A few days ago now I received a response from Pastor John Weaver, one of the subjects of my article on interracial marriage. John was not pleased, and has written a long polemic. I answer all of the substance of it here, and many of the lesser points.
Read MoreWhen I say “social justice” in a positive light, I mean biblical justice according to God’s law. I am referring to doing what is right, biblically, in both the social realm and individual realm. Justice is biblical justice, and biblical justice is inescapably social—between people and God, and between people and people.
Read MoreWhile it may be hard to believe for many readers today, there are still proponents of racist policies in professing Christian circles today, and while it may be even harder to believe, some of these proponents are in roles of leadership. This problem requires discernment from us today.
Read MoreIt is not difficult for some devout Christians to see the ungodliness of government education in some way or another. Unfortunately, too few see how pervasively evil it truly is. Too many see only relatively limited evils and are willing to endure these for a variety of reasons. It is time to see and acknowledge the full truth.
Read MoreChristians, it’s time to think a bit more deeply about the Jordan Peterson moment. Unless you’ve been asleep and on a different planet for the past several weeks, you’ve probably seen a video clip of the increasingly popular social commentator Dr. Jordan B. Peterson. Most recently, Peterson was rocketed to the precarious and perhaps not-what-one-bargained-for, but nevertheless real, spotlight of internet stardom by brilliantly handling an aggressive feminist interviewer with raw logic, facts, and truth.
Read MoreI love the Christmas season, and like everyone else with eyes, I can see that it has long since become commercialized and full of flaws. I don’t intend to run it down for those reasons, however, but rather to point to one aspect that we probably do not consider as much. I would like you to consider not so much all the things with which we have covered up Christmas, but what we have allowed Christmas feels to cover up.
Read MoreA series of racially charged Facebook posts attributed to an official for the Beaver County Republican Committee refer to African American athletes as “baboons,” suggest they should go back to Africa, and urge “white people” to “stop paying their salaries.”
Read MoreAfter my article on “quoting pagans” the other day, some people were quick to point out the obvious: “But Paul!” Even Dr. Jones, whose article sparked the discussion, responded to my demand for what he would call “biblicism” only with a wry, “Poor Paul.” Of course, Paul did actually quote from pagan sources, so I need to provide some explanation for how this fits with my Scripture-centric program. That answer is quite easy, actually.
Read MoreAn interesting debate opened up recently after a post by Dr. Mark Jones entitled, “Reformed Theologians Using Pagan Sources,” over at The Calvinist International. Dr. Jones seems to want to correct the mistake against Reformed “Catholicity” that decries the alleged rampant Aristotelianism that shackled the purer theology of Calvin and many of his contemporaries. This argument can only be made when one chooses to actually disregard what the primary sources say and also the fact that Aristotelian–like terms were used in the same way by Calvin and his “heirs.”
Read MoreThere’s no way you can even begin to pretend to have any moral high ground until you can demolish your own lies and the idols erected upon them. We should remove every Confederate and Lost Cause monument and statue across the South, and beyond.
Read MoreA sobering look at fascism and our national condition. (Beware of the chest-thumping, tho. . . .)
Read MoreSocial media, with its barrage of headlines, blurbs, and limited characters, seems to temp people’s reflexes more than their critical thinking. I’ve seen even the normally-pensive turn into piranha once certain words of phrases step into the waters. Or is this just normal human nature?
Read MoreA gentleman asked me a question recently that somewhat stumped me, and the fact that it stumped me startled me a bit. After several of my articles on race issues, and knowing I was to be speaking at the Providential History Festival last August, the black pastor asked if he could be the one to drive me back to the airport after the conference. He was to use the twenty minutes together to talk with me, including asking the question, “What made you want to get into the race issue?”
Read MoreIn this third presentation at the 2016 Providential History Festival, I expand upon the previous two discussions to discuss how many in America attempted to maintain a racist hegemony through a series of laws designed to enforce segregation and disenfranchisement. These “Jim Crow” laws are rarely given a biblical analysis, and we rarely discuss the input from the clergy in support of them. But out of these moves and the reactions against them has grown a powerful police state, Left and Right, slowly eroding the biblical protections built into our Fourth and Fifth Amendments. Today Christians face increasing tyranny through a variety of administrative laws and courts, including Child Protective Services, as well as the erosion of religious liberty, due largely to our own failures to protect the vital foundations of these throughout church history.
Read MoreIt is unfortunate that theonomists in the past have had to spend more time saying what Theonomy is not than what it is. There are good reasons for why this has been the case, but the fact can also leave newcomers and critics alike frustrated when searching for a concise definition which is both broad enough and distinctive enough to be helpful. In this chapter, I will give my version of that definition. I will also discuss some of the reasons past theonomists so often have had to spend time saying what Theonomy is not, as well as often take a defensive posture. I will show you why some of these reasons are not only expedient, but necessary.
Read MoreIn my previous review of Rev. Dewey Roberts’s claims that the principles of Theonomy taught by Greg Bahnsen lead directly to Federal Vision, I criticized his lack of definition, context, and consistency. Rev. Roberts has supplemented his previous effort with a new offering of lack of definition, context, and consistency in his “Part 2.”
Read Morehe Aquila Report ran a post by PCA pastor Dewey Roberts entitled “Theonomy, Bahnsen, and the Federal Vision” with the thesis, “Federal Vision is the natural progression of the principles of theonomy.” This piece is a response to that overly simplistic claim. A follow-up will look further at Theonomy and the uses of the law in Reformed thought.
I was interested by the subtitle of Dewey’s article mainly because such simplistic language often indicates that reasoning of similar nature is to follow, and I feared the worst. I read the piece and ended up bewildered. I can’t remember the last time I read something where the author refuted himself in such a short space and didn’t appear to realize it. So, I feel somewhat good in my bewilderment. I’ll explain more on that in a moment.
Read MoreOur God-given task is for ethical dominion and faithfulness no matter what, within our own God-given spheres. Pursuing endless conspiracy theories is, instead, a form of Gnosticism.
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