Keep sharing good news without ads.
No description available
Alright, everybody, welcome back to the channel. I hope you had a good weekend, a good Lord's Day, and of course, a good everything. This Monday, I wanted to kick things off by letting everybody know that, you know, I might have been wrong.
This whole Satan statue thing, it was a trap. We'll get to that in a minute, but I did want to say this, that I actually do believe that this, uh, this, this, this Satan statue thing is, uh, has been actually a really big gift, especially for those of us, like myself, that are, um, that are just notorious peacemakers.
I think, um, one of the things about the whole Christian nationalism controversy that I think has been upsetting to a lot of people is that, um, it seems to have created, uh, some factions, you know, and some unnecessary divisions.
And I agree. I think that, um, the way that G3, for example, um, they were the big offenders here, in my opinion. The way that they came out, um, and it's not that they came out swinging. I mean, it's okay to be against Christian nationalism.
I've always said that, or to at least not be a Christian nationalist. I mean, that's, that's really what I'm talking about. There's, there's plenty of people that refuse the label that I think are friends.
I think that they're not, uh, necessarily enemies. Um, and so, so the way that G3 came out, um, you know, saying stupid stuff like we're racist and want a Protestant Pope and, and, and all that brain dead stuff that they were doing, uh, was very upsetting to a lot of people.
And it was unnecessary, I think is the point. Um, and I'm not saying that everyone on G3 is a friend, um, because I, I don't think that's the case, but there are some people at G3 that are friends, in my opinion, and in real life too.
Um, and I think what we got with this Satan statue thing is a little bit of a, of a hint as to who's who, right? There are a lot of non-Christian nationalists, and some might even call them anti-Christian nationalists, that understand that, um, you know, you don't have to actually crusade for the rights for Satan statues to be erected in government buildings, no matter what the reason.
Because that's what a lot of people are saying, they don't even really worship Satan, you know, and it's like, I really don't care, I mean, honestly, I don't care if they worship Satan or not, the fact that they want to put a Satan statue in the government, uh, state house is unacceptable, and it doesn't matter what the reason is, it's unacceptable and it shouldn't be allowed.
And so, so, but, but, but this whole, the fallout since, uh, that guy knocked it down, right, and I guess he beheaded it as well, I don't really know what happened with that. I know nothing about it, but the fact that that guy knocked it down, and the reaction to it, I think has given us a window into who it is that are, are, are enemies in this whole thing, and who it is that we should have a lot of patience with.
Because there are many, and I do mean many, there are many non and maybe even anti-Christian nationalists that understand that, that Satan's statue has no place in the state capitol. And, and, and we might think as Christian nationalists, or even theonomists, you know, some theonomists understand this too, well, a lot of theonomists understand this, I would say.
We might think, well, they're inconsistent, you know, that why, why wouldn't they be a theonomist, or why wouldn't they be a Christian nationalist if they agree that Satan has no place in the halls of our Congress, or, or, or state houses, rather.
And, and that's fine, let them be inconsistent. But those people are people that we can work with, number one, and we can also have a lot of patience with. You know, there's a lot of pressure on people like that to call us racist, you know, Nazis, all this stuff, and that doesn't mean that they get a pass for doing it, like, they shouldn't do that still, because I'm not, you know, I'm not, I'm not against, you know, any ethnicity, right, I'm not a, I'm not a kinist, I'm not these things.
But the thing is, like, when you, when you do that, when you, when you, when you throw all of your, your, your eggs in that basket, you look stupid, and it creates a problem between us, you know what I mean, like, it creates a division there, and I'm, I'm ready to, to, to repair that division instantly, you know, you just gotta stop doing it, you don't even have to apologize to me, I, I, I, you don't even have to ask for my forgiveness, you know, you already have it, if you're willing to avail yourself of it, but just stop doing it, and everything will be fine.
Those people we can work with, but the people that we cannot work with, that are diametrically opposed to every single thing that's Christian about public theology, those people, those are, those are the people we need to have, we need to save our, our most, our strongest attacks for.
The people that think that, that somehow, like, like, yeah, they'll say they want Christian influence in the government, but what they mean is, we just want Christians to have a seat at the table, you know what I mean, yeah, sure, God, you know, God says the government is his deacon, but really, Christians should only have a seat at the table, and of course, Hindus should have a seat, and, and Buddhists should have a seat, and, you know, Satanists, whatever, they should all have a seat, it's even Stevens, things like that.
Those people cannot be reasoned with, they have a, they have a, a faith, and a theology that is so satanic, that they have not the, like, they need to repent, in order to understand these things, they, like, they're, they're in sin, and I would say that people that, that, that, you know, they're not so sure about the label of Christian nationalism, maybe they're against nationalism, they shouldn't be, you know, obviously, but, but they understand that.
They understand that, that, that when they say we should have Christian-influenced government, they mean something like the general equity of the law, you know what I mean, they do mean something like that, and they may be inconsistent, and they may not know that they mean that, but they do, so when you get one of these anti-Christian nationalists that understands that, yeah, yeah, there should be no, it should not be allowed to have a Satan statue in, in, in, in a state capitol, that's obviously insane, those people, I think, not only can they be one, but even if they're never one, they can be worked with, and you should have patience with those people, you know, A .D. Robles is a peacemaker, simple as that, and so this whole episode has revealed, you know, kind of who's who, and, and all of that kind of thing, but, but, but, but here's what I wanted to get to, you know, a lot of people are talking about how this was a trap, you know, you took the bait, things like that, and, you know, you, why'd you do this, they wanted you to do it, and I, and I covered that, yes, in the last episode, you know, sometimes people bait you into something, and you should go into it with eyes open, of course, if you're going to go and do that thing, you should go into it with eyes open, you should know, you know, what to expect, and how you're going to react when they inevitably, you know, arrest you, and charge you with crimes, and stuff like that, you should do that in, in a shrewd way, and you should do a calculation, you know, what's the benefit of me doing this, and what's the potential costs, and I, I, I know nothing about this Cassidy guy, but I, I, I refuse to believe he did that, not expecting to be arrested, not expecting to be charged with crimes, I think he knew that, and he did a calculus to say, you know, yeah, that's going to cost me, but the possible benefit, and it's the right thing to do, the possible benefit is, is greater than the cost, that's a, that's a really good kind of case study in, in cost benefit analysis, I think what he did is going to end up being a big positive, yeah, sure, it was a trap, but it was a trap that the pagans are falling into themselves, that's the thing, you know, I, I put out a tweet the other day that was just the proverb, you know, the wicked digs a pit and falls into it himself, and I got a, more than a couple of responses that said, I can't, no, that's, that's stupid, well, I mean, it's a proverb, you know, it's, it's bottom line, it's a, it's a proverb, that's what happens when, when the pagans set traps, they're so sinful, and they're so debased, that they actually end up screwing themselves in the process, that's what we should expect, that's what we should expect, and yet, we run around, well, a lot of us run around fearful of, of the extreme competence of God's enemies, like, what the freak is that, the extreme competence of God's enemies, they're always five steps ahead of, of God's people, it doesn't make any sense at all to think that way, that's not what the Bible tells us is going to happen, so why would we have such little faith in that regard, that doesn't mean that the enemy is totally incompetent, they're not totally incompetent, but they're, they are incompetent, anyway, but, but, but as far as the trap thing, yeah, I think this actually is a trap, and a lot of Christians are falling into this trap, and here's what the trap is, the trap is, let me, let me think of the best way to put this, so, so the trap is essentially this, that you don't want a Satan statue there, so they're going to put it up, because they know you don't want it there, they know you don't want it there, and so the trap, I think, is a political one, because what they're going to say is what Alexis Neuenhuis, I don't know who this is, but he, he tweeted this at me, and I thought this was a really good way to put it, he says, quote, do you know what the best way to not have a Satanic statue in a government building is?
Excuse me, I had a, I had a, I had a cough there. You know what the best way to not have a Satanic statue in a government building is by banning all religious symbols and displays in government buildings.
Either you allow all religions to display, or you don't. You can't pick and choose which faith is allowed to display. This is actually something that James Lindsay said as well, if you remember from last week's episode.
You know, that you should have used the same tactics that the pagans used to remove the Ten Commandments. And so the idea is, is that this is even Stevens, this is a neutral space, and so, hey, I know you don't want, you know, statues to Satan, and I know you don't want Hindu statues in the state capitol, here's a good way, this is the, this is the lolly that they're offering you.
You know, when the freaking creep in the van offers the kid a lolly, you should train the kid not to take it. This is the lolly, they say, I know this Satan statue bothers you, here is what you do. Make this an officially secular, even Stevens, neutral space.
Do it according to the law, the way we did it. That's the lolly. And so they're, they're tempting you, the trap is that you're so against a Satan statue, and we should be. We're so against a statue to Satan, again, for whatever reason you put it up, we're so against it that we are willing to say, okay, this is a secular space, no religious displays at all.
That was the temptation, that was the trap. And so many people are falling into it. They were, like, I don't know what these, the Temple of Satan was expecting to happen, I don't know what they were expecting to happen, but I do know that one of their goals is to kick religion out of politics.
And as a Christian, we have to understand, this is basic Christianity, basic. The state, the civil governing authority, the rulers that we do have, work for the Lord. And they can do it overtly and well, or they can do it just by providence and poorly.
But that is what they are. It's the same word that we use for servant in the church. They are deacons of God. Now, they serve God in a different way than deacons in your church, in a much different way.
But they are still deacons, slaves, servants of God. And so to pretend, and to take this lolly, and to say, yeah, okay, yeah, I really hate Satan. So, yeah, yeah, this is a secular space. That is absolute anarchy.
That's paganism, is what that is. The civil governing authority is not a neutral space, is not a secular space. And that is not our space to give away. It's not ours to give away. It's the Lord's space.
It's the Lord's revenger. It's the Lord's deacon. That is what the Bible says without any equivocation. That is what's going on with the civil governing authority. Now, God uses that in providence however he wants.
I mean, the heart of the king is like a river, you know, and he... Is that what it says? Man, I'm misquoting the Bible there. Anyway, we understand that in providence God uses... Man, I should have looked that scripture up.
Anyway, we understand that in providence God uses the magistrate any way he wants. He uses it for cursing or blessing. But the thing is, the magistrate is not excused for his behavior. I mean, we've got so many examples of this in the Old Testament where, you know, the king of Assyria is used as a rod in God's hands.
And he's using the king of Assyria to punish the... To discipline the Israelites. And then, so he does that work, you know. That's what he uses them for in providence. And then he turns to the king of Assyria and he says, Oh, by the way, you're not off the hook.
Just because I use you like a glob of clay, you're not off the hook because you didn't do it for me. You should have been doing it for me. You didn't do it for me. You did it for yourselves. You did it for your own evil reasons.
And he turns around and punishes Assyria. So you see, so there's two aspects of this. There's providence and then there's also, you should do it because God says you should do it. And so when we say that Christianity should influence politics or should dominate politics, it's because we understand that God says that this is his servant.
This is his revenger. Vengeance is mine, says the Lord. Here's my revenger, the civil governing authority. That's what we mean by that. We don't mean that Christianity should have a seat at the table in the secular space.
That's not the case at all. And so here's the trap. And lots of Christians are falling in. And I'll tell you right now, Cassidy didn't fall into this trap. Cassidy didn't fall into this trap. Now, he will be punished by a pagan government, of course.
But Cassidy didn't fall into this trap. So many of you fell into this trap, though, where you say, oh, no, no, if you let them have the Ten Commandments, well, then you have to let them have the Statue of Baphomet.
You've got to let them have the Statue to Baal. I mean, what other choice do we have? You've already taken the bait. You've taken the bait. James Lindsay has taken the bait. But, of course, it wasn't really bait to him.
This is his whole thing. He's a pagan. So, I mean, it's not really bait for him. This is just his program. The civil governing authority serves Christ, not the whims of the people. It's not like in the old days of Israel, where everyone does what's right in their own eyes.
Here's Wilco Distance. Wilco Distance is allegedly a Christian as well. And he's fully taken this bait. He has fallen for the trap. You know, he's always talking about the traps, and, oh, man, the pagans, they're like the most competent people around, and they always have these traps, and they always work.
Here's what Wilco Distance says. This guy does great me. I will admit that. I don't engage with him ever.
This guy greats me.
And I think I know what it is. It's this stupid freaking picture. I don't understand it. It bothers me. This bothers me. Anyway, here's what Wilco Distance says.
The satanic display on government property is a great example of the, quote, real action is your enemy's reaction. The right is missing the game here. The goal is to provoke the right into abolishing neutrality so the left, who controls the institutions, can further weaponize them.
The goal is to get you to accept the leftist premise that there is no liberal neutrality, a .k .a. it's not either but which, so that you're fighting on their territory. And when you are on their territory, they are going to absolutely destroy you.
That's what's happening. At some point, I'm going to have to do a thread about neutrality so we can put the myth that there is no neutrality to bed.
I'd like to see that, Wilco. Why don't you go ahead and do that? That will be really fun. Wilco has completely taken the bait. Wilco is the mouse in the mouse trap that hasn't quite died yet. And he's there, and his back is kind of broken, but he's still trying to get that cheese.
Have you ever seen a mouse like that? I always feel bad for those mice where the trap doesn't quite kill them, and they're there, and they're still alive, and they're still trying to get that cheese, even as they're there smushed by the trap.
He's still trying to get that cheese. Wilco Distance is a pathetic little man, a pathetic little man. He has given up the ghost here. He's saying, no, no, that if you do anything, you've fallen for their trap.
So you have to admit that this is a secular space. This is a secular space, because the pagans, they don't think it's a secular space. They don't think there's neutrality. They just think that they're right and that they own the space.
So what you need to do to win, what you need to do is to say, no, no, this is a secular space. This is insanity. God says the civil governing authority is his servant, is his revenger. Wilco Distance says, no, no, no, this is a neutral space.
This is a neutral space. It's for the people and by the people. Well, yeah, that's if the people are all Christians, and they're all trying to serve the Lord. But when you've got this mix of Hindus, pagans, atheists, whatever, all this stuff, then you've got tons of people, and you're trying to serve those people, but they all have different gods.
They all have different sources of law. You're polytheistic. When you're neutral, you're polytheistic, which is not neutral. It's not neutral. So Wilco here is saying, see, if you actually claim that the government is the Lord's, the government is actually on his shoulders,.
Then you're playing right into their trap. You're playing right into their trap because they're totally competent and will crush you.
What you need to do is say, no, no, peace, peace.
Let's be polytheists because politically this is polytheism.
And this is the scam.
You get these people, and whenever you see this formula, you can be almost 100 sure that whatever the person is going to say is a bunch of nonsense, right? As a Christian, I do this, but as an American, I do this.
It's like, what? That doesn't have to automatically be stupid, but usually it's stupid. So basically this is local distance saying, as a Christian, obviously I follow God's law. I mean, I don't know if you really would say that, but that's probably what he would say.
As a Christian, I follow God's moral law. As an American, polytheistic. Polytheistic because that space is sacred and neutral. It's neutral. I know God says, this is my servant. This is my revenger. They're supposed to be promoting what is good and punishing what is evil.
Sorry about that.
I lost my train of thought. I had to handle something with my son. But this guy's taking the bait. This is the trap here. The trap is to get you to hate Satan's statue so much that you agree to neutrality, which is exactly what Satan wants.
That's exactly what Satan wants because he understands that when you're politically polytheistic, the heart just wants what it wants, and the heart's going to go a whole bunch of different places, and you are going to be in the chaos that we're in right now.
Woeckl has taken the bait. Woeckl has fallen for the trap. He thinks he's so intelligent. He knows every secret scam that the pagans are doing with their infinite competence, and he's not willing to grant that God's deacon is obviously, according to Christ, the government is actually on Christ's shoulders.
Christ actually is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He actually does rule and reign, and he expects the people that serve him, he expects the government to obey him.
He expects it.
He's not willing to say that. He's not willing to say that. Instead, we're politically polytheistic. This is the trap. This is the trap. And Woeckl has stupidly and sinfully fallen into it, all while thinking that he's intellectually superior to blokes like you guys that make cigarettes for a living or carpenters and things like that.
You guys get it. Woeckl Distance does not. Woeckl Distance does not. Here's one from Michael O 'Fallon, and this one, I saw him also share this circle graph that came from Bill Roach, I think, and it also kind of said the same thing here.
I think this is the real issue that we have, and I've seen this many, many times. This is nothing new. I was a theonomist before I was a Christian nationalist. I'm still a theonomist. Obviously, everybody knows that.
But I've seen this kind of argumentation many, many times in the past, so this is nothing surprising or new. But here's what it says. It's got this poster here, and it says, Christian nationalism is an authoritarian political movement that is disguised as a genuine theological movement.
And he has to say this because the theology and just the many, many reformers that say Christian nationalist-type stuff, it's just a tsunami. It's a tsunami of sources. That's one of the best things about Stephen Wolff's book.
Even if you don't care for Stephen Wolff or you don't even care for his arguments or whatever, even if you don't like him, the book is worth getting because there's so many references in it that are so helpful.
They're so helpful, and even if just that, get him for the references. It's worth the price of admission. Christian nationalism is an authoritarian political movement that is disguised as a genuine theological movement.
He knows it's a theological movement, but what he's saying here is that's just a disguise. This is just authoritarianism. This is just they're looking for a dictator. They're looking for someone to rule your life and stuff like that.
And essentially what's being said here, in my opinion, is that God's law is authoritarian. God's law is authoritarian, and to have a Christian government that is overtly seeking to promote God's law, to promote Christian public policy, overtly, not just secretly, not just we're gonna do it because it comports with God's law.
No, we're going to do it because God is Lord and the civil governing authority is his deacon, and we are not going to allow threats to that order to rise up and to publicly mock Christ. We're not going to allow that.
That's what this statue was. It's a mockery of Jesus Christ.
That's what it is.
But to O 'Fallon, this is authoritarianism. To have an overtly Christian government that advantages Christianity, and maybe it allows unbelief, and I think probably most Christian, I would be okay with this.
I would allow unbelief, of course, if I was king for the day, but not publicly. You want to worship Satan? You're going to do that in the back alley. You're going to get an abortion anyway after we outlaw abortion.
You're going to get that at the most dangerous, seedy, creepy back alley abortionist possible, and we're going to find those places and cast a light on those places too, so you're not going to be safe anywhere.
That's right, and that's not authoritarianism, and if it is authoritarianism, it's a good kind. It's a good kind. I don't think it is, though. I don't think God's law is authoritarian at all. I don't.
I don't think it was authoritarian in the Old Testament, and I don't think it would be authoritarian now when we get the general equity and we apply it to our modern situation, because obviously not every law would be exactly carbon copied from Israel, but there's so much wisdom there that we need to extract as much as we can and bring it up to today.
I don't think we'll do that perfectly immediately. That's going to take a lot of work, and there's a lot of work that's already been done thinking about these things, but I think that obviously in practice we'd have to learn how to do that.
And it might seem authoritarian if you're a pagan or if you're an atheist or if you're a Hindu or all this kind of stuff. Well, that's too freaking bad, because the thing is the civil governing authority is not from Vishnu.
It doesn't serve Vishnu. It doesn't serve Satan. It doesn't serve Allah. It doesn't serve whatever rocks or trees the pagans want to worship. It doesn't serve those things. It serves Christ. Christ is actually the king.
He's actually lord over all the other lords and all the other kings.
So this is the thing.
If your position is that Christianity, overt public Christianity, unless it has a sacred secular neutral space, if your position is that overt public Christianity in the civil governing authority is authoritarian, I don't want to have to answer for that one.
I don't want to have to answer for that one. In any case, that's my video for today. Tomorrow, if I get to it,.
Maybe Wednesday,.
We're going to get to some of this Jenna Ellis stuff. Jenna Ellis, my goodness, she certainly has imploded quickly. It's very tempting to look at her arrest and her situation with the Trump lawsuit and then, of course, what she said and how she got technically out of that and then to see her trajectory since then.
It's very tempting to say, oh yeah, they got to her. But I don't know. I just don't think that that's what happened. I don't know. What do you think? Do you think that's what happened to Jenna Ellis? They got to her?
I don't think so. I think this is just who she is. You know, I don't doubt that she's smart,.
But for a smart person,.
She's not very bright. That's for sure. Not very bright at all. She's trying to theologize these past few days. It has been quite the scene, man. It has been quite the scene. But there it is, guys. I was wrong.
It really is a trap and a lot of Christians really did fall into the trap. Cassidy wasn't one of them.
Cassidy wasn't one of them.
Yeah, it's like local business here. See, if you claim the civil governing authority for Christ, you're playing on their playing field. You're definitely not playing on their playing field when you give up that space and say it's totally neutral and it's secular and we can all just play politics with each other to get more influence or less influence.
That's not playing on their playing field, no. When you're playing on their playing field, it's when you say, no, no, this is actually the Lord's. That's what you're playing on. Local distance, man.
Although if it wasn't for this stupid picture,.
I don't think he would grate me that much because he's really nothing special. It's typical stuff, but this here, I don't know why, ever since the first time I saw it, this bothered me.
I'm not really sure why.
Can anyone explain this? Why does this bother me so much? And there's that one picture that Boniface Option puts out there all the time. He puts that one picture of him with his little noodle arms and I don't know what he's wearing.
In any case, I hope you found this video helpful. God bless.