Saturday, July 27, 2024

VICARIOUSLY DRIVING NAILS

Those who rationalize “cause something to seem reasonable” (Merriam-Webster 2023). Rationalization is not a cause but is seemingly so. It is a figment of the imagination. It seems reasonable but it is not; it is a biased opinion about one’s own actions.

For instance, the attempted assassin of Donald Trump surely thought it was reasonable to shoot the former president for some unknown cause. The assassination attempt was the effect (or action) of some unknown cause that seemed reasonable to the shooter. Perhaps he really did believe that Trump was a threat to democracy; after all, according to Aldous Huxley in Brave New World, thousands of repetitions make one truth.

The media had repeated even millions of times that Trump was a threat to democracy without even naming how so! “Repetition” was the means to kill Trump to prevent him from destroying their skewed version of democracy.

What is the truth? Trump is patriotic and does want America to be better again. He has demonstrated that when he was president before.

However, this is not a commentary about politics. It is about people like Thomas Matthew Crooks who thought it was reasonable to murder a man just because so many do not like the man.

Crooks indeed was an extreme example of Trump Derangement Syndrome. Crooks was the deranged one because he could not live with the man with whom he disagreed so intesnely. He thought it worth giving his own life so that Trump was silenced. Hos death even meant that never again would he need to see nor hear Donald Trump ever again. He was so agitated with his enemy that he did something irrational. Who was hurt the most? Crooks himself who died because his imagination led him places that were unreasonable.

Was shooting Trump worth the latter’s silence? Even with Trump dead, the movement would still live on and perhaps with even more enthusiasm. Shooting at the former president was an irrational act that the shooter thought a reasonable thing. His mind was apparently so deranged that it was worth dying for it to cease the agitation it was experiencing.

Most of us would never even think of shooting someone else for various reasons. However, many vicariously murder others. How so? They experience or realize “through imaginative or sympathetic participation in the experience of another” (ibid).

Many Americans wanted Trump dead. They never pulled the trigger, but they imagined that they did so by wishing the bullet had hit its mark. They rationalized, just as Crooks, that the nation would be better with Trump dead.

Those with Trump Derangement Syndrome would have their anxieties alleviated if the bullet had hit the target. Crooks was not shooting at the former president’s heart but his mind. He wanted the thoughts of Trump dead and gone!

Now we can test that with the Bible.

Jesus said, “Whosoever looks on a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart” (Mat 5:28). The “heart” in that verse is the human will. Whosoever lusts has already committed the act vicariously. He envisions that the pornography that the others are doing is himself doing those things.

Vicariousness is not limited to imaginary sexual encounters. “Whosoever hates his brother is a murderer: and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him” (1 John 3:15). According to that, millions of people wanted the former President dead. Crooks was the shooter but those with Trump Derangement Syndrome made it possible for him to pull the trigger. He almost fulfilled the fantasy of the mob. He fulfilled the thoughts of Biden and Harris.

Incidentally, the Jews did not kill Jesus alone. They were vocal about it but the others in the mob, even those who remained silent, wanted Jesus dead; not because He was guilty of anything, but they were uncomfortable with His teachings.

Who killed Jesus in their attempts to murder Jesus? The Father killed His own Son because that is what the mob wanted. Then mob was out to get Yahweh by killing His Son. Yahweh sacrificed His own Genome to the mob.

Nimrod, millennia before, had hunted God on His own turf but failed to kill the invisible God — Yahweh. Now, there on Calvary was the very visible Image of God, so if they could topple His Image, then God was as good as dead. They were not out to kill Jesus but to vicariously kill Yahweh. Jesus was the acceptable sacrifice for Yahweh Himself. If Jesus had remained dead, then to them, Yahweh would be dead, and they all could do what they wanted to do with impunity.

The killers had to get to Yahweh by killing Him vicariously because, despite what Muslims believe, phantoms cannot be crucified!

Who killed Jesus? Yahweh did not do the work, but He could have saved Jesus. Jesus revealed to Pontius Pilate, “You could have no power at all against Me, except it were given you from above: therefore, He that delivered me unto thee has the greater sin” (John 19:11).

Judas did not deliver Jesus, nor did Caiaphas nor even Pilate. Yahweh delivered Jesus to His death because Jesus was the only acceptable sacrifice: 

(Jesus) who gave Himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father (Galatians 1:4)… And He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. (1 John 2:2) 

When Jesus walked peacefully to His death; it was self-sacrifice; as Yahweh God in the flesh; it was Yahweh who took on the sins of the world and even toppled His own Image — the Man, Jesus. Yahweh murdered Himself in a vicarious manner; it was as if Yahweh drove the nails and fled!

The people did not hate Jesus, the man. They hated Jesus, the God.

Hatred (misio in the Greek) is as the name implies; they were miserable that they could not do whatever they wanted to do.

Just as love (agape) is goodwill toward God and man, miseo is ill-will toward God and mankind. Them all, even those who did no actions themselves, had ill-will toward Yahweh and His Image, Jesus. Their ill-will was the tough Law that Jesus invoked — the Law of Love. Love is a hard thing to do!

Jesus wanted them to be loving and kind and that was just not their nature. They preferred Jesus Derangement Syndrome to the Law of Love on that dreadful day.

“Whosoever,” the ones in John 3:16, who hates his brother has already murdered vicariously. No, they did not pull the trigger nor drive the nails, as the case must be, but they all are guilty if they hate the man that intensely. Whosoever cried out, “Crucify Him” (Mark 15:13). They did not drive the nails but did the dastardly, even bloody, act in their minds!

Jesus seemed to be lying about who He was. It was irrational at that time for a man to be truly God. They had seen many men who made that claim come and go, and for them, Jesus was just another pretender god. The others had died, so why not Jesus? That seemed a rational and reasonable thing to do!

Paul did not think that killing someone else for your own wrongs was a reasonable thing to do, so he said, “You present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service” (Rom 12:1).

God had already made the vicarious sacrifice for your trespasses with the propitiation of the blood of His own Son; now it is your turn. Yours need not be a bloody sacrifice at all, but merely a turning away from sin in the same manner that God turned away your sin by presenting Himself. Your propitiation is not even your flesh but the desires of your flesh. You must have goodwill toward God and others. You must not think about getting even but getting them saved!

Hatred is ill-will. It is as if murdering another person, and murdering a creature of God is vicariously murdering God again. Each time you hate another, that is driving another vicarious, imaginary nail into the hands or feet of Jesus.

Why do people have hatred in their hearts (minds)? Because they have “People Derangement Syndrome.” (Yes, sometimes I too am guilty of that).

Even Christians oftentimes cannot stand the idea that others are not Christians. They even get pleasure out of shunning!

Not dining with those who reject God is a noble commandment (1 Cor 5:11), but if it is implemented ignobly, then that is as if murdering the sinful person, and makes the shunner the murderer.

The “knife” is the commandment, so to speak, but having pleasure in using the commandment is ill-will with the so-called “Christian.” Having pleasure in inserting the commandment into the heart and soul of the sinner is wrong… you know, the one (whosoever) that God loves so much!

Sin is hateful. It is as if crucifying Jesus all over again with each sin. Jesus has been re-crucified, even by Christians like me daily.

Sin is the thoughts of God as dead so that the penalty of sin is not justified.

Rationalization is self-justification: The inquiring lawyer inquired of Jesus about who would lie forever. The lawyer pleading his case was “willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, “And who is my neighbour?” (Luke 10:29). speaking about the one that he must love.

Jesus used the example of the non-Christian, non-Jew — the Samaritan. The lawless Samaritan showed love and He was not obeying commandments, but he had goodwill for the dying man whereas those under the Law did not.

In other words, love (goodwill) is not to be only mouthed but put into action. The Pharisees were the mouths of the Law, and Jesus called them vipers. Those who press the Law unto others are the viperous generation of whom it is written (Mat 3:27).

The Law is good, but those who joyously make others obey the Law that even they cannot do, are the snakes even if they teach the gospel. Hence, Christianity is not strict obedience to the Law but a willingness to do better than the Law, even to love, not just neighbors, but even enemies. Jesus said, “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you” (Mat 5:44). So, what do Christians do so often? Either sue or persecute you!

Having ill-will toward those who do wrong things to you may be the command, but it is not the intent of the Law. Christians must overcome their hatred of their enemies and out-perform the Law. Worse yet is the satisfaction so many get in vicariously knifing their enemies.



Picture credit Pop Classics

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No comments:

Post a Comment