Tag: Theology

Woe

aka Eschatologuy

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All men have limitations — be they physical, intellectual, or something else. One such limitation is a thing we call, in the technology fields, a “context window”. In essence, a context window is the amount of relevant information that a man can hold in his mind at a given moment. In a conversation, it is the history of the conversation (along with any previous history from prior conversations, et cetera); in a relationship, it is the entire history of that relationship. In all cases, only to the extent such information can be held in the mind.

Some questions call for a small context window (e.g., a bar fight may require only ten or twenty minutes of context to understand) and some questions call for a significantly larger context window (e.g., the current state of the Western Church is a matter of millennia). Not all men are equally suited to handle all matters — a man can be competent or incompetent with regard to a particular question or a particular discussion. In this preliminary episode leading into our upcoming series on the Septuagint (LXX), we discuss the concept of a context window and how it plays into the LXX specifically and many issues in our daily lives generally.

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Show Notes

Parental Warnings

None.

Transcript

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Excellence

Corey J. Mahler on Wed 26 Feb 2025

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Corey J. Mahler

Woe

aka Eschatologuy

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In every endeavor, there is an excellence. A man can be excellent in his field, regardless or what it may be, or excellent at his undertaking, also regardless of what it may be. There are excellent paintings, excellent poems, excellent plays, excellent athletic performances, excellent shoes, and a whole host of other things that one could only begin to list. A part of the Christian life is recognizing the existence of excellence and then aiming for it.

Not all men can achieve the same level of excellence, not even all men engaged in the same field, but every man can recognize excellence and strive toward it. Further, we must recognize, respect, and honor excellence when and where we find it, instead of giving in to the tendency of the modern world to minimize and dismiss it. The man who is excellent in his field has achieved that excellence due both to natural talent (i.e., gifts from God) and hard work (i.e., the acquisition or skill or knowledge); every man, even and often in the mundane, is participating in the same sort of striving toward excellence.

We all see the man who wins some top athletic honor with his excellent performance, but what we do not see is the tens of thousands of hours of practice that went into that performance. Excellence does not fall from the sky (even if the gifts of God essentially do so), but is pursued with motivation and determination — it is a purpose toward which one strives. As Christians, we should recognize that all excellence is a gift from God, and we should honor and respect it when and where we find it, and then we should use it to motivate our own efforts, instead of joining the world in sarcasm or indifference.

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Show Notes

kalos
areté

Parental Warnings

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The Magdeburg Confession

Corey J. Mahler on Wed 29 Jan 2025

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Corey J. Mahler

Woe

aka Eschatologuy

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There is no blanket Christian duty to submit to wrongful authority; in fact, under certain circumstances, the Christian may even have an affirmative duty to resist the tyrant — even the tyrant who may claim to be a Christian himself. The Magdeburg Confession serves as a foundational document (arguably second only to Scripture) on the Doctrine of the Lesser Magistrate and Christian resistance to tyranny. For the Christian, the question is twofold:

When is it moral to resist the higher authority?
When is it wise to resist the higher authority?

It is incumbent on Christian men to consider these matters, for we have duties to those above us and to those below us (if any) in the social and political hierarchy. The Magdeburgers had to work through these issues while watching an imperial army make ready a siege that would eventually last more than a year and claim thousands of lives (mostly on the imperial side); we would do well to think through these matters now, while we yet enjoy relative peace.

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Show Notes

The Magdeburg Confession [Amazon]
Romans 13

Parental Warnings

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Transcript

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Friend and Enemy

Corey J. Mahler on Wed 15 Jan 2025

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Corey J. Mahler

Woe

aka Eschatologuy

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Men do not need to be told that they have friends and they have enemies, and yet many modern Christians have been so propagandized by eisegesis and so misled by false teachers that they no longer believe that a Christian can have enemies, and yet Scripture clearly states that men will not only have enemies, but that some of those enemies will be in their own households. In this life, you will have friends and you will have enemies, some will be weak and some will be strong, some will abandon you when the tide turns and some will stand with you no matter what may come; being a Christian does not change this.

Yes, we are to forgive our personal enemies, but that does not thereby make them anything other than enemies, and to treat the friend and the enemy identically is to be derelict in the duties given us by God. We do service neither to God nor to the Church when we pretend that enemies are not enemies; in fact, it is that very sort of wickedness that drives many men away from the churches in disgust. As Christian men, we must reclaim a proper understanding of friend and enemy and a proper approach to dealing with both — not least of all when the enemies stand up in the churches, as they do all too often today.

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Show Notes

I (Mahler) am aware of the audio issues with my track — there is nothing I can do about them. Somehow, my recording lost ~30dB despite sounding fine during recording. I will be reworking my audio stack (and likely purchasing more hardware) before the next episode in an attempt to guard against any future (inexplicable) issues.

Parental Warnings

None.

Transcript

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Honor and Shame

Corey J. Mahler on Wed 06 Nov 2024

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Corey J. Mahler

Woe

aka Eschatologuy

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Honor was once something that was taken deadly seriously in the West. It was not a matter about which one joked. A man would go to great lengths to maintain his honor, and a woman would go to great lengths to defend hers. In our modern culture, honor has been all but forgotten by the bulk of the population — it has become something so foreign, so alien that most men no longer even know what the word means.

But honor is necessary to maintain civilization, and so are shame and guilt. Unto the one who conducts himself according to the Moral Law and conforms his behavior to the norms of his civilization we bestow honor, and upon the one who falls short of these standards we heap shame to add to the guilt of his conscience. Together, honor, shame, and guilt form part of the foundation upon which society and civilization rest; without these, no civilization can long endure. As Christian men, we must endeavor to restore these things to our society, before it is too late and we have fallen too far.

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Show Notes

Parental Warnings

There is some discussion of chastity, et cetera, but nothing explicit.

Transcript

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Sanctified Image of God

Corey J. Mahler on Wed 23 Oct 2024

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Corey J. Mahler

Woe

aka Eschatologuy

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All men are made in the image of God. Not all men are in the image of God. These two statements may seem contradictory, but they are not, because they reference different aspects of what it means to be an image of God — and what it means to be regenerate (i.e., to be on the path we call Sanctification). The regenerate man is in the image of God in a way that the unregenerate man is not, because the regenerate man is justified and is being sanctified. This distinction is key, and is often conflated (both accidentally and deceptively) in modern, Christian (at least seemingly) discourse.

A helpful way to think about the distinction: Last week, we went over the image of God with emphasis on image; this week, we go over the image of God with emphasis on of God.

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Show Notes

Parental Warnings

None.

Transcript

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Image, Idol, and Symbol

Corey J. Mahler on Wed 16 Oct 2024

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Corey J. Mahler

Woe

aka Eschatologuy

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Man was made in the image of God. This certainly sounds good — even impressive —, and it is frequently used by modern (supposedly) Christian commentators to justify all sorts of things. But what even is an image? If you do not know what an image is, how can you expect to even begin to understand an image of God?

In this episode, we lay the groundwork for understanding what precisely it means for man to be the image of God, what it means for us, and what we should do with it.

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Show Notes

Hurricane Relief Links
https://x.com/Culture_Crit/status/1821621420591317323 (episode image)

Parental Warnings

None.

Transcript

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Truth and Lies

Corey J. Mahler on Wed 25 Sep 2024

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Corey J. Mahler

Woe

aka Eschatologuy

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When Christ says that He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, the word used for “truth” is ἀλήθεια, which includes within its lexical scope ‘uncovering’ or ‘revelation’ (it is a negating word, like “innocence” in English). That which covers, distorts, or perverts the truth is contrary to God, for God is Truth. As Christians, it is our duty not only to believe and speak the truth about matters written in God’s Word, but also to believe and speak the truth about matters written in God’s Creation.

When Christ stood before Pilate, Pilate asked Him: Quid est veritas? What is truth? (Veritas is the Roman goddess of truth, Aletheia the Greek.) His inquiry may very well have been in earnest, for truth was certainly a core pursuit of Ancient Greek and Ancient Roman philosophy — something with which a statesman was expected to have some familiarity. Little did Pilate know (at the time) that it was Truth Himself Who stood before him.

The modern world would seek to reduce most things to matters of opinion, and, even in those cases where an admission is made that what is at stake is truth, the modern world will often pick the lie. The Christian is not permitted to concede such territory, for God is Truth and all Truth is One. To deny the reality (i.e., the truth) of Creation is, ultimately, to deny the Creator Himself, which is blasphemy or even apostasy.

It is meritorious and dutiful to defend the truth, but we must be willing to defend all truth, not simply those that are acceptable in the eyes of society or do not come at a personal cost. The truth, like the Law, is absolute — cursed is the man who does not keep it whole and undefiled.

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Show Notes

The Three Universal/Ecumenical Creeds

Parental Warnings

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Transcript

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Land, Place, and Territory

Corey J. Mahler on Wed 18 Sep 2024

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Corey J. Mahler

Woe

aka Eschatologuy

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The connection of mankind to the earth, to the soil is not accidental. It was from the dust that God formed the first man, Adam, and it is to dust that we shall all one day return. We must not treat the earth as accidental or incidental. We were each born in a place — on a particular piece of land. A nation cannot exist without a territory over which it exercises exclusive dominion. We cannot be fully human without connections to places developed over the course of our lives.

It is God Who sets the times and the boundaries of the nations — He gives certain lands to certain peoples for certain spans of time. Those who are faithful are blessed and continue into the future; those who are faithless are cursed and cease to be a nation through the loss of their territory. Land is not incidental; it is a matter of life and death, blessing and curse; and the occupation or usurpation of land by aliens is no trivial matter, for it is genocide.

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Show Notes

Parental Warnings

The word “rape” is used once in the closing monologue.

Transcript

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Honor and Betrayal

Corey J. Mahler on Wed 11 Sep 2024

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Hosts

Corey J. Mahler

Woe

aka Eschatologuy