Reality Check, Renewal, and Rearmament on the Lord's Day

Every week I write a brief-ish devotional to help our congregation prepare for the Lord's Day. Occasionally I post a version of them here. This is the one for Saturday evening, July 8, 2023.

The blessings of liberty, human dignity, socio-economic opportunity, and justice have long been enjoyed in the West, albeit imperfectly, to greater or lesser degrees at different times and places, for many hundreds of years. We should not miss the fact that these blessings are the direct result of our Christian heritage. Christendom in the West was far from perfect, and we confess that its eventual demise was a judgment from God for unbelief and disobedience, but it was the fountain of most of the freedom, general morality, and prosperity that western nations have long enjoyed. Notwithstanding the modern, and largely successful, efforts aimed at historical revision, nations did not discover that chattel slavery was immoral until they had not only been evangelized but also brought, culturally and politically, to a degree of Christian obedience and sanctification. Hospitals and modern medicine, the university, social welfare programs, protection of women and indigent children, socio-economic elevation of ethnic minorities, political rights, and merit-based economies were the result of the Bible and a Christian faith and worldview. We have largely rejected the basis of that inheritance over the last 150 years, and like the prodigal son, we have squandered our father’s wealth. It is no surprise that some of our neighbors now identify as pigs and gorge themselves on slop.

Many of us grew up in western nations that seemed, at the time, broadly religious and mostly moral. Not everyone actually was a Christian, and many of those who had been baptized did not live like it. But we were able to take for granted a general morality and basic set of values that we assumed most of our neighbors shared. However, the western world was, then and long before, in the midst of a Cold War, not just with Soviet communists, but with the religious Marxists and demonic forces hiding next door. The Church made peace with the world, marking out no-fly zones, agreeing to stay in its own lane. Rejecting the embarrassment of Christian Reconstruction and the Moral Majority (have you seen the pants Francis Schaeffer was wearing in those videos?!), the Church ceded the public square to avowed secularists. They sent their children to public schools, which were on the secularists’ side of the demilitarized zone, and were shocked when they came home as pagans. The 1980s would have been an opportune time for the Church in the West to humble herself, repent, and do the first works. God raised up men to call us to do so. But there was no apparent need. We had Reagan, a surging economy, and hair bands. Repentance was the last thing on our minds. If anything, the golden age had come. Many in the Church decided what we needed were more peace treaties with the secularists. Maybe if we destroyed our nuclear arms, the Premier would agree never to use his own.

Now pedophilia is being decriminalized in multiple states in the Union, our government is flying the Pride flag at embassies worldwide, and France is once again in flames. That sacred-secular division of labor is working just fine. The common kingdom may be going to Hell in a handbasket, but the invisible, spiritual kingdom of Christ is doing great. Pay no attention to the covenant youth who had BLM squares on their social media profiles three years ago, dyed their hair pink two years ago, and are now talking about what we can learn from sexual minorities and how to empathize with people whose experience of gender does not align with their biological sex. Applying the Scriptures is the Holy Spirit’s job, brothers. Just keep telling them to rest in their justification and reminding them of the burning issues litigated in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Lest anyone fear that I am making fun of someone personally, let me assure you that I am only “heaping scorn on an inexcusably silly idea — a practice I shall always follow,” with gratitude to LTC Dubois and his History and Moral Philosophy class. We are in the grip of inexcusably silly ideas, ideas which will not last, ideas which are self-destructive by nature, prophecy, and destiny. I may not live to see their catastrophic collapse—someone please take notes and tell me all about it when we see one another in Aslan’s country—but be sure that the collapse is coming. It may take a hundred years. It may cost us this nation or western civilization as we know it. So be it. God is building an everlasting kingdom, and he does not need the USA at all.

What does this have to do with the Lord’s Day? The Christian Sabbath is when God calls us away from the chaos and speaks peace, comfort, and courage to our hearts. He does not hide the truth from us; he pulls back the curtain—he lifts its skirts and exposes the culture’s… shame, to use the impolite, biblical metaphor of the OT prophets. He commands the Church, “Look at me, and take courage! Trust me, and then live, fight, die, and win manfully” (cf. Isa. 40-66). If you had never been taught that Christianity is an effeminate religion for emotionally driven people and read the Bible for the first time, you might be astonished at what you would find. It’s hard to see the Scriptures for what they are when they have been taught to us for generations by so many weak-kneed, morally compromised, and worldly people.

On the Lord’s Day, the Church musters in heaven. We join the glorified chorus of praise that surrounds God’s throne. Our sins are forgiven. The covenant is renewed. We confess our allegiance. Then we are equipped, directed, and sent back onto the battlefield to win the world for Christ by the weapons of gospel-witness, biblical wisdom, and prayer (not necessarily in that order).

Tomorrow the army is assembling. The Lord is calling. Our hearts are weary, but he summons us that we might be refreshed in our faith and restored in our souls. Come to Jesus. Bring your burdens. Cast away your sins. Lay down your fears. He has called you to victory, and until that victory is fully seen, he has called you to joy. Come, and welcome to Jesus Christ. --JME

Naked Perverts in the Public Square

The pornification of western society continues to advance at breakneck speed. Over the weekend news outlets reported fully naked men at Pride parades in multiple major cities in America and Canada (HERE, HERE, HERE). It’s getting so that you can’t even take your children to a Pride Parade on a Sunday afternoon without being subjected to male nudity. Ordinarily when women or men walk around in their birthday suit in front of other people, they do so for money, either on the screen, on the stage, or on the clock. A glance at these perverts will quickly reveal the naked truth about why they chose to display their natural endowments for free. Had there been a cover charge, we can be sure no one would be buying. In one of the pictures, a naked ghoul stands grinning in front of a sign inviting passersby to “Check Your Moles Here.” I had no idea people took moles to Pride parades, but at least the little fuzzy mammals would not be offended by what they saw… being blind.

We might say a word or three about the rapid normalization of pedophilia. Drag queens and the LGBTQ+ religion have opened the door for the legal protection and public celebration of sexually grooming minors. We were assured by our winsomely irenic and irenically winsome evangelatinous thought leaders that the freedom to host events like Drag Queen Story Hour at public libraries is “one of the blessings of liberty.” One hopes we can be forgiven for imagining a direct relationship between drag queens reading storybooks to children, then giving them lap dances at “family-friendly gay bars” (there is an incoherent collection of words if I’ve ever seen one), and the recent, coordinated, multi-city lewdness of naked men parading their saggy shame in front of small children. If you still think men who like to molest small children are perverts and criminals deserving of death, you will soon be branded as a bigot for hate thought crime against Minor Attracted Persons.

Now many Christians who rightly wince at such wickedness still think their Reformed and Presbyterian pastors should not say a damn-ing thing about it in the pulpit. Spirituality of the church and all. Just rest in your justification, brothers. We’re not taking our children to these Pride parades. They’re on the Lord’s Day after all. Our children will be safely in church on Sundays… before going back to the local government indoctrination center on Monday. Some of the saints in the room, who genuinely love Jesus, don’t have the sense to come in out of the rain. It’s coming down pretty good right now, but we don’t want to become a culture warrior like that Noah guy down the street, the one who built a dock in his backyard. He’s an embarrassment to the entire Presbytery.

Our theologians may still be looking for a natural law argument against public nudity, but the pervert in the public square already knows where he stands.

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them…. God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves…. God gave them up to vile passions…. men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness… who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them. –Romans 1:18-32 (emp. added)

The rebel is suppressing the truth in unrighteousness. He already knows there is a holy and just God by whom he lives and to whom he will answer. He may never have read Leviticus 18 or had the benefit of scholarly explanations for why its penalties for defilement and abominable customs no longer apply under the New Covenant. The crude, lewd nudist knows that he deserves death for what he is doing. That is why he revels. It is not enough to practice his perversity in private. He must do so in public, and you must approve and help him celebrate. A man whose conscience is clear does not need public approbation, and he certainly does not need to publicly display his not-so-private parts. The pervert who undresses in public is dancing on his way to Hell. He is trying to convince everyone his behavior is normal and admirable, but he knows better, just like the demons who animate his madness (Matt. 8:29). He is a general revelation theonomist who knows he stands condemned under God’s Law. That law has been written on his heart, along with its ultimate penalty. It is the teachers of the law who have become confused and ignorant. They regret that the emperor has no clothes, but he is, after all, naked in the common kingdom, so the prophets in Israel ought not to say much about it. –JME

Pay No Attention to the Bulge Behind the Skirt

Recently the State of Arkansas  has been debating Senate Bill 199 which would establish a statute of limitations for the civil liability of doctors who provide gender transition services to minors. This would include puberty suppression, hormone therapy, and gender-reassignment surgeries, which we used to call vivisection but have lately redefined as compassionate, gender affirming healthcare. The effect of the bill would be to allow persons receiving such services as a minor to later sue the healthcare provider for damages many years later. The hope is that establishing financial liability for doctors engaged in these practices at the same time that a growing number of de-transitioners are coming forward to tell their personal horror stories will put an end to this madness and the social contagion of transgenderism.

During a Judiciary Committee hearing last week the Arkansas Senate heard from Gwendolyn Herzig, a pharmacist in Little Rock who showed up in woman-face to testify against the proposed bill. After Gwen’s opening statement, State Senator Matt McKee asked whether the witness was aware of “the large body of medical evidence of the harm that has come upon people who have gone through these processes.” Dr. Herzig replied, “I am familiar with the large body of evidence showing that providing good affirming care saves lives.” Senator McKee asked the same question again, and then again, and each time the witness responded by saying, “I will repeat what I just said.” For those of you keeping score at home, that’s called not answering the question and is characteristic of a hostile witness. That’s when Senator McKee transgressed the current blasphemy laws in our secular, tolerant, and pluralistic society.

McKee: “You said that you’re a transwoman.”

Herzig: “A trans-female, yes sir.”

McKee: “Do you have a penis?”

After practicing a “shocked and offended face,” Dr. Herzig replied, “That’s horrible.”

I couldn’t agree more. It is horrible that the State Senate would allow a dude dressed in woman-face to come and testify against a bill designed to protect children. It’s horrible that they took this charade seriously. It’s horrible that now we have to hear from wincing and winsome Christians who winsomely wince at the shocking language of Senator McKee. Doesn’t he know that Gwendolyn, and his penis, is an image-bearer of God?

No doubt many of you think Senator McKee’s question was rude and not very Christlike, but the Senator was only pursuing a line of conversation that the good doctor had already begun. Less than two weeks before Gwen’s appearance before the Judiciary Committee, he discussed his penis and desire to have it cut off on season 2, episode 13 of a national podcast, The Transgender Show. Dr. Herzig characterized Senator McKee’s inquiry as “the most insulting, dehumanizing, egregious question,” but only days earlier Gwen and the podcast host publicly lamented the inability to wear a cute bathing suit or tight leggings because of that inconvenient bulge.

Senator McKee’s error was in publicly observing that the emperor has no clothes, or more specifically, that he is unsuccessfully trying to stuff a penis into a pair of bikini bottoms. You might think that is rude, but that is only because many of us have grown accustomed to the ever shifting rules of etiquette in clownworld. McKee did not walk up to Dr. Herzig on the sidewalk and publicly accost him. He did not mock him at the pharmacy where he works. He did not suggest Gwen’s fetish is “insulting, dehumanizing, egregious” and “horrible.” He simply asked whether the witness in woman-face wearing a wig and dress had a penis hidden under there too.

This madness will not end by affirming a demonic delusion. We can treat individuals with love and respect while treating insanity, rebellion, and lies with the righteous scorn and irreverence they deserve. Repentance is our only hope for salvation, and repentance is the result of confrontation and conviction leading to contrition. As an individual, Gwen Herzig should be treated with compassion and respect and called to faith and repentance in Jesus Christ. As a witness testifying against SB 199, Dr. Herzig should be treated as a deceiver and threat to children and exposed and discredited accordingly.

The cross does not allow us to retain our delusions. God’s Law identifies, reproves, and corrects our errors and calls us to turn from them. We must repent not only of what we have done but also of the lies we have told ourselves about ourselves. Jesus did not die for good, moral people but for sinners like you and me, for people like Gwen Herzig and Matt McKee, and none of us can remain as we are. The Church must not ooh and aah over the emperor’s new clothes. Truth is found in the mouth of babes and state Senators from Arkansas. There is a bulge under the skirt, and it appears the king has been in the queen’s closet. –JME