Eric the Excuse Expert & A Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin

Selling Jesus and the Excuse of Bad Associations

Allow me to introduce you to Eric. Eric is the leader of a prominent publisher of valuable resources in the field of Biblical studies. He loves God with all of his heart and wants to see the church edified and grow in the knowledge of Christ through the amazing things he publishes.

In spite of knowing the Bible better than just about anyone, he still has not considered whether commercializing the truth of Scripture is something God condones or condemns. If he were to be honest, the question has never crossed his mind.

One day, a prominent Bible translation ministry called Lingua Divina Translators came to him with a proposition. They encouraged him to consider how much more impact his resources could have if he were to free them up under open licenses, especially so that the Bible translation movement could use them without any legal or financial hindrance.

At first, Eric thought they were absolutely crazy and dismissed the idea. Then, he read something they sent him that explained the philosophy more thoroughly and it slowly began to dawn on him that perhaps they were right.

Maybe it would be more strategic for the kingdom if he released his catalog under open licenses. In subsequent days, Eric explored the internet for more information about open licenses and giving ministry freely.

Eventually, he ran across a Christian website he hadn't seen before that was dedicated to the free and open movement. Scrolling through the content, he got the sense that these people were too radical for his taste.

To him, they came across as arrogant because they invoked so much Scripture and seemed so sure of their position. Without taking the time to truly read and understand their arguments, he closed his browser in a state of irritation and annoyance.

These people were probably angry extremists ready to attack anyone who disagreed with them. Even worse, they seemed to hail from a theological tradition that was antithetical to his own. He picked up his phone and dialed Lingua Divina.

He told them that, while he had nearly been ready to follow through with their proposal, he didn't want to be associated with the other questionable people out there preaching the same ideas. He was offended that there were other people advocating for a free and open Christian world in a way that was unappealing to him and that these were dangerous extremists who had no tact in how they argued against monetizing ministry.

I regret to inform you that I will not be willing to release my catalog and that's my final answer, he said and hung up. Eric has jumped to a conclusion derived from baseless assumptions that supports his emotional proclivity towards anything that might cast a shadow of doubt on his actions.

He's also under the deception that he can dismiss truth based on whoever might happen to be associated with it. Instead of owning the ideas of the free and open movement for himself and coming to his own conclusions, he is looking for an excuse to avoid obedience to Scripture.

Just as atheists blame the bad Christians they've encountered for their own unbelief, Eric blames other Christians for his unwillingness to follow Christ's command to freely give. Christians whom he has not even taken the time to truly listen to.

What he does not want to admit to himself is that Lingua Divina caused him to face a suppressed element of greed in his heart, and he didn't like it. He welcomes any excuse to go back to enjoying the status quo that the world affirms.

Instead of wanting to do the right thing because it's right, Eric only wants to do the right thing if the quote-unquote right people are doing it. Unsurprisingly, Eric's excuse is not new. It was actually common among Christians who didn't want to be involved in abolishing the slave trade.

People like the Quakers were abolitionists, but other believers like the Presbyterians had theological differences with them, so they refused to do anything about the evil of the slave trade simply to avoid being affiliated with the quote-unquote wrong people.

And that's just one small example. Others said, well, there are women speaking out publicly against the slave trade, which I find improper. It's not a woman's place to do that, so I won't speak out against these evils lest I somehow be associated with these extremist females.

Others, much like the prophets of the Old Testament, used harsh language to condemn the wickedness they saw in the slave trade. Many mild-mannered Christians couldn't stomach that way of opposing slavery, so they refused to do the right thing lest they be linked to those radical preachers.

Harriet Beecher Stowe on the Wrong Spirit in Abolition

Harriet Beecher Stowe paints a brilliant portrait of all of this in part two of her book, A Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin, which was an exhaustive documentation and proof of the veracity of what she had depicted in her novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin.

So enough of me telling you about it, let me read to you a section of what she wrote. And as you listen, I'd encourage you to mentally apply it to the Jesus trade. It couldn't be more relevant to our current day and age.

But it will be said, the abolition enterprise was begun in a wrong spirit by reckless, meddling, impudent fanatics. Well, supposing that this were true, how came it to be so? If the Church of Christ had begun it right, these so-called fanatics would not have begun it wrong.

In a deadly pestilence, if the right physicians do not prescribe, everybody will prescribe. Men, women, and children will prescribe because something must be done. If the Presbyterian Church in 1818 had pursued the course the Quakers did, there never would have been any fanaticism.

The Quakers did all by brotherly love. They melted the chains of mammon only in the fires of a divine charity. When Christ came into Jerusalem after all the mighty works that He had done, while all the so-called better classes were non-committal or opposed, the multitude cut down branches of palm trees and cried, Hosanna.

There was a most indecorous tumult. The very children caught the enthusiasm and were crying, Hosanna's in the temple. This was contradictory to all ecclesiastical rules. It was a highly improper state of things.

The chief priests and scribes said unto Jesus, Master, speak unto these that they hold their peace. That gentle eye flashed as He answered, I tell you, if these should hold their peace, the very stones would cry out.

Suppose a fire bursts out in the streets of Boston, while the regular conservators of the city who have the keys of the fire engines and the regulation of fire companies are sitting together in some distant part of the city consulting for the public good.

The cry of fire reaches them, but they think it is a false alarm. The fire is no less real for all that. It burns and rages and roars till everybody in the neighborhood sees that something must be done.

A few stout leaders break open the doors of the engine houses, drag out the engines and begin regularly or irregularly playing on the fire. But the destroyer still advances. Messengers come in hot haste to the hall of these deliberators and in the unselected language of fear and terror revile them for not coming out.

Bless me, says a decorous leader of the body, what horrible language these men use. They show a very bad spirit, remarks another. We can't possibly join them in such a state of things. Here the more energetic members of the body rush out to see if the thing be really so and in a few minutes come back, if possible more earnest than the others.

Oh, there is a fire, a horrible dreadful fire. The city is burning, men, women, children all burning, perishing. Come out, come out as the Lord liveth. There is but a step between us and death. I am not going out.

Everybody that goes out gets crazy, says one. I've noticed, says another, that as soon as anybody goes out to look, he gets just so excited. I won't look. But by this time the angry fire has burned into their very neighborhood.

The red demon glares into their windows and now fairly aroused, they get up and begin to look out. Well, there is a fire and no mistake, says one. Something ought to be done, says another. Yes, says a third, if it wasn't for being mixed up with such a crowd and rabble of folks, I'd go out.

Upon my word, says another, there are women in the ranks carrying pails of water. There, one woman is going up a ladder to get those children out. What indecorum! If they'd manage this matter properly, we would join them.

And now come lumbering over from Charlestown the engines and fire companies. What impudence of Charlestown, say these men, to be sending over here just as if we could not put our own fires out. They have fires over there as much as we do.

And now the flames roar and burn and shake hands across the streets. They leap over the steeples and glare demoniacally out of the church windows. For heaven's sake, do something, is the cry. Pull down the houses, blow up those blocks of stores with gunpowder, anything to stop it.

See now what ultra-radical measures they are going at, says one of these spectators. Brave men who have rushed into the thickest of the fire come out and fall dead in the street. They are impracticable enthusiasts.

They have thrown their lives away in foolhardiness, says another. So, Church of Christ burns that awful fire, ever more burning, burning, burning over church and altar, burning over senate house and forum, burning up liberty, burning up religion.

No earthly hands kindled that fire. From its sheeted flame and wreaths of sulfurous smoke glares out upon thee the eye of that enemy who was a murderer from the beginning. It is a fire that burns to the lowest hell.

Church of Christ, there was an hour when this fire might have been extinguished by thee. Now thou standest like a mighty man astonished, like a mighty man that cannot save. But the hope of Israel is not dead.

The Savior thereof, in time of trouble, is yet alive. If every church in our land were hung with mourning, if every Christian should put on sackcloth, if the priest should weep between the porch and the altar and say, Spare thy people, O Lord, and give not thy heritage to reproach, that were not too great a mourning for such a time as this.

The Holy Trinity, the Church, and the Sin of Slavery

O Church of Jesus, consider what hath been said in the midst of thee. What a heresy hast thou tolerated in thy bosom! Thy God, the defender of slavery? Thy God, the patron of slave law? Thou hast suffered the character of thy God to be slandered.

Thou hast suffered false witness against thy Redeemer and thy Sanctifier. The Holy Trinity of heaven has been foully traduced in the midst of thee, and that God whose throne is awful injustice has been made the patron and leader of oppression.

This is a sin against every Christian on the globe. Why do we love and adore beyond all things our God? Why do we say to Him, From our inmost souls, Whom have I in heaven but thee? And there is none upon earth I desire beside thee.

Is this a bought-up worship? Is it a cringing and hollow subserviency because He is great and rich and powerful and we dare not do otherwise? His eyes are a flame of fire. He reads the inmost soul and will accept no such service.

From our souls we adore and love Him because He is holy and just and good and will not at all acquit the wicked. We love Him because He is the Father of the fatherless, the Judge of the widow, because He lifteth all who fall and raiseth them that are bowed down.

We love Jesus Christ because He is the Lamb without spot, the One altogether lovely. We love the Holy Comforter because He comes to convince the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. O Holy Church Universal, throughout all countries and nations, O ye great cloud of witnesses of all people and languages and tongues, differing in many doctrines but united in crying, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, for He hath redeemed us from all iniquity.

Awake! Arise up! Be not silent! Testify against this heresy of the latter day, which, if it were possible, is deceiving the very elect. Your God, your glory, is slandered. Answer with the voice of many waters and mighty thunderings.

Answer with the innumerable multitude in heaven who cry day and night, Holy, Holy, Holy! Just and true are thy ways, O King of saints!