https://www.christianpost.com/news/museum-of-the-bible-unveils-magna-carta-exhibit.html
The Evangelical community was excited when in 2017 the Green
family (of Hobby Lobby fame) opened the Museum of the Bible in Washington DC.
For many it communicated a powerful message regarding the Bible and its place
in American society and culture. While they would have preferred it to be
located on the National Mall itself, the fact that it sits nearby (with a top
floor view) is pregnant with symbolism.
I was never interested in this museum and this article
typifies why. Akin to the heretical Russian Museum
of Christian Culture, the so-called Museum of the Bible is really a shrine
to American Christendom and the recent placement of the Magna Carta only
confirms this. Confusing Medieval Catholic Christendom and the internecine
battles that developed within that order and the ideas and concepts found
within Enlightenment Classical Liberalism, the museum is only perpetuating the
longstanding confusion that reigns in Evangelical circles.*
The Magna Carta and the 'Christendom' that produced it had
nothing to do with the Bible (or at least New Testament Christianity) and in
fact was rooted in a rejection of its authority. It was a socio-political order
of false Christianity as is the Christo-American ideal promoted by the likes of
Green and other Evangelicals.
The story of the Magna Carta is certainly of historical
interest. I guess these people completely miss the fact that in the long
struggle between the Roman Catholic Papacy and the secular states of Europe the
Magna Carta was also considered a great blow to the Church and its power. But
given that they do not seem to understand the ideological framework and context
of the American Founding, this is not surprising. For all their trumpeting of
the American Rebellion (which Biblical Christians opposed) the fact is this –
it produced the first Western state since the time of Theodosius and Charlemagne
that specifically was not a Christian
state. The rulers ruled by the Enlightenment concept of the social contract and
by the will of the people not according
to the grace of God (as dispensed by the Church which crowned the king) and in
recognition of His will. This is not to endorse the ancien regime of old Christendom but the irony here is pretty
stunning. The United States (and this was largely recognised at the time) was
an explicitly non-Christian and secular state – one viewed with horror by those
committed to Christendom and the pre-Enlightenment order.
A few years later the French Revolution happened which at its
beginning was rooted in the same concepts and ideas. Its context and course
were very different and thus it went off the rails allowing its critics to
generate contrasts between the American and French experiments even though at
their core these distinctions are superficial. Many of the American founders
including Washington and Jefferson backed what was happening in France (led in
part by their old friend and ally Lafayette) at least until it slipped into the
Reign of Terror. The American Revolution was unique in that there was an ocean
separating the king from the secessionists. In other words they did not have to
overthrow the order, they merely had to secede from it. In France that wasn't
an option. In order for the revolution to succeed the order itself had to be
cast down – an order in which the monarch was not yet a Constitutional figure but
an Absolute one and a political system in which the Roman Church was still
heavily invested in the social and political fabric of the country. England's
context was also different as Henry VIII had broken the Roman grip over two
centuries earlier and the 18th century Anglican Church was but an
arm of the state.
A copy of the Magna Carta (purchased by Ross Perot) has long
been on display in the National Archives alongside the US Constitution and
Declaration of Independence. If it belongs anywhere on display, you could argue
it belongs there. It does not belong in a museum ostensibly devoted to the
Bible. Again I say ostensibly because that's not what the museum is really all
about. The Bible is but a tool or platform to the power Evangelicals would
wield in service to their true idol and object of veneration– the United States
of America – their confused theological sleight-of-hand that has substituted
the American Babel for the Biblical Zion.
I am also less than impressed with Hobby Lobby and the Green
family. The store purports to be Christian but inside we find sacrilegious
trinkets, tacky American consumerist materialism and what little Christian
content is comprised of books by the likes of Mike Lindell (the Neo-Fascist
heretic and charlatan who promotes pillows).**
Does the store close on Sundays and pay higher wages? They
are closed on Sunday which is praiseworthy but as far as the wages go the
praise is in the context of American capitalism and its system. It's
problematic from the start and in terms of ethics the real question is this –
can a Christian man support his family on the wages he would make? The answer
for the most part is 'no' and the same is certainly true with Chick-fil-A, the
other Evangelical business sensation owned by the Cathy family.
At the end of the day these billionaires made their fortunes
exploiting others and frankly by exploiting the name of Christ – the costs and
tacky (even sacrilegious) elements at the museum also testify to this. The
American system is evil and thus what can we say about those who flourish
within it and rise to its top? And while they use their wealth to promote
charities (many of which are dubious) the truth is most of their money is
invested in the American system and Wall Street – in other words the American
Empire and all it represents on the global scale. It's an empire of usury,
theft, war, exploitation and mass murder. It's a beast-power and we should expect
as much but we shouldn't laud the compromised Christians who have wed
themselves to it – feeding it and feeding off it.
As Christians we should not be aligning ourselves with the
power – something the Greens, Cathys, and other Evangelicals have certainly
done.
Again, the placement of the museum in Washington is rife with
imperial symbolism, the same kind of symbolism found in the absurd placement of
the Holocaust Museum on the National Mall. The location itself communicates
something and in Christian terms the Bible museum in Washington communicates
very clearly the idolatry and heresy its proponents hold to.***
This heresy has been present for decades but in recent years
it has been amplified by the culture war and Trumpism – a force the museum has
aligned itself with. The errors have been combined with the tackiness and
unrestrained consumerism and entertainment-orientation that is deeply rooted in
the American psyche. This has led to hitherto unbelievable displays of idolatry
as was seen recently in the Trumpite congregation led by Robert Jeffress.
https://www.christianpost.com/news/robert-jeffress-megachurch-holds-freedom-sunday-to-honor-usa.html
Satan has set up his banners within the halls of American
Evangelicalism and his agents have come to dominate. When you have someone like
the Greens who can sell disgusting pro-police shrines for the home – emblazoned
with gun-toting cops and the Scripture verse 'Blessed are the Peacemakers',
then one must wonder – should we be excited when such Scripture-twisters open a
museum to the Scripture? Or should we be thinking something else and casting a
wary eye? For these people the Scriptures are but a means to a political end
and the museum is I'm afraid no different.†
----
* - http://pilgrimunderground.blogspot.com/2021/06/russias-heresy-museum.html
Just recently over the July 4th weekend this confusion
was on display in the many sermons and articles which conflated the
Enlightenment concept of personal and civil liberty with the New Testament
concept of liberty from the bondage of sin – through union with Christ (and in
doing so becoming a bondservant or slave to Him). The ideas are not remotely compatible
but because pastors feel compelled to preach on 'liberty' around the 4th
of July and revisit America's 'Christian' heritage, they end up preaching
mish-mashed sermons that aren't historical, Biblical, or even coherent for that
matter. The number of bad sermons that appear during this time of year cannot
be overstated.
** - https://pilgrimunderground.blogspot.com/2020/10/neither-lead-nor-pillows-can-sharpen.html
*** - https://proto-protestantism.blogspot.com/2016/03/imperial-narratives-urban-planning-and.html
† I had to laugh recently when I heard
that another business charlatan – the so-called Bible teacher Ken Ham was
planning to build a Tower of Babel exhibit next to his Ark Encounter. In many
ways it's appropriate – in ways Ham (a deceived deceiver) can scarcely imagine.
Like the Greens, Cathys, and others he 'upholds' the Bible but Ham has made it
abundantly clear that what he's really about in the end is mammon.
A final note regarding the Jeffress worship service – which
was indeed a worship service, just not a Christian one. Watching the idolatrous
debacle on YouTube I was encouraged to see (though the cameras were trying to
hide it) that it was in no way a packed house. There were a lot of empty seats.
See also:
https://proto-protestantism.blogspot.com/2020/05/the-moscow-abomination-sacralist.html
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