Walk Away

In the famously misinterpreted Matthew 7 passage against judging (7:1), Jesus tells us not to give that which is holy unto the dogs and not to cast our pearls before swine (7:6).  Why?  “Lest they trample them [the pearls] under their feet and turn again and rend you.”  What can this passage mean?  Dogs and pigs will trample your treasures and tear you to pieces.  Jesus also told His disciples to shake off the dust of their feet in any city where their good news of the gospel was not welcome (Matthew 10:14). 

In our meta-modern age where all reality seems to have been shaped by relatability and inclusion, this all sounds so grossly harsh and, for the “woke” crowd, pompously wrong.  Yet even the “red-letter Bible" followers must admit that Jesus gave these commands. And if we are willing to admit it, conventional and ancient wisdom agree that we should not engage a fool in his folly (Proverbs 26:4).  Who is this fool?  Scripture says, “The fool has said in his heart there is no God” (Psalm 14:1).  And yet do we not see present-day apologists attempting to engage the fool with intellectualism, logic, and wisdom?  But they have missed the point: “The fool has said in his heart there is no God.”  

The fool's folly is not only to deny his Creator but also to verbalize the fallacies of his diseased mind as if voicing life’s most profound dilemmas, while all the time determining in his heart that he will not believe any of the proposed answers. And if we engage in his folly, we must fight on at least one of two battlefronts:  we must capture the darkened mind with logic, or we must confront the darkened heart with truth.  Sadly, Scripture would tell us that neither skirmish is worth our time.  In fact, Scripture fuses together the darkened mind and the darkened heart into one tragic indictment:  the reprobate mind. 

Before we take a closer look at how Scripture defines this depraved state of being, we would do well to question the efficacy of apologetics in winning any soul to Christ, much less, the darkened mind. If even the Apostle Paul, a giant in reason, abandoned this method after his disillusioning experience on Mars Hill in Athens, who are we to think that human intelligence can open a mind closed to the intelligence of God? If the atheist cannot be impressed with the design of God's world, he will not be impressed with the design of our arguments. He does not want to believe. His mind is diseased with the bias of his own depravity, and he cannot reason. Because he has no logical reason for his unbelief, "logical" battles cease to be logical the moment we sanction his doubts with a response. The Bible is not a manual of ontological, teleological, and cosmological arguments for the existence of God. And even though these arguments can be found within God's world outside of the Bible, the Apostle Paul says it is only the preaching of the Cross that is the power of God unto salvation--preaching which the fool calls "foolishness" (I Corinthians 1:18).

Scripture shows that the "fool" disbelieves with his heart (Psalm 14:1; Romans 1:21). It is this darkness of heart that produces the reprobate mind that stands outside the mercy of God as long as it relishes its unbelief. We might argue that every unbeliever falls somewhere along the spectrum of the reprobate mind, but Scripture clearly shows that this mind is also an entity in itself. And, as we shall see, it is this mind from which the Lord instructs us to walk away.

When we read the causes leading up to this horrifying stage-four spiritual disease, we see a pattern that fits our own times perfectly.  Romans 1:21 reveals that a darkened mind is without excuse.  Those of this mind once had the knowledge of God both in them [conscience] and shown to them [natural revelation], but they turned away from God’s power and did not glorify Him as God (Romans 1:19).  We know from a parallel passage in II Timothy 3:1-5 that they glorified themselves instead.  In one of the Apostle Paul's holy paradoxes, we learn in Romans 1:18-32 both the cause and the effect of the reprobate mind: “God gave them up.”  In case we missed it, Paul says this three times in the space of fifteen verses.  In Romans 1:24, he says, “God gave them up to uncleanness,” then he says, “God gave them up to vile affections” (1:26), then he says, “God gave them over to a reprobate mind” (1:28). 

This mind he describes as “being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity, whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affections, implacable, unmerciful” (Romans 1:29-31). Paul climaxes this list with an unmistakable denouncement against the homosexual debauchery that presents society with the last stage of its decay (Romans 1:26-27) and that confirms the state of the reprobate mind (1:28). This mind faces its own doom with delight and defiance against God (1:32).

Paul outlines in II Timothy 3:1-5 an almost identical list of sins linked to men of the last days, with one difference:  these have “a form of godliness” but deny “the power thereof.”  Churches that have gone LGBTQ+ "tolerant" and "woke" have indeed embraced a pseudo-godliness already being identified with "another gospel, another spirit," and "another Jesus” (II Corinthians 11:4). This "Jesus" has no power to deliver from sin.  Instead, He blesses people in their sin. Worse still, He doesn't even call sin "sin."  As the church inches closer and closer to the world, seeking to mimic its every fad of dress, music, entertainment, lifestyle, and belief, it should not shock us to realize that the reprobate mind is as prevalent inside the church as it is outside.  

And what are we to do?  At the end of this list of sins in II Timothy 3:1-5, Paul commands Timothy, “from such turn away,” calling these people “men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith” (3:8).  This mindset “holds the truth in unrighteousness” (Romans 1:18), showing itself to be not merely pagan or secular but apostate. What does this mean? While it is certainly true that any sinner can be gloriously saved, Paul shows that the reprobate mind is past hope. No one can be saved except the Father draw him (John 6:44), and if God has given the reprobate mind over, this mind cannot come to God. Its self-deification, unthankful spirit, vain imagination, self-proclaimed wisdom, idolatrous heart, and immoral life have produced effects from which it cannot escape. Paul says those of a reprobate mind are given a “strong delusion” such that they should believe a lie (II Thessalonians 2:10-12), “giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron” (I Timothy 4:2).  This demonic mindset is the “corrupt mind” of I Timothy 6:5, from which Paul commands Timothy to “withdraw yourself.” 

There is a point of no return for all cultures, all peoples, all nations, and, ultimately the entire world, as Daniel sees in his prophecies of end times, and as Noah saw in his.  Recently, I listened to a podcast of one of the worst sermons I can ever remember hearing, a total perversion of I Kings 18, in deliberate, painstaking twisting of the narrative, taking sides with “God” against a “murderous” Elijah who slew 400 prophets of Baal.  Poor Ahab; poor Jezebel.  Elijah had taken it upon himself to deprive his own nation of rain while he himself lived in privilege and seclusion.  Not one word was spoken of what heinous murders Jezebel had committed in killing the prophets of God or of the hideous murders the worshipers of Baal had committed in burning their own children alive or of God's divine judgment against idol worship (Deuteronomy 13:1-18). This was a total-inclusion, proud “queer” church in the Midwest.

These are horrors indeed of the last days, and we do not speak of any of them lightly.  But if God has sent the reprobate mind the divine judgment of a strong delusion, we need to see this state of reality for what it is.  We might as well wrestle Leviathan.  Jesus alludes to this type of demonic force when He commands us not to cast our pearls before swine because they will turn again and “rend” us.  The image is that of a human being riling a demon, reminiscent of the demon-possessed herd of pigs of the Gadarenes.  Yes, we are to contend earnestly for the faith (Jude 3) and to be ready to give an answer to those who ask about our hope (I Peter 3:15), but the Lord also gives us permission to realize that, when defiance against God has metastasized, we must leave the results to Him.