Most of my life, I don't really pay much attention to current events or politics. I like it that way. I'm uncomfortable as a part of a group, Conservatives, Americans, Conspiracy Theorists, Anti-vaxxers, hell even Christians. I prefer to just be Jon and whenever I get interested in "The News" I find myself pulled into some grouping or other so I prefer to avoid the whole situation. So I was going along minding my business, ignoring the drama of the world around me until November 4th 2020, when I looked up and saw the world around me had changed dramatically. I think a lot of people, people who were paying attention, saw it less because it was a gradual thing to them. But I had been ignoring the COVID, except to occasionally mock people who were making a big deal out of it, which the virus doesn't really seem to justify. I had been ignoring the electoral process, didn't bother to vote, partly because I had doubts about both of the candidates, but mostly because I knew that without massive fraud the result was a foregone conclusion, particularly in the state of Georgia... So, the morning after the election I hopped online just to confirm my expectations and found that the world around me had changed. And as I looked it was clear that it wasn't just on this single issue, although it is still the biggest one. Since then I have been watching and in 15 months of watching what have I seen? I have seen an election "saved" by conspiracy and corruption of public officials, I have seen the debate and objection to that "saved" election in Congress derailed by the "Justice" Department's false flag operation against the American people. I have seen a very sensible restriction on Gain of Function research, along with basic protocols for handling dangerous pathogens blatantly disregarded and then papered over by a bought media and a scientific establishment addicted to NIH and Big Pharma money. I have seen "noble lies" told by The Science, and by "the adults". The "noble lies" are piled so high that truth has become a needle in a haystack. And I have seen the ones who claim to be opposed to all of this betray the principals at the critical moment enough times to no longer be surprised when it happens.
By simply remaining individuals, rather than being melted down into the collective and drinking the Kool-Aid we become radicals. So be it. Let's really be radicals. What is a real radical? Well, radical comes from the latin "ratix", literally a root. It is where we get the word "radish", which is of course the root of a plant. A radical then, is someone who doesn't want to deal with problems at a superficial level, they want to get to the root causes. A radical doesn't simply rearrange deck chairs on the Titanic, he repairs the boat. The best example of a radical is probably John the Baptist who when speaking of the corruption of the political and religious establishment said, "The ax is laid to the root." I only wish that we could get to the root of our society’s problems. So, what are the root causes of the present darkness? Well the election was stolen, the laws were circumvented, public officials were corrupted, the truth was hidden, the legitimate debate of Congress was forestalled by a contrived insurrection, the likes of which hasn't been seen since the Reichstag fire which thrust the Nazis into power, all of this was done to "save democracy from an autocratic demagogue", by a group which proceeded to rule entirely by executive order and administrative rulings by appointed officials most blatantly illegal and only in place until judges get around to saying so, the “Saviors of our Democracy” believe that democracy means being able to pass any law with 50 senators, which by the way isn't even a majority. All of this to save democracy. The public was lied to about the source of the virus, because the truth that it was manipulated, probably at the behest of DARPA for use as a bioweapon and then released into the wild is "harmful to science". The same reason we must pretend cloth masks prevent the spread of viral aerosols, can't give somebody a reason not to "trust the science", we are told by a man who confounds himself with Science. A highly experimental, and empirically rather dubious, gene therapy treatment must be taken by everyone, everywhere, over and over and the test results not released for I believe the number was 55 years, to "save humanity". The common thread in all of this is justification. Things that seem in themselves horrible are actually great because of some external circumstance.
This is how all evil things happen. The Holocaust was justified as a "final solution" to the "jewish problem". All of the things that truly wreck our world begin their lives as solutions. Our damnation begins as a salvation from some problem. So, what is the alternative?
From Romans 7 starting at verse 7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, “You shall not covet.” But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law sin was dead. I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me. Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.
There are two sides to this. We justify, in ourselves and to a lesser extent those in our group, things that are deserving of condemnation. Our actions are excused, or at the extreme that we have now come to our corruption is even laudable, because it accomplishes some end. The ends have justified our corrupt means. We continue to say, in general in the abstract, "Thou shalt not kill" but we have various reasons why it is a good thing for our rich uncle to have an accident. And in all of our justifications perhaps the best way to see through them is with the lawyer’s old question, "Qui bono?", who benefits? Our self-justification is always done in our own interest at the cost of some other. The other side is that we condemn those things which expose us. We condemn the misinformation, and disinformation, of God’s Law which contradicts our narrative. It's a bit tone deaf. It, the Law, gives support to extremists. But Paul does neither of those things here. He justifies the Law, it is holy and just and good. But he, himself, is carnal, sold under sin, a wretched man in need of deliverance from his own deadly self. We have to stop defining our circumstances, the world, the life that God has placed us in as the problem, which by the way means that He is the problem. And confess that we, ourselves, our free made choices are the problem.
Has then what is good become death to me? Certainly not! But sin, that it might appear sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.
I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.
That our circumstances cause us unpleasant outcomes is actually a benefit. It's a feature not a bug and we need to stop trying to avoid all of these unpleasant outcomes with our schemes. The Law reveals to us our sinfulness, at least it will if we will stop trying to manipulate everything so that we don't have to see the truth about ourselves. Our justifying ourselves is the problem. We have to stop pretending that we are ok stop pretending that circumstances made our actions necessary. We have to stop blaming everyone and everything except ourselves and admit that we have done the things that we chose to do because we wanted to do them. That choice gives Paul the power to see something else in himself and be transformed. But why doesn't this happen in us, in our lives? It seems clear that we should confess, we should recognize ourselves as sinners, the benefits in Paul's life are so clear, so why don't we do it? The problem is that our self-justification is not a rational response, I don't mean just that it isn't a sensible response but that our justifying ourselves doesn't begin in our reasoning mind at all. It begins deep, with a primal instinct for our own survival, an instinct which we find irresistible.
The thing is our justifying ourselves is not some disinterested choice. Like the architects of the current global situation we recognize, on an instinctive level, even when we will not admit the situation to ourselves, that we have committed crimes against humanity, crimes against nature, and crimes against nature's God. That is why they, and we, do not confess. The penalty for our crimes is destruction, destruction of reputation when the truth comes out, destruction of self-determination as our future will be in the hands of our judges, destruction of life as death, never ending death, is the only reasonable punishment for such crimes.
From Romans 8 beginning at 33: Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.
As human beings our most fundamental need is to be justified. We cannot live even a moment without something making us right with the world and with God. I said earlier that we have to justify ourselves to survive because the punishment is destruction, but really the need to be, and believe we are, a meaningful, useful, contributing part of creation is something that we cannot live without even if there were no punishment attached to its lack. Hence our desperation to see ourselves as something other than a sinner, a drain on the universe. But our justification of ourselves always remains conditional and temporary, overlooking for the moment the falsity of our self-justification, even if we suppose our defenses of ourselves are true, they are circumstantial. We can never prove ourselves intrinsically, essentially just. We can never look on ourselves, the whole of our selves and our lives and say, “It is good.” The only thing that can do that is a verdict, a true word, from the Judge who is Always Right. If He justifies us, then nothing else matters. It doesn't matter what crimes or sins we have committed. He had the first word in Creation and the Final Word of His judgment is superior to mere facts. The judgment that we have run from for so long is actually our only hope. Despite our justifications of ourselves our sinfulness is a fact that we cannot escape. It can't be undone, can't be fixed, can't be made up for, but He can declare us worthwhile creatures even while we are sinners. If He pronounces us good then evidence and conscience and facts be damned. If our hearts condemn us then God, Christ the One and Only Judge who holds all authority, is greater than our hearts. So any condemnation runs into the immovable wall of Christ's death and resurrection. All judgment, all condemnation has to go through Him. All authority in Heaven and Earth has been given Him. Unless the One who gave His life for you says that you are worthless and condemned then no one else can. 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?
There really isn't anything else to say. Paul has said it better than I can, so the beginning and then the end of chapter 8.
There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
And here's the end, Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written:
“For Your sake we are killed all day
long;
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”
Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
