“Blessed [fortunate, prosperous, and favored by God] is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked [following their advice and example], Nor stand in the path of sinners, Nor sit [down to rest] in the seat of scoffers (ridiculers). But his delight is in the law of the Lord, And on His law [His precepts and teachings] he [habitually] meditates day and night.”
Psalms 1:1-2 AMP
(Excerpt from Jason’s forthcoming book – God willing, of course – “The Way of Peace.”)
Many Christians miss this point altogether because they’ve bought into the other great flim-flam of the day, which is the myth of neutrality. But man isn’t and never can be neutral; to even suggest that he can be is itself a rejection of God’s definition of man in Scripture. It’s the first shot of man’s war on God to say that man, the creature, can think univocally rather than analogically. God’s law is written into the fabric of life – in the world around us, its structures, and categories, and on our hearts. The non-believer who disputes with the Christian philosophy is like a criminal who breaks into a house, but the homeowner has a shotgun. Undeterred, the bad guy asks for the gun. He reasons, “hey, it’s not fair that you’re armed and I’m not…give me the gun.” The Christian who accepts the myth of neutrality hands over the Mossberg and then wonders why he got blasted and the house was ransacked. In case you’re keeping score, this is exactly why atheists who don’t believe in God and absolute morality literally keep winning the so-called culture war. So-called conservative Christians accept the myth as a matter of course and it never dawns on them why they’re losing debates about morality and rights to people who don’t believe in them in the first place.
Christians far and wide surrender their weapon, which is the word of God and the rock-solid premises it provides, to appease the non-believer. The thing they need desperately to know is that unless God is, there are no rights at all. To debate someone about logic and morality – as all debates are at their core – without having them provide their foundation for such is exactly like handing the intruder one’s 12-gauge.
If we’re to have a revival it must be based on the rock, the solid ground, not the shifting sands of humanism and false religion. The critic – that is, God’s critic, the one who dares question the Almighty – must not be given intellectual quarter. What type of faithfulness is it that joins the critic? What type of honor has the man or woman that agrees with the central thrust of unbelief? The myth of neutrality is the very doorway that brings us all into the horrors of syncretism and idolatry. The door is nice. It always has fresh paint and is decorated quite fine. The turn of the knob, the crossing of that threshold, though…is literally the counsel of the wicked (Psalm 1:1). The myth of neutrality is the gravest threat to the church and the Christian precisely because it’s so very subtle. To think we can have His blessing while we walk in, at best, polytheism is like thinking our spouse will be okay with a little adultery.
Again: the Christian must give no quarter. Straight is the path and narrow is the way of truth. All argumentation that raises itself up against the Lord must be challenged at its very core (1 Peter 3:15; 2 Corinthians 10:5; Psalm 1:1). The myth of neutrality is walking in the counsel of the wicked, and standing in the way of sinners, and then at long last, sitting and resting in that seat of scoffers, rather than taking delight in the law of the Lord.
Let the critic build the foundation of his Christ-less worldview first, and then launch his ethical assault from that base. Why do we give him the weapons of truth with which to wage his war of lies? Christians must learn to obey the Lord, presume Him first in all their thinking (1 Peter 3:15; Proverbs 3:5-6; Romans 12:1-2), and challenge unbelief at its core. We must learn and believe that there’s no “truth” that can be raised except upon the Christian story – that is, the story of Christ.
“We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,” 2 Corinthians 10:5 ESV
The burden of proof, in other words, is on the atheist/unbeliever in every case. God can’t be put in the dock because in order to think at all we have to literally presume Him, in this case, His moral law and truth. To open our mouth to make an argument or judgment, and to live at all with our neighbors, we presume that truth and morality are baked into the cake of reality, so to say. The thing is, (and it’s a very, very big thing) Christian philosophy makes sense of these most elemental points and nothing else does. Why shouldn’t I pop you in the beak to make a point? Why shouldn’t I enslave you because that’s easier than, you know, doing the work myself? God’s moral law governs all human conduct, that’s why. If we’re mere grown-up germs, what’s all this caterwauling about rights? Why are slavery, murder, rape, or any other thing truly wrong in a world of mere material laws?
There can be no exemption given. The Christian philosophy provides the foundation for life’s basic operating premises right out of the gate. No other worldview, following the logical implications of their premises, does this and needs, therefore, to provide the God-free foundation of why what we know actually matters. Just because isn’t an explanation. On this point all the arrogance of intellectual pride unravels.
Recent Comments