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.

Huckabee the Liberal Statist

Tonight I ran into an well informed, articulate and intelligent young man who is home schooled. I am not surprised by his polish for he comes from a good family. His Father is a good man who, like many beguiled homeschoolers, supports Mike Huckabee. There likewise may be some kind of official connection between the family and the HSLDA organization, which would account for why Father and Son are such adamant Huckabee supporters. In the course of the evening I made the comment that Mike Huckabee was a Liberal Statist. The young man hurried over to me and asked me if he could talk to me about my comment. What follows is a paraphrase of our conversation.

Mark — “You know Mike Huckabee is not a Liberal.”

Pastor Bret — “Why sure he is Mark. When you look at his tenure as Governor of Arkansas the tax level went up significantly during his time in office.”

Mark — “But Pastor you don’t understand. Huckabee had to raise taxes in order to attract better teachers to Arkansas since the pay rate for teaches in Arkansas was among the bottom in the United States.”

Pastor Bret — “Mark, I thought your Dad would have taught you that it is wrong for the Government to create make work jobs. Public teaching is nothing but a government works project. If Governor Huckabee was Christian he would have, at the very least, encouraged parents to pull their children out of government schools instead of helping to perpetuate and bolster them by stealing from some people in order to give money to school teachers who are teaching our children with a anti-Christ theology. Increasing pagan teacher’s salaries is no Biblical reason for picking somebody’s pocket through increased taxation Mark.

Mark — “Pastor you don’t understand that one of those tax increases was approved by 80% of the people.”

Pastor Bret — “Mark, if 100% of the people voted to steal from one set of people in order to give the ill gotten gains to another set of people does it make it right for a Governor who claims to be a Christian to support that kind of legislation?”

Mark — “So you don’t think that they should have taken care of their roads?”

Pastor Bret — “Taking care of roads would be one of the legitimate exercises of government Mark. He could have taken the money the State stole from the people to give to teachers and used it for the roads Mark.”

Pastor Bret — “Now let me ask you a question Mark. How can Governor Huckabee not be a Liberal Statist in light of the fact that he wants to pay the state tuition cost for the children of illegal immigrants? Mark, where will the money come from in order to subsidize the education of the children of illegal immigrants? Naturally, it would come from the pockets of citizens of Arkansas who would probably prefer to spend their money on the needs of their own respective families.”

Mark — Silence.

Pastor Bret — “Mark, obviously you’ve looked at the issues and that being so how can you try and insist that Governor Huckabee is not a Liberal Statist when the President for the ‘Club for Growth’ said of him ‘Huckabee’s ten-year economic-policy record as the governor of Arkansas is mixed, at best. His history includes numerous tax hikes, ballooning government spending, and increased regulation.'(?) That sounds like a Liberal Statist by any objective standard.”

Mark — Silence.

Pastor Bret — “Mark, you also have to wonder about the presence as a key adviser on Huckabee’s staff of a high profile member (Richard Haas) of the Council of Foreign relations. I don’t know if you know much about the CFR Mark but it is an organization that is committed to a globalist policy which would result in the eclipsing of American Sovereignty. Certainly that is what we might expect from a liberal Statist.”

Mark — Silence.

Pastor Bret — “Finally Mark you need to keep in mind that Conservatives from Huckabee’s own denomination have said that the Governor never supported conservative causes when he was involved in the Southern Baptist denomination.”

Mark — Silence.

Pastor Bret — “You are well read Mark but you need to go below the surface. Mike Huckabee is a liberal Statist and he is all the more dangerous because he wraps all his policy talk in Jesus clothing. He actually may be the worst candidate in the field right now because so many of his policies are so far away from the Christian faith he is so constantly invoking.

Now, you and your family might want to consider Ron Paul. Congressman Paul is the closest thing to a Christian candidate in the campaign right now and he would be worthy of your support.”

For more detailed information on the perils of Mike Huckabee go to,

http://www.spunkyhomeschool.blogspot.com/

http://www.home-school.com/news/huckabee.html

Reformed Pastor’s Meeting

Victor entered into the small and sparsely furnitured room where the pastor’s meeting was held every fortnight with the wariness of a mongoose that was entering into a cobra’s nest. It wasn’t that the room was full of enemies. The other pastors were jovial and collegial enough — the kind of guys who would be great company on the golf course or at a ball game. No, it wasn’t the pastor’s themselves who were the enemies but rather it was their respective worldviews that often played the cobra to Victor’s mongoose.

Rev. Shirley saw Victor walk in and loudly said, half in jest and all in earnest,

“Well, if it isn’t our resident Gehngis Khan Reformed Theologian.”

“At your service, and looking for bad ideas in order to rape, pillage and burn” Victor replied going along with the metaphor.

The gathered group seemed to get a charge out of the levity and the meeting was soon started under sustained gales of laughter and rich bonhomie.

The Pastor’s gathering usually started by discussing contemporary issue. In this context Rev. Marcuse piped up by observing that, ‘we Reformed people need to realize that there are lots of Christians in other denominations.’

Rev. Marcuse, having gained the floor warmed up to his subject.

“We Reformed people are such theological elitists. We think that God is going to ask everybody who stands before the pearly gates when they die whether or not they were Reformed. We need to make our churches more acceptable to people who are coming out of non-Reformed traditions.”

Having heard the voice of Nag, Victor went into Riki Tiki Tavi mode.

“Well, certainly Herb, God isn’t going to quiz people on whether or not they were Reformed or not but He does put a high premium on His people trusting Christ alone which is the one doctrine that separates us from all those Christians that you just said that we need to make our Churches more acceptable to.”

Rev. Marcuse, who knew more about the sociology behind putting the meat in Church seats then he did about theology hissed at Victor.

“So, are you saying that the Reformed Church alone has the Gospel?”

Victor, laconically replied, that while he did not doubt that, due to felicitous inconsistency, there were many Christians in other Christian faith traditions that in point of fact he did indeed believe that the Reformed Church articulated the gospel with a clarity to which no other denomination came close.

Herb, quickly responded by asking, “I don’t know how you can say that.”

Victor sighed wondering how another Reformed pastor could imply that different denominational theologies were like so many Ice Cream flavors at the local Baskin Robbins, each flavor being superior to another only by way of individual preference but all being equal in terms of portals through which individuals might think about the God of the Bible.

All this galloped wildly through Victor’s mind but he only responded by saying,

“Herb, the Theologies of Arminians, as one example, are seriously messed up. I don’t think we can encourage them by communicating that their theology is anything but messed up.”

The Pastor from Mirks Bay, Rev. Standstill quickly intejected,

“But Victor, my Theology is seriously messed up also.”

Now Victor knew that Brian was just trying to be humble at this point but the idea that humility should serve as masquerade for confidence almost pushed him over the edge.

Victor clenched his teeth and bit his tongue at the same time working at finding a measured response.

“Brian, I appreciate the humility that recognizes that everybody’s theology must be constantly Reforming but to throw that comment into this conversation in such a way as to equalize Reformed Theology with Arminian Theology does a great disservice.”

Victor pressed on,

“Come on y’all, if we can’t be confident enough to insist that Reformed Theology is superior in comparison to those other non-gracious systems of thought then we really have to ask why we aren’t working for the end of Reformed denominationalism. I mean, why should we be distinct in any way if we can’t go around insisting that our Theology is THE Theology? Why not return to our communities and work on merging all of the local Churches into one big mega-Church? Why bother signing the form of subscription if you merely believe that your strawberry theology is only personally preferable to the Assembly of God guy’s chocolate theology?”

Herb Marcuse sniffed contemptuously. He had built his mega church by means of a leveling theology where the ‘cringe factor’ of the Gospel had been largely eliminated. The people that attended Herb’s Church wouldn’t recognize Reformed Theology from Mormon Theology and he intended to keep it that way. Herb avoided words like ‘discipline’ and ‘repentance’ and worked hard to finesse sin issues in the congregation as opposed to confront them and he reckoned that Victor should treat him with the same courtesy.

“Besides,” thought Rev. Marcuse, “Victor will never be anything but a fringe player playing the part of the loose cannon.”

The rest of the group shifted in their leather chairs uncomfortably until Rev. Shirley told a joke about a Methodist Pastor, a Reformed Pastor and a Eastern Orthodox Pastor together on a fishing trip. The punch line was something about the Reformed Pastor not bothering to put bait on his line because he figured that God predestined him to catch fish.

Everybody laughed including Victor who was at the same time wondering why he bothered attending these meetings.

Random Thoughts

“(Man) is a ‘belief-ful’ creature; he does not and cannot live in a faith vacuum. The decisive question is not whether faith is a necessary condition of human life but rather in whom or in what that faith reposes. If he does not trust the living God, false gods and fake divinities preempt Yahweh’s place. It is the same with society, the human collectivity. The cultural enterprise rests invariably on a secret or explicit faith. Behind every socially entrenched morality some underlying life-and-world view presumes to identify what reality is, and what aspects of reality are considered sacred. Such collectively held beliefs and values establish the coherency of any culture. Shared convictions are what give a cultural enterprise its stability. Widespread loss of confidence in its integrating frame of commitment and action is a signal that a given society is culturally ailing, perhaps even terminally ill. Any generation lacking convictional assurance about the nature of reality is not only snared in its doubts but drifting towards nihilism and despair. The times of social breakdown are those in which the populace defects from what it has long thought to be ultimately real and sacred, and is unsure what if anything to put in its place….When society as a whole lacks consensus on what is true and sacred, then that culture is surely staggering toward intellectual chaos, spiritual deterioration and moral ruin.”

Carl F. H. Henry
God, Revelation and Authority — Vol 1 pg. 156

Some observations,

1.) God and Faith are inescapable categories. Every individual you meet and every culture you could probe has some kind of faith in some kind of God or god concept at the center of their understanding of reality and the nature of things. Debate with pagans, sophisticated or otherwise, must endeavor to locate their god and their faith. Every Evangelical and apologetic encounter is thus not only a call to the God of the Bible but at the same time is a demand to flee from the god who holds are conversation partner(s) captive.

2.) All cultures are inherently religious. Cultures are produced by some cultus replete with all the kinds of categories one expects to find in standard religions. Somewhere in all cultures resides the faith practitioner (whether he is called the Priest, Shaman, Medicine Man, Psychologist, or Guru). Somewhere in all cultures you will find the Church where the initiates are indoctrinated (whether they’re called the government schools, the re-education camps, the Temple, or the local lodge). Somewhere in all cultures there will exist the taboo and the sacred as informed by the cult that drives the culture. Somewhere in all cultures you will find sacraments, Holy Days, Holy writings, and means of atonement.

All of this is evidence that man can’t get away from God. The counterfeit exists as a means in order to distort the real and so avoid man’s accountability to God. The counterfeits owe their origin to the real and are the consequence of man’s rebellion against God. In point of fact their existence which mocks God’s reality is a tribute to the reality they can’t escape.

3.)All cultures are coherent or else they couldn’t exist as viable cultures. Incoherent cultures only exist where one finds civil unrest as varying coherent cultures all vie for preeminence. Not to beat a dead horse but this is why multi-culturalism is really a plan for a mono-culture. True multi-culturalism would result in the war of all against all until one culture put all other cultures down. Since in order for cultures to survive their must be unanimity individuals that don’t subscribe to the cultural collectively held beliefs and shared values will be ostracized. This may mean closed doors for professional advance. In some cultures it means bearing a heavier tax burden (think jizya tax). In some cultures it may even mean incarceration (think of the gulags).

4.)In our culture the dangers of cultural Marxism brought in by the Frankfurt school continue to work to undermine confidence in the historic roots of Western Culture. This program has been aided and abetted by existentialism and its steroid offspring called post-modernism. All of these continue to cause a widespread loss of confidence in the integrating frame of commitment of Western Culture.

5.)A close look at American Universities will reveal that we currently are in a state of intellectual chaos. A close look at our churches and seminaries will reveal that we currently are in a state of spiritual deterioration. A close look at much of our high profile leadership will reveal that we are in a state of moral ruin. All of this is evidence, as Henry notes, of a society that lacks consensus on what is true and sacred.

6.)People don’t like to talk about Metaphysics, ontology, or epistemology but there is nothing more important in any culture then the way a people answer questions about the nature of reality and the source of authority.

7.)Because all these things are true, if God doesn’t send Reformation the West is toast.

The tears and the Clown

Given the speed of todays news cycle this next observation is already well past old news but it reminded me of something that I read about 25 years ago and I couldn’t resist recalling.

On Monday Hillary Rodham Clinton was giving a Political speech somewhere in New Hampshire when some adolescent kid stood up towards the front of the auditorium where she was speaking and interrupted her speech by waving a sign that said “Iron My Shirt” while chanting the same. After a few seconds of this Hillary paused, asked for the lights to be turned up (presumably so everyone could see her heckler and his sign) and then after he was very speedily removed said,

“Ah the remnants of sexism alive and well…”

“As I think as has been abundantly demonstrated I am also running to break through the highest and hardest glass ceiling for our daughters, for our children, for our country, and really for women around the world…”

This response brought the house to their feet.

Since then it is been widely observed on the net that fat boy who was waving the sign and chanting was likely a Hillary plant which I believe makes abundant good sense.

Consider that this is not the first time this kind of thing has happened. About 25 years ago I read an account Richard Nixon’s biography about Jack Kennedy campaigning in the Wisconsin primary. (This is all from recall so some of the details could be wrong) where Bobby Kennedy had handbills made up and passed about different venues in Wisconsin calling into serious question Jack Kennedy’s Roman Catholicism. Nixon believed that that voter backlash over this ploy, in sympathy of Kennedy, helped Kennedy win the Democratic Wisconsin primary.

So if Hillary’s campaign did pull of this stunt it has historical precedent. In both cases the campaigns created a situation that would appeal to one of the more noble American instincts — identifying with and standing up for the underdog.

Now, if you combine this campaign ploy with the ploy of Hillary’s very public forced tears in New Hampshire (what Husband has not caved to his wife’s tears?) with the great likely hood that the Clinton’s bussed in supporters to vote in a loosey goosey New Hampshire voting environment maybe all that starts to explain how wrong the pollsters were in New Hampshire.

You got to give her campaign credit … they really know how to pull all the right strings.

What Makes A People A People

“Democracy and free markets do not a country make. Constitutions, no matter how eloquent — abstract ideas no matter how lovely do not create a nation. A nation writes its constitution. A nation drafts its own birth certificate. What makes a people and a nation is a common and unique homeland and people, history and heritage, language and literature, song and story, traditions and customs.”

Pat Buchanan
Day Of Reckoning

You cannot import thousands of Muslim Somalians into Lewiston Maine and expect them to become Americans all because they wanted ‘Freedom.’ You can not import tens of thousands of Laotian Hmong to Minnesota and expect them to fit into American culture. You cannot allow millions of illegal immigrants from Hispaniola and expect that they will reinforce Americana. A nation is not defined by its propositions but by the shared participation that its citizenry has in its historical tapestry.
Generational participation in a nations Historical tapestry is to civilized society what memory is to individual identity. Nations are built on what Abraham Lincoln referred to as the ‘shared chords of mystic memory.’ These shared chords are made up first and foremost by a shared religion which produces a common culture that expresses and reinforces itself through societal institutions. When aliens are introduced in overwhelming numbers into the life of a nation without time to assimilate and with only marginal cultural touchstones the result is not diversity that strengthens but rather diversity that divides and balkanizes.

Those who suggest that these United States are a propositional nation should well consider how other nations have lately done who were formed by means of cobbled together nationalities and religions trying to live as one Nation. Yugoslavia is now five nations going on six. Czechoslovakia divided itself between its Czech people and its Slovak people. Quebec does all it can to distinguish itself from British Canadians. Nations are not formed by shared economic interests. Such an arrangement may be a means of building alliances but it is not a means of building cultures or peoples. Nations are not formed by assenting to a set of abstract propositions. Proposition nations are only as deep as the fortunes of economic prosperity, whithering with the advent of national misfortune. Nations are formed first by a common faith, and then by years of sharing the land together informed by that shared faith as it produces a shared culture that results in shared literature, song, legal structures, economic paradigms and family relationships.

Those who are insisting that nations are made by people from different religions and cultures having only in common the desire to own the latest technological gadget are in for a rude awakening when something happens to turn the market upside down. Shared mystic chords of memory can sustain and carry a people through difficult and adverse times. The absence of those shared chords will result, when adversity arrives, in the different nationalities and religions splitting along their natural lines just as they have been doing in the nations already named.