The Civil Square

The Politics of Sodomy I: The Real Sin of Sodom

Douglas Wilson on January 18, 2015

Introduction

What could possibly be meant by the phrase, “the real sin of Sodom?” Isn’t it obvious? The sin of homosexual behavior draws its name from Sodom. What could be more obvious? And shouldn’t we be suspicious of any attempt to draw our attention elsewhere? As always, the answer to such questions is, “It depends.”

The Text

“Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. And they were haughty, and committed abomination before me: therefore I took them away as I saw good” (Eze. 16:49-50).

Background

The prophet Ezekiel is speaking the word of the Lord against the city of Jerusalem. In the course of his prophetic rebuke, he says that Samaria is Jerusalem’s older sister, and that Sodom is Jerusalem’s younger sister (v. 46). Samaria dwells at Jerusalem’s left hand and Sodom at her right. Moreover, the prophet denounces Jerusalem as far exceeding the sins of both these cities. Compared to Jerusalem, both these wicked cities seem righteous in comparison (v. 52).

Individual Sin

We are addressing the politics of sodomy, and consequently we are addressing the corporate nature of a certain form of sin. But it should be acknowledged at the outset that the rejection of individualism does not mean that individual sin and rebellion somehow disappear. They do not disappear at all—rather, they are placed in their proper context. But so that we may know what we are placing in context, it is true that the sin that was being attempted at Lot’s house was the sin of homosexual rape (Gen. 19:5). Lest any sophists snatch at this and say that the only problem was the rape part, the Bible says that it is wrong for men to desire men sexually (Rom. 1:27), as well as for women to desire women (Rom. 1:26). The Scriptures say that individuals who live this way will not inherit the kingdom of God (1 Cor. 6:9). This includes both sodomites and catamites, the two aspects of homosexuality mentioned here. All this is to say that by addressing the root cultural problems, we are seeking to understand individual behavior, and not to excuse it.

But Sodom Was a City

When Ezekiel mentions the sin of Sodom in an aside, many conservative Christians might be surprised at where he starts. Sodom was a degraded city, and they had gotten to the point where the rape of visitors was something that a number of people thought should be allowed in the public square. But how did they get there?

This was the sin of Sodom—pride, fullness of bread, abundance of idleness, neglect of the poor, haughtiness, and abominations. At the end of that list we find what caused Sodom to become a household word. But consider what went before, and ask yourself how America got to the place where the folly from our federal courts is taken even halfway seriously.

Trampling the Courts

To this we may add the word of the prophet Isaiah. The point here has to do with the combination of worship with iniquity, and the central point here is not liturgical form. We must guard against any form which seeks to make room for iniquity.

“Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah. Hear the word of the LORD, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah . . . When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts? . . . And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood” (Is. 1:9-10, 12, 15).

So Therefore . . .

In our corporate capacity as a nation, why are we dealing (very unsuccessfully) with this sin at the very end of Ezekiel’s list? The answer is that we have long since given way to the sins mentioned earlier. Not only have we succumbed to these sins, some of them are our pride and glory.

Corrupt worship: across our nation, worship is not understood rightly, as holy covenant renewal with a holy God. Every Lord’s Day, millions of Americans cry out to God. Why does He not hear?

Pride: our pride can be seen clearly, even in how traditionalists oppose these recent legal developments. We want salvation, and we want it although we refuse to acknowledge the only Savior, Jesus Christ (Matt. 28: 17-20; Ps. 2:12). Traditionalists point to certain verses in Romans 1, verses that ignore the overarching context. Who does not honor God as God? Who does not give Him thanks?

Fullness of bread: do we really need to say anything here? But remember, the problem is not the wealth in itself, the problem is forgetting God in that wealth (Dt. 8:17-18).

Abundance of idleness: a recreational mentality, demanding entertainment in everything, has crept into everything, including worship and study.
Haughtiness: how is this different from pride? Haughtiness is pride manifested, superciliousness. Haughtiness is seen in daughters of Zion, strutting their wares at the mall (Is. 3:16).

Neglect of the poor: this is one of the areas where our wickedness is great, precisely because of the hypocritical posturing of those who defend the welfare state. Judas was concerned for the poor, because he kept the money bag (Jn. 12:4-6; 13:29).

Homosexual abominations: and so, here we are.

Idols and Tyranny

Douglas Wilson on September 14, 2014

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Introduction

One of the reasons we have trouble dealing realistically with evil in this world is that we have drawn mental cartoons of the evil beforehand. When someone says “tyranny,” we think of goose-stepping armies, missile parades, and funny looking helmets. But then, when something genuinely bad happens in our own lives, and we see it with our own eyes, because it doesn’t match the cartoon we treat it as an anomaly, a one-off occurrence . . . a thing we don’t have a category for. But we need to have a category for something this common.

I am a child of the Cold War, and my first glimpse of an actual communist country taught me this lesson. Don’t fight the caricature—fight the real thing. In the early seventies the submarine I was on was pulling into Guantanamo Bay, and when I came topside I was astonished and taken aback because this commie land was emerald green. Bright green. But all my childhood images of communist countries resembled something like a grainy black and white newspaper photo of Budapest in the rain.

The Text

“And it came to pass the same night, that the Lord said unto him, Take thy father’s young bullock, even the second bullock of seven years old, and throw down the altar of Baal that thy father hath, and cut down the grove that is by it . . .” (Judg. 6:25–32).

Summary of the Text

Earlier in this chapter, an angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon and told him that he would be the instrument for saving Israel from the oppression of the Midianites. After his interaction with that angel, that same night the Lord spoke to Gideon and told him to use his father’s bullock to tear down his father’s altar to Baal, along with the grove by it (v. 25). The groves were part of the way the idols were set apart as holy. They would have been planted, and tended, and cultivated. Idol worship does not occur in fits of absent- mindedness.

Gideon was then to take the bullock and sacrifice it on an altar to God, using wood from the grove he cut down (v. 26). Gideon took ten of his servants and did it at night, presumably that night (v. 27). The men of the town arose in the morning, and discovered that a reformation had occurred while they were sleeping (v. 28). They made inquiries and found out that Gideon was the culprit (v. 29). The men of the town told Joash (whose altar it was) to bring out Gideon to be executed for the sacrilege (v. 30). This shows that Gideon’s family had significant influence—their altar in some way “belonged” to the town. Joash turned the tables—how dare you defend Baal! Defending Baal should be a capital crime. Shouldn’t he be able to defend himself (v. 31)? So Joash then named GideonJerubbaal, which means “let Baal contend.”

The Archetypal Pattern

This incident records a pattern which happens in Scripture again and again. When the people serve the true God, they live under His blessing. When they veer off into the worship of false gods, they come under his chastisement. We have countless historical examples of this pattern in Scripture, but we are also taught this truth as being proverbially true. “When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: But when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn” (Prov. 29:2). This means that the pattern remains a pattern down to the present. Being ruled by fools is never a picnic.

The Vending Machine Problem

Wisdom in this world largely consists of learning how to read cause and effect. We can only learn to do this right by reading what Scripture teaches us, and then reading that into our lives, our histories, our family stories, our politics, in the light that the reading lamp of Scripture supplies.

This means that causation is not to be read in a simplistic vending machine sort of way— put the money in, and get the product out. God frequently tests the wisdom of our faith by having His causal intervention act very much not like a vending machine. Nevertheless, it is still recognizably causal. What is the causal relationship, for example, for countless hours of piano practice as a child and wining a music competition twenty years later? Is there a causal relationship? Of course, but it is not like putting the 8 ball in the corner pocket.

In short, our choices are not simplistic causation on the one hand, or randomness on the other. Now, that said, idolatry causes tyranny.

Back to Tyranny

An abusive marriage is not to be defined as one in which a husband is beating his wife in a non-stop or constant way. Rather, an abusive relationship is one in which the abusive spouse reserves the right to behave this way, whenever he feels like it. This kind of marital tyranny need not be a 24-7 thing. Often the worst situations are the most erratic, and extended periods of time can pass between explosions. But the relationship is a mess all the time, whether or not something really bad is actually happening right this minute. The thing that makes it a mess is the arbitrary and capricious nature of it.

Jesus and the Tyrants

The fundamental Christian confession is this: Jesus is Lord. This confession excludes, of necessity, the equivalent lordship of anything or anyone else. If Jesus is Lord, then Caesar is not. If Jesus is Lord, then Mammon is not. If Jesus is Lord, then porn is not. If Jesus is Lord, then drone strikes are not.

When there is no God above the state, the state becomes god—the highest authority in the lives of those governed. When the true God is recognized, then the law becomes stable. This is because we become like what we worship. God is immutable, and worshiping Him establishes us in constancy.

The true Christian serves the one who will judge all kings, presidents and emperors at the end of all things, and so the true Christian knows that there is always a court of appeal. We can always say (must always say) that it is necessary for us to obey God rather than men (Acts 5:29).

One more thing. Jesus established His authority by bleeding. The tyrants establish their authority by blood-letting. Jesus fed the multitudes by the sea, and did this just after the episode where Herod had John the Baptist beheaded, and his head was brought out on a serving platter (Mark 6:32). The Lord Jesus feeds the saints of God, while the godless rulers feed on the saints of God.

And this is why our fundamental political activity is that of giving our lives away to one another. This is imitation of Christ, and is truly potent.

Strangers in Your Midst

Douglas Wilson on February 23, 2014

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Introduction

From the beginning, the Christian faith has been at home in cosmopolitan settings. This has worked in two basic ways. One is when God’s people are living together in a way that truly honors God, and He blesses their land. When this happens, others are attracted to that blessing, and they want to come be near it. They want to partake of the blessing. The other way is when God’s people are scattered by something like persecution, and they go into other secular cosmopolitan settings in order to establish enclaves. Either way, we should see it as an opportunity to share the light of the gospel with those who don’t know the Lord. But there are temptations. In the first instance, we don’t want to become hostile to immigrants, and in the second we don’t want to hole up in our little ghettoes.

The Texts

“One law shall be to him that is homeborn, and unto the stranger that sojourneth among you” (Ex. 12:49).

“But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God” (Lev. 19:34).

Summary of the Texts

We must begin with the understanding that what is commonly called “multiculturalism” is a secular attempt to seduce God’s people into believing that God is not the true and living God. Because there is only one God, there can only be one law. Whenever there is an attempt to have many laws, it is a surreptitious attempt to introduce many gods—polytheism. When we have anything to do it, to the extent we have anything to say, we must insist on “one law” for the native and the stranger both.

But the second greatest commandment in that true law is that we love our neighbors as ourselves. Our second text explicitly insists upon this and applies the principle to the stranger. We have strangers in our midst—they don’t know the customs, they don’t know the language, they don’t know the people—and we ourselves were once in that position. We were at one time strangers in Egypt. Remember that, and love the strangers in your midst as you love yourselves. We were once the immigrants. We were once the strangers. At the beginning of 1 Cor. 10, Paul tells the Gentile Corinthians that our fathers passed through the cloud and the sea. Live in the Scriptures, and learn to identify with your people.

One Law

One law is what makes love possible. Those who want to set this idea aside because they are driven by sentimental ideas of love are actually introducing the seeds of cultural chaos. When we lose control of our borders, the problem is not the people coming across. The problem is with our laws—government education, food stamps, anchor babies. We are confused. We are adrift. We are the problem. They are not the problem. You can’t build a merry-go-round in your front yard and then complain when the neighbor kids come to play on it. We want to crack down on the drug cartels instead of repenting of our drug use. In any supply/demand interaction, the demand is the engine that makes it go.

We don’t have a problem, for example, on the Rio Grande. We have a symptom on the Rio Grande. The problem is in our hearts, and is reflected in our representatives both in Washington and in our state capitols. That problem is that we will not confess the name of Jesus. If we were to do that, and we repented of the disorderliness of our institutions and legal system, would the stranger and alien be welcome? Of course. So we as Christians repudiate all forms of secularism, whether nativism or globalism. So the answer is not strict but disregarded laws. The answer is reformation and revival. The answer is Jesus. And when Jesus gives the Spirit, He will not just address one issue.

When We Are the Strangers

Jesus said that we were to go out into all the world and disciple the nations. This means that when we first get there—whether as refugees or church planters doesn’t matter—they will be operating under their system of law. They will be serving their gods. No one should be surprised by that. Our goal should be—peacefully—to supplant that unbelieving system through a bold proclamation of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. All idols must fall, and only God will be worshiped, from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same (Mal. 1:11).

Guarding Against a False Standard

There are some who say that, as a matter of theological principle, every congregation should be as mixed and as integrated as the universal church is, and as Heaven will be. This is sometimes overstated, and actually shows a lack of global awareness, rather than any real sensitivity. Does a church in northern Finland really need more Hispanics? Discipling the nations presupposes that nations will continue to exist as nations, and that is all right. The church is a salad, not a melting pot. Does everybody have to learn one language so that we can all worship together in one big service? If so, what language should the preacher use? “I know!” some helpful person says. “Mine!” But everybody all together all the time means that most of them would have to give way—and that is not catholicity, it is hegemony. You don’t improve the salad by making it one big crouton.

But at the same time, we should say, we can say, and we must say, that when the natural forces of cosmopolitan integration are doing their thing, whether in Corinth or Brooklyn, the Christian church has no business creating artificial barriers to fellowship. Remember that the church was born on Pentecost (Acts 2:1-11). That’s our birthday.

Cosmopolis on the Palouse

So we live in a small community, in two small towns, with a major university in each town. There are many international students here, almost three thousand. We do have strangers in our midst. We have almost as many opportunities as we have strangers.

Remember the principle of body life. Not everyone is an eye, or an ear. But the body, taken as a whole, if that body is alive and in proximity to such aliens and strangers, must be a welcoming place for them. As a congregation, we should be looking for opportunities. If they visit us, we should not be flummoxed. We should be looking for opportunities to have them in our homes, to help them with English, to explain how the supermarkets work. If you have traveled overseas at all, do you remember how bewildering another language can be? With everybody else using it?

So pray for opportunities, if not for you, then for this congregation. As you are praying for opportunities, you are praying for the love of God’s Word to encompass you both. How? Through the Spirit of God

The David Chronicles 33:The Song of the Bow

Douglas Wilson on May 12, 2013

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Introduction

Remember that the book of Samuel is all one book, and we stopped in the middle of it (at our conventional break between first and second Samuel) simply for the sake of convenience. The same great narrative continues, as God establishes His kind of rule, and does so in His way.

The Text

“Now it came to pass after the death of Saul, when David was returned from the slaughter of the Amalekites, and David had abode two days in Ziklag; It came even to pass on the third day, that, behold, a man came out of the camp from Saul with his clothes rent, and earth upon his head: and so it was, when he came to David, that he fell to the earth, and did obeisance . . .” (2 Sam. 1:1-27).

Summary of the Text

While the battle was going on at Gilboa, David was fighting the Amalekites and, after his victory, he had been back in Ziklag for two days (v. 1). On the third day, a messenger arrived from Saul’s battlefield (v. 2). He reported that he had escaped from the camp of Israel (v. 3). When asked, he said that many were dead, as were Saul and Jonathan (v. 4). How do you know this? (v. 5). The young man then spins a story which the reader knows to be false (vv. 6-10; 1 Sam. 31:4-7). He claims to have killed Saul at Saul’s request, and he brought the crown and bracelet to David. David, and all the men with him, tore their clothes and wept for Saul and Jonathan (and for Israel) until that evening (v. 12). David then inquired further of the messenger (v. 13), and asked how he dared to lift up his hand against God’s anointed (v. 14). He then turned and commanded one of his soldiers to execute him (v. 15). David pronounced him condemned by his own testimony (v. 16).

David then composed a lament to be included in the Book of Jasher (the Book of the Upright), called the Song of the Bow (vv. 17-18). The gazelle of Israel is slain in the high places (v. 19). Don’t tell the Philistines about this (v. 20). Mount Gilboa is told to wither up and go dry (v. 21). Saul and Jonathan are then praised highly (vv. 22-23). The daughters of Israel are then commanded to lament (v. 24). The gazelle from earlier is now identified as Jonathan (v. 25), and we come to the center of David’s lament (v. 26). The mighty have indeed fallen (v. 27).

Some Striking Figures

Saul lost his kingship because he plundered the Amalekites, and here an Amalekite plunders him . . . and loses his life for it. David has just finished wiping out the Amalekites, and then here comes another one. When David asks what happened? he uses the same phrase that Eli spoke to his messenger from the battlefield. This is the next iteration of Hannah’s great vision of the collapse of the corrupt elites, and their replacement by faithful outsiders. Only this time the words are spoken by the one who will replace, not the one to be replaced.

Hebrew poetry is vivid, concrete, and brevity is one of its great virtues. The word rendered beauty (v. 19) also means gazelle, and David makes it very plain he was talking about Jonathan (v. 25). Also, the lost shield of Saul, unburnished with oil, represents a play on words (v. 21). Shields were oiled to make them gleam, and to help weapons glance off them. But this lost shield has no oil—it is unanointed, or “messiah-less.” This is a powerful image showing that the Lord’s anointed is no longer alive. But if we remember our narrative, David is also the Lord’s anointed.

This lament repeatedly uses the apostrophe—David speaks to Israel at large, and then to Gilboa, then to (about) Saul and Jonathan, then to the daughters of Israel, and then last to Jonathan directly. It is a fitting form of address for an elegy.

Those who take v. 26 as representing something homoerotic simply demonstrate that they have not read the rest of David’s life, not to mention how little they understand a warrior culture like this one.

The Early Chapters

Not surprisingly, we have a chiastic structure here. A. David executes the purported murderer of Saul (1:1-16); B. David laments Saul and Jonathan (1:17-27); C. struggle between the house of David and house of Saul (2:1-3:1); D. David’s house (3:2-5); C’ struggle between Abner and Joab (3:6-30); B’ David laments Abner (3:31-39); A’ David executes the murderers of Ish-bosheth (4:1-12).

Teach the Bow

This injunction (v. 18) should be understood by us at three different levels. The first is that this is clearly the title of the song, and this is how it is to be recorded in the Book of Jasher. The children of Judah were to be taught this song that eulogized Saul and Jonathan. Second, the title is significant. The central person to be honored here is Jonathan—he is the one associated with the bow (v. 22). Be a Jonathan, imitate Jonathan in this. Take the right lesson away from the song. This is how David is able to include Saul in the eulogy. Anyone that someone like Jonathan was willing to die with (and for) is worthy of praise (v. 23). This is not an instance of “lying at funerals.” Saul was David’s father here because Jonathan was his brother (v. 26).

But last, this is a call to learn the craft of bowmanship itself. There is no gun control fastidiousness here. There is no “being like Jonathan” without actual bows, and the knowledge of how to use them (Ps. 144:1). To praise his use of the bow in song is to praise the bow itself. Remember that this was a lament offered by a small band of men whose great army had just been taken out by the Philistines. Never forget. Learn the bow, and learn to be the kind of man that Jonathan was when he wielded it. And whatever happens, do not drift back to the way it was when Saul and Jonathan first mustered the troops (1 Sam. 13:19-22). When there is no “smith” allowed in Israel, there is a tyrant in Israel.

Just this last week, Vice-President Biden called upon “faith leaders” to keep up the pressure on the issue of gun control, and to reframe the whole debate in moral terms. Okay. Anyone who cannot tell the difference between a criminal and an inanimate weapon is also someone who cannot tell the difference between an American and an Amalekite. Do not be children in your understanding, but grow up into maturity.

The Nature of National Repentance

Douglas Wilson on November 18, 2012

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Introduction

In God in the Dock, C.S. Lewis has a very fine short essay on the dangers of national repentance. In short, what he cautions us against is the prayerful form of “don’t blame me, I wanted to do something else.” In other words, every form of true repentance is hard, while there is a form of blaming others (while using we language) that gives us a carnal pleasure. In everything else that we consider today, this wise caution should be kept in the forefront of our minds, and at the very top of our hearts.

The Text

“And the Egyptians evil entreated us, and afflicted us, and laid upon us hard bondage: And when we cried unto the Lord God of our fathers, the Lord heard our voice, and looked on our affliction, and our labour, and our oppression: And the Lord brought us forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and with an outstretched arm, and with great terribleness, and with signs, and with wonders: And he hath brought us into this place, and hath given us this land, even a land that floweth with milk and honey” (Deut. 26:6-9).

Summary of the Text

At the tail end of their time in the wilderness, the Israelites are being reminded out how it was that they came to be delivered in the first place. The Egyptians treated them oppressively, and laid hard bondage upon them (v. 6). The people of Israel cried out to God as a consequence, and God heard them, and considered their afflictions (v. 7). As a result, God rose up and scattered their enemies with an outstretched arm (v. 8), and brought them to the threshold of a land filled with promise (v. 9). And by no stretch of the imagination is this a “one off ” situation; it is a biblical theme (Judg. 3:9; 4:3; 6:6; 10:10; 1 Sam. 12:9-10; and many other places).

How Individuals Repent

Repentance is always a function of things going wrong somehow. Nobody converts because every day they get happier and happier, and finally they are so happy they decide to turn to Christ. Some convert even though they are externally blessed—but only because they feel and see the hollowness of it (Ecc. 1:14). Others do it in a more straightforward way—they have their whole life come apart in their hands (divorce, financial ruin, disease), and in their affliction they turn to God.

Horses and Mules

We should far prefer to be taught (Ps. 32:8). We should not be like the horse or mule, needing a bit and bridle to direct us (Ps. 32:9). But when we refuse teaching, the Lord is fully capable of ramping it up. He always sends prophets before He sends the pestilence. But when men are sleek in their conceits, they think the mere fact of a prophet means there will be no pestilence.

Lord, Do What It Takes

National repentance is not a nebulous dislike of ourselves, and it does not consist of being accusative toward others. Jesus teaches us what our value system ought to be. We ought to prefer losing our right hand to keeping our right hand to go to Hell with (Matt. 5:30). We ought to prefer to go to Heaven missing our right eye than to go to Hell with both eyes (Matt. 5:29).

Translate this to our national situation. What do we actually prefer? Would you rather have America spend the next ten years doubling our GDP, or the next ten years repenting? Now some might think a sensible response would be to ask why we couldn’t have had a doubled GDP and the repentance too. I don’t know why we couldn’t have had that. You tell me.

So if we are true Christians, our prayer will be, “Lord, do whatever it takes. Lord, break us down.”We do not ask for more than it takes (obviously), but we must not ask for less than it takes. It is not lawful for us to arrange any of this for ourselves, taking matters into our own hands. But it is lawful and right to accept it with gratitude and humility when the Lord takes up the rod. Behold the kindness and severity of God (Rom. 11:22).

What Sins?

Remember that in calling for national repentance, we are not calling for a generic or nebulous kind of “feeling bad.” Repentance is an activity of the mind (the word means “changing your mind”) and consequently it is an activity filled with content.

These are not “partisan issues” at all—the call to repentance is genuinely bipartisan. God calls all men to repent and believe, and it is possible to come to Him from any direction—from left, right, and center. You can come to Him from the polished marble floors of Washington, and you can come to Him from the fever swamps. You can come to Him from a gay pride parade in San Francisco, and you can come to Him by climbing down off your step ladder of Pharisaism. Come.

Some might object that this really is partisan—that I am somehow targeting the Democrats, and not the Republicans. Not a bit of it. I am preaching against Suleiman the Magnificent, and against his harem.

What do you let go of when you come? I mentioned that repentance is an activity filled with content. Let’s consider two general areas, one from the first Table of the law, and the other a cluster of three commandments from the second Table of the law.

First, we must repent of secularism (Ex. 20:3). We have no right to worship, pray to, invoke, or claim the name of any other God. The only God that any nation has a right to claim is the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. Secularism is a sin, a grievous one.

As far as our national hatred of our neighbor goes, think about our complicity with abortion (Ex.20:13), pomosexuality (Ex. 20:14), and statist piracy (Ex. 20:15). Three commandments, three verses, right in a row. And remember that secularism started off by justifying its neglect of the true God for the sake of our neighbor. Where is all that neighbor love now?

Three Stark Realities

We have some great challenges before us. This is not going to be easy—whether to declare or to endure. At the same time, we may embrace what God sends, even though we do not have the authority to send those hard challenges down upon ourselves.

Here are the three central issues we must keep central to our thinking about all of this. First, there is no deliverance without Jesus. Second, there is no deliverance with the sin. And third, there are no other options, or other alternatives. Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve. If the Lord is God, serve Him. If Mammon is god, then let us all go to that great Federal Reserve temple, where we may follow our god of green liquidity in solemn procession as it circles the drain.