NOTES ON PAYING THE IRON PRICE: SLOUCHING TOWARD GOMORRAH WITH NERY A SIDEWARD GLANCE – (WITH VIDEO)

THEOLOGY

SCRIPTURE. “Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on and loving-kindness for us, for we are exceedingly satiated with contempt. Our life is exceedingly filled with the scorning and scoffing of those who are at ease and with the contempt of the proud (irresponsible tyrants who disregard God’s Law).” – PSALM 123:3-4, AMPC

KEY TERMS:

CONTEMPT. ‘Buz’ [בֽוּז׃]: “To utterly disrespect or despise; shame; contempt that springs from pride and wickedness, or prosperity and ease; the act of despising; the act of viewing or considering and treating as mean, vile and worthless; disdain; hatred of what is mean or deemed vile.”

SCORN. ‘Laag’ [הַלַּ֥עַג]: “A mocking derision; to scoff; speak unintelligently or stammer [in outrage]; to laugh (in utter contempt); extreme contempt; that disdain which springs from a person’s opinion of the meanness of an object, and a consciousness or belief of his own superiority or worth.”

QUOTATION. “The problem is that contemporary people think life is all about ‘Finding Happiness.’ We decide what conditions will make us happy and then we work to bring those conditions about. To live for happiness means that you are trying to get something out of life. But when suffering comes along, it takes the conditions for happiness away, and so suffering destroys all your reason to keep living. But to ‘Live for Meaning’ means not that you try to get something out of life but rather that life expects something from us. In other words, you have meaning only when there is something in life more important than your own personal freedom and happiness, something for which you are glad to sacrifice your happiness.129” ― TIMOTHY KELLER, Walking with God through Pain and Suffering, 2015, edited

COMMENTARY. “‘Have mercy upon us, O Lord’ — O be gracious unto us, and in much mercy help and save us; ‘for we are exceedingly filled with contempt’ — Loaded with opprobrious words and injuries. ‘Our soul is exceedingly filled with the contempt of the proud’ — With the scornful and contemptuous carriage of Thine and our enemies, who live in great ease and glory, while we, Thy people, are overwhelmed with manifold calamities.” – JOSEPH BENSON, Notes on the Holy Bible, 5 vols., 1811-1818; edited

II. TEACHING

THESIS. ‘If you are truly following hard after The Master of your soul, without reservation, you shall be increasingly held in the same contempt and scorn as He was. And not so much by the world, but rather by your own brethren!’ You know, the ones who hold the high places and wear the proper robes and dispense condemnation toward all those who labor to obey His Commands.

Thus has it always been, O you disciples of Christ, and so shall it always be – to the outrage of the False Church of the Last Days. So, always stand tall in Him, and very small in yourself, and there shall be great reward for your courage and humility.

TEMPLATE. “If the world hates you [and it does], know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you belonged to the world, the world would love [you as] its own and would treat you with affection. But you are not of the world [you no longer belong to it], but I have chosen you out of the world. And because of this the world hates you.

Remember [and continue to remember] that I told you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also. But they will do all these [hurtful] things to you for My name’s sake [because you bear My name and are identified with Me], for they do not know the One who sent Me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have [the guilt of their] sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin.

The one who hates Me also hates My Father. If I had not done among them the works (attesting miracles) which no one else [ever] did, they would not have [the guilt of their] sin; but now [the fact is that] they have both seen [these works] and have hated Me [and continue to hate Me] and My Father as well. But [this is so] that the word which has been written in their Law would be fulfilled, ‘They hated Me without a cause.’” – JESUS OF NAZARETH, John 15:18-25, Amplified

From Christ’s Magnum Opus to His disciples about what they were to expect some 2,000 years ago as they set out on their own Roads to Emmaus. And by Divine Extension, to what we may expect in the Era of Antichrist: 2025-2030. Adapted from WILLIAM MACDONALD, Believer’s Bible Commentary (1995, pp. 1551-1552; edited, paraphrased).

VV. 18-19. The disciples were not to be surprised or disheartened when, not if, the world hates them. The world hated Jesus, and it is axiomatic that the world will hate us also, beloved. IF, of course, we are truly, consistently and honorably following Him. If not, the world shall love us because the world loves those who live and speak as they do.The genuine follower of Messiah lives a life, by contrast, that effectively convicts the unbeliever into a ‘holy jealousy’ to want what we have.

V. 20. Here the word “servant” literally means “slave,” or one who is wholly subservient to the Will of the Master, without any reservation whatsoever. He has no will of his own, who has no desire or power of resistance to the King. Neither shall such a slave of Christ ever expect any better treatment of His Lord, and will rather expect severe persecutions, slandering, threatening, and later, possible incarceration, physical harm, and even death.

V. 21. This righteous persecution is to be understood and experienced only “For My name’s sake.” This is solely because the true Christian is separated from the world and is linked to Christ by his or her obvious differences in character, integrity, and conduct. He bears God’s mark, if you will, and the world does not understand it – but does recognize it!

V. 23. The Lord’s next point is beyond terrifying in its magnitude and implication, as MacDonald rightly observes. “In hating Christ, they hated the Father also!” The Two are One, and they could not claim they loved the One if they did not also embrace the Other. Thus to reject Jesus is to reject Yahweh, ‘and the Holy Spirit’ – which brings us tremulously near to the Unforgivable Sin (cf. Matthew 12:22-32).

V. 24. The people of Christ’s time on the Earth not only heard the Words of God, but saw His miracles, signs and wonders. This of course added to their condemnation. The terrible point here is: ‘To reject the Messiah in the face of direct evidence (or experience of the Spirit; cf. Hebrews 6:4-6) is to self-condemn oneself to Perdition.’ The gravity of the Lord’s teachings here was all the more weighty for the Jews who had known the Father, ‘Hashem,’ yet still rejected the ‘Son of God.’ The implications for Christians in our Era shall be revisited later in this essay as well.

V. 25. The Lord here speaks from Psalm 69:4 wherein it is prophesied that He would be “Hated without a cause.” The stunning irony here is that the Jews of that time who treasured the Words of Jehovah were all the more guilty because their own Book had predicted that they would do this! The entire matter of “knowing better” shall also be explored in the implications for the American Church section of this Commentary a bit later. They are drastic and dire indeed, beloved.

III. APPLICATION

Now then, I have been instructed during the first 30 years or so of my Christian Political Matriculation that the ‘Persecutors of the Brethren’are, in no particular order: The Liberals. The Democrats. The Gays. The Atheists. The Foreigners. The Poor. The Indigent.

More basically: ‘All those gross Unfortunates who are not privileged enough to know the Jesus Christ that we all know.’ The One Who founded this Nation through White European Religionists for the Freedom of mostly White property owners who believed in that same Christ the way ‘They’ had defined Him in our Founding Documents.

This Historic Narrative was Rebirthed by the ‘Moral Majority Movement’ of JERRY FALWELLin 1979 and been given new life and deep root structure by the rise of the “Make America Great Again” Movement inspired by DONALD TRUMP. It has more recently metastasized into the forms of ‘White Christian Nationalism’ and its spiritual conspiracy appendage, the ‘QAnon Cult Movement.’ So let’s take a closer look at this Marriage of Ideologies quite frankly conjured in Hell.

TRUMP’S PERSECUTION NARRATIVE. This report from NPR sums it up: “Since his 2016 campaign for president, Donald Trump has made a point of cultivating Christian supporters. In numerous speeches he affirms their beliefs – and that their faith and values are under attack. He has vowed to stand with Christians to defend their religion, to push back against threatening cultural and political forces and to champion their causes, like the roll back of abortion rights. As his personal and legal troubles mounted, Trump claimed he was besieged, targeted because of who he was. That he was being persecuted” (EDITORS, “Why Trump’s Persecution Narrative Resonates with Christian Supporters,” Feb. 2, 2024).

This Narrative was recreated at Trump’s invitation to the Elite of Christian Leadership in a closed door meeting in his New York Trump Tower in June 2016. In effect, he promised those leaders (Mike Huckabee, Tony Perkins, James Dobson, Gary Bauer and several others) that he would ‘Protect Christianity’ in return for their support.

Within a few weeks, upward of 1,000 Evangelical leaders agreed! And the rest, as they say, is ‘American History Writ Large and Dark.’

THE REAL PERSECUTION. In a remarkable Letter sent to the leadership of the Southern Baptist Convention on February 24, 2020, from then President of the Convention’s Ethics and Liberty Commission, DR. RUSSELL MOORE,Evangelical alarm bells exploded around the Christian community.

For a little while at least. Sigh.

Writing for The Atlantic, PETER WEHNER opens the door to this explosive event in a riveting essay titled, “The Scandal Rocking the Evangelical World” (June 7, 2021; edited).

“‘This is an earthquake,’ a prominent Christian writer told me. The publication of an extraordinary February 24, 2020, letter by Russell Moore, one of the most influential and respected Evangelicals in America (and a friend), has shaken the Christian world.

When the letter was written, Moore was the president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, the policy arm of the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination in the United States. The letter, sent to the ERLC’s Board of Trustees, offers a devastating indictment of the Denomination’s Executive Committee.

Moore’s letter was leaked to Religion News Service (RNS) a few weeks after he resigned from the ERLC. And on June 1, Immanuel Nashville, a church not affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention, announced that Moore would become its pastor in residence. Which means that one of the most important figures in the SBC has completely broken with the denomination he has been a part of for virtually his entire life.

Moore’s 4,000-word letter explains why.

His departure was not primarily prompted, as many people had assumed, by his role as an outspoken critic of Donald Trump, although that had clearly upset powerful members within the politically and theologically conservative denomination. Instead, the letter suggests, the breach was caused by the stands he had taken against sexual abuse within the SBC and on racial reconciliation, which had infuriated the Executive Committee.”

Donald Trump. Sexual abuser. Racial xenophobe. Ringing any bells for you, beloved?

FIRST CANARY. Some of you have already heard this story, but it is painfully illustrative of what Dr. Moore experienced and addressed in 2020 but preceded him by four years. This is the account I reported in my book, The Sixth Seal II (2023, pp. 182-183; edited). A description of what is yet to come to all American followers of Christ who oppose Donald Trump. Selah.

“I worked for JERRY FALWELL JR.’S Liberty University from 2006 to 2016, as a senior Professor of Communication. I greatly enjoyed my tenure there and was blessed with wonderful colleagues and top teaching evaluations from the students each year.

Then in March of 2016, I received a Termination Letter in my electronic mail. I recall phoning the Personnel Office to find out if a mistake had been made and was told by a secretary, ‘No.’ I contacted the various other University offices to further find out what was going on, including Jerry Falwell Jr., but to no avail.

I heard something about ‘financial exigency’ along the way, which was hard to believe since the University was enjoying a $1.3 billion Endowment that year (Liberty Journal, February 21, 2018).

The Real Truth is that I had been writing pro-Ted Cruz commentaries at the time on social media, which I know Mr. Falwell had read from time to time. When he declared for Trump in January of that year, my reasonable surmise was that he’d have: ‘No political naysayers on “his” campus!’ Later reports would confirm that notion …

Though I could not prove it by research since I could not find a single published article proposing what I am about to propose, I tell you this as Truth before both God and Man. ‘America’s Coming Persecution will largely involve the marginalization of Never Trump Christians,’ as the American Church is increasingly coopted by his seditiously rabid and aggressive Christian Nationalism Movement.”

Selah.

IV. LAST THOUGHTS

TRUMP’S REVENGE. Beloved, these two examples of what Trump Nationalists intend to do to their enemies are undeniable. More importantly, they are clear and present Danger Signals of ‘Things to Come’ should he return to the White House in 2025. Recall if you will his declaration at a Rally in Waco, Texas earlier this year:

“Flanked by supporters waving ‘witch hunt’ signs, former President Donald Trump turned in a signature incendiary performance Saturday in Waco, using his first 2024 campaign rally to frame himself as a victim of politicized legal investigations and vowing to be the MAGA movement’s ‘retribution.’

‘I am your warrior, I am your justice,’ Trump said in a nearly 90-minute speech, most of it focused on perceived political enemies and slights. ‘For those who have been wronged and betrayed … I am your retribution!’” (R. DOWNEN & W. MELHADO, “Trump Vows Retribution at Waco Rally,” The Texas Tribune, March 25, 2023; edited).

More recently, REBECCA JACOBS, writing for Citizens for Ethics on July 23, 2024, writes this in an analysis titled, “Trump Has Threatened Dozens of Times:” “‘Donald Trump has repeatedly promised to weaponize the federal government’ during a second administration by pursuing revenge, retaliation and retribution against his political enemies. Because Trump is posting primarily on Truth Social, his newly-public social media company with only a niche following, the extent of his threats have mostly flown under the radar. Trump’s attitude can be summed up in one Truth Social post from August, 2023:

‘IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I’M COMING AFTER YOU!’”

Is everybody listening, Church? Pastors, are you noting this in your calendars for future sermons, as did members of The Confessing Church in Germany nearly a century ago? As necessary refresher, I close with this Brief Summary of a superb monograph by Regent University’s WILLIAM S. SKILES titled,“Protests from the Pulpit: The Confessing Church and the Sermons of World War II”(Sermon Studies, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2017; edited).

He reviews THREE CENTRAL FEATURES of these powerful sermons in the following order.

Against the Nazi Persecution of Christians. “By the start of World War II, Confessing Church pastors were well aware of the Nazi regime’s attempted coordination of the Protestant churches in the Reich Church, the mass arrests of pastors for criticizing Nazi policy and condemning persecutions of the churches, and the Nazi attacks on Christianity’s Jewish foundations. Though Confessing pastors had learned by now to keep a low profile, we still find evidence of criticisms against the Nazis for persecuting Christians and the German churches … The most common theme in these five sermons is that though the people of God are persecuted, God is not silent and will deliver them. For example, [DIETRICH] BONHOEFFER delivered a sermon on Matthew 2:13-23, at an underground seminary service in January 1940. He reflected on the story of Herod’s slaughter of the innocents at the time of Jesus’ birth. Bonhoeffer observes that the people of God—Israel and the Church—have been persecuted throughout history, and will continue to be persecuted. But there is always hope, even in the darkest times.”

Against False Ideologies and Idols. “The most common criticism Confessing Church pastors made against the Nazi regime during World War II was that National Socialism was a false ideology that supported the worship of false idols … In an extraordinary sermon preached just two days after Nazi Germany’s invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, HELMUT GOLWITZER of Dahlem-Berlin condemns the false ideology that had led to war. He reflects on the creedal statement, ‘I believe in God, the Father Almighty,’ asserting that Germany shall reap the consequences of turning from God. ‘Pagans,’ he contends, will offer up ‘weak-winged’ prayers full of confidence and without repentance, prayers for victory over their enemies.43 Imagining another war as destructive as World War I, Gollwitzer argues that Germans have not earned peace, ‘but rather [they have earned] this war with all its horrors.’ He continues a line of reasoning that turns traitorous in Nazi Germany, ‘We have each and every one of us brought all this upon ourselves and we richly, richly deserve the consequences.’”

Support for Israel and Judaism. “Confessing Church pastors also expressed views explicitly supportive of Jews and Judaism, thereby opposing National Socialist ideology and racial policies … Regardless of the pastors’ motivations or intentions, the pastors’ religiously-based pronouncements in support of Jews and Judaism took on political significance as implicit or explicit criticisms of Nazi ideology and racial policy … Let us turn our attention to the kinds of supportive messages Confessing pastors publicly expressed about Jews and Judaism. First, the pastors occasionally affirmed that the Jews too, in addition to Christians, are the people of God. This expression can take the simple form of a prayer at the end of a sermon, like [KARL] BARTH’S sermon on 1 Corinthians 3:11, in October 1939, delivered in Switzerland, in which he prayed for ‘the Gentiles who are waiting for your [God’s] word, and your people Israel, that they recognize their King [emphasis added] … Second, consonant with this theme of the Jews as God’s people, but much less ambivalent, are expressions of appreciation for Judaism and the Old Testament as the foundation of Christianity.”

CODA. To risk a common saying that is nearly become a cliché anymore, I shall dare it anyway since it is so germane to this important conversation: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” – GEORGE SANTAYANA,Life of Reason, 1905

Beloved, I believe with all of my being that the United States of America, led by her Non-Confessing Church, is hurtling headlong into what may well become ‘The Fourth Reich.’ Or more theologically accurate, ‘Babylon the Great.’

All this and so very much more, if we do not very nearly immediately heed the brutal lessons of Western History. Even The Apocalypse of the Book of Revelation! All but upon us if we do not, to paraphrase the great jurist, ROBERT BORK:

‘Slouch Toward New Jerusalem, rather than Sodom and Gomorrah.’ SELAH.

YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/1CaHQQphMDo