Laughter in Panem

"I drink in his wholeness, the soundness of his body and mind. It runs through me".

Catness Everdene - The Hunger Games.

"Someone has said that a neurotic is a person who builds fantasy houses, a psychotic is someone who builds these and lives in them, and a psychiatrist is someone who charges rent. Christians shouldn't live in fantasy houses. By looking away from the reality of pain and suffering in the world, we create a realm that doesn't exist and then try to live in it, but the last person in the world who ought to be unrealistic about anything is the Christian".

Steve Brown - A Scandalous Freedom.

Sweetness on the lips, laughter in the soul, amidst such present agony.

How is it possible?

This morning I awoke to a land plagued by a virus, not of physical ill-health (though there's plenty of that around), but of soul death, and yet, deep, rich laughter warmed my heart in the early hours amidst these trials.

How can it be?

What brought such joy was the opening pages of Doug Wilson's book, Joy at the end of the tether - the inscrutable wisdom of Ecclesiastes.

I'm going to share that opening statement of the book here, because it speaks volumes to where we as believers should be right now, so prepare for a feast in the wilderness, and then, get this delight for yourself.

Here we go: 'De Profoundus'

"Our word profound comes from the latin profundus, which means deep. Most cheerfulness in the world is quite the opposite of this - superficial and shallow. Thump it hard enough and it will be sure to make a hollow sound. Of course we must also note that much deep thinking is melancholy. From such data we might conclude that deep is doleful and everything cheerful is a superficial waste of time. The great Hebrew philosopher who wrote the book called Ecclesiastes calls us to a joy which thinks, a joy which does not shrink back from the hard questions. He calls us to meditation, but to a meditation which does not despair. And he points out repeatedly, shutting-off every avenue of escape, that only believers can enjoy the vanity which surrounds us on every side".

Wisdom in spades. The last line is replete with a truth that drips the exquisite fat of heavenly ambrosia into our bones! There is a beauty, a weight, that is behind it all that is longing to feed us now (Psalm 23:5), and when we taste even a morsel of that immeasurable goodness, our souls rise in dance and rapture.

That's why I found myself laughing hard today.

May that richness be shared by us all.

"Just"...

Just conveyers of genes... that's it. We don't really exist beyond that. You're merely a conglomeration of cells to transport genetic material from one era to another...

That's all folks!

Is it any wonder that we live at a moment when everything is becoming facile and irrelevant? If the (supposedly 'scientific') philosophy of our day is that we only hold, at best, a merely transitory value, which may or may not become fulfilled in reproduction, then where are we to find any genuine meaning or significance in our time here?

The problem is now becoming acute. Authoritarian regimes, last evidenced in Europe nearly a century ago, have begun to commence programs requiring total compliance to 'scientific' policies if a citizen desires to be deemed a full participant of society. Those who question or who choose otherwise are already daubed as social malcontents - to be shamed and blacklisted by mainstream dictat, or worse. Across the political sphere, then, from policies on abortion, to sexual identity, to medical control, to euthanasia, we are bearing witness to the rise of a panacea of eugenic control of humanity, where individual choice must be continually and entirely conformed to the will of the whole, for the biological 'good' of the species.

The day is fast approaching when any ideology that truly seeks to uphold the inherent value of the individual (beyond that of a selfish materialist 'unit') will be viewed as abominable by the masses and the powers above them. It is therefore absolutely correct that Christians are talking of the coming shut-down of churches (permanently, this time) in their conventional form and the need for new means of connection and worship to become evident, whilst a 'window of opportunity' still exists. It is not a mistake that some of the nations with the most stringent anti-christian regimes in the world (Iran, Afghanistan, China, North Korea) are believed to have some of the largest and most robust Christian communities in the world - persecution often proves to be God's trump card for massively expanding the everlasting kingdom.

We are rightly concerned about the present troubles, and, perhaps, even more troubling, the majority of the church's slowness at waking to this, but we also rejoice, because like those who have held out the truth in days before, we know this will, in the ultimate narrative, bring about an enduring good for our broken world.

We are not accidents. We are 'fearfully and wonderfully made' for a purpose far beyond mere biological survival, for we have been adopted into the life of the One who was, who is, and who is to come. Let us seek to hold fast to encouraging one another in the unassailable value of that truth in the days to come.

(In thanks for the life and ministry of the Reverend Melvin Tinker, who went to be with Christ this week).

Thanksgiving

"It's a day to give thanks - for what?

For the way wheat turns into biscuits, for the sound of a lawnmower three houses away, for the size and taste of grapes (the purple ones), for the lines of a woman's neck running up to her ear, for waves on the Oregon coast, for wood fire in late Autumn, for warm socks, for turkey and gravy and all the trimmings, for the way Intelligent Design runs through absolutely everything"....

Doug Wilson.

Happy holidays to our American Readers.

Father, unto thee we raise, this our sacrifice of praise!

S O M A

"Soma was a fermented juice drink which was believed to have been consumed by the Hindu gods and their ancient priests, the brahmanas during rituals. Thought to be an elixir its consumption not only healed illness but also brought great riches".

World History Encyclopedia.

"Be not drunk with wine, but be filled with the Spirit".

Ephesians 5:18.

So, I want to begin this entry with a big thank you to David Clay for his piece on Mockingbird this month on the nature of Christian righteousness. David does an excellent job of laying-out the broad brush strokes of what this does (and does not mean) for the believer and the church, and thereby adds some more flesh to the 'bones' provided by Dr Rod Rosenbladt in a recent 1517 taster on the same matter.

What really spoke to me, aside from the excellence of the points being made here, was the argument touches on whilst Christians themselves may well be morally disappointing, faith is, in its most fundamental nature, not about that - it stands or falls entirely in respect to the truth which delivers redemption (the touchstone of Christ's life, death, burial, resurrection and ascension - 1 Corinthians 15), so the horror that cannot be revoked in Christianity, as scripture shows, is not particular sins (which will indeed plague us - see Romans 7 - but can indeed be forgiven - see 1 John 1) but prostituting the faith by espousing/practicing particular heresies, which in truth seek to discard the work of God in His Son (Galatians 1: 8 & 9).

This is crucial distinction. - and we're far from scott-free here.

In his piece, David brings up the historical example of Augustine seeking to make clear that grace must always trump any claims in respect to individual piety, but this also speaks to the key trouble - the church perilously errs when its 'teaching' is believed to encapsulate what is sound, but in truth, like strong wine, inebriates and intoxicates believers in such a fashion that they are no longer understanding what is taking place around them and are thereby almost entirely oblivious to the ramifications and the immediate dangers such a condition has generated.

Mike Horton and associates show this tellingly well in the book The Agony of Deceit, which examines (in respect to today's long history with them) various pernicious doctrines that guised themselves as 'spiritual' in the late 70s and 80s, but far more murderous 'beliefs' are now being sheltered in the very bosom of the mainstream church.

When we reach a point where established churches believe they are entirely right to practice their faith only within the bounds prescribed by state, then that, at the very least, should set a measure of alarm in our thinking.

Imagine if the early church had sought to adhere to only this - what would have happened when the secular powers required them to 'tone it down' and to confine themselves to, perhaps, quiet little gatherings away from public view where their "beliefs" could have been tolerated as just another one of those 'fringe' practices so common in the Roman world?

We don't have to trouble ourselves very long with such a 'what if', because the answer is simple. Such adherences and the practices associated with them by various religions indeed remained fringe and irrelevant to mainstream culture. Christianity became paramount because the church continually put its life front and centre before the empire, and would not leave those in power untroubled by its uncompromising message.

In the final analysis, secular power is given and constrained by God (Romans 13), and that constraint is particular in respect to the 'increase of His dominion, of which there will be no end' (Isaiah 9:7), so "magistrates" and the like can fall into line with that truth or be swept away by it on the day of reckoning (Psalm 2).The problem really comes back, then, to the ministers of the lively oracles of God. Are they encouraging a faith which is tuned to such truth, especially in respect to these days and times, or are they in truth providing a muted, obscured noise in their instruction to the saints, and, in effect, leading the saints into a condition where they can longer be effective?

This is not in any respect a merely theoretical question. Those placed in these roles most earnestly need to pay attention to Paul's warnings in respect to those who teach God's flock (see 1 Corinthians 3:10-17).

The night is almost over, writes the Apostle, the day is much closer, so we must be ready. Arm yourselves, enter the fray, and look up, for redemption is close.

The Ruling

A Jewish Court sat in the US this past week to rule on the safety of the current MRNA materials used in the present jabs against the virus. 

The Hasidic Court ruling of New York makes for telling reading. 

The court ruling stated: "It is best to err on the side of caution and abstain from taking these injections, rather than endangering one’s life by performing an action that can engender immediate and direct harm, especially since there are other medical treatments that work . . . and that are not harmful".

It went on to say: "It is an explicit obligation to protest against this mandate, and anyone who can prevent the injection from being forced upon our youth must do so, forthrightly and emphatically".

And: "Much harm appears to be caused to pregnant women as a result of the injection, possibly due to the antibodies that the body develops against the protein called Syncytin‐1, or from the SM102, or from the micro blood clots caused by the injection….For older adults and the elderly, further clarification is needed (but as mentioned above, there are efforts to obscure the data, and it is presently difficult to attain accurate clarification). However, practically we have seen breakthrough cases, indicating that there is no substantial difference between those who received the mRNA and those who did not. The number of Covid patients are about the same, comparatively, in both demographics". 

The judges explained: "We also heard from doctors who invented and manufactured the mRNA, who testified as to its function (most doctors in medical practice are not experts in these matters at all, and from our experience and as is well‐known, they merely relate the information provided to them by the NIH, CDC, etc). They illustrated to us the profound danger and harm inherent in this new technology. They showed us how the governmental agencies and the pharmaceutical companies deny this fact, and how they conceal the data, making it so difficult for the public to realize the severe adverse reactions and mortalities that have befallen so many people who received the injection. We were also made privy to how they withhold the said information through various means, preventing the injuries and deaths from being publicised by the media or on the internet, as known". 

This decree on the Covid-19 vaccine should be binding to the Hasidic communities expand far beyond these communities. The judges ruled that mandatory Covid-19 vaccines transgress Jewish law, which means it could be anti-Semitic to enforce it on religious Jews who have no wish to take it. Other rabbinical courts might disagree with the interpretation but given that it is based on expert testimonies and evidence, and centred on ‘halachah’, it will be hard to dismiss.

Erroneous Ecclesiology

The Church (2020-21):

Destination Unknown

 "Oh, Superman, where are you now? When everything's gone wrong somehow, The men of steel, the men of power, are loosing control, by the hour".

Genesis - Land of Confusion.

Imagine you're driving on a freeway across some wide, open country. The sun is up and the day looks bright, and there's enough gas in the tank, and all your papers, procedures and protocols are in place to keep you rolling for a fair while to come... but there is a problem.

Way up ahead, the 'off' ramp (exit) you're intending to eventually use, which was promised when you started this trip so you could reach your destination, hasn't been built yet, because you're in fact travelling along on unfinished mega-project, so the moment is coming when it will become overwhelmingly true that this road is, in effect, a road to no where.

That's an apt analogy of where we are right now with so many of the world's most arrogant and ignorant 'global' policies.

Most people in the UK, for example, were unaware this week that after all the hot-air generated in Glasgow on climate change, our emergency energy facilities had to be brought on-line as - get this - there had been no strong winds across most of the country for the last ten days, so coal-fired generators had to be fired up!

Then there's the 'pandemic'. The island of Gibraltar has had 140% take-up on the jabs, but this has done nothing to stop rising infections or another total lockdown being ordered. For what? If that level of cover has proved ineffective, what on earth do they think this step is going to do? Scare the virus?

Then there's the "law" rhetoric of the church. Evangelicals are now actively discriminating in some major churches against allowing the un-jabbed to fellowship with the 'protected'.... but on what basis? Certainly not one derived from faith in the Gospel, and that is the most telling truth about what we're seeing right now.

If the church is going to be well again, it must do so in its relationship to the fact that Christ's death is for all men everywhere, and that any digression from that glorious truth is erroneous. To develop from there, if there is to be a reconciliation between believers who have become divided by responses to the past few years, it has to be by being brought together by the redemptive bedrock of the Gospel, allowing God's peace to foster genuine fellowship once again. If we are, in effect, implementing policies (like Durham Cathedral this week) which prevent such union, we are actively engaged in a process which dismembers God's people.

When we look at society at large, what is obvious is at the heart of many troubles resides institutions which, like our freeway, may seem impressive, but are in reality so unwieldy they are unfit for purpose - the likes of the NHS or the BBC - bloated mega-projects that leave us stranded. The same is often painfully true of the church.

The problem is that our investment into such things is often so great, we cannot imagine them failing, but they, like us, do so constantly, because they are filled with the likes of us - men full of sin, always in need of grace. That, of course, is why Christianity matters!

We're now entering a time when men are indeed 'loosing control', and they are responding the way such creatures always do - by doubling-down on what they're demanding in respect to compliance, but this won't end well. Christianity cannot afford to take that freeway, because it is a road to hell (however 'noble' the espoused intentions). We must show another way.

Beyond all of this misery is a cross made empty of its power of tyranny, torture and execution by one who bore its demands - became our sin - and buried all such evil in His grave, rising whole and holy, to take us through to eternal care. That's the health, the fellowship, each of us so deeply needs in this trying day.