Pesher for Trinity Sunday, 2021

The Cambrian Pesher*

Trinity Sunday (May 30th) 2021

From Whom All Blessings Flow

Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? (Job 2:10)

I am the LORD, and there is none else. I form the light and create darkness; I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things. (Isaiah 45:6,7)

Beloved Friends:

Not so very long ago, one of our local ministers published a YouTube recording of a public forum at one of our local universities in which he took upon himself the task of providing a defense for the Christian religion by answering objections from the student audience. The event was well attended and the questions were thoughtful, but certainly combative.

I watched a few minutes of the production, not willing to spend my time with a reiteration of talking points I learned in my college days many years ago, but just long enough to be satisfied that “there is nothing new under the sun.” The value of recording devices is the ability to “fast-forward” the recording in the search for subject matter. This is what I found:

The students were not arguing science or physics or even philosophy, but theodicy; they took issue with the Bible’s moral standards. In particular, and for sometime in the discussion, they were arguing against the Old Testament proof-texts which traditional Christians use to condemn homosexuality. One student asked how it was that the anti-sodomy commandment in the Book of Leviticus could be found among other arcane and bizarre commandments against various agricultural practices (mingling seeds) and textile manufacturing standards (mixing wool with linen). In sum, the weight of the challenges focused on the attempt to embarrass Christians with the “stupid” laws found in the Bible.

I do not remember the minister’s responses. They were not memorable because they contained the same mumbling and disingenuous rationalizations which have for a long-time characterized Christian apologists: ostentatious attempts to actually explain and prove Christianity and to plea various dispensationalist arguments distinguishing ceremonial laws from moral laws.

Christian Apologetics

Now, I do not want to be misunderstood. There is value in the different branches of Christian apologetics. There is “historical apologetics” which sets forth the case that the biblical records are authentic and can be trusted as reliable history. There is “scientific” apologetics which argues that the Christian world view can be trusted as something consistent with natural law, in distinction from challengers, such as Darwinism. There is philosophical apologetics which argues that Christianity is logical and consistent with rational categories of thought. And then there is theodicy, which attempts to defend the moral government of God. More on this below.

However, in the final analysis these forms of apologetics only serve to confirm the already converted. They are useless otherwise.

Most people become Christians because they were born in a Christian country or were born to Christian parents. Proselytes become Christians because they want the advantages which a missionary organization may provide: food, shelter, education, and so forth. Rarely is a conversion accomplished through an intellectual journey. It is almost always based upon more mundane events such as a brush with death, the charms of a woman, career opportunities, and so on.

Conversely, opponents of Christianity adhere to their religions for the same reasons. Almost the whole Asian world adopted Mohammedism rather than Christianity during the early Middle Ages because the Khan at the time wanted to keep his harem, and the Christian missionaries told him he would have to divorce his wives to be baptized. . . Long-term thinking there!

Even Atheists, although they have prided themselves for their moral and intellectual superiority, reject Christianity for emotional reasons. Perhaps they were mistreated by Christian acquaintances or they have witnessed an atrocity done in the name of Christ. Perhaps they have experienced a natural calamity and find it impossible to believe that an omnipotent deity could have allowed such a tragedy to occur.

These intellectual props which pass for rational debate between believer and unbeliever only hide the real motivations of the antagonists: they find Christianity inconvenient to their quest for personal happiness. Thus, they dismiss it.

In a rare admission from Aldous Huxley, the transitional Atheist of the late 19th Century, he proves the point:

For myself as, no doubt, for most of my contemporaries, the philosophy of meaninglessness was essentially an instrument of liberation. The liberation we desired was simultaneously liberation from a certain political and economic system and liberation from a certain system of morality. We objected to the morality because it interfered with our sexual freedom; we objected to the political and economic system because it was unjust. The supporters of these systems claimed that in some way they embodied the meaning (a Christian meaning, they insisted) of the world. There was one admirably simple method of confuting these people and at the same time justifying ourselves in our political and erotic revolt: we could deny that the world had any meaning whatsoever. – Ends and Means (NY, Harper, 1937, p. 316)

The right form of apologetic would be to confront the unbeliever at this level. A believer is not required to prove the existence of God, but rather to demonstrate that His existence is a possibility. The renowned 19th Century revival preacher, Charles Finney, argued this point forcefully. Moral obligation stems from the mere possibility of the thing: it is possible that a God exists; it is possible that the Bible is true; it is possible that Jesus Christ rose from the dead – and if any of these things be not proven, yet, if they are possible, then it is derelict to dismiss them. The risks are too high.

The Atheist ought to know that he did not create himself or simply come into being. The evidence of a creation imposes the moral obligation to seek out the Creator. The beneficence of the natural order suggests a benevolent God. The existence of suffering suggests the possibility of sanctions for wrongdoing. The internal witness of a conscience and the awareness of consciousness – all suggest that the Creator might be seeking out a relationship with His creation. The creature is under moral obligation to reciprocate.

Atheists pretend that none of this exists. Yet, they cannot prove that it does not exist. Consequently, they are required as moral and sentient beings to pursue a path of discovery.

Moral Culpability of the Negligent God

In law, if someone misrepresents or attempts to do something in the name of another without his knowledge or consent, it is fraud. However, once the fraud becomes known, it is incumbent upon the offended party to denounce and disavow the fraud and the perpetrator.

Many things have been done in the name of Christ. The Atheist reasons that if Christ, according to Christian doctrine, is God of very God, then He is omniscient and omnipotent. Nothing is done without His knowledge and anything that is done in His name is done with His foreknowledge. Furthermore, if Christ has the power to prevent an evil from being done in His name, His failure to stop it implies tacit consent and complicity in the deed.

Of course, the historical response to this charge of Divine culpability for the evil in the world has been the doctrine of moral agency: free will. It is impossible to have a creation made in “the image of God” without the risk of the entrance of sin into the world. The notion of “free choice” is meaningless if there are no options and no sanctions. God rules by offering a choice: he threatens negative sanctions for disobedience and promises rewards for obedience. This was perhaps the very first lesson in the Garden of Eden.

In following the tragedy that is called “human history” we encounter the age of Noah and the Flood. It appears that the case was hopeless, but God promised to try again; this time with the institution of human government to enforce these sanctions:

Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.

(Genesis 9:6)

Consequently, while God has reserved to Himself the prerogative of a final judgment at the end of history, he has delegated the enforcement of sanctions to human government as a restraining force until then.

Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers . . . the powers that be are ordained of God.
(Romans 13:1)

Moral Turpitude of the “Evil” God

Except, that human government too has had a long history of corruption, almost to the point that its existence seems to be the opposite value as set forth by God:

For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil.
(Romans 13:3)

We also find that God Himself ordered genocide and barbarous behavior which offends the modern conscience. The slaughter of the Canaanites comes to mind, of course, with the howls of outrage by modern moralists (never mind Dresden, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki). In biblical law, we have other deviancies: war brides, child brides, multiple brides, and other practices which in our times are considered perversions if not outright felonies.

It is difficult for us today, so far removed from the circumstances of those times, to find rationalizations. Some commentators will argue that the Canaanites had become contaminated with the non-human nephilim species – remnants of the pre-Flood giant race – that eradication was the only remedy. And in the generations which followed the Flood – a time of an ice age with frequent and violent earth-shakings, famines, and pestilence – the average life-span may not have exceeded 16 years of age. The human race was barely able to survive and we can suppose there were great pressures to mate as early as maturity would allow. Even as late as the 18th Century, the English Common Law set the ages of consent at 14 for boys and 12 for girls. This was still a time when half the children died before the age of five, and societies were still trapped in cycles of plague, famine, and war. The patriarchs are presented as centenarians in the biblical record. But such longevity was the exception rather than the rule during those bleak millennia. And such has been the case in our fleeting century of plenty, medical miracles, and relative peace.

2046 AD and the End of the World

In the near future, we may be cast upon such a survival scenario. The Atheists may have their faith in science. The Deists of the Founding Era may have had theirs in “Divine Providence” while the Deists of today have it in the Diehold. But to survive, we really need a Savior. I still do not see how boats and caves, spaceships and pyramids, time travel and raptures can save us from the imminent solar nova – at least, not as a species. Perhaps as some kind of ethereal beings there is a future for us, but if this scenario plays out, Earth and its life forms will have become a failed creation – truly a tragedy.

Trinity Sunday

Today is Trinity Sunday which closes out Whitsunday and the Pentecost season. Pentecost marks the birth of the Church of both Testaments: the Old in the giving of the Law at Sinai and the New in the giving of the Holy Spirit to write that Law upon the human heart. Christianity is mocked for its Trinitarian formula. How can three be one and one be three? Sounds like the new math, doesn’t it?

It is not logical because it is pre-logical. Like the observation of the stars, we cannot always understand or explain them. We just accept them as fixtures of reality. Our opening texts above suggest the immutable reality of God’s being and the nature of a created order that cannot be challenged or changed. It is the reality we all must conform ourselves to if we hope to live in it.

With blessings,

James
A Servant of Jesus

Collect for the Day:
Almighty and everlasting God, you have given to us your servants, by the confession of true faith, to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity, and in the power of your divine Majesty to worship the Unity: Keep us steadfast in this faith and worship, an bring us at last to see you in your one and eternal glory, O Father; who with the Son and the Holy Spirit live and reign, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

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*Cambrian Pesher is the pastoral epistle of the Cambrian Episcopal Church of the Grail, a fellowship and abbey adhering to a spiritual tradition from ancient Wales. We use the Authorized Version of the Bible (King James Version) as our default translation and the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopalian Church for liturgical guidance. We are not an affiliate of any denomination.
Copyright is reserved to the Cambrian Episcopal Church of the Grail, 2021, Idaho, USA