Uri Brito

On November 16, 2022 By Uri Brito In Church 1

Which Calendar? Thoughts on the Church Calendar

Dear friend,

You expressed so much joy in coming into a liturgical understanding of time. As you and I have experienced growing up in non-liturgical traditions, the Church Calendar is a tough sell in our evangelical culture. You inquired further about where you should begin communicating these thoughts with family and friends.

The first point to consider is that a lack of calendar knowledge is not a lack of godliness. So, you should avoid chronological snobbery when considering these issues, and you should remember just how long it took you to get here.

I don’t think the denial of a church calendar stems primarily from historical illiteracy, though it may at times. The issue is not “to calendar?” but rather “which calendar?” Most in our culture have chosen calendars of their own making. They are fond of national, localized, athletic festivities over and above other ecclesiastical memorials.

As I’ve said, it’s not a poor keeping of time; it’s a selected keeping of time. I want to argue that there is a time that supersedes civic time, which is Church time. Of course, some take strict positions based on confessional commitments. I have little beef with them, and they are not my audience. My audience is those still uncertain about this business and eager to contemplate its place in their lives.

Now, I know that once we begin this conversation, there will be all sorts of fears about celebrating days for saints, angels, and other such things. But I am simply arguing for a celebration of the basic church calendar, namely the five evangelical feast days: Advent, Christmas, Good Friday, Easter (Ascension), and Pentecost. If most churches cherished and celebrated a general outline for the calendar, we could begin to see a greater harmonization of themes, topics, and vision for the church universal.

If some were to say, “Why can’t we sing Christmas carols whenever we want to; after all, every Sunday is Christmas?” The answer is: “For the same reason you don’t sing “Happy Birthday” to your child whenever you want to. Every Sunday is indeed Christmas, but every Sunday is also Easter and Pentecost and Trinity Sunday, etc.”

You can do those things, but it takes away from the appointed observance of such a time. If some were to say: “Why am I bound to observe this church calendar?” Answer: “You are not bound to. Your church is not bound to; simply, history has shown its wisdom, and its longevity has shown its importance.” But most importantly, the Bible offers a rich theology of time, and God’s people throughout sacred history have followed such patterns in remembering and commemorating defining moments in the lives of our forefathers.

There is a historical harmony established on these general feast days that all churches of all ages share. This alone should be a persuasive argument.

In sum, my point is that patterns and rhythms, and feasts play a role in the rationale of the Scriptures, and this is a good place to begin these dialogues.

Many blessings as we approach the final Sunday of the Church year.

Pastor Uriesou Brito

On November 11, 2022 By Uri Brito In Podcast 1

Notable Kuyperians: An Interview with Rev. Jack Phelps from Palmer, Alaska

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I first met Jack Phelps in Conroe, TX, in 2008. I sat next to him on several occasions in those two days. We were at different stages of life back then, but two callings took place on one of the days. Jack was elected to become the Presiding Minister for the CREC, where he served two faithful terms (six years), and I was called to become the pastor of Providence Church in Pensacola, FL. He was already an experienced pastor then, and I was a young seminary grad filled with aspirations and dreams about pastoral ministry.

Our paths have crossed several times since then, but last week, I enjoyed sharing beautiful conversations with him in his town of Palmer, AK. The conversations were so delightful that even though all I had was an android phone, I decided to interview him on various issues under the themes of politics and religion. Jack is a Kuyperian, who—like Abraham Kuyper—dedicated his life to the political and ecclesiastical spheres.

Five decades of pastoral work interspersed with years of labor under high-ranking political officials in Alaska. It was an honor to spend time with this dear brother. Our two-hour interview is part of the “Notable Kuyperian” interview series. You can check out my other interview with Rev. Mickey Schneider.

In this conversation, we covered:

Christian Nationalism

Sarah Palin

Pastoral Ministry and Hardships

And many other topics.

On November 9, 2022 By Uri Brito In Church, Family and Children Like

Ten Theses on the Relationship of Spheres

Many sounds are coming from the social ecosystem concerning the role of the Church, State, and Family. This won’t satisfy the high demands of a thorough spherical theology, but I think it may provide my fundamental presuppositions on the relationship of these spheres.

Ten Theses on the relationship of spheres:

a) I affirm with Abraham Kuyper that there are three legitimate spheres (Church, Family, and State). Each sphere possesses distinct responsibilities and hierarchies. Self-government may function as a fourth sphere, but for our purposes, it should be subsumed under all three primary headings.

b) The Church is the headquarters since it is fundamentally Edenic in symbols and types. She orients her existence around the throne room of heaven. The land is the family, the place of work and rest. The world is the civil sphere, the place of structure and judgment.

c) While these spheres overlap in many places and circumstances, the pastor is not the father, the father is not the pastor, and the pastor is not the politician. Roles may overlap, but they should be fundamentally distinct.

d) The Church should speak into the civil sphere because she is the mouthpiece of the kingdom. But she communicates fundamentally through psalms, sermons, and sacraments. She is not a headquarters for political rallies but the true politics of the city speaking from heavenly authority granted and established by the work of Christ. She does not speak from a central space, but her voice is spread into many localized spaces.

e) The Church cannot impose ordinary habits and rituals upon families outside her formal gathering. She can offer wisdom and insight, but the father is free to lead his family as he pleases under the ordinary gifts of grace and the rule of God.

f) The state promotes the good and establishes order so that the Church and family may succeed in every way. She cannot usurp authority over either institution, and she cannot assume the role of priesthood or patriarch.

g) When the state violates the freedom of the Church and family, she is to be rebuked and exhorted to return to her spherical role given by God. The same application is to be made to Church and family, but the demands are more significant to the one who holds the sword.

h) All spheres submit to a higher authority. No sphere is self-sufficient, and no sphere can function properly on its own. But family and state must look to the new polis from where comes the wisdom of God (Eph. 3). All spheres must lead to Zion, City of our God.

i) State and family must order their lives to the culmination of life, which is the worship of the Father, Son, and Spirit on the first day of the week.

On November 1, 2022 By Uri Brito In Church 1

What is All Saints’ Day?

We celebrate —together with a vast majority of Christian Churches in the world–the feast of All Saints. On this day, we honor and remember the saints gone before us. Traditionally, All Saints Day is the day after All Hallowed Eve on October 31st, and the Church celebrates it on the closest Sunday to the first of November.

All Saints Day is also known as the day when we celebrate the hallowed ones, those who have been honored by God because of their faithful lives. The Bible does this frequently when it says that we must give honor to whom honor is due (Prov. 3:27) and when it lists the great heroes of the faith and praises them for their mighty actions in the face of grave danger (Heb. 11). All Saints’ Day is the benediction of God upon martyrs, the “well done” upon the faithful, and the clothing in white robes on all those who, from their labors rest.

By celebrating the life of the saints, ultimately, we are celebrating the death of death. We celebrate that in the death of the faithful ones, Satan has been mocked. In fact, All Saints testify to the humiliation of the devil and evil throughout history. The Christian Church rejoices over evil by mocking death. The third-century theologian Athanasius gives a good example of the early church’s attitude toward death:

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On October 31, 2022 By Uri Brito In Politics Like

Brazil’s Election and the Failure of the Evangelical Pastor

This is a sad day for my home country. Lula won a narrowly divisive runoff election this Sunday and will begin his third term as president at the age of 77. Convicted of corruption, he served 580 days in prison, and after his release, he became the symbol of victimhood.

He sought old partnerships and was able to reanimate a nation to the old causes of social transformation through the state. It didn’t matter the misery incurred by such policies in Venezuela, Cuba, or Argentina, Lula’s charm and political capital earned him overwhelming victory in the poorest part of my country, the Northeastern part (where I grew up). Lula functions in some ways like a Neo-Pentecostal leader who appeals to the poor through promises of prosperity, offering a Gospel as convoluted as a Marxian paradigm. And the people said, “Amen!”

Bolsonaro, on the other hand, was the Tropical Trump; if Trump could dance and recite the Lord’s Prayer, he would be the Orange Bolsonaro. Bolsonaro is equally charismatic as Lula, and the oddity of the whole thing is that wherever he went in the Northeast, he was received with immense approval. But politics is a tricky business. The people may love a candidate, political inclinations, or moral declarations, but they are easily seduced by flattery and promises of statist charity. I’d also happily admit to Bolsonaro’s number of blunders throughout, but the options were so universally contrary to one another, leaving Brazilians with no excuse.

The tremendous benefit is that this entire thing has awakened a conservative resurgence in my home country. Conservative principles are now much more common than before Bolsonaro’s election. I suspect the various movements will only continue to grow. Certainly, the environment is ripe for a conservative nationalism that sees Brazil’s interests, morally and economically, as the heart of a prosperous nation.

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On October 12, 2022 By Uri Brito In Culture 2

How Shall We Then Tweet?

This is a special project with Matt Fuller, and we just published our third episode. Please subscribe to the channel:

On October 11, 2022 By Uri Brito In Church, Culture 3

A Creational Apologetic for Mockery

Several recent essays have offered a rich description of what has happened to the winsome phenomenon. Evangelical writers and theologians once known for defending the good have sought to minimize Gospel realities by maximizing opportunities for ecumenical endeavors. These endeavors did not produce the fruit expected, and, instead, it has led inevitably to the prodigalness of the evangelical left.

The result is a Babylonian conundrum leaving these figures defending the other side instead of protecting the voices most closely aligned with the cause of the Gospel. The winsome project has led to the adulteration of the good by compromising the good. My premise is that these authors have failed to see the Church’s role as that of protecting the creational order and priorities at all costs. These priorities negate the winsome strategy and advocate for something more distinctly aggressive regarding our relationship with ungodliness in this world.

To provide a bit of a rationale for what I call “A creational apologetic for mockery,” let me begin by offering some propositions and then conclude with some observations about the state of things in the Church.

First, I argue that creational theology compels us to use mockery against evil. Creation, by its very nature, is an apologetic against principalities and powers. Sun, moon, and stars are not merely heavenly descriptors but symbolic ones which proclaim the heavenly reality as the mode of operation for all of history. This reality presents the dignity of man, the labor of man, the complementarity of woman, and the establishment of priestly categories as fundamental antagonists to the attempts of evil men and their institutions to reverse the created order. Thus, the creation account supplants other accounts with an ideal established order and decency for both private and public arenas.

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On October 6, 2022 By Uri Brito In Theology Like

Ten Thoughts on Biblical Language

a) The worldview that should shape our formation is not so much the kind of discursive and analytical philosophy but the worldview formed by the Bible’s own language.

b) When we think of the sun, moon, and stars, we may have certain ideas of what these mean, but the biblical worldview speaks of these as not only scientific in reference but as symbols of the hierarchy of heaven and earth.

c) The Bible re-uses this language throughout the prophets and the Gospels to represent civil authorities, governmental entities, and hierarchical structures on earth and in heaven. So, there is much more than first meets the eye.

d) We are required to see the language of the OT as is, which means we need to develop an appetite for visual imagery and repeated patterns. And these are the two ideas that will guide our interpretation: visual imagery refers to symbolism, & repeated patterns refer to typology.

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On September 28, 2022 By Uri Brito In Church, Culture Like

#NATCON and David French

The National Conservatism movement has received much attention from various media publications. I have detailed my experience and annotations in the latest Perspectivalist podcast, and don’t want to belabor the point too much. Much of the work is being done in the background, and conversations about the future are happening all around.

One of the latest pieces on #NatCon2022 comes from The Dispatch, written by Alec Dent, representing the leftist side of the Evangelical/Roman Catholic wing. David French, the founder of this national media company has articulated a vision of politics that opposes any state imposition of a moral code. He even argues favorably for the liberty for drag queen hour in public libraries:

“There are going to be Drag Queen Story Hours. They’re going to happen. And, by the way, the fact that a person can get a room in a library and hold a Drag Queen Story Hour and get people to come? That’s one of the blessings of liberty,” French said.

Suffice it to say, my body of writing opposes such absurdities. I affirm that the very essence of the Christian faith compels the body politic to legislate Christian morality. Further, that deacons of righteousness exist to pass righteous laws. In my estimation, that entails removing obscenities like drag queen hour from all public spaces and spheres. The spheres belong to Jesus, and opposition to it is opposition to Jesus as Lord.

When I was invited to be interviewed by the journalist from the Dispatch, I came prepared to answer several different questions, and should I have taken the Doug Wilson approach, I should have recorded the 15-minute interview. But I learned a valuable lesson, and thankfully the author quoted me briefly but accurately while overlooking the body of my main points.

The concern from the Dispatch is that we build a movement that minimizes liberties for unchristian groups and unchristian practices. The goal, according to them, is to provide a society where social liberties are accepted in the public square and that Christians should advocate for a virtuous and winsome approach in our engagement.

But the Statement of Principles from National Conservatism offers a stark alternative, which is that “where a Christian majority exists, public life should be rooted in Christianity and its moral vision.” Even its main philosophical head, Yoram Hazony, a Jew, states that biblical Christianity should be the source of any society. He understands that America is a sea of Protestant, biblical faith, even though only 65% of the population identifies with Christianity.

When asked whether #NatCon favors the presence of atheists, the journalist quotes me:

Some national conservatives are still willing to work with the post-religious right—so long as everyone remembers who is running the show. “I wouldn’t mind them joining the cause, as long as they submitted to the general rules and principles thereof, which I think can be guided by sacred scriptures,” Rev. Uri Brito, who delivered one of NatCon 3’s benedictions, told The Dispatch. “I would not want to be a part of a movement where atheists are guiding that movement.”

The quotation is not inaccurate, though it misses my entire build-up to it. Fine and dandy. I reaffirm that there is no future in the United States where atheism is leading. I agree with R.R. Reno that atheists may find #NatCon appealing because of our defense of country and its priorities, but they will undoubtedly demur regarding faith and family.

In the interview, I delved further into other aspects of what a true nationalism should look like and proceed from, which is an ecclesial conservatism. I developed those in my ten theses over at Kuyperian and hope others may benefit from them as well. I argued with the Dispatch that fundamentally, any movement towards a Christian orientation must be ecclesially focused and that the first priority of any true Christian nationalist is that of worshipping the Triune God. I also spoke favorably about the resurgence of Christian, Classical education and how necessary it is to re-engage our Western tradition and train our children to see the West not as a curse but as a crucial piece of our history and that Christendom flourished through this history.

Overall, I am pleased to see intensified attention on #NatCon and the principles that undergird it, and hope to see these conversations even more prevalent in the days to come.

On September 20, 2022 By Uri Brito In Church 1

Continuity in Rituals and Rites

Many people struggle with the concept and hermeneutic of biblical continuity. They impose unnecessary breaks in the Bible. They put commas when God has put a period. The same takes place in matters of sacramental importance.

The Scriptures are a place full of rituals and rites. These rituals and rites have intentionality in Israel’s liturgy. They shape the humanity of the Israel of God. Israel becomes a people because they participate in these essential initiatory experiences. We are all shaped by experiences. These experiences in the context of the Church make us who we are. They identify us with a specific community and a particular God.

In ancient Israel, the Hebrews were identified by their bloody signs. These signs connected us with a bloody religion; the religion of our forefathers. These signs were to be identity markers ritualized into the very fabric of their humanity as image-bearers.

As God’s people transitioned through periods of obedience and disobedience, wilderness wondering, these rituals remained as promises because God works most ordinarily through means and tangible signs of his faithfulness.

But when the new creation emerged in the resurrection of Messiah Jesus, the Church was organically joined with the Gentiles, and Israel’s rituals changed and took on new meaning; they were glorified. The once bloody identity markers were replaced with cleansing markers. The New Creation now becomes marked by waters surrounding the narratives of the Gospel, the geography of Paul’s epistles, and ultimately the seas no longer cause harm as in Jonah but bring forth tranquility as in John’s abundance (Jn. 21). The New Covenant is filled with cleansing rituals.

This natural shift in creation happens because Jesus’ humanity changes and cleanses the world. His blood sacrifice is a cleansing for the nations (Is. 52:15). Jesus’ humanity humanifies the world. The presence of Messiah in word and deed pushes back the dirt and corruption and darkness and incompleteness of the Old Covenant rituals. There is a temporary nature to particular rituals, but the rituals/markers continue for a thousand generations. God does not change.

The issue of continuity is a fundamental aspect of this ritual-laden world. The rituals continue, changed by times and places, but the object/recipients of these rituals never decreases; they only increase. In the New Creation, entire households are brought forth for this cleansing ritual called baptism. Every Gentile and Jew, male and female, are made explicit recipients and are called to partake of this new sign. The New Creation is inclusive, bringing the nations to Zion city of our God (Is. 2; Matt. 28:18-20).

The New Covenant is a covenant of abundant life, and abundant life means blessings to the nations. Baptism saves to the uttermost (I Pet. 3:21) because Christ saves to the uttermost. You cannot separate the abundant life Christ gives with the abundant life of the means Christ provides for His own.

The individualized language of modern sacramental and evangelical theology is a departure from the type of language the Bible has trained us to use when referring to rituals. Rituals have always been communal activities. The glory of the many in the Old Creation is not substituted by the radical commitment of the one in the New Covenant. Jesus is always and perpetually connected to a body in His ascension work. Thus, to divorce Christ from the body is an act of covenantal treason (WCF XXVIII). Continuity is key to understanding this process. It is not as some assume that the sacrament of baptism needs to depart from the Old Creation. The sacrament of baptism is so inextricably tied to the bloody rites of the Old Creation that it cannot be divorced from it in any way, shape, or form. Blood makes room for water. Bloody-martyr-servants make room for cleansed-martyred servants. Still, One Lord, one faith, one baptism.

Baptism is a welcome party for martyrs. In baptism, the noble army of God is equipped to serve and battle. They do not begin anew, but they continue the ancient battle begun in Genesis. They add their powerful voices and armor to the battle. They are consecrated in water, their swords are sharpened, and their helmets are strengthened. In the heat of the battle, while the enemies find no place to call home, Yahweh prepares a table in the presence of His enemies.

Baptism is preparation for a life-long war. Christ leads the baptized saints. He washed them with great care and equipped them to do the work. This community of faith directs their love to the One who adopted them in love. Baptism is loyalty to Messiah. Baptism cleanses, restores, and adorns those who undergo the great cleansing. To deny a continuity of rituals is to deny the war on the serpent. All God’s children need to be ritualized so that they can war. Baptism initiates that calling formally, and we are initiated into a life of ritual warfare.