Simeon and Anna As Examples of Looking and Waiting for the Coming Lord
Believing in Jesus Christ is looking for Him. If you are not looking for Him, then you are not believing in Him. He is real. What is looking and waiting for Jesus Christ?
Jesus Christ is coming back. That is His plan for the earth. True believers fit into that plan. They want that.
Believing in Jesus Christ means believing in His Person, receiving Him as Lord, God, and Savior. John 20:31 explains it as “believing that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and the believing yet might have life through His name.” “Christ” carries with it the three: Lord, God, and Savior. You believe that “Jesus is the Christ.”
Part of being “the Christ” is coming back and setting up a kingdom on the earth as part of the completion of salvation. Salvation includes the kingdom. When a believer lives His life, He lives it looking forward to the Christ setting up His kingdom. The coming of Christ arrives between this life and the kingdom. No kingdom comes without the coming Lord.
How do we believe in the Christ? By looking and waiting for the coming Lord. We have examples of those looking and waiting for the first coming of the Lord. We don’t know almost anything about the life of Simeon except that he looked and waited for the coming Lord, which is described in Luke 2:25-35:
25 And, behold, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon; and the same man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel: and the Holy Ghost was upon him.
26 And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death, before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.
27 And he came by the Spirit into the temple: and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him after the custom of the law,
28 Then took he him up in his arms, and blessed God, and said,
29 Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word:
30 For mine eyes have seen thy salvation,
31 Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people;
32 A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel.
33 And Joseph and his mother marvelled at those things which were spoken of him.
34 And Simeon blessed them, and said unto Mary his mother, Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against;
35 (Yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also,) that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.
Simeon looked for the “Lord’s Christ.” This is the true Christ, the one the Lord would anoint as King over all the earth in fulfillment of the Davidic covenant (2 Samuel 7:12-13). Simeon knew he would see Christ, but we should still take this belief as a model. We know that Simeon’s looking changed his behavior, because he was “just and devout,” the former being toward man and the latter toward God. True faith endures. Simeon kept looking and waiting for the Lord’s Christ, because true faith endures. Enduring faith in the coming Lord sustains just and devout living.
The Greek word “devout” is eulabes, a compound Greek word with eu (“good”) labes (from lambano, “taking” or “receiving”), which means “taking hold well.” This is to be careful and sure in the reception. Someone who stops looking and waiting for the coming Lord is not being careful or sure in his reception. He is not taking hold well. Simeon did take hold well and then he literally took hold of the Lord’s Christ in his own arms.
Looking and waiting for the Lord’s Christ in a major way means identification. Someone has to be right about who the Christ is. He must take the right view about the history of the world: how it started, what went wrong, and what the future plan is. This is the message of scripture and someone must acquiesce to the Bible as God’s Word and then surrender to its message. It centers on the Christ. If someone sufficiently ignores the message of the Bible, doesn’t humble himself before it, not adequately recognizing its divine origin, he will not look and wait for the Christ.
Looking and waiting for the Lord’s Christ is more than just identification, but it is at least that. If you get the wrong identification, then you will miss the Christ. Your Christ must be the true Christ. He can’t be a Christ of your own choosing, but the actual, true Christ predicted in scripture. That’s the one for which Simeon looked and waited.
Anna provides an example too for looking and waiting for the coming Lord in Luke 2:36-38:
36 And there was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Aser: she was of a great age, and had lived with an husband seven years from her virginity;
37 And she was a widow of about fourscore and four years, which departed not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day.
38 And she coming in that instant gave thanks likewise unto the Lord, and spake of him to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem.
Even though Anna’s life dramatically changed with the death of her husband, when she was very young and only seven years married, she sustained purpose in life by looking and waiting for the coming Lord. Her life wasn’t over. She still had much for which to live. She “looked for redemption in Jerusalem.” Jesus was that redemption.
For Anna, looking for that redemption in Jerusalem meant not departing from the temple and serving God with fastings and prayers. Like Simeon, she instantly recognized the Lord’s Christ and gave thanks. Only those thankful for the future kingdom, which is under Jesus as Lord, will look and wait for the coming Lord and that coming kingdom.
Simeon and Anna provide two good examples and looking and waiting for the coming Lord. The Lord is coming back. That expectation should drive all of us to a right belief and practice and affection.
Consider Fighting Inflation with Safe 7.12% and 9.62% Interest Rate I-Bonds
Because of our current high rates of inflation, Inflation-protected Treasury Bonds (I-Bonds) are set to earn 7.12% interest for the next sixth months, followed by 9.62% interest the six months after that. In addition to mutual funds with Christian values, which tend to adjust to inflation in the longer-term, but, as with all mutual funds, can have big swings in the shorter term, someone who wanted a guaranteed rate of return might find these US treasury bonds attractive. I view their security as comparable to FDIC insurance. If you have confidence your money in your checking account is not going to disappear, the money in the I-bonds is not going to disappear unless the US government defaults on its debt, which is probably not going to happen in the short term, at least (and, while the high rate of inflation is terrible, it reduces the real value of our national debt, and so actually is a debt-fighting strategy–devalue the currency to devalue the debt–albeit an immoral one that repays lenders with currency worth less than what they lent out).
You can purchase up to $10,000 in I-bonds a year, per person (corporations can buy $10,000 each as well) and get up to $5,000 back on your tax return in I-bonds. Whenever you sell them, you lose the last three months of interest if you have held them for under five years–after five years you don’t lose any interest. So if inflation suddenly comes under control and their rate of return declines correspondingly (I’m not super hopeful), it would be wise to hold them for at least 15 months so you don’t lose out on the 12 months of high interest. You also can’t sell them before holding them for a year, so only tie up money you won’t need for at least a year.
I believe that churches, as charitable organizations, can also buy up to $10,000 a year, and a church school, as a separate entity, could do so as well. There may be ways for individuals to buy $10,000 worth and donate them or get refunded for them by a church that wanted to get a lot of these instead of having inflation eat up their savings account, but I have not extensively looked into this possibility (feel free to post anything useful in the comment section of this post in this regard).
You do not pay federal taxes on I bonds, but you do pay state and local taxes, I believe. (I am not a tax advisor.)
To lock in the 7.12% and 9.68% rates, you need to buy them before the end of April. So you might want to look into doing this soon. The interest rate is very attractive.
Get more information or buy I-bonds online here. I am thankful for Doctor of Credit for bringing this opportunity to my attention.
By the way, while I believe Biden is doing a terrible job, high inflation was just about inevitable after the insane increase in the money supply and crazily low rates of interest that we have had for years. If Trump had won, we would still have had high inflation right now, in all likelihood, although perhaps not quite as high, if Trump and Congress had not spent so much money this last year (by Trump not helping two Republicans lose in Georgia, flipping the Senate to the Democrats, and giving the Democrats a unified government so they could spend even more recklessly). Trump was “lucky” to lose and not be the one who gets the blame for the foolish money policy the USA has been pursuing for years.
–TDR
Does God’s Justice Make You a Victim?
While at the gym I was listening to Leviticus and knowing the book of Lamentations, something struck me at the end of Leviticus about the justice of God. The next to the last chapter, Leviticus 26:18-22, say:
18 And if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins.
19 And I will break the pride of your power; and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass:
20 And your strength shall be spent in vain: for your land shall not yield her increase, neither shall the trees of the land yield their fruits.
21 And if ye walk contrary unto me, and will not hearken unto me; I will bring seven times more plagues upon you according to your sins.
22 I will also send wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of your children, and destroy your cattle, and make you few in number; and your high ways shall be desolate.
I mention Lamentations, because this warning was at least fulfilled at the siege of Jerusalem, chronicled in Lamentations. Here are examples from the five chapters:
1:5 Her adversaries are the chief, her enemies prosper; for the LORD hath afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions: her children are gone into captivity before the enemy.
1:16 For these things I weep; mine eye, mine eye runneth down with water, because the comforter that should relieve my soul is far from me: my children are desolate, because the enemy prevailed.
2:11 Mine eyes do fail with tears, my bowels are troubled, my liver is poured upon the earth, for the destruction of the daughter of my people; because the children and the sucklings swoon in the streets of the city.
2:19 Arise, cry out in the night: in the beginning of the watches pour out thine heart like water before the face of the Lord: lift up thy hands toward him for the life of thy young children, that faint for hunger in the top of every street.
4:4 The tongue of the sucking child cleaveth to the roof of his mouth for thirst: the young children ask bread, and no man breaketh it unto them.
4:10 The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children: they were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people.
5:13 They took the young men to grind, and the children fell under the wood.
Maybe nothing stands out more than consequences affecting children. God listed many in Leviticus 26. The heavens will be as iron, meaning no rain, which turns the ground to brass. Land will not bring increase. Trees do not yield fruit. Multiple plagues come. Wild beasts rob families of their domestic animals and their children.
The Lamentation quotes focus on one aspect of the judgment, what occurs to the children. All the rest are in there, bookending the list of expectations.
Why do these things occur? The people do not listen to God. They walk contrary to God. They do no obey Him.
The people are not victims. They caused this. They are responsible. The people suffer for unrighteousness.
Many times, thoughts begin with the imagination of victimhood. Before someone gets there, he should consider whether he listens to God, walks contrary to God, or does not obey Him. In Lamentations, God says through Jeremiah that He brings these consequences out of His faithfulness.
God’s justice doesn’t make you a victim.
What Is Atheism?
According to the Bible, no one is an atheist. Proverbs 14:1 reports that a fool says in his heart that there is no God, but that doesn’t mean he believes it. Romans 1:18 says he knows God and suppresses that knowledge. So atheism is not someone believing there isn’t a God. Atheism is living like there isn’t a God. Many more people do that than the typical polls show. In other words, on the atheist front, we’re in worse shape than you think.
Someone just wrote about this at the Big Think, entitled, “Atheism is not as rare or as rational as you think.” Will Gervais in the article makes at least the point in my first paragraph here, and even more. The Bible says this, so it must be true, but I find it by experience.
As I write this on a Saturday after out evangelizing for a couple of hours, I talked to an “atheist” today, who graduated from Vanderbilt, and he is affiliated with Weber State here. He announced he was not interested, because he is an atheist. He also said he did not want to argue at his door, but he did talk awhile, which is very often the case with “atheists.”
I asked the “atheist” if he thought, all this around us came about by accident. I find no one wants to say, yes, to that, because they know it isn’t true, which means they aren’t atheists. Then he said with a bit of a smirk, that after the Big Bang happened, everything came out of that.
The Big Bang is apparently a throw-down, trumping all else. In fact, a Big Bang says there is a beginning. It doesn’t help an atheist to stay that way, if he believes in a beginning. Some kind of explosion though still will not explain the amazing complexity all around. I didn’t bring that up, because I assessed that it would end the conversation. I took the tack, as I often do, that air, plants growing, all these did not come by accident, but people take these, and as Romans 1:21 says, are unthankful. These are atheists. God exists. They’re just unthankful He does.
An atheist is someone who doesn’t want a God. He has one. He just denies it. An atheist tries to block God out in part by saying he’s an atheist. He knows he’s wrong.
Gervais portrays many atheists, and it’s true, as appraising themselves as intellectually gifted individuals. Their position is intellectually bankrupt. They reject the truth based on their own lust (2 Peter 2-3).
Many atheists will say that those who carefully weigh things do it with science, all natural criteria, which is very intellectual, really Ivy League. No. The world did not appear and has not been sustained by merely natural means.
In his piece, Gervais uses science to show how professing atheists are stupid. Stupid is another word for “fool,” which bring us back to Psalm 14:1 again. The fool says he’s an atheist. He’s not being smart.
Since every atheist just denies God against his own knowledge, who are the real atheists? They live like God doesn’t exist. I think we could go further than that. They form a god, which allows them to live like that want. Evangelicalism is full of atheism. They deny the true God because they don’t like His requirements or expectations, which are against how they want to live. They’re worshiping themselves as Romans 1:25 says, and yet they say they worship God or follow God’s ways.
If atheism is denying the one, true God, there are far, far more atheists than any of us can give a percentage.
Egyptian Evidence for the Bible: The Merneptah Stele (Pharaoh Mer-ne-Ptah) by Egyptologist James Hoffmeier
The video below about the Merneptah Stele, commented on by leading Egyptologist and evangelical scholar James Hoffmeier in situ at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, Egypt, forms the topic of this post. Last week I posted Dr. Hoffmeier’s discussion of Darius I Hystaspes’ Suez Inscription. The Merneptah Stele or Stela is powerful and early corroboration of Israel’s presence in Canaan. In the words of agnostic Egyptologist William Dever:
“The Merneptah Stele is … just what skeptics, mistrusting the Hebrew Bible (and archaeology), have always insisted upon as corroborative evidence: an extrabiblical text, securely dated, and free of biblical or pro-Israel bias. What more would it take to convince the naysayers?” (Source cited here and more information)
I would encourage you to watch this video. Then you can tell skeptics who doubt the historicity of early Israel’s presence in Canaan that you have seen the stele mentioning them in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. If you want to see the Merneptah Stele with your own eyes, going to Cairo with Tuktu Tours and Dr. James Hoffmeier in person is a great way to do it. You can also see a nice picture of the Merneptah Stele in the PDF of my work on the Old Testament and archaeology here.
View the video on YouTube by clicking here, or on Rumble by clicking here, or watch the embedded video below:
If you want to know when more of these go live, please subscribe to my YouTube and Rumble channels. You can also comment on and “like” the videos and share them with others, including on social media like Truth Social, Twitter, and Facebook (if you have accounts on them–I don’t, nor do I intend to get any), actions which will boost their visibility to search engines. Thank you.
I intend to place all these videos on FaithSaves.net as well as they are prepared.
–TDR
Flood Lore and Divine Interventionism
In 2012 David Montgomery, a geologist at the University of Washington, Seattle, wrote The Rocks Don’t Lie, which he says is a geologist’s investigation of the Noahic flood. I talk about the flood at least every month, sometimes every week. It’s important enough for evangelism and apologetics to talk about all the time.
Peter in his second epistle and chapter three uses the flood as a historical argument for Divine interventionism and against uniformitarianism in a defense of the second coming of Jesus Christ. He writes in 2 Peter 3:4-6:
4 And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. 5 For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: 6 Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:
Peter is saying that things don’t continue as they were from the beginning of creation. The world, that then was, perished, because of a worldwide flood. Ignorance is a willing ignorance, so volitional, not intellectual.
The second coming is a problem for unbelievers, because they will not get away with whatever they do. They will give an account to their Lord. They may try to explain it away with uniformitarianism (things just continue as they are without divine intervention), but the Bible (2 Peter 3:1-2) and flood history (2 Peter 3:5-7) discount their view of the world. God will intervene and He has intervened.
One bit of evidence outside the Bible for the flood people call, “flood lore.” I do not know if “lore” is the best term for it, but it refers to the flood story found in numbers of cultures.
A youtube notification sent me to a Harvard speech by David Montgomery, saying that it was seven years old. In a thirty minute drive, I listened to twenty minutes of his speech and then stopped, because I knew where he headed.
Montgomery grew up in a religious family that went to church. It sounded like a liberal church that taught the Bible was a book of moral stories. When someone asked him to come to Tibet to help with a project as the geologist, he went. While there, he saw damage from a very large flood. He knew it. He saw it was a lake made from a glacier damming up a river. A glacier does not do that well. Its poor blockage ability led to a gigantic flood.
While in Tibet, Montgomery interview the locals, who already knew about the flood and talked about it. This surprised him, because he just saw it himself. This sent him the direction of thinking about local flood lore. This stories occur all over the world. At this point, I turned off the speech. I arrived at my destination, but I didn’t want to hear any more. I knew what he was doing. You have maybe started reading a story where the ending becomes obvious and you can’t continue.
To discredit flood lore, explain each story away with an account of a local flood. Or, do that enough times to say that these individual smaller events explain the stories of the big one. They don’t, but men know how a worldwide flood hurts their world view.
Men look at the present world in a uniformitarian manner. They know things happened, but they must use a natural explanation. They say the world is billions of years old. The flood can and should change that explanation. It disturbed the crime scene, so to speak. With tremendous power, God transformed the topography of the earth. They are not seeing the same world as the one before the flood. The pressure God brought on everything in the world affected what man theorizes that he sees.
The world originating by natural causes justifies men being their own bosses. God will not intervene. He hasn’t. Yet, He has, and He will again. Peter makes that argument in 2 Peter. Flood lore agrees with this divine interventionism. Everyone will give an account to God.
Evidence for the Bible from Egypt: Darius I Hystaspes’ Suez Inscription (James Hoffmeier)
Last year my wife and I had the pleasure of visiting Egypt on a tour led by the great evangelical scholar James Hoffmeier, who has written books defending the historicity of the Exodus and the wilderness wanderings that have been published by Oxford University Press. The tour was organized with Tuktu Tours, and Tuktu did a great job. I would definitely recommend their organization if you want to visit Israel, Jordan, Greece, Turkey, Egypt, or elsewhere. Dr. Hoffmeier, who grew up in Egypt, was amazing; not too many tour guides are not only fluent in Arabic and the Biblical languages, but can also read hieroglyphs on ancient temple walls like they were English, is recognized by other scholars when one visits archaeological digs, can get one into special places that are otherwise closed to the public, and so on.
While we were in Egypt, Dr. Hoffmeier graciously allowed us to record a goodly number of videos relating to archaeological evidence from Egypt that validates the truth of the Bible or illuminates Biblical history. We have just started getting these live, and, Lord willing, they will all go online over time.
This first video relates to Darius I Hystaspes. He is mentioned in Ezra 4:5, 24; 5:5–7; 6:1, 12–15; Haggai 1:1, 15; 2:10; Zechariah 1:1, 7; 7:1.His role in Biblical history is clear from, e. g., Ezra 6:1-12:
Then Darius the king made a decree … for the building of this house of God: that of the king’s goods, even of the tribute beyond the river, forthwith expenses be given unto these men, that they be not hindered. And that which they have need of, both young bullocks, and rams, and lambs, for the burnt offerings of the God of heaven, wheat, salt, wine, and oil, according to the appointment of the priests which are at Jerusalem, let it be given them day by day without fail: That they may offer sacrifices of sweet savours unto the God of heaven, and pray for the life of the king, and of his sons. Also I have made a decree, that whosoever shall alter this word, let timber be pulled down from his house, and being set up, let him be hanged thereon; and let his house be made a dunghill for this. And the God that hath caused his name to dwell there destroy all kings and people, that shall put to their hand to alter and to destroy this house of God which is at Jerusalem. I Darius have made a decree; let it be done with speed. (Ezra 6:1-12)
He authored an inscription found in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo about attempting to do what the Suez canal did in linking the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. You can watch the video on YouTube by clicking here, on Rumble by clicking here, or on the embedded video below:
Rumble:
If you want to know when more of these go live, please subscribe to my YouTube and Rumble channels. You can also comment on and “like” the videos and share them with others, actions which will boost their visibility to search engines. Thank you.
I intend to place all these videos on FaithSaves.net as well as they are prepared.
–TDR
Dutch Reformed Historians Ypeij & Dermount on Baptist Succession
A number of weeks ago we examined the famous Cardinal Stanislaus Hosius quote on Baptist or Anabaptist succession, one often employed by Landmark Baptist writers and in the famous pamphlet The Trail of Blood. We saw that it was legitimate–this great Catholic scholar recognized the existence of Baptist succession. Landmark Baptists also often quote the Dutch Reformed historians Ypeij & Dermout on Baptist succession.
Reformed historian Annaeus Ypeij
For example, J. R. Graves, in his book The Trilemma; Or, Death By Three Horns (J. R. Graves and Son, 1890), 135–136, states the following as proof of Baptist succession:
In the year 1819, Dr. Ypeij, Professor of the University of Gunningen, and Dr. J. J. Dermout, chaplain to the King of Holland, distinguished Pedobaptist scholars, published a history, in four volumes, entitled, “History of the Reformed Church of the Netherlands” — of which Church they were members — in which work they devote a chapter to the history of the Dutch Baptists. I have space for only the frank statement of the conclusion to which their impartial investigation led them:
“We have now seen that the Baptists, who were formerly called Anabaptists, and in later times Mennonites, were the original Waldenses, and who have long, in the history of the Church, received the honor of that origin. On this account the Baptists may be considered the only Christian community which has stood since the apostles, and as a Christian society which has preserved pure the doctrine of the Gospel through all ages. The perfectly correct external economy of the Baptist denomination, tends to confirm the truth disputed by the Romish Church, that the Reformation brought about in the sixteenth century was in the highest degree necessary; and at the same time goes to refute the erroneous notions of the Catholics, that their communion is the most ancient.”
Is the quote by Annaeus Ypeij and Isaak Johannes Dermout accurate? Yes it is! The quote comes from Annaeus Ypeij & Izaak Johannes Dermout, Geschiedenis der Netherlandsche Hervomke Kerk (Breda: 1819-1827), 4 vol, I:148. An English translation appears in John Newton Brown, ed., Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge (Boston: Shattuck & Co.,1835), 796, Article “Mennonites.” The encyclopedia continues:
“This testimony, from the highest official authority in the Dutch Reformed church, is certainly a rare instance of liberality towards another denomination. It is conceding all . . . the Baptists claim.”
Baptist successionists took care to check the Dutch and confirm the quote’s accuracy. For more on this quotation on Baptist history, please see my article “Famous Baptist Succession / History Quotes in Context.”
Thus, both Roman Catholics and Reformed Protestants admit that Baptists are not Protestants, but have solid historical reasons to view themselves as the churches started by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, something that is proven by their Biblical doctrine and practice.
–TDR
Symbols and Identity
My wife and I worked hard for several months on various things without much of a break and we could get away for a day or so. Utah is a beautiful state. Little did Brigham Young know, when he said, “This is the place,” that it meant five national parks, two of which are thirty minutes apart, Arches and Canyonlands. They both deserve national park status.
Arches especially means hiking, because you’ve got to hike to see the greatest scenes. They laid these out with well done trails. My wife and I walked miles, people passing us, we passing people, people walking along side of us, and crowds of people together with us looking at amazing views.
I want to take this moment to announce a trigger warning. Trigger warning to women. I’m preparing to talk about women wearing skirts or dresses. In all of those hours, besides my wife, I never saw another skirt. Not a single other woman in the entire time we were at those two national parks did I see a woman in a skirt or a dress.
I did see many women in skin tight leggings or pants. Loose ones too. The temperatures were cool, so there weren’t so many shorts, but there were even some of those worn only by women, none by men.
A big occurrence this Sunday night before my wife and I left on our trip was the Academy Awards in Hollywood. My phone notified me that Will Smith punched Chris Rock. It came with an unedited video.
The comedian Chris Rock, who apparently hosted the show, added an ad lib joke about Smith’s wife, Jada, an actress sitting with Will Smith, who suffers from a hair loss disease. She’s essentially bald, and Rock sarcastically joked about her upcoming appearance in G. I. Jane, making fun of her hairless state. Some might call this joke, tasteless, because it made fun of a woman’s medical condition over which she has no control. In other words, it’s not funny to joke about that, or it shouldn’t be. It’s off limits.
Whether you think it was right for Smith to walk to slap Rock onstage in what some might think a chivalrous manner, it’s an issue of women’s hair length. Someone in Hollywood slapped someone else for making fun of a woman’s hair length. Being called a “G. I. Jane” was insulting. None of this means anything if hair length on a woman isn’t a symbol of identity, like a skirt or dress is a symbol of identity.
The Bible mentions visible symbols as they relate to identity. People know they matter. It’s why you see a transgender “woman,” biological male, wearing a dress. The dress is a symbol, as is hair. “Look at me, I’m a woman.”
The girl, who wants to be a boy or thinks of herself as a boy, wants to get rid of her breasts. Or she prevents them with hormone blockers. The boy, who wants to be a girl or thinks of himself as a girl, wants those breasts. Breasts are symbols, even if they don’t function except as a symbol. The Bible treats any kind of reversal of these symbols as an abomination and against nature. It’s also the view held by professing Christians through their entire history until very recently, and one never rescinded by God.
The symbols that speak of identity are not arbitrary symbols. They aren’t a social construct. They are the “laws of nature and nature’s God” of the Declaration of Independence. Writing about this in 1762, Abraham Williams of Boston said:
The law of nature (or those rules of behavior which the Nature God has given men, . . . fit and necessary to the welfare of mankind) is the law and will of the God of nature, which all men are obliged to obey. . . . The law of nature, which is the Constitution of the God of nature, is universally obliging. It varies not with men’s humors or interests, but is immutable as the relations of things.
Rebellion against the laws of nature is rebellion against God in a fundamental or root manner. The person violating these laws involves himself in a personal offense against the nature of God. In many of these instances, especially the ones I’m describing, they become an abomination to Him. You can deny that, but you’ll still face God.
Our world reacts to symbols. The Swastika. The Hammer and Sickle. The Gay Flag. Men wearing skirts. The symbols mark identity in an elemental way.
The downfall on identity began first with the abdication and then the repudiation of symbols. Identity confusion and chaos starts with renouncing the symbols. If you think they’re meaningless, then why do they trigger such strong reactions?
John MacArthur: A Conservative Evangelical Preaches on Separation
A sermon popped up in the notifications on my phone late last week and it said, “Come Out from Their Midst and Be Ye Separate (2 Corinthians 6:14-18)” by John MacArthur. Apparently it was something preached earlier in March at his Shepherd’s Conference, but only posted three days before. I was very surprised to see the text and especially the title with the word “separate” in it.
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