R2k fanboy Mike Horton vs. the Belgic Confession and John Calvin

“…we have the privilege of religious freedom for true and false worship in this country. Nevertheless, we do not expect the state to create opportunities for the advance of Christ’s kingdom through his means of grace.”

~ R2k “theologian” Michael Horton

Of course Horton is wrong here and is pushing the same tired error that the theological system of classical liberalism has always pushed. We decidedly do not have the privilege of religious freedom of true and false worship in this country. We only have the privilege of religious freedom for false worship in this country. We do not have the privilege of religious freedom for true religion in this country. I know this because the freedom of true religion in this country would make illegal all forms of false worship. Because all forms of false religions are not illegal in this country we decidedly do not have freedom of religion for true religion. The true religion of Christianity would not allow false gods to have equal time in the public square with the one true God. Now because the false gods have equal time with the one true God in this country, as required by the State, we clearly see that we do not, contra Mike Horton’s assertion, have freedom of religion in this country. I am not free to honor the God of the Bible above all other gods in this country therefore I am not free to practice my religion. My religion requires the elimination of all other gods from the public square. It requires me to support the elimination of all false worship. That is part of what the Bible’s 1st commandment means; “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.”

What is happening here is Mike, as a sub-Christian, is prioritizing the 1st amendment over the 1st commandment. Freedom of religion would mean that the people would be free to only worship the only one true God. Because I do not have that freedom, I decidedly do not live in a country with “freedom of religion.” Instead I live in a country that has freedom of religion for all religions except the one true religion.

Even The Belgic Confession of Faith, which Dr. Horton putatively confesses teaches;

“Their office (the magistrate) is not only to have regard unto and watch for welfare of the civil state, but also to protect the sacred ministry, that the kingdom of Christ may thus be promoted.”

Belgic Confession Article 36

Does anybody think that Mike really believes this?

And John Calvin also supports me and is against Dr. Horton;

In the Institutes Calvin says that;

“civil government has as its appointed end . . .to cherish and protect the outward worship of God, to defend sound doctrine of piety and the position of the church, to adjust our life to the society of men, to form our social behavior to civil righteousness, to reconcile us with one another, and to promote general peace and tranquility.” (4.20.2)

I would earnestly contend that that the promotion of general peace and tranquility cannot be achieved where false gods like Allah, the Jewish God, and the Hindu gods, are allowed to roam in the public square.

I hope God will grant grace to Mike and all the R2K fanboys to repent of this noxious doctrine of theirs.

A Conversation With Someone Who Supports Illegal Immigration

BC wrote,

Dude, that’s just straight up racism.

BLM responds

You say that like it is a bad thing.

Honestly, dude, the word “racism” no longer has any meaning. It’s just a random pejorative that the intellectually deficient cast at people when the intellectually deficient can’t make an argument.

BC wrote,

All people are made in the image of God and equally deserving of respect.

BLM responds,

Respecting people made in the image of God is not equal to accepting my home being invaded! I respect all kinds of people I don’t invite to come live in my house. I bet you do to. The same is true when it comes to a nation. I can respect people w/o inviting them to live here and steal my children’s inheritance by living here and sucking off the teat of the state’s welfare program.

I guarantee you that if we shut down welfare programs to immigrants we would have zero problems with immigration tomorrow. Immigration is a wealth transfer program from my descendents to the descendents of the stranger and the alien. Embracing untrammeled immigration is embracing the curses that God promised in Deuteronomy. Embracing untrammeled immigration ends up making the heritage American the bottom rail while the stranger and the alien becomes the top rail.

And with the reality of white replacement it is designed to do just that.

BC wrote,

And what culture are you talking about? American culture is a mixture of many different cultures. That’s what makes it great.

BLMc responds,

The original/previously-known American culture was a mix of (predominantly Northern) European Christian cultures! That is what once made it “great.” Bless your heart.

There yet remains a majority culture and that majority culture continues to be under attack in hopes of destroying it. That majority culture is driven by a now largely watered down Christianity but it still remains the case that “our” majority culture is yet influenced by Christian categories.

And any country that kills 1 million plus unborn yearly can hardly be considered “great.”

BC wrote,

I love being able to eat Thai food made by immigrants from Thailand or Italian food made by Italian immigrants.

BLMc responds,

You know it is possible to make Thai food without being swamped by Thais.

BC wrote,

And safety? Violent crime is waaaaaay down in the US since 1990. So what are you talking about?

BLMc

You got to be smoking Hashish when it comes to your assessment of crime

In 2020, the U.S. murder rate saw its largest single-year increase on record – and by 2022, it remained considerably higher than before the coronavirus pandemic.

Crime rates

There are dramatic race differences in crime rates. Asians have the lowest rates, followed by whites, and then Hispanics. Blacks have notably high crime rates. This pattern holds true for virtually all crime categories and for virtually all age groups.

In 2013, a black was six times more likely than a non­black to commit murder, and 12 times more likely to murder someone of another race than to be murdered by someone of another race.

Interracial crime

In 2013, of the approximately 660,000 crimes of interracial violence that involved blacks and whites, blacks were the perpetrators 85 percent of the time. This meant a black person was 27 times more likely to attack a white person than vice versa. A Hispanic was eight times more likely to attack a white person than vice versa.

Urban centers

In 2014 in New York City, a black was 31 times more likely than a white to be arrested for murder, and a Hispanic was 12.4 times more likely. For the crime of “shooting” — defined as firing a bullet that hits someone — a black was 98.4 times more likely than a white to be arrested, and a Hispanic was 23.6 times more likely.

If New York City were all white, the murder rate would drop by 91 percent, the robbery rate by 81 percent, and the shootings rate by 97 percent.

In an all­-white Chicago, murder would decline 90 percent, rape by 81 percent, and robbery by 90 percent.

Police shootings

In 2015, a black person was 2.45 times more likely than a white person to be shot and killed by the police. A Hispanic person was 1.21 times more likely. These figures are well within what would be expected given race differences in crime rates and likelihood to resist arrest.

In 2015, police killings of blacks accounted for approximately 4 percent of homicides of blacks. Police killings of unarmed blacks accounted for approximately 0.6 percent of homicides of blacks. The overwhelming majority of black homicide victims (93 percent from 1980 to 2008) were killed by blacks.

Bavinck Supporting Rev. Hunter

Over here a friendly conversation is engaged between Rev. Michael Hunter and his denominational chieftains;

https://www.thedailygenevan.com/blog/2025/1/19/answering-ecclesiastical-critics?fbclid=IwY2xjawH8ZfZleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHdn-3e92o5PGHgT68tN9rLrdJpLMjQ-R4dS6AsTpV4UgbG3QV4YyB9a6oA_aem_koqE9BAwXoOfHLkMhjtvsg

I thought I would add a few quotes by Dr. Herman Bavinck that might have found Bavinck in the dock along with Rev. Hunter before this august tribunal of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church. By looking at the type of questions asked of Rev. Hunter by the ARPC one wonders if they likewise would have been unsettled by some of the words of the great Bavinck.

“In this consummated kingdom, diversity will be preserved in unity. There will be little and great (Rev. 22:12), first and last (Matt. 20:16); the distinctions between ethnicities and nations will remain; {243} Israel and the nations [volken in Dutch] will not be dissolved into one another, but each will hold their own place and task (Matt. 19:28; 25:32; Acts 3:19–21; Rom. 11:26); the nations that are saved will walk in the light of the new Jerusalem, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory and honor into it (Rev. 21:24; 22:2).

Although all share in the same salvation, the same eternal life, and the same fellowship with God, yet there will be all sorts of differences among them in rank and position, in gift and calling, in glory and radiance. There are many dwellings in the Father’s house (John 14:2). In proportion to how someone on the earth has been faithful, spent his talents, suffered and labored for Christ, he will receive in the kingdom of God a higher place and a greater honor (Matt. 5:12; 6:1, 6, 18; 25:14f.; 2 Cor. 9:6; Rev. 2–3).

This rich diversity will not distract from unity, for all will see God’s face and be like him (Matt. 5:8; John 3:2; Rev. 22:4).”. 

Herman Bavinck

We have now come to a time where the insistence on racial, ethnic, and national distinctions is now considered as heretical. As we see with this quote that has not always been the case in the Reformed Church. But having embraced a kind of creeping Gnosticism we find ourselves in the same place as those ancient Gnostics. Having denied the realness and goodness of material realities we have now lost the ability to defend or maintain the existence of very real God created distinctions and differences. There is now among us a virus that eats away at the notion of the goodness of created realities in favor of a termite theology that eats away at the distinctions that were laid down in creation. It used to be a byword that among the Reformed that “Grace restores nature,” but now the byword is “Grace destroys nature so that we can all sink into the great one.”

That this idea that is now embraced by the Reformed world as seen in its treatment of Michael Spangler, and as seen in many of the things that Doug Wilson is saying, and as seen in this interrogation of Rev. Hunter is indeed Gnostic in its ideological origins can be seen in a quote from an early Gnostic;

“According to Neander, the Carpocratian system sees in the world’s history one struggle between the principles of unity and of multiplicity. From one eternal Monad all existence has flowed, and to this it strives to return. But the finite spirits who rule over several portions of the world counteract this universal striving after unity. From them the different popular religions, and in particular the Jewish, have proceeded. Perfection is attained by those souls who, led on by reminiscences of their former condition, soar above all limitation and diversity to the contemplation of the higher unity. They despise the restrictions imposed by the mundane spirits; they regard externals as of no importance, and faith and love as the only essentials; meaning by faith, mystical brooding of the mind absorbed in the original unity. In this way they escape the dominion of the finite mundane spirits; their souls are freed from imprisonment in matter, and they obtain a state of perfect repose (corresponding to the Buddhist Nirwana) when they have completely ascended above the world of appearance.”

But this was not the way it has always has been as seen from the Bavinck quotes as well as sundry others. Here is another quote from a 19th century American that supports Bavinck’s original insight;

“Let it be noted that the Gospel does not dispense with any of the relations in human society. … And it is the vice of many of the systems of modern reform that they sweep across the web of natural associations in accomplishing their benevolent designs—and fail at last because they cannot succeed in this disintegration of society. Christianity, on the contrary, comes down into the world, not as a law, but as a life. … It seizes man in the midst of all the duties which he owes to his home, to the community, to the State, to the world. It does not relax any of these claims; but under their united pressure it consecrates him to a new service superior to them all. Thus does the Gospel, in its refusal to blot out any of our natural ties, respect the active feature in man’s nature.” p. 352.

Benjamin Morgan Palmer
‘Obedience, the Law of the Will’, (II)


Bavinck was consistent as he would write elsewhere;

“God does not manifest his covenant of grace by ripping people away from their humanity and establishing a covenantal community outside of our natural state, but He brings that covenant into humanity itself, makes it part of the world, and ensures that it remains protected from evil in this world. As Redeemer, God follows the same path he does as Creator and Ruler of all things. Grace is something different to nature, but it joins with nature so as not to destroy it but rather to renew it. Grace is an inheritance that is not acquired by virtue of natural descent, but it is covenantally maintained through the natural relations embedded in human nature. The covenant of grace does not randomly jump to and from one individual to the next, but is maintained through families, races, and nations in an organic fashion.”

Herman Bavinck
Reformed Dogmatics

No Kinist could have hoped to have spoken as well as Bavinck here. Grace renews nature. That’s all that Kinists are advocating. Grace renews individuals, families, clans, nations and races. It does so not because of the greatness of what it is restoring but it does so because of the grace that is doing the restoring.

Bavinck touches the nerve of the Reformed doctrine of the covenant. By God’s own decree, God works organically in family lines over the course of generations so as to raise up nations that are distinctly Christian.  Does the Reformed Church believe this any longer or has it been so bitten by the post Enlightenment consensus that it no longer believes that God works historically and organically in families, generations, and nations? Look, one can’t consistently say they agree with this quote and then turn around and tongue blister someone for embracing the implications of such a quote.

Talking About WOKE With A PCA Pastor’s Wife

Recently, a PCA Pastor’s wife (Laurel Johnson) asked me if I could define what I mean when I say WOKE. Keep in mind that Mrs. Johnson tends to have theological views that are vastly different from mine. This wasn’t a question without something lying behind the question.

Below is the definition of WOKE that I sent back to Mrs. Johnson (Sassiterain on Twitter);

WOKE The act of making sacred, historically allegedly marginalized race, gender and sexual identity groups. Out of this arises a kind of folk theology that teaches that these groups may not be offended as the idea of “offense” is defined by these particular sacralized groups.

The penalty for violating WOKEness is that the one who offends one of these sacralized groups (minorities, feminists, perverts) is excommunicated from society (what we call cancel culture) since the offending party has committed blasphemy.

It’s all very religious…. a “new” faith.

From here Mrs. Johnson, whose husband Pastors a PCA church in Blaine, Washington asked;

Do you believe that supporting racial unity in the churches and interracial marriage is woke?

I responded by answering;

How are you defining “racial unity?” If you’re asking whether or not Christians should support racial unity if racial unity requires reinterpreting Christianity through a Cultural Marxist grid in order to arrive at that holy grail of “racial unity”, the answer is obviously, “NO.”

Interracial marriage by itself is not necessarily WOKE (though it might be and often is). However, the way Interracial marriage is pushed in our culture and by many churches is definitely WOKE; the result of the pervasive influence of Cultural Marxism.

Certainly, interracial marriage should be discouraged. I agree with Muhammed Ali on this point;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqiWFLsgVi4

Tim Keller’s Preference For Democracy

“I’d rather be in a democracy than a state in which the government is officially Christian. Instead of trying to take power, I think what Christians ought to be doing is trying to renew their churches.”

-Tim Keller, Wall Street Journal
02 September 2022

1.) Understand what Keller has said here. He has said he’d rather be under a government that is non Christian than under a government that is officially Christian. Tim would rather have his magistrates be Christ-haters than have magistrates who are in submission to Christ.

2.) Tim talked about how Christians shouldn’t “try to take power.” The question is “take power from whom?” Presumably, in Tim’s world Christians shouldn’t try to take power from non Christians and should be happy to be ruled by Christ hating pagans.

3.) You know Tim, it is possible to both try and renew our Churches and in godly ways seek to take power.

4.) Tim’s statement above implies that there is something automatically wicked about Christian’s wielding power. Yet, here is Tim seeking to wield his power as a highly platformed Evangelical voice in service of keeping Christians from pursuing power.