Dr. Andrew Walker’s Crowing About The Virtues Of Baptist Thinking Refuted

“I’m shocked, I tell you, SHOCKED, that regularly reciting the Nicene Creed and even enshrining a church-state establishment weren’t enough to inoculate against the corrosive trajectories of theological liberalism. Stay frosty and stay Baptist, friends.”

Dr. Andrew T. Walker 
Professor – Theology 
SBTS

Here Walker is responding to the fact that a woman (Sarah Mullally) was approved by King Charles III as the 106th archbishop of Canterbury, the spiritual leader of the world’s 85 million Anglicans. Walker’s point, being a Baptist, is that Erastian Church-State relations don’t stop the “corrosive trajectories of theological liberalism.” Walker’s other implied point is that countries that practice a separation of Church and State are obviously superior to Erastian type Church-State relations. Of course both points are bogus.

We might want to take a gander at the British American cousins across the pond to see that the sacred Baptist principle of separation of Church and State has not fared so well in terms of the corrosive trajectories of theological liberalism. Dr. Stephen Wolfe nails this point in responding to Dr. Walker;

I’d like to point that every degeneracy of our time–everything you protect your kids from–arose without church establishment but under the secular conditions affirmed by Walker. If church establishment necessarily leads to apostasy, then “baptist” secular politics necessarily leads to degeneracy. The track record of Walker’s “contestation” liberalism is not good.

Next, we have to understand, that Walker’s supposed separation of Church and State has always been a mirage. There is never a time when the Church and State don’t work hand in glove. The only difference between England and ourselves is that England was open about its Erastianism while America has cloaked it in the language of “separation of Church and State,” all the while establishing the State Church in the Institution of the Government schools. America is every bit as Erastian as England. We just hide it from ourselves. It is natural for Walker to defend “anti-Erastian” arrangement since with anti-Erastian arrangements his preferred Baptist Erastianism can continue going forward. Since neutrality is impossible there is no such thing as separation of Church and State. Now, one may correctly speak about distinctions between Church and State but separation never exists.

The fact that separation never exists is seen in the fact that the current state is now a bonafide Humanist organization with the intent of persecuting above all those Biblical Christians and Churches who defy the Humanist State. The State must do this because it desires to prioritize the theological teachings of the Humanist Church as it is located in the Government schools and Universities.

Next, we would have to say that it is the “staying of being Baptist” that has brought us to the place we are now at in the US. How have the non-establishment Baptists slowed the cultural decline? For Pete’s sake, the non-establishment Baptists have not even been able to rescue their own denominations from the “corrosive trajectories of theological liberalism.” Talk about the pot calling the kettle, “black.”

Indeed, I think one could argue that it is the Baptist refusal to see linkage between church and state that has led to creating the vacuum that was filled by humanism as being the religion of the State and of most Churches in the former Christian West. Walker’s proposed solution (more Baptist thinking) is the problem that brought us to the place we are at.

It may be true that Christian Erastianism has slain its thousands, but it is even more true that Baptist “separation of Christian Church and Christian State” thinking as slain its hundreds of thousands.

By the way … this kind of Baptist thinking fits well with the Radical Two Kingdom theology that we now find so current in Covenant Reformed pulpits. R2K fanboys would be, on this point, cheek by jowl with the Baptists. The point for both is, “No affirmations of the Christian faith in the public square by political personages in their roles as political personages.”

A pox upon all of their houses.

From The Mailbox; Pastor, Should I keep Attending This Church?

A email in my inbox this morning from someone in a church that has a Pastor who sells himself as “there is no one more conservative than me,” and yet has his children in government schools, has explicitly said more than once that he is against Christian Nationalism, has made it clear that he opposes “anti-Semitism” (that really isn’t anti-Semitism) and whose church now is noticeably increasing in mixed race marriages with the minority wives don’t even speak English. The Pastor also said during the covid era that those who resisted the Gov’t. on its covid requirements were sinning against God.

This chap is now asking me if he should continue to attend this “best church there is in his area.”

I do realize that this whole line of inquiry could be merely some kind of trap in order to try and discredit me.

Here is my response to his query;

Hello Mr. Z,

Thank you for writing me.

This is a perplexing question that I often have to field. I usually answer it by saying; “I do not think I could attend that kind of church, though I would never fault someone who shared my worldview for attending such a church since I realize how important worship is and since I realize how difficult it is to locate other churches that would be any better.”

I also tell most people that if I attended said church I could not support it with my tithes and offerings since any money I would give to the Church would be supporting those very things to which I am adamantly opposed. So, if it were myself in your situation, if I decided to attend, I would not financially support the Church. I might instead give my tithes and offerings to families/individuals in the congregation who I saw had some real financial need. In such a way you’re not supporting the church as an Institution though you would still be supporting the needs of the church. I would also probably try to do that kind of thing anonymously.

I would also, were I you, try to speak with the Pastor about some of these matters, or failing that, I would try to pass on thoughtful articles or books or lectures or podcasts on these issues. Everybody is talking about these issues now and there is some good material out there. An older piece by Joe Sobran titled “Pensees” can be found online and would be good for your Pastor to read.

I should probably end by noting that your if your Pastor is “conservative” it is of the “Normie Conservative” type. In other words your Pastor is definitely not “conservative.” Worse yet, I do not think he is a particularly orthodox Christian.

Of course most of us are walking curios and so have contradictions all about us. As such, I realize that your Pastor could be quite good in other areas of Christian orthodoxy even if he is horrid on these you have told me about.

All of this advice is based on the assumption that you are single. If you had children my advice would be different.

I am sorry that the visible Church is so against Her stated Master. I am sorry that you are having to go through this.

As in Christ we can Never Surrender,

Pastor Bret

Sundry Observations On The Regnant Follies

In the last 5 days I have become aware, receiving phone calls from points 1000 miles + in different directions, of young men who have been introduced to the fire that comes from it being known that they embrace Kinism (“race-realism,” “familialism,” ethno-nationalism”) or whatever label one wants to place on basically the same set of ideas. I must say that I continue to be perplexed over the angst that is created by embracing a Christian doctrine that has been embraced in all times and in all places where the Church has embraced orthodoxy … until 1960 or so.

Not only am I perplexed but I am saddened for them in terms of the price they are having to pay to swim against the tide. I am saddened by those who are making them pay that price. I am saddened (and angered) by the cowardice of those who would make these men of quality character walk their WOKE Cultural Marxist plank. Further, I am saddened that the people who are making them walk the plank can’t see the Christianity, church, and culture they are leaving to their children and grandchildren.

The greatest threat to Christianity, Christendom, and our homes today is egalitarianism in its various shapes and forms and yet the “conservative” “Reformed” church, as well as individual Christians, insists that those who are willing to call a spade a ruddy shovel on the issue must not be allowed to sully their churches or families. On the island of the insane, only the sane are considered insane.

Of course egalitarianism, historically, has always been the province of the Ana-Baptists and then later, the Marxists. Both have in common the impulse of leveling. Leveling is what egalitarianism does. It flattens out all God ordained distinction in favor of making of us all, regardless of our race, or gender cogs in the societal machine. We are seeing the effects of this leveling recently in the PCA as Michael Foster has exposed the feminism, matriarchy, and egalitarian leveling that is rife in the PCA. We saw the effects of the leveling by the leveling document on race passed this year by the ARP, RPCNA, and PCA. Recently, we have seen a leveling proposal that is being offered up in the CREC. It seems we are all Ana-Baptist and Cultural Marxist levelers now. Indeed, it seems even that one can’t love Jesus if they are not a leveler.

Of course this leveling and egalitarianism is not the witness that comes to us from Reformed History. John Calvin for example could write;

“Regarding our eternal salvation, it is true that one must not distinguish between man and woman, or between king and a shepherd, or between a German and a Frenchman. Regarding policy, however, we have what St. Paul declares here; for our, Lord Jesus Christ did not come to mix up nature, or to abolish what belongs to the preservation of decency and peace among us….Regarding the kingdom of God (which is spiritual) there is no distinction or difference between man and woman, servant and master, poor and rich, great and small. Nevertheless, there does have to be some order among us, and Jesus Christ did not mean to eliminate it, as some flighty and scatterbrained dreamers [believe].”

John Calvin
Sermon on 1 Corinthians 11:2-3

The flighty and scatterbrained dreamers Calvin refers to above are the Ana-Baptists but now it is the Reformed in the CREC, ARP, PCA, and RPCNA who are the flighty and scatter-brained dreamers.

Considering a tangent that is related to this issue, I am concerned about those who are reputed to be leaders in this movement. To be perfectly blunt I see a lot of grifters and con-men rushing to get to the front of the racial-realist growing parade. I am reminded of the tea-party movement after Obama was elected President. The rank and file who comprised the tea-party movement had good instincts but the whole movement was co-opted by the chaps who rushed to get in front of the parade in order to lead it. I am concerned that the same thing is going to happen with any resurgent Biblical and conservative counter-revolutionary impulse. For example, men like Michael Foster have explicitly made known in the past their opposition to even the most benign Kinism. Other chaps are running to get in front of the parade but one wonders where they were when the weather was a little more inclement on the subject. I don’t agree with Mahler’s Lutheranism, and I don’t agree with some of what I consider his explicit National Socialism fodder but I will give the chap this much… he has paid his dues.

Right now, the greatest danger to a burgeoning movement is fair weather friends. The greatest danger are those types who by all appearances are licking their finger and sticking it in the wind to see which way the wind is blowing before they dare take a position. These are a danger because they will pivot any time the wind shifts or the donations dry up. Some are also a danger because their worldviews are uneven. Men like E. Michael Jones are excellent on the Bagel question but just horrible on the race issue. Jared Taylor, on the other hand is excellent on the race issue but just terrible on the Bagel problem. Then there are others, like the CREC (Canon Press, Cross-Politic podcast) who say that they are against Ana-Baptist leveling and yet are horrid on both the race issue and the Bagel issue at the same time.

I don’t know where this all ends up. It keeps up at night. It drives me to my knees in prayer so I won’t stay up all night. I find myself praying for my children and grandchildren and the great-grandchildren I will never know. I don’t want them to grow up in cog culture where all distinctions are lost and where all colors bleed into one. You see, I understand, that the Cultural Marxist/Ana-Baptist egalitarian war for the sake of leveling has as its final goal the leveling of the distinction between God and man. In point of fact one might argue that leveling is the starting point of all this subsequent leveling.

My postmillennialism keeps me afloat. I know that God will win and space and time and so, despite the appearance of bad odds against us I continue to fight.

 

Societal Law-Order & Cultural Evangelism

If you want the advancement of the Gospel and the growth of the Church to get significantly smothered in your state or your city all you have to do is to let your state go blue. This is not my opinion. This is what the data shows. If you show me a map of the most progressive areas of our nation followed by showing me a map of the regions in our nation that have the fewest churches you’ll discover quickly that you’re looking at the same exact map.

What this teaches us is that a Red State that has a law order structure that reflects to one degree or another a Biblical ethic/morality will be a State whose law order is serving as a significant and powerful tool for for what we might call pre-evangelism. In such states the laws of the state are creating in people what might be called a “plausibility structure” that serves the purpose of creating a context wherein Christianity is intuitively understood — because of the law order context — to be the carrier of the good, the true, and the beautiful.

This should not be difficult to understand nor controversial. If a child is reared in a societal Sharia law-order context, then Islam is going to be the religion that the child is pushed towards. If a child is reared in a societal Talmudic law-order context, then Judaism is going to be the religion that the child is pushed toward. If a child is reared in a societal Marxist law-order context then Marxism is going to be the religion that most readily makes sense to the child. Finally, if a child is reared in a Christian societal law-order context then the Christian faith is going to be that religion that the child is going to be pre-evangelized by.

None of this is to say that a societal Christian law order will automatically make converts to Jesus Christ. It is only being said that a societal Christian law-order will saturate the citizenry in the parameters of a Christian world and life view thus resulting in the Gospel proclamation having a Christian societal context that will serve the end of making the Gospel more readily understood.

Now, there are dangers here to be sure. The chief danger in having a societal Christian law order is that the citizenry may well think that this cultural Christianity that is driving the societal Christian law order will be the very definition of being a Christian. It is possible that citizens dwelling in a society shaped by a Christian law order will be satisfied with their own righteousness resulting in the refusal to own their own personal rebellion against a Holy God. However, that rebels might continue to rebel is no reason to be opposed to the building of a societal Christian law order.

This leads us to suggest that if we are serious about the Great Commission we need to understand that part of what it means to “disciple the nations” is to not only to do the work of Evangelism but also it means to do the work of advocating for a societal Christian Law order that will reflect the beauty and justice of Christianity in the larger social order. This reflection of Christ in the Law order will itself have the effect of doing the work of pre-evangelism.

This explains, why I hate R2K so thoroughly because R2K is opposed to Christian clergy, as God’s spokesman in the pulpit, advocating for a societal Christian Law order. R2K insists that the clergy be silent about such issues, arguing instead that only Christian laymen can be involved in such advocacy as members of organizations that may well push for Christian laws in this or that area. The problem here though is that R2K will then allow that theoretically they could also have laymen who are members of their churches who belong to organizations that advocate for “Christian” Marxism. As another example R2K churches could have laymen in their churches who are members of organizations that advocate for the 2nd amendment and as well as those who advocate for stricter gun laws. All of these people could exist in one R2K congregation because the clergy never gives a “thus saith the Lord” from the pulpit on the issues that have been used as examples. R2K, by ignoring cultural issues promotes the de-Christianization of the social order.

So, the real live data is showing us that when political conservatism spreads more people become Christians and when political progressivism spreads more people become adamantly opposed to Christianity.

This really isn’t that difficult to understand since Christians have always understood that law has a tutorial role in shaping the way people think and act. Christians have always understood that the law has a didactic function. The legislating of laws, in marking out right and wrong, in any social order, also teach the citizenry what is good and evil. A nations Law-order, therefore, is a tuning-fork that will work to resonate in the citizenry to the end of fine-tuning their conscience(s).

A Biblical Law-order provides the opportunity for the citizenry to reverse engineer that Law-order and so arrive at the person who is the ultimate foundation of that Law-order – The Lord Jesus Christ. So, a Biblical Law-Order calibrates the mindset of the citizens of a nation by saturating that citizenry via its laws with a Christian content and context. By providing this plausibility paradigm pre-evangelism occurs.

Of course the opposite is true as well. If a conservatism that is anchored in Biblical principles pushes people towards the God of the Bible, then a Progressivism that is anchored in cultural Marxist principles pushes people away from the God of the Bible. The truth of this is seen in the people that our Government schools produce. Because our Government schools are built upon a Cultural Marxist paradigm students are inclined to hate the sound of Christianity.

Because there is no such thing as neutrality, as Christians we must either support Law-Order systems that are explicitly Christian are we will support Law-Order systems that are explicitly anti-Christ. We will either prime the pump of the conscience(s) of the people towards Christ or we will prime the pump of the consciencs(s) of the people towards anti-Christ.

That this same principle applies to not only questions surrounding Law-Order but other areas as well is readily seen. The way we educate, the Art we put forth, our family structures, etc. will either push people towards Christ or push people away from Christ. The whole cultural apparatus is pre-evangelism and either we pre-evangelize people towards Christ and His Gospel or we pre-evangelize people towards anti-Christ and that damnable anti-Gospel.

All of this begins to explain why evangelism cannot be solely individualist and atomistic. Evangelism does have to set forth to all men everywhere but evangelism also must be done as “discipling the nations.”

Making Distinctions Regarding The Mormon Massacre & The Left

3 I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish. 4 Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them, do you think that they were worse sinners than all other men who dwelt in Jerusalem? 5 I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.” Luke 13

 

By now most people know that there was an awful attack on a Mormon worship facility in Michigan where four were murdered. There has been a great deal of confusion on how Christians should respond to this.

Jesus Christ’s response to a similar tragedy to call on people to repent. That is the same word that Christians should speak to Mormons during this time. Yes, we must be compassionate but being the very nard of compassion is telling them they must repent of their anti-Christ religion. We cannot allow them what they have been angling for, over the course of many years now. We cannot allow them to be seen as Christian because of this wickedness. That this attempt to meld Mormonism is part of the agenda following this event in Grand Blanc, Michigan. For example US Sen. Mike Lee, Republican from Utah posted;

“I’m a follower of Jesus Christ.”

US Sen. Mike Lee

Utah Republican

 

Mike Lee is a Mormon. Mormons follow some chap named Jesus Christ who has the same name and title of the God-Man in the Bible. However, all because the Mormon Jesus shares the same name with the Jesus Christ doesn’t mean he is worshiping the same person. In point of fact the Jesus of Mormonism and the Jesus of Biblical Christianity have only one thing in common and that is the name “Jesus.” Believing the Jesus of Mormonism will leave one eternally damned.

As Christians we cannot allow Mormons to use this firebombing of one of their pagan worship centers to try and pass themselves off as Christians. Ask yourself, what if instead of a Mormon worship place being burned to the ground it had been a Satanist worship place being toasted? Would Christians like Meghan Basham (author of “Shepherds For Sale”) be posting things like this;

Guys, I take doctrine very seriously. But if you think the right time to pick a fight on doctrine is when someone’s house of worship has just been set on fire, and several of their people killed and wounded, well, that’s just called being awful.

Meghan doesn’t realize that Mormonism is just another version of Satanism. One wonders if Meghan thought Jesus was just being awful when he said after the fall of the tower of Siloam that “unless his listeners repent they will likewise perish?”

Mormonism posits the following anti-Christian doctrines;

1.) Jesus and Satan were brothers
2.) Jesus Christ was not eternally God of very God but only became God
3.) The Mormon God at one time was not God but likewise became God
4.) Mormons add to God’s Word with the “Book of Mormon” & “The Pearl of Great Price”
5.) The Mormon concept of Atonement includes the idea of “blood atonement” where man can pay for his own sin by the shedding of his own blood.
6.) For the Mormons  like the Son, the Holy Ghost was a “spirit child” born to the Father. This is anti-trinitarian.

So, what has been so far is one side of how Biblical Christians should be responding to this massacre in Grand Blanc at a Mormon Church. Christians should, out of compassion, be telling living Mormons that they should repent lest they likewise perish.

The other side of this massacre is to realize that in the eyes of the unhinged left who we live cheek by jowl with this is an attack on Christianity and if the unhinged left’s response to the death of Charlie Kirk is any indicator the left is reveling over this attack on the Mormon place where they worship their pagan God. Leftists, idiots that they are, are measuring this as yet another victory against Christianity. Because the left conflates Mormonism with Christianity, seeing them as one and the same, we must denounce this act of barbarity. We denounce this massacre not because we are defending Mormonism. Our word to Mormons is “repent, lest ye likewise perish.” We denounce the massacre because the left thinks that once again they have gained a victory over Christianity. Our word to the left is;

“Those who live by the sword shall die by the sword,” (Mt. 26:52) as well as “repent, lest ye likewise perish.”