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.

Things That Don’t Have Anything To Do With The Kingdom Of God — A Suggested Litnany Reading For Morning Worship

State sanctioned Baby killing?

Nothing to do with the Kingdom of God. The Church must be silent.

State sanctioned Jew killing in the past?

Nothing to do with the Kingdom of God. The Church must be silent.

Legislatively pursued destruction of the Christian Family?

Nothing to do with the Kingdom of God. The Church must be silent.

Government Education on the basis of a hostile anti-Christ presuppositional base?

Nothing to do with the Kingdom of God. The Church must be silent

State taking up God’s prerogatives as seen in policy after policy decision, thus revealing that it believes that it is God walking on the earth?

Nothing to do with the Kingdom of God. The Church must be silent.

Destruction of what is left of Christedom?

Nothing to do with the Kingdom of God. The Church must be silent.

More than that Christians should be for this destruction of Christendom since pluralism is God’s will for us.

Cloning and Embryonic stem cell research?

Nothing to do with the Kingdom of God. The Church must be silent.

Computer chips implanted in the brain to alter our thinking and personalities?

Nothing to do with the Kingdom of God. The Church must be silent.

Mood altering drugs in order to alter our thinking and personalities?

Nothing to do with the Kingdom of God. The Church must be silent.

Aggressive pursuit of unjust war resulting in the premeditated deaths of thousands of civilians?

Nothing to do with the Kingdom of God. The Church must be silent.

Oh Sovereign God, who has bidden us to keep our mouths shut in the common realm except as individuals, and who has given us no clear guidance from thy most Holy Word on these matters, continue to give us natural law wisdom with which to confound those who believe not in you nor in natural law, and who believing that you are dead likewise believe all ideas of objective truth are dead. Grant us grace O Sovereign and wise God to continue to be divided on these common realm issues and bless us to put aside our divisions on common realm matters when we come in this sanctuary to hear you speak on those matters that really concern you. Thank you that you have saved us with a grace that keeps us from bringing that salvation into the common realm.

In the name of the great King Jesus we pray — The name of Him who is Lord over Heaven and Earth but Lord in the common realm in a different way.

Amen

Journalist Reading Skills

“Some of the Republican charges of (Obama’s) flip-flopping are misplaced. Last month, Obama drew fire for denouncing a Supreme Court decision barring the death penalty for child rapists. Yet in his 2006 book, “The Audacity of Hope,” he wrote that capital punishment “is justified” for crimes such as “mass murder” or “the rape and murder of a child.””

Kristen Jensen
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=asZwMDvYWOPQ&refer=worldwide

This article deals with how Obama is doing what all Presidential candidates do in a general election and that is run to the middle. It details how it is difficult for Obama to do that given his consistently liberal (Marxist) voting record.

Now what is interesting about the quote above is that apparently Republicans are bashing Obama for flip-flopping when he denounced the recent SCOTUS decision mentioned in the quote. The article then suggests that he has consistently held that capital punishment is justified for the child rapists. But if you look at what is quoted above from Obama it is not support for capital punishment for child rapists that he mentions in his book but support for capital punishment for those who rape and murder a child. The charge of flip-flopping on this issue is thus not displaced.

Apparently what we have here is a public schooled liberal reporter who hasn’t yet learned the importance of conjunctions.

Elias On The Way Of Preaching

“There is great danger to hear, read, and converse, in an unfeeling and unsuitable manner on the them of human inability. There is a danger of mistaking, or drawing inferences, from this doctrine, respecting man’s weakness to holy things.

We ought to be on our guard, lest we think that man’s inability makes him excusable in his sin, or in neglecting his duties and the great salvation. By his inability he does not become unaccountable to God. the Lord’s authority to demand obedience from man, and man’s obligation to obey his Maker, are the same. Our disobedience is not less sinful because we are naturally sinners; and our vileness is not less evil because of our strong opposition to be holy. Let us beware lest we imagine that it is not sinful for us to be sinners. We should also beware of the thought that, as man is unable to change his nature, he is therefore excusable in living in his sin. It is no excuse whatever to him, neither does it lessen his fault at all, for he delights in his sin, and hates to be kept from it. He does not like to live a godly life, nor to be made willing and able. He contends with his Maker, opposes His Spirit, and rejects His invitations. Genesis 6:3, Acts 7:51, Proverbs 1:24-25.

We ought to take care, on the other hand, lest, by proving that it is not the lack of members, senses, or faculties that accounts for man’s inability to act in a spiritual manner, we should set forth that weakness as something small, and that man may remove it by some endeavor of his own; or that ministers may overcome it by strong reasons, solemn, alarming, threatenings, and winning, captivating invitations; and thereby disregard and lose sight of the truth respecting the Spirit’s work in man’s salvation. There is danger lest ministers and people should fail in observing the need of the Holy Ghost working by his grace and infinite strength in man’s salvation. There is as much need of His applying it, as of the Son’s accomplishing it, as already observed. There is room to fear that preachers and hearers grieve the Holy Spirit by losing sight of this; and are, consequently, left destitute of his powerful influences and operations, because they do not seriously consider, nor humbly acknowledge, the necessity of the Spirit working powerfully by the ministry of the Word for man’s salvation.”

On The Moral Inability of Man — pg. 366-367
John Elias — Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Minister

More R2Kt Virus From The Macarthur Conference

Question & Answer format,

Question — Presumably from a Pastor

Q. — “How do I shepherd my people with respect to the upcoming presidential election, especially with no clearly pro-life candidate?

Answer — From John Macarthur

A. — “My answer is it has nothing to do with the kingdom of God!” He (Macarthur) then made some deprecatory quips about Jimmy Carter taking the office of president too seriously [sorry, past my historical familiarity to go into detail — Stenographer]. “In all seriousness, you do what your conscience tells you to do. But one thing: if you’re going to have your brain operated on, you might like to have a Christian. But I’d rather have someone in there who knew what a brain was, and had done it before. This subject of presidential politics, really, though, is really nowhere on my priority list. I voted for Huckabee in the primary, that was my best shot based on other’s thoughts; but the kingdom of God and the kingdom of this world are entirely separate entities. I think we’re experiencing Romans 1 wrath in the church (I have a message on Focus on the Family about this) right now. When God turns a nation over, there’s a sexual revolution, then a homosexual revolution, then the minds stop working… and you vote those realities into law. I’m not surprised this nation has the kind of interest in the kind of leaders it has. But to clarify, I’m not indifferent: whenever I can actively vote for something that is righteous I do that.

You can find it on Evers’s blog here:

http://dinghome.net/2008/03/06/general-session-4-john-macarthur-qa/

1.) Nothing to do with the Kingdom of God?

First off all this does have a great deal to do with the Kingdom of God if only because Kingdom of God people are going to be voting in this election. If this has nothing to do with the Kingdom of God, or for that matter if anything has nothing to do with the Kingdom of God then why should the Kingdom of God people have anything to do with it. Shouldn’t we only have to do with those things that do have something that explicitly has something to do with the Kingdom of God?

What is going on here once again is the compartmentalization between God’s Kingdom which is some kind of gnostic ethereal abstract spiritual thing and the living that goes on in every other realm except the Church which belong to the carnal (Kingdoms of this world) realms. This distinction between the carnal realm and the spiritual realm (Kingdom of God vs. Kingdoms of the World) can never be overcome except for a eucatastrophic in-breaking by Jesus in His second advent. This completely denies the whole idea of the Kingdom of heaven being like a mustard seed. This completely denies that age to come in the coming of Jesus has invaded this present evil age with the intent that the Kingdoms of this world shall be the Kingdoms of our God. If this is true why should we pray “thy Kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven?” Why should we pray for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven if what happens on earth has nothing to do with the Kingdom of God? The Scripture refers to the magistrate as being “God’s minister” and in our system the people are the magistrate over the magistrate which means the people are God’s ministers and no more so then when they are voting. Are we to believe that as God ministers we should not look to the Scriptures for insight and wisdom on how to exercise the office of minister in a Kingdom of God fashion?

Certainly those who are running for President and who have not looked to Christ and so who are not looking to God’s law-word for wisdom have nothing to do with the Kingdom of God but Christians who belong to Christ are of the Kingdom of God and when they vote they ought to bring the Kingdom of God to bear on the Kingdoms of this World.

2.) Jimmy Carter was an anti-Christ and his presidency only proves that Biblical Christians are gullible.

3.) This thinking suggests that there is no conflict between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent in carnal realms. In those realms the seed of the serpent is and always will be predominant. This sure sounds like ana-baptist thinking to me. I expect it from the Baptist Macarthur. I don’t expect it in the other quarters where it seeps from.

4.) Do what your conscience does?

Who is the Lord of the Conscience? Is the conscience an independent realm that can become a standard over God’s Law-Word? This is common realm anti-nomianism pure and simple. Does God’s Law-Word have nothing to say to his people for their consideration as they determine who they should cast God’s vote for?

5.) Brain Surgery

This is sophistry. Sure I’d prefer a Hindu Brain surgeon to a Christian anti-nomian minister doing my Brain surgery but all things being equal I’d prefer even more a Christian Brain surgeon doing my brain surgery. (Personal note — I will not go to a doctor who is Muslim, Hindu, or Buddahist for anything serious if I can help it since I believe Worldview makes a difference in medicine.) If Macarthur’s point is that he would prefer a wise turk to a stupid Christian as President, well, who wouldn’t, but Christians have the opportunity in this election cycle to vote for a wise Christian for president. Macarthur is using Nimrod logic.

6.) Huckabee is a Statist. The fact that Macarthur voted for him based on other people’s thoughts indicate that the ‘other people’ who advised him are not thinking with a Christian Worldview.

7.)Then he ends by saying he is not indifferent and votes for righteousness when he can, which contradicts everything he just said. How does he determine righteousness except by God’s Law-Word? And if all of this has nothing to do with the Kingdom of God how could he even speak in categories of righteousness or unrighteousness?

This guy is supposed to be a leading light in Evangelicalism?

God help us.

The vapidity of this Macarthur statement is just mind numbing.

Role Reversal

Non Reformed people believe in the Reformed doctrine of election every bit as much as Reformed people except that they turn it inside out and upside down. Whereas Reformed people believe that God is absolutely sovereign and as such God chooses and elects those who belong to Him, Non-Reformed people believe that libertarian free will invested man is sovereign and as such, man, being God, chooses and elects whether or not God will belong to Him.

Election thus is an inescapable category which everyone holds. The only question is who is the god doing the electing.