“Two toddlers in one room wanting the same shiny toy come into conflict. There is no conflict between either of those two toddlers and a dog across town, the one playing with a stick. Two similar individuals want the same thing. One of them gets there first, and the fact that he clearly wants that object makes the silver medalist want it even more. The winner sees that the runner-up wants it, and this makes him cling to his prize all the more. A mimetic loop, a mimetic escalation, occurs. Conflict is the inevitable result.”
Without Admitting It
“If we reject the substitution of Jesus, then we will continue in the ways of killing in order that we might hide from ourselves the fact that we are killing all the time.”
Seeing the Blow Land
“That is what the substitutionary atonement of Christ did in history—it made all other sacrifices impotent, precisely to the extent that it was a real sacrifice. That is what penal substitution was for.”
The Importance of And
“The real problem, the problem of justice and heaven, is resolved in the cross. Christ died as a blood atonement so that God could be both just and the one who justifies. God could be just and send us all to Hell. He could be the one who justifies and let us all into Heaven on a boys-will-be-boys basis. But in order to be both just and the one who justifies, Christ had to bleed. And that is our final theodicy. Christ is the one who bled.”
Not Even Close to Innocent
“If we were a race of innocents, and some arbitrary and capricious god were flipping coins to determine who would be lost and who saved, then there might be something to talk about. But we are not a race of innocents. Look around.”
A Basic Misconception
“In other words, the judgment of God in these matters was not a blind rage, but rather exquisitely just. And the other nations that were wiped out—what were they actually like? We have a controversy with God, and so we assume that they were all peaceful little Canaanites, flowers in their hairs, dancing in green meadows to the music of pan flutes. But that is not what they were like at all.”
The Sacrifice That Hides
“The ‘right’ to dismember a child is touted as an individual right, but it is actually the cornerstone of a particular view of civilization. We have to slaughter millions of children in order to be able to hide from ourselves the fact that we are slaughtering millions of children. We have to shed blood so that we will not come to know that we are a bloody people. Our shedding of blood is a vain attempt to cove up the fact that we are shedding blood.”
Sheep FIght Because Shpeherds Don’t
“One of the reasons we have so many fights in the church is because the pastors don’t fight nearly often enough.”
The Devil Has a Bony, Pointed Finger
“The center of all culture is cultus, worship, and so the pagan world system was a culture built upon the centrality of accusation. The pagan world worships accusations.”
Divide From the Dividers
“If you don’t want division, you must separate from the principle of division. If you don’t want accusations, you have to cast out the accusing devil.”