Toby J. Sumpter's Blog, page 6

The Justice & Faith of Joseph

Mt. 1:18-25

[A video of this message is available here.]

Prayer: Father, you know that we are in desperate need of just and faithful men like Joseph. So please used this text to confront our disobedience and our blind spots, and grant us grace to hear your word and obey it for the blessing of our families, church, city, and nation. In Jesus’ name, Amen. 

Introduction 

Our culture has descended into such sexual debauchery, it is sometimes difficult for us to understand the intense trial that Joseph faced in the unexpected pregnancy of his betrothed wife. It was a scandalous betrayal with potentially massive repercussions for his reputation and livelihood, but like his ancient namesake, he was patient and judicious, and God blessed him immensely, leaving us a faithful example to follow. This is an example for all of us, and particular example for the men. We need the justice and faith of Joseph.

The Text: “Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost…” (Mt. 1:18-25).

Summary of the Text

Betrothal was a legally binding contract in the ancient world that required a divorce to break, but it was still prior to the marriage consummation. So, when Mary was found pregnant, presumably by immoral relations with another man, Joseph, being a just man, determined to divorce Mary but to do so quietly in order to minimize her punishment and shame (Mt. 1:18-19). It was while he was carefully contemplating this action that the angel of the Lord appeared to him and informed him that Mary’s story was true, and the son she was carrying was the Messiah by the Holy Spirit, to fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah (Mt. 1:20-23). So, at great risk to his own livelihood and reputation, Joseph obeyed the Lord and went through with the marriage, but did not consummate the marriage until after she had given birth, and indicated his wholehearted, obedient faith by naming his adopted son Jesus (Mt. 1:24-25). 

The Law of Betrothed Virgins

In the law, it was required that a woman present herself honestly to a potential husband, and if she was presented as a virgin, but later found to have not been, her husband was free to divorce her and she could be liable to the death penalty (Dt. 24:1, 22:20-21). This is because marriage is the building block of all human society: if there is not honesty and loyalty there, you will not have it anywhere. This is why adultery also carried a possible death penalty – unfaithfulness to the foundational covenant is a murderous attack not only on your own family but also your neighbors and nation. This is why a betrothed woman who slept with another man was also liable to a death penalty, if she did not “cry out” to indicate her unwillingness (Dt. 22:23). We have been brainwashed into believing that sex is just a meaningless action between “consenting adults,” but marriage and sexual union is the nuclear reactor of social and political life. If your neighbor says he’s playing with plutonium and uranium in his basement, you don’t give him a pass because it’s “in the privacy of his own home.” Marital and sexual infidelity never stays private. And we are living in the nuclear fallout of the sexual revolution. This is why God’s law prescribes such intense maximum penalties. You are playing with explosives.

In this case, Scripture says that Joseph was a “just man,” which means that he was aware of the law of God and committed to obeying it. When Mary came to him pregnant, perhaps trying to explain that it wasn’t what it looked like, Joseph would likely have believed that Mary had in fact slept with another man. By being inclined to divorce Mary “quietly,” he was choosing the minimum penalty, not charging her publicly with the crime that it appeared she had committed. While it doesn’t appear that the Jews were ordinarily allowed to enforce death penalties under Roman rule (Jn. 18:31, although Acts 7), there would at least have been severe social and religious repercussions, for Mary and for Joseph, affecting livelihoods and reputations (e.g. Dt. 22:21, Jn. 8). Some commentators suggest that Joseph would have needed to move away in order to do it really quietly.

While He Thought on These Things

The justice of Joseph is also illustrated in his immediate response to these things. He is thoughtful and gracious to a woman who has apparently betrayed him and brought massive scandal upon him. In the ancient world, a betrothal was a legally binding contract because there was often a great deal of business that needed to be completed as part of a marriage: lands or houses sold or purchased, major vocational and economic matters settled, etc. It’s likely that Joseph was not only tempted to be broken hearted, but he may have been in a position to lose a lot financially and vocationally. As a carpenter, would he be out of business? Would he need to move away? And if he only divorced her quietly, without publicly charging her with adultery, then he would have still taken a loss. Why had Mary betrayed him? Why didn’t he publicly charge her? In the face of a massive disappointment, crisis, and potential public scandal, Joseph was thoughtful (Mt. 1:20). He didn’t fly off the handle or blow up. He didn’t make a snap or rash decision. We need men who are judicious and thoughtful like Joseph – not rash, not wrathful, not despairing. 

You might be wondering why he wasn’t considering just marrying Mary. It’s likely that wasn’t a good option because: A. He had no idea who the father was and what kind of scandal or trouble that would bring and B. If it was obvious that the baby wasn’t his, it could appear to some that he had actually prostituted his wife, potentially bringing even more shame and scandal on both of them and their families and their people. We could also add a third reason that Joseph had no reason to believe or trust Mary at this point, if she had done it this time, what would prevent her from doing it again?

While he thought on these things, inclined to divorce his “adulterous” betrothed wife quietly, he received a word from the angel of the Lord in a dream (Mt. 1:20). And the word he received was not exactly the kind of word that made everything better. It certainly exonerated Mary from any crime, but all the same potential scandal and reputational matters remained. It wasn’t exactly a story that would be helpful to most people, at least initially. Which is why the angel’s primary command is: “fear not.” The assignment was not really easier, but it was clear. We need men who know their duty and fear not.

Applications

God does not ordinarily send messages by angels in dreams. But notice that if He does, He will speak clearly. God does not “chirp and mutter” like pagan wizards (Is. 8:19). “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them” (Is. 8:20). And Jesus is a greater Word than all the angels (Heb. 1). The Word of God is a lamp for our feet and light to our path. The law of God tells us what to do. What is your duty? God has spoken clearly in His Word.  

Joseph was a just man, and a model for this obedience. In a world blown about by suspicions, accusations, manipulation, hurt, rage, and real betrayal, imitate the thoughtful obedience of Joseph. The assignment may not be easy, but Scripture is clear. Be patient, kind, forgiving, and just. Be faithful to your marriage vows; honor the marriage bed; love purity. And wherever you have sinned: tell the truth and confess your sins. And if something immoral has happened, “cry out” (Dt. 22:23-27). Cry out if have done something; cry out if something has been done to you. “He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy” (Prov. 28:13).

The First Christmas was a real scandal, a trial, a massive interruption in the plans of Joseph and Mary. It wasn’t like anyone expected, and it did not come like a gentle sunrise. It came more like a storm. We face interruptions and major disappointments too. Things often do not go as expected (from traffic, to financial trials, to cancer and death). And the temptations to anger and fear are significant. But those are the responses of idolatry. They assume that God is not in control, and they assume that your anger or your fear are up to the challenge. But you are a lousy god, and your anger and fear only make things worse. When you are tempted in these ways, consider praying the Lord’s Prayer: meditate on the fact that you have a faithful Father in Heaven: honor Him and His Kingdom and His will and His provision and His grace. 

And you can do this because Jesus was born to save His people from their sins. 

Prayer: Almighty God, our Father, we confess that You are God and we are not. You are in control of all things, and we are not. And we confess that You are faithful and good, and that our peace and security is found only in You. We confess our angry outburst, our bitterness, and our anxiety as pitiful attempts to control our lives, and we confess it as idolatry, pretending that we can be gods. And we rest in Your Fatherly provision. Hallowed be Your name. We serve Your Kingdom, Your Will, and Your glory, and not our own. And so we commit ourselves to You using the words our Lord taught us to pray, singing…

Barrenness & the Virgin Birth

Lk. 1:34-38

Prayer: Father, we ask that the same Holy Spirit that overshadowed Mary and brought Your Son into this world would come and overshadow us now, that this Word may bear great fruit in our lives and in this world. Let it be according to this Your Word, in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Introduction

One of the central historical facts surrounding the birth of Christ is the virgin birth. Isaiah foretold this (Is. 7:14, Mt. 1:23). And Mary conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and apart from the ordinary contribution of a man. 

But when this was first announced to Mary, the angel also highlighted the conception of her cousin Elisabeth, who was called barren. This indicates that the virgin birth is in part the culmination of the theme of barrenness and its healing found in the Old Testament. When we consider the meaning of the virgin birth, Scripture instructs us to consider the theme of barrenness. 

The Text: “Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee…” (Lk. 1:34-38).

Summary of the Text

Having announced that Mary will conceive and bear a son named Jesus, and that He will be the Messiah who will reign on the throne of David forever, Mary askes how this is even possible since she is a virgin (Lk. 1:31-34). The angel says this will happen by the Spirit overshadowing her, since this son will be called the Son of God (Lk. 1:35). The angel also announces that Mary’s elderly cousin Elisabeth is six months pregnant with a son, even though she was well known as barren, proving that with God nothing will be impossible (Lk. 1:36-37). And Mary accepted the assignment from the Lord in obedience to His word (Lk. 1:38). 

Barren Wombs (and Ground)

Barrenness is a theme that goes back to the entrance of sin into the world and the curses pronounced in the Garden: “Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children… And unto Adam he said… cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee…” (Gen. 3:16-18)

Here we learn that the curse of sin will affect the fruitfulness of the woman’s womb and the ground. And the two things go together: barrenness is complete inability or great difficulty in bearing fruit (Ex. 23:26, Dt. 7:14, 2 Kgs. 2:19-21, Ps. 107:34). And barrenness becomes a common trial in the story of Scripture, beginning with all three patriarchs: Sarah was barren (Gen. 11:30), Rebekah was barren (Gen. 25:21), and Rachel was barren (Gen. 29:31). But also the wife of Manoah was barren (Jdg. 13:2), Ruth was apparently barren (Ruth 1:4), and Hannah was barren (1 Sam. 1:2), culminating with Elisabeth (Lk. 1:7). 

But the stories illustrate at least two things. First, the pain and helplessness of barrenness: “There are three things that are never satisfied, yea, four things say not, It is enough: The grave; and the barren womb; the earth that is not filled with water; and the fire that saith not, It is enough” (Prov. 30:15-16). Barrenness is like a festering wound, a constant ache. But second, in every one of these stories, the helpless emptiness is repeatedly interrupted by the joy of God’s provision: “He maketh the barren woman to keep house, and to be a joyful mother of children. Praise ye the Lord” (Ps. 113:9, cf. 1 Sam. 2:5). 

The Barrenness of Sin

All of this is one of the signs of the barrenness of sin and the fruitfulness of salvation. Sin makes everything fruitless and impossible, and we are powerless to change it. And yet the Prophet Isaiah announced in the midst of Jerusalem’s shameful destruction and powerless exile: “Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the Lord” (Is. 54:1). The prophet instructs those afflicted with the barrenness of sin (and all its effects) to fix their eyes on God and break forth with singing, believing that He will make them fruitful. 

A little later, the same prophet foretells the salvation of Israel in terms of the barren giving birth: “Shall I bring to birth, and not cause to bring forth, saith the Lord: shall I cause to bring forth, and shut the womb? Saith thy God… For thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing stream…” (Is. 66:9, 12). Like a river suddenly flowing in a desert, the virgin birth is the answer to all our barrenness.

Applications
1. As you celebrate Christmas, remember that you are celebrating God breaking into history in order to do what is impossible. The hardest thing, the most impossible thing is reconciling defiant sinners to a holy God. But we often get this backwards in our hearts and minds: we think the barrenness in our material lives is the impossible thing but God just forgives sinners easy-peasy. But it’s actually the other way around: physical healing is relatively easy, but our sin, our spiritual death and barrenness is the impossible thing. 

Justice required the wrath of God to be poured out on a perfect man, but there was no man who was perfect and no man who could survive the wrath of God. Think about that: the impossibility of our salvation. But what was completely impossible for us, God has done for us in His own well-beloved Son. The one born of the virgin is the Son of God: fully man in our place, fully God to bear God’s wrath. The justice due for our sin was the most impossible thing, reconciling sinners to a holy God was impossible for us, but with God now all things are possible. God can and will make everything fruitful. He is for you.

2. Barrenness is a curse, not a lifestyle choice. We reject all voluntary barrenness, even as we sometimes must accept it from the Lord. At the same time, remember the apostolic injunction to “mind thine own business” (1 Thess. 4:11). Don’t be nosy, and don’t assume the worst. This can apply to marriage, bearing children, and other personal matters (e.g. medical/health). 

Also closely related, remember that fruitfulness is to be defined biblically not materialistically. Eight kids that are poorly cared for and hate Jesus is not more fruitful than three kids well-loved and walking in the Light. And sometimes the hard assignment of fruitfulness is no kids and loving your community well, and sometimes there are seasons of different assignments. And we must learn to say to it all, “Let it be according to Thy word.”

3. Finally, singing is required. Right after this scene in Luke’s gospel, Mary visits Elisabeth and breaks into song: “My soul magnifies the Lord!” She is of course singing because she has seen the reversal of the curse (as does Hannah in 1 Sam. 2). But Isaiah urged the Jews to sing while they were still in exile, while they were still experiencing the effects of the curse because God will surely make all things new. Whether now in this life, or in the life to come, He will wipe away every tear, and He will make everything fruitful. The vision of the New Jerusalem in Revelation is a river with trees of life, full of fruit on both sides. So you must sing, which is to say, you must rejoice always and in all things. In the midst of pain and suffering and disappointment, sing louder in faith because the virgin has given birth, because the barrenness of sin and death has been broken. 

Prayer: Father, wherever we have given in to despair, please forgive us and grant us hope. Wherever we have given in to rage and wrath, please forgive us and give us contentment and gratitude, resting in Your goodness, trusting that You are for us. And we ask for this in Jesus name, who taught us to pray, singing…

The Line of Promise

Mt. 1:1-17

[A video is available of this message here.]

Prayer: Father, you’ve recorded these names for our good and your glory. You want us to remember with You, Your faithfulness to all generations. So by Your Holy Spirit, use these words to remind us today so we might be full of courage to obey You in everything. In Jesus’ name, Amen

Introduction

As we prepare to celebrate Christmas, it is encouraging to look backwards and see the faithfulness of God over so many generations leading up to the birth of Christ. It is that same covenant faithfulness that is promised to everyone in Christ. God still promises to be our God and the God of our children after us, until the earth is full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. The coming of Christ as human, born into a human family, is the fulfillment of God’s promise and the guarantee of its fullness.

The Text: “The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of Davd, the son of Abraham…” (Mt. 1:1-17).

Summary of the Text

When Matthew begins with the “book of the generation” (Mt. 1:1), this is a call back to one of the organizing structures of Genesis: “This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him…” (Gen. 5:1, cf. 2:4, 6:9, 10:1, etc.). The genealogies in Genesis 5 and Genesis 10-11 each record 10 generations: Adam to Noah and Shem to Abram, covering a little over 2000 years, tracing the promise of the “seed of the woman” (Gen. 3:15). 

Matthew picks up his genealogy at Abraham and the patriarchs (Mt. 1:2), but he highlights some of the surprises, beginning with the twins born to Tamar by her father in-law Judah (Mt. 1:3). Five generations later, Salmon begot Boaz by marrying the Canaanite prostitute Rahab from Jericho, and of course Boaz married Ruth the Moabitess, a cursed people (Mt. 1:4-5, Dt. 23:3). Boaz was the great-grandfather of King David, who begot Solomon by Bathsheba, who had been the wife of one of David’s mighty men, Uriah the Hittite, murdered by David’s command (Mt. 1:6-7, 2 Sam. 23:39). There were fourteen generations of kings from David to Jeconiah, when Judah was conquered and carried into exile in Babylon (Mt. 1:7-11, 1:17). And there were another fourteen generations from Jeconiah to Jesus Christ, born of the virgin Mary, the wife of Joseph (Mt. 1:12-16, cf. 1:17). 

A Motley Crew

Perhaps the first thing that stands out is how motley the line of promise is: incest, prostitution, intermarriage with a cursed nation, adultery, murder, slavery, homelessness, and pregnancy out of wedlock are all right on the surface. And that in turn implies all the other “normal” sins and failures of these descendants of Adam. Were there angry outbursts, lies, betrayals, spiteful words or acts? Yes, all of it. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and this family tree is no different (Rom. 3:23). 

But this is the line of promise, the line of the King. What a way to begin the gospel of the King. You don’t make up a religion this way. And so what it actually highlights is the mind-blowing grace of God. Athanasius says that when a great King enters a city it honors the whole city, and when God took on human flesh, He honored our pitiful race. 

Notice also that while God works through a family line, there is nothing “pure” about it. As the New Testament labors to demonstrate, the line of promise is by faith not by flesh: “For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith” (Rom. 4:13). It was not through the law, in the sense that it was not by families perfectly keeping the law or achieving greatness by human striving. Ishmael was a picture of human striving, but Isaac was the son of promise (Gal. 4:23, 28). 

Natural sons or not, the power is in the promise of God, not our family name or bloodline or accomplishments. And the motley nature of the line underlines this point. You wouldn’t plan the salvation of the world with this family tree, but God did because of His grace – to underline the firmness of His promises. His purposes are sure. He cannot be stopped. 

And You Are Heirs

But the other point of these genealogies is to underline God’s love for His people. When you read the genealogies, don’t just think “weird names I can’t pronounce.” Think people, families, children, stories that God loves and has promised to never forget. We carve the names of our loved ones on stone to signify that they were and are beloved and worth remembering, but even the greatest men will be forgotten like Ozymandias in the sands of time. But we serve the God who has sworn to never forget His people. He ordered the names of Israel engraved on precious stones on the breastplate of the High Priest (Ex. 28:9-12, 21). And He has written the names of all of His people in the Lamb’s Book of Life (e.g. Phil. 4:3, Rev. 3:5); they are even engraved on the palms of His hands (Is. 49:16). 

He first made that promise in a Garden six thousand years ago to a heartbroken couple who had thrown all of God’s grace away. And that promise was kept to Abraham and his descendants over thousands of years, all the way down to a young virgin named Mary. But the promise was that the curse of sin and death would be completely undone, reversed, and healed. This is why we sing: “He comes to make His blessings flow, far as the curse is found.” 

God promised Abraham that through him, all the families of the earth would be blessed (Gen. 12:3). God did not send His own Son into the world to condemn the world, but that through Him the world might be saved (Jn. 3:17). All those who trust in Christ are sons and heirs of God: “And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Gal. 3:29).

Applications

Honor your people, beginning with your own parents. If God can use this family tree to save the world, He can use your family tree. Abortion? Adultery? Abuse? Apostacy? Welcome to planet earth, and welcome to the family of Adam. 

God created the natural family, and there is something good and glorious about it – even with the curse of sin, there are cathedral ruins that can be remembered and honored. We do not honor sin, but we honor every vestige of the glory of God. And wherever Christ has come, the rebuilding and healing can begin. Faith sees possibilities and opportunities amidst the rubble; unbelief only sees failure and what might have been.

As you celebrate, remember that you are celebrating the birth of the King into your family, which it turns out is more like your family being reborn into the family of the King. By faith in Jesus Christ, you have been grafted into the line of promise. And it flows in both directions: You are Abraham’s children; your children are Abraham’s children. This family tree is now your family tree. This is your inheritance in Christ. Do not say, you have no family, no people. 

Jesus said that whoever does the will of His Father are His mother, and sisters, and brothers.   

Jesus Christ is the tree, and all who believe are fruitful branches in Him because He knows them all by name.

Prayer: Almighty God, our Father, please drive this grace and truth into our hearts and minds. Drive away the doubts and fears of the Evil One. Give us the confidence that belongs to those who belong to You. And may our homes be places of this true nobility. And we ask in Jesus’ name, who taught us to pray, singing…

Photo by Anne Nygård on Unsplash

Revoice for Nazis

Introduction
So a few years ago, Lucy once again offered to hold the football for Charlie Brown, and by this we mean that homosexuality was offered to conservative Christians under the guise of “gay celibate friendship” and “side B Christianity.” A conference called “Revoice” was hosted by a PCA church with a tagline about helping LGBT minorities find a place in the church, including one talk about bringing “Queer Treasure” into the New Jerusalem. 

The same play is currently being run again, but this time on the dissident right, what some of us are calling the Dank Right or Reich, as the case may be. This is the black tapeworm attempting to attach itself to the Dissident Right – a wide ranging coalition of folks fed up with the woke/DEI Left forcing their so-called tolerance on our kids with puberty blockers, Drag Queens, and lockdown orders. But like Nikibrik the Dwarf making deals with hags and werewolves, the Dank Right has apparently decided that since liberals accused Trump of being Hitler, and he got re-elected, maybe we should go dumpster diving for some of his super powers. The offer is self-confident white boys, political power, and dressing up werewolves with 80s shades.

The Dank Reich
The setup is what many are calling the “Post War Consensus,” a broad agreement following World War 2 that the holocaust was so evil and heinous, that everything must be done to “never again” let that happen. The deep irony is that within a generation of that oath, the United States Supreme Court legalized a holocaust against the unborn, which has dwarfed Hitler’s cruelest designs. But much of the 20th century liberal project became intertwined with this post war consensus: since Hitler perpetrated his evils in the (false) name of Christianity and did so in the name of blood and soil, family and nation, love and loyalty of those sorts were framed as the great evils: the deliberate destruction of the Christian patriarchal family via the sexual revolution and secular-statist multiculturalism, were all part of that post war project to avoid another world war and all the atrocities that came with it, which really was a Faustian bargain with the devil. 

In God’s great kindness, the last 10 years have seen an increasing unmasking of this Marxist and Communist agenda, with the LGBT jihad and social justice riots culminating in the Covid Charade and BLM marches. Suddenly, burning down Minneapolis was acceptable, but Christians gathering for worship were being fined and persecuted. Even many so-called conservative Christians joined in elements of this statist “gospel.” Thus began the great Red Pilling moment. The 20th century liberalism project was not about freedom and tolerance and democracy. It was about a creeping totalitarian deep state trying to destroy our Christian way of life in the name of [checks notes] preventing World War 3. 

And when you’ve been lied to about so much, it’s tempting to think everything has been a lie. Was Hitler as bad as everyone says he was? Was America really the good guys? And when someone points out that a Jewish rabbi runs Pornhub, some Fed and three naïve anons on X start suggesting that maybe Hitler was on to something. Meanwhile, Islam continues to grow in cultural and political power in Europe and the UK, and straight up Hamas-style antisemitism is on the rise in the West.

It’s against this backdrop that the conservative Reformed world has been rocked by some of this as well. There have been attempts by kinists to infiltrate the Reformed world for decades, marked primarily for their belief that mixing races is unnatural and sinful, or at the very least that we have some moral obligation to preserve the color of our skin. While Stephen Wolfe has characterized his Christian Nationalism project with a carefully defined notion of “ethnicity,” a shared love of people, place, history, and ways of life, he appears to have left himself open to kinist-types to attach themselves to his mission. In my neck of the Reformed Hundred Acre Wood, we have churches in the CREC where all of this is actually being flirted with. So this isn’t academic or speculative at all. From Mein Kampf book studies to conspiracy theories surrounding Jewish cabals to secret discussion groups (“don’t tell the elders about this…”), multiple CREC sessions are actively engaged in ministering to people flirting with this gunk. This is why Douglas Wilson was already addressing all of this back in July, including referring obliquely to the now infamous Holocaust meme, mocking Jews for complaining about hard work. All of this is the backdrop for the Antioch Declaration, which was needed regardless of whether the pastoral situation in Joel Webbon’s church had blown up. 

In other words, for people to think that the Antioch Declaration or Doug Wilson’s blog post or James White’s podcast fire alarms are them being obsessed with one pastoral situation in Texas is to betray a massive myopia. You’re so vain, you probably think this podcast is about you… heh, not hardly. There may be specific cracks in the dam we’re noticing, but the real point is the massive flood of spite pouring down the mountain side toward the dam.

T-Levels or Something Else?
In response to Doug Wilson’s discussion of the Antioch Declaration on CrossPolitic, Joel Webbon suggested we drop the “Revoice for Nazis” phrase. He granted that if someone was actually harboring hatred for Jews in his heart but promised not to shoot up any synagogues the phrase would be warranted, but Joel wondered what the use of it is when we’re talking about guys questioning the Post World War 2 Consensus, historical matters related to the holocaust, or wanting to point out that Judaism is worse than many evangelicals think, etc. Revoice was about dudes indulging sodomite fantasies or at least gay cuddling, how is questioning the historical narrative doing anything like that? And the simple answer is: if that was actually all that was going on, Joel would be right. If all that was going was historical revisionism, I would completely agree. The problem is that isn’t the only thing going on. From Nick Fuentes to Candace Owens to Corey Mahler at the Stone Choir podcast, we have more than just historical opinions at work. 

I responded to Joel saying, “Joel, for whatever it’s worth, I appreciate all of this, but let me throw one more scenario into the mix. What about the dude who doesn’t think he likes guys at all? He just likes wrestling and weight lifting with the dudes, and he thinks that thrill he feels is his T-levels rising, when in actuality there’s something else going on? It’s that same sort of thrill some of the guys get sharing pit viper memes and Samuel Holden WBS videos. The Revoice vibe is not just hate; it’s also lust for a transgressive thrill. So no, unfortunately, we can’t retire “Revoice for Nazis” until we’re done flirting with Hitler and white supremacy. And I’m not saying you’re doing that, but my threads say it’s way too common in our circles. Cheers!”

Some people said this was me calling wrestling or weight lifting gay, but that would be dumb. Again, if all we are talking about is calm, reasoning surrounding the historical evidence for particular historical claims, Joel would be right. But that isn’t what we’re talking about at all. We’re talking about a spiteful resentment that animates the lives of these guys and their social media posts, threads, and replies. Let me underline this point one more time: simple, rational historical study and analysis full of the fruit of the Spirit is not what I’m talking about here. Please carry on doing responsible, historical research in the joy of the Lord. Of course, you could still end up believing something false or untrue, but if you embrace historical falsehood honestly and cheerfully, you might not be eligible for certain jobs, but that isn’t church discipline material. What I’m talking about is historical study with spite, historical discussion with a sledgehammer, historical discussions full of obscenity, rancor, and rage. And it really isn’t as far from real gayness as many might think.

Back in the Revoice days, I brought a similar point up about men obsessed with appearance and aesthetic details. And I had to make a similar distinction. Of course, a man who cares about his appearance is not necessarily being effeminate or gay, but there absolutely is a kind of obsession with appearance that is feminine and therefore effeminate. It is the glory of a woman to be beautiful; she is the glory of man. And yes, of course, a woman can be sinfully vain and sinfully obsessed with her appearance as well. But generally speaking, a man should spend less time in front of the mirror. Likewise, aesthetic details: of course, there are godly and masculine musicians, artists, actors, craftsmen, and so forth, and they are of necessity concerned with aesthetics, but again, there is a kind of resentful fastidiousness that is unnatural and bending toward metrosexual gayness. There is a reason why sodomy is so prevalent in the arts. It is not necessarily so, but there is a temptation there, that needs to be flagged and warned against. A pastor that doesn’t warn his parishioners about the homosexual temptations that will be faced in a theater department or art school or in women’s collegiate athletics, isn’t doing his job.  

White Boy Flamer
But White Boy Summer has been the same sort of thing. First off, the whole thing is as gay as socks on a rooster. A bunch of dudes sharing pictures and memes of themselves in pit viper shades and calling each other “kings”? Talk about campy. And of course, I’m not saying that those things in themselves are any kind of sin. My point is that when people start doing things that are just a couple of ticks off, pastors need to notice and keep an eye on things. And the thing to keep an eye on is a dark turn, a little bit of angsty poison, a snarl. And right on schedule, the Samuel Holden White Boy Summer video captured this perfectly. There it was “just having fun” – all those carefully curated clips, set to an emotionally moving soundtrack, gushing sentimentalism, and then, like a turd in swimming pool, a shot of Hitler walking away and some fascist regiments goose stepping, all woven into images of Americana-Christian men standing up against Woke nonsense. 

Some very well-meaning pastors have busted BS detectors, such that they can’t tell when “I just have questions/concerns/opinions” are actually cover for bitterness, spite, wrath, rivalry, and envy. If you think one brief shot of Hitler in an otherwise sappy call back to a different kind of America is not an act of spite, you’re not paying attention. If you think laughing at a holocaust meme is mostly harmless fun, there’s a gold mine in Nigeria I’d like to sell you. 

Paul covered this with Timothy centuries ago: “As I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia, that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine, neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions, rather than godly edifying which is in faith: so do. Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned: From which some having swerved have turned aside unto vain jangling; Desiring to be teachers of the law; understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm” (1 Tim. 1:3-7).

In the first century, Paul warned Timothy that the wrong sort of men desiring to become leaders will become obsessed with fables and endless genealogies, ministering questions, rather than godly edifying, pure hearts, good consciences, and faith unfeigned. “Vain jangling” is a great King James-ism, and it applies handily to much of what passes as discourse on social media. But notice what Paul warns against: would-be leaders ministering questions. “They just have questions,” is not enough information. Some men “just have questions” because they are sidling in for positions of leadership for ungodly reasons, and godly ministers in the tradition of Paul and Timothy are required by God’s Word to charge those men to shut up. 

However, some men are saying, there’s no sin in “noticing” that Jews run significant portions of the porn industry or George Soros is a Jew who has funded many modern atrocities, and I would agree. No sin in “noticing” all by itself. Not at all. The sin is the noticing with three helpings of spite. The sin is noticing and throwing elbows. The sin is noticing and seething. Why do you keep bringing it up? Why does that guy keep posting about it online? Why are you on your fifth podcast about it? Why the metrosexual obsession? And when he says, oh, no reason, I’m just curious about history, all of your pastoral hackles should be up. Why? Because of 1 Timothy 1. And then the pastor who is about to be exasperated with me says, “OK, OK, I asked him about it – I asked him if he harbors any bitterness against the Jews,” and he said, well, maybe I did just little bit last Thursday but not anymore. I’m just really interested in the historical discussion.   

If you’re a pastor and you think your job is done, you’re a fool. If you were asking about porn and lust, would that really be the end of it? Bitterness is rarely a sin that self-identifies as sin, especially inside the Church. People know they’re not supposed to be bitter, so they try to cover it with Bible verses and pious excuses. “I’m not bitter, I just have a righteous hatred for the damage the porn industry is doing to our young men.” “I’m not bitter, I’m just sick and tired of how Big Pharma has poisoned millions of Americans.” “I’m not bitter, I just like to use the serrated edge like that Wolf Douglas Wilson.” Some of this depends upon the tenor of those replies. But some of it is right there on the surface, snarling and festering. Sometimes you really can’t tell, and you simply warn the guy to be careful and watch out. But the guy mocking James White and Douglas Wilson doesn’t need a follow up exam, He needs a blunt rebuke to the face. He needs his pit vipers taken away along with the car keys to his X account. 

As I wrote in an article five years ago, evangelicals have often created something of a “Gay Greenhouse,” idealizing feminine piety and insisting that men imitate it with sappy Jesus-is-my-boyfriend worship music, always “sharing” feelings and emotions, and often valuing feminine aesthetics in colors, tidiness, and neatness – and then we’re shocked when men start having strange temptations. The Dank Right is in the process of doing the same thing with dissidence, rebellion, and spite. Sure, we’re not full-blown White Supremacists or Nazis, and maybe we’re not technically kinists either, but we’re Side B Nazis. And again, let me underline the point: it is not questioning the historical narrative. The point is the angst, the wrath, the spite. And a bunch of us are seeing it in spades, with X accounts that say things like “1689” and “Reformed Calvinist” and “Theonomist” and “Christian Nationalist” in their bios. Maybe they’re all Feds and bots, and I certainly hope so, but apparently they think our threads are good waters to fish in. Why is that you think?

Conclusion: Necessary and Unnecessary Conflict
Many are saying that all of this is an unnecessary conflict, and I agree that there are folks that I consider friends who are not antisemites or racialists (that I’m aware of) who have apparently decided to make this some kind of turf war. And to those brothers, I would underline my point again: this is not about historical study or revisionism. If you’re reading up on Churchill, feel free to carry on, so long as you’re fulfilling all your other responsibilities: rejoicing in the Lord always, working hard, loving your wife, honoring your parents, and training up your children in the Lord. If it’s a true hobby, and you’re full of the joy of the Lord, feel free. Just keep your eyes out for the wackos and don’t get worked up when we’re launching missiles at the wackos. If you’re not a wacko, we’re not shooting at you. And if you really care about honest historical research, you really should join us in scaring away the Feds and wackos. They will only get in the way.  

But there are two other categories of folks out there. There are the folks who don’t really care that much about the Post War Consensus, but they have taken empathetic umbrage over the fact that Douglas Wilson and James White and others have pointed out this problem to others. These are probably the vast majority of the White Boy Summer fans, who are generally happy people and thought the pit viper memes were just good fun and feel that the Moscow Mood caught a bad case of the boomer grumps. But the problem has never been the pit vipers or white boys having fun – viva la white boys as they probably say in France. The problem was the fanning of the transgressive lust, the angst, and the spiteful elbows being thrown. And again, if you don’t know what I’m talking about, I refer you to the replies to Pastor Wilson and James White and myself on X. I know it’s a tall order, but can’t we figure out a way to have fun and mock liberals that doesn’t also attract neo-Nazi sympathizers? 

Finally, while it may still be a fringe minority, there really are some full blown antisemites and racists out there stirring up hatred and wrath. Here I’m talking about the folks who are openly saying that Hitler was a Christian Prince, the holocaust really was just work camps that Jews complained about, and all Jews are evil scoundrels because of something in their Ashkenazi genes. That really is of its father the devil, hating and murdering from the beginning. And we have no option but to continue the long war against that seed of the serpent. That is a necessary war, regardless of your religious or political affiliations.

Gratitude & Culture War

[The video of this message can be found here.]

Prayer: Father we know that we must have wisdom in order to live well, and we know that we must have wisdom in order to fight sin and evil well. You tell us to seek wisdom with our whole heart, and that You will give wisdom generously to those who ask. So here we are asking You for wisdom down. Drive Your word deep into our hearts and minds by the power of Your Spirit, Amen. 

Introduction
As we celebrate Thanksgiving this week, it’s worth considering how gratitude is at the center of the great war against evil and the particular battles we face in our day. The basic divide that runs through the center of the human race throughout human history is gratitude versus spite. The unrighteous are those who know God clearly revealed in Creation but refuse to glorify Him as God or be thankful, and those foolish hearts are darkened and make idols and are given over to uncleanness (Rom. 1:21-24). The flip side of this is the implication that those who give thanks, have their hearts enlightened. Gratitude is the gym of wisdom. 

The Text: “For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?” (1 Cor. 4:7)

Summary of the Text
The wisdom of this world is carnal and is marked by envy, strife, divisions, and rivalry (1 Cor. 3:3-4, cf. Js. 3:14-15). And the root of it all is a wicked pride in man. Like arrogant toddlers waddling around in Huggies, people can get puffed up about almost anything, and they do: pride in our bodies, our houses, our marriage, our muscles, our trucks, our smarts, our skin color, our personalities, etc. But the wisdom of God is primarily marked by gratitude since in Christ all things are yours (1 Cor. 3:21), the Lord will judge and make manifest all the counsels of all the hearts (1 Cor. 4:5), and all that we have is from the Lord (1 Cor. 4:7). Who gave you everything that distinguishes you from anyone else? God. What do you have that wasn’t a gift? Nothing. Why do you strut like you had something to do with it?

He Made Us
“Know ye that the Lord he is God: it is He that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise: be thankful unto Him, and bless His name” (Ps. 100:3-4). This is the foundation of our gratitude and praise. In Him, we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28). Christ is before all things and in Him all things consist (Col. 1:17). All things were not only created by His Word, but all things are held together constantly by His Word (Heb. 1:2-3). 

All of this magnifies His kindness and mercy: upholding (even) wicked men, giving life and health and good things to sinners, and then making us alive together in Christ, forgiving our sins, and granting us an inheritance that will never fade. Whatever our duties toward our families, our churches, and our nation, it is all grounded in this thanksgiving and praise and humility. Everything is a gift. Good and bad, fun and hard, all of it is a gift. And while we must stand against all evil, we must learn to do so with a grin on our face because our Father plays with dragons (Job 41). Our Father only allows those challenges/hardships that are for our good. “Behind a frowning providence // He hides a smiling face.”

No Grievance Farming
Despite all this grace, it is still the temptation of sinners to complain, murmur, and nurse grudges, which are all ultimately directed at God Himself – Because He sent the hardship. When Israel murmured about the lack of food and water, they were rebelling against God (Ex. 17:7, Num. 14:22, 1 Cor. 10:10). 

In the name of “justice,” sinners plant resentment, spite, and wrath, and expect to reap a harvest of righteousness. And it’s often in the name of justice, in the name of standing against evil. But Scripture is clear: “Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: for the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God” (Js. 1:19-20). You can’t build a healthy family, community, business, or nation with wrath welling up in your chest. That is the fuel of the enemy. 

Righteous, godly anger is very slow and deliberate: it took God hundreds of years to finally destroy Israel and Judah. But many disciples would call fire down on clueless Samaritans and the animals of Nineveh. Godly anger is like the Ents that hold counsel to determine whether to become angry and go to war. Godly anger is surgical, precise, and altogether holy and productive.

No Marxism 
Marxism is the modern cult religion of class envy. It imagines that peace and prosperity will magically appear in the aftermath of violent revolution, when the oppressed victims overthrow their oppressors. This was initially pitched in economic terms (working class vs. business owners), but it was repackaged in the last 75 years to include sex, race, and then sexual perversions. But the engine that drives it all is spite and resentment for the way God made the world (different gifts/hierarchies) and the way He rules the world (blessings, curses, providence). There are real injustices, but whenever they get weaponized (whenever calm due process is not sufficient), the real target, the real “problem” is God and His world. 

For example, there have been real sex abuse cases, and those cases should be reported and adjudicated in courts of law. But the weaponization of sex abuse happens with mantras like “believe all women.” Well, what about Eve? What about Potiphar’s wife? That mantra has ruined the lives of not a few young men. Do you remember what they tried to do to Justices Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh? That is the abuse of justice, the abuse of women and men, and ultimately an attempt to fire bomb God’s providence. We don’t like the way the story is going, so we lie and manipulate to try to stop God. Marxism tries to thwart the providence of God by revolution, mobs, and violence.

This so-called “social justice” plays fast and loose with the truth, blurring lines, making sloppy accusations, demanding apologies, and designating classes of people in unbiblical categories (whites, blacks, rich, poor, men, women, Jews, etc.). And what the liberals weaponized for decades, some conservatives are starting to play with, playing the blame game and the victim game. “I’m a victim because I’m a white, male, heterosexual Christian.” It’s possible you lost your job or were passed over for promotion because you didn’t meet some DEI quota. But you are not “a victim.” There may be a particular situation that warrants appeal or adjudication, but do not turn it into a charge against a whole class or system. Don’t be a Marxist. Don’t be a “Conservative” Marxist.

God created the world hierarchically and diverse. And He created a world where virtue and hard work are generally rewarded, and sin has created thorns, weeds, pain, enmity, and death. The problem is not power, wealth, sex, or skin color. The problem is sin infecting those things, and sinners are tempted to rage and hate, fixating on those things. And the Devil loves it so because he can keep people locked in cages of resentment and false victimhood.  

Conclusion
So this is the charge: be thankful. Be thankful for your grandma, the turkey, pumpkin pie, how tall or short you are, the color of your skin, and rejoice before the Lord. No guilt for any of His gifts and love your people they way you have been loved in Christ. But no throwing elbows; no wrath in your chest, no resentment. 

We want true gratitude without any whining, true thanksgiving without any spite, true grace without any rivalry. 

And this includes the hard things: give thanks for the difficult family members, give thanks for the challenging dynamics in the extended family. Give thanks for the hardships. Give thanks for the way things did not turn out. 

There is a marked difference between gratitude that simply sees the gifts and bows the head in gratitude on the one hand, and a faux-gratitude that flexes in front of a mirror, while stealing sidelong glances down the table. 

Deep in unfathomable mines
    Of never failing skill;
He treasures up his bright designs,
    And works His sovereign will.

Ye fearful saints fresh courage take,
    The clouds ye so much dread
Are big with mercy, and shall break
    In blessings on your head.

Blind unbelief is sure to err,
    And scan his work in vain;
God is his own interpreter,
    And he will make it plain.

Prayer: Father, please grant us the wisdom to see where these things apply in our lives. Wherever we have given in, even a little bit, to resentment or rage, please take it away. And in its place give us gratitude. Help us to remember that even as we struggle against evil, in Christ, we are ultimately wrestling with You. So give us the strength not to let go until we have your blessing. We ask this in Jesus’ name, who taught us to pray, singing…

Brother Wars and the Antioch Declaration

Introduction
So there have been some doings of late. There was a particular pastoral situation that spun into the spotlight like a helicopter crash, and the pieces are still falling out of the sky. There was a Declaration published, an Antioch Declaration, in fact. And there have been a bajillion comments on it all. And it’s been, shall we say, a bit heated. 

Some of these bumps and bruises are the ordinary knocks of brothers. I grew up with four brothers, and the occasional elbows and shoves and sharp words were exchanged, but almost always like dogs barking and rough housing, hardly ever with real wrath. Most of the time, we were all playing together five minutes later like nothing happened. No grudges, no bad attitudes, and short accounts. 

But some of these collisions are revelatory of alien spirits. This is not me saying these people are not Christians. Jesus rebuked His own disciples, the Apostles of the Christian Church, for wanting to call fire down on Samaritans. The disciples did not know what spirit they were of, and yet, God in His mercy still gave them His Holy Spirit and made them great warriors in His Kingdom. Peter rebuked Jesus for insisting that He must go to Jerusalem and be crucified, and Jesus said that was a satanic temptation in the mouth of Peter, and then Peter went on to be one of the greatest leaders in the early church. So here we have examples of necessary rebuke, but it is the rebuke of a brother, not Joab smiting Abner under the fifth rib.

And mixed into the melee are real ghouls, apostates, orcs, Feds, and belligerents, who are simply verbal terrorists and cyber lynch mobs. They snipe and stab and falsely accuse and spread lies and rumors, and they are of their father the devil. 

Distinguishing Some Things
At this point, it would be helpful to distinguish some things. It is necessary to be able to separate the pastoral situation that arose in Joel Webbon’s church from the Antioch Declaration. The fact that some of the same players are involved does not mean that it warrants conflating the two things. There are of course overlapping themes and topics, but it simply doesn’t follow that the Declaration is attacking fellow Reformed brothers. 

I signed the statement simply because I’ve seen enough antisemitism and wacky racial stuff in my threads in the last year or so to make it clear it was needed. And no, I’m not talking about judicious commentary on Churchill’s war tactics, etc. I’m talking about memes and statements full of hatred, rage, and spite, along with cuddle sessions with Hitler. I read the Declaration, signed it, and I didn’t hesitate to send it to my friends Brian Suave and Joel Webbon asking them to consider signing it. I’ve since been told by some that such a thing seems disingenuous since it should be obvious they wouldn’t agree with significant elements of the Declaration. But it wasn’t at all obvious to me. The only thing I could imagine being a quibble for some is the futurist reading of Romans 11, and that was the kind of thing I had in mind when I posted “If you’re wondering what this Declaration is aiming at or why it was necessary, just peruse the replies to its principal authors on X. If you agree that lots of the replies are vile but you have quibbles with some parts of the Declaration, please sign it and join the conversation.”

Of course that sent howls up that I was pulling a Nancy Pelosi – just sign the bill to find out what’s in it or somehow downplaying significant differences. On the one hand, I would say, c’mon man, it’s just a public consensus statement. It isn’t the Nicene Creed. It isn’t the Westminster Confession of Faith. And on the other hand, there were some men who thought it wasn’t clear enough and offered their own versions that were very good and worth considering, my friend Joseph Spurgeon being one prominent example. He did not assume the worst, calmly articulated a few reasons he didn’t think he could sign the statement and then proceeded to publish his own statement that was quite good and thoughtful. I differ with his decision not to sign, but I really appreciate the spirit of his contribution. 

But the rivalry and emotional responses have been sufficient to demonstrate the need for the Declaration. I don’t care if you think it was unclear or sloppy. Why all the heavy breathing into paper bags? And here I’m primarily referring to the hundreds of replies on several of my posts related to the Declaration. Some have insisted that all the concern about antisemitism and racism is overblown and some kind of virtue signaling witch hunt, but the unhinged mob-think of the last few days suggests otherwise. You can’t have those levels of panic-rage and magically be thinking clearly about Jews, Nazis, and the races.

Demanding Apologies
One of the more common responses to the Declaration has been that it would only be considered after apologies were offered to Joel Webbon for trying to sabotage his ministry. And the demands came pouring in. Apologize! Apologize! And suddenly it felt like I was in one of those White Girl struggle sessions you could probably find in a Matt Walsh documentary. Which was kind of funny because it was led by (presumably) dudes with crusader avatars. First off, it was just unseemly, like dudes constantly taking pictures of themselves in the gym – it’s been a gush fest of Longhouse sentimentalism. One fellow suggested that the authors of the Declaration ought to read Joe Rigney’s book on Leadership and Emotional Sabotage (and I do highly recommend it to everyone), but when I suggested that the people clamoring for apologies read it, the crowd went berserk, which makes me think they really should.

Now please don’t misunderstand. I am in no position to adjudicate the situation that erupted in Joel’s church. But the fact that people have said bad things about Joel is no grounds for going all mother-bear defensive, like Joel isn’t a big boy who can handle himself. This is sort of like somebody throwing down their gun in the middle of Afghanistan because bad guys shot at your frens. Pastoral ministry is for men with backbone, grit, patience, and piles of indestructible joy. Jesus basically said that His ministers would be hated for a living. Look, I know someone will say, but this is different: Wilson and White shared the German pastor’s video. They’re supposed to be brothers in arms. Yes, but that’s all they did, and Wilson did it with an explicit reference to Proverbs 18:17. When a well-platformed pastor like Joel shares his side of an issue, it is not “taking sides” to share the other side, especially when it’s someone no one has ever heard of from a foreign country. 

“But it was full of lies!” goes up the howls of the mob. But wait, how do we know this? “From the secret leaked zoom call!” comes back the breathless answer. Heh. Ok. But don’t you see how that doesn’t answer all the questions? Why was there a “secret recording?” “Because that German pastor could not be trusted!” You insist. Why? And the questions continue. This is not me “siding” with anyone except for Lady Justice. Due Process means innocence until proven guilty, both sides having the right to defend themselves and cross-examine the other, etc. I have not heard the leaked zoom call, but the primary inconsistency (I’m told) is over whether “discipline” was called for. So yes, there are serious, reasonable questions to be asked, and apologies and justice wherever due, but an army of X-anons with cyber pitchforks doth not accomplish the justice of God. As I noted on X, the cries for apologies-now! have been wavering between BLM and pink hat levels of justice.  

As a sidenote, I’m actually pretty sympathetic to the just cause of several of the crusades, but frankly all of this gives me significant pause on our chances of doing something half as brave or just. This is all approaching the wisdom of the Children’s Crusade, but I digress.

The Antioch Declaration
Let me try to bring this in for a landing with a few comments on the Declaration itself. First, some took umbrage at the reference to “wolves.” This is odd since that is one of the central tasks of shepherds – to guard the flock from wolves. But the shrieks went up that the Declaration was calling Joel Webbon a wolf, but it wasn’t and it didn’t. Your ability to do the reading carefully is diminishing by the minute. Then some folks jumped into my timeline saying, “but James White did! James White called for Joel Webbon to step down!” So I asked around, and nobody has yet been able to show me any proof for this unsubstantiated claim. Yes, I’ve seen the video clip where James says that people who “laugh” at Hitler memes should be disciplined and pastors who “laugh” should step down. Yes, I saw that, and I saw that he also said not to make him “name names.” But that really is not the same thing as James calling Joel a wolf or demanding that he step down. “But that’s what he clearly meant!” sounds a lot like, “How do you know she’s a witch? She looks like a witch!”

Anyway, if you wanted to do some long and hard thinking about who the “wolves” might be, I would suggest that you look no further than Corey Mahler, a man who has actually been excommunicated by his church. Excommunication is the formal declaration that someone is outside the Christian Church, and when that someone carries on as a teacher, it would be fair to call that man a false teacher trying to lead God’s flock astray, i.e. a wolf. 

One of the other taunts seems to be surrounding some of the Declaration’s pushback on the “Post War Consensus,” largely popularized by Rusty Reno’s book Return of the Strong Gods, which I found to be very helpful and whom we had on CrossPolitic to discuss it one time. And if you actually do the reading of the Declaration (slowly, without hyperventilating), you will find a relatively balanced appraisal. On the one hand, the Post War Consensus was not conceived de novo like some kind of inverse Virgin Birth in 1945. The Declaration points out that the central ideas of the PWC were conceived duing the French Revolution by Enlightenment hippies who were already blaming all societal ills on Christianity and love of family and loyalty to nation as early as 1789. Doesn’t anyone remember the recent Olympic Ceremony Blasphemy? You know that was a call back to the French Revolution when they actually did that same tranny mockery in the cathedral of Notre Dame, right?  

But the Declaration agrees that after the war came a “tipping point,” where our culture gave into that madness leading to the sexual revolution and all kinds of globohomo insanity. 

OK, one more thing. The final denial in the Declaration insists that Jesus is the model man and example we are to follow with regard to our treatment of our fellow man, not Aristotle or any other merely human personage. On the one hand, other merely human personages would include people like Augustine, John Calvin, and R.L. Dabney – heroes all. But the reasonable question comes back, why single out Aristotle? I had no part in writing this Declaration, but I assume the authors singled him out because he has historically stood for the tradition of human philosophy – famously known as “The Philosopher.” While there’s plenty that still needs hashing out between those seeking to recover a thoroughly Christian “natural law” tradition and those a bit nervous about the history of that endeavor, all the Declaration says is that Jesus is still the model man and example. Again, feel free to quibble, but no need to see this as some kind of assault. Luther apparently hated Aristotle, and many other Reformers appreciated him. 

Conclusion
I conclude with several thoughts. For all the cries that the Declaration was unclear or confusing, it seems to me that it was clear enough. And I believe that is why it has been so offensive to a certain quadrant of the Reformed world. Mission accomplished. 

The irony is that for those who think this Declaration represents virtue signaling and Woke 2.0, the real test is who is thinking like an idealogue? Who is acting like a Marxist? The ones classifying groups of people into ideologies or those trying to distinguish between different kinds of actors? For example, while I’m very appreciative of the Post War Consensus analysis, using that as some kind of worldview decoder ring that explains everything you don’t like isn’t going to help. It’s kind of funny to me that many of the same sorts of men who have (rightly) taken back the term “Patriarchy” are now also scoffing at some of the most faithful fathers in our camp, dismissing them as “boomer brains.” I guess “Boomers” are the new Patriarchy. Don’t forget your pink hats. 

I do believe at the center of this is a question of pastoral methodology. And this is not me commenting on the Joel Webbon situation directly at all. But the question is over how young, red-pilled men ought to be pastored. I submit that the Antioch Declaration represents a helpful template. It affirms many of the concerns of young men growing up in this clown world, but it denies many of their fleshly instincts: blaming race, genes, the jooz, and victim hustling of every sort. The invitation is there to grow in wisdom. But it must be truly Christian wisdom, not the carnal childish stuff that says, “I am of Webbon or I am of White.” We are on the side of Christ, on the side of truth and real, biblical justice.   

There must be no coddling of sin. No coddling of leftist sin; no coddling of right wing sin. This is not a third way: it is the righteous way, the just way. Biblical justice means equal weights and measures for all, and true mercy, forgiveness, repentance offered to all. 

Therefore, no performative denunciations or cancellations for the approval of those on the left or those on the right, and certainly no flattery of progressive or conservative influencers. We must be done with all people pleasing, all fear of man, especially the hordes on X. It is a snare, a trap, and a black hole. We must insist on the approval of God and damn the torpedoes. 

How to Be Real Americans

Fight Laugh Feast 2024

Introduction

Repentance means “turning around.” Repentance means putting off sin and putting on righteousness. It means to stop lying and tell the truth. It means to stop stealing, get a job, work hard, pay your bills, and be so diligent that you have some extra to give to those in need (Eph. 4). 

This repentance is a change of mind and a change of heart that has concrete expression in this material world, resulting in a change of life. Repentance means putting off the old man and putting on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him (Col. 3:10). Sin deforms and destroys nature. But God’s grace heals and restores nature – and in particular, human nature.

This means that human beings deformed by sin, but saved by God’s grace and repenting of their sins, are beginning to become real human beings. When a thief becomes a faithful businessman, this is a man becoming whole – this is a human being become truly human, more fully the man he was created to be. Sin is falling short of the glory of God, but repentance is a restoration of that glory, being changed from glory to glory into that heavenly image. 

This includes our sexuality. A Christian man who repents and believes begins a lifelong path of becoming more fully masculine, more manly, more virtuous as a man, and usually a husband and father. Likewise, a Christian woman who repents and believes begins a lifelong path of becoming more fully feminine, more womanly, more fruitful and lovely as a woman, and usually a wife and mother. By the power of the Holy Spirit, impotent creatures deformed and sterilized by sin are growing up into what Lewis calls “gods and goddesses,” creatures if you saw now, you would be tempted to worship (e.g. Rev. 22:8-9).  

In other words, the “new man” is not gender neutral or asexual; the new man is more fully male and more fully female than anything we can imagine. But what about nationality? What about citizenship? The thesis of this talk is that yes, repentance includes renewing our earthly citizenship and nationality. God is not merely healing a generic humanity, or merely our sexuality; God is also healing our nationalities. 

We preach not only that individuals must repent and believe and so become true men and women; but that they must also become true husbands and fathers and family members and true church members, and to our point here: they must also repent and believe and so become true citizens of their respective nations. The Great Commission is to preach the gospel and disciple the nations, teaching them to obey Christ in everything, which means in part, learning to obey Christ in your national context, as an Ethiopian, as a Pakistani, as a Canadian, as an American. Unlike male and female, which are permanent assignments from God, nationality may change. Ruth the Moabitess swore an oath to Naomi and so joined the Israelite nation. But so may other earthly assignments: a man gets married and becomes a husband, and now by the process of repentance, he must grow into a a real husband, and when a child is born and he becomes a father, he must repent of his fleshly instincts and become a real father. So repentance means not only becoming real men and women, real husbands and wives, real fathers and mothers, but also true citizens of our respective nations. Therefore, the gospel for us in this land is the good news that through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ, we can become real Americans. 

True Citizens & True Romans

This point is illustrated well by Paul and Silas in Philippi in Acts 16: When Paul was arrested in Philippi, which was a significant Roman colony, he was accused of teaching customs that were not lawful for Romans to receive and observe (Acts 16:21). In other words, the question posed in this episode is: what is a true Roman, a real Roman?

What was Paul’s so-called “crime”? Casting a demon out of slave girl used to tell fortunes. For this false accusation, a mob formed and the city magistrates had Paul and Silas beaten and imprisoned without a trial. That night, while Paul and Silas were teaching the prisoners some of their favorite psalms and hymns, an earthquake broke their chains and opened the doors to the prison, and somehow Paul and Silas convinced the prisoners not to escape (Acts 16:28). This whole thing rattled the jailor in all the right ways, and he immediately demanded to know how he could be saved. The jailor believed in the Lord Jesus Christ and there was a midnight baptism service for his whole family. The next day, the magistrates of the city ordered Paul and Silas to leave quietly, but Paul objected, since they had been beaten without a trial as Roman citizens. Notice that: the episode begins and ends with this reference to being Romans. The accusation was that Paul was teaching customs that were contrary to being Roman, but the episode closes with Paul arguing that it was the Roman magistrates who had not acted as true Romans. Paul and Silas are the real Romans in the story and the magistrates are forced to acknowledge that: hearing that they were Roman citizens caused the magistrates to fear and so Paul and Silas were granted a very respectful and apologetic escort out of the city (Acts 16:38-39). 

But part of what this story illustrates is that Paul and Silas were the true and virtuous Romans. The slave masters who abused a demon possessed slave girl were false Romans. They were ironically actually acting in ways contrary to justice. The vigilante mob that formed fomenting revolution and chaos were also false Romans. The magistrates intimidated by the mob, who had Paul and Silas beaten without a trial, were unjust and corrupt Romans. But part of the point of this story is that the gospel ministry of Paul and Silas was bringing the true form of Roman piety to Philippi. As Paul later wrote to the Philippians: “Only live as citizens in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ” (Phil. 1:27).

Philippi was not only a Roman colony, it was a famous Roman colony. In 42 B.C. in the fields of Philippi in Macedonia, Greece, the armies of Brutus and Cassius collided with the armies of Mark Anthony and Octavian, and the latter soundly defeated the former. Octavian would become the emperor of the Roman Empire, taking the name Caesar Augustus and eventually lavish a great deal of prominence on the colony of Philippi as the site of that historic battle. In fact, many of the generals from that war were given lands and retired there. And the city of Philippi became known as a “little Rome.” The colonial status of Philippi was prestigious and famous. But left to their fallen natures, little Rome was quickly becoming as beastly as their Mother Rome. 

But the gospel did not come to Philippi to destroy Philippi but to heal it. The gospel does not come to destroy nature, but to heal it. The gospel did not come to destroy Roman culture; the gospel of Jesus Christ came to restore Roman culture. As Augustine labored to show centuries later in his great work City of God, it was paganism that cursed ancient cultures and kingdoms – and the Roman Empire in particular: immorality and false gods and demons constantly twisted true Roman virtue and piety. It was Christ who brought the true end, the true purpose of human beings and their nations and kingdoms. It was Christ who brought the true way of being Roman through His death and resurrection.

We see this in Acts 16: The gospel did not come to end the Philippian economy. It came to cast the demons out of the Philippian economy. It came to set abused slave girls free. It came to set abusive businessmen free to work hard and be truly productive. The gospel did not come to destroy Roman justice; it came to restore Roman justice in society and in courtrooms and prisons. It came to teach Romans to repudiate vigilante mobs; it came to insist on due process of law, the necessity of two or three witnesses, and just criminal penalties. It came to teach Romans to live as a Roman citizens worthy of the gospel of Christ (Phil. 1:27). Why did God create Romans? God created Romans to glorify and enjoy Him forever. God created Romans so that they might display His glory in the earth through their particular customs and traditions and culture, not for their selfish aims, not so that they would crush the weak and poor. No, He created Romans so that they might be honorable and dignified and protect life and take dominion in all wisdom.

The gospel came to Philippi so that sinful, disfigured Romans might become true Romans, real Romans like Lydia who believed in Jesus, perhaps like the slave girl who was delivered from bondage to the demon, and certainly like the jailor and his family. And by the same token, the gospel was an invitation to the cruel businessmen, to the bloodthirsty mob, and the corrupt magistrates to become true Romans, real Romans, holy Romans, heavenly Romans. And so this is the message for every nation: God not only sent His Son so that fallen men and women might become real men and women, He sent His Son so that sinful Chinese might become real Chinese, so that Ethiopians deformed by sin might become true and virtuous Ethiopians. God sent His Son so that the Kingdoms of this world might become the Kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ. Christ died so that the nations of this world might walk in the glory of the Lamb, that the kings of the earth might bring their particular national glories and honor into the City of God.

True Americans

And so this is true for us here in America. God made this land, and God made the people who have cultivated this land. From the first indigenous people down to the present, God has providentially orchestrated our story, our culture, our peoples, our families, our constitution, our states. This is not to say that everything we have done is good and right. This is not to say that we are some kind of special, chosen nation. No, the Christian Church is the New Israel scattered among the nations of men. The Christian Church is God’s chosen nation and holy priesthood. But what is the task of that Christian Church scattered among the nations? The churches are colonies. Every Christian is a colonist commissioned by the High King to disciple our nations. Instead of being colonists of Rome, we are colonists of heaven. Again, in Philippians 3 it says, “For our citizenship is in heaven; from whence we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself” (Phil. 3:20-21). Colonists are not preparing to leave. Colonists are the advance team, establishing the ways of the Motherland.

We pray in the Lord’s Prayer “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” We are not citizens of heaven because we are planning to leave. We are citizens of heaven because we have been assigned the task of establishing the ways of heaven on earth. The assignment of the colonists of Philippi was initially to make Philippi a little Rome. And so it is that the colonists of heaven are assigned the task of making our cities and nations little heavens. The fact that our citizenship is in heaven means that the true form of our citizenship is there. We are here to bring that true form of citizenship to earth. 

But we can take this one step further: What is the form of our true citizenship? What is the shape of that Kingdom that is coming? What is God’s will to be done on earth in our particular nations? Well, let’s start with our humanity. Are we praying for gender-neutral heavenly humanity to descend upon us? Some moderns have taken verses out of context to conclude that since there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female (Gal. 3:28), that must mean all distinctions are being blended together in Christ. But that’s not what that verse means. Elsewhere, Scripture makes it clear that men and women, husbands and wives, even slaves and masters still have particular duties to one another in Christ. The whole point of this verse is that all of these different callings and situations in life have the same inheritance in Christ, the same Holy Spirit, the same salvation. But what does that Holy Spirit do in those different situations? It doesn’t magically obliterate them. It heals them, restores them, and transfigures them into what God created them to be. Yes, that means some fairly radical transformations (like slavery), but not obliterations. The Holy Spirit comes to restore nature, heal nature, glorify nature. 

The gospel has come to restore Jews and Greeks, and therefore the gospel has come to restore Romans and Americans. We are colonists of heaven, but this does not mean that we are therefore stripped of our nationalities and cultures and ethnicities. We are not colonists of a humanistic multicultural globalism, not even a baptized one. When John glimpsed the glories of Heaven, it was not a Heavenly Babel, with everyone speaking the same language, nor was it a Babel of chaos and cacophony. It was “a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations and kindreds, and people, and tongues, [that] stood before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palms in their hands; and cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God, which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb” (Rev. 7:9-10). 

And so this is the thing you need to know and believe: among the nations assembled in Heaven is America. China is there. Russia is there. France is there. And we are there. George Washington is there. John Witherspoon is there. Adoniram Judson is there. Stonewall Jackson is there. R.L. Dabney is there. J. Gresham Machen is there. Jim Eliot is there. Millions of Americans are already there assembling before the throne, stripped of all their sins and clothed in the glory of Christ. And they are more fully human than ever. They are more fully male and more fully female than anything we can imagine. But they are also more fully American than anything we can imagine. Nothing good is ever lost. Everything good is growing into what it was always intended to be. And that includes our nationality and culture. That includes this land, our land, America the Beautiful.

Bu it is not merely that we are going there to heaven when we die – although that is quite wonderfully true. But we are currently assigned our stations here in this place, in this time in order to bring what our fathers and mothers are already enjoying there in Heaven to the here and now: “on earth as it is in Heaven.” We are not merely bringing the generic ways of Heaven to earth. We are bringing the ways of America in heaven to America on earth. Our citizenship is in Heaven from whence we await our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will change our vile bodies to be fashioned like unto His glorious body. Just as Jesus will return as a glorified Israelite and Jew, He will raise us up in new and glorified bodies, and that means in part that Americans will be raised as glorified Americans. 

Or another way to say this is that the true America, the real America is in Heaven, where our citizenship is, and therefore, we are called to be citizens here in a manner worthy of the Lord Jesus Christ.   

C.S. Lewis describes it this way in That Hideous Strength:

“Logres was our name for it – it will do as well as another. [Logres is another name for Camelot, the land of Arthur and the Knights of the roundtable, the land of St. George.] And then… gradually we began to see all English history in a new way. We discovered the haunting… How something we may call Britain is always haunted by something we may call Logres. Haven’t you noticed that we are two countries?… This haunting is no peculiarity of ours. Every people has its own haunter. There’s no special privilege for England – no nonsense about a chosen nation. We speak about Logres because it is our haunting, the one we know about… He doesn’t make two blades of grass the same: how much less two saints, two nations, two angels. The whole work of healing Tellus depends on nursing that little spark, on incarnating that ghost, which is still alive in every real people, and different in each. When Logres really dominates Britain, when the goddess Reason, the divine clearness, is really enthroned in France, when the order of Heaven is really followed in China – why, then it will be spring.”

This is what we’re talking about. Every country, every nation has its own haunting, the spirit or angel of its true glory: what God made it for. America is no different. And if I may be so bold, ours is the Spirit of Christian Liberty. So Christians are not only the ministers of true humanity in a general sense; we are ministers of a particular, true humanity. We are not gnostics. The gospel restores everything it touches. And it touches everything. The gospel restores our manhood and womanhood. The gospel restores families. The gospel restores business and economics. And the gospel restores nations. Just as the Philippians were called to be true Romans as citizens of heaven, so too American Christians are called by God to be true Americans, real Americans. Our assignment is to demonstrate what it means to be a real American. We are colonists of the true America, the heavenly form of America, the highest and truest version of America, which is in Christ Jesus. 

Conclusion: The Dignity of Guilt

So what does this mean? How do we bring the true America to America? By living as citizens worthy of Jesus Christ. This brings us full circle: repentance is the grace by which God restores individuals, families, and nations. Christ did not die merely to purchase individuals; He did not die merely to purchase families. Christ died to purchase the nations. 

“O let the nations be glad and sing for joy: for thou shalt judge the people righteously, and govern the nations upon earth” (Ps. 67:4). “Yea, all kings shall fall down before him: all nations shall serve him… His name shall endure forever: his name shall be continued as long as the sun: and men shall be blessed in him: all nations shall call him blessed” (Psa. 72:11, 17). “Arise, O God, judge the earth: for thou shalt inherit all nations” (Psa. 82:8). “All nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee, O Lord; and shall glorify thy name” (Psa. 86:9). “And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD’S house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it” (Is. 2:2).

And remember the promise to Abraham: in your seed all the nations of the earth will be blessed. But this blessing is not automatic. This blessing comes from turning to God in repentance. And God’s people are the ones who are to lead the way. Jesus said, you are the light of the world. You are the salt of the earth. And we often rightly emphasize the negative side of this: the church has failed to be salt and light. Too many Christians are indecipherable from the world. But the flip side of this is great hope and optimism for faithful Christians. For those who have determined to know Christ and Him crucified, for those determined to repent of sin and walk in the light, what a promise! If you walk in the light, having no unconfessed sin, you shine as a bright light in this world, as true men and women, as true families, and as true Americans. 

But I want to press this in two particular directions. First, America needs a great recovery of the dignity of guilt. Part of the insidiousness of the Marxist Darwinian virus is the progressive destruction of individual agency. Marxism and Darwinism are both ultimately deterministic false religions. They are both thoroughly materialistic, and therefore everything happens as a result of your environment, your chemicals, the climate, your class and income levels, ethnicity, your sex, genes, whatever. And so everyone is a victim. And intersectionality has been the attempt to rank victim points. I believe this is actually in the process of backfiring, but not because many Americans don’t want to play the victim game. But now everyone is trying to cash in on it: white people, males, Christians, and so on. And make no mistake: white male Christians have become one of the most hated classes.

But the end of this road is not freedom; it is slavery. The demand that nothing is your fault is the demand that nothing you do matters. All excuse making is an evasion of your own dignity, the power of your own choices, the potency of your own freedom and agency as a human being made in God’s image. When you insist that your choices don’t matter, you are ultimately saying that you do not matter.

But God dignifies His creatures with personal and covenantal guilt. Some of the most glorious words in the opening tragedy of our race in that Garden long ago, were the words, “What have you done?” And Adam and Eve made excuses like we often do: they blamed God, blamed one another, blamed the serpent, but God did not let them off the point, and He responded by saying, “Because you have done this…” What wonderfully terrible words. This is the dignity of guilt. The dignity of moral agency. Human choices matter. Your choices matter. And that means you matter. So the invitation to repentance is the invitation to become a person, to become fully human, to become fully male, fully female, and therefore, along with all that you are, fully American, a real American. 

We have been given the assignment of showing America its highest form, its truist form, American citizenship worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ. So what is that? In some ways, we are still a very young nation. So this like asking what is the true form of a 10 year old boy who has not yet reached full maturity, compared to England, France, and Greece, for example. But like a 10 year old boy, we can know something of what America is. We are a nation of explorers. We are a nation of entrepreneurs. We are a nation with a fierce independent spirit. We are that 10 year old boy, but we are also a 10 year old boy with advanced cancer. Our cancers are the sins of pride and arrogance and individualism and secularism. We were a special nation because in the beginning we knew that there was nothing special about us. We believed in limited government and separation of powers and decentralized power because we knew that men loved to get drunk on power. But this form of government only worked so long as everyone took responsibility for their own choices, their own failures, their own families and churches and communities. 

And so this the true American: take responsibility for everything you can. Do not make excuses. And do not merely do it for yourself. Do it for you family, your descendants, your church, but also for your neighbors, your city, and your nation. Stop blaming your parents, the economy, your church, your genes. Stop making excuses. Your choices matter. Your labors matter. Your repentance matters. When a man repents of his abdication and blaming his wife and kids and the economy and his parents, and humbles himself before the living God, God restores that man’s power. The excuses sterilize you, but taking responsibility, owning your personal failures, and owning the failed situation you find yourself in is the path to authority. As Pastor Wilson says, authority flows to those who take responsibility. 

At the same time, and this is the second point: this is only possible in Jesus Christ. We live in a land with a terrible weight of guilt, and the weight of that guilt would be crushing if it landed directly on us. And this is fundamentally why no one wants it. Deep down, everyone knows that the wages of sin is death. Deep down, America knows we have rebelled against the Father, and He has every reason to be angry with us. We have defied the living God in our streets, in our homes, in our hearts, in our courtrooms, and legislative halls. We have redefined liberty as our lusts, and we have dared God to destroy us. 

We are a filthy people. We have the blood of millions of innocent babies on our hands. We have the violence of porn, adultery, divorce, sodomy, trans surgeries on our hands. And the price we have paid for our lusts is slavery. We have sold ourselves into massive tax burdens: taxed on our incomes, taxed on our purchases, taxed on our sales, taxed on our land, taxed on our roads, taxed on our inheritances, mugged at every intersection by a bureaucratic state obese with corruption and disease. Our forefathers bucked at relatively miniscule taxes, that we don’t even blink at. We have grown so comfortable in our chains, we don’t even know what freedom is. We’ve grown so comfortable with the pigs, we think the pig food is real food. 

We have become a filthy, wicked people, but there is a great Savior for our people, for this people, for this nation. Prodigal America is not real America. It is what we have become, but it is not what God made us for. Christ did not merely die for a generic human mass of random individuals. He died to save His elect, and those elect are from every nation, so that the nations might stream to Him. He died so that the nations might be forgiven and cleansed, so that they might repent and bring their glories into the New Jerusalem and sing His praises. 

So this is the way back to the Father. And there is no other way. Our nation groans under its sins, aches with our cancers and corruption. And there must be atonement. We will either grasp at our own humanistic atonement, cutting ourselves, destroying ourselves, crushing our neighbors because there must be blood. Or else we will fall on our knees at the foot of the Cross. But this is the thing: just like Pilgrim in Pilgrims Progress: it is nothing for God to remove our guilt. Because of the death and resurrection of Jesus, the Lamb of God, it is nothing for Him to take away the great burden from our backs. For as soon as you pass under the shadow of the Cross, the burden comes off and rolls away and disappears into an empty tomb – the tomb of the One who is risen from the dead. 

So this is a true American: a forgiven sinner who has become a citizen of Heaven, who has been given the mission of discipling this nation and teaching it to obey Christ in everything, so that it might shine with the glory for which it was made, that it might return the gifts and glories to the Father of Lights, from whom every good and perfect gift descends. 

One of those great gifts is America. It is a rugged land of mountains and rivers and plains and forests; it is a people of ingenuity, courage, sacrifice, and principles; it is a constitutional republic, a covenantal union of states, bound by a Protestant creed, a particular history of exploration and invention and adventure, and yes, heartache and failures and wars; it’s New England chowder and southern grits, Midwest casseroles and Wisconsin dairies, Texas BBQ and San Francisco Sour Dough, and northwest coffee and smooth, dark beer. It is baseball and football and farm boys and surfers and pioneers and cowboys and salesmen and truck drivers and preachers and academics. 

This is our land. It does not belong to the secularists. It does not belong to corrupt politicians. It belongs to Jesus Christ. He purchased it with His blood. 

Like our Lord and His first disciples, we preach repentance in Jesus Christ. We do not merely preach a spiritual experience. We preach Christ risen from the dead, and therefore, we preach sinners risen from the dead. We preach the dead alive. We preach to armies of dry bones, like the Prophet Ezekiel, and we summons them to live. We summons them to rise, to take on flesh, to become true men and women, real men and women. We preach the life-giving Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead, and so we preach that same Spirit renewing every area of life. We preach Jesus risen from the dead so that Americans might rise from the dead as real Americans.

There is plenty going wrong, plenty that we might rightly object to. Christians are being mistreated in this land. But when Paul and Silas had been falsely accused, beaten and imprisoned without a trial, they were found singing at the top of their lungs in prison. We are the forgiven. We are the repentant. So may we be found at our posts singing praises to our King. Amen.

Why I Don’t Wear a Clerical Collar or Robes Anymore

Introduction
If you’ve seen old pictures or videos of me, you’ll notice that for about 12 years, I wore a clerical collar fairly regularly and preached in a white robe with varying colors of stoles for the liturgical seasons. And it’s a reasonable question to wonder why I don’t anymore. 

A Few Disclaimers
First, let me make a few disclaimers: I actually like the idea of a distinctive clerical uniform. Doctors, law enforcement, and mailmen and UPS drivers all have uniforms, and I think that ministers of the gospel are public servants that rank above UPS drivers and mailmen. The question is whether there is such a uniform readily available to Protestant Reformed and Presbyterian pastors. Second, I don’t have any problem with my friends and fellow ministers in the CREC who wear collars and robes — assuming they generally agree with the concerns I raise below but find that they don’t apply to their situations and ministries. I’ve heard some great stories about pastors at airports and other public places having some wonderful opportunities to pray for people and share the gospel. I suspect that the uniform works in some places (and maybe for some people) better than others.

Some History & Concerns
However, I’m not convinced that the uniform is always doing what it is intended to do. Let me explain. When I first started wearing a collar, I was going to seminary and pastoring in South Carolina, and I wore it for about two years there. I bet I averaged a question or conversation a couple times a month in coffee shops and out and about in public. Folks would ask if I would pray for them, what church I pastored, if they could come to my church, etc. In other words, in South Carolina, the collar seemed to work fairly well. However, when I moved back to Idaho and continued to wear the collar, I can only remember about 2-3 questions or comments over the course of almost 10 years. One of those questions was which Catholic parish I minister in (or something like that), and the other question was what was wrong with my shirt! In other words, at least part of my decision was based on a growing conviction that the uniform wasn’t really a uniform (at least in the Northwest). 

Another growing concern I had was with a misidentification among the people I was ministering to that I was aiming for some kind of quasi-Anglican ministry. Now I happen to know of some solid Anglicans who are doing the Lord’s work, but let’s just say that the English church families have fallen on rough times. The average testosterone levels are not quite what they used to be. And I think the collar and robes sometimes communicates an effeminate vibe – not because they always have (there are real dudes who wear them), but there’s a thoroughly unbiblical feminism and sentimentalism rife in the church that wants ministers that are like a third sex, attending tea parties with the ladies and always gently suggesting to everyone that they might consider, perhaps, next Wednesday, if the weather is right, whether they might possibly be less than fully right.

I do understand of course that one way to change this vibe is by faithful men being masculine men in the pulpit and in their day to day ministry and so change that reputation. And I was of that mind for a number of years, but at some point, I became convinced that the uniform attempt was causing more trouble than it was helping. And frankly, since it is certainly not commanded in Scripture, it’s the kind of thing that a minister ought to be willing to drop in a heartbeat if it isn’t actually being helpful. We are under orders, and our Lord has not ordered His ministers to wear a particular uniform. He has ordered us to preach and administer the sacraments. We know that God is perfectly capable of stipulating uniforms for His ministers as He did in the Old Covenant, but He did not in the New Covenant. Of course the original meaning of the collar, especially the full ring collar, was meant to symbolize that a minister is a “slave” of Christ. Very well and good, but to be slavish about collars and robes is a bit ironic since our Master commanded no such thing.

Again, if it’s a blessing in your context, no shade, but I do sometimes wonder if there is more attachment to the uniform than to Scripture, Christ, His gospel, and simple obedience. There is nothing in Scripture requiring a collar or robes. This means it is an area of Christian wisdom, discretion, and freedom. It cannot be thought of as more mature, more pious, or more pastoral, any more than the guys who preach with or without a tie. The pastor is to minister in garb that befits the dignity, gravity, and masculinity of his office. And this is why flip flops, baseball caps, and mickey mouse t-shirts in the pulpit are out. 

This is no gnostic objection, as though Christ and His gospel can be delivered or ministered without a uniform of some sort. Business casual or suit and tie are also “uniforms” of a sort, but the question is what works best in our context to highlight the most important things and what allows a minister to perform his tasks with dignity and recede into the background (in the right way) in order for folks to see through the ministry to Christ and His authoritative word. The ministry is incarnate through particular men, but the task of those men is to constantly point to Christ and repentance and faith in Him. I know that the idea of a set uniform is to allow for the office to be highlighted rather than the man, but I’m not convinced it always actually accomplishes that goal.  

Conclusion
One final thought tangentially related: while I also generally want the church calendar to shape our lives and the life of our culture, I prefer Calvin’s emphasis on the Five Evangelical Feast Days, as opposed to seasons, especially seasons focusing on fasting and penitence. I have experienced firsthand the tendency for the calendar to do something similar to clerical garb. It can take on a sort of life of its own, and the focus becomes on the thing, rather than the truth that the thing is supposed to be pointing to. This can be subtle, but the test comes down to basic biblical piety and holiness. Are you and your people prioritizing what Scripture prioritizes or are you beginning to really focus on tithing your spices (which is the proper reading? how many candles? what color stole?)? The problem is not necessarily tithing on spices; the problem is that when a certain kind of myopia settles in, camels start sneaking into tents. How’s your marriage? How are the kids turning out? How masculine are the men? How gentle and quiet are the women? 

If you usually preach in a robe but showed up one Sunday to preach in business casual, would it cause a revolt? Why? Or if you decided to skip a Sunday of Advent or Lent, would it be a big deal? Compare that to one of the deacons’ kids being way into Taylor Swift or an elder’s wife being bossy at a potluck. Which would cause more general concern and does it reflect biblical priorities or not? Are there folks who are particularly focused on the vestments and colors and candles and seasons who are having major marriage trouble, kids out of control, or bad attitudes? Are all the decorations helping you get at those far more significant things or do they clutter up your day? I trust that some of my friends would say that for them and their churches, the clerical garb and liturgical seasons really do recede into the background so that they can get to work on the gospel and basic obedience. I understand that in theory good traditions are meant to keep things simple in order to allow you to focus on what really matters. If that’s your experience, then great, and God bless you. But I do wonder if for some it never quite recedes, never really is quite as edifying as it sounds on paper, and maybe everyone would be better served without it or less of it, at least until God grants us another Reformation and more obviously recognizable uniforms and customs emerge. 

Toward a Protestant Feudalism

Introduction
A little while ago, I posted, “The multicultural globalists want to blend all cultures into a bland humanism, but the blood-and-soil types end up insisting on superficial divisions. Covenant is the key to an earthy and biblical unity and diversity, or what we might call a Protestant feudalism and Christendom.”

Everything hinges on what centers what. If covenant is the center, then yes, there are certain biblical notions of blood and soil (as well as biblical doctrines with universal, global ramifications). If mere blood and soil or mereglobal/multicultural becomes the center, they veer into their respective ditches (e.g. racialism, communism, etc.). The notion of “covenant” gives us a category, and actually, a multiplicity of categories for rightly ordering our loyalties and loves and duties. 

From Taylor Swift to John Knox
We’re at that moment in the story where it seems like anything could happen, and it would be hard to be surprised. Elon Musk, Taylor Swift, and Douglas Wilson walk into a bar together… it might sound like the beginning of a bad joke, but that’s where we are. All the wheels have come off, and there’s no apparent center, no centrifugal force, no gravity, no apparent arche.

But I say: no apparent center or gravity. In reality, in the real world, there is a center, there is an inextricable center: Jesus Christ is the arche of the universe, the One in Whom all things hold together (Col. 1). But it’s like walking on the moon (or so it would seem). You have to submit to the actual gravitational pull and not what you think it ought to be. You have to adjust your balance and rhythm to match reality. But we’re living in a time when many are trying to get reality to match their capricious and destructive whims, whether by transing little kids with hormone blockers or cozying up to Nazi sympathizers. Martin Luther said that the human race is generally like a drunk guy on a horse, and having fallen off the horse on one side, he believes it his moral duty to bring balance to the universe by falling off the horse on the other side next time just to keep things even. 

And some of you are starting to wonder where this blog post is going. My point is that when there is no center, everyone is looking for a center, something to hold it all together, an integration point. The commies want the state to be that integration point. They want the federal government (for now) and the World Economic Forum or the United Nations (eventually) to be the center, with the benevolent Karen-Nanny State to provide, protect, save, and otherwise usher in the New Jerusalem, which, it turns out looks a lot like Portland, a favela of homeless camps under tattooed overpasses. 

In reaction to all of that, a bunch of people are, what shall we say, a bit nonplussed. They are chanting “Let’s Go Brandon” at NASCAR races and threatening to elect Donald Trump for a second round of chemo. But everyone knows this is only a very temporary treatment, and then what? The commies and their media whores have slapped the name “Christian Nationalism” on everyone who objects to turning our country into Zimbabwe, and a bunch of us have said, well, OK, fine: we do want a Christian Nation, not this secular trashworld you’re trying to foist on us and our grandchildren.

But there’s a fair bit of maneuvering and posting up and boxing out going on under the political basket among ostensible conservative types. Trump was mauled at the three-point line and is determined to get a second free throw before banking the third one off the rim to some eager heir apparent. But let’s not scrutinize this analogy too closely. Among the heir-apparents, you’ve got the obvious JD Vance and his broadly conservative Catholic crowd, you’ve got an amalgam of Protestant academics unearthing everything the 16th and 17thcentury Reformers ever said on civil government, you’ve got Russell Brand baptizing people in his skivvies, and you’ve got the based edgelords ransacking history for memes that give their moms nightmares, and finally, what I’m arguing for: a small, but hearty band of old school Scottish covenantors.

All of these have some vision for a center of gravity: traditional values and the working class, cultural-ethnicity, Christian revival, R.L. Dabney smoking a cigarette, and John Knox with a double-edged battle axe. As it happens, I think some elements of all of these are possible to be included, but only if we let John Knox lead the way. 

Covenant Defined
As Glenn Moots demonstrates in detail in his book Politics Reformed, perhaps the greatest, most pervasive concept unearthed during the 16th century Protestant Reformation with immediate political ramifications was the idea of covenant. The ancient Hebrew word seems to have meant both “to cut” and “to bind,” as well as “to eat.” Think of the way a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and that covenant is sealed with vows and a feast and conjugal union. A covenant is a solemn bond, often sealed with signs and pledges, with various duties and obligations, and attendant blessings and curses, depending on faithfulness. 

As the High Middle Ages let out its final gasps of life, riddled with the widespread corruption of the Roman Catholic Church, the “Magisterial” Reformers (as they have often been called) were as much concerned with society, political power, and civic structures as they were with theology. If the Roman Pontiff was not to be the center of the world, how was the world to be organized? What did it mean that Christ was Lord? They answered that pressing question by saying that it meant that Christ had established different kinds of powers in this world: spiritual and political powers. The church had true authority over matters assigned to it (Word and Sacrament) and the State had true authority over matters assigned to it (law and order and the punishment of evildoers). 

And very quickly, as the Reformers looked at Scripture for the mechanism of these assignments, they saw very clearly that it was by covenant. They saw that in Scripture there is an overarching, unilateral Covenant of Grace by which God is saving the world through Christ. But they also saw that there were many other covenants in Scripture: marriage covenants, political covenants, family covenants, business covenants, and various civil covenants. But there was virtually nothing significant or important established apart from these covenants. Reaching back to the Covenant of Creation (or Covenant of Works) and the Noahic Covenant, various Reformers saw that some universal covenants applied to all men everywhere, descended from Adam and Noah, and thus, while not salvific covenants, they were nevertheless still in effect and therefore binding on society as a whole. 

As civil government was being rehabilitated by Reformers, you almost immediately had political power problems: Bloody Mary in England and persecution and massacres in France. But it was the covenant that gave the Reformers categories that held together the seeming disparate requirements of Scripture. Generally, Scripture taught submission and obedience to civil authorities, but at times, there was clear evidence of biblical permission or even blessing for disobedience and insurrection. As Calvin wrote, “Since kings and princes are bound by covenant to the people, to administer the law in truest equality, sincerity, and integrity; if they break faith and usurp tyrannical power… is it not possible for the people to consider together taking measures in order to remedy the evil?”

Just as Scripture ordinarily teaches the obedience and honor of a wife to her own husband, it also clearly affirms the right of a wife to subvert the authority of her husband or flee his authority if it becomes tyrannical and abusive. The lines for these judgments are admittedly sometimes debatable, but they do exist by virtue of the marriage covenant. The same is true for the covenant obligations of rulers and their people. In Vindiciae Contra Tyrannos, the pseudonymous “Brutus” argued that in every nation there are at least two civil covenants in effect: one between God, the king, and the people, and another between the king and the people. As Moots writes: “The first enables the people to act should the king turn away from God. The second obliges the king to act in the interests of the common good.”   

Conclusion: Blood and Soil & Covenant
So God made the world covenantally. This means that the notion and nature of covenant is woven into almost everything. This is true of the natural world and therefore underpins any coherent defense of “natural rights,” but it is also the basis for the institution of marriage and family, whether or not the parties involved acknowledge God or His Christ. Marriage is a covenant between a man and a woman with particular obligations to both parties, quite apart from whether the parties understand that. It is what God says it is, not what liberal activists hopped up on Marxist shrooms claim it is. The universal church is bound in covenant to Christ, her head, and nations are bound together by covenants, as are states and counties and cities. We have written down these covenant-constitutions, the agreed upon duties and obligations. We have various ceremonies, anniversaries, elections, oaths of office, shared language, culture, and history in particular places, and occasional celebrations and feasts to commemorate these covenants. We have these familial, ecclesial, and civil covenants, and they require different duties and obligations at different levels.

The thing to note is that these covenants are not mere ideas or creeds. They are earthy bonds that bind peoples together in families, tribes, and nations, in particular locations, with particular shared commitments and values. There is something blood-and-soil-ish about this. But by the very nature of covenants, the bond is not static, wooden, or fixed. Marriage itself requires a leaving and a cleaving. Often, this occurs with a broadly shared culture and ethnicity, but not always. Thus, the center of our identities is not blood-and-soil, but rather our various covenantal bonds which have their foundations in the nature of the world and ultimately God Himself. These covenantal bonds can bless blood-and-soil, but they can also curse blood-and-soil (e.g. Dt. 28). Thus, covenantal bonds are not bound to blood-and-soil. It is the other way around: blood and soil must answer to covenant and covenant obligations. “Honor thy father and mother; (which is the first commandment with promise;) that it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth” (Eph. 6:2-3).

As Moots demonstrates in his book, some covenants in Scripture are clearly unilateral, while others are bilateral. Some are unconditional; others are conditional. Some covenantal duties are imposed; others are freely chosen. You are born into a particular family/race/ethnicity, but you often have some freedom to choose a spouse. You are born into a nation, but you often have some freedom to choose whether or not to stay. The exigencies of life are a multitude and mixture of both personal responsibilities and choices (on the one hand) and events you did not choose: famines, war, sickness, death, migration, exile, friendship, betrayal, etc.

The Moabite Ruth famously swore a covenant-like oath to her Jewish mother in-law Naomi: “for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God: Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the LORD do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me” (Ruth 1:16-17). This is no humanistic “melting pot” multiculturalism orchestrated by neopagan HR department of witchdoctors, but it is rather the true joining of different cultures in a covenantal bond of life together, including loyalty to land and family and God, to the death. While the Christian church does not magically dissolve family or cultural bonds or obligations like some modern regime Evangelicals pretend, it does nevertheless relativize those bonds. Christ at the center means that while I must ordinarily provide for my own wife and kids first, if my family were to betray Christ, I would have higher duties to Christ and his people.  

It is absolutely true that without a covenantal center, the globalists will continue to manipulate and destroy our culture. But the wrong center (race, family, ethnicity) cannot help but absolutize things that (though right and good in their proper place) cannot hold the center, much less be absolutized. It’s good and right to love your people, to protect and provide for your family first (1 Tim. 5). But the real world is far more complex and complicated, and covenant is the category you need. Covenant loyalty with Christ at the center, allows for a multiplicity of loyalties and duties (family, place, church, school, business, city, nation, etc.) in a sort of Protestant feudalism.

Communion as Christian Culture

The task of bringing our children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord is a task of enculturation. We are teaching and training, but it’s far more like coaching football or soccer than a dry lecture hall. Good parenting means tons of practice. Preparing to obey. Practicing obedience. Practice saying “thank you.” Practice saying “yes sir” and “yes ma’am.” Practice being cheerful. 

And it turns out that this is one of the lessons of this meal. Jesus gave us this meal in order to make us practice obedience every week. What do we practice exactly? We practice remembering all that God has done for us. We remember His faithfulness to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, His faithfulness to Israel, particularly through Moses and the Judges and David and all the prophets, culminating in Jesus Christ. We review all the previous games. 

We also practice gratitude and cheerfulness. The prayer I’m about to pray is a prayer of thanksgiving. We are to receive the bread and wine with thanksgiving, thankful for the death and resurrection of Jesus, for the forgiveness of our sins, for the gift of His Spirit. We practice cheerfulness.

We also practice waiting for one another. This was a particular instruction of Paul’s in 1 Corinthians: make sure everyone is served, make sure none of God’s covenant people are left out. 

As we celebrate this meal, please feel free to talk quietly with your children. Remind them of God’s covenant faithfulness, remind them of their baptisms, remind them of the gospel, and teach them gratitude by your own joy and gratitude. Teach them to look around at everyone else sharing this meal with us. All of these people are God’s people, and by God’s great grace they have become our people. And so we wait, to make sure everyone is served.  

And remember to talk about this during the week. Ask your young children if they are going to take the bread and wine and what does it mean and how are we going to do it? With joy and thanksgiving, with reverence and godly fear, with all of God’s people. 

So come and welcome to Jesus Christ. 

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez  on Unsplash