“Wisdom” and Her Illegitimate Children: Part II

”Knowledge” Falsely So-Called

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Proverbs 1:7 does not say, “The fear of the World is the beginning of knowledge.” Yet all the wisdom of that very world, the very world who reject God in their understanding, whose thinking is futile and whose foolish heart was darkened, is of the same mind as much of Big Eva Christianity (Rom. 1:18-21). Here I have in mind all the Christian arguments defending things as damnable as #blackouttuesday, Black Lives Matter, and those twin demoniacs, intersectionality and critical race theory.

If you bear the name of Christ, you ought not bear it in vain. Vanity, biblically speaking, usually refers to falsehood, and so this is how I will use it. Do not, Christian, falsely bear the name of Christ. He came to the lost house of Israel, who expected the Messiah to come charging, swords drawn, into the Roman Empire out of Bethlehem to bring about sociopolitical redemption. Many Jews are still waiting. They missed the point. The point was this: God came down in the flesh to live a mortal life, yet without sin, in order to be crushed by the Father with judgment previously reserved for sinners deserving of it. He cancels our debt, the wages of which was death, and shines in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of the Lord in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 4:6-7).

To falsely bear the name of Christ might look something like this: An evangelical Christian justifying the sins of a tribal entity (like the black riots in Minneapolis over the death of George Floyd) in order to crudely tag on some feels-motivated biblical justification. You don’t get to justify sin with the bible. Sin is the antithesis of the character of God. Likewise, you do not get to justify your sins by the sins of others. That already happened in the garden, and here we are. Represent the Lord of Glory by bearing His name well, by preaching His gospel of salvation and realizing that tribal barriers are demolished in Christ, sin is rebellion against God, regardless of who and why; and God’s Word calls you to accurately handle the Word of truth; and finally, the feeling you have in your heart may feel good, but out of all the human faculties, it is the heart that is deceitful above all else (Eph. 2:14; Rom. 6:23; 2 Tim. 2:15; Jer. 17:9).

Christ did not come with a message of political upheaval or of disruption of Jewish social norms. He did not reorder the household, He did not make children parents, and parents children. He didn’t make husbands into wives or vice versa. He did not come into the temple with a whip, flipping tables and launching accusations for the sake of political protest via property damage. He came to cleanse the temple of the Lord from the stench of thievery. He was not beaten, scourged, slapped, spat on, robed, and unrobed to tear his flesh with his own dried blood, mocked, his head punctured and crushed by a crown of thorns, his body torn apart, nails driven through his hands and feet, hanged on a cross, drained of blood, suffocated and stabbed through the heart on the darkest night in human history to proclaim that black lives matter. He came to proclaim that through Him you can have peace with God by the demonstration of His righteousness on the cross (Rom. 3:23-27). And only through him could any human worm like me, white, black, yellow, green or otherwise, man, woman, rich or poor, be gifted with a worth beyond the deepest reaches of hell (Jn. 14:6, Job 25:6, Ps. 22:6, Rom. 2:5).

A Call to the Christian

To the Christian twitter-pated by the wisdom of the world: This “wisdom” proclaims all kinds of blasphemy and idolatry of the self–rooted in racial tribalism, denying the God who made them in His image, and attributing to themselves an identity forged in the depths of the sinful, deceitful, human heart (Rom. 1:18-21; Jer. 17:9; 1 Cor. 1:20, 3:19). This forgery is no short of an idol. Some such identities and forged gospels are inclusive of movements like modern feminism, LGBT activism, Black Lives Matter and, not to equate the two, the Nationalist-Socialist Party. This “wisdom” cries out in the streets, much like the personified Wisdom of the Proverbs. The worldly wisdom cries out in the streets with an invitation of reconciliation between races, minorities, and sexual identities–an invitation to fulfill a promise that only the cross of Christ can. This promise of reconciliation between men is only accomplished when first, the heart of man is reconciled to God. He is then reconciled to the entirety of the Cosmos, which is consummated and finds its sum, its fullness, its redemption, in the person of Jesus, who holds it all together by the Word of His power (Col. 1:17).

To the Christian twitter-pated by that “wisdom,” falsely so-called, of these evil doctrines conceived in sin, I will remind you, in the words of our Lord: “Wisdom is vindicated by all her children,” and the children of that wisdom are illegitimate. And of even greater value, I will remind you of this: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Prov. 1:7). This wisdom created all things, whether visible or invisible, through Jesus Christ. This wisdom crafted mankind in His very own image, through Jesus Christ. This wisdom, in the person of Jesus, died for the sins of image bearers who are only and always deserving of death and instant, eternal condemnation (Eph. 2:1-10). To the world, this wisdom is foolishness, but to those who are being saved, it is sweet beyond compare (2 Cor. 2:16).

No Christian has any business involving themselves in social, political, or economic change that is not intrinsically founded in the attempt to expand the rule and reign of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are to tear down every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ (2 Cor. 10:5). In other words, preach the gospel to every corner of the world–political, social, economic, education, planned parenthood, your workplace, your grocery store, your church, and your home. This should be an attempt at proclaiming the victory of Christ over all these things, in whom we find the only true reconciliation between God and man, alongside an invitation to come and die with Him–you and all your sins. To be nailed to the cross with Him–you and all your sins. To be buried with Him–you and all your sins. And to be Raised to life in Him–you, and not your sins. Come to Christ, and welcome to His body, in which He purchased a People from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation.