Happy Presbyterian Rebellion Day (and other notes)

I wanted to provide some follow up to my sermon from last Sunday. In the sermon, I developed the pattern of the three falls/three heroes in Genesis, then showed how Saul recapitulated the three falls in 1 Samuel 13-15. This is a pattern I learned from that master Bible teacher, Jim Jordan. Jim develops the pattern here. You can also see him use it as a paradigm for church history in a fascinating little booklet, Crisis, Opportunity, and the Christian Future. Incidentally, several years ago some of us who have appreciated Jim’s work put together a collection of essays in his honor. The festschrift is entitled The Glory of Kings. My contribution to the collection is relevant to my last two sermons, as I wrote on the theme of how old covenant holy war has been transformed. You can find a version of that essay here.

A few other links of note:

• Clear Truth Media looks like it could be a good resource
• A very good review of Joy Pullman’s new book on the sexual revolution
• A clever review of Jeremy Carl’s book, The Unprotected Class, on anti-white racism in American government and society (Carl has been on several podcasts to talk about the book, such as this and this)
• TPC’s own Matt Lavender with a great article based on Merle Haggard’s classic “Are the Good Times Really Over?” — very appropriate to think about right now!
• My sermons through 1 Samuel 13-15 have dealt extensively with the topic of falling away, or apostasy. If you’d like to read more, I have this essay on the warnings in Hebrews 6 (originally published in the book The Federal Vision) and this follow up essay.
• I recently had a short essay published by Kuyperian on why progressives are doomed to not not make much progress
• I thought this was a fascinating look at the presence of national flags in Christian sanctuaries
• Interesting thoughts on how we should view psychedelic drugs and their link to the demonic
• The Wade Show provides great (and often rather funny) analysis of culture and politics. This episode was excellent.
• Baptist pastor Michael Clary has an interesting thread here. I have suggested before that most Baptists are not well prepared for negative world, where it is much more difficult (and more expensive) to raise Christian children. In a more hostile culture, beginning the process of covenant nurture at the earliest of ages is crucial, and there is no way (consistent) Baptists can do that. (Sadly, some Presbyterians also fail to do household discipleship, despite having a theology that would support it and require it.)

With July 4 coming up tomorrow, this is a fitting time to pray for our nation. Certainly we have a great deal to be thankful for as Americans. Despite widespread wickedness and idolatry in our country, we still have astounding blessings of freedom and prosperity unmatched by most anywhere in history or in the world today. The United States of America has been remarkably blessed by God. But even as we give thanks for this great land, and the glories of our Christian founding, we must also lament how far our nation has fallen. When Americans declared independence from Britain, we did so on solidly biblical and covenantal grounds. (See Doug Kelley’s book The Emergence of Liberty in the Modern World.) King George broke covenants he had made with the colonies. When the colonies pushed back against his tyranny by declaring independence, the king called it a “presbyterian revolt” because it was grounded in Presbyterian (or Calvinist) theology and was largely led by Presbyterian pastors and laymen (many of whom had Scotch-Irish roots, and therefore a long history of dealing with English tyranny, going back to William Wallace in the 13th century). Over a year before Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence, Presbyterians in Charlotte, NC had authored The Mecklenburg Declaration, which was highly influential on Jefferson’s work. Presbyterian pastors became known as “the black-robed regiment” because they preached in black Genevan gowns, and many of their sermons had helped to stir up the desire to form a new nation based on freedom and virtue. Horace Walpole, a prominent member of Parliament, said “Cousin America has eloped with a Presbyterian parson” (the parson in view was John Witherspoon who had trained many of America’s eventual founding fathers at Princeton). A royalist in New York wrote to the Earl of Dartmouth in late 1776, “Presbyterianism is really at the bottom of this whole conspiracy, has supplied it with Vigour, and will never rest, till something is decided on it.” More than half the soldiers in the American army were Presbyterian. When Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown, all but one of the American colonels was Presbyterian. Presbyterian influence deeply shaped the formation of our nation, much more so than any other branch of the church. So, tomorrow don’t just wish fellow Americans a “Happy Independence Day!,” wish them a “Happy Presbyterian Rebellion Day!” For more, check this out. Consider also a few quotes:

• “Calvinism has been the chief source of republican government.” — Lorraine Boettner
• “In Calvinism lies the origin and guarantee of our constitutional liberties.” — Goren van Prinsterer
• “He who will not honor the memory and respect the influence of Calvin knows but little of the origin of American liberty…[Calvin is] the father of America…The Revolution of 1776, so far as it was affected by religion, was a Presbyterian measure. It was the natural outgrowth of the principles which the Presbyterianism of the Old World planted in her sons, the English Puritans, the Scotch Covenanters, the French Huguenots, the Dutch Calvinists, and the Presbyterians of Ulster.” — George Bancroft
• “John Calvin was the virtual founder of America.” — Leopold von Ranke
• “[Patrick Henry’s] mother drilled him in Presbyterian or Calvinistic theology, which provided the backbone for the American resistance to British tyranny. As one author has noted, Calvinism ‘has been able to inspire and sustain the bravest efforts ever made by man to break the yoke of unjust authority…’ It has ‘borne ever an inflexible front to illusion and mendacity, and has preferred rather to be ground to powder, like flint, than to bend before violence, or melt under enervating temptation.’ By the time of the American Revolution, approximately two-thirds of the colonial population had been ‘trained in the school of Calvin.’ Henry, through his mother, was a spiritual descendant of Calvin and represented the liberating element of a Reformed theology and world-view.” — Isaac Backus
  

Finally, if you looking for something to guide your thoughts and prayers about our nation, you cannot do better than the lyrics of the hymn “Before the Lord We Bow,” which we sing regularly at TPC. This hymn sums up a Christian political theology, even a kind of “Christian nationalism.” The words were written by Francis Scott Key, who also authored our national anthem. Read over these words tomorrow — or better yet, sing them:

1 Before the Lord we bow,
The God who reigns above,
And rules the world below,
Boundless in power and love;
Our thanks we bring
In joy and praise,
Our hearts we raise
To heaven’s high King.

2 The nation Thou hast blest
May well Thy love declare,
From foes and fears at rest,
Protected by Thy care.
For this fair land,
For this bright day
Our thanks we pay–
Gifts of Thy hand.

3 May every mountain height,
Each vale and forest green,
Shine in Thy word’s pure light,
And its rich fruits be seen!
May every tongue
Be tuned to praise,
And join to raise
A grateful song.

4 Earth! hear thy maker’s voice,
The great Redeemer own,
Believe, obey, rejoice,
And worship Him alone;
Cast down thy pride,
Thy sin deplore,
And bow before
The Crucified.

5 And when in power He comes,
O may our native land,
From all its rending tombs,
Send forth a glorious band;
A countless throng
Ever to sing
To heaven’s high King
Salvation’s song.