R2K (Radical Two Kingdom)

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Education is always religious...

This just posted by son Joseph at the Christ Church Cincy blog:

When we see people harming themselves, we normally split into two groups. Some of us think they must be dumb. The rest of us think they simply haven't been educated enough. Whichever camp you fall into, you tend to think the same way about all self-destructive behavior. Quick, what does a drug addict need? What does a man need who has a miserable home-life because he works too much? What does the man who can't hold a job down because he's always drunk need? What do Africans who are sleeping around and getting AIDS need? If you are a liberal, you probably think they each need "education" of some sort. If you are a conservative, you probably think they each just need to stop it!

What liberals often overlook is this: Many people who have been well educated about the terrible consequences of certain behaviors still end up behaving in those ways. What conservatives overlook is how many of the people trapped in these situations really have tried to quit. And what both groups overlook is the fact that much of the time, those engaged in these behaviors actually want to continue doing them, knowing full well what the consequences are.

Let's take a closer look at education...


The Inauguration: Donald Trump and his haters...

The king’s wrath is like the roaring of a lion, But his favor is like dew on the grass. (Proverbs 19:12)

The Trump haters are in high dudgeon and they may just succeed in giving us one of the best presidents we've had in decades. Years ago, a friend said it's more important you have the right enemies than the right friends. Trump seems almost a genius in choosing his enemies. The pretty girls and boys of Hollywood. The drug-addled, sexually debauched music stars. The intellectually debauched talking heads of the media. All the Demoncrats united in their three-legged platform of grand theft from future generations, sodomy, and the slaughter of one-quarter of our nation's babies. Some gang, huh? 

So I think we've hit the Thomas principle. You remember what they tried to do to Clarence Thomas during his confirmation hearings? Attack a man relentlessly, trying to keep him out of office, and if he gets the position, you've succeeded in making him your implacable foe. It's bad enough when he becomes a sitting and sitting and sitting and sitting justice of the Supreme Court, but watch out when he's inaugurated the forty-fifth president of these United States...


Have nothing to do with Darryl Hart...

Several years ago, my good and wise brother David told me to have nothing to do with Darryl Hart. Since then, I've pretty much left him alone.

Sadly, I have friends who can't break the habit and one of them just forwarded this deposited by Darryl yesterday on his own blog...


Is there a Christian ghetto in our future...

This is a talk given by ruling elder Ken Patrick at a conference held this past Saturday at his church, Trinity Presbyterian Church (PCA), in Ludlow, Kentucky. Titled "Maintaining a Christian Witness in an Increasingly Pagan Culture," the conference's other speakers were Trinity's pastor Chuck Hickey and an attorney from the Alliance Defending Freedom, Jeff Shafer. I attended the conference with my son, Joseph, and his fellow pastor Paul Belcher (both serving Christ Church in Cincinnati). Hope you find this talk as wise and helpful as Joseph, Paul, and I did.

* * *

Maintaining a Christian Witness in an Increasingly Pagan Culture

by Ken Patrick

Before we begin, let me talk about my qualifications to divine the future: I’m not a prophet; I don’t have a “word from the Lord” in the sense that I’m about to share any divinely sourced revelation with you; God didn’t appear to me in a dream.

What I’m going to share are simply observations on what may come to pass if current trends continue, and what I would do if I were in charge. If you find yourself disagreeing with what I say, hopefully you’ll stay until I’m finished. We’ll have a Q&A session where you can ask a question, and of course you can pigeon-hole me afterward.

So, to answer my own question right up front—is there a Christian ghetto in our future?—I think the most likely answer is “of course, yes” at least in an intellectual sense and perhaps in a real, physical way as well. I think it’s very possible that we’ll see both. Before I begin describing what these Christian “ghetto” scenarios might look like, let’s establish why many of us think...


In order to form a more perfect Union: California dreaming...

CalSecessiion.pngI'd like to help you in your struggle
To be free

You Just slip out the back, Jack
Make a new plan, Stan
You don't need to be coy, Roy
Just get yourself free
 1

Honestly, if California seceding from these United States is the fruit of voting for President-elect Donald Trump, I'd do it a thousand times. I'd preach that it's a mandate of Biblical proportions for every Christian.

Just imagine. I'm almost giggling with excitement.

Sure, we'd lose Kobe, Hollywood, Berkley, and Tim Cook, but we'd also lose Fuller, Rick Warren, Westminster Escondido, and the Castro. Not a bad trade-off.

Anyone heard if they're talking to Seattle and Portland? Miami and Manhattan?

Denominational reform by other means.


Mothers and children first...

By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion.

How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?  - Psalm 137:1-4

Yes, I voted for The Donald, today. In the final analysis, I considered not voting for President at all, writing in a candidate, or going third party to be roughly equivalent. At this late date nationally, none of them commend themselves to me. Years ago when Joe Sobran was still alive and I had some hope that pastors might start preaching again, the third party option had some credibility. But then we saw a real third party develop in the Tea Party movement and it became apparent third parties provide no solution to the larger problem—which now appears to be permanent.

Our two candidates accurately reflect who our nation is...


On the election: a prophet in our midst...

My brother-in-law, Jim Lingo, forwarded this to our family asking us all to watch it. Instead, I read the transcript evidently provided by a machine. The transcript is rough, but readers will be able to make the corrections and fill in the blanks. The sermon is preached by Pastor Tom Nelson of Denton Bible Church.

Back 2,000 years ago, John the Baptist was imprisoned for preaching against the incestous sexual perversion of the one holding political authority over him. The man's name was Herod and eventually Herod rewarded John's prophetic witness by cutting off his head.

While John was still in prison. Jesus, declared to the crowds that John the Baptist was not effeminate... 


A good two-kingdom argument for Trump...

This is a very helpful response by Alex Guggenheim to my response to his response to my post. As I said under this comment where it originally appeared, I don't have time to respond to Mr. Guggenheim's latest just yet, but I didn't want readers to miss it. Many thanks to Mr. Guggenheim for his careful and thorough disagreement.

* * *

Tim,

Thank you for the time you took in formulating a post...

Firstly, I completely sympathize and agree with the observation regarding the obliteration of the PCA. Its leadership has been slowly filled with men possessing the skill of rationalization and relevancy and not those of fidelity to sound exegesis and its application. It appears many cannot bear the social consequences of where God’s Word takes us. But I am not responding to that portion, rather to the civic principle being addressed.

We have a theological difference which I believe structures our arguments separately, categorically speaking. Thus, I do not believe that working with separate frameworks will result in effective debate or dialog and this is what I mean, so that you may understand where or how my position originates.

I come from a Lutheranized structure with respect to the church and state...


Steph Curry on the All-Star Game: like preachers, like people...

Everyone is congratulating each other over the NBA's supercilious Adam Silver yanking the All-Star Game from Charlotte. He was taking a stand against North Carolina legislators who had passed a law against sexual predators posing as women and using women's bathrooms. People who matter had been Hoosiering the state over its law for a while, now. It took a little longer than expected but sexual debauchery won the day and the NBA canned Charlotte. The scuttlebutt is New Orleans will be the new host city.

People are morally indignant that a man isn't allowed to pee in the Lady's Room in Charlotte so they send their game over to the city where Lent is celebrated by women baring their breasts. This is our country, today—a nation filled with Christians like Steph Curry.

Turns out Charlotte is Steph's hometown... 


Homosexual marriage: where are our judges' pastors...

In response to my post yesterday condemning Judge Tanya Walton Pratt for her religious commitment to the slaughter of babies, a Christian attorney I'm close to wrote, 

The sad fact is that the federal Constitution, as defined by SCOTUS, gives any woman the right to kill her baby.... So a judge has no choice but to apply that rule... I don’t think you can fault a judge for applying even a terrible law. She has sworn to do that.

The lawyer and I both come from a long line of Presbyterians, so his remonstrance yesterday popped into my mind when, today, I read this headline about Mississippi's judicial battle over the protection of religious freedom:

The Latest: No judges sought recusal from doing gay weddings

Seriously? No judge—not even one? (And only one clerk.) 

So what does this have to do with Presbyterian pastors?

I was under the impression that First Presbyterian Church of Jackson owns the money and leadership of this small capital city (only twice the size of Bloomington, IN) of this small southern state. In fact, what about all the churches in Mississippi...


Republican candidates want their daughters drafted...

Fifteen years ago, even the feminist pastors on the Ad Interim Study Committee on Women in the Military of the PCA's General Assembly were opposed to women being drafted. They were in favor of women serving as combatants and they ridiculed committee members who were opposed, saying our view of women was to keep them "barefoot and pregnant." Still, none of them wanted their daughters drafted.

These male church officers were pleased with the feminism they had already made their peace with because it put money in their pockets. (Note that pastors who are hard or soft feminists all have wives who work full time and earn good money.) These pastors and elders also didn't ever want to have to say "no" to anything their daughters wanted to be or do—doctor, special ops, lawyer, president, whatever.

But their daughters drafted? No. Absolutely not.

Try as we might, it was impossible to shake these men loose from their firm belief that ideas have no consequences and one thing never follows another.

These are the men who have been preaching to Republican politicians the past fifteen years...


43rd Anniversary of Roe v. Wade: the justices will soon answer for this before the Judge of all the earth...

Forty-three years ago, on January 22, 1973, the laws of forty-six states prohibiting the murder of unborn children were declared unconstitutional by the wicked and cruel justices then sitting on the Supreme Court of these United States. Their decision, Roe v. Wade, was conniving and deceitful, rendering them the laughingstock of the legal profession. We would have to go back to the Court's Dred Scott decision to find an opinion as naked in its ambition to promote injustice and oppression.

Once again this year in its Obergefell v. Rhodes decision, the Supreme Court has shown itself vigilant in its promotion of wickedness, this time not so much the wickedness of bloodshed (although there is that, also, in Obergefell). Rather, our Supreme Court is now vigilant in its promotion of the wickedness of the sexual perversions of homosexuality and effeminacy which God explicitly warned all men against when he burned up Sodom and Gomorrah so notoriously. The justices of the Supreme Court know very well that, because of the slaughter of the unborn and the effeminacy and androgyny they have promoted across our culture, they will be judged by God. They will not escape the bar of God.

Mourning the loss through surgical abortion of at least 60,000,000 helpless babies across our nation since 1973, here is a memorial for them in the form of a sermon preached publicly to the civil magistrates working in Indiana's State House...


Don't give a penny to Indiana University's "For All" Bicentennial Capital Campaign...

If Indiana University is the alma mater (lit. "nursing mother"), not just of her students, but also the town and county that surround her, it's time to bite the hand that feeds us.

Living in Sodom and Gomorrah can inure us to wickedness, so in the interest of waking God's people up...

Indiana University's latest president, Michael McRobbie (pictured), just announced a capital campaign on the occasion of IU's bicentennial. The announcement was made at a "celebration" held at the Indiana State Fairgrounds. There a large gift was also announced to spur on the campaign. President McRobbie and his fellow administrators set their goal at $2.5 billion...


Black-robed tyrants vs. Mrs. Kim Davis...

[T]he candid citizen must confess that if the policy of the Government upon vital questions affecting the whole people is to be irrevocably fixed by decisions of the Supreme Court, the instant they are made in ordinary litigation between parties in personal actions the people will have ceased to be their own rulers, having to that extent practically resigned their Government into the hands of that eminent tribunal.

First Inaugural Address of Abraham Lincoln (1861) 

[Note from TB: This post was written almost a month ago, but somehow slipped my mind so I didn't post it until now. I apologize for the delay.]

What Lincoln predicted in the aftermath of the Dred Scott decision came to pass in the 20th Century with a vengeance. State legislatures, school boards, county governments—none of which have political checks against the Supreme Court—all fell prey to the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS). Laws against Pornography. Sorry, violates Freedom of Expression, says SCOTUS. Laws criminalizing abortion. No can do, infringes on the Right to Privacy. The death penalty. Nope, cruel and unusual punishment or violates due process or maybe it doesn't or maybe it does under certain (most) circumstances. Laws defining marriage between one man and one woman. Outta here, interferes with the Right to Define One's Own Concept of Existence and the Meaning of the Universe. No matter how long these laws had been on the books or how overwhelming the majorities were that passed them, SCOTUS swung its overruling scythe.

And for some reason Mrs. Kim Davis is accused of subverting the rule of law.... 


In film exposures of Planned Parenthood, do ends justify means?

Pastor Doug Wilson recently did a helpful post exploring the ethics of tactical deception on the part of the Center for Medical Progress (CMP). He got me thinking about what constitutes a moral obligation of full disclosure and whether parameters for godly deception can be marked out.

I have had discussions with Christians who are very pleased by CMP’s work, but are conflicted regarding tactical deception. They wonder if they’re giving into saying “the ends justify the means.” In addition to this, there are R2K proponents criticizing CMP for their “unethical” methods for infiltrating PP. The former are understandably conflicted, the latter are selectively squeamish—dare I say pietistic—about operating within the “common” kingdom.

Adding to the mess is the media’s selectivity in reporting on CMP's videos while also reporting names linked to a website dedicated to facilitating adulterous liaisons...


The banality of evil...

There was a wonderful Christian witness tonight from a bunch of men and women who pled with the Monroe County Council members to consider God's hatred of cruelty and the bloodshed of innocents, and to repent of their yearly votes to give our tax dollars to Planned Parenthood. Sadly, though, they have no fear of God and they went on record as being solidly in favor of slaughtering little helpless babies.

God bless County Council Member Mrs. Marty Hawk for once again opposing her fellow council members in this matter.

I can't remember ever hearing such excellent testimonies at a public hearing. Thank you, all who came, whether you spoke and prayed, or simply prayed. What is clear is that the Gospel is the only solution to such spiritual bondage as we saw tonight. Let us proclaim repentance and faith in Jesus Christ everywhere we are in Bloomington. Rescue the perishing!


Screwtape's take on current events...

Yesterday I read an Acts 29 pastor's rebuke of a man for calling Christians in his church to turn away from their vain pursuits on social media, spending some of their bandwidth instead on expressing their Christian compassion for the unborn. The pastor said the usual things ordained men without conviction or faith would say to unordained men having both graces: the writer should wait until he had no sin to speak to others about sin; the writer is judgmental/Phariseeical; the writer is making abortion and Planned Parenthood into the only moral issue when there are lots of moral issues; the writer shouldn't exhort church members to speak against Planned Parenthood's sale of dead babies' body parts when those same members have shown their great Christian faith and witness by going on two-week jauntlets to foreign countries; and so on.

Abortion and Planned Parenthood will never end until pastors realize God will hold us accountable for our intensely defended indifference to the innocents being slaughtered down the street from our church-houses. It's no wonder simple Christians living under the authority of such pastors are silent about Planned Parenthood's murder of little babies. Add the R2K ridiculosity and the witches brew is vintaged finely.

Daughter Mrs. Benjamin (Michal) Crum wrote a reflection on the silence of Christians, taking on Lewis's artifice of speaking of these things from Screwtape's perspective. The title of her FB post is "Screwtape's Take on Current Events." Read it and post it yourself...


The death of sodomy and sodomites...

For over a decade on this blog, I've used the word 'sodomy' to refer to... well... sodomy. One of the first to explain to me that the word was offensive was my seminary advisor, Dan Jessen. Since responding to Dan, I've been forced to respond continuously,1 and do still. On FB this week a young woman faulted me for using the word. She pronounced what I'd written to be "extreme," adding helpfully that "extremism of all kinds is dangerous."

What's really dangerous, though, is sodomy. Sodom shows how dangerous it is. God rained fire and brimstone, executing all the people of the city for their indulgence in "gross immorality." And what are we to learn from this? Jude tells us God killed the Sodomites so they would be "exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire."

But at the time, I'm guessing Sodomites would have laughed at being called "sodomites." They would have thought it extreme and pointed out that extremism is dangerous. They would have been tight with Darryl Hart and David VanDrunen's call for the nakedness of their public square. They liked naked...


Questions about Christian witness in the public square...

Here's a response to a couple questions posted under "Trust your nose...".

Dear (brother),

Thanks for your questions. A couple responses:

1. Let's say a man speaks out against the sins of society and uses Scripture to support his arguments. You say it would be wrong to discourage him, and I agree. But let's say a man speaks out against the sins of society and decides not to overtly use Scripture to support his arguments but instead uses natural law. Would that man be wrong to not openly use Scripture?

Tactics are open to debate. Each man decides what is best in which situation. Would I have thought Gov. Mike Pence should have quoted Scripture in supporting the state's just-passed RFRA when Tim Cook and the NCAA attacked him? Not necessarily, but then again, maybe. But I'd argue in favor of quoting Scripture in the public square on strategic—not just principled—grounds. If it were a timid person in the congregation I serve who spoke up in defense of God's Moral Law and did it on the basis of general revelation, I'd simply...


Trust your nose...

God gave us a nose and we should use it. One whiff tells us if the potatoes are bad. No need for an NIH grant to research potato DNA. No need for a dissertation on the Irish Potato Famine. No need to work to present the potatoes in a favorable light, giving them the best possible chance to shine—to bake them, slathering on butter and sour cream, sprinkling chives, salt, and pepper on top—before taking a taste.

The potatoes reek—toss them.

This is the approach God's people should have towards the R2K1 error. It stinks. Throw it out.

R2K men are a council of defeat in a day when every Christian wants an excuse to throw in the towel. They are discouragers of the brethren in a day when the world's attack upon God's Truth and the Church's abandonment of Her prophetic calling have been catastrophic in the damage they have done to our neighbors. Every Christian ought to be praying for his pastor, encouraging him to...