Lies that Paralyze: Weaponizing Pleasant Words
Lies that Live- Part 10
By Dr. Jeffery J Ventrella
“[O]ne must be wary of indifference masquerading as humility.”[1]
“One does not abolish slavery by doing nothing more than helping individual slaves.”[2]
“Hell is nothing more than the truth known too late.[3]”
“Never defeat an opponent when an opponent can be counted upon to defeat himself.”[4] So counseled the luminous Christian conservative William F. Buckley, Jr. If your debate opponent self-neutralizes, no need exists to engage or rebut him.
Just as noisy rage is not a strategy, so too self-sidelining is not a strategy. One cannot impact the game unless one is in the game. And opposing paganism is no game. Far too often, otherwise pious Christians, believe lies and half-truths that effectively sideline them and thereby blunt their witness for Christ. They capitulate instead of conquer.[5] One reason this occurs stems from having our ears tickled by pleasant words, words that contain worldview poison. Let’s get to the gist.
The Pagan Operational Ethos: Words as Weapons
It’s been said that “Satan doesn’t serve spinach”. The idea is that the Evil One advances his agenda in attractive ways. He began undermining the Truth in this way,[6] and because it works upon those lacking discernment, he and his minions continue doing it.[7] Today, we see the same tactics deployed culturally – there is no need to serve spinach when the targets will willingly swallow good tasting poison.
Many of the clashes with paganism occur over language, as language crafts moral imagination and plausibility structures[8]. Vocabulary impacts thinking and thinking impacts action. And abusing language precipitates the abuse of power.[9] Accordingly, we should expect language to be weaponized as a means for advancing paganism.
Consider the LGBTQ activists and their allies. They speak – by design – in glowing language invoking euphonic “who could disagree” terms and slogans like “love wins,” “marital equality,” “diversity,” “equity,” “inclusion,” “choice,” “visibility,” “marrying the person you love,” “minor attracted persons,” “reproductive justice,” being “gay,” “open relationships,” “sexual orientation,” “gender fluidity,” “assigned at birth,” and the standard default “go to” for any claim: “equality.” The problem arises because while many people generally use these terms – which is precisely why the activists invoke them – the activists use a different dictionary.
Accordingly, the invocation of “loaded language” becomes the first arena – the initial battle lines – for exposing where the Truth has been exchanged for the Lie. Why? If we buy the term, we buy the premise; if we buy the premise, we buy the conclusion. Consequently, because God redeems us fully, that redemption should include – where necessary – a renovated and disciplined vocabulary. Nothing pleases the enemy of our souls more than having God’s people use the serpent’s language: the salt losing its saltiness.
Another aspect exists to this: believing lies or half-truths embedded in slogans. Here, the pagan tactic seeks to get God’s people to embrace notions that subvert or sideline them. These lies or half-truths in some way detract from or defy God’s narrative: Creation, Fall, and Redemption and these lies thereby paralyze God’s people.
Lies that Paralyze[10]
“The World is Evil”
Affirming that evils exists in the world is not equivalent to saying the world itself is evil. Pardon the pun, but there is a world of difference between these two positions. One is Christian and the other is Gnostic. How so?
God created everything that is not God, described in this shorthand, “the heavens and the earth.”[11] And God, who cannot lie,[12] called it “good.”[13] The “stuff” of the cosmos is good. And, as Jesus taught, it’s not the stuff we consume that makes us evil, but evil emanates from our own fallen hearts:
And he called the people to him and said to them, “Hear and understand: it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person.”[14]
And, the crucial and non-negotiable doctrine of the Incarnation is that the “the Word became flesh.”[15]
Gnosticism attacked this Incarnation precisely because the Gnostics despised the material and the physical. In rejecting this heresy, the apostle did not mince words:
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.[16]
Accordingly, then: the world is not evil; evil is evil and the world’s redemption pivots on God taking on flesh and blood.
“Just Focus on Heaven and Spiritual Stuff”
No orthodox Christian would crassly deny Jesus’ Incarnation.[17] Yet, Christians can be functional Gnostics. How so? Christians do this by claiming that “this world” matters less than the next and therefore, Christians should focus on “higher” “heavenly,” “spiritual” matters. The fallacy here is that everything a Christian does is by definition spiritual, that is, animated and empowered by God’s Spirit. Our existence now and eternally is not destined for some ethereal disembodied reality.
The idea that we should predominately pursue “heavenly” things stems, not from Scripture, but from the pagan Enlightenment – a form of dualism. As Wright and Bird explain:
The Western world in general has bought heavily into the Enlightenment belief that “sacred” and “secular” are divided by an unbridgeable gulf. In that setting, it makes sense to tell Christians to stop meddling in political matters, stick to spiritual things, stay in your lane of pious niceties and keep your religious sentiments to yourselves. But the compartmentalization of the spiritual and secular is foreign to Scripture and to most of church history.[18]
Christ is Lord of all, including our pre-Consummation existence. And, He has redeemed us from something for something: Good works which He has prepared for us to execute.[19] Believing this lie, however undermines that God-given privilege and duty.[20]
“Your Work Doesn’t Really Matter”
OK, we’ve dealt with Gnostic anti-materialism and the notion that only “heavenly” efforts really matter. But another lie can still arise. This is the notion that while we may “do our jobs” unto the Lord, such things are really at best instrumental to funding or supporting “full time Christian service.” Ah, dualism in another form.
The idea that our labor flows from the Fall and that all we can hope to accomplish in this life is to “work in order to someday not work” comprises another paralyzing lie.
First, labor/work is the very purpose of mankind’s creation and in fact manifests our being Imago Dei.[21] Second, this means that failing to work mars the Divine Image.[22] The notion that we labor solely to supply resources to “full-time Christian” efforts is itself dualistic, what one friend calls “Great Commission Instrumentalism”.
No, the truth is that all virtuous work is good and “in the Lord, your labor is not in vain.”[23] Indeed, what we do in this life flows into the Consummation:
What is more – and this is crucial – what we do matters because it carries over into the final new creation. We are not called to tinker in the world and then walk away from it, but to curate creation for its consummation.[24]
Many more pleasant, but false words seep into our culture. One way to be inoculated against them is to focus on what’s true, good, and beautiful. Or, as the author of Hebrews put it:
But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.[25]
The call here requires us to practice regularly learning to discern. A key way for doing this relies on knowing the Truth.
Truths that Transform
Christ Redeems from Sin, not Materiality
First, we need to understand and commit to the truth that Christ redeems us from sin, not materiality. The Creation is good, and God purposes in Christ to redeem and restore it. Our enemy is sin, not Creation’s materiality. We cannot allow any form of functional dualism to influence us either. Christ is Lord of all.
The Kingdom is not of this World but it is for it
Second, God’s Kingdom, which Jesus commands we are to seek as a priority,[26] may not be from this world,[27] but it is unmistakably for this world:
For the early church, the kingdom of God was never about going to heaven. . . . [God’s kingdom is] “[n]ot a kingdom in the sense of an earthly empire or an ephemeral spiritual state, but as a vision and vocation for faithful action that works to bring God’s kingship over every facet of human life.[28]
We are Saved From Something For Something
Accordingly, then third, we are saved FROM something FOR something. As Don Carson explains:
[Yet], it is possible so to focus on the rescue and regeneration of individuals that we fail to see the temporally good things we can do to improve and transform some social structures. One does not abolish slavery by doing nothing more than helping individual slaves. Christian educational and academic structures may help countless thousands develop a countercultural way of looking at all reality under the Lordship of Christ. Sometimes a disease can be knocked out; sometimes sex traffic can be considerably reduced; sometimes slavery can be abolished in a region; sometimes engagement in the arts canproduce wonderful work that inspires a new generation . . . More importantly, doing good to the city, [Jer. 29] doing good to all people . . . is part of our responsibility as God’s redeemed people in this time of tension between the “already” and the “not yet.”[29]
And, make no mistake: this sort of engagement for the kingdom is not optional. It is rather a sign of increasing Christian maturity, as John Frame explains:
Christian maturity is tested by its willingness to go against the odds, to go against the intellectual and practical fashions in the service of the King. It is easy enough to be a Christian when that merely requires us to be nice people. But love for Jesus which is motivated by his great sacrifice, requires far more. It calls upon us to renounce what Scripture calls the “wisdom of the world,” the fashionable ideas and practices of our society, and to count them as rubbish for the sake of Christ. We honor those like Noah, who built an ark though the world scoffed; like Abraham, who set aside the evidence of his senses and the laughter of his own wife to believe that God would miraculously provide a son; like Moses, who stood up to Pharaoh and brought him the word of God; like Daniel, who faced lions rather than worship an earthy king; like Peter and John, who told officials that “we must obey God rather than men.” (Acts 5:29).[30]
Knowing, using, and enjoying these truths in all that we are and do will dispel lies the paralyze.
A Cautionary Tale: The Boy Scouts and a Saul-like Failure to Persevere
Let’s suppose that these truths that transform are taken to heart. One more thing needs to be noted: this task of building for the kingdom[31] requires perseverance – doing the right thing for only a season is insufficient. One must actually conquer, in Jesus’s words.[32] Sad, just as King Saul started well, but ended poorly, so too the Boy Scouts of America snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. How so?
It began this way: The Scouts clashed with the LGBTQ agenda, but not by their own choosing. Instead, James Dale, a former Eagle Scott, current Scoutmaster, and practicing homosexual, pushed the envelope by drawing attention to his sexual preferences and practices. The Scouts responded by revoking his Scout Leadership position given his overt LGBTQ advocacy.
The Scouts reasoned that his view and practices undermined the Scouts’ commitment to be “morally straight” and “clean.” Mr. Dale sued, but the Scouts prevailed strongly in the Supreme Court in 2000.[33]
Yet, by 2014, the Scouts changed its policy to permit membership by homosexual boys. Given this move, things accelerated. In 2015, the Scouts permitted adult homosexuals to be leaders. In 2017 the Scouts next permitted so-called “trans boys” to enroll in the program. And, in 2018, the Boy Scouts of America allowed girls to enroll in its programs.
The salt had lost its saltiness; the Scouts had won the lawsuit but failing to persevere in that victory, lost the culture – and their very identity. They had instead imbibed the unrelenting pleasant, yet weaponized words of the LGBTQ agenda. And those congenial words morally paralyzed them – leading to their own destruction.[34]
For further study[35]:
- Josef Pieper, Abuse of Language, Abuse of Power (1992)
- John M. Frame, Doctrine of the Christian Life (2008)
- Wright & Bird, Jesus and the Powers (2024)
- Amanda Montell, Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism(2021)
[1] N.T. Wright & Michael Bird , Jesus and the Powers, 88 (2024)
[2] D.A. Carson, Christ and Culture Revisited, 217 (2008)
[3] Os Guinness reworking a Thomas Hobbes quip.
[4] Noted in William Rusher, How to Win Arguments, (1981)
[5] Repeatedly, Jesus explains that the one who conquers – not merely abides – will (1) eat of the Tree of Life (Rev. 2:7); (2) not be hurt by the second death (Rev. 2:11); (3) receive hidden manna (Rev. 2:17); (4) be given authority over the nations (Rev. 2:26); (5) be clothed in white garments and confessed to the Father (Rev. 3:5); be made a pillar in the temple of God (Rev. 3:12); and, (6) sit with Christ on His throne and with the Father on His throne (Rev. 3:21).
[6] The serpent craftily directed the Woman’s gaze away from God to the creation: First to the tree and then to its fruit. The serpent knew the power of aesthetics because “when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and a delight to the eyes,” – both good things — she lost sight of God, her Creator and instead bowed to creation. Good goods make bad gods. Gen. 3:1-6
[7] We certainly see this in how Satan temped Jesus in the wilderness (Matt. 4:1-11).
[8] See generally, Charles Taylor, A Secular Age (2007), and Peter Berger, Sacred Canopy, (1969)
[9] Josef Pieper, Abuse of Language, Abuse of Power (1992)
[10] We will survey just a few of these currently ascendent in our culture.
[11] Gen. 1:1
[12] Titus 1:2
[13] Gen. 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25, and the upon completion, this capstone, “it was very good” (Gen. 1:31)
[14]Matt. 15:10, 11
[15] Jn. 1:14. The critical role of the Incarnation formed a key topic in the Early Church. See, Athanasius, On the Incarnation
[16] 1 Jn. 4:1-3
[17] Indeed, to deny the Incarnation takes one outside orthodox Christianity, meaning that there would be no objective basis to consider such a person to be a Christian. See, e.g., the Apostles and the Nicene Creeds. https://www.christianitytoday.com/biblestudies/articles/churchhomeleadership/nicene-apostles-creeds.html
[18] Wright & Bird, Jesus and the Powers, (2024), 94. This point also negates another popular paralyzing lie: “politics is dirty”.
[19] Eph. 2:10
[20] This also corrects other paralyzing lies: “Personal evangelism is all that really matters” and a related assertion, “The local church and its programing are all that really matters.”
[21] Gen. 1:27, 28
[22] Paul even directs that if a man will not work, he should not eat. 2 Thess 3:10.
[23] 1 Cor. 15:58
[24] Wright & Bird, Jesus and the Powers, (2024), 85. This point also rebuts other paralyzing lies: “Kingdom work is limited to church work,”and “Jesus is Lord (only) of my heart.”
[25] Heb. 5:14
[26] Matt. 6:33
[27] Jn. 18:36
[28] Wright & Bird, Jesus and the Powers, (2024), 8
[29] D. A. Carson, Christ and Culture Revisited, (2012) 217, 218, footnotes omitted.
[30] John M. Frame, The Doctrine of the Christian Life, 2008), 728,729.
[31] Col. 4:11
[32] See supra, note 5. Conquering need not be swashbuckling and dragon slaying; it could also mean dying well and faithfully as a martyr under persecution.
[33] See, Boy Scouts of America v. Dale, 530 U.S. 640 (2000)
[34] Cf., Hosea 8:4: “[T]hey made idols for their own destruction.” Idols are not idle.
[35] Please understand that neither I nor TxC necessarily agrees with everything set forth in these resources and that also means that in citing authors, neither I nor TxC necessarily endorse any particular author’s entire body of work.