day no. 16,769: gray is made from black and white

Hebrews 5:12-14

For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.

Discernment is not merely knowing the different between black and white, it is knowing the difference between white and off white. After all, gray matters are made up of blacks and whites.

Constant practice, however, can teach a man to identify off white. Discernment can be trained to see where the white and black are in the gray that it encounters. Without black and white there could not be gray. If anyone attempts to dismiss a discussion of something based on its grayness, it is simply an admission of their inability or unwillingness to decipher the amounts of black and white involved in the matter.  Everything, in essence, is composed of black and white. Do not sidestep issues that are gray simply for the sake of lazy indifference. Do not refuse to discuss hard things merely because they are hard. Discernment can develop, but not without effort. Just like muscles that must be pushed in order to expand, so discernment must be flexed in order to flourish.

All that said, some grays really are harder to pin down than others and an extension of grace should be afforded to all of those who at least seek to discuss it. This also means, that for some, the most gracious thing you can do for tem is to discuss things "less gray" and more adjacent to clear black and white since they have discernment that is very out of shape or atrophied. In other words, do not try to make your couch potato brained friend run a marathon with you who has been getting up to run every morning for the three years. Simply put, consider the frame of those with whom you interact. It is not kind to overwhelm them, but it is kind to get them to work harder than they have been. So prove that you have discernment by exercising some of it.

Romans 14:1

Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations.

day no. 16,768: the right kind of fighting

"When a woman puts up her fists to a man she is putting herself in the only posture in which he is not afraid of her. He can be afraid of her speech and still more of her silence; but force reminds him of a rusted but very real weapon of which he has grown ashamed." — G.K. Chesterton, A Miscellany of Men

Everyone is to fight the good fight of faith, but we have been given different weapons and tactics for engaging in battle. 

Proverbs 20:29

The glory of young men is their strength:

and the beauty of old men is the grey head.

There is nothing stronger than a young man. Men are strong and young men are stronger. There is nothing less threatening to a man than a woman with her dukes up. That is not how she was made to fight.

Exodus 23:19

Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk.

A woman can fight with her fists just like milk can be used to boil things, but neither is at their best when doing so. Milk was made to give life, not end it. A woman was made to nurture her children, not boil them alive. Her body was made to comfort not to roast her little ones.

Deuteronomy 22:5

The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man.

A man's gear is his equipment for battle. A woman was not made for warfare. She should not don the panoply of pugilist. 

1 Corinthians 11:7

The woman is the glory of the man.

Women have been given the artillery of allurement. There is nothing more beautiful than a woman. She is the pinnacle of God's creation. She possesses no greater power than when she embraces her elegance.

A man may fear the attraction of woman or the meaning of her words, but he does not fear her fighting gait. She cannot make him quake by taking that kind of stance. But she can make him tremble by standing gracefully or speaking honestly. If a women wants to impose upon a man, her force is better applied by her lips than her fists. A man cannot be moved by the bulk of a woman's shoulders, but he can be if she bares them. Beauty can either inspire our best efforts or tempt our worst impulses. It can promote noble construction or ignoble destruction.

By the grace of God, the strength of men in meekness will both build and inherit the world and by the grace of God, the strength of women in meekness will both adorn and inhabit that world in which everyone wants to live.

day no. 16,767: the point of no return

"We are not to go out into all the world and tell the nations that they might have a point.” — Douglas Wilson, So Come and Welcome to Jesus Christ

Christendom is not a collaboration. There is no crowd sourcing involved. The world does not need to feel better about its guesswork. It needs to hear the Good News of an alien righteousness freely offered by God on the merits of the perfect life, sacrificial death, triumphant resurrection, and glorious ascension of His one and only Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Mark 16:15

And Jesus said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.”

All of creation needs to hear the proclamation. The world does not need a microphone. It needs to listen up. Its comments are not a consideration. There is no need for interfaith dialogue. There is one faith, one Lord, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all. (Eph. 4:5-6) There is no other faith with which to converse. There is only faith in Christ or unbelief. The nations do not have any points to offer. They are, in this sense, utterly pointless. Yet, taken in another sense, the nations are entirely the point.

Matthew 28:18-20

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Authority is not be gained by the nation's concession, but proclaimed as each nation's obligation. Jesus is Lord. Christ is King. The nations need to know because they are required to curtsy and should be getting themselves ready for the wedding.

day no. 16,766: the West will not survive without repentance

Jeremiah 18:7-10

If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, and if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it. And if at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it, and if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will relent of the good that I had intended to do to it.

The West must either be renewed by God through its repentance or it will be removed by God through His vengeance.

“The penalty of sin is that gradually you get used to it and do not know that it is sin. No power save the incoming of the Holy Ghost can alter the inherent consequences of sin.” — Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest 

The West will not survive without repentance, and it will not repent but by the grace of God.

Luke 24:47

Repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His Name to all nations.

Every nation is called to repent before Jesus. It is not merely advised to consider Christ or to consider consulting Him on particular occasions, each nation is commanded to stand down before its Creator and to plant their people on the firm foundation of Christ crucified, died, and buried; risen on the third day; and ascended forty days later.

"True to the normal course followed by nations in decline, internal differences are not reconciled in an attempt to save the nation. On the contrary, internal rivalries become more acute, as the nation becomes weaker." — Sir John Glubb, The Fates of Empires and Search for Survival

Internal collaboration cannot save a nation. It can delay the decay, but it cannot prevent the rule of rust and rot. Calibration to Christ is the only way to save a nation. There is no other name given under Heaven by which any person or nation can be saved.

day no. 16,765: the jurisdiction of Jesus

“You cannot be a human of one piece, a person of character and intelligence, and still allow yourself to be tempted to split your conscience in two, professing your God in one half and in the other half bowing before laws that have nothing to do with Him.” — Abraham Kuyper, Our Program

Christianity is coherent. There is no cognitive dissonance in Christendom. It is all of Christ for all of life. As a result, anything but assiduity is asinine. It is intellectual and psychological insanity to imagine you can serve the one, true living God with part of your conscience and honor laws that dishonor Him with another part of your conscience.

Matthew 6:24

No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other.

You cannot have competing standards of appeal. That is, you cannot for very long. One of them will become the standard by which the other is evaluated. Hierarchy is inevitable. Two competing standards will find a flash point and at that point, one will impose upon the other. Something will dictate while the other takes notes. One law will have jurisdiction over the other. 

Matthew 28:18

And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.”

Jesus has ultimate jurisdiction. In other words, there is nowhere that Jesus does not have jurisdiction. His law rules and He gets to dictate it to others. He has jūrisdictiō, from jūris (jūs = "law") and dictio (the act of saying), that is to say, He has the right to "say" what "the law" is.

day no. 16,764: one good woman is a spiritual harem

"Variability is one of the virtues of a woman. It avoids the crude requirement of polygamy. So long as you have one good wife you are sure to have a spiritual harem." — G.K. Chesterton

A good wife is a spiritual harem. In other words, women are so varied in themselves, that to have one, is to have many. What men too often look for in multiple partners is what could have been found by hunkering down with just one of them. While a woman may celebrate the many selves inside her, she will not tolerate any outside of her. That is to say, her man must appreciate her various facets, but must not seek various partners. A man who has had multiple wives has in a sense been in contact with as many women as Solomon and suffers a similar dissatisfaction.

"Keeping to one woman is a small price for so much as seeing one woman. To complain that I could only be married once was like complaining that I could only be born once. It was incommensurate with the terrible excitement of which one was talking." — G.K. Chesterton

Whoever is not content with one woman will find two too many and hundreds never enough. The only solution is the one that God graciously provides and commands: one woman for one lifetime. That blessed man will have a harem without the harlotry. He will multiply blessings instead of wives and enjoy many women without ever wandering outside of his bedroom.

day no. 16,763: the scaffolding we see and the city we do not

"Abraham and his seed are in fact going to inherit the earth (Rom. 4:13). Apart from a postmillennial eschatology, which can afford to be patient, political debates between rival Christian political theories will necessarily become much more heated than they need to be. This is because without a doctrine of gradual historical development into the future, every debate about different proposals will have to act like those making the proposal want to enact everything tomorrow, and that introduces conflict of necessity. This is because all the proposals, mine included, would be an obvious disaster if implemented tomorrow. So no matter what happens, tomorrow is going to be a hodge-podge. This means that as we in various ways describe our ideal Christian republic to one another, we ought to do so with the proviso that we are talking about 300 years from now, and not about the aftermath of the 2024 presidential election. We are building a cathedral that will take centuries; we are not putting up a tent on a camping trip. Christian political theory, at its best, is a rolled up set of blueprints. Christian activism, at its best, is digging trenches and pouring footings. Now this latter activity is best done by those who have studied the blueprints, but we are nowhere close to erecting the towers. Protestant political theory requires a doctrine of history, and this in turn is best informed by an optimistic eschatology.” — Douglas Wilson, Seven Theses on Theocratic Libertarianism

Christendom is the kind of project put into place by those who cannot expect to see the final product. It is akin to the cathedrals of yesteryear where the blueprints estimate centuries before completion. That is to say that those who drew up the plans knew that they wouldn't live to see the end of the mission. Yet, knowing that, they played their part and did the work in front of them.

1 Corinthians 15:58

Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.

If we spend out entire lives putting up the scaffolding required to build Christendom, it will not have been for nothing. If our entire efforts are merely the apparatus by which others build the real deal, we should not fret that our scaffolding should someday be set aside or discarded. In fact, we should plan on it and apply ourselves all the more to that which will advance the kingdom. Whatever it takes, let us get to it. Our great grandchildren may not see the scaffolding we are laboring to put up, but they might gaze upon walls we only saw on paper. They might paint the ceilings we have not seen and sing inside the city we long to someday inhabit.

Hebrews 11:16

They desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.

May we, like them, desire a better city and serve Christ by striving toward it.

Matthew 6:33

Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

day no. 16,762: invite the fight

1 Corinthians 11:16

If any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches of God.

If anyone is looking for a fight, you will find one. If someone wants to contend with us, they will find contention. Paul is not looking to stir up trouble here, but to diffuse it. He is not looking for things to fight about, but wants those who like to fight to know that they won't win this one.

Invite the fight.

Do not do everything to avoid the fray. Do not seek to stir up strife where there is none, but be so well-prepared and in such fighting trim that some enemy combatants think twice and take care of themselves before ever messing around to find out.

"To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace." — George Washington, First Annual Address To Both Houses of Congress; Friday, January 8, 1790

Communicating your strength can be an effective way of calling others to stand down before they march down.

Si vis pacem, para bellum (If you want peace, prepare for war)

Peacemakers are not those who never fight. Peacekeepers are the kind of pacifists that cause more bloodshed by abdication than they would have had by an altercation. Peacemakers make peace. They don't merely wish for it, they make it happen.

Sometimes we need to define what we are willing to fight about and declare that we are prepared to win if it comes to that.

"Spalatin, there are two ways of saying, 'No' to someone you believe to be stronger than yourself. The first is to say nothing and go on merely doing what you were doing before, and pretend that you never heard, allow time and inertia to be your allies."

"And the second?"

"And the second is to say, 'No,' in such a kind and thoughtful way it befuddles them. Naturally, if both these strategies fail, there is nothing but to relent... Or to fight: And of course, if you decide to fight, you also have to decide to win." — Luther (movie, 2003)

If you decide to fight, you also have to decide to win.

day no. 16,761: the saint's sword or the serpent's stomach

"That nursery tale from nowhere about St. George and the Dragon really expresses best the relation between the West and the East. There were many other differences, calculated to arrest even the superficial eye, between a saint and a dragon. But the essential difference was simply this: that the Dragon did want to eat St. George; whereas St. George would have felt a strong distaste for eating the Dragon. In most of the stories he killed the Dragon. In many of the stories he not only spared, but baptised it. But in neither case did the Christian have any appetite for cold dragon. The Dragon, however, really has an appetite for cold Christian—and especially for cold Christianity. This blind intention to absorb, to change the shape of everything and digest it in the darkness of a dragon's stomach; this is what is really meant by the Pantheism and Cosmic Unity of the East. The Cosmos as such is cannibal; as old Time ate his children. The Eastern saints were saints because they wanted to be swallowed up. The Western saint, like St. George, was sainted by the Western Church precisely because he refused to be swallowed. The same process of thought that has prevented nationalities disappearing in Christendom has prevented the complete appearance of Pantheism. All Christian men instinctively resist the idea of being absorbed into an Empire; an Austrian, a Spanish, a British, or a Turkish Empire. But there is one empire, much larger and much more tyrannical, which free men will resist with even stronger passion. The free man violently resists being absorbed into the empire which is called the Universe. He demands Home Rule for his nationality, but still more Home Rule for his home. Most of all he demands Home Rule for himself." — G.K. Chesterton, A Miscellany of Men

The difference between St. George and the Dragon is that St. George would have been happy to leave the dragon alone had the dragon been willing to leave everyone else alone. The dragon would not stop unless he was stopped. St. George had no interest in dragons other than stopping them from infringing on the interests of others. The dragon, however, had no interest in stopping himself. In fact, he may not have been able to. One of the punishments of sin is getting used to it. 

The impulse of eastern religion is to absorb, the impulse of western religion, i.e. Christianity, is to leave alone what God has divided and keep together what He has united. Eastern ohm-ism wants the null and void to envelop all. Western Christianity wants men to retain a life to lay down for their Lord. Eastern death is the end of categorical distinction. Western death is the end of individualistic distinction.

Galatians 2:20

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

The Christian impulse is to honor men, homes, and nations by keeping them distinct, but united. The vision of Christendom is a body with different parts united under one Head. The ear does not need to become more kidney-like to join or stay a part of the body, but it has to acknowledge the unity of the body while preserving and honoring the differences and distinctions of the other parts, even the other kidney.

Christian men, Christian homes, and Christian nations are what St. George represents. Totalitarian tyranny is the end game of the dragon. The dragon would devour it all and then begin on its own tail while Christendom would tolerate domesticated dragons, provided they learned to keep their hands (and teeth) to themselves. The dragon only has room for Christians in his belly, but not on his landscape. The Christian has room for anyone who can mind his own business.

Christianity honors the saint's sword over the serpent's stomach. It doesn't look for things to stab, but it is willing and able to cut down anything that puts men on its menu.

day no. 16,760: what must be given up

"War is a terrible business in any case; and to some intellectual temperaments this is the most terrible part of it. That war takes the young; that war sunders the lovers; that all over Europe brides and bridegrooms are parting at the church door: all that is only a commonplace to commonplace people. To give up one's love for one's country is very great. But to give up one's hate for one's country, this may also have in it something of pride and something of purification." — G.K. Chesterton, The Appetite of Tyranny

To leave your beloved for the sake of your country was noble, but how many today struggle to leave their hatred for the sake of their country? We had seen men rise to the pitch of sacrifice for the sake of others. Will we see men descend to the place of forgiveness for the sake of others?

Many brave men before us were asked to give up something in order to gain something else for their country. In order to protect what they loved, they had to leave it temporarily leave it behind and risk being separated from it forever in order to make it possible for any of their countrymen to be reunited safely with their respective beloveds.

Today, men must give up something they hate for their country. Men used to have to sacrifice their love, but now men must sacrifice their hate and be separated from their bitterness in order to secure the possibility of any having something better.

It required a heroic spirit to risk your life for the sake of what you loved behind you. It will require a humble spirit to risk your reputation for the sake of what you hate in front of you. 

What men loved back home was part of their country and so they fought for that part in order to fight for the whole things that was left behind them. Today, men hate their country and fight against it at home.

Man will either sacrifice his hatred or he will lose his country. Brave men once laid down their lives so that their beloveds might live. Today, men need to lay down their hatred so that someone might be loved.

day no. 16,759: everyone repents of something

"The North Teuton really has in this respect the simplicities of the savage and the lower animals; that he has no reactions. He does not laugh at himself. He does not want to kick himself. He does not, like most of us, repent—or occasionally even repent of repenting." — G.K. Chesterton, The Appetite of Tyranny

Repentance is inescapable.

You will repent either of your sin or of your repentance.

There is a worldly kind of grief that gets tired of failing and so redefines failure as success in an attempt to assuage its guilt, but there is a godly kind of grief that accepts Christ's success on its behalf and seeks to conform to His commands by grace in gratitude.

2 Corinthians 7:10

Godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.

Worldly woe leads to wickedness, but sovereign sorrow leads to salvation. Falling short either leads one to humble submission or to proud subversion.

Everyone repents. Either we acknowledge Christ's commands as valid and forsake our opinions or we forsake Christ's opinions in order to follow our own impulses. We repent of our autonomy or we repent of God's authority.

day no. 16,758: the past she never had

"It is right for the woman to climb into whatever cathedrae or high places she can allow to her sexual dignity. But it is wrong that any of these climbers should kick the ladder by which they have climbed. But indeed these bitter people who record their experiences really record their lack of experiences. It is the countryman who has not succeeded in being a countryman who comes up to London. It is the clerk who has not succeeded in being a clerk who tries (on vegetarian principles) to be a countryman. And the woman with a past is generally a woman angry about the past she never had." — G.K. Chesterton, A Miscellany of Men

A woman cannot ascend to integrity by diving into things beneath her dignity. You cannot degrade yourself for an upgrade without losing something in the process. If you give up your virtue of your sex to pursue the vices of the other, you only end up with the vices of both. A feminist cannot climb the corporate ladder and then kick at the corporation for not giving her children. She cannot degrade herself for the sake of applause without robbing herself of the affirmation she desires. In other words, you cannot embrace compromise as a means of obtaining purity.

Bitterness is finding the fruit of your sowing insufferable. It is laying in the lumpy bed you insisted on making. It is anger over the past you should have chosen and the future you cannot have. The feminist is, therefore, always pissed about the past she never had and the future she never wanted.

"The most painful state of being is remembering the future, particularly the one you'll never have." — Søren Kierkegaard

day no. 16,757: immortal combat

"I shall not answer his boasts with boasts; but with blows... you shall not pass this way." — G.K. Chesterton, The Appetite of Tyranny

Some boasts cannot be properly answered in kind; they must be beaten down. You cannot rise to that kind of occasion by braggadocio, but by belligerence. Only a bellicose riposte can belittle something too big for its own britches.

2 Corinthians 10:3-5

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.

Some imaginations are so high-minded only cold, hard reality can pull them down and the more exalted they imagine themselves to be, the harder they are humbled.

"As a general rule, I hate the fashions of society, and detest conventionalities, and if I conceived it best to put my foot through a law of etiquette, I should feel gratified in having it to do. No, we are men, not slaves; and are not to relinquish our manly freedom, to be the lacqueys of those who affect gentility or boast refinement." —

C.H. Spurgeon. Letters to My Students

Some rules cannot be kicked against hard enough. There are some boasts that cannot be beaten off too belligerently.  Some conventionalities require unconventional confrontation. In other words, you should always kick, but when you do, you should put your foot through it with as much force as you can muster.

day no. 16,756: a mob of masked men

"It is well to walk under universal ensigns; and there is an old tale of a tyrant to whom a walking forest was the witness of doom. That, indeed, is the very intensity of the notion: a masked man is ominous; but who shall face a mob of masks?" — G.K. Chesterton, A Miscellany of Men

If a masked man is a harbinger of bad things to come, what can a mob of masked men mean? If a cover up is a conspiracy, how much more is a conspiracy to cover everyone's faces? Signs are an aid to a society provided they heed them, but what sense can one make when the sign of the times is ignoring the signs? It is as plain as the smirk under their masked faces. Where universal ensigns are ignored, particular sins will be explored. A land that is no longer Christ-haunted will still be haunted. The house can be vacated to be cleaned, but it cannot remain vacant for long.

Luke 11:24-26

When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he saith, I will return unto my house whence I came out. And when he cometh, he findeth it swept and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh to him seven other spirits more wicked than himself; and they enter in, and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first.

day no. 16,755: as far as the North is from the South

Psalm 103:11-113

As the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him.

As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.

Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him.

As far as the East is from the West, the South is from the North. East is eternally distinct from West. You can go eastward forever without ever running into west. That same is not to be said for going north. If you go north long enough, you eventually end up going south. That said, in the War of Northern Aggression, God demonstrated the great philosophical chasm that is fixed between the North and South as Chesterton once observed.

"So far from evolution lifting us above the idea of enslaving men, it was providing us at least with a logical and potential argument for eating them. In the case of the American negroes, it may be remarked, it does at any rate permit the preliminary course of roasting them. All this materialistic hardening, which replaced the remorse of Jefferson, was part of the growing evolutionary suspicion that savages were not a part of the human race, or rather that there was really no such thing as the human race. The South had begun by agreeing reluctantly to the enslavement of men. The South ended by agreeing equally reluctantly to the emancipation of monkeys." — G.K. Chesterton, What I Saw In America

Evolution did not initiate a brotherhood of men, but rather introduced an excuse for the enslavement of monkeys. When men were all made in the image of God, it was a shame to murder or molest them, but sinful men still did so. But when they did, they had to do to other men what they could imagine being done to them as men. Evolution removed the need to consider them as image bearers and allowed for their treatment as animals.

The South sinned by subjecting some men to slavery;

the North sinned by subjecting all men to slavery.

The South's problems were not as bad as the North's solutions. The egalitarian impulse cried out that it was not fair for some men to be slaves and so used the sword to insist that all men should be enslaved by the State. An egalitarian slave state was promoted as being superior to tolerating a slaving holding suburb. It leveraged the cry that "the rights of some men should be the rights of all men," and then proceeded to insist that there were no men left, only highly evolved monkeys, who were not entitled to any rights because there was no God above.

The South maintained that some men were free;

the North insisted that all men were slaves.

The South insisted that God above made men;

the North maintained that man was the only god left.

The South sinned by enslaving some of its own;

the North sinned by stealing someone else's monkeys.

The North accepted evolution and the view that some men were more akin to property and then went on to steal them as property because they were not men. The North objected to man-stealing, but did not object to good ol' stealing stealing.

The South treated some men like machines;

the North treated all men like monkeys.

The South treated some men beastly;

the North treated all men like beasts.

All that to say, there were sins on both sides, but the sins of South were those of which they could have been called to repent. The South still held to the Scriptural view of man and as such could have been called to give an account for the passages concerning the kidnapping and trading of fellow men or a master's behavior concerning his servants and slaves. Repentance was a possibility for those who still held to the Book. The North accepted a view of mankind from outside of Scripture and set aside the Bible. The North, as such, could not have been called to repent of their breaking of Scripture for they no longer held or declared a loyalty to Scripture.

The sins of the North defeated the sins of the South, but you don't overcome evil with evil, you only learn to congratulate the kind of evil that prevailed. 

day no. 16,754: right away!

"If the men who had denied one liberty had taken the opportunity to affirm other liberties, there might be some defence for them. But it never occurs to them to admit any liberties at all. It never so much as crosses their minds. Hence the excuse for the last oppression will always serve as well for the next oppression; and to that tyranny there can be no end." — G.K. Chesterton, Eugenics and Other Evils

Where liberties are taken at liberty, freedom is taken for granted and therefore will only be granted to those the State sees fit. If freedom is not a right from God, it is a privilege that can be withheld by some men from other men.

Ezekiel 18:4

Look, every life belongs to Me.

Every soul, however, belongs to God. He is its Maker and its Sustainer. He has endowed each spirit with the right to live, and move, and have its being.

Acts 17:28

In Him we live, and move, and have our being.

He has proclaimed in His Law the value of each life and the value of their property by insisting that murder and theft are forbidden (i.e. the 6th and 8th commandments). No one can take another's life or property without God's consent. The individual does not have the right to take their own life and they do have the right to give away their property.

Charity is possible because theft is forbidden.

The tyranny of taking away rights cannot stop itself. It is an evil without brakes. Without a God of the system, the system cannot regulate itself. It cannot stop itself, but it can, and will, do everything in its power to stop you. In a world where might makes right, might will take away rights in order to keep the weak from gaining strength by having rights to stand upon.

day no. 16,753: the new normal

"I can say abnormal things in modern magazines. It is the normal things that I am not allowed to say. I can write in some solemn quarterly an elaborate article explaining that God is the devil; I can write in some cultured weekly an aesthetic fancy describing how I should like to eat boiled baby. The thing I must not write is rational criticism of the men and institutions of my country."  — G.K. Chesterton, A Miscellany of Men

Absurdity is not profundity even if the new normal is the unusual. Saying unorthodox things is not the same as saying creative things. Thinking outside the box is, after all, a cliche, not an original aspiration.

Romans 1:28-32

And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.

God has made man in His image. Among other things, this means that man is creative. He has the capacity and the desire to take existing things and to make things that have not previously existed. When this spark is kinked, it aims at new combinations of unthinkable evils. It can only shock by showing how far down the drain it is willing to spiral. It focuses its energies on combining what should not be joined and separating what has always gone together. And though they know this goes against the grain of all reality, they not only continue to go forward (i.e. down) with their warped project, but concoct award shows to congratulate themselves and others on their wicked achievements (i.e. depth of descent).

This is a sure sign of God's wrath.

Romans 1:18-22

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,

Being immersed in this kind of thinking is a sign that God has given you up. When the grace of God lets go, things go downhill quickly and when the bad dogs off their leashes, they give chase to see who can fall the furthest the fastest.

day no. 16,752: divine domesticities against domestic divinities

"If men had not domestic divinities, at least they had divine domesticities." — G.K. Chesterton, Eugenics and Other Evils

Where Christian men abandoned household gods, they embraced household goddesses. Where the private idols were banished, feminine idiosyncrasies flourished. Every home has a despot and the Christian home is blessed to be dominated by Biblical femininity.  Home is imprinted on women. They have homes hardwired into their existence. Their bodies can play host to new life and produce good food for growing life. They were made to be homes and to make home. 

Domesticity and divinity are inescapable. You will either have a household god or you would have a godly household. What the Christian loses in abandoning the domestic idolatries, he inherits in the pleasure of divine domesticity. No one makes a home like a woman and by restoring her to her place as the queen of her kingdom, all Christendom is blessed. 

1 Timothy 5:14

I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully.

No idol can hold a candle to a Christian woman on fire for her family. Her flame comes from her Father above and her fruitfulness burns brightly to warm and enlighten her loved ones.

2 Timothy 1:6

Fan into flame the gift of God.

The flame of femininity is a fortress of comfort for husbands and children alike. It is inviting and invigorating. It can warm hands and cook food and cheerfully looks forward to both. May God again rid our homes of the domestic idolatries of feminism and chauvinism and restore the divinity of femininity and patriachal provision. May divine domesticities clean house and toss the old domestic divinities out the door. 

day no. 16,909: nature, law, gospel

“God comes to us in three books—nature, law, and gospel. Read plainly, we read ‘God above us, God against us, and God with us’ . . . this thought is actually a reworking of something I read from Matthew Henry, and shows how, once again, I am sitting on the edge of the fountain in the central square of Reformedville, just swinging my legs.” — Douglas Wilson, The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, pp. 829-830

Nature - God above us

Law - God against us

Gospel - God with us

NATURE

Psalm 19:1

The heavens declare the glory of God;

and the firmament sheweth his handywork.

Romans 1:20

For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse,

LAW

Psalm 19:7

The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul:

Romans 3:19-20

Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

GOSPEL

Isaiah 26:12

LORD, thou wilt ordain peace for us: for thou also hast wrought all our works in us.

Romans 3:24-25

Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God.

day no. 16,751: you choose, you lose

"I mean that, apart from all questions of abstract justice, it is not the smallness or largeness of the suffrage that is at present the difficulty of Democracy. It is not the quantity of voters, but the quality of the thing they are voting about. A certain alternative is put before them by the powerful houses and the highest political class. Two roads are opened to them; but they must go down one or the other. They cannot have what they choose, but only which they choose." — G.K. Chesterton, A Miscellany of Men

The children of man despise their fathers, but they also hate being bastards. Where God the Father is forsaken, therefore, the people seek someone else to parent them. More often than not, the State is happy to step in to play step dad. In a democracy, the people, like children, are not allowed to pick what they want, but must choose between the options provided by their parents. A good parent will give their child the option to put their shoes on now or in five minutes, but not give their child the option of going out without shoes. The child feels empowered by their ability to decide for themselves and the parent protects the child from the paralysis of too many options on the one hand and the possibility of picking poison on the other. Inasmuch as this is an effective tool for parenting, so be it... but, and this cannot be emphasized strongly enough, citizens are not children. The people are not the State's babies. The government is not our step-father anymore than we are their step-children.

"For the powerful class will choose two courses of action, both of them safe for itself, and then give the democracy the gratification of taking one course or the other. The lord will take two things so much alike that he would not mind choosing from them blindfold—and then for a great jest he will allow the slaves to choose." — G.K. Chesterton, A Miscellany of Men

The state lets the slaves choose which course of action their master should take, but both options are ones which the master has already approved. The slaves assume a sense of superiority in getting to dictate to their masters while their masters retain complete control. The great jest of that kind of liberty is the smile on the faces of those filling out their forms met by the bigger smile of those receiving them. The joke is on those filling in their favorite ovals. The forms will never provide the option to eliminate future forms.

You choose, you lose; or more to the point, whatever you choose, they still win.

day no. 16,750: empty threats and the empty tomb

"The doctor can say, 'Tobacco is death to you,' because the dislike of death can be taken for granted, being a highly democratic institution." — G.K. Chesterton, Eugenics and Other Evils

The threat of death is not an empty one. Graveyards are populated by the dearly departed. While the one attempting to murder you may be withstood, your inevitable death cannot be. You can do your best to keep it at bay, but you cannot keep that tide from rolling in.

2 Samuel 14:14

For we must needs die, and are as water spilt on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again; neither doth God respect any person: yet doth he devise means, that his banished be not expelled from him.

Our days are like drips of water.  Our lives are like buckets ever lightening as liquid steadily drains out of the cracks. The days cannot be recovered anymore than the water can be regathered from the ground. Yet even from the ground, the water may rise if God be willing.

Hebrews 9:27

And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.

Death is inevitable. Everyone is born with a expiration date. Men were made to meet their Maker. Those who by grace and through faith face their Father will die just the once. The second death cannot threaten them. It's threats are as empty as Christ's tomb and defeated by the same, null and void.

Revelation 2:11, 20:6

He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death; Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.