The Why and the What - (We value Christ-Centered believers) Genesis 22:1-14 “The Sacrifice of the Son: The Place of the Cross”

FBC Canton - Sunday am - April 5, 2020 – Pastor Mike Roberson Introduction: Abraham walked together with Isaac (2X) up Mount Moriah to die to all other allegiances. His wife. His reason. His community. Himself. He was socially isolated. Christ walked up the same hill with only His Father to die for all of us. FBC Canton Values believers who make Christ the Center of all their decisions:

The WHY is about what we believe in that motivates us. The WHAT is about our values.

So, WHAT do we value and how do we prove that we value these things?

We prove what we value by demonstrating in nonverbal ways what our values are. For

example, below you will read our values and the supporting actions that prove those

values:

Christ-Centered Believers

● You put Christ first in every decision you make.

● You search God’s Word for the practical application for every decision.

● You study God’s Word daily.

● You memorize God’s Word.

● You live your life so others know what Christ is like.

● You are genuine and regularly active in your worship of the Lord.

Why do we think we will not have to die to ourselves? Alone, against all reason, even apart from our dearest community, or our spouses? No, we will be crucified with Christ.

Genesis 22 is a type of the Cross. A prophetic pattern of the sacrifice of Jesus in the times of Abraham.

This is one of the many ways we know the Bible is true. It is designed by someone who knows the end of time before time occurs. He is eternal. He stands outside of time and can display for all the world at any time, that He knows all things that happen every time, before they happen in time.

God is appearing to Abraham for the 7th and last time. His education of Abraham in the beginning of Abraham’s walk with God is now being tested. Your education in your walk with the Lord will be tested!

Let’s stand and read and pray for the Lord to provide for us to pass this test.

I. Rules for God’s tests. vs. 1-14 a. Always on purpose: To increase intimacy with Him. v. 1

Tests are not designed to reveal to God new knowledge. They are designed to reveal to us new knowledge of God.

Abraham went from head knowledge about God to heart knowledge with God. God delights in experiencing our loving obedience, even when He already knows the outcome.

b. Pop tests only. No advance warning. v. 1 We will always have to choose between God’s blessing and God Himself.

c. Individual work only. Abraham, Abraham. v. 1 No one else can do your work for you. Your test will not be the same as others.

d. All tests will have prophetic implication for the Kingdom. Abraham’s was a type of the Cross: The timing: v. 4

3 days between death and life.

Isaac was a young man. Perhaps early 30s?

The location. v. 2

The sacrifice (God will provide THE lamb v. 8; yet a ram was caught. v. 13). THE is specific; i.e. not a lamb, but the lamb!

The Love of the Father for the son, and the son for the father.

He went willingly and learned obedience to the father.

Faith unthinkable. A Son raised up from the dead. WE WILL come back to you. v. 5

When faced with an apparent contradiction always follow through with what God said, even if it does not make sense. Trust Him to resolve the contradiction! He is more than capable. Life from death. How do you explain this trip to Sarah??? Murder my own son? NO! This was never the design of this test and child sacrifice, nor child abuse is the interpretation of this passage: WHAT THIS IS A NEGATION OF CHILD ABUSE! IT IS A PICTURE OF GOD SACRIFICING HIMSELF, HE IS GOD WITH US, HE IS GOD IN THE FLESH!

Faith is the key to all victory!

e. All resources to obtain victory have been provided. v. 14

God will provide. He will see to it. He already had a ram walking up the backside of the mountain as Isaac and Abraham walked up by faith to overcome the mountain.

The need is provided only when the test is completed.

f. The teacher is always silent during the test. Only before and after the test will you hear from the teacher.

Abraham 2X, in verse 1 and in verse 11 Then God reveals Himself, and not before.

Conclusion: Who gave up His life for you? Give your life for Him and to Him. What are we being asked to sacrifice today?

Whatever it is, tomorrow there will be more dying to ourselves. We need to sacrifice the bitterness of not being in control. We need to sacrifice busyness for buying time with our families. Binge on the Bible, not on TV Shows. Start a virtual home Vible study group with your friends and neighbors.

• Easter@Home – Give your families more than bunnies and candy to celebrate the true

meaning of Holy Week

o Read the gospel accounts of the last week of Jesus leading up the cross, death and

resurrection.

o Have a home focused Easter egg hunt.

o Have Lord’s Supper…next week here online.

• Rekindle Your Marriage – Great ideas for couples to draw closer to one another

o Read a book together: the 4 laws of love, Jimmy Evans

o Love and respect, Dr. Emerson Eggerichs.

o Watch a blog, a video together.

• Intentional Parenting – Fun ways parents can engage their children and teens at home with…

o Parent/Teen Movie Chats

o Mealtime Conversations

o Bedtime Blessings

o Family Time Activities

We need to sacrifice worry and trust God will provide. When God promises he will provide it means that it will happen. When God swears an oath, He is saying the provision is well on its way! V. 15-19

God was already providing a wife for Isaac, before this event took place. V. 20-24 Slides from Chuck Missler Genesis chapter 21, 22 and 24, session 17

CHAPTER 22

——————

THEME: God commands Abraham to offer Isaac; God restrains Abraham; God reaffirms His

promises; Abraham returns to Beer–sheba

In this chapter we come to another great high point of the Bible. We are walking on mountain peaks in the

Book of Genesis. Chapter 22 is the account of Abraham’s offering of his own son. God commanded him to

offer Isaac on the altar and then restrained him at the last minute when He saw that Abraham was willing to go

through with it. This chapter brings us to the seventh and last appearance of God to Abraham. After this, there is

nothing more that God could ask Abraham to do. This is the supreme test that He brought to this man.

If you were to designate the ten greatest chapters of the Bible, you would almost have to include Genesis 22.

One of the reasons for that is that this is the first time human sacrifice is even suggested. It is in the plan and

purpose of God to make it clear to man that human sacrifice is wrong. This incident reveals that. It also reveals

that God requires a life to be given up in order that He might save sinners. There is no one among the children

of men worthy to take that place. God’s Son was the only One. It is interesting that Paul said, “God spared not

His own Son,” but you might add that He did spare the son of Abraham and did not let him go through with the

sacrifice of Isaac.

This chapter compares with Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53. The first time that I saw in this chapter these great

truths which depict the cross of Christ, it was breathtaking. Not only in the birth of Isaac, but now also in the

sacrifice of Isaac, there is a strange similarity to the life of our Lord.

The very interesting thing is that James makes a statement concerning this incident which may seem

contradictory to other parts of the Bible: “Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered

Isaac his son upon the altar?” (James 2:21). For Paul makes this statement in Romans 4: “What shall we say

then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found? For if Abraham were justified by works, he

hath whereof to glory; but not before God. For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was

counted unto him for righteousness” (Rom. 4:1–3). Who is right? James or Paul? My answer is that both of

them are right. First of all, we need to note that both of them are talking about the same thing—faith. James is

talking about the works of faith, not the works of law. Paul is talking about justification before God, quoting the

fifteenth chapter of Genesis, way back when Abraham was just getting under way in a walk of faith. At that

time only God knew his heart, and God saw that Abraham believed Him: “And he (Abraham) believed in the

LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness” (Gen. 15:6). We can see that Abraham failed many times,

and I am of the opinion that his neighbors might have said, “We don’t see that he is righteous.” But when the

day came that he took his son to be offered on the altar, even the hardhearted Philistine had to admit that

Abraham demonstrated his faith by his actions. James says that Abraham was justified by works. When was he

justified? When he offered Isaac. But the question is going to arise: Did Abraham really offer Isaac upon the

altar? Of course, the answer is that he didn’t—but he was willing to. That very act of being willing is the act

that James is talking about which reveals that Abraham had the works of faith. James is emphasizing the works

of faith seen in this twenty–second chapter of Genesis, and Paul is talking about faith in his heart which

Abraham had way back in the fifteenth chapter.

GOD COMMANDS ABRAHAM TO OFFER ISAAC

And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him,

Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am [Gen. 22:1].

The word tempt is a little bit too strong; actually, the word means “test.” James makes it very clear in his

epistle that God never tempts anyone with evil. God tempts folks in the sense that He tests their faith. God did

test Abraham, and He asked him to do something very strange.

And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land

of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell

thee of [Gen. 22:2].

Right after this chapter, we are told that Sarah was 127 years old when she died (see Gen. 23:1). When you put

that down with this chapter, you find that this boy Isaac was not just a little lad. Sarah was 90 years old when

Isaac was born and 127 when she died. That means that 37 years elapsed here. Since he is called a “lad” in this

chapter, you would not gather that he actually was in his thirties—probably around 30 or 33 years of age.

“Take now thy son [notice how this plays upon the heartstrings of Abraham and of God Himself], thine only

son Isaac, whom thou lovest.” “Take now thy son”—the Lord Jesus has taken the position of the Son in the

Trinity. “Thy son, thine only son”—the Lord Jesus is said to be the only begotten Son. “Thine only son Isaac,

whom thou lovest”—the Lord Jesus said, “The Father loves Me.”

“And get thee into the land of Moriah.” It is the belief of a great many that Moriah—that is, this particular

part—is the place where the temple was built centuries later and also the place that the Lord Jesus was

sacrificed—right outside the city walls. When I was in Jerusalem, I had the feeling that Golgotha and the temple

area were not very far apart. They belong to the same ridge. A street has been cut through there, and the ridge

has been breeched, but it is the same ridge, and it is called Moriah. Let’s not say that the Lord Jesus died in the

exact spot—we don’t know—but certainly He died on the same ridge, the same mountain, on which Abraham

offered Isaac.

“And offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.” The burnt

offering was the offering up until the time of Mosaic law; then a sin offering and a trespass offering were given.

Here the burnt offering speaks of the person of Christ, who He is. This is an offer of a human sacrifice, and,

frankly, it raises this moral question: Isn’t human sacrifice wrong? Yes, it is morally wrong. Had you met

Abraham on that day when he was on his way with Isaac, you might have asked him, “Where are you going,

Abraham?” He would have replied, “To offer Isaac as a sacrifice.” And you would have then asked, “Don’t you

know that that is wrong?” Abraham would have said, “Yes, I’ve been taught that it was wrong. I know that the

heathen nations around here offer human sacrifice—the Philistines offer to Molech—but I have been taught

otherwise.” You would then question him further, “Then why are you doing it?” and he would explain, “All I

know is that God has commanded it. I don’t understand it. But I’ve been walking with Him now for over fifty

years. He has never failed me, nor has He asked me to do anything that did not prove to be the best thing. I

don’t understand this, but I believe that if I go all the way with Him that God will raise Isaac from the dead. I

believe that He will do that.”

This is a tremendous picture as Abraham takes Isaac with him:

And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men

with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto

the place of which God had told him [Gen. 22:3].

Abraham takes Isaac with him, and he takes the wood for the burnt offering.

Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off [Gen. 22:4].

It took Abraham three days to get there, but remember that it was on the third day that Abraham received Isaac

alive, back from the dead, as it were. That is the way that Abraham looked at it: Isaac was raised up to him the

third day. What a picture we have here.

And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go

yonder and worship, and come again to you [Gen. 22:5].

The transaction that is going to take place is between the father and the son, between Abraham and Isaac. And

actually, God shut man out at the cross. At the time of the darkness at high noon, man was shut out. The night

had come when no man could work, and during those last three hours, that cross became an altar on which the

Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world was offered. The transaction was between the Father and the

Son on that cross. Man was outside and was not participating at all. The picture is the same here: it is Abraham

and Isaac alone.

And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took the

fire in his hand, and a knife; and they went both of them together [Gen. 22:6].

“Abraham took the wood … and laid it upon Isaac his son.” Remember that Christ carried His own cross. The

fire here speaks of judgment, and the knife speaks of the execution of judgment and of sacrifice.

And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here I am, my son.

And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?

And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went

both of them together [Gen. 22:7–8].

Verse 13 tells us that shortly after this there was a ram that was caught in the thicket by his horns, and Abraham

got that ram and offered it. Abraham says here that God will provide Himself a lamb. But there was no lamb

there; it was a ram, and there is a distinction. The Lamb was not provided until centuries later when John the

Baptist marked Him out and identified Him, saying, “… Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of

the world” (John 1:29). “God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering”—it is very important to see that

Abraham was speaking prophetically.

Abraham is now ready to offer this boy on the altar although he does not quite understand.

And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and

laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood [Gen.

22:9].

Isaac is not just a little boy whom Abraham had to tie up. He is a grown man, and I believe that Isaac could

have overcome Abraham if it had come to a physical encounter. But Isaac is doing this in obedience. The Lord

Jesus went to the cross having said, “Not My will, but Thine be done.” He went to the cross to fulfill the will of

God. What a picture we have here!

And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son [Gen. 22:10].

At this point you and I might have said, “Abraham, are you going through with it? It looks now like God is

going to permit you to.” He would have said, “I sure am. I’ve been taught that it is wrong, and I don’t

understand, but I’ve also learned to obey God.”

This is a real crisis in Abraham’s life. God has brought this man through four very definite crises, each of

which was a real exercise of his soul, a real strain upon his heart. First of all, he was called to leave all of his

relatives in Ur of the Chaldees. He was just to leave the whole group. That was a real test for Abraham. He

didn’t do it very well at the beginning, but, nevertheless, the break finally came. Then there was the test that

came with Lot, his nephew. Abraham loved Lot—he wouldn’t have been carrying Lot around with him if he

hadn’t. But the time came when they had to separate, and Lot went down to Sodom. Then there was the test

with this boy of his, the son of Hagar, Ishmael. Abraham just cried out to God, “Oh, that Ishmael might live

before Thee!” He loved that boy; he hated to be separated from him. Now Abraham comes to this supreme test,

the fourth great crisis in his life: he is asked to give up Isaac. Abraham does not quite understand all the details

for the very simple reason that God has told him, “In Isaac your seed shall be called.” Abraham believed God

would raise Isaac from the dead (see Heb. 11:19), but as far as Abraham is concerned, he is willing to go

through with the sacrifice.

GOD RESTRAINS ABRAHAM

James wrote that Abraham was justified by works when he offered up his son. But wait just a minute. Did

Abraham offer his son? Does your Bible say that Abraham plunged the knife into his son? No, and mine doesn’t

read that way either.

And the angel of the LORD called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he

said, Here am I.

And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know

that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me [Gen. 22:11–

12].

Now God knows that Abraham fears Him. How does He know? By his actions, by his works; previously it was

by his faith. God sees your heart—He knows whether you are genuine or not—but your neighbors and your

friends do not know. They can only know by your works. That is the reason James could say that “faith without

works is dead.” Faith has to produce something.

God tested Abraham. I believe that any person whom God calls, any person whom God saves, any person

whom God uses is going to be tested. God tested Abraham, and God tests those who are His own today. He tests

you and me, and the tests are given to us to strengthen our faith, to establish us, and to make us serviceable for

Him. This man Abraham is now given the supreme test, and God will not have to ask anything of him after this.

And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by

his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the

stead of his son [Gen. 22:13].

All the way from the Garden of Eden down to the cross of Christ, the substitution was this little animal that

pointed to His coming—and God would not permit human sacrifice. But when His Son came into the world, His

Son went to the cross and died: “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he

not with him also freely give us all things?” (Rom. 8:32). That cross became an altar on which the Lamb of God

that taketh away the sin of the world was offered. It is very important to see that.

And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah–jireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount

of the LORD it shall be seen [Gen. 22:14].

Abraham now names this place which a great many people believe is where Solomon’s temple was built.

Golgotha, the place of a skull, is right there on that same ridge where the temple stood. There Abraham offered

his son, and it was there that the Lord Jesus Christ was crucified. This is a glorious, wonderful thing to see.

Abraham calls the name of this place Jehovah–jireh, meaning Jehovah will provide. Here is where God

intervened in his behalf.

GOD REAFFIRMS HIS PROMISES

And the angel of the LORD called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time,

And said, By myself have I sworn, saith the LORD, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast

not withheld thy son, thine only son [Gen. 22:15–16].

I have a question to ask: Did Abraham do it? No, he did not offer his son, but God says to him, “Because you

have done this thing….” You see, Abraham believed God, and he went far enough to let you and me know—

God already knew—and to let the created universe know that he was willing to give his son. And so God

counted it to him that he had done it. Abraham is justified by faith, but he is also justified before men by his

works. He demonstrated that he had that faith.

“And hast not withheld thy son, thine only son.” Notice how God plays upon that—because He gave His

only Son.

Through this incident, God is making it clear that there will have to be a Man to stand in the gap, there will

have to be a Man capable of becoming the Savior of the race if anyone is to be saved. That is a great lesson

given to us in this chapter. Abraham said that God would provide Himself a Lamb, and they found a ram and

offered it. But God did provide a Lamb nineteen hundred years later in Christ. God stayed Abraham’s hand and

did not let him go through with the sacrifice of Isaac because it would have been wrong. God spared Abraham’s

son, but God did not spare His own Son but gave Him up freely for us all.

That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the

heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his

enemies;

And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice

[Gen. 22:17–18].

“And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.” What “seed” is God talking about here? If you go

to Galatians 3:16, you will find that Paul interprets what the “seed” means: “Now to Abraham and his seed were

the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.”

Thus we have the Bible’s own interpretation of the “seed.”

Going back to the eighth verse, we find that Paul says this: “And the scripture, foreseeing that God would

justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be

blessed” (Gal. 3:8). When did God preach the gospel to Abraham? God preached the gospel to him when He

called upon him to offer his son Isaac upon the altar. God says here, “In thy seed shall all the nations of the

earth be blessed,” and that seed is Christ. This is the gospel as it was given to Abraham, if you please.

I would like to make a comment here concerning something that is customarily overlooked. We assume that

Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the Old Testament worthies were great men but that they were not as smart as

we are, that they did not know as much as we know. However, I am of the opinion that Abraham knew a great

deal more about the coming of Christ and the gospel than you and I give him credit for. In fact, the Lord Jesus

said, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad” (John 8:56). So he must have

known a great deal more than we realize. God had revealed much to Abraham, but the Savior was not yet come.

We know today that He would not come for nineteen hundred years, but there on the top of Mount Moriah

where Abraham offered Isaac was a picture of the offering and even of the resurrection of Christ! After God

called Abraham to offer Isaac, it was three days before he even got to Moriah. God gave Isaac back to Abraham

alive on the third day; so that this is a picture of both the death and resurrection of Christ. Paul says that God

preached the gospel to Abraham, and certainly it was done here.

“And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.” Today the gospel of Christ has gone out pretty

much to all the world. There are many who have not heard—that is true even in our own midst—but

nevertheless, the blessing has come to all nations. And the only blessing the nations have is through Christ.

“Because thou hast obeyed my voice.” That obedience rested upon Abraham’s faith, and faith always will

lead to action. “Faith without works is dead.”

ABRAHAM RETURNS TO BEER–SHEBA

So Abraham returned unto his young men, and they rose up and went together to Beer–sheba;

and Abraham dwelt at Beer–sheba.

And it came to pass after these things, that it was told Abraham, saying, Behold, Milcah, she hath

also born children unto thy brother Nahor [Gen. 22:19–20].

The remainder of this chapter gives us a little sidelight on the family of Abraham. Abraham had left his brother

Nahor way back yonder in the land of Haran. His line will not be followed in the Scriptures, but it will cross the

line of Abraham a little later on. We will go into that when we come to it. If you read the rest of this chapter,

you will have quite an exercise in the pronunciation of names.

1

Radical Liberal Group: Corona Panic Perfect Time To Abolish The Family

BY JONATHON VAN MAREN/BRIDGEHEAD.CA MARCH

I've always been close to my family, but the coronavirus pandemic and the requisite social

distancing have reminded me not to take them for granted.

1 McGee, J. V. (1991). Thru the Bible commentary: The Law (Genesis 16-33) (electronic ed., Vol. 2, pp. 66–76). Nashville:

Thomas Nelson.

Never again will I "just drop by" my parents' place without being reminded that it is a blessing to

be able to do so. My toddler daughter is so fed up with not seeing her extended family that she

frequently demands that we video-call her grandparents, aunts, and uncles.

Like everyone else, I worry about my elderly grandparents. In the midst of the panic, many of us

are feeling profoundly grateful for the families we have been blessed with.

But if you are a certain type of progressive, this global upheaval presents an opportunity. Open

Democracy, for example, published an essay this week with this headline: "The coronavirus crisis

shows it's time to abolish the family."

Open Democracy's motto is "free thinking for the world," and I certainly hope nobody is paying for

that garbage. But the group's essay is a good reminder that many progressives see this crisis as an

opportunity to further their political agenda, especially as large swathes of the population are at

this point willing to accept massive government oversight of their lives in order to flatten the

curve and protect the elderly and the vulnerable.

This crisis has taught us that our families are essential and that our elderly are valuable, and I

hope we remember these lessons when this is all over.

But if you're one of the clowns over at Open Democracy, the crisis is leading you to entirely

different conclusions -- conclusions such as the fact that we must get over "the mystification of

the couple-form; the romanticisation of kinship; and the sanitization of the fundamentally unsafe

space that is private property."

And why do we have to "get over" the idea of marriage and cease "romanticizing kinship,"

whatever that means? Because of "the power asymmetries of housework (reproductive labor

being so gendered) ... of patriarchal parenting and (often) the institution of marriage." One

genuinely wonders what the author of this gibberish had to suffer in order to produce such

twisted nonsense.

Homes, Open Democracy informs us, are fundamentally unsafe: "queer and feminized people,

especially very old and very young ones, are definitionally not safe there: their flourishing in the

capitalist home is the exception, not the rule. It follows that, upon closer inspection, both terms --

'social distancing' and 'sheltering in place' -- appear remarkable as much for what they don't say

(that is, what they presume and naturalize) as what they do. Sheltering in what place...and in

whose? Distance from whom...or everyone but whom?"

Obviously, domestic abuse is an enormous issue, and the sad fact is that some people will feel

trapped in their homes. But I would argue that family breakdown has contributed to abuse rather

than lessened it, and that the idea of getting rid of the family to eliminate domestic abuse would

exacerbate the problem rather than mitigate it. But according to Open Democracy, "the pandemic

is no time to forget about family abolition."

In fact, even when homes are safe, the author theorizes, they are still awful and should still be

abolished:

Even when the private nuclear household poses no direct physical or mental threat to one's

person -- no spouse-battering, no child rape, and no queer-bashing -- the private family qua mode

of social reproduction still, frankly, sucks. It genders, nationalizes and races us.

It norms us for productive work. It makes us believe we are 'individuals.' It minimizes costs for

capital while maximizing human beings' life-making labor (across billions of tiny boxes, each kitted

out -- absurdly -- with its own kitchen, micro-crèche and laundry). It blackmails us into mistaking

the only sources of love and care we have for the extent of what is possible. We deserve better

than the family. And the time of corona is an excellent time to practice abolishing it.

I suspect that there is as much of Freud as Marx in all of that, as the logic of attempting to contain

a pandemic by collectivizing and moving us into large group homes escapes me.

Perhaps it escapes the author, as well, as I see that this essay is long on abolishing things and

short on what, exactly, those things will be replaced with. (Smart Marxists always remain fuzzy on

the details.) But I think this crisis, whatever else it brings, will be doing precisely the opposite of

what the progressives over at Open Democracy hope.

Yes, there are genuinely tragic situations occurring. But for most of us, our families are the silver

lining in all of this. Trying to figure out where all of this is headed and to plan for the future is

stressful, but all of that can vanish the minute your two-year-old tugs on your sleeve and says:

"Hey, Daddy. Wanna snuggle for a minute?"

Originally published at The Bridgehead - reposted with permission.

Dangerous Trend: Media Blaming Evangelicals For Spreading COVID-19

BY PNW STAFF MARCH 30, 2020

This is not the first time something like this has happened. A national tragedy occurs, and

Christians get scapegoated.

The ancient pagans of Rome, as their society fell apart, blamed Christians. Remember

Nero blaming the Christians for the burning of Rome?

Several media organizations are now focusing on how several large megachurches

around the country continue to meet, especially in New Orleans where the virus is now

considered a "hot spot".

With President Donald Trump announcing on Sunday that his administration was

extending the social distancing guidelines for the entire month of April watch for the focus

on churches to continue to get increased scrutiny in the press.

New York City (another hot spot) Mayor Bill de Blasio has already warned pastors to shut

down their houses of worship - or else. The mayor said the police department, fire

department and building inspectors "will force congregations to disperse if they are found

holding worship services this week.

Any congregation that refuses to comply with the mayor's order, could face fines or have

their buildings permanently closed.

Such orders are reinforcing the public consciousness that Christians are in part to blame

for the rapid spread by refusing to stop meeting at church.

The death toll is expected to continue to rise greatly this week in New York, New Orleans

and other major metro areas (with the peak death toll still not expected to take place for

another two weeks) .

As emotions begin to run high, don't be surprised if other localities begin to issue such

orders as NY has done in regards to church closures, which in turn will spread the mindset

that if you need someone to blame other than the politicians, those Bible believing

Christians are next in line.

The media has often associated Evangelicals with support for Trump and now some are

taking direct fire at that association in spreading the blame.

The New York times ran a disturbing piece last week with the title:

'The Road to Coronavirus Hell Was Paved by Evangelicals'

Subtitled, "Trump's response to the pandemic has been haunted by the science denialism

of his ultraconservative religious allies."

According to Katherine Stewart, the author of the article, "Donald Trump rose to power

with the determined assistance of a movement that denies science, bashes government

and prioritized loyalty over professional expertise. In the current crisis, we are all reaping

what that movement has sown."

Other articles in the media have already sowed the seeds of such divisiveness when the

White House previously released a picture of the vice president praying with the

coronavirus task force in his West Wing office.

After the taskforce prayer photo began circulating on social media, it didn't take long for

some on the political left to mock the prayer or take offense to it.

Hemant Mehta, who writes for Patheos.com's "Friendly Atheist" blog, wrote that "it's not a

joke when people say these Republicans are trying to stop a virus with prayer."

"What else did anyone expect?" Mehta asked. "Science? Reason? Something sensible?

Of course not. If this virus truly becomes a pandemic, we're at the mercy of people

delusional enough to think their pleas to God will fix the problem. The same God who

presumably created the virus, at least in their minds, will somehow make sure it hurts only

a handful of Americans ... and a ton of Chinese people."

Dr. Angela Rassmussen, a virologist at Columbia University, also criticized the prayer.

"I have yet to attend a scientific meeting that begins in prayer," she wrote.

Thomas Chatterton Williams, a writer with the New York Times Magazine, shared the

photo on Twitter and commented that "we are so screwed."