day no. 17,490: no fault divorce and no reason marriage

"The obvious effect of frivolous divorce will be frivolous marriage. If people can be separated for no reason they will feel it all the easier to be united for no reason. A man might quite clearly foresee that a sensual infatuation would be fleeting, and console himself with the knowledge that the connection could be equally fleeting." — G.K. Chesterton, The Superstition of Divorce

No fault divorce leads to no reason marriage. If there isn't real money on the table, people will risk more than normal because there are no serious consequences attached to it. In other words, the risk is nearly eliminated. No one has any fun playing poker for pieces of candy they don't care about. It may be one way to gamble without "gambling," but it isn't really poker if there isn't anything real at stake.

The same can be said for marriage. If the vows aren't real, the breaking of them isn't a big deal. If everyone knows that no one means it, it means less if they get tired of playing along later. 

If covenants can be dissolved willy nilly they will be entered into willy nilly. If promises can be broken without consequence, they will be made with more regularity. Why not? What's the worst that could happen? Such is the mindset of those who approach covenants lightly and the lay of the land is the worst that could happen: evil is rewarded as good and good is derided as evil.

day no. 17,489: scary godmothers and the divorce cult

"With or without marriage, with or without divorce, with or without any arrangements that anybody can suggest or imagine, it remains a tragedy. The only difference is that by the doctrine of marriage it remains both a noble and a fruitful tragedy; like that of a man who falls fighting for his country, or dies testifying to the truth. But the truth is that the innovators have as much sham optimism about divorce as any romanticist can have had about marriage. They regard their story, when it ends in the divorce court, through as rosy a mist of sentimentalism as anybody ever regarded a story ending with wedding bells. Such a reformer is quite sure that when once the prince and princess are divorced by the fairy godmother, they will live happily ever after. I enjoy romance, but I like it to be rooted in reality; and any one with a touch of reality knows that nine couples out of ten, when they are divorced, are left in an exceedingly different state. It will be safe to say in most cases that one partner will fail to find happiness in an infatuation, and the other will from the first accept a tragedy. In the realm of reality and not of romance, it is commonly a case of breaking hearts as well as breaking promises; and even dishonour is not always a remedy for remorse." — G.K. Chesterton, The Superstition of Divorce

Those who believe divorce to be a better solution than marriage often accuse supporters of marriage of being unrealistic or hopelessly romantic, but Chesterton points out here that the divorce dealer are just as much, if not more, unrealistic and hopelessly romantic. Divorce afforded the credit for a happy ending. Everyone lives more happily ever after now that they are no longer bound to their spouse. But divorce does not lead to happier men, women, or children. It is not the roll credits love fest that it was marketed to be. Fairy godmothers do not grant divorces and if they do, they are fallen fairies. Just an demons are fallen angels, dark fairy tales are the flip side of scary godmothers. 

day no. 17,488: the more things change...

"What is respected, in short, is fidelity to the ancient flag of the family, and a readiness to fight for what I have noted as its unique type of freedom. I say readiness to fight, for fortunately the fight itself is the exception rather than the rule. The soldier is not respected because he is doomed to death, but because he is ready for death; and even ready for defeat. The married man or woman is not doomed to evil, sickness or poverty; but is respected for taking a certain step for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness or in health. But there is one result of this line of argument which should correct a danger in some arguments on the same side." — G.K. Chesterton, The Superstition of Divorce

No one gets married in order to become worse, but everyone who gets married is willing to be worse in order to be married. No one gets married in order to be poorer, but everyone who gets married is willing to be a bit poorer in order to be married. No one gets married to be sicker, but everyone who gets married is willing to be sicker in order to stay married.

A man must be willing to lay down his life for his bride, but he doesn't marry her hoping to be separated from her by martyrdom. Fidelity is a strong desire to keep things the same as they are combined with a strong willingness to endure change in order to keep the same thing.

day no. 17,487: homes and homelands

"Marriage makes a small state within the state, which resists all such regimentation. That bond breaks all other bonds; that law is found stronger than all later and lesser laws. They desire the democracy to be sexually fluid, because the making of small nuclei is like the making of small nations. Like small nations, they are a nuisance to the mind of imperial scope. In short, what they fear, in the most literal sense, is home rule." — G.K. Chesterton, The Superstition of Divorce

Atoms are like bb's in a bag: they can be conformed to any shape an external pressure desires. Molecules have more structural rigidity. They have a shape of their own. They cannot simply be maneuvered into whatever shape someone else wants. They exist on their own and can maintain themselves without outside interference or assistance. 

Democracy wants to isolate the atoms and treat people as individuals. This gives it the ability to move and shape said individuals into whatever shape they like. A bag of bb's does not put up much of a fight. Grease the bb's with the sins of the sexual revolution codified in our legal codes and refuse to enforce the moral law with equity and you get a bean bag incapable of any resistance whatsoever.

The home is a world unto itself. It is under the authority of the magistrate inasmuch as it is subject to the laws of God enforced by them, but other than that, they do not need the state. The home exists under God on its own authority of husband and wife to educate, care for, provide, and nourish its people as it sees fit. The state fears the home for it claims primary citizenship of its people. A man is a husband and a father before he is a citizen and those who have homes, wives, and children act like it. They take care of their own business which means they do not need anything from the state, which means the state does not have any levers on that men or the people for whom he provides.

day no. 17,486: heralds and hellscapes

"If our God were deaf, dumb, and blind — like theirs — this should be of no concern whatever. What should it matter to them if we all gather in a room in order to talk and sing to the ceiling? But this is not what is happening. We worship and serve the living and ruling Christ, and those who try to ignore His sovereignty through lies are thrown into a panic when Christians rediscover the truth." — Douglas Wilson, So Come and Welcome to Jesus Christ

We become like that which we worship. Those who worship idols become like them: deaf, dumb, blind, and dead. Those who worship the living God become like Him: seeing, hearing, speaking, living beings. 

If our worship services were as bland as theirs, they would pay them no mind. But they know, even if we have forgotten, that our worship services move the world. The powers and principalities of darkness know that they cannot combat this head on and that the gates of their fortress will fall to the battering ram of Christian worship, and so they try to convince us to stop worshiping or to treat it as a thing of indifference. Like Balaam and Balak, they cannot curse the people of God, but they can convince them to bring curses upon themselves by refusing to follow the Word of God.

Unbelievers know that the Word of God rules the world and so they try to convince the heralds to stop speaking it. Christians need to rediscover the truth and reality of the power and authority God has placed into their worship. The Lord inhabits the praises of His people and uses them to splinter the holdouts of Hellscapes.

day no. 17,475: the mercies of the wicked

"A good man without strength is only hoping evil has mercy." — Sun Tzu, The Art of War

The seed of the serpent has not forgotten that it is in a war and it has not changed its spots. It will not suddenly adopt the ways of the One it opposes. 

Proverbs 12:10

The tender mercies of the wicked are cruel. 

Evil does not learn by example, it learns by discipline. If you want it to stop, you have to make it. Evil does not respond to reason because it does not have a good reason for being evil. If there was a good reason for it, it wouldn't be evil, it would be good. 

day no. 17,474: votes and bullets

"When you go into the voting booth, you should go into the booth looking like Aragorn at Helm’s Deep. All done fooling around." — Douglas Wilson, The Rise of the Islamo-Commies

Votes are like bullets. They do not always win the war, but they do help. And if you have enough of them, you can lay down suppressive fire for other, more effective means of securing victory.

Psalm 20:7

Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: 

but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.

It is good to have plenty of them and it is good to avoid putting your trust in them, just like votes.

Psalm 146:3

Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, 

in whom there is no help.

So, in summary, vote like your life depended on it, but make sure you remember that it doesn't.

day no. 17,473: the perverts and the prophet (but I repeat myself)

"A man who doggedly believes in something, no matter how wrong it is, will always prevail over the man who believes nothing at all." — Douglas Wilson, The Rise of the Islamo-Commies

Those who know what they believe and why they believe will always trample over those who do not know what they are about. The rise and fall of empires is often punctuated by an aggressively unapologetic people taking over a passive, self-effacing people. Over time, the conquerors become protectors and trade offense for defense and eventually trade all ambition for growth and gain for a fear of losing what it has... and that is why it ends up losing everything.

Matthew 16:25

Whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. 

"Secularism had been rotted out by the relativism of postmodern thinking, and their central core values had apparently become pot and porn. They were in no position to stand up to those who had a word from the Prophet." — Douglas Wilson, The Rise of the Islamo-Commies

Islam is wrong, but it is sure of itself. That kind of confidence can carry a movement a long way. It can cross the Atlantic and cold crusade an entire continent. People caught up in and indulging in the luxury of self-actualization paired with a lust for victimization will become actual victims. They imagined grievances will visited upon them incarnate.

"The problem was that the tradition of the Prophet, though far more bombastic and dogmatic than what we were hearing from the hollow men of the West, was a tradition that was bloody and twisted. They too had a yearning for underage girls, only made more grotesque, if that were possible, by means of wedding dresses."  — Douglas Wilson, The Rise of the Islamo-Commies

Our "elites" and the Islamic invaders both like little girls. The one kidnaps, abuses, marries, and consumes them in secret. The other does all of that out in the open. The wickedness of the West, being brewed in the pig sty east of Eden, still knows enough to hide its shame, lie about it, or pretend it isn't real or at least not as bad as they say it is. The wickedness of the East, being brewed up by sand demons, does not pretend. It is bold and brash and it stands firm. It does not blush. It boasts in its evil. And wicked men who don't feel sorry will always be able to outmaneuver wicked men who know that they should feel sorry, even if they don't.

day no. 17,472: more traffic

"Our liberal secular establishment, which had been a vain attempt to hold onto classical liberalism without Jesus, was in the process of discovering how vain an attempt that was. Under their watch, the marketplace of ideas had turned into the marketplace of underage girls." — Douglas Wilson, The Rise of the Islamo-Commies

The free markets of philosophy have degenerated into the underground markets of human trafficking. It is Christ and clear-headedness or chaos and confusion. There is His way and there is the "high way" that leads to more trafficking.

Colossians 2:8

Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.

You cannot ban Christ from the public square and expect private bedrooms to remain above board. You cannot cut down the tree and keep getting its fruit. Religious liberty and freedom of conscience are Christian ideals. Under Christ, these were introduced and sustained. But like the prodigal, once you leave your Father's house, you're living on borrowed capital and anything that can't go on forever... won't.

day no. 17,469: religious liberty does not grow on secular trees

"Let us say that we have a country—America, say—that has a long tradition of respecting religious liberty. We will not inquire (at this time) into the factors that created this tradition . . . because we are going to get there in a minute. All we need to know now is the fact that they have it. Now suppose in the name of that religious liberty, that country opens its borders to millions of people who represent a tradition that does not respect religious liberty at all. Not a bit." — Douglas Wilson, Religious Liberty Is a Religious Value

Religious liberty is a Christian value. Christianity is the salt of the earth. But what good is salt that has lost its saltiness? How much sugar can you add to the salt cellar before it is no longer a salt cellar? A little bit of sugar can assimilate unnoticed, but at a certain saturation, it is all you notice.

"So if you want ordered liberty under law, with the maximum amount of liberty for dissenters, the best place to get it from would be the Christians. Simply compare the liberties of a Christian in a Muslim state and those of a Muslim in a Christian state. I trust Christians to respect the rights of secularists far more than I trust the secularist to respect the rights of Christians." — Douglas Wilson, Religious Liberty Is a Religious Value

Christianity is accused of being totalitarian, but Christendom has made room for those who accuse it of that. On the other hand, the cancel culture of the dissenters would eliminate Christianity altogether if it could and is not ashamed to say so. Unbelievers and their unbelief is safer in a Christian society than Christendom and faith are in an unbelieving society. Tolerance is a Christian virtue. It can spring from cowardice and it can tolerate too much for too long, but the fact of it is only possible in a society that honors Christ. Unbelief has about as much tolerance for Christ as feminists do for the patriarchy.

"If there is no such thing as neutrality—and there isn’t—then there can be no moral or ethical system that springs up out of that neutrality. Soil that isn’t there cannot be used to grow anything. The secularists take credit for religious liberty the same way squatters take credit for the house that they just seized." — Douglas Wilson, Religious Liberty Is a Religious Value

Secular humanism and the coexist cult have not produced peace. Christendom made a way for atheists to live among Christians, but Atheism has not room for Christians. Atheism converts by the tip of the sword, usually borrow from the State since they weren't using it on murders, rapists, kidnappers, or pedos. Whatever coexistence every existed, it was there because of the Christian faith. As we have increasingly abandoned the law of God, we have become increasingly less tolerant of differences. In some regards, this is honest inasmuch as it formally recognizes the enmity between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman, but it does not end with the sons of snakes trying to convert the Christians through arguments, it ends with them attempting to exterminate believers (and their beliefs) by force.

day no. 17,467: rest in peace and wake up to wage peace

"I dare say that when I get out of this bed I shall do some deed of an almost terrible virtue.” — G.K. Chesterton,  On Lying In Bed

We work from rest, not for it. The Sabbath is fuel and the other six days are flammable. 

Let us rest well and work with vigilance and violence, fighting the good fight of faith in whatever we do. 

We must rest in peace before we can wake up to wage peace.

day no. 17,463: share bears

“The building blocks of ethnic identity are (1) a shared name, (2) a shared sense of place, (3) a shared sense of the past, (4) a shared sense of belonging or kinship, and (5) a widely shared set of beliefs and values that give rise to a shared set of practices and norms. This fifth building block comprises . . . such things as religious beliefs and practices, language, cultural conventions, and customs, as well as cultural ‘products’ such as literature, music, architecture, and art.” — Steven Bryan, Cultural Identity and the Purposes of God

The key word here is "shared." Covenants create bonds. Covenants created by oaths of office, marriage, and church membership create a shared name in a shared place in a shared time that share a particular past and interpretation of its events and a particular vision of the future and what needs to be done to secure it. 

"Looking at the definition above, our government school system is at war with numbers 3, 4, and 5. The government school system is the fifth column for the globalists. The government school system is not just anti-Christian, although it is that. It is also at war with the idea of America. Just get your kids out of there." — Douglas Wilson, The American Ethnicity

Government schools are secular boot camps. They are not bad at what they do, they are good at what they do and good at convincing many to continue to send their kids to them despite being objectively bad at what they say they are doing.

"The government school system is a foe to be defeated, not a friend to be reformed." — Voddie Baucham

If every Christian in America pulled their kids from the government school system, we could shut it down. We could cut off our enemies' supply chain and save our kids all in one fell swoop. They are at war with us. When will we fight back?

"On the flip side, what happens when there is not a shared name, or a shared sense of place, or a shared sense of the past, or a shared sense of belonging, or a shared faith? What happens? Well, wars for starters." — Douglas Wilson, The American Ethnicity

The world knows that it does not share our name (Christian), our sense of place (Christendom), our sense of the past (Creation, Fall, Redemption), our sense of belonging (the Church), or our shared faith (that was once for all delivered to the saints). That is why they are fighting us. They understood the assignment. Why aren't we listening to our marching orders?

James 4:1-4

From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.

We must wage peace. Chaos is at war with Christ. Will the church militant rise up and strike a blow for the end of blows being struck? Or will they enable more war by refusing to fight the strugglemongers?

Galatians 5:17

For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.

There can be no compromise between light and dark. There is no middle ground. The flesh and the Spirit do not agree on anything. There are no terms to come to. And it has been that way since the Fall of man in the Garden.

Genesis 3:15

And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

Enmity is baked into the equation. The seed of the serpent is at war with the Seed of the woman. Whose side are you on? Who do you fight for? What do you fight against?

day no. 17,461: all religions are not equal, just ask any religion

"One of the downsides of our failure to recognize that secularism functions as a religion is that as a consequence we fail to recognize that secularism as a system gives birth to certain values that are in fact religious values. One such value would be the urge to flatten, the impulse that we call egalitarianism. This is the idea that we must make everything equal. This is a fruit that is consistent with the nature of this tree. But there are other values that are not native to secularism, but which they like to use in times of transition, claiming them as their own. An example of this would be the value of religious liberty. This is a fruit that is not consistent with the basic nature of secularism . . . it is an orange tied onto an apple tree." — Douglas Wilson, Religious Liberty Is a Religious Value

Secularism is a religion and egalitarianism is a religious value. It is a not a Christian value and it does not spring forth from the living waters of the Lord. Religious liberty is a Christian value. Religious liberty is not religious egalitarianism where all religions are considered equal. That is not possible. All religions do not consider all religions equal so any attempt to flatten them all into a uniform shape is to rob all of them of their edges. The idea that all men are created equal is a Christian value. It acknowledges that all image bearers bear the image of God. This does not mean that all are of the same value. Some are taller, some are shorter, some are smarter, some are dumber, some are darker, some are lighter, some are men, and some are women. A tall, blonde, white women does not bear the image of God more than a short, brown-haired black man. They are both equally image bearers, but they have different values. Democracy is the secularist idea that everyone's opinions are equal which only goes to show how stupid some people's opinions can be.

"The president of Turkey, Erdogan, once said that democracy was like a street car. You ride it until you get where you want to go, and then you get off." — Douglas Wilson, Religious Liberty Is a Religious Value

Democracy is an idea that caters to the lowest common denominator. It promotes the crude to the middle class and graduates the gross to higher education. In short, it is a tool the power hungry use to give credibility to the lower classes of human kind in order to gain their votes. And once they have the power, they remove the ability to vote it away.

day no. 17,460: optimillenialism vs. pessimillenialism

"For wise men, one of the rewards of work is to see the work actually accomplished, to see the mission completed. The telos of lawn mowing, one of the great ones, is the satisfaction of seeing the lawn actually mowed. A man’s duty is a man’s duty, regardless, but if the duty is pointless, or seems pointless with regard to the teleology of it, then it might not be long before a man could start to feel like Sisyphus, rolling the rock up the hill again." — Douglas Wilson, How Post-Mill Figures into It

The Great Commission is not a run out the clock kind of offense. It is not the case that the lead is now so insurmountable as a result of Christ's victory that we have nothing to do but take a knee. Rest assured, the victory is secured and the lead is insurmountable, but our plays are still loaded with meaning. The defense is still coming after you and looking not only to stop your forward progress, but to take you out of the game altogether if possible. In addition, they are looking to get the ball back and score points.

In this regard, we could learn from the demons. They know the fight is fixed and yet they are fighting with all of their might. They know their time is short, but they are willing to play the long game for as long as God gives them. They know that their labors are futile and yet they are working hard. We know that our labors aren't in vain and yet we act like they optional. We do not get after what we know will work while our enemies are vigilant in what they know to be vain.

1 Corinthians 9:10

Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope.

The Great Commission is not a suicide mission and the world is not God's Vietnam. We win down here because God wins everywhere. And He has given us a taste of the glory in the meantime. We get to enjoy the meal He is commanding us to prepare. We reap from the fields i which He has called us to sow as we wait for the final harvest.

"If you aim at losing, you are very likely to achieve your goal." — Douglas Wilson, How Post-Mill Figures into It

Those who live their lives with a "it's all going to burn in the end" mentality do not devote themselves to building projects that outlast them. Why would you give your life to build part of a cathedral you will never worship in and will likely be destroyed by God before it is finished? Those who aim at losing hit their target. But God has not called us to lose, He has called us to conquer. True, in Christ we are more than conquerors, but we are not less.

"An eschatology that teaches 'we lose down here' is an eschatology that may have had something to do with why we are, you know, losing down here? We are right on schedule, apparently." — Douglas Wilson, How Post-Mill Figures into It

If you preach and teach with a pessimistic approach, you cannot be shocked when you get disappointing results. Of course we are losing down here, you weren't trying to win. But we cannot blame our failures on God. The "we lose down here" crowd often takes comfort in what they believe to be God's promise of our defeat. They assuage their cowardice by calling for the curtains. There is a faithful way to say, "Come soon, Lord Jesus!" and a fearful way to say, "Come soon, Lord Jesus!"

We cannot blame God for our failure. We cannot blame the state of the world on His actions in order to take the blame away from our lack of activity.

"We should do what we were told to do, and let God sort out the doctrine." — Douglas Wilson, How Post-Mill Figures into It

If God said, "Go, disciple the nations," who are we to disagree. And who are we to say, "Why disciple nations that are just going to burn anyways?" We cannot use God's sovereignty as an excuse to disobey a direct order from Him. Even if the premise was true and the world was damned to darkness despite our efforts, the command to disciple the nations would still exist. In that scenario, the faithful response would still be to baptize the world because that is what God said to do. And if that is the case for faithful dispensationals, how much more so should it be for faithful postmillennials? We have the same command to disciple the nations, but we believe that it is going to work.

"If you will allow me to zoom out, let me borrow a couple of terms from the late Gary North, and those terms are optimillenialist and pessimillenialist. These terms do not refer to the time after the Second Coming because all Christians are optimistic in that final sense. I am talking about historical optimism and historical pessimism. Out of the three positions—post mill, amill and premill—the postmills are required to be optimillenialists. It is part of the package. But amills and premills are allowed to be." — Douglas Wilson, How Post-Mill Figures into It

Whatever your eschatology, you should be optimistic about the plan of God. Whatever the book of Revelation means, its author ended on an optimistic note, "Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus." (Rev 22:20)

"I am convinced that America is in the condition we are in today because we have bought into grim eschatologies that discourage, pacify, and enervate the faithful. We really need to be done with that." — Douglas Wilson, How Post-Mill Figures into It

Pessimism lacks faith. It advertises itself as faithful to the dire predictions of God, but it fails to put any stock in the hopeful promises of God. Much of what we call the doom and gloom of the New Testament can be explained by a partial preterist, postmillennial framework. Things were dire for those whose hope still resided in whole or in part in Jerusalem. Jesus had promises its destruction was near. So near, in fact, that the generation to whom he spoke its demise would still be alive to see the fall of temple. And its fall was terrible, as bad as predicted. The promises of God are powerful. When they promise destruction, they destroy in terrible ways, but when they promise advancement, they do so in awesome ways as well.

day no. 17,459: unstoppable surrender and unflappable faith

“Our cause is never more in danger than when a human, no longer desiring but still intending to do our Enemy’s will, looks round upon a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys.” — C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters

Obedience for obedience's sake is the most dangerous weapon we can lob at our enemies. The man who will not be disloyal to his God is a man they cannot control. He does not have any handles they can pull or any buttons they can push. He has surrendered all of those to Christ. And just like Jesus, he conquers.

1 John 5:4

For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.

That is an unstoppable surrender. That is a faith that is unflappable.

day no. 17,458: pomo power, pomo problems

“When the pomos taught us that all truth claims were disguised power grabs, they were telling us more about their purposes than they were actually intending to.” — Douglas Wilson, Concise and to the Point

The postmodernists are not opposed to power in principle, they are opposed to others have power. They are not interested in smashing the patriarchy, they are interested in being the fathers. When they complain about dad, they are not complaining about dads in general, they are complaining about being the children. If their political maneuvers are a sign of their intentions, and they are, they do not want to eliminate power structures as much as they want to occupy them.

Money is evil, so give it all to us.

Guns are dangerous, so we should be the only ones who have them.

Water is a luxury, best to let us manage it.

Land is power grab, better let us distribute it.

Borders are a bad, let us patrol them.

Etc...

day no. 17,455: amending the constitution of the United States of Christendom

"We, the people of the United States, humbly acknowledging Almighty God as the source of all authority and power in civil government, the Lord Jesus Christ as the Ruler among the nations, His revealed will as the supreme law of the land, in order to constitute a Christian government, and in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the inalienable rights and the blessings of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness to ourselves and our posterity, and all the people, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America." — proposed amendment to the United States Constitution (1864)

Once upon a time, the PCA proposed amending the preamble of the United States Constitution to include the wording above. This was a concerted effort to clear up any vague notion of our nation being founded upon the principles and practices of Christendom by stating emphatically and unequivocally that the Gospel of God and His Son, Jesus Christ, are the cornerstones of the country we call home.

This was placed on the desk of Abraham Lincoln who responded by saying he needed time to consider what it said and what it's implications its adoption would bring about. Whatever was going through his head regarding this proposal, something else soon went through his head which prevented him from pondering it any longer. And the proposal died along with him in the confusion and turmoil that followed as the republic lost its head after losing its head of state.

The adoption of this amendment would have made us the United States of Christendom.

day no. 17,446: catholicity, depravity, and liberty

"Liberal political orders have, ‘in God’s providence,’ secured religious liberty, limited political power and recognized human dignity—and one of government’s duties is ‘to protect the free exercise of religion, including liberty of conscience.’ Government should “not interfere in matters of faith” despite having a responsibility to encourage ‘piety, justice, [and] public order.’” — Darryl Hart, The Presbyterian Middle Way, WSJ

"But liberal political orders did nothing of the kind. They did not secure religious liberty, they inherited religious liberty. They were certainly on third base, but they did not hit that triple. Christians secured religious liberty on account of what they had to work out between rival Christian factions. And Christians limited political power because they believed in the depravity of man instead of the perfectability of man." — Douglas Wilson, Darryl Hart, the Wall Street Journal, and the First Person Singular Pronoun in the Objective Case

The prodigal made a few friends on his father's dime, but he didn't make single penny of what he spent. He inherited all of it and spent it liberally. Secularism is not the root of religious freedom, religious liberty is the fruit of Christendom. Freedom of speech is the unique product of Christian culture and governance. Liberty is not a value of Islam or Judaism or Secularism. They cannot produce it even if they wanted to and they wouldn't even if they could. They don't want their neighbors to be allowed to peacefully disagree with them from the comfort of their own homes.

Religious liberty is the product of the only holy catholic and apostolic church. The protestant vision of unity and charity among brothers allows for liberty of conscience without condoning any unconscionable libertarian nonsense. In order for Christians to coexist, liberty of denominational preferences had to be permitted without providing a blank check for heresy to be tolerated under a guise of catholicity. In addition, limited government sprang from the doctrine of total depravity since no man is good, not one and ergo no one man should have unlimited power to rule without restraint. Christendom is the source, therefore, of both religious freedom and checks and balances and distribution of power in the government. In other words, trust your brothers to be Christian even when you disagree on secondary matters and do not trust your neighbor to be honest when he has more power than you do. Those two instincts pair well and have produced one of the best attempts at Christendom thus far.

May God lead us, like the prodigal, home before we spend all of His riches and may it not require a famine to motivate us to move, but may we get a famine if that's the only way to point us back in the right direction.

day no. 17,443: unorthodox obedience (exhortation outline)

Christ Church Leavenworth

Jenny Geddes Day

July 26, 2026

Unorthodox Obedience

INTRODUCTION

Our text for this morning is Numbers 25:1-13, these are the words of God.

“While Israel lived in Shittim, the people began to whore with the daughters of Moab. These invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. So Israel yoked himself to Baal of Peor. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel. And the Lord said to Moses, ‘Take all the chiefs of the people and hang them in the sun before the Lord, that the fierce anger of the Lord may turn away from Israel.’ And Moses said to the judges of Israel, ‘Each of you kill those of his men who have yoked themselves to Baal of Peor.’

And behold, one of the people of Israel came and brought a Midianite woman to his family, in the sight of Moses and in the sight of the whole congregation of the people of Israel, while they were weeping in the entrance of the tent of meeting. When Phinehas the son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose and left the congregation and took a spear in his hand and went after the man of Israel into the chamber and pierced both of them, the man of Israel and the woman through her belly. Thus the plague on the people of Israel was stopped. Nevertheless, those who died by the plague were twenty-four thousand.

And the Lord said to Moses, ‘Phinehas the son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, has turned back my wrath from the people of Israel, in that he was jealous with my jealousy among them, so that I did not consume the people of Israel in my jealousy. Therefore say, “Behold, I give to him my covenant of peace, and it shall be to him and to his descendants after him the covenant of a perpetual priesthood, because he was jealous for his God and made atonement for the people of Israel.”’”

This past Thursday marked the anniversary of one of the most memorable episodes in the history of the Scottish Reformation. The time was July 23rd in the year of our Lord 1637 and the place was St. Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh, Scotland. That morning, James Hannay, the dean of the church, ascended to the pulpit, the same one behind which the great John Knox himself had once stood and preached; and standing there, he opened his mouth and attempted to supplant the liturgy of John Knox's Book of Common Order with a newly published Scottish version of the Church of England's Book of Common Prayer. I say “attempted” because he never finished. Before he could finish the reading, a simple milk maid in the congregation thwarted his attempted coup. Who was she and how did she do it? Her name was Jenny Geddes and the way she stopped him was by throwing her stool at his head. The Ballad of Jenny Geddes, a poem by John Stuart Blackie, colorfully recounts the details of that day.

‘Twas the twenty-third of July, in the sixteen thirty-seven,

On the Sabbath morn from high St. Giles the solemn peal was given;

King Charles had sworn that Scottish men should pray by printed rule;

He sent a book, but never dreamt of danger from a stool.

The Council and the Judges, with ermined pomp elate,

The Provost and the Bailies in gold and crimson state,

Fair silken-vested ladies, grave doctors of the school,

Were there to please the King, and learn the virtues of a stool.

The Bishop and the Dean came in wi’ muckle gravity,

Right smooth and sleek, but lordly pride was lurking in their e’e;

Their full lawn sleeves were blown and big, like seals in briny pool;

They bore a book, but little thought they soon should feel a stool.

The Dean he to the alter went, and, with a solemn look,

He cast his eyes to heaven, and read the curious-printed book:

In Jenny’s heart the blood upwelled with bitter anguish full;

Sudden she started to her legs, and stoutly grasped the stool!

As when a mountain wildcat springs upon a rabbit small,

So Jenny on the Dean springs, with gush of holy gall;

Wilt thou say mass at my lugs, thou popish-puling fool?

No! No! She said, and at his head she flung the three-legged stool.

A bump, a thump! A smash, a crash! Now gentle folks beware!

Stool after stool, like rattling hail, came twirling through the air,

With, well done, Jenny! Bravo, Jenny! That’s the proper tool!

When the Devil will out, and shows his snout, just meet him with a stool!

The Council and the Judges were smitten with strange fear,

The ladies and the Bailies their seats did deftly clear,

The Bishop and the Dean went in sorrow and in dool,

And all the Popish flummery fled when Jenny showed the stool!

And thus a mighty deed was done by Jenny’s valiant hand,

Black Prelacy and Popery she drove from Scottish land;

King Charles he was a shuffling knave, priest Laud a meddling fool,

But Jenny was a woman wise, who beat them with a stool!

Simple obedience to God will sometimes require a radical defiance to men. We saw this both in our text with Phinehas and in our story with Jenny Geddes. Walking with God will sometimes require you to step outside of your cultural moment. In the days of Phinehas, some people were laying down with the wrong people and the rest were weeping about it. The moment called for someone to stand up, and that’s what Phinehas did. In the days of Jenny Geddes, some people were compromising with Rome and the rest were silently watching it happen. The moment called for someone to take a stand, and that’s what Jenny did.

Where disobedience has become orthodox, obedience will look unorthodox. If everyone around you is compromising, taking a stand will make you stand out. Being moved by the world requires nothing more than drifting along, and nothing is easier to do than nothing. So, compared to those around them, the faithful will often appear unconventional. Our neighbors may find our faith a bit too much, but our descendants will honor our zeal as they admire the stars in the skies that stand out against the blackness.

Here is your application: if you don’t like the way things are going, don’t complain about it, do something about it. Consider Philippians 2:14-17, “Do all things without grumbling or complaining, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life.” Phinehas and Jenny are numbered among the stars. There are, of course, many others; so many, in fact, that Abraham could not count them, and if you stand up in the midst of this crooked generation, you will join them in standing out against the darkness. In order to do this, however, you will have to be willing to look unorthodox. When darkness is the reigning paradigm, light can break the pattern.

Douglas Wilson once noted that, “Desperate times call for faithful men, not for careful men. The careful men come later and write the biographies of the faithful men, lauding them for their courage.” There is a reason people write poems about Jenny Geddes and name their sons after Phinehas. We honor those who stood up when others were laying down. We recognize their courage and their unconventional approach to unconventional times. When the situation is desperate, a doer is more necessary than a documenter, but once the doing has been done, someone must document it. That is how good stories are made and that is how they are preserved. I am grateful for the actions of Jenny Geddes and for the words of John Stuart Blackie, and I stand on them both. I am inspired by the stand of Phinehas and by the words of Moses that tells his stor.

There is a place for both kinds of people. So, make sure you are telling the stories of our brothers and sisters who stood with God and then do something your kids will want to write stories about. We do not honor the likes of Phinehas and Jenny Geddes by compromising with our culture. We honor their unorthodox obedience by defying the darkness in our own day. This will require you to be unconventional, but all heroes are. That is why we tell their stories. So, preserve the memory of our ancestors by celebrating their achievements and bless the work of our descendants by giving them something else to celebrate.

CALL TO CONFESSION

Well, since we are so often too scared or too shy to take a risk in standing out and because we are often too quick to take for granted and forget those who did, we are reminded of our need to regularly confess our sins, whether they be these or others. So, if you are able, please kneel with me and confess your sins, first privately and then corporately using the prayer found in your bulletin.

CORPORATE CONFESSION

Almighty and merciful Father, we confess that we are by nature sinful and unclean. We have sinned against You in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done and what we have left undone. We have not loved You with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We justly deserve Your present and eternal punishment. We are truly sorry and we humbly repent. For the sake of Your Son, Jesus Christ, have mercy on us and forgive us. Renew us and lead us by Your Holy Spirit so that we may delight in Your will and walk in Your ways to the glory of Your holy name.

DECLARATION OF PARDON

Arise and hear the Good News! The assurance of pardon today comes from Romans 5, “While we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person— though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.” 

Jesus did not die for those who deserved it, He died for those who didn’t. That is good news for sinners like you and me. He stood out as a light in the darkness and He now calls us to walk in a manner worthy of that reality. That begins by stepping out from the darkness within so that we might stand up to the darkness that is without, and that is what we just did. So now, having done that, go forward in the light of Christ, because in Him your sins are forgiven… THANKS BE TO GOD!

Now let us ascend to the presence of God in all worship and praise.

day no. 17,440: fake and gay (pre-ripped jeans and post-mortem genes)

“Our culture has become as gay as pre-ripped jeans." — Toby Sumpter

We like the look of productivity without the work. Pre-ripped jeans require someone else to do more work so that you can look like you did more work than you did. 

"We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful." — C.S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man

We make fun of productive people and then wonder why the cost of production has gone up. We refuse to shoulder our share of the burden and then we wonder why everything has gotten so heavy. We want the rewards of responsibility without the sacrifices of being responsible. We are fake and gay. We have become fruitless trees and castrated geldings and then we have the audacity to mock husbandry.

"This is modernity's barbarism - hollow hearts led about by sterile matter, perversely mocking those with full lives." — Douglas Wilson, Angels in the Architecture

The childless cat ladies mock the mothers of six. They abort their own children and call themselves cat moms. But wisdom is justified by her children. You can leave your life's work to your cat, if it happens to outlive you, but your cat cannot do the same. You can throw your pearls before pigs you like, but you can't make a pig appreciate them.