Reading Notes: As I Lay Dying, Moby Dick, The Iliad, and the Noetic Effects of Sin and Anger-and-Revenge's Power to Degrade

Several months ago I read Gene Fant's article at First Things titled "William Faulkner's Peculiar Calvinism: As I Lay Dying." The author reflects on elements from a handful of different works by Faulkner, highlighting his "Peculiar [Read Redemption-Less] Calvinism", and vouches for the truthfulness of Faulkner's Southern characterizations (Fant is a native-born Mississippian). The author's reflections are tied up with the recent film adaptation of As I Lay Dying, written/directed/starring James Franco.

This has made me think of when, several years ago, I first read As I Lay Dying: I thought it was an emotionally-weighty but good read, especially since the noetic effects of sin are soberly portrayed. (The characters in As I Lay Dying do genuinely bizarre and irrational things again and again.) Also, recently I finished reading Moby Dick (I already read half of the book 3 or 4 times, but finally plowed through to the end. Yay!), and, again, I was impressed by the noetic effects of sin: Melville captures that untoward power in his characterization of Captain Ahab, a man who, like Achilles from The Iliad, becomes drunk with anger and revenge to the point of his own demise. Yikes. Gives me the heebie-jeebies.

Sin

"There are two ways of coming down from the top of a ladder; one is to jump down, and the other is to come down by the steps: but both will lead you to the bottom. So also there are two ways of going to hell; one is to walk into it with your eyes wide open--few people do that; the other is to go down by the steps of little sins--and that way, I fear, is only too common. Put up with a few little sins, and you will soon want a few more" (J. C. Ryle, Thoughts for Young Men, 68).

Beware of Pride

"Pride sits in all our hearts by nature. We are born proud. Pride makes us rest content with ourselves--think we are good enough as we are--keep us from taking advice--refuse the gospel of Christ--turn every one to his own way. But pride never reigns anywhere so powerfully as in the heart of a young man" (J.C. Ryle, Thoughts for Young Men, 22).

Sins of Youth

"Sin is the mother of all sorrow, and no sort of sin appears to give a man so much misery and pain as the sins of his youth" (J.C. Ryle, Thoughts for Young Men, 15).

Sin-Nurse

"Custom is the nurse of sin. Every fresh act of sin lessens fear remorse, hardens our hearts, blunts the edge of our conscience, and increases our evil inclination" (J.C. Ryle, Thoughts for Young Men, 11).

Powerful Habits

"Habits have deep roots. Once sin is allowed to settle in your heart, it will not be turned out at your bidding. Custom becomes second nature, and its chains are not easily broken" (J.C. Ryle, Thoughts for Young Men, 10).

God's All-Wise and Perfect Plan

"But why didn't God, when sin entered the world, simply squash Satan and his legion and finish the battle? Why does he put up with, even actively join the fight against, such rebellion when he could stop it at any time? The only answer we have to such questions is that all things are still working to and for his own glory, even though sin has ruined his creation (Rom. 11:36). Everything that happens, happens according to his all-wise and perfect plan" (K. Scott Oliphint, Covenantal Apologetics: Principles and Practices in Defense of Our Faith, 32).

Spiritual War

"We must view sin and evil in its larger proportions as a kingdom that embraces the subtlety, craft, ingenuity, power, and unremitting activity of Satan and his legions - "the principalities, and the powers, the world-rulers of this darkness, the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenlies" (Eph. 6:12)" (John Murray, Redemption: Accomplished and Applied, 50).

Sins Are Not Dust Bunnies

In Scripture, the Lord reminds us of our sins and our need to confess our sins again, and again, and again, and again. Confession of sin is serious business. Confession of sin is one of the petitions in the Lord's Prayer! However, oftentimes our confession of sin is tepid.

But why is our confession of sin lukewarm? Well, I think our confession of sin is wimpy and lax because our view of sin oftentimes is wimpy and lax. Rather than viewing sin as an ethical disease that plagues mankind and offends mankind's Creator, I believe that we oftentimes think of sins as though they were dust bunnies -- a mere eyesore inconvenience that one can shoo away with some prepackaged "canned air" confession. (We don't confess, "Lord, yeah yeah yeah, sorry." Instead, we confesss, "Lord, I'm sorry. Please forgive me." Can you sense the difference? The former is breezy while the latter is penitent.)

But sins are not dust bunnies. Sins are serious business. So serious that Christ's sacrificial death was the only means by which our sins could be dealt with. All of us need to confess our sins in light of that reality. And if we did, we would stop treating sin like dust bunnies -- we would leave our tepid confessions in the dust.

The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner by James Hogg

I recently read James Hogg's The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner, a satirical jab at antinomian Calvinism, originally published anonymous in 1824. It was a disturbing read but beneficial.

The Confessions discloses a morbid story in three parts: an "Editor's Narrative" bookends the protagonists' "Memoirs" -- together they provide objective and subjective accounts of the corruption unto evil-and-the-demonic of young Robert Wringhim, a boy born and raised as a strict-Calvinist in eighteenth-century Scotland. The Confessions is part gothic-novel and although it may be somewhat anachronistic to say so, it is replete with dark humor/black comedy. Here's a zinger:

The dame [the mother of the protagonist] thanked him [Rev. Mr. Wringhim] most cordially, lauding his friendly zeal and powerful eloquence; and then the two again set keenly to the splitting of hairs, and making distinctions in religion where none existed (16).

The Confessions is insightful because of, not in spite of, its jab at Calvinism, performing the excellent service of illustrating the horrors of antinomian Calvinism, as well as providing a window into the psychology of the demonic -- similar to C. S. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters.

Biblically speaking, the only sure marks of Divine Election are those provided by the inner-testimony of the Holy Spirit and the good works of Sanctification, which are the fruit of the Holy Spirit.  In contrast, the protagonist of the Confessions is a gloomy character who hangs his eternal assurance of Divine Election upon the mystical-illumination decreed by his adoptive father, the Rev. Mr. Wringhim, who is a crack-pot Calvinistic preacher. (You know the variety: the mildew-Calvinist, the "high-as-a-kite-and-jacked-up-on-presumption"-Calvinist.) Rather than cling to the Biblical marks of Divine Election, Young Wringhim clings to the "oracles" of his quasi-father (the book insinuates that Robert may be the illegitimate son of Rev. Wringhim), which only greases the rails for absolutely horrific acts executed by the protagonist, e.g., assault, evil plotting, usurpation, murder(s).

This book truly is a horror novel, portraying both the power and acts of evil. The book is as sobering as it is terrifying, and that is what makes it a good read.

Adam: Whose Sin Became Our Sin

"[T]he problem with the human race is not most deeply that everybody does various kinds of sin. Those sins are real, they are enough to condemn us, and they do indeed play a role in our condemnation. But the deepest problem is that behind all our depravity and all our guilt and all our sinning there is a deep mysterious connection with Adam, whose sin became our sin and whose judgment became our judgment. And the Savior from this condition and this damage is a Savior who stands in Adam's place as a kind of second Adam (or "the last Adam," 1 Corinthians 15:45)" (John Piper, Counted Righteous in Christ, 102-103).

Brian McLaren and Son

nytimes has a write up about Brian McLaren's homosexual son's marriage. Even more saddening, after the wedding ceremony, "Later in the day, the Rev. Brian D. McLaren, Mr. McLaren’s father and the former pastor of Cedar Ridge Community Church in Spencerville, Md., led a commitment ceremony with traditional Christian elements before family and friends at the Woodend Sanctuary of the Audubon Naturalist Society in Chevy Chase, Md."

Obama: Sin-Approval-Graphs/Charts

Social Media news outlet Mashable has done us the favor of creating some sin-approval-graphs/charts (not to be confused with flannelgraphs from Sunday School days) analyzing Internet buzz after President Obama's recent support of gay marriage. From the adjoined article: "The chart below shows just how much of a positive sentiment infusion Obama got from his announcement . . ." Positive sentiment infusion?!? Oh, they meant standeth in the way of sinners.