Aging and Pain in the Light of Eternity

In my thoughts on Death I wrote of how when I was in elementary school, then in middle, then high school, then college, I had this silly hope that Time, Time imagined as a kind of substance, Time the Invincible Fact, would just “sort of stretch out” and never actually arrive at whichever of life’s milestones I did not particularly care to reach, a “desire, often unconscious or only half formulated … for a particular time in life never to end.” George MacDonald wrote in Cross Purposes (a story of his I don’t remember if I have read or not, but which I know C.S. Lewis published in his collection of MacDonald quotes): “[M]any things we never could believe, have only to happen, and then there is nothing strange about them.”

I turned 30 this month. To prove it to me, on the very day, I woke up and rose up on my elbows, and in the rising seem to have crunched a nerve in my upper back between two vertebra at the level of my shoulder blades. Moderate pain throughout the day twinged if I twisted wrong, catching my breath short. My “wind” was “knocked out” from the sudden seizing of the muscles around my ribs and lungs as they tightened to protect the nerve – the same feeling I often felt as a kid when climbing and then landing hard on my chest when falling out of the low-branched apple trees on our farm. In addition to my rebel back, my knees, for a few years now, have been practicing their hobby of imitating the sound of damp gravel being stepped on, whenever they bend, be it while doing squats or simply going up stairs – wet dirt and pebbles on the surface make that unique sound when they squish against the drier gravel in the lower layers. My family have also likened the audio of my knees to creaking wooden floorboards. “Wretched man that I am! Who will save me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:24). I imagine St. Paul had more in mind than his sinful “flesh” when he wrote those words.

I have very kindly received birthday wishes from many, saying things like, “30 is a wonderful time of life! Your 30s are a great decade, so much better than your 20s! I remember when I thought 30 was old!” Kind words, and I’m grateful for all of them. They promise much, and there is substance to them, I know … but I also know they are mostly empty, like a Russian Doll without any subsequently smaller dolls stacked inside. You’ve got the outermost shell and that counts for something, but its weight is off. It “feels” too light. No one wants to be 30. No one has ever earnestly, with all one’s heart, yearned or longed or desired to become 30. No one, that is, who is not already past 30. I wonder if anyone ever really wants to age past 25, or even 21? The name of that store – you know it, ubiquitous in every mall that exists – comes to mind.

Though not yet old, I am aging. Deep into these thoughts one day, and into the accompanying regrets of everything I had wanted to do – or worse, everything I only now am coming to realize I had wanted to do – but never achieved in my 20s, I suddenly found my mind recalling this quote:

It is simply no good trying to keep any thrill: that is the very worst thing you can do. Let the thrill go—let it die away—go on through that period of death into the quieter interest and happiness that follow—and you will find you are living in a world of new thrills all the time. But if you decide to make thrills your regular diet and try to prolong them artificially, they will all get weaker and weaker, and fewer and fewer, and you will be a bored, disillusioned old man for the rest of your life. It is because so few people understand this that you find many middle-aged men and women maundering about their lost youth, at the very age when new horizons ought to be appearing and new doors opening all round them. It is much better fun to learn to swim than to go on endlessly (and hopelessly) trying to get back the feeling you had when you first went paddling as a small boy.

— C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Well and well. This (mostly) cured me of my regrets (there is always some lingering residue, I find, even when regret is shown to be the waste of time that it is). There are, or will be – I have faith, may God make it so – as many of my birthday well-wishers said in different words – “new horizons … appearing and new doors opening” at this age, and at every age. Amen.

Still, it is not the mere number of our age – what’s in a number? – but rather the lost youth that vexes. And it is not even exactly what Lewis means by “lost youth” here in his critique of middle-aged “maundering” – meaning the thrills of life when you are young, the opportunities that have gone by. It is this: I wouldn’t care if I was 300, let alone 30, if only I could retain the health and strength and speed and vitality that I have known in my teens and 20s and, thankfully, largely still know now at 30. If I could have bodily youth, strength, and health forever, then would I not forever have opportunity for striding over “new horizons”? I could take life at my leisure, and let even decades go by without doing anything, if I wanted, and yet retain the ability to go on through the “new doors” – if only my body was not subject to the erosion of Time.

Except, were it so, I would even still be a sinner.

Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever” — therefore the LORD God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.

— Genesis 3:22-24

I think it is true – at least it was for me – that when we first read these verses, we grow somewhat indignant. At the least, we are confused: Why would God do that? I think I had assumed infinite life would have made Adam and Eve, and all the rest of mankind, less sinful. Wouldn’t that have solved the problem? I had assumed that the fruit of life would have restored the goodness we knew prior to the first sin, as if the fruit of the tree of life was the antidote to the fruit of the tree of good and evil. But what right have we to assume that?

I hadn’t read those verses closely enough: Because mankind had learned not only the good but also evil, and that by committing evil — therefore God cut off our access to infinite life and bodily youth. Infinite life as fallen beings who knew both good and evil, that is, as sinners, would not have been good for us. Think of what we in fact, in reality, not hypothetically, do with our youth, strength, health, vitality: Do we not already waste them, short-lived as they are? Do we not squander them on drunkenness, and drugs, and all manner of immorality that only leads to disease and depression and hatred of others? It need not even be such “spectacular” or “big” sins, either. It could be laziness, apathy, satisfaction with small things, little finite pleasures, a desire, strange as it sounds, for a life of meaninglessness, of no responsibility, of inconsequential centuries drifting from bodily pleasure to pleasure – yes, until even these little things we seem able to enjoy in endless quantity lost their draw, and we found ourselves condemned to continue on – I will not say “live” – forever with nothing to look forward to, no fantastic ecstasies nor the little homely comforts. In fact, such a world and state of being would have been the beginning of Hell, not of Redemptive History – living Hell, because sin gives birth to death, and Hell is eternal death.

And yet, even so, even though I can see all this to be true, and affirm it with all parts of my mind I am able to bend to the task of affirmation – even so, I find in my soul some rotten thing that would actually prefer this state of infinite-yet-sinful youth, even though in time, eventually, at some point, I know, but perhaps do not believe, all such pleasure will have become dull and boring to me. I have all the evidence I need that this is what part of me – I do not know, but shudder to think of, how big a part – actually wants this. I know full well that I could get many years, decades, centuries, maybe even many millennia, of contented pleasure out of sleep, food, sex, drink, video games, movies, travel, reading, parties – finite thrills, without God, if only I never aged, never felt pain, and never had to reckon with death or the end of Time or the final judgment of God. “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”

So thank God He limited our lives and let the curse of Time and aging fall on us, and on all the world!

For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our bodies.

— Romans 8:19-23

Subjected in hope.

If we never aged – never saw those wrinkles at the eyes and mouth, never heard our knees crackle or woke up with muscle aches for seemingly no reason, never did a double-take in the mirror at the glimpse of a gray hair – we would never have to reckon with the inevitable meeting with God toward which we all are headed. If we never felt the boredom and pain of age, we might never turn to God. And that says nothing about the Physician, but everything about us, His patients – the condition of our souls is so wretched that the medicine required to get us to surrender our selves to God is pain, and age, and decay, and futility. If He could do it another way, He would – and sometimes does. Sometimes a revelation in our souls of God’s goodness and beauty and the infinite pleasures “at His right hand” (Psalms 16:11) work in us a cure. But His strongest medicine is pain.

The human spirit will not even begin to try to surrender self-will as long as all seems to be well with it. Now error and sin both have this property, that the deeper they are the less their victim suspects their existence; they are masked evil. Pain is unmasked, unmistakable evil; every man knows that something is wrong when he is being hurt. … And pain is not only immediately recognisable evil, but evil impossible to ignore. We can rest contentedly in our sins and in our stupidities; and anyone who has watched gluttons shovelling down the most exquisite foods as if they did not know what they were eating, will admit that we can ignore even pleasure. But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.

— C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain

God gives purpose to the pains of our life, however much we might wish them away. That is good news!

But! In a moment of what I can only think of as J.R.R. Tolkien’s term, coined eucatastrophe, “the sudden happy turn in a story which pierces you with a joy that brings tears,” (The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien), the Bible also goes beyond even this unexpected good, and reveals that our pains and sufferings are doing more for us than just serving as God’s megaphone:

The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs — heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

— Romans 8:16-18

For all things are yours: whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present or things to come — all are yours. And you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.

— I Corinthians 3:21-23

For all things are for your sakes, that grace, having spread through the many, may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God. Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory…

— II Corinthians 4:15-17

Paul is not talking only of religious persecution and spiritual or emotional suffering, the loss of loved ones, the plans that never came together, the good desires unfulfilled – though these surely are a more noble kind of suffering, “provided we suffer with Him” – but he also states unequivocally: “even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our bodies” (Rom. 8:23). It is not wrong to want to be healed, then, or to want to have new bodies not subject to the futility and suffering of this present creation. This is beyond good! How can my back pain be of such consequence? What will the creaking ache of my knees become for me in my “exceeding and eternal weight of glory”? What could it possibly mean that “all things” are mine, even the world, life, and death? How shall I own death, and how shall it work for me?

He ended; and thus Adam last repli’d:
“How soon hath thy prediction, Seer blest,
Measur’d this transient World, the Race of time,
Till time stand fixt: beyond all is abyss,
Eternity, whose end no eye can reach.
Greatly instructed I shall hence depart,
Greatly in peace of thought, and have my fill
Of knowledge, what this vessel can contain;
Beyond which was my folly to aspire.
Henceforth I learn, that to obey is best,
And love with fear the only God, to walk
As in his presence, ever to observe
His providence, and on him sole depend,
Merciful over all his works, with good
Still overcoming evil, and by small
Accomplishing great things, by things deem’d weak
Subverting worldly strong, and worldly wise
By simply meek; that suffering for Truth’s sake
Is fortitude to highest victory,
And to the faithful Death the Gate of Life;
Taught this by his example whom I now
Acknowledge my Redeemer ever blest.”

— Paradise Lost, Book XII.552-573

For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

— Philippians 1:21

“O Death, where is your victory?
O Death, where is your sting?”

— I Corinthians 15:55

“Suffering for Truth’s sake …”

For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in His steps.

— I Peter 2:19-21

Provided we suffer with Him …

Suddenly I am stopped cold. I remember several paragraphs up my confession that there is a part of me that would rather have eternal youth and health without God. But the requirement is I must suffer with Him. 

Am I? How can I know?

John Piper’s sermon “A Spectacular and Scary Promise” has the answer: We can know we are suffering with Christ and have the Holy Spirit in us if we are living according to the Spirit and by the Spirit are actively, sincerely, putting to death our sins.

For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are children of God.

— Romans 8:13-14

This is not “salvation by works,” but works coming out of our salvation – the Spirit is already in us, therefore we are putting to death the deeds of the body. So, if I find in myself a sincere desire to kill my sin, and I am having success – not perfect success, because sanctification is not complete until death, “Death the Gate of Life” – then I can know, for certain, that that desire is in me because the Spirit is already leading me to it! Amen.

Closer, but this is still not quite the full answer. I must ask, Why do I want to “put to death the deeds” of my body? Is it only practical? Do I merely no longer want to suffer pain, regret, and shame because of my sins? If this is all I am after, then I am not fulfilling the greatest commandment:

“Teacher, what is the great commandment in the law?”
Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.”

— Matthew 22:36-38

I see that I must love God – but I don’t love God anywhere near like I ought to. Not with all my heart, and all my soul, and all my mind, and all my strength. I know I love a lot of other things and don’t often care if God is involved or not. I have found in me the desire that I might go on with my small pleasures and sins indefinitely … And yet at times, I have been pierced with the desire to see God, and really to know Him. How do I keep tottering back and forth? How can I be so divided? Would I really give up all my sins in order to gain eternal life with Christ? What if I don’t really love God, but only think I do? “Wretched man that I am? Who will save me from this body of death?”

And now I come to the greatest passage of writing I have found in recent memory, a quote that has given me life and joy since the moment I first read it:

Augustine uses a little thought-experiment … in his sermon “On the Pure Love of God”. He says: Imagine God appeared to you and said he would make a deal with you, that he would give you everything you wished, everything your heart desired, except one. You could have anything you imagine, nothing would be impossible for you, and nothing would be sinful or forbidden. “But,” God concluded, “you shall never see my face.” Why, Augustine asks, did a terrible chill creep over your heart at those last words unless there is in your heart the love of God, the desire for God? In fact, if you wouldn’t accept that deal, you really love God above all things, for look what you just did: you gave up the whole world, and more, for God.

— Peter Kreeft, Heaven: The Heart’s Deepest Longing

In that confession paragraph above, I also said that I knew I eventually would get bored of eternal-yet-sinful youth. Why? Because I knew I would not, in the end, be satisfied with this “deal.” Answering Augustine’s thought experiment truthfully, I say No. Never. Never. Only seeing God’s face is eternally satisfying.

“And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”

— John 17:3

Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.

— I John 3:2-3

Part of the purifying process is aging, growing old, suffering pains, feeling regrets, and looking through all these things forward into that “eternal weight of glory” awaiting us in Christ. Not one year of life, or twinge of the pains of age, is meaningless. It is only the first step into eternity with God, made righteous, with no more sin, shame, or pain, or sorrow, or regret any more, with Him for Whom we really do “give up the whole world, and more,” that we may be with Him face to face.

Behold I make all things new. Behold I do what cannot be done. I restore the years that the locusts and worms have eaten. I restore the years which you have drooped away upon your crutches and in your wheelchair. I restore the symphonies and operas which your deaf ears have never heard and the snowy massif your blind eyes have never seen and the freedom lost to you through plunder and the identity lost to you because of calumny and the failure of justice. And I restore the good which your own foolish mistakes have cheated you of. And I bring to you the love of which all other loves speak, the love which is joy and beauty, and which you have sought in a thousand streets, and for which you have wept and clawed your pillow.

— Thomas Howard, Christ the Tiger, (quoted from Peter Kreeft, Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Heaven)

But as it is written:
“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
Nor have entered into the heart of man
The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”

— I Corinthians 2:9

And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”
Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.”

— Revelation 21:3-5

Proper Rewards: Hell or Heaven – Being Sin or Becoming Righteousness

Meditations on Easter Which Began with II Corinthians 5:21

There are different kinds of rewards. There is the reward which has no natural connection with the things you do to earn it, and is quite foreign to the desires that ought to accompany those things. Money is not the natural reward of love. That is why we call a man mercenary if he marries a woman for the sake of her money. But marriage is the proper reward for a real lover … The proper rewards are not simply tacked on to the activity for which they are given, but are the activity itself in consummation.
— C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
— Genesis 2:24

“And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.”
— John 3:19-20

… “Just as they have chosen their own ways,
And their soul delights in their abominations,
So I will choose their delusions,
And bring their fears on them;
Because, when I called, no one answered,
When I spoke they did not hear;
But they did evil before My eyes,
And chose that in which I do not delight.”
— Isaiah 66:3-4

There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, “Thy will be done,” and those to whom God says, in the end, “Thy will be done.” All that are in Hell, choose it.
— C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce

So the LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.”
— Genesis 4:6-7

… not as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brother’s righteous.
— I John 3:12

But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.
— James 1:14-15

“For whoever has, to him more will be given….”
— Mark 4:25

… lawlessness leading to more lawlessness … For the end of those things is death.
— Romans 6:19, 21

Then He said to the disciples, “It is impossible that no offenses should come, but woe to him through whom they do come!”
— Luke 17:1

He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.
— I John 3:8

“His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
— Matthew 3:12

“Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels’ …”
— Matthew 25:41

“For My own sake, for My own sake, I will do it; for how should My name be profaned? And I will not give My glory to another.”
— Isaiah 48:11

“And they shall go forth and look
Upon the corpses of the men
Who have transgressed against Me.
For their worm does not die,
And their fire is not quenched.
They shall be an abhorrence to all flesh.”
— Isaiah 66:24

It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses; to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you see it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship; or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare.
— C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

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… behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”
— Matthew 1:20-21

… John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”
— John 1:29

The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not willing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
— II Peter 3:9

“Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked,” declares the Lord God, “and not rather that he should turn from his way and live?”
— Ezekiel 18:23

Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men…. For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again…. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new…. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
— II Corinthians 5:11, 14-15, 17, 21

The Christian is in a different position from other people who are trying to be good. They hope, by being good, to please God if there is one; or — if they think there is not — at least they hope to deserve approval from good men. But the Christian thinks any good he does comes from the Christ-life inside him. He does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us …
— C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

“… that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and you in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.”
— John 17:21-23

Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
— John 3:3

Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
— I John 3:1-3

Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
— Revelation 21:2

“And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to everyone according to his work. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last.”
— Revelation 22:12-13

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“To Be Sin”

For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us….
— II Corinthians 5:21

God made Christ to be sin for us. Jesus became sin on our behalf. This is strong language. It is a metaphor, not a simile. It goes beyond the idea I think I have held for most of my Christian life — namely, that substitutionary atonement is a kind of legal fiction God the Judge plays with Christ the Advocate, as if Jesus had been the one who had committed all the sins of the world. That is true, that is how part of the atonement seems to work. But II Corinthians 5:21 seems to take things a step further. Not only did Christ agree to be tried and executed on our behalf as if He were the sinner and we the pure, righteous, perfect Son of God (simile); but even more than that, Jesus somehow was made to be sin for us (metaphor).

I have looked around a bit on the Internet and discovered that this is kind of a point of Christological contention. Some people say that when Jesus was made “to be sin for us,” it means something about His essential nature changed, that somehow, literally, as if sin is a substance that one can absorb and make a part of one’s body, Jesus became sin. Some others seem to say that this is heretical, that the eternal Son of God of the Trinity could never have His essential nature compromised by sin in any way. Rather, these theologians want to say that it was Christ’s human nature that absorbed and literally became sin, and that His divine nature was unscathed. I think this second option is the safest way to think about this — but none of this is really what I want to write about.

What I want to write about is: What was the alternative?

God “made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us…” If Jesus had to not only die in our place, and not only bear the guilt of our sin, but had to become sin, our sin — why was that necessary? Why is “becoming sin” the necessary action our Substitute had to undertake in order to save us?

Surely, because we were becoming, or had already become, sin. That is the meaning of substitution, is it not? We, in some way, are sin, and therefore need a Substitute to be sin for us. Our situation is not that we are neutral human beings tilting either towards God or towards sin, but that we are becoming or have already become so sinful as to be lumped together and identified — we, ourselves, our personalities, our existence — as being one with sin.

And that thought scared the hell out of me, because I know that God hates sin with a holy, perfect, righteous, justified, and infinite wrath.

I think I understand Hell now.

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The “Proper Reward” of Sin is Hell

[M]arriage is the proper reward for a real lover … The proper rewards are not simply tacked on to the activity for which they are given, but are the activity itself in consummation.
— C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
— Genesis 2:24

… and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
— John 3:19

“And their soul delights in their abominations…”
— Isaiah 66:3

“… if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you …”
— Genesis 4:6-7

… when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.
— James 1:14-15

“They shall be an abhorrence to all flesh.”
— Isaiah 66:24

… a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare.
— C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

I know the objections: “How can a loving God send people to Hell? In fact, doesn’t the Bible say that ‘God is love’? How can God be loving if He wants people to suffer consciously for eternity? People don’t deserve to be infinitely tormented for finite sins committed while they were alive. We didn’t ask to be born! It’s unfair!”

The answer is: Yes, of course God loves people (John 3:16). But what makes you think you will still be a person once you are in Hell?

Hell is not a place, primarily. Hell is a state of being. It is what you become when you “become sin.” Hell is being sin.

If marriage is the proper reward of a lover, and if we love darkness, sin, instead of the light of God, and if marriage means becoming “one flesh” with the object of our love, then that means we lovers of darkness and sin become one with that sin. And the only thing that sin can do is die. Death is the natural activity of sin, just as the natural progression of conception is to lead to birth (James 1:14-15). It is not arbitrary, it is not a “reward which has no natural connection with the things you do to earn it.” Death is the “activity” of sin “in consummation.”

This horribly warps the snobby, ubiquitous, childhood jeer, “If you love it so much why don’t you marry it?”

If you love sin you marry sin, whether you realize it or not, and when you marry your sin you become “one flesh” with sin.

You have become sin. God hates sin. You have married sin and become one with it. You “exchanged the truth of God for the lie” (Romans 1:25). You loved darkness rather than the light. You have chosen to do the “works of the devil,” and you “have delighted in your own abominations,” and you do them so much that you become one with them — you have become sin.

And God hates sin.

God — the infinitely powerful Creator of the universe — hates sin.

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God Hates Sin

Then He said to the disciples, “It is impossible that no offenses should come, but woe to him through whom they do come!”
— Luke 17:1

He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.
— I John 3:8

“His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
— Matthew 3:12

“Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.'”
— Matthew 25:41

And for “this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.” And it is a little thing for Him to “thoroughly clean out His threshing floor,” His creation, for Jesus is the Creator (John 1:1-3). And it will be no more work to Him to destroy sin forever than it is for a farmer to throw away and burn the useless straw and chaff of his wheat field. He esteems sin no more than a farmer values chaff. Even the sinful rulers of the world are “less than nothing” to Him (Isaiah 40:17).

Did you think you would get a free pass just because you are the hero of your own story, of your own inner monologue? Or because of your family, or friends, or worldly achievements? Or that God would “let you into Heaven” just because you love yourself and think yourself to be “not so bad”? If you sin, and you love your sin, then you are sin. You are no longer a person. You no longer bear God’s image (Genesis 1:26) because Jesus “knew no sin” (II Cor. 5:21). There is nothing left about you that is able to be loved. Only a person can be loved, and if you are sin, you are no longer a person.

It is not a question of otherwise neutral human beings “being let in” to one place or the other. It is not what you do that condemns you, but what you love and what you are — that is why Hell is eternal, because it is not your actions but rather your own nature, you yourself, that is the problem. Your actions are the result of the problem, not the cause; but the more you act out of your own nature, the more those actions confirm your nature, just as “Cain who was of the wicked one (nature) and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil (actions)…” (I John 3:12). It doesn’t matter that your life and sins on Earth were finite. What you love and what you are, your very nature, is the problem, and that nature, if you love sin, has become sin. And all sin can do is die. There is no other possible destiny for sin.

Worse. It is worse than that. For you have become sin. And “woe to him through whom [offenses] come!” “To him who has” sin, “more will be given,” “lawlessness leading to lawlessness.” You have become sin, and sin’s “desire is for you” and for those souls around you, it “crouches at the door.” You become “the works of the devil,” and part of those works is to tempt and cause others to fall into offense, you “who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such [sinful] things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them” (Romans 1:32). You have become the sin through which offenses come to others, causing others to stumble and become sin.

And the only thing sin can do is die. Sin “gives birth to death.” You become something other than what you were, you become part of the works of the devil, you are “of the devil.” And there is an “everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” You will be the goats, not the sheep; the chaff, not the wheat; the demons, not the saints; and not for some arbitrary law that God could have made differently if He had wanted to, not because God is cruel or sadistic and overreacting with Hell, but because you are now sin, and the “proper reward” for sin, the “activity” of sin “in consummation” is to die, and Hell is eternal death.

Put out of your mind any popular imagery you may have of Hell — forget The Simpsons, forget Family Guy, forget even C.S. Lewis’ Screwtape Letters, Dante’s Inferno, and Milton’s Paradise Lost. There is no hierarchy of powers in Hell, no whimsical winged and horned figures with pitchforks, no throne for Satan to sit on; Hell is “prepared for the devil and his angels” (I John 3:8). It is the place where the demons, too, reap the death of their full-grown sins, not where they reign; the place where human sinners aligned with them reap the death they have sown. There is no pleasure in Hell, no joy, no happiness, no laughter, not one moment of relief or even of neutrality in feeling and mental conception other than horror and torment in your own sin. I doubt if there is even light. I doubt even if there will be the company of others, for that might give some comfort. “Misery loves company” — but Hell is the place where you are no longer a person, where you are utterly cut off from God, who is the source of all good gifts, of every pleasure you’ve ever experienced: “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights” (James 1:17). There will be not one moment of pleasure in Hell for all eternity, because there will be none of God’s good gifts in Hell. Not one. It is eternal solitary confinement to and with yourself which has become sin, an abomination, an eternally dying corpse, a horror and a corruption which you will only be able to hate.

“And they shall go forth and look
Upon the corpses of the men
Who have transgressed against Me.
For their worm does not die,
And their fire is not quenched.
They shall be an abhorrence to all flesh.”
— Isaiah 66:24

Corpses forever, forever an abhorrence.

It is not a question of God hating some of His human creations and loving some others. It is a question of God loving His creation, all of it, and the humans who bear His image, with an infinite, holy love, and because of that love utterly, wrathfully hating the sin which destroys His beloved and dishonors His glory. God hates sin. Hell exists because God is love. How do you react when something or someone hurts someone you love? Hell is God’s love for His creation and for His own glory expressed as wrath against that which leads to the death of His beloved people and the belittling of His glory.

And you have become sin! You have become that less-than-human thing which God can only hate, which can only die. Can you feel it? Can you feel the light finding you, and revealing you to not be a person, but to rather be sin? To know that you have chosen to marry the darkness, and to “be united” in “one flesh” with your beloved sin? To imagine looking at the face of God and seeing only wrath? To know that God no longer sees you as a person, because you are no longer a person? There is nothing left that is lovable in you. Your very being, your entire existence, is sin now, and all sin can do is die. You will have become a torment to yourself and to all who are around you, and you will have caused others to stumble, “a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare.”

And sin begets more sin. You are sin forever. And the more you sin, the more you become sin. It is not like Hell is a place where you no longer incur guilt, where you stop existing, where you cease to do anything at all. Sin begets sin. “To him who has, more will be given,” “lawlessness leading to lawlessness,” forever. Sin is in you, and you are in sin, in a horrible reversal of John 17:21. There is no stopgap. Hell is the state of being where you continue to sin and to become more united to sin and you will be sin for eternity. There is not even a tragic melancholy of memory or sympathy available to you, for you have become sin, a monster, a work of the devil, no longer a person, no longer lovable, not even to yourself. You will hate your own existence. That is Hell.

And all God has to do, in the utmost height of justice and fairness, is give you over to your own sinful desires, which naturally “give birth to sin” and once full grown beget death, and let you “reap what you have sown” (Galatians 6:7). “Therefore God also gave them up … For this reason God gave them up … And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over …” (Romans 1:24, 26, 28). You will get what you want. You will have what you love, and you will be what you love. And you will hate it forever, because there is no lovable thing in sin, and you will have become sin. “There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, in the end, ‘Thy will be done.’ All that are in Hell, choose it.”

“But they did evil before My eyes,
And chose that in which I do not delight.”
— Isaiah 66:4

For God must defend His honor and glory, or else He is not righteous. All sin, down to the last atom in the last bullet that kills the last martyr, must be destroyed. God’s righteousness blasts all sin away. His wrath leaves no sin standing. His Name is at stake. If any sin is left over, then He is not perfectly just. His creation will be perfect, as He is perfect (Matthew 5:48).

For My own sake, for My own sake, I will do it; for how should My name be profaned? And I will not give My glory to another.
— Isaiah 48:11

God loves His righteousness that much.

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He Made Him Who Knew No Sin to be Sin for Us, that We Might Become the Righteousness of God in Him

… “and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”
— Matthew 1:21

The Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not willing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
— II Peter 3:9

“Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked,” declares the Lord God, “and not rather that he should turn from his way and live?”
— Ezekiel 18:23

“… that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and you in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.”
— John 17:21-23

… the Christian thinks any good he does comes from the Christ-life inside him. He does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us….
— C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
— II Corinthians 5:21

God loves His righteousness that much.

And this is the Gospel, that God Himself has made a way for us to “become the righteousness of God,” which He loves with an infinite love — He is called “Jesus” because He saves us from our sins, which means He will save us from our selves which have become sin.

Jesus, who knew no sin, was made “to be sin for us,” which is as much to say He was “made one of us,” with the difference that He never loved sin. His works were never like ours, the “works of the devil.” He “knew no sin.” His love was always perfectly for His Father, and so therefore He is one with His Father, for love unites, and perfect love unites perfectly. In this eternal love, Jesus has had eternal glory, eternal righteousness, given Him by the Father from forever. And He is willing, ecstatically willing, to share that glory and righteousness with us — “and the glory which You gave Me I have given them” — so much that we become the righteousness of God which God loves — “that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and you in Me” (John 17:22).

This is not a contradiction of Isaiah 48:11, either. It may seem like it, because God says, “For My own sake, for My own sake, I will do it; for how should My name be profaned? And I will not give My glory to another.” But He is not giving His glory to another, for when Jesus says “the glory which You gave Me I have given them” He also says that we will be and are one just as Jesus and the Father are one: “I in them, and you in Me.” He is infinitely gracious to us to count us as one with Himself, so that His glory is not given to another when it is given to us. For Jesus was made “to be sin for us” so that we might become the righteousness of God, like He is. That is the Great Exchange of II Corinthians 5:21. He has held nothing back from us, He has and is making us one with the Father — there is nothing greater — just as He is.

For He “who knew no sin was made to be sin for us.” He, in His death, took sin, perhaps Sin with a capital “S,” Sin Itself, into His human nature and suffered and was tormented with sin and died from sin, letting it become full-grown, “giving birth to death,” experiencing the “activity” of sin “in consummation” for us. He did it, He drained sin, and God’s wrath against sin, down to the last dregs. He let sin do its utmost worst to Him. Everything, all those horrible things of the first half of this post and the first half of the quotes with which I began, Jesus took on Himself. He became sin, became what we were becoming, that “abhorrence” of Isaiah 66:24, the “horror and corruption” which we do not hardly meet “even in a nightmare” (C.S. Lewis The Weight of Glory). He suffered the holy, righteous, justified wrath of God against the sin that He had become, for our sake! For He is “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” and turn from our wicked ways and live! (II Peter 3:9; Ezekiel 18:23)

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He Died for All, Him, Who Died and Rose Again

For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.
— II Corinthians 5:14-15

For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin.
— Romans 6:5-7

But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone.
— Hebrews 2:9

The story of Him who was made to be sin for us doesn’t end there, for “he who has died has been freed from sin” (Romans 6:7). After death, there is nothing more for sin to do, nothing more it can do. Death is sin full-grown. Death is sin utterly consumed with itself. There is no next stage of growth, no worse power of sin than death.

… knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
— Romans 6:9

Sin did everything it possibly could to Jesus. Therefore, He died. Then, He rose again. And now there is nothing that is impossible for Him, for He has been freed from sin and death forever.

This seems like good news, gospel, for Jesus. But what about for us? What good is it for us if Jesus dies and rises again?

There doesn’t seem to be a natural, experiential, “proper reward” link between us and the fact of Jesus’ body dying and rising again, no “proper reward” for us based on Jesus’ death and resurrection. We didn’t have anything to do with it. That is to say, if the natural progression of sinful lust or desire is to lead to sin, and then sin full-grown to death (James 1:14-15), what is the mirror of that, what is the natural progression of Jesus’ death and resurrection leading to our deaths and resurrections? Why ought we “reckon [ourselves] to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord”? Or why is it true “that if One died for all, then all died”? And how did Jesus “taste death” for us all?

How does Jesus save us?

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By Grace You Have Been Saved

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God …
— Ephesians 2:4-8

The answer, it seems to me, is that there is no link, no natural progression, no “activity” of Christ’s death and resurrection that leads to “consummation” in our salvation.

So how are we saved?

Grace.

Pure grace, and mercy, and kindness of God, given to us in Jesus. “By grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.” Our reward of dying with Christ and therefore being raised with Him is, in fact, “tacked on” to us. We did nothing to merit it. Our actions were not leading to a proper reward of salvation. It is an unutterably free gift.

There is no sense trying to work for it. You were already sin, already aligned with the devil, already dead – and even then, God loved you enough to die for you. What could you possibly add?

The infinite value of each human soul is not a Christian doctrine. God did not die for man because of some value He perceived in him. The value of each human soul considered simply in itself, out of relation to God, is zero. As St. Paul writes, to have died for valuable men would not have been divine but merely heroic; but God died for sinners. He loved us not because we were lovable, but because He is Love.
— C.S. Lewis, Membership

For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.
— Romans 5:6-9

God’s wrath against sin was totally and fully displayed and satisfied against Jesus, who became sin for us, on the cross. From that act, and in the power of Jesus’ resurrection, God graciously puts us in Jesus’ place, and calls us His children, “born again.” He takes our sin, and gives us His righteousness, out of sheer grace.

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You Must Be Born Again Into The New Creation

Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
— John 3:3

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
— I Peter 1:3

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.
— John 1:1-3

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation …
— II Corinthians 5:17

… the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him …
— Galatians 3:10

… the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.
— Ephesians 4:24

… that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
— II Corinthians 5:21

And that grace is given us by divine fiat — that is, through the Creator’s creating anew. God is always the Creator, and all of His attributes are always at work in whatever He does, because He is perfect, and none of His attributes work against each other or are left on the shelf when God is working. God’s infinite creativity is always at work in His love and in His justice and in everything He is and does.

That is how we become “born again.” Our being born again is an act of the Creator, the Word, through His death and resurrection. The first creation was by His Word alone. This new creation is through His death and resurrection, and seems to be mediated in us (at least partially) through knowing Christ (Gal. 3:10) and through the righteousness and holiness that is given to us in Christ (Eph. 4:24). We had nothing at all to do with the first creation, but in the new creation we do seem to have a small part — we do the work which God has prepared for us to do (Eph. 2:10), we “work out our own salvation” that God is, at the same time, working into us, “both to will and to do for His good pleasure” (Phil. 2:12-13). And we could not work at all if God did not work first in us: “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5).

And this new creation begins where the first creation ended — with us, with humans, the Image of God restored. This new creation works in the opposite direction from Genesis 1. In Genesis it is the very last work of God to create human beings; in the death and resurrection of Jesus it is the first work to create redeemed human beings for the new creation, and then from us, somehow, the new creation will spread to the rest of the universe:

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body. 
— Romans 8:18-23

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The “Proper Reward” Given to Jesus is the Bride of Christ

But marriage is the proper reward for a real lover … The proper rewards are not simply tacked on to the activity for which they are given, but are the activity itself in consummation.
— C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
— Genesis 2:24

Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
— Revelation 21:2

And as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride,
So shall your God rejoice over you.
…
Indeed the LORD has proclaimed
To the end of the world:
“Say to the daughter of Zion,
‘Surely your salvation is coming;
Behold, His reward is with Him,
And His work before Him.'”
And they shall call them The Holy People,
The Redeemed of the LORD;
And you shall be called Sought Out,
A City Not Forsaken.
— Isaiah 62:5, 11-12

I wrote above that I could not see any “link, no natural progression, no ‘activity’ of Christ’s death and resurrection that leads to ‘consummation’ in our salvation.” I wrote that because I was thinking along the line of our nature and activity going Godward, and could not see, rightly, how any of it would properly result in our salvation as our own activity in consummation. I had been thinking only of our nature and actions.

But in this analogy who is the lover, and who is the beloved? Who is the actor who, in C.S. Lewis’ words, is rewarded with the “activity itself in consummation”?

Jesus is.

So what do Jesus’ nature and actions merit?

“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain
To receive power and riches and wisdom,
And strength and honor and glory and blessing!”
— Revelation 5:12

… Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
— Hebrews 12:2

And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
— Ephesians 1:22

Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.
— I John 5:14

“Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father! The world has not known You, but I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me. And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.” 
— John 17:24-26

Jesus, in becoming like us, incarnate as a man, being made “to be sin,” then condemning sin in His body (Romans 8:3), and dying, then rising again — all this “activity” leads to the “proper reward” of “power and riches and wisdom, and strength and honor and glory and blessing,” for He has done what only He could do, all according to the Father’s will, and therefore in full confidence He asks for His full reward.

And that full reward, that “proper reward,” includes the church, His bride. Us. His actions merit us. He wins us, and asks for us: “Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am.”

The link between the action and the proper reward is not in us, but in Him. The reason we are saved is because we are Jesus’ proper reward for His love, part of the “joy set before Him.”

There is no greater love than this.

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?
— Romans 8:31-32

Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!
— I John 3:1

For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
— II Corinthians 5:21

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What Must I Do To Be Saved, And How Can I Be Sure I Am?

Simply put, after 7,000 words:

Pray, surrender, and ask God to save you from your sin and make you new in Christ Jesus (II Corinthians 5:17); every day, fight against sin with the power of the Holy Spirit given to you (Romans 8:13-14), knowing that if you hate your sin and make war on it in this way that is a sign of your new birth which cannot be taken from you; believe that God is able and willing to do everything He has promised to do for you (James 2:23); love others as you love yourself; and set your aim to know and to love Jesus your Savior with all your heart, and all your soul, and all your mind, and all your strength (Matthew 22:37).

 

Response to the Response to the Nashville Statement

Good philosophy must exist, if for no other reason, because bad philosophy needs to be answered.

— C.S. Lewis

I want to preface this with a summary of what I’m about to say, so that I am not misunderstood:

1. I am ONLY concerned with the Bible and Christian theology in regards to homosexuality and transgenderism.
2. I AM NOT CONCERNED with the secular legal status of homosexuality and transgenderism.
3. NEITHER IS IT MY INTENTION to come across as loathsome or hateful of homosexuals or individuals who feel like they are transgender. That will inevitably happen (this post will be called bigoted and I myself will be called a hateful bigot) but only because we have as a Christian society lost the notion that we can love a person’s soul while still hating a person’s sin. What I actually loathe and hate is the twisting of Scripture.
4. MY ONLY AIM is to show that you CANNOT use the Bible to defend what the writers of the Denver Statement believe about homosexuality and transgenderism.

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Sources: The Denver Statement — a response to the Nashville Statement.

The Denver Statement Preamble (with rebuttals and revisions):

Preamble

Christians at the dawn of the twenty-first century find themselves living in an exciting, beautiful, liberating, and holy period of historic transition.

For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness…. (2 Corinthians 11:13-15)

Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and shrewd in their own sight! — (Isaiah 5:20-21)

Western culture has embarked upon a massive revision of what it means to be a human being by expanding the limits and definitions previously imposed by fundamentalist Christians [the Bible]. By and large, the spirit of our age discerns and delights in the beauty of God’s design for human life that is so much richer and more diverse than we have previously understood it to be.

See Isaiah 5:20-21.

Many deny [Bible-educated Christians believe] that God created all human beings for God’s glory, and believe that God’s good purposes for us are limited to those whose personal and physical design is cis-gendered, heterosexual, and socially acceptable expressions of male and female [include His design for human sexuality, but not to the exclusion of all other aspects of being human].

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on earth. — (Genesis 1:27-28)

He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? — (Micah 6:8)

The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil. — (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14)

However, many Christians now understand that binary and backwards thinking excludes a large and important part of God’s beautiful plan for God’s people. The pathway to full and lasting joy through God’s good design for God’s creatures is clearly inclusive of a variety of identities of gender and expressions of sexuality that have previously been denied by shortsighted and limited thinking, teaching and preaching that has ruined lives and dishonored God.

An example of such “binary and backwards thinking,” “shortsighted and limited thinking, teaching and preaching”:

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. … Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error…. — (Romans 1:18-21, 24-27)

Article I

WE AFFIRM that God has created humanity out of love and for the purpose of love.
WE DENY that God intends marriage as a gift only to be enjoyed by those who happen to be heterosexual, cis-gendered and fertile.

I AFFIRM that God was concerned with more than just sexual love when He created the universe. I also AFFIRM that this is kind of a contradiction of the Denver Preamble, which states accurately that “God created all human beings for his glory.”

I DENY that God intends marriage to be anything other than between a man and a woman (whether or not they are fertile is irrelevant), for “[Jesus] answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?” — (Matthew 19:4-5).

Article 2

WE AFFIRM that God created us as sexual beings in endless variety.
WE DENY that the only type of sexual expression that can be considered holy is between a cis-gendered, heterosexual, married couple who waited to have sex until they were married. But if you fit in that group, good for you, we have no problem with your lifestyle choices.

I AFFIRM that you need to reread Genesis 1, which only says “male” and “female” as far as the “sexual beings” designation is concerned.

I DENY that you are very widely read in the Bible. If you were, you would at some point have come across Paul’s words to the Ephesians: But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints (Eph. 5:3); and also his words to the Corinthians: Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body (1 Corinthians 6:18-20), and furthermore because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband (1. Cor. 7:2).

Article 3

WE AFFIRM that God created Adam and Eve, the first human beings, in God’s male & female image, and that all human beings share this image of God in common but express it differently in body and spirit.
WE DENY that we as human beings can fully conceive of the glory of God’s image or rightfully believe our language can define its limits. Therefore, we deny those who do not conform to society’s gender norms are outside of some kind of “divine plan.”

I AFFIRM that this is confusing: Did you not previously say that such “binary” thinking was “backwards”?

I DENY that you have any understanding of Romans 1, which as quoted above states that, regarding God’s design for sexuality in addition to the rest of the purpose of creation, what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made [like binary male and female humans]. So they are without excuse (Rom. 1:19-20), And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not be done (Rom 1:28).

Article 4

WE AFFIRM that the glorious variety of gender and sexual expression is a reflection of God’s original creation design and are aspects of human flourishing.
WE DENY that such variations are a result of the Fall or are a tragedy to be overcome.

I AFFIRM that the affirmations of Articles 3 and 4 contradict each other: Did God originally create Adam and Eve male and female, or not?

I DENY that it is possible for any rational Christian to think that the Fall could not have affected human sexuality. Every other aspect of our lives and world has been tainted by sin. Why is sexuality off limits? (Also, again, see Romans 1.)

Article 5

WE AFFIRM that the biological capacity for human beings to reproduce is a glorious wonder and that humanity continues to discover the gender and sexual diversity with which God has created humans.
WE DENY that gender is always linked with biological sex characteristics, and we deny that those whose bodies contain physical or psychological realities outside of the “norm” need curing or reparation.

I AFFIRM that no matter what you say to the contrary, you cannot seem to escape the binary nature of human biology. There are only two systems of sex organs in human beings: male, consisting of penis, testicles, and prostate; and female, consisting of ovaries, uterus, and vagina. Biologically there are no other systems in homo sapiens. At times there are errata in these systems, or the presence of both systems might in some form exist in a single body, but exceptions to the rule do not eliminate the rule. I also wonder, if God wanted to give blessing on sexual relations outside of marriage between a man and a woman at all, why not do so from the very start of human history? Why make us discover it on our own?

I DENY that humanity can have any concept of gender apart from biological sex characteristics. If not, then where did the concept come from in the first place?

Article 6

WE AFFIRM that the bearing of God’s image occurs in every glorious genital and chromosomal variation found in the human race.
WE DENY that any variation in the human body exempts one from living a joyful and full life.

I AFFIRM again that if you think sin cannot corrupt human sexuality, or that it is impossible for sexuality to be sinfully defective, then you are deceived (see Romans 1). I also AFFIRM that those born with genital and chromosomal variations are indeed created in the image of God and are not thereby excluded from salvation.

I DENY that you grasped the point of this Article 6 of the Nashville Statement, which states: “WE DENY that ambiguities related to a person’s biological sex render one incapable of living a fruitful life in joyful obedience to Christ.” Instead, it seems you are more concerned with “living a joyful and full life” regardless of whether or not that life is in obedience to God.

Article 7

WE AFFIRM that there is no longer male or female but all are one in Christ Jesus our Lord.
WE DENY any self-conception that presumes one is capable of knowing God’s holy purposes for other people, and that such self-conceptions can be consistent with the Gospel of grace, love, and mercy as demonstrated in holy scripture.

I AFFIRM that you misunderstand the context of Galatians 3:28, which is not speaking to sexual differences being abolished, but rather states that being male or being female has no bearing on whether or not one can be saved in Christ, in the same way that it no longer matters if you are a Jew or a Gentile: for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offpring, heirs according to promise (Gal. 3:26-29).

I DENY that “[presuming] one is capable of knowing God’s holy purposes for other people” can be called a “self-conception.” I also DENY that we cannot know God’s holy purposes for other people. God has given us the Bible for the very purpose of knowing Him and His will, which includes His will for all of humanity in regards to sexuality. (See Genesis 1, Matthew 19:4-5). I DENY that affirming a sinner in his or her sin, which places him or her under God’s wrath (see Romans 1), is consistent with the Gospel of grace, love, and mercy as demonstrated in holy scripture.

Article 8

WE AFFIRM that people who experience sexual attraction for the same sex may live a rich and fruitful life pleasing to God through faith in Jesus Christ.
WE DENY that sexual attraction for the same sex is outside the natural goodness of God’s original creation, or that anything puts a person outside the hope of the gospel.

I AFFIRM that without faith it is impossible to please [God], (Hebrews 11:6), and furthermore that by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him (1 John 2:3-4). And what is His commandment concerning, for example, premarital or extra-marital sex (as you have it in your Article 2)? You shall not commit adultery (Exodus 20:14) and “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Jesus, Matthew 5:27-28). And His condemnation of homosexuality is clearly delineated, again, in Romans 1.

I DENY that you can know Article 8’s denial based on any understanding of scripture other than a misunderstanding (Romans 1). Furthermore, I DENY that there is nothing that “puts a person outside the hope of the gospel.” Unforgiven sin puts a person outside the hope of the gospel. God does not, as is popularly supposed, “accept us just the way we are.” No. He accepts us in spite of the way we are, which is sinful and worthy of condemnation apart from the grace given us through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And He does not want us to simply stay the way we are, either. There is a process called sanctification.

Article 9

WE AFFIRM that sin distorts all aspects of human life.
WE DENY that human beings can escape sin by simply upholding a particular doctrine or lifestyle.

I AFFIRM that you’ve shot your own foot. If “sin distorts all aspects of human life,” then that includes sexuality. How do you know what is and is not distorted by sin in human sexuality, apart from the Bible’s teachings on it?

I DENY, again, that you’ve understood the Nashville Statement’s denial in its Article 9, which states “WE DENY that an enduring pattern of desire for sexual immorality justifies sexually immoral behavior.” It means that just because you have developed a habit of sinning, that does not mean you are therefore let off the hook for that sin, even if that sin involves sex. Nashville’s Article 9 was not commending “upholding a particular doctrine or lifestyle” at all as a way of escaping sin.

Article 10

WE AFFIRM that it is for freedom that Christ has set us free, and while we believe in the full inclusion of all people into the body of Christ (here we stand we can do no other), we cannot bind the conscience of other Christians.
WE DENY that it is sinful to approve of queer identities and that such approval constitutes an essential departure from Christian faithfulness and witness.

I AFFIRM that for freedom Christ has set us free (Galatians 5:1) but that we should not therefore use [our] freedom as an opportunity for the flesh (Gal. 5:13); we should Live as people who are free, not using [our] freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God (1 Peter 2:16). We are freed from sin, not so that we may sin.

I DENY, yet again, that you have any understanding of Romans 1.

Article 11

WE AFFIRM our duty to love at all times, including when we speak to or about one another.
WE DENY any obligation to speak in such ways that dishonor God’s image-bearers.

I AFFIRM that it is telling that you would leave out the word “truth” from the Nashville Statement’s affirmation in Article 11, which states: “WE AFFIRM our duty to speak the truth in love at all times…”

I DENY that you are at all concerned about God’s design for His image-bearers, and are instead more concerned about the creature rather than the Creator (Romans 1:25).

Article 12

WE AFFIRM that the grace of God in Christ is sufficient for this day.
WE DENY that the grace of God in Christ is something that must be supplemented by works, piety or doctrine.

I AFFIRM again that it is telling that you would change and leave out half of the Nashville Statement’s Article 12 affirmation: “WE AFFIRM that the grace of God in Christ gives both merciful pardon and transforming power, and that this pardon and power enable a follower of Jesus to put to death sinful desires and to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord.” Do sinners not need to change at all? You don’t seem to think so.

I DENY also that “the grace of God in Christ is something that must be supplemented by works, piety or doctrine.” But I also DENY that anyone who does not show signs of the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22) has had that grace given to him or her. If you do not behave any differently after becoming a Christian, I think it is safe to say that you did not really give your life to Christ.

Article 13

WE AFFIRM that the grace of God in Christ enables sinners to forsake prejudice and see such prejudice as our own and not as God’s.
WE DENY that the grace of God in Christ sanctions self-righteous assertions of absolute knowledge of God’s will.

I AFFIRM that God is “prejudiced” against sinners of all kinds unless they repent of their wicked ways and turn back to Him, for Moses said, ‘The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. You shall listen to him (Jesus) in whatever he tells you. And it shall be that every soul who does not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from the people” (Acts 3:22-23). I also AFFIRM that sexual sin certainly does not get a free pass just because it feels good.

I DENY that you can have knowledge of God’s will apart from the Bible, which is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16), from which you seem unable to quote, correctly or at all, in defense of your affirmations or denials.

I FIND IT AMUSING AND HYPOCRITICAL that you don’t, apparently, realize that pretty much all of your Denver Statement constitutes “self-righteous assertions of absolute knowledge of God’s will.” (See “The Denver Statement.”)

Article 14

WE AFFIRM that Christ Jesus has come into the world to save sinners and that through Christ’s death and resurrection forgiveness of sins and eternal life are available to every person; this is a supreme treasure.
WE DENY that God is a boy and has actual arms.

I AFFIRM once again that it is telling that you would quote word for word from the Nashville Statement until it gets to the part about repentance: (Nashville Statement) “WE AFFIRM that Christ Jesus has come into the world to save sinners and that through Christ’s death and resurrection forgiveness of sins and eternal life are available to every person who repents of sin and trusts in Christ alone as Savior, Lord, and supreme treasure.”

I DENY that snarkiness is a point of argument. I also DENY again that you have much knowledge of scripture, in which “the arm of the Lord,” as written in the Nashville Statement’s Article 14, is a powerful metaphor: Behold, the arm of the LORD is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear (Isaiah 59:1); You crushed Rahab like a carcass; you scattered your enemies with your mighty arm (Psalm 89:10);  Oh sing to the LORD a new song, for he has done marvelous things! His right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him (Psalm 98:1).

Article 15 (this one is just [Denver’s])

WE AFFIRM that the church has often been indistinguishable from the dominant culture in the ways in which it has sanctified oppression and bigotry towards historically marginalized and demonized people groups, of which the LGBTQ+ community is one.
WE DENY any ideology, theological or otherwise, that results in further marginalization, rejection, dehumanization, and overall suffering of LGBTQ+ individuals.

I AFFIRM that you, the “progressive” Christian writers of the Denver Statement, are becoming increasingly indistinguishable from the dominant culture in the media and Hollywood. You have forsaken the Bible in favor of social media hashtags and feelgood, self-help pop-culture.

I also AFFIRM that individuals within the church throughout history have made mistakes and behaved and spoken in manners which the Bible does not commend, but I also DENY that the mistakes of individuals claiming to be Christian, in the past or present, has any bearing on whether or not the Bible is true and should still be followed today. I DENY that the misapplication of truth disqualifies the truth. We look not to Christians, but to Christ for our example of how to love others and obey God — and Christ loved others in part by warning them about their sins and pleading with them to repent and follow Him: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were not willing” (Matthew 23:37). “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt. 3:2).

 

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I’ve written on this topic elsewhere, in a blog post titled “Bigot,” more extensively. My conclusion there is the same that I want end with here:

If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peacably with all men.
– Romans 12:18

…

What I hope I have done here is show that the argument cannot be made that the Bible, anywhere or in any sense, condones homosexuality, whether it be prostitution or rape or a committed relationship or anything. I am arguing against my fellow Christians who think otherwise. What I am not doing is making the argument that all homosexuals in the United States or anywhere should be forced to live by biblical, Christian principles. God is not interested in forced converts. I think the best way to sum up my thoughts would be like this:

Homosexual [and I now must add transsexual] men and women who are not Christians: Do what you want. You have not placed yourself under the teachings of the church or of the Bible, and it is not my place nor the place of any Christian (or any member of any other religion) to force you to do otherwise.

Homosexual [and transsexual] men and women who call themselves Christians: If you can honestly, truthfully, have a real relationship with God while living as unrepentant homosexuals, then who am I to say you need to change? But to do so you will have to ignore a lot of the Bible, and I don’t know of any Christian who ignores the Bible and yet has a meaningful, saving knowledge of and relationship with God.

One might object that “God loves us just the way we are,” accepts us as we are, and while that is true, God also expects us to repent from sinning, and if we have made sinning part of who we are (and we all have), then we must change. It is more correct to say “God accepts us in spite of the way we are.” We are all sinners in need of grace. We will not be allowed to stay that way. It may not seem fair to ask that you give up a lifetime of sexual pleasure and/or companionship, but if it is done in an honest attempt to repent from sin and follow Jesus, look at what you get in return:

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, yet shall he live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.

– John 11:25-26

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But as it is written:
“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
Nor have entered into the heart of man
The things which God has prepared for those
who love Him.”

– 1 Corinthians 2:9

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Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.

– 1 John 3:2

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And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.” And He said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son.”

– Revelation 21: 3-7

All those verses apply to both sexes, men and women: Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel (physically weaker, not lesser of value), since they are heirs with you of the grace of life… (1 Peter 3:7). They apply to all who repent and trust God and His Word more than they trust to feelgood social trends and cultural approval. I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect (Romans 12:1-2).

Joseph Campbell Foresees Millennial Problems from the 1960s

The highly popular mythologist and psychologist Joseph Campbell (best known for his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces, which George Lucas famously read during a hospital stay, which inspired him to create Star Wars) wrote in 1964 an essay called The Importance of Rites, found in a collection of his essays titled Myths to Live By (from which come all quotes below). In it, Campbell compares early human development in the womb and during childhood to the development of marsupials, like kangaroos. In short, biologically speaking, humans are born too soon compared to other mammals — horses and cows, for example, can stand up and walk and basically fend for themselves, with timely guidance from their mothers, within the first days or weeks of their lives. By contrast, human babies can do almost nothing for themselves for several years:

This altogether extraordinary prematurity of the birth of the human infant … has led biologists and psychologists to compare our situation with that of marsupials: the kangaroo, for example, which gives birth to its young only three weeks after conception. The tiny unready creatures crawl instinctively up the mother’s belly into her pouch … and remain until ready for life, nourished and protected in, so to say, a second womb …. In the human species, with its great brain requiring many years to mature, on the other hand, the young are again born too soon, and instead of the pouch we have the home, which is again a sort of external second womb.

— pg 46

Prior to this paragraph, Campbell speaks about the importance of rites in early human child development, considering that we do not inherit our skills and abilities as instincts, like other animals, but rather learn them as we grow up, which throughout history in all cultures has been done via ritualized behavior:

For the human infant is born — biologically considered — some ten or twelve years too soon. It acquires its human character, upright stature, ability to speak, and the vocabulary of its thinking under the influence of a specific culture, the features of which are engraved, as it were, upon its nerves … and rituals have been everywhere the recognized means of such imprinting. Myths are the mental supports of rites; rites, the physical enactments of myths. By absorbing the myths of his social group and participating in its rites, the youngster is structured to accord with his social as well as natural environment, and turned from an amorphous nature product, prematurely born, into a defined and competent member of some specific, efficiently functioning social order.

— pgs 45-46

Hence the Bible tells us to “Train a child up in the way he should go…” (Campbell was not a Christian, but I am, so I felt compelled to add that….)

The problem for modern culture, even 50 years ago in the time when Campbell was writing this essay, is that we have done away with, simply neglected, or delayed too long, the rituals and myths that teach us practical ways to live as adults:

Now it is during this life stage of the home that all the basic social imprintings are established. They are there associated, however, with an attitude of dependency that has to be left behind before psychological maturity can be attained. The young human being responds to the challenges of its environment by turning to its parents for advice, support, and protection, and before it can be trusted as an adult, this patterning must be altered. Accordingly, one of the first functions of the puberty rites of primitive societies, and indeed of education everywhere, has been always that of switching the response systems of adolescents from dependency to responsibility — which is no easy transformation to achieve. And with the extension of the period of dependency in our own civilization into the middle or even late twenties, the challenge is today more threatening than ever, and our failures are increasingly apparent.

— 46

And with the extension of the period of dependency in our own civilization into the middle or even late twenties, the challenge is today more threatening than ever, and our failures increasingly apparent….

If Campbell could write that sentence in 1964, how much worse off must we really be now in 2017? He goes on in the next paragraph to describe with what seems prophetic accuracy the state of mind of many of my fellow mid and late-20s Millennials, as well as those college-aged Millennials who have been the horrifying highlights in so many viral videos in the last few  years on too many college campuses, crying out for “safe spaces” away from ideas, mere spoken or written words, that conflict with their own beliefs:

A neurotic might be defined, in this light, as one who has failed to come altogether across the critical threshold of his adult “second birth.” Stimuli that should evoke in him thoughts and acts of responsibility evoke those, instead, of flight to protection, fear of punishment, need for advice, and so on. He has continually to correct the spontaneity of his response patterns and, like a child, will tend to attribute his failures and troubles either to his parents or to that handy parent substitute, the state and the social order by which he is protected and supported. If the first requirement of an adult is that he should take to himself responsibility for his failures, for his life, and for his doing, within the context of the actual conditions of the world in which he dwells, then it is simply an elementary psychological fact that no one will ever develop to this state who is continually thinking of what a great thing he would have been had only the conditions of his life been different: his parents less indifferent to his needs, society less oppressive, or the universe otherwise arranged. The first requirement of any society is that its adult memberships should realize and represent the fact that it is they who constitute its life and being. And the first function of the rites of puberty, accordingly, must be to establish in the individual a system of sentiments that will be appropriate to the society in which he is to live, and on which that society itself must depend for its existence.

— 47

To make a long series of quotes short: Millennials need to grow up.

 

C.S. Lewis Calls Out Supremacists, Communists, Antifa, SJWs

No man who says I’m as good as you believes it. He would not say it if he did. The St Bernard never says it to the toy dog, nor the scholar to the dunce, nor the employable to the bum, nor the pretty woman to the plain. The claim to equality, outside the strictly political field, is made only by those who feel themselves to be in some way inferior. What it expresses is precisely the itching, smarting, writhing awareness of an inferiority which the patient refuses to accept.

And therefore resents. Yes, and therefore resents every kind of superiority in others; denigrates it; wishes its annihilation. Presently he suspects every mere difference of being a claim to superiority…. ‘Here’s a fellow who says he doesn’t like hot dogs — thinks himself too good for them, no doubt…. If they were honest-to-God all-right Joes they’d be like me. They’ve no business to be different. It’s undemocratic.’

…

Cut them all down to a level: all slaves, all ciphers, all nobodies. All equals. Thus Tyrants could practise, in a sense, ‘democracy’. But now ‘democracy’ can do the same work without any tyranny other than her own. No one need now go through the field with a cane. The little stalks will now of themselves bite the tops off the big ones. The big ones are beginning to bite off their own in their desire to Be Like Stalks.

— The Screwtape Letters and Screwtape Proposes a Toast, pt II

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The demand for equality has two sources; one of them is among the noblest, the other is the basest, of human emotions. The noble source is the desire for fair play. But the other source is the hatred of superiority….

Equality (outside mathematics) is a purely social conception. It applies to man as a political and economic animal. It has no place in the world of the mind. Beauty is not democratic; she reveals herself more to the few than to the many…. Virtue is not democratic; she is achieved by those who pursue her more hotly than most men. Truth is not democratic; she demands special talents and special industry in those to whom she gives her favours. Political democracy is doomed if it tries to extend its demand for equality into these higher spheres. Ethical, intellectual, or aesthetic democracy is death.

A truly democratic education–one which will preserve democracy–must be, in its own field, ruthlessly aristocratic, shamelessly ‘high-brow’….

Democracy demands that little men should not take big ones too seriously; it dies when it is full of little men who think they are big themselves.

— ‘Notes on the Way,’ Time and Tide, (29 April 1944)

All quotes collected in A Mind Awake: An Anthology of C.S. Lewis, edited by Clyde Kilby.