The national divide and the Life non sequitur

I've mumbled before about the growing chasm within our nation. Sad that a national calamity would further highlight this truth.

Consider, the folks most vocal about gun-control in the aftermath of violent tragedy are by and large the same ones who are the most vocal about unrestrained abortion. I can't figure out the logic there. Would someone enlighten me?

Light in darkness

Ben Stein, of Ferris Bueller fame ("Bueller? Bueller?) and more recently as a philosopher and culture barometer, penned a lament in the days following our recent national tragedy. A worthy read you can find here. At the end of his piece he grieves,

"Man is made of such crooked stuff that it is impossible to set him straight, said a famous philosopher."

Paul sketched with the same charcoal black when he told the church at Rome, "None is righteous. No, not one" (Romans 3:10). I mentioned to a friend that such hellishness does not surprise me any longer. What surprises me anymore is when I see philanthropy.

In the world there is no objective, concrete hope.

But then Jesus said, "Be of good cheer for I have overcome the world" (John 16:33).

This isn't some fairy-tale platitude to salve our psychological selves. It is truth.

Left to myself, I will ever wrestle the demons within. Paul cried in that same letter, "For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate" (Romans 7:15). That is not abnormal. It is the normal human condition. Some of us restrain the beast better than others, but this God-rebel dominates our lives.

Only one thing can supplant this beast.

"Come to me all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." ~ Jesus (Matthew 11:28)

"If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has past away; behold the new has come." (2 Corinthians 5:17)

"For our sake he (God) made him (Jesus) who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." (5:21)

"I have been crucified (past tense) with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith (TRUST) in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." (Galatians 2:20)

Therein, Mr. Stein, is our only hope for straightening the crooked human condition.

Merry Christmas.

Sin: The root of evil

Another horrifying day in America. Children dead. Teachers dead. The heart cries out, "Why? How did this happen? How could a human being do such a thing?"  Many folks a thousand miles away spent sleepless nights wrestling with such horror. Parents stole into their children's bedroom to behold their babes and to weep.

Two common answers have swirled about in the wake of this tragedy. It's a mental illness problem, and it's a gun problem. That's Roland Martin's take at CNN, and the sentiment in the Twitter-verse:

"MORE gun control, MORE mental health services. It's no longer a debate. Never was," spewed comedian Patton Oswalt. 

He wasn't alone in his anger.

"The way to honor these dead children is to demand strict gun control, free mental health care, and an end to violence as public policy," suggested Michael Moore.

Anybody notice anything missing from these ruminations? None of these men and few talking heads hold the man accountable for his actions. Man is culpable for what he does.

Man is an independent moral agent responsible for his thoughts, words, and deeds. That's part of what is meant by God when he stated, "Let us make man in our image" (Genesis 1:26). As such, he is responsible for his choices. God went on to strip away excuses when he declared,

"What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person." (Mark 7:20-23)

I do understand that some do not have all of the cognitive tools that others have. Consider the man or woman with Down's Syndrome, but when has there ever been an instance of one with a clear genetic challenge who has gone off the moral deep end and unleashed carnage on an entire school or anything even approximating such atrocity? Rather you'll find the average Down's individual a more moral and compassionate individual than an individual with the standard chromosomal alignment. Nope, if you peek into the cells of butchers like the one in Connecticut, you'll find a set up much like mine or yours.

But what of their past, what of their environment? This has been the focus of modern psychology. We are not responsible for what we do because we are machines, experts assert, and are simply the product of our past and our environment. Does anything that has ever happened to me in the past justify my murdering twenty kids? God doesn't seem to think so. In fact, he goes so far as to command that we control our reactions to slights and affronts.

"But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you." (Matthew 5:44)

Paul, in his letter to the Romans, commands them to,

"Repay no one evil for evil...If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”" (Romans 12:17a, 19)

From the time of the Fall of Man, man's rebelliousness against God and his commands have plagued him and his relationship with his fellow man. He destroys himself and all that is good. Little points to the veracity of the Bible more than what's happening in the world around us. How can man who on the one hand seems to be able to do such good turn about and unleash such evil?

Anthropologists, sociologists, and psychologists continue to wrestle with that question, but thousands of years ago, God had recorded for his creatures the truth. Man, created in God's image, has rebelled against his Creator, and while he still carries that image (and thereby the capability for good), that image is marred beyond man's ability to restore it leaving him ever in a struggle against an innate hostility toward God and toward the good.

If you get right down to it, if there is no God, who can say such barbarity is wrong? Is it not survival of the fittest in a world that is red in tooth and claw? But we rail against such a notion. We know such conduct is evil because we were created in God's image, marred though we be. 

So what is it then that causes a man to gun down innocents? The same thing that makes a man cheat on his wife. The same thing that makes a man rob a convenience store. The same thing that makes a man slander a political opponent. It is the sinfulness of man's own heart.

It is for this very reason that Jesus Christ bore in himself the penalty of mankind's rebellion against God. His vicarious sacrifice for us provided the means of justice in dealing with such rebellion by which God's righteousness might be satisfied and by which man might be restored in his relationship to God. Paul went on to declare of the one who has accepted the sacrifice of Jesus Christ to himself thusly:

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come." (2 Corinthians 5:17)

A bit later, Paul declares how this took place:

"For our sake he made him (Jesus Christ) to be sin who  knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." (5:21)

Even as a Christian, the struggle against our sinful nature remains (Romans 7:23, 1 John 1:8), but as a Christian, God empowers us (Philippians 2:13) and disciplines us (Hebrews 12:7-10) that our minds and our lives might be transformed to a thing that is pleasing to God (Romans 12:1-2).

And so when horrors like those of this past week come, we grieve. Man's rebellion against God continues to slap us in the face, but we do not have to grieve as those who have no hope (1 Thessalonians 4:13). God has provided the solution to such evil by bearing himself the ultimate penalty that was due to each one of us.

This is the only answer (Acts 4:12). We just choose to ignore it.

'Tis the season

Ah, the sound of Christmas is in the air.

** The ACLU is on its annual nativity rampage.
** Nursing homes have to remove their Christmas trees.
**School's can't see a Charlie Brown Christmas because Linus quotes from that book.

Okay, it's not just because it's Christmas.

** A national coach of the year nominee was canned for praying with an injured opponent and watching movies that contained religious themes with his team (yeah, that book was mentioned in those movies, too).
**Atheists want a statue of Jesus removed from a ski resort.
** West Point cadet has checked out six months before graduating claiming that he endured unconstitutional proselytism from the officers there. Considering proselytism is nowhere even remotely discussed in the Constitution or the Bill of Rights, one wonders what really went on. Did they threaten beheading? When atheists say "Boo!," citizen's government officials cower.

"What wrong did your fathers find in me

that they went far from me

and went after worthlessness,

and became worthless?"

In light of this animosity toward anything within fifteen feet of that book, the Bible, what will become of the holidays? Really, not much else because Christmas in America has become meaningless.

Consider. The day the Church decided to celebrate the birth of Christ has become an excuse for materialistic excess that moves most companies into the fiscal black. Christmas makes money! Why on earth would we curtail or readdress this buying binge?

The story of the event that precipitated the holiday, God in a manger, that man's rebellion required God's provision of himself, has all but vanished. You'll not find that message in any of my favorite Christmas shows (Grinch (animated and otherwise), Rudolph, It's a Wonderful Life) except Charlie Brown's. Instead, we're sold something as substantial and satisfying as last year's Christmas trinkets.

Even the saint who has become tied to the holiday has been turned into a cartoon character and his real story largely forgotten. The name Christmas* remains, but few know that the word refers to the church service commemorating Jesus' birth. Few consider that holiday comes from holy day, a day set aside for some religious observance.

"They did not say, 'Where is the LORD who brought us up from the land of Egypt...'"

But with all of that, there is great hope. With the truth of Christmas being syphoned away from the American psyche, Christmas is going nowhere. To quote the Grinch (even though after his heart grew three sizes that day, he still didn't get it), it's not "packages, boxes, or bags." Also, God never mandated that it be a national celebration. We have enjoyed the twilight of a nation that was born with a love for the Lord. That love is now all but dead. This is no longer a Christian nation so it should not surprise us that its entertainment industry, its schools, and its government have driven God from its presence.

"Why do you contend with me?

You have all transgressed against me, declares the LORD."

No atheist can revise the fact that God did enter the world in flesh over two thousand years ago. No holiday fiction can change that man's heart is deceitfully wicked and in rebellion against a holy God. No mountain of presents can rival a God in a farm trough or God on a cross.

The truth of the opening pages of Matthew's, Luke's, and John's gospels cannot and will not be eradicated by the ACLU nor obscured by Frosty the Snowman. What has happened in history cannot be altered. Therefore, let us truly rejoice in the God who so loved his unloveable creation that he sent his Son to die on their behalf that they might be restored in fellowship and in family to him.

This God still stands in the middle of a crowded and indifferent world declaring,

"Return, faithless Israel, declares the LORD.

I will not look on you in anger,

for I am merciful, declares the LORD;

I will not be angry forever.

Only acknowledge your guilt,

that you rebelled against the LORD your God...

and that you have not obeyed my voice, declares the LORD.

Return, O faithless children, declares the LORD;

for I am your master."

In these darkening days, have yourself a merry, little Christmas rejoicing that your God has given you ears to hear the call of his voice. Remember what he's done for you, for me.

-----------------------------

* Please don't get too knotted about people using X-mas. It originally did not mean to obscure Christ but to actually represent him. X is the Greek letter chi which is the first letter of Cristos or Christ. It's usage goes back hundreds of years and was first used as such by the church. So if you see "Merry Xmas," smile and thank God.

Note: Scripture cited above comes from Jeremiah 2:5,6, 29, 3:12-14