Exodus 28:2 explicitely says that the priestly robes were for glory and for beauty.

Various passages in the Psalms speak of God’s beauty, and Psalm 50:2 declares that God is the perfection of beauty.

So what’s going on here? Is beauty vain?

Well, the answer is yes and know, and while talking to Alicia it occurred to me that beauty, like most things, can be a blessing or a curse, so to speak.

Proverbs 31, the context of yesterday’s “Beauty is vain” conclusion, lauds the virtuous woman, the woman who manages her household, has a keen business sense, praises her husband, and most importantly fears the Lord. The virtuous woman may be exceedingly beautiful or she may be plain to look upon; the point is, her value is not discerned from her beauty. This consideration was missing from yesterday’s post, and I apologize; my wife, virtuous as she is, is great at helping me realize the wisdom I may have missed in conclusions I come to.

Knowing the Proverbs, it is impossible to focus upon beauty apart from godliness. Indeed, it is said, “Like a gold ring in a pig’s snout is a beautiful woman without discretion” (11:22).

But a beautiful woman who is also godly? I suppose there is nothing wrong with that, and I find myself to be in good company; frequently the Bible authors speak of beautiful women, of beautiful wives. One cannot so much as read the first chapter of Song of Solomon without seeing the appreciation of beauty therein!

While in this world, I won’t deny that it is far too easy to become fixed upon looks. Both men & women are at fault for this, so I won’t point my finger at one gender or the other, but beauty far too easily becomes an idol. Teens rebel against their parents to dress certain ways, to pierce certain things, to have certain hair styles, for example. Likewise, far too few seem to know the value of modesty and descretion in dress, and the impression I get is that those who do seem to know it seem to know it only because they don’t think they could get away with the more immodest styles.

Godliness is no longer admired in society, and something of course had to replace it. It is no longer enough to be virtous, God-fearing, exhibiting the fruits of the Spirit in your life.

Beauty is vain insofar as it distracts from God’s glory & worship, and I do not think it a stretch to say that men & women who focus significant time & money on their appearance are missing something much bigger. How different would the world be if every person who identifies themselves as Christian would take all the time & money currently devoted to beauty and used it to grow in the Lord and for His service?

I also believe, on a spiritual level, that a Loving God wants to perfect His creation, and by hopping on the beauty bandwagon I am essentially declaring my gratitude for this life and trying to “win one for the (Big) Gipper”. If God wanted me to be a purely spiritual and/or mental being, He could have kept me in gas form, but He did NOT, and that is a whopping message right there. While in this body, I intend to max out on the (good) things a body can do. It is such a privilege to be alive, and I want to look the part! — Hollis

That kind of thinking is what happens when beauty becomes an idol. If you really want to know what God thinks about outward beauty, He doesn’t keep it a secret (Proverbs 31:30):

Beauty is vain.

I don’t think a stronger word could be used. Vanity carries with it the ideas of foolishness, emptiness, uselessness, fruitlessness, and worthlessness. Beauty is all of those things, and in Proverbs 31:30, it is contrasted with fearing the Lord.

In other words, it seems fairly apparent that if you are “hopping on the beauty bandwagon,” you are hopping off the “fearing the Lord” bandwagon, and that is not a position in which anyone should want to be.

The context of the above quote from Hollis is a post asking why women want to appear younger. My answer to that is because people are, well, vain creatures, but I wanted to point out something else.

While it could be argued that growing old is a side effect of our sinful nature, growing old is something to be admired. Theoretically, as you grow old, you grow in wisdom. You grow in maturity. These are aspects which are to be admired and respected. I like what Proverbs 16:31 says: “Gray hair is a crown of glory.”

Plenty of people — both men and women — dye their hair to hide graying; I submit that if God declares gray hair to be a crown of glory, then hiding it or otherwise being ashamed of it reveals our attitude toward God.

Also, while God is in the business of perfecting believers, you will note throughout the Bible this perfection is always related to good, righteous works, not in appearance.

Keep in mind that God, when He took on flesh, had no beauty in Him. He was an everyman and He looked the part. He did this in obedience to the Father. Likewise, in obedience and good works, He underwent brutal beatings and the crucifixion, which disfigured Him to an unreconizable state. If God is in the business of making us pretty, then the Incarnation seems to have gone totally awry.

The 500 most used words are visualized, and I love how apparent it becomes, using this visualization, that the message of the Bible is between the Lord God and His people. I also appreciated this particular visualization due to the symbology of the Lord being the cornerstone thereof.

It’d be interesting to see how different Bible versions affect the visualization. I may have to experiment with that sometime, but if anyone beats me to it, let me know.

There is another view of karma, however, which holds that your actions have a direct affect on your future. A simplified example of this might be that if you were to hurt someone today, you may be afflicted with sickness in the near future as a direct result of your actions. Often, though not in the context of my conversation earlier today, it is believed that only after attaining perfect karma will the cycle of rebirth come to an end, allowing one to experience Nirvana.³

I disbelieve in karma, but I certainly do not believe that my actions exist outside of causality. However, rather than believing in “for every action there is a reaction” karma, I deeply believe in judgment & justice.

Take a moment to reflect upon Hitler’s life: Unless you buy into the idea of karma-guided reincarnation, there is no way that man received just recompense for his actions within his lifetime. It is possible that 42,000,000 deaths are attributable to Hitler,⁴ millions of which were not war-related but were rather outright murders.

Ages ago, God established with Noah a covenant which was applicable not only to Noah but also to his offspring,⁵ of which we are included.⁶ As part of the establishment of this covenant, God declared the value of human life in that if anyone ever murdered another person, the murderer was to be executed: “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.”⁷

How much more would one suffer if they were to take two lives? Or six? Or forty-two million?

So what’s my point? Well, as I said, I believe in justice. One of my favorite passages of Scripture comes from one of my favorite books of the Bible: “The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. ¹⁴For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.”⁸

Whoever you are, wherever you are, however you’ve lived… Ultimately, you will be judged, and that by He who knows your deepest of sins.⁹

Karma does not speak of such a future, for it in its classical sense only deals with earthly life — whether this life or a reincarnation cycle of lives.

However, if you define karma as “a person gets what they deserve at some point, whether in this life or the afterlife,” then I partially agree with you.

The Apostle Paul, echoing the great Jewish prophet Isaiah, declared the state of human nature as it has been since the Fall of Man: “What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, ¹⁰as it is written: ‘None is righteous, no, not one; ¹¹no one understands; no one seeks for God. ¹²All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”¹⁰

This is the very nature of every person conceived upon this earth. You & I both, in our natural states, are worthless in the site of God, wherein even our best deeds are no more than soiled garments.¹¹

Isaiah & Paul were not merely pessimistic regarding humanity. On the contrary, they not only understood humanity, but they further and more importantly possessed an understanding of who God is. They did come to that understanding naturally, of course,¹² but it was revealed to them.

The point here is that man does not seek after God and indeed does whatever he can to avoid Him — ignoring Him, following false gods, worshipping man, or even creating false ideas of the true God.

The natural, “karmic” result of this is that in judgment, God finds us to be impure, unclean, sinful, unrighteous, and unworthy of His presence. We rejected Him; He must reject us. And while this may seem cruel, the reality of the matter is that God is giving the majority of humanity exactly what they want: existence without the peace, love, joy, and righteousness that comes from God.

On the other hand, there are those whom God saves, the so-called elect from all the nations. The individuals in this group, regardless of how hard they fought to remain in ignorance and sin, are dragged to Jesus Christ by a choosy Father.

This group, rather than receiving the just recompense for their deeds, rather than receiving justice, rather than receiving what they want instead receive that which they naturally hate, fear, and run from: Jesus Christ.

It is at this point any idea of “karma” breaks down completely. When I sin, God grants forgiveness. When I doubt, Jesus intercedes on my behalf. What I want that which is contrary to His Law, the Father looks not upon my deeds but upon the perfect holiness of His Son and upon that basis declares me worthy.¹³ And as if to throw even more mud in the face of karma, while the Scriptures say Christians will receive rewards for their obedience, it is God Himself who brings about the good works.

Ultimately, I must reject the idea of karma on the simple reason that it is a concept foreign to the Scriptures; karma allows the future to be in the hands of man, yet the Scriptures reveal that from ancient times, God has already declared those things which would happen from then until the end and that His will shall be done.¹⁴

The effect upon the free will of man that this has can be argued until all involved parties are blue in the face, though for my part I believe that it is God’s will that man does have free will, but that also man is bound to his nature. In other words, man in his natural state is bound to ungodliness and that is all he will ever want to choose. Part & parcel with not getting what we want, the elect are also denied free will. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us; we didn’t ask Him to. While we were yet unbelievers, the Father dragged us to Christ and converted us; we didn’t ask Him to, and it’s only after we are converted and receive the gift of faith that we begin to desire Jesus Christ. It is only after our natures are changed that our affections attest of a faith in God.

1. http://www.answers.com/karma
2. Ephesians 1:11; see Romans 9.
3. It is precisely this abhorrently pagan concept which should make any Christian immediately wary of karma, except perhaps as a baby name.
4. http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstat1.htm
5. Genesis 9:9
6. Like it or not, we’re all related, being descendants of Noah and ultimately Adam before him.
7. Genesis 9:5-6
8. Ecclesiastes 12:13-14.
9. Psalm 90:8 — “You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence.”
10. Romans 3:9-12.
11. Isaiah 64:6.
12. ”No one understands; no one seeks for God,” is the teaching of both.
13. This whole idea of everyone getting what they want except the Christians comes from Mark Driscoll.
14. Isaiah 46:10.

I think the difference is that to be a Christian blogger implies that your blog will necessarily reflect that you are a Christian, even that your primary subject will be Christ-centric. On the other hand, a blogger that just happens to be a Christian may have a blog which reads like any other blog, rarely if ever mentioning our splendidly sovereign Savior.

I wonder, though, if the Truth allows for such a blog to exist?

Well over 2,000 years ago, it was recorded in what we know as the Book of Ecclesiastes that, “The words of the wise are like goads, and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings; they are given by one Shepherd. ¹²My son, beware of anything beyond these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh” (12:11–12).

Poignant words, but I would expect nothing less from the Scriptures. “The words of the wise are like goads,” the Preacher tells us; a goad is a prod used for directing cattle. The words of the Scriptures–of Moses, David, Solomon, the Evangelists, and so on–direct the hearts of man just as a cattle prod directs cattle, and their words are engrafted into the hearts of man, as fixtures hung with nails upon a wall.

The wise writers aren’t here limited to only the biblical writers, but includes all those who are in agreement with them and who likewise echo the biblical subject of Jesus Christ. The collection of the wise is vast, including, for example, men like Enoch (who did not author any of the Scriptures yet who we know was a prophet) as well as reformers Martin Luther and John Calvin.

This group, those the Bible calls wise, includes many modern day bloggers, which brings me to my point:

Of the making of blogs there is no end. If the Preacher had reason to complain about the plethora of available books in his day which did not reflect the wisdom and the light of Truth, how magnified would be his concern if he were writing today in a world where countless millions can publish anything to a mind-blowingly large audience.

If you spend much time online, you have undoubtedly noticed that the vast majority of blogs are not written from a Christian worldview and, if they are, chances are that the Christianity they espouse bears little resemblance to that of the Bible. Such, however, is the condition of mankind, and we ought not to be surprised that the Internet reflects it.

The wisdom of Ecclesiastes, then, is perhaps doubly as important as it was twenty-five hundred or so years ago.

The Preacher declares, “beware of anything beyond” wise writings.

Am I, as a Christian author, contributing wisely to the Internet, or am I simply adding more static to the noise which does little more than to stifle the Gospel?

What about you, Christian friend? Would the Preacher commend your blog to others, or would he have told warned them away? Or is your blog such that even though you have wise things to say, sifting through all of the (to borrow from the Preacher) vanities is simply not worthwhile?

I would like to think that Kingdom Geek falls into that first category, that had the Preacher been alive today, he would be subscribed to my blog and enjoy each post as it shows up in his reader. I’d like to think that, but I know all too well that my content is a mix of the worthwhile and the worthless, and it very likely isn’t worthwhile to dig throughit all to find the wisdom in the midst of the cruft.

When the Preacher’s words came to mind earlier, only the phrase “of the making of books there is no end” came to mind. That phrase alone has spurred me to examine my blog and what I write. I found it a wonderful show of the Scripture’s efficacy, then, when I saw that coupled with the words about books was a note about the Scriptures and other wise writings: they are like a goad, inciting action in those who hear them.

I’m resolving that henceforth my writing will better reflect the wisdom of the Shepherd. It would be great if after leaving this blog, readers would be left with the same impression that the Preacher sought to leave at the close of Ecclesiastes: “Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. ¹⁴For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil” (12:13–14).

Today I hang my head and grieve for our friends to the North, where in Quebec a 12 year old girl is able to have a judge overturn her father’s disciplinary grounding.

I’m halfway through the book Brave New World² by Aldous Huxley; in it, the concept of parentage is one for the history books. The state raises children, and the state controls them through pleasure. Rampant and experiential sexuality is encouraged as young as possible.

Today, seventy-six years later, a Canadian father is unable to discipline his preteen daughter for posting inappropriate pictures of herself on the Internet.

I hear a lot of people comparing certain things with 1984, but folks, I submit we’re heading fullspeed into a collision with a truly brave new world.

Hat tip: Dan Phillips

1. I don’t necessarily mean distressing, but just stressing in general.
2. Disclosure: This is an affiliate link.

Because NeoBox is currently in its vanilla state here, most of my customizations which I had made to the previously installed theme — such as certain text styles, which you may not even miss! — will not be present. Also, NeoBox currently lacks a Links page template, so of course my Links page doesn’t work.

Fixing all such issues is what I hope to accomplish by running the theme live here.

Perhaps — nay, probably — Dr. Paul is correct; do write-in votes matter? If they are counted, then the written in names are seen by local precinct workers, but who else sees them? I confess I don’t know much about this process, but it does seem as though sorting through all the votes for family members, fictional characters, and other probable write-ins would make the whole thing fairly worthless.

My dad¹ has his own idea about how to show dissatisfaction in the choices of candidates given to us.

If you don’t really like Obama or McCain, for whom do you vote? How can you let the parties know that the choices they are giving you, well, suck?

Far too many people settle for the lesser of two evils. Honestly, I don’t we should have to be settling when we express our political views through our vote.

Not voting doesn’t really tell the parties anything either. You may very well be staying at home because you dislike the candidates, but they won’t know that. Too many people stay at home because of apathy, and you’ll just blend into that crowd if you just don’t vote.

So vote. Show up. Sign in. Get in the voting booth. And then what?

Vote for the dog catcher.

Seriously. Dissatisfied with the choices for president or governor or any of the higher offices? Find the lowest office and vote only for that one.

Your vote will be counted. You would have showed up. Organize this with others in your community and get friends from elsewhere involved as well, and parties may start to take notice, at least on a local level. And as Obama is fond of pointing out, if you can affect the local populace, you can affect a state and a nation.

Voting for the lowest office on the ballot — you care enough to show up and to vote, but you show that you are dissatisfied with the big names.

The parties certainly want your votes. If it starts becoming apparent that caring people are not giving them their votes because the wrong people are being nominated… well, things may start to change for the better.

But then again, it’s going to take a lot of people to make something like this effective…

…just like everything that’s worthwhile, I suppose.

1. ”Senior” in various comments on this site — yes, I know, he really needs his own site for me to link to in referencing him.