Gadfly's Muse

What Goes Around.... Comes Around....

[Stairs, 2009, JAVanDevender]

Jeremiah 22:13-14   " Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness And his chambers by injustice, Who uses his neighbor's service without wages And gives him nothing for his work,  Who says, 'I will build myself a wide house with spacious chambers, And cut out windows for it, Paneling it with cedar And painting it with vermilion.'

As I mentioned just recently to a correspondent, I have been reading Emerson's Essays and I have been struck with a couple of points he makes.  In the essay "Compensation" he somewhat surprisingly talks about "cost."  To sum it up in my words his point is essentially this:  "Everything has its price."  If you pay the price for whatever you desire, such as fame, or wealth, or artistic accomplishment, or slothfulness, etc. then you are essentially virtuous though you may be judged imprudent as to your choices and your desires.  It is when you seek to attain "something for nothing", in other words you seek "fame" without paying the attendant demands on humility, etc. or the corresponding "costs" associated with the other goals, then you are setting yourself against the "natural law."  This "law" operates such that sooner or later the ledger columns are balanced.  You will "pay" the costs of whatever you attain one way or the other.  "Compensation" is the inevitable product of this balancing.

There are things worth pondering in this idea.  Certainly the "evil" of any worldly object or attainment is the abuse of it or the perversion of its "good."  There is nothing intrinsically wrong with "fame."  The Scriptures called this "glory" as of the "glory of Solomon" being his wisdom.  There is nothing intrinsically wrong with wealth.  We might make the case that there is certainly something morally wrong with "slothfulness" but we would not say the same for "leisure."  What Emerson says, and what I believe we find in Scriptures, is that there are attendant "costs", demands, corresponding requirements that come along with any and every decision we make.  Jesus said that such was the case even when someone is considering the call to discipleship, to following Him.  "Count the cost" (Luke 14:28ff) He said and He knew and we know that the cost can be intimidating in some cases.

Yet it is most often this "cost" business that gets us in trouble.  We want the object but we want it without the hassle that comes with it.  We don't particularly like humility in the best of circumstances and we find it even harder when worldly attainments make it appear that we truly are superior to our fellows.  Riches put many things within our reach which would best be left unattainable.  With great authority goes great responsibility and we can find it to be irritating to bear.  So we seek to keep the goodies and wiggle out of paying the cost.  Truly, as the Scripture teaches, this is attempting to rob God (Mal. 3:8).

In the passage quoted above, God through Jeremiah reinforces this idea.  Those who build their houses by unrighteousness and attain their privileges and comfort through injustice will pay the cost.  "Woe" will come upon them and with much regret they will see that "what goes around comes around."

But it works in a positive sense also.  The payment of the cost affirms the blessings and improves the return on investment.  Paying the "cost" of loving your neighbor brings a return of love in response.  We reap what we sow.  Paying the "cost" of promoting justice will, in God's provision, enable and promote justice in others.  It works both ways because it is God Himself who stands behind the "law" of compensation.  

What we need to do is "study" these things.  We need to ascend to a new level of understanding how life really works and open our eyes to see how it does correspond to this idea.  We need to walk up the steps and arrive at the nice green pastures, the condition of "shalom", which is life in God's Kingdom.

The "cost" of wisdom is study, meditation and practice.  Each is a step up the stairway.

The Greatest Battle Facing Christians in the US??? Chuck Baldwin - Presidential Candidate

Chuck Baldwin is the Constitution Party's Candidate for President.  He is a Baptist preacher and long time pastor of Cross Roads Baptist Church in Pensacola, Fl.  I am on his mailing list and his most recent (find it here) one had this to say.....

For the record, the real battlefield today is not abortion. It is not homosexual marriage. It is not Social Security. It is not al Qaeda. It is not taxes. It is not inflation. It is not electing conservatives. It is not posting the Ten Commandments. It is not even the high cost of gasoline. That is not to say that those issues are not important and not deserving of our best efforts and attention, because they are. But those issues do not represent the major battlefield today.

The battlefield where the devil has amassed his greatest forces and is thrusting his deadliest armies is the surrender of our national sovereignty and independence, and the creation of global government. And it is our own political and corporate leaders that are facilitating this chicanery.

Furthermore, by refusing to oppose this surrender, our Christian leaders are complicit as well.

Now what's interesting about this statement is that it is directed toward Christians - not the broad political spectrum of voting Americans.  Baldwin makes no bones about it.  Christians should view their current call to battle, gathering together as the Lord's Host, as to oppose and defeat the joint Republican / Democrat conspiracy to subsume our United States national statehood into a North American Union comprising Canada, the US and Mexico.  This conspiracy, he says, is already underway, steps have been taken and the intent of both parties is to pursue this end.  This is the major battle facing Christians.

Baldwin places the moral imperative to oppose this move above that of abortion, the secularization of marriage, the campaign to grant institutional credibility to alternative sexual preferences, and all the rest.  What Christians must do is rally behind him... He is our hope... He will save our country because that is the manifest will of God... America is the promised land and Americans are God's elect.  To lose our national heritage is to attack God!

Hogwash.

Perhaps there is a conspiracy such as he proclaims... others are saying the same thing.  If so, I will oppose it with every fiber of my political being... because as a Christian I have a Christian vocation to be a good citizen, to pray for the peace of my Jerusalem, to labor for a good government that will be conducive to the spread of the Kingdom.  But never once will I admit a congruence between the national Government of the United States of America and the Kingdom of Christ.  The Lord Christ can prosper His Kingdom without the US or with it... He may judge this country and take His blessings from it at His will and pleasure... He may show mercy and bring revival and raise up the Christians into the country as a true radical and subversive witness to the pagan idolatry which prevails in our culture.  But never will He admit that the structures of our political system reflect or even approximate the boundaries of His City on earth.

Baldwin ought to know better.  Raise up the flag of political concern about the proposed union.  Argue against its economic, political, social consequences.  Demonstrate how the US has everything to lose and nothing to gain from giving Mexico, of all nations, any kind of veto power over our foreign policy.  Talk about Canadian beer and .... well, you know where that was headed.  It would be great political fun.  But guard against blasphemy.

Our Lord has told us what is the greatest battle facing us... it is the idolatrous hearts of pleasure loving, self-centered, hedonistic people. People like you and me.  It is the hardened condition of men's souls which refuse to acknowledge the Lord Jesus Christ as their King and Savior.  That battle rages whether it is fought within the confines of the United States of America or in some proposed North American Union.  We could gain the whole world for the US of A only to lose our own soul if the Church ever once forgets that we are strangers in this land, our true citizenship is in another city not built with hands.

Chuck... you say some good stuff... but get off this kick...

Awww... ain't he cute!

(2008, JAVanDevender, click for larger image)

A young man I know, wise beyond his years, recently had this to say:

Earth Stewardship should be so strongly associated with the Church that Liberals & Other Evildoers hate the idea of "green."  (Just like they hate the ideas of Truth, Justice, The American Way  and all the other things Superman used to stand for.)

I am encouraged for the future... there's hope for the next generation after all, I simply couldn't say it better, although being a preacher, I have to use more words (say it longer).

Genesis 1:28  Then God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth."

Exercising dominion over God's creation is an awesome responsibility and privilege.  It is a sin to neglect this duty even as it is a sin to neglect the other aspects of our Christian walk. 

The first duty of a Christian in exercising dominion over creation is to appreciate it.  One cannot rule over that which one does not know.  To live mindlessly, inhabiting a planet of such extraordinary beauty, completely distracted by technology's baubles, is to spit in God's face.  It is to say... "Now, man's work... now that is what's important... not these trifling things you have done... making bunny rabbits.. clouds that give rain... skies filled with stars... etc." .  For Christians to even begin to make inroads toward the goal my young friend espouses, we have to love our world... differently than those so-called "green people."  We must love it for what it is... the incredible expression of God's will, given for man's edification and artistic expression, to be nurtured, encouraged, controlled and subdued unto the end of worship of the Creator.

Whether the bunny is viewed with appreciation as an expression of joy, abounding in the luxury of precious simplicity, or as a pest threatening the garden, or as lunch... depends on how we are called to manage the specific circumstance of our life at the time of encounter.  That is where dominion and rule come in to play.  Regardless of the outcome though, the call to love God for His wisdom in providing the bunny remains the same.

BeepBeep & Darwinism

BeepBeep quite appropriately asked:

RE: "Darwin himself (The Descent of Man) states that there is no ultimate moral hindrance to superior human races (as defined by him) extinguishing inferior ones."

Can you provide the source where Darwin says it is ok for human races to extinguish other human races?

The Necessity of Good Works

We Evangelicals, I included, perhaps need to reconsider this whole business of "good works" and some repentance may be in order.

This topic has surfaced in my thinking and discussion so much over the past few weeks that I am beginning to think God may be trying to get my attention.  Briefly, let me lay out  what I am and am NOT thinking.  Before the mob gathers with the firewood and pole, I am not retreating one bit from the historic Reformed confessional stance that we are saved, through grace, by faith.  There is nothing in any good work we do which puts God in our debt nor comes even close to giving us room to boast.  But God's Word does speak to a "necessity of good works" which I term a necessity of presence if not of merit.

Daryl Charles Reflecting on "Just War"

Cross posted at Theologica

J. Daryl Charles, Assoc. Professor of Ethics and Culture at Union University, is something more than an acquaintance although we have not kept in close contact over the years.  We have many things in common and many things on which we differ, but he is one of the few original thinkers I have met in my life.  He never fails to intrigue me with the almost casual manner in which he advances ideas that open up alternate vistas from which to view important questions.  As a true scholar he is more sympathetic to ideas from other traditions that I and that is both a strength and weakness in each of us.  I seriously seek to understand how people arrive at other differing view points from mine, but do so with the idea of analysis and rebuttal always hovering in the back ground.  Daryl seeks to discover new facets of truth and tends to be content with that.  I love interacting with him on just about any subject.

Daryl has a wonderful essay in the current Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society reflecting on the ethical framework Christians should adopt toward the idea of "war" in general and specifically whether there are any occasions in which pursuing war is a Christian imperative.

Christian Vocation: Citizenship & Legislator

Consider the moral quandry facing Evangelicals today. On one hand they are told that Americans are not to frame laws based on distinctly religious tenets (separation of church and state, you know). On the other hand they find it very hard to argue moral issues such as opposing the extension of "marriage rights" and "marriage benefits" to homosexual couples based on the commonly accepted logic of equal rights under the law without consideration of strictly religious principles.

(Cross posted in a slightly altered form at  Theologica

Christian, Guard Your Tongue

James 1:26 If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his own heart, this one's religion is useless. (NKJV)

I have not verified any of the quotes that follow.  I have reason to believe they are accurate because I took them off another website where they constituted a reply to an argument I had posted there.  The fellow who posted them I know only by "DarkSyde", his internet nom-de-plume.  DarkSyde (DS) is a knowledgable, convinced, flaming atheist.  But he is willing to listen and willing to talk and I don't ask for much more than that.  I tend to trust that he is accurately reporting both the words and speaker.

Victimless Crimes

Jeremy Pierce | July 19, 2005 10:13 AM & Andrea | July 19, 2005 07:20 AM both make excellent points in their comments on my previous blog  Too Much and Not Enough.  Since my primary intention in that article was comment on the governing universal of law rather than the particular instance of application, I thought maybe a separate comment on the whole notion of "victim-less crime" might be worthwhile.