Friday, November 10, 2023

The Devil's Keywords

Here is a list, simple and straightforward.  It is a list of things we are meant to desire to be.

POWERFUL.  WEALTHY.  STRONG.  PROUD.  SAFE.

Throughout human history, those concepts have animated and driven many nations, and countless human beings.

But are these what you want to be, if you claim to be Christian?  They are not.  None of these states of being represents a meaningful expression of the basic moral orientation Jesus teaches.  

All of them represent the essence of what Christians...meaning, those who do what their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ asks of them...seek to avoid.

POWER? We do not desire power, any more than Jesus himself desired power.  When power was offered him, power over the whole world, he turned it down. 

WEALTH?  Wealth may be the goal of the prosperity gospel movement, but that fools-faith ain't got nothing to do with Jesus, honeychild.  Wealth, and the desire for wealth?  Jesus is real clear to those who follow him: those things imperil your soul.

STRENGTH?  Yeah, that's worldly power again, the ability to assert dominance.  

PRIDE?  Dear Lord in Heaven, that's a Mortal Sin, and something that the much vaunted "Biblical Worldview" fundamentally rejects.

SAFE?  Being Christian isn't about being "safe."  Jesus wasn't interested in being safe.  Neither were the apostles, or the martyrs through the ages.  There's nothing safe about the cross.

Invoking the name of God over this list of Antichristian values is so...peculiar.  

Almost like the man writing them is telling us something about himself.  I wonder what that might be.