Calling for a Return to the Doctrinal Ideals and Kingdom Ethics of the First Reformation
I happened to catch a news story the other day about Amy Grant and how she has completely caved to the Sodomite ethos that now dominates this culture. She is hosting her niece's lesbian wedding at her house. We've certainly come a long way from the early days of CCM. That now seems innocent, wholesome, and even steadfast.
One could say (given all that has been argued here) that I might be a prime candidate for swimming the Tiber (or Crossing the Bosphorus) and I have been forced to acknowledge the weight of such arguments and to a degree I can understand why many have abandoned the Reformation (and especially Evangelicalism) for Rome or Constantinople. But this is folly of an even greater magnitude as Rome and Constantinople are false systems – false and counterfeit manifestations of Christianity. This doesn't mean that every last thing Rome holds to or proclaims is wrong – as even the heirs of the sixteenth century Reformation will acknowledge, though there is little agreement as to what that all means. Those who defect to Rome have already embraced erroneous assumptions and then when the weight of everything is else is factored in – they make the perilous move and thinking they do Christ service, they join with His enemies. Unlike most contemporary Evangelicals, I still argue that Roman Catholicism is antichrist and at least a manifestation or a component of the Whore-Beast imagery of New Testament prophecy.
While the aforementioned councils of Late Antiquity were not 'ecumenical' councils – a point some make to argue their canon proclamations weren't considered universally authoritative – such an argument or appeal proves too much.
As mentioned previously contemporary Evangelicals and Confessional Protestants are quick to adopt the canons and concepts of Higher Criticism when it comes to these books and lump them in with the many (and often dubious) Second Temple narratives of the academy implying these works are pseudepigrapha and syncretistic.
http://proto-protestantism.blogspot.com/2022/12/gems-from-shepherd-of-hermas.html
In light of recent statements regarding the Early Church
Fathers I was asked to elaborate and perhaps defend some issues regarding the
Old Testament Apocrypha. This issue has gnawed at me for years and as I have
worked through the narratives and claims of the Magisterial Reformation I finally
came to a conclusion that its positions and arguments concerning these books are
highly problematic. As I have repeatedly stated, this does not grant anything
to Rome. That's not really the issue here.
I could write a full rebuttal of all the things I heard in
this episode of Iron Sharpens Iron, but what I found necessary was to (at the
very least) provide a real response to the hypothetical question asked by
Arnzen (the host) to Joe Boot at around the forty-one minute mark.
It's been quite a few years since I read The Shepherd of Hermas. Reading it anew I was reminded of how alien it is to Evangelical sensibilities. For my part, I found the second century work refreshing if a bit of a slog. But some of that perception is merely cultural. We are certainly impatient in our day and so many of the older works can seem tedious.
Once again my thoughts drifted back to Catholic claims
regarding the Fathers – ones echoed by nineteenth century figures like Cardinal
JH Newman and John Nevin. While I will once again grant that the Magisterial
Reformation and its Evangelical progeny may find the waters of Hermas strange,
I still contend they are something other than Roman Catholic.
Recently re-reading some Early Church Fathers, I was both pleased and inspired to discover this exhortation on the part of Ignatius of Antioch who was martyred in the early second century. Quoting from the longer extant version of his epistle to the Ephesians, we read in Chapter XIII:
Take
heed, then, often to come together to give thanks to God, and show forth His
praise. For when ye come frequently together in the same place, the powers of
Satan are destroyed, and his "fiery darts" urging to sin fall back
ineffectual. For your concord and harmonious faith prove his destruction, and
the torment of his assistants. Nothing is better than that peace which is
according to Christ, by which all war, both of aerial and terrestrial spirits,
is brought to an end. "For we wrestle not against blood and flesh, but
against principalities and powers, and against the rulers of the darkness of
this world, against spiritual wickedness in heavenly places."
https://issuesetc.org/2022/07/29/2101-christian-crusaders-raymond-ibrahim-7-29-22/
This was but another ridiculous interview I found on Issues
Etc., yet another case at the attempted rehabilitation of The Crusades. Ibrahim
inadvertently all but confesses that his work is not just revisionism but
hagiography focusing on the 'heroes' of The Crusades.
The psychology explosion took place (culturally speaking) in the 1970's and the Evangelical movement in its zeal to be culturally relevant trailed closely behind. We see this in Tim LaHaye's psychologically-rooted approach to spiritual gifts which gained popularity during the same decade. He revived and recast The Four Temperaments, a notion rooted in the long discounted physiology based on humors and the ideas of ancients and pagans like Galen. How this took root in ostensibly Bible-based circles is still a wonder.
This piece is in response to the 16 August 2022 piece entitled Secular Psychology and the Denial of Scriptural Authority found here:
https://proto-protestantism.blogspot.com/2022/08/secular-psychology-and-denial-of.html
I was asked to clarify and expand upon some of the ways
Evangelicalism has been compromised by modern psychology and feminism. These
questions could easily fill up a multi-volume series but I'll touch on just a
few points.
https://rfbwcf.substack.com/p/does-the-bible-trump-the-bco
The Book of Church Order (BCO) is utilised in various forms
by various Presbyterian denominations and as such represents a fluid canon (or
authoritative body of laws) that is parallel and in some cases equal to
Scripture and functionally can often supersede it.
Following recent Christian discussions on historiography, it was inevitable that criticism directed at Historicism would eventually be put on the table. In this case the reference is to the argument for inevitable historical processes that govern human development and progress. Following in the footsteps of thinkers like Hegel, the philosopher studies these processes and by understanding them, a right view of history can be developed and with it a coherent political theory and strategy.
Albert Mohler and other Evangelicals are right, we as Christians cannot vote for Democrats. Amen. And they go further and suggest those that do so fall under condemnation. Amen to that as well.
When inflation rates rise, the Right often makes demagogic appeals to the Gold Standard accompanied by denunciations of fiat currency and central banking policies. Some go much further and speak of conspiracies. Others focus on the ethical side of things and how inflation is a form of theft in that it decreases the value of money that people have worked for, saved, and invested.
As our routine has been further derailed by my son's injury, I decided on a recent rainy Sunday to revisit an Alliance (CMA) congregation near us that we attended over twenty years ago. I have stopped in on occasion over the years and to be blunt the decline has been remarkable in terms of numbers, content, and overall quality. My recent visit was particularly disappointing.
Whether Meloni is able to implement her policies or not is yet to be seen. Her coalition may very well implode as she is contending with some powerful personalities and egos that will certainly challenge and undermine her leadership at points. If they can actually work together they will be very powerful and given what's happening in France and Germany, (the only EU members more powerful and influential in Italy) – the prospects for the future are a cause for concern.
God, Family, and Country – what's wrong with that? This is the response of the Christian Right to the electoral victory of Giorgia Meloni and her choice slogan. In fact it sounds a lot like what one hears with the Trumpite movement. Meloni who is all but set to be the next prime minister of Italy has certainly been making the rounds and has garnered considerable support in American Right-wing circles. Fluent in English she has been able to blend in nicely at the National Prayer Breakfast and CPAC.
What drives these Christian teachers to stay in the public system? For some it's just pragmatic concerns about job change and pensions. For all the whining about being underpaid, it's steady work with lots of time off and in rural areas it is in fact one of the better paying jobs.
https://www.npr.org/2022/09/12/1121999705/sex-education-school-kindergarten
Parents need to understand the sodomite-feminist ethos is
omnipresent in the culture and in the public school. It's something much bigger
than the agenda of specific sex-ed classes. Pulling your children from these
sessions is not enough. Christian parents must get their children out of public
school. This is not negotiable. If it was at one time, that day is now long
past.
On many occasions I've been driven to reflect on the immigrant experience. Apart from my Germans who came from Russia in the late nineteenth century, my ancestors almost all arrived in North America back in the seventeenth and eighteenth century. My point being, apart from the one branch, my family doesn't have an 'immigrant story' that is located within memory.
I was asked concerning Romans 9 and Paul's affection for the Jewish people. Apparently this passage is used by some Dominionists to justify ethno-nationalist agendas or forms of patriotism, suggesting that Paul effectively endorsed such thinking by his expressions for the Jewish people.
Did Biden err in making this now infamous speech – in calling out MAGA Republicans and the Trumpite movement, and in identifying them as a threat to the country?
It goes without saying that the death of Elizabeth II is a cultural milestone. It's unsettling for many as one of the foundational pillars of British society has been removed. The monarchy continues but because of the length of her reign and the stability it brought during the tumultuous cultural upheaval of the post-war period – the stability is associated less with the monarchy as a whole but is instead associated specifically with her person. And now she's gone.
The New Testament tells us to honor the king and given the Neronic context of these writings and apostolic exhortations, that imperative remains true even if the regime can be categorised as bestial. As such, rebellion or collaboration with anti-monarchical forces is forbidden to Christians in all cases.
https://mereorthodoxy.com/church-architecture/
This was another offering at The Aquila Report. A ridiculous
article and all the more in that it's being promoted by a Reformed-affiliated
website that ostensibly stands on historic and traditional principles such as
the Sufficiency of Scripture and the Regulative Principle of Worship.
The point in all this is to say – that at some point his employers may conclude that he has no future there (or no near future) and they may decide to drop him. That will mean a loss of medical coverage. Once again, it's tragic that in the flawed American system one's access to health care has all too often been tied to employment. This has made people vulnerable and in some cases it has effectively enslaved people to their employers as they live in fear of losing coverage. This is all the more true in the case of those that have chronic conditions and need regular care or rely on expensive medications. One can safely say the whole system is a mess and yet the primary driving factor of that mess – is the profit system. It's all the more egregious in the context of human health and suffering as it preys on fear and desperation.
As I reported a few days back my son (who is in his early twenties) recently broke his back in a bicycle accident. He came very close to losing his life and had a very close shave with paralysis. Even now, he's not entirely out of the woods but the remaining risk is low.
It's one thing to break free of philosophy or tradition, or the extant influences of the Magisterial Protestant Reformation, but for Americans in particular there's often a barrier or problem the hinders a return to the New Testament and it's one that Restorationist groups like the Witnesses, Churches of Christ, and others need to understand.
I feel something of a burden for the members of this group. They are to be commended, for on many points they put the larger Evangelical and Protestant world to shame. In terms of ethics and a sense of pilgrim identity, the Witnesses are in many ways much closer to the New Testament than those who consider them a cult.
https://www.christianpost.com/news/churches-address-mental-health-stigma-in-the-pews.html
In some respects it's surprising that this article is even
appearing at this point. This debate over whether or not Christians should
embrace psychology and its assumptions is effectively over. The ship has sailed
as they say. I remember the contentions over this point in the 1990's and by
the early 2000's it was clear there had been a fundamental shift. We moved from
hearing psychology condemned from the pulpit to pastors on Christian radio
telling the audience to leave their church if psychology is called into
question – because at that time there will still churches challenging this
paradigm.
For years commentators have spoken of the decline of America and what it would look like. Others (including myself) have argued that the American Establishment may opt for war as a means to escape this deterioration and reassert the largely failed project of post Cold War US hegemony.
After many years I finally found the time to read Norman Cohn's The Pursuit of the Millennium: Revolutionary Millenarians and Mystical Anarchists of the Middle Ages first published in 1957. For all the attention this book has received I was quite disappointed.
Cohn's thesis rests on a cobbled together narrative that
confuses popular impulse and superstition with religious conviction. He tries
to argue that various utopian and chiliastic movements of the medieval period were
the cultural and ideological precursors of twentieth century Nazism and
Communism.
As far as charging interest to the unbeliever and that sort of thing – for me it's out of the question. I don't believe I can view the unbeliever as an enemy (which would be in keeping with the Old Testament scenario) and while I may agree (in the broad strokes) with Aristotle on this point, the real issue is (I believe) that so-called risk is invalid in terms of making a legitimate profit.
This article was sent to me accompanied by some follow-up
questions. It's actually by an Eastern Orthodox cleric and I must say I was
pleased to read it.
For the most part I agree with was said – with a few
qualifications.
Not long ago it was one of those rare Saturdays – the womenfolk were gone and it was just me and my sons. As readers will know I am committed to the New Testament doctrines of non-violence and non-resistance and yet unlike some within the Anabaptist or Holiness traditions, I believe in engaging culture on a certain level. This is not with an intent to transform or exert political influence but I believe we do need to understand the context in which we live. There are limits, all the more as culture becomes overtly sinful in much that is produces.
Visiting a church last Sunday I wasn't terribly surprised when there was mention of the Dobbs v. Jackson case and the overturning of the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. Evangelicals are celebrating this ruling and several others that have come down at the conclusion of the Supreme Court's recent 2021-2022 term.
To my mind, it makes perfect sense that this dispute over the doctrine of God has arisen in the context of Reformed Baptist circles as I have long argued Baptist doctrine and understandings regarding concepts such as the covenant and sacraments tend toward reductionism and result from a kind of rationalism at work that will not tolerate ambiguity, tension, and paradox – even though a true Biblicist hermeneutic demands the embrace of such mysteries.
Though I've made it abundantly clear in the past that I'm not
a fan of Chris Arnzen's Iron Sharpens Iron, when I saw that Sam Waldron was to
be the guest I decided to give the show a listen. I was all the more intrigued
by the suggestion that there were problems or challenges with regard to Sola
Scriptura.
I was mostly pleased by what I heard. I feared that the show
would be about Critical Race Theory, alien epistemologies and things of that
order, but that wasn't it at all. They were talking about a debate taking place
within Reformed circles and given Arnzen and Waldron – specifically within
Reformed Baptist circles.
Does 1 Timothy chapter 2 assume that Paul looked for Christian magistrates?
https://wng.org/opinions/welcome-to-pride-month-christian-1654083759
Trueman is right to lament Pride Month and the latest shift
in our culture that will (without a doubt) lead to the marginalisation of
Christians. It's inescapable, and like Lot in Sodom – any Christian is bound to
be vexed by the world and the conduct that surrounds us.
It's June, and in the United States that's the time when the Supreme Court issues its substantial rulings. If the reports are to be believed it is likely that Roe v. Wade, (the 1973 Supreme Court ruling that made abortion legal in all fifty states) is going to be overturned.
Though the 7-2 decision makes it an unlikely candidate for
reversal, there were always some issues with the ruling that made it subject to
review. A political issue more than a legal one, the time has come or so it
seems. With the Trump appointments and some GOP scheming, the Right has now
gained a decided advantage on the court and it would seem they're making their
move. The new era of Dobbs v. Jackson will soon be upon us, the case that will
overturn Roe.
Understanding the hopelessly corrupt nature of the world and its vanity we can then (with Paul and the Corinthians) take comfort in being 'the little people', the 'nothings' in the eyes of the world – the types that a reprobate like Trump would call 'losers'. For no one hates Christianity and Christians more than Donald Trump. Obviously the Church doesn't understand this one bit. Led by fools they think he's an ally and an asset to the Church's cause in the world. So misled by the false shepherds and shaped more by the epistemology and values of the Right than by Scripture, they have latched on and in increasing numbers have sold their souls to this charlatan and now his lackeys and imitators.
In a recent piece I wrote concerning the Dominionist-driven Evangelical movement:
Their values are based
on the pursuit of political power, ethics rooted in a system of 'rights', and
economic concerns – namely profits. It is both tragic and obscene that a large
majority of professed Christians have embraced such Social Darwinist ethics and
utterly abandoned the religion of the New Testament. But generations of
Rights-based ethics have done this and Church leaders have abdicated their
responsibility to denounce this false system that is contrary to the New
Testament.
I was asked to follow-up on the question of Rights-based
ethics and what this has meant for the Church.
Under the banner of co-belligerence, Evangelicals continue to deepen their ties to Roman Catholicism and openly work alongside elements within its larger order in pursuit of their political goals and aspirations. As Catholicism represents a spectrum every bit as broad as what is found under the definition of 'Protestantism', it is the Traditionalist Catholics (so-called) who are the natural allies of the Evangelical sphere – as they too labour to turn back the cultural clock. And while their conceptions of 'Christian America' or Christendom are different, they are united with Evangelicals in opposing secular humanism.
Visiting another church this Sunday once more proved to be a serious disappointment. The congregation was something of a hybrid between Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism and yet Sacralist thinking dominated. The pastor continually confused the identity of the Church and the nation and begged the question regarding the Christian call to engage and dominate culture.
https://caldronpool.com/the-gospel-has-many-political-implications-for-a-nation/
New Calvinist pastor Matthew Littlefield asserts that those
who believe the Church should not engage in politics are guilty of trumpeting
ignorance. He then proceeds to elaborate what he believes are the political
implications of the gospel.
As we're in the process of revisiting area churches, I had occasion to attend a rural Fundamentalist congregation about forty-five minutes from where I live. I had last visited there 3-4 years ago and the level of decline just in that relatively brief period of time was remarkable.
Returning again to the chimeric experimenters, they're tinkering with things that are beyond them. We're not materialists. There's more to life and reality than that which is merely empirical. The reality of the materialists is a reductionism of true reality and Christians shouldn't think in those terms or operate under the ethics that flow from such thinking.
The current Evangelical world is rife with scepticism
regarding modern medicine and yet some will remember a time in which the
attitude that long dominated the movement was very much pro-medicine and
pro-technological development. Whether right, wrong, or indifferent, the shift
is interesting and more should be done in examining the reasons behind it.
*updated 9 April 2022
Even the Old Testament casts doubt on the continuity reading
of Revelation 21. Ecclesiastes, a book that is so problematic for modern
Evangelicalism and Dominionism has its message spun. The end result of their
exegetical machinations is that the world is not given to vanity and corruption
even though Paul forcefully and explicitly reiterates this point in Romans 8
and elsewhere argues that this world in its state of curse is subject to
temporality. This is in contrast with the eternal (and thus ultimately true) nature
of the eschatological Kingdom. That which is temporal is impermanent. This is
not Gnosticism opposing matter or the material world or suggesting that it is
illusion. It's a state of existence resulting from the Fall of Man and the
curse God has placed on the world – not matter as matter, but this world which includes its fallen
matter subject to decay and death, a matter sundered from its spiritual
moorings as it were.
Doesn't Revelation 21 teach cultural continuity? Doesn't it teach that cultural attainments will be part of our life in heaven? Are there any historical readings of the passage that specifically refute this? Are there any commentators that argue explicitly for discontinuity in reference to this passage?
Continuity here refers to the idea that cultural progress and
attainments achieved in this age will continue into the age to come. In other
words, advances in the arts, science, philosophy, architecture and the like
will play a part in our heavenly life. Proponents of this view believe that the
productions of the great artists, particularly those that were God-honouring in
what they produced, men such as Bach and Rembrandt will be part of our life in
heaven.
Many Evangelicals will undoubtedly celebrate the recent legislative moves in Texas and Florida and both governors (one Catholic and one Evangelical) are certainly viewed as allies or even champions in the Christian Right's culture wars.
In light of current events Moldova and Georgia have applied for EU membership. For its part, Moldova has been engaged in a tug-of-war between the West and Moscow and yet unlike Ukraine and Georgia it has been able thus far to avoid violence.
Are these concepts surrounding social credit, access, and economics harbingers of the Mark of the Beast?
What are some areas that are of genuine concern – areas being exploited by people in power to bring about great and sweeping changes to society?
Certain elements within society that want to deny the reality of Covid or seriously downplay its impact tend to focus on what might be called the dark side of Covid. This refers to the sociological elements and upheavals connected to the Covid epoch and while they've been exaggerated by some (and this line of discussion is often corrupted by a great deal of misinformation and even blatant disinformation), there is nevertheless something to it.
https://www.garynorth.com/public/23334.cfm
He was 'Scary Gary' to many – a reference to his cantankerous
style. An original member of the Theonomic Three and its last survivor, he
married RJ Rushdoony's daughter – a connection I know many did not make.
I encountered him early on in my Christian life. I remember
receiving materials in the mail from Still Waters Revival Books. They
tirelessly promoted the Theonomic line and in my files I still have many of
their pamphlets headed by Bahnsen, Rushdoony, and Gary North.
https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2021/11/the-history-of-national-flags-in-churches
The debate over flags in the Church is riddled with problems
and clouded by false assumptions. There is a problem with the sanctuary model
to begin with, the idea that a building is somehow a 'holy' place, a
'sanctuary' or that the front of the structure is some kind of focal point – a
leftover of the unbiblical altar-theology of Romanism.
From the Olympics to computing, from news to politics, the Russians are everywhere in the news or more accurately the Anti-Russian propaganda campaign is everywhere. This is by far the worst we've seen in forty years, since the tense period accompanying Reagan's ascent to the US presidency. Almost immediately he began a rapid military buildup and a series of aggressive military Psyops directed against Russia. The US pushed the Russian security perimeter by air, land, and sea. At that time the Soviets were in dire fear of an American First Strike and became very edgy and the tension led to events like the shootdown of KAL 007.
This is a problematic article to be sure but nevertheless it
should be read. The School Board Strategy is proving effecting and it's
expanding – and it's likely that it's already affecting your church or soon
will be. The author is sounding the alarm and we should be alarmed – but for
reasons different than those of the Religion Dispatches reporter.
These are serious challenges we all face on a personal level and one wonders if many parents caught up in the movement missed the trees for the forest. They saw the big sweeping picture in terms of goals and aspirations for their children but missed the nuts and bolts, the essential parts that require so much time and attention.
I am a strong proponent of homeschooling and believe that for
Christians it's the best option available when it comes to educating our children.
While we deliberately never joined the Homeschool Legal Defense Association
(HSLDA), we nevertheless made occasional use of their website, following some
of the legislation and developments in our state and around the country. And so
it was in that vein that we began to hear about Patrick Henry College and later
the HSLDA-connected Generation Joshua project.
https://agradio.org/paul-and-his-roman-constitutional-rights
This reading of Paul is common in Evangelical circles but a more careful reading of the passage reveals that it has been misunderstood.
As stated before, there are plenty of reasons to doubt the government and the Covid episode is no exception. Over many years the government and media have destroyed their own credibility and so in some respects they have brought this on themselves. And yet as also stated, conspiracies (to be judged as viable) have to make some kind of sense and they have to operate within the framework of reality. Many of the conspiracies floated by today's Right are divorced from reality and in other cases indicate a pervasive unfamiliarity with basic concepts, how institutions work, history and the like.
https://theaquilareport.com/archbishop-viganos-startling-warning-to-the-american-people/
The fact that the Calvinist-affiliated Aquila Report
published this piece by Roman Catholic Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano is both
interesting and informative in and of itself. That a publication such as
'American Thinker' found Vigano's comments profound is not too surprising.
If Russia invades Ukraine, then Putin will fall for the trap NATO has set for him. As anyone who partakes of any news is sure to know, the Western propaganda campaign is running white hot, to the point that even questioning the official narrative can take down a high ranking admiral – as was seen recently in Germany. The US and NATO are doing all they can to provoke Moscow. This run-up to war is a campaign in itself and there are several angles to consider.
Trump Jr. has openly rejected the teachings of Christ and
when one considers the present Evangelical confusion with regard to the Trump movement's
relationship to Christianity – I'm glad for it. I hope it will wake some people
up and cause them to re-think the roads they've traveled.
On this Martin Luther King Jr. day we are once more reminded of the massive revisionism taking place within Right-wing circles. I've written about this repeatedly and focused deliberately on these points back in 2012 and 2014. This revisionism is something I noticed years ago and was left somewhat stunned to hear figures like Glenn Beck and Charles Colson attempt to appropriate the King legacy and argue that somehow his ideas were resonant and representative of their own. It was a re-writing of the history and yet few seemed to notice.
The Central Asian states which were run by former Soviet apparatchiks (turned into authoritarian capitalists) relied upon energy revenue and the extraction of natural resources – and in the post-Soviet setting Western corporations flooded into the region to develop these sectors. Wall Street scored major victories and wealthy oligarchies developed in the Central Asian states. Needless to say corruption is endemic. This new post-Cold War political order and economic development in part explains the ongoing tensions with Russia, Iran, and Afghanistan. The logistics of getting resources out of landlocked Central Asia proved daunting and were never resolved. The ruling oligarchies were plugged into the energy economy and these countries rely on this money to function and pay the bills as it were.
The January 2022 street protests in Kazakhstan which have received considerable Western news coverage seem at last to be calming down. On the one hand it appeared to be a grass roots uprising in protest of surging inflation, fuel prices and (at least in part) frustration with social restrictions on activism and free speech.
But they're not the only group that has a problem with the diaconate. In Baptist circles there's also a great deal of confusion on this point. For them, the office of 'pastor' is akin to Paul's bishop in 1 Timothy 3.
I recently had an exchange with a priest from the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA). As our church situation has collapsed due to the degeneration of worship into therapy, politics, and entertainment and the fact that Trumpites are running rampant in many local congregations including our own, we've been looking for an alternative.