Transcendence — Objective and Otherwise

What are the implications for rejecting Objective Transcendence?

1.) The Elimination of the Creator-creature distinction

As transcendence is an inescapable category when we drop Objective Transcendence the only place left to lodge Transcendence is in man the creature. Man the creature thus becomes, functionally, man the Creator fully vested with Transcendence. God has been swallowed in anthropology.
 
2.) We make a “subjective” Objective and measure all by that

God alone is our absolute Objective. If God is no longer accepted as Transcendent then subjective man will provide the subjective Objective Transcendent and all will be brought before the bar of man to determine its usefulness, truthfulness, and legitimacy.

3.) We eliminate mediating Institutions

If there is no objectively Objective Transcendence none of our mediating Institutions can properly reflect Transcendence. This means family, Church, guilds, Associations, Schools all begin to lose their authority as the authority they were dependent upon is eclipsed.

This in turn leaves us naked against whatever subjective we have transferred Transcendence to — most commonly the State. No mediating Institution can stand against the new creaturely (subjective) Transcendence.

4.) Absolute Authority is vested in the New subjective Objective Transcendent (i.e. The State).

This explains, at least in part, why in the old USSR the early revolutionaries when falsely accused during the Stalin show trials refused to defend themselves. Those early revolutionaries had made the Soviet Communist State their God and if their God said they were guilty of crimes against the State then they were guilty of crimes against the State. One does not argue with one’s Transcendence.

5.) The Elimination of all justification for true Moral authority.

If there is no true Transcendence than no appeal beyond the subjective Objective Transcendent is allowed. All moral authority is creaturely authority. This of course births relativism in ethics. The Marquis de Sade becomes the norm.

6.) Man is absolutized, either in his individualistic expression or in his collectivist expression. Man is the new subjective objective Transcendent.

Eulogy Margaret Donna Lombardi

In the Psalms we discover a genre called, “Recital theology.” This genre finds the Psalmist reciting to himself and to the assembly the past riches of God’s favor, kindness, and covenant faithfulness. Part of the purpose of these Psalms was to hardwire in God’s people future confidence in God and His ability to provide in the midst of difficulties and trials.

Listen to a snippet of this recital theology,

136 O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever. 5 To him that by wisdom made the heavens: for his mercy endureth for ever. 6 To him that stretched out the earth above the waters: for his mercy endureth for ever.  10 To him that smote Egypt in their firstborn: for his mercy endureth for ever: 11 And brought out Israel from among them: for his mercy endureth for ever:

As believers in Christ, all God’s people should have their own recital theology. A personal theology that recites the way God has kept His promises thus

1.) glorifying God for His covenant faithfulness,
2.) reminding us of our dependence upon Him,
3.) and giving us a holy moxie for the future.

Donna … Mom had her recital theology and she took joy in reciting it.  She recited how the Lord Christ had provided Witham eggs for meals when they first arrived in Lewiston Auburn when the family budget was tight.

136 O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.

She recited how the Lord Christ constantly made provision for the fledgling newly opened Church and their new Pastor and wife.

136 O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.

She recited how the Lord Christ provided for her and Dad after they retired from South Lewiston by opening up Ministry opportunities unexpectedly in both Canada and at Gibbs Mill.

136 O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.

She saw God’s remarkable providence and so recited how the Lord Christ opened the way for Dad to find a slot at Marshwood.

136 O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.

She saw the Lord Christ’s hand of providence everywhere and witnessing God’s faithfulness she responded by God’s grace alone by being faithful.

One of the ways she exhibited her faithfulness was by reciting God’s faithfulness.

She kept God’s faithfulness before her. We will be singing a few of Donna’s favorite hymns that are soused with lyrics that testify to God’s Faithfulness,

Day by day, and with each passing moment,
Strength I find to meet my trials here;
Trusting in my Father’s wise bestowment,
I’ve no cause for worry or for fear.
He, whose heart is kind beyond all measure,
Gives unto each day what He deems best,
Lovingly its part of pain and pleasure,
Mingling toil with peace and rest.

——–

  1. Every joy or trial falleth from above,
    Traced upon our dial by the Sun of Love;
    We may trust Him fully, all for us to do;
    They who trust Him wholly find Him wholly true.————-All of the way my Savior leads me
    And He cheers each winding path I tread
    Gives me strength for every trial
    And He feeds me with the living bread
    And though my weary steps may falter
    And my soul a-thirst may be
    Gushing from a rock before me
    Though a spirit joy I see

    We might also mention also the Titus 2 dynamic Donna personified so well,

    Paul writing to Timothy,

Titus 2:2 But speak thou the things which befit the sound doctrine:  … that aged women likewise be reverent in demeanor, not slanderers nor enslaved to much wine, teachers of that which is good; that they may train the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sober-minded, chaste, workers at home, kind, being in subjection to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed

Clearly, the premise here is the idea that normatively, and possible exceptions notwithstanding God’s revelation teaches the idea of gender roles. There is such a thing as Biblical manhood and Biblical womanhood.

Donna Lombardi embodied this concept found in Titus 2 of Biblical feminity. She wasn’t afflicted with the modern muddled idea that women are free when they serve their employers but slaves when they help their husbands.

Her husband in 2010 eulogized her for this Titus 2 virtue. In a letter to her, Tony quoted Proverbs 31:28-29

Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and praiseth her. Many daughters have done virtuously but thou excellest them all 

And then penned these words to his wife,

“Those verses give you the combined feelings of Mark, Jane, and John plus mine. They reveal how you raised them pouring your life into their upbringing. You could have insisted on going out to work, but you didn’t. Never have I heard them say anything negative about the way you raised them. You were always there when they needed you.”

 

Donna … Mom, was a Pastor’s wife during a time when Christian wives more often than not properly embraced the reality that their role was to be a helpmeet to their husbands, most commonly working in the background so that the ministry of Christ could go forward.

D0nna didn’t seek the limelight. She was too busy putting together the evening treats for the company who would be invited by her husband every Sunday after evening service, or turning down the beds and tidying up the rooms that the visiting missionaries would be staying in for the annual Missionary conference.

Donna shaped as she was by the Titus 2 ethic found in God’s assigned role for her the ability to find in her kitchen a sanctuary… In a well-set table, she was able to glorify God… In tending to her children she discovered God’s sanctification and in pleasing her husband she was adorned with Holiness.

Tony saw this in his wife and thanked her for it in 1980 writing, 

“I appreciate you in all the hard work you do in an out of the house. In the home, I appreciate the neat cupboard, the clean clothes kept nicely separated in the drawers, clean dishes, fresh bedding, clean clothes to wear, your excellent cooking, and maintaining the house to look and feel like a home. 

I also appreciate your spiritual sensitivity and your desire to nurture and see the children mature spiritually. God has given you the gift of counseling, especially to girls and (young) women.

Donna didn’t seek to be the main attraction. She was too busy practicing piano for Sunday Church service or too busy watching the littles in the nursery during Church, or too busy typing up the bulletin for Sunday Church services.

Jane’s Mom didn’t seek the limelight. She was too busy cooking meals or cleaning the scrapes and bruises of her own congregation consisting of Mark, Jane, and John. Humility was a watchword and she was ever vigilant in practicing humility so that her husband might better be Christ’s voice to the congregation.

But make no mistake about it… there would have been no Pastor Lombardi doing the work of the ministry of Christ at South Lewiston Baptist Church if there had not been a Donna Lombardi doing the work of the ministry of Christ spending her time being conversant with humility. She was an example of the woman being made for the man (I Cor. 11:9).

She kept a well-run home. Everything had a place and there was a place for everything. As I dance with my memories in the future of the Lombardi home I will always remember a home that was clean, uncluttered, and peaceful. For those with a literary bent, the Lombardi home was Rivendell.

She was not only a faithful mother but a faithful daughter and daughter-in-law as well. She doted on her Father when in his later years he would come to visit seeking to do all she could to make him comfortable. Several times a week she would be on the phone with her mother checking in on her. Then doing that again when the generational clock turned so checking in on her children. She loved Tony’s family as her own and demonstrated that by involving herself in their lives.

Wife, Mother, Grandmother, daughter, sister… these things seem so common to our ears but in an age where we find family disintegrating all around us isn’t it a pleasure to hear of a time and a person who prioritized God’s priority?

Walk into any of the living spaces of her home and there you will find photos of her husband, children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, as well as parents, nieces, and nephews.

 In some places, they call this “Old-School.” I just call it Biblical feminity. There was nothing flashy or inspiring about it all until you took the time to see what you thought you were seeing but had missed seeing… In St. Peter’s words what you were seeing was the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is precious in God’s sight.

What she wanted most for her family was what any Christian mother wants for her family and that is that they would know the surpassing riches of God’s grace, as demonstrated to us by His kindness in Christ Jesus.  Like any Mother, she wanted all her family present when the circle is finally unbroken.

She didn’t walk on water. Like us all, she had her moments when the ministry got the best of her.  As Luther said in describing all Christians, she was at the same time sinner, at the same time saint. That being true could I pour a little Donna Lombardi in our womenfolk and wives in the West today I would pour liberally.

To God be all the Glory,

Prayer

God of the generations, now that you in your infinite wisdom have gathered to yourself another of the aged saints we pray that we remaining would find ourselves faithful in light of your faithfulness to us in Christ. Grant us your favor to walk in light of your reality. May the glory of your majesty weigh heavy upon us so shaping us to be your people. Be pleased to teach us to think as Christians and to be your witnesses to those who only know the trinkets of this present age. By thy faithfulness and by thy Spirit grant us your grace to be faithful to the very end until you summon us to your presence.

In Christ’s name,

Cultural Marxism

“Since the end of WW II American society has been suffering decomposition and deconstruction. Consider what we have come to in seven decades. The distinctiveness of marriage has been abolished (Baird v. Eisentadt); prayer and Bible reading in schools has been stamped out (Abington, Schemp, et al.); the mother’s womb has become the most dangerous place for a baby (Roe v. Wade, et al.); the rights (but not the duties) of fathers and parents of minor girls have been voided (Planned Parenthood v. Danforth); divorce has become easier than marrying; the Ten commandments have been banned from public view; and now the natural distinction between male and female is being abolished. (Goodridge, Lawrence, etc.). The Pledge of Allegiance is forbidden; the Boy Scouts are under attack; and Christmas carols are banned. Pornography is everywhere.

The structure of American society is being demolished brick by brick. Within a few short years, Americans will have reached the ‘liberty’ desired by Jean-Jacques Rosseau, the abolition of every particular dependency. This is what Hannah Arendt called the ‘atomistic mass,’ a precondition for the establishment of totalitarianism.”

Dr. Harold O. J. Brown
Powers, Principalities, Spiritual Forces:Charging Towards the Dies Irae

Now people can believe that this all happened by sheer happenstance and coincidence if they desire. There is truth in the idea that cultural wreckage doesn’t have to be minutely orchestrated and conspired towards when a people as a whole no longer recite to themselves why they do the things that they do, or what the meaning is in their traditions. When people forget why those who went before believed it was a good idea to be married before having babies then naturally they are going to be more prone to believe the new elites who tell them that marriage is an option. When people forget why those who went before them thought that killing their offspring was a bad idea naturally they are going to be more inclined to believe the new school that teaches that choice is what matters most. When people forget why their culture was the way it was — when they forget why the boundary markers were placed where they were, then they are going to be much more sanguine about removing the boundary markers and placing them elsewhere. Still, despite that observation remaining completely true, that doesn’t mean that along the way cultural gatekeepers didn’t have a particular agenda they were consciously pursuing that has led us to this time and this place.

Legion are the corrupt schools of thought that have led us to this place. One could name Dewey’s Instrumentalism. One could name legal positivism. One could name existentialism. One could name analytic Psychology. All of these have contributed to the slide that Dr. Brown mentions. One that doesn’t get a great deal of play time that perhaps is as important as all those named is the Frankfurt school of thought.

The Frankfurt school originated in post-WWII Germany and was dedicated to examining why Marxist theory failed. Marxist theory had believed that the proletariat would rise up and throw off the oppression of the Bourgeois and yet the working class during WW I marched off and savagely fought one another in defiance of Marxist class theory. This failure pushed some men into asking the question ‘why.’

Two men, working independently of one another happened upon the same answer. According to Hungarian Marxist Georg Lukacs and Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci, the reason that the proletariat failed to coalesce together was the baleful influence of Western Culture. Lukacs and Gramsci determined that if key components of Marxist utopian teleology were to be arrived at then Western culture, largely shaped as it was by Christian categories, would have to be undone. While Marx had insisted that every thing must be interpreted through economics and an oppressed class, Lukacs and Gramsci realized that every thing must be interpreted through culture and oppressed interest groups.

While traditional Marxist appealed to Marx’s later writings, the school that became known as ‘cultural Marxism’ or ‘neo-Marxism’ appealed to Marx’s earlier writings. This Frankfurt school, beginning in 1923 dedicated itself to reinterpreting Marx from economic categories into cultural categories. Led by such luminaries as Georg Lukacs, Herbert Marcuse, and Theodor Adorno (Gramsci was rotting away in a Mussolini jail) the Frankfurt school set themselves to the task of ‘de-Christianizing’ the West. What should not be missed here is that these men realized that success lies in waging a successful theological war. While they may not have put it in such terms, in realizing that Western Culture must be overturned before Marxist goals could be realized they were, in essence, recognizing that the Theology that made the West must be crushed if their New World Order was to be realized.  Theodore Adorno reveals this mindset in his book, “The Authoritarian Personality.” In that book, Adorno lists parenthood, pride in one’s family, traditional Christianity, adherence to traditional gender roles towards sex, and the love of one’s own nation as pathological phenomena.

In order to achieve this undoing of the West with its pathological phenomena of  parenthood, pride in one’s family, Christianity, adherence to traditional gender roles towards sex, and the love of one’s own nation one insight that they happened upon was the necessity to do a ‘long march through the institutions’ of the West. By this, they showed that they understood that a culture is largely a reflection of and a product of the institutions that provide the infrastructure that holds a society together. Their plan was to infiltrate and capture the cultural institutions that held Western Society together (Law, Education, Family, Arts, Churches, Economics, Journalism, etc.) thus assuring the eclipse of Christianity and therefore the West.

With the advent of National Socialism in Germany, things got uncomfortable for these academics and their think tank with the consequence that they packed up and moved to New York City until the end of WWII. The school picked up new lights in men like Psychologist Erich Fromm and sociologist Wilhelm Reich and it set about the business of writing and publishing. Now in order to be true to its Marxist base, the school needed to find a replacement for Marx’s proletariat working class by which the heavy lifting of revolution could be accomplished. Rushing in to fill that gap came the disaffected, the cultural outcasts, and those who had marginalized themselves in terms of Western Christian Culture. The new proletariat would be comprised of the natural enemies of Western Christian culture and who would gain by that Western culture being overthrown. In Biblical language what cultural Marxism intended to do by making the new proletariat the disaffected was to make the head the tail and the tail the head. The Sexual pervert, the bra-burning feminist, and those who perceived themselves as being victims and who nourished that perception and who believed that they were owed because of their long-suffering oppression would be the ‘New Man’ used for the New World Cultural Marxist order takeover.

Of course, egalitarianism became a central part of the technique to overthrow Western Christian culture. Egalitarianism, with its doctrinaire insistence that all cultures are equal, very quickly begins to morph into a kind of cultural relativism where the only sin that obtains is to insist that one culture is better or worse than another culture. This bled into religion since religion is what births culture among varying people groups. If all cultures are equal, it is a short step to affirming that all religions are equal.

Books began to be published. Theodor Adorno’s ‘Authoritarian Personality,’ mentioned above, basically argued that anybody who belonged to Western Culture and reflected Western Culture was suffering from a kind of Psychological disease that needed to be cured. Eros and Civilization fell from the pen of Herbert Marcuse which combines Marx with Freud and argues that a liberated Eros will lead to a more satisfactory culture. In short, once all the high octane intellectual mumbo jumbo is interpreted what Marcuse argues for is lots of sex with lots of people in lots of non-marriage settings. Also, a new social theory called ‘Critical Theory’ was constructed by the Frankfurt School. Critical Theory was dedicated to destructive criticism of the current Western social order with the purpose of fomenting a non-violent social revolution in America. At its heart, Critical Theory is dedicated to bringing an end to the perceived oppression of Western Culture. Critical Theory is not intended to offer a viable alternative since a truly free culture without oppression cannot be envisioned given the existence of Western Culture. Critical theory is a negative tool intended only to rapaciously critique the faults of Western Culture. Eventually one begins to be able to connect the dots between the Critical Theory of Horkheimer and the Frankfurt school and the Deconstructionism so prevalent in Western Universities today. Critical Theory saw the hands of Western oppression in every text and labored to point out how the putative oppressors were advantaged by whatever Critical Theory was critiquing. Critical Theory dismissed any ideas of objectivity in that which was being critiqued and saw instead only advantages of power and position of favored groups over the new proletariat (the perverts, the angry feminists, the victim classes). This has led to the disappearance of the author in Literature classes in Universities in the West.

Sub-movements have spun off this Cultural Marxism. Political correctness is the political speech wing of the movement. Cultural Marxism has created an environment where speaking against the new proletariat is the same kind of crime that speaking against the working class was in the old Soviet Union. To be charged with Racism, Sexism, or homophobia today is the equivalent of speaking against the party in Stalin’s USSR. Certain speech codes are implemented and refusal to abide by these codes labels one as insensitive, or intolerant. Another sub-movement is multi-culturalism. Since the desired end of Cultural Marxism is the death of the West then the advocacy of all other cultures to be equally esteemed by Westerners serves not to lift these other cultures up but rather serves to pull Western culture down. Finally, in my opinion, the desire for illegal immigration at the very least serves the ends of Cultural Marxism. The best way to end Western Culture is by injecting a new non-Western citizenry into nations shaped by Western Culture. This would be consistent with Bertolt Brecht’s pithy observation,

“Some party hack decreed that the people had lost the government’s confidence and could only regain it with redoubled effort. If that is the case, would it not be simpler, If the government simply dissolved the people And elected another?”

 

In many respects, Cultural Marxism is to Christianity and Christians what National Socialism was to the Jewish Religion and to Jews. Just as German National Socialist sought a Third Reich absent of Jewish presence so Cultural Marxism seeks a New World Order absent of any traditional and historic Christian presence. Their success thus far is seen in the beginning quote. In 70 short years they have, along with other anti-Christ dogmas, poisoned the West to the point that Western Man is in danger of no longer knowing who he is (a person comprised of body and soul) or where he came from (the hand of the creator God) or where he is going (Kingdom of heaven).

The West will not last 70 more years of Gramsci’s ‘long march through our institutions.’

An Older Christianity … An Ancient Opponent

As WASP’s who are we? Are we merely a people who embrace a shared set of noble propositions? Or is there something more which makes “us,” us? Are we a unique, distinct, and separate people who belong to a particular race and clan, with a definable and cherished history, bound by a shared faith, language, and culture? Or to the contrary are we just so many integers and cogs who can be replaced by proposition affirming Tutsis, Hans, or Mongolians? Is particularity among the human species to go into eclipse in favor of a New World Order Universalistic Babel created melange that has declared war on distinction and particularity?
 
Some of the more pious Christian fellow travelers love to point out that our identity is in Christ. Nothing I write here should negate that reality. However, even the inspired Apostle Paul, who gave us more than any writers on our identity in Christ could still affirm distinctions among peoples and even mentioned his own passion for his own distinct people.

Roman 9:3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh,

Note what 19th century Charles Hodge offers on this passage,

 
Paul had two classes of brethren; those who were with him the children of God in Christ; these he calls brethren in the Lord, Philip, i. 14, holy brethren, &c. The others were those who belonged to the family of Abraham. These he calls brethren after the flesh, that is, in virtue of natural descent from the same parent. Philemon, he addresses as his brother, both in the flesh and in the Lord. The Bible recognizes the validity and rightness of all the constitutional principles and impulses of our nature. It, therefore, approves of parental and filial affection, and, as is plain from this and other passages, of peculiar love for the people of our own race and country.
 
Charles Hodge
Commentary Romans 9

Hodge, contrary to modern 21st-century leaders, did not suggest that because we were Christians our identity was such that grace destroyed nature so that who we were created by God to be somehow disappeared and was negated once we were redeemed. Grace restores nature. Grace does not destroy nature.

Because this is true as anchored, united, and grounded in Christ we still retain our creational categories. We are still male or female. Still, retain our patronymic last names. Still belong to race, ethnicity, clan, tribe, and family. Calvin underscores this point when he offered,

“Regarding our eternal salvation, it is true that one must not distinguish between man and woman, or between king and a shepherd, or between a German and a Frenchman. Regard policy, however, we have what St. Paul declares here; for our, Lord Jesus Christ did not come to mix up nature, or to abolish what belongs to the preservation of decency and peace among us….Regarding the kingdom of God (which is spiritual) there is no distinction or difference between man and woman, servant and master, poor and rich, great and small. Nevertheless, there does have to be some order among us, and Jesus Christ did not mean to eliminate it, as some flighty and scatterbrained dreamers [believe].”

Calvin
Sermon on 1 Corinthians 11:2-3

When Calvin writes about “flighty and scatterbrained dreamers” he is referring to the Anabaptists of his time who had the tendency and desire to flatten all creational distinctions so that the result was a kind of social order that resembled a box of melted crayons.

The Anabaptists have returned with a vengeance. They or their intellectually sympathetic fellow travelers — The Cultural Marxists — are at the controls of our Churches, our Universities, our Families, our Corporations, and our Social Order and culture. Everywhere there is the push of “scatterbrained dreamers” to insist that grace destroys nature. Everywhere is the push of “scatterbrained dreamers” to adulterate and water down the distinctions that God ordained to make us, “us.”  Everywhere is the push of “scatterbrained dreamers” to

Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too

Allow me to submit that Social Justice Warrior Christianity that is now doing the work of Calvin’s “scatterbrained dreamers” is just the 40 proof version of the 100 proof version of the Frankfort school which has done so much damage to Western Civilization.

So because of how the cankerworm has eaten away at the reality of divinely intended distinctions we lesser sons of the greater fathers of the West are left to ask ourselves;  Will the historically distinct Christian and Anglo-Saxon quality of resisting tyranny which Kipling immortalized in poetry rise again to meet the challenge of the International Money Interest who would involve the globe in a liberty snuffing mass amalgamation that throws race, ethnicity, religion, and culture into a giant Marxist blender? Or will the Christian WASP go quietly into the dark night of religion, race, and culture mixing?

The chips pushed in the middle of this poker table is Western civilization itself and more than that the stake is the existence of Biblical Christianity. A loss here would include a dark age which may take a millennium before a light flickers again.
 
Around this poker table sits the New World Order, the Social Justice Warrior Christian Left, and the Ideological classical liberal Christian “Conservative.” The fourth party at the table has the greatest stake in the results but is playing with the least visible leverage. Let us call him the dissident Biblical Christian. If the fourth party loses he loses Biblical patriarchy, Biblical marriage, Biblical family, Biblical social order and culture, and the Biblical visible Church. If he loses, he loses everything. If he loses he loses everything that has made civilization decent, estimable, and praiseworthy. The other three win no matter which of the other three win… at least for a time, though in the end, they lose as well because their winnings mean the return of chaos and dark night.
 
Choose ye this day whom you will support.

Lord’s Resurrection Day I

2.) Q — Since then the resurrection is true what certainties do we who rightly believe receive from this doctrine of Christ?

A. — First, that God by the resurrection has again confirmed that He does not speak without keeping His Word. (1)

Secondly, the resurrection proves that the Lord Christ is indeed God, (2) which in turn confirms that the work of Christ on the cross was a payment for sin that truly saves all who rightly believe. (3)

Thirdly, the resurrection makes certain that we have closed with Christ do wear the righteousness of Christ, (4) and thus no longer remain in our sin, (5) since we too have been raised with Christ. (6)

Fourthly, now being clothed in the righteousness of Christ the resurrection power of God working within us (7) promises (8) and enables (9) us to live lives increasingly consistent with the righteousness given to us in Christ.

Fifthly, the resurrection of our Lord Christ is a certain promise that we who have embraced Christ will also resurrect in a like manner and so not remain captive to the grave. (10)

Finally, the resurrection proves that grace does not destroy nature but restores nature as in the resurrection we remain joined to our gender (11), our nation (12), and our bodies with all their earthly scars (13) and capacities (14).

(1) = John 2:19, Hebrews 6:18
(2) = Romans 1:4
(3) = I Corinthians 15:17
(4) = Romans 4:25
(5) = I Corinthians 15:17
(6) = Colossian 3:1
(7) = Ephesians 1:19-20
(8) = Romans 6:4
(9) = Romans 6;10-11
(10) = I Corinthians 15:20-21
(11) = John 20:26-27
(12) = Revelation 21:24, 26, 22:2
(13) = John 20:26-27
(14) = Luke 24:43