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On October 25, 2020 By In Culture, Discipleship, Politics, Theology

Authorized

What if your pastor and elders mandated that every person attending worship must wear a toga? They have concluded that this will be good for the spiritual health of the church by promoting unity among the members as well as warding off evil spirits and those who aren’t serious about worshiping Jesus. After you finished laughing because you thought it was a joke, realizing that your church leadership was serious, you would rightly question whether or not the command was legitimate. Do they really have the authority to do that? If they insisted they did, quoting Hebrews 13.17, then you would probably leave because you realized that this was outside of the boundaries of what they can require. And you would be right.

The same is true with civil governments, a reality that has smacked us in the face in 2020. Governors and local officials have been issuing mandates that tell us what we must wear, how we shop, with how many people we can gather, and in what manner we may or may not worship.  While there are questions concerning the effectiveness and consistency of the enforcement of these mandates, there is a more fundamental question that underlies everything: do they have Constitutional authority to make and enforce these mandates under penalty of law? Being a Constitutional Republic means that this is the issue that goes beyond masks and mass gatherings. The law of our land is (theoretically) king, not the officials. They are elected to protect our Constitutional liberties and are subject to them as well. They cannot make laws that contradict the Constitution (again, theoretically). When they try, it is appropriate to call them on it through the means provided to us.

(As a side note, if you are quick to question and challenge your church authorities but not so quick to question and challenge your civil authorities, that should be a troubling revelation about yourself.)

Israel faced something of a Constitutional crisis, you might say, when Jesus rode into Jerusalem, was proclaimed king by the crowds, and then proceeded to take over the Temple. Can he do that? What right does he have to do that? Those are not improper questions. However, if you ask those questions, you had better be ready for answers that might not be so comfortable to accept.

The present leadership in Israel likes the way things are, and they don’t want to be challenged. They are the ones who will do the questioning, thank you very much. Jesus has upset their political applecart. But they can’t just lynch Jesus. They must put him on trial and find him guilty, putting him to death under the authority of the law.

But of what can they accuse him? In Luke 20.1-8 we find their first attempts to discover legal reasons, the authority, to accuse Jesus. They ask him by what authority he is doing these things (that is, all those actions he took at the temple). If they discover that he doesn’t have the proper authority, they can condemn him for not being properly authorized. He could be condemned as one who is impersonating a king and, thus, rebelling against proper authority.

As Jesus does throughout Luke 20, he turns the tables on his inquisitors here. Jesus will answer their question if they answer his. Jesus isn’t afraid to answer their question. Recently, he bravely stopped the center of the life of Jerusalem in the Temple. That was quite the public display; hardly the actions of someone who would be afraid of answering, “In what authority are you doing these things?”

No, Jesus is leading them somewhere without ever answering their question directly when he asks, “The baptism of John: was it from heaven or from men?” The only reason the officials seemed stumped is that no answer was expedient for their present power. They can’t say that his baptism was from heaven because they didn’t follow him. That would put them as rebels against heaven. They can’t say it was from men because they feared the people who believed John to be a prophet. The people would turn against them. So, they don’t answer the question. Neither will Jesus answer their question … at least not directly.

John was a priest and prophet in Israel. His father, Zechariah, was serving his priestly duty in the Temple when he learned about the promise of John’s conception and birth (Lk 1). Being in the priestly line of Israel makes John a priest. He is a servant in God’s house, authorized to baptize. Being a prophet also meant that John was authorized to anoint kings as Samuel and Elisha did before him. When John baptized Jesus, Jesus was lawfully being anointed as king of Israel. The Father and Spirit witnessed to this when the heavens tore open and the Father said, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased,” and the Spirit descended upon Jesus like a dove. John’s baptism was from heaven. Since it was from heaven, Jesus is their king. Since Jesus is their king, he has the authority to do what he is doing.

Jesus was baptized with a baptism from heaven. Were you? Who authorized your baptism? Does its authority rest in men or in God? Since our baptism is a baptism into Christ (Rom 6.1ff.) and in it we put on Christ (Gal 3.27), the baptism that Jesus receives is the baptism that we receive. We participate in his baptism. Our baptism is authorized by heaven. This means, at least, that our baptism means what God says it means and is not dependent upon our “authorization” through feeling or even what we think it means.

When we are baptized into the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, that baptism comes from heaven and says about us that we have authority; authority to be called “sons of God.” Being baptized means that we have been authorized by heaven to be God’s representatives in the world. When we speak, we speak for heaven. When we act, we act on behalf of heaven. All of our words and deeds are done as those who have been baptized. When the world comes to test us like they did Jesus, seeking to find fault with us, we must be careful to speak with the authority of heaven, saying what God would say about the matters. When our cultural leaders say, “How can you be so intolerant of this sexual lifestyle,” or “How can you be so narrow in your views to think that the Christian faith is the only way,” we must speak as those under authority and authorized to speak only what God has commissioned us to say. We condemn only what God condemns. We commend only what God commends. When we do so, we do so with the full weight of the authority of heaven. When we commend what God condemns or vice versa, we have stepped outside of what we have been authorized to say and are misrepresenting God himself. Let us then be careful in our words and deeds to reflect faithfully God’s own attitudes and actions.

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On October 21, 2020 By In Politics, Pro-Life

A Plea to Evangelicals Voting for Biden

Pro-Life Evangelicals for Biden is a group formed recently by notable leaders such as Pastor Joel Hunter. For the record, Joel’s massive congregation was less than two miles from my home when I lived in Central Florida. I had friends who sang in the praise band. Their congregation was so large that they had worship services six times a week. Their music was very professional and on special occasions, we attended his congregation at least five or six times on a Friday/Saturday night. I also had the opportunity to meet Joel and speak with him on a few occasions. He was and still appears to be a very kind fellow, though I suggest largely deceived.

In those days, Joel had a close relationship with Condi Rice and he was not timid about mentioning some of those conversations from the pulpit. I had a distant high regard for his interest on social issues and kept a fairly close eye on his evolution in the last few years. In 2016, he voted for Donald Trump, but as he recently stated, it was not long after that where he began to doubt Trump’s ability to unite the country. He found it particularly distasteful when Trump began to demean illegal immigrants.

He even now agrees with some of Trump’s policies but believes that Biden is a more unifying figure and that is what the country needs at this stage. When pressed recently by an NPR journalist about all of Trump’s accomplishments with a conservative flavor, Joel acknowledged them but still feels that Biden has the characteristics of someone who can build coalitions and provide the framework for what Joel calls a “whole life” view or a “consistent ethic of life.” A quick tour through those who signed on to the movement and one can easily dissect a very clear trajectory.

The argument made, which I have heard many times, is that we are to be pro-life from the womb to the tomb, and that those who suffer throughout life, especially the poor and needy, the marginalized, and those most affected by immigration policies, and women tortured by abusers, contemplating an abortion due to harships, are all just as important as those who are still in the womb. Therefore, we are to be concerned with more than just the unborn, but all those born who for a variety of circumstances find themselves in dire places in life.

I find Joel’s argument utterly uncompelling. Interestingly, missing from Joel’s argument is that Donald Trump has avoided the neo-conservative trap and has consistently been an anti-war voice in the last four years. Contra Obama and Biden and Hillary, it is the cantankerous Donald Trump who has argued in favor of bringing troops home and ending what he calls “stupid wars.” My inner Ron Paul is happy! Yet, we would think that a consistently pro-life view would consider the vast implications of an anti-war president. But, no! Not once.

I find this entire combination of Pro-Life Evangelicals and a support for Biden to be completely unfounded, inconsistent, and frankly, infantile. It lacks the gravitas of a thorough social and political analysis. Is it pro-life for Joel Hunter to support Biden when he espouses transgender rights for 8 year old children? As Robert A. J. Gagnon observed, this means that “if you as a parent of such a child don’t buy into the self-dishonoring, Creator-denying delusion, state social services can take your child away from you.” Is that pro-life?

Is it pro-life to support a president who believes that Amy Coney Barrett is not fit to serve on the Court because Biden’s colleague says that Barrett’s catholic dogma lives loudly within her? Is it pro-life to support economic policies that have been tried and found wanting in every conceivable nation? Is it pro-life to support a candidate whose VP is considered one of the most pro-abortion and LGBTQ supporters in the Senate? is it pro-life to embrace a candidate who will undoubtedly seek to infringe upon religious rights and who will re-consider the tax-exempt status of churches? Who admittedly will impose a COVID lock-down which has already led to more suicides, addiction, and spiritual damage than anything I’ve seen in my lifetime?

Joel is mistaken and anyone else who falls for this is mistaken. I plead with you to not allow your animosity for Trump’s style to keep you from considering his actual policies. And of course, we should never forget that the infant in the womb never had a chance to experience life, because the taking of life was decided on his behalf. Evangelicals for Biden is a fallacious pursuit for nobility in a fallen world; an attempt to mix the good with evil in a profoundly eschewed way.

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On October 20, 2020 By In Politics

A Brief Case for Voting

I just cast my vote for the second time in a presidential election. The event was rather mundane up to the front door and then indubitably thrilling as I walked in to hand my ID. No one harassed me; there were no police guards looking at me with threatening eyes and everyone around me acted and enjoyed their 30-minute walk to the front of the line with enthusiasm and enjoyment. We are unbearably unique in this respect.

Perhaps it takes a perspective from an outsider to appreciate the validity of voting in the United States. A quick drive in most roads in South America and voting booths across the world will give you a sense of the vast chasm between order and chaos when it comes to this American social practice.

But I have addressed this too often before, and now I am here only to state what a profound joy it is to vote in this country; to be able to live a life where religion is practiced freely without hindrance and where the inferno of idiocy is not always at the door as it is in Chile, Venezuela, and other nations.

In the early days of Puritan Massachusetts, voting was a fairly restrictive right. It was reserved for those considered “freemen.” The freemen were those who were invested in the financial well-being of the colonies. Eventually, the only voting members were those who possessed membership in a local church. You could have a general agreement with Christian principles, but yet not join a local church because one feared the commitments of a local body. In short, voting was a process left to those who treasured the local church and membership provided one the right to have a voice in the local decisions affecting everyone. If one was lucid enough to be joined to the local body of Christ, and assume those responsibilities, he had the right to speak into civic matters as well with his vote.

In our own day, voting is often mocked as if it is the new sacrament of the polis. In reality, it is merely an extension of the humanity of every being who is placed in a particular place (Acts 17:26) to live by God. The position that voting is too imposing is rather extreme seeing that even advocates of two-kingdom theology perceive an ordinary secular (saecularia) function for voting as legitimate. The farthest from Puritan political theory find voting compelling. Politics may not be within the sphere of the holy for them, but it is still a function of ordinary pilgrims in a pagan and disposable world.

Thus, to turn voting into a waste or an inadequate principle for citizens is to be contra those who spiritualize the church and those who see the Church as the pre-requisite of orderly citizenry. To refuse to vote is by all accounts an easy way out of the complexity of life. By Puritan standards, it would be to despise the citizenship of redeemed humanity placed within a sphere and called to express that dominion in the most local and tangible way.

But finally, it is also to despise the benefits of living in a free country. How many around the world would cherish a glimpse into an overall orderly structure (few exceptions aside) where voting is counted and where free citizens participate–in however a small fashion–in the process of seeing trajectories change both locally and nationally.

We must have a healthy realism about the fallen world we live in, but we should not assume that because of flawed candidates we are called to simply give up voting and pursue something more noble. We have been called to express our authority over all things, and if relinquish voting to a lesser and unnecessary sphere, we are abdicating our authority.

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On October 6, 2020 By In Politics

“No Mas!” Thoughts on the Church’s Response to COVID

There was a great debate in the year of our Lord, Twenty-twenty. Many of you may not remember, but the esteemed John F. MacArthur stood tall among detractors for wishing to worship the Lord unhindered by meticulous pharisaical regulations seeking to strain out a gnat but swallowing camels in the process.

As of now, MacArthur’s congregation continues to meet despite the infelicities of Los Angeles County’s attempt for a restraining order against Grace Community Church. The city lost to an evangelical church not historically known for its Kuyperian zeal. But as I have said many times now, evangelicals can no longer remain luke-warm in these times. They either capitulate to distinct forms of weak pietism or they take to the halls and the streets to exercise that violent form of protest called singing. And while we are at it, we commend the saints in Moscow, ID for setting a healthy standard of the “NO MAS” rule. I am not talking about a “NO MASK” rule, but a “NO MAS” rule as a way of thinking. No more will we take the shenanigans and sophistry of local rulers who are generally barely more intellectual than my pipe tobacco. No more will the church think she cannot speak, even in places that mirror the Lower Abyss (L.A.). I pray we have learned enough lessons to stimulate our inner theonomist to action.

One of the encouraging signs also is to see churches that were adamantly closed during this season and whose voices said nothing in defense of the MacArthurs’ of this world, now saying, “Wait, what happened to civility, common sense, and the city’s cooperation with the church?” Even as Mark Dever realized, D.C. is on a selective war against churches banning even outdoor religious gatherings of more than a 100 people. The answer, of course, is to say that the city is being an equal opportunity offender. They are also not allowing other businesses to stay open. True enough, but according to an ancient prophet, the only true essential business is that holy city, Zion city of our God. Grateful to see Dever and others put the “No Mas” sign out!

What this has done is to force local pastors to consider whether permanently living in a state of purgatory is essential or not. If it is, we can live in this limbo happily and clappily, but if it isn’t, then we need to do something about it. Let’s sue the city, shall we? And behold, they did! Remember that these are the most lenient and patient of the evangelical class who eventually also said, “No mas.” We are not talking rabid postmillennialists who put vodka in their morning coffee; these are run-of-the-mill Calvinists and they are moving happily in our direction and we give thanks to God for their witness.

We should also pause our local broadcast to give thanks for all the local pastors who don’t have the luxury of a nation-wide platform to share their stories of blessings and faithfulness through this season. They have been steadfast, and I, as a fellow small-church pastor, have heard from many of them. God has blessed their flocks with growth and energy to persevere in this season. They are not seeking rebellious causes to pursue, but were simply early on (whether they closed down or not) ready to turn their “No Mas” signs on at the first sign of governmental disorientation. And boy, their signs blink 24 hours a day now.

If this blessed year of our Lord, twenty-twenty, has not taught us thankfulness for the local church, you have had blinders and powerful ear coverings for the last eight months. You are missing the revival of worship taking place in our day; you are missing the longing that children have to sing and play with one another; you are missing the holiness of saints telling jokes and stories and sitting around one another enjoying the freeing breeze. If you have not increased in gratitude in this year, pray that your misery increases so you can join in the “No Mas” choir mighty soon.

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On October 6, 2020 By In Culture, Politics, Worship

God’s Perfect Storm: Reflections on Psalm Sing Arrest in Moscow Idaho

You can’t plan Psalm Sing arrests. It was God at work and we were there to watch it unfold.

Gabe Rench Arrested at Psalm Sing September 23. Photo credit: Kip Mock

I am a member of Christ Church and I was there at Moscow City Hall on Wednesday, September 23. As I reflect on the Psalm Sing arrests, it is clear that God was at work putting all the pieces together so it would add up to a perfect media storm.

That Wednesday afternoon, we weren’t planning on getting arrested. I thought the police would be out issuing a lot of citations. That is what I was preparing for. When we arrived at City Hall, I was surprised to see about ten police were out there already. It was intimidating but I thought even then they would just issue citations.  

I am not sure why the police went up to Gabe Rench. He was near the front of the group but there were others they could have talked to.

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On September 30, 2020 By In Politics

The Greatest Debate Analysis of Last Night

My area of focus is theology and to be even more precise, pastoral theology, which makes my assessment of political debates infinitely less interesting. But since there are at least two witnesses eager to hear my thoughts, here it goes with all the zeal I can muster:

As far as the debate, it was a hopeless display of testicular dis-fortitude. And that’s all I have to say about it. Thanks for listening.

Now, what I really wish to communicate since I have you captive is that we are functioning in a priestly phase of history. While I don’t subscribe to the particularities of all Dreher’s proposals, I do subscribe and have for a long time to the idea that postmillennially speaking, we are young in our history, and somewhere between 5-10,000 years from the age of wisdom of history where Christendom will enfold civilization into one happy kumbaya experience. Until then, we will function in a priestly format with glimpses of prophets and kings around us, but by and large we will breathe priestly air for a long time.

And by the priestly phase of history, I mean the phase of history where we inculcate biblical grammar into the programming system of every little child. Adults also carry this task of reading big books, familiarizing oneself with big ideas of historical tradition, and seeing the Bible through new eyes. But it’s not the economy, it’s the children, stupid! It seems crazy to think about this, but the finest thing your children can aim for is the task of a loyal churchman: one faithful to his vocation and tribe. That’s it. If he is not a faithful church member, his ambitions are filthy rags.

So, to begin this indoctrination, we really need to think deeply about the education of our children and what worship they will subscribe to in coming years. Big people need to think about ours as well, but some of us are already forming and reforming our strategies and depending how old we are, we are having either a hell of a time doing it, or struggling our way to the throne each Lord’s Day. If you don’t want your children and their conversations to remind you of last night’s episode of “Dumb and Dumber,” choose the nobler things; or as the ancients would say, “the permanent things.”

Practically, every time your son writes some jumbled sentence on a text message, tell him that he knows better. If your 16-year old daughter puts a picture of herself on Instagram showing over 70% of her body, tell her that her body belongs to Jesus and not to the overly energized teens staring at her skin on-line. If your college son decides to sleep-in on a Sunday because he had a late night at a friend’s house, teach him the lesson of the gods who thought they could get away with murder. Just don’t let these things happen. While they may appear minor, these are habits that endanger the soul of future priests.

Begin young and begin big. Be a happy tyrant when they are little so that you can be a fuzzy-bear libertarian when they grow up. But do not wait to inculcate ideas. Begin the conversations early and often. The priestly stage of history compels us to memorize facts and ideas, which will come in quite handy when we transition to prophetic and kingly phases of history. The priests shall inherit the earth, the prophets shall proclaim the king’s message, and the kings will speak wisdom to the nations. While we are living in this priestly domain, study to show yourself approved. Get up each morning with your prayer book ready to go and a psalm to sing. Priests love heavenly grammar.

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On August 23, 2020 By In Culture, Politics, Theology

Whose Narrative?

We live in a broken world. From physical suffering to a shaky and crumbling Western (Christian) culture, it can be overwhelming and unsettling to hear the news nowadays. People know something is wrong, and they are grasping at answers. The efforts range from sincere to sinister. Power-brokers sinisterly foment fear to make people look to them, thinking that they will bring in a utopia once they rule (that is, at least for the leaders themselves). Many prominent people are telling blatant lies to create a narrative that will transform our society into an anarcho-socialistic state, convincing people that paradise is just around the corner if we deconstruct the entire law-and-order system and give everyone access to the possessions of others through individual or government looting.

People, having deceived themselves or been deceived by leaders, sincerely seek healing of society at every level, believing that they genuinely are fighting for physical health and social justice, equality for all. While many are wickedly driving this bus as well as many consciously wicked people on it, many are culpably naïve, believing they are doing good. However, what has happened, whether sinisterly or sincerely, is that problems have been assessed incorrectly and, therefore, their solutions are non-sensical and quite dangerous. We all know that there are problems. We all know that there is brokenness at every level of society. But where is it? What is the source? What are the answers?

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On July 6, 2020 By In Politics

Resenting the Successful

One of the most remarkable facts of the American system is that a person with barely any formal education (let’s say only a high school degree) can thrive in this culture and actually save enough wealth to pass on to his children. You have to have lived in other countries to realize how powerful that fact truly is.

The economic freedoms in this country allows someone with a creative or entrepreneurial mind to succeed in his sphere. If that is coupled with healthy savings and a basic view of wealth, that individual has a great possibility of making a decent salary while still being home for dinner at 6.

The entire premise, of course, entails that such individual follows the ethic of the ant. The ant knows his task and he is not hindered by supposed societal oppositions to his vocational aspirations. He establishes his vision early on and moves with intentionality.

The sluggard, on the other hand, views work as a necessary evil. He wakes up only to fulfill his duties, not to convert his duties into offerings of thanks to God. The sluggard quickly succumbs to leftists ideologies which promise equal share in profit and property. American universities are filled with sluggards applying for humanity classes which condemn business owners (often that ambitious young person with no college degree) taught by teachers who grew up resenting the ants among them. But philosophies of resentment is what the sluggard wants. He can get a degree and feel supported by a group of tenured professors who encourage his resentment towards the successful.

It’s indeed the great sign of the American experiment that a high-school graduate develops a sense of self-worth, respectfully views the process of labor, makes a fruitful living, treasures the ant, while the university grad is left with 20 years of loans with a degree in a limited market. But at least, he resents the bourgeois with great stamina; at least he was taught that success is a sign of oppression; at least he can take pride in reading Engels.

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On July 1, 2020 By In Politics, Wisdom

In the State We Trust

One of the great problems in our day has to do with government overreach. Yes? Yes! Now that this simple proposition is settled, let’s move on to another side effect of this ominous reality. And that is that we subtly allow the government to have a greater voice in our affairs when we treat them as the apex of knowledge.

The State is never a neutral institution. She always opines intelligently or not; with data or not. She can’t remain silent. We may all have opinions on all sorts of issues, but if we feel we have to share our opinions on all sorts of issues we are fools. The State, similarly, is supported by the imbecile’s currency. She needs to speak on everything and on everything she must speak in order to preserve her power and authority over the populace.

Our crisis is one of too much information and little wisdom which means we will always be in a position where we feel like we must know precisely what to do at all times in all places. And the State is always there for you to tell you how you are to live, when to mask on, and how to think. We have swallowed the State’s pills without questioning much at all of her intentions and presuppositions. I suspect, by now, we all feel sick in some way.

We need a healthy skepticism of every word that proceeds out of the mouth of D.C. Those men and women are highly syncretistic and are always ready to please their gods before the good of the people. And the very best way to draw the masses is by acting like all power and wisdom resides in one place. Those who are weak will find refuge there. The State will keep talking and talking and doing their very best to tell you that there is only way to do things. But the wise know that very often, too often, the State is basing their opinions on their agendas and even without knowledge they have to opine to keep you at ear’s length.

I believe it was Rushdoony who once noted that “Life is rarely easy, but, with Christ our King, it is always good.” I think that’s a healthy principle to keep in mind. There will be many times when we don’t know what to do; hard decisions will challenge us and our faith; and we may even have a sense that we are being lied to by powerful voices. In such times, when the radar of veracity is going all over the place, it’s all right to trust in local figures who have your best interest in mind. In fact, they may even be wrong at times, but at least you know that they trust in the goodness of God working on your behalf. The same can rarely, if ever, be said of the State.

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On June 14, 2020 By In Church, Culture, History, Politics, Theology, Worship

Kingdom Revolution

We are in the midst of a revolution. Societal structures are being overturned and a new order of government is taking over. Old symbols of tyranny are being toppled. The way we live in relationship with one another is being redefined. Our understandings of what constitutes justice and peace are being reshaped. Language itself is being transformed. Logic and rationality are being turned upside down so that not just what we think but how we think are being radically transformed.

This is what happens in revolution because a revolution is the overturning of one culture and the creation of another.

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