Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne, Yet that scaffold sways the future, and, behind the dim unknown, Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own.
Man is born seeking meaning in all he goes about
He desires to understand it all, from beginning to the end
He labors to quench uncertainties raised by constant doubt
But apart from God in Christ, it’s just a chasing of the wind
Meaning comes from outside of us, and is never ours to make
Wisdom is a gift of God, given to those who seek his face
“The Wise” are ones who handle all for their Redeemer’s sake
Who understand that creatures must keep the creature’s place
The buzz phrase in many quarters in the Church today is “Social Justice.” It’s origins are Marxist and when one reflects just a bit one begins to realize that it is an odd phrase, if only because what those who labor for “Social Justice” advocate for, would have, in another time been called “acts of mercy.”
So, why have we changed the language from “acts of mercy” to Social justice?
Well, an “act of Mercy” implies the giving of something that is not owed. An “act of Mercy” is a generosity extended. However, when we call those same acts “Social Justice” what we have done to our conceptual framework is to have twisted it so that what formerly was a generosity extended now, because of the notion of “Justice,” becomes a action towards someone that is required and demanded.
On the part of the one receiving the act of mercy they have now gone from one whom would naturally show gratitude to one who now believes that they are only getting what is rightfully theirs to be had. An act of Mercy is benevolence received. Social Justice is getting what one is owed and deserved.
Secondly, when we metamorphize “an act of Mercy” into Social Justice we have moved from the chair of the individual philanthropist to the seat of a Judge who will render verdict on what everyone owes to society. When we invoke Social Justice we are the ones who are deciding who must “give” what, instead of one individual acting upon our own conscience as God has commanded us individually. A judge who renders a verdict is outraged when his decisions are not complied with. A philanthropist, is at worst, disappointed when his “acts of mercy” don’t have the impact that he might like.
“And above all we have dragged priests out of the depths of the political party struggle and have brought them back again into the Church. It is our determination that they shall never return to a sphere which is not made for them, which dishonors them, and which of necessity brings them into opposition to millions of people who in their hearts wish to hold to the faith but who desire to see the priests serving God and not a political party.”
~ Adolf Hitler in a speech, October 24, 1933
R2K Enthusiast
Member — Christ Uniform Reformed Church
“[O]nce the church’s voice is stifled in the public square, the role of culture-makers shifts to the secular realm. The state will see this need and fill that need itself—in the name of national unity. In the case of Nazi Germany, it realized that it was now the state’s educational role to create a unifying worldview for the nation….”
“[T]he unity of the Germans must be secured through a new Weltanschauung [worldview], since Christianity in its present form was no longer equal to the demands which were to-day made on those who would sustain the unity of the people.”
Hitler told this to a group of Nazi leaders, August 27, 1933:
“The Church, as such, has nothing to do with political affairs. On the other hand, the State has nothing to do with the faith or inner organization of the Church.”
– Hitler again, in conversation with Nazi bishop Ludwig Muller
A friend posted this quote, this morning. He is a Filipino Doctor practicing medicine somewhere in these united States,
“Methinks I hear England’s passing bell go. Let us shed some tears over dying England. Let us bewail our intestine divisions. England’s divisions have been fatal. They brought in the Saxons, Danes, Normans. ‘If a kingdom divided cannot stand’, how do we stand but by a miracle of free grace? Truth is fallen and peace is fled. England’s fine coat of peace is torn and, like Joseph’s coat, dipped in blood.”
Thomas Watson — Reformed Doctor of the Church
“The Beatitudes- An Exposition of Matthew 5:1-12”, chapter 5, ‘Blessed Are They That Mourn.’
If, even if Watson’s time, among the Doctors of the Church, there existed an awareness of the dangers of heterogeneity, in a culture and social order where the heterogeneity bemoaned was far less fractious then what we are experimenting with today in this country how much more should we be aware of the dangers of balkanization today when the balkanization that is being forced upon us is characterized by a far greater degree of separation between faiths and people groups then they were seeking to slam together in Watson’s own time?
Just keep in mind, that what is going on with the current immigration policy of the West is a drive towards a New World Order where, in the words of Bertolt Brecht,
After the uprising of the 17th June
The Secretary of the Writer’s Union
Had leaflets distributed in the Stalinallee
Stating that the people
Had forfeited the confidence of the government
And could win it back only
By redoubled efforts. Would it not be easier
In that case for the government
To dissolve the people
And elect another?
The Solution
I agree with the great Reformed minister Thomas Watson and the 20th century poet Bertolt Brecht regarding the dangers of Babylonian Multiculturalism.
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.
In Romans 1 the essential nature of idolatry is explained to be,
1.) Exchanging the glory of the incorruptible God for an image (23)
2.) Exchanging the truth of God for a lie (25a)
3.) Worshiping and serving the creature rather than the Creator (25b)
As Idolatry results in becoming what you worship (Psalm 115, 135) the fitting punishment (lex talionis) for dysfunction in the relationship between the Creator and creature is dysfunction in the relationship between the creature and the creature and so malfunction in worshiping God results in malfunction in other relationships. This malfunction is then put on display in sodomy, lesbianism, disobedience to parents, and all kind of kinds of other relational grotesqueries (Romans 1:24-32).
In vs. 21 the failure is “not honoring God,” and the punishment that fits the crime is their dishonoring of their bodies via perversion (vs. 24). Those who will not honor God will not honor either themselves or others. Note also the close relationship between a rejection of God and the embrace of sexual perversion. Wrong thinking about God leads to wrong thinking (and acting) about sexuality.
In vs. 21 it is said that they became futile in their thinking because they did not honor God and as a consequence (judgment) in vs. 28 God gives them over to a debased mind. They will not think right about God and as punishment from God they are debased in their thinking about others.
All in all a rupture in the vertical relationship makes for a rupture in horizontal relationships.
It is interesting that the inspired Apostle draws the tightest relationship between men who will not love God and those same men who are dominated by their sexual lusts. It is as if somehow the image of God is wrapped up tightly with our sexuality so that if men will not bow to God they will attack God by striking out at Him by seeking to extricate the Imago Dei in attacking their sexuality. This suggests that perversion is primarily theological before it is anthropological. This tight relationship between men who will not love God and the practice of sexual perversion is seen also in the OT. Take for example Numbers 25 where the Israelites abandon God and end up going all orgiastic with the women of Moab.
Romans 1 also teaches that man’s problem is not an intellectual problem but a moral problem. Man does not bow to God because he does not have enough facts. Man does not bow to God because in having all the facts he needs he insists, despites those facts, to engod himself at God’s expense.
A slightly different nuance is to see how orthodoxy and orthopraxy walk together in Romans 1. Wrong thinking about God is always reflected by unseemly orthopraxy. Reversed proper orthodoxy, always yields God honoring orthopraxy. If someone doesn’t practice orthopraxy then their orthodoxy is askew. A expert in theology who does not love his neighbor is no expert in theology.
Romans 1, consistent with the rest of Scripture, teaches us that Idolatry is the fountainhead of all sin. Sinful acts, when understood, can always be traced to a prioritizing of some Idol over the God of the Bible.