Minnesota

 So who primarily is responsible for indoctrinating into Leftism all those who seem to have lost their minds in Minnesota?

The universities.

I’m echoing a point I’ve made online for years. Understand that when you’re supporting the sports team of whatever university you choose, over in the education part of that university they’re busily turning hordes of youth against their Christian upbringings and creating Communists living in immorality.

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A people who will not accept their responsibilities will have their rights taken away from them. A people that will not obey the Law of God will have the laws of men multiplied over them.

Like or don’t like what’s happening in Minnesota, from whatever political perspective you want. The end result was always going to be this, or some version of it.

Educating Your Congregation

 Things churches too often don’t have the courage to address in a direct manner, from their pulpits, that they should:

1.) Church history. It should at least be taught to a congregation in a basic overview sort of way, and your people should be taught your congregation’s theological roots. If you aren’t addressing it head on, why not?

2.) Systematic theology. Not laying doctrine out in a systematic way simply leads to a confused people.

3.) The cults and heretics of the present day. You need to be able and willing to tell people, from the pulpit, what’s wrong with Mormonism, Unitarianism, Joel Osteen, etc. Expecting them to just take your basic preaching through the Bible and figure it out on their own isn’t enough.

4.) A basic approach to politics and the culture.

If these things aren’t taught systematically in Sunday morning worship, they need to be taught in some other fashion, in the church, during the week. You can’t just leave it to the people to figure these things out for themselves alone. They won’t.

The Judge of All the Earth

 A group of Buddhist monks walks across the country, west to east, promoting a false religion, and deceiving many who were already in rebellion against God and ready to be even more deceived.

Immediately following in their path comes a massive winter storm that threatens to cripple a significant portion of the country.

Mull that over, and take it seriously.

The God of the Old and New Testaments is the same today as He was in days of old. And He is still active throughout the earth, blessing the righteous, those who walk in faithfulness to His covenant, and judging those who refuse to honor, worship, and obey Him.

A Statement of Evangelical Concern

 From one of the newspapers of Greensboro, N.C., early June 1963, in response to the race demonstrations of the time. It was written and signed by a handful of local ministers. I have posted this here before, but thought it would be good to do so again.

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A Statement of Evangelical Concern

We, the undersigned, as individual believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, desire, in view of the racial tensions now distressing our city and nation, to set forth the following statement of evangelical concern:

1. Our only recourse in this or any problem is to the God of the Bible and the Lord of History. Because He is the One with Whom we have to do, we "cease from man" and every human solution. We also bow to the truth that "God is no respecter of persons." He plays no racial favorites, but all men are accountable to Him, their Creator and Judge, on the basis of their common humanity. (Ps. 60:11, Jer. 3:23, Acts 10:34, Rom. 14:14.)

2. The humanity which men share, however, has been deeply dyed by sin with the result that they are estranged both from God and from each other. No longer do they view their fellows, as God does, without partiality. Rather do their sinful natures express themselves by an inborn pride which glories, among other things, in racial distinctions. (Rom. 3:23, Is. 59:2, Luke 18:11, John 4:9.)

3. We must acknowledge that the current unrest had its origin in the sin of our forefathers, North and South, who for their own selfish ends brought an unwilling people to these shores. Furthermore, we admit that we too bear a measure of blame, for we have been reluctant to face the spiritual implications of the gulf existing between the races.

4. Because we know our own hearts and because we believe God's Word, we can see no permanent solution arising out of man's efforts to right wrongs and conciliate grievances. Human attempts to bring the races together in Northern cities have only compounded the problem. There racial pride has been driven underground - by legislation, executive order and judicial decision - only to reappear in subtler forms and uglier guises. (Job 14:4, Matt. 12:43-45, John 15:5, II Cor. 3:5)

5. We submit that the only Scriptural hope for any lasting reconciliation between men is to be found, not in one race demanding justice from another race, but in individuals of both races humbling themselves as sinners and claiming the grace of God in Christ. In that act they will experience what Christ described as a Second Birth, with the changing of heart attitudes and the redirecting of personal motives. We do not claim that the new Birth will automatically resolve all tensions but that it alone opens up the possibility of a true solution. (John 3:3, II Cor. 5:17, Gal. 3:28, Col. 3:11)

6. In support of this claim we point to the decisive results of the Great Evangelical Awakening which came to England two centuries ago. When that nation was poised on the precipice of a bloody social revolution, hundreds of thousands in all classes experienced the New Birth. As a direct consequence the whole atmosphere of English life was improved and the needed reforms peacefully introduced. Nor was it a coincidence that the Emancipation of the slaves, first in the British Empire and then in the United States, owed its inspiration to William Wilberforce, a product of the Awakening.

7. It is our deep conviction that the living God is speaking to Greensboro through its present troubles. He it is Who, more that any racial group, is shaking the foundations and calling the citizens of this city to repentence and saving faith in His eternal Son. Increasingly the message of a Savior slain and risen has been “despised and rejected” by both Negroes and Whites in favor of manmade programs of social betterment. Now, with these failing, God would summon us back to the redeeming Cross around which men of both races can stand together on level ground. (Acts 20:21: I Cor. 1:23,24; Eph. 2:13, 14.)

A. L. Parker

Roy C. Putnam

Frederick W. Evans, Jr.

H. G. Mackay

James A. Raines

R. Harold Mangham

Russ A. Heyne

Edwin L. Smithwick.

The Beauty of the Historic Liturgy

 Watching mass on EWTN, even though I’m as Reformed as I was 20 years ago, and will never join Rome. I will also listen to contemporary worship music on my own sometimes for enjoyment and inspiration. There was even a time when I led that style of worship service. God honors and works through “less-than-professional” worship services and even often our bad choices. And it’s always important to pay attention to and learn from the various branches of the Christian Church, the ones that are truly orthodox. But there truly is nothing to compete with the classical worship style of the church and classical hymnody. There is a beauty and reverence unsurpassed in them, and we reject them to our detriment.

Nazi Fears

 I have known plenty of people who weren’t interested at all in their own race. One Asian acquaintance said to me once, in reference to Asian people in general, “we all look the same.” I kid you not. The old saying is “opposites attract”, and not without reason.

I suppose if you live in an area with a single racial majority it’s easy to become deluded on this. Where I live, mixed race families aren’t as uncommon as they used to be.

We just went through this period in the 2000’s and 2010’s where a whole bunch of “Young Calvinists” were obsessed with Lecrae and other Christian hip hop artists. Not exactly “white culture”. Have we forgotten?

The “Christian Nationalists” who keep pushing this idea that people are most naturally drawn to their own race are lost in their own fantasies and fears. People are far more varied than they would like for them to be.

The God of Regeneration

 When it comes to the new birth - being born again, regeneration - there is no verse in Scripture commanding us to be born again, as if it were an action we do. With regard to the need to be born again, or the state of having been born again, the statements are all of fact - “you must be born again”. Instead, the commands in the contexts dealing with the new birth are “believe”, “repent”, and “be baptized”.

Our Little Amen Corner

 You can often tell the more sectarian among professing believers by whether or not they unfriend or unfollow you on social media, or separate from you in real life. Usually they think their group or little corner of the Church has the lock on truth. They usually haven’t learned anything about Church history after the apostles (at least until Billy Graham). And they don’t have a substantial understanding of theology, or of how common differences are and have been among true churches and believers.

Again, I speak of the Plymouth Brethren - but not all of them, and not only them. Given the ways of some, apparently the Rapture will be a very light event indeed, no doubt explaining how easily so many will be veiled from it.

Running Down the Aisle of Eisegesis

 Individual Christians are not spoken of in Scripture as the Bride of Christ. I’m not the Bride of Christ, and neither are you. Not even individual Christian women who might want to think of themselves as the Bride of Christ are the Bride of Christ. Only the Church as a body, as the collection of believers, is called the Bride of Christ.

We can’t just take Biblical imagery, teaching, or terminology and use it however we may want to. We are bound by Scripture, and ignoring how it speaks simply leads to error - or sometimes it reveals problems in us that already exist.

Tossed To and Fro

 Modern Western man is bored and restless in his abundance, and distracted from the Giver of All Good Things. And nothing illustrates this more than the frequent theological shifting of so many.

It’s one thing to make one or two major theological changes during your lifetime. It’s another thing entirely to make several large jumps from one denomination to another, with equally great zeal each time. At some point you simply prove yourself more a child of the times than a child of God, a man unstable in all his ways.