The Rich Young Ruler, Law, and New Covenant Supremacy (II)

So if the Rich Young Ruler had (in faith) obeyed the commands of God, his works would mean something. This does not suggest he could earn his salvation but rather it would be a testimony to the Holy Spirit working within him. Instead, he was an idolater and his understanding of the law was of the letter not the spirit. He had no real faith to speak of and when standing before Christ and receiving a face to face invitation from Him - he turned away. He wasn't interested.

What Kingdom Fellowship?

Recently I discovered a new congregation in the area. It's not really in my area but I decided to make the drive and investigate. There was very little online and I couldn't really find a lot of information about it but the name indicated to me that they were Kingdom Christians. As such I figured they were Anabaptists of some stripe and committed to the kind of Kingdom life and ethics associated with New Testament passages such as the Sermon on the Mount.

Inbox: The Church as Institution vs. Sect (II)

The non-sacral sect model views culture as something that is at best inevitably corrupt (and thus to some degree a thing indifferent), and at worst a subversive danger to the Kingdom. This must be juxtaposed with the sacral-institutional model that views culture as something to be mastered, shaped, and controlled. When I say 'indifferent', this is not to suggest that it can be used expansively or with abandon. On the contrary our interactions with it must be marked by caution and even cynicism - and yet without fear. Such wisdom and occasionalism prove difficult and thus many have (in the spirit of the Pharisees) erected the Legalist Wall as a means of protection - a move that is ultimately corrosive in that in addition to being unbiblical it has the tendency to shut down the spiritual faculties of discernment instead relying on a kind of checklist spirituality wed to a (fundamentally flawed) cultural narrative.

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.

Inbox: Protestantism as Progress

I was asked to elaborate a bit on the question of proto-Protestantism's relationship to Magisterial Protestantism and the question of conservative vs. progressive movements.

Revisiting Revisiting Constantine

https://proto-protestantism.blogspot.com/2015/03/constantine-defended-and-revisited.html

Recently, I decide to re-read this book and the article I wrote about it in 2015. The book I'm referring to is "Constantine Revisited: Leithart, Yoder, and the Constantinian Debate" edited by John Roth (Wipf and Stock 2013). This book was written in response to Peter Leithart's "Defending Constantine" (IVP Academic 2010).

As I wrote in 2015, the book made many good points against the Leithart thesis, but most of the contributors missed the mark and some don't even belong within its pages.

Gems from The Shepherd of Hermas

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.

Bercot's Covid Ethics: Practical Wisdom and Shortcomings

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLI_iF75_-8

Overall this was a very good forum. My wife and I both agreed that is was some of the best practical ethics and wisdom we've heard since the Covid crisis emerged over a year ago. Bercot did not disappoint. He got the balance right and rightly applied Kingdom ethics to the situation – mask mandates and the like. I really appreciated it and the fact that he condemned the behaviour of Evangelicals and the many Anabaptists who fell into Right-wing individualist thinking and behaviour and brought shame to the testimony of Christ and the Church.

But there were two glaring deficiencies that I would point out and I think they're important to consider.

First Reformation Primitivism and the Second Constantinian Shift

Recovering the First Reformation - Toward a Proto-Protestant Narrative of Church History (XII)

The First Reformation it would seem embraced theological primitivism – unelaborated and limited doctrinal concepts. Like the Early Church they weren't terribly worried about seeming contradictions or doctrines that seemed to defy sense-experience or logical categories tied to it.

The Hussite Spectrum

Recovering the First Reformation - Toward a Proto-Protestant Narrative of Church History (VII)

The Great Schism which erupted in 1378 generated a new wave of dissent which while not unrelated to the earlier movements and impulses, nevertheless generated more radical factions which for a season took up the sword. These movements failed and yet in most cases the core ideas and commitments endured and the survivors would eventually merge back into the non-violent sword and coin rejecting, non-Sacralist and separatist posture of the movement's first wave. They would not be challenged or tempted again with regard to Sacralism until the time of the Magisterial Reformation.

Anabaptist Storm Clouds on the Horizon (Part 4)

Returning to the conservative Mennonites, the legalism of the Amish seems to be diluted (though still present) and largely replaced with a spirit of capitulation. This is what I think of when I see conservative Mennonites inviting John Stonestreet to speak. Have things gone that badly in their community, with their youth that they're willing to hear a culture-sanctifying, worldly, compromised Evangelical leader who regularly promotes feminism to come and teach them about how to navigate the world of technology and the computer age?

Anabaptist Storm Clouds on the Horizon (Part 3)

Some factions such as those associated with the founding of Sattler College have openly embraced mainstream life with its technology and economic order. Though still reckoned among the conservative Anabaptist spectrum, this shift in attitude represents an embrace of a nascent Dominionism. This inclusion of its conception of vocation in which one's daily occupation is a holy Kingdom-oriented task has landed them in a place not too distant from the world-compromised and affected liberals who in the post-war era sought an activist role within society.

Anabaptist Storm Clouds on the Horizon (Part 2)

In some post-war Mennonite circles apolitical nonresistance was transformed into tacit uncritical endorsement of the world system. The war was a crisis for these movements which fragmented them and sent the various factions in different directions and yet both liberal and conservative groups (perhaps for different reasons) embraced secular education.

Anabaptist Storm Clouds on the Horizon (Part 1)

In December 2019 I was visiting the Mennonite website for The Sword and Trumpet and was rather stunned to find that their Spring 2020 colloquy was hosting John Stonestreet of BreakPoint. He was to address the conservative Mennonite assemblage on issues of media and technology.

The Dynamics and Ethics of Lawbreaking (Part 2)

Someday, will I operate my business 'under the table' because the laws have become impossible to comply with? I hope not but if it comes down to eating, then I might. If it's a matter of having enough money for my $100,000 house, my retirement account, or the ability to drive my SUV, then I won't. And no fear, since I don't have any of these things, such questions are moot and there's no temptation either.

The Dynamics and Ethics of Lawbreaking (Part 1)

In recent articles I have discussed questions of persecution and punishment, of those who suffer as a result of the gospel versus those who are answering for their lawbreaking which is all too often rooted in political activism.

The Social Justice Controversy: An Addendum (Poway, R2K and the Inherent Violence of Sacralist Theology)

I was stunned to learn that some have dared to argue that Two Kingdom theology led to the Poway Shooting.

In reality the exact opposite is true.

Petr Chelčický: A Medieval Biblicist and Rustic Philosopher (Part 1)

Petr Chelčický was born sometime around 1380 in Southern Bohemia, today's Czech Republic.* Associated with the village of Chelčice, he was probably from Vodňany or some other nearby village. There are debates as to his identity, some identifying him with one Peter of Zahorči, but this is not conclusive. Regardless of his background (of which there are many theories) it seems a yeoman farmer is the most likely which would have placed him above the serfs and peasants but a member of neither the gentry nor the emergent bourgeoisie. Apparently a self-educated man he wrote in Czech and though he had some Latin, he wasn't fluent.

Interpreting Augustine's City of God

http://paulhelmsdeep.blogspot.ca/2017/03/augustine-pilgrim.html?m=1

Helm's writings have always been worthwhile, even when I disagree with him. Provocative and thoughtful, his is a website worth a regular visit. In this case it was not so much a matter of agreeing or disagreeing. Instead I read with interest as he delved into the long disputed interpretation of Augustine's City of God.

What is Augustine's eschatology? Anti-Chiliastic to be sure, what is his expectation for the Church in this age? How does the Church relate to the culture and the state? These are questions people still debate even in the 21^st century.

Christian Nonviolence and Pacifism: Some Badly Needed Clarifications (Part 4/Conclusion)

Apart from the Scriptural evidence that supports the nonviolent and pacifist position, there is a significant testimony to be found in Church History.