Theonomy & The Tiber Stroke

There have been more than a few people pulling into the outdoor theater drive in that is Iron Ink to complain about my connecting the dots between Mr. Stellman’s R2K and his departure from the Reformed faith. Typically what the screams have been are something like, “Yeah, but how many Theonomists have gone to Rome bub?”

Which is like asking how many Reformed people have gone to Rome since Theonomy is nothing but the Reformed faith in its clearest expression. Jesus was theonomic. Paul was theonomic. Augustine was theonomic. Centuries later the Magisterial Reformers were theonomic (look at all the quotes on Iron Ink from them on theonomy), the Puritans were theonomic (look at all the quotes on Iron Ink from them on theonomy). Some R2K defenders have pointed out theonomy in the Kuyperian tradition accusing our Kuyperian brethren as being “soft theonomists.” (Oh the horror of it all.) Hence my pedestrian contention that the Reformed faith is indeed theonomic. Now, naturally, different theonomic men interpreting God’s law-word had different wrinkles regarding their theonomy and it is doubtful that the Church will ever be universal in how it understands that God’s law should be applied, but the Church throughout history — and especially the Reformed Church — has always been theonomic, and that is simply because that is what Biblical (i.e. — Reformed) Christianity is.

Even Dr. Meredith Kline understood that the Westminster Confession was a theonomic document.

“At the same time it must be said that Chalcedon is not without roots in respectable ecclesiastical tradition. It is in fact a revival of certain teachings contained in the Westminster Confession of Faith – at least in the Confession’s original formulations….Chalcedon can justly claim historical precedence for its position on this matter in the original formulations of the Confession.”

And so the idea that some theonomist may have, in the past, swam the Tiber, only proves that their swimming the Tiber was due to something in their theology which failed in being properly Theonomic. In other words they went to Rome not because of their theology had too much of Rome in it but they went to Rome because their theology did not have enough Theonomy in it, for “theonomy” is just another word, like “Calvinism,” for Biblical (Reformed) Christianity.

Of course the contention is that R2K folks who head to Rome do so because there is to much Rome in their theology.

And keep in mind that Federal Vision is a whole different beast from theonomy. Federal Vision is more James Jordan’s creation (the James Jordan who disavowed theonomy) than it is theonomy’s creation.

Coercive Institutions & Religious Neutrality

“VanDrunen does not think a coercive institution should promote or require religious commitment for participation in the civil order.”

Matthew Tuininga

1.) How is it that the conviction that a coercive institution should not promote or require religious commitment for participation in the civil order isn’t itself the out growth of a a-priori religious commitment of said coercive institution? In other word, that conviction, is conviction born of religion. One wonders if the coercive institution that is agnostic regarding religious commitment for participation in the civil order would use the sword in order to insure their commitment to social order agnosticism?

2.) Of course this assumes that it is possible for a coercive institution to not promote or require religious commitment for participation in the civil order. When the coercive institution doesn’t promote or require religious commitment for participation in the civil order, the result is that the coercive institution promotes the religion of no religion or religion of all religions (much the same) in the civil order. Tuininga (and perhaps VanDrunen) seem to think that it is possible for coercive institutions to be neutral in the civil order.

3.) I trust this means that VanDrunen believes, because of this principle, that all government schools should be closed because they promote religious commitment for participation in the civil order.

4.) Of course this quote above is nonsense. Every time our coercive institution legislates, adjudicates, and executes law at that time our coercive institutions are promoting and requiring religious commitment for participation in the civil order.

R2K Acolyte Swims The Tiber

http://www.creedcodecult.com/2012/06/heartfelt-farewell-to-pca.html#comment-form

I have nothing but sympathy for Mr. Stellman. I do not intend to gloat over the shipwrecking of his faith. However, I do intend to note that “ideas have consequences.”

Mr. Stellman was a graduate from Westminster West R2K Seminary. Mr. Stellman had drank so deeply from that R2K well that he had even written a book supporting R2K. However what was a trickle in terms of his R2K theology became a Tiberian flood.

R2K holds that Scripture alone is not the norm that norms all norms in the common realm. No sola Scriptura for the common realm for R2K where most of our living is done. If Scripture is not the norm that norms all norms for the common realm, where we do 99% of our living, how much deeper of a dive is it to find that Scripture alone also is not the norm that norms all norms in the the last 1% of our lives in the Redemptive realm? If Natural Law is the norm that norms all norms in the common realm then why not a Church as a norm that norms all norms in the Redemptive realm?

Second, Thomistic Natural Law and the Nature vs. Grace divide that are identity markers of R2K have always been the stock and trade for Rome with its two paths to truth motif. Really, in crossing the Tiber, Mr. Stellman is really only returning home, as the philosophical dualism that informs R2K is Mother’s milk for Rome. Why go with the cheap imitation R2K when you can get the real McCoy with Rome?

Of course the solas of the Reformation stand and fall together. If one gives up sola Scriptura one is sure to give up sola Fide, sola Christus, and Sola Gratia.

But make no mistake about it. Mr. Stellman’s journey to Rome (or Constantinople) was greased by the Thomistic dualism theology that underlies the R2K project. I should not be surprised to be finding others who have embraced R2K taking the plunge.

My Night At The Graduation Ceremony

Values clarification in Government schools asserts that each student must decide for themselves what their values are or will be. The student is taught to be the sovereign creator of their values. Via whatever form of values clarification that the Government schools use, and by whatever means (computers are often used for this programming), children are taught to establish values through exercises which are comparatively innocent and non-threatening. In these beginning exercises the wee student ranks or compares items based on personal preference. Short lists are made of their preferred food, sport, or vacation for example. The goal here is get the student accustomed to revealing themselves so that later revelations about their values on matters not benign will allow teachers to coax, often via peer pressure, students whose values are not approved to choose the pre-determined values, and to choose those pre-determined values in such a way that they see themselves as the ones doing the choosing.

This stage of drawing the student out via benign matters works to make the student comfortable in sharing. Once they are comfortable in revealing truths about themselves they are then presented, over time, with a series of moral dilemmas, asking them if they agree strongly, somewhat agree, somewhat disagree, disagree strongly, and to forth. The questions that are now asked are not about their favorite game, or their favorite meal. The questions now asked move from personal preference to ethics. Questions like,

Should children have the right not to accompany their parents to church?
Should homework be abolished?
Should teens be free to engage in sex before marriage?
Is euthanasia a good idea?

Children are malleable and when a few children give answers that are not in accord with the carefully crafted majority report those children are subject to the public scrutiny that puts them out of lock step and so are subtly pressured to surrender their convictions that are not in keeping with the majority report. All of this is just Skinnerian behavoristic conditioning. The student has been conditioned quite without themselves realizing they have been conditioned. Instead what they believe is that they themselves were the sovereign creator of their values. Such values clarification thus leads to the prioritization of the self in the mind of the student, though the controller understands that the real priority always was upon the conditioner.

In 1999, the year that the class of 2012 began their schooling as Kindergartners, in an address at the US Naval Academy, Dr Gerald L. Atkinson, CDR USN (Ret), gave a background briefing on the Frankfurt School, reminding his audience that it was the ‘foot soldiers’ of the Frankfurt School who introduced the ‘sensitivity training’ techniques used in public schools over the past 30 years (and now employed by the US military to educate the troops about ‘sexual harassment’). During ‘sensitivity’ training teachers were told not to teach but to ‘facilitate.’ Classrooms became centres of self-examination where children talked about their own subjective feelings. This technique was designed to convince children they were the sole authority in their own lives. In point of fact though, the conditioners were the authority in their lives.

All of that is necessary background for the observation I wanted to make when I started. Friday Night I attended a High School graduation and the word “self” was used repeatedly in the student speeches. Repeatedly the students were told, “Listen to your self,” “Follow your better self,” and “Be your best self.” In these speeches the students were a crystal clear reflection of the religion they had been indoctrinated in since they were 5 years old. The students were triumphing the cult of self that had been drilled into them via values clarification programming. This observation is not to say that the children were’t nice or polite children. I’m sure most of them are. It is not to say that they weren’t intelligent or talented. I’m sure many of them are. It is only to say that they have been programmed into a false religion.

One of the main student speakers spoke about words and whose words we should really pay attention. I was screaming in my mind the whole time she was leading up to her crescendo with, “We should really pay attention to God’s words in Scripture,” but when she hit her crescendo we discovered we should really listen to ourselves.

Of course this values clarification also teaches the idea that there is no such thing as absolute truth. If values are only what we choose or what we prefer then the notion that there is absolute truth is a-priori ruled out. As a result we get comments like the one I was tossed recently when speaking with a 20 something year old about objective definitions of family. She informed me along the way, “You’re idea of family works for you and my idea of family works for me.” This is just this young lady repeating the relativism that is inherent to values clarification.

The values clarification programming technique is used to pound into their heads, between the ages of 5-18, that they are autonomous individuals who are the source of their values. This is why this kind of education is rightly called “Humanism.” Any education process that leaves students (Humans all of them) thinking that the autonomous self is the source of all valuation is a educational process where the god that has been owned is themselves. Any educational process that begins with the assumption that no God can be allowed into the conversation about values, in the name of some deluded notion of “neutrality,” is a educational process that ends up with the best students on Graduation night parroting the party line about the importance of self and the need to listen to the self.

The ability to educate, during their formative years, apart from establishing the centrality of God for all truth creates a vacuum where a different establishment of centrality for all truth must be lodged. In government education that new centrality for all truth — that new foundation upon which all ethics are based — is the sovereign malleable self.

Murder & Envy

Question 107. But is it enough that we do not kill any man in the manner mentioned above?

Answer: No: for when God forbids envy, hatred, and anger, he commands us to love our neighbour as ourselves; to show patience, peace, meekness, mercy, and all kindness, towards him, and prevent his hurt as much as in us lies; and that we do good, even to our enemies.

Whitman’s sampler of Envy in Scripture

Genesis 26:14 for Isaac had possessions of flocks and possessions of herds and a great number of servants. So the Philistines envied him.

30:1 Now when Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister, and said to Jacob, “Give me children, or else I die!”

37:11 And Jacob’s brothers envied him, but his father kept the matter in mind.

Psalm 106:16 When they envied Moses in the camp,
And Aaron the saint of the Lord,

Isaiah 11:13 Also the envy of Ephraim shall depart,
And the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off;
Ephraim shall not envy Judah,
And Judah shall not harass Ephraim.

Ecclesiastes 9:6 Also their love, their hatred, and their envy have now perished;
Nevermore will they have a share
In anything done under the sun.

Ecclesiastes 4:4 Again, I saw that for all toil and every skillful work a man is envied by his neighbor. This also is vanity and grasping for the wind.

Proverbs 14:30 A sound heart is life to the body,
But envy is rottenness to the bones.

27:4 Wrath is cruel and anger a torrent,
But who is able to stand before envy?

Deutero-Caononical Book — Wisdom of Solomon

2:23 For God created man incorruptible, and to the image of his own likeness
he made him. 24 But by the envy of the devil, death came into the world:

I Corinthians 3:3 for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men?

Philippians 1:15 Some indeed preach Christ even from envy and strife, and some also from goodwill:

Matthew 27:18 For he knew that they had handed Him over because of envy.

Galatians 5:21 envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Definition of Envy — Envy is the sin of jealousy over the blessings, prosperity, character, and achievements of others, but more than jealousy it is the positive anguish over the good of others and joy at the anguish and misery of others even if that anguish and misery does the envious no discernible positive good. While being indignant might find its roots in the injustice of the well being of evil persons, envy finds its roots in the happiness of good people. In brief envy is pain at the good in others, and it is most commonly found in those whom wish to lower others, even if that lowering of others does not mean that they will rise.

Well we can understand why God says in Proverbs that it is a rottenness to the bones.

Envy is wounded by our neighbors prosperity. Envy finds pleasure in the ruin or harm of those of whom we are envious. Envy is sickened at hearing praises of those of whom are envied and recoils at the virtues of those upon whom our envy is pointed. And the irony, which we will explore more next week, is that envy only grows more intense the more it is assuaged by those who are being envied. That is to say, that should the envied seek to practice charity towards the envious, with thoughts of reducing their reasons to be envious, the envious envy them all the more because of the their own sense that as being inferiors they had to be assisted by those they believe to be their superiors. The envious hate those who help them because it confirms, in their minds, their lower position. If the envious receive favor from the fortunate the envious suffers even more and the envy grows because the one in the favored position has the power to dispense favor while the envied does not. Envy is not concerned so much with reaching the happiness of others as it is in making everyone as miserable as the envious. Envy is complicated by the fact that it is slow to be self-diagnosed or confessed because of the shame involved in this vice.

This vice is executioner to itself so that the envious have their punishment in themselves. However, it is not enough to let it alone at that for as we shall see next week envy will not rest until it pulls down those who are envied that they might be as miserable as the envious. As such Envy curses both those who have it (its subjects) and those it is pointed towards (its objects).

The destructive power of envy in the Scripture

It was the animating action of the Devil in His work against God and man in the fall (Wisdom 2:23-4)

It was there when the first blood was spilled (I John 3:12)

It was the disposition that propelled Jesus enemies to hand Him over to be crucified (Matthew 27:18)

If present in us without repentance it will bar us from the Kingdom of God (Gal. 5:21)

It is present against every person who does skillful work (Ecc. 4:4)

It is a mindset that brings about physical illness (Proverbs 14:30) (Mind body relationship)

As we trace what others have written about “envy” through history (diachronic study) we discover the following.

Church Fathers

Clement —

In his epistle the first 6 chapters are dedicated to “the unjust and impious envy though which death entered the world. He reminds his audience that because of envy Cain killed his brother Abel, Jacob had to take flight, Joseph was sent into slavery, Moses had to leave his people, Aaron was set aside … Saul and David were at war. Clement offers that envy was the cause of the persecution of the Apostles, the sufferings of St. Peter, of the many martyrs under Nero. Clement holds that envy is in sum the root of the most wicked happenings against humans.

Justin — 165 AD (Apologist for the Church)

Following Mt. 27:18 Justin, presents envy as the reason for the supreme crime of Christ’s crucifixion. Justin advises,

“Wash your souls of ire, avarice, envy and hate and your body will stay clean.”

Cyprian — Writes a treatise on envy

To envy according to Cyprian is to “suffer at the joy of others.” Cyprian holds Lucifer guilty of evil envy against God. Cyprian wrote that cosmic evil originates in the feeling of envy, the root of all evil in all of us. Further he wrote that envy is the source of hostility, avarice, ambition, pride, cruelty, perfidy, discord, etc.

Cyprian makes a important point when he writes that the “envy is a hidden vice we carry closed within so that the envious never declare their envy.” This will be important to keep in mind for later considerations.

As a remedy (which we will examine more next week) Cyprian offers as the only antidote Christianity and encourages the Christian virtues of “simplicity of mind, humility, fraternity, love, and charity. His last advice is to “rejoice and be happy at the fact that others are better.”

What is interesting with Cyprian is that he offers that Envy is the Mother lode of evil. Evil is born of envy and all other vices flow out of envy.

Basil Of Caesarea — 4th century

Does a Homily on Envy

“As oxide eats up iron, so envy eats up the soul.”

Basil examines the question if envy may be placated or annulled through favors to the envious by the envied and concludes that contrary to what happens with other hostile feelings that others may have that are diminished through attentions, “the envious become more envious with favors, for the suffering that is caused by the power of their benefactors is greater than the gratitude they feel.”

Basil adds a new wrinkle in the consideration of envy when he probes as to who the envious envy. Do the envious envy those distant to them or those close to them? Basil offers that “We are trapped by envy through familiarity,” and goes on to offer,

“The Sythian does not envy the Egyptian, but those of his own nation, and from among those, he does not envy stranger but those he deals with, in particular and those of the same job.”

Chrysostom — (354-407) Homilies

The “envious enjoys the suffering of others … and considers as his own joy the misfortunes of others.”

Like Cyprian, Chrysostom holds that “no other vice is comparable to envy, for it is the most evil, most perverse, and most abominable of all passions.”

Chrysostom introduces a social element into envy when he notes,

“Envy subverts the Church and causes the whole Universe to shake.”

Here we understand envy in its basic role as a adversary of all hierarchy that comprises social order. Chrysostom gets to how envy begins to get translated into the desire for absolute undifferentiated equality among men in society. For Chrysostom envy is the root that accounts for the impulse towards social leveling.

If for Cyprian envy was the root of all evil, for Chrysostom envy is both the root of all evil and the highest expression of all evil.

Leaning towards cure for envy

Scripture teaches us that we are to,

Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.

Identify the Problem, thank God that in Christ we are forgiven, and then pray God for deliverance

“Deliver us from evil…”

How little we value prayer in the matter of getting rid of all bitterness. If we see ourselves slipping towards envy who better to turn to then our Lord Christ who knows our hearts and can deliver us?

The Problem of comparison

“When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise.” II Cor. 10:12

The kind of comparison that leads to envy does not help us but only pulls others down.

The Need To Remember Providence

If we must compare ourselves with others it would be helpful to recognize that whatever differences exist (maybe we are not as wealthy, not as polished, not as good-looking, not as smart, not as popular, not as talented, (the list could be endless) those differences exist because of God’s wisdom in distributing His gifts. (I Cor. 4:7 teaches that it is God who makes us to differ.)

God has made us, both individually and in our families, to be precisely what he desires in order to gain glory, reputation and renown through us. We don’t need to be someone else in order to advance what God has created us to advance. When envy strikes at us we must remember God’s providence.

The Need for contentment

Phil. 4:10-12

The Need To Remember All The Benefits We Have In Christ

Ephesians 1:3 teaches that all believers have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.

The Need To Remember That God Uses The Foolish Things Of The World To Confound The Wise

Even if others excel we need not let envy have its way. Those who God has used throughout History have seldom been MENSA candidates or Beauty Queens. Remember in our weakness God is made Strong. II Cor. 12:9

Most importantly the need to remember we are forgiven in Christ

When we see these ugly things about ourselves our motivation for putting these character faults off is gratitude for all that we have been forgiven in Christ. The Gospel is what propels us towards grateful obedience. Because I am forgiven I am free from the condemnation that would frighten me into lethargy. Because I am forgiven I have no need to be so frustrated with the failure of my obedience that I give up the necessity to put off the old man.

I am forgiven in Christ and because of that I can move forward in putting off all bitterness and every form of malice.