Rush Limbaugh: The mockery of mockers

I have never been a follower or listener of Rush Limbaugh. I have not become one. His message may be different but his mindset is no different than the likes of Howard Stern. Over the years I doubt seriously if my total listening time of Rush Limbaugh amounts to one hour.

He may imagine himself, even as some Christians do, to speak of or for the faith that is in Christ Jesus, but that is his delusion. He may speak for conservatives, as some of them claim, but the designations of conservative or liberal,whether touted or rejected, hardly serve as biblical describers of what it means to be a Christian, a disciple of Jesus; one who has crucified the flesh. These are the matters of the world in which many a disciple entangles himself. These are the terms taken up and embraced by many to clothe themselves as righteous or right, but which can blithely and easily amount to mockery.

My first comment to one of Rush Limbaugh's rants was concerning President Obama speaking at a Miami fundraiser. Limbaugh was incensed at what he described as Obama's mockery of the American tax payer. What neither Limbaugh nor many self-professed Christians, of conservative and liberal variety, recognized was Limbaugh's own mockery of the faith that is in Christ Jesus. This from a man (I don't know if he still does) mockingly boasts he is, "on loan from God." Limbaugh likened one of the Obama administration's measures with these words to a particular miracle sign performed by Jesus: "The recovery act stimulus bill it's more like loaves and fishes." . . . "It is all bogus." Limbaugh effectively mocked the miracle of Jesus. He equated the miracle of the loaves and fishes with the stimulus bill describing these as bogus.

Now his mockery on government subsided birth control is being eaten up like loaves and fishes by many for whom Limbaugh speaks. I heartily concur with him that one whose choice to engage in sex should hardly be the responsibility of the American citizen to fund the cost of birth control measures that person incurs for themselves.

As a margin note I refute the argument of politicians who wonder if coverage of medicine may fall on employers' chopping block under the guise of religious belief: Well, we believe in prayer. This does not equivocate with funded birth control. By way of an illustration, the enslaving vices of tobacco and alcohol are not similarly funded. There are two noteworthy points of distinction between these and birth control. When those who are enslaved to tobacco and alcohol determine to be free of these vices they may, as some are able, severe cleanly and abruptly their use of tobacco and alcohol. Others can seek medical solutions or support groups to aid them in their quest to be free of their addiction. The choice tobacco and alcohol users made years before and which they maintained over the years was not dependant on and did not require the necessary engagement and participation of another person as in sexual unions for which some demand the entitlement of birth control.

There's litte reason to doubt Christians (those professing themselves as conversative or liberal) heartily embrace this latest rant of Limbaugh of alleged mockery on Americans. There's another mockery, I allege. Since Limbaugh's rant concerns sexual promiscuity I will reference the passage in the gospel according to John 8. A woman caught in the act of adultery, hence, the sexual promiscuity, was brought before Jesus. I allege there is a mockery, not only by Limbaugh, but by those who have been stirred without discernment to rally behind him, much like the Pharisees who brought the woman to Jesus. They were no more interested in keeping the law of Moses than to see the restoration to faith of their fallen sister. If their interests were truly in keeping the law they would have stoned the woman, according to their law, without consulting Jesus. Their consultation of Jesus was a mockery. Their supposed interests created a carnival spectacle around the adulteress not unlike the insipid voyeurism of recorded video sex demanded by Limbaugh mockingly from the sexually promiscuous on supposedly on behalf of the American taxpayer in exchange for funded birth control.

If you can state unequivocably your interests to restore those enslaved as much to tobacco and alcohol as sex than in all likelihood you are not so blithely or easily taken in by the mockery of mockers.

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The Gospel of Jesus

The message of the love of God


Our daily lives are filled with doing and acquiring. We have a clear date in mind when we got the job, when we got married and most everything which is special and significant to us. We are able to recount and retell specifics concerning those events and special moments years after their occurrence. Why then, are so many disciples of Jesus troubled and at a loss to recount and retell the moment of their commitment to Jesus as Lord and Savior?

Recently, I found myself telling the old story of the gospel to a neighbor and to a dear sibling. That is a story which has remained as much a fire in my bones as ever since thirty three years ago. I rejoice in the telling of the story. It stirs in me a keen and wonderfully discomforting awareness for the lively and enlightening ancient story of the gospel. There is nothing like standing in the warmth of the fire with the one hearing the message of the love of God.

A lack of confidence

I feel for brothers and sisters in the faith who do not know and often are frightened by the intimacy and intensity of sharing the gospel. I can only wonder what they were taught at the time of their conversion. What I learn is often what they were taught is so scrambled and vague. It produced no confidence for them in the sharing of their own story. Some were told to repeat a prayer. Others were told to simply let themselves go and feel the spirit. Still, others may have great zeal and confidence, but they find themselves at a loss to find an example like their experience in the scriptures.

The first gospel sermon

The gospel is the good news. It occurs to me the good news of the gospel does not begin with the birth of Jesus in a manger. It begins with his death. The gospel is the message of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. When Peter preached the first gospel message on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2 he was clear and specific about the things he proclaimed to his audience. He proclaimed the death, burial of Jesus to his audience and made it clear to them they had crucified this Lord and Christ whom God had raised up.

him, being delivered up by the determined counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by the hand of lawless men, crucified and killed; 2:24 whom God raised up,

The apostle Peter through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit clarifies for his listeners the interpretation of Psalm 16. He makes it clear the burial (Hades) in the Psalm was not about David, but about Jesus.

The conversion of Saul

When the Lord Jesus appeared to Saul, who was a persecutor of the church, he was struck blind and waited until Ananias was sent to him. Saul arose and was baptized as he was instructed by Ananias.

The teaching of Paul

The apostle Paul wrote many letters to the churches throughout Asia and Europe. It remained clear in his memory what he had been taught by Ananias. He was as specific when he recounted to the Romans his conversion.

Or don’t you know that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 6:4 We were buried therefore with him through baptism to death, that just like Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life.

Note how Paul includes himself (we, us) with the Christians in Rome in what he referred to as a form of teaching later in verse 17.

Furthermore, the apostle Paul defined the gospel in First Corinthians 15:1-4.

For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 15:4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,

The confidence of our first century brothers and sisters was not in the wonders and signs performed by the apostles and those upon whom the apostles had laid hands. Their confidence was rooted in the keen knowledge and awareness of what the gospel they had been taught and how and when they obeyed it. Search the scriptures for that form of teaching you were taught and obeyed. There is confidence in knowing that what we teach others is what we ourselves obeyed ,and most importantly, according to the scriptures.

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God is (not) dead

It was Friedrich Nietzsche who declared, "God is dead.” Those words have been a rally cry for some, but anxiety and frustration for believers. However, Nietzsche may have unwittingly opened a window of discussion for atheist and theist alike. These theists, who are the focus of this article and for the sake of clarity, are referred to as fear-theists to distinguish, not disparage, them from other theists in this article.

Nietzsche’s declaration provides a vantage point for disciples of Jesus who believe and uphold Jesus’ deity claims to push back when pressed against. The statement spotlights not just God, but death for both; disciples who claim belief in Jesus but timidly wonder about his deity and fear-theists who deny his deity completely. A fundamental understanding of the scriptures by disciples on the death of Jesus is all that is required to appreciate Nietzsche’s statement as foul as that may seem for some. It is does not require a disciple delve into original languages or a philosophy discourse on Nietzsche or his writings.

A common belief between atheists and fear-theists

What atheists and fear-theists share in common is their belief in the finality of death. (Knowing the knee-jerk reaction by atheists to the term belief associated with them you may think of it as, understanding.) It is true fear-theists believe in heaven and eternity with God. However, to the extent fear-theists reject the resurrection of Jesus from the dead they live in fear.

Fear-theists have no more a response for the implications of his resurrection than the significance of his death to the claims concerning the deity of Jesus.

No wonder some fear-theists reject, not only the resurrection, but the death of Jesus. What fear-theists profess in faith does not agree with their view of death as being final.

Since then the children have shared in flesh and blood

he also himself in the same way partook of the same,

that through death he might bring to nothing him who had the power of death,

that is, the devil, Hebrews 2:14

Spirited cheers, jeers and chants, spiritual words, holy things and acts of faith are nothing if they are mere distractions. One cannot ignore for long the spectacle of one's own death or the death of Jesus. Does the humorously popular American bravado come to mind: Ain’t skeerd. How ever well-intentioned any teaching which leaves alone the seeker with nothing more than bravado to standoff the persistence of death is little comfort. The implication of Jesus' resurrection is that the One who is able to take up his life is also the giver of life. The significance of his death is the extent of the love of God like no other.

No one takes it away from me, but I lay it down by myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. John 10:18

Did God die?

A theist's theology, that is, how one knows and teaches God and his will, that does not account for death comes off as not much more than a hollow corpse emptied of its God-given life to the atheist and fear-theist’s mind. The blunt, anxiety-filled question, Did God die? has long been an effective tactic to bewilder and disarm some theists when they affirm, yes, Jesus, God in the flesh, died.

There are two common questions/assertions which often come up in the discussion. Questions are vital and necessary to discussion but the assumption too often is that the questioner not only understands the subject about which he inquires, but surely must be a scholar.

God is not a man

1 This is true. God is not a man. However, does this assertion fear-theists seem to attribute an aversion (or fear?) on the part of God to take on form to become a man? This reasoning by man seems understandable. Man is not given to stepping down to a lower state in life to accomplish something great. It is especially true if it's nothing more than an accomplishment out of pure love. God becoming a man for a specific time and specific purpose is not the same as to say he is a man. Surely, he is not a bush because he manifested himself in a burning bush (Exodus 3) to Moses.

After successfully deceiving Adam and Eve Satan likely added to his tactics of mockery and ridicule. He added this script to his resolve to deceive people into believing death is a final act.

God cannot deliver you from death. God himself cannot save you.

After all, God is not a man. He can’t understand.

Satan missed the garden prophecy of the woman’s seed God said would bruise the serpent’s (Satan) head. It is more than mere curiosity that this early prophecy regarding the woman’s offspring clashes with yet another fear-theist chant: God does not have sons. God sent prophets to his people to proclaim his will and call his people to repentance. However, when it came to delivering Satan a death blow God did not send a boy, or mere man, to do God’s job. He did it himself.

I will put enmity between you and the woman,

and between your offspring and her offspring.

He will bruise your head,

and you will bruise his heel. Genesis 3:15

God cannot die

2 It is true God cannot die. A feat men boast in the fullness of their arrogance to show their power (such as gang members, KKK, Taliban and others who live in fear) is to take a life. Most humans know they possess that power but wisely never even think to act on it. Other men may lay down their lives in pure love for another person or a noble cause, but none can take it up again. This common misconception that God cannot die raises some other disturbing points to be considered by fear-theists:

a.) While God cannot die it is not the same to say he would not die. This goes back to Satan’s lie in the garden. Adam and Eve’s sin of disobedience was their unbelief. Through their sin of unbelief of what God had commanded death entered the world. This fact regarding death is known by fear-theists. Yet, since death remains today, but since the one (Satan) who had the power of death no longer has it is only those who reject the power of the resurrection over death that remain in its fear. Do the tactics of mockery and ridicule (and denial) of the death and resurrection of Jesus coming from atheists and fear-theists ring familiar like the dialog in the garden? Death is the ultimate litmus test for the claims of every prophet and holy man.

b.) Who better to willingly take on the litmus test of death and die than God himself? There is no greater act of love for God than to demonstrate to man created in his image of his will and power to overcome the death which separated God and man. The death and resurrection of Jesus goes far beyond religious, spiritual, pious talk about loving and serving God. The resurrection from the dead is the work of God. This work marked the confrontation and defeat of death by God and the exposure of Satan's lies. It was a work done for all who do not believe God to belief in God. I once saw a video of a man boasting about Americans being afraid of death. He said, "we," that is he and his followers, "love death". I thought to myself, Why are you alive still? It is far easier for him to send others to death and murder others than for him to lay down his own life as a demonstration of love, because despite his claims of loving God, a murderer lives in fear and knows not love.

Conclusion

God died. God did not remain dead. God is not dead. His willingness to submit to death was in order to bring to belief those who lived under the fear of death. Death remains a mere relic rendered powerless by the power of the resurrection until the final judgment day. Death is the ultimate litmus test for all who profess to proclaim the will of God. Make no mistake about it: This willful death is the renunciation of self by the individual. It does not involve the death of others by murder because they do not believe. This death is to live no longer for self but for Jesus as Lord and Savior as the apostle Paul wrote to the Galatians. Yes, it is a spiritual death, but no less real than a physical death. The claims Jesus fulfilled concerning his death and resurrection bear implications and significance on his deity and are the living, lasting reminder of the love of God.

I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I that live, but Christ living in me. That life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself up for me. Galatians 2:20

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