13 March 2024

Playing Chick-fil-a with the Sabbath

https://wng.org/opinions/playing-chicken-with-the-lords-day-1707873572

I read this article in frustration and then laughed when I reached the bottom and realized it was written by Timon Cline, another name that keeps popping up in connection with The American Reformer. This website which has not (to my knowledge) produced anything sound or of lasting value has (it would seem) taken the Dominionist world by storm - just today I listened to a rather disappointing interview with his compatriot Aaron Renn. This article on Chick-fil-a (in keeping with everything else I've read from this lot) completely misses the point and obfuscates the issues at hand.

09 March 2024

Inbox: The Northern Kingdom Analogy Expanded (II)

Confessionalists and Evangelicals, (the two dominate groups in my Judah- Southern Kingdom analogy) don’t quote their own prophets as do the Charismatics but they do rely on alternate word-authorities. Evangelicals frequently quote the Founding Fathers or the founding documents treating such words as inspired or the very least deutero-canonical.

Inbox: The Northern Kingdom Analogy Expanded (I)

 Given all the overtly heretical forms of Christianity that are out there, why spend so much time criticizing conservative leaders and ministries? Where’s the threat? Are they not all more or less in agreement on the basics of the gospel? Are you not guilty of majoring on the minors?

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Over the years I have on occasion appealed to something I call the Northern Kingdom Analogy. The New Testament repeatedly reminds us that the Old Testament serves as an example. There were false prophets among them just as there will be among us. In Christ, we participated in the same events, and partake of the same spiritual meat and drink. The typology is relevant as well, and especially so when one understands Revelation provides a multi-faceted view of Church History cast in Old Testament forms and symbolism. Throughout the epistles, but especially in Jude and Revelation, there’s a direct analogy to Old Testament antecedents.

06 March 2024

More Presbyterian Shenanigans

https://theaquilareport.com/transferring-church-membership-is-not-a-violation-of-the-presbyterian-church-in-americas-membership-vows-a-gentle-rejoinder-to-an-earnest-man/

It's difficult to imagine anyone enjoying or benefitting from reading the linked piece on PCA membership. But there's something here that's noteworthy – something that reveals (at least in part) some of the deception and sleight-of-hand at work in Presbyterian membership constructs, and perhaps the bureaucratic mind.

27 February 2024

13 February 2024

Atlanticism's Attempt to Curtail the Rise of Europe and a Multi-Polar World

Atlanticism represents a historical anomaly – Europe under subjugation from an outside power. For many decades this was limited to Western Europe but with the collapse of the USSR, the United States extended its reach through NATO and other mechanisms to include all the former Warsaw Pact nations and portions of the former Soviet Union itself.

06 February 2024

Belgic Article XXXVI and Kuyperianism (II)

These discussions and debates are further confused by the influence of Neo-Calvinism (not to be confused with New Calvinism) and Theonomy which build on Kuyper and in some cases apply his ideas (by means of holistic assumption and inference) to their monistic models. Under such thinking, Sola Scriptura is effectively redefined not only in terms of philosophy but with this recasting comes a notion we might call hyper-sufficiency.

Belgic Article XXXVI and Kuyperianism (I)

https://reformedperspective.ca/on-the-proper-role-of-government-and-article-36-of-the-belgic-confession/

The Reformed Perspective/Bredenhof article in question provides a worthy discussion of the some of the dynamics concerning Article xxxvi of the Belgic Confession (1559) and the views of Abraham Kuyper (1837-1920). To many in the Reformed sphere, their teachings are effectively one and the same and yet this is not actually the case. For some Kuyper actually represents a serious departure creating an uncomfortable situation for those who would both champion Kuyper as the twentieth-century Reformed Theologian par excellence, and yet demand a strict Confessional Subscription.

In Belgic Article xxxvi we read:

23 January 2024

The Evangelical Roots of New Calvinism

 While attending a New Calvinist congregation this last Sunday, we were disappointed to discover that a woman connected to the pro-life movement was there to give a pre-sermon presentation. It in fact amounted to a mini-sermon, and then an exhortation to support local pregnancy centers and the like as well a rather skewed narrative of the movement, and an overall call to action.

14 January 2024

Musing on The Verge: Reformation, Renaissance and Forty Years that Shook the World (II)

All things considered, I don't disagree with Wyman's general narrative regarding the rise of the modern West and how it surpassed previous super-power states and cultures like that of the Ottoman Empire.

But rather than celebrate Capitalism and the way it has reshaped the world, I would offer some different narratives to consider.

Musing on The Verge: Reformation, Renaissance and Forty Years that Shook the World (I)

Patrick Wyman's The Verge: Reformation, Renaissance and Forty Years that Shook the World (published in 2021 by Twelve) focuses primarily on the years1490-1530. He argues this period was critical for understanding the modern world as the West moved through these four decades of transition.

In the process of surveying some of the main historical events of this period, he teases out key cultural markers that (he argues) set the stage for the coming period and the world we know today.

01 January 2024

28 December 2023

Rejecting the Aquinas Jubilee

https://theaquilareport.com/what-the-jubilee-of-aquinas-says-about-rome-and-roman-protestant-relations-in-some-quarters/

I appreciated some of the issues raised in this piece by Hervey. Thomas and Thomism have certainly been in the air as his memory and a set of larger questions concerning Roman Catholicism are being debated. In these unsettled times as Protestants and Evangelicals thirst for so-called Christian Civilisation, there's a desire to find some kind of historical and cultural continuity. Protestantism falls short in this regard, and as such many are looking farther back to a time that at least seems to be more cohesive. Whether it was something to celebrate or not is debatable. After all, error can (in theory) be coherent, and paganism can create cohesive societies.

25 December 2023

Cessationism, the Charismata, and Messy Chapters in Church History

https://www.christianpost.com/voices/reformed-cessationists-should-not-quote-church-history.html

I have no wish to provide comfort or aid to a false teacher such as Michael Brown, but on this issue he has a point. The Church History argument (taken by itself) is not really on the Cessationist side. This however does not mean that so-called Continuationism wins the day – it simply requires a different reading.

14 December 2023

Historical Cycles: The Post-Napoleonic Context of Adolphe Monod, Reveil, and Some Contemporary Analogies (IV)

The story of Monod is in some ways inspiring – in other respects he is something of a disappointment. The men of Reveil are closer to our times and thus they lack the mystique that some further back in history are able to generate. That said, Monod's story is worth considering and reflecting on. But his context has to be understood and it always strikes me how there are both parallels and huge differences with the American and British context. Indeed in many ways it's a key moment where the three cultural and ecclesiastical sections sharply diverge – America and the Continent being the most extreme in terms of difference with Britain moving along its own track that today has brought it to the same place as the Continent. For Americans this should serve as a stark warning – perhaps a harbinger of what is to come.

Historical Cycles: The Post-Napoleonic Context of Adolphe Monod, Reveil, and Some Contemporary Analogies (III)

As has so often been the case in Church history, persecution failed to defeat the faithful. They were instead defeated by peace and flourishing, and through compromise, the ability to attain status and respect in society. The American Beast did not persecute the Church, instead it seduced it. The crisis for American Christianity came at the turn of the twentieth century when the Classical Liberalism of its founding (with its secular assumptions) finally overtook and began to openly subvert the (by then) weakened and deformed Christian consensus – thus creating the crisis that would generate new cycles and chapters of reaction and compromise in American Church history throughout the twentieth century right up to the present.

Historical Cycles: The Post-Napoleonic Context of Adolphe Monod, Reveil, and Some Contemporary Analogies (II)

The American context at this time was completely different. The new Republic had been able to successfully fuse Enlightenment ideas with Christian ideology.

Historical Cycles: The Post-Napoleonic Context of Adolphe Monod, Reveil, and Some Contemporary Analogies (I)

I recently finished Constance Walker's small biography on Adolphe Monod (1802-1856) which I would recommend to anyone interested in nineteenth century conservative Protestantism on the European continent – of which there is not a great deal. This is why figures like Monod stand out.

06 December 2023

Saving Christendom by Repackaging the Roman Beast

https://americanreformer.org/2023/10/providence-and-empire/

This unfortunate article was reposted at The Aquila Report and there seems to be more and more of this sort of thing as of late. The whole of theology (and even thought) is increasingly subordinated to the concerns and interests of Dominionist ideology and hence the growing concern with political and cultural thinking. Ironically, the more these 'civilisation' paths are pursued, the more readers are likely to turn to Rome as in many respects the narratives of the Magisterial Reformation and its legacy begin to collapse. And so in that regard one might say that such articles are doubly pernicious.

02 December 2023

Lying Missionaries and Brutalised Victims of Their Times: A Revisionist Historian Spins the Gnadenhutten Massacre

When sections of the American public were forced to admit that it was American soldiers that committed the horrific massacre at My Lai in 1968, some attempted to justify their actions on account of their brutalisation. In other words, the sheer brutality and normalised violence that characterized their setting dehumanized the soldiers and thus, their culpability was at least in part lessened. They too became victims as it were and instead of being punished and answering to justice they were to be pitied and forgiven.

23 November 2023

A Thanksgiving Model that Must be Rejected

https://churchandfamilylife.com/podcasts/6540dea48035f112bf38cdf8

Modern Thanksgiving was born out of the US Civil War – In 1863, Lincoln wanted the country to be thankful for the turning of the tide post-Gettysburg and following his lead the government issued proclamations in the 1870's.  

In 1939 FDR moved the date up a week wishing to extend the Christmas shopping season – and this remains the practice today.

In other words it's a familiar theme to us even today – it's about the troops and the consumerist economy.

20 November 2023

Conspiracies versus Conspiracy as a Worldview: The Epistemological and Ethical Rot of Libertarianism (III)

Due to the necessity of expansion and sheer avarice, Capitalism will inevitably turn to the international sphere and with that comes intrigue and war – and that in turn leads to secrecy and propaganda. As the public begins to grasp this, there is an erosion of trust. And if the forces of finance capital have also purchased the news media – the end result is at first mass conformity, but later this will turn to mass cynicism. For those who only see one small piece of the puzzle their already skewed viewpoint will be subject to easy manipulation. There are those who profit from fear and anger and if allowed to fester these emotional responses can take on a life of their own. And it's not just the Right that plays this game.

Conspiracies versus Conspiracy as a Worldview: The Epistemological and Ethical Rot of Libertarianism (II)

It is both sad and frustrating to me that some who are eager to take certain portions of Scripture at face value – like the commands to turn the other cheek, or the teachings regarding the Kingdom of Heaven will at the same time completely ignore the other parts, about mammon and the nature of the world and worldliness.

Conspiracies versus Conspiracy as a Worldview: The Epistemological and Ethical Rot of Libertarianism (I)

For some time I've occasionally listened to a podcast called Catholics Against Militarism. It's flawed – it is Roman Catholic after all, but interesting at times. Protestant Constantinians and Dominionists are quick to dismiss all such anti-war sentiments as 'Anabaptist' even while they ignore the long and fairly impressive 'peace' testimony found within the spectrum that is Rome.

16 November 2023

A Recurring Exegetical Error Regarding Exercise

https://g3min.org/how-valuable-is-bodily-training/

In 1 Timothy 4, Paul speaks of bodily exercise. He says it profits little, or profits a little. Either way it is not of great or supreme profit.

But what is he talking about?

12 November 2023

Evangelicalism's Outsourced Worldview

Some time ago I heard someone discussing the 'outsourcing' of a great deal of Evangelical thinking and it has stayed with me. It's another interesting way of framing what has happened.

04 November 2023

The Persistent Myth Regarding Moscow and Covid

On numerous occasions in conversation and from the pulpit I have heard Christians appealing to the example of Doug Wilson and his followers in Moscow, Idaho. Inspired by their resistance to 'Covid Tyranny' in the fall of 2020, this group is being held up as an example of courage and Christian conduct.

Little do these Wilson fans realize, what they deem inspiration is in fact a source of shame, and rather than call attention to an example of heroism and Christian fortitude, they in fact trumpet their own lack of discernment.

28 October 2023

Churchill's Christian Civilization (II)

The Churchill Cult in the United States finds its most tangible expression in Fulton, Missouri the site of his famous speech. Though most people are unaware of this, a small London church (reconstructed by Wren after the 1666 fire) was dismantled in the 1960's and moved to Missouri and is a symbolic platform for the Churchill museum. In a kind of strange commemorative fusion it combines Churchill, Christianity and (it would seem) the call to take up arms in the Cold War.

Churchill's Christian Civilization (I)

In recent days, with the Ukraine War, the coronation of Charles III, as well as some Evangelical commentaries tangentially connected to these issues, I've been reminded of the still extant Churchill Cult and the inroads it has made within the Christian community. This needs to be addressed.

22 October 2023

A Pastoral Rebuke of a Different Kind

This was but another case of meeting Christian people at a church and getting one impression and then finding them on social media and discovering they are in fact something else. The Nazarene body in question is something completely unrelated to the fairly numerous Nazarene churches which are part of the Wesleyan tradition.

07 October 2023

Glorying in their Shame: Celebrating the Magisterial Reformation's Sacral Heritage (II)

Kennedy then takes a strange turn by invoking the memory of Reinhold Niebuhr who was not a Christian by any kind of New Testament measure. His faith was not in keeping with the message delivered by the apostles and so I continue to be somewhat baffled as to why his flawed paradigms and bogus 'realist' dilemmas are granted any standing.

Glorying in their Shame: Celebrating the Magisterial Reformation's Sacral Heritage (I)

or

The Distorted Thinking Which Dominates Reformed Political Thinking Today

https://americanreformer.org/2023/07/reformed-political-theology-today/

The article errs in its opening salvo. Psalm 2 must be interpreted in light of the New Testament. The tension Kennedy looks for is not there. The New Testament reveals Psalm 2 to be eschatological.

As a consequence of this error, there is an admittedly substantial heritage which Kennedy merely perpetuates. Begging the fundamental question, he offers nothing by way of remedy.

30 September 2023

Norwich's History of the Papacy

Having recently finished Absolute Monarchs: A History of the Papacy, by John Julius Norwich (first published in 2011), I must say I was in the overall – disappointed. My hopes were already diminished as I have interacted with some of his other works and found him to be wanting. This book was no exception. There were numerous errors and I found his analysis frustrating at many points. I wanted to give him another try as the nature of the volume intrigued me. He writes about topics that greatly interest me but there's something a bit off about his approach and degree of acumen.

21 September 2023

Richard Bennett on the Waldensians

The former Irish Roman Catholic priest Richard Bennett (1938-2019) has always been a figure of sympathy and respect in my book. He was so thankful to have been released from the bondage and false Christianity represented by Rome. His sincerity was palpable and it was almost impossible not to empathize with him and his emotional response to his deliverance from that bondage.

17 September 2023

A Libertarian Perspective on Food Freedom (II)

Listening to Mogel's arguments, there are almost too many ironies to enumerate. On the one hand these folks vigorously push for endless exponential population growth and decry any caution or concern to that end and yet seem oblivious to the fact that growth in population means that farming will have to be pursued on a massive scale which is not conducive to small farmers or local food and economically is bound to destroy it.