Before getting to the crux of the matter, I’d like to cross off my segue right at the beginning of this installment, instead of merging it in the middle somewhere. As I’m sure you’ve picked up from my earlier contributions, I’m not a scholar. I dropped out of the University of Washington when I couldn’t justify the tuition, pursuing work and marriage instead. Although the instructor called “Life-Under-The-Sun” is even more expensive, I figured, however, that instructor was more qualified to actually teach me what I needed to know. Especially when partnered with the great minds of those living and dead – minds frozen in time on that ever-ingenious invention: paper and ink. Franz Kafka once wrote, “If a pleasant, straightforward life is not possible then one must try to wriggle through by subtle maneuvers.” Wriggling through by subtle maneuvers is not a poor description of my education thus far. And although books and attempted application have been my main instructors, I don’t dare qualify myself as some autodidact. For an autodidact is self-taught – meaning the lessons have been completed. I’m still learning my way around town.
My intention in saying all of that is not to set up some kind of qualifier. Rather, I’d like to set the stage for my approach when addressing a topic that some might perceive as a more categorically complex issue. An issue which, I believe, has a very personal and timely application. Although I’m not a scholar, and not necessarily an autodidact, I can perhaps play the role of an amateur popularizer, attempting to be helpful. For there are certain topics and issues worth popularizing. Without in any way dismissing the importance of academia, some points are just too important to not make more accessible. Theology and Calvinism are a few of those concerns.
Talk about a broad topic. Thankfully our post-modern culture produces no shortages of opportunities for application. One theological reality that has become exponentially more vivid in the world around us is that ancient doctrine of the antithesis. There is much that has been developed around this doctrine by theologians in history past – doctrinally, categorically, generationally, and so forth. It’s an essential doctrine to grasp, understand, and apply, and has been in every generation of the church. And perhaps like a soft feather landing on an ancient mountain, I can add my 2 little cents of application.
If we could travel back to near the beginning of time, we would see the Mother of All Living discussing her options with the Serpent, giving into the temptation, while the Man looks on and then participates. Knowing what’s to come, we would desperately want to yell out for them to stop. But since we’ve watched time-travel movies before, we would know that nothing good comes from interfering with the unfolding story. We would then see the man and woman hiding from their Maker, as He calls out to them. In response to their unfaithfulness, the Lord of Creation judges the woman and the man, but not before He curses the snake. It’s this curse – the doctrine of the antithesis – that many Christians today, it seems, misapply and mishandle. It can be argued that a misapplication of this doctrine and it’s outworking is one of the reasons why we’re in the mess we’re in today.
First, the verse:
“‘I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.’” – Genesis 3:15
There are of course many possible missteps a Christian can take in connection to the verse above. But I’d like to focus on just two – both of which have ironically been unmasked yet the more in recent times. However, although we’re seeing the consequences of these two mishaps today, the issues are as old as the curse itself. Both in the Old and New Testament, whenever God’s people went astray, these issues were intermixed in the equation.
The first problem presents itself in reference to the first part of the antithesis: many Christians live as though there is no enmity between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman. They are at peace with the world, living out their complacent naivety. What I’m talking about is not their pursuit of suburbia – a warm Christmas morning in a comfortable home with a family of four. That could be a blessing to receive. The problem is the complete lack of awareness that some Christians seem to have of the ongoing battle unfolding in real time between good and evil.
There are those believers who live in a Matrix world of a utopian fairy tale where all their neighbors, government officials, doctors, and experts are filled with innate goodness. Sure, there are mistakes that people make. But deep down, all people are good and want to do good. I trust everybody, because why would anybody wish any evil? Perhaps that’s why more churches don’t sing the Psalms on the Lord’s Day. There’s too much talk of God destroying His enemies.
“The face of the LORD is against those who do evil, to cut off the memory of them from the earth.” – Psalm 34:16
Wow. Well my God isn’t like that.
Due to this idolatrous worship of the false God of Niceness whom they associate with the name of Christ, generations of Christians are ill-prepared for the reality that we are at war. And so, when the seed of the serpent turns on them, they respond with either submission or shock.
Not having a category to place haters of God in, some respond with instant and constant submission. “The government would never mean to hurt us.” Says the Christian bowing before the statue at the sound of the trumpet. Or is it the one in submissive isolation on Thanksgiving Day? Why are many Christians so quick to submit to the dictates of men, burning their inalienable rights on the altar? Because there is no category of enmity in their minds – no understanding of the antithesis.
Much of our reformed brethren do understand the antithesis, but it seems as if some of them understand it only categorically. There is good and evil in the abstract. But what does the verse say? “I will put enmity…between your offspring and her offspring.” The enmity is not between two abstract energy sources. Its much more personal than that. The antithesis plays out through flesh and blood, voices and votes, pistols and tanks. It’s not just an incorrect dogma that propagates the murder of the unborn. It’s people in the flesh who personally hate the Offspring of the woman and vote to kill babies. There is a battle raging since Genesis 3 which many Christians refuse to accept. Another word for submission to the enemy in a time of war is treason.
Some deniers of the enmity might wake up in time to resist submission, but their response is filled with shock. “I never would have thought that it could come to this.” But the Bible says it would, and it has repeatedly in the past. The seed of the serpent bruises the heel of the seed of the woman. Who advanced the persecution of the church throughout history? The seed of the serpent. The Old Testament has not just set the stage, but showed the story play out. In case we weren’t paying attention, our Lord warned us while walking this earth. But we are still caught off guard when the enemy strikes. We are in a fight, and our enemy actually hates us. It’s not a matter of persuasion. It’s a matter of antithesis. We should not be shocked when they steal, lie, and murder. We should not be shocked when we experience detriment. If you’re on the battlefield, you can lose your limb, or even your life. Instead of submission and shock, it’d be more effective to remember that we are at war and to expect detriment from the attacks of the enemy.
But there is another ditch that Christians have fallen into before, and it seems are falling into right now. They accept the first part of the antithesis and expect there to be detriment. But their expectation of the suffering leads to a defeatist disposition. What’s the point? We’re going to lose anyway. And so, the church bunkers down, believing the existence of the enemy but accepting defeat. The tone of a large portion of the Christian church is doom and gloom. They know the enemy is real, and that’s the problem. Every time evil wins a battle or deflects a hit, they remember the antithesis and accept the defeat.
Their knowledge of the enmity between good and evil is so clear that it overshadows the next part of the same verse. When presenting the two sides of the future historical narrative, the sentence in Genesis 3:15 doesn’t close without God stating who the winner of the battle is.
“‘I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.’” – Genesis 3:15
Living as though defeat is certain is wrong because defeat is not just uncertain. We know that victory has already been secured by our Lord. Jesus has won. Yes, I know that every Christian knows that. That’s kind of a requirement to be on the team. But just as the antitheses is personal and not just categorical, so the victory of Christ is as well. Jesus is actually the King, and we are actually His subjects and friends. This is not just a concept to place in the forefront of a debate stage. This is a reality that affects the expression on our faces.
We watch the news of a blood-thirsty political party cheating their way to victory, turn off the video, write a provocative post on social media, and then crack open a Hazy IPA while grilling burgers with a cheery disposition. We do this not because we’re out of touch with reality, but because of the exact opposite of that. It only makes sense for a Christian to have a smile on his face and boldness in his heart because he is the only one in touch with reality. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Christ. That is the world that we are living in. It only makes sense for Christians to have confidence beaming through their grin. And in this confidence of a secure victory, we advance the Kingdom of Christ, in the name of Christ, with the Word of Christ. We build and we fight because Jesus is Lord. And don’t forget the spatula.
We should not be shocked by the enmity in this world, but we should neither be discouraged by it. Instead of complacent naivety, we must expect there to be detriment. And instead of a defeatist disposition, we must be confident in the triumph that has already been secured. We know that Christ is King. And we know that not everybody likes that.
“‘I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.’” – King Jesus, John 16:33
SKH
This is GOOD (about evil).