Does God control heads of state? Even when heads of state execute ethnic cleansing? The Book of Proverbs says, "Yes."

Proverbs 21:1 -- In the Lord’s hand the king’s heart is a stream of water that he channels toward all who please him.

The nine European Monarchs who attended the funeral
of King Edward VII of Britain,
photographed at Windsor Castle on 20 May 1910.

Proverbs makes no attempt to explain the paradox of divine mastery and responsible human freedom

"Departure of the Israelites", by David Roberts, 1829.

Proverbs makes no attempt to explain the paradox of divine mastery and responsible human freedom (see 21:1; Phil 2:12-13).  Several stories illustrate the issues of this saying.  In Genesis, Joseph's brothers plan and execute evil against Joseph for their own purposes, but their actions ultimately serve God's good purposes of salvation (see the paradoxical formulations concerning "who did it" in Gen 45:5-8; 50:19-21).  In other cases, Yahweh "hardens" Pharaoh's self-hardened heart (Exodus 5-11) and ordains that Absalom choose the wrong counsel against David (2 Sam 15:31; 16:23; 17:14).  Proverbs 21:1 against raises the issues of 16:1, 9 and 20:27.  Its main thrust, however, is positive, because irrigation waters, like royal wisdom, cause the land and the people to flourish (see 18:4).

Practically, 21:1 gives hope to those who pray for rulers and all in positions of authority


An atheist election poster, United States elections, 2012.

Practically, 21:1 gives hope to those who pray for rulers and all in positions of authority (1 Tim 2:1-8) -- hope that God will guide and move them to act in wisdom for the common good.  In evil times, this proverb may comfort those whose lives are afflicted by capricious tyrants or cruel magistrates.  The Lord can indeed turn the hearts of the wicked to do what is right, thereby working God's own good purposes even when human beings intend evil.

Why has God not made good the hearts of the mighty and the common folk alike?

A boy at a grave during the 2006 funeral of genocide victims
in Srebrenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Yet in our reflection on the genocidal "ethnic cleansing" perpetrated by the Nazis, by the warring factions in Bosnia, by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, by Amin in Uganda, and by opposing sides in Rwanda and Zaire, we ask the anguished question, Why has God not made good the hearts of the mighty and the common folk alike?  "Why, O LORD, do you make us / stray from your ways / and harden our heart, so that / we do not fear you?" (Isa 63:17, NRSV).  Perhaps the most terrible judgments of God are those in which God confirms the hardness of human hears and leave us to our own devices:

Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save,
    nor his ear too dull to hear.
But your iniquities have separated
    you from your God;
your sins have hidden his face from you,
    so that he will not hear. (Isa 59:1-2 NIV)

Source: Van Leeuwen, Raymond. “Proverbs.” In The New Interpreter’s Bible, Volume 5:17-264. (Nashville: Abingdon, 1997), pages 195-196.

A father's warning to his son against associating with outlaws in the Book of Proverbs is as applicable today as it was thousands of years ago

Solomon writing Proverbs by Gustave Doré

Proverbs 1:10-19 -- Warning Against Outlaws

My son, if sinners entice you, do not give in to them.  If they say, "Come along with us; let's lie in wait for someone's blood, let's waylay some harmless soul;  let's swallow them alive, like the grave, and whole, like those who go down to the pit;  we will get all sorts of valuable things and fill our houses with plunder;  throw in your lot with us, and we will share a common purse"--  my son, do not go along with them, do not set foot on their paths;  for their feet rush into sin, they are swift to shed blood.  How useless to spread a net in full view of all the birds!  These men lie in wait for their own blood; they waylay only themselves!  Such is the end of all who go after ill-gotten gain; it takes away the lives of those who get it.

The problem of evil the parent addresses is universal.

Mỹ Lai Massacre

For some readers, the sinner's invitation to violence may seem far removed from their secure, middle-class world.  Indeed, some scholars think the parent's vignette of violence is an exaggerated didactic lesson, "an extreme case" that "cannot be generalized."  But to hear the relevance of this text for the human condition, it is necessary to attend to its literal sense.  The parent who speaks in 1:10-19 is from the upper stratum of Israelite society.  But the problem of evil the parent addresses is universal.  Our own century has known two world wars, a flood of smaller ones, and countless terrorist acts both political and private.  Violence is a human reality.  As M. Scott Peck's analysis of the My Lai massacre in Vietnam has shown, American violence may be a systemic problem.  It invades all social groups.  It implicates even "good people" who are not overtly immoral, because there are no innocent bystanders to societal evil.

The speech is brutally realistic about the possibilities that lie before the son

The parent of 1:10-19 knows that evil is a real option for the son, that anyone can cross the line from good to evil (cf. Gen 8:21).  The parent does not assume that "good families" are inoculated against evil or that godly virtue automatically continues from generation to generation.  The speech is brutally realistic about the possibilities that lie before the son.

It would be suitable of a father to a potential Nazi SS recruit in the 1930s

Hitler Youth members performing the Nazi salute
at a rally at the Lustgarten in Berlin, 1933

This dissuasive speech speaks to many situations.  Shakespeare used it and Wisdom's prophetic warning (1:20-33) to shape his account of the moral education of young Prince Hal (King Henry IV).  It would be suitable as well on the lips of a mother on Chicago's South Side today, or of a father to a potential Nazi SS recruit in the 1930s.  It could have served a mother of an Israelite lad about to join one of the bloody rival gangs in the days of Abimelech (Judg 9:4, 25, 29).  It might serve Christian parents of a bright young son or daughter tempted to join a firm whose profits rest on exploitations of laborers, on destruction of the environment, or on success at the expense of justice and truth.

Source:  Van Leeuwen, Raymond.  “Proverbs.”  In The New Interpreter’s Bible, Volume 5:17-264.  (Nashville: Abingdon, 1997), page 38.

Where are the Pharisees in our day? In protestant fundamentalist and evangelical liberal churches according to Eric L. Johnson

The spiritual dynamics that led to the Pharisees exist in all ages

James Tissot, Woe unto You, Scribes and Pharisees, Brooklyn Museum

Obviously, as an historical group, the Pharisees will never be seen again. However, the spiritual dynamics that led to the Pharisees exist in all ages. Throughout history, humans have, in effect,' stolen the good that comes from God and acted as if it belonged to themselves, and, as a result, have ended up fighting against God and His saving purposes. Assuming that every age has those who bear a resemblance to the Pharisees, for our spiritual well-being today we must ask, "Where are the Pharisees in our day?"

The first group that comes to mind are Protestant fundamentalists

This billboard near the center of Alabama encourages people to go to church.

The first group that comes to mind are Protestant fundamentalists. This group holds to a relatively strict moral code focusing on certain behaviors like drinking, dancing, smoking, and swearing, and on certain forms of entertainment like music, television, and movies. Like the Pharisees; their code was influenced by Scripture, but it too goes beyond Scripture in many of its particulars. Moreover, fundamentalists often reveal a sense of superiority when faced with others who do not share their views on skirt lengths and wine. It's not uncommon for some in this tradition to raise serious questions about the genuineness of faith of other Christians who do not share their beliefs and behaviors. As a result, some in this group tend to form tightly controlled churches ruled over by a chief Pharisee, and fellowship only with other entirely like-minded Christians, believing "At least we have the truth."

Another interesting group that can share some features of the Pharisees are evangelical liberals

"Towards the Dawn!" - a 1930s promotional image from Saskatchewan

However, another interesting group that can share some features of the Pharisees are evangelical liberals. Contrary to their claims of tolerance and their apparent humility, they can rival the fundamentalists in condescension. For example, this group views fundamentalists with a remarkable disdain. Evangelical liberals have their own politically correct attitude code to address sexism, racism, tolerance, intellectual freedom, and wealth. Again, they are influenced by Scripture but not determined by it. To believe things contrary to this code can invite all kinds of scowls and what we might call a veiled intolerance. The limitations of their humility are seen most clearly when one catches them in an inconsistency, moral or intellectual, for they can become quite defensive toward any who would suggest that they might be deficient in some way. A typical strategy is to hide behind some degree of relativism and ask, "What right have you to judge me?" – a ruse that actually masks their own felt superior goodness.

Source: Johnson, Eric L. “Where are the Pharisees today?” Reformation and Revival Journal 7, (1998): 37-48.

In a 21st century society that values money, pensions, and retirement, Richard Baxter (1615 – 1691) says that work keeps you from sin and depression

Scarce any sort of sinners have so little pleasure in their sins as the melancholy

Vincent van Gogh's 1890 painting
Sorrowing old man ('At Eternity's Gate')

Again, still remember what a comfortable evidence you carry about with you that your sin is not damning, while you feel that you love it not, but hate it, and are weary of it. Scarce any sort of sinners have so little pleasure in their sins as the melancholy, nor so little desire to keep them; and only beloved sins undo men.

Be sure that you live not idly, but in some constant business of a lawful calling

Idle Woman, painting by Daniel Hernández Morillo

Be sure that you live not idly, but in some constant business of a lawful calling, so far as you have bodily strength. Idleness is a constant sin, and labour is a duty. Idleness is but the devil's home for temptation, and for unprofitable, distracting musings. Labour profiteth others, and ourselves: both soul and body need it. Six days must you labour, and must not eat the bread of idleness, (Prov. 31). God hath made it our duty, and will bless us in his appointed way. I have known grievous, despairing melancholy cured, and turned into a life of godly cheerfulness, principally by setting upon constancy and diligence in the business of families and callings. It turns the thoughts from temptations, and leaveth the devil no opportunity: it pleaseth God if done in obedience, and it purifieth the distempered blood. Though thousands of poor people that live in penury, and have wives and children that must also feel it, one would think should be distracted with griefs and cares, yet few of them fall into the disease of melancholy, because labour keepeth the body sound, and leaveth them no leisure for melancholy musings: whereas, in London, and great towns, abundance of women that never sweat with bodily work, but live in idleness, especially when from fullness they fall into poverty, are miserable objects, continually vexed, and near distraction with discontent and a restless mind.

If you will not be persuaded to business, your friends, if they can, should force you to it.

Christ himself is justly supposed to have worked at his supposed father's trade, as he went on fishing with his disciples

The Youth of Jesus (Jeunesse de Jésus)
James Tissot

And if the devil turn religious as an angel of light, and tell you that this is but turning away your thoughts from God, and that worldly thoughts and business are unholy, and fit for worldly men; tell him that Adam was in innocency to dress and keep his garden, and Noah that had all the world was to be husbandman, and Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob kept sheep and cattle, and Paul was a tent-maker, and Christ himself is justly supposed to have worked at his supposed father's trade, as he went on fishing with his disciples. And Paul saith, idleness is disorderly walking, and he that will not work let him not eat. God made soul and body, and hath commanded work to both.

Richard Baxter (1615 – 1691) was an English Puritan church leader, poet, hymn-writer, theologian, and controversialist.

Source: Baxter, Richard. Sermon XI: The Cure of Melancholy and Overmuch Sorrow by Faith and Physic.

Three California Researchers come up with chapter 7 of Paul's letter to the Romans 2,000 years after Paul writes it!

Chapter 2, How the Brain's Basic Structure Poses Problems for Love, from A General Theory of Love (published in 2000 A.D.)

The scientist and artist both speak to the turmoil that comes from having a triune brain (reptilian, limbic, and neocortical).  A person cannot direct his emotional life in the way he bids his motor system to reach for a cup.  He cannot will himself to want the right thing, or to love the right person, or to be happy after a disappointment, or even to be happy in happy times.  People lack this capacity not through a deficiency of discipline but because the jurisdiction of will is limited to the latest brain (neocortical) and to those functions within its purview.  Emotional life can be influenced, but it cannot be commanded.  Our society's love affair with mechanical devices that respond at a button-touch ill prepares us to deal with the unruly organic mind that dwells within.  Anything that does not comply must be broken or poorly designed, people now suppose, including their hearts.

Source: Lewis, Thomas, Fari Amini, Richard Lannon.  A General Theory of Love.  New York: Random House, 2000, page 33.

Chapter 7 of Paul's Letter to the Romans Written 2,000 Years Ago (Published in the early 50s AD)

What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, "Do not covet." But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from law, sin is dead. Once I was alive apart from law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death. For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death. So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good. Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! But in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it produced death in me through what was good, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful. We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do--this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God--through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin. (Rom 7:7-25).

Source: Paul's Epistle to the church in Rome, New Testament, Holy Bible.

What do you do if somebody asks you for advice? Tell him he's blaming others instead of himself and that he's worshipping a false god.

I look for instances when the counselee places blame for his own behavior at the feet of others.

Scapegoat, 2012, bronze sculpture

One of the most powerful strongholds of spiritual blindness is the fortress of blame.  We all find creative ways to blame others for what we have done.  From the child who says, "He did it first!" to the man who says he committed adultery because his wife didn't pay him enough attention, we sinners tend to hide in the fortress of other people's sins.  And we vigorously justify our own sin in the face of another's mistreatment.

At these times I stop to ask, "Are you really saying that ...?" questions.  I want the person to face the implications of his words.  So I ask the adulterous man, "Are you saying that there is a direct connection between your wife's neglect and your unfaithfulness?"  Or, "Explain the connection you see between your adultery and you wife's attitude toward you."  Or, "What other responses could you have had to the hurtfulness of you wife's response?"  I want my counselee to stop hiding behind the sins of others so he can do something constructive with his own actions and attitudes.

I seek to uncover functional distortions in the person's view of God

The Adoration of the Golden Calf by Nicolas Poussin

Listen to the God-talk of your counselees.  Listen to the questions they ask about God's person and work.  Listen for plausible theological lies.  Few people will suddenly reject the God of the Scriptures to become avowed atheists.  However, many fall away into a cold and distant theological cynicism as the God of their functional theology becomes one who is worthy of neither worship nor respect.

I look for evidence of the person letting go of the means of grace and Christian growth, such as daily personal worship, the gatherings of the body of Christ, Christian friendship and fellowship, the teaching of the Word, and corporate worship.  I seek to understand why they have withdrawn, hoping to expose and understand the lies that have led to a weakened faith in God and a loss of motivation for pursuing deeper communion with him and his people.


Source: Paul David Tripp. Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands: People In Need of Change Helping People in Need of Change. (Phillipsburg, New Jersey: P&R Publishing Company), 2002, pages 307, 310-312.

Are You Blind? Here Are Ten Ways in Which People Are Blind According to Paul David Tripp, professor of Pastoral Life and Care at Redeemer Seminary

Ten Ways in Which People Are Blind According to Paul David Tripp, professor of Pastoral Life and Care at Redeemer Seminary:

1. Believe they have an accurate sense of self.

2. See their primary problem as being sinned against.

3. See the difficult things in their lives as trials rather than consequences of their own choices and behaviour.

4. See problems as a direct result of their neediness.

5. Think they are wise and have received much wise counsel.

6. Have analyzed their lives and believe they have insight into what is going on and why.

7. Think they have a clear sense of what is valuable and important.

8. See themsleves as having a mature knowledge of Scripture (the Bible) and theology (Christianity).

9. See themselves as holy; that is, wanting and doing the right things.

10. Already see themselves as repentant.

Source: Paul David Tripp.  Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands: People In Need of Change Helping People in Need of Change.  (Phillipsburg, New Jersey: P&R Publishing Company), 2002, pages 304-305.

Lutheran Minister Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) on how to read God's Word (the Bible): "It is I to whom it is speaking."

What is Required in Order to Look at Oneself with True Blessing in the Mirror of the Word?

The first requirement is that you must not look at the mirror, observe the mirror, but must see yourself in the mirror.

But how is God's Word read in Christendom? If we were to be divided into two classes -- since specific exceptions cannot be sondiered here -- then one would have to say that the majority never read God's Word, a minority read it more or less learnedly, that is, nevertheless do not read God's Word but observe the mirror. To say it in other words, the majority regard God's Word as an obsolete ancient book one puts aside; a minority look upon God's Word as an extremely remarkable ancient book upon which one expends an amazing diligence, acumen, etc. -- observing the mirror.

It is I to whom it is speaking; it is I about whom it is speaking.

The second requirement is that in order to see yourself in the mirror when you read God's Word you must (so that you actually do come to see yourself in the mirror) remember to say to yourself incessantly: It is I to whom it is speaking; it is I about whom it is speaking.

He looked at his bodily face in a mirror but promptly forgot how he looked

Finally, if  you want to look at yourself in the mirror with true blessing, you must not promptly forget how you looked, you must not be the foregetful hearer (or reader) of whom the apostle says: He looked at his bodily face in a mirror but promptly forgot how he looked.

Source: Kierkegaard, Soren. For Self-Examination. Translated and edited by Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1990, pages 25, 33 (XII 322), 35, and 44.

Soren Kierkegaard (1813 - 1855) documents the development of Christianity before and after Martin Luther (1483 - 1546) from false piety, to works, to faith, to being born Christian, to professorship, to the disappearance of faith.

 

Martin Luther witnessed against what the age regarded as true self-denial

Let us take an instance of true self-denial. Luther, for example. He was strictly disciplined to be able to express the kind of piety that in the Middle Ages was honored and glorified under the name of self-denial -- which therefore was not true self-denial. And Luther denounced precisely that kind of piety. Suppose he had chosen to become a very distinguished ecclesiastic in order thereby to be rewarded for his self-denial in witnessing against the false kind of self-denial. In that case, it would again not have been true self-denial. But honest Luther saw properly. He witnessed against what the age regarded as true self-denial; he cut himself off from the opportunity of scoring a success thereby; perhaps Governance also helped him in this respect -- and here is true self-denial.

A person is saved by faith alone

At that time, there appeared a man from God and with faith, Martin Luther: with faith (for truly this required faith) or by faith he established faith in its rights. His life expressed works -- let us never forget that -- but he said: A person is saved by faith alone. The anger was great. I know of no stronger expression of how great it was in Luther's eyes than that he decided that in order to get things straight: the Apostle James must be shoved aside. Imagine Luther's respect for an apostle -- and then to have to dare to do this in order to get faith restored to its rights!

Whether the turn that Luther made cannot all too easily become a wrong road as soon as there is no Luther

Present-day Christendom, at least that which I am talking about, adheres to Luther;  it is another matter whether Luther could acknowledge it, whether the turn that Luther made cannot all too easily become a wrong road as soon as there is no Luther whose life makes the true turn the truth.  In any case, if someone wants to see whether there are some dubious aspects in the contemporary situation, it is certainly best to look back to Luther and the turn he made.

The error from which Luther turned was an exaggeration with regard to works

The error from which Luther turned was an exaggeration with regard to works.  And he was entirely right; he did not make a mistake -- a person is justified solely and only by faith.  That is the way he talked and taught -- and believed.  And that this was not taking grace in vain -- to that his life witnessed.  Splendid!

But already the next generation slackened

But already the next generation slackened; it did not turn with horror away from exaggeration with regard to works (in which exaggeration Luther lived) toward faith.  No, it made the Lutheran position into doctrine, and in this way faith also diminished in vital power.  Then it diminished from generation to generation.  Works -- well, God knows there was no longer any question about that; it would be a shame to accuse this later age of exaggeration with regard to works, and neither were people so silly that they presumed to want to have merit for what they exempted themselves from doing.  But, now, faith -- I wonder if it is to be found on earth?

One is born a Christian

What Christ required as a condition for coming into the situation in which there can be any question of becoming a Christian, a decisive action -- that is not needed anymore.  A person's life is essentially homogeneous with the secular mentality and this world.  So one perhaps hears a little about something that perhaps is Christianity; one reads a little, thinks a little about Christianity, experiences a mood once in a while -- and then one is a believer and a Christian.  Indeed, one is already that in advance; one is born a Christian, oddly enough, and what makes it even more odd, one is born a Lutheran.  It is undeniably a very dubious way to become a believer and Christian.  Indeed, it has very little resemblance to Luther's way -- from the horror, through having tortured himself in a monastery for a number of years without finding rest for his soul or rest from this horror, finally to find faith's blessed way out, so that it was no wonder that this much-tried man witnessed so powerfully against building one's salvation upon works, not against works -- it was only the sly world that heard wrong.

If the Christianity of the Middle Ages is called monastic-ascetic Christianity, then the Christianity of today could be called professorial-scholarly Christianity

But since they had abolished becoming a Christian through a decisive action that can bring about the setting (situation) in which it is decided whether one is willing to be Christian or not, they substituted thinking about Christianity, in order to be doing at least something, and they thought to become Christian along this road in order thereby to go even further than faith.  They did not stop with faith -- no wonder, since they did not do as Luther did, come to faith from an exaggeration with regard to works, but started out immediately with faith, which "naturally" everyone has.  If the Christianity of the Middle Ages is called monastic-ascetic Christianity, then the Christianity of today could be called professorial-scholarly Christianity.  Not everyone could become a professor, of course, but everyone took on a tinge of a professor of sorts and of the scholarly.  Just as in the beginning not all became martyrs, but all stood in relation to the martyr, and just as in the Middle Ages not all entered the monastery, but all stood in relation to the monastery and saw the true Christian in one who entered it, so in our day all stand in relation to the professor -- the professor is the true Christian.  And with the professor came scientific scholarship, and with scholarship came doubts, and with scholarship and doubts came the scholarly public, and then came reasons pro and contra, and pro und contral were Germanized, "denn [because] pro und contra allow sich [themselves] to say very much in the matter."

The professor!  This man is not mentioned in the New Testament, from which one sees in the first place that Christianity came into the world without professors.  Anyone with any eye for Christianity will certainly see that no one is as qualified to smuggle Christianity out of the world as "the professor" is, because the professor shifts the whole viewpoint of Christianity.

Faith Does Not Exist

This is why imitation must be affirmed.  To the professor corresponds Christianity as objective teaching, doctrine.  This conception of Christianity, with the help of doubt or with the help of reasons, plays the victory into the hands of doubt and changes decision, which Christianity most decisively stresses as crucial, into postponement from day to week to month to year to a lifetime.  When the "professor" stands at his highest level and Christianity perceives itself in the professor as it once perceived itself in the monastery, the condition in Christendom will be -- Christianity does not really exist, adhuc sub judice lis est [the case is still before the court]; the conclusion with regard to what Christianity is, or what is Christianity, is waited.  Faith does not exist; at most it is a mood that vacillates between recalling Christianity as a vanished something and waiting for it as a future something.  Imitation is an impossibility, because inasmuch as everything is put in abeyance, one cannot possibly begin anything decisive, but one's existence drifts with the current and one utilizes natural self-love to make life as cozy as possible for oneself.  The "professor" cannot fasten down anything; what he can do is to put everything in abeyance.  At times the professor seems to propund something utterly trustworthy.  This, however, is an illusion and is due more to his demeanor and assurances; looked at more closely, his firmest point is still in the realm of scientific-scholarly doubt and consequently in abeyance.  Only imitation can tie the knot at the end.  But just as the king blanched when an invisible hand wrote upon the wall, "You have been weighed and found wanting, " so the professor blanches before imitation -- it, too, expresses: you, with the weight of all your objective scholarship, your folios and systems, have been weighed and found wanting.  No wonder, since Christianly it is precisely the objective scholarship that weighs least on the scales. -- When the "monastery" is the deviation, faith must be affirmed; when the "professor" is the deviation, imitation must be affirmed.

Sources:

Kierkegaard, Soren. For Self-Examination : Judge For Yourself, Translated and edited by Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1990, 16 (XII 307), 193-196 (XII 461-XII 464).