Archive for August 2022
Metábasis eis állo génos (3-21)
I came to send fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how distressed I am till it is accomplished! (Luke 12:49-50, NKJV)
I rarely think about the fact that Jesus was baptized twice: first, as his priestly ordination, and second, absorbing the deluge that was meant for us and for the entire old world. We are baptized into the benefit of this; we are those who escape the flood and the Red Sea.
But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here. The queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and indeed a greater than Solomon is here. (Matthew 12:39-42, NKJV)
That generation was spared by the work of Jesus for forty years.
Genesis 2 reminds us that there is a category of “not good” that is distinct from “evil.” Jordan points out three great themes in Scripture: that of redemption, that of holy war, but also that of maturation. Often we are faced with the challenge of having to wrestle with an amalgam of not–good and evil. The sharpening and winnowing process God is undertaking now will slowly separate these out. At this point I’m still working for a multinational corporation but I don’t think that can continue indefinitely.
Matthew Henry the Christian nationalist on Matthew 28:
. . . Christianity should be twisted in with national constitutions, . . . the kingdoms of the world should become Christ’s kingdoms, and their kings the church’s nursing-fathers. What is the principal intention of this commission; to disciple all nations. Matheµteusate–“Admit them disciples; do your utmost to make the nations Christian nations;” not, “Go to the nations, and denounce the judgments of God against them, as Jonah against Nineveh, and as the other Old-Testament prophets” (though they had reason enough to expect it for their wickedness), but “go, and disciple them.” Christ the Mediator is setting up a kingdom in the world, bring the nations to be his subjects; setting up a school, bring the nations to be his scholars; raising an army for the carrying on of the war against the powers of darkness, enlist the nations of the earth under his banner. The work which the apostles had to do, was, to set up the Christian religion in all places, and it was honourable work; the achievements of the mighty heroes of the world were nothing to it. They conquered the nations for themselves, and made them miserable; the apostles conquered them for Christ, and made them happy.
I’ve criticized the many evangelical songs that tell of a personal conversion story, since their narrative doesn’t really match the experience of our children compared to how the Psalms speak. But Paul in Ephesians does give us a model for speaking this way, only he does it using the language of historia salutis rather than ordo salutis:
Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh—who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands—that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. (Ephesians 2:11-13, NKJV)
Remember that you were once lost!
Wise men know this without becoming bitter. (Doug Wilson, Joy at the End of the Tether, speaking of political corruption)
Metábasis eis állo génos (3-20)
The pugcast crew points out yet another inconsistency in demonism: it has a kind of hyper-scrupulous natural law concerning nature (don’t touch) but not concerning humanity (abolition of man). Of course, the real underlying principle here is the escape from law and responsibility, and hypocrisy is the point. It is part of the terrorism of the anti-Normal.
They also point out the shift in the definition of equity: a move from defining it in terms of deserts to radical equality. A race to the bottom is the inevitable result. Make equity great again!
It astonishes me how few wise Turks understand this principle:
In a multitude of people is a king’s honor,
But in the lack of people is the downfall of a prince. (Proverbs 14:28, NKJV)
ESG and resource actions and abortion and depopulation are great self-defeating ignominies. Whom the macrobes mean to destroy they first make blind.
Judging by publication dates, Everett Fox translated around one chapter of the Bible per month.
I listened to a conversation recently on nullification and selective enforcement where there was some libertarian hand-wringing over whether it would only be used in procedurally appropriate ways. Can we really have magistrates over-ruling both greater and lesser magistrates? Can we enforce this law but not that one? Yes, we must do so, and proceduralism be damned. When righteousness reigns, procedure and decorum are a blessing. When proceduralism reigns, it needs to be put in its place by some good old-fashioned righteousness. Sometimes that comes from the lesser magistrate and sometimes it comes from the greater magistrate. I am thankful for Dobbs but it would have been much better if the court had simply recognized that abortion was murder and directed all states to treat it appropriately according to common law.
LOL ERH as “one-punch man:”
Metábasis eis állo génos (3-19)
In his lectures on the Marrow controversy, Sinclair Ferguson shared this quote from Scottish minister Robert Traill:
That which concerneth our case is that the middle way betwixt the Arminians and the orthodox had been espoused and strenuously defended and promoted by some nonconformists of great note for piety and parts; and usually such men that are for middleways in points of doctrine, have a greater kindness for that extreme to which they halfway go, than for that from which they halfway come.
I think about this from time to time. It is obvious that this is true in the case of compromise, even among many who have no conscious intention to compromise but are simply drawn or carried along. But this is also true of those who are making a genuine shift in their convictions. It generally represents a temptation that must be guarded against even if we are not remaining in the “middleway;” it is possible for us to be over-enthusiastic and cover more ground than we ought. Christians ought to have great aplomb, to be complacent in the good sense of the word; very like ents. It is rare that we ought to despise our beginnings or purposely scandalize the normies.
When Logres really dominates Britain, when the goddess Reason, the divine clearness, is really enthroned in France, when the order of Heaven is really followed in China—why, then it will be spring. But in the meantime, our concern is with Logres. (C. S. Lewis, That Hideous Strength)
How very postmillennial of him! I look admiringly at Logres and Holland and other places in my patchwork family tree, but me and my house must work to establish—I don’t know, what shall we call it? Roanoke?
Every time I reread THS I’m freshly impressed by how prophetic it is. This time I’m struck by the presence of depopulation and homosexuality. But I’m also surprised that abortion is relatively absent.
Wendell Berry is suspicious of movements.
Institutions in any sphere can easily stray from their purposes if they are not constantly renewed in repentance. As Ken Myers says, it is possible to institutionalize rebellion against Jesus. This seems especially true for big institutions. If big banks come to take on the job of money laundering, then surely big media comes to take on the job of news laundering.
Is there a better indicator against investment than ESG? Look at this list of companies that are not gonna make it if they don’t repent.
Herman Dooyeweerd developed Kuyper’s idea of sphere sovereignty, suggesting the presence of many additional spheres. The idea is helpful; as is his insistence on irreducibility, even though I think his taxonomy of modes is a little too precise. I think of it this way: if you can imagine its developing a guild, then it’s likely a kind of sphere.
It strikes me how often God gathers his enemies in one place. He likes to tempt them with a great victory and then deal with them decisively.
The deer are after our tomatoes. I’ve tried garlic spray and fencing to compartmentalize our garden into smaller sections, to no avail. I’m working on a 7-foot fence now.
In college I played in our orchestra and our symphonic wind band. We recorded two albums during my time there: Crosswinds and At the Strongholds.
From Jon:
I gotta have my orange juice. 