NOTES ON THE LORD AS FINAL REFUGE FROM THE SOUNDS OF SILENCE: A PERSONAL AND NATIONAL LAMENTATION – (WITH VIDEO)

1. THEOLOGY

“Silence in the face of evil is itself evil. God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.” – Attributed to Dietrich Bonhoeffer; More likely, Robert K. Hudnut, A Sensitive Man and The Christ, 1971

SCRIPTURE. “Who will rise up for me against the evildoers? Who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity? Unless the Lord had been my help, I would soon have dwelt in [the land where there is] silence.” – PSALM 94:16-17, AMPC

KEY TERM: “SILENCE. ‘Dumah’ [דוּמָ֣ה]: “‘To become dumb as with the silence of death;’ refers to becoming an Oracle of Soundlessness; i.e., of concealment, hidden [or unheard] meaning; in a general sense, abject stillness, or entire absence of sound or noise or speech; ‘as the Silence of Midnight;’ the lack of mention or recognition; ‘Oblivion’ [cessation of remembrance].”

QUOTATION. “I decided it is better to SCREAM! Silence is the Real Crime against humanity.” ― NADEZHDA MANDELSTAM, Hope Against Hope, 1970; edited

“Hope Against Hope puts [Mandelstam] at the Centre of the Liberal Resistance under the Soviet Union. A masterpiece of prose as well as a model of biographical narrative and social analysis, it is mainly the story of the terrible last years of persecution and torment before the poet [her husband Osip] was murdered. The sequel, Hope Abandoned, is about the author’s personal fate, and is in some ways even more terrible, because, as the title implies, it is more about horror as a way of life than as an interruption to normal expectancy.” – Wikipedia, edited Oct. 26, 2024

COMMENTARY. “‘That man is blessed, who, under the chastening of the Lord, is taught His Will and His Truths, from His Holy Word, and by the Holy Spirit.’ He should see Mercy through his sufferings. There is a Rest remaining for the people of God after the Days of their Adversity, which shall not last always. He that sends the Trouble, will send the Rest.

‘The Psalmist found succour and relief only in the Lord, when all earthly friends failed.’ We are beholden, not only to God’s power, but to His pity, for spiritual supports; and if we have been kept from falling into sin, or shrinking from our duty, we should give Him the glory, and encourage our brethren. The Psalmist had many troubled thoughts concerning the case he was in, concerning the course he should take, and what was likely to be the end of it. The indulgence of such contrivances and fears adds to care and distrust, and renders our views more gloomy and confused. Good men sometimes have perplexed and distressed thoughts concerning God. But let them look to the great and precious promises of the Gospel.

The world’s comforts give little delight to the soul, when hurried with melancholy thoughts. But God’s comforts bring that peace and pleasure which the smiles of the world cannot give, and which the frowns of the world cannot take away. ‘God is his people’s Refuge, to Whom they may flee, in Whom they are safe, and may be secure.’” – MATTHEW HENRY,Exposition of the Old and New Testaments, 6 vols., 1708-1710; edited

II. PRELUDE

“Hello darkness, my old friend
I’ve come to talk with you again
Because a vision softly creeping
Left its seeds while I was sleeping
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence.

In restless dreams, I walked alone
Narrow streets of cobblestone
‘Neath the halo of a street lamp
I turned my collar to the cold and damp
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light
That split the night
And touched the sound of silence.

And in the naked light, I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more
People talking without speaking
People hearing without listening
People writing songs that voices never shared
And no one dared
Disturb the sound of silence.

“Fools” said I, “You do not know
Silence like a cancer grows
Hear my words that I might teach you
Take my arms that I might reach you”
But my words, like silent raindrops fell
And echoed in the wells of silence.

And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon god they made
And the sign flashed out its warning
In the words that it was forming
Then the sign said, “The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls
In tenement halls”
And whispered in the sound of silence.”

PAUL SIMON & ART GARFUNKEL, “The Sounds of Silence,” 1964 (Traditional Performance:https://youtu.be/L-JQ1q-13Ek?si=EM3sJGJX5zYIsfmj; Apocalyptic Performance by DISTURBED, 2015: https://youtu.be/u9Dg-g7t2l4?si=ViRMCxpMj7ATljNS).

III. TEACHING

A PERSONAL JOURNEY. It was approaching 12 Noon on Friday November 22, 1963, in my Introduction to Philosophy class at California’s Long Beach State College. Captained by Dr. Virginia Ringer, a heavy-set, chain smoking, professionally attired genius from the Political Left of those days.

This in my freshman year at 19 years of age, I had already experienced the precariously near nuclear trauma of The October Missile Crisis with Cuba and the Soviet Union in 1962, as the world teetered on the thin edges of World War III. When I ran down the halls of my dormitory to see who would enlist with me to fight that Not-Yet-Armageddon.

Then a phone call to Dr. Ringer stopped all of us in The Great Quiet of her facial expression of abject horror: “Jesus Christ! What?” She then dropped the phone downward, cigarette to the floor, and said, beyond sadly: “President Kennedy has been shot and killed in Dallas Texas.”

AND EVERYTHING CHANGED. From that Darkest of American Moments, we pretty much all went into a bewildered, zombie-like haze, not knowing what to do or where to go. All businesses were shut down for the next 72 hours, and so my roommates and I decided to go to a drive in theater and get totally wasted.

The entire World was shellshocked into similar emotional and intellectual Catatonia, since President Kennedy was beloved and admired round the planet in those Post-Halcyon Days. – Stunned. Confused. Angry. –  All three of these coursing through us at light speed, as my deepest convictions and life-path were about to undergo a Massive Transformation from a comparatively moderate kid from the West Coast, to something, well – Different.

Then commenced what for me was AMERICA’S GREAT DÉGRINGOLADE: “A rapid decline or deterioration (as in strength, position, or condition); a Catastrophic Downfall.”

• The Vietnam War (1950-1975).
• Martin Luther King Assassination (April 4, 1968).
• Robert F. Kennedy Assasination (June 5-6, 1968).
• Roe v.  Wade Supreme Court Decision (January 22, 1973).
• President Richard Nixon Resigns (August 8, 1974).
• Moral Majority Formed (June 1979).
• Ronald Reagan Inaugurated President (January 20, 1981).
• President Reagan Shot (March 30, 1981).
• Space Shuttle Challenger Explodes (January 20, 1986).
• Persian Gulf War (January 16-February 28, 1991).
• William Jefferson Clinton Inaugurated President (January 20, 1993).
• World Trade Center Bombed (February 26, 1993).
• George W. Bush Inaugurated President (January 20, 2001).
• World Trade Center Attacked (November 11, 2001).
• War in Iraq (2003-2011).
• Barack Hussein Obama Inaugurated President (January 20, 2008).
• Obergefell v. Hedges Supreme Court Decision (June 26, 2015).

• DONALD JOHN TRUMP INAUGURATED PRESIDENT (JANUARY 20, 2017). – Adapted from Cliff Kelly, Ph.D. The Sixth Seal II, 2024, “Prelude,” pp. 4-9; edited)

Then the United States of America – and the entire World – were to be further and finally Transformed into something Grotesque, even Abominable in the sight of God and the very men and women who would grasp the Enormity of this Moment.

IV. WOLVES, SHEEP, AND LIONS

In the Epochal Year of 1979, the same year I met the Jewish Messiah, a political organization was birthed called, THE MORAL MAJORITY. It was founded by JERRY LAYMON FALWELL SR. in an effort to get conservative Christian views into laws by lobbying. In many ways the Progenitor of the Religious Right, launched largely in response to Roe v. Wade (1973) and other events called by University of Virginia’s James Davison Hunter as, “Culture Wars” (1991) in his landmark book.

This Historic Event. Falwell’s Movement would pit Religious Conservatives against the much-hated Secular Left in a War that we know now would never end. And may yet result in a Second Civil War. Selah.

WOLVES. So, let’s first take a stroll down the Annals of Christian Political Conservatism to take a look at ‘what we have become’ since Falwell first launched his Vision for the Politicized American Church. What we shall find is numbing in its blasphemous violation of everything truly Christian.

Writing for The Atlantic about all this is 2018 Pulitzer Prize winner for Investigative Reporting, STEPHANIE MCCRUMMEN, in her incisive piece, “The Christian Radicals Are Coming” (Oct. 1, 2024; edited). This her review of “The Courage Tour” that took place in late July 2024, in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.

• INTRODUCTION. In the final moments of the last day, some 2,000 people were on their feet, arms raised and cheering under a big white tent in the grass outside a church in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. ‘By then they’d been told that God had chosen them to save America from Kamala Harris and a demonic government trying to “Silence the Church.’” They’d been told they had ‘Authority’ to establish God’s Kingdom and reminded of their Reward in Heaven. Now they listened as an evangelist named MARIO MURILLO told them exactly what was expected of Christians like them. ‘We are going to prepare for war!’ he shouted, and a few minutes later: ‘I’m not on the Earth to be blessed; I’m on the Earth to be armed and dangerous.’”

• LEADERSHIP. “Although Murillo headlined the Eau Claire Revival, the chief organizer is the influential ‘Prophet’ LANCE WALLNAU, who exhorted his followers to travel to Washington, D.C., on January 6, casting efforts to overturn the election as part of a ‘New Great Awakening.’ Kindred events in the coming weeks include a series of concert-style rallies called ‘Kingdom to the Capitol,’ aiming to draw crowds to state capitals in Pennsylvania, Arizona, North Carolina, and Georgia, with a final concert in D.C. just days before the Election. A March called ‘A Million Women’ is planned for the National Mall in mid-October. Every day, internet prophets are describing dreams of churches under attack, Christians rising up, and the start of World War III, acclimating followers to the prospect of real-world violence.”

• CONCLUSION. “That is what four days of carefully choreographed sermons and violent imagery had come to with only weeks to go before the Presidential Election. And just as the crowds had in Arizona, Michigan, and Georgia, people in Eau Claire cheered! They said Amen, and then 2,000 Christian warriors headed into the Wisconsin evening, among them a young man named Josh Becker, a local who’d attended all four days. He said he felt inspired. He said he wasn’t sure exactly what he was supposed to do, only that, ‘We have to do something—we have a role. I believe the Father is going to lead us through a Dark Time,’ he said, referring to the Election and whatever God might require of him. ‘The Kingdom of God is now!’”

SHEEP. Certainly not all Evangelicals agreed with this Radical Right Call to War, nor have they closed ranks with them in any visible way. But what have they done, beloved? They have GONE SILENT, that’s what, ‘believing that Ignoring the Crisis is the Christian Duty of real Christians and their Pastors.’ They are what the Murillos and the Wallnau’s despise and seek to either persuade them to change. Or, well, let’s leave that for the last section of this essay.

Beyond the already established Factors underlying Pastoral Avoidance of Controversy in order to protect the Bottom Line (cf. G. Barna, American Pastors Network, Aug. 21, 2104), I came across a more recent finding that penetrates deeper into our Nation-wide Church Failure to speak out.

Based on an analysis by DR. BRAD EAST (Ph.D. Yale), author and associate professor of theology at Abilene Christian University.  Here are a few Highlights from his superb Christianity Today assessment in a piece titled, “The Loosening of American Evangelicalism” (May 20, 2024; edited).

• THESIS. “Something has happened in the last 25 years in American Evangelicalism—what I believe to be a ‘Massive Generational Shift.’ I’d like to sketch a picture of the change I see and ask if you see it too. First, though, let me set the scene. I have in mind Low-Church Protestant traditions in the United States: Churches centered on the Bible, evangelism, and personal faith in Jesus; often but not necessarily nondenominational, with moderate to minimal emphasis on sacraments, liturgy, and ecclesiastical authority … These are the churches in which I’ve noticed what I would call a kind of ‘LOOSENING.’ This Shift is largely unwitting, or at least unplanned. It is not consistent or ideological; it is not a program or platform; it’s not even conservative or liberal per se (and my goal here is not to render an overall positive or negative judgement on the change). ‘This Loosening consists of a broad relaxation of previously unspoken—or at least unwritten—social norms.’”

• IMPACT 1. First, this ‘Loosening’ suggests to me that American Evangelicalism’s many unwritten norms were not sustained solely by Doctrine, congregational authority, or Biblical teaching. [Cultural] Norms against drinking, tattoos, formal liturgy, and the like were extraordinarily powerful and uniform because of the Ambient Culture surrounding the Church.”

• IMPACT 2. Second, a less Christian and more Secular Culture creates new incentives and pressures on ordinary believers. If everyone in the non-Christian majority believes or does x, it becomes a conspicuous sign of Christian Discipleship (or intransigence) to continue abstaining from x. This leads all believers, pastors included, to reconsider their commitments: ‘Is alcohol, after all, forbidden by God? In black and white, chapter and verse? If not, then why am I suffering my neighbors’ or coworkers’ scorn? Besides, everyone always knew about Joe and Jane’s wine collection. Let’s go ahead and join them.’”

• IMPACT 3. Third, when Scripture is ambiguous or disputable on some matter while the wider culture’s position is clear, the onus falls to Pastors or the Institutional Church to convince congregants to reject that wider cultural norm. ‘And what we have seen in recent decades is a Decline of Pastoral Authority, the Death of Thick Denominational Identity, and a Crisis of Confidence in Christian Institutions.’”

• CONCLUSION. “This is what I mean when I say that ‘The Loosening’ I see is no top-down, organized, ideological plan. It’s happening organically, all at once, sometimes in apparently contradictory ways. For this reason, it’s not easy to judge. I myself grew up without liturgy in the Church or alcohol in the home; now I cross myself before prayer and enjoy a drink with my parents. On the other hand, I do lament the ‘Colonization of Believers’ Leisure Time’ by screens, whether streaming TV or apps like TikTok, as well as the accompanying laissez-faire attitude about onscreen content.”

LIONS. I argue here and several times before that the First Approach is an Abomination, the Second Approach the way of the Compromised. But I am convinced that there is A THIRD WAY that is reasonably Biblical and Christ-like.

I take our instruction on this vital matter from a Black American Pastor, DR. MICHAEL P. L. FRIDAY. He serves as Executive Minister of the American Baptist Churches USA and leadership strategist, author, and highly regarded leader in this centrist (Mainline) Convention.

His essay is titled, “Silence is Not an Option for the Church on January 6” (Baptist News, Jan. 5, 2024; edited). Here are a few of his CENTRAL IDEAS.

• THESIS. “‘The Church should not remain Silent when [next] January 6 [2025] rolls around. It was an Insurrection!’ It was incited. It was planned. It was intended. It was a response to a dastardly Lie. Trump did lose. Biden did win. People did die. Police officers were assaulted. Some did die as a result of the assault. People did desecrate and vandalize the Capitol. People did go in search of Mike Pence, shouting, ‘Hang Mike Pence!’ They did erect gallows. People did search for Nancy Pelosi to harm or kill her. People did ‘baptize’ these atrocious acts with ‘prayer’ in the name of Jesus. Our Democracy, Republic, and Democratic Republic did become endangered, and do remain endangered. Someone did cause all of this. That someone was encouraged, enabled, and supported in many ways, by other powerful people who could and should have disabled or otherwise stop that someone; and so this was not the deed of only one man.”

• TRUTH. “To Affirm all these Truths is not political talk; it is simply the Truth.’ To deny these Truths isn’t a political perspective; it is Dishonesty. No Church folk should participate in, promote or enlarge Dishonesty, especially the kind that destroys lives, demonizes others and kills people. To remain Silent is to allow the Lie to gather momentum. ‘To remain Silent is to tacitly support the Lie!’ To remain Silent is to encourage the works of Darkness. To remain Silent is to obviate confession of sin. To remain Silent is to delay Repentance. To remain Silent is to fail in our Prophetic responsibility, wherein we look the sinner in the face and say, like Nathan of old to David, ‘Thou art the man!’ To remain Silent is to fail in our role as Agents of Reconciliation, a process that does not resile from naming sin, mischief and offering grace when Confession and Repentance emerges.”

• CONCLUSION. “DAVID asks a Question in Psalm 11 (I always remember it on another date of infamy, 9/11): ‘When the foundations are being destroyed, what can the righteous do?’ Among the innumerable answers in the rest of the Bible is one from Paul the Apostle: “Do not become weary in doing good” (Galatians 6:9). One of the methods of those who destroy is to create a firehose of mischief so the righteous aren’t able to keep up. In 2024 [and beyond], the Church must take the Risk of its Prophetic Forebears, to Speak the Truth, no matter the Cost – or else the American Church — as Institution — along with America, shall lose and find the Gates of Hell prevailing against them.’ If that’s what it shall take for the Church — as Organism — to ignite herself again and prevail against the Gates of Hell (and it shall be through much Tribulation) – ‘Then so be it!’”

CODA. We have mere days left before our National Fate shall be determined, beloved. Though I quickly add some believers consider it too late to make any difference, as with Roman General Gaius Julius Caesar who “Crossed the Rubicon” in 49 BC, triggering a Civil War that would begin the End of the Roman Order.

Yet would God ask of us, and especially our Pastors, Teachers and Leaders, THE QUESTION: ‘Whom shall He find when He soon Returns: A Wolf, A Sheep, or a Lion?’

Whether or not you agree with this Orthodox View of The Canon, your Answer and your Conduct in these Last Days shall largely determine whether you join Jesus the Christ in His soon-coming Kingdom, or join Satan, the Antichrist, and his False Prophet in Hellfire (cf. Revelation 14:9-22; 19:20-21).

Think and pray well in the few hours and days to come, beloved, about this. Our very lives truly depend on it. Selah.

YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/omw447wQ4zY