Twisting the Scriptures, Undermining Biblical Principles, and the Supposed Stewardship of Voting (II)

Woods' appeals to New Testament limits on state power are also guilty of non sequitur. He confuses a Christian ethic and call to bear witness with enumerated powers. Likewise in his state of deception and delusion (32:00) he seems to find the Second Amendment in the Scripture - even when numerous passages in the New Testament repudiate the ethic of vengeance, self-defense, let alone the taking of life in self interest. His interpretations of Luke 22 and Christ's words regarding the two swords being enough are telling as he falls into the very same misguided interpretive traps as did the Pharisees who argued with him and the apostles in some of their worst moments of ignorance. The sword in Luke 22 has nothing to do with walking around with a gun strapped to you - or strategically placed under you car seat. And Christ made very clear in the garden that he was not calling them to take up swords and warned them against doing so. They were either an object lesson or a case of his exasperation due to their lack of understanding - which He knew would be clarified in short order. Woods completely misinterprets these passages as indeed he has demonstrated a repeated failure to grasp basic New Testament teachings and ethics.

Twisting the Scriptures, Undermining Biblical Principles, and the Supposed Stewardship of Voting (I)

https://www.vcy.org/crosstalk/2026/02/24/the-bible-and-your-vote/

If you can stomach it, listen to this episode of CrossTalk - or more properly John Birch Society Radio. The show frequently hosts the society's leaders and thinkers and functions as a platform for its brand of Right-wing politics. It's almost a comprehensive study in all that is wrong with the Christian Right and today's Evangelical movement. Woods (the guest) is a bit simplistic to be sure, but he's consistent in his representation of their platform. With the Bible in hand, he launches an assault on New Testament Christianity every bit as subversive as that of James Talarico. The latter won't actually fool anyone grounded in Scripture but Woods and his ilk are persuasive to many and continue to do great harm.

A Misrepresentation of Western Art

https://cne.news/article/4938-how-arts-draw-europe-back-to-paganism

This article struck me as rather strange. In many respects I can resonate with Placentino's concerns about pagan revival in connection with 18th and 19th century Romanticism, but at the same time I found his arguments wanting and often guilty of begging the question.

Deconstructing Dolezal

https://au.thegospelcoalition.org/book-review/not-god-divine-simplicity-simple/

I appreciated this review of James Dolezal's 2017 work All That is In God: Evangelical Theology and the Challenge of Classical Christian Theism - a work that has generated controversy and led to the creation of new factions within Reformed circles. As the subject interests me, I find myself returning to it once again.

Calvinism's Inability to Reckon With Apostasy

https://philosophical-theology.com/2025/10/17/abandoning-the-faith-in-college-really/

DiGiacomo finds parental discourse surrounding the issue of apostasy to be confused but we could say the same adjective describes his discourse as well. The bottom line is this - what does the New Testament say? And this is the rub, Calvinism all too often commits itself to rationalist systemic frameworks that logically prioritize certain truths and as a consequence, verses (even if there are literally dozens of them) that suggest something to the contrary must be explained away and/or subordinated.