On Violence

Hosts

Woe

aka Eschatologuy

‘The life of man upon the earth is warfare, and he is born to trouble, as surely as the sparks fly upward.’ — Job 5,7

We live in a fallen world. We can speak of a perfect world — and that is assuredly our goal and our destination, as Christians —, but the realities of this world cannot be ignored — Christians are not exempt from living in the world. From the very beginning of our species — when wicked Cain rose up and slew righteous Abel —, violence has never left our shadow. Although it was most certainly not part of God’s original or intended design for Creation, violence is just as certainly part of its fallen state.

It is not that violence is itself a good; rather, it is that violence is sometimes required to protect the good. When a man enacts violence upon a home intruder to defend himself, his wife, his children, and his goods, he is using violence toward a righteous and morally praiseworthy end. Throughout the pages of Scripture, God Himself uses violence against His enemies — from the genocide of Canaan to the Final Judgement, God employs violence consistently and constantly. Although violence will be absent from the new Creation, it will never be absent from this fallen one.

As Christians, we must not condemn violence qua violence for to do so would be to condemn God, which is apostasy; rather, we must know how to apply wisdom to these matters so that we align our actions and our beliefs with what God has commanded — and He both proscribes and prescribes violence, depending on the circumstances.

It is also necessary for the Christian, in order that he might act in wisdom, to understand the law — to understand the differences between and among things like advocacy, incitement, and fighting words. These are not trivial, unimportant, or tangential matters, for the life of man upon the Earth is one of conflict; even times of peace are seldom entirely free from violence, and they are often ephemera. A man must always do his duty, and at times that duty may demand violence — the police officer who protects his city, the soldier who defends his nation, the housefather who defends his home.

We are not and cannot be more moral than God, and of Himself He says:

“The Lord is a man of war; the Lord is His name.”


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Show Notes

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Further Reading

Parental Warnings

The word “ass” is used once at ~01:39. The term “pissed off” is used once around the same time.

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Ecumenism in the Trenches

Hosts

Woe

aka Eschatologuy

Christian men exist in two kingdoms (the right and the left ‘hands’ of Christ) and three estates (family, Church, and State). Many modern men neglect the fullness of this reality via excessive focus on the Kingdom of the right hand of Christ (i.e., the Church). Further, and perhaps worse, many pastors believe that their role in the right-hand Kingdom entitles them to honors, respect, or other deference with regard to the left-hand kingdom — it does not.

The domain of the pastor is the preaching of the Word and the administration of the Sacraments. The domain of Christian men is all three of the estates of life — family, Church, and State. With regard to family and State, Christian men have many duties, but pastors have only one — silence. The role of the pastor is local and circumscribed; the role of Christian men is not exclusively so. The pastor qua pastor has nothing to say with regard to the State, to the kingdom of the left hand of Christ — that is the domain of Christian men.

As Christian men, we must work together on the issues facing us, and that regardless of which kingdom or which estate. Pastors have their role and we have ours; the former must learn their limitations and the latter must do their duty.

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Parental Warnings

None.

Transcript

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Inheritance

Hosts

Woe

aka Eschatologuy

“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with Whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.”

All that we have and all that we are flows from God, and yet, as covered in previous episodes, God acts in time via means. Your height and your intelligence, God transmitted to you via your ancestors, via your nation; your material prosperity, God transmitted to you via your forebears and your country; and your faith, God transmitted to you via faithful forebears and His written Word (whatever copies of which you may own, someone had to print). It is a tripartite inheritance that is bestowed upon us by God — biological, material, and spiritual.

The modern world, with its manifold lies — among them, the idea of the ‘blank slate’ — would have us believe that we are atomized individuals instead of parts of a greater whole. Each generation is a link in a chain extending back through Noah to Adam, and it is incumbent on each generation to faithfully pass forward the inheritance — preferably improved — that it received from those who came before. Without inheritance, there is no prosperity, there is no continuity, and there would be no salvation, for it is our adoption as sons of God that makes us inheritors of eternal life.

We must jealously guard our inheritance, faithfully preserve it, and dutifully transmit it.

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Further Reading

Parental Warnings

None.

Transcript

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The Judaizing Heresy

Hosts

Woe

aka Eschatologuy

Judaizing has been a problem in the Church from the beginning. Even St. Peter fell prey to the Judaizers and their attempt to import into Christianity the false beliefs of Judaism. Today, Judaizing takes a number of forms. In this episode, we will cover circumcision, the use of “Yahweh” (and “Yeshua”), and several related matters.

As Christians, we must always ask ourselves both what the source of the thing is and what the purpose of the thing is. When it comes to Judaizing, the source is not God and the purpose is from Satan. The Jews do not have a special relationship with God or even any relationship with God, because they rejected His Son, and the Word of Scripture is clear:

No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also.

Why would we, as Christians, who have the Son by Faith, ask the Jews, who reject the Son and therefore do not have the Father, anything about religion?

What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols?

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Show Notes

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Further Reading

Parental Warnings

We have a frank discussion about circumcision, including some technically ‘explicit’ language, in this episode — you may wish to screen it before listening to it with your children.

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Capitalist Idolatry

Hosts

Woe

aka Eschatologuy

Of all the idols of modern man, Capitalism may be one of the most challenging to overcome. Not because the wickedness of Capitalism is not manifest, for it is (and we will demonstrate this in today’s episode), but because it has been sold as the only alternative to Communism — a system so wicked that no Christian can possibly support it. Yet the choice is not binary, and those who would claim that it is seek to mislead the Christian into supporting a system that is, in point of fact, anti-Christ.

It is the lack of concern for one’s neighbor — a feature built into the Capitalist system and inextricable from it — that should immediately raise alarm bells for the Christian man. Under Capitalism, it is the maximum extraction of profit (itself a dubious category, insofar as it is a vague term) that serves as guiding principle, and yet this is an alien and hostile thing to the Christian system of ethics and morality. Need it even be said that the extraction of maximized profits runs diametrically counter to the second-greatest commandment:

Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.

Throughout the pages of Scripture, God repeatedly states His concern for the poor, the needy, and the exploited, and yet Capitalism relies, in no small part, upon the extraction of profits from those very categories of the most vulnerable. Ours is not a Marxist critique of Capitalism, but a Christian one. The central question: Is Capitalism compatible with Christianity? We answer in the negative.

Mammon is an old god, an idol served by many men from may nations across many centuries. The love of money is not the root of all evils, but, in the words of Scripture, it is certainly the root of many evils, and, in fact, may serve as the stumbling stone upon which faith may founder:

»For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.«
— 1 Timothy 6:10 (ESV)

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Parental Warnings

None.

Transcript

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Dietrich Bonhoeffer: False Teacher, Traitor, Damned

Hosts

Woe

aka Eschatologuy

Like MLK, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a false teacher. Also like MLK, Dietrich Bonhoeffer studied at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. Unlike MLK, Bonhoeffer is a deeply dangerous theologian, because where MLK lacked subtlety and cunning, Bonhoeffer most certainly did not.

When Bonhoeffer writes or speaks, he may very well sound Christian — may very well even be Christian (in his comments) here and there in his writings —, but he uses Christian terms with anti-Christian definitions= (for instance, he calls the Crucifixion and the Resurrection myths). Scripture commands the Christian to be on his guard against false teachers — to be as wise as a serpent and the judge the spirits. Bonhoeffer denies almost every core tenet of the Christian religion at some point in his writing.

And yet Bonhoeffer is held up as a towering figure by many supposed Christian leaders. He is called a theologian, a pastor, a teacher, and a martyr. In this episode, we examine those claims by looking at what Bonhoeffer actually wrote — what he actually believed and taught. You will be left with a very different image of this man than the one so very many pastors — to their discredit and to the misfortune of their sheep — have had instilled in them.

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Show Notes

See Also

Further Reading

Parental Warnings

None.

Transcript

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The Big Lie

Hosts

Woe

aka Eschatologuy

The truth does not fear examination. That which is true will hold up under scrutiny. As Christians, we are beholden to believe the truth — no matter how unpopular or unpleasant.

Today, we examine one of the foundational myths (read: lies) of the modern world. Virtually all of the evils we see around us today can trace their genesis to the era covered by this episode. This episode may make you uncomfortable, but the truth is worth the cost.

The truth will set you free.

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Show Notes

How many died at Auschwitz?

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Further Reading

Parental Warnings

This episode includes frank discussion of war and some of the things that happen during war (e.g., rape, murder). Additionally, the entire topic of this episode is the Holocaust, which is something you should discuss with your children, but you may not want this episode to be their introduction.

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Michael ‘Martin Luther’ King: Marxist Agitator

Hosts

Woe

aka Eschatologuy

Last week, we explored the ‘theology’ of Michael ‘Martin Luther’ King; this week, we explore his politics, with a focus on the men and women with whom he surrounded himself. Birds of a feather flock together, and Michael King spent his life surrounded by truly wicked men, many of them Communists. As Christians, we must learn to avoid the trees that produce poisonous fruit, and there can be no doubt what kind of tree Michael King — and the larger ‘civil rights’ movement — was.

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Show Notes

Translation: 'Strengthen the ranks of the International Red Aid! : Let's snatch eight innocent black youths from the hands of the American bourgeoisie!'
Translation: ‘Strengthen the ranks of the International Red Aid! : Let’s snatch eight innocent black youths from the hands of the American bourgeoisie!’

See Also

Parental WarningsnThere is some blunt discussion of sex crimes in this episode and mention of prostitution.

Transcript

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Michael ‘Martin Luther’ King: Arch-Heretic

Hosts

Woe

aka Eschatologuy

Michael “Martin Luther” King, Jr., is one of the ‘saints’ of the modern world’s religion. We are told — constantly — that he was a devout Christian. Does this narrative hold up to scrutiny? With many men, there is little enough evidence of what they did or did not believe when they pass, but, in the case of Michael King, there is abundant evidence — created by King himself over a course of decades — of precisely what he did and did not believe with regard to the Christian religion. You may be surprised by the truth.

In today’s episode, we will be going through the writings of Michael King to draw out just precisely what he did — and, perhaps more importantly, did not — believe about the Christian faith. Once you have listened to the evidence, the conclusion will be inescapable: Michael King was no Christian. From there, it gets only worse: Next week, we will examine his politics, his associates, and his personal life. At the end of this episode, you will know he was no Christian; at the end of next week’s episode, you will know what he truly was.

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Further Reading

Errata

  • Woe incorrectly refers to Joseph Campbell as William.

Parental Warnings

Brief mention is made of prostitution.

Transcript

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