Johnny Cash's Middle Finger

Jeremy Walker (00:14):

And welcome back to another episode of the Last Kingdom. I am your host, Jeremy Walker. This is episode number 21 for September the sixth, 2024, and it is entitled Johnny Cash's Middle Finger. We are going to be talking about Christians and how they're supposed to approach the world today. Are they supposed to be cultural rebels, and if so, how so? And we're going to be doing some quick fire. We're going to be covering some different topics and news and media and hitting them from a Christian Reconstructionist perspective, how we're supposed to react to these things and how much attention should we give the outside world versus being productive with our personal goals and our personal jobs, our families and those around us. So let's go ahead and jump into this episode. It is called Johnny Cash's Middle Finger. There are a lot of Christians. There is a strong, strong vein in the Christian community, which is very, very wrong, but it is very, very powerful and they want to be rebels.

(01:31):

They want to be rebels for Christ. That's right. They love the Bible verses such as, "We should obey God rather than men." But of course they love to grab those Bible verses and use them for their own purposes, for their own means and basically redefine what it was meaning and implying and intending for us to understand. There is a movement right now, which there, I don't want to give too much attention to it because it's not really the point. There was an advertisement showing Johnny Cash giving his middle finger, and there were Christians who are promoting the idea of giving the middle finger to idolatry. Now of course, this caused quite the stir. So many Christians on the internet, they love to be the keyboard warriors and they love to get right in the middle of stuff. The people that did kind of put this advertisement out there, they also had a motivation as well.

(02:29):

And of course I had heard motivations like this in the past where their goals are to cause a stir. To cause a stir. You don't get listened to unless you do something to get paid attention to. In other words, you have to cause a row for people to see you. And then of course they're hoping that once they get seen, then you'll pay attention to what they have to say and it was all worth it. The ends kind of the means and we should be giving our middle finger to idolatry personally and corporately and maybe nationally. Well, on some levels this is true in some levels. The meaning of the middle finger, as I've heard it in the past, I'm sure it's changed meaning to today, to just be a very vulgar form of forget you, but not so much in those terms, meaning a sense of disrespect, vulgarity to just say, I hate you, I don't like you, I don't like what you stand for.

(03:36):

There's no real discussion to be had with this concept of the middle finger, and at least in today's concept, it's really just an insult. It's not meant to change. It's not meant to do anything but to upset the other person, period. I was in a car just as an example of how it's used today and a guy was trying to get in and he almost sideswiped me. So I honked my horn at him. And not only had he tried to sideswipe me and my family and almost run us off the road, so hence he got the honk, he also rolled down his window and gave me the one finger salute as they call it. Why did he do that? He wanted me to know that he didn't care that he almost run me off the road and my family. He did not care about me, he didn't care about any of us, so forget you.

(04:22):

And that is the common understanding of this term. So whenever somebody says, hey, let's, as Christians, give the middle finger to idolatry, it's going to give this kind of connotation of aggression and basically this meaning. So what was the intentions? I don't know. I'm not looking into it, but as a Christian, what is our mode of operation? Are we supposed to be walking around giving the one finger salute to anybody? To anybody? Because once again, personally, familiarly business-wise, corporately or on the national level, should we be giving the finger to anybody, at least in this sense? And I would've to say, no, we don't. That's not what our goals are. If we were to, as Christians, say, our sanctification is the dying of the old man and to rebirth of the new man, a sanctification towards godliness, growth in power to obey and to overcome sin and temptation.

(05:30):

Now, this is not the concept of just giving it the middle finger to tell it we don't like it. We are deliberately overcoming with the power of God, overcoming ourselves. We are not just insulting sin. Sin's a dangerous thing, sin's a dangerous concept. We're not just giving the finger to our old man, we are deliberately destroying the old man. It's not just a forget you. I want to remember you. I want to remember what I used to be like. I want to remember where I have been and where I'm going. It's just not a quick insult on the side of the road because I was doing something and I wanted to insult someone like the man who was driving the car. It's a much more deliberate approach. If I'm talking to the idolatry in myself, that's what it is. You will not beat me. I will beat you, with God's help.

(06:30):

We will overcome you. We will suppress you until you no longer exist, until the only thing that exists is the new man. This is not a flippant, you could say flipping off, of the old man of the idolatry that we hold within ourselves, which must be destroyed. It's much more deliberate. Warfare is much more deliberation, much more self-conscious than just flip off and forget. If we're dealing with our families, we are doing so in an educational aspect. This includes ourselves. And so it's not just you tell your children to flip off sin and just tell it forget you. They have to know what to replace it with. It's not just a flippant thing. They have to know what to replace the sin in their lives with, the positive. You can't just empty the child out. You can't just flip them off and drive away.

(07:33):

You have to know where you're going. You do have to deliberately know what you're fighting against. Your children need to know that, your husband, your wife, they need to know that. Your extended family needs to know that you are at war with sin within yourself and within your family, and that includes your extended family. And if they're in sin, then they're at war with you and you're at war with them. You can't help it. You're not flipping them off and moving on. This would be somebody who hates somebody. I'm just going to flip you off and move on and drive away. We don't hate people. We love people. We are supposed to love our family, and that means teaching them properly. It doesn't mean flipping them off because they did something bad. We have a proper way of how to handle sins in our lives and other people. If they wrong us, if we wrong them, if there are wrongs in our community, our churches, there are ways to handle things and it's not a flippant thing to do.

(08:33):

It's not just a forget you, it's a you have sinned and we need to correct this and this is the way to do it. God has told us. See, this is the completely different approach than just giving the middle finger to idolatry. It's not about getting noticed at any cost. When the Christians were getting noticed in the first century, it wasn't because they were rebels. They weren't walking around giving the middle finger to people. The entire Bible is full of Christians having to approach non-Christians on many different levels and it was never on a give the middle finger to them. I'm reminded just off the top of my head of the story of the good Samaritan as an example. Christ gave an example of what does it mean to love your neighbor? Who is my neighbor? Well, the Samaritan saw a man who was robbed, beaten and left wounded on the side of the road.

(09:35):

Others passed by, refused to help, and the Samaritan not knowing this man took him up, took him to an inn, cured his wounds the best he could, paid the innkeeper and said, "Feed, care for him, and if there's more, I'll pay when I come back." Now, this man was not giving the middle finger to anything. What we are doing is a proactive concept. It is not a flippant forget you and I'm walking away kind of concept. It is a deliberate act of destroying evil by doing good. This is a completely different subject. And it's not about just getting noticed so people can hear you either. The Christians were getting noticed not because of their rebellion or their flippant-ness, but because of their good deeds. Their good deeds were the light. It was the candle that was sitting on a hill that can't be hid, that nobody could miss it.

(10:40):

The entire dark idolatrous world could see the light and it didn't look like a middle finger that looked like a candle. Instead, it was the good works of Christianity being put and brought into a fallen world, which according to the Bible turned the world upside down. They had people who were being converted in the Book of Acts and they were taking all their idolatrous works and they were burning them, their idols, their books, their whatever it was, and they were also refusing to go shop where the idols were being created. The silversmiths in particular would create statues and idols for people in that world. And so their businesses collapsed or were starting to collapse, were being hindered by the Christian faith. People were being converted and refusing to shop at the silversmiths for their idols. And of course they tried to bring the Christians up as if they had deliberately attacked them, called for some kind of a ban on all idols and ban on the silversmiths.

(11:53):

That's not what they did. That's not what they did. They weren't giving the middle finger to the silversmiths. That's not what they were doing. They weren't giving the middle finger to the guys who were making their business in a pagan profession. That's not what they were doing. They were teaching the Christians that this is how you're supposed to live and it doesn't include that. So the Christians, because they were going to do good and not do evil, it got noticed. It got noticed because you can't mistake goodness, we shine and evil recognizes they are the cockroaches that hate the light and they want the light put out. You don't have to be rude and be a rebel in order to be recognized. That's not what it has to be. All you have to do is teach. The Bible itself is our weapon. Johnny Cash's middle finger is not our weapon to get noticed by fellow Christians so they can come to us to learn.

(12:56):

It's not our weapon to get rid of the idolatry in our world. That's just not it. The word of God is that way. Living a godly life and being seen by non-Christians and fellow Christians, that is the way, that is our symbol. Our symbol to attract people to the faith and to learn is not rebellion or Johnny Cash's middle finger. It's not rebellion. It is the word of God. Every instance of the Bible, when people were faced with outright idolatry, let's take Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego just as an example of what we're talking about. They were told to, "Bow down or you're going to die." End of story. "Maybe you didn't hear me. We're going to play that music again. I think that maybe you just missed the cue because after all, I'm the king. I told you what to do and I think that maybe it was just a misunderstanding."

(13:54):

So obviously you didn't deliberately refuse to bow down. So we're going to try this one more time, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And this time you better listen otherwise furnace is over there and it's nice and hot, so you better get ready. And these guys stood there and they said, "Well, we understand King, and we want to obey you." They were very faithful people. Daniel as well. They were leaders in this empire, Pagan Empire. They were trusted, they were godly. They did not compromise and they prospered here. Now, there is a line where idolatry tries to tell you that you have to give into it and we do refuse, but Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego weren't giving the one finger salute out there and waving their finger like Mr. Bean as he's driving down the road. That's not what they were doing at all. Instead, they were respectfully refusing to comply to an order that they could not comply with.

(14:54):

It kind of comes along with the old military saying is I will listen to every command you are lawfully allowed to give me. That's a good terminology for authority and structure and when we disobey and how. I don't want to disobey you, in other words, kind of like what Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were doing. I don't want to disobey you, but you're asking me to do something that I literally cannot do. It's not my fault. You're asking me to do something that I can't do. So if you're going to do that, I understand I'm not going to try to run away, I'm not going to try to resist, but I'm not going to comply. And I still want to serve, I still want to listen, but if you didn't give me this command, which I literally cannot comply with, we wouldn't be in this situation.

(15:45):

So it's inside your hands, oh, great king, but here's where I stand, kind of like Martin Luther at Adverms. Here I stand, I can do nothing else. And that's what they did respectfully. They're not shouting, they're not insulting, they're not giving the middle finger. That's not how Christians act. Those people have real authority. Even Satan has real authority from God. We have to understand and respect these kinds of authorities and Christians who don't teach this kind of a doctrine, they can't teach anybody anything. They have nothing for you to learn from. For me, I'm not saying that the people who were doing such things, maybe that was not their intention, but that's how it comes across to every person who sees it. And I don't have a need to go elsewhere or to try to ascertain a person's desires. These are my thoughts on the subject matter.

(16:45):

I have seen people say they need to raise rebels, raise rebels. You don't need to raise rebels. Children are naturally rebellious. If you're trying to attract rebels by these types of advertisements, what is it saying about you? That you already are starting on the wrong page. We are not trying to find people who are ready to rebel. Because you're just going to find that, you're going to find the rebels and you're going to be bringing in people who all of a sudden you're now going to say, oh, I know I was trying to attract rebels, but now we're not supposed to be rebels. Wrong. Or I'm going to teach you to be the proper type of rebel. Wrong. That's still also not the type of approach we are supposed to be. At no point in time are Christians supposed to be seen as rebels. They're supposed to be seen as people under authority.

(17:38):

Now, if the other authorities tries to clash with that authority, that's not your fault. That's not you trying to say, I'm not going to listen to you. It's you saying, not only am I under this authority, but you are too. That's what Jesus did with Pontius Pilate. When Pontius Pilate says, "Don't you understand I have power to release you or to kill you," and he says, "You have no power but what is from above." That is our response to all idolatry that we face. You have no power over me, especially those in authority. I will obey you. Jesus didn't try to run. Why? Part of a plan. I think Christians need to be able to understand that concept, that there is a plan and we are part of it. We're not rebels, at least in the sense that a lot of people are. We're not giving the middle finger to idolatry.

(18:35):

We are in a spiritual war against idolatry instead. And that's a completely different subject. And how we war against that is what God wants us to do and how we're supposed to do it. And it is to do good and not evil to those who despitefully hate and use us. So hopefully that's given you a different idea if you haven't as a fellow Christian about our goals and how we're supposed to teach and how we're supposed to live and how we're supposed to attract other people. Live the truth, obey the truth, teach the truth, and you will attract the right kind of people. And at the same time you will repel the wrong kind. Let's jump into some rapid fire. I think I'm ready for that. I saw a meme that said this, "The church shouldn't run our schools." They wanted a secular running of the schools public control as they said.

(19:34):

Basically it's religious humanism. And that's what they want. Well, they have their wish. We have that today, including the churches today. The vast majority of churches in America today are not run by the church because they're not a church. They are a government institution that calls itself a church. And the people that are in there probably understand that they're not an actual church. A lot of them do. So we don't have schools run by the church. If we did, it would look a lot different. And it used to. So we don't, so that's not a problem. But we should and Christians need to start Christian schools and teach their children properly. But we don't have a problem with church-run schools. Most of them are disinterested, which is sad. Another meme came up or really a article said, "Infant death decreases 30% during lockdown coinciding with a sharp drop in vaccinations."

(20:35):

So in other words, children were stopped getting all their childhood vaccinations that were kind of told that they were supposed to get and they had a sharp infant death. Sudden infant death syndrome used to be a big thing. I've seen that close up and first hand myself working in schools and the child that I had seen die in front of my eyes, that child had vaccinations just the day before, one that in some infants did cause death and it was known. Back then you weren't allowed to talk about it, weren't supposed to talk about it. Now since COVID, thankfully, parents are taking their responsibilities and what they put in their child's body more seriously and I hope to see a lot more of this with them as well. Moving on to another meme, I saw one that showed a statue of a, looks like a Inca native, I guess, warrior standing on top of bricks and he is beating down a crusader and the caption says, "Is there any pro-native statue as awesome as the Inca warrior beating a conquistador in the Cancola Canyon Peru?"

(21:45):

In fact, they're loving this idea that the Incans are beating back the conquistadors. Something that didn't happen in reality. Because what they want is they want to return to paganism. Well, sorry, you can't return to your human sacrifice. You can't return to your paganism because Christ has come and he has spread his law and his rule around the world and it just keeps coming. So you can live in your little world where you'd love to see evil win in this world. But sorry, this podcast is called The Last Kingdom for a reason. We are living in it and we are winning under Christ. He is the ultimate awesome warrior beating back his enemies and we get a front row seat. Sorry, Incas, you lose. Another one, article, "DNA discovery reveals genetic history of the ancient Egyptians." I've covered this on this podcast before where people were trying to say that they were black, African American or otherwise.

(22:48):

Everybody wants to take credit for the Egyptians and what they see as technological awesomeness of building the pyramids, et cetera, but they don't want to take credit for all the evil that the Egyptians have done. So I wouldn't be so quick as to want to take on the credit of a nation that was evil and judged by God. Look up the book of Exodus. But it does say however that none of the DNA they found was black. This is what it came from. So apparently all those hopes are gone. Me, I find it irrelevant, but some people seem to think that it is important. Another article was Three Doors Down, frontman Brad Arnold tells a massive crowd, Jesus Christ loves you. This goes right along with other celebrities and people who are turning to Christ. A lot of people, Richard Brand, the most common, he was with Tucker Carlson just recently this week and gave a prayer that even me as a minister I could never do is a wonderful prayer.

(23:47):

The problem is is that evil man hates it that God changes men. That's right. God changes men and there's nothing they can do about it. They see it and it scares the living tar out of them because they see their friends, they see their colleagues, they see their pagan patron saints turning to Christ. What's that all about? And they can't describe it and they can't stop it because God is the one who regenerates man. It was Stalin who said that Christianity stripped of his trappings had the marvelous power to transform even the most depraved of men. They know it. When God hits you, he hits you like a hurricane. He changes you forever and it makes them shake in their boots and cry in fear at night. Christ has come and they have been put on notice. We win under God. Humanism does not. Thank you again for joining me for the Last Kingdom. This is Jeremy Walker signing off. God bless.