The Context of MacArthur's Flawed Stand Regarding the Church, State and Covid-19

With regard to state mandates directed at churches, I completely support the rejection of state authority. The state has no business in the affairs of the Church but unfortunately the Church (generally speaking) has confused the issue on at least two fronts.

The Membership-Marriage Fallacy and Other Ecclesiastical Sophisms

https://www.reformation21.org/blog/join-or-die

The introduction to this article is not unsound. We must be part of a congregation but the question of 'joining' begs the question with regard to a denominational polity.

Membership Chaos within the Confessional Presbyterian Context (Part 2)

As you pursue communicant membership, rest assured that he who has begun a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ (Phil. 1:6). “May the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it” (1 Thess. 5:23–24). Amen. 

Apart from the terminology and conceptualisation of 'communicant membership', the statement is not unsound. And yet it is lacking. To be fair it was not the author's intent to provide an exhaustive statement and yet I think this is important. He rightly emphasizes the need for good works and the Philippian exhortation is tied to the concept of perseverance – an idea that permeates the New Testament and yet must be distinguished from the deduced and popular but erroneous concept of eternal security.

Membership Chaos within the Confessional Presbyterian Context (Part 1)

This brief statement on membership caught my eye while perusing New Horizons, the OPC monthly that I continue to follow even though I departed the OPC about twenty years ago. My early Christian days were in connection with that denomination and while I would never even consider regularly attending another one – I still follow its trajectory and movements and though the numbers grow fewer, there are still people I know (or knew) within its fold.

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.

A Heretic Born on the Fifth of July

As we are in high-patriotic season when it comes to the American liturgical calendar I thought it apropos to recall this speaker I heard being aggressively pushed on local Christian radio stations in 2019.

Revisiting World Magazine and Olasky's Social Calvinism (Part 2)

Section five is a celebration of Social Calvinism's greatest innovation and perhaps one of its greatest sins – the fictitious and wicked doctrine of the Lesser Magistrate – the idea that it's permissible and even obligatory for men to take up the sword against their ruler as long as they do it under the aegis of a lesser (or lower ranking) magistrate who is (supposedly) on the basis of law acting to curb tyranny.

Revisiting World Magazine and Olasky's Social Calvinism (Part 1)

https://world.wng.org/content/social_calvinism

I first came across World Magazine in the 1990's after I returned to the United States and started frequenting Reformed churches. It was marketed to me as the Christian answer to liberal Time magazine and as it was easy enough to find copies on book tables in church foyers and other locales I certainly read my fair share of the magazine.

The End of World War II in Europe: Establishment Narratives and Bircher Conspiracies (Part 2)

The Stab in the Back and the Communist Plots

There are conspiracies to be sure. I've already mentioned some of them. The US strategy was to betray its ally the USSR into doing about 80% of the fighting in Europe and tens of millions died as a result. Churchill wanted to hold on to the British Empire and was conniving to control Western Europe – thus he was attempting manipulate the post-war order – leading to not only the handing over of Eastern Europe but the massive (and tragic) repatriation of Soviet prisoners and other units that had joined with the Germans to fight against the USSR. As a result thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands more anti-Soviet elements would die in the years following 1945.

The End of World War II in Europe: Establishment Narratives and Bircher Conspiracies (Part 1)

The Race for Berlin

The final days and aftermath of the European theatre of World War II is a topic that still generates some controversy even seventy-five years after the events. Competing nations have their respective narratives regarding the defeat of Nazi Germany and who can rightly claim to have 'won the war'.

Additionally there is the popular perception of the history, a neat and tidy narrative of 'good guys and bad guys' and then there is the reality – a rather messy, confusing and even contradictory series of events that defies the narratives, upsets some and generates controversies and suspicion of conspiracy in others.

Libertarianism and The Oligarchic Progression

Some forms of libertarianism posit a near anarchic view of society in which government is minimal and many of the functions and services commonly associated with the state are privatised or in some cases eliminated.

This thinking fails to take into account the vacuums that are created in society by a lack of explicit authority. As many have repeatedly pointed out, corporations actually want laws to provide a framework for contracts and some libertarians will allow for this to some degree. But they fail to take into account that as companies turn into monopolies, an economic oligarchy begins to develop – the corporations turn into a corporatocracy.

Biblicism: A Concise Statement and Clarification

This is largely a summary of the previous piece found here:

https://proto-protestantism.blogspot.com/2020/04/inbox-elaboration-of-biblicism-i.html

Biblicism is in this case, an embraced epithet describing a more robust and thorough understanding of Scriptural Authority. The Scriptures are authoritative and sufficient in all things relating to Church life and doctrine. Though many agree with this statement they nevertheless subvert and undermine Sufficiency by employing a host of methods which in the end reveal the Scriptures are not actually their supreme authority.

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.

The Moscow Abomination, Sacralist Worldview and Memorial Day (Part 1)

https://www.rferl.org/a/inside-moscows-new-military-megachurch/30580784.html

I happened to turn to the website affiliated with Radio CIA and discovered this story. Radio Free Europe is biased to be sure but there are sometimes hints of interesting stories and in other cases messages are communicated that tell me more about the reporter than the subject being reported.

Most Westerners will find this Nationalist Orthodox Cathedral to be a disgusting thing and rightly so. It is offensive – but I say that not as an American or Westerner or someone committed to Liberal ideals. Rather I say it as a Christian. This cathedral represents Sacralism on full display.

Stonestreet's Anti-Feminism: An Endorsement of Feminism (Part 2)

The truth is there has been a profound shift within Evangelical culture. In the 1970's there was still enough of the old Fundamentalism at work in how people viewed the family so that those who broke with the old order did so not so much out of ideological commitment but due to pragmatics and questions of financial stress. They weren't fans of Stanton, Anthony or Steinem but were people (in many cases) trying to hold on to the Middle Class lifestyle. This continued into the 1980's but more embraced the new model because lifestyles were changing and in many parts of the country housing prices were making it very difficult to live on one income.

Then the 1990's happened – the decade of decadence and debt. A new over-the-top lifestyle emerged and with it came a new theology – a theology of empowerment and prosperity. It affected all Evangelical circles, not just the sphere of tacky Charismatic televangelists. Christian career women started to become the norm but there were still tensions. The Culture War of the period drove many to reconsider what had been happening and there were certainly groups reacting to it – but for many a new theology was emerging that not only sanctioned the new feminism, it theologised it and embraced it.

Stonestreet's Anti-Feminism: An Endorsement of Feminism (Part 1)

https://www.breakpoint.org/women-at-work/

It's no wonder people are confused. What we have here is a feminist argument to counter more extreme forms of feminism. Evangelicals have in recent years largely embraced the early stages of feminism, even lionising the likes of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B Anthony – once largely reviled figures in the Evangelical world. And they have in other instances rejected as 'sexism' the Bible's ordering of the family and marriage.

The Last Prophet and the Implications of the Terminal Epoch (Part 2)

This is the End. There will be no other era of history after this but a new creation. The prophets announce these shifts in epoch, they point to their coming and indeed in one sense the Old Testament prophets pointed to the Kingdom of Heaven. But in these last days there is but one Prophet, the fulfillment of all prophetic typologies. There will be no new prophets to announce a new era. The prophecies have all been spoken – at least the revelatory prophecies have. That's how short the time is. Everything is done – Christ is coming. Even so come, Lord Jesus.****

Those who claim to be revelatory prophets today are deceived deceivers. There are no more prophets for this age – there's nothing to prophesy about. The word has been given.

The Last Prophet and the Implications of the Terminal Epoch (Part 1)

Hebrews 1.1-2 teaches us that the time of the prophets has ended with the advent of the Last Days – this provisional epoch which is related to the Coming of Christ. The Last Days are identified by The Prophet – Christ Himself.

Opposition versus Oppositional Journalism

While complete objectivity is impossible, oppositional journalism expresses a certain degree of cynicism with regard to power, and thus in that posture can avoid many partisan traps. All power and all power players are suspect and their claims need to be investigated and challenged. Oppositional journalism will also recognise there are multiple sides to a story and multiple interests and their various concerns and angles ought to be explored – and such explorations will contextualise the proclamations and actions made by those in power.

Inbox: A Gospel Tract

The Gospel of Scripture vs. Today's Gospel

The gospel message is simple enough. But to present it in a few paragraphs? Well, that's not so easy especially if you want the presentation to be contextualised to our contemporary audience. Well, here's an attempt and given the nature of the exercise I'm not going to saturate it with Scriptural quotations – though I hope many will recognise it as Scriptural and as something that employs a great deal of Scriptural language. This is the message in summary – in a kind of tract or written-preached form:

The Covid-19 Protests (III) – Why Christians Need to Pay Attention

While all of this is certainly concerning I was far more troubled when I watched the protest videos closely and spent some time examining the signage. A lot of it has a 'Christian' theme to it.

The Covid-19 Protests (II) – Trumpism and Trump Country

These protests express militancy and an insurrectionist character. Not everyone is carrying a gun to be sure but there are large numbers of armed men dressed in military fashion and many are organised, part of paramilitary organisations. While some people are scared of the state power grab in shutting down and heavily regulating the economy, others are expressing fears of a growing fascist movement and the potential for paramilitary violence. They see a parallel state developing, centered around the leadership and personality of Trump.

The Covid-19 Protests (I) – The Dangers to Society

Over the past week or so there has been a rash of protests, groups of people congregating outside government buildings and in violation of the current rules regarding 'distancing' and 'mass gatherings'. They gather to publicly resist US and state policy with regard to the economic shutdown and the various guidelines surrounding 'stay at home' policies and the like.

Inbox: An Elaboration of Biblicism (III)

A third consideration which while hinted at above, requires further elaboration, this is the relationship between Authoritative Sufficiency and Biblicism:

Worldviewism is a philosophical construct rooted in Sacralist assumption and inference and as such posits the Sufficiency of Scripture in terms of a holistic vision for the transformation and sanctification of culture. This is in fact a de-covenantalised abuse of the doctrine of Sufficiency.

Inbox: An Elaboration of Biblicism (II)

Second, we must also wrestle with some basic questions surrounding the relationship between Biblicism and hermeneutics:

There will be considerable overlap in the discussion as these issues are not easily sundered.

Inbox: An Elaboration of Biblicism (I)

What is meant by Biblicism? Like so many terms this can be confusing because people mean different things by it and define it in different ways. I am constantly arguing that Sola Scriptura is largely meaningless when it's restricted to just questions of soteriology, or when it's divorced from the doctrine of Sufficiency or even when it's separated from a concept such as the Providential Preservation of the Holy Text.

Mohlerian Hermeneutics and Coronavirus Theology (Part 2)

The analogies provided by Mohler fail on so many levels. Even the Leviticus example refers to individuals contracting diseases. There's no suggestion of mass quarantine. I read the article to my kids at the dinner table and did not reveal its author. Even my teenage daughter started picking it apart and was able to identify its basic problems.

Mohlerian Hermeneutics and Coronavirus Theology (Part 1)

https://albertmohler.com/2020/03/26/obedience-to-god-and-love-of-neighbor-in-the-face-of-a-coronavirus-a-christians-mandate

Albert Mohler offers what he calls the biblical approach to the responsibility laid upon us with regard to governing authorities. These are questions of hermeneutics and theology, the interpretation of the Scriptures and how these ideas are woven together and integrated into a larger system of ideas and practices. In other words the theology he presents (as is the case with all theology) will bear fruit in the realm of ethics.

Hungary: Orban and the Habsburgs Together

(updated August 2024) 

https://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/hungarys-secret-weapon-catholic-nobility

It's a seemingly innocuous article and interview and yet I found it fascinating. It was an opportunity to revisit chapters of the past that I know well and to connect a few dots and explore a few avenues that I hadn't previously considered in depth.

Coronavirus: Ecclesiastical Developments

I can say without qualification that I have been grieved by the mainstream Church's response to this outbreak. As I've talked about in other pieces, I believe the Church (broadly speaking) has been too quick to bow to the state and its dictates, its declaration that the assembly of the Church is something less than an 'essential service'.

I am grieved because Church leaders have handed over the authority of definition to the state but again this in some respects isn't all that surprising. It's the culmination of a long trajectory of compromise and capitulation.

The Lessons of Herbert Hoover and the Failed System of Capitalism

There has been resistance in some quarters to the proposed stimulus plan which will send out checks to the American public. In many ways it's rightly viewed as somewhat crazy – borrow or effectively print money to give to people. Take the government even deeper into debt so that citizens will have money to spend. What kind of economics is that?

Coronavirus Ecclesiology

updated 27 Mar 2020

As I continue to watch the developments and fallout from the Coronavirus episode I am coming to believe this is a watershed moment for the American Church.