Eulogy for Wayne Pribbernow

A good friend is hard to find. And painful to lose. I lost one recently. I have had no better friend than Wayne Pribbernow. Over the thirty plus years that I knew him, Wayne proved to be everything one could ask for in a friend. In my estimation, he modeled what a Christian man should be. He loved God’s Word and took every opportunity he could to share it with others. I remember how excited he was to meet with his “lady friends,” as he called them, a group of senior citizens who gathered weekly to hear Wayne teach from the Bible. He was instrumental in keeping the little church near his cottage going, preaching and teaching there when needed as well as volunteering for whatever jobs wanted doing. Wayne also served honorably in many other churches throughout his life.

Speaking of the cottage, that too demonstrated Wayne’s big heart and generous spirit. He told me when he and Sharon first bought it that it was going to be made available to anyone who wanted a chance to get away into the woods. From what I could tell, they made good on that pledge. I was a frequent visitor to the cabin on the lake during deer season especially, but I also retreated there at other times. It became a favorite get-away for my grandson and I as it did for many others. I can still see Wayne sitting at the dining table sipping a cup of coffee with his Bible open before sunup or late in the evening. We had many hours of coffee and conversation over the meaning God’s Word and our responsibilities to live it fully.

I saw another side of Wayne’s commitment to his friends when a mutual friend went through some very difficult times. Wayne lived near the friend, and on more than one occasion he ran to his house, even in the middle of the night sometimes, to sit with him and help him deal with his troubles.

 His helping spirit was also evident in the ministry that he and Sharon offered to families that were working through the trials of blending stepchildren and second spouses into working Christian units. The two girls he and Sharon raised also proved the value of his Christian parenting philosophy. Wayne wasn’t proud of everything from his past, but the remorse he felt at his failures and the joy he found when reconciliation was possible attest to his honest repentance. If children (and grandchildren) are a testimony to their parents, Wayne had plenty to be grateful for in that way.

Wayne truly displayed his unwavering faith in God when talking about his health. He would say, not entirely joking, that he had died several times, but God wouldn’t take him home because there was still work to do here on earth. No matter what he went through including heart problems, cancer and all the things that go with normal aging, Wayne remained true to his belief that God was in control no matter what the circumstances might look like.

I will never forget Wayne and everything he meant to me. It is obvious from the number of comments on Facebook at Wayne’s passing that I am not the only one who appreciated Wayne Pribbernow. Maybe the best compliment I can offer is to say that I would be a better person if I could be more like Wayne. I am so looking forward to that new earth we all have coming so I can get back around that dining table in the cabin and continue our conversations. Keep the pot on, Brother.

Vax or Novax

The Biden administration is being accused of challenging religious freedom. The two issues that have received the most attention are LGBTQ+ and vaccination. (I have already written about the first; see Related posts below.) The demand of the New Testament to obey the mandates of government is crystal clear. Paul and Peter both make unambiguous statements recommending that believers should follow the rules made by their leaders. The only biblical incident in which someone defied the authorities is when Peter and John told the Sanhedrin they would not stop preaching Jesus when told to do so. Their reasoning was that they were compelled to obey God rather than man. This has been generalized over the centuries to mean that unless abiding by a secular law forces the breaking of a divine law, obedience is required.

The question then becomes whether there is a clear biblical concept that supports resistance to COVID vaccination. Like so many modern issues, the vax/no vax debate finds sincere Christians on both sides. Because vaccination is a modern therapy, there is obviously no Bible verse that specifically prohibits it. This leads many believers to take the shot in submission to the authorities as Scripture recommends. These folks often cite other reasons to follow the government request, chief among them is that it represents loving their neighbor by following the protective regimen. Of course, they also feel that it is prudent to guard against illness when possible.

There are, however, plausible reasons to resist the vaccine, some biblical, some otherwise reasonable. The non-biblical resistance stems from the uncertain reliability and questionable safety of the vaccines. I have written extensively on the dubious nature of the government’s claims of safety and efficacy. I have also shown that the death rate for COVID has been wildly overestimated and the actual count of fatalities due specifically to the virus will never be known.

One must also question the reliability of the persons and organizations pushing the vaccines when they are becoming wealthy from their use. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the foremost proponent of universal vaccination, has become the highest paid federal employee in the US, surpassing even the President. We have no way of knowing what Fauci’s investment portfolio might look like, as Representative Jerry Carl pointed out last June. As a bureaucrat rather than elected official, Fauci’s finances are not public. Other individuals such as Bill Gates are making huge “donations” to research into vaccines that will pay large personal dividends when they are put into use. There is a great deal of money being made selling fear across the globe. (For more on the issue of fear see, “The Angel Says: Fear Not”)

This is going to be a weak biblical link, but I am going to suggest it anyway. Christians should not succumb to fear like that which is being propagated by the pro-vax cabal. The Bible clearly teaches that we do not need to fear any man, certainly not to the point of disobeying a Scriptural command. In early 2020 when the true nature of COVID-19 was unknown, churches were ordered to close. Mine did. That most congregations did shut down clearly violates the principle of obeying God rather than man. Once it became clear to thinking people that the threat from the virus was far less dramatic than originally advertised, a return to prudent flu season precautions would have been in order.

Unreasonable fear is also causing people to subject themselves to unproven vaccines which we now know are of limited value in preventing infection from the virus. If the vaccines are effective, why are masks and social distancing still being required in many situations? If the vaccines are effective, why are we hearing regularly about people who are vaccinated becoming infected and even some dying from COVID? If the original vaccines were effective, why are boosters continuing to be added to the requirements? The answer is fear, and the question becomes who benefits from the fear.

The evidence is increasing that the vaccines themselves pose a threat to an individual’s health. Because the major media outlets profit from the exposure that follows the fearmongering, it is difficult to find evidence of the true nature of the treatments being offered as vaccines. If you look outside of the mainstream media, you will find a growing number of physicians and scientists who can prove that the treatments currently being provided are not vaccines by any definition. More disturbing, many sources are claiming that the side-effects of the non-vaccines are quite serious. Following the principle of not putting anything harmful into my body, I think it is reasonable to refuse the vaccine on biblical grounds.

Just as it has done with the LGBTQ+ issue, the progressive factions in government have pushed against the religious interests of American citizens by supporting universal vaccination. While the vaccine mandate has not materialized on a national level for most of us (except for federal employees and members of the military), several cities have been emboldened by the White House’s insistence that it is needed and instituted their own mandates.

I have no quarrel with people who want to be vaccinated or with private institutions or businesses that choose to require vaccination. If proof of vaccination becomes necessary at the places I frequent, I will find other places that have not succumbed to the fear. What I will resist as far as possible is joining the lemmings and blindly leaping off the cliff. I also recommend that all my readers become knowledgeable about the policies of our elected officials and their bureaucratic allies. As I said in “Don’t be a Moron,” we owe that to our Lord and His kingdom on earth.

Related posts: How do you Read Paul; Clobber the Argument; Bake for Them Two; The Uncomfortable Subject; Who is Discriminating?

Read This or Die

As I wrap up another term of teaching Composition to students who don’t really want to be in my classes, I am struck by the numbers who demonstrate their disinterest by open disinclination to do the necessary work. I suspect that some of them are only attempting college because either the government or an employer has tempted them with “free money.” There are doubtless a few who have no intention of completing a degree or program, but simply want to stay enrolled long enough for the stimulus check to clear, after which they withdraw with a partial refund in cash. I call it Cash for Dummies.

This is a cynical outlook, I understand. However, the anecdotal evidence from my peers supports this theory. Soon after the stimulus money began to flow, we marveled at the twenty or thirty percent drop in enrollment after the seventh or eighth week of the term. Many of these withdrawals had done reasonably well up to that point, then they just stopped coming to class. The cloud of befuddlement began to clear from the faculty lounge when we learned that the timing of the drops coincided with the deposit of the last stimulus installment.

This explains some of the attrition, but there are many who remain to the end with little hope of earning a passing grade. Across the disciplines there are reports of students in the final weeks of class struggling with concepts which should have been mastered early in the term. Students who fail elementary quizzes want re-takes. Students who knew they were failing at mid-term come asking what they can do to pass on the last day of class. One student wrote in a late term essay that she was failing Comp for the second time, only now realizing that to pass she would have to work harder.

All this disturbed, saddened and frustrated me personally. Then I saw a news report that highlighted the sickening result of the attitude of my students. A young airman was killed in Iraq during a routine munitions demolition. The operation involved destroying a large number of fragmentation bombs, the anti-personnel type which scatter shrapnel up to two thousand feet. The manual detailing how to dispose of this type of bomb is clearly written. It plainly instructs the operators to set off the demolition in an earthen pit and remain behind barriers far from the blast.

For some reason, the deceased airman was only eight hundred feet away from a surface level blast and not protected by any barrier. He was part of a team who were trained to do the job they were doing. But they did not follow instructions. My guess is that they either ignored the clear directions in the manual, or worse, did not bother to read it at all. These young people have been conditioned by an education system which does not allow negative consequences to get in the way of good self esteem. I see these students in my classes every day. They think they can pass my class without reading the chapters or properly writing the assignments.

Unfortunately the real world assigns consequences to our actions. Ignore the manual for the stamping machine and lose a hand. Disregard the safety measures for connecting that fuel line and experience self-immolation. Discount the warning to stay off the pier in high waves and sleep with the fishes. Overlook the admonition that to befriend the world is to make God an enemy… Ouch. Maybe it isn’t only the world that attaches consequences. My late brother-in-law used to love to say, “When all else fails, read the instructions.” Good advice.

Through the Bible in Seven Minutes

As the year comes to a close, I am at the end of my annual through the Bible reading. I am struck once again by the sheer beauty, consistency and symmetry of the Scripture. Even though it is composed of sixty-six separate books written over the course of more than one thousand years by forty different individuals, it sustains one theme from Genesis to Revelation: God cares for His own. I won’t pretend to know all the reasons why God chose to undertake this project we know as human history – His ways are far above my comprehension – but there is plentiful evidence to support the central theme as it is embodied in the famous verse, “God so loved the world.”

Although Scripture teaches us that God’s love is unconditional, it also makes plain the fact that the measure of God’s favor is dependent on the human response to His love. Some modern Bible interpreters reject the idea that God’s full character includes an element of judgment. Yet, to do this these people must excise entire sections of the Scripture record and ignore scores of passages which in plain language describe the wrath of God which leads to judgment. ( See The Goodness of Wrath)

We only have to read to the third chapter of Genesis to find God executing judgment on His creation. Due to their disobedience, Adam and Eve, our fore parents, are removed from the perfection of the Garden of Eden and left to fend for themselves, more or less, in an environment that is far from perfect. A mere ten generations later, the record reveals that humans had become so despicable in their misbehavior that God passed judgment using a world-wide flood to wipe clean his creation, saving one faithful man and his family by means of the ark. Here too, there is another division when Noah’s son Ham is excommunicated for his transgression leaving the lines of Shem and Japheth to continue.

A few more generations pass when God again must deal with human disobedience at the Tower of Babel, dividing them into groups by giving each a different language. Shortly thereafter, God again chose one man to further His plan, the man called Abram, descendent of Shem. This line is further split assigning chosen status to the progeny of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. This line, after growing into a nation we call Israel, then became God’s history lesson. God repeatedly showed His love and favor while continuing to display His wrath when His people disobeyed.

In the desert wanderings, after God lovingly removed Israel from Egyptian bondage, He winnowed out the unbelievers so that His remnant was prepared to conquer the land He had promised Abraham. After the conquest, throughout the period of the judges and kings, God chastised Israel time and again by allowing the surrounding heathen nations to place them in bondage. The low point for Israel was the Babylonian captivity and destruction of Jerusalem with its holy temple in 576 B.C. which seemed to mark the end of God’s favor, but He promised through His prophets that after seventy years they would return. And so they did.

The returned remnant rebuilt the temple and instituted a system of religious observance that sometimes mirrored God’s plan and sometimes mocked it. Then, when the time had fully come, as Paul puts it, God sent the Seed He had promised all the way back at the fall of Adam. The Jews had been looking for the Promised One for centuries. Ironically, when He finally arrived in history, the Jewish religious leaders who should have welcomed Him failed to recognize Him because of their slavish reliance on the human religion they had developed.

God’s plan continued unthwarted as He used the disobedience of His chosen people to complete His perfect plan. The Spotless Lamb of God, pictured for centuries in the Jewish ceremonial sacrifices, was mocked, beaten, and crucified by the very people He came to save. In their recklessness, the Jewish leaders inadvertently brought salvation to all who would believe, and they wrought destruction on their cherished religious charade. The very people who killed their Messiah lived to see Jerusalem utterly destroyed as a judgment for their unbelief.

It was here that the mystery of God, hidden for the ages says Paul, came to light. The Seed that had been promised to Abraham became the Light to the nations spoken of by many of the prophets throughout Israel’s history. The ringing bell of the New Testament sounds the message that the kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of the Lord. God brought His Son into the world not just to save humans but to save His entire creation. The hidden mystery is that God will recreate Eden and populate it with the faithful of every generation, nation, tribe, and tongue.

As I finish the year in the book of Revelation, I am reminded that many people today hold to an interpretive scheme for the book that looks for a coming rapture, tribulation and subsequent thousand-year reign of Christ on earth. Most of the people I know who treasure that view are unaware that for about eighteen hundred years, a different interpretation held sway over most of the church. Indeed, many Christians today still believe the ancient message. According to that view, God’s judgment pictured in the book of Revelation was executed in 70 A.D. when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and the temple for the final time. That view rings most true to me as it recognizes the history-changing significance of the Cross of Christ and the finality of the subsequent judgment on the apostate nation of Israel. (See “Why I am a Preterist”)

Whether one holds to the dispensational-millennial view of Revelation that places most of the book in the future or the view that sees all but the last couple chapters as completed history, one thing remains the same for all believers. We can all treasure the fact that God is in control, whether in judgment or in favor, in war or in peace, in tragedy or blessing. That is the ultimate message of the Bible, in my opinion. God loves His creation, and the record given to us in Scripture demonstrates that He is calling a people to Himself. I pray that you may be among the called so that no matter how the last pages of Scripture play out, you will be assured an eternity with God sharing nothing but His favor as the ages roll on.

 

Rain on the Parade

Sorry. If you are big on Santa Claus, I am about to rain on your parade. Looking around our tiny house on Christmas Eve, I am probably the last person who should be critical of those who love the jolly old elf with his bowlful-of-jelly belly. My wife has been collecting Santa figures as long as I have known her. After we moved full-time into an RV, she had to curtail her urges to continue adding to the collection for lack of space to display them. Still, we have 21 figures that I can see from my seat at the computer. To my dismay, there is only one nativity in our collection. In my wife’s defense, and to salve my conscience, most of the characters we have displayed lean toward the original Saint Nicholas legend rather than the elvish one invented in the 19^th century by Clement Clarke Moore.

The legend of Saint Nicholas is by no means a historical certainty. As the story goes, Nicholas was from a wealthy family. After his parents died, he chose to distribute his wealth anonymously to the less fortunate. One of the early versions tells of his nighttime visits to a home over a period of days or even weeks. It was Moore who cemented the gift-giving into Christmas Eve. Some believe he chose Christmas Eve in order to remove the materialism of gifts from the proper spiritual focus on Christ’s birth on Christmas Day. In spite of his attempt, Moore’s poem has done the opposite; Christmas has become he most blatant example of materialism anywhere on the calendar.

I am rereading N. T. Wright’s book Surprised by Hope. His theme in the book is to encourage new thinking about the resurrection of Jesus. Renewed thinking would be more correct, as Wright suggests Christians have lost the true meaning of the resurrection. As evidence of this, Wright points to the fact that the celebration of Christmas has dwarfed the church’s Easter commemoration. While Wright does not discount the importance of understanding Christ’s nativity, he firmly believes that Resurrection Day should be the central event on the Christian calendar.

I agree with Wright. Certainly, there are elements of the nativity that form necessary ground for the eventual culmination of the incarnation. That God should become one of us, born of a virgin to live a perfect human life and move relentlessly to the severe obedience of the cross is essential to understanding the gospel. But it is at the cross where history turns its most significant corner, and Jesus’ subsequent resurrection validates the meaning of His life. We could, I suppose, know nothing of the Savior’s birth and still celebrate His resurrection. But the birth without the resurrection leaves us, as Paul says, most pitiable.

My wife and I watch Miracle on 34^th Street every year at Christmastime. The theme is heart-warming and cannot be faulted as a secular version of a child finding faith in something hard to believe. There are dozens of other Christmas movies, some silly, some serious, that encourage human kindness and selfless giving. There’s nothing wrong with fostering positive traits through drama. I am at a loss, however, to think of one movie that depicts Christmas as the time to remember the Holy Child who became the Holy Savior on the cross of Calvary. Thinking about death at Christmas is kind of a buzz-kill.

Perhaps my favorite character in my wife’s collection is the one I have pictured here. It ignores Moore’s goofy elf and magical reindeer, and it makes me think of the true meaning of Christmas. The ancient Nicholas, long before the Roman Church sainted him, depicts the selfless spirit that should motivate every Christian who understands what the Babe in the manger stands for. Somehow, that fat bearded guy riding a sleigh in the parade fails to do that for me. Sorry Mr. Moore.

Charles Schultz says it best with the words of Linus in the Charlie Brown Christmas cartoon. “‘For behold, I bring unto you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the City of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord…’ That's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.” Linus nailed it. Christmas is about a Savior, and without His death and resurrection, He would not have been anyone’s savior. If I may borrow from N.T. Wright, the resurrection is what Christmas is all about.

Many years ago, I built a window display that featured a cross standing
in a cradle topped by a crown: cradle, cross and crown. I stole the image from the Bethel Bible Series lesson about the Gospels. Maybe I will try to recreate that for next Christmas. I’ll still let my wife display her Saint Nicholas collection. I have to admit, it gives me good feelings when I look at it. Oh look! The rain is clearing up.

Parental Responsibility

A couple weeks ago there was another school shooting. A fifteen-year-old took a handgun to school in Oxford, Michigan and shot several students and one teacher. Running parallel to the dramatic reporting of the incident was the ongoing search for the boy’s parents who were being sought by police. The parents tried to hide, but they were quickly discovered and arrested. The original charge was involuntary manslaughter. Defending her decision, Karen McDonald, the prosecutor, said, “I wasn't elected to do the safe thing, and this is just far beyond politics. To me, this was the right thing to do. I don't think anyone looking at it … could have decided to just allow those two individuals to move forward in their life and never have any consequences.”

McDonald later told a reporter that she was angry that it’s 2021 and we still have school shootings. I assume she is disturbed by the fact that since the 1999 Columbine shooting, school tragedies continue to take place far to frequently. I’m not sure anger, no matter how well justified, is the best motivation for a public servant of any kind, especially a county prosecutor. The judicial system in this country is supposed to apply the appropriate law to every circumstance in a rational manner apart from emotional considerations.

This is not the first time someone has suggested charging the parents of a school shooter; however, according to McDonald, she is the first to attempt to do it. Involuntary manslaughter is defined as the crime of killing another human being unlawfully but unintentionally. If a parent handed a child a gun and told him to go shoot people, there may be some complicity. In this case, the parents didn’t know their son had taken the gun from the house. The boy acted independently. Unless emotion trumps rational thinking, I cannot imagine a jury applying the legal definition of manslaughter to the parents in this case.

The situation does lead me to ask myself how far parents’ responsibility extends in the life of their children. At what age do children become morally responsible for their actions? Child psychologists have tried to identify a stage of development at which moral responsibility applies; opinions vary, but it is usually put in the early teens. The Bible refers to an age when children can tell the difference between right and wrong, but it does not pin a number on it. Ancient Jewish tradition assigns thirteen as the age when a boy becomes a man, or more precisely, a “son of the covenant,” the definition of bar mitzvah.

In Western society today, there seem to be few thirteen-year-olds who have mastered what psychologists call higher level thinking or formal reasoning. We seem to be pushing adulthood and its responsibilities into the twenties for many young people. That is not to say that apart from a clinical mental deficiency a fifteen-year-old doesn’t know it’s wrong to shoot his schoolmates. Very young children can tell that some things should not be done, even if it is only because they know it will displease their parents and possibly result in punishment for them. This does not necessarily mean they know right from wrong in the abstract, however.

Parents can either help their children mature morally, or they can impede them. The Oxford shooter’s mother seems to be in the latter category. When her son was caught using his cell phone against school policy, she texted, “LOL I'm not mad at you. You have to learn not to get caught.” Supporting rule-breaking does not qualify as good parenting, but I don’t think it rises to the level of involuntary manslaughter. The father of the shooter seems to have been a bit more rational. When he heard of the shooting on the radio, he rushed home to see if the gun they had purchased for their son was there. When he discovered it was missing, he phoned the police to tell them his son might be the shooter. That must have been painful, but it shows a sense of responsibility not apparent in his wife.

The young man had scribbled violent images and disturbing phrases in class that day, and the parents were called in to discuss disciplinary measures. They decided not to take their son out of school, and the school administration allowed him to stay. At that point, I believe (as a former school principal) that both the parents and the school were making a mistake. The suggestion to take him home and seek counselling should have been insisted upon. The school officials made the right suggestion even though they didn’t know about the recent gun purchase, but the parents did, and the father apparently had his suspicions. If there is blame to be shared for the ensuing tragedy, there is plenty to go around.

The Bible gives little precise information about when a child stands independently before God. At age twelve, Jesus seemed to know where He belonged to the surprise of His parents.  During His ministry, Jesus praised the faith of children and encouraged adults to copy their simple faith. When the Sanhedrin questioned the parents of the blind man Jesus healed, they deferred to him saying he was on his own. While there is no exact “age of accountability,” as it has sometimes been called, Scripture clearly teaches that at some point in time, people become responsible for their own actions.

I don’t think the Oxford parents should be charged with a crime, but I do think they may have failed to teach their son to properly discern right from wrong. The often-quoted proverb says, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” If parents raise their children “in the nurture and admonition of the Lord” as the New Testament prescribes, they can hope their children will mature into morally responsible adults. If parents choose the path the Oxford mother seems to have chosen, the outcome may be disastrous. Whatever the parents do, the child becomes an adult at some point, and at that point, the parents should not be charged with any crime except poor parenting. As far as I know, that crime is not in the books in Oxford or anywhere else.

There is a larger issue beneath this tragedy that none of the media coverage has broached. Ever since the 1960’s, children have been taught by government schools that morality is relative. “Values clarification” leads them to believe they are the arbiters of what’s right and what’s wrong. Common decency would seem to dictate that killing another human being is wrong in any value system, but like common sense, decency has become less and less common in our society. It is no simple coincidence that at the same time the Bible and prayer were removed from government schools, students attending those schools eventually became morally deficient.

The New Testament is peppered with prophecies that in the last days, people would turn away from God and moral degeneration would be the result. In Romans, Ephesians, Timothy and elsewhere, Paul specifically warned that those who reject God would be left to wallow in their own decadent ways. What began as seemingly benign political correctness in the late 2000’s has morphed into the militant WOKE culture that is attacking traditional Judeo-Christian morality on every front.

I pray that the backlash against critical race theory and other elements of the WOKE agenda will prevail. Parents across the country are telling their local school boards that they are not happy with the current school policies and curricula. America’s founding fathers wisely noted that without a moral populace, government of, by and for the people would fail. It is every parent’s responsibility to see that sound moral teaching is provided for their children in their home and in their schools. The multiple tragedies from Columbine to Oxford should be enough to motivate anyone.

Related posts: I Pray for America; Truth Dysphoria; Critical Race Theory; Woke TV; True Lies

Peace on Earth This Christmas?

Each year I read through the Bible in a different version. This year I am reading the New Century Version. It is a very modern attempt at translation which sometimes gets a little loose with the original text, but I often like the way it puts things. This morning I had to chuckle at their version of 1 Peter 2:15. “It is God’s desire that by doing good you should stop foolish people from saying stupid things about you.” The Greek word (ἀγνωσία) translated “stupid” here is generally transliterated into English as “ignorant.” It literally means “not knowing.” This perfectly describes people who don’t know God or accept His ways. Paul explains their problem in Ephesians 4:18 saying they walk, “in the futility of their mind, being darkened in understanding, alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them.”  (For more see: How Can They Think That?)

The Holy Spirit doubled down on the lesson with my daily reading from Charles Spurgeon. The verse Spurgeon drew from was Revelation 12:7 which describes the archangel Michael fighting against the dragon, aka Satan. Spurgeon advises, “The duty of every soldier in the army of the Lord is daily, with all his heart, and soul, and strength, to fight against the dragon.” I agree wholeheartedly. However, sometimes when we are engaged in that fight, foolish people are going to say stupid things about us. Those same people may cause us trouble. Peter advises, “A person might have to suffer even when it is unfair…. But if you suffer for doing good, and you are patient, then God is pleased.

Spurgeon continues the lesson: “We are foolish to expect to serve God without opposition: the more zealous we are, the more sure are we to be assailed by the [loyal followers] of hell…. War rages all around, and to dream of peace is dangerous and futile.” But I do dream of peace. Peace on earth was promised to men of good will outside Bethlehem by the same angels who are fighting against the dragon. Apparently, I need to adjust my personal definition of peace. According to Peter, Paul, and Charles, it doesn’t mean that I won’t have difficulties with “foolish people.” That makes sense if you realize that they are the same ones whom Paul said were living in the “futility” of their minds.

On the night Jesus was betrayed, He restated the promise of the angels on the night of His birth: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you—not as the world gives, I give to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled.” The peace He promised is to be in our untroubled hearts, not in the world or its circumstances. Later that same evening, Jesus repeated His promise: “I have said these things to you so that in me you may have peace. In the world you have affliction, but have courage! I have conquered the world.” The Greek word Jesus used for “affliction” (θλῖψις) means pressure or distress.

Paul uses the same root word as Jesus to describe his circumstances to theCorinthians: “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.” The word “pressed” is how they described what you do to grapes to get wine: you pressure them. If you will allow me to press the metaphor, the good wine we get from our pressure is the fruit of righteousness. The early disciples considered it an honor to be worthy to suffer for Christ. They apparently agreed with James that we should rejoice in tribulation. Our peace is found in knowing why we are suffering.

We can also find peace in knowing how the war we are fighting ends. Spurgeon’s devotional closed with this: “Glory be to God; we know the end of the war. The great dragon shall be cast out and forever destroyed, while Jesus and they who are with him shall receive the crown. Let us sharpen our swords to-night and pray the Holy Spirit to nerve our arms for the conflict. Never battle so important, never crown so glorious. Every man to his post, ye warriors of the cross, and may the Lord tread Satan under your feet shortly!” Amen. And may you find God’s peace this Christmas.