This commandment strikes at the heart of falsehood and lies, which in their turn are the native language of the devil. Without truth and trust, biblical culture is an impossibility. “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor” (Ex. 20:16).
First, what is the context of false witness? The commandment prohibits lying against one’s neighbor. Paul tells the Colossians not to lie to one another, because they had put off the old man with his deeds (3:9). Trust is essential to all community, and false witness makes trust impossible. False witness can exist in such a society, but if it is not punished severely that society will not be a society long. At its base, deception is an act of war — “A man who bears false witness against his neighbor is like a club, a sword, and a sharp arrow (Prov. 25:18; cf. 12:17–18). The psalmist recognizes this — “false witnesses have risen against me, and such as breathe out violence” (Ps. 27:12).
Bearing false witness is therefore civil war — warfare against one’s neighbor, one’s brother. It is an act of violence directed against someone with whom you should be at peace.
Tagged “Blog & Mablog”
On Official Kirk Protocol & the Marriage of Serial Pedophile Steven Sitler
“. . . our focus here is on setting protections in the extreme cases. . . . The elders will investigate the situation, counseling any and all as possible. If the elders discover no good grounds to hinder the relationship from proceeding toward marriage, then the elders can refuse to bring disciplinary action against the couple seeking marriage, in effect, granting them permission to be married without the threat of negative ecclesiastical discipline.” — Christ Church Book of Faith, Worship, and Practice Continue reading
“those who are willing to defend such predators should be ashamed of themselves”
The recent revelations of homosexual abuse of boys by various predatory priests over the course of many years is the kind of problem that I think should be addressed (in the civil realm only) with a tall tree and a short rope. Not only am I not ashamed of thinking this (because of Leviticus, in context), I believe that those who are willing to defend such predators should be ashamed of themselves.
Douglas Wilson
Stonewall: “a textbook case of scriptural cooperation between church and legal authorities”
This “textbook case of scriptural cooperation” between Kirk & state probably accounts for Steve Sitler’s demeanor. Continue reading
“Every culture has a religious center”
Like a Seed
‘Every culture has a religious center, and every religion, like a seed, given water, sunlight, and nutrients, grows up into a particular plant’ (Writers to Read, p. 62).
Douglas Wilson
“No Perv Left Behind Act”
So let us start with where the world wants to go — which can readily be ascertained by looking at where the world is in fact going. Just within the last week, Washington State instituted their new ‘No Perv Left Behind Act,’ which allows any male student who self-identifies as a creep to use the girls’ locker room at the neighborhood government junior high school near you — in order to get a better view when ogling your daughter. And our heart really should go out to that poor girl. She has quite a hard go of it — she has a creep for a stalker/suitor, mountain orcs for civil magistrates, and idiots for parents.
Douglas Wilson
The Shubin Report: Doug Wilson and the Attorneys
Part II: Steven Sitler’s criminal defense attorney
Pastor Douglas Wilson of Christ Church, Moscow, is the Presiding Minister of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches.
“Liars are usually clever — you have to give them that.”
Liars are usually clever — you have to give them that. And one of the things the really smart ones know how to do is to use the last lie you caught them in as a basis for getting you to believe the lie they are currently telling. Douglas Wilson
“When we begin to lie, we are the first liar”
When we begin to lie, we are the first liar, but we are also frequently the first dupe. We don’t start by telling other people lies. We begin by telling ourselves that we are not lying — which is the first lie.
Douglas Wilson
“You shall not circulate a false report. Do not put your hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness”
God does not only prohibit the invention of such lies, He prohibits us from circulating them. ‘You shall not circulate a false report. Do not put your hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness’ (Ex. 23:1). As Thomas Watson put it, very bluntly, it makes little difference if we carry the devil around in our mouth or in our ear.
Douglas Wilson
The Shubin Report: Doug Wilson Claims that Sitler “Contacted” Law Enforcement to “Cooperate Fully” — But They Refused
“Steven contacted the authorities here and said he was going to cooperate fully, and did he need to come down? They said no.” —Douglas Wilson Continue reading
The Shubin Report: “Steven was never arrested”
Falsified Elders’ Minutes
“In the real world, where all this actually happened” Continue reading
“one of the most dire warnings in the Bible”
‘Then said he unto the disciples, It is impossible but that offences will come: but woe unto him, through whom they come! It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones’ (Luke 17:1–2). . . .
In the passage from Luke, Jesus warns against stumbling or offending little ones. He attaches one of the most dire warnings in the Bible to this caution (v. 2). Jesus said a lot of things about children that are routinely ignored today, just as the first disciples tended to ignore them.
Douglas Wilson