Jared Longshore's Blog, page 22

Five Foundation Stones of Christian Nationalism

As our public discourse about Christian Nationalism rolls along, it will be easy to lose sight of how basic the idea is. So here are five foundation stones for Christian Nationalism. These are not the only foundation stones. But they are basic concepts, which if not held, it would be hard to call oneself a Christian Nationalist. Plus, good things come in fives. Five fingers to a hand. Five loaves fed five thousand. Five stones in the hand of the son of Jesse as he walked in the valley of Elah.

One: The only stable nations are those in which the temple of God is built. The goal is not to equate the Christian Church with the Christian nation. The simplest way of distinguishing between the two is to see that the civil magistrates may not lay hold of the keys of the kingdom, the sacraments given to us by Christ. However, it should not surprise us that God appoints and speaks to his Zerubbabels as much as his Joshuas, the former being the governor of Judah in the time of Haggai the prophet, and the latter being the high priest. God had a word for both of them and how could He not? What good would a Jerusalem be without a temple? And what good would the temple be without Jerusalem’s walls? A bit of an easter egg here, Zerubbabel means offspring of Babylon, the nation from which Zerubbabel sprang to rebuild the stable city. If you are tempted to think that the godless nations are the stable ones, remember that God has them spit up rulers to govern nations in which God dwells.

Two: Magistrates rule as delegates of the Triune God. Secular man frets that this will increase the magistrates power, when in truth, it will restrain it. This is one of the key truths employed by Junius Brutus in his Vindiciae Contra Tyrannos. Face it, with a title like that, everything old Brutus said in the work is obviously right. So believe him when he says, “the Holy Scripture does teach that God reigns by his own proper authority and kings by derivation, God from Himself, kings from God, that God hath a jurisdiction proper, kings are His delegates.”[1] Modern and secular democracies, all souped up on the demos, would happily exchange the theos of Brutus for the people. It would go something like this: “the people reign by their own proper authority and kings by derivation, the people from themselves, kings from the people, that the people have a jurisdiction proper, kings are their delegates.” There is a kernel of truth in that bowl of words, namely what Rutherford teaches in his Lex Rex, that God makes the king through the people and not directly apart from the people. But, our current sickness is not that of having civil authorities established direction by God apart from the people. No, the long-term ailment which has left us bedridden is the old vox populi vox dei virus.

Three: Magistrates are to be obeyed when they obey God and not otherwise. This third foundation stone is fairly simply in principle, which is where I intend to leave it for now. There is plenty of work to do on the various applications of the principle. If you ask, “Well, how are we to know if the magistrate indeed is obeying God?” There is a principled answer to this question as well, namely, the revelation of God, both general and special. This is an idea as old as Christendom, be it Augustine or Aquinas. God has revealed His standard to us in a general way and He has done so through the prophets and the apostles. Anyone who takes point number three seriously will be in a pickle to argue that we should neglect on form of God’s revelation when it comes to our civil affairs. 

Four: In a Christian Nation, there exists a covenant between God, the magistrate, and the people. We see this very thing with Joash in 2 Kings 11:17, “And Jehoiada made a covenant between the LORD and the king and the people, that they should be the LORD’s people; between the king also and the people.” This is in keeping with the instructions laid down by Moses many years before—”Thou shalt in any wise set him king over thee, who the LORD thy God shall choose: one from among thy brethren shalt thou set king over thee: thou mayest not set a stranger over thee, which is not thy brother” (Deuteronomy 17:15). Moses proceeds to give stipulations for the king, including the duty of fearing God and observing His law. This covenant idea is not merely an ancient one. It is one deeply rooted in our own tradition as Glenn Moots has noted in his fine work Politics Reformed: The Anglo-American Legacy of Covenant Theology. Moots sees traces of the covenant idea in the constitution, Declaration of Independence, state constitutions, as well as presidential and holiday proclamations. Brutus’ Vidiciae, a copy of which sat in John Locke’s library, not only explains the necessity of this covenant idea but demonstrates its role in warding off tyranny.

Five: The newness of the new covenant does not alter these truths. There are some who will nod in agreement with all that has been said thus far, but then proceed to speak of the discontinuity between the old and new testaments. “Yes, all that you say is true up to the time of Christ coming to His people,” the sentiment goes. Granted, there indeed is a newness to the new covenant. But nothing about that newness requires that any of the foundation stones be hauled off to the dump. Brutus says it well—

“Although the form, both of the church and the Jewish kingdom be changed, for that which was before enclosed within the narrow bounds of Judea is now dilated throughout the whole world, notwithstanding the same things may be said of Christian kings, the gospel having succeeded the law, and Christian princes being in the place of those of Jewry. There is the same covenant, the same conditions, the same punishments . . . as the former were bound to keep the law, so the other are obliged to adhere to the doctrine of the Gospel, for the advancement whereof these kings at their anointing and receiving do promise to employ the utmost of their means.”[2]

[1] Junius Brutus, Vidiciae, 6.

[2] Brutus, Vindiciae, 14.

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Sacramental Clothes for Adam and Eve

When Adam fell, God did not wash his hands of him. Rather, he made promises to Adam and his children. As God executed his graciousness to him upon his fall, our Lord did not leave His grace without a sign. He cut animals and clothed Adam and Eve. God would protect them. And he would have them walk with a sign of His protection and covenant love. Baptism serves as just such a sign. In it, God says to His people, “Fear not, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by name. You are mine.”

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Prayer With Some Dirt on It

One of the problems we face is that we don’t like to have any dirt on our prayer. By the same token, we don’t like to have any prayer on our dirt. I don’t mean that our prayers should be unholy, of course. We pray by the Holy Spirit. But He did come down to earth at Pentecost and inhabited the likes of us, who, after all, were made from the dirt.

To restate our problem: We float our prayers in the realm of generalities and abstractions. We pray about pride, or lust, or covenant promises to a thousand generations. But we do not pray about the arrogance that walked right out of our mouth in that conversation on Tuesday with Jeff outside of Rousaers. We do not pray about that young lady, a member of the covenant community, who is showing signs of being boy-crazy and adopting her makeup habits from scantily clad Instagram influencers.

I say we do not pray about such particulars. But we do worry about them. We do try to fix them. We do talk about them with others, and mull over best approaches to rectify such problems. But, without prayer, all of those attempts to set things right, won’t do anybody any good. 

So here is the plan: If you look around and see that things are not what they ought to be, (and you will have plenty of opportunity for such an observations), then make it your first priority to talk to the Lord about it. Ask Him to fix the particular. If it is not rectified right away, bring the matter up with Him again. If it persists, then endure in prayer. If you do, then you may find that you have followed in the footsteps of our father Jacob, who wrestled with God, and prevailed.

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Aunts Will Be Aunts

I never see this relative without thinking how odd it is that one sister – call her Sister A – can be so unlike another sister, whom we will call Sister B. My Aunt Agatha, for instance, is tall and thin and looks rather like a vulture in the Gobi desert, while Aunt Dahlia is short and solid, like a scrum half in the game of Rugby football.

P. G. Wodehouse, Jeeves in the Offing

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A Toast to the Death of Doubt

The Lord’s Table is a declaration of war against unbelief. This table is where doubts go to die. At it, we proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes. And the proclamation we make is not like that made by some misguided legislator who thinks he can fabricate standards according to his own will and mind. Those standards are vacuous, groundless, vain, and without authority. We, however, proclaim a historical fact that holds history itself together. We declare an event that informs every other event. 

The death of the Son of God grounds reality as we know it. To commune with Christ in His death is to be a true human, to know and enjoy the truth, to have the lights turned on. To not partake at this table is to be lost in the starless night, to flee away from life itself, to starve and die. 

Even so, this table will not leave unbelief alone. Doubt does not hound this table. But this table does hound doubt. Like our Lord, this table is no respecter of persons. It looks to vanquish doubt wherever it is found. So you must come welcoming the death of whatever doubt remains in you. Advent season reminds us that we commune with the Lord who has come. He is here whether man recognizes Him or not.

It is not as if this table needs your faith. It is your faith that needs this table. It is not as if man found and flipped the switch that called forth our Lord’s Advent. No, Christ has come. Christ has died. Here He is and what will you do? Well, there’s only one thing for you to do. Come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christ.

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The Pickle God Puts Us In

Introduction

Starting a project is one thing, and finishing it is another. For this reason, the wise preacher said that the end of a thing is better than its beginning (Ecclesiastes 7:8).

Summary of the Text – Haggai 1:1-15

At the decree of Cyrus, 50,000 exiles returned to Jerusalem in 539 B.C. They quickly got to work laying the foundation of the temple and the altar. But the work slowed as the people began to mind their own affairs. Darius I came to rule the Persian Empire. And in his second year, 520 B.C., some nineteen years after the exiles returned, God spoke to His people in Jerusalem by the prophet Haggai. The Lord spoke particularly to Zerubbabel, the governor, and Joshua, the high priest, noting that the people said the time had not come that the LORD’s house should be built (v. 2).

To this sentiment, the LORD asked if it was time for His people to live in paneled houses while the temple lay in waste (v. 4). He told them to consider their ways for they had sown plenty but reaped little. They ate and drank but were not full. They clothed themselves but remained cold. And they earned money only to have it fall through the hole in their wallets (v. 6). Again, He tells them to consider their ways (v. 7). If they would haul down the wood from the mountain and build the LORD’s house, then He would take pleasure in it and be glorified (v. 8). That would fix the problem they faced, which was God blowing away all of their profit to the wind (v. 9). Why would God do such a thing? Because they left His house in waste while they each ran off to see to their own house instead (v. 9). They had bitten the hand that feeds, and the result was no rain, no corn, no wine, no oil, no milk, no steak (v. 11).

The governor, priest, and all of the people obeyed the voice of the LORD and feared Him (v. 12). God replied by saying that He was with them (v. 13). Then, the LORD stirred them and twenty-three days after the LORD’s rebuke, you could hear the sound of construction on the temple mount in Jerusalem (v. 14).

Unfinished Business

This is an age-old story of unfinished business. The man started well, but something went awry. Ah, the lot of being temporal creatures. We must start, endure, and finish. The Galatians stumbled in the same way these returned exiles did—”Ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?” (Galatians 5:7).

In the case of the exiles, you have to remember what they had accomplished. They had come a long way out of Babylon. Then, of course, they had established the foundational thing, the temple foundation itself. And they had the most essential thing. The altar, from which the seraphim, like our Lord, cleanse the lips of men. These were not exactly prodigal sons rolling around with the pigs. They had given to the building campaign. But they had grown slack and distracted.

Prophetic Mercy

God interrupted them. And it is the kindness of the Lord to be so deep into our business. There they were, neglecting the Lord, painting the house, carrying on with their weekly routine, and up walks Haggai with all of his questions, “Hey, why do you work so hard only to lose your money?” The quicker you call Nathan’s feet blessed when he walks up to you to remind you about your Bathsheba, the better off you will be. The welcomed rebuke is distinctly Christian. The only people who can do it are those who have had their sins forgiven and know it.

Why No Steak?

The LORD asks the question and answers it. After telling them they have toiled and reaped no fruit, He asks, “Why?” The answer is because His house lies waste (v. 9). Here is a central truth: This is God’s world and He brings the growth. More to the point is the word from Solomon, “Honour the Lord with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase: so shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine” (Proverbs 3:9-10).

Honor comes from the heart. The text does not say, “Slip the Lord a twenty and you will receive twenty-five in return.” You will get nowhere pulling the Lord’s lever like some divinity slot machine. The point is that you must honor Him top to bottom, lips and pocketbook, children and business, from Dan to Beersheba. When you do, the Lord sends the blessing rain. When you don’t, He turns off the faucet.

God’s Method of Operation

Our passage displays a clear method for God’s operation. He delivered His Word of correction (v. 1-11). The people obeyed in fear (v. 12). The LORD assured them of His presence (v. 13). He stirred them to work (v. 14). His way is: Word, Obedient Fear, Presence for Blessing, Work. There are multiple ways to jumble things, but one major error is to look at joyful and flourishing saints and seek to emulate their good works apart from obedient fear. Do that and you will end up in just the situation in which the returned exiles found themselves. You will neglect the LORD, His kingdom, and His Christ for the sake of your own affairs. The reason those saints are so joyful and productive is that they hear the Word and obey in fear.

That fear is only found in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the glorious one. Away from Him is darkness, obscurity, lack, the bottomless void. But, look to Him and it is transformation, from one degree of glory to the next (2 Corinthians 3:18).

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In Which the Father Swears an Oath

Baptism is not only a sign of the forgiveness of sins, it is a sign of the forgiveness of sins in Christ. This should not surprise us for there is no other way to receive the forgiveness of sins than to receive them in Christ. This sacrament is a sign of that very reality. It is a sign of the new covenant in Christ’s blood in which God our Father swears an oath to us, saying, “I am your God and you are my people.” We observe this sacrament knowing that He who has promised is faithful, and He will surely save.

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Time for the Priests to Priest

One of the duties laid upon you as God’s people is that you would be His priests. This was promised all the way back in Exodus 19, when God told Moses that Israel would be a kingdom of priests. And this truth is picked up in the New Testament in 1 Peter where we are called a royal priesthood. We should remember that this priestly calling is a high one, and a high calling comes with high stakes. You must not assume that, since you are priests, all will be well with you no matter what you do. Hophni and Phineas were both priests, and they died at the hands of the Philistines because of their unfaithfulness. We must not end up like them. We must do what faithful priests do. But what exactly do faithful priests do?

The answer is that they intercede, particularly in light of God’s promises and His people’s shortcomings. Take Moses for example. He comes down from Mount Sinai, hearing that Israel has already forsaken the LORD. God told Moses that He would consume them in His wrath. But, Moses sought the Lord, that He would not consume them and rather that He would remember His covenant. This same Moses disciplined Israel severely, grinding up their golden calf, scattering it in water, and making them drink it.

Learn from Moses. He did not make excuses for Israel. He wasn’t a pushover. He did not forsake Israel when they failed. And He did not fret. Rather he went before the Lord on their behalf, asking God to fulfill His covenant promises to them. Things weren’t looking good at the moment. But that’s OK. That’s just the time for priests to priest.

You are a kingdom of priests. So when things go awry, intercede for one another.

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Courteous Words or Hard Knocks

“And peace, Eustace. Do not scold, like a kitchen-girl. No warrior scolds. Courteous words or else hard knocks are his only language.”

C. S. Lewis, The Last Battle

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Not Saved by Ideas

The advent of our Lord reminds us to forsake all attempts to disembody Christianity. Our Father in heaven did not save us by ideas. He saved us by His Son. Our Father did not send us principles and notions from heaven. He sent us a child out of the womb of the virgin. And the name of this human is the truth. 

Consider these things as we come to this table. We have not come to participate with the idea of our Lord. We have not even come to participate with the bodiless Son of God, as if we lived in the days of Abraham and Moses. We have come to Mount Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to Jesus, the Godman, the mediator of the new covenant. The advent of our Lord demands that we know what time it is. The Son of God has become man. He is still man. And this world has been radically changed.

Scripture says that this bread which we break is a communion of the body of Christ. When the unbelieving Gentiles sacrificed at their altars in Corinth, they genuinely fellowshipped with devils. Likewise, when you come to this table, you genuinely fellowship with the man born in Bethlehem two thousand years ago. Though you have not seen Him, you love Him. Though you do not see Him now, you believe in Him and rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory (1 Peter 1:8).

So what are you to do? Eat in faith. Drink believing in Immanuel, the Son of Man who is with us even now. And as you do, glorify God in your body. Work for Him and with Him. Labor to love one another by Him. And look with faith to His appearing on the last day. By faith, you’ll see that the light of that appearing is already shining. So come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christ.

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