Douglas Wilson's Letter From Moscow

If the Day of Judgment Had a Little Brother

By Douglas Wilson

Blog&Mablog

In one sense, of course, nothing can compare to the great Day of the Lord. Nothing compares to it, and yet Scripture repeatedly compares things to it. But the Bible does this in such a way as to show that nothing can compare, which is what gives the comparisons such force.

“The high places also of Aven, the sin of Israel, shall be destroyed: The thorn and the thistle shall come up on their altars; And they shall say to the mountains, Cover us; And to the hills, Fall on us” (Hos. 10:8; cf. Luke 23:30).

The problem with such images is the understatement.

So if you want one sort of image for the Day of Judgment, here in the Pacific Northwest we have multiple forest fires to choose from. The flames can get 300 feet high. Use your imagination.

In another sense, there is second  aspect to the Day of Judgment that seems much quieter and less lurid, and yet is far more terrifying. Bu it is only actually terrifying if you think about it, which is what these Planned Parenthood videos are making us all do. These videos are a tiny taste of what it is going to be like when every mouth is stopped, and the whole world is guilty before God (Rom. 3:19).

The coldest things about these videos is the ordinary hardness of heart shown in them — in the jokes, in the throw away lines.
These seem like ordinary words spoken by regular people in recognizable places . . . until the context reveals that the ordinary shipping boxes contain human babies, eyes closed so as to not freak out the person opening it, with hands and feet cut off in order to hide the child’s humanity. But of course, in order to hide someone’s humanity in that way you have to bury someone else’s humanity first in another way. And the fact that you have done so remains hidden . . . until the Day of the Lord.

“But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment” (Matt. 12:36).

“Therefore whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light; and that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the housetops” (Luke 12:3).

And so it is that these sting videos have given us a small glimpse of what it like to have footage of an indefensible life revealed to the whole world. Cate Dyer, the CEO and Founder of StemExpress, the one who made the “Oh, God” joke, is a woman whose LinkedIn profile is crammed with heaps of motivational uplift-jargon, and who is dedicated to various worthy causes, “animal welfare” being one of them. It would be hard to throw hypocrisy into higher relief.

But is Cate Dyer the only one with an indefensible life? We wish.

That is why this is not just a moment to reflect on how we must deal with our indefensible Senate. This is not just a moment for the law. This is also a gospel moment; this is centrally a gospel moment. But the good news of the gospel makes no sense whatever without learning the fear of God. Americans particularly need to learn the fear of God; they need to fear the one who is able to destroy both soul and body in Hell (Matt. 10:28). The gospel makes no sense unless it is preached to a people with indefensible lives.

With over 50 million abortions, we are a nation awash in blood guilt. Millions of women have had them, and while many were lied to, many of the women knew full well what they were doing. Doctors performed them, and all of the doctors knew. After the orgasm, millions of fathers just walked away without a thought about their responsibility to be a father.

And if you are not going to traffic in the parts, but are going to continue with the abortions, what are you going to do with the bodies? Is the dumpster really better than StemExpress?

And so it is that as a rebellious and confused house, we have wracked up an unpayable national debt, not in dollars, but in blood. There was a time when many of us thought we could look away. Then the videos came, and we now know that we cannot look away. If we decide to try to look away, we now know that our choice to look away will also be on video.

What can be done to pay off this blood guilt? There is only one way. This is a kind of blood guilt that can only be met with blood. The blood that we shed within history can only be atoned by the blood of the Lamb, slain before the foundation of the world (Rev. 13:8). In obedience to this decree, our Lord was executed outside Jerusalem two thousand years ago, by authorities and representatives as fully corrupt as our own.