Lower the Law, Dim the Light

"I do not believe that any man can preach the gospel who does not preach the Law. … Lower the Law, and you dim the light by which man perceives his guilt. This is a very serious loss to the sinner, rather than a gain; for it lessens the likelihood of his conviction and conversion. … I say you have deprived the gospel of its ablest auxiliary [most powerful weapon] when you have set aside the Law. You have taken away from it the schoolmaster that is to bring men to Christ…they will never accept grace till they tremble before a just and holy Law. Therefore the Law serves a most necessary and blessed purpose and it must not be removed from its place. When the sinner sees the awful consequences of breaking the Law of God—that he cannot escape the certainty of judgment—he will see his need to put on the Lord Jesus Christ. When we preach future punishment by the Law, the sinner comes to Christ solely to flee from 'the wrath to come.'"

 ~ C.H. Spurgeon

The next quote is related, given a largely antinomian visible church...

"A time will come when instead of shepherds feeding the sheep, the church will have clowns entertaining the goats."

Some More Graphics

Two more images from Depraved Wretch:

Early 20th C. American Schools and Textbooks

We visited an old schoolhouse today in the tiny, semi-ghost town of Alkabo, ND.  We have been there several times, but today I went with an eye towards looking at the books remaining there.

While there, we played on the old-style playground that would not pass today's muster (kids might actually have fun on it), and I was able to scan the school's bookshelves.  Among various older books, most of which were published between 1910 and 1955, I found many Bibles (AV) as well as several other books that I thought were interesting in how they approached various issues.  I am looking for several of these volumes to add to the family library.  I've already found and secured a few of them for not a lot of money ($5-$10) on Ebay. 

As we walked through the rooms, the Christian influence was obvious everywhere- the presence of many Bibles on the shelves were only a part of it.

My son asked, "Dad, was this a Christian school, then?"

I replied, "All American schools used to be Christian schools."

We looked at each other quietly as that sunk in to his thoughts.

I then was quiet for a few more minutes.

We went back out to the more than somewhat dangerous, all steel-and-wood playground to let the kids be kids.  It was fun.

Here are some of the pictures I took:

A math book.  Nowadays, a kid would get arrested for having something like this.

This book was actually full of good things about decency and respect that our society could stand to re-learn  (See the next picture).

I could not get the picture rotated for Blogger-it kept reverting to being sideways.  What is shown here are pictures in an interesting section of the book on keeping one's living place and community beautiful.

Gasp!  More violence!

The perspectives on our country in earlier books is drastically different from the views put forth in modern history books.

Ditto.

Bad Things Happen To Good People?

Why Does The Bible Condone Genocide? by John Hendryx

...not only did God take the lives of those he ordered the Israelites to kill (such as the Canaanites) – He also takes the life of everyone on earth.

Descent Into Absurdity: The Consummation of the Sodomite Agenda

The consummation (so to speak) of the sodomite agenda necessarily requires a descent into absurdity.

I bring you two articles today that highlight this reality.  This is what happens when man -through the state- plays god.

Persevero! News: State Plays God With Gender

Our civil government continues to find new ways to push post-modern policies on our nation. Whether we are talking about inflation of our money by fiat order of the Federal Reserve, the pushing of an evolutionary worldview on our children in government schools, or the changing of a person’s gender by fiat of law, our post-modern government is ever finding new ways to try to arbitrarily make a fantasy world inside God’s actual reality. A person can say a piece of paper is worth $1 with all the authority of the United States government, but it does not make it so. One can say a female is male or visa versa with all the same authority, but saying so doesn’t make it so.

These fantasy policies continue to remind us of Kipling’s poem “The God’s of the Copybook Headings” where it says, “They denied that Wishes were Horses; they denied that a Pig had Wings; So we worshipped the Gods of the Market Who promised these beautiful things.”

The next article highlights more absurdity from across the ocean, as this descent into absurdity is occurring all throughout the suicidal, Christ-denying West:

American Vision: Nonsense and Nonsensibility 

“Aha! You see. Here it is. Listen to the following, which is contained in the text of the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill, as proposed by the government of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. I quote: “‘Husband’ here will include a man or a woman in a same sex marriage, as well as a man married to a woman. In a similar way, ‘wife’ will include a woman married to another woman or a man married to a man.” So you see, Miss Melksham, the government is not just redefining marriage, it is also redefining the terms husband and wife so that either term can be applied to a man or a woman. I can only suggest that perhaps it is time for you to repent of your bigoted and intolerant views.”

Harriet Melksham sat with her mouth open, clearly flabbergasted and quite unable to take in what she had just heard. Could a man really be a wife? Could a woman really be a husband? Wasn’t that the height of absurdity?

Rob Slane spins a tale on AV's site that readers might recognize as being fiction- only, in this case, the believable fiction has merged with the unbelievably absurd reality.

PS. Just in case readers are wondering if this is for real, it is indeed. The British Government really have made provision in their same-sex marriage bill to make the words husband and wife interchangeable between men and women. Although it doesn’t expressly say that this applies to heterosexual couples as well – just give it time. 

 I think that we are watching the West being "given over to a reprobate mind."  At the very least, it is a mind that is not afraid to cast aside all reason and sense in its quest to be consistent with its professed worldview.

Can We Even Make it Past One?

When I was younger, I learned about the Ten Commandments.  When I learned about the First, I pictured myself as never having to worry about breaking this one, because I wasn't exactly inclined to worship any other gods.  Well, later in life I was inclined to do in a direct sense as I spent a few years in paganism and rebellion against the true and living God.

There is so much more, however, to this First Commandment than I would have thought in my earlier years.  The Westminster Larger Catechism lays it all out, detailing not only negative prohibitions, but positive duties required by the First Commandment.  The link I provided is to an online version with Scripture proofs, lest anyone think that the WLC is anything other than a faithful summary of Biblical teaching.

Sin is defined in the Larger catechism as "any want of conformity unto, or transgression of, any law of God, given as a rule to the reasonable creature."  As I read this, I see that sin can consist either of failing to conform to a positive requirement, or refusing to obey a prohibition.

The Larger Catechism lays out the First Commandment, and proceeds to define and explore it in depth.  When read with an honest and open heart, and an attitude of self-examination, one quickly sees the wall of self-righteousness the human heart builds being dismantled brick by brick.  One can see the idols that our hearts produce in our own heart which is, as John Calvin put it, an idol factory.

Once again, the Law of God cuts, convicts, and leaves every man guilty before God.  I challenge each and every reader to read through WLC questions 91-150.  Doing this brings me low, very low.  It cuts and wounds.  

Question 103: Which is the first commandment?

Answer: The first commandment is, Thou shall have no other gods before me.

Question 104: What are the duties required in the first commandment?

Answer: The duties required in the first commandment are, the knowing and acknowledging of God to be the only true God, and our God; and to worship and glorify him accordingly, by thinking, meditating, remembering, highly esteeming, honoring, adoring, choosing, loving, desiring, fearing of him; believing him; trusting, hoping, delighting, rejoicing in him; being zealous for him; calling upon him, giving all praise and thanks, and yielding all obedience and submission to him with the whole man; being careful in all things to please him, and sorrowful when in anything he is offended; and walking humbly with him.

Question 105: What are the sins forbidden in the first commandment?

Answer: The sins forbidden in the first commandment are, atheism, in denying or not having a God; idolatry, in having or worshiping more gods than one, or any with or instead of the true God; the not having and avouching him for God, and our God; the omission or neglect of anything due to him, required in this commandment; ignorance, forgetfulness, misapprehensions, false opinions, unworthy and wicked thoughts of him; bold and curious searching into his secrets; all profaneness, hatred of God; self-love, self-seeking, and all other inordinate and immoderate setting of our mind, will, or affections upon other things, and taking them off from him in whole or in part; vain credulity, unbelief, heresy, misbelief, distrust, despair, incorrigibleness, and insensibleness under judgments, hardness of heart, pride, presumption, carnal security, tempting of God; using unlawful means, and trusting in lawful means; carnal delights and joys; corrupt, blind, and indiscreet zeal; lukewarmness, and deadness in the things of God; estranging ourselves, and apostatizing from God; praying, or giving any religious worship, to saints, angels, or any other creatures; all compacts and consulting with the devil, and hearkening to his suggestions; making men the lords of our faith and conscience; slighting and despising God and his commands; resisting and grieving of his Spirit, discontent and impatience at his dispensations, charging him foolishly for the evils he inflicts on us; and ascribing the praise of any good we either are, have, or can do, to fortune, idols, ourselves, or any other creature.

Question 106: What are we specially taught by these words before me in the first commandment?

Answer: These words before me, or before my face, in the first commandment, teach us, that God, who sees all things, takes special notice of, and is much displeased with, the sin of having any other God: that so it may be an argument to dissuade from it, and to aggravate it as a most impudent provocation: as also to persuade us to do as in his sight,: Whatever we do in his service.

I mean, read these questions and answers on the First Commandment and tell me- 

Who can stand?

I read WLC question 152, and I find the answer:

Q. 152. What doth every sin deserve at the hands of God?

A. Every sin, even the least, being against the sovereignty, goodness, and holiness of God,  and against his righteous law, deserveth his wrath and curse, both in this life, and that which is to come; and cannot be expiated but by the blood of Christ.

There is the answer to my problem.

To your problem.

Praise God for the perfect obedience of Christ.  Praise God for the unspeakable gift of his Son, for the grace he lavished upon us, for this precious faith he has seen fit to give to me, a filthy sinner who never had a hope of making it through even the first of His Commandments without failing miserably. 

People say Jesus did away with the law.  People say that the "OT law" has harsh, but things are different now.

That is because they do not understand the law.

Read Jesus' words, with the WLC understanding of the First Commandment in mind:

Master, which is the great commandment in the law?  Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.  This is the first and great commandment.  And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

~Matt 22:36-40

I think that Jesus' efforts were not directed towards changing or doing away with the law.  His ministry and efforts seem to me rather to be using the law to point out the utter futility with which sinful man tries to keep it.  The Sermon on the Mount was a great example of this, as Jesus taught what it truly meant to keep the law.  He did not throw out or lessen the requirements of any of the Ten Commandments.  If anything, he emphasized, expounded, and showed us what true obedience looks like.

In showing us that, he showed us that we have no hope in and of ourselves.  He showed us that the moral law is universal and eternal.  There is no such thing as an "Old Testament moral law," as I saw a believer write today elsewhere.  All men, everywhere, always, are accountable to God for their sins.

For the unconverted, there is a way to escape wrath.  It is through faith in Christ.  It is, however, appointed for us to die- then the judgment.  There will come a time when it will truly be "too late."

Studying the WLC has given me a greater appreciation of God's law, a greater appreciation and sensitivity towards the sin in my own heart, and above all, a sense of gratitude that can only come by recognizing the depths of my own depravity.  Praise God.

Bring the Books: Do You Prioritize Apologetics Over Theology?

If your defense of the faith involves principally abandoning the very fabric of reality to prove its truthfulness, something at the core of your approach is desperately wrong, indeed.

Bring the Books: Do You Prioritize Apologetics Over Theology?