Black Metal

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Hey guys,

I don't know about your musical tastes, I do like a bit of tekno every now and then.. However, I came across this and thought I had to share:

[youtube:2lqbd5it]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFxN00yRvcI[/youtube]2lqbd5it]

Varg Vikernes is probably most famous for killing Euronymous, member of the Norwegian black metal band Mayhem.. But also for burning down churches too! In the video fast forward to 1:40 and listen to what he has to say..

[Christopher Marlowe]

I can understand what he is trying to say, but he is beginning with many false premises and that leads to false conclusions.

There are many voices on the web that speak against Christianity, but many of their premises are in direct contradiction. The end result is that they are united in their hatred of Christ, but if their premises are in conflict, their arguments cannot be right. Their conclusions would only be correct by happenstance.

For example, this violent viking Varg says that Christians have no respect for Norwegian culture, therefore why should he respect the Christian culture. This premise is in direct conflict with the haters of Christ who say that Christmas is a pagan holiday.  They say that the Christmas tree and the Christmas wreaths are pagan symbols.  

It is true that the Christmas tree was used as a pagan symbol. But the Church fathers knew that trees in themselves are not evil, so they did not see any problem with incorporating them into Christian holidays.  That is part of the beauty of the Catholic religion. It does not seek to destroy culture, but merely to cleanse people from their sin and to point them to God. So the Church fathers encouraged people to continue to celebrate their holiday, but they removed the sinful aspects. The winter solstice became a celebration of the Birth of Christ.

But we can't allow both premises: It can't be true that Christmas is a pagan holiday if the Catholic Church has no respect for indigenous cultures.  

Another false premise of Varg's was that Christianity was basically a Jewish religion forced onto Norwegians. But Jews didn't chop down trees and celebrate Christmas.  When Varg said that baptism is symbolic of killing the enemies of the Jews, that is an example of positivistic reasoning. It is true that the symbol of baptism began in the story of the Hebrews crossing the Red Sea. The Egyptians chased after the Hebrews and were swallowed up into the sea.

But this story is meant to show how God frees us from sin. Egypt was symbolic of a sinful culture: worshiping false idols, slaying of the innocent, slavery and cruelty.  God chose people to save from sin: the descendants of Abraham were asked to leave Egypt in the same way that we are called to recognize our sinful condition and to turn away from sin. When the people called by God attempted to leave, the soldiers rode after them in order to bring them back into Egypt. This is the symbolic of the way that people who try to leave their sinful condition are prevented by their own desires or even other people.  God saved the Hebrews by swallowing up the Egyptian soldiers in the Red Sea. God will save the people that he called. If God has determined to save someone from sin, then He will do it. Baptism is a sacrament that is an outward sign of the real Grace where God removes our sin.  

Let's say a person is a drug addict, and that person steals and or sells her body to buy drugs. That person can pray to Jesus, and Jesus will help her to come out of sin, and quit doing drugs.  Now when she tries to stop doing drugs, her 'friends' are going to persuade her to keep her doing drugs and stealing and selling her body. They are going to try to keep her in sin because they themselves are slaves to sin.  This poor woman will have her own cravings to keep doing drugs, but Jesus will help her to turn away from all of that.  Jesus will help to save her from being a hopeless drug addict and prostitute because He loves His people. We might pass that woman on the street and say: "Look at that pathetic tweaker.  tsk, tsk tsk."  We might even have the desire to help her, but we wouldn't even know where to begin. But Jesus can save her from her sin because He is the Lord.  Jesus can take her out of her sin and lead her into a life of peace where she doesn't have to smoke crack every two hours, and sell her body to strangers. This power of Jesus to save us from sin is what the Sacrament of baptism shows.  

Now in my description of what baptism means, I showed how the story of the Hebrews was the origin of the meaning.  But when I gave an example of someone being saved from sin, I didn't describe anything Jewish. So the origin of the Sacrament is only meant to provide context. The Sacrament itself is not Jewish. It is Christian. Guys like Giuliani get stuck in this same positivist frame of mind where they are not able to understand the difference between rules and meanings. The apostle Paul wrote about how the Christian Church was to remove all of its Jewishness, and how it was not necessary to practice the Law to be a Christian. For example, Paul said that it was no longer necessary to cut off the tip of a boy's wee-wee. But the Jews were all, "Yeah, you gots to cut off the tip. Being a Christian is about being a good Jew, and Jews are known for having a slightly smaller wee-wee."
But Paul was all, "No, no no. That is your own idea and it is not from God. God let you do that because he was patient. But now you have to stop slicing on the wee-wee.  Being a Christian is NOT about being a Jew. It is about being a spiritual descendant of Abraham.  You can't get caught up in the worldly interpretation of everything. This is not about conquering other tribes and subjugating them like the way the sons of Jacob used circumcision to slay Shechem. The circumcision has to be a circumcision of the heart: people have to be freed from sin by cutting off their desire for sin."

If the Christian religion was just a Jewish religion, then the Church would not have taught that it was wrong to circumcise boys.  

Worshiping a false God is objectively disordered. Worshiping a tree instead of the God who made the tree is disordered.  The Catholic religion set people free from their false religions and disordered societies, but it did not destroy cultures. Europe was the height of civilization, and it was invented and grew up under the Catholic religion. If the Catholic religion had destroyed cultures, then why were there so many different languages, governments, and customs within the relatively small continent of Europe?

Varg says that Christians destroyed all of the old records, but this is also a false premise. The Church preserved the writings of the ancient Greeks and Romans.  Christian monks worked for countless hours copying ancient manuscripts so that people would be able to read Plato and Aristotle.  The first universities rose out of the learning of the Christian monks.  When the first Christians went up to the northern parts of Europe those people were living in the stone age. The Christians brought them literature, art and music, and the Scandinavian people profited immensely through Christ. Now their culture is turning pagan again, and they have become more materialistic, and they are sliding into degeneracy like all of Europe. They turn their abandoned churches into theatres, and they practice fag marriage and abortion. The Catholic Church came to Europe and brought reason and Truth, and civilization was born.  Now they are turning away, and Europe is sliding back into the mud.  

Varg thinks Norway was better off at the height of Viking culture: a land of warriors, brave seamen and marauders.  If sacking a village is the height of civilization, perhaps Varg can get a job with Blackwater/homeland security when he gets out of prison.