There are a dozen views about everything until you know the answer. Then there's never more than one.1
Currently, I am preaching through the Psalms, specifically the first ten Psalms. Lord willing, I will follow this pattern for a while:
Ten Psalms
A section of the book of Acts
The next ten Psalms
Another section of the book of Acts
The next ten Psalms
Etc.
I have several commentaries on the Psalms but the one I have enjoyed most so far is the two-volume set by James M. Hamilton Jr. So many of Hamilton’s insights have taken up residence in my mind and heart. This one is worthy of much consideration:
This world was not made as a place where the universe cooperates with evil deeds, nor was life created so that wicked people would find their way to some wicked-man’s paradise. Those who set traps for others will have themselves to thank when the traps snap shut on their own feet.2
Hamilton’s comment comes in reference to Psalm 9:3-6, 15-18.
Pastoring during Covid was…a challenge. Most pastors will tell you that. I had a vague feeling in March 2020 that something was weird, but everything was so new and we were gathering info. In June 2020, the legacy media began ignoring the fact that so many protestors weren’t wearing masks at BLM riots Mostly Peaceful Protests™. It was then that I became convinced that there was something rotten in Denmark and I told the session of our church so. Since that time, I have repeatedly exhorted the congregation of our church from the pulpit to remain vigilant and never participate knowingly in a lie.
It is manifestly clear that the leaders of our country got pretty much everything wrong in the last three years concerning Covid.3 As Justin Hart wrote on Twitter in February:
Did the “powers that be” get all of these things wrong as an “oopsie” or did they lie? I suppose this close to the events, it is impossible to say with utter certainty. Dr. Naomi Wolf wrote a (paywalled) article on Substack recently positing the theory that all of the world’s governments acting in lockstep in response to a virus is not an example of a shadowy one-world government that really messed up but rather an example of our world being given over by God to demonic forces (“old gods”) for a season of sifting.4 Thirty years ago I would have waved off the demonic option as far too Pentecostal. Not anymore. I remain a staunch Reformed cessationist, but I’ve read way too much of the New Testament and C. S. Lewis to doubt that God can work through demonic activity to eventually accomplish His ordained goals on the earth.5 After all, God used a demon-possessed man to help turn His only Son over to the authorities to be murdered on a cross, thus securing the salvation of the world.
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.6
It doesn’t matter if our world is in the grip of bumbling dunderheadedness or has been seduced by demonic lying. What matters is that God has fashioned creation with a gag reflex that will—in His perfect time—spew such things out. Men can delude themselves into living by lies seemingly until the day they die. The lesser creation is not capable of doing so. The creation that God has fashioned will not cooperate forever with evil deeds and wicked ideas. This is not a design flaw. It is a feature that God has baked into the world He made.
Sometimes it is difficult to know what is right or wrong in a given situation. Answers are murky and wisdom seems sparse. God answers prayers for wisdom (cf. James 1:5) and once God has answered that prayer, we are duty-bound to follow where it leads even if many people in high places scream, “Don’t trust what your eyes and common sense are clearly telling you. Trust us…or else!” When something has been shown to be manifestly false and the lie has been exposed, we must resist it every time God gives us opportunity.
One trouble about habitual liars is that, since you can’t believe anything they say, you can’t feel the slightest interest in it. One has to keep on saying ‘But for the Grace of God, there go I.’ Let us pray that we never become like that.7
C. S. Lewis, That Hideous Strength: A Modern Fairy-Tale for Grown-Ups (New York, NY: Scribner Classics, 1996), 70.
James M. Hamilton Jr., Psalms: Volume 1, EBTC (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2021), 166.
One could say the same about sexuality, gender, abortion, the economy, and pretty much anything else.
Dr. Wolf is not a Christian thinker by any stretch. Rather, she describes herself as a feminist with a doctorate in Philosophy from Oxford. She has also become engrossed in reading the Geneva Bible, which is greatly encouraging.
The fellas at The Theology Pugcast recently devoted an episode to Wolf’s thesis. It is fascinating and worth hearing. The episode is can be heard here.
C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters: Also Includes “Screwtape Proposes a Toast” (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996), 15.
C. S. Lewis, The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Volume 3: Narnia, Cambridge, and Joy, 1950 - 1963 (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2004), 1,374.