Blasphemy from the President

The Public Square
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Last night I heard the bit from President Video’s speech of him saying “We will not forgive. We will not forget.”

It stopped me cold. I couldn’t believe a speech delivered by any President, at least a prepared speech, could contain such blasphemy.

I googled it later last night and nearly every article written headlined their article with the quote. They thought it good and appropriate.

The only other places I found it are from a NYT columnist about a bombing in Beirut and several foreign countries saying it (though they were mostly translations of speeches, so it may not be exactly what they said. I hope it was not.)

Why is this so troubling to me? It is blasphemy of the highest order. Now, nobody with much of a Christian brain thinks very many of our last dozens of Presidents have had true belief. And yes, i should be just as appalled that they always tip their hat to “other faiths.” But this was just so utterly awful. “We will not forgive.”

The Lord’s Prayer, “as we forgive.” Jesus later saying, though a somewhat disputed text, “if you do not forgive, neither will you be forgiven.” The whole undergirding of Christian faith is that we have been forgiven much, so we must be forgiving. The parable of the unforgiving servant.

Mercy is the heart of Christian belief and action.

“We will not forgive.” Uttered without a note of distaste, quoted without a note of remorse. Our whole society has become so utterly pagan we don’t even recognize blasphemy.

Again, I would be less out of shape if this were in his Q&A. We all say things we regret. But this was in the main body of his speech. He looked right at the camera and coldly delivered the line. He loved it.

I looked for about 30 minutes for some other President to have said something similar. I found nothing close. Not after Pearl Harbor. Nothing during the Cold War. Not after 9/11. Lots of prayers for faith to bring justice on the earth. Nothing about not forgiving.

This is not denying the real prayers that may be offered that we hate those who do evil. But, it is God alone who forgives, or does not.

And he was loved in the press for it. Strong stand. What we needed. (They hate him for other reasons, even the left, but they all liked him saying “we will not forgive.”)

All this to bring the discussion, where are we as a post-Christian society when mercy has no place in public? I think this is far more troubling than a totalitarian grab for power.

The heart of the liberals is death, no mercy. It is awful to see.

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Well put, Joe. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

I have noticed this sentiment in our popular culture and movies especially for some time. Many many movies about dudes getting revenge.

If you sow the wind…

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To be honest that statement feel like a response to polls. This President is weak and trying to appear strong.

Biden is trying to make this his ID4 speech. Like GWB at ground zero.

The President’s job more than any other responsibility it to defend our nation from attacks and to bring to sword in the name of justice. He is the commander and chief.

Have you ever seen a President call the nation to forgive their attackers before the sword was brought?

Of course we ought not harbor hate…but there is a season for everything under the sun.

The real problem is that this statement is a deflection away from his own culpability. Should we forgive him and give him another 4 more years, if he could even last. Or should we say, Biden we will not forget this on Election Day. You and your Vice have blood on your hands.

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I also heard Indiana Congressman Jim Banks on the radio yesterday describe the attacks as unforgivable. It made me stop and think for a minute as well.

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https://twitter.com/RepJimBanks/status/1430900102072193026?s=20

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There are similarities between them, but calling an action unforgiveable and saying “we will not forgive” are still different.

One is calling attention to the particular heinousness and callousness of the sin. The other is saying “we will not be moved to mercy on your soul.”

Many Presidents have called actions unforgiveable. I believe there is a gulf of difference between the two.

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I guess I’d have to ask Jim Banks exactly what he meant. I think that politically, the disaster that has unfolded in Afghanistan is unforgivable, as in we shouldn’t allow these same people to remain in power to repeat this type of disaster someplace else. Its forgivable on a personal level, but we should still try to stop it from happening again.

I don’t know anything about Jim Banks and I’m not really trying to defend him. I’m just saying there is a difference in forgiving and stopping from continued malarkey. Its like if a pastor sinned grossly, he should be forgiven, yes. But he should be removed from his position also.

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I agree, it is a response. But it speaks just as much to the horror of the American heart. Callous. Unforgiving.

Also, I did not say he should call the nation to forgive. There is a wide gulf between readiness to forgive and “we will not forgive.”

Forgiveness, for the record, does not mean no justice executed, nor vengeance extolled. We are not only forgiven in Christ but atoned for. Bare forgiveness does not mean nothing will happen to you.

If you murder my wife, I may forgive you (if you seek repentance) and I should have mercy in my heart towards you. But, that doesn’t mean I also wouldn’t applaud your death at the hangman’s noose.

Christ, by his blood, paid that toll for justice on our behalf. Bare forgiveness would not have gained us sonship and entrance into God’s throne.

In the same light, a government, is free to execute justice according to godly standards. This does not mean he should not be merciful towards those he executes.

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My issue with this is, it sound like you were expecting a theologically correct sermon from a Commander and chief. Splitting hairs between saying something is unforgivable and saying we will not forgive, seems nit picky even if their is a gulf of difference.

Remember how the liberal Christians attacked Trump for saying he had never apologized and didn’t need to say sorry for anything. He was saying he didn’t need forgiveness. The liberal threw that blasphemy in our faces. And if I’m honest was a big reason I didn’t support him in the first election.

I just don’t want to set ourselves up to be manipulated like that again or show ourselves hypocrites.

But feel free to criticize his much clearer words, apart from polling pressure…
“Do I bear responsibility? Zero responsibility. The responsibility I have is to protect America’s national self-interest and not put our women and men in harm’s way to try to solve every single problem in the world by use of force,” Biden thundered. “That’s my responsibility as president. And that’s what I’ll do as president.”

This is abdication and he should have been immediately removed from office after saying this.

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I was expecting him not to say “we will not forgive.” I was not expecting a treatise on mercy.

Abdication is a different matter entirely. Though it is, at the root, a sin against God, it is a sin against us. Do I think he is unfit? Sure. But that is not the point at the moment.

His blasphemy of “we will not forgive” was placing himself directly in the place of God. I do not see how you can miss this.

No other President has ever said it.

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What exactly am I missing, he has blasphemed in word and deed a million times before this moment. Both as a President, Vice President, and Senator. He placed himself before the judgement of God long before this moment. But when do saying such things go from legitimate criticism to railing against authority or when do they go from railing against authority to legitimate criticism.

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Do you think I’m railing?

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There’s a fine line, and I don’t know exactly where it sits. But shouldn’t we at least avoid the appearance of hypocrisy, by making this moment more important than a million others.

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Of more interest to me was Biden’s ersatz reference to Isaiah 6:8, finding in it an embodiment of the US military’s enthusiasm to step up to perform its mission.

I wrote my Th.M. thesis on Isaiah 6, focusing on the detail’s of the mission God gave to Isaiah in verses 9 and 10 of that chapter, namely to blind the eyes, to deafen the ears, and to harden the hearts of His people Israel. It is the most quoted OT reference in the NT, used by our Lord and the Apostle Paul to explain how and why Israel rejected Jesus of Nazareth as its Messiah. My thesis demonstrated that it was God’s purpose to impose this blindness and hardness of heart upon Israel. Many Reformed commentators of the 119th Century had offered more milque-toasty readings which discounted God’s intentions in giving Isaiah that mission.

It’s a critical exegetical decision - what one thinks that verses 9 and 10 are saying, what one thinks Isaiah’s prophetic mission to be. If his mission is to blind eyes, to deafen ears, to harden hearts, the obvious question is “How?” And, the obvious answer is “by all of his prophetic ministry, including the composition of the canonical Book of Isaiah.”

But, back to Biden’s ersatz quotation of verse 8 . . .

What first came to my mind was Caiaphas’s unwitting prophecy recorded in John 11:49ff, that it were better "that one man should die for the people, and not that the whole nation should perish.” Though he did not intend it so, Caiaphas spoke God’s intention for our Lord’s ministry, and he even contributed to its fulfillment by his own words.

Perhaps our heavenly Father continues this in Biden’s ersatz quotation of Isaiah 6:8, for when he says “Send me!” Isaiah enlists to fulfill God’s purpose to blind the eyes, to deafen the ears, to harden the hearts of a people. Can one find a better way to describe the purpose (unwitting or not) of the modern American political establishment (Republican and Democrat alike) than to blind the eyes, deafen the ears, and harden the hearts of the American electorate?

To hear the pronouncements of America’s military leaders in the aftermath of the Kabul suicide bombings yesterday, their “Send me!” (which Biden imputes to them) is an echo of Isaiah’s ministry of damning judgment on the spiritual sensibilities of a nation. It is just one facet of the goal of America’s political leadership class to corrupt the spiritual sensibilities of the American electorate.

I’ve never doubted that God would one day answer the cries of millions of babies whose blood cries out to Him from the abortuaries of our nation. I’ve never known just what our Father would do to answer those cries.

If we are beginning to see how He will answer those babe’s cries - to give our country a leadership that brings the roof down on our national head - there is, at least, a thrilling satisfaction to behold His justice. For any believing remnant who keep their eyes, ears, and hearts functioning, it is time to raise the strains of Psalm 46 in their hearts and throats, to loudly belt out its refrain as the mountains are cast into the midst of the sea - “The LORD of Hosts is with us! The God of Jacob is our refuge!”

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Yes, thrilling to behold the collapse of an unrepentant nation. Certainly Jonah thought so.

For my children’s sake I’d hope to behold the thrilling satisfaction of his mercy after national repentance. But only God will decree one or the other.

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I disagree. I believe this is a huge tell, whether intentional or not. Death is the worldview of liberals. Vengeance, revenge, the other guys is always the bad guy. This just revealed it further. It is being applauded in all the liberal news. This was, in fact, a big step down a bad path.

I don’t think it is a bit hypocritical to call this out.

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I think I must’ve been talking with my wife about the “we will not forgive” line when he said this. A friend brought it to my attention on facebook this morning.

I believe you are right, he may be a prophet without knowing.

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Thrilling satisfaction does not equal delight in the death of the unrepentant.

You are conflating the two and to Father Bill’s detriment, calling him Jonah. God happens to take no pleasure in the death of the wicked but he does all that he pleases and their end will be his total wrath in the hell of damnation. He will be satisfied and we should be, too.

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Oh dear. You badly misread the book and Jonah too! He knew God’s intent was to turn the heart of the Ninevites! (cf. Jonah 4:2!).

On the other hand, we know God’s intent is to avenge innocent blood that floods the lands where the innocent blood is shed (cf. Genesis 4:10; Numbers 35:33; Deuteronomy 19:10; Psalm 136:38; Ezekiel 7:22-24; 9:9; 33:25; 36:18; Joel 3:19; Habakkuk 2:17).

No, America’s love for the shedding of innocent blood will get an answer to that blood’s cries for vengeance. We may even be spectators of His answer.

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Huh?!? Of what exactly. Maybe you have something you’d like to say to me in private.