RC Sproul Jr

It was a true reflection of my own convictions, and my calling as a teacher. I was about 17; my niece was 3. We were sitting together at our local church, listening to the sermon. I know she was listening because when the pastor said in passing something about “the government,” my niece tugged on my jacket for my attention, and whispered in my ear, “We hate the government, don’t we?” Nor does it surprise me that whether I am reading a book, or watching a movie, I always see the bad guy as a metaphor for the state. Saruman, he’s the government. Longshanks is too, and Apollo Creed, Mr. T., and Ivan Drago.

I’m not suggesting that when Bunyan told the story of Pilgrim and Apollyian that it was his intention to present Apollyian as anything other than the, broadly speaking, forces of evil. Though, given all that he suffered at the hands of the English state, I can’t be sure. This, however, I am sure of- any state that does not kiss the Son is an enemy of the Son. And any enemy of the Son is and is to be an enemy of mine.

The state that does not recognize and honor the Lordship of Christ will always, in one way or another, be at war with the Bride of Christ. Refusal to surrender is rebellion. When the Roman empire fell, this principle abided. And it crosses borders as well. It is as true in the west as it is in the Sudan or China. The only difference is the nature of the warfare. Whether the state is using us as entertainment down at the coliseum, or whether it is assaulting the souls of our children at their places of education/worship, the war is on.

The scene with Apollyian, however, sticks with me not because this demon is the state, but because of the response of Pilgrim. I love the sheer practicality of Pilgrim. Facing this monster that makes Goliath look like a schoolgirl, Pilgrim takes stock of his situation. As I would be, he is tempted to run. The trouble is, while he is equipped for battle, he is not equipped for retreat. His front is in armor, his back exposed. There is, therefore, only way to go, forward.

As Paul enjoins the Ephesians to put on the full armor of God, and then goes on to describe that armor, you will notice that for us too there is no reverse in our tank. We can only move forward. But surely Paul isn’t talking about the state is he? I know we do not war against flesh and blood, “but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” With talk like this, Paul could lose his 501C-3 status.

The point of spiritual weaponry is not that it cannot work against “real” weapons, but rather that “real” weapons can’t work against it. Because I am equipped with the truth buckled about my waist, I am able to gird up my loins like a man, prepared for battle. A vague, fuzzy view that the unsubmissive state is only in a vague and fuzzy way the enemy of the King will keep me unprepared for battle. In like manner I cannot have a brave heart, nor can I protect my heart, unless I am dressed in the righteousness of Christ. The state cannot condemn me, and thereby destroy me, because I have been already plucked from the fire.

My calling is not merely to not retreat. I am called to move forward, to go through Apollyian. For this I need “feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.” Isn’t that odd, that the gospel of peace should equip us for war? We wage the war because we’re confident of the promise of peace. The shield of faith extinguishes the fiery darts of the enemy. Because I know the day will indeed come when every knee will bow, and every tongue confess, because I know the Son will “break them with a rod of iron; you shall dash them to pieces like a potter’s vessel” (Psalm 2:9), I move forward in battle.

With the helmet of salvation, with the sword of the Spirit we will vanquish all the forces of evil, wherever they might be. His very Word is sufficient to cut down Goliath, to smite Apollyian, to topple Leviathan. There is the power because His Word is power. By His Word He made the light. By His Word He stretched forth the firmament. If we are equipped with His Word, then we are indeed strong in the Lord, and in His mighty power.

The bumper sticker is only half-right. It tells us, “I love my country; I fear my government.” It is a good thing to love one’s country. And it is a great thing to distinguish between one’s government and one’s country. But there is a problem. We can and should recognize them as an enemy. We can revile them for their failure to bow before the King. We can prophecy against them for their rebellion, warning them of the wrath to come. But what we must never do is to fear them. Fear is reserved for our King.

The truth is that Apollyian is a kitten before the Lion of Judah. The truth is, because we are in union with Him, that Apollyian is a kitten before us. All the might and power of the world’s only superpower is, we must remember, dependent and derived. What Jesus told Pilate is still true today, “You could have no power at all against Me unless it had been given you from above.” Do not fear the beast; let the beast fear you.

It is easy enough to speak ill of shepherds, particularly when they are not shepherds, but hirelings. It’s especially easy when envy fuels the hearts of pastors of small churches berating the pastors of large churches for all their worldly marketing gimmicks. Under-shepherds, however, being merely human, will always have failures we can talk about.

What we may skip over lightly is that the sheep are likewise merely human. They too will always have failures. Human sheep do have a great deal in common with their wool covered counterparts. That, however, is not always a good thing.

We tend, I think, to think of sheep, or lambs, as embodying the virtues of gentleness and innocence. Jesus, after all, the Lamb of God, was certainly both. He opened not His mouth when led to the slaughter. They are also, however, not the smartest animals in the barnyard. They can be demanding, and are prone to wander. All of which shows up in the local church.

We rightly reject the concept held among church leaders that the church needs to discern the felt needs of the surrounding community and tailor its message to them. Crass marketing. What we ought to reject is the concept held among church followers that the church needs to discern my felt needs and tailor its message to me. That is, while there is plenty of guilt to go around, one of the reasons hirelings sell what they sell is because foolish and demanding sheep are demanding to buy it.

So the sheep wander, from pasture to pasture, and from pastor to pastor. One pastor may, for a while, feed us our favorite treats. Another may actually for a time feed us the Word. But as long as we are deciding where to eat, we have hired ourselves to watch over ourselves.

I’m not suggesting that joining a church is a lifetime contract. I am suggesting that a genuine sheep would want his shepherd to direct him to a healthy flock. I am suggesting that sheep ought to move slowly and not bolt the first time the pastor does or says something we may not like. The pastor may be in error, or in sin. So might the sheep be. One thing is for certain- the sheep probably shouldn’t be so certain it’s not him.

Our problem in the church, in short, is the church. God gave us a bevy of New Testament epistles to show us dozens of ways churches can go astray. And those same letters to show us dozens of ways sheep can go astray. It has been wisely said, “If you find the perfect church, don’t join it. You’ll ruin it.” I would add, “If you find your current church is imperfect, be sure your next one also will be, the moment you join.”

This is the thirty-ninth installment of an ongoing series of pieces here on the nature and calling of the church. Stay tuned for more. Remember also that we at Sovereign Grace Fellowship meet this Sunday April 13 at 10:30 AM at our new location, our beautiful farm at 11281 Garman Road, Spencerville, IN. Please come join us. Also note that tonight we continue our Bible study on issues dividing the church, tonight considering complementarianism and egalitarianism.

The Christian is engaged in a three-front war. The Bible, replete with martial language, bears this out. The great evil trinity against which we fight is the world, the flesh, and the devil. In our day, sadly, we have made friends with the world. We have reduced our flesh down to a few psychological crossed wires. We have lost sight of these two battlefields. Precisely because we have lost sight of the third, and therefore have lost the battle. We miss our war with the world and our flesh because the devil has defeated us in battle. Such that we have forgotten that he exists.

C.S. Lewis, in the preface to his great work The Screwtape Letters, posits this nugget of wisdom:

“There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors, and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight.”

As wise as Lewis and this particular quote may be, I do have a quibble. No doubt the devil is able to accomplish a great deal of mischief among those who see him as some sort of evil god. Those with a morbid interest in him and his minions can cause some mischief. That said, he is able to cause far greater damage among those who give him no thought at all. That is to say, both the materialist and the magician are bad, but the materialist is worse.

We have pretty much the same problem within the Christian subculture, and for much the same reasons. On one side of the spectrum is the extreme wing of the spiritual warfare movement. Some of these folks claim to see a demon behind every bush. They don’t catch colds; they are under attack by the sniffle demon. They don’t have wandering eyes, but are at war with the lust demon. Those in this camp look for demons behind every bush, because they prove quite useful for excusing our sin. As Flip Wilson used to say, “The Devil made me do it.”

This, however, is not the danger we face in Reformed circles. We tend to be on the opposite side of the spectrum. Unlike the true materialist, we do indeed believe in the demonic realm. I mean, we read our Bibles, and the Bible, after all, talks about such things. But we tend to believe that demons exited the human stage with the apostles. Demons exist, we are willing to confess, but they have been sitting on the celestial sidelines since the apostolic age.

What drives this perspective, I’m afraid, is less a careful exegetical study of the matter, and more an embracing of the modernist worldview. We look down our noses at our brothers who pay attention to the spiritual realm not because we find such to be unbiblical, but because we find it unsophisticated.

We think Martin Luther’s habit of shouting at the devil, of throwing his inkwell at him, is a sign that Martin was on the psychological brink, when perhaps we ought instead to conclude that he exhibited here the same wisdom that led him to declare, “Here I stand!” It may be that Luther mined the truth that our God is a mighty fortress from the same source where he discerned that this world is with devils filled, namely, the Bible.

That we rarely give the devil a thought, let alone his due, ought to confirm for us this important spiritual reality — that the devil is sitting on our shoulder, whispering folly into our ears. He is active not only in the dark corners of Africa, but in the dark corners of our hearts and minds. If we would seek first the kingdom of God, we will have to come to grips with the reality that the devil is trying to stop us.

His forces, we ought also to remember, are not only arrayed in the political and cultural battlefields. He does not have his hand in the Democratic National Committee only, nor does he work his magic only in Hollywood. He is also about the business of growing in us his diabolical fruit. He is at work when we are filled with envy, malice, fear, selfishness. He is waging war when he encourages us to spend our energies not pursuing the kingdom, but pursuing personal peace and affluence. He is practicing his dark magic when he encourages us to defend not the honor of Christ, but our own reputation and dignity.

The war between the seed and the serpent is the same thing as our war with the world, the flesh, and the Devil. May God give us the grace to win great victories in the little battles we fight each day. May He grant us the eyes to see the epoch-changing battles in our very ordinary lives.

Reductio ad absurdum is a rather potent tool. You take the premises of someone’s flawed argument and push them to their extreme. Everyone can see it doesn’t work, and you’ve destroyed the argument. Consider minimum wage laws. As long as the legal minimum wage is below the market wage, no harm no foul. When it raises above the market wage it messes everything up. “But,” the economically illiterate cry, “everyone deserves a living wage. People need to make at least $15 an hour. Let’s pass a law.”

OK. If the law can create jobs that pay above a certain level, why stop at $15? Shouldn’t the government, if they really cared about us, make the minimum wage $15 million an hour? Whatever objection you have for the latter will apply to the former.

The same principle applies to tariffs. I admit they look like a brilliant idea, if you’re only looking at part of the equation (just like a $15 million an hour wage requirement). It’s terrible that those Japanese sell better cars for less money than American manufacturers. It’s evil that Canadian lumber costs less than American lumber. How dare those Germans build superior, cheaper cuckoo clocks to our American made ones? Something must be done.

You should be able to see the problem already. Tariffs are built on the premise that the way to prosper a nation is to have its citizenry pay more for inferior goods. If foreign goods, without tariffs, dominate a market, what explanation could there be other than the foreigners who made the goods do it better and/or cheaper? And wouldn’t it help the economy for us to buy goods that are better and/or cheaper?

But wait. There’s more. Every good that is imported to this country has a corresponding good that is exported from this country. Those trucks bringing lumber, those ships bringing cars and cuckoo clocks to the United States do not return empty. They return with the goods that Americans are able to produce better/cheaper than those nations that import our exports. Every job you “save” by driving out foreign competition is a job you lose for a company that beats foreign competition overseas. You are losing better jobs to save worse jobs.

Back to the experiment. If tariffs are such a boon to the economy, why these petty halfway measures of 25% or 50% tariffs? Why not charge Japan $1 million per car they wish to import here? Why not charge Canadian companies $1 million for every two by four they want to send here? Think of all the tariff income we’d bring in.

The free market is that market which will always and everywhere maximize prosperity. Every form of tinkering with it by the clumsy hands of government will throw sand in the gears, every, single, time. You might make a case that this form of taxation is less destructive than that form of taxation. What you cannot do is claim that any form of taxation creates a net gain for the economy. Tariffs are intrusive, expensive, oppressive government over-reach, something I thought we’d decided to put behind us.

This is part and parcel of what it means to love your neighbor. You don’t ask the government to make them pay an extra tax so that your business can beat his business. You encourage the government to stay out of your neighbor’s business.