1. There is no neutrality – secularism is a lie. You will either serve the Living God or some other false god. You will either love God the Father and His only Son Jesus Christ or else you will hate Him and His people. And the same is true for nations and cultures. Nations will serve Christ or demons. And if they refuse to serve Christ, if they insist on neutrality and secularism, they are insisting on demons and destruction in the long run.
2. Proverbs says that all who hate wisdom love death. That death will be pictured in celebrating obesity, sexual suicide through perverse fruitlessness, venereal diseases and STDs, and behind it all, the corpses of millions of babies mutilated and tossed away in the trash. You cannot reject the wisdom of the Creator and remain sane for very long. The madness of Darwinism is coming to fruition. If we evolved from pond scum, life is meaningless and why can’t we evolve into whatever gender or species we want? And why can’t truth, beauty, and justice evolve into whatever we want?
3. When people hate God they deface His image. God’s image is revealed in the glorious duality and binary of male and female. The neutering and “transing” of the image of God is an attack on God Himself. Marriage for life between one man and one woman is the central picture of this harmony. Every attack on marriage and the marriage bed is therefore an attack on the living God and His image in man.
4. There will always be blasphemy laws. And inversely, this means that there will always be some gods it is permissible to mock. But if the opening ceremony had featured a mockumentary moment of Mohammed and Islam, the Parisian streets would be full of violence right now. All false religions ultimately turn violent because their gods are deaf, dumb, blind, and powerless. The adherents of false religions must use force and violence to accomplish their ends (and then credit their false god, sometimes named “justice” or “equality”). Christians are not rioting in the streets because we serve the Living God, but because He is the true God, we want His name honored in the public square. And if His name is not honored, it will ultimately be mocked.
5. Of course pagans will pagan, but this blasphemy should still grieve us since France was once a Christian nation and because many will be crushed by this worldview. “Hot indignation seizes me because of the wicked who forsake your law” (Ps. 119:53). There was at least one child in that table orgy, and that was no accident. Think pedophilia. Think chemical castrations and mastectomies, and remember: if children can consent to sex change operations, they can consent to sexual relationships. That is the play. But also think adultery, divorce, abortion, and the destruction of families feeding more addictions and crime. The open mockery of Christianity is also a warmup for persecution of Christians. While we must be willing to be persecuted, we must not willingly allow our world to prepare to do that to us or our children or grandchildren. Loving our enemies means trying to stop them from greater acts of evil.
6. Some are asking: do we need Christian revival or do we need to regain power and crush this? And the answer is “yes.” And true revival would crush this because repentance means putting the old man to death, it means private and public repentance of sin. Unfortunately, “revival-ism” has come to mean vague, private, spiritual feelings in a tent instead of wholesale reformation. But seizing political power apart from the Holy Spirit can only provide a momentary check to this kind of evil before joining the evil. As I always say, don’t join the French Revolution.
7. Speaking of evil, there is clearly something demonic about this. The fact that this deep confusion was presented as a mockery of the Last Supper indicates that they have a particular target of hate: Christ and His disciples. The demons came out screaming and taunting when Jesus came in the gospels. And to some extent, the fact that the mockery is becoming more and more explicit, may indicate a growing fear on the part of the demons. There is a growing Christian consensus that secularism is a dead end (literally). But to the previous point: You cannot defeat evil with evil. We must overcome evil with good, which includes good blasphemy laws, good cops and magistrates, and good criminal penalties for breaking the law, all grounded in God’s good law.
8. We should not miss the fact that despite the evil, God is using this to turn some people to Himself. More than one person has pointed out that the visceral hatred of Christ and Christianity led them to faith in Christ or back to the faith. Remember, it was while the prodigal son was starving for pig pods having wasted his father’s inheritance that he remembered the goodness of his Father’s house. The Christian West has blown our inheritance on all manner of hookers and booze, and therefore this is a moment for Christians to preach the gospel clearly. This is why we’re hosting http://prodigalamerica.com
9. This spectacle is also incredibly ugly and silly. Remember the old adage that it ain’t over till the fat lady sings? Well, this is pretty near the end and the bottom of the barrel. And when the nations rage and plot vain things, like the builders of Babel constructing a tower to Heaven, God sits in heaven and laughs (Ps. 2). So should we. In the long run stupidity doesn’t work. And it’s just weird and gaudy.
10. In addition to registering your thorough disdain and vowing to do everything you can to see nothing like this replicated, especially in your neighborhood, redouble your efforts to love your wife and kids and be faithful in your church and callings. Obedient love is at war with all disobedient love. Obedient love drives out the disordered loves of the world, the flesh, and the devil. Obedient love does justice, loves mercy, and walks humbly with God. Obedient love is altogether lovely.
Andrew says
Toby, as a confessional presbyterian, would you also call the depiction of the Lord in this image as blasphemous?