Toby J. Sumpter's Blog, page 49

Molly & James

“Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity; for the LORD hath heard the voice of my weeping. The LORD hath heard my supplication; the LORD will receive my prayer. Let all mine enemies be ashamed and sore vexed: let them return and be ashamed suddenly” (Ps. 6:8-10). 

Every wedding is momentous. Every wedding is the culmination of millions of moments, many meals, many conversations, many choices, decisions, and countless prayers. And every wedding brings with it various burdens, challenges, difficulties that led up to the wedding, and everyone knows there are more to come. This life is fragile, short, mysterious, and no one knows the story they are in. 

Nevertheless, for those who are in Christ, there are moments of clarity, moments when you come up for air, come up through the clouds of this life, and you catch glimpses of the big picture. You can’t see the whole picture, not even half of it. But by faith you can see far enough to see the trajectory of the story, and even more importantly, you can see some of the “why” of the trajectory. 

These three verses from Psalm 6 were one of those moments for David. The first part of this Psalm is an intense poem describing David’s struggle with some pretty terrible things. David’s first cry is to God, which basically amounts to, “Why are you letting this happen to me?” And what follows is the description of David’s emotional, physical, and spiritual torment. We don’t really know the circumstances of this poem, but it’s bad enough that David wonders if he will die. And then suddenly in verse 8 David looks up and says, “Depart from me all you workers of iniquity.”

We don’t know what happened – but something happened, and everything changed. The smoke of life cleared, and suddenly David saw everything as it really was. Prior to that moment David wondered what was going on, what was happening, and where it was all heading, and then he wasn’t wondering anymore. He told his enemies to run away because the Lord had heard his voice – he heard his supplication, the Lord had received his prayer, so all of his enemies should be utterly and completely confounded and ashamed.

The turn is dramatic and moving. From fear to freedom, from sorrow to joy, from pain to strength. And the hinge of the whole turn is the repeated theme: the Lord has heard, the Lord has heard, the Lord has received my prayer. 

The most famous prayer of the Jews is the Shema: Hear O Israel, the Lord our God is One. It is a confession of faith in the one true God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and it is a call to hear Him, worship Him, love Him, and fear Him alone. But this hearing was always a responsive hearing. Israel was called to hear the Lord because the Lord had heard their cries. In Exodus 3 when Moses is called by God to go and free the people from Egypt, God says, “I have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows.” The Israelite shema was always a response to God’s shema. Israel was to hear the Lord because the Lord had heard Israel. 

The same thing is going on in Psalm 6. David cries out to the Lord for the first 7 verses, and then in the 8thverse, David says, depart from me you workers of iniquity, the Lord has heard, the Lord has heard, the Lord has heard. 

It should never be forgotten that John records that the very first miracle of Jesus was at the wedding in Cana. John says that this was the first sign that Jesus did, manifesting His glory, announcing His arrival in the world, pointing to His mission. And what did He do? He turned water into wine. Whatever the nuances of the exchange between Jesus and His mother, she knew that He could fix the problem, and so she told the servants on hand, “Whatever He says to you, do it.” And so Jesus became the unsung hero of some unknown wedding in the back hills of Galilee. And when the ruler of the feast tasted the wine, he exclaimed to the bridegroom, every man at the beginning sets forth the good wine; and when men have drunk their fill, then that which is worse; but you have kept the good wine until now” (Jn. 2:10). 

While that particular wedding host may not have known what he was saying, his words might has well have been the words of God the Father, rejoicing in the work of His Son, Jesus Christ. Centuries earlier, through the prophet Isaiah, God said, “And in this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined. And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the vail that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the Lord hath spoken it” (Is. 25:6-8). 

The promise of God was that one day He would come and spread a feast with much wine, and He would swallow up death in victory and wipe away the tears from off all faces. And so He did. Jesus came turning water into wine, filling the hearts of men with gladness, and then finally He swallowed up death by His own death on the cross. He took the death that sinners deserve and fully satisfied the justice of God for our sin. He drank that cup of God’s wrath, so that all who believe in Him might drink the cup of His salvation, a fine wine that takes away every tear. 

When the disciples saw that first miracle, turning water into wine, it says, “and his disciples believed on Him” (Jn. 2:11). It wasn’t merely a wonderful miracle. It was a great sign, a great revelation of who Jesus is — that what Israel had longed for, prayed for, cried for, ached for, God had finally done. He had come, and He had come with lots of wine, just as He had promised. And in that moment of clarity, looking around that crowded Galilean feast, the disciples may have been exclaiming under their breath, the Lord has heard, the Lord has heard, the Lord has heard.

I don’t think it’s overly dramatic to apply all of this to this moment for us. Paul says that every wedding is a proclamation of the gospel. Every husband pictures Christ, and every bride pictures the church. And so there is a sense in which every wedding proclaims this glory, this great relief, this great moment of clarity: the Lord has heard, the Lord has heard, the Lord has received our prayer. And for Christians we mean it in both senses. We mean it ultimately because we are talking about Christ. We are talking about His incarnation, His miracles, His death and resurrection and ascension, and His coming again. But at a Christian wedding, we are also invited to talk about that very same blessing resting upon us and on our families. And so we are here exclaiming in both senses, God has heard, God has heard, God has heard. 

James, my charge to you is based on Peter’s charge to husbands in his first epistle. There, he writes that husbands must dwell with their wives in an understanding way or according to knowledge (1 Pet. 3:7). The verse goes on to say that a husband must honor his wife as a weaker vessel, so that his prayers may not be hindered. I take this to be a warning that God will not listen to the prayers of a man who does not listen to his wife. Elsewhere in Scripture, God warns that if we do not forgive others, neither will God forgive us, and we are commanded to show our love for the unseen God by our diligent love for those who bear His image right in front of us. Peter is applying the same principle to husbands. Do you want God to hear your prayer? Then listen to your wife with that kind of care, thoughtfulness, and diligence. At the same time, studying your wife and learning to dwell with her in an understanding way does not mean going along with whatever she wants to do. Just as God hears our prayers and sometimes says no or not yet in His wisdom and love, so too you are being given responsibility today to love and lead Molly, in imitation of Christ’s love for us. 

Molly, my charge to you is also based on Peter’s letter, but with Psalm 6 and John 2 in the background. In 1 Peter 3, Peter exhorts wives to adorn themselves with a gentle and quiet spirit in submission to their husbands, not fearful and not clambering for attention either with your words or your appearance. Peter says that a gentle and quiet spirit is precious in God’s sight. And this is the basis for a Christian woman’s confidence. A Christian woman, and a Christian wife in particular, does not need to grasp for attention because she knows she already has the attention of her God. What is your most precious possession, the item of most value to you? If I were to ask you where that item is right this minute, you would be able to tell me, and if you couldn’t then I wouldn’t believe it’s your most precious belonging. But in Christ, you are one of God’s most precious possessions. He knew you before the foundation of the world, and you have never been out of His sight, not even for a moment. And He has been planning this moment all along. And so you need not fear anything. This is your glory, Molly, to live in the complete security of your Savior, while serving James. Christ has come, and He has come with good wine. 

Molly, you’re our only sister, our parents’ only daughter, and you’re the last of the kids to get married. And so this just goes to show: Jesus still saves the best wine for last. 

So let all of our enemies depart; let them be utterly ashamed. The Lord has heard, the Lord has heard, the Lord has heard our prayers.

In the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Photo by Alasdair Elmes on Unsplash

Five Principles to Apply

Since we are Christians we want to be thinking and acting in a Christian way as we face the moment we are living in. So here are several biblical principles that need applying in various ways related to the current coronavirus concern. 

First, Christians are not revolutionaries or anarchists. We believe that God establishes all powers, and we are taught clearly in Scripture to honor them and submit to them, so long as they do not require us to disobey God’s word. It is their God-given jurisdiction to enforce justice, protect human life, and punish evil doers. 

Second, the second greatest commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself, and this includes the fifth commandment, honor your father and your mother, as well as the sixth commandment which requires us to protect and preserve life. Taking trouble to protect the lives of the more vulnerable and the elderly is a high privilege for Christians. Christians should also be on the front lines of thinking creatively in this moment about how to use their gifts to bless and serve others.

Third, God is absolutely sovereign over all. Not one detail is out of place. God rules the nations. He rules the stock market, the congresses, the courts, and He is there in the inner chambers of every deliberation, every press release, every medical research lab, and he turns the hearts of kings like rivers of water. “If a trumpet is blown in a city, will not the people be afraid? If there is calamity in a city, will not the LORD have done it?” (Amos 3:6) 

Fourth, not one sparrow falls to the ground without the will of the Father. All your hairs are numbered, and every day of your life was recorded in God’s book before the foundations of the world. Therefore, we are to be anxious for nothing but rejoice always and in everything. As Stonewall Jackson once explained his fearlessness, “Captain, my religious belief teaches me to feel as safe in battle as in bed. God has fixed the time for my death. I do not concern myself about that, but to be always ready, no matter when it may overtake me.”

Fifth, none of this requires Christians to be naïve or reckless, either about basic cleanliness or health etiquette or about the machinations of men who may desire to manufacture crisis or panic, economic instability, political turmoil, or undermine principles of biblical justice, for their own ends.

And so all of this teaches us to fear the Lord, and it reminds us of our need to confess our sins.

Photo by Timon Studler on Unsplash

Always & Never

Two of the most unhelpful words whenever you are in the middle of trying to sort out a disagreement are the words “always” and “never.” It’s often the sign of a subtle (or not so subtle) bitterness or resentment that begins sentences like “You always…” or “You never…” And sometimes defensiveness does the same thing the other way around, “I always…” or “I never…” So sometimes when I’m involved in a tense counseling situation, I have been known to tell people that those words are under the ban.

But those words do exist, and they do have good uses. And this table is one of those places where we can learn how to use them well. Here at this table, God speaks the words “always” and “never” in wonderful ways. For example, here at this table God says that He will never bring up your sins from your past that have been forgiven. He will never hold them against you. Because of the broken body and shed blood of His Son, God has cast our sins into the deepest sea. He has removed them as far as the east is from the west, and He remembers them no more. 

And because of this, because God has taken away your sins, He will never leave you or forsake you. God will always receive you for the sake of Christ. He will never have a bad day. He is never moody or grumpy. God is always faithful. He is always good. He always welcomes you here. 

So notice that God uses the words “always” and “never” as words of love and of promise. And so this is how we should learn to use them as well. Since God will never leave us and promises to always receive us for the sake of Christ, we should be loyal to one another in the Lord like that. And even though we do sin and fail, we are invited to see Christ in one another, to forgive one another as we have been forgiven, and to hold fast to one another in Christ, who will never leave us, who is always faithful, who is always good.

So come and welcome to Jesus Christ.

Photo by Ben Karpinski on Unsplash

Love & Respect

As you know, the Bible instructs husbands to love their wives and wives to respect their husbands. This doesn’t mean that husbands are free to disrespect their wives or that wives need not love their husbands; rather, the commands are ordered to each one’s needs. Men are blessed when they are respected by their wives, and women are particularly blessed when they are loved by their husbands. 

As it turns out, these commands are also ordered to the weaker sides of each sex. Men naturally function in terms of respect, and so they often need to be reminded to love their wives. And women naturally function in terms of love, and so they often need to be reminded to respect their husbands. 

And what do these commands mean? Love is defined by the gospel. It is sacrifice for the good of the other, but it is thoughtful, intentional sacrifice aimed toward a goal. Christ did not die on the cross in order to put a generic pay check on some cosmic counter. He died for particular people, to pay for their sins, to make them clean, to bring them to glory. His love took thought for the needs of His particular people, and His love went out of its way to make a way for them. Husbands, this is what love does. 

Respect is defined by the response of the Church to this love, and that is primarily embodied by glad submission and obedience. Respect looks up to, honors, speaks highly of, is eager to serve. In Peter’s letter, he points to Sara’s example with Abraham, calling him “lord.” While this need not be applied in a wooden way, the spirit must be applied. And in our common parlance, perhaps the closest we have to such an address is the word, “sir.” When we say “yes, sir” we express respect and honor for a man. And the point is that respect is leaning in with a readiness and gravity and eagerness to follow. What are his preferences? What does he like or dislike? Respect thinks highly of those inclinations, just as the Church responds to Christ’s love. 

Photo by Amy Humphries on Unsplash

Weak Links & Liabilities

Introduction

Well, in case you missed it, I blasphemed the goddess of female sinlessness last Tuesday. Her great and holy law is: Thou shalt not address female sin or encourage husbands/pastors to do so. I think I’ve been called every name now, and I mean every word your mom taught you not to use. And surely more than one of you wonder why I do it, and I know a few of you wish I wouldn’t and think it’s particularly unhelpful, but I actually believe that it is very worthwhile and I want to explain why here. 

What I wrote was: “One of the weakest links in the church is the wives of elders & pastors. Many wives are stumbling blocks to their husbands by their fretting, fussing, & criticizing of their husband’s calling to lead & fight. An elder who has not discipled his wife for the fight is a liability.”

Basic Exegesis

A majority of the huffy responses to this came down to basic literacy skills, which is what you get when you let the government run your schools. But let’s break this down together: First off, a key word in the first sentence is “one.” I cannot count the number of angry responses that said I thought “THE weakest link” was women. But that’s not what I wrote. I wrote “ONE of the weakest links…,” which in common English means there are others. A bunch of replies went something like: “here let me fix this for you…” or “this is wrong because…” and then proceeded to point out another major weakness in the modern church, many of which I agreed with.  

Another key word begins the second sentence: “many.” Notice that I did not write “all” or even “most.” But finally, perhaps the most overlooked part of the entire post was the final sentence which laid the responsibility at the feet of men – the elders themselves. Of course, that sentence also included the word “disciple,” which I would like to point out is not the same word as “disicipline.” A few folks accidentally read “discipline” and had a great sense of humor about the mix-up, but a bunch of others, well, let’s just say they didn’t.

Jesus called those who followed Him, “disciples,” and His Commission to the Church was to go into all the world and make more disciples, teaching them to obey everything He commanded (Mt. 28). As I asked several detractors who have yet to answer me: Do you object to the discipleship of women or the fact that I laid this failure at the feet their husbands? The Bible clearly teaches that husbands are to love their wives as Christ loved the church, and this means imitating Christ’s sacrificial example, and washing their wives with the water of the word that they may be presented without spot or blemish (Eph. 5:25-27). 

What Am I Talking About?

But to the substance of the post: Do I really believe that this is a significant problem in the church? Are many women stumbling blocks to their husbands? Yes, absolutely. To be clear: I was not responding to anything in particular or sub-tweeting or vague-booking, shooting from the bushes at anyone or any church or any group of churches. The point is something that I’ve pondered numerous times, from a number of different sources, over a number of years. It was older, seasoned pastors and elders and their wives who first taught me and my wife this principle. And for whatever it’s worth, a number of pastors, elders, and their wives chimed in thanking me for the post, agreeing, sharing, and so forth, adding to the data, confirming what I have already heard and seen. 

It should go without saying that men need the wise and godly input and feedback from their wives. Man is not good alone, and this goes double for men in leadership, especially leadership in the church. Almost immediately after I posted this on Twitter, one fellow replied with this: “One of the strongest links in the church is the wives of elders and pastors. Many wives are houses of shalom to their husbands by their faith, encouragement, and support of their husband’s calling to lead & fight. An elder who guards his wife is a priest-king indeed.” To which I replied immediately, “Amen.” Which, just to be clear, is also what I think, and which is also fully consistent with my original post.

So what am I talking about? I’m talking about men, and elders and pastors in particular, who have failed to teach the entire Bible to their wives, including the hard parts, including the basic doctrines of God’s holiness and grace, including the inevitability of persecution, disagreement, and loss of friends. I’m talking about a man who has failed to exercise the kind of leadership and loyalty and love that is required for shepherding his wife through the inevitable trials of ministry and leadership. And having failed to teach and love his wife like that, the wife is completely unprepared when her husband preaches a sermon or teaches a Bible study on Ephesians 5 or 1 Peter 3 or Titus 2 in our modern culture.

When the blowback comes, it’s usually not so much what was said, but the way it was said. The “concern” gets back to the pastor’s wife, and she is seriously shaken. She doesn’t like people thinking that her husband is harsh or domineering or insensitive. Will he lose his job? Will they have to move? Will he be able to get another job? Will they be able to pay the bills? How will the kids take it? And after a minute or so, she’s wondering if anyone will even be willing to buy their house and whether they might all contract the coronavirus on their way to their new job in South Dakota. And besides, she’s not sure she wants to face some of her friends on Sunday after this. 

Even though the message was just a calm verse by verse explanation and application of the text, by this point she’s pretty sure her husband really should have said it more carefully or maybe not at all. And so she brings it up to her husband one night, and she might do it all casual and serene, “Babe, I’ve been praying about it a lot and I really think you should consider apologizing for your message last week since it caused a lot of concerns and confusions. Betsy was just sharing with me about her domineering father and how it just brings up bad memories when you talk about those things. I know you didn’t mean anything by it, but I think some folks just really need you to be more gentle with them, you know like how Paul said he was like a nursing mother with the Corinthians?” And so, the pastor’s wife becomes a stumbling block to her husband. 

Sometimes it may be a far more emotional appeal, “I just can’t take this pressure, this tension. I feel like people are frustrated with you, with me. I feel like we’re causing confusion and division. I’m afraid of what might happen. Please just be encouraging and positive!” The man may go along with the suggestion to apologize, or the man may just decide to avoid the battles that need to be fought because he knows it will be hard on his wife. Sometimes the pressures on a minister’s marriage can manifest in health problems, emotional problems, weight problems, or combinations of all of the above. And notice very carefully here that the root responsibility is the man’s – he is responsible for his wife before God. He is a liability to the church. He is not in a strong position to fight.

Some of these challenges may reveal that a man is not called to the ministry, and the most faithful response would be his resignation. But if our land is plagued by emasculated Christian men (and it is), then we must not be so blind as to miss the inevitable results of that failure. Sin begets sin. Parents can cause their children to stumble, husbands can cause their wives to stumble, and the cycle most certainly can continue: those who have been stumbled can cause their stumblers to stumble. 

The answer to all of this is the gospel and not finger pointing or blame-shifting. Accusation is the way of the devil, and it’s a cycle of confusion and bitterness that never fixes anything. But the gospel comes to all of us and confronts all of us for our own individual sin and the cross of Christ lifts up the only innocent victim in all of human history before our eyes, and in Him we see our particular sins crucified. And the burden of our guilt falls off our backs, and we are set free to obey Christ and serve our spouse and children and parents and people.  

But It’s In The Bible Too

The Bible also clearly indicates that these are temptations for women, and this is why marriage is such terribly glorious thing, heavy with the future upon its shoulders: “Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son. For they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods: so will the anger of the LORD be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly” (Deut. 7:3-4). If the many wives of Solomon could turn his heart from serving the Lord, why couldn’t otherwise faithful women turn the hearts of their husbands from complete obedience to the Lord? 

“Every wise woman buildeth her house: but the foolish plucketh it down with her hands” (Prov. 14:1). Can unloved and undiscipled women act foolishly? Are they powerful enough to pull their own houses down? Are Christian women powerful enough to pull down the house of God by their folly? Surely the biblical answer is yes. “It is better to dwell in a corner of the housetop, than with a brawling woman in a wide house” (Prov. 21:9, 19, 25:24, 27:15). A contentious, brawling woman may drive a man into the wilderness, but she may also successfully drive a man to avoid the rooftop and wilderness by training him to walk on tip-toe through his own house. And if a man knows that certain topics will ignite certain conflicts or difficulties in the church or on the elder board, and on top of that he knows it will cause trouble in his own home, how likely is he to do what he believes needs to be done? Could that have any influence on him?

Why did Paul need to instruct the Ephesians that wives are to be submissive to their own husbands in everything (Eph. 5:24)? Why did Peter instruct Christian wives to even submit to disobedient husbands and to obey them like Sarah obeyed Abraham with a gentle and quiet spirit without any fear (1 Pet. 3:1-6)? It is because women are tempted to be unsubmissive, tempted to disobey their husbands, tempted to fear and insecurity, and tempted to take matters into their own hands. And if all women are tempted to this to some degree, then the wives of elders and pastors are not immune to this temptation.

So we have plenty of anecdotal evidence, we have numerous Scriptural warnings and admonitions, and then we have the plain as day evidence of a completely corrupt and compromised Protestant evangelical church in our land. The LGBT gestapo has a tiny percentage of the population compared to evangelical Christians in this country. Surveys suggest that Protestant evangelicals make up 25% of the US population, represented by at least 50,000 churches. Yet, over three thousand babies are murdered in our land every day. Sodomites parade in our streets. The government lies and steals and oppresses, and we keep letting them. 

Why are we in this mess? Because we are under God’s curse. And by “we,” I specifically mean God’s people, the people who call on His name, the people who worship Him, and those who lead His people. And we are under His curse because we are shot through with sin. And a great deal of that sin is in the houses and marriages of elders and pastors. We do not have the will to stand against these evils because many men have given their strength away to their women. Rather than leading, they are being led. Rather than teaching and instructing and guarding their wives from evil, like Adam and Eve in the garden, men are listening to Satanic lies and being led astray, often by misplaced feminine instincts to avoid danger and conflict. Those men are absolutely responsible for their own cowardice and lust and anger and abdication: they are liabilities and will not stand in the day of battle. But if we believe in the dignity of women as moral agents, responsible before God, we must also recognize that one of the weakest links in the modern church is the wives of elders and pastors who are not being the kind of support and encouragement they should be. 

Conclusion

As I have reported before, one of the benefits of walking up to the culture and putting your finger on their collective eyeball is the fascinating social ripples that play out. One of those ripples serves as a rather severe warning. The first wave of reactions are the enthusiastic supporters. And let’s be honest, some of those are enthusiastic for all the wrong reasons. They are WWF Christians, and they are just in it for points scored, blood in the water, and cathartic mayhem. That is not at all why I post or write things like this, but to my detractors who may think I do or think I’m unaware of that class of folks in the crowd, please know that I’m well aware. 

But the gravest warning comes in the second wave of responses that we may call the friendly detractor wave. These are the sorts who say things like, I know what you mean and I kind of (sort of) agree, but the way you said it was too mean, harsh, or unloving or unclear. This second wave is well represented by the Revoice movement and those who are not willing to fight it. But social media algorithmic powers link friends and follower groups, assuming that if you’re friends with so-and-so, you’d be interested in seeing a post they interacted with. As it turns out, these friendly detractors are nice enough to have followers in the third wave of responses, which includes “Christians” who have jumped the shark. They have preferred pronouns in their bios, refer to themselves as Christian feminists/egalitarians, and are fine with calling practicing sodomites Christians. These folks can get pretty snippy and crass, but it’s their friends and followers who bring the fourth wave of detractors, and they are the sorts that are flinging f-bombs and threatening to gang rape you. And I’m not kidding. 

What these second and third waves do not understand is how they are actually inviting the fourth wave. You cannot sow wind and reap anything other than the whirlwind. But no one sets out to reap the whirlwind. The softy defenders of Revoice and those who do not have the nerve to be the Elijah or John the Baptist needed in the PCA (and every evangelical denomination for that matter) right now are all doing so in the name of being nice, friendly, welcoming, and evangelistic. And all of this is driven by that misplaced feminine nurturing instinct. And the next thing you know, you have trannies performing abominations in your chapel.

How could this happen? It happens because the men who are charged with guarding that sanctuary and fighting those abominations have been trained in feminine sensibilities that generally avoid conflict and are more strongly tempted to choose unity over truth. And a great deal of that has happened because men have failed to rule their own households in wisdom, failed to disciple their wives biblically, and have allowed the fears and temptations of their wives to neutralize their calling to fight sin and worldliness. To the friendly detractors, to those convinced that all we need to do is package the Bible in a slightly more friendly manner and appease the friendly moderates, you are the problem. Your niceness and friendliness is inviting the perversion hurricane into the church (Js. 4). You cannot open the sewer just a crack. It must be all-out war with sin and darkness or you have compromised. It is Christ or nothing. 

And this is why these things must be said out loud in public. You must be at war with all the idols. And if you would be in the fight, if you would not be a liability in this fight, you must have a truly virtuous woman at your side, a woman of wisdom and courage, a woman who understands the true nature of the ministry, a woman who is not afraid of any terror. 

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Holy and Happy

“Then he said unto them, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy unto our Lord: neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the LORD is your strength” (Neh. 8:10).

We have been trained to think that you must choose between being holy and being happy. Some people may be holy, but we tend to think those people are incredibly serious, austere, and in a sort of permanent concentration. And we think we don’t have time for that, and besides, it doesn’t seem very fun.

But there are several problems with this. First, is the fact that God commands His people to be holy: Be holy for I am holy. The Bible also says that without holiness no man shall see the Lord. You cannot go to heaven if you are not holy. So there are not two kinds of Christians – the holy ones and the rest of us normal schlubs, changing diapers and driving to work every day. No, there is only one kind of Christian, and that Christian must be holy. But not only that. Nehemiah says that we must be holy and happy. He says, this day is holy unto our Lord, neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the Lord is your strength. Holiness and happiness go together. 

So this is the Lord’s Day – holy to the Lord, and this this the Lord’s Supper, a holy meal for a holy people. And what do we find here? We find food and drink and sharing: holiness and joy. In God there is no difference between His holiness and joy. His holiness is His joy, and His joy is His holiness. Therefore, there is no way of being happy without also being holy, and there is no way of being holy without also being happy. 

If you think you’re being holy and you aren’t happy, you aren’t doing it right. And if you think you’re happy but you’re in sin, you’re lying to yourself. But if you’re doing what God has called you to do with joy, that is holiness. From carpools to dinner, from homework to meetings, to sharing bread and wine here, if you are serving Christ, it is holy. And if you’re serving Christ, how can you not be happy? So come and welcome to Jesus Christ.

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Lift Up Your Hearts

At the beginning of the worship service every Sunday, we repeat words that have been used in Christian worship since the first centuries of the Church, the Latin is Sursum Corda, and it means “Lift up your hearts” and the congregation responds, “we lift them up to the Lord.” The reason for this is that the Bible teaches that Christian worship takes place in Heaven. If you wanted to make a modern paraphrase of the sursum corda, the pastor might say, “we’re going to heaven,” and the congregation might answer, “we’re going there now.”

We see this most clearly in Hebrews where it says, “But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect” (Heb. 12:22-23). We have not come to an earthly mountain or an earthly temple. We have to a heavenly mountain and a heavenly temple because we are meeting with Jesus, and Jesus is seated at the right hand of God the Father in Heaven. 

What does this mean? Part of what it means is that for those who are in Christ, you are closer to what you are becoming here than anywhere else in your life. You are closer to your true self, you are more like what you were always meant to be, here, gathered together with your people, gathered before your Lord. Isn’t that what heaven is? Finally seeing Jesus face to face and becoming who we were made to be, without any sin, fully united with all our people? 

When we gather here, by faith, lifting our hearts up to Jesus, the God of the Living draws near – or better, the God of the Living draws us near to Himself and all who are in Him. And we glimpse in psalms and prayers and water and wine and word and blessing and lots of squirming people (our people), heaven itself, reality itself, and little by little, as we see Him as He really is, we are becoming what we really are. And we are sent back into the world, transformed a little more into that glory, until the earth is full of the glory of the Lord.

Photo by Juan Di Nella on Unsplash

The Hegemony of Humility

Introduction 
So I wrote an article arguing that Christians need to stop being bullied by accusations of theocracy and turn the point around and simply insist that everyone believes in theocracy. Theocracy is inescapable. As Bob Dylan put it, you gotta serve somebody. And whoever that Somebody is, that’s your G/god/s. And while there was a goodish bit of positive encouragement and enthusiasm, nobody really objected. 

Then, as though the stars were smiling down upon me, a critic of mine made a meme of something I said at G3, breathlessly claiming that I was [gulp] maybe trafficking in (dread-the-thought) “Theonomy.” It was a good quote, if I do say so myself, and I shared it far and wide, causing some to wonder if it was an advertisement for G3, and let us hope it will be very soon. 

But I took the whole thing as a sign from God and followed up with another article on the inescapability of theonomy. As I noted at the beginning of that article, it would almost seem to go without saying that if everyone serves a god, then everyone believes there is a law from their god/s that needs submitting to and applying to all of life. But turns out even though it should go without saying, the reason that’s the case is because you’re apparently not supposed to actually say it out loud. If you do happen to say it out loud, the Twitter elders will take you outside of the city and stone you with stones, socially speaking.

Cute Equivocating
While I was called some names, the most common objection was to my introduction to the article in which I wrote: “Everyone is a theonomist. There you go. I’ve said it. Write that down. I’m a theonomist, you’re a theonomist, Scott Clark is a raving theonomist, Donald Trump is a yuge theonomist, and Bernie Sanders is a wicked weeeahd theonomist.” And the objection was that I was equivocating. One critic said it was a “cute little rhetorical game of equivocation.” Another said this was equivocation worthy only of John Frame, which I took as a high complement, seeing that John Frame is one of my theological heroes and he was my worship pastor when I was a kid. But the same thing came at me from a number of folks: if everyone is a theonomist, then no one is a theonomist. The claim was that if I defined the term that broadly, I had rendered the term meaningless. But, and I don’t mean to be offensive here, that simply doesn’t follow. I mean, I loved Pixar’s The Incredibles (the first one) as much as anyone, but it seems to me that a bunch of Christians mistakenly thought that the line “if everyone is super no one is” works on everything. But well, the fact of the matter is that it works on some things and not on others. An example: I’m male. Donald Trump is male. Whoopi Goldberg is male. Bernie Sanders is male. Everyone is male. The problem with this, and not to put too fine a point on it, is that it’s not true. This would be equivocation. To claim such a thing would be to render the term “male” meaningless because the very thing it is meant to distinguish is obliterated. There’s this fact of creation that our culture is busy trying to deny, which we call women and Whoopi Goldberg is in that class of people. I know I’ve just committed hate speech, but I’m over here busy not caring.   

Another example: I’m a human being. Donald Trump is a human being. Bernie Sanders is a human being. Everyone is a human being. Have I rendered the term “human being” meaningless by defining everyone by it? I mean, I know Bernie Sanders is a bit borderline for some, but come on people, commies are people too, very confused people, but still human. And the point is that it’s only equivocation if it isn’t true, and so in order to prove it is actually equivocating, you have to, um, demonstrate that.

Now I have no interest in quibbling over words or terms. If there are brothers out there who take my point, embrace it, and have been run over four too many times by self-proclaimed theonomists and it wakes them up at night with cold sweats and they just can’t even, I would be the first to let them feel free to avoid my twitter feed and blog. I have no quarrel with you. Just let me know when you’ve come up with a better word. Dominionist? Christocrat? Biblical Hegemonist? 

Protestant Hegemony
Now before I cis-splain myself further, I’d like to bring something else up and that is my working thesis that I presented somewhat on the fly in our recent CrossPolitic show with Hunter Baker. And that is: What would a truly biblical Protestant hegemony in the public square look like? (Yes, I’m going there.) I’m not talking about the PCA taking over congress with pitchforks – I hold to the separation of church and state. I’m talking about influence and worldview. What would a true biblical theonomy look like in action applied to a government? My answer/thesis: the founding of America. I’m not claiming it was perfect or sinless or that nothing could have been done better. I’m just claiming that it was a true instance and perhaps the best attempt yet in history at applying the law of God to the public square. Now the word “hegemony” is admittedly perhaps not the most winsome word we might use, but I think it serves a particularly helpful purpose here.   

“And he said unto them, ‘The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors. But ye shall not be so: but he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that doth serve…” (Lk. 22:25-26). Notice: Jesus is talking about civil magistrates, the kings of the Gentiles, and He specifically insists that His people be leery of that kind of power. He warns them particularly about taking titles like “benefactors.” Elsewhere, he says something similar: “Neither be ye called masters: for one is your Master, even Christ. But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant. And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted” (Matt. 23:10-12). And this leads to a second thing that we see in both of these texts: the dominion of serving, what we might call the hegemony of humility. Christ doesn’t say that ruling is stupid, or that it’s foolish and evil to want to be great. He simply says there’s a foolish way to try to be great and a wise way – a pagan way and a Christian way, a coercive way and an obedient way. And the obedient Christian way is to hate titles and manipulation, and to simply serve under Christ. 

So what would happen if a culture of men, steeped in these Scriptures set about to start a new nation? What would happen if a bunch of Christians decided to apply God’s Word to establishing a new government? I submit that it would look a lot like the founding of America. A truly Christian hegemony would rule by serving, would pursue greatness and power by protecting against abuse of power and despising titles and seeking to restrain those who would exalt themselves and exercise lordship like the Gentiles. It would look like limiting the powers of the highest, most central government, it would look like separating those powers about fifteen different ways to Sunday, and then adding additional checks, balances, and tying up all the hoses of power with double and triple kinks to keep everything moving at about the pace of LA traffic, trying to keep those who exalt themselves abased and in gridlock, leaving as much as room as possible for the faithful to serve. And nearly 250 years in, and I’m still saying this stuff out loud and I haven’t been arrested yet. 

Incidentally related, somebody on the interwebs decided to do their best WWF impression mocking theonomy and tweeted out “REAL XIAN THEONOMY HAS NEVER BEEN TRIED!” And his imminence R. Scott Clark helpfully replied, “The similarities to Marxism are striking.” But the hilarity of this is the fact that the last 2000 years are basically the history of God’s law being implemented more or less in cultures where the gospel has come. And here, I’ll plug Hunter Baker’s book yet again, End of Secularism, particularly as he traces the struggle to separate the institutions of church and the state, going back to Constantine and Augustine up to the present day. But the fact of the matter is that all Christians believed in theonomy until about 15 minutes ago. And the reason a bunch of Christians decided to go deer-in-the-headlights on this is largely due to the current hegemony of secularism, which means that kind of talk will get you canceled, mocked, and would therefore require something like courage. So many Christians prefer to huddle in their theological bunkers squawking if anyone says the “T” word. 

It has been a long process, but Christian rulers successfully outlawed abortion, adultery, incest, sodomy, honored marriage, encouraged childrearing, protected private property, insisted that magistrates answered to God and His law, instituted checks and balances, and so on. The Edict of Milan was Christian theonomy in infancy. The Magna Carta was Christian theonomy in action. Even the Peace of Augsburg was Christian theonomy at work. The English Civil War and the Restoration were basically struggles over differing versions of how the law of God was to apply to the nation of England. And the great inversion of all of this was the French Revolution, which was just as theonomic as everything else, it was just the inevitable bloodbath that occurs when you are trying to enforce the laws of false gods. It was sharia law before the Muslims actually toppled Paris. 

Back to the Equivocations
But the accusations of equivocation in good faith, I trust, come from those Christians who want nothing to do with Paul Hill, the man who murdered the abortionist back in the day. They want nothing to do with taking up the sword to establish a “Christian” Saudi Arabia in their own city or state. And let me be the first to join them in my utter disdain for vigilante justice and confusing jurisdictions. But this is precisely why we must have the law of God. It’s the Bible that prohibits that very thing. It’s the law of God that prohibits Christians from using guns to institutionalize Christianity. Arguably, the law of God warns heavily against the establishment of a national church, and hence the First Amendment. The word of God distinguishes between church and state and family jurisdictions and respects each one. You cannot get that from Islam. You cannot get that from secularism. You certainly cannot get that from Darwin. Ancient cultures knew nothing of this separation but even the roles of Moses and Aaron were the beginnings of this distinction. Even though the church and state were joined more closely in the Mosaic era than they should be today, because of God’s more direct revelation and governance in those days, there were already strong indications of different jurisdictions in the penal code: the Levites and priests had jurisdiction over access to God, requiring sacrifices and cleansing rituals, barring any who might try to enter the Tabernacle unclean, including tribal chiefs and elders. Other penalties required hearings before the elders in the gate and verdicts rendered issued in sentences of restitutions or sometimes even death. Even here the distinction between sin and crime, ritual cleansing and civil justice, was already in view.

When Saul tried to offer the sacrifice before Samuel arrived, he was rebuked and the kingdom was torn from his hand. When King Uzziah thought he might just saunter into the Temple and offer incense, God struck him with leprosy and the priestly bouncers escorted him out of the holy place. All of this is background to the even clearer teaching of the New Testament that civil magistrates are God’s deputies wielding the sword, and that the church is to submit to that authority while wielding the far sharper sword of the Word of God and the sacraments. True, biblical theonomy has no room for vigilante justice, mob justice, or lynchings. The law of God clearly insists that authorities be submitted to, and civil magistrates are God’s ministers of justice.

Perhaps related, are the fears of some that theonomy means that the mixed fabrics gestapo must be immediately formed and everybody must have a railing put up around the edge of their roof by next November. This is a fair concern, but first off, let me just point out that in the current secular theonomic regime we live in everyone is scrambling to separate their plastics and paper for the trash man and I’ve been told that everyone must get a gold star on their Driver’s License by this September if they want to fly anywhere. It’s not whether but which. As it turns out the ceremonial laws that designated Israel as a priestly people are fulfilled in Christ. They were not abolished, but their true meaning is now fully expressed in the priesthood of Jesus and His cleansing blood (See Acts 10, Galatians, and Hebrews). But what about railings on our roofs? That’s the question that’s nagging at everyone. I mean, putting up Christmas lights is difficult enough. But let me assuage your fears by citing that Arch-Theonomist of Everyone’s Worst Nightmares, Dr. Greg Bahnsen who had this (ghastly) opinion of those civil laws:

“The Puritans termed these case-law applications of the Decalogue “judicial laws,” and they correctly held that we are not bound today to keep these judicial laws as they are worded (being couched in the language of an ancient culture that has passed away) but only required to heed their underlying principles (or “general equity,” as they called it).”

There you have it. I have extra paper bags if you need one to breathe into. Place it over your nose and mouth, and secure with your hand, which you can adjust all by yourself to ensure a snug fit. The paper bag should fully inflate, as your oxygen is flowing. If you are traveling with a young child or infant, please remember to secure your own paper bag first before helping others.

Turns out Bahnsen is referring to the Westminster Confession of Faith which says this very thing: “To them also, as a body politic, he gave sundry judicial laws, which expired together with the State of that people, not obliging any other, now, further than the general equity thereof may require” (WCF 19.4). The general equity is the Ten Commandments, the universal, abiding principles of justice and penalties. The particular law code in all of its details expired with the Old Testament Jewish state. But God’s justice does not expire. The law still reveals our sin, drives us to Christ, and teaches how to obey Him in every area of life. 

Conclusion
Let me leave you with some questions to ponder. Should sodomy be a crime? It was a crime in most states for most of American history. If so, why? If not, why not? And if so, what should the civil penalty be? By what standard? Should adultery be a crime? It was a crime in most states for most of American history. If so, why? If not, why not? What penalty would a godly judge render for the crime of adultery? What about incest? It’s still illegal in most states to this day, but perhaps you’ve noticed that there are increasing stories about father-daughter relationships and such and it’s bound to only get worse. There really are no brakes on this thing. For hundreds of years, Protestant Christians have insisted on the God-given rights of individual consciences (against religious coercion) and the separation of powers while happily following God’s law and appealing to both Old and New Testament law and natural law to establish Christian cultures and defend themselves. I’m with those guys.

Photo by John Bakator on Unsplash

Rights, Privilege, and Sinners

Two of the most common buzz words in our modern cultural vocabulary are rights and privilege. Human rights, equal rights, gay rights, male privilege, white privilege, wealth privilege, and so on. But the reason our culture is floundering in these concepts is because it is in rebellion against the living God. When people will not submit to God’s Word, His standards, and His definitions, people always create their own. If you will not submit to God’s word, all the words are up for grabs, including the pronouns. 

But this table is one of the key places where Jesus has established God’s Word, His standards, and His definitions in the world. Here, at this table, God invites all sinners to fellowship with Him through Jesus Christ. The only qualification for coming to this table is that you must be a sinner in need of grace. And “sinner” is defined by God and His Word alone. Sexual immorality is a sin. Envy is a sin. Hatred of your brother made in God’s image is a sin. Being born with particular gifts or opportunities or blessings or challenges is not a sin. But this table is for sinners.

If equality or lack of privilege mean that you think you have less sin, relatively little sin, or that you are somehow innocent of great transgressions, then must lay that claim down. You cannot come to this table as an innocent victim, or as a member of an oppressed people group. Christ is the only innocent victim, and all have sinned. This is why Paul says there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female in Jesus Christ. The ground is level at the cross. We are equally damned, equally saved, and equally love by the Father. 

But this fundamental equality in Christ does not obliterate differences; rather, it is the root cause of all the glorious differences. In the beginning, God created all things, tad poles and zebras and elephants and water and stars, and men and women. They were made with different glories, different privileges, and it was all very good. And so it is here, though through a glass darkly, we see God in His goodness forgiving all our sins and bestowing very different gifts on everyone at His table. It’s the same table, the same Jesus, the same Spirit, and yet different gifts, different manifestations, different blessings, different glory. And it is all very good.

So come and welcome to Jesus Christ.

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Church People Killed Jesus

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’” (Matt. 7:21-23).

It must never be forgotten that it was Church people, religious people who put Jesus to death. He came to His and His own did not receive Him. On the one hand, we have very good reason for rejoicing in God’s kindness to us and in the clear fruit of the Spirit in our midst. Many of us have witnessed lives changed, true sorrow over sin, sweet forgiveness and reconciliation, and radical repentance. These are the signs of regeneration, the signs that someone has been born again, and now Jesus lives inside us, and He is subduing the power of sin and giving us more strength to love and obey God and to delight in obeying Him. 

But there is always the danger in any gathering of Christians for people to go through the motions, to say the right words, to conform to the externals, to smile and nod, and say Lord, Lord, and yet not actually know the Lord. And there will be many on the last day who stand before God pointing to their perfect church attendance record, not singing off pitch, wearing a tie, being nice and polite after church, and Jesus will say He never knew them, He never met them. And the reason will be that they never really changed. Sin was never really conquered because Jesus was never really their Lord.

I remember talking to Jim Wilson one time about an individual we were both meeting with, and he said, “When Jesus saves someone, he does a better job than that.” And this points to at least two things: First, the Bible says that the works of the flesh are manifest. It’s pretty obvious when someone is still in the dark. And this is because of the second thing: Jesus saves sinners. Jesus changes lives. True Christians still battle sin, but little by little Jesus wins the victory.

Photo by Kenny Luo on Unsplash