"Do you really believe that the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, plans to be a loser in history?"
About this Quote
North’s question is engineered less as theology than as a dare. It corners the reader into a binary: either you affirm a triumphant Christ who “wins” in the public record, or you’re implicitly accusing “the Lord of glory” of strategic incompetence. The phrasing smuggles in its conclusion. “Do you really believe” frames doubt as embarrassment; “plans” makes historical outcomes a matter of divine intention; “loser in history” borrows the crude scoreboard language of politics and sports to shame any piety that tolerates cultural defeat.
The intent is mobilization. North, a writer associated with postwar American Christian Reconstructionism, isn’t comforting believers about salvation; he’s disciplining them into a this-world program. History becomes a stage where faith must translate into institutional power: law, education, governance, economics. If Christians are losing influence, the problem isn’t tragedy or martyrdom; it’s disobedience, timidity, or bad strategy. That’s the subtext: decline is not inevitable, and accepting it is a kind of betrayal.
The line also performs a rhetorical judo move against traditional Christian motifs. Christianity has long been fluent in paradox: a crucified Messiah, victory through apparent defeat, a kingdom “not of this world.” North flips that, insisting that any spirituality comfortable with marginal status is effectively denying Christ’s reign. By calling Jesus “the Lord of glory” and then juxtaposing “loser,” he creates a cognitive insult the reader feels compelled to resolve by choosing activism. It’s a recruitment pitch masquerading as a question, and it works because it weaponizes honor and humiliation in the language of providence.
The intent is mobilization. North, a writer associated with postwar American Christian Reconstructionism, isn’t comforting believers about salvation; he’s disciplining them into a this-world program. History becomes a stage where faith must translate into institutional power: law, education, governance, economics. If Christians are losing influence, the problem isn’t tragedy or martyrdom; it’s disobedience, timidity, or bad strategy. That’s the subtext: decline is not inevitable, and accepting it is a kind of betrayal.
The line also performs a rhetorical judo move against traditional Christian motifs. Christianity has long been fluent in paradox: a crucified Messiah, victory through apparent defeat, a kingdom “not of this world.” North flips that, insisting that any spirituality comfortable with marginal status is effectively denying Christ’s reign. By calling Jesus “the Lord of glory” and then juxtaposing “loser,” he creates a cognitive insult the reader feels compelled to resolve by choosing activism. It’s a recruitment pitch masquerading as a question, and it works because it weaponizes honor and humiliation in the language of providence.
Quote Details
| Topic | God |
|---|
More Quotes by Gary
Add to List
