The Stone Choir/Corey Mahler Invert God's Revelation

https://coreyjmahler.com/the-european-peoples-and-christianity/ 


*****EDIT: Some have said that they, or at least Corey Mahler perhaps believes, that the European religions were deviations from Christianity, believed by Noah and his sons. Over time, sinful man and demons twisted these European religions, which I think their argument is that it was originally Christian/derived from Noah and his offspring. Nordic paganism had the most in common with Christianity, even with Odin sacrificing himself on a tree, and therefore the Europeans were the most ripe and ready to embrace Christianity and continue to advance the cause of Christ more than other peoples/races/nations over the last 2,000 years since Christ. 

To that I simply say, I appreciate the context given, but even if all that were true (maybe it is, maybe it is not), it doesn't change the fundamental points of my post below. Syncretism, Odinism, etc., even if it was somehow a distorted derivation flowing from the true faith, is still paganism, and such worship cannot be pleasing to God or a right reverencing of God, but actually still damns man and is idolatrous. *****

Please see the article linked above. This helps explain why the men on the Stone Choir podcast say stupid stuff like they are magnitudes of intellect/IQ better than anyone who critiques them. For all of their research, writing, and podcasts -- and there is some useful information in there mixed in with a lot  of overstatement and bad application -- it seems this article gets to the beating heart of their convictions, beliefs, and enterprise. They do not do justice to natural revelation, or special revelation, God's Word. In fact, they invert the two, distorting both, and mixed with their views on the supremacy of the European race, essentially end up denying that Europeans were really pagan, but were in fact God's chosen people all along. 

While we can and should affirm the blessings of natural revelation, and can affirm that some races, like the Europeans generally, saw more of the one true God (His power and Godhead per Romans 1, etc.) by the light of nature than other races, we cannot affirm that any of it was salvific. Further, no worship of God purely through nature is true worship that glorifies or pleases God. 

And yet this article says just the opposite, at minimum equivocating on the matter of veneration vs. worship, saying that veneration of nature and worship through gods like Odin was pleasing and glorifying to the one true God of Scripture. This is false. Bible verses could be multiplied, but let me simply give Romans 1:18-25: 

"For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen."

Europeans are not the "only exception" to Romans 1:18-25. Yet that is what Mahler makes Europeans out to be, as I believe the article and my comments on it below demonstrate.  

No amount of juicing up on natural revelation/theology/religion, no amount of Acts 17, makes this  article fundamentally true. Show me I'm wrong in my understanding or doctrine, and I'll gladly repent. But here's what seems quite clear to me from this article -- Mahler says that the European Peoples have always sought after truth, such that our "old gods were our explanation for the world given what we had then seen of the Light." 

So when Christ came to Europeans, we basically did a pallet swap, for the fuller light of Christ synced up with our/European efforts to grasp onto Him already through our false gods (Odin, etc.). But that's the rub, Mahler is not really making European idols/false gods to be false, but true, given the amount of light Europeans were given at the time. 

Perhaps elsewhere they say the European worship and light was insufficient for salvation, but I don't see that squaring with what is said in this article. He says that European mythology "is all to the glory of God." Further, "Our innate and inextricable reverence for the natural world is an expression of our unique intuition that it is the natural world, more than anything else, that reveals to us the face of God." 

If this were so, ancient, pagan Europeans should be praised for their worship and reverence of gods, and these gods should not be called false gods, but imperfect representations and imperfect worship and reverence of the one true God. Mahler says nature is the greater revelation compared to Scripture, and the Europeans innately got that revelation right, laying the groundwork for receiving the God of the Bible, as if there was virtually a seamless transition: 

"I believe, as did the Founding Fathers and many of our European forebears, that God presented Himself to us in two revelations: the second, and arguably the lesser of the two revelations, is the Bible; the first, and arguably God's greatest and most glorious work, is Nature. Only the Europeans, of all the peoples of this Earth, truly understood the first revelation. Without access to the second revelation, we interpreted the first as best we could. Intuitively grasping that we are made in the image of God, we created gods in our image. Our mythology is all to the glory of God. Our innate and inextricable reverence for the natural world is an expression of our unique intuition that it is the natural world, more than anything else, that reveals to us the face of God."

Now, I have no problem saying natural revelation and natural theology or religion touch on some true things, and to the degree that was recognized by Europeans or anyone else for that matter, that may be used by God to receive Christ, the Word made flesh, upon the hearing of the Gospel as revealed in the Scriptures. God uses nature to restrain evil and even for mankind to do some earthly good things, to develop creation, to rule and subdue, etc. This is true to some extent even of unbelievers/pagans, as all mankind is made in the image of God, even as fallen and sinful creatures. 

And yet given all that, Romans 1 (and many other passages of Scripture) explains how all mankind, European or otherwise, to one degree or another, exchange the truth of God for a lie by worshiping and serving creation rather than the Creator, and  for that, all mankind including Europeans, are given up to vile passions, idolatries, etc. 

The first three commandments condemn all worship of anyone other than the One true God as revealed in Scripture, not nature, and thus worship cannot flow from from man's imagination, much less through images and icons (idols), even if it happened to be in the name of Jehovah. Corey Mahler, and I say this trying to be as charitable as I can, denies and inverts that here, saying such idol/pagan worship was preparatory and pleasing to God, all done for the glory of God. This certainly drives one to conclude that he is arguing it was sufficient, prior to Christ and the Gospel reaching European shores, to bring one salvation. 

He says, "Our gods did not leave us, He simply revealed Himself. We do not betray our ancestors or pervert our Culture when we worship the one, true God. Christianity is not a veneer laid over a pagan structure; rather, Christianity is the beating heart of our Culture and it is the soul of our Volk. Our God in His glory and in His majesty has revealed Himself to us, bit by bit, over the course of our long and unrivalled history. Our veneration of His Nature and our grasping after the truth are as much a part of who we are today as it was a part of who our ancestors were millennia ago. We may no longer call Him Odin or seek intercession from Wotan, but our God is as He has ever been and we are, as we have ever been, His true People." 

That's heresy, plain and simple. You cannot escape that he is saying that the Europeans, after all, really weren't pagans, but always God's true people ("as we have ever been, His true People"), and thus he argues European reverence/veneration, has always been true and proper reverence/veneration, even if they perhaps went a bit too far in worshiping nature instead of merely reverencing God through it. Europeans simply do not call God Odin or seek intercession from Wotan (another name for Odin I believe, one of many pagan Norse gods in their mythology) anymore, because we simply had some names and details wrong, that the Bible helped clear up for us. If that's not heresy, what is? 

This is an equating of European pagan worship with worship of the one true God/Jesus Christ, just under the types and shadows of the pagan European mind, which is supposedly supreme and nearly god-like compared to the rest of mankind and its peoples/races. 

Like it or not, God covenanted with the Israelites and gave them the pattern of true worship with the Tabernacle/Temple, with its animal sacrifices and all the rest, pointing to Christ. He did not give that to Europeans at that time, and their worship was not merely inferior, but false, while Israel's worship, as given by God, was true (when they worshiped God as He commanded, which was admittedly rare). 

[Further, for any arguing that the European peoples retained true but faint "echoes" of the true faith from the line/offspring of Noah, the Bible makes it plain that this was not sufficient for true worship and reverence of God, for the Tabernacle/Temple system was setup by God, not only for Israel, but for all nations. Israel was to be a light to the world, for the world and its religions and paganism was great darkness. Israel had the Gospel in types and shadows, and no one else did. Now the light of Christ/the Gospel/true religion has been taken by the Apostles to the ends of the earth, and continues through the Church today in all the Earth, for all the world. Norse mythology was paganism that had to die at the foot of the cross as revealed in Scripture. This was true not only after Christ came, but before as well, for all mankind needed to know the Christ before He took on flesh, and that saving revelation would come only through the Scriptures of the O.T., and the God-given/revealed temple cultus of the Israelites.]

So, Mahler argues that Europeans did their best minus the Scriptures, but after all, the Scriptures/special revelation more broadly, is for him the inferior revelation to Nature, and the Europeans uniquely grasped the light of Nature most properly, unlike every other tribe, tongue, people and nation in the world. So much so, that the Europeans alone were always the actual true, people of God. So when Christ came to Europe, He came to His own true people for the first time. So says Mahler. 

But make no mistake, the Bible -- which is the supreme Light, particularly when it comes to matters of salvation, worship, morality, etc. -- says that all we Europeans were once (from Eph. 2) "without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ."

No light of nature will supersede or supplant, for matters pertaining to worship and salvation, the light of God's glory as revealed by being God's covenant people. And in God's covenant, comprised of sinners from every tribe, tongue, and nation, it is the light of Scripture/special revelation that shines brightest, even renewing the minds of the regenerate that can and should lead us to better grasp and draw conclusions from God's light of nature. To confuse and conflate these things is serious error, and presents both natural and spiritual danger to man. 

We can and should affirm the reality that there are historically and today, better and worse tribes, tongues, peoples, and nations, based on the light of nature, based on how much or how little this or that nation suppresses the truth in unrighteousness, or even how leavened they are with the Gospel/Salvation/Spirit of Christ. But we must also affirm that no superiority or inferiority of peoples and nations, apart from regeneration and the Gospel of the Kingdom of God, does us any good before the judgment seat of Christ. All have sinned and fall far short of the glory of God. 

Further, as Romans 3:1-2 makes crystal clear, the Jews prior to Christ were advantaged over every other people because they received the words/oracles of God of special revelation, which therefore is superior to natural revelation. Further, Romans 3:9-20 makes clear that all Jews and Greeks, which certainly includes Europeans, are --

"all under sin.

As it is written:

“There is none righteous, no, not one;

There is none who understands;

There is none who seeks after God.

They have all turned aside;

They have together become unprofitable;

There is none who does good, no, not one.”

“Their throat is an open tomb;

With their tongues they have practiced deceit”;

“The poison of asps is under their lips”;

“Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.”

“Their feet are swift to shed blood;

Destruction and misery are in their ways;

And the way of peace they have not known.”

“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin."

Since the Fall, no man, no race, no European, has naturally sought God in such a way that such seeking truly reverenced, worshiped, served, or pleased God, for one second, apart from repentance toward God and faith in Jesus Christ, which is revealed in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments alone. To say or imply otherwise, that even at some level worship of God through false gods of our own imaginations is true reverence/veneration that pleases God, is rank blasphemy. 

Does Mahler commit such blasphemy in this article? I pray not, but it certainly seems so. May God grant repentance.