“1Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was ill. 3So the sisters sent to him, saying, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.”
When your friends celebrate, you celebrate. And when your friends hurt, you hurt.
Christ Jesus is Lord and Master over all creation, His is the King of all kings and the Lord of all lords. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last. He is the great I AM, the Living God.
He is also a friend.
“When Jesus saw her weeping, … he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled.”
If I had a tally of the time I chit chatted and small talked while at church and among my brethren versus the amount of time we spent just talking about Jesus as we fellowshipped in the Spirit and in the Truth it’d be sad accounting.
I don’t know how to explain it but to say that when I share as the Spirit has shared with me I seem to get a divergent response. Inevitably there are a couple of people who are drawn to it, who sense the Spirit and are edified by him as we share with one another.
Then there’s the majority of the rest. And I don’t know how to explain it except to say it’s as if the Spirit has made them feel naked.
They too sense him move in the place and they’re bothered by him. He scares them.
It’s weird. But I think the church is afraid of the Holy Spirit. I think they fear him because they have fallen from faith back into fear. And not apostasy but simply carnality.
Everything is a function of the flesh. Of the intellect.
But the flesh is no help at all. It is the Spirit that is life. And the Spirit works by grace through faith. And faith comes by hearing the utterance of Christ and it works by love. (Romans 10:17, Galatians 5:16)
In short, I think the church has a very deep seated love issue.
They fear the Spirit because their sin is ever before them and they, knowing God is just and will punish their nakedness are prone to run, hide and look for leaves to cover their shame.
Most often this comes in the form of “good works”, “programs” and “intellectualism” or “theology”.
What they fail to believe is the good news that Israel failed to obtain in their wonderings because they were not united in faith. (Hebrews 3 and 4)
They just don’t really, really believe the good news that while they were yet a sinner, the Father made a way for them and he did it by the crucifixion and resurrection of his precious Son Jesus, who is Christ and Lord.
They question in their heart of hearts this great love. They know it is true intellectually, that is in their Adamic mind but that mind must be crucified on the hill along with Christ!
Wokeism, Critical Race Theory, “we are the 99%!”, social justice.
For those who have ears to ear and have gained their powers of discernment trained by constant practice it’s obvious that there is something amiss in the world about us, there is something “going on”.
There seems to be a spiritual fog that’s descended on the world. A new culture “zeitgeist” or spirit of the age. One of the primary narratives being formed by this new cultural spirit is the mantra of “social justice”.
So what is this? What is all this talk of social justice about anyway?
In short, there is a demonic, nay, Satanic agenda at work. The devil of old is still at work “deceiving the nations” and he’s using his same old lies to achieve his end.
James Lindsay is Founder and Contributor at “New Discourses“, an excellent online resource that functions as a tutorial in all things philosophy and social justice.
A word of caution, James Lindsay is an atheist and therefore obviously does not speak from a Christian worldview but a scholarly one. Therefore I would encourage you to prayerfully consider whether or not the Holy Spirit would have you give him your ear.
While I wouldn’t encourage a Christian to try and understand this issue solely from an intellectual standpoint this podcast does serve as a good place to get some practical understanding about this whole social justice hoopla and it’s philosophical genesis.
Unfortunately Lindsay and New Discourses’ benefit ends there because they fail to connect the final dots. The dots that connect the spiritual zeitgeist of the day to the Father of Lies.
That being said, if you’re trying to get a better understanding of the whole social justice phenomenon I’d encourage you to give this video a watch. In it, James Lindsay is interviewed by Michael O’Fallon of Sovereign Nations:
After watching the video I felt compelled to share the following comment and that’s really the reason for this blog post. I felt like I should also share the comment I wrote here:
Excellent video. A couple of thoughts. So Hegel’s not the root of this thing. And neither is Kant. Satan is.
Here’s the first dialectic:
Agenda = Steal God’s throne and destroy his creation.
Thesis = Eve, you lack knowledge, if you had it you’d be ‘like God’.
Anti-thesis = The fruit’s desirable and good for knowledge. Hhrmp… let’s eat!
Synthesis = Now we have knowledge! Oh no, we’re naked. “Adam, where are you…”
This is what that Liar has been doing from the beginning. It’s his native tongue. If you dig deeper you’ll find Marx and most others in this stream, I’m not positive on Hegel and Kant but there’s a high probability that these men all engaged demons at some point via alchemy, sorcery, divination, witchcraft, etc; and that’s where they learn their father’s method. They, like Eve, were enticed by the same lie, “ye shall be like God…” There’s nothing new under the sun y’all.
So practically, how do you battle this? Well, you need to learn their favorite logical fallacies. They have a lot but straw man probably leads the way, red herring and association fallacies and a whole host of others will be there too. When you see them employee one, say it. Call it out for what it is. Tell them plainly, “that’s a straw man” and go right back to the heart of the argument and stick a sword in it.
Here’s the deal though, practicality is over rated. This isn’t a high school debate. It’s quite literally spiritual warfare and if you don’t want to get trounced by your enemy I suggest you armor up in something more sufficient than your mental capabilities. My point is this. Don’t play chess with the devil, he’s smarter than you are. You will lose.
Instead, take up the “sword” God gave you, which is the “word” of God. Now listen closely, that’s not the “graphe” mind you, not the Holy Scriptures but the “rhema” word, which is the Holy Spirit, the power of God himself (Ephesians 6:17), which dwelleth in you by grace through faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ. First abide in Him and then the Scriptures will come alive like a lion as you weld them in battle.
The church MUST repent for their neglect of the powerful working of the Holy Spirit in and among them. For far too long the church has continued to go back and put on Saul’s armor, the carnality of their own minds. But that is not how David slew the giant. No, he “ran” to meet the enemy in the field with nothing but a sling and five smooth stones and he went forth by faith in the power of the Living God and the promise that He would go before him and be his deliverer.
“14Settle it therefore in your minds not to meditate beforehand how to answer, 15for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict.” – Luke 21:14-15
If the church would simply believe. Have faith in the good news of Jesus Christ crucified and risen for the remission of sin, then continue believing in the present ministry and wonder working power of the indwelling Holy Spirit they’d start slaying giants. But as it is, they continue to fiddle around in Saul’s armor, relying on their own mental ability, their own strength to save them.
Repent. Believe the good news of Christ. Believe in the power of the Holy Spirit to work in and through you by grace through faith and you will see your enemies fall.
Youtube Comment by Kyle McDaniel on “Hegel and the Dialectic | James Lindsay & Michael O’Fallon | Changing Tides Ep. 3” – The New Discourses Channel
A little while back I published a blog post about “Intellectualism and Apostacy” and how I had much that I wanted to share about the issue. This video/conversation is a prime example of that issue.
While Lindsay deftly understands and explains the philosophical trail that’s led us to where we are today, he utterly fails to give the listener any real hope of doing anything about this tidal wave of lies.
The reason for that is this: the social justice mantra is not an intellectual phenomenon but a spiritual one. It is quite literally spiritual warfare and he’s engaging in the battle in the “futility of the mind” (Ephesians 4:17) rather than in the “armor or God” (Ephesians 6:10).
If it is said, “I shall know him, even as I have been fully known” then we shall know him by his cross or not at all. The cross was for Christ but there is a place on Golgotha for you and I.
A place where the old man is put to death. Where the mind of man is crucified that the life giving Spirit of the new Man might be made manifest in power. And all of this by grace through faith in the finished work of Him who went before us and went before us in love.
So love is the yield of suffering.
Mystery of mysteries; the deepest love is found only in the deepest suffering.
Portion of Rembrant’s “The Return of the Prodigal Son” – 1699
“And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.”
Luke 15:20
Are you fatherless?
Did your earthly father fail to love you well? Was he abusive or absent altogether?
If your Dad wasn’t much of a father, I’m very sorry. I can’t imagine what that must feel like. I can’t imagine the hole, the void that must reside in your heart.
If you’re reading this now and these words apply to you I want to encourage you that you can have another Father.
A Father who draws men unto himself. A Father who is steadfast in his love toward his children, who delights in them and numbers the hairs of their head. A Father who sees the pitiable state of his far off sons and daughters and runs to greet them in a loving embrace.
A Father who clothes them in his best Robe and for his wayward son he kills the fatted calf so that the heavens and the earth might celebrate the return of that which was lost.
There is a Father who can fill that void and make it run over. A Father who will love, defend, cherish, embrace and celebrate you as his own if you would but believe and turn to him.
Turn toward your heavenly Father, confess your sinful state and acknowledge your need for him and he who has already made a Way for you will embrace you as his own.
“Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
John 14:6
“But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! 18I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. 19I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.”’ 20And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. 21And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 22But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. 23And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. 24For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.”
“It’s the most peculiar thing but blessing flows from brokenness just as the Spirit flowed from the Rock which it had shattered.
The greater blessing is that which is born of the cross. On the cross and there alone do we obtain the deepest blessing; the true knowledge of God and his ultimate character which is love.”
Ecce Homo – after painting by Antonio Ciseri. Jesus is sentenced to death by Pontius Pilot after the crowd call for his execution. AC: Italian religious painter, 25 Oct 1821 – 8 March 1891.
Doug Wilson speaks frequently and accurately about the crisis of masculinity in the church.
See here:
And here:
And it’s no wonder there’s a crisis of masculinity in America and the west at large because the church hasn’t modeled biblical manhood for the world. So the world has no one to point them in the right direction and say, “Hey, this is how you do manhood”.
For my entire life as a Christian I have struggled to be at home in the modern church. There’s so much of it I just don’t understand. And one of the greatest mysteries to me is the church’s misunderstanding of manhood and the general shape of a Christian male.
To borrow from Voddie Baucham, we’ve largely convinced ourselves that Christian men are above all, “nice”.
It’s the ole 11th commandment and it trumps all the rest, “Thou shalt be nice.” At all cost. Even at the expense of the 10 other commandments.
The idea of a Christian man who speaks directly, truthfully and with authority is anathema in the modern church.
This man is a sower of dissention, a brut or worse, “unloving”.
So the result is a thoroughly feminized church.
What do I mean (and what do I think Wilson means) by that? Well if I could distill manhood down to one word it would be this:
INITIATIVE.
Men take initiative.
So a feminized church is a church full of passive men.
And the tell tale sign of passivity in men is the spirt of avoidance. What do I mean by that? What is avoidance or passivity?
Avoidance and passivity is Adam, standing, watching, waiting and twiddling his thumbs while Eve chats up that serpent and ogles that fruit. He knows what the Lord said and what he gave him charge over but he’s gonna sit back and kind of passively watch how things go down without so much as saying a word.
Avoidance and passivity is reflected in the way that men refuse to engage and grapple with difficult issues. It’s the wolf at the door they refuse to acknowledge and if pressed to acknowledge it they quickly play it down as triviality or as a matter of secondary concern so as to be able to then avoid the issue altogether.
What are some examples? Just what Wilson’s explained here. There’s an elder’s wife who is acting outside her God ordained role within the body. Perhaps she’s insubordinate or insists on her own way. Perhaps she has a pet project that she wants to promote within the fellowship and the program itself is theologically or doctrinally questionable or even outright heretical. Well the passive man’s first move is to avoids the issue altogether. His earnest hope is that every one else will be passive too and just kind of let Eve do whatever she wants.
Then if confronted with the issue by some brut within the congregation, “Yo fellas! That thing the dearly beloved Mrs Elder is promoting looks like a false teaching. Looks like an idol. Whatchall wanna do about it?”
Uh oh. Now the passive man has to respond. The issue’s been brought to his foot.
Well, being the passive fellow that he is, he wants to avoid having to deal with the issue in a direct way altogether so the typical second response after outright avoidance is to downplay the issue as much as possible so that it’s now seen as “not really an issue at all.”
Avoidance has a cousin named compromise and they both follow passivity around like a gaggle of miscreants.
Well what’s the root of this thing? Why are these supposed “mighty” men of the faith so invariably feckless?
What drives their inaction? What keeps their hands under their seat and their mouth shut when it ought to be open and what makes their words lying kisses when they ought to be a truthful sword that wounds.
It’s fear.
They’re afraid.
They’re afraid of what taking initiative against hot button issues will result in and that result is battle. Spiritual warfare.
They all know Ephesians 6. They can quote it with the rest of the Awana kids.
But they don’t KNOW Ephesians 6, they don’t know it experientially. They don’t know what the sword of truth is because they’ve refuse to pick it up and enter into the fray. Heck they’re reluctant to even acknowledge there is in fact a fracas all about them.
And all of that is because they are afraid. Suffering, the noble calling to which all Christian men have received their clarion call is a cross they won’t bear.
What do I mean?
I mean this.
If they engage in the battle before them and they speak truthfully and directly, say to the Elder about his wife and her penchant for false teaching, well they’re gon get a response. And it’s probably not going to be, “Hey thanks brother, I know that Proverbs teaches us that the wounds of a friend are faithful, so thanks so much for telling me what I didn’t want to hear or have to deal with.”
No they’re prolly gonna be called a sower of dissension, a muckraker, a busy body, a false witness and worst of all, “unloving”.
If they really force the issue they’ll be disruptive enough of the power brokers that a coalition will be built and they’ll be “reprimanded en masse” or worse “cast out”.
Outside the church this looks like getting fired and loosing your salary, 401K or pension. It looks like being unable to pay your mortgage, having to sell your home and an unhappy wife who’s grown accustom to having nice things. Yikes. No fun.
It looks like largely fighting real battles, real spiritual warfare against real spirts in real high places like government and big business and even in your local church. It’s looks like doing it alone with no brother in arms willing to get in the foxhole with you.
It looks like praying so intently and with such dread about the cross set before you you sweat drops of blood while your buds can’t bother to stay awake and pray with you. It looks like, regardless of what it means for yourself, for your own skin, you utter those same words as the one who went before you, “not my will but yours be done.”
You see fear or dread of suffering is common to every man. No one really wants to hang on a cross. That hurts. Bad.
But if we want to be faithful men. Men of good courage. We’re going to have to steel our minds and set our faces like flint that we’re going into battle. We’re going to war and there’s a high chance we’re not coming out of that tumult without a scar to prove that “we were there”.
Okay but there’s still a problem here. How do we get men who are understandably fearful of the cost of discipleship, to anti up and kick in like men?
In a word. LOVE.
You see a man who’s compelled by duty will only go so far. He’s sorta faithful. He’s compelled to do the right thing. But when the going gets real rough that man will stumble. He’ll fall and eventually, like the Peter in us all, he’ll run and hide and deny he ever knew us.
But the man who’s compelled by love. This man is ready to die. He willingly embraces the cross that’s set before him for the hope of the resurrection to come.
Stack up hell and all her armies and this man will stare them down flint eye’d and wooly haired. He’ll not be moved. He’s compelled by the very character of the Almighty God. He’s motivated by God’s own love working in him.
So how do we deal with the rampant feminization in the church and the passivity it produces?
How do we get men to act like men?
We preach Jesus Christ and his cross to them and we tell them the truth. It was love that ransomed you from your sin and it was born of the cross of suffering. It’s love that will unbind you from your fear and passivity but it will not come with out suffering.
When you finally settle it in your mind to love the Lord as he has loved you, to understand and embrace the axiom that truth does not come without suffering; well, then you’ll take up beside him on a cross of your own.
You’ll take those idols of yours, your nice comfortable life, your nice car, your nice job, your nice vacations and let’s not forget, most important to all of us men, the respect of other men; you’ll take all those false gods, you’ll set them on the altar and light ’em on fire to watch them burn as you embrace the cross your Master has set before you.
In doing this you’ll be doing actual battle against actual princes and principalities, spiritual forces of wickedness in high places exposing them to open shame. Know this; they, those evil spirits, they won’t take it lying down. They will come hard against you.
But know also this. The cross is the place not only of your salvation but also of your victory.
Standing victoriously in the truth, which IS Christ Jesus the Lord, you will join him in the power of his resurrection as you obey the Holy Spirit boldly and without reservation speaking the truth in love to brother and pagan alike.
In doing this, we’ll stand with Jesus in victory holding those scoundrels to open shame as we triumph over them in Him.
Photo by Download a pic Donate a buck! ^ on Pexels.com
Are men inherently good?
Or are they inherently evil?
If they are good, why do they do such evil things? If they are evil, how do we know them to be so? Evil according to who? According to what standard?
Ask a man, any man, about almost anything and he will quickly make an appeal to morality. “That’s wrong.” “That’s messed up.” “They shouldn’t do that…”
But why?
Paraphrasing CS Lewis, it is because there is a way we know we OUGHT to behave… and yet… we do not.
And all of us admit it freely of our own volition.
Why is that?
The Bible says it’s because all men instinctively know the truth.
But they suppress it.
Why does a man suppress in his mind what his soul knows well to be true?
It is because he is in bondage to his own sin and the root of his sin is unbelief.
Unbelief in what?
That there is a God? No. He knows this already. Remember, this is the truth he is already at work suppressing.
What he refuses to believe is what God has said about himself, about his own character; and therefore, what God’s own character means for man and his own fallen condition.
And what has God said about himself?
What must a man believe about God’s character in order to be saved from this bondage to sin?
In short, a man must believe that God is good.
He must trust in his steadfast love.
Man already knows that God is all powerful. He knows that God is all knowing. Remember, this is the truth that man already knows and yet he suppresses.
What he refuses to believe is that God IS love.
How can a man KNOW that God is love? That he is altogether good?
Because of this. That while man was yet dead in his sin, a rebel towards his maker and hostile to him in everyway God showed his benevolence to this rebel, this creature from the dirt, in this; that Christ Jesus, the Son of the living God, died for our sins.
All the evil that we all know exists and we’re all ultimately accountable for was put on Christ the Lord.
Your sin. My sin. All sin.
All the death, the destruction, the evil of every thought and intention of the heart was laid upon his shoulders. He was brutalized by men, because of men… FOR men.
Moreover because the Lord Jesus knew no sin himself, he conquered man’s greatest enemies, sin and even death by his resurrection from the dead.
Having paid in full the debt of sin for the evil we all know exists, he now offers you to freely share in his great reward. Eternal life in Him.
So why do you tarry?
Why do you persist in unbelief?
Why do you question the goodness of God in the face of Jesus Christ? If the Spirit of God is prompting you now…. believe.
Believe the good news!
Repent of your unbelief and so be saved from your sin.
If you are still reading this now, know that I am praying for you personally. I don’t know who you are but the Lord does. And I pray that he will soften your heart, that in hearing the good news of Jesus you will persist no longer in your unbelief.
If you read this and you want to talk about it please send me a PM.
For a long while now I’ve sensed the Holy Spirit impressing on me this axiom:
Intellectualism is the seedbed of apostacy…
What does that mean exactly?
I’ve got much I want to share about this but for right now I’ll just say this; if faith comes by hearing (Romans 10:17) then the falling away comes by deafness (Hebrews 5:11) and that deafness is the direct result of what I’d call “intellectualism”.
21 And he said to them, “Is a lamp brought in to be put under a basket, or under a bed, and not on a stand?22 For nothing is hidden except to be made manifest; nor is anything secret except to come to light.23 If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.”24 And he said to them, “Pay attention to what you hear: with the measure you use, it will be measured to you, and still more will be added to you.25 For to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.” – Mark 4:21-25
Ask a Christian, or even an unbeliever, if they believe in God and they’ll often explain that belief in God requires some measure of faith and then, depending on their faith, they’ll answer accordingly.
“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” – Hebrew 11:1
Indeed, it is a great step of faith to believe in God and a greater step still to believe the good news of the Lord Jesus Christ crucified and risen for the remission of your sin.
But what of the Holy Spirit?
When Jesus began to explain the coming of the Holy Spirit to his disciples he told them it was to their benefit, to their advantage, that he would leave them so that the Holy Spirit would come and that he would make his dwelling place with them and in them. (John 14:15-17, 16:7)
In them.
The Holy Spirit, the God of all creation would make his dwelling place in the hearts of men. (2 Corinthians 1:21-22)
Stop for a moment and ponder the gravity of what Jesus shared with his disciples. What it meant for them. What it means for you.
The God who hovered over the face of the waters before the creation of the world and spoke all things into existence. (Genesis 1:2)
The God who made man and gives him life. (Job 33:4)
The God who flowed from the Rock. (Exodus 17:5-6, John 19:34, 1 Corinthians 1:1-4)
The God who convicts us of our sin, proclaims to us the good news of Jesus Christ, who makes the dead live, who seals us, who comforts us, teaches us and gives us hope. (John 16:8 , Hebrews 3:7 and 4:2, 1 Corinthians 2:2-5 and 2:10 and 12-15, Ephesians 1:13-14, John 14:26, Romans 15:13)
This God, the Holy Spirit, has made his dwelling place in us.
Actually believing that, well that would require a monumental leap of faith wouldn’t it?
But the Scriptures are clear. God of very God, the Holy Spirit has come and He has made his place in our hearts and we have become his temple. (1 Corinthians 3:16)
Do you have the faith to believe this?
Do you believe in Him whom you have not seen? Are you assured of the things you’ve hoped for?
Do you have the faith to believe what the Scriptures testify of the Holy Spirit?
Then let me ask you only this:
“…Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith?” – Galatians 3:2
If then what began in you began by hearing with faith should you not continue in Him in the same way…
“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’” – Revelation 3:22
