Competing Kingdom and Doctrinal Narratives: The First Reformation versus Twentieth Century Dominionism

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

The first half of the Twentieth Century saw the collapse of the Kingdom-progress narrative and eventually an attempt was made to re-cast it but this time in much more specific and deliberate terms. Postmillennialism didn't die but it took a backseat. However its ethos was perpetuated in the form of Dominionism – a theological spectrum that was able to penetrate virtually every facet and faction of the Protestant and Evangelical movements.

The Legacy of First Reformation Separatism versus Magisterial Protestantism's Establishment Ethos (1517-1914)

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

There is value in a further elaboration of this contrast between the First and Magisterial Reformations and thus as an exercise it's worth briefly surveying the latter's historical and ethical legacy as it transitioned from the Renaissance era into modernity.

New Testament Christianity, Homeschooling and the Collapse of French Pluralism

https://evangelicalfocus.com/europe/8340/evangelicals-react-to-frances-plans-to-fight-islamist-separatism

I am certain that attitudes have changed in Europe since I spent considerable time there in the 1990's. At that time homeschooling was novel and while it was becoming popular in the United States, such expressions of individualism and counter-culture were not popular in Europe – even among Christians.

The First Reformation and Magisterial Reformation Contrasted

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

Another way of reviewing and emphasizing the characteristics of the First Reformation and the various proto-Protestant movements is to juxtapose and contrast them with the Magisterial Reformation and the type of Protestantism that it produced. This is seen in two areas – doctrine and ethics. Questions of Biblical authority and general understandings of how doctrine functions were answered differently. And, there were profound differences in how the First and Second Reformations interacted with society, power, wealth and the state. In other words the two movements had radically different concepts of ethics in light of the Scriptures – at which point we will begin.

Waldensian Historiography

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

The question of Waldensian placement becomes complicated as they transcend the three epochs we're touching upon – the pre-Schism First Reformation, the post-Schism shift and fragmentation, and finally the Magisterial Reformation.

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.

Supreme Ironies: The Coney Barrett Nomination

(updated and amended)†

Taking in all the drama and pending procedural battles over the Amy Coney Barrett nomination I was struck by the numerous ironies that are at work. Given that the background has grown rather complicated it's something that few outlets bother to probe or pursue. And yet there's an interesting story and both political factions come out looking pretty bad.

The First Reformation

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

Some would date the First Reformation to the era of The Great Schism (1378-1417) when the papacy was split between the Avignon and Rome factions. Lollardy proper (it is argued) arose in England during this period and Czech Hussitism arose immediately after it. The already established Waldensians also flourished during this era and some believe the period represents a first wave of doctrinal protest movements – a case of all of these groups (to varying degrees) appealing to the Scriptures to argue against the developments within Catholicism.

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 Oracular Mark and Historiography

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

The following is by no means exhaustive but it is my hope that it provides an alternative (or at least a working alternative) basis for a metanarrative to Church History. While I've been critical of the aforementioned narratives the concept of a metanarrative itself is not invalid – even while it has its dangers. Painting with a fairly broad brush I hope to establish some principles that will (in the most general of terms) provide a framework for an alternative view that some will identify as a kind of Third Way – a positive narrative that avoids the traps and pitfalls of both Roman Catholicism (and by implication Eastern Orthodoxy) and Magisterial Protestantism.

Metanarratives of Church History: Mercersburg, Confessionalism, and Landmarkism

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

Nevin imposes a theological paradigm and metanarrative on his reading of Church History but ignores the fact that the New Testament repeatedly and forcefully warns of apostasy and appeals to the Old Testament as a pattern which is replete with examples of corruption, defection and compromise. In other words the Scriptures all but told us to expect this course in terms of the history of the Church and yet Nevin's progression paradigm has no room for it.

Testimonies of Early Dissent

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

In his Early Christianity series, Nevin goes on to attack figures like Aerius, Jovinian and Vigilantius – all 4^th century dissenters treated by his colleague Philip Schaff in vol. 3 of his History of the Christian Church.

Nevin argues these figures and groups were aberrations and represented no serious opposition to the post-Constantinian changes – but we cannot accept this verdict.

Nevin's Early Christianity

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

The study of Church History is one dominated by narratives. For some it's a question of progress, a narrative of the application of principles, the expansion of the Kingdom in the form of Christendom and for others it's a story of remnant groups persevering in the face of apostasy and relentless persecution. Needless to say variations of the former model have proven to be far more popular and marketable.

Anti-Masking, 9/11 and Nero (Part 2)

In the grand scheme of things we can say this – wearing a mask is a small price to pay, a small inconvenience especially if it helps to prevent spread and potentially save lives.

But even if it's a large price to pay – as Christians we can say the following with confidence –

Wearing a mask is not sinful. Therefore if it's the law, we're compelled to do it – at least outside the gathering of the church and outside the home. Whether they are worn in the church or home is for the leaders of those domains to decide in a Christ-honouring Biblically reasoned fashion.

Anti-Masking, 9/11 and Nero (Part 1)

After 9/11, it was the Right-wing and the political Conservatives who supported the suspending of rights. They supported the curtailing of speech and censorship. Privacy was eliminated as was due process – not to mention cruel and unusual punishment. State prerogatives were superseded by the new Federal juggernaut. To many scholars and principled liberals, the Constitution had been eviscerated and in particular the key planks found within the Bill of Rights.

Trump +1307: Middle Eastern Geopolitics, Switching Alliances and American Absenteeism (II)

As previously mentioned, the explosion in Beirut was quickly capitalised on by France's Macron – the Americans are absent, and thus other Western powers like the French are stepping in. Macron as the former colonial power has inserted itself into the Lebanese situation and is already floating an overhaul of the Civil War settlement which established the sectarian blocs that rule the country. Despite this settlement, in practical terms, oligarchs control the government and  Hezbollah controls large sections of Lebanon's Northeast and South and a political shake-up could mean a challenge to Hezbollah's control – the very thing Macron and others would like to see.

Trump +1307: Middle Eastern Geopolitics, Switching Alliances and American Absenteeism (I)

It is really in the realm of foreign policy that Trump has upset the American Establishment in the strongest of terms – and I'm not referring to the failed Russiagate scandal. As a vehicle to remove him from office that plot failed but in the meantime his presidency has marked some other significant changes and in some settings and theatres his haphazard pursuit of policy has resulted in change – largely in terms of instability and a serious decline in American influence and standing.

The Burning of Bibles and the Evangelical Response

Reports have come out regarding street protestors burning Bibles. Already upset by the taking down of statues and monuments, this story has pushed many Evangelicals over the edge and while the imagery of the Scriptures being burned is troublesome, there is also cause for concern to be found in the Evangelical response.

High Place Hermeneutics – The Spirit of Balaam-Hananiah

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtdPoLDl5jU

At 4:44, Jordan Hall engages in a classic syncretistic move of bait and switch. Juxtaposing the holy covenantal inheritance due to Esau and the inheritance gained and earned by American patriots who through work and war built the nation Hall has sold his soul to – he engages in a basic hermeneutical and theological fallacy and yet one well known to students of the Scripture and those who continue to watch American Evangelicalism with a wary eye.

Three Shots Fired at Moscow

The Anti-Russian campaign is in full swing. It might as well be 1950, 1961 or 1983. It's reaching that kind of intensity.

First, we're told that Russian affiliated hackers attempted to steal data related to development of a Covid-19 vaccine. These hacks targeted Western pharmaceutical companies that are currently involved in the research and development.

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.