Spinning Israel, Anti-Semitism, and the Los Angeles Riots

With a tone of moral vindication, the BBC reported on the Starmer government's condemnation and sanction of Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, both far-right cabinet members in the Netanyahu government. Connected to the Settler movement, they have been charged with inciting violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, and the abuse of human rights. Further they have openly advocated policies of ethnic cleansing, though the official statements dance around this a bit as there are legal implications once such 'red lines' are crossed.

A Popular but Contrived Celtic Heritage

A Calvinist blogger (from the South) posted about wanting to understand his Celtic roots and then listed some books being read to that end.

A British Evangelical's take on Faith, Work, and Culture War

https://evangelicalfocus.com/multimedia/video/24261/Dan_Strange:_Faith,_work_and_Culture_Wars

There's a lot packed into this 12-minute interview. If you have your eyes and ears open it's rather instructive. But first, consider the context.

Closing the Book on the Assange Era

There are clearly some who are unhappy with Assange's release and believe he should have been either executed or incarcerated for life. The same day as the Notre Dame fire (which dominated the news) - the UK government arrested him in April 2019 at the Ecuadorian embassy where he had already been holed up since 2012. The reasons for his hiding in the embassy are rooted in bogus (and now dropped) charges of rape in Sweden. He suspected that as soon as he ended up in a UK court for an extradition hearing, the US would intervene and unwrap a sealed indictment against him. Its existence was an all but an open secret.

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 (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.

Postmillennial Clash: American Theonomy and British Whig-Revivalism

Having recently worked through Crawford Gribben's 2021 Survival and Resistance in Evangelical America: Christian Reconstruction in the Pacific Northwest, I was struck by many things but I have repeatedly revisited his reporting on the exchanges between American Theonomy and British outlets like the Banner of Truth. Later as Theonomy would emerge onto a larger stage it would be met with no small degree of hostility from within theologically conservative and Reformed circles in Britain. I don't believe Gribben sufficiently explored this and yet I think the episode to be rather instructive.

Truth Obscured: An Exchange Between Arnzen and Boot

https://www.ironsharpensironradio.com/podcast/november-30-2022-show-with-dr-joe-boot-and-joel-webbon-on-the-mission-of-god-a-manifesto-of-hope-for-society/

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.

Flags in the Church

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.

The Ukraine Trap

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.

Dissent Before the Gregorian Reform and the Placement of Celtic Christianity

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

The growing apostasy at work in the post-Constantinian period was challenged and it seems clear there was a lasting testimony of extra-Roman and anti-Roman resistance well into the Dark Ages. A dissenting geographic belt (deemed heretical by Rome) would appear cutting across the Pyrenees through Southern France and across the Alps into Northern Italy. With Switzerland serving as a knot, another branch roughly followed the course of the Rhine through Germany and the Low Countries.  

The Moscow Abomination, Sacralist Worldview and Memorial Day (Part 2)

From the anti-sacralist Two Kingdom standpoint of New Testament Christianity, the aforementioned thin line between Church and State is in fact an insurmountable wall.***

Christians do not celebrate war. They do not take up the sword. They do not seek revenge and they do not put themselves in service to mammon. As such, Christians are necessarily divorced from the cultural mainstream and cannot have any part in the political apparatus. Life of course is complicated and saints have at times found themselves in difficult situations and have been pulled into realms and spheres that they did not seek. These realities are part of life in a fallen world. But this is quite different from a mode of thinking that not only embraces these categories but sanctifies and glorifies them.

Historical Lessons not Learned: British Nonconformity, Classical Liberalism and a Cycle of Self-Destruction (Part 2)

For almost two centuries large factions of Protestants have championed Classical Liberalism and now like a Golem or Frankenstein monster turning on its creator, the system is effectively at war with social and religious nonconformity. By conflation, Classical Liberalism has eroded Christian thought and Liberalism's failures have driven society in a communitarian direction, even while retaining many liberal concepts and forms. As a consequence Christians, who often held to communitarian positions themselves are left imperiled and confused and their large-scale social projects in the post-Enlightenment period have turned into something of a nightmare.

Historical Lessons not Learned: British Nonconformity, Classical Liberalism and a Cycle of Self-Destruction (Part 1)

Scotland made international news with its Named Person programme in 2014. This programme would effectively assign a social worker to every child so that the state would be involved in that child's life from infancy. Parents, privacy advocates and others were horrified at this attempt of gross intrusion by the state as well as the potential for abuses and in principle the loss of parental power and autonomy.

There was resistance and the act was partially blocked in 2016, though Edinburgh is still trying to implement it. Recently there was a scandal as a video emerged of local authorities encouraging teachers to override parental consent regarding collected personal information about children and their families. In other words the state is keeping files on everyone and teachers are being effectively trained to disregard parental concerns and objections. They know best of course. For obvious reasons Christians and others are alarmed.

Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy

There is an oft-repeated but utterly fallacious argument that Democracy and Capitalism go hand in hand. Capitalism is about 'voting' for what goods and services you want and is thus an extension of the democratic system.

Pakistan: Imperial Blowback and the Shapur Effect

In 1757 the British defeated a joint Mughal-French army at the Battle of Plassey. This set them on a course to dominate the whole of the Indian Subcontinent forever changing its history.

Mohler's Sacralist Commentaries

As I've mentioned before Mohler represents just the kind of Christian leader that I am opposed to. This does not mean that there aren't many theological points we find in common. We would ostensibly agree on the basics of the gospel and many a point of historical theology.

Christian Schools in Britain, Social Crisis and the Larger Issues at Stake

There are stories beginning to circulate in Christian circles of a private Christian school in the United Kingdom which is risking the loss of what we would call accreditation due to a lack of diversity with regard to religious instruction.