If the ones who demanded signs of Jesus, and who couldn’t understand what the children could, and who sneered at Isaiah’s words as “Da, da, da, da, blah, blah, blah, blah,” (Isaiah 28:10–Message version) were of a wicked and adulterous generation, just how wicked and adulterous were they? Adulterous is as adulterous does—plenty of the literal adultery going around, most likely, but sometimes the scriptures themselves assign a broader meaning to the word. It is not us suggesting the broader meaning; it is the scriptures themselves.
Such as here: “Adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever, therefore, wants to be a friend of the world is making himself an enemy of God.” (James 4:4) Even though the ones James writes to are primarily men, they are “adulteresses” if they have “friendship with the world.” They are supposed to be faithful to God and his arrangements for ruling humankind, though the kingdom of the Lord’s Prayer. They are instead “adulteresses,” snuggling up to human governments for ruling humankind. The “world is passing away and all of its desires,” says John 2:17. That’s why they shouldn’t be friends with it.
To be sure, God loved “the world” so much that he sent his only-begotten son into it, that some might be redeemed. (John 3:16) These are foreshadowed by the “remnant” who would be responsive to Isaiah, whereas the main body of “priests and prophets” and those following them would not. But in the end, only a relative few responded: “The true light [Jesus] that gives light to every sort of man was about to come into the world. He was in the world, and the world came into existence through him, but the world did not know him.” (John 1:9-10) The world is still slated to pass away.
“He came to his own home, but his own people did not accept him. However, to all who did receive him, he gave authority to become God’s children, because they were exercising faith in his name.” (John 1:11-12) Whereas, the world in general is still slated to pass away. That’s why you shouldn’t be friends with it.
However, theologians trained in the historical-critical method are, almost by definition, friends of the world. The only religious model their tools equip them to measure are the EFFECTS of religious faith upon a person. The TENETS of that faith are outside their purview. They have no way of knowing whether the world is slated for destruction or not. They can only (supposedly) measure the effects of believing that it is. Therefore, with the meat of God’s word forever outside their grasp, they diligently chew upon the grizzle. It’s an approach that all but guarantees one will miss the forest for the trees. Their default model becomes how to fix the world, to make it a better place. This effectively makes them its friend, the exact opposite of what scripture requires.
When the wrecking ball is swinging, you really ought not be inside making renovations. When the Titanic is sinking (we’ve all heard it), you really ought not be rearranging the deck chairs.
Other words are also expanded in scripture for metaphorical use. They need not always be taken as literal. Such as the “vomit” from religious leaders (priests and prophets—Isaiah 28:8) that covers the tables so that “there is no place without it.” Puking all over the table is pretty gross but, as we have seen, that could happen when people of decadence reclined at the table to gorge themselves with food and drink. We have seen past religious leaders become decadent so, yes, a literal application is certainly possible. But something tells me a spiritual application fits the bill better. I mean, I can’t recall the last time I saw a religious leader puking all over the table. But I have seen them serving up what amounts to puke.
For example, Peter likens Christians of the first century “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for special possession, that you should declare abroad the excellencies” of the One who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” (2 Peter 2:9) They were [next verse] “once not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not been shown mercy, but now you have received mercy.” Not all remained, however. Some returned to where they came. Peter applies the v-word to them: ‘What the true proverb says has happened to them: ‘The dog has returned to its own vomit, and the sow that was bathed to rolling in the mire.’” (2 Peter 2:22) They’d made a lot of moral changes, given up on a lot of false dogmas to enter a relationship with God and Christ. They returned to them. It was like a dog returning to its own vomit. If you’ve ever seen a dog to that, even your beloved pet Samson—not the Samson who pushes the pillars apart, but the one who pees on them—it grosses you out.
Then there was the quality of being lukewarm that Jesus likened to vomit. “Because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I am going to vomit you out of my mouth,” Jesus rebuked the Laodiceans. (Revelation 3:16) He suggested what our common sense would suggest. Much of the problem that resulted in a constant hedging of bets, stemmed from being “friends of the word” with excessive concern over comfort in the here and now. He continued: “Because you say, ‘I am rich and have acquired riches and do not need anything at all,’ but you do not know that you are miserable and pitiful and poor and blind and naked,” he advised them to get their act together spiritually.
Finally, we must not forget my own fictional character Vic Vomodog—originally Vomidog, but I modified it after someone found it disgusting. Vic and I used to pull together in the work! We were best buds. However, after he went south on us, he got to the point of walking into hospital emergency rooms, pulling up his sleeve, and saying “Fill ‘er up!” just to show Jehovah’s Witnesses what he thought of them! I wrote him up a lot in my first book, ‘Tom Irregardless and Me,’ where he presents as sort of a perpetually scheming, yet perennially thwarted Wily E. Coyote,
****** The bookstore
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