The Rev. Keller on The Death of a Darwinian Apeiest
I was surprised to see an article in The Atlantic by the Rev Keller (the NY Times’ favorite preacher) telling the world that he has terminal cancer. Keller, along with Francis Collins (if you follow Covid religion you will have seen him besides Dr. Fauci) is determined to unshackle Christians from their cultic denial of Christian Darwinism (the Biologos Project). Keller has long cast himself as the next C.S Lewis (another Christian Darwinian sophist), to midwife, as it were, the church from its dogmatic slumbers in order for it to be taken seriously by the NY Times. He counts David Brooks, the Times’ soupy moralist at large, who not so long ago switched both his wife (for a young Wheaton girl) and religion, within his orbit. Why he had to hawk his wares to an obscure magazine in this instance is puzzling, although it may have something to do with his diminished status following Trump’s loss, making him less useful as a strategic tool to sabotage the evangelical base of Trump supporters. It was undoubtedly meant for the NY Times, a carefully worded piece of empty sophistry, tailored to not ruffle Times readers. Manhattan is the densest concentration of human depravity to date, and the NY Times is its organ of blasphemy. When the Antichrist appears, the NY Times will be his Ministry of Propaganda (right across from his perch at the UN), and it’s readers will barely know the difference. But now the Rev seems to have been denied.
But back to the obscure Atlantic. Before his diagnosis, he had just afflicted the world with the latest of his worthless books, On Death. Now, he tells us, he’s afraid to open it, because he wonders if he has any faith at all. He goes on and on in his usual manner of quoting all the doctrines of devils: moralists, psychologists, babblers, rubbishers who may or may not have said something on the subject, the point being that even now on his deathbed, he’s still campaigning to be the next C. S Lewis. I did a quick check and my worst suspicions were confirmed: he never mentions the word sin in the entire article, except for a passing mention of “sinfulness.” I was curious to see how a man who has spent most of his life destroying the foundations of the Gospel (like Collins, he’s an Evolutionist) would now seek comfort for his soul.
What does he do? He pulls up N.T. Wright’s arguments for the historical reality of Jesus’ Resurrection. Here is a man whose unbelief is such that he can no longer accept the most forcefully told story in the Bible, the Resurrection, without consulting his oracles. He doesn't have the faith to pick up his Bible and read the Apostles' own words on the Resurrection? He seems incapable of reading a single verse without running to his books, unsure whether he is not "following cunningly devised fables," after all. He has no faith, because "faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the world of God." Reading these dry bones is like hooking your soul up to a vacuum cleaner. Nothing will be left you. "Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I may not sin against Thee." Which Word is that? The words that the books tell you are probably true? In the valley of the shadow, you need to be able to say, "it is written." Why would anyone bother to memorize any of it, if you need to consult the books to check the degree which they may or may not be true. Any verse in the Scripture will do you more good than all the books in the world? Even the genealogies? They have their place like the three middle toes on your foot. I would sooner memorize Genesis one and two, but if you insist on the genealogies, I envy you your zeal. Good will come of it. But who is N. T. Wright? He believes the Bible is full of errors, and should not be taken literally. He’s a fellow Traveler with Keller and Collins: a Christian Darwinist who thinks the early chapters of Genesis are religious myths (a quick search on the internet will reveal what stripe he is). And you want this man to prove the Resurrection to you on your deathbed? This man is a wolf in sheep’s clothing, an utter fraud. Can you imagine reading this rubbish on your deathbed? But what is Keller to do. If you pull up the Biologos site, he’s the face of the Project. Now he is left to sleep in the bed he feathered all his life. The Bible you live with, is the Bible you will have to die with. "He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still." Don't wait for your deathbed to pick your Bible. When you "walk through the valley of the shadow of death," you will have no time to consult the sorceries of N.T. Wright to see if the Shepherd really exists. You will need instant "help in time of need," "the engrafted word" (the "incorruptible seed" immediately shoots out grafting roots that take hold) to reach out and take hold of your soul. When you repeat the frantic woman's "Lord, help me," you have no time to consult the books to see if such a short prayer can be effective. That statement will have to stand on its own two feet--or you will wish it did. You will have to pray as you have read--read with that in mind. But having destroyed the very foundations of the Bible, Keller is left casting about for comfort in the mutterings of a false prophet. He could just as well seek comfort on the pages of the NY Times. There, his own articles (like his books), would provide him little comfort. But he found the lure of celebrity an irresistible choice. And he made himself very rich selling books, which by his own admission (see above) are worthless. Balaam's false prophecies too were worthless, but the "rewards of divination" were all the greater for that.
But why would such a renowned Rev reveal the innermost thoughts of his soul to the world in the first place, as if they were no more than the deathbed soliloquies of Everyman? There is little here that is distinctly Christian, just as there is little more in his NY Times columns than middle of the road religion. If the World loathes the Bible and the people who believe it, why would it now relish the dying thoughts of someone who has “kept the faith?” The answer is, most likely, aside from the jargon, Keller sees little in his own hopes and fears that differs from the empty notions of unbelievers. That a man, who is seen as the voice of the evangelical church worldwide, should end his days in such empty groveling before the world is terrifying. Israel had to witness the horror of her anointed king end his days as an apostate groveling for consolation at the feet of a witch (1 Sam. 28).
He is now all the rage in Asia. His books are flying off the shelves in South Korea. South Korea is Evangelicalism on steroids. Churches with 100,000 members. But now they’re hemorrhaging young people like a flood. Young people are leaving in droves.
What to do? They bring in the Rev. Keller, the man who tamed Manhattan, and filled the city with “campuses.” I noticed on their website that you can even sign up for counseling sessions: don’t worry your insurance will cover it. A church member once told me what a great preacher they had. “Mondays,” he said, “you always see a long line of people outside his office waiting to be counselled.” “And what exactly,” I asked, "does he preach on Sunday?” But if you need counselling, you can sign up and someone will return your call and explain the fees. Remember the woman who spent all she had on physicians, and, Mark says, “grew worse?” But the Rev Keller has these sorcerers in the house, and “the money changers” to go with them. Why would you need fee-charging Christian counselors when you have free Christian preaching? How do you tell fake snake-oil from the real? The fake doesn't cost anything.
And now he’s all the rage in Asia. I told the Koreans long ago, ”they need you more than you need them, because you still believe the Bible, they don’t.” But now Darwin is glutting himself in Asia. The first missionaries I met in my early Christian life worked in Korea. North Koreans must be the most deprived people on the face of the earth. But when you see them on YouTube, they're always tastefully dressed, their hair groomed, unfailingly polite and cheerful, and often weeping. When Kim Jong Un shows up they all weep, some out of fear, no doubt, but some, just to weep. Historians of the late Middle Ages (right before the Reformation) note that the age was marked by profuse weeping. Whole groups of people would suddenly burst out weeping. And yet the Koreans do not give the sense of being victims. We used to have index cards to pray for people behind the Iron Curtain, and I have kept on praying for this last outpost of deprivation, if for no other reason, but that I would like to see what happens when such people suddenly hear the Good News of the Gospel. I hope to see it in my lifetime, and when I do, I will congratulate myself on having a sheave or two from that part of the world. I've even got my saintly aunt Rachel praying for them (that should net me a couple dozen more--my referral fee). If Kim Jung Un goes around telling his minions that he feels as if the Lord "hath suddenly put a mark on his heel"--well, now he knows.
I still have the books Wurmbrand’s wife gave me--but how few remember the Cold War, when people were still capable of feeling fear. I was always fascinated by what goes on behind the Curtain and never missed a chance to meet those who went there. It was not all Checkpoint Charlie and the gumshoes. A Bible smuggler I knew would slip back and forth in an old jalopy. He could affect the demeanor of a hippie and several times he was roundly bundled back to where he came from by the East Germans. One night while sleeping in his car on the streets of Moscow, he awoke to see the guys in the big coats pounding on his window. He cracked a window and looked up blearily. “Comrade,” the officer said indignantly, “you can’t park here. Can’t you read?” “Sorry. Citizen Chief,” he mumbled unintelligibly and drove off--they only teach you so many words in smuggling school. A German friend had an easier time of it. He was a field technician for a German firm and worked solely behind the Curtain. He probably had a higher clearance than lower rank and file KGB, because he would tell his minders that he couldn’t do his work with them dogging him on the factory floor. Most of these factories had more than one machine and he would just lose himself checking them all while he was there. And much else. Before each trip he would go to top-tier clothing stores and layer himself with name brand articles until he could barely walk. These he would sell for many times his cost on the black market. His factory floor forays told him what was in demand. Like Naomi, he “went in full, and came back empty.” But he made handsome profits, and had some very good stories to tell. He made a long trip to a factory to fix a machine, and walking up to it immediately saw the problem, He plugged it in. Sounds incredible, but I imagine the Russians either paid for maintenance up front, or the comrades had little sense that a technician coming all the way from Germany would cost real money. Why would they care? As they used to say over there: the government pretends to pay us, we pretend to work.”
Now where was I. The Koreans.
Here’s what’s going on in South Korea. Neither the State or Church is eager for the 38th parallel to disappear:
North Korea is a very useful buffer between South Korea and China. Remove it and you have democracy face to face with a Communist superpower. China is already suspicious that a united Korea will only move American Divisions from the 38th parallel to the Chinese border. South Korea would be forced to grow up very fast. Now it is basically a US state. If the US pulls out, it is at the mercy of the Dragon, and there goes happiness. And they do have a good life over there--which is why the church has become so horribly worldly. A purge is long overdue. Why is the Korean church sinking? They send out 100,000 missionaries a year, but are afraid to as much as think about their helpless kin just a few miles away. East Germany has cost the Germans $2 trillion so far. Estimates for North Korea are $10 trillion, and three generations of social upheaval. "Get off your face," God told Joshua. The prophets made of non-effect by the profits: "When I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight, then I coveted them, and took them; and, behold, they are hid in the earth in the midst of my tent, and the silver under it" (Jos. 7). By the time this is over that wedge of gold will be so thin, it wouldn't pay for one of the Rev Keller's 5 star trips to tell them how great a work God is now doing in Korea. But they freight him over because they see their ship sinking in luxury. And South Korea looks apostolic compared to the Rev's hipster church in Manhattan.
2. South Koreans (even Christians) see North Koreans much like Americans see Mexicans: an enormous draft on the welfare state. To pray for Korea to open up is to pray against your pension, and the inheritance of your children. 25 million North Koreans would be added to 50 million South Koreans. North Korea is death poor. They have little. So where will the money come from? Your pensions, taxes, etc. All your hard work, all your life--for what? Especially young Korean Christians see nothing but insurmountable burdens here. But worse, and this is the greatest unknown that makes people’s hair stand on end:
3. The fear is that while genetically the two Koreas are the same, over half a century of nutritional deprivation, along with the severe mental trauma caused by brainwashing and torture, will create a two-tier society. This is what is now roiling the politics of Germany, and East Germany was child’s play compared to North Korea. East Germany has become a sulking and very resentful sibling that refuses to cooperate, and is fast becoming a hotbed for anti-government revolutionaries that have so infiltrated the government that Germany’s FBI has put the main opposition under surveillance. North Korea is seen to be 100 times worse. Are South Koreans overacting here? They flew in the German bureaucrats and have found little consolation in their counsel. They have reams of statistics to confirm their worst suspicions as they watch defectors become completely withdrawn, incapable of processing a fast paced society such as South Korea---tap, tap, tap--young Koreans can move their world by waving their Iphones, and here you have people who still think like the Dark Ages. You would think South Koreans would have compassion on their brethren to the North (many families were torn apart) and desperately seek unification. You would be very disappointed. Koreans would be able to “enter into that harvest,” but great will be the upheaval that will follow. The sense in South Korea is that there is much to lose, and very little to be gained. Some consolation for Americans that not all border talk is racist. Koreans fear their own more than Americans fear Hispanics. But the Holy Spirit will more than make up the difference.