NOTES ON THE BLAZE OF CHRIST THAT AMERICAN DARKNESS REJECTED: A SECOND CRUCIFIXION

SCRIPTURE. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” – JOHN 1:1-5, NKJV

KEY TERM: “DARKNESS.” ‘Skotia’ [σκοτία]: “Figurative of Spiritual or Moral Darkness [rendering people blind by its obscurity or shadiness]; Gloom brought by the absence of [Christ’s] Light of Truth; spoken of as a place where Darkness reigns or prevails; refers also to sinfulness’ consequent calamity; want of clearness or perspicuity; that quality or state which renders anything difficult to be understood.”

QUOTATION. “‘This World Rejected Christ,’ refused to see in Him its own life and fulfillment. And since it has no other life but Christ, by rejecting and killing Christ, the World condemned itself to Death. Its only ultimate reality is Death, and none of the secular eschatologies in which men still put their hope can have any force against the simple statement of Tolstoy: ‘And after a stupid life there shall come a stupid death.’” – ALEXANDER SCHMEMANN, For the Life of the World: Sacraments and Orthodoxy, 1997; edited

I.  FIRST THOUGHTS

This study could well become the most important one I have ever penned. It will attempt to penetrate the Great American Darkness that has condemned itself to National Suicide by her catastrophic rejection of the True Messiah in wanton exchange for a False Messiah.

This is beyond historic, beloved, as it constitutes the events leading up to and including the very End of History as we have known it, and the Beginning of Eternity. And between those two poles are to be found and experienced ‘The Birth Pangs’ leading increasingly to: The Day of the Lord; The Rapture of the True Church; The Great Tribulation; The Millennium; Infinity.

THE LAMENT. ‘The United States of America missed it!’ We have ignorantly, recklessly yet willfully chosen to Crucify Christ a second time, snuffing out our Life Light, the consequences of which are already dreadful, but shall become all the more so in the years immediately ahead, without full and sustained Repentance.

The ideas expressed here are not new to me nor written with anything less than a fear and trembling of the words themselves, and the prospect of possibly being wrong or wrongly motivated. But by Christian conscience, I must teach what I believe to be true by the Canon, by the historic and contemporary evidence, and by the urgent fire that has built within me for the past eight years now.

I must continue to say what I must say, with God’s permission and by His Word and Spirit. May God help us.

II.  THE SECOND CRUCIFIXION

I have increasingly become convinced of these monumental historic events during my now eight-year matriculation as a ‘Christian Outlander’ if you will, no longer willing member to the “conventional” or “establishment American church.”

Our now headlong cascade downward as a country and a religious people is accelerating, now unstoppable, toward a National Reckoningfor what we have done to Christ and Canon. Sociologist ROBERT BELLAH predicted such collapse in his landmark study, Habits of the Heart (1985), as “A Loss of Center,” a culture-wide alienation and estrangement from what made America great in the first place.

ANOTHER JESUS. Presbyterian, African American, and a leading authority of religious experience in our land, JOHN BLAKE published a superb review of our current Crisis in a piece entitled, “An Imposter Christianity is Threatening American Democracy,” CNN, July 24, 2022 (edited).

I have bullet pointed his lucid analysis for concision.

• JANUARY 6, 2021. “Three men, eyes closed and heads bowed, pray before a rough-hewn Wooden Cross. Another man wraps his arms around a massive Bible pressed against his chest like a shield. All throughout the crowd, people wave ‘Jesus Saves!’ banners and pump their fists toward the sky. At first glance, these snapshots look like scenes from an outdoor Church rally. But this event wasn’t a revival; it was what some call ‘a Christian revolt.’ These were photos of people who stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, during an attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.”

• WHITE CHRISTIAN NATIONALISM. “The Insurrection marked the first time many Americans realized the US is facing a burgeoning ‘White Christian Nationalist Movement.’ This Movement uses Christian language to cloak sexism and hostility to Black people and non-White immigrants in its quest to create a White Christian America. A report from a team of clergy, scholars and advocates — sponsored by two groups that advocate for the separation of Church and State — concluded that this ideology was used to ‘bolster, justify and intensify’ the attack on the US Capitol.’”

• A CHRISTIAN NATION. One of the banners spotted at the January 6 Insurrection was a replica of the American flag with the caption, ‘Jesus is My Savior, Trump is My President.’ These beliefs are growing among Christians, according to a survey last year by the Barna Group, a company that conducts surveys about faith and culture for communities of faith and nonprofits. The group found that an ‘increasing number of American Christians believe strongly’ that the US is a Christian Nation, has not oppressed minorities, and has been chosen by God to lead the world.’”

• A CORRUPTED GOSPEL. “The incongruity of people carrying ‘Jesus Saves’ signs while joining a mob whose members are pummeling police officers leads to an obvious question: How can White Christian Nationalists who claim to follow Jesus, the ‘Prince of Peace’ Who renounced violence in the Gospels, support a violent Insurrection? ‘That’s because they follow ‘A Different Jesus’ than the One depicted in the Gospels,’ says KRISTIN KOBES DU MEZ [author of the New York Times bestseller, ‘Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation’], who is also a professor of history and gender studies at Calvin University — a Christian school — in Michigan. They follow the Jesus depicted in The Book of Revelation, the Warrior with eyes like ‘flames of fire’ and ‘a robe dipped in blood’ who led the Armies of Heaven on white horses in a final, triumphant battle against the forces of the Antichrist.”

• THE ‘REAL’ AMERICA “In the 2008 presidential election, vice presidential candidate SARAH PALIN introduced a new term to the political discourse. She talked about ‘The Real America’ and the ‘Pro-America areas of this great nation.’ Since then, many conservative political candidates have used the term ‘Real Americans’ to draw contrasts between their supporters and their opposition. Such language has been co-opted into a worldview held by many White Christian Nationalists: The nation is divided between ‘Real Americans’ and other citizens who don’t deserve the same rights, experts on White Christian Nationalism say.”

• DECLINE OF WHITE MAJORITY. “Those who want the US to become a Christian Nation face a huge obstacle: Most Americans don’t subscribe to their Vision of America. The mainstreaming of White Christian Nationalism comes as a growing number of Americans are rejecting organized religion. For the first time in the US last year, membership in communities of worship fell below 50%. Belief in God is at an all-time low, according to a recent Gallup poll. Add to that the country’s growing racial and religious diversity. People who identify as White alone declined for the first time since the census began in 1790, and the majority of Americans under 18 are now people of color.”

• THE AMERICAN MAGISTERIUM. “So White Christian Nationalists look for salvation from two sources. One is the emboldened conservative majority on the US Supreme Court, where recent decisions overturning Roe vs. Wade and protecting school prayer offer them hope. Critics, on the other hand, say the High Court is eroding the Separation of Church and State … White Christian Nationalists are inspired by those decisions because one of their central goals is to ‘erase the Separation of Church and State’ in the US. A recent study concluded that five of the Justices on the Supreme Court are the ‘most pro-religion since at least World War II,’ and that the six conservative justices are ‘all Christian, mostly Catholic,’ and ‘religiously devout.’”

DK. Well now my friends, that is quite a lot to swallow in a single gulp. But I want to commend Mr. Blake for both the courage and the acumen to go where it seems even angels fear to tread these days: Straight down the throat of an emerging American Religious Reich, a ‘White Christian Theocracy’ by any other name. It is in violent opposition to the Constitution. It is in violent opposition to the majority of the people’s will. And most importantly, it is in violent opposition to both Christ and Canon. It is indeed, by my studied reckoning:

A Second Crucifixion of Christ!

III.  THE TEACHING

SCRIPTURE. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. ‘And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.’” – JOHN 1:1-5, NKJV

COMMENTARY. “‘The light shineth in darkness’ – Darkness, in the Bible, commonly denotes ignorance, guilt, or misery. See Isaiah 9:1-2; Matthew 4:16; Acts 26:18; Ephesians 5:8, Ephesians 5:11; Romans 13:12. ‘It refers here to a wicked and ignorant people.’ When it is said that ‘the Light shineth in Darkness,’ it is meant that the Lord Jesus came to teach an ignorant, benighted, and wicked world. This has always been the case. It was so when He sent His Prophets; so during His own ministry; and so in every age since. His efforts to enlighten and save men have been like light struggling to penetrate a thick, dense cloud; and though a few rays may pierce the gloom, yet the great mass is still an impenetrable shade.

‘Comprehended it not’ – This word means ‘admitted’ it not, or ‘received’ it not. The word ‘comprehend,’ with us, means to ‘understand.’ This is not the meaning of the original. The Darkness did not ‘receive’ or ‘admit’ the Rays of Light; the Shades were so thick that the Light could not penetrate them; or, to drop the figure, men were so ignorant, so guilty, so debased, that they did not appreciate the value of His instructions; ‘They despised and rejected Him! And so it is still.’ The great mass of men, sunk in sin, will not receive His Teachings, and be enlightened and saved by Him. Sin always blinds the mind to the beauty and excellency of the character of the Lord Jesus. It indisposes the mind to receive His Instructions, just as ‘Darkness’ has no affinity for ‘Light;’ and if the one exists, the other must be displaced.” – JOSEPH BENSON, Notes on the Holy Bible, 5 vols., 1811-1818; edited

DK.  One does not need to hold a Doctor of Theology to make the short leap from this passage to the present hour. Inarguably at this point, the American Church and its obscene connection to Trump Christian Nationalism is a catastrophic and blasphemous Rejection of both Christ and Canon. It is heinous. It is blasphemous. And it is terribly dangerous for both Church and State.

To explain why this is so, I now turn to an excellent essay by DR. JONATHAN LEEMAN, author of several books on the Church and who does in fact hold the Master of Divinity from Southern Seminary and a Ph.D. in Ecclesiology from the University of Wales. So there!

Editor of 9Marks, his warning is put forth in a piece entitled, “‘Christian Nationalism’ Misrepresents Jesus, So We Should Reject it” (Oct. 31, 2022; edited). Here are some highlights.

• “Best I can tell, folks these days use the phrase ‘Christian Nationalism’ and ‘Christian Nation’ in one of two ways. Some mean that Christianity should ‘influence’ the nation and its laws. Others mean that the nation and its government should actually ‘identify’ as Christian. The problem is, many people, Christian and non-Christians, advocates and critics, don’t recognize the difference, which is one reason I believe we should drop the label altogether.”

• “Advocates of Christian Nationalism in terms of ‘Influence’ have in mind Christians opening their Bibles; doing their best to understand what God requires of a nation; and then stepping into the public square and seeking to pass laws, establish practices, and encourage traditions in keeping with a Biblical View of justice and righteousness. Let me label this first group THE INFLUENCERS. They want a Christianity-influenced nation. Though I think The Influencers need to drop the ‘Christian Nationalism’ or ‘Christian Nation’ label posthaste, as I’ll argue in a moment, you can count me in with this group. To deny the role of Christian influence in the public square is to deny the Lordship of Christ [cf. our duty to be ‘Salt and Light;’ Mt. 5:13-16].”

• Advocates of Christian Nationalism in terms of ‘Identity’ mean all of this but more. Let’s call these folks THE IDENTIFIERS. They want to formally ‘establish’ Christianity as the nation’s official Religion, which is what I mean by saying they want to give the nation an explicit Christian identity. This is like calling Saudi Arabia a ‘Muslim nation,’ Israel a ‘Jewish state,’ or even—if I might add for good measure—China a ‘Communist nation.’”

• “Therefore, a word to my fellow Influencers: By owning the label, you risk communicating something you don’t mean to communicate—that you believe in an ‘Established Church’ [cf. T. Jefferson’s ‘Letter to the Danbury Baptists,’Jan. 1, 1802]. That’s undoubtedly what non-Christian critics are hearing. To be sure, they don’t want Christian influence either, and they’ll accuse you and me both of being Christian Nationalists simply for talking about Christian influence. Fine. But my encouragement to you is: Don’t defensively embrace a caricature. We don’t believe in a ‘Muslimized Christianity’ which ties Christ’s name to a geo-political space and people. Besides, that will only make the public debate worse because defensiveness on one side always yields more defensiveness on the other side.”

• Now a word to the Identifiers, or to anyone wondering whether an Established Church might help us out of our present Moral Chaos: Establishing Religion can sometimes succeed in securing external moral behavior in the short term. Look at Muslim nations, for instance. (Just don’t peek into their closets!). Yet it does a lousy job of producing truly moral behavior over the long term and an even worse job of generating true religion. Look at church-established Europe.”

• Finally, a word to the critics, especially the Christian ones who deride even Christian influence: Christian influence in the public square shows love for Christians and non-Christians alike. It’s loving to seek justice for our neighbors. If God made this world, He best knows how to operate it, whether people acknowledge Him or not. By God’s wisdom, ‘Kings reign, and rulers decree what is just’ (Prov. 8:15). If God says, ‘X is an injustice, and Y is just,’ that’s what X and Y are. There’s no alternative interpretation of X and Y. There’s no neutral brand of justice out there.”

Dr. Leeman concludes with this: “If what you want is a Christian-Influenced Nation, then I stand with you. Yet an actual ‘Christian Nation’ has never existed and never will. Christian Europe was never really Christian. It was a Continent of people sprinkled with water as infants. Actually, I take that back. A Christian Nation does exist, and it’s called ‘The Church’ (1 Peter 2:9). It’s comprised of people from every nation on earth.”

Beloved, please do not confuse this with a particular denominational church. Those are not God-breathed, but more or less sincere efforts to become a gathering place for the saints to meet, fellowship, hear the Scriptures, and find wise instruction. But it is not, “The Church.”

Far too many followers of Christ have never made that distinction – and that is part of the reason we are in the mess we are in.

IV.  LAST THOUGHTS

THIS JUST IN(Tue. Oct. 3, 2023, 2 pm Mtn.): The Trump Maga Nationalists have stunned the political world with their successful ouster of KEVIN MCCARTHY as Speaker of the House. MATT GAETZ is behind the bold move and says that the replacement “need not be a colleague of the House.”

In a second report published just a day later, it was found that an American Apocalypse” was imminent, and that “71% don’t believe government can prevent Doomsday.”  According to CHRIS MALORE, writing for Study Finds on October 5, “Even more unnerving, many respondents believe Doomsday could come within the next year.”

This an ominous reference to the remote possibility that He will again nominate DONALD TRUMP to the Speakership of the House. However, the Republican Conference has already blocked that by Rule 26, that prohibits anyone indicted for a felony from holding that position.

THE POINT. Writing for GZero in a piece called “Washington Chaos Rings Alarm Bells in Ukraine and Europe” (Oct. 4, 2023; edited), IAN BREMMER observed:

“You’ve heard the news. Rebel Republicans and unsympathetic Democrats ousted House Speaker Kevin McCarthy from his job yesterday. That post is now officially ‘vacant.’ For now, Patrick McHenry (R-NC) holds the post of Speaker Pro Tempore to ensure there’s someone there to keep the lights on and the process moving toward the election of a new speaker. Americans (and the world) are now trying to figure out what it all means. But keep in mind: ‘This has never happened before!’ The only previous attempt to fire a speaker of the US House of Representatives failed, and that was 113 years ago. The cliché ‘Uncharted Waters’ fits perfectly here.

What Mr. Bremmer and virtually no Christian Leaders have revealed are the early, deep structure Fractures in the American Order that will inevitably ramify across The Pond to begin to shatter the understructure of decades old, vital post-WWII Western Alliances on which a Pax Americana has kept us from The Unthinkable for 78 years.

It has already begun, the very day a President Donald Trump began to demand blood money to keep the Alliance submissive, he all the time favoring Russia, North Korea (and yes, China, if you read between the lines) and other brutal dictatorships over our traditional friends in the West.

THE POWER OF SMALL. Whenever I have taught on historical matters, I have also reminded my students that Great Revolutions start very, very small. Whether we are talking about the Bolsheviks of the Russian Revolution in 1917, Hitler in Germany during the later 1920s, or even the American Revolution of 1776 – the numbers gathered around the leadership were tiny.

BBC journalist DAVID ROBSON refers to this as “The 3.5% Rule” (May 13, 2019). To add force to this thesis, a recent analysis by the New York Magazine’s ERIC LEVITZ offers persuasive argument that, as the title of his essay illustrates: “The Religious Right Has Never Been Smaller or More Powerful” (Apr. 24, 2023).

Do you know how many Maga Republicans it took to oust Speaker McCarthy? Eight! Just eight white politicians led by a sexual predator of minors, MATT GAETZ, were able to throw an already precarious nation and world into still deeper instability.

Add to all this that STEVE BANNON, arguably still a close advisor of Donald Trump, once declared himself to be “A Leninist.” As such: “He wanted to destroy the State, and that’s my goal too. I want to bring everything crashing down and destroy all of today’s establishment” (J. Moore, GQ, Jan. 30, 2017).

CODA. As I close, I also want to close my eyes to offer a desperate prayer to Almighty God: “Father, is anyone listening among the leaders of Your House to these Last Warnings? Because it seems clear to many of us that they are not as we careen toward The Abyss. I pray You will awaken some, at least, to rescue as many as we can.”

Before America becomes Ichabod, or even … Babylon.

YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/lYp8EJ2iGZI