day no. 17,219: suburbarianism

“The Barbarian hopes — and that is the mark of him, that he can have his cake and eat it too. He will consume what civilization has slowly produced after generations of selection and effort, but he will not be at pains to replace such goods, nor indeed has he a comprehension of the virtue that has brought them into being. Discipline seems to him irrational, on which account he is ever marvelling that civilization, should have offended him with priests and soldiers.... In a word, the Barbarian is discoverable everywhere in this, that he cannot make: that he can befog and destroy but that he cannot sustain; and of every Barbarian in the decline or peril of every civilization exactly that has been true." — Hilaire Belloc

The locust can eat the produce of others, but cannot plant a crop. He has not interest in building anything, but only in consuming something. He does not plant where he is, he goes where others have sowed. He does not add value to anything, he subtracts value from everything. He has no stake in the future of where is, only in the table of the present. He does not own the means of production and he has no interest in developing any. His only interest is in the the means of productions of others and those he consumes and eventually destroys. His self-interest feeds on the selflessness of others. His hunger feeds on the hard work of others. If he gets his way, no one gets anything. He gluttonously devours more than he needs and everyone starves. 

Unless... the barbarian is opposed, confronted, and defeated; even when it shows up in the suburbs. Let's call it suburbarianism.

“If you are not prepared to use force to defend civilization, then be prepared to accept barbarism.” — Thomas Sowell

Christian civilization will conquer heathen paganism. The Lord has promised that the gates of Hell will not prevail against the kingdom of Christ. The increase of His kingdom will have no end. The question is not "Will Christendom survive?" the question is "Will we defend Christendom?"

"It is common enough to blame Rome for not making peace. But it was a true popular instinct that there could be no peace with that sort of people. It is common enough to blame the Roman for his Delenda est Carthago; Carthage must be destroyed...  but Carthage fell because she was faithful to her own philosophy and had followed out to its logical conclusion her own vision of the universe. Moloch had eaten his children. " — G.K. Chesterton, The Everlasting Man

Barbarianism will consume itself. Moloch will run out of sons and daughters to devour. It is inevitable. Anything that cannot go on forever... won't. Sin is not a long term strategy. It may "work" for a minute, but it cannot last.

"Alfred has come down to us in the best way (that is, by national legends) solely for the same reason as Arthur and Roland and the other giants of that darkness, because he fought for the Christian civilization against the heathen nihilism." — G.K. Chesterton, The Ballad of the White Horse

May we join the ranks of Alfred by fighting the disciples of darkness. The sun is already risen. There is no stopping the day from breaking. Day breaks. Night falls... never to recover.

"Do not, I beseech you, be troubled about the increase of forces already in dissolution. You have mistaken the hour of the night; it is already morning." — Hilaire Belloc

So, don't worry about the dissipating darkness coming back, it is down for the count. The night is knocked out.

“The sun has risen. Christ has come. He is the king. The light covers the world. A return to heathen midnight is an impossibility. Those who walk in darkness now are doing so in a world suffused with light. This is hard to do — you have to remain blind, or hide in root cellars. There are ways to stay out of the sunlight, but they are difficult to accomplish. Not only so, but as the day passes, they will get increasingly difficult.” — Douglas Wilson, God Rest Ye Merry

Midnight is over and the morning is forever.

day no. 17,218: drunk on abstention

"Abstainer, n. A weak person who yields to the temptation of denying himself a pleasure. A total abstainer is one who abstains from everything but abstention, and especially from inactivity in the affairs of others." — Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary 

There is often just as much danger in swearing something off as there is in being obsessed with it. Alcohol is one of those things. Those who drink too much are in the same boat with those who refuse to drink a sip. They are both out of their right minds.

"Rum, n. A substance that causes madness in total abstainers." — Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary 

Tyranny is often fueled by those who want to indulge or by those who want to abstain. Those who want to drink as much as they can pass laws to ensure the tap stays on and those who don't want to drink at all pass laws to keep others from drinking as well. So, whether it be the gluttony one of the scrutiny of the other, both end with everyone else being whipped by the laws of the consciences (or lackthereof) of others.

The godless get drunk on drink or on power. Prohibition was the product of those drunk on abstention.

"This madness goes both ways: if you drink it, it makes you mad, and if you don’t drink it, it makes you mad."  — Douglas Wilson, The Seven Deadlies

Too much alcohol will cause you to lose your head, but so will too little.

Colossians 2:20-23

If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations— “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. 

Those who go without seem to have a handle on things, but it only seems that way. They can say, "No" to certain things, but they cannot say, "No" to themselves wanting to say, "No" to those same things. And many times a feigned allergy to certain things is merely the mask someone wears to keep you from discovering how obsessed they are with it. They spend all day thinking about drinking, for example, which is more hours in the day the drunkard does.

On the other hand, those who indulge in gluttonous behavior aren't exactly thrilled by the presence of those who partake responsibly.

1 Peter 4:3-6

For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry. With respect to this they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you; but they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. For this is why the gospel was preached even to those who are dead, that though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the spirit the way God does.

So, eat the fat and drink the sweet and demonstrated self-controlled gratitude in what you enjoy.

Ecclesiastes 9:7

Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart; for God now accepteth thy works.

day no. 17,217: when the legalism is applied liberally

“While there is real legalism out there, we want to make sure that we don’t define a legalist as someone who loves Jesus more than we do.” — Douglas Wilson, Mere Christendom

Legalism exists, but not in the form of loving your neighbor lawfully from the heart. That is not te kind of thing that conspired to crucify Christ. Legalism is either inventing new rules for the sake of seeming neat and tidy or inventing new ways to apply old rules in order to keep your thumb on the scale. All that said, legalism is not merely someone who loves Jesus more than you do.

"Legalism is a word that is thrown around liberally." — K.P. Yohannan, Head Coverings

People who like to live liberally also like to apply the word "legalism" liberally. Because every Bible-believing, Bible-reading Christian wants to keep God's laws in earnest, but also wants to avoid becoming a Pharisee, it is easy for the licentiousness to make them feel anxious by accusing them of legalism.

“Application is not legalism. Obedience is not legalism. Legalism is inventing your own standard. But doing what God said to do the way that God said to do it is not legalism at all: ‘hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it; that it may be well with thee.’” — Douglas Wilson, Keep Your Kids

Doing what God says is not being legalistic. That is being faithful.

Deuteronomy 4:2

Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you.

Doing more than what God says is not necessarily wrong, but it is wrong to try to make others do more than what God has said or make them feel unfaithful for not doing the extras your conscience has compelled you to do.

"Legalism is not when someone loves God more than I do." — Douglas Wilson, Blog and Mablog

If you love God, obey Him and cheer for those who are further along than you. Learn from them and honor them. They are not legalists merely because they know and follow His laws better than you do. Loving the standard is not legalism. That is simple faith and obedience.

day no. 17,216: catholicity, Trinity, infallibility, ecclesiology

Ephesians 2:17-22

And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh. For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God; And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.

This short passage from Ephesians 2 is pregnant with doctrinal import.

:17 — Catholicity

And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh.

Jesus was sent to the Jews first and then the Gentiles. He went to His own people and then to those He was inviting to become His people. In the end, He made one new man out of the two. When He ascended into Heaven there was no longer us and them in the ethnicities of men. That is not to say that the nations went away, but it is to say that the nations were now able to unite. The world could be one without surrendering their distinctions. The same way that the gift of marriage makes men and women one without erasing their distinctions, the Gospel has made the world one without erasing the nations.

:18 — Trinity

For through Him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. 

Through Jesus we all have access by the one Holy Spirit to God the Father Almighty. The entire Trinity is present in this one short verse. Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life and no one comes to the Father except through Him. (Jn. 14:6) The Spirit of God regenerates those He is calling to repent and believe the Good News of Jesus Christ. The Spirit of Christ confesses that, "Jesus is Lord." This is the only way to be received by the Father. He who knew no sin, the Son of God, because sin for us as the Son of Man, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. Salvation is a Trinitarian work. We need the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost in order to be saved. We cannot confess that "Christ is King" except by the Spirit. A Spirit of adoption does not make us part of God's family without the Son's sacrifice. And the Father remains unapproachable and unreachable outside of the ladder of Christ and the strength of the Spirit.

:20 — Infallibility

And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone.

God has left us His perfect Word to guide us. This Word is built on the foundation of the prophets and the apostles. The Old and New Testaments are the work of the Spirit inspiring men to bear witness to the Word of God. The Bible is the only infallible guide to God. Jesus is the Word who was in the beginning, the Word who was with God, and the Word who was God. He was the first Word and He will be the final Word. He is the cornerstone of the entire project. Every promise of God ever uttered by any of the apostles or prophets is "Yes" and "Amen" in Him alone. 

:21-22 — Ecclesiology

In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord. In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.

The Church is the building erected on God's Word. God's Word being oriented entirely around its cornerstone, Christ, and rounded out by the writings of the prophets and apostles. This is the foundation. On it the Church is being built brick by brick, soul by soul. This is where the Spirit of God calls home. He goes out to gather more in, but He resides in a special way in the people of the Lord gathered together on the Lord's Day in worship. 

So, in summary, God is building His Church and the gates of Hell will not be able to prevail in keeping it from advancing. The Trinity is involved from beginning to end in every aspect of this. From the saving of individual souls, to the joining of the souls in a body catholic, to the writing and preserving of the sacred texts needed to confirm their faith, and to the establishment of church as part of His everlasting kingdom. The Church is not the kingdom, but it is its centerpiece. It is the center of the own and its bells will ring for all to hear.

day no. 17,215: outliving your murderer

“The Church is a perpetually defeated thing that always outlives her conquerers.” ― Hilaire Belloc

Those who seek to bury the Church always fail to understand the power of the resurrection. The Church is a seed. If you bury it, it grows and produces more fruit with more seeds. You can bury the seed, but your cannot bury the orchard. You can cut down the tree, but you cannot keep the ground from producing more trees. The gates of Hell will not prevail. The Church is built by Christ and it will never stay down even if it appears to have gone down. 

"The one perfectly divine thing, the one glimpse of God's paradise given on earth, is to fight a losing battle - and not lose it." — G.K. Chesterton

The Church always appears to be on the defensive. It always seems to have been reduced to a ghetto somewhere, but it only seems that way. It is, like leaven through a lump, growing and spreading. The gates of Hell are not offensive. They are defensive. Gates don't go anywhere. They stay still and try to keep other things out. The Church is the battering ram of God. It will never stop banging on that door and for those who bang, the door will be broken. Hell will be pillaged of all its good and many souls will be rescued and saved.

"The Christian faith lives in the light of eternity, and can afford to be patient." — Christopher Dawson

This will not happen overnight. The Bride of Christ is anxious to get to the end of the aisle so that the wedding can be completed, but she has too much dignity and decorum to rush down the aisle. Slow and steady with dignified grace he walks down the aisle. This is the history of the world: a patient, poised, persevering bridal processional.

“Men have spoken too soon in claiming that the world has now entered a post-Christian era and we have been fools to believe them.” — Iain Murray, The Puritan Hope

The coroners of the world are always too quick to pronounce the body of Christ to be dead. They want a shot gun funeral where the Church is buried alive. But Christ is risen. We live in a world where a man has risen from the dead. There is no going back. Nothing will ever be post-Christ because He is not only the beginning of all things, but their end.

“Strictly speaking, there will never be a post-Christian era, because there will never be an era post-Christ.“ — Toby Sumpter

If Jesus were just the Alpha, the world could try to find a different Omega, but He is both the first and the last, the beginning and the end, the First Word and the Last Word.

“Christendom has had a series of revolutions and in each one of them Christianity has died. Christianity has died many times and risen again; for it had a God who knew the way out of the grave.” — G.K. Chesterton, The Everlasting Man

As Johnny Cash proclaimed, "There ain't no grave can hold my body down." The world imagines that it is a better executioner than it really is. It boasts of kills it cannot keep down. Christ is risen and out of its reach at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. His Church will not trip on her way down the aisle. She may have to step over the bodies of endless egalitarians isms like feminism, socialism, and secularism, but she will keep marching and the bride will reach the altar and fulfill her vows to her Husband there.

The Church will always outlive her murderers.

day no. 17,214: it is a snake eat snake world

Exodus 7:8-13

Then the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “When Pharaoh says to you, ‘Prove yourselves by working a miracle,’ then you shall say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and cast it down before Pharaoh, that it may become a serpent.’” So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did just as the LORD commanded. Aaron cast down his staff before Pharaoh and his servants, and it became a serpent. Then Pharaoh summoned the wise men and the sorcerers, and they, the magicians of Egypt, also did the same by their secret arts. For each man cast down his staff, and they became serpents. But Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staffs. Still Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the LORD had said.

Even when the world can mimic the power of God, their facsimiles can't hold up. Forgeries always give themselves away. Some sooner than others, but all eventually. The snakes of Pharaoh's magicians were all Designed knock-offs and the real thing ate them for breakfast.

This is also what happened on Mars Hill. Paul preached the Word of the Lord and the prophets of philosophy brought their words. It looked like they were doing the same things or might even be evenly matched. Words against words and arguments against arguments. But the Word of God devoured the philosophies of men.

Acts 17:22-28

So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us.

Idol worship went to war with worship of the one, true God and the idols were thrown down and revealed for the deaf, dumb blocks of stone that they were. This is always what happens when the power of God meets the power of men.

2 Corinthians 10:3-5

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.

The weapons of righteousness are not like the weapons of the world. The main difference is the sword of the Lord actually works. It does what it sets out to do. It destroys demonic strongholds and it takes every thought captive.

Isaiah 54:15-17

No weapon that is fashioned against you shall succeed, and you shall refute every tongue that rises against you in judgment. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD and their vindication from me, declares the LORD.”

No weapons the world can make can overthrow its Maker. No argument the world can produce can defeat the Word of God. This is the inheritance of the saints. The meek shall inherit the earth and their testimonies shall stand forever in the presence of the prostrate enemies of God.

Psalm 23:5

Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies:

Thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

This is the pattern of God's people in dealing with worldly weapons. They are put down and beaten into plowshares for the purposes of planting the Word throughout the entire world. 

day no. 17,213: you can't blow sunshine at concrete

"The law of God is like math. It doesn’t care about anybody’s hurt feelings. It is straight, and hard, and cold, and altogether righteous. But at the same time, when this cold, very cold law is resurrected in the body of Christ back from the darkness of the tomb, it comes to us as burning love. And this is why the message must be cold law and hot gospel.” — Douglas Wilson, Mere Christendom

Cold, unbending concrete is not a bad thing. Especially when you're trying to build a house. A firm foundation is essential.

Matthew 7:24-27

Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.

Better to have a cold, hard rock than wet, warm sand beneath your feet if you're trying to build something. There is a time for sand between your toes, but that is called a vacation, not a livelihood.

“Math will hurt their feelings, because math reminds everybody of the Last Judgment. The answer is right or wrong, and you can’t blow sunshine at it.” — Douglas Wilson, Keep Your Kids

Axiomatic, inexorable propositions do not care about your feelings. They are what they are whether you like them or not. They would be true whether you were ever born or not. They provide the foundation for everything else because they cannot be bent after the fact by how we feel about them. 

"Think what a totally different morality would mean. Think of a country where people were admired for running away in battle, or where a man felt proud of double-crossing all the people who had been kindest to him. You might just as well try to imagine a country where two and two made five." — C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

You cannot imagine a world where the math is as fickle as your heart. Fixed givens are needed. Up and down, top to bottom, and left to right all depend on the reliable opposition. What would left be if right sometimes wasn't?

Facts do not care about your feelings. However you may feel about that, it is what gives you the ability to feel something about the facts themselves instead of all your feelings being focused on the seasickness of being constantly tossed by the waves of post-modernism.