Pastor,
Thank you (and all) for your detailed responses. It warms my heart to know that there are real people, your friends, that are in community with each other and ready to risk it all to fight. It is especially helpful to know where to send money for support in the fight. I am sure that supporting a firearms group like the NRA or the one you mentioned will go a long way.
Note that I asked you about fighting for kinism, but you said fighting for Christendom in the title of your reply. Are these synonyms? What would you say to a Christian family that leaves a church where the pastor is more devoted to kinism than Christendom, if they are not synonyms?
Hello Roger,
Yes … they are synonyms.
One cannot contend for Christendom without contending for Kinism. Especially in our current context in the West where Christendom is being attacked via the means of attacking the family structure. Christianity is a faith that presupposes the family unit. Kinism is merely an extension of that presupposition carried out to each continuing concentric circle that ripples out from the family unit.
Since I hold that there is no such thing as Christendom (or Christianity for that matter) that has subtracted the centrality of family such as is found everywhere in Scripture, and since Kinism is merely another way of stating the doctrine of the Creator Creature distinction (an essential and primary truth without which the Christian faith cannot exist as the Christian faith) I would say to such a hypothetical family leaving such a hypothetical church having such a hypothetical pastor that they should rethink their understanding of Biblical Christianity.
Besides … this is surely a vastly hypothetical question since I am full of doubt that any Pastor exists who is more devoted to Kinism than Christendom. Indeed, since the WOKE assault that now servers as the point of the spear attacking Christianity, and Christendom it is simply the case that most Pastors are asleep at the switch.
Since Christianity has as an essential aspect to its reality what Kinism is championing your question is like asking “what if the Pastor at the Church is more devoted to the incarnation or to the penal substitutionary doctrine of the Atonement than to Christendom.” You see the implicit contradiction here don’t you? You have presented what is called a “false dichotomy.” How can a Pastor be faulted for being more devoted to a cardinal doctrine of Christianity without which Christianity can not be Christianity than he is to Christianity itself?
As to time spent on this one doctrinal aspect of Christianity Luther is reputed to have said;
“If I profess, with the loudest voice and the clearest exposition, every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christianity. Where the battle rages the loyalty of the soldier is proved; and to be steady on all the battle-field besides is mere flight and disgrace to him if he flinches at that one point.”
Guess where that one point is now Roger? That one point is the point that Kinism is engaged in. If the Church loses here Christendom goes into declension (something R2K desires very much) and it is back to the catacombs while living in Dark chaos and old night. Indeed, it is not too much to say that the enemy will have been successful in a short term victory.
In Athanasius’ time the issue that was being attacked was the deity of Jesus Christ. In Augustine’s day the issue that was being attacked was whether or not man had Libertarian free will. In Luther’s day the issue was both Justification by faith alone and the what was the epistemological ground for the Church — Scripture or Tradition. Today the issue is also twofold
1.) Creator-Creature distinction and the means of attack is by attack the doctrines of Scripture that have been shorthanded to be called “Kinism.” (Which is merely Christianity 101).
2.) Theonomy or Autonomy. (These two issues are implied in one another just as the two issues at the time of the Reformation were implied in each other.)
Of course, as has been more than hinted at in the original response, most Christians seem not to have the capacity to understand the implications and consequences of this issue. Just as Athanasius, Augustine, Luther were the minority voices at their time so Kinists are the minority voices today.
But as Rushdoony said …
“History has never been dominated by majorities, but only by dedicated minorities who stand unconditionally on their faith.”
R.J. Rushdoony
Blessings Roger as you consider all this,
Bret
p.s. — FWIW The NRA is counter-productive to securing the 2nd amendment. If you want to secure the 2nd amendment don’t send your money there.
p.p.s. – If you really want to dig into this I can offer a few books that may help turn some lights on. Let me know.
