Ecclesia Part 3: The Need For Church, and my personal frustrations with the state of the Church and Presbyterians in particular

What is a Church?

We're surrounded by buildings with steeples that claim to be Churches or to house them. It always astonishes me how the possession of a building with a sign out front grants legitimacy to a Church. For many this is the mark of the Church. For many the building is the Church.

The question must be wrestled with...what is a Church? Just because a bunch of people get together and call themselves a Church does not make it so. I've talked about this before and will do so again. But for now, I'll simply say a group that does not faithfully preach and adhere to the Bible with some understanding of what the Bible is cannot be called a Church.

Ecclesia Part 2: Membership

The Membership Debacle

Many Churches practice 'membership' wherein they wish for local congregants to bind themselves to the congregation and agree to adhere to certain doctrinal statements and to be under the authority of the leadership. In many Churches a little ceremony or ritual has also been created to go along with this process.

Whether it is admitted or not, everyone and every congregation adheres to some sort of creed. We all believe something and even in loosely affiliated groups there are boundaries. In creedless bodies, the problem is, the boundaries are often not well thought out, and many individuals have given little thought to what they believe.

Ecclesia Part 1: The Presbyterian Problem

A quick summary of the Presbyterian landscape

For those unfamiliar with American Presbyterianism, the Presbyterian Church split as most bodies did during the Civil War (1861-65) and even after Appomattox, the bodies remained divided.

These Churches both operated under the revised Westminster Confession (1646) which had been modified after the American Revolution to remove the notion of an Established Church and a magistrate that could call for Church councils to meet. This was incompatible with the American Experiment, and consequently they changed the Confession to reflect not only the new reality but a sentiment many shared. Some Presbyterians continue to reject this modification and want an official established Church.

A Strange Encounter Part 10

From the standpoint of other people across the world, the American Empire has three main arms. It has a military arm (symbolized by the Pentagon), a political arm (symbolized by the Capitol Mall), and an economic and cultural center (symbolized by the Manhattan).

The people that would fight the Empire are like fleas fighting an elephant. The United States cannot be militarily attacked or invaded. Any convoy of ships or aircraft will be annihilated long before it arrives on our shores. The only way America can be attacked is through a crippling strike...like a clandestine nuclear submarine attack...or some kind of guerilla attack which serves as a symbol or contains some kind of propagandistic value. Only the Soviet Union had the capability for a nuclear attack by submarine. Everyone else has to look to some other kind of battle tactic. That means guerilla warfare which when brought to an Empire's domestic shore will be labeled as terrorism.

Answering Questions #15- The Kuyperian Roadblock on the Pilgrim Road to Metapolis

Someone emailed me this link and asked for my response.

http://web.archive.org/web/20001016110209/www.alliancenet.org/pub/mr/mr94/1994.05.SepOct/mr9405.mjg.TwoKingdoms.html

I responded with the following:

 

(this is an unedited email)

 

Interesting article. While I can agree with much he says, the approach he takes is a bit different. I’m afraid I didn’t agree at all with his Cain/Abel contrast in terms of the urban/rural comparison. I know of others who might make much of that argument, but usually Two Kingdom people are not into Christian Agrarianism. I realize that wasn’t his point, but his way of framing the issue reminded me of it! That’s usually found among Dominionist minded folks who have embraced a certain narrative with regard to Western Civilization and the root of its social decline.

He seems to hint at what I might call the Pilgrim Identity and ties that in with the ‘rural’ narrative. There may be something to that, but it also might be a case of hyper-typology.

A Strange Encounter Part 9

The Common Citizen An Agent of Empire

Today with technology and globalization the 'frontiers' are often on the other side of the world. It's not the gritty face to face type of confrontation the American pioneer faced when dealing with the indigenous Indians. Though today it looks different, the war for expansion and new conquests has not abated.

Today, it might be a broker hitting the 'enter' key that just caused a chain reaction leading to several families in Indonesia losing their jobs and homes. Two months later they're selling their kids, and a daughter is forced into prostitution in order to buy medicine and keep grandma alive.

Did the broker mean to do it? Hey, he's just trying to make some extra money to pay his $2500 house payment and save up for his 17 year old to go to college. And, he's still paying off the credit card balance on that holiday cruise he and his wife took last December. Is he wicked? Well, no...and yes.

Summing up and the Christian Response: Part 6 of the series on American Evangelicals, War, and Iran

Iran is the hub of the Shiite world and represents the foundation, center, and caretaker role of Greater Persian culture. Shiite Palestinians, Lebanese and many Azeris look to Iran as a cultural and religious leader. On the eastern side, Hazara, Tajiks and to some extent the Ismaili community are also naturally inclined to Iran. The Iranians are very bitter that what should be their great regional role has been taken from them, or at the very least reduced by numerous powers throughout history and up to today. The French have at times shared a similar bitterness with regard to their role in Europe, a shadow of what it once was, and their former Empire.

A Strange Encounter Part 8

Innocent Motives and Unintended Consequences.

For the Church this tendency toward willful blindness in the name of Patriotism is most dangerous of all. While I argue it isn't good for the nation and its citizens, ultimately the nation doesn't matter much does it? They come and go. None are good, not really. And certainly none are Holy...things that are holy will survive the Eschaton because they belong to the Kingdom of God. There's no nation on earth that can make that claim.

I've written pretty extensively about the Babel Impulse and the danger of bringing the Church into the power game. Tying in theological concepts regarding the Kingdom with culture and power is an attempt to sanctify the Beast, to sanctify the tower of Babel.

A few comments on the employer-based health insurance system

 

I don’t mean to dive into the whole Health Care debacle quite yet, but when I look at the political theatre taking place at the moment over the issue of contraception, I am struck by the fact that no one will entertain the solution.

We can talk about contraception and whether or not it should be used. We can talk about whether as Christians we should use it, and if we don’t, whether it matters that those outside the faith use it. We can talk about our posture on this issue as Exiles in Babylon. The Christian community has politicized this issue as they have with almost the whole of Christianity, so even discussing it grants political capital to the other side. Whatever the other side does must be opposed. It’s pretty pathetic and frankly it’s starting to make a significant contribution to the breaking of our society.

Islam's Inescapable Trap: Part 5 of the series on American Evangelicals, War, and Iran

The 19^th and 20^th century proved pretty humiliating for much of the world. The West climbed to the top and has, up to now dominated the planet. The 20^th century in particular has been a time of grief for the Islamic world. They have been brought low and are most humiliated by their own inter-cultural betrayals...nouveau oil elites selling out the Islamic world for Western treasure, and dictatorial leaders often acting as Western ‘strongmen’.  Both camps due to Western acquiescence have capitulated to Israel's existence and even 'right' to exist. And the fact that these regimes terrorize their own people, engage in inter-Islamic war, and all the while using Western purchased armaments also adds insult to the injury.

The Israel Factor: Part 4 of the series on American Evangelicals, war, and Iran

So is Iran the threat they're being made out to be? Does Ahmadinejad want to see a mushroom cloud over Tel-Aviv? Santorum would say absolutely, but most geo-political analysts would say it's quite unlikely.

American Evangelicals Beating the War Drum Against Iran Part 3

Contrary to Santorum Obama seems to subscribe to the idea that future American power in the Middle East needs to be soft power. Proxies, mercantilism and cultural influences will probably have more success than a military presence.

The United States isn't going to evacuate the region by any means. The military is switching to a policy based on stand-by troops, drones, and Special Forces. Obama wants to increase the American footprint in East Asia in terms of naval power and the Air Force. At this point South Korea and Japan are the only American satellites in the region. Australia has been salivating for some time wanting desperately to be a player, to become a more active and assertive member of the Anglo-American alliance.

American Evangelicals Beating the War Drum Against Iran Part 2

Americans view Iran as the aggressor but imagine if you will...China conquering Canada and Mexico and sailing warships along our coast, tailing our ships etc... and then in the Chinese media the United States is denounced as dangerous and an aggressor, a threat to China. Asserting the United States was in a position of aggression would of course be laughable, and the United States would be taking drastic action I assure you. The Iranians are in just such a situation.

In 2002 George Bush identified Iran as a member of the Axis of Evil...coined by an Evangelical speech writer of course. Iraq fell shortly thereafter; North Korea went nuclear and even though they've been far more aggressive toward South Korea than Iran has toward any other country....and guess what? They're left alone.

American Evangelicals Beating the War Drum Against Iran Part 1

I will not make the same mistake the mainstream media often does by calling Rick Santorum an Evangelical. He's a Roman Catholic, however Evangelical has doctrinally become an all but meaningless term, and the media is in part correct in basically viewing it as a socio-political movement. In that sense, it is appropriate to speak of someone like Santorum when talking about American Evangelicalism, even if he cannot actually be placed under that label. His recent endorsement by famed Evangelical leader James Dobson only validates this framework.

For most Americans the present situation with Iran dates to the Carter administration, the fall of the Shah, the arrival of Khomeini, and the Hostage Crisis. Some Americans will remember the glamorous Shah and his queen visiting the United States during every administration going back to Truman, but the real focus today in the American mind is 1979.

Justification Controversies in Contemporary Reformed Protestantism Part 2

Lutherans by and large have always retained this heavy focus on Justification by Grace Alone…the key word being Sola or Alone. Luther even added the word to the Romans 3 text, arguing the Greek implies it. This came to dominate much of Lutheran theology. Lutheranism became associated with what we call the Law-Gospel hermeneutic, categorizing Scripture into imperatives (law) vs. Gospel (grace).

This focus led Luther to struggle with the book of James, calling it an ‘epistle of straw’ and questioning its canonicity. The Reformed wing has certainly not gone to this extent, but some have revived the Lutheran Law-Gospel hermeneutic in an effort to explain the many (and what must be troubling) warnings and commands found in Scripture. Repeatedly the New Testament exhorts Christians to ‘do’, to change, to transform, to work out, to make, to put to death and so forth.

Justification Controversies in Contemporary Reformed Protestantism Part 1

 

A few thoughts…

Years ago before I was married I lived for a brief time in the American South. In 1998, I shared an apartment with a roommate who was a Theonomist, and needless to say we didn’t always see eye to eye.

I was sitting at the kitchen table with another friend and we had been working on issues related to Justification for quite some time. If I recall we spent a good number of hours in coffee shops and pulling late nights talking about it. My roommate was in awe that we could spend so much time on a topic which to him apparently was pretty simple. He never said the words, but it was almost like he was saying… “Justification? You haven’t got that figured out yet? Hey, it’s by faith.”

I remember us being amused with his frustration that we could so endlessly pursue such a blatant and simple topic. Obviously he hadn’t really spent any time looking into the issue.

A Strange Encounter Part 7

The Price of Syncretism...Patriotic Blood Idols and Molech Worship

In the past, pagans have sacrificed for different reasons. Sometimes to merely pacify the wrath and anger of a deity and sometimes to atone for sin...which obviously is a concept we can resonate with. Whatever the theological particulars it was understood that the sacrificial victim whether man or beast was giving up life so that the collective group might be permitted to continue on.

This became particularly horrifying when pagans sacrificed their own children to Molech, Chemosh, Melqart, and other false gods. And as grieved as those parents would have been, to them it was an act of piety, a sad but necessary sacrifice for the continuation of Edom, Moab, or Carthage.

Responding to a member of the McIntire Faction

I came across this post the other day and I felt it provided a good opportunity for some interaction. The author means well, I don’t think that can be disputed. His guiding principles on the surface seem sound and to his mind quite obvious.

However, the author holds certain theological assumptions which drive his whole understanding of not only how to look at these issues, but what questions to ask.

Consequently, we end up with some serious problems in how these issues are approached, the dilemmas created and the solutions suggested or provided. I talk about this quite often and this article provides yet another good demonstration of what this looks like.

For longtime readers this will be nothing new, but as there’s a constant stream of people coming and going, I want to make sure I revisit these points. Sometimes a change in context or just putting it all in a different way will help someone to see things in a new light. What wasn’t clear before might suddenly jump off the page.

The McIntire Faction refers to the fact that the author is a pastor in the Bible Presbyterian Church started by Carl McIntire among others. He played a large role in shaping the theology and ideology of modern American political Evangelicalism.

A Strange Encounter Part 6

The Terrible Price of Sacralism...Ignorance by Design

Historically the Sacralist impulse has led to the confusion of common nation with the Kingdom of God. The nation's agenda and policy are cast in theological and redemptive terms. Conflicts with other nations are not understood as two fallen nations in a fallen world fighting over control of the City of Man, they're not understood as rival evils, competing Beast-powers. Instead it's good vs. evil, one side is white and pure while the other side is corrupted, black, and thus evil.

One side, in this case the United States becomes a manifestation of Christ's Kingdom, or at least its proxy, and thus by extension the soldiers in its army become something akin to Holy Crusaders.

A Strange Encounter Part 5

A Quote From Hedges

Let me be clear once again. I'm not really concerned for the United States. I pray for the peace of Babylon. I live here. Some of my ancestors have been here since 1620. It's far preferable to live in a civil and orderly society than to live in crime ridden chaos. It's nice to be able to walk safely down a street and not be robbed or shot at.

As a Christian I desire a venue in which I can live my Christian life and an environment in which the gospel can work....one in which we can freely speak to others. A concept like the 1^st Amendment is something we should desire and treasure. With it come many dangers and opportunities for others to do things that aren't desirable. Though it allows them to continue their lost behaviour it also allows us to bring them the gospel without persecution.

Theonomists have been pretty vocal in the past about the 1^st Amendment. If you're committed to state enforced Sacralism...the 1^st Amendment is an abomination. It grants civil protections to false religions and allows anyone to challenge what they hope would be the establishment.

A Strange Encounter Part 4

American Amnesia and the Greatest Threat

My disagreement with him really struck a chord. I think he wanted to hand me the booklet, tell me what a hero his son was and have me just gush with thanks and awe.

Of course suggesting the Iraq War was built on lies was a direct assault on his narrative and largely his means of sustaining his well-being, of dealing with the tragic death of his son. His understanding was holding him together. It is no easy thing for a parent to admit their child died for nothing...or even worse engaged in something that was wrong.

A Strange Encounter Part 3

The Iraq War

"Were you in the military?" he asked.

"Unfortunately," I replied.

"What branch?"

"Air Force."

"Well I believe," he continued, "my son died defending our freedoms against Islamic Terrorism. The war in Iraq," he went on...

"Was based on lies," I said.

"You don't think after they attacked us on September 11 that we had to go in there? To liberate those people?"

"Iraq didn't attack us on September 11. And the reason given was to deal with the supposed pressing issue of Weapons of Mass Destruction which all turned out to be lies."

It got kind of tense. He insisted the weapons were there and they were smuggled out through Syria. I couldn't believe that almost ten years later I was still hearing these same old tired arguments which were proven false long ago.

A Strange Encounter Part 2

Gospel Gimmicks

So here I am with this poor man who lost his son and is now trying to share his story but has jumbled it all together into some kind of evangelism tool. It's an odd blend of American patriotism mixed with gospel...Bible verses and all the rest with flags and what not.

How odd I thought? For the past 18 months I've written a couple of thousand pages of material directed largely at...people just like him. And here I am minding my own business and suddenly he's sitting next to me handing me a mish-mash of theological heresy and nationalist propaganda. The muscles around my eyes grew tight.

A Strange Encounter Part 1

A bereaved father, and a gospel tract loaded with perversions of the Truth

I'm not fond of fabric stores. What can I say? As a male I'm just not enthralled about walking around racks filled with bolts of cloth. I'm thrilled my wife likes to sew and make things and has some ability at doing so. However it's not a store I can stand for more than a few minutes. Whenever we visit the fabric store at the nearest shopping mall (about 30 miles from our home) I usually end up on the bench out on the concourse.

So there I was sitting and minding my own business, half engaged in people watching and half falling asleep when this clean cut man in his sixties walks up and asks me my name. I could see he was carrying some literature and my guard went up. What was this...a salesman perhaps?

Focus on Sacralist Jurisprudence 7

(final segment)

Revolutionary thought can justify not only violence but crime...because crime (like murder or not paying your taxes) is not crime...but revolution...the refusal to accept the authority of the existing state and seeking to replace it by appealing to a higher law. This is why revolutionaries can argue moral purity while they rob banks. The bank is part of the system they're rejecting and revolting against. Robbing the bank is an act of war...and of course helps them fund their revolution. I'm not saying there are Christians suggesting we start robbing banks, but I am suggesting that in the years to come we are going to hear some pretty extreme rhetoric coming out of Christian mouths. The people at Church who glory in carrying guns and seem to almost consider it a mark of piety....well, is it great leap to suggest they will want to use them when they feel pressed? Will they not put forward Sacralist grounded arguments suggesting we can and perhaps ought to do so?

Suing to protect and advance the Church, places the Church in the power-struggle. It takes the Church and transforms it into a political device and institution, marring and distorting it. The Church abandons the Gospel for the Beast Project and by entangling itself in the affairs of this life abandons purity and virginity and becomes a whore.

Focus on Sacralist Jurisprudence 6

Consistent Application of Sacralist Law and Morality can only lead to one thing...

If something is morally right, and we believe it to be based on eternal spiritual principles, an ethic derived from Divine Revelation, we don't need to look to the state to validate or sanction what we're doing. This is true for both a non-Sacralist theory of resistance/antithesis and the Sacralist idea of social paradigm replacement and transformation.

For the non-Sacralist, the pilgrim ethic guides our daily life and interaction with the fallen society and its state. We're not trying to transform, we're not trying to get the institution on our side (though we are indeed after individuals within the system), and we don't want the state to aid us, because frankly it cannot. We simply want the state to provide security and order with as much freedom as possible so we can do what we're here to do.

Focus on Sacralist Jurisprudence 5

Part 5- The Inevitable Road to Violence and Revolution

-My apologies. This conclusion comes weeks late. I'm trying to tidy up some loose ends and I have a tendency to have too many things going at once. Time gets away from me and suddenly I realize these last couple of posts for this series should have been put up weeks ago. I could easily write several articles and commentaries a day, but I don't have enough time. I end up with a series of partially finished pieces and works in progress.

This hasn't been a very popular series either. My ability to strike a chord is rather hit and miss...With regard to this topic, people either aren't interested, don't see the importance, or already see it and perhaps are bored with the topic? I'm not sure. Anyway, these last segments address some of the real concerns I have...what I believe to be the telos of this whole trend in Evangelicalism with regard to politics and the law. The previous installments can be found here: http://proto-protestantism.blogspot.com/2011_11_01_archive.html

Part 5 

One more example and some final thoughts....

While I was finishing up this series I heard Al Mohler talking about some related issues. On his show he was discussing the case of a couple in California running into trouble with a local zoning board because of a Bible study at their house.

Many will have heard something of this before, either this specific case or one like it. Mohler argued that if a wedding reception was happening, no one would question it, but the anti-Christian city won't allow the study of God's Word and prayer. As usual, a bit of an oversimplification.

Civil Rights and Evangelical Revisionism

In addition to Charles Colson's amazing shift regarding Evangelical attitudes toward Rome, there has also been a colossal shift regarding attitudes on race and the narrative of the Civil Rights era.

During the 1960's in many cases it was Protestants and people who would today be described as white Evangelicals who were leading the charge against people like Martin Luther King.

Colson's Victory

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/14/us-usa-campaign-evangelicals-idUSTRE80D0OF20120114

I already alluded to this in another recent post but it is noteworthy. Evangelical leaders recently gathered in Texas in an attempt to reach a consensus regarding which candidate to support in the 2012 US Presidential bid. The result after the final tally...the Roman Catholic Rick Santorum.

The Sacralist Road to Moral Relativism

http://www.breakpoint.org/bpcommentaries/entry/13/18531

My wife picked up on this the other day. I really have no deliberate plan to pick on Charles Colson, but he’s on the radio 5 days a week, and even after years of his flawed worldview and erroneous and deceptive commentary…he still amazes!

Answering Questions #14- The Law of Non-Contradiction and its theological results

Some time ago I was in a discussion on another site and made this comment:

Like I said I'm uncomfortable with these laws being employed because through syllogistic formation, deduction and inductive theological construction. We can quickly get far away from the text. I can think of quite a few issues where Reformed theology has done this, and gotten into tangles due to questions that shouldn't have been asked." 

 I received this response just recently from another party:

Will you please give me some examples of this?  As far as the noncontradiction issue goes, I wonder if Jesus is God, and God is all knowing yet Jesus did not know the time or the hour of His return then isn't it true that Jesus was not omnipotent.  I have a really hard time saying Jesus didn't have any characteristic that God would have if He (which I do believe) he was God.  Will you please share your thoughts on this issue with me please?

To which I replied:

Constantine Can't Rescue Britain- 7

In the end, the presence of the middle class brings its own problems. For the Church, at least in the United States it has been disastrous. Christianity becomes respectable and part of the establishment. Bourgeoisie self-interest and preservation is confused with Christian values. That's been our problem here in the United States.

Rather than the cross being something we bear, it's something we wear as jewelry. Instead of love not the world, we become very comfortable here, and Christian-ize the lust of the flesh, eyes, and the pride of life. We don't call these values worldly...we call it...the American Dream.

Constantine Can't Rescue Britain- 6

On another perhaps more practical level, one might engage in a discussion regarding the middle class. A society lacking this contains a large population of disengaged, socially disenfranchised people. This has been the reality throughout most of history. Those on the top look down on the crude barbaric masses of dirty uncultivated people with disgust. They control them with the threat of violence but always live with some fear of them as well. The middle class creates a new and large bracket of society that is engaged in issues and infrastructure, and cares very much about standards, advancement, manners and so forth.

Constantine Can't Rescue Britain- 5

Granted in some ways Georgian or Victorian society would have been nicer to live in than today's pajama wearing in public, body pierced and spitting on the sidewalk culture. But in other ways Victorian culture was stifling. Counterfeit Christianity didn't just abound as it does today...it ruled and tyrannically wielded tremendous power. The gospel was stifled and crushed by a society which confused its social mores and laws with Biblical revelation. Jane Austen movies have assuaged the harshness of this reality. Certainly those on top of the pyramid had pretty nice lives, even with the occasional grief and difficulty. But most of the people didn't live in Jane Austen world...they lived in Bronte land or the realm of Hardy. They didn't think Victorian society to be so grand. For them it was akin to an oppressive terror.

Constantine Can't Rescue Britain- 4

As Christians we've been taught to loathe multi-culturalism. Rather we should be all for such pluralistic understandings of society. Don't confuse theological pluralism which is to deny Christ with social pluralism. Many who are critical of what I'm saying make this error, sometimes deliberately, accusing Christians who argue for social pluralism of denying the exclusivity of Christ.

 Since the Kingdom of Christ is not of this world and we the citizens of the Kingdom must by necessity also dwell in earthly kingdoms the only type of society we would desire is one tolerant of pluralism, one committed to being composite rather than unified. This is the exact opposite position most Christians hold to these days.