to promote my work, and especially my new book when it’s published next month, God willing. So instead of posting twice a week, I now post once on Wednesdays, and focus the rest of my time on Twitter/X. So I normally wouldn’t post anything on a Thursday, but I saw this conversation between Brand and Carlson yesterday, and had to share it.

Brand is a quintessential example of what my book is about. In this discussion he makes the exact argument I do in the book for the Great Awakening that is happening all around us. I won’t share with you exactly where he says it, but I will give you a hint that it’s near the end. You’ll have to read the book to find out exactly what it is, and how I work it out in book length form.

Plus it looks like he may be coming to faith in Jesus from something else I saw him share recently, and there are hints in the discussion a personal almighty God is becoming more real to him. He’s been very much an Eastern religion guy until recently, and that seems to be changing, praise God. Pray for him. It’s definitely worth a listen.

I’m kind of surprised it’s actually allowed on YouTube, but just in case they think better in their little leftist hearts, here is a link to Twitter/X, which Elon Musk turned into a free speech platform:

https://twitter.com/search?q=Russell%20Brand%20and%20Tucker%20Carlson&src=typed_query