Toby J. Sumpter's Blog, page 14

No Quarter on Biblical Parenting & #SpankingGate

Introduction
Well, Mrs. Nancy Wilson has (inadvertently) joined No Quarter November. You’d think she’d donned her own flame thrower and torched an oversize cut out of the Huggies kid. Although to be completely fair, if she had done it in a burka, with a Palestinian flag wrapped around her shoulders and the Huggies toddler stamped with an Israeli flag on his backside, we’d being hearing cries of how brave and heroic Mrs. Wilson is. Instead, what she did was sit at a table (actually a few years ago now) with her husband and answer questions about parenting and relate a particularly juicy story about a time when her daughter (now a grown, happy wife and mother herself) as a toddler was a bit grumpy and how she corrected her when they got home, including a spank. 

The Twitter account I found with the offending clip going viral was at a half a million views when I first saw it and was , and the comments were hilarious and sad, ranging from “yep. This is child abuse” to “arrest her” to “CPS should’ve received a call.” That last one was from a Twitter handle titled “Pro-Choicetifa.” Apparently, it’s perfectly fine to behead and dismember little babies (before they are born), but if you require them to be cheerful, that should be illegal? And since I’ve shared the clip approvingly, the hordes (of mostly women and beta males) have come out insisting that this is teaching children to lie, teaching children to hit, or simply teaching fear and manipulation, and of course I’m a (insert expletive) supporting every form of abuse known (and unknown) to mankind. 

Adding to the excitement surrounding all of this is the about-to-be-released docuseries Future Men, with interviews from Nate Wilson, Doug Wilson, CR Wiley, and yours truly. The good people at Canon Press dropped a trailer which you can watch here as well as a minute or so of me explaining how the Bible teaches that spanking is particularly good for raising boys which you can watch here. The Wilsons also got together yesterday and had a good chat about the whole thing which you can watch here.

But how many of these same people shrieking in my replies wouldn’t bat an eye at hitting their kids (particularly the boys) in the head with the baseball bat of antidepressants to make them be happy and docile? My Christian community advocates quick swats that correct and restore fellowship in less than five minutes, but some of these same people waving Harvard studies at me would support mastectomies for teenage girls and chemical castration for prepubescent boys, scarring them for life. Also, let’s not forget that the same “scientific studies” being heralded about the grey matter in the brains of children have been prophesying environmental apocalypse every three years for the last fifty years, forecasted COVID as the bubonic plague, and have been experimenting on aborted baby parts, so forgive me if I’m not impressed when your high priests mix up another cauldron of herbs and start pontificating about how we train up our children in the Lord. I’ve seen how the heads of toddlers have been rolling down your high place every day for the last 50 years. I don’t take parenting advice from Aztec shamans.   

How We Discipline
But for those who honestly want to know how we discipline our children in Moscow, here’s a scattershot which will no doubt miss something. First off, we believe that the duty of discipline resides firmly with the parents to whom God gave the children. Perhaps one of the more astonishing things about the “mostly peaceful protests” that have erupted around Mrs. Wilson’s comments is the fact that apparently many thousands believe they know from the distance of many years, many miles, and having virtually no knowledge of the Wilson home over forty years ago, have proceeded to lecture, mock, and condemn. For all the “judge not” nonsense that usually gets bandied about, I’d say we’ve witnessed a heap of judgment without a Lacroix’s whiff of knowledge. 

But our church teaches that God has established the government of the family as responsible for the training up of children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord (Dt. 6, Eph. 6). And while it may come as some kind of shock, this means that we don’t tell any parents exactly how to handle any particular circumstances that may arise in their home. However, we do happily teach that the rod of correction is one of God’s ordained means of discipline. Where does the Bible teach this? “Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him” (Prov. 22:15). “Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die” (Prov. 23:13). “The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame” (Prov. 29:15). And as noted in this last verse, we also believe in lots of talking with our kids: encouragement, exhortation, teaching, and good stories and jokes. Especially funny jokes.

We also teach that Proverbs is such fantastic wisdom literature we should actually obey it regularly in our homes. The Proverbs also teach that the younger children are the more you can shape them: “Train up a child in the way that they should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it” (Prov. 22:6). This is why many of our teenagers are sat down by their parents somewhere in the middle of high school and told that they are now free to do whatever they want. And then they carry on like responsible young adults into adulthood. And the reason that isn’t crazy is because we believe that in the first 3 or 4 years, you should run their world like a benevolent totalitarian dictatorship. Go ahead and mock, but tell me how many communities give that kind of freedom and responsibility to their teenagers and the whole thing not go to pot (pun intended). 

A really important point to underline is that we teach that the foundation for faithful discipline that is effective is warm fellowship between parents and their children. If your ordinary life together is not sweet and happy, then you will not be communicating love when you spank. Closely related, the Bible teaches that all correction is to be done in meekness, which means filled with the Spirit and all of His fruit, especially self-control (Gal. 6:1). Discipline that is carried out in anger, flying off the handle, violent, etc. is not Christian. Our church teaches against that kind of harshness, and we would hold parents accountable that were known to treat their children that way.

While I do not think the state should be in the foster care business, my wife and I were foster parents for a number of years, and I would generally discourage foster parents from spanking foster kids (it’s against the law anyhow in every state as far as I know). Many of those orphans have been abused and mistreated, and it is very difficult for complete strangers to come into a situation like that and communicate love through corporal punishment. Nevertheless, when I explained to one of our social workers how we disciplined our own children in our home (which is perfectly legal in Idaho), she seemed impressed and said it sounded very “constructive.” And despite all the accusations on the Twitters that I must be lying since no sane social worker would ever say that, much less place foster kids into a home that practiced regular spanking with their own children, all I can say is that it is true and don’t forget this is Idaho where we also let our kids ride around in the back of our pickup trucks (without helmets). 

But when there is a warm and joyful atmosphere in a home, and a child is in sin, spanking is one of God’s ordained means of bringing that child back into fellowship. A few swats are a quick, measured bit of pain, aimed at getting a child’s attention in order to call them back from the path they are on that leads to far greater pain. What path is that? Well, uncontrolled emotions, angry outbursts, and complaining spirits are the path to all manner of dysfunction: substance abuse, theft, out of wedlock pregnancies, abortion, rape, murder, prison, death, and Hell. “If you strike him with the rod, you will save his soul from Sheol” (Prov. 23:14). 

This is why the Bible clearly teaches that refusal to use corporal discipline is hatred of children: “Whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him” (Prov. 13:24). While the rod is certainly not the only tool in a wise parent’s toolbox, and we encourage our families to utilize many other tools as well (practicing obedience, positive reinforcement and incentives, and other forms of physical exercise and restitution), the Bible teaches that there are some significant advantages and blessings of wisely employing the rod. 

Our community does discipline privately, calmly, explaining the offense, giving the swats, followed by quick comfort and hugs, prayers of confession, assurance of forgiveness, and full reconciliation and restoration of fellowship. And it has been massively constructive indeed.  

This means that modern studies and psychotherapies that claim that all spanking is abusive, damaging, and will only be received as threats of violence, etc. – those studies are science the same way Al Gore’s climate alarmism is science. 

That Goddess of Empathetic Emotionalism
But perhaps the central eyeball that has been touched in this #spankingate controversy is the idea that a parent can and should shepherd a child’s emotional state. While some would no doubt not mind very, very gentle verbal correction of a child’s bad attitude, many, listening to Mrs. Wilson’s description rushed to spin her daughter’s emotional state in the most innocent, defensible way, while assuming that Mrs. Wilson was in the worst possible way having a bad attitude, embarrassed by the moment, offended, hurt, or even angry. And while that sort of thing has no doubt happened many times in the history of parenting, it wasn’t what Mrs. Wilson was describing because that sort of thing has been roundly condemned pervasively by the Wilsons themselves for many decades. She wouldn’t be telling that story in order to give parents an example of helping a child work through their sinful emotions if she was the one with the sinful emotions. 

No, the story was clearly offensive because the child was sinning in her bad attitude seeing her mother and needing to leave her friend’s house. And of course any human with an ounce of empathy can imagine being in the little girl’s shoes. But the question is: what does God require? God requires immediate, cheerful obedience. God requires a joyful, submissive heart. Now, does every single infraction require that exact response? Of course not. Sometimes parents use verbal encouragement. Sometimes parents redirect. Sometimes parents might just have their kids do it over again the right way. But parents are God’s assigned deputies, and sometimes it is actually more kind to nip that kind of sin in the bud. Many parents in the name of being “gentle” will do anything except spank trying to deal with a bad attitude, and the bad attitude just keeps rotting in the back of the family cupboard: “the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel” (Prov. 12:10). But faith sometimes sees an opportunity to bring a far more gracious resolution to a situation. God says that physical, corporal discipline is sometimes the more gracious means of correction and resolution. And this really is loving your neighbor as yourself. Haven’t you ever been in an emotional funk and wished you could just snap out of it? It’s a great gift to young children when parents help them do it by God’s ordained means. 

But I think the real nub of the issue is that for many Christians who objected to this story is that while they confess Christ as Lord with their lips, their feelings, their emotions, and their own heart are really what is most sacred to them. When it comes down to it, if God’s Word seems to be saying something that would hurt them, something that might be very hard or painful, especially making them or those they care about hurt in any way, they do creative exegesis in order to justify their disobedience. It has been particularly remarkable to see the number of “prochoice Christians” emerge from the woodwork, who, when called on it, explained that abortion was such a difficult issue which requires a lot of nuance, but if you ever give a child a swat, especially for not greeting their mother cheerfully, you’re a demon monster. I honestly wonder how much of this vitriol over spanking is actually the pent up guilt of abortion in our land. Having murdered their own children, it would make sense for many to have an insanely warped sensitivity to the treatment of children. 

Regardless of the particulars, it’s simply true that our land is cursed. A land that kills their own children and not only does so, but enshrines the right to do so in their official documents, that land is cursed. That land is utterly, drooling mad. Many have tried to caricature our calm, biblical approach to corporal punishment as some kind of mechanical, clinical bludgeoning – “the more calm an abuser is, the worse it is!” But that is exactly what the Planned Parenthood ghouls and the whole medical establishment that carries out these murders is. 

Many Christians have been tempted to try to salvage “family values” from the dumpster of modern values, trying to argue for life and marriage and freedom from feminism and egalitarianism and secular humanism. But you can’t get the fruit of life and happy homes and political liberty from the bramble bush of resentment, envy, or idolatry. Other Christians have tried to build their house on the sand of the innocence and sanctity of life, especially the lives of little babies. Of course babies are judicially innocent (and therefore should not be criminal executed, even for the crimes of their parents) and their lives are sacred in a sense, but they are not intrinsically sacred and they are not morally innocent. The Bible teaches that when Adam sinned, his sin was imputed to all of his posterity, and therefore all children are conceived with sin covenantally reckoned to them. Even the smallest zygote must have his original sin forgiven. This doctrine is incredibly offensive to the sentimentalists and humanists. But the center of the offense is actually the fact that our highest standard is not your feelings, the feelings of the child, or any kind of intrinsic sanctity in helpless babies. No, the highest standard is the holiness of God, the sanctity of God and the sanctity and authority of His holy Word. 

I can’t count how many times people in my replies over the last few days excoriated me and the Wilsons, often including some variation on: God would never do that. I’m sorry, but that God, the God who would never inflict any harm on any child, is not the God of the Bible. And I know there are a bunch of Christians who are embarrassed and ashamed of this, but we cannot win this great war with sentimental platitudes. The God of the Bible ordered the genocide of cities in Canaan. The God of the Bible, the Lord and Giver of Life, is also the same God that takes human life whenever and however He pleases, using cancer, using crimes, etc. He is the Lord. All authority and power belongs to Jesus. Human authorities may only use the authority that He gives in the limited ways that He gives it. This is why totalitarian statism is blasphemy. This is why violent, angry homes are blasphemy. But this is also way sentimentalist empathy is also blasphemy. It is arrogance to disobey the King. 

Conclusion
So this is the central crux of the issue, the central cross: the holiness of God and the humility of men. Jesus says that the only way to follow Him is by taking up a cross, by taking up an instrument of torture on your back. But if you take it up in faith, it is actually the lightest burden in the world and it is full of comfort and rest because Jesus has already taken it up. He was crushed and scourged for our sins, and by His stripes we are healed. If you look to the Cross, you can see your anger, your envy, your abortion, your harsh words, your evil thoughts, your apathy and despair, your sentimental empathy nailed there and there’s a blood-red stamp next to every single charge. And it reads: paid in full.

But if you struggle and resist and defy the Lord, you will end up with the heaviest burden and all kinds of cruelty crushing you and the ones you love. The pride and hubris of thousands mocking God’s Word, mocking Christian parents who submit to God’s Word is astounding, but not really shocking. We are a cursed land. We defy the living God routinely, openly, belligerently. But how’s that really working out? Drag Queen pedophiles in our classrooms and libraries? Mass incarceration of the fatherless? Skyrocketing levels of substance abuse and suicide? We are scraping the bottom of the outhouse behind the brothel and many Christians with last night’s bowel movements all over their faces and in their teeth have the audacity to scream at us, for loving our children so well. Heh. Sorry if we are not exactly impressed. The aroma of your “kindness” isn’t very persuasive. 

Leaving Vengeance & Loving Justice

Mt. 5:38-42

Introduction
For far too long the Christian Church has been passive and apathetic, watching freedom and justice slip away from our land, and many have pointed to verses like these to justify their passivity and apathy, as though Jesus is requiring His people to lose. But we can look at Scripture and history and see moments of great resistance: Abraham, Moses, Gideon, David, the Apostle Paul, Christian medieval knights defending Christians from Muslim marauders, the Huguenots fighting for religious liberty, and even the founders of America fighting for independence. 

So how does our Lord’s teaching about enemies and justice apply to us? Whether we are thinking about the way pagans are seeking to destroy our Christian culture: think Drag Queens, an obese welfare state taxing us and regulating us into the ground, and cancel culture (including small town petty politics that try to suppress the gospel through zoning laws), or international conflict in the Middle East or Europe (should Ukraine turn the other cheek? Should Israel refuse to resist Hamas? Should the colonial Americans have submitted to British demands?), or interpersonal conflict you may have in your family (does Jesus require you to give in to the demands of your toddler in the candy aisle?), what does Jesus mean and how does this teaching apply to us and our world? 

The short answer is that Jesus is forbidding all personal animosity and vengeance. He is not forbidding or setting aside basic principles of justice. He is not forbidding self-defense, just wars, just laws and enforcement, parents correcting their children, or church discipline. He is forbidding the fleshly response of returning evil for evil. Instead, He is requiring His people to resist and fight all evil with good. You must fight. You must resist evil. But you must resist evil with good; you must overcome evil with good.

The Text: “Ye have heard that it hath been said, ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth’: but I say unto you, that ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloke also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.”

Summary of the Text
Jesus quotes from the criminal law of Israel “eye for an eye” (Ex. 21:24, Lev. 24:20, Dt. 19:21), having just recently affirmed the ongoing validity of the law (Mt. 5:17-20), and He says that this criminal justice is not to be applied by individual persons as acts of vengeance. This good principle of justice may not be weaponized to simply “punch/strike back.” Rather, our personal disposition is to be patient and forbearing (Mt. 5:39). In a battle, it is sometimes necessary to allow the enemy to strike you in order to deliver the appropriate blow. This requires discipline, thoughtfulness, patience, and fortitude. This is what Jesus is requiring, not absolute passivity or apathy. When you are struck (with words, insults, injustice, or physical harm), you may not strike back in a blind rage. But Jesus is not forbidding self-defense, protection of your property, or seeking true justice. 

This includes when we are sued and taken to court and the judge allows our goods to plundered (Mt. 5:40). Notice that Jesus assumes we would argue our case in court, not simply give whatever has been unjustly demanded of us. But given the nature of man and the tendency of courts to be corrupted, Jesus says, we should be fully prepared to surrender not only our hats, but also our coats (Mt. 5:40). These are not tactics of apathy; they are tactics of ultimate victory. If you scream and rage and take matters into your own hands, you’ll end up in prison or dead. Sometimes, you have to retreat in order to regroup to fight another day. Likewise, under foreign occupation, you may be compelled and commandeered like slaves. This may be utterly unjust, but if you want to actually put up a fight and seek freedom, you need to be prepared to go the extra mile (Mt. 5:41). Our personal disposition is to be thoroughly and sacrificially generous to all (Mt. 5:42). True justice and freedom grow in the soil of goodness. Goodness is not apathetic. But goodness is kind, generous, and patient.  

Principles of Justice
Jesus is not setting aside this central principle of justice that requires magistrates to repay evil equitably (“eye for eye”). We know this because elsewhere magistrates are still required to uphold justice (Rom. 13:4), God executes justice by “repaying” evil (Rom. 12:19), and Jesus Himself says in the judgment He will repay each person according to what he has done (Mt. 16:27, Rev. 22:12). “Eye for eye” is known as the lex talionis, the law of exact retribution or literally “the law of such a nature.” The lex talionis itself was meant to require careful calculation/deliberation and prohibit punishments driven by vengeance. When someone takes out your eye, your flesh wants to take off their head. Rage is blind. But this principle of justice requires due process, careful deliberation. Capital punishment is an example of “life for life,” but the Bible requires careful inquiry and 2-3 witnesses to establish every sin or crime. Likewise, restitution for lost, damaged, or stolen goods would be another example of “eye for eye” (Ex. 22:1-4). But again, that justice must be established by 2-3 witnesses, with judges carefully weighing the evidence, and the right of the accused to cross examine his accusers and provide witnesses of his own. This principle of justice in other words requires thoughtfulness and patience, not flying off the handle. Zacchaeus honored this principle of justice when he restored four-fold for his tax-thieving (Lk. 19:8). What Jesus prohibits here is using criminal justice as a justification for personal vengeance (Mt. 5:39). While not setting aside true justice, we must be willing to endure mistreatment, precisely because we believe in true justice. If you simply strike back (physically or verbally or emotionally), you’re part of the problem. You’re just joining the terrorists and mobs. 

Leave Vengeance for the Cops
Paul makes the same point in Romans 12 where he says not to repay any man evil for evil (Rom. 12:17), pursue peace with all men (Rom. 12:18), leave vengeance for the Lord to repay (Rom. 12:19), and do personal good to enemies (Rom. 12:20), overcoming evil with good (Rom. 12:21). Immediately after that, it says that the civil magistrate is the power ordained by God to minister God’s vengeance and wrath on evildoers (Rom. 13:4). This means if you caught a thief breaking and entering, you could call the cops, give him a glass of water while you wait, and then press charges. And there need not be anything “unChristlike” about it.

Likewise, as we already noted Jesus does not forbid arguing our case before magistrates or require us to give up our cloaks simply because a private individual demanded we do so (Mt. 5:40), just as Paul defended himself and argued his case elsewhere (cf. Acts 25-26). Rather, Jesus forbids us from angrily refusing to be defrauded if the case goes against us (Mt. 5:40). He prohibits us from despairing that all hope is lost. He prohibits us from responding in a blind fury or rage. If the case goes against us, we need to be prepared to receive that graciously, but that need not preclude making another appeal, like Paul who appealed to Rome. But sometimes it really is better to be defrauded even before the case goes to court (1 Cor. 6:7). If the whole dispute would simply bring shame on the name of Christ, we should drop it like a hot rock. Christians quarrelling over money is almost always a recipe for shame. 

Tyranny, Slavery, and Freedom
Sometimes living in slavery and under tyranny is necessary (if you want to stay alive and out of prison), and sometimes rebellion and revolution is worse than slavery. In the gospel, Jesus asks who has to pay certain taxes sons or slaves, and the disciples answer accurately that it’s the slaves, but Jesus says it would be better at the moment to pay the tax not to cause offense (Mt. 17:24-27). In other words, if you can bear the tyranny, bide your time patiently. But elsewhere it says clearly that if we can get our freedom, we should try, but if we can’t, we should live as the Lord’s freemen as much as possible (1 Cor. 7:21-22). Seeking to serve our masters as Christ is not apathy, since we all have a Master in Heaven who judges justly (Eph. 6:5-9, 1 Pet. 2:18-23). Christ submitted to the greatest injustice in history, and God saw and vindicated Him in the resurrection. When Peter exhorts wives to seek to do their disobedient husbands good, he isn’t counseling apathy; he’s counseling subversive resistance. Try to win him over without a word by your godly and gracious conduct and beauty. That isn’t apathy; it’s overcoming evil with good. And sometimes you need to call the elders or the cops. Patiently doing good invites God’s vindication and blessing, sometimes it disarms and wins our enemies, but at the very least it puts us in a position to see most clearly what we can do next, what we can do now. The wrath of man does not work the righteousness of God (Js. 1:20). Faith in God works His righteousness. A log in your eye (a log of wrath, bitterness, and rage) is not a strong position to fight from. Jesus wants us to fight, but He wants us to fight clean, fight like He fights. And light is what drives back the darkness. 

Applications
The central point is that personal grudges and angst are the origin of all evil tyranny. You can’t fight fire with fire. Returning evil for evil is not justice but flailing injustice. Returning evil for evil is joining the mob. Grudges and feuds drive every revolutionary mob, and those mobs always end up destroying themselves. All wrath, bitterness, and resentment must be banished from our hearts and words, while cultivating a godly hatred of all evil (Ps. 139:21-22). This perfect hatred also loves enemies and truly wants their good. If your hatred does not include love, it’s fleshly angst. God hates evil and loves to save sinners. We must learn to love and hate like God loves and hates. But this requires patience, grace, and wisdom.

Nothing here forbids Christians from exercising biblical justice in their assigned offices or appealing to authorities for redress. Call the cops, file the report, talk to your boss, talk to your teacher/parents, make the appeal, confront evil. Nothing here forbids Christians from practicing self-defense or just war or seeking the preservation and restoration of freedom and property through courts or laws. In fact, what Jesus says assumes the legitimacy of all those things. We are to overcome evil with good. Good what? Good families, good marriages, good hospitality, good business, good art, good churches, good neighborhoods, and good laws and civil governments. The point is that you cannot achieve a truly just and prosperous society with rage and bitterness in your heart. Start with God’s goodness in your heart.

Faithful parents need to practice this all day long: “Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted” (Gal. 6:1). We are required to try to restore those who are overtaken in faults. But we are required to do so in a spirit of meekness, a spirit of self-control, considering ourselves, lest we fall into some evil. So, your options are not flying off the handle or passive apathy. No, parental obedience requires calm, measured, cheerful firmness. And so we must be in every area of life, not taking various insults and wrongs against us personally. If you take what your children do/say personally, you will not see clearly or understand what they really need. 

All earthly, human justice is at best an approximation of heavenly/divine justice (an approximation we are required to long for and work for): we are about to pray together: “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” But if you demand perfect justice in this world now/immediately, you will be constantly disappointed and angry (and thereby become part of the problem). Everyone will let you down, and despite your longing for justice, you will be letting other down and doing harm to them. 

This is why the Cross of Jesus Christ is central to all of this: the Cross of Jesus is the only fully perfect display of justice in the history of the world. In it the justice of God was/is displayed from faith to faith (Rom. 1:17). This means it is received by faith and lived out by faith.

The just live by faith, both because we are justified by faith from all of our own sins and that gives us great peace and patience. Jesus was struck in our place for all our wrathful vengeance. God’s perfect justice crushed Jesus instead of us. Faith in that justice of God in Christ is what allows us to work hard for true justice in this world now while resting in God’s perfect timing to work it all out. 

Photo by GR Stocks on Unsplash

Romans 11, Zionism, & the Future of the Jews

Introduction
There’s always something going on in the Middle East, and there’s almost always something going on between the Jews and the Philistines. Yes, “Philistine” is the Bible’s name for the Palestinians. And so here we are again. 

I think I read James Jordan’s essay on the future of the Jews probably around 20 years ago and have vaguely defaulted to his preterist interpretation ever since. I hadn’t given the topic much thought until I read The Puritan Hope by Iain Murray a couple of years ago, in which he describes the widespread belief of many of the Protestant Reformers and their English/Scottish Puritan heirs in a future, mass conversion of the Jews as central to their expectation that the earth would one day be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea, prior to the final return of Christ. At that point, I realized I hadn’t really given any other views on Romans 11 a fair shake. I simply knew I wasn’t a dispensational Zionist, expecting the rebuilding of the temple and a return to bloody sacrifices as some prerequisite for the return of Christ. Hebrews sufficiently contradicts that view.

You don’t have to be a Left Behind Zionist to generally side with the Israelis in the most recent conflict, even if you have major questions about how the modern Israeli state was established or the goals or means of the current war. We should also point out that contrary to modern leftist tropes an ally is not a nation that you think can do no wrong. Seems to me that America and American Christians in particular ought to feel free to generally think that Israel has the right to defend themselves from blood thirsty terrorists who desire their complete annihilation, conduct just wars, and that we may support those efforts as much it makes sense to do so (and opinions may reasonably vary), and that need not mean that you are anti-palestinian or anti-semitic. All reasonable God-fearing people should be anti-Hamas. But remember, there are other kinds of Palestinians: Palestinian Christians, Palestinian secularists, and Palestinian liberal Muslims. And Hamas is an Islamic terrorist organization that routinely uses human shields for its atrocities. 

I’m no expert on Middle Eastern politics by any long shot, but I am Christian minister who can outline a few Biblical principles that ought to inform our (American) foreign relations on the matter.    

Five Biblical Principles
First, I now believe in an on-going and future mass conversion of the Jews to Christianity as part of God’s grand plan to provoke the ends of the earth to salvation. “For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead” (Rom. 11:15). To take this as having already happened in the first century A.D. prior to 70 AD just doesn’t fit the text or history. The whole world was not “reconciled” before 70 AD, much less something equivalent to resurrection from the dead. Further, Paul says despite the partial blindness of Israel, all of Israel will be saved when the fullness of Gentiles has come in (Rom. 11:25-26). It seems to me that this nails Jordan’s preterist interpretation shut. The fullness of Israel will not be saved until the fullness of the Gentiles have come in. We are certainly in the process of seeing the fullness of the Gentiles come into the Kingdom, but we do not yet see all things under Christ’s feet. So, standing with many of our Reformed forefathers, we look forward to the salvation of the Gentile nations and following that, a very significant conversion of the Jews prior to the Final Return of Christ in glory. 

Second, Paul says that this is based on covenant promises to take away their sins (Rom. 11:27). What does this mean? He explains, “As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers’ sakes. For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance” (Rom. 11:28-29). As Douglas Wilson recently reminded me, in Galatians 4, Paul calls this the Covenant with Hagar. “Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman… which things are an allegory: for these are two covenants; the one from mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, with is Agar. For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all” (Gal. 4:22-26). This point deserves further development, but Romans 11 and Galatians 4 do teach that a covenant remains with those who cling to the promises of Abraham and the law of Sinai. It’s simply not true that no covenant remains for unbelieving Jews. It’s a covenant of bondage and slavery, and it is most certainly not the covenant of promise and grace (from which they have been removed), but there is a covenant with unbelieving Jews that remains nonetheless — the covenant with Hagar. 

Third, to the extent that you have a people that identify with the Old Testament, looking to the promises to Abraham and the Torah-law, you have a Jewish people with veils remaining over their eyes, just as Paul described them in the first century (2 Cor. 3:14-15). James Jordan and others claim that the Jews ceased to exist after 70 AD, but I don’t find this argument compelling at all. Yes, the Old Covenant vanished at 70 AD with the temple and sacrifices, meaning that the temple approach to God has entirely ceased. There is no more animal sacrifice that foreshadows the final sacrifice of Christ. This is why the Zionist dreams of renewing the sacrificial system are terribly misguided and blasphemous. But just as the Jews existed in exile during the Old Covenant without sacrifices or temple, they can continue to exist for centuries, and they have. And on a purely historical note, it is simply astonishing that for all the nations that have come and gone and disappeared into the dustbin of history, there is a people called the Jews that still exist against all odds. Related, the Jewish people have never been some kind of “pure race” in terms of genetics and bloodline. The only reason the Bible traces genealogies in the Old Covenant is for the sake of the Messianic line. God promised that the seed of the woman would come and crush the head of the seed of the dragon (Gen. 3:15), and God promised that seed from Abraham (Gen. 12, 15, 17). And so Jesus has come, the seed of the woman, the seed of Abraham, the son of David. But there was always a mixed multitude in Isreal: from Abraham’s 318 fighting men, to the many Egyptians that joined Israel in the Exodus, from Rahab to Ruth to the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon’s reign, many joined themselves to Israel over the centuries. Israel was always a covenanted-people, bound by common faith and customs, and yes, marriage often joined these peoples over generations ethnically, but it was never genetic-centric. So regardless of what modern Jews are genetically, they clearly continue down to the present as a people who identify with the covenants of Abraham and the Torah of Sinai. 

Fourth, the Jews are partially blinded, and apart from Christ, these covenants only add to their condemnation, but by the same token, the Old Testament grants them more light than Muslims, Hindus, atheists, or any other non-Christians. This is why Jews are frequently very high functioning people having embraced and specialized in some of the common grace principles of business and prosperity highlighted in the Old Testament, using those skills for good and evil over the centuries. And this is often why the Jews are such hated people. But for Christians, this means that we have a people who are primed for the gospel and share a muddled but similar worldview. They are monotheists who have some respect for the Ten Words. That’s more common ground than many modern leftists or squishy conservatives. The modern nation of Israel also provides some pretty significant opportunities for missionary work and evangelism both in Israel and throughout the Middle East. 

Fifth, and to return to Paul’s point in Romans 11, the goal is to provoke the Jews to envy and emulation. Paul says that this is why he preaches so hard to Gentiles: in order to provoke his countrymen to emulation (Rom. 11:14). James Jordan argues that this can’t possibly still be in effect since Christians don’t have what modern Jews want. He writes, “Talmudic Jews are looking for a completely different kind of kingdom.” Likewise he writes, “Modern Jews are not in the least provoked by the fact that non-Jews believe the Gospel. Modern Jews get angry with Jews convert [sic], not when “Gentiles” do. In this respect, Modern Jews are just like any other non-Christian group. This is strong evidence that Romans 9-11 is concerned only with the early days of the Church.” But it seems to me that this is not entirely accurate and to the extent that it is somewhat true, it is largely to our shame. On the one hand, as Christendom flourished in the late middle ages and into the Reformation era, there actually was something of an influx of Jews into the Kingdom provoked by the superior learning, arts, sciences, and business practices of the Protestant Christian West. But it is also true that Christians have frequently so “spiritualized” the kingdom completely misunderstanding and misconstruing the language and nature of the New Covenant. While it is true that Christ’s Davidic Kingdom is not purely material or political, it is simply not true that it is not material or political at all. All authority in heaven and on earth have been given to Jesus, and it is on that basis that we disciple all the nations (Mt. 28). Jesus promised that all who gave up houses and lands and families for His sake would receive them back a hundred fold in this life with persecutions, and in the life to come, eternal life (Mk. 10:29-30). The blessings of Deuteronomy are now offered to all of the nations of the earth.

Conclusion
This final point is reason enough not to become Israeli sycophants, not to mention its cowardice and unseemliness, but rather, as our friend, James Rayment, has argued, we ought to strive to be good friends, faithful friends with Israel (and Palestine for that matter), which means supportive of goodness and justice but also the kind of friends who are faithful to wound and correct when they are wrong. And our overarching goal should be to be the kind of faithful people and nation that once again is supremely blessed – blessed with a right knowledge of the living God through Jesus Christ, blessed with the wisdom of His word in all of our affairs, and so blessed, as Deuteronomy says, in our families and fields and endeavors that all of the nations see the blessing and are provoked to want it, especially the Jews, and seeing our good works, they come and glorifying our Father in Heaven through Jesus Christ.

Photo by Taylor Brandon on Unsplash 

24 Books Every Christian Leader Should Read (or Re-Read) for the Coming Reformation

Well, Happy Reformation Day 2023. In honor of the festivities, here are 24 books recommended for all Christians but Christian leaders in particular for the work of Reformation in 2024 that is before us.

I honestly believe that God is on the move. A real awakening and renewal is happening that is not just momentary emotions, but there are millions of Christians repenting of personal and familial and political sins, and recommitting themselves to the basics of following Jesus: worshipping God every Lord’s Day, getting married, being faithful, raising a small army of children to love Jesus, and building businesses, schools, and other public institutions in obedience to God’s Word for a Christendom 2.0. So I’ll be lifting some kind of dark German stout to that cause today. Cheers to Christendom 2.0, and cheers to the King.

There are of course many other books well worth your time, but here are my suggestions today, in no particular order, just how it tumbled out of my brain.

Escape From Reason, Schaeffer
This is a short, blunt overview of western philosophy, tracing how we arrived at this place. If you want to understand the philosophical roots of postmodernism, I don’t know a better introduction.
Mere Christianity, Lewis
This classic work is both apologetic, tracing Lewis’s own autobiographical struggle with theism and then on to an explicitly Christian theism, but it is also a fine introduction to Christian ethics. When you finish go on to Abolition of Man. You’ll need to read/re-read both of these multiple times.
Institutes, Calvin
John Calvin is the Godfather of Reformation Theology. His monumental work established the longterm impact of Reformation theology on politics, economics, and culture. Read his commentaries too; they are consistently better than any modern ones.
By This Standard, Bahnsen
It’s not enough to embrace Christianity philosophically or merely as a theoretical theology, it must be grounded in the concrete word of God (all of it). The continuing relevance of the Old Testament law — it’s “general equity” — is perhaps one of the greatest needs of our day.
Orthodoxy, G.K. Chesteron
Chesterton was a Papist, but he was so happy and insightful, we’re making him an honorary Calvinist. He would not have approved while he was living, but he approves now. His grasp of the significance of Christianity goes deep and wide and can’t help but leave you with a grateful and defiant grin on your face.
Notes from the Tilt-a-Whirl, N.D. Wilson
Apologetics, philosophy, and a playful punch to the gut: Chesterton meets Calvin and incarnates as a happy worldview college ninja dismantling modern ideological idols.
Leave It To Psmith, Wodehouse
If you’re going to make a difference in the world you need to learn to laugh at the antics and tangles and foibles of people. It will also accustom you to the joy of using words to paint the sort of garish pictures God is painting every day. Read this, re-read it, and then move on to the rest of the Wodehouse collection. It’ll make your heart happy and everyone around you.
Pilgrim’s Progress, Bunyan
Speaking of garish pictures, John Bunyan wrote the first part of this story while in prison for preaching the gospel. Despite the fact that this kind of allegory has fallen out of favor with all the cool kids, this should be required reading in all counseling courses. The real world is far more like a dangerous journey to the celestial city than a pseudo-scientific glossary of materialistic pathologies.
“Reformed” is Not Enough, Douglas Wilson
No one seems to notice the scare quotes around the word “Reformed,” but they are there. I checked. In other words, this is not a departure from confessional Reformed theology at all. Rather, this is a pastoral deep dive into Reformed theology, and taking the covenant seriously. But beware, if you’re seen in public with this, there might be riots or at least concerned letters sent to your presbytery.
Men and Marriage, Gilder
I believe Gilder was in the process of becoming a Christian as he wrote this book. So this is common sense on fire about the way God made the world, about the inherent cultural realities of sexuality, and our maleness and femaleness and potency of monogamous marriage. You can’t stop underlining.
Christianity and Liberalism, Machen
Machen saw cultural liberalism rushing into the so-called “conservative” denominations in early 20th century, and he was duly defrocked for being a trouble maker. Now everyone sings his praises for being so prescient, but if you actually try to imitate Machen, you’ll get the same treatment. After this, read his Education, Christianity, and the State.
Beowulf, Unknown
The Bible is the epic story about a world made for feasting interrupted and enslaved by the ravages of a monster, until our Hero came. And not only did our Hero kill the monster of our sin and restore feasting to our world, He also slayed the dragon and plundered his horde.
Prince Caspian, Lewis
Of course you should read and re-read all the Chronicles of Narnia — and why wouldn’t you? But I specifically recommend this one because of our current cultural moment. Godless powers largely run our land, but there are many who remember “old Narnia” and we’re busy telling our children the old stories, in sure hope that Aslan is on the move. Close runner up for our cultural moment would be The Silver Chair.
Planet Narnia, Ward
Speaking of Narnia, I had this book on my shelf for several years, but when Doug Wilson asked to borrow my copy at one point and I casually noted that I hadn’t actually read it yet, he gave me a kind but distraught look that made me repent on the spot. This is one part literary analysis, one part Lewis biography, and one part theology/devotional. You’ve never read a literary analysis that will warm your heart with worship.
Politics of Guilt & Pity, Rushdoony
Rousas Rushdoony was one of those voracious Christian readers and thinkers who simply has to be reckoned with. If you want to think deeply about the whole victim-culture phenomenon, read this. We need more of this deeply theological analysis of culture and politics.
The Puritan Hope, Murray
This is a heartwarming overview of Puritan eschatology, but it’s far more than that. Murray connects the dots between an optimistic outlook for the success of the gospel in history with practical piety, evangelistic zeal, and God’s blessing of true, gospel revival, particularly among the Jews. We need this.
City of God, Augustine
Next to the Bible, this is arguably the foundational work of western Christian Civilization. It’s fat and thick and meandering, but there are many gems, and we simply cannot begin the work of building Mere Christendom 2.0 apart from standing on this giant’s shoulders.
A House for My Name, Leithart
This book is a wonderful introduction to reading the Old Testament (and the whole Bible for that matter). No Christian leader can lead apart from being immersed in the stories, types, and motifs of Scripture.
The Household and the War for the Cosmos, Wiley
It’s really hard to decide whether to put Wiley’s Man of the House here or The Household and the War for the Cosmos, but I think War for the Cosmos only slightly edges out MOTH for its bigger, more expansive worldview. The real gut punch is the connection between Ephesians 5 and Ephesians 6.
The Principle of Protestantism, Schaff
Schaff argues forcefully here that Protestantism is the true and faithful continuation of the “catholic” and apostolic church. Sola fide and Sola Scriptura in particular but most all the Reformational distinctives can be found in the early church fathers. It was the papists who turned away from biblical orthodoxy in the later Middle Ages.
The Conservative Mind, Kirk
I read this one a few years ago, and while it is something of a slog, it is not tedious, and I don’t think we can understand where we are today and what “conservatism” really is or has been apart from a work like this, carefully, methodically documenting key themes, convictions, trends, thinkers and players in the development of conservative thought.
Idols for Destruction, Schlossberg
To be honest, this is an even more thorough deconstruction of modern idols than Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self by Trueman. Both are good and helpful, but if you could only take one into the tolerance gulags with you, I would recommend Schlossberg every day of the week.
Lectures on Calvinism (The Stone Lectures), Kuyper
Abraham Kuyper sketches a vision for the Lordship of Christ over every sphere of life: family, church, state, science, arts, etc. Even where a few minor correctives are necessary, the vision is sound. We need a renewal of Kuyperian Calvinism in our day.
Dabney on Fire, Dabney (ed. Garris)
Like Chesterton, Lewis, and Machen, Dabney was calling prophetic shots a hundred years in advance. When an older Christian brother does that sort of thing, we really should sit up and listen. If we want to be prophetic in our day, we need to study men like Dabney who saw the Leftist egalitarian crusade for what it was in 1890.

Photo by C?sar Viteri on Unsplash

Never Runs Out

In 1 Cor. 10, it says that God gave Israel spiritual food in the wilderness just like He gives Christians spiritual food. And in John 6, Jesus says that the manna was a type of the true spiritual food which is Jesus Himself, come down from heaven. Putting this together, we ought to see this table as the fulfillment of the manna in the wilderness, but it too points us directly to Christ who is our true spiritual food. As we eat and drink here at this table in faith, looking to Christ to feed us, the Spirit ministers the body and blood of Jesus to us. 

And the thing to notice is that there is no scarcity in Jesus. There is only abundance. So much sin and sorrow come from thinking of this world and this life as one of scarcity. The world tries to spin this as exciting: you only live once, and there is of course some sense in which that is true. But for fallen sinners, that frequently feels like you’re on a bus looking down at the road flying past. And the older you get, the faster it seems to go. Just when you realize you’re done changing diapers, you look up one day and there’s a young man asking to court your daughter. And then someone hands you your first grandchild, and then you start wondering why everyone has started talking so quietly but their music is so loud terrible. And it can be tempting to despair or to grasp or grab. It might feel like so many really important things are flying past you, and maybe you’re still waiting for some of them or maybe you have lost some of them very dear to you: marriage, meaningful friendship, children, family, community, fulfilling work or a job. 

But God, knowing our frame, set this table in our midst, and He says to you: At my right hand are pleasures forevermore. God sets a feast in our midst, and He says, this feast is my life given for you, the fullness of joy, the abundance of life, and it never runs out. The trick, in other words, is to not look down at the ground (your life) seemingly flying by you, but instead, look up. And see Jesus Christ, and in Him, see every good thing never running out. Yes, some things fly by, but there will always be more, 30, 60, and 100 fold: further up and further in. So look up and come and welcome to Jesus Christ.

Photo by Rumman Amin on Unsplash

Act Like Men

“Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.” (1 Cor. 16:13)

Here, Paul exhorts the whole church to act like men, explaining that he means: be watchful and alert, steadfast in the faith, and strong. It is the glory of men to be strong, to stand firm, and to be watchful – little boys naturally love pretending to be soldiers and guards. But here the whole church is called to emulate that glory. How does that work?

Elsewhere, the Bible says that it is an abomination for men to dress like women or for women dress like men, specifically wearing the gear or weapons of men (Dt. 22:5). Women are not to act like or be treated like men in law enforcement, military combat, or other martial arts. Related, the law forbade Israel from boiling a baby goat in its own mother’s milk: what God created to give life should not become an instrument for taking life. Except for emergency situations like Jael and Sisera, women should not be death-dealers, since they are life-givers. This is a woman’s glory. The Bible also says that it is shameful for a woman to have her head shaved like a man, and it is conversely shameful for a man to have long hair like a woman – even nature teaches that her longer hair is given for a glory and a covering (1 Cor. 11:14-15). 

Nevertheless, God exhorts the whole church to be watchful, steadfast, and strong: to act like men. God requires churches to have this masculine tone. When men take responsibility for their families and the needs around them, when sin and difficulties are addressed thoughtfully and with courage, when men are alert and physically, intellectually, and spiritually fit and strong, the whole church is greatly blessed and follows that lead.   

We live in a land given over to sexual confusion calculated to destroy the glory of male and female, because those distinct glories reflect the glory of the Maker whose image we bear. Crossdressing, transsexuality, homosexuality, and every form of gender bending in fashion and in the church is meant to blunt the potency of the glory of being made male and female. So, in this moment, act like men: be strong and firm and alert as men and women.   

Photo by Olga Guryanova on Unsplash

Fight Laugh Feast Manifesto 2023

[This was the final charge I gave at FLF 2023 at the Ark Encounter. The audio/video of the Conference is going up here.]

For too long the Christian church has cowered. We have cowered before false gods and false religions and false priesthoods. And while there have always been attempts at bullying God’s people, the modern version of this has come in the form of so-called “secularism,” but this secularism is every bit as religious as the Baals and Dagons and Zeuses of the ancient world, with high priests bowing and scraping at the altars of Darwinism, materialism, and every form of Marxism, including the more recent critical theories, aimed at shaming Christians for the way God has made the world.

The high priests of these false gods and religions have pontificated their incantations claiming big bangs and billions of years of violence and mutations. They have written long bloviating papers for which they have given one another accolades and awards, calling one another brave and brilliant, while chirping and muttering with complete insanity, claiming that people evolved from shrimp, there is no Creator god, no meaning, no truth, and anybody who thinks otherwise is a threat to academia, intelligence, freedom, and democracy. When asked for proof they claimed it was in the geological record (it was not). They claimed it was in the fossil record (it was not). They claimed it was proven by their black cauldron of radio carbon dating (it was not). And when the music played, everyone bowed down, afraid of the consequences, afraid of the mockery, afraid of being cancelled, or simply afraid of looking dumb. 

But it was all lies and fear and propaganda. There is a God in Heaven and He has spoken to us. He spoke the light into existence from nothing. He spoke the sky into existence. He spoke the land and the seas. He spoke the sun, moon, and stars. He spoke the dragons of the deep and birds of the air. He spoke all the creeping and crawling things, and finally He spoke the word Man in His own image, from the dust of the earth and from the side of that first man: glorious woman. And when our father Adam disobeyed, God spoke again. He spoke a glorious promise that the seed of the first woman would rise up and conquer the seed of the serpent. And He spoke that promise in that Garden, and He spoke it again when He saved Noah and his family. He spoke it again to an old man and his barren wife in a strange land. He spoke again in a burning bush and then from a burning mountain. He spoke again and again in the mouths of prophets and kings, and then finally, the fullness of His Word thundered in the womb of a virgin. And that Word became flesh. That Word dwelt among us. And it was that Word that came to make all things new. And although we hated that word, despised that Word and attempted to silence that Word on a Roman Cross, it was by that very act that a New Creation burst into existence. When they thought they had silenced our God, it was in that very moment that all our sinful silence was destroyed, and from His side a New Creation has burst into this world. 

As Francis Shaefer said many years ago, “He is there and He is not silent.” He is there and He has spoken. This Word, from Genesis to Revelation, this Word breathed by the Spirit, is the Word that is sharper than any two-edged blade. It is the sword of the Spirit, every inch, every verse. From creation in six days to the new creation in three days to the New Heavens and New Earth in their fullness on the Last Day.

And so this is the charge: 

Refuse to be embarrassed by any verse in the Bible. Refuse to be ashamed of any of it. Prohibitions against shell-fish? No trimming the sides of our beards? Mixing fabrics? Regulations for slavery? Death penalties for rebellious sons? Creation in six days? A gigantic floating zoo with giraffes sticking their heads out the windows? Burning bushes? Talking donkeys? Dragons and unicorns? Resurrection from the dead? Yeah, we believe in all of that. And we’re not embarrassed by any of it. We are not ashamed. We will not apologize. It’s the Word of God, and it’s all pure gold. Why would we apologize for gold? Why would we be embarrassed by the Word of our Father? There has always been a deep temptation to be one of the cool kids, to be welcomed to the cool table, the inner circle, to be considered intellectually or academically sophisticated and so soft-peddle what God’s word says about certain unpopular topics. 

Christians must stop caring what the world thinks. Christians must stop caring what certain weak and cowardly brothers and sisters think. We have a clear Word not from any mere man. We have a clear Word from our Maker and our Redeemer. The false prophets and wizards mutter and chirp, and we must not care. Let them. Our constant refrain must be: “To the testimony and law: to the Word, to the Word we go; if they don’t speak this word they have no light at all.” 

But this sure Word is the basis for our confidence and courage. The kind of courage we need in our day is the kind of courage that our fathers had when they built this nation. We need the courage of nature’s law and nature’s God. We need the courage and joy of knowing the Creator who has endowed men with unalienable rights and establishes the limited jurisdiction of government to secure those rights. We cannot have that kind of courage, that kind of liberty, and that kind of government apart from that kind of God, the God who created the heavens and the earth in six days and all very good. The God of Noah, the God Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of Moses and David, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

And so please stand and let me give you a blessing for this great work: May the God and Father our Lord Jesus Christ, the God who Created the Heavens and the Earth and upholds them by the Word of His power, Who has now begun to remake all things through the resurrection of His Son and by His life-giving Spirit bless you and guard you and your families and churches, and establish you in every good word and work. May He give you the kind of joyful courage that laughs in the face of all danger and mockery, and may you see your children’s children standing in the gates of our cities confounding our enemies, until every knee bows and every tongue confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord, and this land is filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. And Amen. 

The Kindness of Six-Day Creation

[This was the main talk I gave at the Fight Laugh Feast Conference 2023. The video/audio for this talk (and all of the talks) is available here.]

Introduction
The title for this talk is The Kindness of Six Day Creation. I want to talk about the kindness of creationism and the cruelty of theistic evolution, and how these tendencies impact society and culture and politics. My basic thesis is that the further Christians and a culture get from a clear understanding of God’s sovereign, personal creation of all things in six days just like Genesis 1 says – the further we get away from that, the further we get from the kindness of God, the less kind we and our world will be and the more cruel it will become. The kindness of autonomous man (man divorced from God’s Word/law) is cruel. And the creative sovereignty of God (the absolute, exhaustive authority of God over all creation) is more gracious than we can ever imagine. The origin of kindness, like all things, is in the Creator God and His creation of all things. You cannot have true kindness apart from the kindness of the Creator. And however you believe this world came to be, that will be a cornerstone of your paradigm for what kindness actually is. Either we will have the kindness of God found His Word, His law, His Christ driving our culture, driving our politics, or else we will have the cruelty of man, making it up as he goes along, crushing the weak and the innocent, often all in the name of science and freedom and being nice. 

The Cruelty of Theistic Evolution
Perhaps one of the most appalling things about 2020 and the so-called COVID pandemic was the collusion of major evangelical Christian leaders with Francis Collins, the then-director of the National Institute for Health (NIH). My friend Megan Basham chronicled this complicity in an article published by the DailyWire back in February 2022, from which I’m drawing extensively for what follows. Tim Keller interviewed Francis Collins in May 2020, which included a digression where Keller and Collins agreed that John MacArthur’s church re-opening represented the “bad and ugly” of Christian responses to the virus. In November of 2020, Rick Warren hosted a special broadcast with Francis Collins in which they lamented Christians who questioned the efficacy of masks. Rick Warren said, “Wearing a mask is the great commandment: love your neighbor as yourself,” before going on to argue that religious leaders have an obligation to convince their people to accept government narratives and mandates. 

When Ed Stetzer interviewed Francis Collins in 2021, pastors were exhorted to exert their authority to get their congregations to get vaccinated, wear masks, and comply with the dominant, mainstream narrative. Stetzer’s Billy Graham Center formally partnered with the NIH and CDC to encourage churches to comply with COVID measures. While Anthony Fauci championed the narrative in secular news outlets, Francis Collins used his evangelical testimony to preach so-called “science” to believers. It later came out that Francis Collins wrote Fauci and other leading scientists asking for a “quick and devastating” published take down of the Great Barrington Declaration – co-authored by our friend Dr. Jay Bhattacharya —  a worldwide consortium of scientists raising questions about the dominant narrative supporting shut downs, vaccines, and masks – arguing instead for the efficacy of herd immunity for most healthy individuals, re-opening businesses and schools and targeted care for vulnerable populations. Emails have surfaced with Collins and Fauci mocking these ideas. Meanwhile, the Gospel Coalition was running articles citing Francis Collins as a respected authority.

So how did Francis Collins become such an evangelical hero? In 2007, Francis Collins wrote a book called The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief, and apparently most of the evangelical world collectively wet their pants with worldly lust. Finally, one of the high priests of Darwin had abandoned atheism and came out as an evangelical Christian – and not just any scientist, but one of the chief architects of the Human Genome Project – mapping and sequencing the base pairs of human DNA. As the book’s description puts it breathlessly: “An instant bestseller from Templeton Prize-winning author Francis S. Collins, The Language of God provides the best arguments for the integration of faith and logic since C.S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity.” And how did Collins propose to integrate faith and reason and science? 

Theistic evolution. 

Plastered on the front of the paperback, the New York Times Book Review proclaims: “It lets non-churchgoers consider spiritual questions without feeling awkward.”

The book argues that Genesis is allegorical and should not be read as a literal, historical narrative. Collins likewise dismisses Intelligent Design and champions theistic evolution or what he prefers to call “BioLogos” which became the name of the organization Collins founded the same year dedicated to “faith and science working hand in hand.” What does that mean? According to their website, in addition to other boiler plate creedal affirmations, they say, “We believe that God created the universe, the earth, and all life over billions of years.” And: “We believe that the diversity and interrelation of all life on earth are best explained by the God-ordained process of evolution with common descent. Thus, evolution is not in opposition to God, but a means by which God providentially achieves his purposes.” The statement of faith ends with: “We believe that conversations among Christians about controversial issues of science and faith can and must be conducted with humility, grace, honesty, and compassion as a visible sign of the Spirit’s presence in Christ’s body, the Church.”

One wonders where the humility, grace, honesty, and compassion were during the COVID lockdowns? When millions of our grandparents were locked away alone in nursing homes, when millions of at-risk individuals could not access ongoing health care, cancer screenings, or the encouragement of daily work, school, contact with family and friends or just another human being? Where was that honesty and humility and grace when the Great Barrington Declaration needed a “quick and devastating” take down?

But it’s even worse: Megan Basham writes: “He [Collins] has not only defended experimentation on [babies] obtained by abortion, he has also directed record-level spending toward it. Among the priorities the NIH has funded under Collins — a University of Pittsburgh experiment that involved grafting infant scalps onto lab rats, as well as projects that relied on the harvested organs of aborted, full-term babies. Some doctors have even charged Collins with giving money to research that required extracting kidneys, ureters, and bladders from living infants.” Turns out the kind of humility, grace, honesty, and compassion that they’re talking about could just as easily describe Nazi doctors experimenting on the Jews. Apparently this is the visible sign of the Spirit’s presence they’re talking about: an infant’s scalp grafted onto a lab rat. 

Basham continues: “Under [Collin’s] watch, the NIH launched a new initiative to specifically direct funding to “sexual and gender minorities.” On the ground, this has translated to awarding millions in grants to experimental transgender research on minors, like giving opposite-sex hormones to children as young as eight and mastectomies to girls as young as 13. Another project, awarded $8 million in grants, included recruiting teen boys to track their homosexual activities… on an app without their parents’ consent.” One assumes that destroying teenage lives with perverse experiments is just more humility, grace, and compassion. 

I want to be clear: I know that people are complex. People are capable of sincerely holding contradictory views. And I have every reason to believe that Francis Collins sincerely believes what he has done is consistent with his Christian faith. So the point I want to make is not about Collins in particular, although he provides a very appalling example. The point I want to make is that your view of creation has enormous collective downstream effects. And I don’t actually mean this in the first instance for individuals. I mean it primarily for cultures and nations. Individual people really can be very complex and inconsistent. But over time, culture-wide, ideas have consequences. Individual people are not logically consistent, but generally speaking, cultures over time are logically consistent. Bad arguments, bad assumptions, bad presuppositions really will result in their logical conclusions downstream unless they are interrupted by God’s grace or repentance or both. 

Sovereignty, Authority, and Kindness 
The kindness of autonomous man (man divorced from God’s Word/law) is cruel. And the creative sovereignty of God (the absolute, exhaustive authority of God over all creation) is more gracious than we can ever imagine. 

Many have pointed out that in the modern evangelical church, one of the highest virtues is being “nice” and “winsome.” But what this has frequently translated into is a veneer of niceness on the outside, but piles of compromise and cruelty on the inside. Megan Basham notes this external veneer with Francis Collins who is known for having a sort of Mr. Roger’s demeanor, while overseeing this Hellish research. The thing that people don’t realize is that when we compromise God’s Word, we are always opting for cruelty. When we compromise God’s Word, we are always opting for cruelty. The Word of God is the kindness of God. The Word of God is the mercy of God. The Word of God is the grace of God. And when we turn away from His Word, we are turning away from kindness. We are necessarily embracing cruelty. 

So when the Bible opens with, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth… And God said, let there be light,” we need to read and hear those words as words of supreme kindness. They are words of immediate gift and grace from the Word of the Father. He spoke and all the good and perfect gifts came into being from the Father. To explain these words as mere allegories, mere symbols, mere poetry is not merely to strike at the historicity of the text (although it does that), it is to strike at the kindness of God. The direct, personal creation of God is the intentional, thoughtful kindness of God. What kind of God do we serve? What kind of God brought all things into existence?

In the theistic evolutionary model, the God of Genesis apparently ignited some kind of impersonal dynomite, and then worked through the mechanism of mutations, violence, chaos, and the slow, suffering extinction of millions and millions of species over billions of years to arrive at the current state of biological life on this planet. Notice this: theistic evolution is an attempt to baptize bloodshed, violence, suffering, and death over billions of years. Of course people like Francis Collins also want to describe this so-called “creation” as God’s gracious gift of life and beauty, but what have they actually done? They have evacuated the actual history of that immediate, personal gift spoken from nothing directly into existence, and instead, they have renamed the churning, mutating, boiling, maming, destroying process of evolution – they have attempted to rename that violence “God’s gracious gift of creation.” The irony could not be more sharp: “BioLogos” literally means “life-word” or “word of life” or “life from the word.” But they have completely redefined what those words mean. Don’t worry, those billions of years of mutations and violence and death – don’t worry: God was orchestrating it all. But that doesn’t make it better. That makes it far worse. You’ve redefined life and gift as suffering and death. It doesn’t make it better to say that God did it. 

But wait. There’s more: There is a law of human nature that we really must get fixed in our hearts and minds: the vaguer God’s sovereignty and revelation, the stronger man’s impulse to fill the void. This is an inescapable concept: it is not whether but which: if God is not all-powerful and if God does not reveal Himself clearly and sufficiently, then the fallen nature of man will always tend to fill the void, like water leveling out after being displaced – sinful men always grasp for any power and or revelation that seems unclaimed, which is always a first step to attempting to grasp all of it. Either God is All-Mighty and the Creator of all things and reveals Himself fully and clearly and sufficiently in the Bible, or else men will come along explaining that God took billions of years and natural causes and time and chance and mutations – and all of it is a rebellious attempt to put distance between God and His Creation, and ultimately between God and His Word. “Did God really say?” is always the prelude to attempts to usurp God’s authority. Questioning God’s Word is always an attempt to create a job opening. Sinful man naturally wants some of that power, some of that Creative authority to shape and remake the world according to its own whims, to fill in the so-called “gaps” in authority and revelation. This is what we mean by “autonomous man” – man apart from the Word of God. Sinners want to be their own gods. 

If there are gaps in the creation narrative, well then, what’s the problem with some gaps in the law of Moses? God didn’t tell us everything about creation – Genesis isn’t a science textbook (they say), which quickly turns into: God didn’t tell us everything about politics, law, or how to organize human society – Deuteronomy isn’t a civics textbook. And by the way, neither is it a biology or anatomy textbook, so who’s to say when life exactly begins or why we can’t experiment on little babies or give puberty blockers to teenagers? You see, it’s not very clear exactly what God made or even what God may still be making. If God spent billions of years throwing away other pre-human species, why couldn’t He still be in process with us? Why wouldn’t we still be evolving and if so, why couldn’t we experiment on little babies? If God used natural selection, and mutations, and the violence of stronger species against weaker ones, why couldn’t he use hormone therapy and fetal stem-cell research? The claims of ambiguity in God’s Word are calculated to decrease God’s authority and increase the authority of autonomous man. And the kindness of autonomous man is cruel.   

When the Kindness of God Appeared
When God speaks, the worlds burst into being. When God speaks, there is beauty and glory. When God speaks, there is life and blessing. And when we had rebelled and listened to the voice of the serpent, God spoke again, and He spoke His own beloved Son into the womb of the Virgin Mary. He spoke His own Word made flesh, and He spoke a new world into existence, beauty and glory for our ashes and shame, life and blessing instead of our death and cursing. 

“For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another. But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” (Tit. 3:3-7).

And all of this really does have political ramifications. Submission to the authority of God, the authority of His Word is submission to that creative Word, that redemptive word, His blessing-word. And thus, when authorities submit to that Word and exert their authority under His authority, in obedience, they rule in righteousness and true kindness. When a husband submits to God’s Word, he leads his wife in blessing and she is glorified and made more lovely. When a magistrate submits to God’s Word, he leads his citizens in blessing and their lives become more fruitful. When a minister of the gospel submits to God’s Word, he ministers life and blessing to his congregation. 

The Declaration of Independence famously says: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…” 

You cannot have life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness or the kind of limited governments that actually protect those rights, unless you have a Creator who has created men endowed unalienably with those rights. You cannot have that freedom apart from that Creator. And the more muddled you are about that Creator and His creation, the more muddled you will be about those rights and how civil governments actually secure them. 

Most people are familiar with this language from the Declaration, including its appeal to “the laws of nature and of nature’s God,” but perhaps we forget that these laws are appealed to in the context of defending a political revolution. It is on the basis of all men having a Creator that men have the courage to throw off tyranny; it is on the basis of the laws of nature and nature’s God that men have the conviction to risk their lives and livelihoods. You cannot have that kind of courage, that kind of conviction, that kind of freedom, or those kinds of unalienable rights unless God the Father Almighty is the Maker of Heaven and earth, in six ordinary days, and all very good. The more muddled our doctrine of creation, the more muddled our convictions about Genesis 1, the more vague and muddled will be our convictions about our salvation in Christ, and therefore, our convictions about political liberty, our unalienable rights, and what governments are for. We have been shown inestimable kindness in this land, and the Declaration of Independence and the ensuing War were some of the greatest acts of kindness in the history of the West. 

Maybe some of you will remember what President Biden said at a campaign stop in Texas, while running for president in 2020: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: all men and women created by — you know, you know, the thing.” Which is probably a pretty good summary of American cosmology and etiology. “Created by – you know, you know, the thing.” Which is why our politics and government are in the state they are in. You cannot get unalienable rights or a just cause for war or limited government from the – “you know, you know, the thing.” Instead, all you get from that kind vagueness is cruelty.

But Christians in many ways have led the way in this muddle. It has been considered acceptable for a century (or more) now for ministers of the gospel to declare exceptions to their Confessional statements on Creation. It has been declared non-essential to the gospel to believe that Genesis 1 is describing millions or billions of years, ages of time, or else is simply a vague, symbolic poem about God’s creative genius, — you know, you know, the thing. And right on schedule, our courage has diminished, our conviction has faded, and our freedom has been sold for a coddling nanny state of regulations, taxes, porn, sex-change operations, and mindless lockdowns. When the doctrine of Creation is considered non-essential, soon your churches, your businesses, and your unalienable rights will also be considered non-essential. 

Functional Theistic Evolution in Christian Homes
But we must not merely sit here and point at all those liberals and think this is entirely their fault. No, in many fundamentalist homes, where six-day creation has been preached, it has been preached with a functional Darwinism in spirit. Instead of this doctrine of creation filling Christian homes with gratitude and joy and kindness, many have taken this good biblical milk and then boiled their kids in it. What do I mean? How many angry atheists and LGBT activists grew up in evangelical families, churches, and Christian schools and co-ops? And so many Christians shrug and say it’s just a mystery why some Christian kids fall away. But how many of them are so angry and rebellious now because of the way their fathers and mothers talked to them growing up? How many creationist homes are functionally Darwinian and theistic evolutionary homes? How many are full of bitterness, critical spirits, grudges, unconfessed sin, and then how many are covered over in a false veneer of niceness? How many Christians try to cover that kind of violence with vague platitudes about how God is at work in it all? Don’t you see that’s just functional theistic evolution? You can’t call your cruelty to your brother or sister, your son or daughter “God working” and then magically get happy homes, healthy churches, or a truly just society. You cannot have that kind of blessing apart from the kindness of God, which is to say complete submission and obedience to the Word of God dwelling in us richly. 

There is a great deal to this, but we’re talking about the kindness of God’s creation by the Word from nothing, so let’s simply focus on our words. We are made in the image of God, and one of the ways we reflect His glory is in the power of our words. This was the first task given to Adam in the garden: to name the animals and whatever he called them, that was their name. As God created the universe through naming, we reflect that power and glory in our words by constantly naming what is going on around us. Our words are powerful because they mimic the Word of our Maker. This is why James says that the tongue is like the rudder of a great ship turning worlds this way and that; the tongue is a flame thrower: it has the power to destroy whole worlds. Provers 12:18 says that some words stab and pierce like a sword with violence, but the tongue of the wise gives good health. Proverbs 15:4 says a wholesome tongue is a tree of life, but a perverse mouth can break hearts. Proverbs 18:21 says that death and life are in the power of the tongue, and we eat the fruit of our own mouths. We are either speaking words of life and eating life and feeding life to those around us, or else we are speaking words of death and poisoning ourselves and those around us. Proverbs 26:8 says that lying hates those afflicted by it and flattery works ruin and destruction. A foolish and loose woman flatters and manipulates and makes her home an awful place to live, but a wise woman opens her mouth with wisdom and the law of kindness is on her tongue. 

So what is the dominant tone of your home? What is the tone of your marriage? What is it like to ride in your family car? What is it like at your dinner table? Is the dominant tone kindness and mercy, joy and laughter? Or it is harsh, biting, criticizing, angry, static, constantly correcting with a veneer of niceness, especially when guests are around? The name for that is hypocrisy. The name for that is lying. And it’s a functional Darwinism. You cannot plant harsh words and reap a joyful family. You cannot plant hatred, bitterness, envy, or resentment and then expect to reap fellowship and righteousness in your home. Darwin says that you can get order and beauty out of chaos, mutation, and violence. And theistic evolution claims that God works that way. But that’s a lie, and it’s an even worse lie when you try to decorate it with Bible verses, saying that God is at work through your violent words. No, He is not. Or He may be at work, but He may not be doing what you think He’s doing. You cannot bite and devour one another and call that a Christian home. You cannot graft an infant scalp on the back of a rat and call that compassion. 

No one in this room as spoken perfectly. No one has only planted kindness. Everyone has said things they shouldn’t have. Everyone has been sharp, critical, thoughtless, complaining. So what do we do? The answer is here. We who are unkind must turn to the One who is kind. We must turn to His Word, turn to His Creative Word, that not only created all things in the beginning in six days, but has set about to re-create all things by the Word of His Power, the Word of His infinite kindness in three days. And so what is that Word? The word is this: Because of the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. There is nothing so damaging as harsh words, lying words, bitter words, biting words, but there is nothing so healing, so restoring, so kind and gracious as the words: “I sinned against you, please forgive me.” If you have made messes with your words, this is the only way to clean them up. If you have stabbed and harmed one another, this is the only medicine that will bring healing to your home. And this is particularly true for husbands and fathers. This kindness is freely on offer to all who ask.

And notice that language: He is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us. This is the beginning of true Christian justice. This is the politics of six-day creation. The same God who spoke the light into existence and formed the firmament and made dry ground, and filled it all with stars and birds and fish and animals and man, the same God Who is only Light, invites us to walk with Him in the light and have fellowship with one another as the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all unrighteousness (1 Jn. 1:7).

Conclusion
We have this blood. We know what to do about our sin. If we get this right in our marriages, families, and churches, then He will remake our land. If God turned the keys over to evangelical churches in this land tomorrow, there’s a high likelihood that all we would get is a bunch of Francis Collins running this land.

What Christians lack in this land is not numbers, what we lack is God’s blessing. And the only way to God’s blessing is through the blood of Jesus Christ. This is the Politics of Six-Day Creation. God the Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth, Man and Woman in His image, in six days, and all very good. That is His original blessing, and although we’ve thrown it away, He has sent His only Son to restore it to us, so that we might come under that blessing again, so that nothing can stand before us. We must have that blessing, that Creator God, so that we may stand with courage and conviction in our day.

The Sure Mercies of David

Continuing Adventures of Jesus #21: Acts 13:14-43

Introduction
We commonly sing and repeat that glorious refrain from Psalm 136 (and others) that the mercies of the Lord endure forever, and this is certainly true in a general way. But as we see here in Paul’s first recorded sermon, there is a particular meaning of that phrase and application in the covenant that God made with King David that was fulfilled in Jesus Christ and all who believe in Him. In other words, there’s a specific reason why David sung about it so much. God made a particular promise to David for the blessing of the whole world. 

The Text: “But when they departed from Perga, they came to Antioch in Pisidia, and went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and sat down. And after reading of the law and the prophets the rulers of the synagogue sent unto them…” (Acts 13:14-43).

Summary of the Text
Attending a sabbath service in Antioch of Pisidia (in the middle of modern day Turkey), Paul is invited to preach (Acts 13:14-16). Beginning with the Exodus, Paul narrates the conquest of Canaan through the beginning of the Kingdom under Saul up to the covenant with David (Acts 13:17-22). From that Davidic promise, Paul preached Christ, the seed of David, from John’s baptism to His false conviction and crucifixion under Pilate, His burial, and His resurrection (Acts 13:23-31). Paul declares this good news and says that the resurrection in particular fulfills what was foretold in Psalm 2, Isaiah 55:3, and Psalm 16 (Acts 13:32-37). Forgiveness of sins and justification by faith are preached, with a warning to the Jews not to despise the message, as the prophet Habakkuk warned (Acts 13:38-41, cf. Hab. 1:5). And the response was many Gentiles requesting that Paul and Barnabas come and teach again the next sabbath and many began following them (Acts 13:42-43).

Historical Faith
One of the striking elements of Christian Scripture and our faith is its essential historicity. The central tenants of the Christian faith are historical narrative: God created the world in six days, Adam sinned by eating fruit, Abraham built altars in Canaan, Israel was rescued from Egypt, judges delivered, kings ruled, prophets proclaimed, Christ was born, lived, crucified, buried, raised, and ascended. As we see here (Acts 13:17-31), the Christian faith is grounded in historical facts, events that you could have photographed, and there is no way to strip away the history and retain the faith. 

But many have attempted (and continue to attempt) to claim that Christianity is primarily a spiritual relationship or experience, and that the history is merely the “shell” that holds the essential kernel of “religious” feelings and experience. The claim is that so long as you have that experience or feelings, the historical details and doctrines don’t matter very much. But this is patently false: “If Christ be not risen, then is our preaching in vain, and your faith is also vain…  and ye are yet in your sins” (1 Cor. 15:14, 17). Why does it matter that we believe that God created the Heavens and the Earth in six twenty-four days? Because that is what Genesis 1 clearly teaches, but the vaguer our certainty of this history, the vaguer our certainty of salvation. If Genesis 1 doesn’t mean what it says, why not the Exodus? Why not the Resurrection?

The Sure Mercies of David
The center of Paul’s message is an historic promise of “sure mercies to David” (Acts 13:34). This “sure mercy” encompasses the selection of young David as king after Saul, a man after God’s own heart who would fulfill all of God’s will (Acts 13:22) as well as the covenant that God swore to David concerning his seed: “Of this man’s seed hath God according to his promise raised unto Israel a Savior Jesus” (Acts 13:23). This is referring to when God said to David, “I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build an house for my name, and I will stablish the throne of his kingdom forever… but my mercy shall not depart away from him, as I took it from Saul… thy throne shall be established forever” (2 Sam. 7:12-16 cf. 1 Chron. 17:11-14). This promise became a theme: “He is the tower of salvation for his king: and sheweth mercy to his anointed, unto David, and to his seed forevermore” (2 Sam. 22:51). It’s striking that Solomon is a son born to David by Bathsheba, and Solomon appealed to God on the basis of the “mercies of David” (2 Chron. 1:8). This theme filled the praises of Israel – His mercies endure forever (1 Chron. 16:34, 41, 2 Chron. 7:6, cf. Ps. 18:50, 89:1, 106:1, 107:1, 117:2, 118:1-4, 29, and Ps. 136). God’s mercy is sure. God’s mercy is steadfast. God’s mercy is solid, and the particular promise to David is a King forever, which means blessing for all the nations, for all who love Him. 

And thus the prophets foretold the fulfillment of that promise in the face of Israelite decline: “Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David” (Is. 55:3). If the exiles were invited to draw near to God and be received into that everlasting covenant under David, then all are invited (Ez. 37:24-26). And so it becomes the believing prayer of many in Israel that Jesus, the “Son of David” would have mercy upon them (e.g. Mt. 9:27, 15:22, 20:30-31).

Applications
It is on the basis of the sure mercies of David, that God sent His only Son, the seed of David, into the world, to accomplish the forgiveness of sins and justification by faith for all His people. David was himself the great example these things: colossal sins and failures forgiven and justified by faith – a man after God’s own heart (Acts 13:22). And Jesus is the fulfillment: the One who fulfilled all of God’s will and who therefore cannot see corruption, who sits on David’s throne forever. 

Specifically, it says, “justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses” (Acts 13:39). The law is good, but it cannot justify. And to the extent that people try to get it to justify them, it only exacerbates our sin. And this really is the temptation of religious people: “I thank thee Lord that I am not like other men: democrats, drug-dealers, BLM activists; I homeschool, go to church every Sunday, and sing in the choir.” And the liberal, LGBT activist sitting in the very back of church, beating her chest, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. And Jesus says that she went away justified (Lk. 18:14). God does not accept us because we are good. He accepts us because we are not good in order to make us good. And this is true throughout the entire Christian life, even as He works His goodness into us. We are like little kids slowly growing up, truly growing in grace, but it is always all about His grace, His sure mercies forever. 

God freely justifies sinful people in order that they may keep the law by the power of the Spirit (Rom. 8:1-5) – in order that all the glory may go to God. And this is only possible by evangelical faith. We look to Him, and what we see is sure mercy forever. And this is how we work, how we live in our families, how we teach and discipline our children. Nothing we do adds up to God’s blessing. We work because of God’s mercy and blessing. This is the difference between “get to” and “got to.” One is full of relief; the other is full of fear. But we have the sure mercies of David. 

Everlasting Covenant with David

“And David my servant shall be king over them; and they all shall have one shepherd: they shall also walk in my judgments, and observe my statutes, and do them. And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and their children’s children for ever: and my servant David shall be their prince forever. Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them…” (Ez. 37:24-26).

We are recipients of this everlasting covenant of peace: the Davidic king is Jesus Christ, the son of David, and this promise is for us and for our children and our children’s children forever. And so the charge is to believe these promises with all your heart and teach them to your children. Amen.

Photo by mrjn Photography on Unsplash