Auld Lang Syne for Eric Metaxas, Kings Charles III and Lemuel

In the lead-in to the part of Proverbs 31 concerning the woman who fears the Lord, not as often remarked on in my experience is how the mother of King Lemuel asks him three times in a row what he is doing.

By the way, while we’re on the subject, always in Scripture, when you see a word or phrase repeated two times in a row – for instance, when Jesus says “truly, truly” in the gospels – the veracity and importance of what follows is being greatly emphasized. If you see it repeated thrice – like when the seraphim Isaiah sees flying around God’s throne cry out “Holy, Holy, Holy” – you best listen up and pay attention. Google tells me this is referred to by some as an emphatic Semitic triplet.

Here is one in Proverbs 31. When Lemuel is warned by his mother to be wary of the influence on good judgment of both women and drink, she asks him three times what he is doing. That is, she really wants him to think about the answer to that question.

We would be wise to consider the wisdom of the admonition from Lemuel’s mother dear, to not give our strength to either females or alcohol, without reservation, becoming a slave to our desire for them. And this is because we must remember our duty before God, to do justice, and to “open your mouth” for those whose rights are being trampled on.

I have another by the way for you, while we’re considering this passage of Scripture. If a very pious type of Christian who doesn’t think we should get involved in politics ever tells you the Bible is silent on the question of rights, or that it’s selfish, carnal, and ungodly for us to talk about them as American Christians, this is a passage you should ask them about.

Speaking of speaking up for those whose rights are being abused, I was invited to attend an event put on here locally in Fort Collins, Colorado last month, at which New York Times Bestselling Author Eric Metaxas spoke. Loving his biographies of Luther and Bonhoeffer as I do, declining the invitation was an unfortunate necessity, as we host a theology study group in our home on Friday nights.

Fortunately, however, my friend from church, Dave Knoshaug, whose invitation I had to turn down, kindly provided me with a link to the speech Metaxas gave so I could still hear what he’d said, and I present it here for your consideration as well, having listened to it now twice in the last week, and finding it excellent.

Metaxas is right, you know. And Bonhoeffer and Wilberforce and Luther were also right. God will not hold us guiltless if we say nothing in the face of evil.

Evil is not just what we call things that happened far away and long ago, which there is no cost for us opposing now. Thinking otherwise is a little trick we play on ourselves sometimes to feel brave and virtuous.

No, we must in our own time also call evil how the U.S. government and Twitter censored true information which was inconvenient to COVID-19 policy, for instance. And for brief overviews of the latest on that, consider this reporting by Dillon Burroughs at The Daily Wire, or this entry from Jack Phillips at The Epoch Times.

Yes, you heard that right. I say that it was evil that experts and laypeople alike were silenced, and both their reputations and influence quashed, when they objected to themselves, their families, their friends, and their countrymen being abused and oppressed, with coronavirus used as pretext and excuse. It was evil, and it still is evil, and it always evil. Thus those who did such things either have some repentance to do, or else God’s judgement is a-coming for them.

It was also evil that corrupt men, like Anthony Fauci and Francis Collins, convinced prominent leaders of the American church to spiritualize the abuse of their congregants and co-laborers. Christians in particular, as the conscience of the United States of America, were told that their testimony and witness would be damaged or destroyed if they dared question or disagree with the so-called “Settled Science” relative lockdowns and mandates and laws, regulations, and even our Constitution and Bill of Rights bypassed.

Never forget that included in this government’s conception of valid scientific inquiry is spending $118,971 to determine whether Thanos could have actually snapped his fingers while wearing the Infinity Gauntlet. I will forgive you for wondering whether they were hoping it was possible to make Trump voters and fly-over country Americans vanish, just like that.

Though, to be fair, there are 14 states where that pretty penny, to my way of thinking, would have supported one family of four on welfare over the course of a year.

What’s next? The police arresting American women for being anti-social if they’re caught praying outside abortion clinics, like police in the UK did to this British woman recently?

Or what’s next? Members of American royalty getting a slap on the wrist if they stand accused of paying to rape teenage girls, like British royal Prince Andrew recently was evicted from Buckingham Palace for?

It would seem that, for both better and worse, there is a difference between passing laws and actually enforcing them, as The Billings Gazette informed its readers 100 years ago in relation to the topic of Prohibition.

Seriously, though. We American Christians must learn to do more than complain, like Mark Woodley, the sports reporter at KWWL-TV in Iowa who was sent out into the frozen winter night to cover the bad weather recently.

What is needed is not whining and complaining, nor either is silence acceptable. We have an opportunity here, no less in trials, or when threats and lies are breathed out by wicked men, to honor and obey the Lord our God. Therefore, we must re-learn, if we will be obedient children of God, to call for repentance instead of offering cheap grace and calling that faithful Christlikeness.

Enough of suffering fools gladly, especially in the Church, who cheapen God’s mercy when they spiritualize cowardice and flattery, calling that testimony and encouragement which is actually complicity, acquiescence, and affirmation of evil and injustice.

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