Monday, October 04, 2004
(6:16 PM) | Adam Kotsko:
Epistle to the Americans
The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all the impiety and injustice of those who by their injustice suppress and imprison the truth. For what can be known about God -- what God intends a human being to be, what it means to be a decent human being -- is clear to them, because God has shown it to them. Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made -- and not only the things, but also the people he has made, those individuals who sought justice even when engulfed in injustice. So they are without excuse; for though they knew God, they did not honor him as God or react gratefully to his goodness, but instead they hoarded his creation for themselves and they became futile in their thinking, and their senseless minds were darkened by greed and lust for power. Claiming to be wise, they became fools -- claiming to promote "democracy," they centralized power in the hands of a few -- and they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling the cross of Christ but stripped of its substance, for graven images of the Ten Commandments, and above all for a piece of "sacred" red-white-and-blue cloth.Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to self-degradation, becasue they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshipped and served capital rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. For this reason God gave them up to degrading passions. Their women exchanged their "traditional" role of nurturer and supporter for that of a prop in a partisan game, and in the same way also the men, giving up the loyalty and mutual respect befitting men, began to view each other as pawns. They exchanged their commitment to the dignity and well-being of all for the profit of a few. Men told shameful lies and started shameful wars, and they received their reward in body-bags.
And since they did not see fit to acknowledge the basic human decency God requires, God gave them up to a debased mind and to things that should not be done. They were filled with every kind of injustice, evil, covetousness, malice. Full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, craftiness, they are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, haughty, bostful, inventors of evil, rebellious toward parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. They know God's decree, that those who practice such things deserve to die--yet they not only do them but even appluad others who practice them.
Therefore you have no excuse, whoever you are -- be you a liberal senator or a conservative pundit -- when you judge others; for in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, cannot help but do the things that the system requires of you. You say, "We know that God's judgment on those who implement disasterous policies is in accordance with the truth." Do you imagine, you elite opinion-shaper, that when you judge those who do such things and yet encourage them and claim you would do the same in their place, you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you rather test his patience by showing that you despise the riches of his kindness and forebearance and patience? Do you not realize that God's kindness in holding back his judgment is meant to lead you to repentance? But by your hard and impenitent hearts -- by your petty casuistry, your refusal ever to repent -- you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath, when God's just judgment will be revealed.
For God will repay each according to his deeds: to those who by patiently doing good seek liberty, truth, and justice, he will give eternal life in freedom; while for those who seek only their "bottom line" and who exploit others for their own gain, there will be wrath and fury. There will be anguish and distress for everyone who does evil, the Christian first and also the heathen, but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Christian first and also the heathen. For God shows no partiality. All who have sinned apart from the Bible will also perish apart from the Bible, and all who have sinned under the Bible will be judged by the Bible. For it is not the hearers of the Word of God who are just in God's sight, but those who meet the just requirements of that Word will be justified. When heathens, who do not know the Bible, act instinctively in the just and decent way the Bible requires, these, though not having the Bible, have a Word of God to themselves. They show that what the Word requires is written on their hearts, to which their own conscience also bears witness; and their conflicting thoughts will accuse or perhaps excuse them on the day when, according to the gospel, God will judge the secret thoughts of all through his Crucified Son.
But if you call yourself a Christian and rely on the Bible and boast of your personal relationship with Jesus Christ and know his plan for your life and discern what is best because you study the Bible, and if you are sure that you are the light of the world, the salt of the earth, a savior of children from godless humanism, having in the Bible the very blueprints by which God intended life to be lived -- you that preach so loudly to others, will you not preach to yourself? While you preach against the evils of Darwinism, do you propagate the lies of market fundamentalism? You that forbid abortion, do you turn a blind eye to the real needs of poor women who find themselves unexpectedly pregnant? You that abhor Hollywood, do you set up your own system of celebrities for your children to worship? You that boast in the Bible, do you dishonor God by using the Bible as a rationale for injustice and hatred? For as one could say, "No one would be an atheist if it weren't for all the Christians." Christian faith is indeed of value if you practice it; but if you do not practice it, you effectively become just like the heathen. So if the heathens manage to follow God's Word of justice, won't they be regarded as though they had been believers? Then those who don't officially identify themselves with Christianity but who follow God's Word will condemn you that have the Bible and conversion experiences but ignore God's Word when it counts. For a person is not a Christian who is one outwardly, nor is Christian faith a matter of talking the talk and showing up at church every week. Rather, a person is a follower of Christ who is one inwardly, and true Christianity is a transformation of the heart -- it is a matter of spirited action, not of insistence on literal interpretations. A person who truly follows God's Word worries not about praise from others, but about praise from God.
Evangelical Christian: Then what advantage has the Christian? Or what value is identifying with the Christian church?
Me: Much in every way! For in the first place, Christians have been entrusted with the testimony to God's saving work in Christ. And really, what if some have abused the gospel? Will their faithfulness nullify God's?
EC: By no means! Although every president is a liar, let God be proved true, as it is written, "So that you may be justified in your words, and prevail in your judging."
Me: But if our injustice serves to confirm the justice of God, what should we say? That God is unjust to inflict wrath on us? (I just say this for the sake of argument of course.)
EC: By no means! For then how could God judge the world?
Me: But if through my falsehood God's truthfulness abounds to his glory, why am I still being condemned as a sinner? And why not just go ahead and say, "Christians aren't perfect, just forgiven," or even "There will be a lot of 'good people' in hell"? (Those who say such things deserve condemnation!)
EC: Alright, I was with you up to that point, but you lost me -- so are you saying that we Christians are no better off?
Me: No, not at all; for we have already charged that all, both Christians and heathens, are under the power of sin, as "Scripture clearly states" and as you could find out during Lent and on Good Friday.
Now we know that whatever the Bible says, it says to those who claim the Bible, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world be held accountable to God. For not everyone needs to join into the Christian subculture to practice justice.
[That's as far as I'm going tonight. We're somewhere in the middle of Chapter 3.]
