None of us are Christ. Christ did not need to speak from authority, for he is the word and he is himself authority. To use the jargon of IT, he his self-authenticating.
So we cannot claim to be God, for we are not the deity incarnate. We are human. We are fallen, and we fall into error continually — both individually and as a church. Luther once said that the church was like a drunk — stumbling from street-lamp to street-lamp. Seeing the light but falling into darkness.
But when challenged by the collected and legitimate authorities of the people of faith — the chief priests and scribes were likely to be of a faction within the council or Sanhedrin — Jesus refused to answer the question they set.
1One day, as he was teaching the people in the temple and telling the good news, the chief priests and the scribes came with the elders 2and said to him, “Tell us, by what authority are you doing these things? Who is it who gave you this authority?” 3He answered them, “I will also ask you a question, and you tell me: 4Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin?” 5They discussed it with one another, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say, ‘Why did you not believe him?’ 6But if we say, ‘Of human origin,’ all the people will stone us; for they are convinced that John was a prophet.” 7So they answered that they did not know where it came from. 8Then Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.”
Jesus did not fall into the Alinsky trap. He was not going to let the enemy challenge him by saying he needed authority for what he was doing. Instead he reversed the question and asked them who had the authority for John the Baptist. For John spoke of him.
Now, this happened a couple of days ago here. Someone challenged me by saying that the reason why a family lost the ability to foster kids is because they did not believe in multiculturalism, and then got angry that I did not look at their material.
My internal response was TL:DR — and my place, you are banned. (well, the IP address is). The irony is that this was just part of an illustration that was leading much more to how we should get out of this society, for it is destroying itself.
What I was doing is refusing to discuss the issue the way that crankylederhosen wanted me to. I wanted to focus somewhere else. I’m using this as a tactical example because we cannot let the trolls set our agenda. Or the opposition. Regardless of how they yell, how many tearful victims they parade, and how emotive they get.
Because we are no longer in good times (if we ever are: for the poor times are either bad or worse). We are going to have to deal with a huge amount of structural debt — which will mean either that the saving class are pauperized by huge haircuts or inflation or the bureaux of the government will be cut, savagely, using a blunt instrument.
When that happens a lot of our current worries — will be trivial. we will be struggling to put food on the table. This is already happening in parts of Europe and South America. We should all pray that the leaders of our nations will stop pandering the children within our societies and discuss the need to reform, as adults, with us.
The same issues occur morally — our financial bankruptcy reflects our moral bankruptcy. This is no time to pay attention to trivial issues. Do not let the enemies of the good and right set the agenda. And definitely do not let the trolls do so.