If Only I Were Organizing Webbon’s “Christ is King” Conference

There is a conference coming up in Dallas, Texas this year sponsored by Joel Webbon’s organization. The conference is called “Christ is King: America After Trump.” This conference has drawn all kinds of attention, both positive and negative. Today, a friend in Canada sent me an article by the self professed Chicken Farmer – J. D. Hall – wherein Hall argues in a blistering manner what hypocrites Webbon’s opponents are.

Speaking only for myself my critique of Webbon here is that he hasn’t gone far enough with his ecumenism. If I were organizing this conference I would not have stopped at inviting a Catholic (Calvin Robinson) who has personally told me that he does embrace Trent, and a Charismatic (Alex Jones) who has said that “God literally started talking to me,”

https://www.charismapodcastnetwork.com/show/charismanews/videos/alex-jones-said-this-about-god/

(3:46 mark)

I mean, if I were organizing the conference and if it was clear I could invite these chaps to speak I would go whole hog for the “Christ is King” conference. I mean, why not invite a high profile Mormon to speak at the conference? Someone like Sen. Mike Lee? I know for a fact that Mormons profess that “Christ is King.” I would also seek, in the name of ecumenicity,  to rope in the Jehovah Witnesses. They are a little late to the “Christ is King” conviction but they believe that Jesus Christ is King and has been ruling in heaven since 1914. Both Mormons and JW’s tend to be social conservatives, so why bar them from the huge “Christian” political coalition that Joel Webbon is trying to build.

But… let’s not stop there. Years ago I had a Hindu friend (don’t gasp) I worked with. His name was Kartik Bavishi. Once we were having a discussion with a group of co-workers about Christianity and Kartik piped up and said, “I believe that Christ is God.” Certainly if my Hindu friend believed that Christ is God (being Hindu, he also believed that Buddha, Allah, and Sun Myung Moon, etc. were God) he certainly would have been able to say “Christ is King.” So, if I were organizing this “Christ is King” conference I’d rope in the Hindus as well. Kartik, like Usha Bala Vance, was very socially conservative, after all.

I mean, this conference, we are being told, is not serving the sacraments and is not preaching the Word. It is only concentrating on the political landscape after Trump and it is for all those who can confess that, “Christ is King.” If that is the case let’s get serious about our ecumenicism Joel and if we are going to invite the Catholics, and the Charismatics… if we are going to invite the Fishbacks and Robinsons, because even though Catholic, they at least say that “Christ is King,” let us be consistent and invite the Mormons, the JW’s, and the Hindus.

However, one group of Christians I wouldn’t invite to speak at the conference is the R2K boys since they don’t believe that “Christ is King,” except in a “spiritual sense.”

Since, satire any more is almost impossible to do, let me say here that all of the above is satire, except the R2K paragraph. I don’t think that a conference labeled “Christ is King” should be inviting Mormons, Hindus, JW’s merely because they say that “Christ is King.” In the same way I think it borders on blasphemous to have a conference titled “Christ is King” wherein one invites folks to speak who own a Christ as King who is a very different Christ then the one that is in Scripture and is at the right hand of the Father.

If Joel Webbon had merely titled the conference, “America After Trump” conference I would be far more sanguine about the lineup of speakers, but to label this conference, “Christ is King,” and then line up speakers who don’t own Christ as King even though they say they do is just not good form.

It is true that Joel Webbon is broadening is base by inviting who he is inviting but it is also true that Webbon is diluting the content of the message. For example, when Webbon does this he insures that I will never vote for anyone Webbon’s organization supports. (I’m one person, so I’m confident nobody is losing sleep over that.)  That is because I believe that Christ is King and I’m not sure Webbon does. Can someone believe Christ is King and hold hands (even if only in politics) with those who say Christ is King but who have a different Christ as King then Protestants do? If we are going to thump for Christian Nationalism then let us as Protestants unfurl “a banner of bold, unmistakable colors with no pale pastels'”

Yeah, I get it. In politics you have to build coalitions. But if we’re going to build political coalitions can we just leave the language of “Christ is King” out of it?

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. View all posts by jetbrane