Judgment for a Hollywood actor Presages Judgment for Everyone
“And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Gen. 6.5).
“But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be” (Matthew 24:37-39).
Actor Jussie Smollett was back in the news recently following his March conviction by jury for manufacturing a hate crime that never really happened.
Smollett’s latest: an Instagram rap: “Some people chasing that clout / Just remember this … this ain’t that situation / You think I’m stupid enough to kill my reputation?” This, despite the fact that his bought-and-paid-for attackers testified against him, and he was sentenced to 150 days jail time and $120,000 restitution to cover police costs.
This ongoing case manifests the essence of woke culture: that there is no such thing as sin and no such thing as responsibility. “Wokes” also believe there is no such thing as “authority.” In fact, among the more venomous adjectives in the English lexicon that one can hurl is the word “authoritarian.” Nothing is worse than an authoritarian, whether it is one’s coach, one’s boss, one’s parent, and what’s not quite stated but always an elephant in the room: God himself.
Yet, in spite of this, “authority” made quite a display in Chicago when Smollett was convicted.
In rendering his decision, the judge spoke at length, rankled that the actor had lied on the stand for “many hours,” as he put it. Not humbled in the least, on the way out of the courtroom, the actor shouted that he was innocent. Repentance, a humble spirit, and staying off the stand would have gone a long way to dampening down the sentence, but woke culture is nothing if not narcissistic, strident, belligerent, in your face.
After the verdict, Smollett’s older brother said he had personally asked the judge for leniency but wasn’t necessarily expecting to get it, but the main thing was that the actor shouldn’t have been shamed by a 35-minute tongue-lashing by the judge. Similarly, the felon’s attorney said that by ordering jail time, it seemed like the judge was “punishing” the perpetrator and that “there was no room for punishment in the criminal justice system.”
How’s that again? This officer of the court betrayed not the least trace of irony in this statement, and so disavowed the very purpose of the criminal justice system, i.e., to mete out punishment, i.e., justice. Gilding the lily, the liberal state’s attorney who initially dismissed the case before it was taken up by a special prosecutor, doubled down and said she had “done the right thing.”
When a jury had just decided what Smollett did was wrong.
What is “right” is lost today. The reprobate mind has become, in large part, the collective consciousness for the “wokes.”
In rendering his sentence, the judge said the wheels of justice grind slowly but that eventually the hammer of justice falls.
So true.
Like this actor, we will all be judged. This is a most inconvenient truth that churches long ago stopped talking about, favoring instead talk about grace, pardon, a gracious and even sentimental God who is just hankering to be friends with you. It is not a full picture. The reality is that God is the all-powerful being who is to be respected and feared (something lost along the way for many); that he will manifest wrath versus disobedience is a component of his holy and righteous character.
They ignore these admonitions:
- “And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”
- “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”
- And as James said, do you think your faith can save you? Show me your works; I will show you your faith.
While believers are under pardon, God regards sincere faith as a requirement for that pardon; the works one does go towards rewards. The catalytic ingredient, the one that’s missing in woke culture, is repentance.
It is what’s necessary, too, for salvation because if you don’t acknowledge your own sin, you don’t need to accept a Savior and his death on your behalf.
In sum, we will all be judged. Believers at the judgment seat of Christ, after the Rapture. All the rest of humanity, at Revelation’s Last Judgment. The former’s sins are covered by the sacrifice of Christ. They receive eternal life, as a gift, by the grace of God, and rewards for works. The unsaved have no such covering; they face God with a bank book full of sin, and are dispatched to the lake of fire. For their unwillingness to bow the knee to the Son, they will, in fact, be shamed and punished. There will be no one to take up their case in the court of public opinion and protest, as was done in the case of Jussie Smollett, because, in the end, only the “opinion,” the decree, the righteousness of God matters.
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John Hamilton is the author of THE COVID VACCINE: And the silencing of our doctors and scientists and False Flags, State Secrets, Government Deceptions:
A Short History of the Modern Era.