Stay Out of the Ghetto

I was concerned when I learned recently that some states in the US are considering legislation to protect ministers of religion from civil and criminal penalties, if they refuse to solemnize same-sex marriages. I think this is a bad thing that appears tempting to the fearful. This is because it creates a safety zone for a very small percentage of Christians, the professional clergy, to operate within the very small confines of their churches; and by “church,” it will be most often restricted to physical property set aside for religious purposes. Churches that rent school space, for example, may not get off so easily.

This is good news for mega-church and small-church clergy alike: They will enjoy “freedom of worship” (to use President Obama’s phrase) and agree to give up actual religious freedom. In fact, by accepting this sort of thing, clergy is supporting a rending asunder of the church between themselves and the majority of Christians who are expected to bow to Caesar at every turn.

Christian ministers need to decide if they are preaching the Gospel of a God who is Lord of all, or is lord of their campus.

Preachers, be prepared to stand with those in the marketplace who refuse to bow the knee to Ba’al.

I had much more to say on this, but I found this little article by R. C. Sproul Jr., who says it much better than I. It is reproduced below, but the full article can be found here.

THURSDAY, JULY 2, 2015

Bread, Circuses, and the Coliseum

While the Christians who went to their deaths under the empire of Rome died for their faith, I fear they did not die for our faith. First, we must understand what Rome had against these saints. Part of the genius of the Roman empire was their “broad-mindedness.” They did not roll into town after their phalanxes had left not one brick upon another and rebuild from scratch. Instead it was their habit to assimilate. As they did with the Pharisees, they cut a deal. We will rule over you, but you can, by and large, keep doing what you were doing. Keep your temple. Worship there. Keep your traditions, your way of life. All we ask of you is that you pay your taxes, acknowledge our authority, and then this one other little thing- we need you to acknowledge that Caesar is Lord. Burn a pinch of incense, bow the knee, and then go back to what you were doing. You don’t even have to mean it.

The Christians’ problem was more political than narrowly theological. You see the very first creed of the church was just three words long, but managed to confront Rome at its heart. Christians were those who confessed Christ is Lord. They died by the thousands because they would not confess that Caesar is Lord.

Which brings us to our faith. We’re like the Pharisees. We have our worship services, our private convictions, and that’s where our faith ends. The rest of our lives are committed to the authority of the state, and to the diversions and distractions the broader culture provides. We are in no danger because we are no danger. When the world calls our convictions “hate” we simply change them, insisting that our response to the wholesale turning over of God’s created order is more love, more appeasement, more assurance that we are not a danger. Some of us reinterpret our Bibles to get with the times. Some simply look away awkwardly when the Bible embarrasses us. We conflate the Biblical notion that all sin is rebellion against the living God and deserving of His judgment into the much safer notion that all sins are equal, making all of them innocuous, not worthy to be mentioned.

When the Supreme Court made its most wicked ruling, upending the natural, God created order of things, we ignored it. When we finally woke up, we found safe, reasonable, Rome approved ways of “fighting” it. 42 years later and still three thousand little babies are murdered every day, right in our own neighborhoods. And we are more interested in our favorite football team.

We worship a Jesus who will save us from our sins, but whose reign we’re willing to negotiate. We worship a state that simply requires of us that we be nice and keep our convictions to ourselves. We worship distraction, so that we won’t have to face our idolatry. We worship the acceptance of the broader culture, and sacrifice all else to get it. We’re not like our fathers who died for Jesus, but like our fathers that killed Him and the prophets God sent to call us to repentance, because they, like we, worship the god of this age.

Until we stop repenting to the god of this age for the plain teaching of the living God, and start repenting to the living God for bowing before the god of this age, we will be trodden underfoot. Until we weep for our sin, until we tear down the high places, until we cease to hand our children over to Moloch we will burn with Rome. Lord be merciful to us, sinners.

17 June, 2015

On Giving Up in the Culture Wars: Nope.

The term “culture wars” is an embarrassment to the pietists in the Evangelical camp (a very large number). As long as the numbers are up, please read your Bibles, pray, and above all, don’t call down shame upon sin, especially sin such as this:

James 2:14–26 (ESV)

¹⁴ What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? ¹⁵ If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, ¹⁶ and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? ¹⁷ So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. ¹⁸ But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. ¹⁹ You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! ²⁰ Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? ²¹ Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? ²² You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; ²³ and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God. ²⁴ You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. ²⁵ And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? ²⁶ For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.

There must be more than calling this sin–but calling this sinful and an abomination cannot be avoided.. Strong rescue and saving measures must be taken, illegally if need be. Laws must be promoted and passed. Politicians who support abortion must be singled out, be they fiscal conservative or liberal. The Christian view of life must again be imposed upon those who have thrown off the yoke of God’s Law, if this is the Father’s world. He has never abdicated His rule. Personal salvation is a promise, but not the only reason that God takes interest in His creation.

Denying the reality and necessity of a “culture war” (spiritual war, actually) is a naïveté beneath the thinking Christian.

Article about this photo here.

1 May, 2015

Blogging the Revised Ontario Sex-Education Curriculum: 9 Cultural Shifts since WWII.

Nine major cultural shifts have been forced upon Christian families since World War II. This list is not complete, and certainly these did not simply arise in the mid-20^th century. The philosophies and worldviews that fostered these are much older. See these articles on Cultural Marxism. Part 2 is here. When we hear the words, “Social Justice,” we are, more times than not, hearing the words of Karl Marx.

Delayed marriage: Delaying marriage until husband and wife both have established careers and have become financially stable, increases the risk of sexual activity outside of marriage. Parents of couple should find ways to support younger marriages, while the husband continues to learn, apprentice, or establish work. Excellent resources here.
No-fault divorce: An increase in the divorce rate has brought about family destabilization, and increase in child poverty. This child poverty has become a problem of the state.
The removal of charity and compassion to the state: Welfare entitlements, social safety nets, income security, government-only control of health care spending has increased the size of the state and reduced the family. It has created a generation that cannot function without support from other taxpayers.
The decriminalization of adultery, fornication, pornography and sodomy as led to a loss of shame and a normalisation of sexual sin
Legalisation of abortion has led to a decrease in overall population in nearly every industrialised nation, setting these nations under the judgement of God. Taxpayers unwillingly must pay for abortions.
Loss of parental rights and authority: State intervention into family life through court-ordered custody, unaccountable Children’s Aid Societies, and state control of adoption agencies.
Compulsory state-funded Public school: This is the industrial revolution applied to the family. Education is removed from the parents as first educators and the church as an educational resource. The Liberal government of Ontario unjustly removed tax-credits for parents who paid tuition to private schools.
Homosexuality and transgenderism: The mandatory acceptance and normalisation of what is to be pitied, repented of, and avoided.
The rejection of Triune God as Lord of the land, and the rejection of the Bible as His Word. Taking prayers and Christian instruction out of public schools did not cause these problems, but are a result of them.