A Broken Back to the Glory of God (II)

The point in all this is to say – that at some point his employers may conclude that he has no future there (or no near future) and they may decide to drop him. That will mean a loss of medical coverage. Once again, it's tragic that in the flawed American system one's access to health care has all too often been tied to employment. This has made people vulnerable and in some cases it has effectively enslaved people to their employers as they live in fear of losing coverage. This is all the more true in the case of those that have chronic conditions and need regular care or rely on expensive medications. One can safely say the whole system is a mess and yet the primary driving factor of that mess – is the profit system. It's all the more egregious in the context of human health and suffering as it preys on fear and desperation.

A Broken Back to the Glory of God (I)

As I reported a few days back my son (who is in his early twenties) recently broke his back in a bicycle accident. He came very close to losing his life and had a very close shave with paralysis. Even now, he's not entirely out of the woods but the remaining risk is low.

An Appeal to the Watchtower Society and Former Members of the Jehovah's Witnesses (II)

It's one thing to break free of philosophy or tradition, or the extant influences of the Magisterial Protestant Reformation, but for Americans in particular there's often a barrier or problem the hinders a return to the New Testament and it's one that Restorationist groups like the Witnesses, Churches of Christ, and others need to understand.

An Appeal to the Watchtower Society and Former Members of the Jehovah's Witnesses (I)

I feel something of a burden for the members of this group. They are to be commended, for on many points they put the larger Evangelical and Protestant world to shame. In terms of ethics and a sense of pilgrim identity, the Witnesses are in many ways much closer to the New Testament than those who consider them a cult.

Secular Psychology and the Denial of Scriptural Authority

https://www.christianpost.com/news/churches-address-mental-health-stigma-in-the-pews.html

In some respects it's surprising that this article is even appearing at this point. This debate over whether or not Christians should embrace psychology and its assumptions is effectively over. The ship has sailed as they say. I remember the contentions over this point in the 1990's and by the early 2000's it was clear there had been a fundamental shift. We moved from hearing psychology condemned from the pulpit to pastors on Christian radio telling the audience to leave their church if psychology is called into question – because at that time there will still churches challenging this paradigm.

The War Option, the Calculus of Empire, and the Dreams of Madmen

For years commentators have spoken of the decline of America and what it would look like. Others (including myself) have argued that the American Establishment may opt for war as a means to escape this deterioration and reassert the largely failed project of post Cold War US hegemony.

Chiliasm, Totalitarian Cults, and The Pursuit of the Millennium

After many years I finally found the time to read Norman Cohn's The Pursuit of the Millennium: Revolutionary Millenarians and Mystical Anarchists of the Middle Ages first published in 1957. For all the attention this book has received I was quite disappointed.

Cohn's thesis rests on a cobbled together narrative that confuses popular impulse and superstition with religious conviction. He tries to argue that various utopian and chiliastic movements of the medieval period were the cultural and ideological precursors of twentieth century Nazism and Communism.

Inbox: Usury and Related Questions (II)

As far as charging interest to the unbeliever and that sort of thing – for me it's out of the question. I don't believe I can view the unbeliever as an enemy (which would be in keeping with the Old Testament scenario) and while I may agree (in the broad strokes) with Aristotle on this point, the real issue is (I believe) that so-called risk is invalid in terms of making a legitimate profit.

Inbox: Usury and Related Questions (I)

https://www.holytrinity-lansing.org/articles-from-father-mark-1/2020/1/20/the-sin-we-stopped-feeling-sorry-for

This article was sent to me accompanied by some follow-up questions. It's actually by an Eastern Orthodox cleric and I must say I was pleased to read it.

For the most part I agree with was said – with a few qualifications.

We Were Soldiers and Mel Gibson's Cinematic Lies

Not long ago it was one of those rare Saturdays – the womenfolk were gone and it was just me and my sons. As readers will know I am committed to the New Testament doctrines of non-violence and non-resistance and yet unlike some within the Anabaptist or Holiness traditions, I believe in engaging culture on a certain level. This is not with an intent to transform or exert political influence but I believe we do need to understand the context in which we live. There are limits, all the more as culture becomes overtly sinful in much that is produces.

Feeling Better About America

Visiting a church last Sunday I wasn't terribly surprised when there was mention of the Dobbs v. Jackson case and the overturning of the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. Evangelicals are celebrating this ruling and several others that have come down at the conclusion of the Supreme Court's recent 2021-2022 term.

Sola Scriptura and Divine Simplicity (II)

To my mind, it makes perfect sense that this dispute over the doctrine of God has arisen in the context of Reformed Baptist circles as I have long argued Baptist doctrine and understandings regarding concepts such as the covenant and sacraments tend toward reductionism and result from a kind of rationalism at work that will not tolerate ambiguity, tension, and paradox – even though a true Biblicist hermeneutic demands the embrace of such mysteries.

Sola Scriptura and Divine Simplicity (I)

https://www.ironsharpensironradio.com/podcast/june-17-2022-show-with-dr-sam-waldron-on-do-we-still-believe-sola-scriptura-a-word-of-caution-to-reformed-churches-leaders-about-present-day-dangerous-paths-slippery-slopes-on-the-rise-among/

Though I've made it abundantly clear in the past that I'm not a fan of Chris Arnzen's Iron Sharpens Iron, when I saw that Sam Waldron was to be the guest I decided to give the show a listen. I was all the more intrigued by the suggestion that there were problems or challenges with regard to Sola Scriptura.

I was mostly pleased by what I heard. I feared that the show would be about Critical Race Theory, alien epistemologies and things of that order, but that wasn't it at all. They were talking about a debate taking place within Reformed circles and given Arnzen and Waldron – specifically within Reformed Baptist circles.

Inbox: Paul, Timothy, and the Case for Christian Rulers

Does 1 Timothy chapter 2 assume that Paul looked for Christian magistrates?

Trueman: A Little Late to the Antithesis Game

https://wng.org/opinions/welcome-to-pride-month-christian-1654083759

Trueman is right to lament Pride Month and the latest shift in our culture that will (without a doubt) lead to the marginalisation of Christians. It's inescapable, and like Lot in Sodom – any Christian is bound to be vexed by the world and the conduct that surrounds us.

Dobbs v. Jackson: A Pyrrhic Victory at Best

It's June, and in the United States that's the time when the Supreme Court issues its substantial rulings. If the reports are to be believed it is likely that Roe v. Wade, (the 1973 Supreme Court ruling that made abortion legal in all fifty states) is going to be overturned.

Though the 7-2 decision makes it an unlikely candidate for reversal, there were always some issues with the ruling that made it subject to review. A political issue more than a legal one, the time has come or so it seems. With the Trump appointments and some GOP scheming, the Right has now gained a decided advantage on the court and it would seem they're making their move. The new era of Dobbs v. Jackson will soon be upon us, the case that will overturn Roe.

Inbox: Rights Based Ethics and the Evangelical Movement (II)

Understanding the hopelessly corrupt nature of the world and its vanity we can then (with Paul and the Corinthians) take comfort in being 'the little people', the 'nothings' in the eyes of the world – the types that a reprobate like Trump would call 'losers'. For no one hates Christianity and Christians more than Donald Trump. Obviously the Church doesn't understand this one bit. Led by fools they think he's an ally and an asset to the Church's cause in the world. So misled by the false shepherds and shaped more by the epistemology and values of the Right than by Scripture, they have latched on and in increasing numbers have sold their souls to this charlatan and now his lackeys and imitators.

Inbox: Rights Based Ethics and the Evangelical Movement (I)

In a recent piece I wrote concerning the Dominionist-driven Evangelical movement:

Their values are based on the pursuit of political power, ethics rooted in a system of 'rights', and economic concerns – namely profits. It is both tragic and obscene that a large majority of professed Christians have embraced such Social Darwinist ethics and utterly abandoned the religion of the New Testament. But generations of Rights-based ethics have done this and Church leaders have abdicated their responsibility to denounce this false system that is contrary to the New Testament.

I was asked to follow-up on the question of Rights-based ethics and what this has meant for the Church.

The Consecration of Russia and Fatima

Under the banner of co-belligerence, Evangelicals continue to deepen their ties to Roman Catholicism and openly work alongside elements within its larger order in pursuit of their political goals and aspirations. As Catholicism represents a spectrum every bit as broad as what is found under the definition of 'Protestantism', it is the Traditionalist Catholics (so-called) who are the natural allies of the Evangelical sphere – as they too labour to turn back the cultural clock. And while their conceptions of 'Christian America' or Christendom are different, they are united with Evangelicals in opposing secular humanism.

Dominionism and the Tucker Carlson School of Homiletics

Visiting another church this Sunday once more proved to be a serious disappointment. The congregation was something of a hybrid between Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism and yet Sacralist thinking dominated. The pastor continually confused the identity of the Church and the nation and begged the question regarding the Christian call to engage and dominate culture.

Dominionist Eisegesis and Doctrinal Cowardice

https://caldronpool.com/the-gospel-has-many-political-implications-for-a-nation/

New Calvinist pastor Matthew Littlefield asserts that those who believe the Church should not engage in politics are guilty of trumpeting ignorance. He then proceeds to elaborate what he believes are the political implications of the gospel.

A Fundamentalist Elegy

As we're in the process of revisiting area churches, I had occasion to attend a rural Fundamentalist congregation about forty-five minutes from where I live. I had last visited there 3-4 years ago and the level of decline just in that relatively brief period of time was remarkable.

Chimeric Experimentation and the Bioethics of the Pro-Life Movement (II)

Returning again to the chimeric experimenters, they're tinkering with things that are beyond them. We're not materialists. There's more to life and reality than that which is merely empirical. The reality of the materialists is a reductionism of true reality and Christians shouldn't think in those terms or operate under the ethics that flow from such thinking.

Chimeric Experimentation and the Bioethics of the Pro-Life Movement (I)

https://evangelicalfocus.com/science/15001/christian-doctors-see-no-ethical-problem-in-genetically-modified-pig-heart-transplant-to-human

The current Evangelical world is rife with scepticism regarding modern medicine and yet some will remember a time in which the attitude that long dominated the movement was very much pro-medicine and pro-technological development. Whether right, wrong, or indifferent, the shift is interesting and more should be done in examining the reasons behind it.

Inbox: The Glory of the Nations in Revelation 21 and the Question of Eschatological Continuity (II)

*updated 9 April 2022

Even the Old Testament casts doubt on the continuity reading of Revelation 21. Ecclesiastes, a book that is so problematic for modern Evangelicalism and Dominionism has its message spun. The end result of their exegetical machinations is that the world is not given to vanity and corruption even though Paul forcefully and explicitly reiterates this point in Romans 8 and elsewhere argues that this world in its state of curse is subject to temporality. This is in contrast with the eternal (and thus ultimately true) nature of the eschatological Kingdom. That which is temporal is impermanent. This is not Gnosticism opposing matter or the material world or suggesting that it is illusion. It's a state of existence resulting from the Fall of Man and the curse God has placed on the world – not matter as matter, but this world which includes its fallen matter subject to decay and death, a matter sundered from its spiritual moorings as it were.

Inbox: The Glory of the Nations in Revelation 21 and the Question of Eschatological Continuity (I)

Doesn't Revelation 21 teach cultural continuity? Doesn't it teach that cultural attainments will be part of our life in heaven? Are there any historical readings of the passage that specifically refute this? Are there any commentators that argue explicitly for discontinuity in reference to this passage?

Continuity here refers to the idea that cultural progress and attainments achieved in this age will continue into the age to come. In other words, advances in the arts, science, philosophy, architecture and the like will play a part in our heavenly life. Proponents of this view believe that the productions of the great artists, particularly those that were God-honouring in what they produced, men such as Bach and Rembrandt will be part of our life in heaven.

Texas, Florida, and Anti-Sodomy Laws: Some Theological Dangers and Warnings

Many Evangelicals will undoubtedly celebrate the recent legislative moves in Texas and Florida and both governors (one Catholic and one Evangelical) are certainly viewed as allies or even champions in the Christian Right's culture wars.

Thinking Several Moves Ahead: Geopolitical Maneuvering and History's Warnings in Light of The Ukraine War

In light of current events Moldova and Georgia have applied for EU membership. For its part, Moldova has been engaged in a tug-of-war between the West and Moscow and yet unlike Ukraine and Georgia it has been able thus far to avoid violence.

The Dark Side of Covid – The Establishment's Reordering of Society (III)

Are these concepts surrounding social credit, access, and economics harbingers of the Mark of the Beast?

The Dark Side of Covid – The Establishment's Reordering of Society (II)

What are some areas that are of genuine concern – areas being exploited by people in power to bring about great and sweeping changes to society?

The Dark Side of Covid – The Establishment's Reordering of Society (I)

Certain elements within society that want to deny the reality of Covid or seriously downplay its impact tend to focus on what might be called the dark side of Covid. This refers to the sociological elements and upheavals connected to the Covid epoch and while they've been exaggerated by some (and this line of discussion is often corrupted by a great deal of misinformation and even blatant disinformation), there is nevertheless something to it.

The Last of the Theonomic Three: Scary Gary North (1942-2022)

https://www.garynorth.com/public/23334.cfm

He was 'Scary Gary' to many – a reference to his cantankerous style. An original member of the Theonomic Three and its last survivor, he married RJ Rushdoony's daughter – a connection I know many did not make.

I encountered him early on in my Christian life. I remember receiving materials in the mail from Still Waters Revival Books. They tirelessly promoted the Theonomic line and in my files I still have many of their pamphlets headed by Bahnsen, Rushdoony, and Gary North.

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.

Memories of 1983 and an NPR Report on Russian Activity in Latin America

From the Olympics to computing, from news to politics, the Russians are everywhere in the news or more accurately the Anti-Russian propaganda campaign is everywhere. This is by far the worst we've seen in forty years, since the tense period accompanying Reagan's ascent to the US presidency. Almost immediately he began a rapid military buildup and a series of aggressive military Psyops directed against Russia. The US pushed the Russian security perimeter by air, land, and sea. At that time the Soviets were in dire fear of an American First Strike and became very edgy and the tension led to events like the shootdown of KAL 007.

Dominionism and the School Board Strategy

https://religiondispatches.org/baby-we-were-born-for-war-to-dominionist-christian-group-no-election-is-too-small-and-colorado-is-just-the-beginning/

This is a problematic article to be sure but nevertheless it should be read. The School Board Strategy is proving effecting and it's expanding – and it's likely that it's already affecting your church or soon will be. The author is sounding the alarm and we should be alarmed – but for reasons different than those of the Religion Dispatches reporter.