The Justice of God, Advent, and You

…Especially if you are a hothead like me.

I can hardly write a post about justice this morning and ignore the crackhead elephant in the room, namely Joe Biden’s pardon of his son Hunter. But I do not want to dwell on that long so I will defer to Sasha Stone for a good summary.

Joe Always Planned on Pardoning His Son, Hunter

It may surprise readers that when I first heard of the pardon yesterday evening, I was fine with it even though Joe promised not to pardon his son. After all, Hunter was convicted mainly of filling out a Fed form wrong. At least that is my understanding.

But when I found out that Joe pardoned Hunter of anything he might have done for the past decade, my attitude changed. For that would include crimes of influence peddling using the name of “The Big Guy” and no telling what else.

Now it’s clear The Big Guy is trying to sweep under the rug the crimes of the Biden Crime Family, his own crimes. That is predictable but still wrong. So wrong that even more people of the Left like Nate Silver and Jonathan Chait took a red pill last night. Silver even urged in hot anger: “Don't vote for any Democrat in 2028 who doesn't repudiate the pardon within 48 hours.”

But for some reason, I am still not that angry about it. Maybe it’s because I am already angry about the likes of Marc Elias, Jack Smith, Adam Schiff, the Soros family, the Pritzkers, the Vindmans, the Pelosi family, Alejandro Mayorkas, Catholic Charities, World Relief et al ad nauseam getting away with their crimes and even being rewarded.

That I am angry about. And, to be honest about my hotheadness, this past week I had trouble keeping my cool. The election gave me relief with not a little joy mixed in, but something this past week brought home to me the enormity of all the crimes of the past four years. Maybe it was the Pelosi Crime Family and Democrats openly stealing two House seats in California?

Anyway, I don’t think I’m alone in my revival of anger judging from those I see insisting on just about everyone committing Democrat crimes going to prison. I’m more moderate myself. I just want a few hundred Democrooks in prison, that’s all.

Moderate and reasonable as I am, I could tell that my anger was eating me up; it was unhealthy. I know that, following the advice of St. Paul, I should not let the sun go down on my anger. But I was wondering if I would be able let the year go down on my anger!

Fortunately Advent, which began yesterday, now comes to my rescue.

I know not all my readers are liturgical nerds like me, so . . . . Advent begins four Sundays before Christmas Day and goes to Christmas Eve. It is a church season in which we prepare ourselves to celebrate the First Advent of Christ, i. e. Christmas and prepare for His Second Advent, His Second Coming. Or at least that is what we should be doing instead of doing Christmas so hard we are ready to have a bonfire of fruitcake and dried out Christmas trees by the time Christmas actually arrives.

Anyway, where was I? Oh yes. Advent reminds us — reminds me — that Jesus Christ is returning in glory to judge the quick and the dead. And His judgement, His justice, will be perfect. And we can rejoice in that and rest in that now. We can rejoice that He met the requirements of God’s holy justice for us on the cross — for us if we repent and turn to Him in faith and do not cast aside the redemption He won for us. We can also rejoice that those who refuse to repent, who reject Him and His righteousness and His Holy Cross, will have to experience His justice themselves.

That last sentence may be off putting. Surely we should not rejoice in anyone going to Hell. Respectfully, I disagree. I do agree that we should prefer that people repent. I think if even Adam Schiff publicly admitted his wrong and apologized and then carried out his duties as Senator accordingly, I would rejoice. Yes, even me. All the more so if it were the kind of repentance that leads to salvation. I mean that. But if, as it certainly seems, he will not repent then I want full and perfect justice meted out on him. I make no apology for that.

Much more importantly, Scripture teaches that the justice of God is an occasion for rest and joy. That theme comes up repeatedly in the Revelation of St. John. The martyrs of the Fifth Seal yearn for God to judge and avenge their blood. Then they are comforted and told to rest because justice is coming in God’s timing. (Rev. 6: 9-11) At the Third Plague, an angel praises God, saying:

Righteous are You, who are and who were, O Holy One, because You judged these things; for they poured out the blood of saints and prophets, and You have given them blood to drink. They deserve it. (16:5, 6 NASB 1995)

When Babylon is judged and destroyed, heaven is call to rejoice (18:20) and rejoice it does:

And after these things I heard a great voice of much people in heaven, saying, Alleluia; Salvation, and glory, and honour, and power, unto the Lord our God: For true and righteous are his judgments: for he hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand. And again they said, Alleluia. And her smoke rose up for ever and ever. And the four and twenty elders and the four beasts fell down and worshipped God that sat on the throne, saying, Amen; Alleluia. And a voice came out of the throne, saying, Praise our God, all ye his servants, and ye that fear him, both small and great. (19:1-5 KJV)

And one can hardly read the Psalms without seeing that the justice of God is an occasion for rejoicing. Yes, some passages in that regard are difficult to read. C. S. Lewis among others wrestled with those. But the Psalms reflect our yearnings for justice — and our frustration at injustice. The Psalms teach that God understands and will satisfy those yearnings. (See especially Psalm 73.)

So Scripture and Advent reminds us that God’s perfect justice will prevail in His good timing. That might not be the timing we prefer, and patience is not easy. Nonetheless we can rest and even rejoice in His justice instead of being eaten up with prolonged and useless and even dangerous anger. And for that I am thankful.

Now there is much more to Advent. The Principal of Pusey House, Dr. George Westhaver, preached an excellent sermon yesterday that gives a good sample of that. But if prevalent injustice angers you as much as it does me, it is all the more good to trust God and His justice. He will bring about perfect and complete justice. The likes of the Biden and Soros crime families will get theirs if they do not repent.

So why be angry as if justice will never come? Justice will come. For Jesus Christ “shall come again with glory to judge both the quick and the dead.”