The Tangent College
The quote of the week for me, which indeed caused me to chuckle out loud, by Peter Jones writing for Rider magazine (a motorcycle magazine) in an article entitled “Bad Ambassador”: “unfortunately, no matter how much training someone has, not everyone can dribble a basketball while running, state a logical premise, or safely operate a motorcycle.” He thus claims to be a bad ambassador for promoting motorcycling. In the same way, I feel to be a bad ambassador for The Tangent College, because I know my brand of Biblically based intellectualism does not appeal to many people.
Here we have an example of two crowds; neither of which I can endure following.
The First Crowd
On the left, we have the progressive, hipster, pop culture, social justice, so-called “Christians” who have created their own rap-star, tattooed, forever sympathetic, version of Jesus in order to desperately stay relevant to the ever-changing and ever-sagging bourgeois American culture. This was perfectly exemplified in the utterly pathetic Super Bowl ad this evening from the, of course, “He Gets Us” crowd. If you wanted to be Biblical, which of course this group cares nothing about, (“the Bible!?” – so last century), a more accurate statement would be “He Judges Us”. And according to The Revelation of Jesus Christ, the real Jesus will! He has no tolerance for fools, and no compassion for those who refuse to repent and be made clean by the blood of the Lamb.
Here is the real Jesus. See if you “get” this – And I saw heaven opened; and behold, a white horse, and He who sat upon it is called Faithful and True; and in righteousness He judges and wages war. And His eyes are a flame of fire, and upon His head are many diadems; and He has a name written upon Him which no one knows except Himself. And He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood; and His name is called The Word of God. And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses. And from His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may smite the nations; and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty. And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.” Rev. 19:11-16
He is coming back as the Lion of Judah, and that Judah has nothing to do with the phony state of Israel conquering land in the Middle East with enormous help from its American colonial masters. The true Jews, the true Israel, the true Judah are those made clean by the blood of the Lamb. Jesus already came as a Lamb led to slaughter. He is now coming back as a Lion to judge the world. And first in line, part of the world, are these social justice, Biblically illiterate, “He Gets Us” phony “Christians” who have been deceived and led astray by the gospel according to Judas Iscariot. Jesus did not come to right all the injustices of the world like Judas expected. And certainly not to deliver unrighteous Judea; which had long since abandoned the Holy One of Israel.
Let me explain how utterly pathetic this ad was. They used Johnny Cash’s cover of Depeche Mode’s song “Personal Jesus”; somehow, apparently not realizing that this song is a satirical cut on the very “he gets us” gospel that they are promoting. The song is a jab at TV preachers, selling a false Jesus that is all about you, personally caring about all the grievances that concerns you, that will answer all your prayers, and who “gets you” and understands you. When singing, “reach out and touch faith”, the song speaks of a phony faith that is presented by false preachers asking for money from naive people to support their ministry as “seed faith” that will bring blessings and money into these folks’ lonely lives. But the “he gets us” crowd used the song because it sounds hip and cool, too ignorant to realize that it satirized themselves.
Here’s what the real Jesus said, “For I say to you, that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven.” Matt 5:20. – I must’ve missed this in the Super Bowl ad. But these social justice Christians, like Judas, have no interest in the kingdom of heaven, but only their personal lives here on earth.
The Second Crowd:
On the right, we have the conservative Judeo/Christian religion which is currently the accepted religion of the current regime. This is an imperialistic religion befitting the Napoleonic Trump regime. It is the religion of the Empire. And right now the Empire is striking back against the social justice goofballs. This makes the social justice crowd angry and there is some schadenfreude to be enjoyed among those disgusted by the social justice left.
I admit that I find some enjoyment in this as well, but I remain firmly planted in the middle and thus a denouncer of both. I’m not religious. Neither is of the truth. Both are deceptions in different ways, one religion from the right and one religion from the left. The right is theistic and the left is atheistic. The “he gets us” crowd is worldly, atheistic, socialistic and thus left wing. The Judeo/Christian crowd is a self-contradictory but nonetheless theistic, imperialistic, and thus right wing.
The understanding of the difference between the right and the left is most crucial here. The right is not good and the left is not necessarily bad. Both can be equally tyrannical. The tyranny of the religious right can be equal to the tyranny of the religious left – communism or fascism – both of which originate from atheism and thus from the left. Throne and Altar exercise the tyranny of the right. Dictator and the collective exercise the tyranny of the left.
Regarding the language of the “he gets us” crowd, I would like to make a final quote from one of the most profound books I’ve ever read that I find myself, somehow, at this time rereading sections from; it is The Closing of the American Mind by Allan Bloom. It is one of the most thorough explanations of nihilistic American thinking one could ever read, and I know I’m going to do it disservice by trying to pick one quote, but I shall try anyway.
“All the more astonishing [and] in being almost unnoticed: there is now an entirely new language of good and evil, originating in an attempt to get “beyond good and evil” and preventing us from talking with any conviction about good and evil anymore. Even those who deplore our current moral condition do so in the very language that exemplifies that condition.
The new language is that of value relativism, and it constitutes a change in our view of things moral and political… A new language always reflects a new point of view, and the gradual, unconscious popularization of new words, or of old words used in new ways, is a sure sign of a profound change in people’s articulation of the world.”
This new language of value relativism is found almost universally, everywhere; not only in this pathetic ad but in all Super Bowl ads and in the Super Bowl itself and in all of life. It is very difficult to convince people of the danger of this change in language. It’s precariousness, for example, is found in the replacing of the word “sex” with “gender”.
So many of the phrases throughout the Bible are thoroughly unacceptable in the contemporary Christian evangelical church. Most religions, including Judaism, Catholicism, Mormonism, etc. have whitewashed these phrases in their original Scriptures or have rewritten their own Scriptures to suit their religion. The Catholics simply ignore these Scriptures and give equal weight to the church’s teaching while the contemporary evangelical Protestants keep modifying and softening the Scriptures with new versions that are more understanding of today’s “values”.
Bloom explains the purpose of this value language. He says, “value relativism can be taken to be a great release from the perpetual tyranny of good and evil, with their cargo of shame and guilt, and the endless efforts that the pursuit of the one and the avoidance of the other and join… One need not feel bad about or uncomfortable with oneself when just a little value adjustment is necessary.” And it will make people want to attend church. At least that is their theory.
And I have seriously joked in the past how Judeo/Christian Zionists claim that we share similar “values”, and yet clearly Christ is not one of those values -which one would think would be a strong value to the Christian- but somehow not to the Judeo/Christian. Make sense? Of course not. Religion is not there to make sense, it is there to validate us and make us feel good. When will you learn that Bill?
I’m sorry, I’m a throwback. I forget the advice of Peter Jones who said, “unfortunately, no matter how much training someone has, not everyone can dribble a basketball while running, state a logical premise, or safely operate a motorcycle.”
I’m a bad ambassador for contemporary Christianity.
Bill Ward