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What to do when Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, or Donald Trump is your president...

The sons of Israel lived among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; and they took their daughters for themselves as wives, and gave their own daughters to their sons, and served their gods. The sons of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and forgot the LORD their God and served the Baals and the Asheroth.

Then the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, so that He sold them into the hands of Cushan-rishathaim king of Mesopotamia; and the sons of Israel served Cushan-rishathaim eight years. When the sons of Israel cried to the LORD, the LORD raised up a deliverer for the sons of Israel to deliver them, Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother. (Judges 3:5-9)

Under the post "Wayne Grudem's ethical casuistry," Mr. Alex Guggenheim commented: "You are going to get either Trump or Clinton. It's time to grow up and take responsibility for delivering one or the other to us."

Here's my response:

Dear Mr. Guggenheim,

You're avoiding the long game. I understand why you're doing so, but don't accuse those who think about history and judgement or blessing in more than four-year increments of being immature and irresponsible. I would say it's precisely the opposite—that those incapable of thinking and choosing anything other than short-term goods are the ones who are immature and irresponsible. Contrary to what all Donald Trump's supporters are telling the church right now, this election cycle...


Celibate spiritual friendships between gay Christians...

"Christians today are cringing at God's explicit condemnation of sodomy and are looking for some new place to stand. Desperate to find a sweet spot halfway between "marriage equality" and the Apostle Paul's "degrading passions," we find "gay spiritual friendship" scratches us just where we itch."

To identify as "gay," "queer," "lesbian," or "homosexual" is to declare our rebellion against God Who made us. When we say we're "gay," we repudiate the personhood and duties God assigned us when He created us one of only two sexes, man or woman. It's analogous to a man claiming he's a monkey or cat imprisoned in the body of a man. He refuses the human nature God gave him at the moment of his conception. So it is with the man and woman who say they're "gay"; they refuse to confess the sexual nature God gave them at the moment of conception.

Yes, there are questions we would want to ask those who identify as "gay." Why are you in rebellion? What contributed to your rebellion? Do you see your rebellion as soft or hard-wired? Is the origin of your rebellion tied to anything obvious in your past? Your childhood?

We will ask souls with this besetting sin such questions, and many more. We will be sensitive, tender, and loving. But if we truly love them and trust the Word of God in its revelation of the nature of sexuality, all our ministry with gays will be founded on the hard fact of their rebellion. It is the only solid foundation from which to minister to Christians who claim gayness, and within the church their number is growing. How could it be otherwise given our squeamishness...


Reformed University Fellowship and accountability...

Under the post Campus Outreach NOT joining the rainbow..., one reader ask about the difference between the two primary campus parachurch organizations that serve the sons and daughters of the PCA, Campus Outreach and Reformed University Fellowship. A reader responded with this comment: "I believe Campus Outreach operates under the authority of a local church's Session, while Reformed University Fellowship is under the authority of the Presbytery."

In this all-important matter, Campus Outreach has it right.

Having served on Ohio Valley Presbytery's RUF committee and watched RUF through the years (including personal contact and meeting with RUF's CEO as well as son Joseph being active in RUF's chapter at Vandy), it's my observation that, despite what's on paper, RUF is not normally under the authority of presbyteries in any organic way.

RUF has the money and tells presbyteries what to do, where, when, and with whom—even down to the planting of churches and the selection of those churches' pastors when they have an RUF campus nearby. They are the donkey that wags the tail (presbytery). It's just another example of the guy that has the money getting to call the tune.

I encouraged Joseph to be involved in RUF when he went to Vandy and am grateful for the ministry they provided during his years there. Now though... 


The things we do for Science: rally tomorrow for the babies...

"fetal tissue donation ...is an important element of health care research in this country..." 

- President of Planned Parenthood Cecile Richards in response to videos showing her employees negotiating the non-donation price of her little victims' body parts

Joe Sobran once wrote a piece arguing that it's in the nature of those who commit murder by abortion to justify their crimes by making some use of the bodies of their victims. They want to justify their crimes by making a show of some benefit to humanity. Now videos have been released that record top medical officers of Planned Parenthood's national office negotiating the price they will get from their victims' body parts.


How should the church approach homosexuality (V): "Biblical friendship" as a Trojan horse?...

Is he clueless to our cultural context? Honestly, although it seems incomprehensible, Covenant Theological Seminary grad and PCA pastor Scott Sauls (channelling Wesley Hills) claims David and Jonathan as Biblical support for his project to bring gay men into the mainstream of the Church—as gay men. Speaking of the tender Biblical account of love between David and Jonathan, Pastor Sauls has the audacity to hold it up as a pattern of "covenantal" and "for the rest of life" friendships of "gays" within the Church of Jesus Christ:

"I think that message cannot be missed, it cannot be forgotten when we leave here, that friendship is the answer, true friendship, covenantal like David and Jonathan, 'I commit to you for the rest of my life.' Or like Julie Rodgers, another—you know, a woman with same-sex attraction, has said that—and who has fallen where you have on the ethics of it, and the vision for what that means for her."

[This post is fifth in a series (the firstsecondthirdfourth, and sixth) working through Pastor Scott Sauls and Christ Presbyterian Church's "Same-Sex Attraction Forum." More will follow.]

King David was light in the loafers. He liked men better than women. Yes, in that way.

Are you surprised? You shouldn't be. Jesus was like this, too...


The "mutual submission" of Tim Keller, Peter Leithart, Bryan Chapell, and Matt Chandler...

Are you weary of listening to wedding meditations filled with nostrums about mutuality in marriage, usually preached by men you thought were complementarian? Well, let me clue you in: the point of complementarinism is to reduce wifely submission to a husbandly and wifely submission popularly referred to as "mutual submission." And to help sell this palliative narcotic, it is made to appear to be coming from the mouth of the Apostle Paul. This so-called "mutual submission" has become the only submission Reformed celebrity pastors preach.

Putting as much distance as possible between himself and Mark Driscoll, Acts 29's Matt Chandler recently preached...


The PCA's great champion...

A Wall Street Journal assistant editor who attends Redeemer did a piece on Tim Keller, yesterday. Her presentation of Pastor Keller reminded me a lot of Peggy Noonan's presentation of Ronald Reagan; genial, kind, and self-effacing in a splendid sort of way. Nothing new($) including this:

Mr. Keller talks about a few problems for evangelicals, and one of them is politics. “A significant percentage of evangelical churches have been too aligned with certain political movements,” he says. He doesn’t go into detail, but it’s no secret that white evangelicals in the Bible Belt tend to vote with the GOP. ...In this sense Redeemer is unusual: The congregation splits about 50-50 for both parties in the straw polls the church has conducted, Mr. Keller says.

He can’t always avoid the intersection of religion and politics, however.

For decades, when I stopped to read a newspaper, it was the New York Times, and I always noted the Times never ever did a political piece that didn't lay out the candidate's position on (or the implication of the policy for) abortion before the piece ended. I don't read newspapers any more, but now the online news has replaced abortion with sodomite marriage. So, for three decades the intersection of religion and politics has been the wholesale slaughter of our unborn children—and African American babies out of all proportion to white or Hispanic babies—and the wholesale perversion of God's precious gift of sexuality.

The woman who wrote the piece starts by identifying Pastor Keller's audience...


Sanctification through breath-control...

Speaking of the counseling department at Covenant Theological Seminary, take a look at this five-minute video by the man invited to be the keynote speaker at Covenant's Fall 2014 Counseling Lectures...

Now, ask yourself if Curt Thompson's mind-over-matter view has any relationship to the Biblical doctrines of sin, depravity, and sanctification. Last time I checked, even the ESV said self-control was a fruit of the Spirit, not the fruit of focused breath-control (Gal. 5:16-23). Did the Apostle Paul mean deep-breathing when he mentioned the crucifixion of the flesh with its passions and desires? Perhaps Dr. Thompson made an honest mistake when he broke one of those common Carsonian exegetical fallacies (no, I'm not going to go look up which one): Spirit = breath so fruit of the spirit = fruit of the breath(ing).

This is buddhism whether or not Dr. Thompson veils it with the language of neuroscience...


Feminist gobbledygook at the PCA's seminary...

One of the more troubling elements of my education at the PCA's Covenant Theological Seminary (2001-2004) was the lack of Biblical witness in our required counseling classes. The "Marriage and Family Counseling" class used secular counseling sources almost to the exclusion of Scripture's teaching on those topics. One resource we were asked to read and review was The Couple's Survival Workbook: What You Can Do to Reconnect with Your Partner and Make Your Marriage Work by counselors David Olson and Douglas Stephens. Here's a review of that work I wrote for the class along with the comments made by the counseling professor (in bold italics). What you will see in his comments is a man who is uncomfortable with the words of the Holy Spirit, and, therefore, who shuffles away from the sufficiency of Scripture and a Biblical view of sexuality. My review...


Leadership in the PCA: protecting power structures while tossing a bone to younger men...

The third key issue (first here and second here) identified by the Cooperative Ministries Committee of the PCA at this year's General Assembly was "The rising generation of leaders in the PCA:

The rising generation of leaders in the PCA – particularly, seeking to find new avenues of including younger people in denominational leadership.

Are the fathers of the PCA really ready to grant younger men access to the reins of power? Here's a case study based on the Board of Trustees of the denomination's Covenant Theological Seminary...


Covenant Seminary's Scripture Problem (No. 2): Jack Collins starts with a whimper...

"From my viewpoint, there is something lacking in the book. First as a Christian the author does not address the importance of the inspiration and authority of scripture. For the most part the author stands over the Bible rather than under the Bible." - from an Amazon review of Did Adam and Eve Really Exist by Jack Collins

C. John "Jack" Collins is an Old Testament prof at Covenant Theological Seminary who served as the Old Testament "chair" of the English Standard Version's Translation Committee. Collins did his undergrad work at MIT, his doctoral work at Liverpool, and has been given money by the Center for Science and Culture and the John Templeton Foundation to write on "faith and science."

Recently, Dr. Collins issued a book Did Adam and Eve Really Exist? enlarging upon a paper he wrote titled, "Adam and Eve as Historical People, and Why It Matters." It's that compressed version of Collins's book critiqued below and this is the second in a series. The first is found here.

Adam and Eve as Historical People, and Why It Matters

by C. John (Jack) Collins

(Summary) The best way to account for both the biblical presentation of human life and our own experience in the world is to suppose that Adam and Eve were real persons, and the forebears of all other human beings. The biblical presentation concerns not simply the story in Genesis and the biblical passages that refer to it, but also the larger biblical storyline, which deals with God’s good creation invaded by sin, for which God has a redemptive plan; Israel’s calling to be a light to the nations; and the church’s prospect of successfully bringing God’s light to the whole world. The biblical presentation further concerns the unique role and dignity of the human race, which is a matter of daily experience for everyone: all people yearn for God and need him, depend on him to deal with their sinfulness, and crave a wholesome community for their lives to flourish.

Baylyblog has a post category or tag titled "Gelded discourse." The tag comes from something C. S. Lewis said in his The Abolition of Man:

We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful.

Among Reformed men who enter the ministry, the castration Lewis mentions is usually accomplished in the three years prior to ordination by their seminary professors. The summary paragraph above is a perfect example of how seminary profs accomplish their nasty task...


It all starts (or stops) with Daddy...

An editorial in today's Wall Street Journal highlights the savings Rhode Island has seen the past few years in its Medicaid expenditures as a result of negotiating from the Feds some small liberties to decide for themselves how to fund healthcare for their poor. At the time Rhode Island received this privilege from the Feds, one of every five of its citizens were on Medicaid, a quarter of the state's budget was going to Medicaid payments, and the state's Medicaid expenditures were growing 7.6% per year. More recently, though, from 2009-2012 Rhode Island has reduced its growth in Medicaid expenditures to 1.3% per year as the other 49 states' expenditures increased 4.6% per year.

States rights is not only an ordering principle of our nation's Constitution, but also the necessary method of protecting our solvency. Return decisions concerning spending of Medicaid funds to Rhode Island magistrates and, that very minute, accountability returns and expenditures begin to decline.

How did they do it? 

Two major reforms in particular saved money. The first reduced costly emergency room visits by Medicaid recipients for routine medical needs, and the second reduced admissions to pricey nursing homes by offering home-care subsidies and promoting assisted living arrangements, which seniors generally prefer.

Whether ecclesiastical or civil, that government is best which is most decentralized and exercises authority over the smallest group of people. In Presbyterian government, the session (for church members) and presbytery (for pastors) are the courts of original jurisdiction; and that should be the end of it in everything but the most extreme cases.

If a humdinger of a controversy arises in... {C}


Covenant Seminary's Scripture Problem (No. 1): Doing the numbers with Jack Collins...

C. John "Jack" Collins is a prof at the Presbyterian Church in America's Covenant Theological Seminary. Recently, Jack published a book and article purporting to defend the historicity of Adam. Jack's work is dangerous because he is carefully wrong in a very soft and seductive way. Happily, though, if we follow the first rule of journalism—follow the numbers—we will not be misled. The numbers don't lie.

Collins writes:

The story of Adam and Eve, and their first disobedience, explains how sin, the alien intruder, first came into human experience, though it hardly pretends to explain how rebellion against God (as expressed in the serpent’s speech) originated to begin with.

Note that Collins speaks of the Fall as the responsibility of both "Adam and Eve." He uses the plural: "their first disobedience." This is directly contrary to the Word of God which explicitly declares the Fall and Original Sin to be solely the responsibility of...


Covenant Theological Seminary's C. John Collins dismisses the numbers of Scripture...

It's the first rule of journalism to "follow the numbers." C. John "Jack" Collins is a prof at the Presbyterian Church in America's Covenant Theological Seminary, and recently Jack published a book and article purporting to defend the historicity of Adam. Both are dangerous pieces of work because both are carefully wrong in a very soft and seductive way. But the numbers don't lie.

Collins writes:

The story of Adam and Eve, and their first disobedience, explains how sin, the alien intruder, first came into human experience, though it hardly pretends to explain how rebellion against God (as expressed in the serpent’s speech) originated to begin with.

Note that Collins speaks of the Fall as the responsibility of both "Adam and Eve." He uses the plural: "their first disobedience." This is directly contrary to the Word of God which explicitly declares the Fall and Original Sin to be solely the responsibility of...


Leadership matters in Reformed colleges and pastors colleges...

As expected, Brian Chapell will be leaving Covenant Seminary. This coming Lord's Day he plans to be voted on as the new pastor at Grace Presbyterian Church in Peoria. Grace is one of the few tall-steeple PCA churches north of the Mason-Dixon line and Brian's roots are deep in Illinois, so this seems a good fit.

Much like Cedar Springs Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, historically Grace has been a mainline Evangelical church with roots deep in the sort of Reformed dispensationalism popularized by Wheaton, Moody, and Campus Crusade. For forty years Grace was served by Wheaton grad Bruce Dunn who spoke regularly at Winona Lake, Bibletown (Boca Raton), Cannon Beach (Oregon), Moody Founders Week, Moody Keswick, and prophecy conferences.

Which brings us to the subject of dead and dying institutions...

Close to ten years ago, I was speaking with a brother much respected across the PCA to express my concerns over Covenant Seminary's toxic influence. What I saw of Covenant grads, I said, had convinced me Covenant would preside over the death of the PCA, and the only way to turn it around...


If San Francisco has a fundamental right to sodomy, Salt Lake City has a fundamental right to polygamy and New York City to pedophilia...

Woe to those who enact evil statutes... - Isaiah 10:1a

This is a helpful piece demonstrating the irrational nature of arguments for legislation establishing a right to sodomite marriage. Here's an excerpt...


Turns out children adopted by lesbian couples aren't OK after all...

How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, Nor stand in the path of sinners, Nor sit in the seat of scoffers! But his delight is in the law of the LORD, And in His law he meditates day and night. He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, Which yields its fruit in its season And its leaf does not wither; And in whatever he does, he prospers.

The wicked are not so, But they are like chaff which the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, Nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. For the LORD knows the way of the righteous, But the way of the wicked will perish. (Psalm 1)

Everyone who knows anything will tell you global warming is true; or at least likely enough to be true to justify a plate-tectonic shift in all the world's economies. Everyone agrees. Science doesn't lie.

Everyone who knows anything will tell you literalists are embarrassing to the young, restless, and Reformed entrepreneurial enterprise. It's time to climb on Jack Collins' and Tim Keller's bandwagon. It's time to join all the brilliant genomists and brilliant exegetes and embrace evolution. Everyone agrees. The high priests of the Human Genome Project and scientific exegetes don't lie.

Everyone who knows anything will tell you Scripture is stupid--an ancient collection of myths. Take, for instance, that very old myth that man was created first, then woman; and that the meaning of this fact is that woman is not to teach or exercise authority over man. Also, that same-sex intimacy is an abomination before God and that God abandons men and women to receive in their own bodies the fair or just penalty of their perversion. Everyone agrees this is not true. God's Word is a lie.

Everyone who knows anything will tell you gay parenthood is good for the children; or at least good enough to justify a plate-tectonic shift in artificial insemination, adoption, and family law. Everyone agrees. Science doesn't lie.

Then a social scientist does a study of the emotional and mental health of adult children of same-sex parents...


Dick Lugar, Bryan Chapell, and Jack Collins...

Although our good Gov. Mitch Daniels endorsed him, I'm pleased Senator Richard Lugar lost the primary last night. It was time for new leadership.

Speaking of new leadership, the PCA's Covenant Theological Seminary has moved former president Bryan Chapell over to the position of Chancellor and is searching for a new president. You can count on Bryan's stint as Chancellor being quite short before he moves on to another institution.

Sadly, I fear this leadership change has strengthened the hand of Covenant's faculty...


Preachers who dare to be helpful...

Concerning the preaching of the Church Fathers, in one of his lectures Princeton biographer and Covenant Seminary church history prof David Calhoun says this:

The Church Fathers are difficult to read, not only because they are long-winded, but also because they tend to go into all kinds of digressions. They really do not stick to the point. Gregory the Great, toward the end of the period of the Church Fathers, said:

“This is how a preacher should preach. A preacher of the sacred Word should imitate the manner of a river. For if a river as it flows through its channels comes upon valleys upon its banks it immediately flows with full force into them, and when it has filled them up it at once returns to its course. This is exactly the way the preacher of the divine Word should be so that when he is discussing something, if perhaps he finds an occasion near at hand to be edifying, he should, as it were, force the streams of his tongue to the neighboring valley, and when he has filled up the plain with his instruction he may return to the course of his main topic.”

Now, you will not be taught that manner of preaching at Covenant Seminary--or any place else, as far as I know. Homileticians tell us to have a point and stick to it. But the Church Fathers did not like to do that. One topic will raise another topic and they will follow all those ideas. 

If a man's preaching is bad in the sense of being timid and suggestive, only rarely moving out to the bold frontier of the indicative (and never to the imperative), then two or three points and you're done is a kindness and should be cultivated. And if that's the sort of preaching you want, Professor Calhoun says that Covenant Theological Seminary is the sort of academic institution that will work for you.

But brothers...


He catches the wise in their craftiness...

For it is written, “He is the One Who catches the wise in their craftiness"; and again, “the Lord knows the reasonings of the wise, that they are useless.” (1 Corinthians 3:19b-20)

Could it be that "myth" is the right category for the kind of stories we find in the ancient world, whether from the Egyptians, Mesopotamians, or even the Hebrews?

- Jack Collins, Professor of Old Testament, Covenant Theological Seminary

One liberal reviews another liberal's book and tells us the second liberal is going to get in trouble with his constituency when they figure out what he's selling. Several members of the second liberal's constituency read Baylyblog and write in to dismiss the first liberal's comments as sour grapes, and they tell the Baylys that they only need read Jack to see what a gift he is to the Church.

So why does the first liberal say the second liberal is too liberal for his constituents?

Well, you see, the first liberal's constituency group already wised up to him and fired him so he's blowing the whistle on the second liberal because misery loves company.

Then comes the cloying argument...