“So?” Mr. Dubois looked at her bleakly. “I'm sure the city fathers of Carthage would be glad to know that. Why doesn’t your mother tell them so? Or why don’t you?”
…
“You’re making fun of me! Everybody knows that Carthage was destroyed!”
“You seemed to be unaware of it,” he said grimly. “Since you do know it, wouldn’t you say that violence had settled their destinies rather thoroughly? However, I was not making fun of you personally; I was heaping scorn on an inexcusably silly idea — a practice I shall always follow. Anyone who clings to the historically untrue and thoroughly immoral doctrine that ‘violence never settles anything’ I would advise to conjure up the ghosts of Napoleon Bonaparte and of the Duke of Wellington and let them debate it. The ghost of Hitler could referee, and the jury might well be the Dodo, the Great Auk, and the Passenger Pigeon. Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor, and the contrary opinion is wishful thinking at its worst. Breeds that forget this basic truth have always paid for it with their lives and their freedoms.”
--Jean V. Dubois, Lt.-Col., M.I, from Robert Heinlein, Starship Troopers (1959)
Starship Troopers should be required reading for every young person, and it is at several of the US service academies. It is also recommended reading in two of the military branches. Do not speak to me about any movies that may share the name. The book has never been made into a movie, and that point is not debatable. If you want to debate it, you have only demonstrated that you never read the book or, worse, did not understand it. But every young person should be required both to read and to demonstrate through recitation and examination that they understood the book. If we cannot require citizens to be landowners and veterans in order to vote, we might at least require that they read a shortlist of important works on moral, historical, and political philosophy before casting a ballot. Starship Troopers would be on that shortlist if I were allowed to contribute to it.
There are many important themes, compelling ideas, and memorable passages in Starship Troopers, arguably Heinlein’s greatest work. The above quotation, one of my favorites, is full of ideas to ponder and discuss. Does violence really resolve issues of conflict or only terminate them? Is violence a moral solution or only a pragmatic one? How might historical context inform political and moral philosophy? Should it? The book will entertain those who like action-packed stories, but if they are thinking people, they will find it far more than an entertaining diversion.
One of the ideas that should stand out in the above exchange is Dubois’s commitment to “heaping scorn on an inexcusably silly idea.” Notice that he is not mocking the student, though she may have felt otherwise at the time, and he was not belittling a silly but excusable idea. We have those all the time. Good teachers, like Dubois and Heinlein, help us discover our errors and repent of understandable but no longer tolerable silliness. But Dubois does not believe in giving deference to blatantly absurd, indefensible, and self-destructive ideas whether propounded by winsome wolves or puerile parrots. Neither should we if we wish to be moral people.
Granted, the cause of Truth, Beauty, and Goodness is not well-advanced by its advocates and defenders acting like jerks. But there is a big difference between respecting a person and respecting his or her ideas. The former is always appropriate; the latter sometimes is and sometimes is not. An SS officer of the Third Reich taken as a prisoner of war should be treated in accordance with the appropriate conventions of civilized warfare and given due consideration with regard to human rights. His arguments in favor of the Final Solution and his justification of genocide on the grounds of following orders should be summarily dismissed and treated with righteous scorn. It can be difficult to distinguish the person making an argument from his argument, but that it is difficult does not make it any less necessary.
If a person is sincerely convinced of even the worst ideas and is willing to reason, he should be given the benefit of the doubt and opportunity to learn better what he ought to think. I am happy to debate even the most perverse ideas if I am convinced of an opponent’s sincerity in dialogue. But if he is simply parroting ideological slogans that are without merit, demonstrating he neither has critical thinking skills nor cares that his views undermine his own existence, then he ought to be treated like the child that he is, morally speaking. He should be patted on the head (or more forcefully on the rear) and told not to think that way lest his moral and philosophical cancer become contagious. People like the student above are not engaging in rational dialogue. They are using a motto as a mantra, a motto which if ever taken seriously would destroy the civilized world.
No one in the modern world may without objection express the opinion that existence would be bettered by the absence of Jews, blacks, Muslims, or Englishmen. Why, then, is it virtuous to propose that the planet might be better off, if there were fewer people on it? I can’t help but see a skeletal, grinning face, gleeful at the possibility of the apocalypse, hiding not so very far behind such statements. And why does it so often seem to be the very people standing so visibly against prejudice who so often appear to feel obligated to denounce humanity itself?
--Jordan B. Peterson, 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos (Penguin, 2018), 297
What kind of a world do we live in when the argument that human beings are parasites and a threat to the planet is treated with deference as academic and admirable, but arguments that an unborn child should be accorded human rights, including the right to life, are characterized as immoral and unworthy even of conversation? Our civilized society gives greater protection to sea turtle eggs than to a human fetus with fingers, face, and a heartbeat. Certain ideas are manifestly wicked and dangerous, whether the persons propounding them are or not. They may be simply naive or deceived, or they may be personally evil and a threat to society.
Many people have embraced the (foolish and demonstrably untrue) idea that the most important characteristic in human discussion is kindness. Hogwash. If a brown recluse spider is crawling up my neck, I don’t need a polite observation but a quick, strong, clear warning. As usual, Chesterton hits the nail clean and hard.
That peril is that the human intellect is free to destroy itself. Just as one generation could prevent the very existence of the next generation, by all entering a monastery or jumping into the sea, so one set of thinkers can in some degree prevent further thinking by teaching the next generation that there is no validity in any human thought. It is idle to talk always of the alternative of reason and faith. Reason is itself a matter of faith. It is an act of faith to assert that our thoughts have any relation to reality at all. If you are merely a sceptic, you must sooner or later ask yourself the question, "Why should ANYTHING go right; even observation and deduction? Why should not good logic be as misleading as bad logic? They are both movements in the brain of a bewildered ape?" The young sceptic says, "I have a right to think for myself." But the old sceptic, the complete sceptic, says, "I have no right to think for myself. I have no right to think at all.
There is a thought that stops thought. That is the only thought that ought to be stopped.
--G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (1908)
Tone is important, but it is not more important than truth. Be as kind and polite as you can be, but if politeness prevents getting the point across, there is no point. We must “speak the truth in love” (Eph. 4:15). Again, the cause of truth is not advanced by being a boor, but neither is it advanced by sweet and kind people who never get around to saying anything of substance. We need less humility of the wrong sort, the humility that is too humble to say some ideas are foolish and wrong, and more courage to heap scorn on inexcusably silly ideas. The rationality and survival of our world may depend upon it.
I read several excerpts in a Q&A video on December 15, 2020. I am posted the excerpts (and a link to the complete work) here for those wishing to review them. --JME
“Of course, the main fact about education is that there is no such thing. It does not exist, as theology or soldiering exist. Theology is a word like geology, soldiering is a word like soldering; these sciences may be healthy or no as hobbies; but they deal with stone and kettles, with definite things. But education is not a word like geology or kettles. Education is a word like “transmission” or “inheritance”; it is not an object, but a method. It must mean the conveying of certain facts, views or qualities, to the last baby born. They might be the most trivial facts or the most preposterous views or the most offensive qualities; but if they are handed on from one generation to another they are education. Education is not a thing like theology, it is not an inferior or superior thing; it is not a thing in the same category of terms. Theology and education are to each other like a love-letter to the General Post Office. Mr. Fagin was quite as educational as Dr. Strong; in practice probably more educational. It is giving something—perhaps poison. Education is tradition, and tradition (as its name implies) can be treason.
“This first truth is frankly banal; but it is so perpetually ignored in our political prosing that it must be made plain. A little boy in a little house, son of a little tradesman, is taught to eat his breakfast, to take his medicine, to love his country, to say his prayers, and to wear his Sunday clothes. Obviously Fagin, if he found such a boy, would teach him to drink gin, to lie, to betray his country, to blaspheme and to wear false whiskers. But so also Mr. Salt the vegetarian would abolish the boy’s breakfast; Mrs. Eddy would throw away his medicine; Count Tolstoi would rebuke him for loving his country; Mr. Blatchford would stop his prayers, and Mr. Edward Carpenter would theoretically denounce Sunday clothes, and perhaps all clothes. I do not defend any of these advanced views, not even Fagin’s. But I do ask what, between the lot of them, has become of the abstract entity called education. It is not (as commonly supposed) that the tradesman teaches education plus Christianity; Mr. Salt, education plus vegetarianism; Fagin, education plus crime. The truth is, that there is nothing in common at all between these teachers, except that they teach. In short, the only thing they share is the one thing they profess to dislike: the general idea of authority. It is quaint that people talk of separating dogma from education. Dogma is actually the only thing that cannot be separated from education. It is education. A teacher who is not dogmatic is simply a teacher who is not teaching.”
Later in the same work:
“But the important point here is only that you cannot anyhow get rid of authority in education; it is not so much (as poor Conservatives say) that parental authority ought to be preserved, as that it cannot be destroyed. Mr. Bernard Shaw once said that he hated the idea of forming a child’s mind. In that case Mr. Bernard Shaw had better hang himself; for he hates something inseparable from human life.”
And again in the same work:
“There are no uneducated people. Everybody in England is educated; only most people are educated wrong. The state schools were not the first schools, but among the last schools to be established; and London had been educating Londoners long before the London School Board. The error is a highly practical one. It is persistently assumed that unless a child is civilized by the established schools, he must remain a barbarian. I wish he did. Every child in London becomes a highly civilized person. But here are so many different civilizations, most of them born tired. Anyone will tell you that the trouble with the poor is not so much that the old are still foolish, but rather that the young are already wise. Without going to school at all, the gutter-boy would be educated. Without going to school at all, he would be over-educated. The real object of our schools should be not so much to suggest complexity as solely to restore simplicity. You will hear venerable idealists declare we must make war on the ignorance of the poor; but, indeed, we have rather to make war on their knowledge. Real educationists have to resist a kind of roaring cataract of culture. The truant is being taught all day….
“ … I will not question that our elementary education is better than barbaric ignorance. But there is no barbaric ignorance. I do not doubt that our schools would be good for uninstructed boys. But there are no uninstructed boys.”
Luke 2:1-20; Matthew 2:1-12:
Christmas and the Failure of Naturalism
Introduction
What most people think of as the Christmas story is shaped more by popular culture and western traditions than the Bible’s own history of the first advent, and so there may be many things we assume about the Christmas story that need to be examined and corrected in light of the biblical account. Take the visit of the wise men as just one of the many examples that could be given. If you read carefully, you will notice the magi did not appear the night Jesus was born but sometime later, perhaps much later. After all, Herod ordered the slaughter of all the male babies in Bethlehem based on the information he received from the magi about the timing of the Child’s birth, and he ordered the death of two year olds! The star may not have even appeared until Jesus was born--we simply don’t know--and the magi may not have arrived until weeks, months, or more than a year later. Regardless, when the magi did arrive, they found Jesus in a house with his parents, not in the stable attached to the inn as on the night of his birth. The Bible’s record is far more amazing than the sanitized and de-theologized version of Christmas our secular society promotes and prefers.
From a naturalistic perspective, the Christmas story is impossible to believe. Perhaps we could enjoy it as a myth, but as an historical account, it would be judged to fail at every point. First of all, the child’s mother is a virgin, and we all know that can’t happen! It’s impossible. Her pregnancy was made known to her by an angel--a likely explanation for a fairy tale, but a bit too deus ex machina for a better educated, modern audience. The woman’s fiancee assumed she had simply been knocked up, and we are sufficiently enlightened to realize this must be what really happened and that there is no shame in it. But once again an angel appears and reassures the naive bumpkin who is Mary’s boyfriend that no, she hasn’t cheated on him; her condition is a miracle, the work of God. Joseph is either foolish enough or willingly ignorant enough to accept such an obviously absurd explanation. The rest of the story is more of the same: more angels, impossible challenges miraculously overcome, a plot against the child, worshippers from around the world gathering to bring presents to the baby. Who could believe it?
But in fact, many people believe it, at least, at some level. As we argued last week, even those most offended and ardently opposed to its celebration do, by their zealousness, give evidence they know its theological implications and believe and fear them. The Christmas story is pervasive and persistent in western culture, and for good reason. It is a story that explains so much about us and the world in which we live. Even those who profess no religion at all, those who deny God’s existence and shun any commitment to Christian ethics, will still often participate in and enjoy the Christmas season and its inescapably Christian context. Their interaction with the holiday may be largely secular and sanitized of the Bible’s historical and theological content, but they can’t escape the fact that Christmas refers to Christ’s Mass and that it would not exist at all were it not for the many centuries of religious observance and celebration around the story of Christ’s First Advent.
We have often lamented, rightly so, the secularization and commercialization of Christmas in the modern, western world. All around us we see Christmas without Christ, a holy day co-opted in service to crass commercialism, materialism, and revelry. It is enough to make a true believer want to turn away from anything and everything that goes by the name of Christmas in our present society. But while there is much value in this critique--we’ve made it before and will, Lord willing, make it again--today I want to suggest a slightly different perspective. Today I want you to see that despite the best efforts of materialists, secularists, naturalists, and atheists, we are surrounded every year by cultural references, language, music, and imagery which are persistently, indisputably, and unapologetically Christian. Even our atheist and agnostic neighbors celebrate a Christian holiday. Even if they deny they believe in Christ at all, even if their participation in the winter holidays is deliberately pagan and blasphemous, they cannot escape the Christian history, context, and content of seasonal celebrations at this time of year. If unbelievers borrow from the Christian worldview the rest of the year, at Christmastime they openly loot and plunder it. But everything they carry out through the front doors still bears the trademark of King Jesus.
Even the non-Christian aspects of this unavoidably Christian holiday are inescapably Christian in their context, message, and magic. To illustrate this, think of your favorite Darwinian Christmas movie. You can’t, because there isn’t one. There are some truly awful Christmas movies that get the story and theology of the holy day all wrong. (I will refrain from naming names in order to protect the guilty and what’s left of my reputation, but you may assume that I would put most Christmas films in the “truly awful Christmas movie” category.) But even the worst of them, the most secular, still can’t help being Christian, even if at the most meager level. There will still be grace, kindness, sacrifice, reconciliation, and an element of magic, whether they call it that or not. If even Home Alone and Elf can’t help but include these themes, you know God has left the fingerprints of Christianity on every Christmas story, no matter how tainted it may be. Nobody gathers around the Christmas tree to hear heartwarming stories of nature, red in tooth and claw. The message of every Christmas movie is not survival of the fittest but usually something far more humanistic: you can do better, be kinder, or more humble. And though moralistic and man-centered, it is nevertheless true. Humankind can do better, and why? Because Jesus came into this world to save us from ourselves and from the Hell we were destined and determined to enter into.
Christmas announces that naturalism fails, as an explanation of our identity, as a system for human survival, and as a framework for moral living. Every naturalist who celebrates Christmas, at any level, is not merely cutting off his own nose to spite his face; he is cutting off his own head. He deals a death blow to his ideology every time he says, “Merry Christmas!” Because if naturalism is true, then there is no such thing as Christmas, and none of us have any hope of ever being merry. But thank God, naturalism is not true, and Christmas is. Therefore, we can be very merry because we know that Christ was born.
The Christmas Story Tells Us Salvation Comes from Outside, Not Inside Ourselves
The Bible is very explicit that Jesus was born in order to save us.
“And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins.” (Matt. 1:21)
“But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are not the least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you shall come a Ruler who will shepherd My people Israel.” (Matt. 2:6; qtd. Mic. 5:2)
Luke 1:68-79
“Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” (Luke 2:10-11)
“Lord, now You are letting Your servant depart in peace, according to Your word; for my eyes have seen Your salvation which you have prepared before the face of all peoples”
(Luke 2:29-31)
The Christmas story assumes: (1) humankind needs salvation, (2) salvation requires a savior and not merely a self-improvement program or impersonal process, and (3) the Savior who is required must come from outside the world and its system. The world and its system are broken and corrupt; therefore, the Savior had to be an outsider from it. But the Savior had to belong to this world and its system, otherwise he could not represent and redeem it, undoing the work Adam had done. The only way to balance all of these factors was for God to become a Man, to step into the world from outside the world, participating in the system without partaking of its corruption.
One of the things that is (very) wrong about most Christmas movies is that salvation always comes from within the central character. He must be saved by re-orienting his perspective, realizing his own worth, or repenting of being a scrooge and starting to try to become a better person. But while there is a moral aspect to these messages that is inexplicable apart from the original, Christian context, these morales ultimately fail as a presentation of the gospel. It is not good news to realize that you have been a loser but there’s still time to try to do better. One day, there won’t be any more time, and there is no guarantee you will be able to undo all the harm you’ve done in the meantime. The good news of Christmas is that Christ came to bring salvation because it could not be found within this world or in our hearts. Salvation comes from outside us, but in Christ it has come to us.
The Christmas Story Tells Us That What is Impossible for Man is Possible for God
Every part of the Christmas story is entirely implausible or impossible, as we said before. Yet the story insists that what is impossible for man is possible for God. This is a recurring feature even in secular (and supposedly God-less) retellings and adaptations of the Christmas story. You see it in every moralistic holiday tale. It may be magic or Santa Claus or happy, unexpected coincidence, but Christmas stories always involve the impossible happening. Why? Because that is the Christmas story. A virgin becoming pregnant with the Son of God. The Creator becoming a creature without ceasing to be divine. Angels singing, stars aligning, pagan astrologers coming and converting, murder in the promised land being avoided by refuge in the house of bondage. This could only be the work of God, and it is. There is nothing in the Christmas story that man could have planned, coordinated, or carried out. God had to do all of it, or it wouldn’t have happened.
Christmas gives hope to the hopeless, because so long as God is involved, no one is ever really hopeless. Joseph and Mary were poor, judging by their purification offering. He was a blue collar laborer; she may have been no more than a teenager. They couldn’t even get a room at the Holiday Inn! They were away from home, with probably little money in their pockets, and not even a decent maternity ward at the local hospital. And out of the hopelessness of that scene, the Lord accomplished the greatest event in the history of the world to that point: the Savior came.
Our hope is in what God can accomplish, not in what we can. Christmas reminds us that when everything seemed hopeless, the Lord showed up with all the powers of heaven to bring everything in the world to accomplish his purpose. Christmas is proof that my circumstances are never a limiting factor in God’s salvation program. The fact that I am unable does not mean that God is unable. The Lord is pleased to choose and use the weak and helpless to manifest his own strength and help. Mary and Joseph were not chosen because they were great, but because God is great and good. And the God of grace and mercy who worked through them works for you today.
The Christmas Story Tells Us Everything in the Universe Points to One Central Event
What if there are no coincidences? The Roman government just happened to order a census which required Joseph and his very pregnant fiancee to travel to his ancestral home in order to be counted, which just happened to be where the prophet Micah said the Messiah would be born, and the trip just happened to coincide with Mary’s labor and delivery of her son. Surely she could have gotten a medical exemption or extension. Did she really have to be there? Under the circumstances, couldn’t Joseph have gone alone or filled out the census form online? What are the odds?
None of this is normal, and yet the story shows us that there is nothing really normal in this world at all. We live in a world where angels are always waiting just behind the curtain to step onto the stage to give directions and provide background music for the actors in the scene. We look up at the sky at night, and in our great wisdom, we understand those stars are actually burning balls of gas dozens of trillions of miles away. We know that ancient astrologers and magicians were fools. They looked at the stars because they thought they could discern messages in them. It was only a coincidence that the star over Bethlehem actually led them to the newborn King! Right?
This is the world we live in. It is not a closed system consisting only of matter and natural processes. It is not a biological machine which was wound up either by an explosion or unknown designer. The world is a theater, and there is an Author and unseen spirits working behind the scenes and standing just off-stage. Every character that is visible is an actor. He is reciting lines and reacting to circumstances that were previously written and designed for this scene. And everything in the scene, everything, in one way or another, is pointing to the central character and message: the Child who was born to die and rise, to redeem and reign, is the Savior and King.
Every OT prophet spoke about Christ. Every astrologer and astronomer gazing at the sky is looking for Him. Every shepherd in the field waits to welcome and worship Him. Every old man in the Temple who is waiting to die. Every widow who wonders why she is still alone. Every census, every star, every no vacancy sign, everything points to Christ. There are no coincidences.
The Christmas Story Tells Us the Proper Response to God’s Wonderful Work is Worship
The take-home message of almost every Christmas movie is: be a better person. But the take home lesson from the actual Christmas story is: O come, let us adore him. Worship is the work we are commanded to do by the news of Christ’s birth. Christmas is not a program for self improvement; it simply demands devotion.
Everyone in the story worships, everyone that is, except Herod. The shepherds, the magi, the angels, Simeon and Anna. The birth of Christ brings them all to worship: great and small, rich and poor, old and young, strong and feeble, Jew and Gentile, male and female, human and spirit. To the extent Christmas says anything about us, it says that we are sinners who need saving and who cannot save ourselves. But that isn’t the central message of Christmas. We aren’t central to the story at all. The central message is: the Child is Redeemer, Savior, and King, the Son of the Most High, Immanuel (God-with-us)--worship him!
Human beings are made to worship; we exist for this very purpose (Isa. 43:7; Ecc. 12:13). Christmas provides the outlet we have been looking for since our first parents were cast out of the garden. This is what Abel and Noah, Abraham and Moses, David and Hezekiah, Elijah and Micah were all seeking to do. Their sacrifices and psalms and prayers were all offerings of faith, devotion, and gratitude to the God who made them. They longed for communion with him, but he remained largely hidden from them. Abraham was his friend, but Abraham lived in tents, not in glory. God spoke to Moses face-to-face, or so he said, but when the leader asked for an actual face-to-face encounter, the Lord refused him and said, “You can only see my back. If you see my face, it will kill you.” David yearned to be in God’s presence like a thirsty man in a dry desert. Elijah longed to be done with this world and to go and be with God. But until Christ was born, no man had ever looked upon the face of God. But when Jesus was born, Joseph and Mary saw it. They were the first ones ever to do so. They saw the face of their Creator and Savior Incarnated, and they did not die. They lived. They worshipped. What else can we do once we behold the face of God? It is why we dare not try to make an image of him. To behold his Person is to fall on our face before him. We can only worship. We must worship. O come, let us adore him.
Christmas and the Failure of Naturalism
I consulted several dictionaries and philosophical lexicons in preparing this sermon, but lest I inadvertently misrepresent the naturalists by some neutral definition of their worldview, I chose to use the definition of naturalism provided by the folks at infidels.org who offer visitors: “A drop of reason in a pool of confusion.” They tell us that:
“… naturalism is ‘the hypothesis that the natural world is a closed system’ in the sense that ‘nothing that is not a part of the natural world affects it.’ More simply, it is the denial of the existence of supernatural causes. In rejecting the reality of supernatural events, forces, or entities, naturalism is the antithesis of supernaturalism.”
So naturalism says the natural world is all there is. Everything that occurs can be explained by natural components and processes. Whatever we might attribute to supernatural causes is only the result of our current ignorance. Superstition and religion were how ancient people explained a world they did not understand and could not control, but these are unnecessary since we are now enlightened and know that we are highly developed primates with social media accounts and cloth masks to keep us safe from COVID cooties. I don’t need to believe in God because I understand that my great-grandmother was a monkey, her grandmother was a bird, and her grandmother was a fish. I am able to love and treat everyone justly because I realize everyone is actually an animal, and I am for the ethical treatment of animals. I don’t need religious ethics because my black square on Facegram proves that I am not a racist, my preferred pronouns listed on my profile show that I’m progressive, and my hashtags on Snapbook let all of my friends who I’ve never met know that I am compassionate and generous. Ignorant people may believe in God, but I believe in science. I am a naturalist because I am a smarter, more honest, and better educated ape than you.
There can be no Christmas in a naturalistic world, but that is not the kind of world we live in. Naturalism, like socialism, works on paper. But in the real world, Christmas is a persistent and powerful presence, and that is because naturalism is simply not true. There is a God. He came into the world as a man in order to rescue men. His coming was explained and announced by angels. He was worshipped by shepherds and by wise men who came from afar. He was hated by kings, killed by religious leaders, and rose again in order to justify and save all those who were loved by his Father before he ever made them or the rest of the world. Because Christmas is true, naturalism cannot be. They are mutually exclusive. Naturalism describes the world as a closed system, but at the first Christmas, the Son of God opened the world, entered into it, and never left it. He may be enthroned in heaven, but he is still present in creation, because he is still the God-Man (1Tim. 2:5). The Incarnation had a beginning, but it does not have an end. When the Son of God became flesh (Jn. 1:14), he became such permanently. He did not lay aside his humanity when he returned to the Father. He remains “the Man, Christ Jesus,” and our hope of glory is that we are united to him as the God-Man, our Mediator, forever (cf. Col. 1:27; 1Jn. 3:1-3).
If naturalism is true, you are a primate with verbal skills. You have no rights. There is no such thing as justice and injustice, right and wrong, good and bad. Morality is a construct, and an unhelpful one at that. It contravenes the survival of the fittest. It is a fool’s notion, rightly discarded along with the remains of superstition and religion. You have no purpose other than to eat, reproduce, and die. This means racism does not exist; neither do human rights abuses--you can’t abuse what is only make-believe. All viewpoints are morally equivalent, because there is no such thing as objective morality. So stop being offended by those who are opposed to abortion. Their morality is just as empty and harmless as your opposition to race-based slavery and execution of homosexuals and your promotion of transgender rights.
We know naturalism isn’t true and Christmas is because monkeys don’t believe in morality or make-believe magic, but humans believe in the existence of moral standards--some things are right and some things are wrong--and we believe in magic, because deep inside we know that magic is real. That’s why even your worst Christmas films include some element of magic. They may only portray it as coincidence, an unlikely but happy turn of events, but it’s there nevertheless. Monkeys don’t tell stories or write books or develop screenplays with moral messages and magic in them. They eat, reproduce, and die. Debating morality and musing on magic would be a waste of time in a world where there is no time to waste. Only human beings waste time on those things, because only human beings realize the real waste would be to spend our whole lives just eating and reproducing, because we’re already dying. Human beings are the only creatures wise enough to know it. So we debate good and evil, right and wrong, and make arguments about how to live a virtuous life. We tell stories which include magic and moral lessons, because those stories give color and substance to our lives that transcend the mere struggle for survival. It is morality and magic that make life worth living; life without them would only be existing. And Christmas persists because it is full of morality and magic. It is the truest of our true tales.
Conclusion
Let’s review the four points we drew from our two texts today. First, the Christmas story tells us salvation comes from outside, not inside ourselves. We needed to be saved, and there was no way for us to save ourselves. The Lord had to come and become a man in order to save men. His advent was a rescue operation, and unless Christ was born to die and rise, we would still be lost. Second, the Christmas story tells us that what is impossible for man is possible for God. Every part of the story was implausible or impossible, and every part became inevitable because the Lord invaded space and time, intruding in his creation in order to redeem it. Third, the Christmas story tells us everything in the universe points to one central event. Even the alignment of the stars and pagan astrologers demonstrated what the heavens declared. The King has arrived, and he can be found and worshipped! And fourth, the Christmas story tells us the proper response to God’s work is worship, and that all men--great and small, Jew and Gentile, rich and poor--are called to honor and adore Christ. It is the purpose of our existence, our destiny, and our joy. Merry Christmas. Amen.
Most people overestimate what they can accomplish in one day and underestimate what they could accomplish in a year. Do you realize that if you invested 15 minutes per day in reading, memorization, learning, or spiritual growth, that those 15 minutes per day would add up to 90 hours each year? If you listen to an audio Bible at normal speed and follow along in your printed copy, you could read all of the OT and the NT twice each year in 15 minutes per day. You may not be able to memorize much Scripture in 15 minutes. How much could you memorize in 90 hours? You may not be able to read much of Calvin’s Institutes in 15 minutes. How much could you read in 90 hours? (The audio version of The Institutes is 67 hours at regular speed, so if you listened and followed along in your printed copy at 1.5 speed, you could read all of the Institutes twice each year in only 15 minutes per day.)
Do you realize how little time 15 minutes actually is? Most people who schedule their time don’t even schedule tasks that small. It isn’t hard to find 15 minutes in the morning or at lunch or before bed. I make it a habit to always keep a book with me, and I finish many books each year just by reading in the “between time” each day. You could scroll through social media during those 15 minutes you spend in the waiting room, or you could read The Pilgrim’s Progress (which is only 12 hours at normal speed, and most of you will read it much faster).
I do not recommend that you devote only 15 minutes per day to productive reading, study, and growth. A. G. Sertillanges in The Intellectual Life counseled his readers to dedicate two hours per day to personal and spiritual development. That would be far more productive and desirable. But I mention the potential of 15 minutes of daily focus for two reasons. First, many people imagine they spend far more time reading, studying, and learning than they actually do. Second, if you do not already dedicate at least 15 minutes per day to reading, thinking, and growing Christianly, let me recommend that you begin to do so. It can, quite literally, change your life. --JME
We’re beginning a brief series today that will carry us over the next three weeks right up to Christmas. This is our 2020 Advent series, even though we don’t always advertise it as such lest we harm our already somewhat bruised and beleaguered Presbyterian bona fides. Even though it is starting a week late for reasons that are obvious to everyone this year, I am thankful that in God’s providence we have a few weeks to reflect on The Offense of Christmas. That’s our title for the series, and each week we’ll be looking at passages which highlight the way in which the coming of Christ has exposed the false gods of this world, incurring their wrath and signalling their doom. Next week, our Lord willing, we will talk about Christmas and the Failure of Naturalism. The week of Christmas we will look at Christmas and the Fall of this World’s Kings. But today we will get everything started by considering Christmas and the Myth of Neutrality.
There is a misguided notion that has been popularly embraced even among conservative Christians that America was founded as a religiously neutral, deliberately secular nation. Even if this were true--and there is considerable evidence to the contrary which ought to be weighed and debated--believers ought to recognize that such a program would be doomed to failure. It may be that the founders intended our nation to be a secular state, free of explicitly religious values, but if that were their design, you and I ought to realize such a goal never has, can, or will succeed. There is no neutrality, because this is God’s world. Pretending otherwise is pointless. You can put up barricades, spray paint streets, and declare yourself to be living in an autonomous zone. That will work so long as those in actual authority are willing to play along. Whenever they stop pretending, you quickly discover there is a big difference between pansies and panzers. That brings us to our text today, a psalm in which God surveys everything in the world: religious and irreligious, righteous and unrighteous, human and animal--he looks at it all and declares: “It is all mine!”
God Has Come and Will Not Be Silent (Ps. 50:1-6)
The Mighty One, God Yahweh, has spoken and called to the earth from beginning to end. That is the picture Psalm 50 opens with, the Mighty God who speaks with a voice of authority to all creation, the God who “shall come, and shall not keep silent,” the God who is Judge of the whole earth. The first six verses portray God as present, powerful, and personally involved in the affairs of this world. He is not absent. He is not silent. He is not disinterested. He is a God unlike any the nations ever imagined or invented, a God whose power and purpose govern everything that goes on in the present age. He shines forth from Zion. A fire devours before him, and he rules over the world as Judge. But he knows and pities those who are his children. He gathers those who have made covenant with him, those who are at peace with the Mighty God by means of sacrifice.
Christmas is a yearly reminder that the Lord has come and is not silent. He came to redeem and rule over his creation. He came to do for us what none of us could do for ourselves. He came to us because we could not go to him. He came in lowliness because that is our condition. He came on our level in order to raise us to his heavenly glory.
Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.”
Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?”
And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren. For with God nothing will be impossible.” (Luke 1:30-37)
That announcement by the angel Gabriel to the virgin Mary is the most incredible news ever published in the history of the world. God is coming to earth. He is coming as a Man. He is coming to rule as King. And his kingdom will never end. If this sounds impossible, that’s because it is. Impossible for men, certainly. But with God nothing will be impossible. Only God could do it. And that is the message of Christmas: God has actually done it. He pulled it off. He accomplished what the angel said he would. He has come, and he has not kept silent. That is Psalm 50:1-6.
The World Belongs to God and Everything in It (Ps. 50:7-15)
What does God say when he comes? He speaks to two groups: his people (vv.7-15) and the wicked (vv.16-23). Do you see what this implies? Those are the only two groups. There is no third category. There are no “unconverted innocents,” no “good, moral, but irreligious people.” There are God’s people, and everyone else, and everyone else is a rebel. They are rebels because everyone who worships God is counted as his child, and everyone who refuses to worship has made himself an enemy. Your position in life is determined by your posture in relation to the King. This monarchy is global and absolute, because his reign includes the entire world and everything in it. There are no citizens of other lands who are outside his rule. No one has diplomatic immunity from his laws and judgment. Everyone is subject to the crown. That is why there are only these two categories: God’s people, and the wicked.
God did not come to establish a voluntary religious organization. He did not come only to build a Church. He came to make the world a Temple, and every creature a worshipper in it. You may think you did not sign up for his kingdom, but you were born under his rule and in his world. I didn’t decide to be an American; I suppose if I were unhappy, I could leave and move to another nation. But you were born into God’s universe. You breathe his air, walk on his earth, and exist for his purposes. If you are unwilling to be his subject, where will you go? He owns everything that is.
The Lord speaks to his people and reminds them of who he is. He does not need them or their worship. He does not need anything, because he owns and upholds everything there is! This is one of the basic contrasts between true and false religion. False religion--which includes all of ancient paganism--was viewed as a means of servicing the gods: feeding them, appeasing them, and pleasing them to the worshipper’s survival and advantage. But true religion, the religion of Yahweh, is a religion of thanksgiving, because Yahweh does not need anything. He is not fed by human hands or animal sacrifices. He is not appeased by human prayers or offerings a worshipper makes. He is not pleased by what his people do. Instead, he is satisfied with the work of his Son.
When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” (Matt. 3:16-17)
We are not doing anything for God by worshipping him in this way. Our obedience to his Law does not provide him any advantage or anything he would not already possess. He does not need our love, attention, or service. He doesn’t need anything. He is the self-existent God, utterly complete in himself, and creation is entirely gratuitous. Any doctrine which says God needed love or relationship from human beings is fundamentally pagan. The Triune God dwells in perfect, eternal love. What can we ever supply that the Lord would otherwise be without? He owns the cattle on a thousand hills. He only wants us to call upon him in the day of trouble, and give thanks to him in the day of deliverance. Yahweh gives all the presents. He needs and receives none.
Christmas exposes the foolish notion that man stands on equal footing with God: that each of us has a part to play, that each of us makes a contribution. Bunkum and balderdash. You can’t consistently believe in Christmas and remain an Arminian. Christ came to do it all, and its a good thing, because if it had depended on Joseph or Zechariah or the original disciples or the later Church, we all would be headed for Hell. “If I were hungry, I would not tell you; for the world is Mine, and all its fullness.” It’s a good thing the Lord took matters into his own hand. There is no neutrality. There is no equality. We are not partners in this enterprise. We are subjects of the King.
Justice Delayed Will Not Be Justice Denied (Ps. 50:16-23)
When God speaks to the wicked, he essentially says: “You have no right to anything in my world.” They had set themselves up as religious, ethical, and legal authorities, but the Lord is the great King and Judge of the universe. They were hypocrites to the core and had the gall to exercise authority as if it were rightfully theirs. Because the Lord did not immediately contradict or destroy them, they assumed they would get away with it. If they thought he existed at all, they assumed he must be just like them. But vv.16-23 make clear that justice delayed will not be justice denied.
Psalm 50 is a very comforting psalm in a world gone mad. You know the kind of world I am speaking about. It’s a world where human rights abusers like China, Cuba, and the Russian Federation have seats on the United Nations Human Rights Council. It’s a world where it is illegal to disturb, tamper with, or collect sea turtle eggs, but it is legal to terminate your unborn child by chemical poisoning, vacuuming the baby out of the womb, or cutting the baby’s body into pieces and then suctioning it out of the womb. It’s a world where we are assured sexual orientation is an hereditary and immutable category of personhood and gender is a fluid state, a social construct, subject to redefinition and change according to the individual’s preferences, but not subject to input or legal decisions by the parent of an underage child. That, brothers and sisters, is a world gone mad. But don’t be overly alarmed or troubled. The inmates may have taken over the asylum, but they won’t be able to retain it. “These things you have done, and I kept silent; You thought I was altogether like you, but I will rebuke you, and set them in order before your eyes. Now consider this, you who forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver” (vv.21-22).
If you believe in the ideal of a neutral, secular world, well then the last decade really ought to be very depressing to you; the last year might be enough to throw you completely over the edge! But I have good news for you: God doesn’t believe in that ideal. A neutral, secular world does not exist, and if you try to build it, you’ll find that you are building castles out of steam on a foundation of sand. God may remain silent for a time, but only in the sense that he won’t immediately execute the wrath his Law demands. He is not silent at all, not if you are listening. If you pay attention, you can hear him right now. The wicked could hear him too; that’s why they are frantically trying to control the conversation. They must not allow a lull. Noise is their only hope. If they can drown out the Word of God, then perhaps he will lose interest and leave. But it is futile. He won’t leave. He came into this world two thousand years ago, and he didn’t surrender the field. He simply withdrew to high ground. He rules from on high and surveys the battleground. He sees his enemies spread before him. He has not conceded. On the contrary, when he came to Bethlehem, he came to save the world, and he means to do so. He will come again, and when he does, he means to stay.
This third section of Psalm 50 is fascinating to read at this time of year. It’s the season when politicians who spend all year promoting abortion, sodomy, and pluralism suddenly remember they are nominally Catholic (or Methodist or Presbyterian or some other form of Christianity stripped of all fat, protein, and flavor). “Merry Christmas!” they say, and the Lord replies, “What right have you to take My covenant in your mouth?” It would be better for them to curse on public television than to pretend to celebrate the advent of Christ the Lord. Would the Third Reich celebrate D-Day? Would Stalin have rejoiced in the fall of Communism? The Lord’s coming sounds the death knell for all his adversaries. That’s why you need to sing real Christmas hymns. I don’t mean Away in a Manger and Silent Night, songs that have been stripped of everything worth celebrating at Christmastime. I mean lines like this:
Forth today the Conqu’ror goeth, who the foe, sin and woe, death and hell, o’erthroweth.
God is man, man to deliver; his dear Son now is one with our blood forever.
(All My Heart This Night Rejoices)
Or this:
He cast the mighty from their thrones, and lifted those of low estate.
The hungry he hath filled with good; the rich he empty sent away. (Magnificat, Luke 1:46-55)
Or this:
The fear of God will fill his heart and mind with great delight.
He judges not by ear or sight but justly does the right.
With righteousness he rules the poor; the wicked he will slay.
The belt of truth and righteousness are ‘round his waist displayed.
(A Shoot Will Spring from Jesse’s Stump, Isa. 11:1-9)
Or this:
Rejoice, ye heav'ns; thou earth reply; with praise, ye sinners, fill the sky,
for this his incarnation. Incarnate God, put forth thy pow'r, ride on, ride on, great conqueror
till all know thy salvation. Amen, Amen! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Praise be given evermore by earth and heaven. (How Lovely Shines the Morning Star!)
Or this:
Born Thy people to deliver, Born a child and yet a King,
Born to reign in us forever, Now Thy gracious kingdom bring.
By Thine own eternal Spirit Rule in all our hearts alone;
By Thine all sufficient merit, Raise us to Thy glorious throne. (Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus)
The message of Christmas is that the King has come and asserted his claim on the universe. There is no neutral ground. There are no secular spaces where he is not welcome, no place for hypocrites who pretend loyalty while defying the will of the King. All will be held accountable. The Law of the King will be upheld. The children of the covenant will be rescued. The breakers of the covenant will be brought to judgment and destroyed. The Sovereign Lord who needs nothing and no one comes both to pardon and to punish, to deliver and to destroy. He came as a Man to rule over men. He came as a Child that we, who were enemies, might become the children of God.
Christmas and the Myth of Neutrality
Christmas has been controversial for quite some time now, and I don’t mean only since we began the awkward debate over whether cashiers who say, “Merry Christmas!” are violating civil liberties. Christmas has been controversial since King Herod decided the best way to stop it was to kill all the male babies in Bethlehem, hoping that the Christ child would be one of them. Christmas is controversial because it suggests a particular take on human history, namely that God came to the world in human form, died and rose again to redeem it, and now claims all of it as the Undisputed Sovereign. No one feels threatened by Hannukah because if they know anything about its history and theology, they know it makes no all-encompassing claims about world domination. No one feels threatened by Kwanzaa because no one is sure what it means, and if they ever took time to learn, they would discover it demands nothing of them. But not so with Christmas. Everyone who says, “Merry Christmas!” is confessing that the Child born to be King of the Universe has come.
There is no neutrality. If you say, “Merry Christmas!” you are confessing the Christ Child is King, whether you are a Christian or not. If you say, “Happy Holidays!” you may not be denying the Christmas story, but you are playing pretend with the spoiled children who are asserting their bedroom is now an autonomous zone, the same bedroom heated and cooled by your utility bills, furnished with your housing allowance, covered by your homeowner’s insurance, guarded by your vigilance. It’s fun to play pretend with a four year old when he is David and you are Goliath. It’s frightening to be asked to play pretend with a forty year old who claims to be Stalin and says you are a Russian peasant. One of these games is delightful; the other is devilish. One of these games of pretend is preparing a child to live in the real world. One of these is proof that someone is not a child but a maniac who does not inhabit the real world but rather hates and longs to destroy it. If you play pretend with the child, you are an ally of Truth, Goodness, and Beauty. If you play pretend with the maniac, you defy the created universe; you are part of the problem.
Either the Christmas story is true or it is not. And everyone knows, whether they admit it or not, that the story is true. We know it is true, which is why we still celebrate the birth of a peasant child in an obscure Jerusalem suburb almost two thousand years ago. The story is true, which is why even non-Christians say, “Merry Christmas!” and set-up trees and give gifts and sing carols at this time every year. The story is true, and that is why secularists become enraged when the world sings and celebrates Christmas. They know that Christmas is true and that there is no neutrality. The secularists know you cannot say, “Merry Christmas!” and then deny that Jesus is Lord of all. They think by refusing to say, “Merry Christmas!” they can prevent him from being their King. If they refuse to participate in the celebration and object to it wherever it may be found, then they can establish an autonomous zone, and perhaps the Child King will leave them alone. But he will not agree to play pretend with lunatics whose delusions threaten the world.
Christmas exposes the myth of neutrality. There is no such thing as neutrality, because we are either living in Christ’s world or we are not. If the child born in Bethlehem to Joseph and Mary was, indeed, the Son of God, then Jesus is Lord of all. If he wasn’t God’s Son, his story would already have been forgotten, and there would be no debate or outrage over holiday greetings in the public square. There is no neutral space, only created space, and it all belongs to Christ. Christmas is not just a holiday; it is a holy-day, and whether you sanctify it as such or not, the Child laid in the manger was born to die and rise and reign, and he did, and he does.
Every person who seeks to neuter Christmas of its eschatological and political implications is like the forty year old who declares his parents’ basement an autonomous zone. He is living in Christ’s world, breathing Christ’s air, eating Christ’s cattle, while pretending it is his own. His is not a harmless game of make-believe; it is a pathetic and perverse delusion. The result will be worse than coal in his stocking. The King will come and tear his enemies into pieces, and there will be none to deliver the one who refused the rule of the Righteous Son.
Conclusion
As we close let’s review the three points of the psalm. First, the Mighty God has come, has spoken, and will judge the world over which he reigns. Second, to his people, the Lord gives a reminder that he does not need anything from us. We owe everything to him. True religion is one of thanksgiving. We do not feed him, complete him, or sustain him. All that we are, all that we have, and all that we can offer is entirely of grace. Third, to the wicked, the Lord announces his absolute, unalterable authority and determination to judge them for their hypocrisy and sin. The delay of their judgment does not mean it will be permanently avoided or denied. Righteousness will carry the day. God’s authority as King will be seen, his people will be saved, and his enemies will be annihilated.
What does this have to do with Christmas? Nothing. Psalm 50 is not about Christmas. The question is, what does Christmas have to do with Psalm 50? The answer is: everything. Christmas is all about Psalm 50, and a thousand other similar passages scattered throughout the Bible. Christ’s First Advent was the historical enactment of this psalm, the day when the mighty God invaded creation, spoke, asserted his authority, and established his rule that one day will save the world and overcome all adversaries. Don’t be fooled by all the sweetness in a feminized celebration as if Christmas were a secular holiday. Christmas was D-Day, eschatologically speaking, and even if we are somewhere still in the Ardennes Forest facing an impressive number of enemy tank divisions, we know the King has guaranteed the victory at his prior landing sometime ago. That is what we celebrate. Christ has come, and there is no neutrality. Merry Christmas. Amen.
