NOTES ON THE PURSUIT OF HONOR IN THE AGE OF DISHONOR: STANDING FOR CHRIST AGAINST THE SPIRIT OF BARABBAS IN THE LAST DAYS

SCRIPTURE. “Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul,having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation.” – 1 PETER 2:11-12, NKJV

KEY TERMS. Sojourners and Pilgrims; Abstain; Lusts; Honorable; Good Works; Glorify; Day of Visitation

QUOTATION. “He never wanted to be king, and it was that very trait that made him a great king. It was the characteristic comprising all extraordinary leaders. To [Mr. Black], power, fame and wealth were meaningless, like grains of sand spilling through his fingers. It wasn’t Pride that drove him to the throne, but Honor. He had to do it, simply because it was right.” ― ELLA ROSE CARLOS, A Long Lost Fantasy, 2018; edited

I.  FIRST THOUGHTS

The year before I was rescued by Christ from a life of debauchery, drunkenness, and death, I read the three volumes of Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. TOLKIEN (1954-1955). And I distinctly remember back on those darkest of days for me, that the story virtually dug a hook deep into my blackened soul with something I had fully forgotten existed:

HONOR.

This long-lost trait of great men and women is defined accurately by renown Christian lexicographer, NOAH WEBSTER: “The esteem due or paid to worth; high estimation; dignity; exalted rank or place; distinction; true nobleness of mind; magnanimity; dignified respect for character, springing from probity, principle or moral rectitude; a distinguishing trait in the character of good men.” – American Dictionary of the English Language, 1828; edited

Honor. Dignity. Distinction. Nobility. Character. Probity. Moral rectitude. Characteristics I so desperately long to see in our leaders today. Traits so rarely present in any of them these days – especially among our Religious Elites. They are not what they try very hard to appear to be, but for me at least remain among the lowest of beings on the earth, for one blazing reason.

They lie to both God and Man every single day about who they truly are.

Of such men, JESUS CHRIST spared no words:

“Then Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to His disciples, saying: ‘The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. Therefore whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do, but do not do according to their works; for they say, and do not do. For they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. But all their works they do to be seen by men. They make their phylacteries broad and enlarge the borders of their garments. They love the best places at feasts, the best seats in the synagogues, greetings in the marketplaces, and to be called by men, “Rabbi, Rabbi.” But you, do not be called “Rabbi;” for One is your Teacher, the Christ, and you are all brethren.  Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven. And do not be called teachers; for One is our Teacher, the Christ. But he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.’” – MATTHEW 23:1-12, NKJV

THESIS. I submit to you all that today’s American Pastors and Leaders are become fatally compromised by the prevailing political marriage of Christianity and Nationalism. Second, that they are now so deeply entrenched in this Overthrow of the Canon, that they find no way out. Third, both the Church and the Nation are locked into a Death Spiral about which no one in the Church seems to know what to do.

True to the Historical Precedent, they therefore castigate and marginalize those of us who will not go along with The Charade of pretending to be Christians while refusing to act like Christians.

This Commentary will therefore explore some of the Reasons for Capitulation to what FRANCIS SCHAEFFER called “the World Spirit” in this hour, and articulate what God fully requires of us in the challenging days ahead. The Choices lying before us are nothing less than Life or Death, the Blessing or the Curse, though the Scriptures lament that ‘the many’ will tragically choose that Wide Road leading to Perdition and will perish.

This is confirmed by JESUS CHRIST: “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad and easy to travel is the path that leads the way to destruction and eternal loss, and there are many who enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow and difficult to travel is the path that leads the way to [everlasting] life, ‘and there are few who find it.’” – MATTHEW 7:13-14, AMP

Commentary this time is offered by CHARLES ELLICOTT: “‘Few there be that find it.’ — The sad contrast between the many and the few runs through all our Lord’s teaching. He comes to ‘save the world,’ and yet those whom He chooses out of the world are but as a ‘little flock.’ They are to preach the Gospel, and yet the result will be but discord and division. The picture is a dark one and yet it represents but too faithfully the impression made … by the actual State of Mankind around us. They are, for the most part, unconscious of the greatness of their lives, and of the interests at stake in them.” – An Old and New Testament Commentary, 1878, 1897; edited

Beloved while it is likely that the distinguished theologian Mr. Ellicott was referring to the unsaved in his times, I propose here that this passage now pertains overwhelmingly to America’s Apostate Church.

The following section lays out, again, some of the principal reasons why.

II.  THE BETRAYAL OF CHRIST BY THE AMERICAN CHURCH

THE PRECEDENT. “Now at the feast the governor was accustomed to releasing to the multitude one prisoner whom they wished. And at that time they had a notorious prisoner called Barabbas. Therefore, when they had gathered together, Pilate said to them, ‘Whom do you want me to release to you? Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?’ For he knew that they had handed Him over because of envy.

While he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent to him, saying, ‘Have nothing to do with that just Man, for I have suffered many things today in a dream because of Him.’

But the chief priests and elders persuaded the multitudes that they should ask for Barabbas and destroy Jesus. The governor answered and said to them, ‘Which of the two do you want me to release to you?’ They said, ‘[Give us] Barabbas!’ Pilate said to them, ‘What then shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ? They all said to him, “Let Him be crucified!” Then the governor said, ‘Why, what evil has He done?’

But they cried out all the more, saying, ‘Let [Jesus] be crucified!’

When Pilate saw that he could not prevail at all, but rather that a tumult was rising, he took water and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, ‘I am innocent of the blood of this just Person. You see to it.’ And all the people answered and said, ‘His blood be on us and on our children.’ Then he released Barabbas to them; and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered Him to be crucified.” —  MATTHEW 27:15-26, NKJV

APPLICATION. As always, I am relentlessly on the hunt for what I refer to as “Golden Nuggets,” those rare contemporary theological commentaries that drive the reader straight down the center lane of the Christian Canon, toward unchangeable Judeo-Christian orthodoxy. And as additional bonus, are unafraid to ‘apply’ the doctrines to what is taking place outside the Church walls and windows.

I have found one such essay, and I’m delighted to report it to you. DR.MICHAEL P. L. FRIDAY ispresident of the American Baptist Churches of Connecticut and interim pastor of Noank Baptist Church. He is also a leadership strategist, and author of, And Lead Us Not into Dysfunction: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly of Church Organizations and their Leaders (2018).

Significantly, I am sad to report since it bears so painfully on the American Crisis today, he is Black, with ancestry traced to Trinidad & Tobago-Jamaica. Beloved, we have returned to a place in America where Color now counts again in the Culture War surrounding us, and I find scholars of color usually more sensitive to that Crisis than the majority of White writers.

Here is his courageous assessment of the matters under discussion today.

“I’m watching a familiar phenomenon happening in America — the Cradle of a certain kind of Christianity in the 20th and 21st centuries — and in Israel, the Cradle of Judaism.

In Israel, a man indicted for bribery, fraud and breach of trust is Prime Minister, due to the votes he and his party received in the last election. True, it’s a coalition government where no winner took all, but the fact remains that those who voted for NETANYAHU knew of his indictment.

In America, a man demonstrably corrupt, dishonest and eternally suspected as a repeat-offense white-collar criminal and sexual predator, is being lionized by legislators and political leaders in both the federal government and state governments and by religious people who call themselves ‘Good news’ people — Evangelicals. These two items yield what I call the ‘Barabbification” of Society.’” – “The Barabbification of America,” Baptist News, April 3, 2023; edited

Dr. Friday chillingly and accurately constructs the Historic Parallel with a Moment 2,000 years ago when a throng of people and a legislator and governor named PONTIUS PILATE, all looked upon a known and convicted Insurrectionist named Barabbas in the same and equal way they viewed a non-violent Justice-Agitator, Humanitarian, compassionate Social Worker, a mental, physical, social and spiritual Liberator named Jesus.

But that Moment of false equivalence did not last long; it quickly gave way to a poor choice: ‘The crowd voted to release Barabbas and crucify Jesus!’ CHURCH:You have done the same thing. Twice! And you are about to commit this same spiritual sacrilege again in the November 2024 Presidential Election.

I love Dr. Friday’s blunt-edged counsel to the White American Church: “You’ll have to read books like White Too Long by ROBERT P. JONES [2020] and Jesus and John Wayne by KRISTEN DU MEZ [2021] to understand why white American “Evangelicals” love political power so much and do not give a rat’s tail about violence that emerges from the quest for that power. And then you’ll understand why DONALD J. BARABBAS is still the clear choice for White American ‘so-called Christians’ even during a week called holy, honoring a non-violent man who loved, welcomed, and included all people — not just those of his privileged race.”

Is there anyone in the White American Pulpit listening to the cry from Dr. Black’s Parapet in the howling American Wilderness today? Anyone at all.

III.  THE TEACHING

SCRIPTURE. “Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation.” – 1 PETER 2:11-12, NKJV

KEY TERM: ABSTAIN! ‘Apechomai’ [ἀπέχομαι]: “To hold oneself off (from); to exercise self-control; be sober [and morally disciplined]; to prevent; implies a severe warning from Christ – ‘You have slept long enough!’ [threatens to withdraw]; to keep distant from; to forbear, or refrain from, voluntarily; but used chiefly to denote a restraint upon the passions or appetites; to refrain from indulgence.”

COMMENTARY. “‘I beseech you, as strangers’ — Or Sojourners; and Pilgrims — Who have no inheritance on this earth but are travelling to the Heavenly Country. The former word, παροικοι, properly means those who are in ‘a strange house,’ a house not their own: The second, παρεπιδημοι, those who are in a strange country, and among a people not their own. We sojourn in the body; we are Pilgrims in this world. 

‘Abstain from fleshly lusts’ — Or carnal desires; from inordinate desires of anything in this country. ‘The settled inhabitants of a country are anxious to acquire riches, to purchase lands, and to build houses. But they who stay but a few weeks in a country, or who only travel through it, are commonly not solicitous to secure to themselves accommodations which they are so soon to leave.’ In the same manner, Believers, being only Sojourners on earth, and Travellers to a Better Country, ought not to place their happiness in the enjoyment of those objects by which carnal desires are gratified, and which are peculiar to this earthly state, but in securing themselves possessions in the Heavenly Country, the proper habitation of the righteous.’ — Macknight [Sacred Writings, 1826] 

Which carnal desires,’ though pleasant to the senses, ‘war against the soul’ — Against the health, the strength, the liberty, the purity, the usefulness, the comfort of the soul. ‘Having your conversation’ — Your whole behaviour; ‘honest’ — Greek, καλην, amiable, excellent, commendable, and honourable, pious and virtuous in every respect. But our language sinks under the force, copiousness, and beauty of the original expressions; ‘among the Gentiles’ — Your Heathen neighbours, who narrowly watch you; ‘that whereas they speak against you as evil-doers’ — As seditious persons and atheists, because ye do not worship their false gods, and because you join yourselves with what they presumptuously call the impious sect of Christians. 

‘They may by your good works’ — Your unblameable, useful, and holy conduct, your obedience to the just laws of the state, your submission to magistrates, and your patience and meekness when unjustly punished; ‘which they shall behold’ — Shall be eye-witnesses of; may not only lay aside their blasphemous reproaches and bitter enmities, but may exchange them for commendations and praises, and so may ‘glorify God’ — By owning his grace in you, being induced to believe and obey the truth, and to imitate your example.

‘In the Day of Visitation — During the Season in which the Gospel is preached among them, whereby they are visited with the offers of pardon and salvation. It is well known that the patience, fortitude, and meekness with which the First Christians bore persecution for their Religion, and the ‘forgiving disposition which they expressed toward their persecutors,’ made such an impression on the Heathen, who were witnesses of their sufferings, that many of them glorified God by embracing the Gospel.” – JOSEPH BENSON, Notes on the Holy Bible, 5 vols., 1811-1818; edited

DK. Midst all this ranging and brilliant commentary, I make note of a seemingly small matter at its very end: The “forgiving disposition which they expressed toward their persecutors.” In both historic and theological terms, this is actually a point of massive importance.

Here’s why.

Recall that the Apostle is admonishing ‘The Church, not The Pagans,’ to keep their conduct pure and exemplary. WILLIAM MACDONALD points out the reason: “Not only must we exercise discipline in the area of fleshly indulgence, but we must also maintain our conduct among the Gentiles, that is the Pagan World. In our day we must not pattern our lives after the World. We should be marching to the ‘Beat of a Different Drummer’” (Believer’s Bible Commentary, 1995, p. 2262; edited).

So it is that we are to keep God’s House clean, but we are not authorized to clean up the Pagan House – that is God’s business, not ours beloved! The Rationale here used to be a salient point in our churches: If God’s people walk in integrity and honor, that will have an impact on the Pagan World in TWO WAYS: One, we shall bear a credible witness to that World Spirit; Two, we demonstrate our real love for Christ by obedience.

MAGA CHURCH SACRILEGE. Beloved, this is precisely the opposite of what America’s Church is doing today: Leveling blistering, hateful critique of the unsaved, while ignoring the filth inside our own houses of worship. Dear God! What worse possible condition could we possible build for ourselves, all the while believing and even preaching that this is “God’s Work.”

You know, just as we call Donald Trump “God’s anointed,” as with Cyrus the Great long before him.

I must repeat Paul’s strict counsel to the Church: “For what business is it of mine to judge outsiders (non-believers)? Do you not judge those who are within the church [to protect the church as the situation requires]? God alone sits in judgment on those who are outside [the faith]. Remove the wicked one from among you [expel him from your church].” – 1 CORINTHIANS 5:12-13, AMP

It simply cannot be clearer, that God commands us to leave the outsiders to prayers, witness and grace on most occasions (excepting of course when a critical, life-or-death matter is at hand). MAGA Church, Christian Nationalists, Qanon Occultists and other Dominionists desire to crush all opposition, increasingly willing to go to force of arms to coerce their arguably Theocratic objectives.

Even Civil War.

SACRILEGE. “Noun [Latin sacrilegium; sacer, sacred, and lego, to take or steal]. The crime of violating or profaning sacred things; or the alienating to laymen or to common purposes what has been appropriated or consecrated to religious persons or uses.”

We are a very long way from True North my friends. I will offer some final thoughts on this in the following section.

IV.  LAST THOUGHTS

I realize I have said this in a number of ways in the past three years, but must repeat it here: What we are witnessing is a massive, historic transformation taking place between the Old Ways and now-rapid onset of what ALDOUS HUXLEY appropriately described as a Brave New World (1932).

In that epic work, Huxley took his title from SHAKESPEARE, specifically Miranda’s speech from The Tempest, Act V, Scene I, in which the protagonist waxes naïve concerning the nature of man. I have in these regards always treasured the insights of the late DR. NEIL POSTMAN in the Introduction of his prescient work, Amusing Ourselves to Death (1985; edited), in which he compares GEORGE ORWELL’S Nineteen Eighty Four (1949) with Huxley’s earlier Dystopia.

“But we had forgotten that alongside Orwell’s Dark Vision, there was another—slightly older, slightly less well known, equally chilling: Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. Contrary to common belief even among the educated, Huxley and Orwell did not prophesy the same thing. Orwell warns that we will be overcome by an ‘externally imposed Oppression.’ But in Huxley’s vision, no Big Brother is required to deprive people of their autonomy, maturity, and history. As he saw it, ‘people will come to ‘Love their Oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think.’

What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one!”

America, almost maniacally today, desires what HERBERT SCHOSSBERG called “Idols for Destruction” in his book of the same name (1993). Such Gold Calves as: Money; Property; Notoriety; Travel; Leisure; Merriment; and Self-Gratification of all possible varieties, not unlike the ancient Epicureans of Greece, who sought the absence of fear and pain through the highest possible achievement of Pleasure.

In this not hastily prepared Thesis, I propose to you that America is similarly in rapid advance to the fulfillment of an American Soul once described by the eminent sociologist of religion, ROBERT BELLAH, in this way: “In the absence of any objectifiable criteria of right or wrong, good or evil, the [American] Self and its feelings become our only moral guide” (Habits of the Heart, 1985; edited).

Even so far as to shout in collective, bloody Metaphor: “Not that Man, not The Christ! Crucify Him! Give us Barabbas!”

YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/0zk6WjPXxaE