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Jesus and His Mastery of the Seas; Of Chaos and Ontology

Mark 4:35 On the same day, when evening had come, He said to them, “Let us cross over to the other side.” 36 Now when they had left the multitude, they took Him along in the boat as He was. And other little boats were also with Him. 37 And a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat so that it was already filling. 38 But He was in the stern, asleep on a pillow. And they awoke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?”

39 Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace,[g] be still!” And the wind ceased and there was a great calm. 40 But He said to them, “Why are you so fearful? How[h] is it that you have no faith?” 41 And they feared exceedingly, and said to one another, “Who can this be, that even the wind and the sea obey Him!”

Many of the pericopes in the NT are present in order to connect the Old Testament to the New Testament. The Gospel of John especially does this kind of work. The material that John selects is often selected to set forth the divinity of Jesus Christ.

The question in Mark 4:41 is answered in the previous record of God’s Word. The answer to, “Who can this be, that even the wind and the sea obey him,” is none other Jehovah as seen from the Psalms.

Psalm 93:3
 
The floods have lifted up, O Lord,
The floods have lifted up their voice;
The floods lift up their waves.
4 The Lord on high is mightier
Then the noise of many waters,

Then the mighty waves of the sea.

 

Psalm 104:7-8
 

 

7 At Your rebuke they fled;

At the voice of Your thunder, they hastened away.
8 [a]They went up over the mountains;
They went down into the valleys,
To the place which You founded for them.

Psalm 107:23-32

23 Those who go down to the sea in ships,

Who do business on great waters,
24 They see the works of the Lord,
And His wonders in the deep.
25 For He commands and raises the stormy wind,
Which lifts up the waves of the sea.
26 They mount up to the heavens,
They go down again to the depths;
Their soul melts because of trouble.
27 They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man,
And [a]are at their wits’ end.
28 Then they cry out to the Lord in their trouble,
And He brings them out of their distresses.
29 He calms the storm,
So that its waves are still.
30 Then they are glad because they are quiet;
So He guides them to their desired haven.
31 Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness,
And for His wonderful works to the children of men!
32 Let them exalt Him also in the assembly of the people,

And praise Him in the company of the elders.

With the insertion of this pericope by Mark, Mark is declaring the divinity of Jesus Christ. Just as the Psalmist understood that God calmed the seas so Mark records that Jesus calms the seas. In the Hebrew mindset, the sea was often associated with chaos having its own internal power and so were places to be feared. In Genesis 1 we read,

1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

Here we see that God is taming the chaos of the waters (The Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters) bringing order where formlessness and void had previously existed. When we arrive at Genesis 7:11 we read of “the fountains of the great deep (tehom) bursting forth. The “great deep” in the Genesis 7 flood is the same deep that in Genesis 1:2 the Spirit of God is hovering over in order to bring order from chaos. However, in Genesis 7 we see this great deep under God’s control being used as an agency of God’s judgment against His disobedient creation. It is as if God is saying; “From chaos, I have created. To chaos, I return.”

Another example of the sea being an agent of chaos and judgment is the occasion of the Hebrews crossing the Red Sea. God, as He did in Genesis 1, separates the land from the sea and in doing so tames the sea for Israel’s rescue. However, the Egyptians receive the chaos of the sea as God covers them with chaos (Ex. 15:5 — “covered by the deep.”) Once again God is seen as being master of the chaos.

When we turn to the Psalms above we once again see evidence of how the sea was viewed by the ancient fathers.

Now, enter Jesus who in Mark 4 commands the winds and the waves … commands the chaos. Likewise in Matthew 14, Jesus tames the chaos not only by calming it but also by walking upon the great deep. All of this, for those with eyes to see, is the Scripture screaming that “Jesus is God.” Screaming because here in Matthew 14 as read next to Genesis 1:2 we find the great deep as unruly and chaotic being tamed by God hovering over the chaos bringing order out of chaos.

These passages are communicating the ontological nature of Jesus Christ. In generations, previous writers like Oscar Cullman insisted that the preoccupation of the early creeds to set forth the ontological deity of Jesus Christ were misplaced because the early Church fathers were displaying a Greek mindset in worrying about establishing the deity of Jesus. Cullman insisted that the Hebrew mindset was really only concerned with how Jesus was God in a functional sense. However, this passage in Mark gives the error to Cullman’s musings. When the disciples asked;

“Who can this be, that even the wind and the sea obey Him!”

They were asking what we would call an ontological question about the nature of Jesus Christ and in the record of their worshiping of Jesus we find the testimony that they concluded with the Greek early church Fathers that Jesus was very God of very God. Of course, this is underscored by John 1 when under the inspiration of the Spirit he gives quite the ontological passage as to the nature of Jesus Christ.

 

Wrath as an Inescapable Concept

In a world where fallen man makes the sky bronze in order to attempt to lock out the transcendent God of the Bible and His just wrath what happens is that wrath does not go away but rather is transferred to some new immanent God who is reified so as to have a pretend transcendence. Throughout history, this is usually some collective organization of man such as the State. The idol-State takes on a false transcendence and so levies its wrath in service of humanist projects that are injected with an aura of the divine as supported by the idol-state. So, whereas with God’s reality one has God’s covenantal judgments and so wrath for violating His standard, what happens when modern man seeks to lock God out of his reality is that modern man suffers the humanistic state, in God’s place, bringing to pass its own covenantal judgments as wrath against men who refuse to take the idol-state as god. Of course, the idol-state’s standard for bringing covenantal judgments as wrath against disobedience will be a standard completely contrary to God’s law-word.

We see already then that the wrath of some God or god is an inescapable concept. Man cannot live apart from covenantal judgments for disobedience to God or god as communicating his wrath for violating His or his standard.

We see this happening today, as for example, levied against those who refuse to think the idol-states thoughts after in on the matter of LGBTQ-ism. Increasingly the State is bringing covenantal wrath against those who refuse to accept the State’s insistence on the normalcy of perversion. Canada has already criminalized speaking out against perversion promising to visit its wrath against those who disobey the idol-state. The idol-state reasons as follows;

“Conversion therapy is premised on a lie, that being homosexual, lesbian, bisexual or trans is wrong and in need of fixing. Not only is that false, it sends a demeaning and degrading message that undermines the dignity of the individual.”

David Lametti
Minister of justice and attorney general of Canada

Because of this “reasoning,” Canada as the idol-state has crafted law criminalizing speech against LGBTQ-ism. You see, the wrath of a vengeful God has not gone away but has been merely been transferred to the idol-state following its own humanistic law-word.

What we see here is with the locking out of God from His creation the result is that God does not go away but rather is instantiated in the state and the idol-state as God will now exercise its own wrath and its own covenantal judgments against whatever it deigns to call sin per the new idol-state’s revelation.

Like Night Follows Day Side-B Pedophilia Follows Side-B Sodomy

Who knew that side-b sodomy would birth side-b pedophilia?

Today’s USA Today ran an article suggesting that the attitude of pedophilia, sometimes described by supporters as involving those who are “minor-attracted,” is “among the most misunderstood” in America. The supporters of the misunderstood pedophiles insisted that pedophilia is no more than “inappropriate.”

The article, based upon a released report went on to note that pedophilia should be the subject of a “destigmatizing” effort.

Quoting from the USA Today article,

“Pedophilia is viewed as among the most horrifying social ills. But scientists who study the sexual disorder say it is also among the most misunderstood,” reported Alia E. Dastagir. “Researchers who study pedophilia say the term describes an attraction, not an action, and using it interchangeably with ‘abuse’ fuels misperceptions” about pedophiles.

Understand what is going on here. It is the same thing that has been going on with the sodomy debate within the PCA last summer. The pedophiles are saying here that pedophilia can be “minority attracted” (which is a polite way of saying that pedophiles are sexually aroused by children) but one can be a pedophile and want to have sex with children but as long as the pedophile doesn’t follow through with those attractions he can be a contributor to society.

3 – 2 – 1 …. until side-b pedophilia is advocated in the conservative churches.

This is the same exact argument used by Greg Johnson and his fellow Johnson lovers in last year’s PCA General Assembly.  Some of us (like me) even suggested that this kind of thing was sure to be next.

I can see it now. There will be crocodile tears at a future PCA general assembly for the poor side-b pedophile who has a desire to bed children but who has not given into that temptation. “Why,” it will be argued, “side-b pedophiles should be even sainted.” Sure to follow will be… “Who of us can condemn side-b pedophiles? After all, we are all sinners. What makes one sin worse than desiring boinking little children?” We will hear things like … “The Scripture speaks more to the sin of inhospitality than it does to the sin of adults desiring to boink 10-year-olds.” Elders from Redeemer Church in New York City will forcefully advance “as we are all sinners we should look for as much compassion on those who want to back door 8-year-olds as we give to our own besetting sins as long as they don’t follow through with that desire.”

Martin Niemöller with an R2K Accent

First, the Cultural Marxists came for Trump
And I did not speak out
Because I was a Never Trumper

Then the Cultural Marxists came for the non-mask wearers
And I did not speak out
Because I wore my mask religiously

Then the Cultural Marxists came for the non-vacc’ers
And I did not speak out
Because there wasn’t a vaccine invented that I didn’t take

Then the Cultural Marxists came for the 2nd amendment supporters
And I did not speak out
Because guns are icky

The Cultural Marxists never came for me
Because I was an R2K Christian
And not even brain dead Cultural Marxists worry about R2K Christians

Egalitarian Statism … One Implication of Alienation from God

Colossians 1:21 And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled 22 in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight—

We must not skirt over this issue of man’s problem of alienation. Man’s alienation from God means that man is at enmity (war) with God (Romans 8:7) … has no peace with God … is hostile towards God. Of course, being alienated from God, man can find no peace anywhere else. Man outside of Christ, being alienated from God and in need of reconciliation is thus alienated as well from others and alienated from himself. There can be no peace along any horizontal axis if there is no peace along the vertical axis.

And so man outside of Christ has no peace. No peace with God. No peace with others. No peace with himself. This is never more true than when man outside of Christ is increasingly consistent with his Christ-hating presuppositions that drive his alienations, to begin with. So, the more fallen man is consistent with his Christ-hating presuppositions the more the weight of his alienation bears down.

Now, fallen man cannot live with this oppressive alienation and so he seeks to relieve it… to fix it. However fallen man’s fix for his alienation never takes into consideration the necessity that the verticle alienation must be resolved before any other alienation can be extinguished. As such, fallen man’s fix for his alienation (to others and himself) is to invent a new vertical wherein he can find reconciliation with hopes that once the new reconciled vertical is in place he can then find horizontal reconciliations with himself and with others.

This means a turn towards idolatry. If man will not be reconciled with God then he will seek to solve his alienation problems by creating a God in his own image sure that he can be reconciled to that idol-God and so find peace with his horizontal alienations.

Man thus creates a new God in town in hopes that he will be able to manipulate it so that it will provide horizontal reconciliations and so relief from his varied and sundry horizontal alienations. Throughout history, the new idol-God that is created by man outside of Christ is the God-State. Different mottoes throughout history demonstrate this idea. G

Within the State, Nothing Against the State, Nothing Outside the State

1.) “Everything in the State, nothing outside the State, nothing against the State.” Mussolini
2.) One People. One Empire. One Leader. — Nazi slogan
2.) The state is the actuality of the ethical Idea. It is ethical mind qua the substantial will manifest and revealed to itself, knowing and thinking itself, accomplishing what it knows and in so far as it knows it. Hegel

Hegel is saying here that the State becomes the incarnation of the absolute idea. This is as close as Hegel got to God. Hegel would’ve agreed that in the State we live and move and have our being since the state is God as man reified – objectified.

It is this idol state – which is man said loudly – that man will now look for all the answers to his horizontal alienations. The problem though with this idol-state is that the reconciliations that it will offer up as a solution to man’s horizontal alienations are reconciliations that require uniformitarian arrangements. The idol-state will work to resolve the alienations with others and self but it will only do so at the price of eliminating distinctions that it believes make for man’s problem of alienation. Man will no longer suffer alienation, so the idol-state reasons, because that which drives man’s alienations is inequality. By eliminating inequality man’s alienation from others and self will likewise be eliminated. As such, the answer to horizontal alienation is a Borg oneness. If all are one then there is no way to be alienated from others or from self. How can alienation obtain if all is the same? By creating an idol-state that man is reconciled to the idol-state solves horizontal alienations by taking individual man by the hand to the end of providing reunification (reconciliation) with his fragmented self.

This explains that globalist push towards social uniformitarianism. If ideas have consequences then the consequence of the idea of creating an idol-state in order to provide vertical reconciliation pursued in order to seek to escape the God of the Bible and His reconciliation in Christ is globalist egalitarianism.