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.

Ask The Pastor — Culture, Nations, and Social Order.

Pastor McDonald asks,

“Question — Why did God disperse the nations in the first place (Gen 11)?”

Answer

My understanding to date James is that God disperses the nations in order to finally frustrate man’s corporate effort to ascend to the most high so as to un-god god and en-god man. If Genesis 3 and the casting from the garden was the consequence to the action of sovereign individual(s) to cast off God, Genesis 11 and the dispersion of the nations was the consequence to the action of man, corporately considered, to cast off God.

My understanding is that Genesis 11 is a repeat of the theme of Genesis 3. I.) God commands (Gen. 3 — Do not eat, Gen. 11 — Fill the earth). II.) Man disobeys (Gen. 3 — Adam and Eve eat, Gen. 11 — Man say’s “let us make a name for ourselves lest we be scattered over the earth.”) III.) God Investigates (Gen. 3:9, 11:7) IV.) God brings judgment (Gen. 3:14f, 11:7f) by dispersion.

Pastor McDonald asks,

Does the Gospel provide any picture of reconciliation or even unification (i.e., Acts 2, 10, Galatians 2)?

Answer,

The Great Commission of Christ indicates that the picture of reconciliation that we are to expect is a reconciliation that confirms unity in diversity among the nations. It is the NationS that are to be made disciples. It is the NationS that are baptized. It is the NationS that are to be taught to all observe all things (Mt. 28:16f)

When we get to the book of Revelation we see the success of the Great Commission as it is the NationS that stream into the new Jerusalem (Rev. 21:26) and it is the NationS which find healing from the leaves of the tree(22:2).

Acts 2 seems to indicate not the undoing of Babel but the sanctification of Babel. If Acts 2 had been the undoing of Babel one would expect that each would have heard the Gospel in a unitary language. Instead they each hear in their own tongue indicating a Unity (A Gospel shaped humanity) in diversity (That NationS each hearing the Gospel in their own tongue).

If Acts 10 speaks at all to this issue it would seem to likewise again speak to the idea of unity in diversity. Peter learns that “in every NATION whoever fears God and works righteousness is accepted by God” (cmp. vs. 35-36).

Galatians 2 teaches that all the NationS are saved by Christ alone through faith alone and that people don’t have to become Jews in order to become Christians. Galatians 2 really has very little bearing on the subject whether the Gospel creates uniformity in social order as the Gospel has worldwide success or whether the successful extension of the Gospel creates Unity in diversity in social order as it overcomes the world.

Pastor McDonald asks,

“Although we do have a rich mosaic of culture in the world, what do we do with the portions that are inherently pagan?”

Van Til informed us that since all reality is God’s reality that all inherently pagan cultures have within them capital stolen from a Biblical Worldview in order to cohere. Van Til loved the illustration that men had to sit on God’s lap in order to slap Him in the face. This is true of pagan cultures. Their cultures deny God but before they deny God they must assume God.

Because this is true I don’t know if there is any pagan culture that is “inherently pagan” if by “inherently pagan” one means there is no possibility that the success of the Gospel among that pagan group would not leave some kind of memory of what the culture was before it was visited with Gospel renewal. We must remember that Grace amends nature … grace does not destroy nature.

Now, naturally, such Cultures that are dripping in paganism will probably have more discontinuity with what they were culturally before Gospel renewal but I would still contend there will be enough continuity with what they previously were to be able to identify them as still retaining their unique culture.

On this one might want to read Don Richardson’s “Eternity in their hearts,” and “Peace Child.”

Pastor McDonald asks,

Is there a common Christian culture that transcends racial or tribal boundaries?

Answer,

If the question is whether or not there is a monolithic Christian culture that all tongues, tribes, and peoples, must embrace so that we have a monochromatic uniformity I think then, the answer is clearly “no.” One of the main themes of the book of Galatians is that Gentiles do not need to become cultural and religiously “Jewish” in order to be Christian. Acts 15 and the Jerusalem council likewise seems to suggest that a monolithic Christian culture is not the result of the success of the Gospel.

However, if the question is whether the various Christian cultures will have a point of integration the answer is clearly “yes.” That point of commonality will be the acceptance of all peoples in resting in Christ alone as well as a commonality in the moral rectitude that all will share as all look to God’s Holy law-word to be guided in their walk and informed as to the laws for their social order.

As such the Kingdom of God is a Nation of NationS. We see that clearly in the book of Revelation. We see that in the Abrahamic Promise given to God where the promise is that “In you all the NationS of the earth shall be blessed.” We see that in Isaiah 2 and 60 where they clearly speak of the nations coming to Mt. Zion. In Psalms 2 it is the Kings of the NationS who are required to Kiss the Son. All the way through Scripture we see God dealing with the NationS.

Late Sunday Evening Musing On The Interplay Of Man’s Bipartite Being

Man is a bipartite being. The materialist’s mistake is to reject the incorporeal reality of man and view man only as a bio-chemical machine. Man has a brain, but no mind. Man has a heart, but no soul. Man secretes thought the way liver secretes bile. This is the error that Christians have fought for over two centuries now, but there is another error they must consider.

This other error also implicitly denies man’s bipartite being but this denial is the opposite error of the materialists. This error is the mistake of the Gnostic and it is comprised of the error of denying man’s corporeality. This error views man only as the sum of this abstract thinking as if man’s corporeal embodiment is unaffected by his bio-chemical reality.

If the error of the materialist is to deny man’s incorporeal reality and the effect it has man’s material being, thus seeing man as all enzymes, proteins, and the firing of synapses, the error of the gnostic is to deny man’s corporeal reality and the effect that his corporeal reality has upon man’s spiritual being, thus seeing man as all thought, contemplation, and ethereal spirituality.

But man is a bipartite being and who God has made him to be in his corporeal reality impinges upon and colors the manifestation of the incorporeal, just as the incorporeal reality impinges upon and colors the manifestation of the corporeal.

If God has made the corporeal nature of men to be distinct, though all sharing the imago dei, then it should not be surprising to find that as distinct tribes, tongues, and nations are, by grace visited w/ redemption, that spiritual reality of redemption, as poured over the distinctions of corporeality that God has created — and made good — will find itself being colored and shaped by those God given corporeal distinctions — just as redemption will color and shape man’s corporeal realities.

It seems the only alternative to this is to suggest that God has made men all the same and that it is only sin that makes us to differ. Such a view would suggest that man’s corporeality is mute once He is visited by grace, thus suggesting that man’s corporeality is really inconsequential once he has been visited with regeneration. This view would seem to deny our bipartite being. Remember here, when we are renewed it is our sin nature that is put off — not our human-ness.

Further such a view that does not allow for diversity among those who share the Imago Dei would seem to suggest that the result of grace is an expected sameness in the renewed-humanity. Is it really the case that the new man in Christ is a new man completely stripped of his distinct human-ness , or as more likely is the case, is it that the new man is new precisely because all that comprised his human-ness is now bent in a God-ward direction?

Ethnicity, Culture & Belief

While I am not a Kinist, (in point of fact I’ve been severely insulted by them in the past for my rejection of their doctrines) I do believe that Kinism has put its finger on a significant problem (i.e. — the death of the West & the death of the faith, culture and people who made the West the West) and that problem must be addressed with precision and nuance. It will do no good to just dismiss Kinist arguments by ad-hominem. I will go on the record as saying I do not believe that all Kinists are racists (whatever that word means) and I do not believe Kinism automatically means heresy in every person who takes to themselves that descriptive title. The issues that Kinism raise are tougher nuts to crack then many people believe.

Here are a few starting points. These are not written in stone but just represent a bit of brain storming on my part.

1.) Salvation is by grace alone and people from every tribe tongue and nation will be represented in the New Jerusalem.

2.) Christianity, as a faith and belief system is the only faith and belief system that can build beautiful civilization.

3.) It is possible for varying ethnic groups / races to be Christian and yet have significantly different civilizations. It is not necessary for all Christian civilizations to look the same.

4.) It is a reasonable postulate that the differences that might exist between different Christian civilizations might be accounted for by the God ordained differences between varying peoples.

5.) Just as family lines have particular traits which include both strengths and weaknesses so people groups likewise will have particular traits that are characteristic of those people groups. (i.e. — Irish temper [speaking from experience] … Scottish pugnaciousness [again speaking from experience], Dutch frugality, Italian passion, German precision, etc.) Those traits will reveal themselves in the varying Christian civilizations that those people build.

6.) It is possible for a individual who belongs to one people group to denounce his or her people group and bond with a people group that is not his or her own. This accounts for why many blacks will be referred to as “Uncle Toms” by their own people.

7.) People groups are not to be understood solely as a genetic grouping. People groups also include belief systems. It is the interplay of nurture, nature, and belief that makes people groups, people groups. This is why the subject is so complex and difficult … you just can’t extract any of those three from the other two without involving oneself in significant error.

8.) Just as most family members prefer their family to all other families, so most people groups instinctively and rightly prefer their people group to all other people groups. Even the Apostle Paul reveals this (Romans 9:2f).

9.) While the tribe that Christians should most identify with is the Christian Tribe there can still be diversity of people groupings within this tribe so that a Mongolian Christian, while identifying primarily with the Christian tribe, would, within that tribe, identify most significantly with his or her Mongolian Christian tribe. Trinitarian Christians should have no problem with this since to deny this would be to deny the trinity in favor of a Unitarian God. Think “The One and The Many” here folks.

10.) A civilization composed of various people groups can only work if those various people groups are christian and are committed to a harmony of interests. When set civilizations seek to incorporate various pagan people groups under the umbrella of one civilization chaos is insured since the sin induced conflict of interests will have each people group seeking to be advantaged at the expense of the other people groups.

11.) This does not mean, however that civilizations which are composed of one people group that is pagan will be harmonious. Where pagan people groups compose one civilization it is my conviction that those pagan people groups, not having some other alien people group to despise, will look for some sub-grouping within their own group to be the red-headed step child that will be taken advantage of.

12.) People groups that are pagan will manifests their pagan-ness in their own unique ways. Ugly civilization that comes from pagan Tibetans will be a different ugly civilization that comes from pagan white Europeans.

13.) The only cure for all pagan people groups is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. However, when the Gospel of Jesus Christ covers the world as the water covers the sea it still will not be the case that all cultures and civilizations will be the same or that all the colors will bleed into one.

14.) The death of the West has many factors … the chief of which is unbelief. Further, the primary race and ethnicity that is responsible for the death of the West are the descendants of White Europeans. The white man has torn down his own house by his abandoning of the Christian faith. However, having admitted that doesn’t explain the “how” in which that has happened or the accelerating factors of the last 40 years. In order to understand the “how” and the accelerating factors I believe that we have to look in some of the directions that kinism points us toward.

Grace Has Never Been So Slick

Peggy Noonan was one of Ronald Reagan’s speechwriters. She is also a neo-con Republican and so isn’t to be read without that realization. However, Mrs. Noonan has the advantage of almost always presenting her views in an attractive and convincing fashion. Because of this skill at her art I enjoy reading Noonan, even though sometimes her neo-con ideology drives me batty. Recently Noonan had a piece where, in a slight rabbit trail, she had a wonderful sentence that captured the mindset of American leadership.

“You can today go to any office of any great leader in America and Britain – business leader, church leader, political leader – and you will find the great topic of conversation, the great focus of attention, the object of daily obsession, is not the mission (making money, spreading faith, leading an anxious citizenry in the right direction) but how the mission is playing in the media. It’s all they talk about.”

The cultural gatekeepers in America have gone from a preoccupation with their calling to a preoccupation with marketers and marketing. The object no longer is being faithful to what one was called to do but rather the object has become “what kind of press can we get or are we getting for whatever fecal matter we are shoveling today.” If the mission (no matter how skewed that mission is from what it should be) is getting good press and is selling well then the conclusion is that all is well with the organization. All of life has become a literal stage, and when one is on the stage one is not concerned with anything but how the performance is being received by the audience. The media has become the audience for the cultural gatekeepers and the message and calling of the cultural gatekeepers is being changed by the medium — and that quite apart from any realization that the medium has its own agenda.

As this pertains to the Church, most Churches are more concerned with image than theology and branding over truth. The goal is to present a slick product and not to give the whole counsel of God. Spokesmen like John the Baptist, who wore camel hair and ate locusts and honey, or the Apostle Paul who was short and possibly hump-backed with bad eyes need not apply for Pastor positions. Truth that is jagged and angular is replaced in the sanctuary with movie clips and praise and drama teams. It’s all a show aimed at getting rave reviews so that when the next show starts the place will be packed again.

“Welcome to the Grand illusion
Come on in and see what’s happening
Pay the price, get your tickets for the show
Someday soon we’ll stop to ponder
what on Earth’s this spell we’re under
We watched the show and still we wonder
who the hell we are.”

Sundry Comments On I Peter 1:10-12

I.) Of This Salvation — First Note, it is not the personal individual salvation of each individual here that is being spoken of. Rather the salvation that is here spoken of is the unfolding of Redemptive History throughout Scripture. The Salvation that Peter speaks of is an objective reality which takes people up into it.

Try to imagine this salvation like a gathering storm you see from a distance. On the Radio and television you have people who are keeping you informed of the nature of this storm and its intensity. They would be the equivalent of the prophets inquiring and searching carefully and who prophesy of the grace (rain & wind) to come to you. But the storm is objective. It is not merely that is something that is subjective to you — although to be sure when it finally hits it is also something you personally know and experience. It is outside of you and it is coming upon you.

Now in vs. 12 this coming storm … this unfolding of salvation that was so intensely reported upon was for those whom the end of the ages (I Cor. 10:11) has come upon. All the unfolding of Salvation that we find in Redemptive History was an unfolding whose culmination was for those who live in the New Covenant age and who have been embraced by Christ.

What Peter is saying here is somewhat similar to what the writer of Hebrews writes,

39And all these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised, 40because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they would not be made perfect.

The culmination of Salvation comes w/ Christ and for those whom will be drawn unto Christ in the new covenant age. Peter says that this Redemptive storm drenches us w/ grace (vs. 10) — God’s favor. We are that era of covenant people who live in the age who can fully know the abundant fulsomeness of God’s grace that is found in the Redemption that is Jesus Christ.

To change metaphors …. in the earlier ages of the covenant they dined on merely the appetizers of salvation but now w/ Christ we in the covenant have had the full feast of Redemption set before us.

II.) The Importance Of Revelation & Inspiration

The intimate relationship between Revelation & Redemption

Peter clearly intimates to us that there is a close relationship between the way God acts (Redemption) and the way God interprets his action (Revelation). God has acted in Redemptive History for His people but we only know the meaning of those redemptive actions through God’s revelation of Holy Scripture. The Salvation (Redemptive) events of History come to us only as reported in Revelation by the inspired Prophets who have inquired and searched carefully.

It is because we believe that Redemption and revelation are inextricably bound and it is because we know that when God spoke in times past and in various ways that speaking was always a Redemptive speaking that as Reformed people we have historically been suspicious of any supposed word from God that comes to us that isn’t intimately related to what we find in Scripture. Scripture is God’s revelation speech to us that speaks of God’s redemption. It is the only place where we can be certain that God speaks an a objective revelatory word that can be trusted in matters of Redemption.

Because this is true God’s Reformed and Reforming people have eschewed notions like the Quakers “inner light,” or the Pentecostal “word from God,” or the anabaptist’s (Zwickau Prophets) extra Scriptural word. We have always been slow to the siren call of dreams and visions. We believe all of this takes away from the prophetic work recorded in Scripture which Peter speaks of here.

III.) This Salvation That Has Come Upon Us Is Christ (vs. 11)

Phrase — “Spirit of Christ”

The Holy Spirit is called the “Spirit of Christ” twice in the NT. It would seem that the Holy Spirit is designate as the “Spirit of Christ” because He is sent by the Ascended Christ along w/ the Father to apply the Redemption that was won by Christ on the Cross.

Phrase — “He testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow.”

Note the theme of first Humiliation and then Exaltation.

Note especially that the labors of the Prophets in the earlier covenant ages was to see Christ. As on the Road to Emmaus we learn again here that the Scriptures, before they are about anything, are about Christ and the salvation He brings w/ Him.

25 Then He said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?” 27 And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.

Little flock, if there is anything I would desire for your future in terms of where you will make church homes I would desire that you find churches that preach the centrality of Christ. If the prophets in the previous covenant age made Christ their business then it certainly is the case that we whom the end of the ages has come upon should be preoccupied with Christ being declared to us in Word & Sacrament.

Note close relationship between OT prophets & NT apostles. (vs. 12)

The same spirit that animated the Prophets animates the Apostles.

Note the close relationship between Word & Spirit