THE LAUGHTER OF ONE AND TWO: One-ism Laughs Once but Two-ism Laughs Twice!

THE LAUGHTER OF ONE AND TWO: One-ism Laughs Once but Two-ism Laughs Twice!

By Pam Frost

The cover of Time Magazine recently announced, “From Gay Marriage to Obamacare, Justice Anthony Kennedy is THE DECIDER.”  They were wrong in the case of Obamacare, however, and who will eventually swing the vote on the issue of Gay Marriage, and in what direction, remains to be seen.  When all the decisions are in, only one side on each issue will be laughing.  But how long will their laughter be sustained?  That depends on whether it’s the laughter of One or the laughter of Two because One-ism only laughs once, but Two-ism laughs twice and has the last laugh.

The laughter of One-ism (paganism) originated with Lucifer’s rebellion against the Creator.  It began to echo through the corridors of human history on the day Eve ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil falling prey to the lie that by joining the opposites she would gain enlightenment to her own divinity and attain autonomous authority equal to God.  One-ism laughs in scornful mockery of the distinctions between the Creator and creation, male and female, and good and evil, thus dissolving recognition of the biblical binary of Two-ism (biblical theism) into the mystical consciousness of One-ism (pagan monism).  This occult joining of the opposites has been called the Perennial Philosophy and is recognized by the mystics as the core spirituality uniting the world’s pagan religions in rebellious harmony “against the LORD and against His anointed.”

 

Psalm 2 records the scornful laughter of One-ism in verses 1-3:

 1.  Why are the nations in an uproar

And the peoples devising a vain thing?

2. The kings of the earth take their stand

And the rulers take counsel together

Against the LORD and against His anointed, saying,

3.  “Let us tear their fetters apart

And cast away their cords from us!”

 

One-ism has sustained its intolerant laughter against the Creator’s authority throughout history. It chants a mystical “OM” to unite the opposites and to deny the Creator His distinction and the glory due Him by divinizing and worshipping creation instead – the fatal exchange of the Truth for the Lie that Paul describes in Romans 1:25.  Yet contrary to One-ism’s claim of universal divinity, it is the God of Two alone who is enthroned over and above His creation.  One-ism’s laughter will be mute at the return of the Lord Jesus Christ, when God has the last laugh of final judgment.

 

Psalm 2:4-9 declares:

 4.  He who sits in the heavens laughs,

The LORD scoffs at them.

5.  Then He will speak to them in His anger

And terrify them in His fury, saying,

6.  “But as for Me, I have installed My King

Upon Zion, My holy mountain.”

7.  I will surely tell of the decree of the LORD:

He said to Me, “You are My Son,

Today I have begotten You.

8.  Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance,

And the very ends of the earth as Your possession.

9.  You shall break them with a rod of iron,

You shall shatter them like earthenware.”

 The laughter of God’s judgment has been at work throughout history testifying to the futility of the rebellion of fallen angels and men in their attempt to take the throne of the Creator.  When Lucifer thought he would ascend to the throne of God, he fell to the bottom, becoming the devil instead.  When Adam and Eve attempted the same, they received the forewarned judgment of death – both spiritual and physical – experiencing the crushing loss of fellowship with their Creator.  They were driven from the Garden into exile from the presence of God to labor for the food they once freely enjoyed by His provision.  The wicked rebellion of One-ism was judged in the universal Flood in Noah’s day.  One-ism’s attempt to climb to heaven and seize the throne of God at the Tower of Babel was judged when God confused their languages and scattered the One-ists around the globe.

But Two-ism doesn’t stop with the laughter of judgment. Verse 7 interjects an interlude of grace in the prophetic announcement of Messiah:  “You are My Son, today I have begotten You.”  Dr. Edmund Clowney points out in his wonderful book The Unfolding Mystery that “there is a laughter of grace as well as of judgment.”  The mystery of redemptive grace begins to unfold in God’s prophetic declaration in Genesis 3:15 that through the death of Messiah, the serpent is forever defeated.  What Satan thought was a victory over the Son of God as He died on the cross, was, in fact, his ultimate undoing.  Messiah was resurrected from the dead and laughs in victory upon His throne today as the redeemed enter His eternal kingdom.  Jesus is the fulfillment of the Messianic laughter of grace recorded in Genesis 17:19.  There we meet Isaac, the son of promise, whose name means “laughter.”  We hear that prophetic laughter of grace fulfilled in history when, Messiah, Jesus, suffered God’s judgment of death in our place, paying the blood penalty for our sin so that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit could laugh out loud in the face of Satan, sin, and death with the holy Laugher of Grace!

Psalm 2 ends with a warning to One-ists:  Take refuge quickly in Two-ism’s laughter of redemptive grace in Messiah Jesus, lest they suddenly experience His wrath when He returns!  Only those who take refuge in the Son will know eternal blessing and be spared the judgment of God’s final laugh:

 10.  Now therefore, O kings, show discernment;

Take warning, O judges of the earth.

11.  Worship the LORD with reverence

And rejoice with trembling.

12 Do homage to the Son, that He not become angry, and

you perish in the way,

For His wrath may soon be kindled.

How blessed are all who take refuge in Him!

 

No matter what the Supreme Court decides on critical issues like marriage and health care, all “who take refuge in Him” will rest in the eternal blessing of the laughter of grace and will ultimately be vindicated when God laughs His final judgment on One-ism.  One-ism laughs only once, but Two-ism laughs twice, and has the last, triumphant, joy-filled laugh!