Over at Heidelblog one of our favorite “Christ is only a spiritual King” types (R.Scott Clark) posted a piece by a Jim Cassidy. I don’t know who Cassidy is. I presume he is yet another R2K clergy. (They’re as thick as burrs on a hound dog.) I thought I would fisk some of this since Dr. Darryl Gnostic Hart (yet another R2K fanboy) thought so highly of it he posted a snippet of it on X. Shoot, any time you can throttle both Clark and Hart as well as a new R2K name it is good time.
The context here is a letter that J. Gresham Machen wrote critiquing the “Liberal Mission.” Machen’s critique of “Liberal Missions” was one the R2K neo-heretics thought could be levied against the advocates of Christian Nationalism (CN). So, they were trying to use Machen to throttle all ideas of CN. This despite Machen saying elsewhere,
“In the presence of this apparent collapse of free democracy, any descendant of the liberty-loving races of mankind may well stand dismayed; and to those liberty-loving races no doubt most of my hearers tonight belong. I am of the Anglo-Saxon race; many of you belong to a race whose part in the history of human freedom is if anything still more glorious; and as we all contemplate the struggle of our fathers in the winning of that freedom which their descendants seem now to be so willing to give up, we are impressed anew with the fact that it is far easier to destroy than to create. It took many centuries of struggle — much blood and many tears — to establish the fundamental principles of our civil and religious liberty; but one generation is sufficient to throw them all away.”
Note the language there of “liberty loving races.” Note Machen’s admission that he is part of the “Anglo-Saxon race.” Note Machen’s admission that other distinct races exist. All of that rhetoric points towards the idea that Machen embraced some form of Nationalism – especially as he combines the idea of race with “our civil and religious liberty.” To try and invoke Machen as a supporter of modern multi-culturalism because he didn’t champion one particular strain of Christian Nationalism (Fosdick’s strain) is criminal.
Jim Cassidy wrote,
The comparison may initially seem ridiculous. After all, most of those promoting Christian nationalism in the Anglophone Protestant world could hardly be described as typical theological liberals….
Still, the connection needs to be emphasized. The point may appear subtle, but it is highly significant for the present because it exposes a serious weakness in Christian nationalist theology. What is that weakness?
Before answering, let me make a few observations about Christian nationalism. Its problems seem to be manifold.
There is, for instance, a pastoral problem. How can God’s people be brought to peace amid tumultuous times if they are continually stoked in their anger toward the world?
BLMc responds,
Jesus Himself answered this question for Rev. Jimbo.
33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
Rev. Jimbo’s answer seems to be to ignore the trouble around us so that our parishioners can have peace. This definitely strikes me as a “Jesus wants us to have our head in the sand” approach. Clearly, the way God’s people can be brought to peace amidst tumultuous times is by reminding them that despite the tumultuous times they can take heart because Christ has overcome the world. Indeed, this is the peace that all Christians desire. They need to know that despite being properly anger toward a world that seeks to destroy Christ and His Kingdom they can have the peace that passes all understanding.
Jimbo writes,
There is also a missionary problem. If Christ has commissioned his church to make disciples of all nations, how can the church faithfully pursue that mission while importing the world’s border walls into her fellowship? Paul had something to say about that in Ephesians 2, among other places.
BLMc
First, this presupposes that a nation is supposed to be multi-cultural. Second, it presupposes that any indigenous people-group churches, like Korean Churches or Hmong Churches or Black Churches are sinful because they putatively violate Ephesians 2. After all, haven’t those churches imported the world’s border walls into their fellowship? Does Jimbo really believe that the PCA’s Korean churches are in sin? Third, Jimbo is misinterpreting Ephesians 2. I have dealt with that elsewhere on Iron Ink. Really, in the end, this argument by Jimbo is just a crafty way of arguing that Galatians 3 proves that God uses grace to destroy nature.
Jimbo
Then there is an ecclesiological problem. What is the ministry of the church? Is she called to administer the means of grace, or is she an agency for cultural transformation? Certainly, as the gospel is preached and the elect are gathered and perfected, Christians will carry a Christian understanding of the world into every sphere of life. But much of the current rhetoric makes cultural transformation sound like the goal and the church merely a means to that goal.
BLMc
This is a false dichotomy. Let’s reduce this to individual terms to see how silly this is. The Church indeed is called to administer Word and Sacrament and when by the Spirit of Christ the Word is efficacious to the end of individual conversion and the Sacrament efficacious to the end of confirming us in Christ so that we are nourished and refreshed with eternal life the consequence to that we expect is personal and individual transformation. If the expectation of the ministry of the Word in the individual’s life is transformation because of the Spirit’s work in a individual’s life, then why isn’t the expectation of the ministry of the Word in the context of a congregation to be transformation in the lives of families, and beyond that to cultures? Jimbo here has given us a false dichotomy between administering the means of grace and cultural transformation. Yes, the Church is to handle the Keys of the Kingdom and by God’s grace as individuals are transformed so are families and broader cultures. Does Jimbo believe that transformed people don’t make for transformed families and cultures?
The Church is indeed the means to Christ’s goal of covering the earth with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. That of course is inclusive of transformed cultures.
Jimbo writes,
Yet none of these is the central problem. The central weakness of Christian nationalism is the same weakness found in theological liberalism: Both make the gospel a means to some other end rather than receiving its saving end as the church’s great commission. The gospel does, of course, serve the still greater end of glorifying and enjoying God forever. But it must not be reduced to an instrument for achieving temporal social goals.
BLMc responds,
Here Christianity is reduced to “the Gospel.” This is a problem for all R2K “thinking.” Indeed, the Gospel is the proclamation of God’s provision of Salvation. The Gospel is announcement that the prisoners of sin have been set free. It is good news.
But the Good news, doesn’t end on us. The good news is to the end of glorifying God in all our relations and doing in a life that is going from sanctification unto sanctification. That sanctification looks like something and that looking like something is the rest of Biblical Christianity. Jimbo looks to reduce Christianity to Justification apart from a sanctification that is, as the Heidelberg catechism teaches characterized by a transformed life,
90. What is the making alive of the new man?
Heartfelt joy in God through Christ,1 causing us to take delight in living according to the will of God in all good works.2
[1] Rom. 5:1; 14:17; Isa. 57:15. [2] Rom. 8:10–11; Gal. 2:20; *Rom. 7:22.
91. What are good works?
Those only which proceed from true faith,1 and are done according to the law of God,2 unto His glory,3 and not such as rest on our own opinion4
or the commandments of men.5
[1] Rom. 14:23. [2] 1 Sam. 15:22; Eph. 2:10. [3] 1 Cor. 10:31. [4] Deut. 12:32; Ezek. 20:18, 20; Isa. 29:13. [5] Matt.15:9; *Num. 15:39
Jimbo and all the R2K fanboys seek to drive a wedge between “the Gospel” as the announcement of good news that God in Christ has delivered us from the dominion of darkness into the Kingdom of God’s dear son and the transformed and ever increasing sanctified life wherein the Christian makes it their goal, as delighting via gratitude in their free salvation and as informed by the law of God, to live to the glory of God. This kind of living, transforms not only individuals but families and eventually culture as it works like leaven.
The false dichotomy between the freely given grace renewed life and the transformation of individuals, families, and cultures yields up a stunted and retarded Christianity. This will be R2K’s legacy.
