Tag: faith
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Quotebook #6
“No society is healthy which tells its members to take no thought of the morrow because the state underwrites their future.” ― Richard M. Weaver “Your greatest contribution is the ones you leave behind.” — Alan Jackson (from “Small Town Southern Man”) “Poor is the nation that has no heroes, but poorer still is the…
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Resolving the Cruz/Carlson Debate: Not All Who Are Israel Are Israel
A shorter, edited version of this article was recently published at The Federalist. — Some months ago, the Christian doctrine of “ordo amoris” (the order of loves) made its way into mainstream discussion after J. D. Vance invoked it in an interview on the immigration issue. Now, something similar is happening with another Christian doctrine,…
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Encouragement to Pastors for the Weekly Grind
Fellow pastors, it’s the eve of the Lord’s Day. Prepare yourself to lead your people into the presence of the Lord tomorrow. Prepare yourself and your heart for battle so you can lead your congregation in fighting the good fight. Prepare yourself to give the comfort and healing balm of the gospel, as a physician…
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Bring Your Guns to Church
One of the most fun conference talks I ever gave was this one in Monroe in 2020, developing a theology of self-defense and applying it to congregations. Thanks to Aaron Fudge, I now have an AI-generated transcript I can share. I have not edited this, but hopefully it’s pretty accurate. — # Bring Your Guns…
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James 2 and Care for the Poor: Helping Without Hurting
These notes are basically sermon follow-up from sermons I preached 10/6/19 and 10/13/19 — the sermons are available of our website. — In the sermon on James 2:1-13, I mentioned identity politics. I recommend this document on race and privilege to help clarify the issue: https://theecclesialcalvinist.wordpress.com/2017/08/31/critical-theory-and-the-unity-of-the-church/ In James 2:1ff, James is saying that judgment in…
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Theonomy and Christian Nationalism
In so many ways, the current discussions over Christian nationalism parallel discussions of Theonomy/Christian Reconstruction a generation ago. The Recons were also accused of fostering nominalism, seeking salvation in politics, etc. And they gave answers very similar to Joseph’s here (which I agree with). There is a massive blind spot in many expressions of Reformed…
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How Cultures Change
This is an excellent summary from Joseph Spurgeon of how cultural change happens. There is a top down “elite theory” component and a bottom up “grass roots” component, and the church is central to it all since the church is both elite and grass roots, and will always be the source of spiritual renewal through…
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What does it mean to be “pastoral”?
The adjective “pastoral” is an interesting one. What do we mean when we call a man “pastoral”? Most often today, “pastoral” seems to mean nice, soft, gentle, and most of all, winsome. But biblically, that’s not how pastors are described. It is true that pastors are called to be gentle and not quarrelsome. But it’s very…
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Dispensationalism’s False Prophets
Does Genesis 17:8 mean Israel as a permenant right to the land of Palestine and deserves unconditional political support from Christians and America? Here are a few considerations: This land promise was not unconditional. See Genesis 17:1 and the covenant curses in Deuteronomy 27-28. Later in history, God judged Israel and Judah by exiling them…
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A Thread on Natural Affection
A Thread on Natural Affection: In recent years, the Reformed segment of the church has been roiled by debates over natural affection. Interestingly, Scripture has very little explicit material on natural affection (“storge” in the Greek), but it does mention the lack of natural affection (“astorge”) as a sign of apostasy and idolatry in a…
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