Jared Longshore's Blog, page 36

Like a Knocking Widow

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One of the bigger slices of humble pie we have to eat is that we don’t do nearly enough with the gifts we are given. Now this is humble pie, not condemnation pie. You’re not permitted to eat any cursed-on-a-tree pie. Jesus finished that one off for you.

But we do have to face up to the fact that prayer is a blessing and we do far too little with it. Here we are, with access to the One who spins Jupiter like a top and slings its many moons around in circles. We have the ear of the One who straps each and every calf muscle to its companion heel bone, tying them together with more Achilles tendons than any one man could count. This God breaks cedars and makes deer give birth. And He listens to us.

Jesus said to pray like that persistent widow. There is Margaret, purse in hand, she’s making her way to the judge’s chambers yet again. She was there yesterday, and the day before, and the day before. She will be back tomorrow if he doesn’t give up already. He’s getting tired of her visits.

How many blessings have we missed out on because we weren’t as steady in prayer as this widow? Like clockwork, she ate her toast, shoed her feet, and politely went off to remind a godless judge to avenge her of her adversary.We ask the Lord four or five times, and receiving no answer, start sleeping through the alarm clock. How many blessings could you have if you had a little more Mrs. Margaret in you? You do not have because you do not ask. “Really,” you say, “is it that simple?” Well, “ask, and it shall be given you; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.” But you have to knock like a stubborn ‘ole widow.

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A Vineyard Which Ye Planted Not

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One of the shocking things about grace is how uneven it is. Man can keep his wits about him when observing the soda machine. One dollar in, one soda out. Two dollars in, two sodas out. It seems fair enough. Even if a man doesn’t have a dollar, and subsequently, no soda, he can still sleep at night because the world seems to be clicking along like a machine, no need to look up, no sign of a benevolent benefactor in the sky.

But when a man comes face to face with grace, without partaking of it himself, ruffled go his feathers. There he is, having worked a full day for a full day’s pay. And all is well in his world. But then comes a co-worker who worked only one hour, and the boss gives him a full day’s pay just the same? Grace abounds. But to unbelieving man, this is a miscarriage of justice. There’s a glitch in his soda machine.

Grace is supernatural. It is otherworldly. It is a reminder that blessings come from somewhere, from someone.

God gave Israel land for which they did not labor and vineyards which they did not plant (Joshua 24:13). And he has done the same for us. Here is bread from a field we did not plant. Wine from a vineyard we did not work.

But the One who did supply this bread and wine owns every field and every vineyard. So come and buy without money (Isaiah 55:1). Come eat his bread, he gives it to you. Come into his vineyard. Drink deeply of this cup of grace. It will never run dry. Come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christ.

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7 Hard Steps Reformed Evangelicals Must Take To Win in 2023

Let’s get started with two quotes, one from the old church father of church fathers, the other from a modern author who may well be a wizard:

“An evil is eradicated not by the removal of some natural substance which had accrued to the original, or by the removal of any part of it, but by the healing and restoration of the original which had been corrupted and debased” – St. Augustine

“You have hands, blister them while you can.” – N. D. Wilson

That’s right, if you want the evil to go away, then you have to get to fixing things. You have to restore the damage. You can’t just renounce it, abhor it, complain about, whine about it, get all poutsy poutsy, and tee up another doctrinal watchdog YouTube clip.

You’re quite bent out of shape by all of the bent out of shapeness you see in the world. So you need to get on with setting some things back into place.

Thus far, Augustine. 

And if you’re going to actually get down to restoring something, then you will have to sweat, bleed, and blister. You will have to do some real work, something practical, something close by, something more (not less) than think. Oh, and you’re on the clock because soon your fingers will be worm food.

Thus far, N. D. Wilson.

Hello There Beloved Reformed Evangelicals

I’ve put Reformed Evangelicals right up there in the title because they have a special place in my heart. Now I do not want to transgress step number two below, so if you don’t fit the Reformed Evangelical bill, that OK, the hard steps outlined below apply to you as well. I don’t mean to leave you out, but I would like a word with those who have been to a Desiring God conference, or the Gospel Coalition, Together for the Gospel, or Reform Con, or Acts 29 and the like. If we break things down by denomination, we have any of you from the CREC, the PCA, the OPC, the ARP, all of you non-denominational Calvinists, all of you thankful for John McArthur and 9Marks Ministries, as well as those Reformed brethren still soldiering on in the SBC. I’m sure I left some institution or organization out, but you know who you are.

The year that we have begun to set out on will end with us having made an advance, or it will end with us having suffered casualties. And just look around, we’re not in a position to drag our feet.

The Lay of the Land: Genuine Wildness

The lesson from the boy who cried wolf is not lost on me. One really shouldn’t go crying about danger when there is none. If you do that kind of thing, people won’t pay attention when there really is a big nuke headed their way. So with Aesop’s counsel seeding my mind, you will still find me up on the wall doing backflips with my hair on fire in a desperate, and I hope faith-filled, attempt to get your attention. Not only is there an enemy at the gates, but many are asleep in the camp. Not only are many asleep in the camp, but these sleepers are dreaming about their cultural impact and changing the world. But, I repeat, they are dreaming. Thus me doing my best Cirque Du Soleil atop the wall in order to rouse the troops and encourage some much needed changes.

A word about the enemy, or perhaps better, the lay of the land. You have likely heard of the religious Nones. Over a decade ago, Pew Research reported that the Nones were on the rise, making up 20% of all U.S. adults. You are well-acquainted with the decline of Christianity in the United States. But, these shifts need to be seen as seed. This rising and falling is the seed that spouted the chaos we have endured the last few years. According to an article from Gallup last year, U.S. church membership has fallen below 50% for the first time. Only two decades ago, church membership was around 70%, and had been hanging around that 70% number since the 1930s. That’s a graph that stayed steady for a long time and then dropped faster than a politician’s N95 mask after the cameras stop rolling.

The last two decades of Christianity’s decline has born the rotten fruit of Obergefell, COVID insanity and tyranny, BLM riots, and both the White House and the Department of Education flying the rainbow flag. The recent (Dis)Respect for Marriage Act is the latest installment of our idolatry.

The Pulpit is the Prow

Now here is the essential thing, this is the root of the matter and you must make sure you get all the way down in this dirt or we will just plucking dandelion flowers. Melville was right, “The pulpit leads the world.” And the pulpits in the land of the free have led us into declining church attendance, Intersectionality, Queer Theory, and COVID pandemonium.

Ours is not a peculiar disease, but it is a particular type. Our error is that of hearing the word but not doing the word. “Woe to you American Evangelicals, for I sent you more Bible conferences and books than you could ask for. If the mighty works which were done in you, had been done in Saudi Arabia, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.”

Now I am not simply looking for the young energetic youth who has just come back from Bible camp to “Amen!” my rebuke in the last paragraph. I mean that rebuke in a particular way and I welcome an interlocuter asking, “Is that really the case? Have the Reformed Evangelicals in the states really been guilty of hearing and not doing?” My reply goes like this.

You can surely find faithfulness in many places. It is no objection to my main point to highlight Mrs. Johnson the widow who is doing all our Lord requires. I will not disagree that there are many salt-of-the-earth-saints laboring along, doing that which pleases the Lord. But, as a whole, Reformed Evangelicals have not discipled our nation, which is expressly commanded by Christ in the Great Commission (Matthew 28). In the first place, we have not taken to heart all that Christ has commanded. And in the second place, we have not taught the nation to obey all that Christ has commanded. 

While I am on this point, our greater error is that we have not actually known the doctrine. We have been quite eager to spread the good news. You can find evangelistic outreaches and youth group car washes all across this land. You can find sharp looking ministers spending big dollars on high-tech media to find a way to get people into the doors of their church. Lots of energy has gone into this kind of outreach. But we haven’t actually done the word of Christ. We haven’t taught the nation how to do it.

One of the main reason that we have not done the word is because it is flat terrifying to do so. We sanitize the story in our dream world, “By faith, Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing wither he went” (Hebrews 11:8). “Amen,” we say. Amen huh?

Us: Here am I send me, Lord!

The LORD: OK, go.

Us: Go where?

The LORD: That way.

Us: Anything else?

The LORD: No.

Us: But where am I going, LORD?

The LORD: I told you. That way.

Us: And LORD, where might I end up?

The LORD: Reread Hebrews 11:8.

We love our stats and our data. We love living by sight. When you go out on faith like Abraham did, the result is that you are a foreigner. You don’t know the customs. You don’t know the traditions. You’re ignorant of the songs. Where is the post office? Is there a post office? And there is no one to answer your question because you haven’t yet found an interpreter yet. I repeat: Trusting God and going out in obedience like Abraham is terrifying.

The truth is that the knowledge we so often seek only comes after we have got on with obeying Christ. Jesus said, “My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me. If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God” (John 7:17). So there is understanding. If you will get on with obeying Jesus, then you will get the flow of things. But feeling the rhythm (and feeling the rhyme for that matter) comes after you’ve stepped out in the direction God said to go, after you’ve enfleshed the word.

So, with all of this in mind, here’s those seven very hard steps, in no particular order, that we must take in the coming year if we’re going to turn this game around:

First, remove your children immediately from the government schools and provide them with a Christian education. All of the talk about Christian culture and dominion is meaningless if the pagans have the catechism, “For of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble bush gather they grapes” (Luke 6:44). Your public education growing up was different, we’re agreed. Your parents public education was different, also agreed. But take a look again at the stats from the last two decades. Things have changed. And you are a conservative, so it is hard to change, spend, and advance. Like Abraham, you have no idea where the journey is going to end if you remove your children from Caesar’s household and tutelage. Welcome to the party. Go ahead and get out of there. God has a great inheritance, but you’ve got to get moving.

Second, reckon yourself and your household as one among the household of faith. I mean something specific by “household of faith.” Galatians 6:10 says we are especially to do good to the household of faith, which should leave you asking, “Who is a part of that household and how do I know?” The answer is straightforward. Those in the household of faith are baptized Christians. They sit with you at the Lord’s Supper. This particular step is more of a paradigm shift than most realize. You must love the saints. The weird ones? Yes. The ones with whom I have doctrinal disagreements? Yes. The ones that have slighted me? Yes. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism. There is a type of unity that we will not know until the return of Christ. But that is no excuse for our hyper-fragmented American evangelicalism. Until we really get serious about maintaining the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace, we will be divided and conquered.

Third, do good Christian business, especially with those of that household of faith. If my Christian brother who runs the pub downtown is burning my burger every Tuesday and charging me twice as much as the unbeliever across the street, you will find me enjoying the well-cooked and fairly priced patty. But we need to consider afresh the wisdom of doing business within the house of faith. It is a genuine application of the Galatians 6:10 passage above.

Fourth, sing psalms. Yes, sing psalms. No, this is not a throw away step. Lewis spoke of stealing past people’s watchful dragons. Reformed Evangelicals have those watchful dragons up. There are certain truths that they have not believed and obeyed. They are not accustomed to obeying them. And they don’t really want to. The psalms contain those truths and have a way of getting past those flying lizards. Drunk on modernity as we are, we need to be reminded of our heritage. And nothing can do that quite like psalm-singing. God brought us out of Egypt. He brought us through the Sea. He sustained us in the wilderness. He conquered the Promised Land through us. We will not recognize how far our modern worship music has fallen until we start working in some psalms. And I know. I said these were hard steps. 

Fifth, find and worship in a church that conceives of worship as Elijah did when he set up the altar on Mount Carmel. Even among the Reformed, our worship doctrine has gone the way of the world. When we assemble, we assemble before the Living God who still sends the fire and the rain. He changes hearts. He humbles. He saves. He does this as we appear before him to call upon His name. When we assemble on the Lord’s Day, we do so asking God to act such that the world would know there is a God in Israel. This step is a central one. It is a foundational one. The rest build upon it.

Sixth, fulfill family duties twice as hard as you did last year. These family duties are much like weeding a garden and planting some seed. They are not fancy. Moreover, weeding and planting are tasks that are particularly hard to do when chaos ensues. “You want me to plant in this weather?” Yes. Help you kids with their homework. Talk with them about their day. Work out the knotty issues. Sing songs with them around the table. Cook. Eat. Clean. Read them a book before bed. Tuck them in. Pray for them. Bless them. Expect God to do greater works through them and their children than he has done through you. Go to sleep and do it all again when the sun rises. You shall not labor in vain, for you are the seed of the blessed of the Lord, and your offspring with you (Isaiah 61:9).

Seventh, find and live with others who are reading the same page that you are. You need to sing with those who are singing off the same sheet music. The kind of work that must be done in the days ahead is the kind of work that cannot be done alone. Given the reach of the internet, many Christians are receiving stronger teaching than they have been able to access in days gone by. Many Christians are being put in touch with other saints around the nation who are tracking with this healthy teaching. But we are in a weird moment where all of this teaching has not quite yet, but must, bear local fruit. Pray for God to put you in touch with others where you live so that all of the solid teaching you’re receiving doesn’t die on the vine. The doctrine has to be lived out. We must be more than hearers of the word. Find those who are doing it, and do it with them.

Stay Low and Hustle

When God’s blessings abound, two temptations crouch at the door and would rule over us. The first is the temptation to pride. Moses warned Israel that when they entered the Promised Land and their goats and gold multiplied, they would be tempted to say that their own power had gotten them their wealth (Deuteronomy 8:17). The wise man knows that God uses means. A successful business does not simply fall out of the sky. Cheerful children don’t appear out of thin air. And a pleasant and well-run home does not come out of nowhere. Skill is involved and there are tools of the trade that are both learned and applied. So when there is growth, it is easy to trust your skill, your system, and say with Israel, “Look what our own hands have done.”

The second temptation when blessings abound is laziness. Like that jackrabbit in the Tortoise and the Hare, we decide that a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest won’t hurt. And while we are resting upon last year’s victories, poverty is climbing through our kitchen window and emptying out the refrigerator.

The antidote to both of these temptations is faith. When blessings meet unbelief, you’re on your way to joining Nebuchadnezzar, with fingernails like buzzard claws and a mouthful of grass as if you were a cow in the pasture. You will no doubt soon be turning on your bed like a door on its hinges. 

But when blessings meet faith the opposite occurs. When blessings meet faith, the result is humility and even more hard work. 

Take a look around. God’s blessings overflow. So you must stay low and hustle. God looks upon the humble man who trembles at his word. And the hand of the diligent shall rule (Proverbs 12:24).

Let’s Go for Christian Towns in 2023

As many of you know, the Longshore clan has gone on quite a journey over the last year and some change. We trekked our way from the Southeast to the Northwest with nine souls in the van. With gratitude, we left off the work of Founders Ministries down in Florida, which was growing at rocket speed, to land in Moscow, Idaho at Christ Church. Founders, by the way, has their national conference coming up later this month which will no doubt be fantastic so you should take a look here.

Our trip from one corner of our nation to the other came at a tumultuous time. God was and is shaking things in our nation. God was and is shaking things in his church. It is one thing for God to move some of the furniture around in your own life and family. It is another for him to do so among his covenant people. And it is yet another for him to do so in a nation. But when he does all three at the same time, there’s nothing to say but, Wooha.

One of the things I have aimed for in ministry is to be a son of Issachar who knows the times and what Israel ought to do. Now, you might say I am a young son of Issachar, or a son of Issachar who often doesn’t know quite what the temperature is. But I’ve at least got my eye on the weather. And it is fair to say that our cross-country move, with all of the aforementioned divine remodeling involved, has provided some confirmation about our times. If God shakes the things that can be shaken so that the things that cannot be shaken remain, you could say that I have some confidence at least in the big picture concerning our civil and ecclesiastical moment. That big picture has not been shaken. It has become much more clear. 

That big picture is that the church in America truly must go through renewal and reformation. But that sentence needs a good deal of explaining. If we would see health, blessing, and growth, the church must operate in a significantly different way than she has before, while at the same time pressing on with all of the many good things she has been doing. The change must come along the lines of civil and cultural engagement. But that change requires changes below the surface on doctrinal issues concerning the nature and purpose of the church, the world, the Lordship of Christ, and much more.

Moreover, this civil and cultural engagement change is coming whether we like it or not, and we will change on the matter for the better or the worse. The present situation is simply not sustainable. 

Most of the reformed and evangelical in the states know that we’re on our way to developing a civil theology of some sort. They see this is inevitable. But many think that developing this civil theology is like getting a new haircut. When in reality it is more like getting a new liver. All of the tumult we have been experiencing is a sign that something must change down among those critical organs found around the core of our person.

The church in the states must go through one of the doctrinal “aha” moments, when you discover something that has been right there on the surface of the text the whole time you’ve been reading the Bible. That kind of “aha” moment leaves you thinking everything has changed and at the same time, none of the fundamentals have changed, like when you discover God is sovereign, and ask, “What in the world do I do now?” Well, you go on praying as you did before and yet your newly invigorated praying is such that you wonder if you’ve every prayed before. You have of course, but isn’t life on the other side of this “aha” moment awesome? We all need to ask God to do something like that for his church in the states in the year of our Lord 2023.

If God answers our request, you will hear much more from Christians about seeking a Christian town. And you will see them making the changes necessary to make their town a Christian one. Now I imagine there are several of you out there who choke a bit on this idea. I could have said something like, “If God answers our request, it will look like Christians grasping the Lordship of Christ,” and everyone would say amen. Or I could have said, “it will look like Christians not being woke,” and all the conservative Christians would say amen. But there is a good bit baked into that “Christian town” terminology, and that is why I chose to use it. That term possesses some key ingredients that the reformed and evangelical saints in our land must come to store in their pantry and employ in their kitchen. 

We may not need to adopt it as our life verse. But we should at least make our 2023 verse Revelation 11:15, which is to say that we need to sing Handel’s Hallelujah chorus and mean it: “The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ.” Notice the language. The kingdoms of this world are become. The ESV says that they have become. The orginal Greek (ginomai) is in the aorist tense, which is a simple past tense; not future. We’re not talking about a future date when the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. We’re talking about waking up to the reality that the kingdoms of this world have already become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ.

That means nothing is off limits. We’re talking fundamental, ground-level restructuring of worship, education, home economics, civil-engineering, business, civics and the like. There is a rich and potent way to go about Christian living in this world that smells of the kingdom of heaven. And there is an anemic way to go about it that amounts to posting your Christianity on secularism like one of those Christmas cards on your refrigerator. We must renounce the latter way and pursue a Christendom that includes customs, rhythms, practices that are indeed Christian. 

We need a collective doctrinal discovery. And we are on the clock. Things are deteriorating. And if you are not building in summer, how will you build in winter? “If they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry” (Luke 23:31)?

P.S.

If this post encourages you to look for next steps, I’d point you to Pastor Doug Wilson’s book Gashmu Saith It as well as the recent documentary from Canon called How to Save the World in Eleven Simple (But Not Easy) Steps.

Joy and Toil

One of the lies we are tempted to believe is that joy and toil can never be packaged in the same box. You can have joy on one day and toil on another. Or you can have gladness of heart at 2pm and dishes to do at 3pm. But you can’t have a jolly spirit while scrubbing potatoes off of a fork, or scrapping ice off your windshield, or clearing out an e-mail inbox.

Man has fogotten what joy is for. And Ezra told us long ago, “The joy of the LORD is your strength” (Neh 8:10). So it is not only that joy and toil come in the same box. But you need joy if you would toil well. Labor without joy is vain pain. It is no wonder so many try to avoid it. In the other direction, joy without work is empty emotionalism masquerading like the real thing and doing absolutely no one any good.

The Christian faith announces not only that you must rejoice. It also announces that the joy you need has come to earth. Joy was wrapped in swadling clothes. It laid in a manger. 

Joy is not far from you. It is not out of your reach. Christ endured the cross for the joy set before him. And Paul is not saying that he had to endure the cross without joy in order to get to joy on the other side. He’s saying that joy was set before him like a Christmas feast is set before you on the table. God prepared a table for him in the presence of his enemies. So it is with us. And we realize this by faith.

Judgment vs. Judgmentalism

Regardless of the common root, there is a world of difference between good judgment and judgmentalism. We must get the former while avoiding the latter.

Jesus addressed judgmentalism when he said, “Judge not, that ye be not judged” (Matthew 7:1). Now we all know that this passage is often twisted. The school teacher returns the quiz with four of the ten problems marked through with a red X. And the child says, “But, teacher, did not our Lord say, ‘Judge not.’” This is a perversion of the principle. But the routine twisting of this standard does not exempt us from obeying the untwisted standard. Our Lord said, “Judge not.” Stop condemning your brothers. Stop casting them into the outter darkness.

Jesus warned that the measure you use shall be used upon you. And you don’t have to wait around for this kind of thing to happen. Find a man who is judgmental of others and he will be just as judgmental of himself. He holds up condemnation-yard-stick no matter what he’s measuring. In its softer forms, we call it nitpicking. In its high octane forms, it is downright disdain. And we should put away all forms of it.

“But,” the judicialist responds, “Am I supposed to ignore the problem? They are not what they ought to be. I am not what I ought to be. The world itself is not what it ought to be.” The solution is not to ignore whatever is bent, broken, or out of place. The solution is to observe it and address it in light of the incarnation. Judgmentalism is judgment without the incarnation. And the incarnation is what will turn your judgmentalism into good judgment.

Christ saw what was deformed and he didn’t pick up a megaphone in heaven and shout down, “Shape up!” He came to us. He came to heal us and govern us like a Good Shepherd.

The Mud Is for Your Hands

We have come to the point in the Christian Nationalism conversation where we need a little clarity and a great deal of courage. We don’t need clarity in every nook and cranny. You can’t rush the process on this one. We have a lot to work out when it comes to recovering Christian order in our land and we’re not simply working things out on a white board. We’re repairing this ship while we are on it. Many saints know this vessel is glorious and broken. And there we are standing on the deck of this boat discussing not only the fundamental changes which are in order, but also how to implement those changes such that we won’t be sent straight down to Davy Jones’s Locker. 

So we can’t have clarity on all of the parts. But we do need clarity on who is actually laboring for cultural reformation and who is just dreaming about it. I have a modest proposal that might bring such clarity, but before getting to it, a little background. Into the situation outlined in the previous paragraph, Stephen Wolfe has written the book The Case for Christian Nationalism. There has been quite a stir on deck and we really needed that stir. I was afforded one of those advanced reader copies and kept chuckling to myself that this stir, perhaps ruckus is better suited, was indeed coming and I was quite looking forward to it. I was looking forward to it, but I did start singing Johnny Cash’s If I Had a Hammer even before the book released. I thought things might get a little spicey and found myself going on with: “If I had a hammer, I’d hammer in the morning. I’d hammer in the evening, all over this land. I’d hammer out danger. I’d hammer out warning. I’d hammer out love between my brothers and my sisters all over this land.”

Now the warning I was longing to hammer out was not a warning about Wolfe’s book. It was a warning about Christians staying out of the flesh when they read and responded to some of the arguments in Wolfe’s book, it was a warning about keeping the love between the brothers and the sisters amid a strong and first proposal of how to adjust given the dangerous trajectory our nation is on. I was expecting rigorous engagement and there has been some of that. But there has also been more than a bit of sassy dismissiveness and added to this has been the Thomas Achord affair. These latter events have muddied the waters and they give rise to a particular temptation into which Reformed Evangelicals have been prone to fall. That temptation is the temptation to distance yourself from a good endeavor, one you actually agree with, simply because of what people might think of you. That temptation is to pull back into pure thought world so that you don’t have to deal with the situation on the ground in front of you. 

On an individual level that looks like a guy saying to you, “I am sympathetic to some sort of recovery of theism in public square, but I can’t get on board with the Christian nationalism thing.” The important thing to remember being that the guy saying this to you cannot distinguish between whatever he is for and “the Christian nationalism thing.” He just knows that Christian nationalism has cooties because Wolfe wrote a book with that title and Achord, his friend, had a racist anonymous Twitter account. This rebuke of course does not go for the man who can actually articulate the doctrinal difference he has with Wolfe’s positions.

On an institutional and organizational level, you have the same problem in trickier form. When there is a sociological event like the one we have had in the Achord affair, Christian institutions and organizations often go into “protect and grow our institution” mode rather than “speak the truth and labor for reformation” mode. Mudslinging works like a charm on our Christian institutions. They don’t exactly like to get muddy. That mud would smudge their marketing campaign designed around Nehemiah’s wall building labors. The blisters have to stay in the pictures.

Several Christian leaders and organizations among us simply don’t have a dog in the Christian Nationalism fight, and that’s perfectly fine. But others are very much in this fight. I’m thinking of all the leaders and ministries that speak to culture, politics, public theology, and the like. In the wake of recent events, one of the duties thrust upon you is that of figuring out whether these ministries have a chest or not. God has given us an opportunity to discover who is actually laying bricks in the real world and who is simply laying bricks in their head. The head rules the belly through the chest. It follows that if you do not have a chest, then you do not have the means to put your ideas into action. You are a man alone in a cold dark room with one dry erase marker and a white board, you are nothing but a head, a decapitated head, who will be used by the bad guys eventually to do their bidding. 

Now for that aforementioned modest proposal. This proposal is designed to distinguish between two groups. The first group consists of ministries and institutions engaged in cultural and political reformation who are worthy of support and an ear because, while they may disagree sharply with some of Wolfe’s proposals, they are not simply being played by the “Christian Nationalism has racist cooties game.” This first group is made up of ministries that will actually lay some bricks with Nehemiah, even if they are laboring on a different portion of the wall. The second group consists of ministries, claiming to be in the same work, who talk the talk, but don’t walk the walk. All their talk of the Lordship of Christ over all things sounded very nice in times gone-by. But our situation has deteriorated. And now it appears they meant the Lordship of Christ over all things except for the legislature. These leaders and organizations are merely talking cultural and civil reformation while adhering to the secularist zeitgeist. 

My proposal is this. The leaders and ministries engaged in cultural and political reformation who will say that the United States must have baptized Christians for magistrates are the leaders and ministries who will show up when the day of battle comes. Don’t get me wrong. You don’t need to say this in order to be a good Christian and go to heaven. It is no test of regeneration. But it is a statement that anyone engaged in Christian ministry announcing the Lordship of Christ should be able to say. It is rather mild. But it is the kind of mild statement that would get you in loads of trouble on CNN.

So imagine a leader of the likes of Albert Mohler, who said that he would not back away from the name Christian nationalism, on CNN being interviewed by Anderson Cooper. Cooper asks him about this allegedly racist book that has come out. And Mohler replies with the customary, “You know, I wouldn’t have said it that way, Anderson.” That’s all fine and good with me. But then Cooper asks, “And this Christian Prince thing. Do you really believe in this ridiculous notion that America ought to have a Christian prince?” We need leaders who will respond something like, “Oh, no, Anderson. We don’t insist on a Christian Prince exactly. But the president and his cabinet? Governors, Senators, and Supreme Court Justices? Oh, yes, all baptized Christians. 

(Dis)Respect for Marriage Act and the Case for the Christian Family

As Richard Weaver taught us many years ago, Ideas Have Consequences. We live in a world of cause and effect. We reap what we sow and to deny this is to mock God himself. The (Dis)Respect for Marriage Act is slotted for U.S. House approval this week. And what the prophet Hosea once said lands squarely upon our nation: “They have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind” (Hosea 8:7). 

That text is worthy of meditation. There is not only a similarity between what is sown and what is reaped. Wind is sown and nothing less than wind will be reaped. But there is an escalation. We have sown the wind and reaped a tornado. The underlying truth is that God has woven increase into the fabric of this world. Something is always growing be it weeds or vegetables. 

This point can be applied in two ways to our present situation. First, the (Dis)Respect for Marriage Act that will soon codify same-sex mirage in our land is the whirlwind. We sowed the wind years ago and the storm chasers are now headed our way. We are downstream from Obergefell, No-Fault Divorce, and a thorough redefinition of liberty, which used to mean freedom from one’s passions and bondage to sin. The lexical definition now being: I’ll do whatever in tarnation I want to do now get out of my way.

We are downstream from many more types of wind-seed, but those three alone teach us about the present storm encompassing our fields. We have already determined that marriage is disposable, need not be fruitful, and is subject to our passions. It should not surprise us then the we have the audacity to legislate that sodomy should be held in honor. 

The second application of the sowing and reaping principle is that the (Dis)Respect for Marriage Act is just as much more wind in the soil as it is a whirlwind coming up from the soil. All sin is like this. And national sin in which we frame mischief by a law is particularly so, “Righteousness exalteth a nation: But sin is a reproach to any people” (Proverbs 14:34). The implications coming in the wake of the House’s decision this week are nearly endless and they all smell like a three week old lasagna that has been sitting in the back of a fridge that lost power four weeks ago. Why did we put a perfectly cooked lasagna into a broken refrigerator you ask? Well the refrigerator identified as a cold one and its pronouns were Brrrr. 

This destructive act that will soon become law in our land is yet another sign of the dissolving American family. As much as this godless legislation is to be lamented, it affords Christians an opportunity to reconsider just what a family is and how it might be restored. The truth is, Christians do not simply oppose same-sex mirage because it is sexual perversion. We oppose it because we believer north is still north. We are dealing with two entirely different conceptions of reality itself. The restoration project in front of us involves coming to grips with the real world. And that means we need a recovery of the covenant household which involves a recovery of covenant marriage and covenant children. 

I have just published a new book through Canon Press called The Case for the Christian Family: The Covenantal Solution to the Dissolving American Family. One of the foundation stones of that book, which wars against the (Dis)Respect for Marriage Act, is that marriage is a covenant, not a contract. In other words, God really does join man and woman together in marriage. Marriage is more Chestertonian than we realize. There’s a good deal of magic in it, if I won’t get into too much trouble for saying it that way. When Jack Thompson and Jill Williams get hitched, the result is one new thing called the Thompsons. Yes, Jack is still Jack and Jill is still Jill. But there now exists this new entity which did not exist before. That entity is known as the Thompsons and there is both a head and a body of the Thompsons (Ephesians 5:23). 

That point is fairly uncontroversial. But it follows that God deals with the Thompsons as the Thompsons. And that point begins to wade into the waters of controversy. But, if God has made the two one, then would it not follow that God deals with the Thompsons as the Thompsons? At the end of a wedding ceremony, the minister traditionally said, “I present to you for the very first time Mr. and Mrs. Jack Thompson.” The minister did not leave out Jill because he was a thoughtless misogynist. In fact, he did not leave out Jill at all. This is one new thing we’re dealing with consisting of a Mr. and a Mrs.

This covenantal understanding of marriage leads to a covenantal understanding of the whole family, children included. The fruit of this one new thing is included in the one new thing. This explains why Joshua could say, “As for me and my house we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15). It explains why Job is commended for sacrificing for his children in case they had sinned (Job 1:5). It explains why God’s covenant promise to Abraham was not only that individuals would be blessed, but all the families of the earth would be blessed (Genesis 12:3).

In a recent White House press release celebrating the (Dis)Respect for Marriage Act, Kamala Harris said that starting a family and raising children are fundamental human rights. That is true enough. But the (Dis)Respect for Marriage Act commends putting a knife to the throat of families rather than starting them, and perhaps this is a point that will demystify the battle line. When a man vows to marry another man, and our nation claims that these two men are married, several truths must be asserted. First, these two men are not married. Second, the two men are in a relationship that cannot produce children. And third, the two men are not family. In the same way Christians refuse to say the pronouns, we also refuse to acknowledge a marriage or a family where it does not exist.

We don’t live in a world of our own making. That is what the present culture war is really about. Marriage is more than the product of the will of the parties involved. Families are not created by humans ex nihilo. And children are not personally manufactured commodities. It all comes from above and we are a nation that has forgotten how to look up.—”Lo, children are an heritage from the LORD: And the fruit of the womb is his reward” (Psalm 127:3).

Advent Meditation: Look to the Needs of Others

On the one hand, you cannot blame the man who says that he is going to look out for himself. He has a busy life. A full plate. And only so many hours in the day. Moreover, the Bible does not forbid, but actually requires that a man look to his own needs so there is no problem there. The problem is taking the Biblical truth that every man should shoulder his own load (Gal. 6:5) and falsely deducing from that standard that you only have to worry about your own pack. Philippians 2:4 says that we are not only to look to our own needs, but also the needs of others.

The command is not simply to meet the needs of others as they arise. The command is to pay attention to the needs of others. It is far too easy to develop tunnel vision, particularly when things get busy. I saw Jeff with that flat on the side of the road, I saw him in the snow without a car jack, but it was Black Friday and everything was 30% off. If we’re honest, we don’t need the hustle and bustle of the holidays. We can be inconsiderate of the people around us when the pace is normal.

Looking to the needs of others requires energy. It requires an enlarged heart. And God supplies both of these requirements in his Son. We have entered into the Advent season so we are reminded that Christ came. Christ paid attention. He saw our need. Even being equal with God, he took upon himself the form of a servant in order to deliver us from our trouble. Trust him and look to the needs of others, knowing that from his fullness we receive grace upon grace.