Toby J. Sumpter's Blog, page 29

Victor Davis Hanson & the Woke Leftist Gospel

Introduction
On a recent CrossPolitic Midweek Fix Chocolate Knox asked Dr. Victor Davis Hanson why accusations of hypocrisy don’t work on the Left. And Dr. Hanson went to town listing multiple instances of that hypocrisy, including a number of comments from the current president that under current circumstances would be considered flaming white hot supremacy in the mouth of anybody slightly right of David French. 

Hanson went on to explain what he called the Left’s Devil’s Bargain with America. He said that the Left has offered to exonerate America of all her past sins in exchange for the power to enforce equality of outcomes. This is why people like Biden can have a career full of racist gaffs and be hailed a great healer of the nation, while Trump can make perfectly reasonable statements about there being “fine people on both sides” of the protests in Charlottesville, and the media lights its hair on fire and screams for four years about him being the most racist president in American history. Point out the hypocrisy and nobody seems to care. 

After the show with Hanson, Knox and I talked a bit more about the phenomenon. The difference between Biden and Trump, or any number of other examples we might point out: Blackface Trudeau? Blackface Northam? But Megyn Kelly gets fired. Jon Gruden is forced to resign. Trudeau joins the BLM and Antifa protests in Ottawa, but invokes emergency powers for truckers with bouncy castles singing A Mighty Fortress is Our God. And you could list dozens more examples of the hypocrisy. What we are witnessing is the phenomenon of justification. The difference is that one person is justified, the other is not. One protest is justified; the other is not. And this offer of justification is by faith in the Leftist Statist offer of peace and harmony. In other words, it is an offer of salvation, and it is an offer of salvation from mere men, mere men who can barely predict the weather.  

Where Nationalists and Globalists Agree
This is where the discussions of nationalism and globalism sometime miss the point. Materialists can only imagine fundamental loyalties and solutions tied to this material world, and many nationalists and globalists functionally agree here. They only happen to disagree on the point of integration. How can we have unity, harmony, coherence, meaning, dignity? The secular nationalist wants to find that integration point in his dedication to this own nation; the secular globalist wants to find that integration point in a global balance of powers. If we’re talking merely materialistic ideals, the globalists have the better vision. If nationalism is a purely humanistic construct then nations and loyalty to them is just a set up for world wars. Witness Vladimir Putin and his current Russian nationalism on full display for the world. This is what Leftists think they are eschewing when they warn against alt-right nationalists. The narrative they have embraced is that nationalism leads to imperialism, colonialism, and wars. 

On the other hand, the only way a purely secular-materialist globalism could appear to actually work is if you’re so deluded to think you’re Nimrod and you think you can build a city and a tower that can reach to heaven. The attempts of men to unite the world and create peace and harmony through diplomacy and trade agreements and political summits are nothing short of blasphemous savior complexes. You could just as well do a rain dance in front of a shrine to mother earth as get world peace out of the United Nations, NATO, the European Union, the World Economic Forum, or any attempts at the Great Reset. When men set out to be gods, they start babbling incoherently and howling at the moon a few minutes later. And this doesn’t mean they can’t have done anything good or helpful in the meantime. Common grace is a thing, and thoughtful Christians sometimes find themselves in those pagan systems (witness Daniel in Babylon).

The Christian gospel interrupts, contradicts, crucifies, and resurrects both of these materialist visions: “For our citizenship is in heaven, from whence we also look for the Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ” (Phil. 3:20). While this verse is often taken out of context and misunderstood, that is no reason for ignoring what it actually means. It does not mean that Christians shouldn’t care about this world. It certainly is not an attack on Christian loyalty to our own communities, nations, or a call for apathy about international affairs. But it is a check on those loyalties and on what is humanly possible. In context, Paul is attacking the self-righteousness that creates divisions and enmity – you know the things that spiral into world wars and genocides. Paul says if our confidence could be found in the flesh, he could boast all day long about his Jewish credentials, but he considers all of that a hot steamy mess compared to the excellence of knowing Christ, so that he might be found in Him, not having his own righteousness, but the righteousness of God by faith (Phil. 3:7-8).

A Systematic Theology of Colonization
Far too many Christians glaze over right here and think Paul is just doing a systematic theology class. It certainly is true that Paul is doing high theology, but precisely because it is theology, it is also civics and political science and social science and economics and more. If Christ is risen from the dead and He is seated at the right hand of the Father in Heaven, then there is more to be considered about human nature and relationships, society and politics than mere material factors. Nationality matters, ethnicity matters, culture matters, gender matters, economics matter, global dynamics matter, but these things only matter if there is a transcendent reference point for all of it, or to put it in the terms we just used above: they only matter if there is a transcendent integration point. If there is only chemicals and time reacting randomly, then there is only might makes right and the luck of the draw and choose your own adventure. And why can’t Putin choose his own adventure or Bruce Jenner choose his? When Paul talks about finding a righteousness, he is talking about finding human justification. He is talking about how sins are forgiven, and how human community, nations, and yes, even world peace is possible. 

But how is that? Not by human righteousness, but by the righteousness of Christ, by having our fundamental citizenship in Heaven from whence we await our Savior. Our citizenship is not in Heaven merely because we look forward to going there when we die. No, Paul says that our citizenship is in Heaven because we await our King from there. We are colonists (sorry, not sorry, lefty globalists, suck it up). We are colonists of Heaven. We have been assigned the task of praying for, preaching for, and working for the Kingdom of Heaven to come to earth, that God’s will and His ways would be done on earth, as it is in Heaven, that every nation would confess Christ. The Philippians would have understood this language implicitly. Philippi was a colony of Rome. Philippi was an outpost of the empire. They had been granted certain privileges and responsibilities for bringing the culture of Rome to northeastern Greece. But that national identity needed to be relativized, subverted, crucified, and resurrected in Christ.  

Utopian Cattle Cars
Christians, rightly understood, are nationalists and globalists. We are also tribalists and individualists. But please note that I said “rightly understood.” And by that I mean that every one of these layers of human existence and loyalty can only find their meaning and value in Christ. Jesus Christ is the integration point. He is the Lord, the Savior, the Judge, the Word. We cannot make any of these things work on our own. On our own, we twist them all into systems of hatred and animosity, envy and violence, even if some organizational flow charts are closer to the truth than others.

But when we submit our individual lives to Christ, when we submit our marriages and families and ethnicities to Christ, when we submit our cities and nations and alliances and treaties to Christ, He takes all of them and He destroys the enmity, the pride, the vainglory, the greed, the lust, the envy and rivalries in His cross, and He gives them back in their true forms. He gives them back in their rightful places, in their rightful hierarchy of love. He orients and re-orients your love of your homeland, your love of your family heritage, your love of your skin color, your love of your language and culture — all of these good things. But only He can do that because only He is God, because only He died and rose again for the salvation of the world. Salvation can be found in no other name under Heaven. Do you see that? Every other name is under heaven. Every other name is trying to get up to heaven, stacking humanistic chairs, one on top of another, like madmen, like egotistical grade school boys.

Now, do not hear me as simply flattening all of these things out. No, in the current zeitgeist, globalism and statism are the greatest threats, and they like nothing better than to divide us into smaller and smaller units so they can more easily herd us into their utopian cattle cars. This is why a Christian nationalism, a Christian patriotism and tight, Christian multi-generational families are huge threats to Leftist dreams of dominance. The woke ploy is all about dividing us. If they can break us up along racial and gender lines, they can break up families, tribes, communities, and nations. They offer salvation and sometimes it’s even offered with a veneer of Christianese. Christ plus “racial reconciliation” or Christ “plus empowering gluten-free queers” or whatever. But God damn all of that. Christ is sufficient. Christ is all. Christ is our Savior. If it isn’t found in Christ and in His word, it’s an idol, a false god, and a devilish distraction. You want justice? Read Deuteronomy and the Sermon on the Mount. 

Conclusion
So the Woke Leftist Elites are offering salvation. They are offering justification and forgiveness of sins if you will only trust them to bring peace and harmony and equality. Justification by the state, by the collective is why accusations of hypocrisy don’t work. Well, actually, they don’t seem to work. That’s just what they would have you believe. But of course if they get tired of you and your sins, they will kick you to the curb. They will cancel you, and they will bury you with accusations and condemnation. So while we may feel free to point out the hypocrisy, the real power of the gospel is pointing to Christ. Christ will not kick you to the curb. Christ will not bring your sins back out of His grave to dump on your head. In Christ there is no condemnation. In Christ, there is true forgiveness of sins. In Christ, there is full and complete justification. Let all of all your personal righteousness go. Let all of your goodness go. You have none. It was all filthy rags anyway. By faith in Christ, be found in Christ, not having a righteousness of your own, but the righteousness of God, a perfect righteousness, a perfect justice, which is the only path to peace on earth.  

Photo by Vladislav Klapin on Unsplash

A Holiday for Free Men

It’s striking that one of the repeated judgments of the prophets in the Old Testament is Israel’s failure to keep Sabbath. Instead of resting from their ordinary labors and gathering for worship, they did their normal work on the Sabbath and refused to rest. The Sabbath was a sign that God’s people were His royal people. He had delivered them from slavery. Slaves do not get days off, but free men and women get a weekly holiday. 

The challenge before us in seeking to recover a Sabbath-celebrating culture is that there is often a temptation to turn what God intends for joy and relief into a day of grumpy rules and stingy regulations. But the center of Christian Sabbath keeping is this table full of grace. Here, we sit down in God’s presence and remember God’s great salvation for us. Here, we sit down together as God’s people and toast God’s mercy and kindness. Here, we rest in the work of Jesus for us which is free and freely given. 

Hebrews 4 says that just as God rested after making the world, Jesus rested after remaking the world, and therefore a Sabbath rest remains for the people of God. God made the world and rested on the seventh day, and therefore the Sabbath was Saturday for old Israel, but Jesus remade the world in His death and resurrection, and He rested on the first day of the week, Sunday, and therefore we rest on Sunday, the Lord’s Day. 

Think of Sabbath-celebrating like a weekly Christmas or Thanksgiving. Actually, it is a weekly Easter. Try to plan ahead, plan to go to church, and then think of ways to make the day special, put some chocolates out, select your favorite beer or wine, take a nap, go for a walk, feast together, and remember God’s goodness and mercy. It’s strange that we have such a hard time accepting God’s grace. He wants us to fight the darkness by celebrating His light. He wants us to fight slavery by acting like free men.

Our land was once marked by Sabbath-keeping, and it was once marked by a lot more freedom. We will not recover that freedom with a bunch of scowling and grumpy rules, but we will recover that freedom through hearts full of free grace, tables loaded with free grace because the joy of the Lord is our strength. And that is what is offered to you here. Come and rest in your King. Come and Welcome to Jesus Christ. 

Photo by Blake Meyer on Unsplash

Thunder Like an Army

One of the great motifs of Scripture is worship is warfare. When Abraham went into the land of promise, he built altars everywhere he went, worshiping the Lord and claiming the land by faith. Centuries later, the people marched around Jericho shouting and blowing trumpets until the walls fell down. Even the promises of the tabernacle and temple were that as Israel worshiped their King, He would fight for them, He would drive away their enemies. And while the nation often forgot God and turned to idols, whenever a King repented and turned to the Lord, God delivered them from their enemies. 

In the book of Revelation, John sees a vision of the worship happening in Heaven and judgments are poured out on the nations of men. The elders are falling down before the Lord, the angels are blowing trumpets, and the congregation of saints is shouting praises before the Lamb who was slain. And cups of judgment are poured out on the earth. 

But do not think that we cannot join that worship until we die. No, Hebrews 12 says that we have already joined that Heavenly worship service. When the minister says: “Lift up yours hearts” and you respond “We lift them up to the Lord” we are saying that we are ascending into the presence of the Lord by faith, by the working of the Spirit. We are joining that worship service. And that means that we believe that what we do here in prayer and song and word and sacrament is part of what John saw. It is part of the great war against sin, death, the Devil, and all darkness. 

Therefore, the exhortation is to sing like you are in the heavenly choirs: because you are. Sing loud. Sing exuberantly. Belt it out. Is there injustice in the land? Are there people plotting against God’s people? Then sing out. And related to that: One of our practices here is to say a hearty “Amen” at the end of our hymns and prayers. “Amen” doesn’t mean “we’re done now.” “Amen” is a holy oath that means we believe what we have said/sung with our whole heart and we are asking God to make it completely so. Do it, Lord, in our lives and in the world. So don’t mumble your oath. Let it thunder like we are an army of worshiping saints. Because we are. 

Photo by Dan Meyers on Unsplash

Jesus the Greater Tom Sawyer

“Arguably, much of the life of Jesus is taken up with a Tom Sawyer-like ministry in Israel. When he was twelve, he began debating with the teachers of the law in Jerusalem and gave his parents the slip after the feast (Lk. 2:42-50). The Pharisees and Priests and Scribes really are a bunch of Aunt Pollys and Sunday School superintendents. And Jesus walked through their world defying all their superstitions and legalisms and taboos: plucking heads of grain, healing on the Sabbath, eating and drinking with sinners, walking on water, not washing for dinner, pushing over the tables in the temple, staying out all night, calling names, and ultimately coming back from the dead and bursting out of a guarded tomb alive forever.”

– Worldview Guide Adventures of Tom Sawyer, 17.

Inside PCA Baseball & Biblical Sexuality in Pink Pumps

Introduction
Just to bring everybody up to speed on inside Presbyterian baseball: Greg Johnson is the ordained pastor in the PCA (Presbyterian Church in America) whose church has hosted REVOICE, whose mission is to “support and encourage Christians who are sexual minorities so they can infiltrate historic Christian traditions.” OK, they don’t actually use the word “infiltrate,” but they could have since what they actually say is “flourish.” They want sexual perversion to flourish (in a completely celibate way) in historically biblical denominations? This is the same Greg Johnson who CrossPolitic interviewed shortly before the first REVOICE conference and that was fun time, and who later “came out” in Christianity Today in 2019 as “not straight.” And he is the same man who was not disciplined or removed from office by his presbytery (The Missouri Presbytery), which presbytery was subsequently exonerated for declining to discipline him by the Standing Judicial Star Chamber of the PCA, the highest poohbahs of the denomination, last Fall. 

But wait, there’s more: At the PCA’s general assembly last summer a monsoon of overtures and proposals came before the body, thrashing about like a fish in a net, trying to get the denomination to say something masculine and biblical about it all. The closest it got to that was making Greg Johnson cry by commending the Nashville Statement on sexuality, which was certainly a start. Then there was some sophisticated statement called the “AIC” that nuanced biblical sexuality into a pair of pink pumps that managed to say a number a relatively true things in such a campy way that it signaled the whole bar that while the PCA will not solemnize sodomy yet, they are not opposed to 80s mustaches and bowling in short shorts on Friday nights because there’s no verse about it. 

Which brings us to the final piece of the puzzle: overtures 23 and 37 that made it out of General Assembly, proposals to modify the Book of Church Order, particularly in the examination of new ministers and their qualifications for office, with regard to sexual identities, temptations, and the process of sanctification (also summarized here). The overtures basically said that ministers in the PCA could not identify as same-sex attracted, gay, homosexual, and there needed to be clear signs that they were winning any battles against such temptations. Those overtures passed the General Assembly and then required a 2/3rds majority of the presbyteries to become codified. Both of those overtures failed to clear that supermajority threshold and are now at the PCA overture morgue awaiting cremation. 

Consenting to Wholesome Words
It struck me recently that there are at least two ways for otherwise apparently godly men, churches, and institutions to fall from grace. Paul tells Timothy to watch out for two possible paths of compromise: one path is the direct attack on the truth while another path is a refusal to affirm the truth. “If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness; He is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself” (1 Tim. 6:3-5).

There are several things to note here: first, you might have men teaching “otherwise” or you might have men refusing to “consent to wholesome words,” you know words like: let’s not ordain effeminate men. Why? Because Jesus said so.

Second, Paul gets up on the top turnbuckle and does a pastoral piledriver on the whole mess, calling such people proud, know-nothings, strivers, and causing all manner of railing and disputing. And just when you’re about ready to pull Paul aside and encourage him to be more winsome and brotherlyloving, he pops off and says that the reason why people do this is because they’re in the ministry for ungodly gain. And then Paul goes full-blown fundamentalist and says from such people, get ye hence. 

Now, some helpful Covenant Seminary graduate will no doubt take me to task for not taking the whole passage into account, but I was only just warming up to my theme, sir, and I’m so glad you brought the context up. But let me warn you that what follows will at first seem like a change of subject, but in fact, it will not be. So then: the context of Paul’s pastoral piledriver. The context of Paul’s admonition begins with these glorious words: “Let as many servants as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honor, that the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed. And they that have believing masters, let them not despise them, because they are brethren; but rather do them service, because they are faithful and beloved, partakers of the benefit. These things teach and exhort” (1 Tim. 6:1-2). 

Well Now, and Well Now
Well now, my PCA friends, and I say it again, well now. But let us not limit ourselves or our well now to the PCA. And so, I hereby extent my well now to the SBC, the OPC, the URC, the CREC, and if there be any other C’s with a remnant of biblical dregs in them. These things need to be taught and exhorted throughout all of the conservative denominations. And if anyone teaches otherwise or refuses to affirm such wholesome words, that Buckwheat is proud, knows nothing, and is trying to stir up division among the saints. Have nothing to do with him. 

Of course I might have lost some of you since I quoted from the King James, but here’s what it says in plain English: slaves need to serve their masters with all honor, especially Christian masters, so that the name of God and His doctrine be not blasphemed. But some of you are still not following me. You got lost at the well now.  

But here’s the point of the well now. Which Bible-believing denomination has been teaching these things? Which things? The things that Paul insists that Timothy teach and exhort, namely that Christian slaves must honor their masters, especially the Christian slaveholders, because the name of God and His doctrine are at stake. The closest thing I know of this would be my own denomination where Pastor Douglas Wilson has taught openly for decades that Christians must not be embarrassed by any passage of Scripture, including all the naughty parts about slaves honoring masters and working hard for them, especially the Christian slave masters, including any that might have lived in the antebellum American South. Man, don’t you feel a little naughty just reading those words?  

Of course, should an overture appear in the PCA even venturing to quote the Apostle Paul’s admonition regarding Christian slaves and slave masters, it would be shouted down before you could say “Bob’s your uncle.” Paul calls his instructions regarding Christian slaves and Christian masters “wholesome words,” and he says that the name of God and his doctrine are on the line. But we can’t get a supermajority of the PCA presbyteries to affirm that all ministers in the denomination should be chaste heterosexual men. I’m not saying for sure what the Apostle would say, but if he said what he said about slaves and masters, what would he say about dudes who want to come out of the closet about how sometimes they’re tempted to fantasize about other dudes but that’s wrong so they try not to (most of the time) and “Jesus loves gay people.”

All the Excuses
Of course there are all manner of excuses for the men who voted and argued against the overtures. Some called these overtures forms of “neo-fundamentalism” which sounds like a bad word that we’re supposed to be afraid of, but I’m sort of warming up to it. In fact, like the way the name “Puritan” has been dragged through the mud (even though they were often the most exuberant members of the Reformation movement), I’m more and more at peace with going to my grave tagged a Neo-Puritan Fundamentalist. I think that means I’m somebody who believes every verse in the Bible, and I drink beer. This same criticism gives lip service to the need to fight important battles, but primarily calls for peace and unity, saying that it is time for swords to be beaten into plowshares in the PCA. To which the Apostle Paul would say something like, “Hell, no” (in Greek). And speaking of fundamentals: these peaceniks are constantly warning us that the gospel is not at stake in every controversy. But if the name of God and His doctrine were at stake with slaves and masters, how much more so is the name of God and His doctrine at stake when we are talking about more fundamental human realities like maleness and sexuality and qualifications for ministry? Surely, no one wants to argue that master-slave relations are more fundamental? Anyone? Anyone? 

Other excuses and arguments have included things like: if we start listing specific sins and temptations to be guarding against in potential ministers, when will it stop? To which, I almost wanted to call that man’s mother and offer my sympathies and thank her for trying. When will it stop? When will it stop? I would say that it will stop when we get to Heaven, my friend. That’s when we don’t have to be on guard against sin anymore. And in the meantime, if you want to be a pastor or an elder in the church of the Living God, your job is keep listing all the sins that might destroy the souls of the sheep you’ve been entrusted to watch over. And please note here that we’re talking specifically about the list of sins and temptations that we should cover with potential ministers of the gospel. We’re not even talking about the sheep here; we’re talking about potential shepherds of the sheep. Could you imagine a General in the military asking whether all that training is really necessary? When will it stop? Somebody fire that guy. 

Other excuses and arguments have tried to sound sophisticated, arguing that the Bible and the confessions are sufficient, and we need not make our Books of Church Order redundant. But here’s the thing: all of our confessions and creeds and church orders are redundant. They are all spelling out particular matters already addressed if not specifically, certainly in principle in Scripture. So it’s not as though we are coming up with brand new things in our man-made documents. The question is not whether we will be redundant. The question is only on which matters must we be redundant for the sake of clarity, peace, and purity. I haven’t checked the PCA BCO recently, but I suspect there are already a number of qualifications listed for men to be ordained, things like knowledge of Greek and Hebrew or credits or equivalents in pastoral care or counseling. And let us simply point out that there are no Bible verses for those qualifications (even though I generally agree with their necessity), and yet there are piles of Bible verses about sodomy, effeminacy, lust, chastity, friendship with the world, and what Jesus promises to do with cowards. 

Conclusion
So let us recap: the PCA’s highest court has declined to discipline a minister who has come out publicly as “not straight,” and the presbyteries have declined to pass by a supermajority requirements designed to eliminate those kind of men from consideration for ministerial call. In other words, the PCA has covenantally declined to affirm such wholesome words, you know, words like “ministers must be chaste male, heterosexuals and should be examined on their views and chastity.”

Go and learn what this means: how was it that the name of God and His doctrine are at stake in the relationships between slaves and masters? And if that is the case, and those who refuse to affirm those wholesome words are proud, corrupt, and destitute of the truth, what does that make people who are reluctant to make it clear that “non straight” guys must not be pastors? 

Photo by Zeynep Sümer on Unsplash

Four Childrearing Basics

Men’s Forum February 2022

1. Standing on the Promises
Like everything else in the Christian life, we parent by faith. “Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?” (Gal. 3:2-3 ESV). We need the Spirit to raise our children faithfully, and this text tells us that we receive the Spirit by the hearing of faith. What are we to hear and believe? The promises of God regarding our children. And we should note that these are all promises for children in the New Covenant: 

“And as for me, this is my covenant with them,” says the LORD: “My Spirit that is upon you, and my words that I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, or out of the mouth of your offspring, or out of the mouth of your children’s offspring,” says the LORD, “from this time forth and forevermore” (Is. 59:21 ESV). “And they shall be my people, and I will be their God. I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever, for their own good and the good of their children after them. I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them. And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me” (Jer. 32:38-40, cf. Ez. 37:24-25). 

“And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” (Acts 2:38-39). 

There’s a stark difference between parents who believe these promises and then seek to obey what God says to do, and those parents who doubt, are unsure or are unaware of the promises. Faith in the promises is marked by joy, peace, patience, confidence, courage, and so on. 

2. Requiring Obedience & Biblical Justice
The central command given to parents is to teach our children to love and obey God. “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes” (Dt. 6:5-8). “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord” (Eph. 6:4). 

Obedience is to be right away, all the way, and cheerfully, since that is how we must obey God. Slow obedience is not obedience, incomplete obedience is not obedience, and fussing/whining/complaining obedience is not obedience. 

The problem of course is that “Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline drives it far from him” (Prov. 22:15). “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it” (Prov. 22:6). This means that we want to begin teaching obedience as early as possible since however you train him when he is young, that is the way he will go and he will not depart from it (for good or ill). Practice makes permanent. 

The Bible teaches that the rod of correction is love, and failure to love in this way is a form of hatred: “Whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him” (Prov. 13:24, cf. Heb. 12:6-11). There is a particular connection between a child’s backside and his soul: “Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you strike him with a rod, he will not die. If you strike him with the rod, you will save his soul from Sheol” (Prov. 23:13-14). Spanking is a pretty regular occurrence for most kids in the toddler years. 

When you discipline practice informal biblical justice: explain the biblical charges, cite 2-3 witnesses, explain the penalty (how many?), require calm submission to the penalty (no fits), then quickly hug and comfort your child, pray together and ask God’s forgiveness, assure them of forgiveness, and make any other necessary apologies or restitution. The point of the discipline is to get back into joyful obedience and fellowship. If the spanking does not result in the “peaceable fruit of righteousness” you need to repeat the process until you succeed. 

3. Practice Joyful Obedience & Fellowship
Good parents are like good coaches. There should be lots of teaching, explaining, and practicing before the game, before “it counts.” Play obedience games. Be full of praise, encouragement, compliments, prizes, high fives, and aim to make obedience joyful and fun (because it is). Try to do your best to prepare your children for the challenges they will face. What will their temptations be at the store? When you have guests over? Sharing toys with friends? Eating dinner? School? Talk about it. Practice. Rehearse. Set them up to succeed, and if you know that they know and they refuse, then you must discipline them.  

Cultivate a culture of fellowship and joy in your home where everyone is cheering for one another to succeed, not a gestapo culture where everyone is watching for infractions. While you must require obedience, you do not need to make everything an obedience test. Love covers a multitude of sins. Accidents happen. Laugh a lot. Give opportunities for “do-overs” for “Mr./Ms. Grumpypants.” This is particularly important so that there is joyful fellowship to be restored to after discipline. If everything is tense, then spanking will have less and less potency. 

4. Loving the Standard vs. Conforming to the Standard
“Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it” (Prov. 22:6). The goal is to have our children love the standard not merely conform to the standard. This means that the basic structure of parenting is that children should live in a joyful, benevolent totalitarian dictatorship until mid-to-late elementary school. They should be told what to wear, when to go to bed, and what they love and value.

Sometime in mid-elementary, they may begin having their own opinions and some measure of freedom to begin using their judgment, while still giving lots of teaching and correction and spankings should be increasingly rare. The goal should be to “let go” sometime in high school, giving them a year or two to make their own choices like adults while there is still a safety net before they move out of the house. If there are obvious problems in high school, work to rebuild trust; don’t clamp down.

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Free Range Kombucha & Christian Fellowship

It’s not an accident that what Jesus gave us to picture unity and fellowship is a meal. And it’s not an accident that in the New Testament there was a fair bit of discussion and division in the churches over what Christians were allowed to eat and who you were allowed to eat with. And it’s no accident that there have still been enthusiastic discussions and opinions all the way down to the present time about what is healthy, what is nutritious, and what Christians should put into their bodies. 

This meal teaches us two fundamental principles for all food choices for Christians. The first principle is that you are free in Christ to eat whatever you want. There is no unclean food. This does not mean that I’m saying that a steady diet of donuts is good for you. But the Bible is clear that every individual person and family is responsible before God for the stewardship of their own bodies and health decisions. We are free to eat what we please, and the only requirement is that we be thankful for our food. The Bible says that all food is sanctified by the word and prayer. So whether it’s fully organic, grass fed, and free range kombucha or whether you got the hormone charged, extra gmo, lathered in high fructose corn syrup French fries, Jesus has declared all food clean and if you give thanks to God, it’s sanctified. It’s holy. 

The second principle is that we may not use what God has given to make our hearts glad and unite us into a tool to make hearts sour and cause division. We may not divide here at the Lord’s table, and we may not divide at our own tables. And grace must be extended in both directions: The stricter brother or sister must not despise the more lax brother or sister, and the more lax brother or sister must not despise the more careful brother or sister. And obviously there is a difference between preference and true medical conditions that would land somebody in the hospital. 

What unites us is not our food choices or preferences. What unites us is Christ. What unites us is His death, burial, and resurrection. And that is what is being offered here: fellowship in the body and blood of Christ. The kingdom is not about food and drink. The kingdom is about righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. So put away your complaining, and do not despise one another. You are all welcome in Christ. So come and welcome to Jesus Christ. 

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A Covenanter Approach to Mandates

A Hopeful Introduction
Let us hope that we are on the brink of the dam breaking on all these nonsense mandates from governments abusing their powers. Let us hope. Let us hope that Biden and the democrats and the RINOs have sensed there is no more appetite for tyranny and they are in the process of trying to get in front of this trucker parade as though it was their idea in the first place and only loony right-wingers would think masking 3 year olds is good science. 

But at every point during this charade in which I’ve thought surely now everyone will come to their senses and throw off the masks and laugh in the face of vaccine passports, the masses don’t seem to have gotten the memo. Even the CDC has now admitted that cloth masks do virtually nothing to help with viruses like COVID, and yet still, I was the only one I noticed in three large metropolitan airports a week back, bare-faced acting like a normal human being. Or after the vaccines have proven relatively ineffectual in actually eliminating infection and spread, Fauci still has a job. Well, here we are. So here are a few more thoughts on why it is unlawful for civil magistrates and pastors and elders to mandate masks and vaccines. 

Ruling While Intoxicated
At this point, given all the data we have about the actual mortality rates (99.7% recovery), the danger the virus poses primarily to the elderly and immune compromised, the worthlessness of masks (especially cloth ones), and the experimental use of vaccines with relative inefficacy, plus the potential fraud involved in the FDA approving one vaccine label while continuing to offer the Emergency Use vaccine, it is completely unconscionable that civil governments would be mandating anything related to COVID for the general public, private businesses, period. Most of our civil magistrates have been driving drunk for this entire pandemic: drunk on power. And it is love and respect that requires them to stop the vehicle of our cities, states, and nations and step out of the vehicle with their hands where we can see them. 

While civil magistrates have been leading the way, many church leaders have been thoroughly complicit in this abuse of power. When churches require attenders to wear masks or show proof of vaccine status one of two possible abuses of authority is taking place. Either, the church government is abdicating its authority to disciple the nation, to teach the civil leaders what their rightful authority is, and is thereby helping civil leaders to abuse their authority in disobedience to the Lord Christ. Or else, if the church government really believes in the masking and vaccine mandates, they are directly abusing their own authority, since Jesus did not give church elders the authority to require particular medical or healthcare decisions. 

A Short Primer on Family Government
The authority for the care of health and medical decisions and welfare was given directly to the government of the family. Husbands are required to love their wives as their own bodies. No man ever hated his own flesh but nourishes and cherishes it just as Christ does the church (Eph. 5:28-29). The words for nourish and cherish literally mean feed and keep warm, and the care that a man has for his own body is not merely spiritual, but also material and physical. A husband is required to provide food and clothing and shelter and medicine and healthcare for his wife, just as he would his own body. Likewise, in the next chapter, fathers are required to bring up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord (Eph. 6:4). The verb there for “bring up” is the same from the previous chapter and means to “nourish” or feed. A faithful father must nourish his children in the culture and counsel of Jesus. This culture and counsel includes the physical and material well-being of children as much as it requires discipleship in the gospel, which incidentally includes biblical authority and jurisdictions. 

In 1 Timothy 5, Paul instructs Timothy that the care for widows is the first responsibility of the family. If a widow has family, they are to care for her and provide for her, and anyone who does not provide for their own family is worse than an unbeliever (1 Tim. 5:7). This provision for a widow would obviously include making sure she could attend worship services and participate in the covenant community, but it also clearly includes medical and health decisions. The church government is not to be burdened with the care of widows ordinarily, and therefore, the elders must not take those concerns upon themselves except under very specific circumstances. But that is on a case by case basis of particular, qualified widows. 

Anti- Anti-Authoritarian
While some elders and pastors are concerned that this stance is a slippery slope or gateway to libertarian anti-authoritarianism, I believe it is actually the only path toward recovering true biblical, covenantal authority for all governments. I’m no libertarian. I’m a covenanter. And what I am arguing for here is not every man doing what it is right in his own eyes. I’m arguing for covenantal authority. I’m arguing that civil government must be submitted to in the jurisdiction assigned to it by Jesus Christ, and church government must be submitted to in the jurisdiction assigned to it by Jesus Christ, and family government must be submitted to in the jurisdiction assigned to it by Jesus Christ. This is because Jesus is Lord of all. When He rose from the dead, He said, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Him (Mt. 28). He lived the perfect life. He took all our sins on Himself. He crushed sin and death, and He rose from the dead. There is no authority except from Jesus Christ. This is why Paul can say that a man who does not provide for his own household is worse than an unbeliever. The assignment given by Jesus Christ to men to provide for their families flows directly out of the gospel.

What some pastors and elders do not seem to understand is that their heavy-handed approach to masking and vaccine mandates is undermining the very reformation they seek in the family and the church. How can you call men to stand tall as men and take responsibility for their families in the assignments they have been given by Christ, when you require them to leave that assignment at the door of your church? How can you call men to accept responsibility for the well-being of their families when you take that responsibility from them? When elders and pastors take to themselves authority that was not expressly given to them by the Lord Jesus, they are modeling to the civil government and family governments that is perfectly fine to do the same. Why can’t a father decide one Sunday to withhold communion from his 10 year old son? Maybe the kid was back-chatting in the car on the way to church. But Jesus didn’t give dads the keys of the kingdom. Jesus gave those keys to the elders of the church. But why can’t a good father “borrow” those keys every once in a while? The correct answer is because Jesus did not authorize it. And so here we are with masks and vax mandates: Jesus has not authorized civil magistrates or pastors or elders to make health care or medical decisions. 

This world is patriarchal, and all fatherhood derives from God the Father Almighty (Eph. 3:14-15). This means that the governments ordinarily relate to one another in relatively masculine ways. And this means the governments must relate to one another with respect and honor for the assignments given to them by Christ. A church government that does not respect or honor the jurisdiction of the family, no matter how central they claim biblical family and marriage is to their ministry, is undermining the very thing they say they stand for. 

Conclusion: A Pox On Libertarianism
At the same time, let me be clear: there are plenty of rogue libertarian men who do not know what spirit they are of. They will not submit to any authority, and they really do whatever is right in their own eyes. And they must be rebuked by their pastors and elders. There are also circumstances where good pastors and elders see all of these dynamics and they really are trying to do the best they can in very difficult circumstances. Wise fathers and husbands will look for creative ways to respect their pastors and elders in these difficult circumstances while protecting their families. But pastor and elders must likewise see the difficult bind they are putting fathers in and look for ways to respect the jurisdiction of families. 

I read an article sometime back about how the civil leaders of Washington D.C. asked the churches to close down during the Spanish Flu for some period of time. And many of them did. But that was a very different time, and it was a time in which civil government asked another legitimate government for help, but it did not demand it. It did not mandate compliance. And so it should be between all three of the governments. The civil government may ask church and family governments for help, but it may not demand or command over an area that the Lord Jesus has not authorized. To do so is to strike directly at the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Is Jesus Lord? Then the governments must obey Him. The family, the church, and the state must obey Jesus, and none of those of governments are free to take to themselves authority that Jesus has not given them to exercise. 

And for the record, if a twelve year old boy came to me because his father was requiring him to wear a mask in school or at church, I would admonish that boy to submit to his father in the Lord, because while I disagree with that decision, the one authority given the responsibility for making health care and medical decisions is the family government. The father actually has that legitimate authority to make that health and medical decision (unlike any magistrate or pastor). And that authority belongs to him until or unless it can be clearly proven that he is so abusing that authority that sins and crimes are being committed that the church and the state must intervene in their respective jurisdictions.

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Laying Siege to Hades

Jesus famously asked: who do you say that I am? And Peter answered: You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God. And Jesus replied: Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for flesh and blood have not revealed this unto you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I say unto you, that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church; and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it” (Mt. 16:19).

Peter confessed faith in Christ, and this confession of faith is the foundation of the Christian church. But Jesus says that this confession is only possible when the Father reveals this. This means that the Church is not a human institution, and it cannot be built by flesh and blood. The church is something that Jesus builds as the Father pours out His Spirit and causes people to see who Jesus is: the Son of the living God. 

But this passage not only tells us who builds the church and how the church is built, but it also tells us where the church is built. Jesus says, “and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.” This means that Jesus builds His church at the gates of Hades. Jesus builds His church laying siege to the gates of Hades. 

Jesus did not say that He would build His church and the armies of Hades will not prevail against the gates of the church. The church is not a tiny castle surrounded by the armies of Hell. No, it is precisely the other way around. Jesus came into this world to storm the gates of Hell. The church is an institution established by God, built by Jesus right at the gates of Hades.

As soon as you confess that Jesus is Lord, that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, you join the battle, you join the fray. You have come to the gates of Hades this morning. This is where we worship. This is where we sing and pray and hear the word proclaimed. This is where we break bread and share wine in the presence of our enemies, and make our good confession. 

In other words, Hades is the last Jericho, and we gather every Sunday to march around those walls. The reason the darkness is so infuriated, the reason unbelievers are so panicked is because Christ has established His Church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail, the gates of Hades are being shaken, and the gates of Hades will fall.  

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Blackface Conservatives & the War for True Love

Introduction
We are in a war. It is a spiritual war for sure. But that isn’t to say it isn’t a real war. To say it’s a spiritual war is to say that it is more real, more encompassing than a mere shooting war, a mere physical war. It includes bodies and souls, eternal destinies, as well as lives, liberties, lands, and nations. 

“For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” (2 Cor. 10:3-5).

The Bible says that our weapons are not carnal but mighty through God for pulling down strongholds, and modern Christians say that spiritual warfare means insisting that everything is fine while the house is on fire. You know the meme. 

This is the war for civilization, the war for humanity, the war against sin, death, and the devil. It’s the war that God declared in a Garden six thousand years ago, the war that Adam joined by faith when he named his wife Eve, the mother of all the living. And this is what we are fighting for. We are fighting for the freedom to love our neighbor as ourselves. We are fighting for the liberty to take responsibility for those entrusted to us, those closest to us. This is because love is personal and cannot be outsourced to a central office.

Identifying the Enemy
Perhaps one of the biggest challenges in fighting this war has been identifying the enemy and in so doing, identifying the plays of the enemy. But the enemy is becoming more and more obvious by the minute. And the enemy is centralized statism. And by centralized statism, we of course mean Marxism (or socialism or communism, if you prefer), but it’s really all the same thing. I know it’s a bit gauche to just say that out loud in polite company, but well, there it is. And this “thing” of which we speak is the conglomeration of Karl and Friedrich, a couple of 19th century drunk and stoned frat boys, venting their spleens into an overweight tome now known to the world as Das Kapital, but it really just comes down to Satanic delusions. Ye will be as gods, is the subtitle I think. 

But seriously, the ground is envy, lust, pride, greed, the means is grasping, anarchy, revolution, and the promise is utopia, eternal life, harmony, equality, divinity. First they built the tower of Babel, and every petty tyrant ever since was a son of Nimrod, grasping for uniformity of language, conformity of vision, and a city and tower reaching up to heaven, whether in Rome or in Washington D.C., or Ottowa, or Beijing. Marx just collected all that hot gas and translated it into angry German. And to be clear, this impulse is the root impulse of every rebel son or daughter of Adam, mighty hunters all.

Conservatives With the Ball (Running the Wrong Way)
So comes the new Governor of Virginia Glenn Youngkin with the political football playing for the red team, but he’s running the wrong way, God bless him. He comes into office full of vim and beans, and what is his first act as quarterback? He signs, how many? Count ‘em, eleven executive orders on his first day in office. As though he is the supreme lawmaker of the land, as though he were the savior of Virginia, as though he were Nimrod the Great. Now maybe some of his actions were legitimate according to the Virginia constitution (maybe), but the question is: do you want freedom in Virginia or do you want to keep playing Marxist football? The former governor, Blackface Northam, instituted an office of Diversity Equity and Inclusion and a cabinet position to boot, and now Youngkin kind of, sort of disbands it, but kind of, sort of tries to salvage some of it by renaming it the office of Diversity, Opportunity, and Inclusion. Man, that’s radical. That will teach those progressives. See if they try that ever again. 

That reminds me of the time we interviewed our current Governor of Idaho, Brad Little, when he was running for the office. He noted at the time that since Trump was in office this was a capital moment for conservatives to make bold and go for the jugular, swing for the fence, and burgle the booty (as they say). And so, with bated breath, I asked him what his plan was. What would he do if elected to office? Where would he plant his flag for freedom for Idahoans? And the words that came out of his mouth were something like: I would immediately begin work on Idaho roads. He was about five or six sentences into his triumphal valedictory, when I interrupted him because it had almost sounded like he said that his grand plan (in light of Trump’s apparent conservative bluster) was to fix Idaho roads. But alas, that’s what he did say. Now in hindsight and compared to Youngkin, I do prefer a fake conservative governor spending all his energy on our roads rather than trying to take care of my healthcare, education, or save the world. I mean if they aren’t going to do what they’re supposed to do, the next best thing is to be busy with the roads. But myopic doesn’t quite describe that moment. 

But back to Youngkin: in the same series of royal decrees, he also established commissions to combat all the bad things and keep them from happening ever, ever, never. He gave the Superintendent of Education the new title Grand Poobah of Learning (ok, not really), but he did summon up all the powers of his office and bestowed them to regulate education in Virginia, all in the name of (checks notes), ending divisive doctrines like Critical Race Theory. This is like promising to end air pollution by requiring the burning of all plastics. In fact, just to make sure there is a new spirit of harmony and unity in Virginia, Governor Youngkin has set up hotlines for citizens of the commonwealth to nark on each other. I mean if you see anybody even looking like they might be thinking CRT thoughts, you should definitely report them. You should probably report them if they are even looking like they might think CRT thoughts. Because you know nothing says unity and harmony like ratting your neighbors out. And we definitely want bureaucrats in Richmond establishing peace on earth.  

But wait, there’s more: Youngkin also signed an executive order prohibiting mask mandates, and if you know me at all, you know that I’m not a fan of the face burqas in the slightest. But the problem is: who died and made Youngkin god of medical decisions? Youngkin even extended this royal order to include private schools. Youngkin lifted his royal scepter and assumed the prerogative to run your local private school. Youngkin is acting just like previous governor Northam only with different whims. Youngkin is acting like a blackface conservative. It’s the same statism as Northam. It’s the same centralizing, totalitarian bossiness. He just smeared some conservative shoe polish on his face and he’s hoping no one will notice. 

This is worse than running the wrong way on the field. I’d say Youngkin has run the ball 30 yards in the wrong direction and then dropped to one knee and set the ball up for the opposing team to kick a field goal. 

When Fighting the Left is Actually Helping the Left
Jonah Goldberg wrote recently, “As a conservative, I’ve railed against the centralizing nationalism of progressivism for my entire professional life. It’s one of the reasons I think all of the new “nationalist conservatives” are so misguided. Yes, they’re fighting the left, but their strategy is to embrace the means of progressivism on the barmy assumption that this is the way to achieve (allegedly) conservative ends.” And despite my misgivings with some of Goldberg’s more recent positions, he’s right about this. The only thing I’d add to that synopsis is that when you take up the means of progressivism (statism, centralization) you aren’t actually fighting the left. You’re actually helping the left. 

While there’s much to appreciate about all the fight that Governor Desantis has shown in Florida, there have been some real cringe moments too. His state wide vaccine bans that claim to have the authority to tell private businesses how they can hire or fire their own employees is just as fascist as Biden claiming to have authority to tell businesses with 100 employees or more how to make their medical decisions. And speaking of Desantis imitating Biden, he announced last week on Twitter: “I am calling on the Biden Administration to include at least $725 million for Everglades restoration in the upcoming 2023 budget request. This level of investment is necessary to keep pace with Florida’s investment in the Everglades and move key projects forward.” He’s insisting that Biden send almost three-quarters of a billion dollars to Florida for the Everglades. What he’s actually insisting on is more chains for the slaves of Florida. He also unveiled 400 million in statewide chains for “resilience projects.” Great. The benevolent dictator of Florida is going to help Floridians be “resilient.” Because otherwise, they would not be resilient. Unless the state provides, the people will suffer. And unless the Fed coughs up the funding, the Everglades will not be restored. 

And don’t get me wrong. Florida is one of the best plantations to live on these days. Of all the state plantations, one would certainly prefer to live on Master Desantis’ plantation, but that’s not the same thing as freedom. 

Conclusion
I want to close by returning to a point I made earlier. Adam joined the war (on the right side) when he named his wife Eve, mother of all the living. 

The opposite of centralized statism is not decentralized anarchy. The opposite of centralized statism is covenantalism. The answer is not get-of-my-porch libertarianism. While libertarianism might feel like a momentary relief from statism, it’s only momentary, and totalitarians don’t mind herding individualists back into their corrals. What we want is a multiplicity of balancing powers, loyalties, loves, and responsibilities. We want the government of the family dedicated to its responsibility to provide for the health, welfare, and education of its members. We want husbands and fathers loving their wives and children in obedience to God. We want Biden and Youngkin and Desantis out of our homes and businesses and schools, so that we can love our people as we ought.

We want the government of churches to faithfully teach the whole counsel of God, from Genesis to Revelation, correcting all sin and shining a bright light on the way of Christ. We want the civil government out of our sanctuaries so that we can love God with all that we are and learn to love one another as we ought. We want the civil government to do its job which is to punish criminals. And that’s it. Stop trying to make us resilient. Stop trying to restore us and our wetland preserves. Just stop it. Like Diana Ross said, “Stop, in the name of love.” Every time the civil government does something that families, churches, or local communities are supposed to do for themselves, it is a failure of love. Centralized statism always fails to love. 

All of this is to say, conservatives need to return to a dedicated localism – not a hidebound localism, not a head-in-the sand localism, but a simple biblical localism that loves neighbors, the ones closest to us, the ones in our own homes first and flows out from there because Jesus is Lord, because Jesus is our Savior, because He loved us and gave Himself for us. So love your wife and lead your family. Go to church and worship every Lord’s Day. Get to know your local civic leaders. Pray for them, volunteer, and have the kind of friendships with them that matter.

This doesn’t mean state politics don’t matter, or that national politics are irrelevant. But if we want the freedom to love our neighbors in the way God requires, we have to take responsibility. If we want those broader governments to shrink, we have to take responsibility. Local responsibility, personal, covenantal love and loyalty is the most effective chemotherapy for the cancer of communism. Douglas Wilson likes to say, “Authority flows to those who take responsibility.” What did Adam do in the face of his own sin, and the prospect of the curse of sin in the world? He named his wife Eve. He took responsibility for his family, believed the promises of God, and got to work. 

As long as we let blackface conservatives take responsibility for us, we are only allowing them to stockpile authority for the next Nimrod. 

You want to fight collectivism, centralizing statism? Love your wife.