The Living Presence Of God

“The living presence of God in the heart of authentic Israelite culture, that is, in Israel’s laws and ordinances, explains why the Psalmist so loved the law and ordinances of God. They were sweet to him, a joy to keep and a light to ones path, because the Lord God of Israel was present in them. His presence gave to them their sweetness, their joy, and their light; to keep the law accordingly was to enter into the presence of the living God Himself. The life that one lived by keeping the law was the life of the Lord God Himself, and the character of that life was the character of the Lord God Himself. Biblical theology is therefore not produced but received from the God of Abraham Himself. Accordingly, authentic biblical theology is of a particular character, for it is a description of the particular Lord God who stands at the heart of biblical worship, who has brought Israel into being and given to him his distinctive character and identity.”

Kenneth Paul Wesche
Pastor — St. Herman’s Orthodox Church
Essay – Keeping The Faith

Let us posit that Wesche’s observations are correct just for the sake of argument. Let us agree that the living presence of God was in the heart of authentic Israelite culture, that is, in Israel’s laws and ordinances. Now as Reformed people we all confess that those who lived in the anticipatory covenant were living in an age front loaded with the eschatological ‘not yet.’ Now certainly there were adumbrations and lineaments of the eschatological ‘now’ but overall the age of the anticipatory covenant was weighted with the eschatological ‘not yet.’ Now, if even in the eschatological age that was weighted with the ‘not yet’ God’s living presence was in the heart of authentic Israelite culture how is it that so many Reformed people deny that in this age that is weighted with the eschatological ‘now’ — weighted so since the ‘age to come’ arrived in the advent of Christ — God could be be in the heart of authentic Christian culture?

Here we are living in the new and better covenant — new and better because the Kingdom has drawn near in the resurrected and ascended Lord Christ — and yet we are told by some that though the Israelites knew the living presence of God in the heart of authentic Israelite culture, those who comprise the new Israel must realize that the living presence of God cannot be possibly known in culture since there is no approximation of a such a thing called Christian culture.

Secondly, note the high estimation of God’s law that Wesche records about the members in the anticipatory covenant. Their delight was in God’s law and on it did they meditate both day and night. Now, quite obviously they did not love God’s law because they could use it as a ladder to acquire acceptability with God, but rather they loved God’s law because they were a Redeemed people, who being acceptable with God because of God’s provision in the sacrificial system, knew that life, shalom and vitality was found in a due respect for God’s law. Again, we should be reminded that this love for the law was found in the people who only dwelt in the anticipatory covenant. As Christians we are living in the ‘age to come.’ In light of that how much more should we find God’s law sweet to us? How much more should we as Christians, who will never increase our acceptability with God by loving the law, find God’s law a joy to keep and to be a light to our path? How much more should we testify that we love the law because the Lord God of Israel is present in them? Do we believe that God’s presence gives to the law its sweetness, its joy, and its light? Do we believe that to pursue the keeping of the law accordingly is to know the presence of the living God as Father?

Third, allow me to suggest that this quote gives hints that the supernatural comes to us in a way that is far different then the way we typically look for the supernatural. We look for the supernatural in the spectacular and the astounding. Perhaps though we should find the supernatural nearest to us when we participate in a community that is breathing with the presence of God as seen in its collective attention to and individual incarnation of God’s law. Is not the supernatural demonstrated and close to a people, who possessed by the Spirit of the Word of God, get that word of God into everything they touch and build? Is not the supernatural seen in families living out Christ? Is not the supernatural seen in Churches exalting Christ in Word and Sacrament? Is not the supernatural seen in communities that build their civil social institutional structures rooted in the Word of God? The Pentecostals have it wrong. The supernatural doesn’t normatively come to us in flashes of brilliance or demonstrations of strangeness but rather the supernatural comes to us in the rhythms of living in a community devoted to Christ the great Priest King. The living presence of God remains in the heart of authentic Christian culture.

Superiority Of Western Culture

“Cultures are equal in value only if there is no standard against which to judge them. The culture of the West, infused as it is with Christian values, is superior to any other, and all the valid charges against the West are indications that it has betrayed its own heritage. It is not superior because it is wealthy. It is wealthy because it is superior, because it believes that work is a calling, that matter is important, that reason is a gift of God. This culture, God’s gift, transmits its material blessings along with its interpretation of reality.”

Herbert Schlossberg
Idols For Destruction — pg. 72

That which differentiates Christian from Pagan society

“It is not enthusiasm, but dogma, that differentiates a Christian from a pagan society.”

T. S. Eliot
Christianity and Culture: The Idea of a Christian Society and Notes towards the Definition of Culture — pg.47

It seems in our church and culture today that enthusiasm is like a drug, the dosage of which, constantly needs to increased in order to get the same high. In light of this one can hardly fault those who abjure from the cult of enthusiasm who look upon Christians and mock the whole notion of what passes for Christianity. To be honest, there are times, when I don’t even want to be known as a Christian.

The more we continue to pursue enthusiasm, the more we communicate to our children that Christianity is about attending F.I.R.E. conferences, and the more we refuse to attempt the heavy lifting of knowing, understanding and entering into our dogma the more we will justifiably be characterized as pagan.

Defending Blue Collar, Working Class America From The Illinois Muslim

“But the truth is, is that, our challenge is to get people persuaded that we can make progress when there’s not evidence of that in their daily lives. You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing’s replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. So it’s not surprising then that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”

B. Hussein Obama
Democratic Presidential candidate

Legions have been the number of pundits who have opined on this quote. Still, despite that I though I would give it a go.

B. Hussein made the above statement in light of the loss of jobs. According to Barack Hussein people get bitter because jobs disappear and economic conditions go bad. Now the first thing to note is the non-sequitur in this quote. According to B. Hussein Obama people cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment not as a result of their frustrations but as a way to explain their frustrations.” Unless you mentally provide that switch in the quote it doesn’t make any sense, after all, who uses guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them in order to explain their frustrations? That’s just ignorant. I have listened to and read a good amount of punditry on this quote and I haven’t read anybody yet notice what a hatchet job it was on basic reasoning.

Secondly, many have already commented that such an attitude belies a typical liberal arrogant elitist attitude. Middle class working America, being unenlightened, grow bitter and so cling to things that provide security the way that toddlers cling to their favorite blanket or stuffed toy in times of insecurity. The subtext is that benighted elites like B. Hussein have risen above that simplistic behavior. Just as an adult knows, unlike the immature toddler, that the favored stuff toy or blanket doesn’t really solve the toddler’s threat so Barack knows, unlike the immature blue collar working class, that guns, religion, etc. doesn’t really solve the toddlers threat.

Americans, do yourself a favor and realize that when you ship your children off to American Universities, especially the elite Ivy League type schools, your children are going to be trained in this kind of condescending arrogance, and likely are going to come home looking down their noses at you and at their beginnings.

What I want to add to the conversation is that Barack may be right in his observation that people are bitter. Second, I want to even suggest that he may be right, if he was saying, in spite of his inability to craft a sentence, that as a result of middle class bitterness, the middle class clings to certain things. Where I would like to correct him is his thinking that somehow it is wrong or irrational for blue collar America to cling to the things, to which they cling.

First, let us consider the bitterness. At least some blue collar middle class Americans are bitter because the Government is creating the conditions whereby their way of life is disappearing. It is the policies of Democrats and Republicans alike that are exporting our industrial base overseas. It is the policies of Democrats and Republicans that levy such onerous taxes on the small businesses in small town America that result in people not being able to keep their heads above water. If blue collar middle class America is bitter, it is bitter because the State is crushing the life out of them.

Now as to what they ‘cling to,’ as a result of (not, per Obama, in order to explain) their frustrations.

First, according to B. Hussein Obama Americans cling to guns as a result of their frustration. I think that this is eminently reasonable. When people perceive that they are endangered the first thing to do is find the means of self defense. The key of course is to encourage the gun clingers to point their guns in the right direction. One can only hope that the direction that they are pointing their guns is towards those who would take them away.

Second, Hussein Obama implies it is wrong for Americans to cling to religion. I imagine that Barack Hussein would prefer if Americans would cling to the Federal Government. Still, at least in the Christian faith we believe that all things, including adversity, comes from the hand of God. The Christian faith further teaches that God is the only one we should cling to and that we shouldn’t cling to man whose breath is but in his nostrils. Middle Class, Blue collar America are being obedient to their Christian faith when they cling to God and religion as a result of their frustrations. Barack Hussein better hope that in light of the fact that they are clinging to their guns that they keep clinging to the Christian religion that informs them to respect those magistrates that are crafting policies that are making their economic conditions miserable. Barack Hussein doesn’t want to see a people clinging to guns who aren’t at the same time clinging to their Christian religion.

The next thing that middle America clings to is anti-immigrant sentiment and antipathy to people who aren’t like them. Here again I think this could be true and I don’t think there is anything wrong with this clinging. The US government has pursued a policy on illegal immigration that is killing middle America. Middle American is not only losing jobs and finding their wages depressed as a result of the influx of cheap labor by way of illegal immigration, but Blue collar America is also being required to fund the illegal immigrant horde by way of paying for education, hospitals, and welfare benefits. Now add to this that this illegal immigrant invasion is having the effect of changing the American way of life and it is altogether reasonable and fitting that middle class, blue collar Americans would cling to anti-immigrant sentiment and antipathy to people who aren’t like them.

Finally according to the Illinois Senator with a Muslim name Americans cling to anti-trade sentiment in order to express their bitterness. Again, as mentioned earlier, it is the government version of free trade (NAFTA, CAFTA, GATT,) etc. that is a large reason behind why middle class America is in its current economic condition. We need to keep in mind that in as much as this ‘free trade’ is government manipulated it really isn’t ‘free trade.’ So, if there exists bitterness and if it is expressed in a anti-trade sentiment it makes perfect sense.

So, I conclude that the Illinois Muslim was potentially correct in his observations though he was woefully incorrect in his arrogant posturing that this somehow communicates less than salutatory insights about middle class blue collar America.