Here Be Dragons

Jesus Is Lord

 

These are hard times to be a Christian. Ever since the Enlightenment, it has been de rigueur in polite circles of the modern world to mock Christianity for its “superstition” and “intolerance,“ all the while holding over Christians the purported obligation to be “nice.”

 

“You wouldn't want to hurt peoples’ feelings, would you?,” Christians are asked when they insist that Jesus is the way—and the only way—to the Father (John 14:6). “Why would you impose your religion on us?”

 

Well, that is rather the point. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. There isn’t another way if you want to escape from the coils of sin that have ensnared humanity since the Fall.

 

Do you want to see God? Do you want your face to shine like Moses’s after speaking with the Lord on the mountain? (Exodus 34:29-35) Then don’t kid yourselves: you won’t get there by building a better machine or tweaking your physiology with chemicals.

 

Even more to the point, you won’t get there by getting rich or enslaving other human beings to do your will. You won’t get there by lying, cheating, stealing, committing adultery, or coveting your neighbor’s stuff. And you won't get there by murdering your own children, like Saturn, or sacrificing them to your career.

 

You won’t get there by revenge. You won’t get there by shaming other people into saying things the way you want them to be said. You won’t get there by crying on camera about how much you are hurting because of something somebody else said or did and demanding they feel the way you want them to (SSH gamma alert!).

 

And you definitely won't get there by denying Jesus is Lord so as not to hurt somebody else's feelings.

 

How do Christians know this? Because Jesus told us so.

 

Jesus is not simply our teacher. He is also our fight-master, and he taught us how to face such verbal and emotional attacks. The rules are simple, if hard to follow without a certain amount of practice.

 

  1. Turn the other cheek (Matthew 5:39). Meaning: if someone insults you by slapping you on the face, do not respond by getting angry or emotional. Do not use your emotional response as a weapon or rise to their provocation. Stay calm, and know that Jesus is the truth.

  2. Reject false binaries (Matthew 22). Meaning: if someone comes to test you by presenting hypotheticals or framing a question in a way that it admits only a single answer ("Say yes or no!"), recognize the framing as itself the test, such that answering it at all is to grant the premise of the questioner (e.g. “Do you believe that the creation account in Genesis is literally true? Answer only yes or no!”). Stay calm, and know that Jesus is the way.

  3. Pray for your enemies (Matthew 5:44, 27:35). Meaning: refuse the temptation to take revenge. Human history without Christ is one long saga of feuds and revenge-taking—just look at the way the barbarian conquerors of the Roman Empire behaved (see chapters 5-7 of the Shorter Cambridge Medieval History: Vol. 1 for details). Those who do not study history are doomed to pretend that their side was always the Good Guys, and the other side deserved killing. Stay calm, and know that Jesus is the life.

 

Christians are not supposed to be nice. We are supposed to be able to resist getting sucked into Satan’s temptations to bow down and worship him, rather than Jesus Christ Our Lord (1 Corinthians 12:3; Romans 10:9-13; Philippians 2:11). But, of course, Satan has had the whole of human history to practice tempting us, which means we need Jesus’s help.

 

Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on us, sinners.

From the archives

 

Queen Candace and the West

 

By Kilts Khalfan, DCR poet and Orthodox Copt

 

Queen Candace sent her homeboy on a mission. No, I’m not talking about Candace Owens convincing Ye to buy Parler. Although the presence of a ‘Candace’ in this narrative is striking, considering her namesake. I’m talking about Queen Candace of the Ethiopians in the book of Acts (chapter 8), and her role in the history of Christianity, way back in the Apostolic world before Gentile conversion to the faith, when the early Church was still very Israelite. Israelite identity is a touchy subject in the Vending Machine, like anything else concerning race and religion we are all scared to “say the wrong think out loud” and make statements that offend self-appointed thought referees.

 

It’s an exhausting game, being a Westerner. East Africans have a much more liberated existence in this realm of life. God is present in the everyday in public, not relegated to the weekend or digital chat rooms. Religious piety is celebrated and not shamed. And the memory of the African contribution to the “Abrahamic religions” is alive. This week it is apparently the time for this to happen in the Vending Machine. Except nobody wants to, because we’re told the Vending Machine will expel us if we shake things up too much.

 

Originally published October 20, 2022, on gab news

 
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The Ark sails into the murky waters of Christian Nationalism and defining what is this thing called Judeo-Christian civilization. RFB and Kilts explain the Western Medieval and Coptic connections that link both in the ancient story of the Hebrews, celebrating liturgy through the Temple tradition of the early Christians. Kilts describes the Copts who refer to themselves in the context of the Solomonic roots of their faith, and the fulfilment of Israel's hope in Christ. Are Westerners Judeo-Christian, or are we too scared to ask? —Streamed April 12, 2023

 

Join the Mosaic Ark live on Wednesdays at 9pmCT! Subscribe to Unauthorized.tv (Logos & Tolkien) to participate in the chat or watch on Telegram (https://t.me/fencingbearatprayer), where you can join the DCR chat for continuing conversation. Videos are posted both on Unauthorized.tv and YouTube.

“Already her Son was taken, already he was bound, already he was spat upon and struck, and it was said over him: 'He deserves death,' and it was shouted to the prefect: 'Crucify, crucify him.' These things were not hidden from the pious mother, who doubtless had come to Jerusalem at this time, whether for the festival of unleavened bread, or rather to see with pious eyes the agony of her Son, which had been specially revealed to her.”

 

William of Newburgh, Explanatio sacri epithalamii in matrem sponsi, lib. IV (Song of Songs 4:6-7)

 
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