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.

Interrogating Dr. Stephen Wolfe & His Book, “The Case For Christian Nationalism” V

“Pastors as pastors are no more competent to analyze or make civil law than any other person.”

Dr. Stephen Wolfe
The Case for Christian Nationalism — p. 275

We might first add here that while it may be true that Pastors as pastors are not competent to analyze or make civil law neither is it the case that, typically speaking, lawyers, legislators, nor politicians are likewise competent to analyze or make civil law.

The above is true now but it has not always been true. Indeed, in our now most pastors are  incompetents at both analyzing civil laws and shepherding their flock.

However, this should not be true today since the political/governmental jurisdiction is constantly now invading the ecclesiastical realm with their immorality and death dealing. Today Pastors should be equipped to analyze civil laws as interpreting them and so reading them through a Biblical grid.
We are at the point that neither the greater or lesser magistrates are going to help the Christian people/Church and so the principle of interposition has to fall to the Elders in the ecclesiastical realm to correct the legislators in the civil realm. As such the clergy need the ability to analyze legislation.

We should note that once upon a time the clergy did have this ability. Samuel Rutherford wrote the masterpiece Lex Rex and George Gillespie with him wrote the Civil Government section of the WCF. John Calvin, who was a law school graduate before theology, wrote most of the laws of Geneva, and a number of them are still in place today, and Geneva and the cantons have largely been peaceful and civil ever since. Many of the leaders in cause for American Independence were members of the clergy. Pastors in Puritan America were the most wise and educated people in the community. The fact that the clergy has fallen so far should not be used to excuse the necessity of pastors once again being competent.

Another point to be made here is that if would only give our clergy a thorough worldview training it would be a far less strenuous reach for them to analyze law since law is such a religiously oriented discipline. Once upon a time, pastors took it upon themselves to master the workings of the world to the best of their abilities in order that they might rise above it. Now they just believe whatever CNN tells them and focus on exclusive psalmody.

Let’s keep in mind that St. Paul said that the Church ought to be able to adjudicate in the affairs of this world;

“If any of you has a dispute with another, do you dare to take it before the ungodly for judgment instead of before the Lord’s people? 2 Or do you not know that the Lord’s people will judge the world? And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases? 3 Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life!”

II.) “Modern theonomy provided both a universalist alternative to prevailing visions and promised to reverse moral decay.”

Dr. Stephen Wolfe
The Case for Christian Nationalism – p. 269

1.) All who contend for any unique law order project are offering a universalist alternative. Indeed, Wolfe’s own plea for Natural law likewise offers a universalist alternative. There is no shame in offering a universalist alternative to paganism.

2.) Do keep in mind that Rushdoony, while eschewing movement Libertarianism, did advocate for a law order that was decentralized in terms of Governmental enforcement. This mitigates against Wolfe’s “universalist” accusation that suggests that Rushdoony was going to force Theonomy on the world.

3.) It is true that an acceptance of God’s law by a redeemed people would indeed reverse moral decay. Nothing else will. Certainly not Wolfe’s Natural law Humanism.

Stephen Wolfe’s book “The Case for Christian Nationalism,” is unlike any other book I’ve ever read in my whole life with its pillar to post statements. Sometimes I want to stand and cheer Dr. Wolfe. Other times I wonder where in purgatory he will spend time.

Interrogating Dr. Stephen Wolfe & His Book, “The Case For Christian Nationalism” IV

I.) “Since Scripture contains the natural law (in scripturated form), Scripture can and ought to inform our understanding of the natural law, the common good, proper determination for civil laws, and the means to heavenly life.”

Dr. Stephen Wolfe
The Case for Christian Nationalism — p. 262

Ummm… if Scripture contains natural law then why do we need natural law? In brief, if Natural law agrees with Scripture it is un-necessary. If Natural law disagrees with Scripture it is un-true.

I would like to take credit for that simple but brilliant insight but I learned it from the  Zacharias Ursinus;

“Furthermore, although natural demonstrations teach nothing concerning God that is false, yet men, without the knowledge of God’s word, obtain nothing from them except false notions and conceptions of God; both because these demonstrations do not contain as much as is delivered in his word, and also because even those things which may be understood naturally, men, nevertheless, on account of innate corruption and blindness, receive and interpret falsely, and so corrupt it in various ways.”

Zacharias Ursinus
Commentary on Heidelberg Catechism

II.) “Put differently, God has ordered man by a rule which he discerns what he must do and must avoid in order to achieve his ends.”

Dr. Stephen Wolfe
The Case for Christian Nationalism — p. 245

And here is all we need to read to realize that Wolfe’s worldview cannot be entirely trusted. This sentence demonstrates that the Natural Law types do not comprehend the noetic effect of the fall upon reason. It is true that Natural Law proclaims the will of God but what is also true that what the Natural Law types like Wolfe don’t get is that man’s reason is fallen and fallen man has an agenda to read wrongly what God is making known by General Revelation as contained in Natural Law.

Better to listen to Rushdoony on this score;

“Now, what does the Bible have to say on the subject? As we saw at the beginning, the Bible says nothing from cover to cover about a law of nature. It speaks about God’s law, for men and nations, God’s requirement in every area. Hs moral law, his civil law, his law for the church, his law for the family. It’s all God’s law, directly from God.”

Or, if one prefers Guillaume Groen van Prinsterer;

“Law is rooted in God’s essence. Apostasy means forsaking justice. For atheists, there are only natural inclinations, no natural law. Conscience and moral inclinations are merely weak reverberations of God’s Law, and wherever the latter is done away with, duty is replaced by pride and selfishness.”

Now some from the Natural law school will warn us here that. “we have to be careful here lest you accuse the entirety of Protestantism of never taking the effect of sin seriously.” However there is a proper response to this well intended warning and that is to note that historically Protestantism embraced a Natural law concept that could work in the context of a Christian people. Protestantism in its origins never paused to consider if Natural Law would work per their theories in a culture that was no longer described as Christendom.

We must keep in mind that there are as many Natural laws as their are different schools of philosophies. Can Natural law tell me which one of those contending Natural law theories is the right Natural law theory?

Nope … I’ve done my work here. Natural Law is a wax nose driven by the unstated presuppositions of those who are reading Natural Law.

God’s world does shine forth Natural Law but fallen man suppresses the truth (all truth) in unrighteousness except when convenient. This is what the Synod of Dordt teaches when it notes;

Article 4

“There remain, however, in man since the fall, the glimmerings of natural light, whereby he retains some knowledge of God, of natural things, and of the differences between good and evil, and discovers some regard for virtue, good order in society, and for maintaining an orderly external deportment. But so far is this light of nature from being sufficient to bring him to a saving knowledge of God and to true conversion, that he is incapable of using it aright even in things natural and civil. Nay, further, this light, such as it is, man in various ways renders wholly polluted and holds it in unrighteousness, by doing which he becomes inexcusable before God.”

Two Other Comments On Wolfe’s Book By Dr. Schlebush & Dr. DeYoung

I.) “Given the fact that mainstream theologians have for so long used the gnostic premise of the supremacy of the spiritual over the material to justify the Neo-Marxist levelling of all social distinctions and natural hierarchies, Stephen Wolfe’s recently released book, The Case for Christian Nationalism is certainly a most welcome publication.”

Dr. Adi Schlebusch  

Rev. McAtee chimes in;

One thing that Wolfe does is he distinguishes his Natural Law from R2K Natural Law and that is a good thing though it does bring up the question of how Christians can have different Natural Law theories if we are all supposed to be ruled in our social order by a obvious to all Natural law. Wolfe’s Natural law theory reveals that R2K Natural law theory certainly is thoroughly Gnostic as it pertains to the common realm.

One thing is for sure is that the Grand-daddy of Christian Natural Law theory, Thomas Aquinas, would have gagged to death if he could’ve known what David Van Drunen, D. G. Hart, R. Scott Clark, T. G. Gordon, and the rest of the R2K cadre shirt tail hangers have done to his Natural law.

So, while we do not agree in the least with Wolfe’s Natural law theory we do say that it is far far less bad than R2K.

II.) “Christ’s chief concern in this age is with the church. While many institutions contribute to earthly life and human flourishing, Jesus didn’t promise to build any institution other than the church (Matt. 16:18). The impression one gets from The Case for Christian Nationalism is that the church plays merely a supportive spiritual role as part of a larger project that involves the civil realm ordering people to their complete good. Wolfe’s vision is nation-centric rather than church-centric.”

Rev. Dr. Kevin DeYoung (KD)

Online Article

 

1.) The problem here is not so much the ecclesiocentrism that KD is pushing as it is the fact that KD seems to think that Jesus building of His Church is somehow isolated in effect from the broader work of building His Kingdom.

2.) While KD is correct that Jesus did promise to build His church that statement can’t be isolated from Jesus last commission to “Disciple the nations.” How KD can cherry pick Christ’s promise to build the church while ignoring Christ’s command to disciple the nations is quite … curious.

3.) Consistent w/ #1 this sounds like KD is suggesting that Church and Kingdom are exactly synonymous so that Jesus is concerned solely with the Church. If this is what KD is going after than we strenuously object. While the Church is indeed Jesus primary concern it is a primary concern that impacts every other Kingdom as a fire warms the whole house. If that is true then KD’s severing of Church from other human institutions, which likewise belong to the Kingdom, is significantly inaccurate.

3.) KD misses the reality that when the Church is right then all else follows. As such it can’t help be the primary building block in a much large project. When the Church is ordered right. The nation, the family, and all other human institutions will likewise then be ordered right.

4.) KD’s comments suggest a dualism and hints that he is drinking at the waters of R2K, but any man who played the straight man for Tim Keller for so many years is someone who should be automatically viewed with suspicion.

Interrogating Dr. Stephen Wolfe & His Book, “The Case For Christian Nationalism” III

I.) “This is why the magistrate cannot rubberstamp a ready-made divine civil code; he must apply discernment and prudence to determine public action.”

Dr. Stephen Wolfe
The Case for Christian Nationalism — p. 257

First, we have to ask, “by what standard will our fictitious  magistrate arrive at his ‘discernment’ and ‘prudence'(?)”, and, “why should non-magistrates agree with a completely subjectively arrived at ‘discernment’ and ‘prudence’ of magistrates(?)

Secondly, I must say this strikes me as the apex of hubris. How can the creature say with a straight face that a divine civil code coming from God should not be rubberstamped? Does this not suggest that God Himself has no discernment and prudence in determining the divine civil code left to man for man’s public action?

How is this not a form of humanism — man the center?

II.)  “The end (goal) of civil law is the common good of the civil community. The common good is common in that it refers to the good conditions of the whole.”

Dr. Stephen Wolfe
The Case for Christian Nationalism — p. 257

Here we see Bentham and Mill Utilitarianism and pragmatism. The end that is pursued is the common good that provide the best conditions for the whole. But how could that ever be measured successfully? In a nation of several millions who could possibly ever determine the “common good as conditions of the whole” with any accuracy? I, for one, do not trust any group of men to be able to determine the common good. Frankly, invoking the “common good” is just a cover justifying whatever mischievous behavior that any given magistrate might pursue. I’m sure Abraham Lincoln believed that the War of Northern Aggression was the common good for the whole nation.

Is the standard for civil law really man’s common good subjectively arrived at? Should we not insist instead that the end goal of civil law is God’s glory, knowing that if God’s glory is the end goal the consequence will be the common good that provides the best conditions for the whole?

I see humanism creeping through Dr. Wolfe’s model.

III.) “It remains the case that cultural diversity harms civil unity, for it undermines the ability for a community to act with unity for its good. The community will have trouble ordering themselves through law and especially through culture. The consequence of multiculturalism is secularization (i.e. — ‘neutrality’), open conflict, or civil action that suppresses the activity and status of the newcomers. One key factor is the limitation of social power among a diverse population: an individual from one culture cannot easily correct one from another, nor can one people-group offer clear reasons for its behavior to the others. Most likely the injection of diversity, if on a mass scale, will result in a community of strife, distrust, discord, apprehension, and misunderstanding. A disordered body politic is not conducive to a well-ordered soul. As I’ve argued, the most suitable condition for a group of people to successfully pursue the complete good is one of cultural similarity. This is a natural principle of civil communities. Thus, receiving masses of people who are similar with regard to faith and dissimilar in other ways is generally bad policy. This is evident in the fact that the chief practical argument against Christian Nationalism in the Western countries, especially in the US, is that cultural diversity renders it practically impossible.”

Dr. Stephen Wolfe
The Case For Christian Nationalism — p. 200-201

This is a really fine statement. However;

1.) Wolfe talks about “secularization” and I’m not sure exactly what that is. I would prefer to say that the consequence of multiculturalism is not secularization (neutrality) but that multiculturalism is the consequence of a change in the national theological foundation that is being called “secularization” in order to make the change more palatable.

2.) Note especially this statement by Dr. Wolfe;

 I’ve argued, the most suitable condition for a group of people to successfully pursue the complete good is one of cultural similarity. This is a natural principle of civil communities.

This is spot on accurate and it also provide the reason why Kinists insist that inter-racial/inter-cultural/inter-class marriages are on the whole a very bad idea and are to be, generally speaking, adamantly opposed. Marriage is the most foundational of all “civil-communities,” and the expectation should be that not only does cultural similarity obtain but so must racial and even class similarity. Naturally enough, exceptions will exist but exceptions are exceptions and those who insist on being exceptions should expect adversity that is not healthy for a well functioning civil community.

Interrogating Dr. Stephen Wolfe & His Book, “The Case For Christian Nationalism” II

I.) “The objects of law are things that, in principle, the law can touch, direct, or order. It refers to the things of civil jurisdiction. The score of objects includes all outward things, except spiritual ceremonies, and the ecclesiastical order (which are matters of divine law.)”

Dr. Stephen Wolfe
The Case for Christian Nationalism — p. 258-259

Here Dr. Wolfe and Dr. David Van Drunnen of R2K fame speak with one voice. For both of these Natural Law enthusiasts Civil law is distinct from divine law and divine law is cordoned off so that it only applies to the ecclesiastical realm. Clearly, Wolfe is advocating for two distinct laws. One for the public square (Natural Law) and one for the Church (Revealed Law).

Again, this is civil order humanism. Man is the measure for what happens in the civil realm. Oh, sure, man tries to connect his sovereignty as abstracted from and with Natural Law with God’s sovereignty in giving Natural Law but at the end of the day God only has a direct law for the ecclesiastical realm. The civil realm is ruled by God’s “left hand,” as that left hand is determined in reality by fallen man importing God’s authority to the Natural Law that they “discover.” (Or is it invent?)

Just to be clear here, I do not hold that the civil Government has jurisdictional authority over the Church but this is not because law enforced by the State is not valid in the Church realm, but rather it is because the Church is as a foreign embassy situated in a host country. Host country laws do not apply to foreign embassy because it lies beyond their jurisdictional authority.

II.) “Experience over the last decade had made evident that there are two options: Christian nationalism or pagan nationalism. The totality of national action will be either Christian, and thus ordered to the complete good, or pagan — ordered to the celebration of degeneracy, child sacrifice (abortion), mental illness, and idolatry. Neutrality, even if it were real for a time, will never hold, because man by his nature infuses his transcendent concerns into his way of life and into the place of that life. The pagan nationalist rejection of neutrality is correct in principle, and Christians ought to abandon their foolish commitment to neutrality, contestability, and viewpoint diversity. In their place, Christians should assert the godly direction for this natural principle, namely, Christian nationalism. Neutral World political theology is simply irrelevant to our new world; it is obsolete. And it did little but encourage people to invest sentiment in what would ultimately turn on them and their children. It instilled patterns of thought that ill-prepared Christians to confront what was coming. It is now a political theology for the historian, not for the theologian or political theorist.”

Dr. Stephen Wolfe
The Case for Christian Nationalism — p. 381

This is a brilliant summation by Dr. Wolfe. Would that Reformed clergy understood this idea. It would make all the difference in the world.

Hats off to Dr. Wolfe on this observation!