On August 5, 2023

NOTES ON REDEEMING TIME BECAUSE THE DAYS ARE EVIL

SCRIPTURE. “See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, ‘redeeming the time,’ because the days are evil. Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is.” – EPHESIANS 5:15-17, NKJV

KEY TERMS. Circumspectly; Fools; Wise; Redeeming; Time; Evil

QUOTATION. “The great God stands much on priority to have the first and the best: The first ripe fruits, the first that opens the womb. Oh, then offer the Isaac of your youth, the spring and flower of your age to God, and stay not until the Evil Day. Begin first with Him from whom you had your beginning. Go about the grand affair and work of your dear and never-dying soul before you do engulf yourself in the cares of this world.” – JOHN FOX, Time and the End of Time: Discourses on Redeeming the Time and Considering Our Latter End, 1670; edited

BIO: John Fox received a bachelor’s degree from Cambridge in 1624. During the Puritan commonwealth, he was a vicar at Pucklechurch, Gloucestershire. After the Great Ejection in 1662, Fox became pastor of a Nonconformist congregation at Nailsworth. His Doctrinal Narrative: “The best of saints, or, the Redeemed of God, have need to redeem the time.”

I. FIRST THOUGHTS

I worry sometimes these days, beloved, if I am not becoming anything more than an old, calcified ‘Curmudgeon.’ NOAH WEBSTER (1828) defines that old-timey term as: “An avaricious, churlish fellow.” A more contemporary rendering is, “A bad-tempered, cantankerous person, especially an old one.” Oy.

Truth be told, I hear myself grumbling more than at any other time in my long, nearly 80-year life, about how terrible things seem to be everywhere I look. Whether I reflect on politics, spiritual matters, the environment, the economy, the radical spike in incivility, matters of war and peace, or the General Disorder I see all around, I wonder indeed:

“Lord, am I becoming just an old troublemaker?”

HIS REFRAIN. “But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!” – 2 TIMOTHY 3:1-5, NKJV

Thereby am I invariably refreshed in the assurance that I am not so far off the mark after all. Indeed, the Prophets of old, the Apostles of the Christ, and the great Reformers throughout our history also lamented and anguished and yes, grumbled, about the evil of their day.

But Paul’s electrifying Letter reminds that these Last Times will be characterized by still greater perils. Yet, thankfully, also even greater grace and gravitas for facing them from a Faithful God who is even now preparing us for the important work just ahead. So, let’s take a closer look at that, friends, in the next section.

II. THE FIRST CHURCH OF FATUITY

FATUOUSNESS. “Feeble in mind; weak; silly; stupid; foolish; impotent; without force or fire; illusory; alluding to the ‘ignis fatuus’ [will of the wisp; deceptive, deluding or distracted from reality].”

A very long time ago in a place far, far away (Regent University, Virginia Beach, VA, c. 1990) I read an extraordinary book by an extraordinary university professor, NEIL POSTMAN, titled, Amusing Ourselves to Death (1985). His Basic Premise: “Americans no longer talk to each other, they entertain each other.”

In that regard almost 40 years later, I have noticed and previously commented on a distinct Pattern among American Churchgoers these days that I see constantly on several social media platforms. It is their absolute fascination with or frankly obsession for ‘The Pursuit of Happiness.’

But not so much with “The Joy of the Lord” which is our strength” sort of Happiness (Nehemiah 8:10). No, it’s ‘Another kind of joy,’ more primitive, foreign, or ‘earthy.’ So let’s take a closer look at TWO KINDS OF HAPPINESS in the American Experience to help us understand a bit better just where we are headed today.

Adapted from – SARAH CHURCHWELL, Chair of Public Understanding of the Humanities at the School of Advanced Study, University of London; “A Brief History of the American Dream,” The George W. Bush Institute, Winter 2021; edited.

THE DECLARATION’S ‘HAPPINESS’ (1776). “[A ‘Thin’ understanding of Happiness] is not some simple, light and momentary pleasure à la some Hedonic understandings of Happiness (‘Do what feels right’). In the Declaration, ‘The Pursuit of Happiness’is listed with the other ‘Unalienable Rights’ of ‘Life’ and ‘Liberty’ … [This] ‘Thick’ understanding of ‘Happiness’ means that we have to think beyond only pleasurable sensations or think about redefining Happiness’ altogether if ‘Pleasure’ is the only thing it means. If that’s the only thing ‘happiness’ means anymore, then we have a case of ‘Word Pollution’ and we need to reclaim or redefine the word or perhaps use a different one altogether, at least for a while.” – BRENT STRAWN, professor of religion and theology, Emory University; an interview with the Editor of The Emory News Center, July 3, 2018; edited

AMERICAN DREAM ‘HAPPINESS’ (2023). “If you ask most people around the world what they mean by the American Dream, nearly all will respond with some version of ‘Upward Social Mobility’ – the American ‘Success Story,’ or the self-made man … Perhaps they will invoke the symbolic house with a white picket fence that suggests economic self-sufficiency and security; many will associate the phrase with ‘the Land of Opportunity for immigrants.’ No less an authority than the Oxford English Dictionary defines the American Dream as ‘The Ideal’ that every citizen of the United States should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative.’”

Whether it’s found or conjured up through a tumultuous, emotionally charged and very loud session of praise and worship on Sunday morning, or daily reveling in their lives and lifestyles, or still another vacation adventure, or some astounding new achievement advertised all over social media with accompanying posts and reels and reels of smiling faces, happy this and happy that and oodles of merriment, as friends baptize the grand event with hearts and upraised thumb emojis all around …

This is the ‘Americae Victoria Fabula’ – the “American Success Story.” And it has absolutely nothing, nothing at all to do with Christ or His Gospel!

AMERICAN HEDONISM.To the point where I find much or most of it an Orgy of Self-Congratulation that is disingenuous at best, if not outright disgusting. Why? Because I see in it more and more the rather naked ‘Pursuit of Self-Aggrandizing Pleasure.’

So, to “Hedonism:” The fervent Pursuit of Pleasure (in the sense of the satisfaction of one’s personal desires) as the Summum Bonum, the highest good and proper aim of human life.

Beloved: I see it everywhere even in, if not especially in, most Churches. And if it’s not in the hot pursuit of personal pleasure and achievement, it is found in the new obsession with ‘Political Power and Dominion, with its unmitigated and increasingly militant protection of, ‘Muh rights!’

This latter aberration of the Constitution in a twisted, idolatrous adoration of The Bill of Rights – so long as that Historic Document applies to the Dominant Class of (White) Americans, but not so much to those disturbing, dirty ‘Aliens’ flowing across our border and stealing our jobs.

Loving me a little less about now, my friends?

AMUSING OURSELVES TO DEATH. I found a wonderful and historic instrument to drive home this point in a piece by AARON HALVORSEN, entitled: “[Charles Haddon] Spurgeon on the Entertainment-Driven Church” (The Spurgeon Center, Mar. 13, 2018; edited).

Here is what the formidable MR. SPURGEON warned about the Pursuit of Entertainment, culled from his classic, An All-Around Ministry: A Collection of his Presidential Addresses to Ministers and Students, from 1872-1890 (1900).

Our Mission Is Not Entertainment. Spurgeon remarks: “Within suitable bounds, recreation is necessary and profitable; but it never was the business of the Christian Church to supply the world with Amusements.” Humans need leisure, and the Church can be a place of rest and recreation with our brothers and sisters in Christ. Our Mission, however, is not to entertain the world; it is to save sinners through the preaching of the Gospel. The world will provide Entertainment and Amusements enough. The Church’s distinct offering and singular Mission is the soul-rescuing Gospel of Jesus.

A Focus on Entertainment Negates the Weightiness of the Cross. Spurgeon notes how one church put on a series of services focusing on special plays, concerts, recreational events, including rousing games of musical chairs. He laments that, “This is to go on side by side with the preaching of Thy bleeding sacrifice, O Christ of God!” If our Mission is to urgently call sinners to repent, to speak of the realities of Heaven and Hell, and to lift up the spirits of the shamed and downcast with the Grace of Christ Crucified—can we do all this while playing musical chairs? The greater the push toward Entertainment and Amusement, the lesser the imperative of the Gospel will truly be felt as imperative. So, Spurgeon exhorts; “By the solemnities of death, and judgment, and eternity, I beseech you, keep yourselves clear of the Follies, the Inanities of the day!”

Frivolous Entertainment Will Attack the Preaching of Christ. In fact, not only are Frivolity and the Gospel incompatible, one will eventually destroy the other. No one can serve two masters, and neither can a Church pursue both silly Amusements and true Gospel preaching. At some point, either the Church will allow the seriousness of the preaching of the Gospel to win the day, or the Church will choose Entertainment of its “customers” as its ultimate pursuit. When the latter choice is made, the urgent Gospel of salvation from judgment will no longer be allowed to threaten the good vibes of ‘the Entertaining Church.’ So, Spurgeon warns: “The preaching of Christ usually ceases when these Frivolities come in. These things are so opposed in spirit, that one or the other will have to be dropped; and we know which it will be.”

DK. As many of you know I spend a great deal of time out in the community at various coffee shops and similar establishments where I do most of my work. In the process of doing that, I take advantage of the opportunity of talking to many, many people about what’s on their mind, many of which relate to a number of issues that we deal with here.

Friends, I cannot count the number of times when we got around to speaking about Christianity, how very many have said they are utterly disgusted with what they see and hear from our Church leaders. Utterly. Disgusted. And with very good cause, most especially for those having the wherewithal to be appalled by the ‘New Trump Christian,’ festooned with a Bible, the American Flag, and all the other accoutrement of a true American Super-Patriot.

We have lost our witness. We have lost the purity of the Gospel. My friends, we have lost God!

III. THE TEACHING

KEY TERMS. Circumspectly; Fools; Wise; Redeeming; Time; Evil

CIRCUMSPECTLY. ‘Akribós’ [ἀκριβῶς]: “From a root word meaning, ‘most straitest;’ with exactness [and precision]; carefully, strictly, distinctly; properly, extremely accurate, very exact; ‘more (very) accurate’ because researched down to the finest detail [‘factually precise’ – or very likely true, right]; this root (akrib-) refers to gaining exact information with the highest level of accuracy and is acquired by ‘probing investigation’ to provide a ‘comprehensively circumspect’ view in strict adherence to the facts; cautious; prudent; watchful on all sides; examining carefully all the circumstances that may affect a determination, or a measure to be adopted.”

FOOLS. ‘Asophos’ [ἄσοφος]: “Unskilled, unwise, foolish; ‘one who is destitute of reason,’ or the common powers of understanding; an idiot; in common language, a person who is somewhat deficient in intellect, but not [necessarily] an idiot; or a person who acts absurdly; one who does not exercise his reason; one who pursues a course contrary to the dictates of wisdom; in scripture, fool is often used for a wicked or depraved person; one who acts contrary to sound wisdom in his moral deportment; one who follows his own inclinations, who prefers trifling and temporary pleasures to the service of God and eternal happiness.”

WISE. ‘Sophos’ [σοφός]: “Skilled, learned, cultivated, ‘clever [as a serpent,’ cf. Mt. 10:16]; in a philosophic sense, forming the best plans and using the best means for their execution: so is of God; skilled in letters, and more sagaciously thought out; intelligent, prudent; skilled in the affairs of life and spirit, practically wise; properly, having knowledge; hence, having the power of discerning and judging correctly, or of discriminating between what is true and what is false; between what is fit and proper, and what is improper; as a wise prince; a wise magistrate; discrete and judicious in the use or applications of knowledge; choosing laudable ends, and the best means to accomplish them.”

REDEEMING. ‘Exagorazó’ [ἐξαγοράζω]: “To buy up, ‘to rescue from loss;’ buy out, buy away from, ransom; to find opportunity, to choose [wisely how to spend our days]; to set free (or be set free) from slavish service or bondage; i.e., making the most of the present opportunity(recognizing its future gain); to make a wise and sacred use of every opportunity for doing good; to gain time by its judicious use; to purchase back; to liberate or rescue from captivity or bondage, or from any obligation or liability to suffer or to be forfeited, by paying an equivalent; as, to redeem prisoners or captured goods; to redeem a pledge; to repurchase what has been sold; to regain possession of a thing alienated, by repaying the value of it to the possessor.”

TIME. ‘Kairos’ [καιρός]: “Fitting season or opportunity, occasion; a proper or convenient time; also, an appointed or set time, era or period [by Divine interposition]; definitely ‘marked out and expressed toward an important purpose (as with the Coming of Messiah for Judgment);’ the right or favorable moment; the time when things are brought to a crisis, the decisive epoch waited for; particular portion or part of duration, whether past, present or future; sometimes used in the common adage, ‘in just a little while.’”

EVIL. ‘Ponéros’ [πονηρός]: “Toilsome, bad, wicked, malicious, slothful; ‘degeneracy from virtue;’ hurtful; full of labors, annoyances, hardships, afflictions; calamitous, derelict, vicious, grievous; issuing from the evil one, Satan; morally corrupt, full of sorrow; wrought with guilt; unrighteous, lawless, contrary to custom; characterized by worthlessness; ‘Natural Evil’ is anything which produces pain, distress, loss or calamity, or which in any way disturbs the peace, impairs the happiness, or destroys the perfection of natural beings; ‘Moral Evil’ is any deviation of a moral agent from the rules of conduct prescribed to him by God, or by legitimate human authority; or it is any violation of the plain principles of justice and rectitude.”

COMMENTARY. “‘See then — That you may be fit to reprove sin in others;’ that ye — Yourselves, upon whom the light of Christ already shines; ‘walk circumspectly’ — Ακριβως, accurately, with the utmost exactness; making His will, as made known to you in His Word, your rule, and His glory your end, in all your actions, cares, labours, and pursuits; taking the most attentive heed to every step, and conducting yourselves, ‘not as fools,’who have no understanding of their duty or interest, and who consider not what they are doing, in what way they are proceeding forward, or where it will terminate; ‘but as wise men’ — Who know the worth of their immortal souls, the snares that are or will be laid to entangle them, by their subtle and powerful enemies, the many pressing dangers they have to avoid, and the important ends they have to secure.

‘Redeeming the time’ — With all possible care, εξαγοραζομενοι, ‘buying it up,’ as it were, as a most precious commodity, (though held cheap by many,) out of the hands of sin and Satan, of sloth, ease, pleasure, and worldly business, which may be done at the expense of a little self-denial, watchfulness, zeal, and diligence, which will be amply recompensed in time and in Eternity; or endeavouring to recover and buy back, (as the word may signify,) as far as possible, what has been lost, by diligently making use of what remains, especially in embracing every opportunity of receiving and doing good, and studying to improve every one to the best purposes: And this the rather, ‘because the days are evil’— Days of the grossest ignorance, immorality, and profaneness; so that being surrounded on every side with bad examples, we are in danger of being corrupted, and are at the same time exposed to various persecutions and perils, and know not how soon we may be deprived of our liberty or lives.

Wherefore — Since the times are so evil, and the danger so great; ‘be ye not unwise’ — Ignorant of your duty and true interest, negligent of the concerns of your immortal souls, and inconsiderate as you formerly were; ‘but understanding what the will of the Lord is’ — In every time, place, and circumstance.” – JOSEPH BENSON, Notes on the Holy Bible, 5 vols., 1811-1818; edited

THE CHALLENGE. Thus, amidst all the Tumult of today’s America and Church, folks are increasingly hellbent it seems on following the vacuous counsel of SHERYL CROWE: “All I Wanna Do (Is Have Some Fun)” released in 1994. And yes, I like Ms. Crowe’s music and loved her joining of both Sting and Tony Bennett on separate occasions to record some of the loveliest sounds ever to reach my old ears.

But THE NARRATIVE from this song reaches deep into the decrepit souls of both Church and State. And as Dr. Postman warned so presciently: It’s killing us!

IV. LAST THOUGHTS

I have made much in recent essays using the vernacular phrase, ‘God is not kidding!’ Which is to say, our sacred duty and Great Commission from Jesus Himself requires us in this late hour in America, to: Sober up! Beloved, it really is quite simple: ‘We don’t have time’ to mess around with having fun, partying down, getting drunk, going home early from work and planning our lives around having more recreational, rest and fun time!

It is indeed time to ‘Get sober!’The Greek word for that phrase is, ‘Néphó’[νήφω]:“To abstain from wine; (lit: ‘I am sober’), I am calm (vigilant), circumspect; dispassionate; unintoxicated; refers to having presence of mind (clear judgment), enabling someone to be temperate (self-controlled); ‘uninfluenced by intoxicants,’ means to have ‘one’s wits (faculties) about them,’ which is the opposite of being ‘irrational;’ i.e., ‘To watch’ [as a sentry on his post].”

We have a most Solemn Charge as ‘His Watchers’ in these Last Hours of human history, looking for at least THREE THINGS:

First, for those brethren among us who are falling away, compromising the Lord and His witness, to rescue them from The Flame. Second, to be ever mindful of our call to “Make disciples” of the nations and encourage those outside to come inside the House of the Lord. Third, to be laboring daily by study and prayer to “Understand the Times” in order to anticipate and be ready for the Return of Messiah to gather up His Remnant Church into the clouds, and rain Fire on the disobedient.

Cliff Kelly, Ph.D.

Digital Circuit Rider

YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/FCLnwZgKDlo