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On February 5, 2021 By In Culture, Politics, Theology

Jesus Is King!

When Jesus appeared for trial before Pilate, the Roman governor in Judea, Pilate had one question for him: “Are you the King of the Jews?” The Jewish authorities had dragged him through their own “grand jury” throughout the preceding night. They determined that this man was claiming to be the Christ, the King of the Jews. This charge was worthy to bring before their provincial governor to be tried in the court of Rome.

When we read this story in twenty-first-century America, we tend to read it the way we have been trained to read it culturally: this is a religious story, not a political one. The Gospels, Jesus’ life, etc., all deal with our inner spiritual life. These were simply the necessary, external trappings that had to take place in order for our souls to be saved. (And, generally, when we hear of our souls being saved, we tend to think of a disembodied bliss that is free from a material world.) The authorities obviously misunderstood Jesus’ claims to being king. He was to be a “spiritual” king, not a king that actually challenged the governments of the Jews and Rome. It was a great, big misunderstanding that Jesus allowed to happen so that he could die for our sins.

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On January 26, 2021 By In Culture

Misreading Kuyper? Stewart, Hawley, and The New York Times

Earlier this month Katherine Stewart, writing for The New York Times, published an article that many are reading to aid in understanding what happened in Washington, DC, on 6 January: The Roots of Josh Hawley’s Rage. Joshua Hawley is the junior United States Senator from Missouri, having served in that capacity since 2019. A graduate of Yale Law School, he is the author of Theodore Roosevelt: Preacher of Righteousness. A professing Christian, he played a small role in the storming of the Capitol, as Stewart recounts:

In today’s Republican Party, the path to power is to build up a lie in order to overturn democracy. At least that is what Senator Josh Hawley was telling us when he offered a clenched-fist salute to the pro-Trump mob before it ransacked the Capitol, and it is the same message he delivered on the floor of the Senate in the aftermath of the attack, when he doubled down on the lies about electoral fraud that incited the insurrection in the first place.

After a photographer captured this clenched fist, NBC reported that Hawley had become a pariah even in his own party. That he had dragged the 19th/20th-century Dutch statesman Abraham Kuyper into his rhetoric appeared to discredit Kuyper himself, with Stewart leading the charge:

Mr. Hawley’s idea of freedom is the freedom to conform to what he and his preferred religious authorities know to be right. Mr. Hawley is not shy about making the point explicit. In a 2017 speech to the American Renewal Project, he declared–paraphrasing the Dutch Reformed theologian and onetime prime minister Abraham Kuyper–“There is not one square inch of all creation over which Jesus Christ is not Lord.” Mr. Kuyper is perhaps best known for his claim that Christianity has sole legitimate authority over all aspects of human life.

“We are called to take that message into every sphere of life that we touch, including the political realm,” Mr. Hawley said. “That is our charge. To take the lordship of Christ, that message, into the public realm, and to seek the obedience of the nations. Of our nation!”

I will not offer a detailed response to this article, as others are likely better positioned than I to do so. Nevertheless, I will make what should be an obvious point: misinterpretations of a person’s writings do not by themselves discredit that person. But have Hawley and Stewart misread Kuyper? Yes and no.

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On January 22, 2021 By In Culture, Discipleship, Theology, Wisdom

Not My President?

This past week the United States of America inaugurated a new president. I don’t like him. I believe he is, as my grandpa used to say, “crooked as a barrel o’ snakes.” I don’t like his vice president. I despise his baby-killing-gender-bending-Marxist-promoting-communist-China-loving-LGBTQ-racist-Orwellian agenda. The Biden administration is an unapologetic enemy to the kingdom of God, no matter all of the “God-talk” they employ. I am one of those kooks who believes the election fraud was so evident that it was hard to believe. No one will ever be able to convince me that Joe Biden was elected legitimately. However, none of that means that I can say that he is “not my president.” He is a legitimate president because the powers-that-be under our Constitution certified him as president.

This situation is nothing new to world history or even to God’s people in particular. For example, God made it clear in Israel who were to be the priests and high priests: the sons of Aaron. As history progressed, the sons of Aaron were even narrowed down in the time of David to the line of Zadok. Only Aaron’s sons through Zadok were to be high priests. Upon the Jews’ return to the land after captivity and exile, the Zadokian line had to be restored when the temple was rebuilt. However, between the rebuilding of the temple and the birth of Jesus, the high priesthood became a position that could be bought and sold or given as a gift by rulers. During the lifetimes of Jesus and his apostles, the high priests were not “constitutionally legitimate.” Nevertheless, neither Jesus nor the apostles refused their authority.

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On January 21, 2021 By In Church, Culture

Cursed Cursing

Guest Post by John Unger

Everywhere and in almost every conversation that one might hear these days, whether in public discourse or on social media, the F- word appears. A generation ago, this curse was rarely employed, and when used publicly, would not only astonish and appall the hearers but also bring shame and dishonor on the speaker for his brazen vulgarity. In the passing decades, the employment of this curse became more common and in vogue, its use coming to be called “dropping an F-bomb”, which startles the hearers with its bold force and brashness.

In the last several years however, the F-word has become more commonplace, permeating daily life and discourse. Rather than a “shock and awe” megaton shell falling from the sky, it has morphed into constant, random, rapid gunfire, read and heard in social media interaction, public television, and casual discourse. On streets, in stores, restaurants, buses, malls, etc., it matters not the age, sex, region, race, sexual orientation, education, status, title, ad infinitum: the F-word truly is an equal-opportunity curse word. In print, the oft-attempted replacement of letters in the word – #### – fails to mask our cultural comfort level with this once-shunned curse word, and its near-ubiquitous use at present. Even our President in a recent speech employed the F-word, in an overtly macho attempt to communicate the high stakes involved in attacking America.

Historically (in the Christian West at least), the cursing of someone or something usually contained a reference to God and the eternal realm, as in “God damn ***!”, or “Damn ***!”, or someone might pronounce, “Go to hell!” upon another, or simply invoke the name “Jesus Christ!” in expressing their anger at a situation, thing, or person. The employment of “hell”, “God” or “Jesus” in cursing demonstrates that even in our folly and anger, we intuitively know and have sense enough to call upon a heavenly God and Jesus Christ as the Sovereign Lord and Creator, Who owns and judges all men and all things. Even in suppressing our knowledge of God (Rom. 1:18), we invoke Him to vindicate our personal cause and make things right for us – however twisted and wicked our desires might be, in our moments of anger and pride.

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On January 14, 2021 By In Culture

Free Speech in a Facebook Age

The conversation on free speech is a rather intriguing one at this stage of American history. The First Amendment reads in part: “Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom of speech. ” Madison, who drafted the Bill of Rights, made the case that the definite article “the” before “freedom of speech” intended to convey that our freedoms to manifest our opinions and ideas p͟r͟e͟c͟e͟d͟e͟ the government. In other words, “the freedom of speech” is an inherent feature of our humanity, not a gift from the government.

In our day, free speech is under the threat of massive social media conglomerates. These–Twitter and Facebook–offer a narrow understanding of free speech. While they share the protections of private businesses, they function as a mouthpiece for the “proliferation of mainstream perception.” They are no longer under the kinds of restrictions one can impose on private businesses. At this stage, their algorithms and censorship strategies are driven by a particular narrative that is shaping the modern discourse on any given issue. Variety Magazine noted that Facebook wants the advantages of defining itself as a tech company, “and not taking the liabilities inherent in being a media company.” I continue to argue that Christians should stay on these platforms until they are kicked out. In the meanwhile, go ahead and download all your data (pictures and posts) in to one file, should the purge begin. Nevertheless, as I have argued elsewhere, Facebook still provides the most outrageously large platform to convey ideas. Missionaries in far lands raise support, friends raise funds for godly causes, pastors get their voices and opinions to large audiences, interest in theology and biblical studies have increased through private groups, churches promote physical activities and virtual events, and more. Facebook has been a fruitful platform for many Christians. While there is a down-side, the final tabulation ends on the positive overwhelmingly.

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On January 12, 2021 By In Culture

Cultural dysfunction and public policy

Hours before the failed insurrection of 6 January, I had finished reading J. D. Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy, the young author’s absorbing autobiography of growing up in an extended Appalachian family in a failing industrial town in Ohio. Reading it prompted me to consider the unique features of specific cultures and subcultures, deeply rooted factors that make for flourishing and those that obstruct it over the long term. In recent decades we have come to assume that all cultures are equal and that the different ways of doing things that separate distinctive groups of people are equally valid. If one group suffers disproportionately from poverty and social instability, we are generally loathe to examine internal contributing factors for fear of being accused of blaming the victim. Nevertheless, if we take seriously the status of our fellow human beings as responsible agents, we cannot afford to overlook these factors. This has profound public policy implications.

Although I was raised in suburban Chicago and now make my home in Canada, I have hillbilly roots on my mother’s side. My maternal grandmother was born in Big Stone Gap, Virginia, best known as the home of John Fox, Jr., author of The Trail of the Lonesome Pine. Her frequently absent father moved the family to a farm near Adrian, Michigan, around 1914, to join his mother and her latest husband. My grandmother was married four times, my mother having been fathered by her third husband, a Finnish American from Michigan’s remote upper peninsula. The epidemic of fatherlessness in that line goes back to the middle of the 19th century, as far as we know—something which my generation was mercifully spared.

I have extensively researched that side of the family through an online genealogy site, and I have discovered much that fleshes out the larger story. Most of my relatives have lived in the region where Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Kentucky meet west of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Their lives have often been short, and it’s not always easy to keep track of the marriages or where they were living at any moment. One distant cousin even married a Vance. Our forebears have lived there since the 17th and 18th centuries, descended from the Howards, the Booths, and the Plantagenet monarchs of England. A Hyder ancestor fought in the War of Independence. One line goes back to a certain “Irish” Andrew Culbertson (1694-1746), whose family was originally from Scotland, thus being part of the great wave of Scots-Irish settlers to populate the Appalachian region.

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On January 12, 2021 By In Church, Culture, Discipleship, Politics, Theology, Worship

Crossing the Rubicon

(Sermon preached at Providence Church in Caro, MI on January 10th, 2021, Feast of the Baptism of Christ Light modifications have been made.)

On this day, January 10, in 49BC, Julius Caesar set in motion the Roman Civil War. He had been governor over a region of Gaul and, when his term had ended, was to return to Rome. Instead, he lead his army across the shallow Rubicon River, a clear declaration of war on the Roman Senate. “Crossing the Rubicon” has, ever since, meant crossing a point of no return, taking a definitive and clear step of war, whether literal or metaphorical. 

In our text this morning (Mark 1:4-11,) we see Jesus, in His Baptism, at a river-crossing event. Jesus is at the Jordan River, not the Rubicon, but the symbolism is just as powerful. And in fact Jesus’ “Rubicon crossing” in the Jordan is no less  a declaration of war.a

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  1. Thanks for Chad Bird for pointing out, in a recent video, the historical and thematic connection of Jesus’ Baptism and the Rubicon Crossing.  (back)

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On January 9, 2021 By In Culture, Discipleship, Wisdom

Apocalyptic Patience

Tensions are running high. For the past nine months, we have been living with a novel virus, politicians playing power games with the virus, people losing their livelihoods, social unrest because of police actions resulting in deaths, and, now, political unrest because of the questions about the legitimacy of the recent election. Societal anxiety is high. Whether or not you have felt the pinch directly from any of these things, you are affected. The anxiety is in the air. Our leaders, who have the power to allay societal anxiety, have not only refused to do so but rather they have exacerbated it by their blatant hypocrisies as well as using it as an opportunity to enrich themselves and increase their power. We are sitting on a powder keg with a bunch of hysterical toddlers playing with matches. We know the explosion is coming. The anticipation of disaster creates anxiety.

Whenever these sorts of things happen in a society, people look for relief. We need rest. We can’t live like this. We’re going to pop. All of this sets us up for some type of messianic figure who will lead a revolution. It may or may not be bloody, but it will be revolutionary and promise peace. With the potential for rest, we will give up our heritage of liberty and just about anything else. If we believe in his cause, we may even fight. Tensions must find resolution.

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On January 8, 2021 By In Culture, Discipleship

Should Churches Meet During COVID-19?”, Part 2

By Joel Nelson, Guest Series

Read Part 1

Purpose of Weekly Church Gatherings

The Body of Christ is called not to imitate the practices of the world, including its darkness and fears, but rather to walk as children of light to try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord, and to take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness but instead expose them (Eph. 5:9-11). The cultural contrast necessitated by walking in the light, and exposing the works of darkness, may be uncomfortable. It may be foreign, even shocking to the sensibilities of those outside the church. This should be expected when two cultures collide. But even so, some may question whether it is prudent or appropriate for this contrast to be exhibited during a time of societal upheaval. Specifically, when the rest of society comes to a standstill and goes indoors out of fear of contagion, should the church situated in today’s world follow society’s lead and also retreat, or should it continue to meet to worship, sing and pray? We will now focus on this question.

For context, the arguments in this essay are predicated upon specific assumptions regarding the church, its union with Christ, and its position in the world.[i] It is assumed throughout this essay that the primary purpose of weekly assembled gatherings of the covenant people of God is worship, not evangelism to nonchristians. Within this context, evangelism takes the form of members of the church body going out from the weekly assembly to the world to witness and evangelize. Thus, the purpose of the assembled gathering is not primarily that of outreach, or attracting those outside to come in. Rather, as Jeff Meyers wrote in The Lord’s Service, it is a family gathering for access to the sanctuary.

In fact, within this assembly of the baptized covenant community, the assembled saints before YHWH’s throne may be so counter-cultural, so unique compared to ordinary society and civic gatherings, that the unbeliever who enters may be “convicted by all, called to account by all, the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you” (1 Cor. 14:24-25). The nature, format, even style of the corporate assembly is modeled on heavenly patterns, not on the whims and styles of contemporary cultural practices (whether legislative assemblies or modes of entertainment such as “TED Talks” or music concerts). It follows, then, that the culture of that assembly will not be congruous to outside cultural practices as well. Peter Leithart notes in The Baptized Body that “the church, as the body of Christ made up of baptized believers, is a separate culture, a separated and holy people” from that of the surrounding world. And as a separate culture, rather than a religious organization within an existing culture, “it has its own internal political and social configuration, its own language, rites, and disciplines.” As such, “what will outsiders think of our worship practices” ought not to be the deciding factor or overarching concern of the local church body.

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On January 7, 2021 By In Church, Culture, Worship

Beware of Revolutionaries in the Church

As events were erupting yesterday afternoon, I took a pen and followed a trajectory of rebellion that appears in Jude. I preached 11 sermons on Jude and so much of it is pertinent in times like these. In my series, I argued that Jewish Zealots defending the “cause” of Abraham slithered into churches looking for revolutionaries to take arms. They ate at our church tables and made the case for violence against the current authority structures. They tried to seduce the Church to take their eyes off of Jesus to political causes that were deemed more important than the Church’s cause.

They attempted to seduce/persuade new believers and others that the greater cause is not the cause that plants seeds and waits generations to see fruit–the covenant view of ordinary faithfulness in parenting, worshipping, Christian education–but the immediate cause of revolution where we see fruit now through whatever means; a kind of over-realized eschatology. The pursuit of these kinds of political revolutions is a childish escape from responsibility. Rushdoony was right when he argued that many people like to believe that somewhere invisible rulers pull the strings which govern all of us … [Actually], the strings that pull us come out of our heart and mind.

In Jude, instead of blessing the peace-makers, the Zealots condemn those who continue to live quiet and peaceful lives chastising them for not meeting at the local chapter of the Jewish Zealot society. They have more zeal for these political revolutionary causes than the Church itself; their eyes are more glued to news cycles about overturning the state than the kingdom of God overturning Herod’s kingdom.

Beware of these Zealots who come wearing all sorts of hats–of the Left and the Right–in the church, espousing all sorts of conspiratorial causes. If the Church cannot condemn and rebuke her members rightly and speedily, they will do what is most natural to them–they will follow the ways of Korah and would rather draw others to their earthly causes than nearer to our blessed Lord.

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