Orthodox Lying?

Genesis 12:10-20

Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to dwell there, for the famine was severe in the land. And it came to pass, when he was close to entering Egypt, that he said to Sarai his wife, “Indeed I know that you are a woman of beautiful countenance. Therefore it will happen, when the Egyptians see you, that they will say, ‘This is his wife’; and they will kill me, but they will let you live. Please say you are my sister, that it may be well with me for your sake, and that I may live because of you.” So it was, when Abram came into Egypt, that the Egyptians saw the woman, that she was very beautiful. The princes of Pharaoh also saw her and commended her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken to Pharaoh’s house. He treated Abram well for her sake. He had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male and female servants, female donkeys, and camels. But the LORD plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife. And Pharaoh called Abram and said, ‘What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? Why did you say, ‘She is my sister’? I might have taken her as my wife. Now, therefore, here is your wife; take her and go your way.’ So Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him; and they sent him away, with his wife and all that he had.

Genesis 20:2-7

Now Abraham said of Sarah his wife, “She is my sister.” And Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah. But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night, and said to him, “Indeed you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is a man’s wife.” But Abimelech had not come near her; and he said, “Lord, will You slay a righteous nation also? Did he not say to me, ‘She is my sister’? And she, even she herself said, ‘He is my brother.’ In the integrity of my heart and innocence of my hands, I have done this.” And God said to him in a dream, “
 
 
Yes, I know that you did this in the integrity of your heart. For I also withheld you from sinning against Me; therefore I did not let you touch her. Now, therefore, restore the man’s wife; for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you shall live. But if you do not restore her, know that you shall surely die, you and all who are yours.”

Exodus 1:15 Then the king of Egypt told the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah, 16 “When you help the Hebrew women in childbirth, look at the child when you deliver it. If it’s a boy, kill it, but if it’s a girl, let it live.” 17 However, the midwives feared God and didn’t obey the king of Egypt’s orders. They let the boys live.

18 So the king of Egypt called for the midwives. He asked them, “Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live?”19 The midwives answered Pharaoh, “Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women. They are so healthy that they have their babies before a midwife arrives.”20 God was good to the midwives. So the people increased in number and became very strong. 21 Because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own.

See also Joshua 2 & Rahab’s lie to save the Hebrew spies

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Typically we fault Abraham for lying twice regarding Sarah being his sister and not his wife to Potentates. Yet, in both cases, God honored Abraham’s lie. In both cases, Abraham was enriched by his lie. In both cases, God punished the Kings temporarily to support the lie by sending sanctions upon those Kings. In both cases, God holds the Kings responsible even though they were lied to by Abraham. In neither case do we see God upbraiding Abraham for the lies.

In all three cases (Rahab, Abraham and the Hebrew midwives) they lied in order to save innocent lives. It is therefore clear that the implications of the sixth commandment trumped the ninth in these cases. This makes one also think about whether there may actually be cases where lying under oath in order to save innocent lives would be permissible (perhaps even obligatory).  In such cases, wisdom would require us to weigh the intent of the law. Clearly, wisdom would dictate that lying would be preferred over against the loss of life.

Further on this score the eighth commandment requires “rendering to every one his due.” It is often said in these circumstances that we are not required to put the instrument of our death into our enemies’ hands. All protests aside, the Potentates never controverted Abraham’s assertion that he would be killed for having a beautiful wife. Abraham was also a Prophet, and the LORD used these situations to enrich the godly, bring the fear of God to pagans, and establish a boundary between a wicked race and the Line of the Messiah. This sort of ethical resolution has saved many persecuted Christians. It may also be said that the weightier matter of the Law was to preserve life, which is the positive side of the Lord’s injunction against Murder. We must realize that telling the truth, if it implies unnecessary and immoral consequences, may in the hierarchy of goods, fall subordinate to other considerations, such as the preservation of innocent life.

Looking at history Augustine and Aquinas both argue about the intent of lies. They make the distinction between jocose lies or “officious lies” and “malicious lies.” They argue that jocose lies are playful and not harmful. These officious lies have no intent to harm while malicious lies intend to do harm and as such are the only real type of lie. I would call the examples cited officious lies not malicious and thus justifiable.

Now some will object that this could be interpreted as clothing Joseph Fletcher’s situational ethics with the cloak of virtue. However, I would contend that this is NOT Joseph Fletcher because we are insisting that Abraham acted in concert with God’s law when he lied just as the Hebrew midwives did and just as Rahab did when they lied. In each case, they were being observant to God’s 6th Word. Fletcher, to the contrary, insists that right and wrong are totally determined by the person themselves without any reference to an outside standard. In the end, allowing the murder of innocents because you have to make full disclosure of all things is an ultimate example of “using the law unlawfully.”

In terms of Abraham, the text nowhere gives us any indication that God was displeased with Abraham for his words to the potentates in Gen. 12/20. In point of fact, in Genesis 20 God blesses Abram with material blessings as a result of Abram’s speech to Abimelech.

As touching Rahab she is held up as an example of faith in both Hebrews and James. Can we possibly believe that God disapproved of Rahab’s words that protected the Hebrew spies and at the same time, by the Spirit’s inspiration, hold Rahab up as an example of faith in action?

Rushdoony clinches it here;

“We do not owe the truth to men who seek to do evil. A court of law requires truth, and we must pray there for God’s justice. But when confronted by evil men, we owe them nothing, for such men want our truth to further their evil. Abraham told the truth only up to the point.”

Commentaries on the Penteteuch
Gensis — pg. 126

WOKE Isn’t Going Away Any Time Soon; An Article and an Addition

Just finished the longish article linked below wherein the author gives 20 substantial reasons why WOKE isn’t going away and instead is going to bloom in the years ahead. I find his analysis irrefutable.

The article is not for those who desire to be pollyanna and neither is it for the “wishing and hoping” postmillennialists. It is a hard-nosed look at what must be overcome in order to clear the air of the smell of sulfur and brimstone. The article insists that the victory won’t be had in a day. It is a battle that will go on for at least one generation. As that is true the Church needs to start rolling up her sleeves to get to work.

https://theupheaval.substack.com/p/no-the-revolution-isnt-over?fbclid=IwAR1lskCT_6_QqdjPGZXKlqwQju66gAQdwsZdrI_BOyIN2wWBdFDifqSVfaM

Here is #21, which he didn’t mention.

21.) The Church as Institution is DEAD. There is no will in the pulpit to either understand WOKEism or to combat WOKEism as an attack on the fundamentals of Biblical Christianity. Indeed, the weight of the visible Church right now is putting its thumb on the scales to support WOKEism. Add to this that our pulpits are pathetic because our Seminaries are sinister. Seminaries are not training the future ministry to smell out WOKEism as Maoist Marxism. Quite to the contrary Seminaries are on the Cultural Revolution bandwagon. Keep in mind that I am not talking about Mainline Pulpits or Mainline Seminaries. I am talking about heretofore Conservative Churches and Conservative Seminaries.

How many of our Seminaries are offering courses on Cultural Marxism as the greatest current ideological Worldview challenge to Christianity extant? How many of our Seminaries are combatting Radical Two Kingdom Theology because it is WOKEism through the back door? Are our seminaries allowing their men to graduate without knowing the names of Herbert Marcuse, Antonio Gramsci, Theodore Adorno, and Wilhelm Reich? Are the fresh faces mounting pulpits for the first time aware of “the long march through the institutions,” “the F-scale,” or the new proletariat? Are they conversant with Critical Theory? Critical Race Theory? Intersectionality? If we don’t even know our enemies or their tactics how will we ever fight them?

This lack seems to be driven, at least somewhat, by the inability of the Church to do cultural theology. The Church remains trapped in the older theological models that refuse to engage a culture adrift. Add to that the eschatological teleology that most theologies are packed with and the recipe is a certain inability to resist and overcome this cultural moment. This cultural moment is not going to give Churches the option to just withdraw. If the church will not resist the church will be assimilated — assimilation we already see as being widespread.

I Know He’s Lutheran but He’s OK … He’s With Us

Every once in a blue moon you’ll find compatriots you never would have expected. Here is a Lutheran who is a race realist. He sounds alarmingly like me at certain points. He does say some stupid things like (paraphrasing) “if anybody thinks that Christ did not die for all men, that is evil.” But you expect that out of the mouth of a Lutheran. Just disregard that and listen to his race realism. Listen to who he quotes from Lutheran history. Listen to the fact that he cites contemporary Lutherans who agree with him. This is a marvelous lecture because it demonstrates again both that history is on our side and that we are not alone.

Mr. Dunn’s Clock Shop

For a good part of my Seminary years, I had a landlord who repaired clocks and watches by way of making a living. Naturally, my curiosity brought me into his little shop more than once. I even offered my services to learn the craft though he turned me down realizing that my career path wouldn’t be worth the time he would have to invest to teach me. Still, his little clock shop was amazing with all the varied and sundry clocks hanging on the wall. It was wondrous to be in Mr. Dunn’s shop when at the top of the hour struck and all the varied clocks would begin a choir of exclamation pronouncing what time it was. Many of the clocks had their innards exposed as Mr. Dunn was working on getting them ship-shape. The intricacies of those clocks were fascinating. All those myriads of differentiated parts each have their unique responsibility but all work together to make the clock run.

There was a time when social orders, were like unto those clocks. Just to look at the face of a social order like looking at a face of a clock it just seems to be this indistinguishable reality. It’s just there. However, behind the face of the social order, like behind the face of the clock is a maze of differentiated pieces each fulfilling their assigned roles in order to make the social order run. Like Mr. Dunn’s clocks, our social order is meant to work by means of gears, pulleys, and dials each doing their distinct job in order to produce a marvelous whole.

In our social order once upon a time those gears, pulleys, and dials of Mr. Dunn’s clocks were reflected in the varied and sundry covenant communities that made up the social order as a whole. Distinctive families, churches, guilds, schools, differing respective law orders, volunteer organizations etc. all served as the stuffing behind the faces of the watches and clocks Mr. Dunn worked on.  All were distinction and yet all worked together in an interdependent fashion in order to make the clock (social-order) work.

However, with the rise of Democracy our various gears, pulleys, and dials have been flattened out so that our social order is just one giant undifferentiated mess. The Federal State has stripped all the gears, pulleys, and dials from our social order clock so that it alone is seen as the social order. The state has pulled out all the stuffing of the clock and has deemed that it alone is the clock.

Did you know that once upon a time in the West social order existed as being guided by several law-orders at the same time working together simultaneously? In such a way no one law order could govern the whole social order. In the same way, different social institutions each had their own equal ultimacy depending on what the issue at hand was. There was a plurality in those social orders and that plurality worked to the end of unity.

Now, all we have because we have given in to the statist worldview, is uniformity. Like the Italian Fascists from almost 100 years ago, we have taken up the motto; “Everything in the State, nothing outside the State, nothing against the State.”

I want my clock back.

Random Musings on This & That

I.) Clearly, if God alone has exhaustive sovereignty and if we, as His people are to live, move, and have our being in light of God’s sovereignty then that necessarily means that any temporal jurisdictional authority that seeks to overthrow God’s sovereignty by commanding what God does not command or not commanding what God does command is an authority that is no longer a legitimate authority and so has excluded itself from the expectation that Christians will obey their pseudo-authority. No husband, no elder in the Church, no magistrate is to be obeyed who is operating outside the context of God’s Law-Word.

To deny this, as much as the Reformed church currently does, is to de-God God and en-God husbands, elders, and/or magistrates.

For Reformed people … we have no King but Jesus and if you want my obedience you will obey him.

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II.) From the beginning of the creation of the putative philanthropic foundations, there have been two objectives pursued by their creators (Carnegie, Rockefeller, Ford, Mellon, etc.). The first objective was to shelter the wealth of their creators, and the second was to use that wealth to fundamentally change America into one nation among many under the control of a global governing body.

See

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File under; “Call it irony.”

The underground church in China refuses to submit to Chinese Communist claims of totalistic statist sovereignty while churches in the West snap to attention every time the State demands a closure or passes legislation to make it illegal to counsel sodomites to give up their sodomy. (See Canada’s recent legislation on the latter issue.)

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III.) In an odd confluence, we now have in the West both absolute libertinism for individuals as combined with absolute sovereignty by the State. The state is used to guarantee maximalist individual “freedom” while at the same time existing in order to tyrannize those who would put restraints on this maximalist libertinism.

Behold Sam Francis’ — Anarcho-tyranny

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IV.) Like a 5-year-old impatiently waiting to open his Christmas present, McAtee eagerly awaits to see if he will once again make the SPLC hate list as a “White Nationalist.” Will he once again in 2022 have different Lansing State Journal editions as well as the local “journalistic” outlets give him top-of-the-fold headline attention? Will he once again find PBS spending the whole weekend raising his profile on their radio news every hour on the hour? Will he receive a flurry of hate calls and maybe another couple of death threats? Will yet more ministers in Charlotte run to get in front of the camera in order to denounce him yet again? Will a “Reformed” denomination in America again go out of its way to produce a press release disassociating itself with McAtee?

It is such an exciting time of year. The anticipation is killing me.

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