"Certainty Starts Wars"

"Certainty starts wars" earned wild applause when proudly blurted by Andrew Garfield on a recent episode of the Stephen Colbert show. Colbert's show is an excellent place to learn about the things World Ops pack into the minds of a rapt audience ill-equipped to understand how the devil is toying with them.

Garfield has been the acclaimed star of two reasonably well-received films, Hacksaw Ridge and Silence. Both have a Roman Catholic connection. The former was made by Mel Gibson, a devout Roman Catholic and a controversial filmmaker whose stirring epics are smothered with the most grisly violent content. The latter is a historical drama about Jesuit priests who have crises of faith when they visit Japan and endure some persecution -- I humbly admit I have seen neither film but I do have some general knowledge about the substance of each.

Garfield and Colbert were bantering about this thing certainty when the idea was brought up that certainly is terrifying. This resounded with the audience, who in some measure represents a pretty wide swath of Americans. The idea is all over the place, it is not hard to see: If you are certain about things, you are dangerous. How often do you see that, if not merely intimated just flat-out explicitly bellowed.

Thing is, to the person who says "CERTAINTY IS DANGEROUS!!!" I'd like to ask a simple question.

Are you certain about that?

To say certainty is terrifying or certainty starts wars or certainty is dangerous is just plain stupid. It is perfectly rational, mind you -- people hate feeling browbeat with something true which painfully upends their apple-cart. The key is that it is just not righteous.

But then appealing to this thing righteousness does require firm and unshakable belief in God, and how many of the enthused Colbert viewers have a well-grounded understanding of God and who He is and what He is about? In looking at George Barna's research, I'd say the answer is pretty few.

If you don't have The Standard from whom to learn, to gain knowledge, to glean wisdom, to feel and think and speak and act righteously, then you're left with a harrowing world of despair and loneliness no matter how smiley you are and above-it-all you claim to be.

I got the word about this Colbert interaction on Greg Koukl's fine podcast, and I encourage you to listen to it. Koukl very insightfully points out it isn't certainty that is the problem, it is what people believe they are certain about. World System devotees like Colbert's fans can't see that they too think they're certain about things, and one of those things is they're certain they really want to avoid knowing the truth about their true spiritual peril. Of course they replace that knowledge with System generated pap that makes them feel really good about their benighted ignorance.

The main reason I mention the Colbert phenomena is to direct you to my latest home page piece, and it is all about truth and understanding in light of everything the World tries to pump into people's souls. For you Rulers of Evil fans I include a commemorative mention of Tupper Saussy, who passed away ten years ago this month. I invite you to visit my site, and let me know what you think, I'd love to hear from you.

In that piece also briefly share some thoughts about C.S. Lewis' The Last Battle, and as I'm finishing that book for the third time I'm struck by the features of the end of the age. Lewis describes well people who are so given over to the devil that they can't help but experience the depth of blindness, deafness, and dumbness that marauds through everything. 

My point is right now I see so many people out there who while very smart and very intelligent and very thoughtful and even very kind and gracious and pleasant --

Are still extraordinarily dead.

Really. You can see it in their eyes. No matter how much of a wonderful thing someone is, without Christ they are deader than a door nail.

I do think about Jesus returning, and I do want it very much -- "Come quickly Lord Jesus" as Scripture says often enough. But then, my heart is for those people. I hope Jesus doesn't come for another 10,000 years if it means these people will get it, will find Him.

Funny, in Luke is one of the signs of the imminent return of Jesus, from the 21st chapter: "Men [will] faint from fear and the expectation of things which are coming upon the world; for the powers of heaven will be shaken."

Sometimes I feel great sorrow, I confess, I do. They are just so lost, and desperate -- and dead. From just my own little ministry writing world here -- webzine, blog -- I'd love to know even a few people are coming to Christ in even the smallest part because of even the littlest thing I've shared.

I'd love to worship God in Spirit and in Truth with those who are certain He loves them and joyfully receives our worship.

That's what I want more than anything.