So Jeffrey Epstein Was a Jew . . .

Introduction

So we are having ourselves a series of overlapping contretemps when it comes to the release of the Epstein files. As things now stand, the portion of those files that have been released—with most unnecessary fanfare—consisted largely of stuff we already knew. The files that contain the new and (presumably) inflammatory stuff are currently being sat on by the FBI up in New York, directly contrary to the instructions given to them by Attorney General Pam Bondi. A showdown is looming there. It is clear that certain portions of the FBI will not allow their reputation to be restored without a fight.

In the meantime, I have noticed a significant upsurge in online angst and anger over the delayed release, with allegations that the Trump administration is now cooperating with a continuation of the cover-up. And the reason for this is alleged to be the fact that Israel was heavily implicated in the whole affair, as in, it was an Israeli op. In other words, Epstein’s Island could just as easily been called Honeypot Island, or Blackmail Island. If any randy congressman ever showed any interest in voting in a way that would displease the government of Israel, all they needed to do was gently remind him that they had high-def pictures of him in bed with a fifteen-year-old.

Assume It to Be So

The files have not yet been released, and so I am not assuming anything myself, but for the sake of this gospel presentation, let us assume it to be so. It is by no means an impossibility. Let us assume that the whole thing was an Israeli op, calculated to keep American politicians on a Jew-leash. Such a thing would be wicked, cynical, abominable, and staggeringly bad.

And were you expecting me to follow this up with but . . .?

No, no buts. Such a thing would be wicked, cynical, abominable, and staggeringly bad. The one thing we must not do is offer any structural reprise of that classic Norm MacDonald joke, seen off to the right. “Yes, the nation of Israel did this appalling thing to us, but let us think first of the possible backlash against those Jews who had nothing to do with it.”

No, at the level of policy, let us think first of how to respond to any and all bad actors. If the Israeli government conducted an op like this one, then there would need to be commensurate consequences for the Israeli government. The Trump administration should do all the things that governments can do on such occasions—demand apologies, require prosecution of those who approved the op, recall ambassadors, expel ambassadors, review aid packages, etc. All of that. No tut-tutting, no wrist slaps, and no cover-up. If Israel can play hard ball with an ally, then it should be okay for us to play hard ball with an ally.

I Mentioned Gospel Earlier . . .

But are there no buts to be found anywhere? At any level? Yes, actually. There is the response at the level of policy, mentioned earlier, and then there is another response to be found at the level of actual reformation and revival. I said earlier that this was a gospel presentation, and this issue is actually a part of that.

So, yes, there are some buts, but they are on a different level entirely. Let us begin where all gospel must begin, which is the issue of sin, and the tendency of sinners to seek out ways to compare themselves to other sinners in creative ways that flatter themselves and mute the need for repentance.

There is the small matter of the American government doing things overseas with our money, things that are every bit as appalling as any Epstein Island op. And the judgment with which you judge, you shall be judged, as somebody once observed. This makes nothing okay, but rather requires us to look at the need for repentance on a wider scale. We need to zoom out in such a way as to enable us to see all the villains.

So, have we been funding terrorist groups overseas? Why, yes, yes we have. We yell about it when Iran funds terrorist organizations, but it turns out that we fund terrorist organizations—some of the same ones even. Have we been funding abortions overseas? Killing the brown babies of other nations? Why, yes. Have we been promoting and enabling the transgender revolution in other nations? Well, yes again. Other forms of sexual perversion? Have we been cramming the alphabet people nonsense down the throats of other nations? Flying rainbow freak flags outside our embassies? “The Americans have arrived in order to promote the Western ways of butt sex among you . . .”

And we couple it with high hypocrisy. Do we not live in a society that is outraged at Epstein’s trafficking of the underage girls? We say those girls at his island could not possibly have escaped the levels of control and manipulation being applied to them. But then, at the same time, do we not insist that our government schools be allowed to offer contraceptives to underage girls? Precisely because they are wise enough to make all their own sexual decisions? But isn’t accepting Ghislaine Maxwell’s offer a sexual decision? I should also mention the fact that our schools groom underage girls on a path toward becoming underage boys. There’s that, and all without any parental involvement at all. Do we do anything like that? On an industrial scale? No moral agency for young girls if Epstein is the pimp, and complete moral agency if the school nurse is? Sin-wrought schizophrenia is an apt description of this demented tangle of shambolic contradictions.

So none of this is said to excuse anybody for anything. It is presented in the spirit of Paul in Romans 1, 2, and 3. In Romans 1, he lays out a severe case against the Gentiles. They are wicked, vile, corrupt. Just look at them. Then in chapter 2, he lays out a severe case against the Jews. Turns out they too are wicked, vile, corrupt. We should just look at them also. And then in chapter 3, he puts them all into the same ethical category, a pretty grimy one, cheek by jowl. If you look across unregenerate humanity with Pauline eyes, you will not see a high horse anywhere,

All the world. Jews. And right alongside them, Gentiles.

But We Are Like Self-Righteous Convicts . . .

But we are like the thieves, murderers, and associated miscreants who abuse and kill the pedophile who was sentenced to serve time along with them. They murder him because they are better than that. Everybody wants to evaluate their own sin on a curve. “At least we are not as bad as that guy . . .” These other convicts are morally superior.

You see, all the nasty things our government does overseas has to be understood as contrary to the essential goodness of the American people. Our bad behavior, if it happens, is a true anomaly, and not representative of anything at all. What the Israeli government does, however, shows us the true nature of the vile Jewish heart. With us it is a contradiction, a betrayal, an incongruity, and with them it is representative. Talk about having a thumb on the scale.

But here comes the biblical principle—anybody who thinks like that is simply demonstrating how little they understand the gospel message.

A certain kind of mind reads a verse like that one and thinks “Oh, good. God is finally going to catch out the Jews.” The day of all final reckoning has arrived, and heaven and earth have fled away, and all the sons of men are gathered before the great and awesome throne, and some guy is standing in the back, craning his neck, eagerly wanting to hear what those other people did, and what their judgment is going to be. He is most interested in the Day of Doom as a good time for gathering salacious gossip. But when he finally gets to the front of the line, he is going to be disappointed. It is going to go hard for him.

And I know that there will be trolls who claim that what Paul wrote in Romans 1 is philosemitic trash, as though he did not also write the next two chapters. People like this need gospel truth more than anybody and, although Paul did not get stuck in Romans 1, not at all, these blameshifters most certainly need to spend some more time there.

The Garden of Heroic Humanism

As we survey the last few years, we are forced to the realization that some interloper has come into the Garden of Heroic Humanism, and has turned over every flat rock he could find. This has resulted in the discovery of more bureaucratic creepy crawlies than we could have ever imagined.

And so do I think that it is possible that Israel was behind the Epstein Island business? I most certainly do. That’s possible. But I also want to acknowledge that by this point we should all be willing to say that it is also quite possible that USAID was behind it. Shoot, by this point I would be willing to allow for the possibility that the whole thing was run out of a stealth program under the Department of Agriculture.

We need to recover our understanding of the biblical doctrine of depravity, and to stop toying with the vain exercise of pushing the bulk of that depravity into one or two ethnic corners. The problem is always going to be people, and the only thing that deals with the people side of things is the gospel. To the extent that Jews shut themselves off from the gospel, to that extent they are shutting themselves off from the sole remedy for human corruption. And to precisely the same extent, and for the same reason, Gentiles who reject Christ are in the same position. The same thing goes for Christless conservatism, incidentally, a worldview that will get us little more than red, white and blue bikini babes.

Getting the Gospel Straight

One of the ways that we can know that the current vibe shift (which I most certainly welcome) is not yet a Spirit-wrought revival is that there is way too much accusation of others in it. The Scriptures do not tell us that all of Judea came down to the Jordan to be baptized by John the Baptist, with each one taking care to bring a list of their neighbor’s sins. That is not what happens in a revival. I will say it again, that is not what happens.

Closing with Christ means that a man feels in his own soul the weight of his own sin, and he knows that if God were to bring down a thorough-going reckoning today, he would be lost eternally. He abandons any hope of justifying his own sin by blaming anybody else for anything. When we look at the millions of babies we slaughtered, when we look at the marital vandalism that is the travesty of Obergefell, and when we look at the gospel of prurience that we have shipped around the world, the only conclusion possible is that we are a wicked people. And a wicked people cannot find any satisfaction whatever in any scapegoat that we contrive to come up with. Scapegoats discovered by Internet wiseacres cannot deliver us.

The only Scapegoat who can do us any good at all is the one who was appointed by His Father to be hanged on a gibbet two thousand years ago. Put another way, there is no hope to be found in blaming the Jews. But as a minister of the gospel, I am authorized to tell you that God the Father has already blamed the Jew. Come, and welcome, to Jesus Christ.

He took all of the lust, anger, greed, covetousness, envy, hatred, malice, bloodthirst, and avarice of His appointed people, placed all of their vile sins on the shoulders of His Son on the cross, and there He poured out His wrath. There, and only there, is there satisfaction for sin. All the condemnation in the world can be seen right there, and if we see it right there by faith, then we can also see it coming out of the grave three days later. This is it. This is the only way. It really is Christ or chaos. But it is a crucified Christ or crucifying chaos.

Because Christ died and rose, there is a stark difference between conviction of sin, as it is wrought by the Holy Spirit, and accusation for sin, as delivered by the devil himself.

Conviction of sin pierces to the heart, but when we respond to Him in humility and faith, the result is cleansing and forgiveness. But accusation is the devil’s business. Accusation, scapegoating, blaming, finger-pointing, recriminations . . . all of that is the devil’s business.

The devil accuses, and if you take his accusations to heart, he will only come back tomorrow to accuse you some more. But if the Spirit convicts you of your dank pride, and you take that conviction to heart, the end result will be cleansing and forgiveness that is beyond bracing . . . like high mountain air.