Dr. Strange and the Multicult of Madness — Part II

Over here;

We find a Mid-America sponsored podcast featuring Dr. Alan Strange inveighing against Dr. Stephen Wolfe’s vision of Christian Nationalism. This is the second podcast wherein Dr. Strange deals with this subject and so subsequently my second blog post interrogating Dr. Strange.

Dr. Alan Strange in his podcast against Christian Nationalism marches out the old canard that “Pentecost was the reversal of Babel,” when in point of fact Pentecost was the sanctification of Babel. If Pentecost had been the reversal of Babel then all the peoples from various nations would have heard the Gospel in Esperanto. Instead each peoples heard the Gospel in their own tongue, thus sanctioning nations and by extension Nationalism.

Strange also insists that the time period in Reformed that Stephen Wolfe appeals to on church and state matters is no longer the consensus by Reformed churches. The response to that is “so what?” If Wolfe (rightly) understands that the WCF as it was accepted by Americans and the TFU as accepted by the 20th century Reformed church with its deleterious changes by Abraham Kuyper were gross aberrations why should it matter what modern Reformed denominations currently think? Modern Reformed denominations have so altered the original intent of the original confessional documents on church and state so as to make Christian Nationalism almost impossible. That was not the case in the original autographs. If Wolfe wants to presuppose the original autographs who is Strange to wave a red flag on that issue?

Dr. Strange perhaps doesn’t realize how those changes changed the whole Reformed faith and made it less Reformed. Wolfe is reaching back to a earlier time when Reformed theology on Church and state explicitly taught Nationalism.

Dr. Alan Strange in his podcast analyzing Christian Nationalism also faults Dr. S. Wolfe for saying that Christianity has not come into its own (into its full flower) unless it is instantiated in every Institutional expression of any given set culture. Strange seems to think that by saying this Wolfe is diminishing both the necessity for regeneration and the preaching that leads to that and so the Church’s role in placarding Christ.

Wolfe, contra Strange does not negate the importance of the church’s proper jurisdictional role. Indeed, I have no doubt that Dr. Wolfe would agree that the Church needs to be about properly handling the keys of the Kingdom. Dr. Wolfe’s point remains though. If a social-order doesn’t embrace Christianity… if the Magistrates are not nursing fathers for the Church — then Christianity most certainly will not have the far reaching impact that it otherwise would and so indeed has not come to its fullest expression.

Thirdly, in his podcast against Christian Nationalism Dr. Alan Strange clearly inveighs against any kind of use of force in order to re-establish a Christian ethos to this nation. Strange even cites both Rushdoony and Bahnsen as being against the use of force to establish a Christian National Reformation.

I think Strange, Rushdoony, and Bahnsen clearly wrong here. Returning to Christian nationalism might quite possibly require force just as Charlemagne used force to establish Christianity among the Franks. Just as Alfred the Great had to use force. Just as Charles Martel used force to maintain Christianity against the Muslims. So also, the period of the Reformation was characterized by conflict. The Crusades established Christianity by force in the Holy Land for a period of time. The Dutch only achieved freedom from Catholic Spain by use of force. Cromwell established a particular kind of Christianity by force. Even our American war for Independence was an example of the Protestant Dissenters with their Reformed Christianity going to war against British Episcopalians. It’s just silly to think that any kind of major worldview shift cannot use force to establish its presence.

Now, naturally enough, we would all love to have “velvet counter-Revolutions,” but it is not realistic that every cultural worldview shift can be achieved by a velvet Revolution. As such, to suggest, as Strange does, that the use of force is just abhorrent to Christians is just utter nonsense.  Throughout history Christians have repeatedly used force against paganism to establish or defend Christian Nationalism.

It is true that both Rushdoony and Bahnsen spoke against the use of force but we are living in quite different times from when RJR and Bahnsen lived. Maybe they would still insist that force is not an option. If they were still alive and did insist that, I would counter with the conviction that they were in error.

We might as well just belly up to the bar and admit all this. We can advise to go slowly on the usage of force. We can say “only in the last resort,” we can warn against being lured into using force when not yet ready but taking force completely off the table in order to establish Christian Nationalism is just not well thought out.

Obedience to tyrants is disobedience to God.

Author: jetbrane

I am a Pastor of a small Church in Mid-Michigan who delights in my family, my congregation and my calling. I am postmillennial in my eschatology. Paedo-Calvinist Covenantal in my Christianity Reformed in my Soteriology Presuppositional in my apologetics Familialist in my family theology Agrarian in my regional community social order belief Christianity creates culture and so Christendom in my national social order belief Mythic-Poetic / Grammatical Historical in my Hermeneutic Pre-modern, Medieval, & Feudal before Enlightenment, modernity, & postmodern Reconstructionist / Theonomic in my Worldview One part paleo-conservative / one part micro Libertarian in my politics Systematic and Biblical theology need one another but Systematics has pride of place Some of my favorite authors, Augustine, Turretin, Calvin, Tolkien, Chesterton, Nock, Tozer, Dabney, Bavinck, Wodehouse, Rushdoony, Bahnsen, Schaeffer, C. Van Til, H. Van Til, G. H. Clark, C. Dawson, H. Berman, R. Nash, C. G. Singer, R. Kipling, G. North, J. Edwards, S. Foote, F. Hayek, O. Guiness, J. Witte, M. Rothbard, Clyde Wilson, Mencken, Lasch, Postman, Gatto, T. Boston, Thomas Brooks, Terry Brooks, C. Hodge, J. Calhoun, Llyod-Jones, T. Sowell, A. McClaren, M. Muggeridge, C. F. H. Henry, F. Swarz, M. Henry, G. Marten, P. Schaff, T. S. Elliott, K. Van Hoozer, K. Gentry, etc. My passion is to write in such a way that the Lord Christ might be pleased. It is my hope that people will be challenged to reconsider what are considered the givens of the current culture. Your biggest help to me dear reader will be to often remind me that God is Sovereign and that all that is, is because it pleases him.

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