Neo-Nazis Cain Clark and Caleb Vasquez said they admired Christianity.
No, really. This is a page from their manifesto:
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In that manifesto, the shooters mentioned "Western morals and values and Christianity," and juxtaposed this against the onslaught of transgender Marxism and Islamic conquest that they believed were being orchestrated by the Jews with the help of clueless women.
But for having such a favorable view of Christendom and identifying as Christians, neither of these boys knew Jesus Christ.
This topic has been covered ad nauseam the last few years as new generations grapple with old questions about civilization, religion, and, well, the Jews.
I'm not going to rehash all of that. What I am going to do is point out how it is exceedingly easy to not become a Nazi LARPer if you actually understand a few basic things about the Bible.
Like all of Satan's lies, these lads were caught up in an ideology that includes kernels of truth. The Christian West has been under a multi-century assault by various anti-Christ (as in literally opposed to Christ) ideologies that have attempted to crush it. Like several pivotal moments in the last two thousand years, it seems like the Gates of Hell are now at the very precipice of overcoming Christendom with a coalition of Marxist atheism, hedonistic consumerism, New Age paganism, the Hindu pantheon of gods, Islamic jihadis, and queers for Palestine.
The destruction of the family, radical feminization of our institutions, race wars, and mass migration are destroying our civilization.
But the Christian perspective on this is not, as the kids say, a black pill. Instead, the Christian understands that these things are proof of a spiritual war - and thereby a spiritual, unseen world - that God will easily and handily win.
I stayed at a hotel just down the road from the Mount of Olives, where Jesus sat with his disciples one day and looked out at the city of Jerusalem and the temple complex below. As they'd left the temple, one of the disciples had marveled at how huge and impressive the temple was. Indeed, while this temple didn't match the glory of the one built by King Solomon hundreds of years earlier, the Herodian dynasty made it one of the most impressive architectural wonders of the ancient world.
As they sat together a short while later, Jesus explained that the temple and the city would soon be destroyed, a prediction that came true when Emperor Titus Flavius Vespasianus leveled the city 40 years later.
His disciples were shocked by this statement. Imagine sitting with Jesus along the Reflecting Pool that Trump is currently repainting in DC and hearing Jesus say that all the beautiful buildings around you will be rubble.
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But then Jesus said this:
Jesus told them, "Watch out that no one deceives you. Many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he,' and they will deceive many. When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, don't be alarmed; these things must take place, but it is not yet the end. For nation will rise up against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines. These are the beginning of birth pains.
Birth pains.
Christians throughout the centuries have understood this clearly. God is on the move, and in a seeming insult to the forces of evil that have rebelled against Him, He has chosen to win the war using humble, weak little Hobbits like you and I.
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The Apostle Paul was foundational to these early battle efforts. God sent out a ragtag bunch of fisherman, who then added tens of thousands to their following in a short time. Within a few decades, this following had been established in little pockets all over the Roman Empire. God is in the business of conquest, but his soldiers are the opposite of what you'd expect.
As Paul told Christians in the city of Corinth:
But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things — and the things that are not — to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.
The Bible is not just an instruction manual for God's designs and how to live according to them.
The Bible is the story of God defeating evil in what seems to be the most ridiculous, even reckless, way.
Let it never be said that God does not have a sense of humor (he invented laughter, after all!).
When Adam and Eve, the first humans, sinned, God told Satan, that braggart angel who rebelled against him, that the offspring of Eve would crush his head.
I can only imagine what Satan thought God's next steps would be. God allowed him to sow chaos and death, even fancying himself the ruler of all the kingdoms of the world. And yet God's response was, from a militaristic perspective, puzzling.
He chose an old, barren man named Abraham and promised him his children would be as numerous as the stars in the universe (Genesis 15:5).
When he gave Abraham a son and that son soon became a nation of millions of people, Satan enslaved them using the pharaoh of Egypt.
God then freed them, but sent them wandering for 40 years in the desert, calling them a "stiff-necked people" (Exodus 32:9, Exodus 33:3-5, Deuteronomy 9:13). God did not boast that He had chosen the strongest, fairest, smartest people group on the planet, but rather the most stubborn, small, and foolish.
The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples.
And
It is not because of your righteousness or your integrity that you are going in to take possession of their land; but on account of the wickedness of these nations, the Lord your God will drive them out before you, to accomplish what he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Understand, then, that it is not because of your righteousness that the Lord your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stiff-necked people.
Across the centuries, the Hebrews, who became known as the Israelites, who then became known as Jews, lived this out. Despite literal and repeated interventions from God, including prophecies and miracles, the Jewish people kept turning their backs on God. Eventually, as God warned, their nation was destroyed, and even when they rebuilt it, it was under the watchful eye of the Persian Empire, then Alexander the Great's empire, then the Romans.
Throughout the centuries, many people, including neo-Nazis today, would agree that the Jewish people are "stiff-necked" and rebellious. They have the words and promises of God, but seem set on opposing Him. A small example today would be the majority of Jewish Americans that support abortion and leftwing ideology.
What these dunderheads don't understand is that this recipe is baked into the cake on purpose. God chose the most stubborn people on the planet to prove to the whole world that He can save anyone!
(If you are Jewish and reading this, know that I say this in love 😁)
Christians assert that Jesus is the culmination and fulfillment of God's battle plan to defeat evil and save humanity. Jesus, claiming multiple times to be God, entered human history in a human body to live a human life and die a human death as a sacrificial lamb for our sins - a theme that echoes throughout all the prophecies and words of the Bible going back to the two animals God killed to provide clothes for Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:21).
The evidence for this is, well, on every page of the Bible.
Early Christians spent most of their time trying to logically convince other Jews to accept that Jesus was the messiah. The Christian faith is the fulfillment of the Jewish faith: They are not two separate entities, nor do Christians worship a different god.
Near the end of his life, Paul was taken to Rome for a trial before Caesar. Once there, he did what he always did in a new city: He found his Jewish brothers and sisters and tried to convince them that Jesus really was who He said He was.
'After arranging a day with him, many came to him at his lodging. From dawn to dusk he expounded and testified about the kingdom of God. He tried to persuade them about Jesus from both the Law of Moses and the Prophets. Some were persuaded by what he said, but others did not believe.' - Acts 28:23-24
To the Jews who did not believe, Paul quoted the Prophet Isaiah, who said his countrymen had callous hearts (there's that stubbornness again).
Paul then said this:
Let it be known to you that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles [non-Jews]; they will listen.
This is exactly what happened, of course. Billions of people who are not Jews believe in Jesus Christ today while many Jews still refuse to.
But again, the neo-Nazis are ignorant of God's plan. They don't understand what God is doing.
Paul did. From his letter to the Christians in Rome:
I ask, then, has God rejected his people? Absolutely not!
In Romans 11, Paul gives a beautiful exposition that ends all the neo-Nazi nonsense in its tracks. Literally all those dunderheads have to do is read it.
Paul says "salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel jealous," and a "a partial hardening has come upon Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in." But Paul repeats that God wishes all to be saved, especially the Jews, comparing them to the root of an olive tree.
...you will say, ‘Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.' True enough; they were broken off because of unbelief, but you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but beware, because if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either.
If only Cain Clark and Caleb Vasquez had understood that. They died in vain arrogance, thinking that their senseless actions were heroic.👇
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You may well be upset all the ills facing Christendom in this moment. Cathedrals are rotting or burning, transgender pastors are preaching from the pulpits, queers for Palestine are marching in the streets, and Somali Learing Centers are stealing all our money.
But there is a right way to fight evil and a wrong way that adds to evil.
You want to be arrogant and criticize the Jews for their unbelief and rebellion? You want to wallow in your nostalgic sorrows for an age that has passed? Of what use are you in the battle plans of God? Do you not see where the Spirit is blowing, like the wind through the trees, with churches that are exploding in size all over the non-Western world?
You think God wants you to roleplay as a gunfighter at a mosque? (The firearms' skills the teens display in their livestream were LAUGHABLE.) You think that "acceleration" of society's decline and skin-color tribalism is what God wants you to do with your life?
That is not how God wins the war, and if you go rogue, you are attempting to steal His glory and valor.
There are times to take up arms in self defense from criminals and tyrants. There are times to make "appeals to heaven" like Thomas Jefferson and his friends once did. Violence is sometimes the answer.
But the Christian warrior fights out of love, understanding that there is a chain of command implied when we say "Christ is King." God organizes nations for his purposes and tasks governing authorities to "wield the sword" when necessary (Romans 13:4). God also says that ultimately, He will be the one to bring evildoers to justice (Romans 12:19, Deuteronomy 32:35).
Nazi LARPer incels: Go read the Bible.
After all, if God can save the Jews, then He can save you too.
'Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.' - Romans 12:2
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