Category: Uncategorized

It was 1860. The Thomas Mitchell family was gathered at the Mitchell small farm. Mitchell was a yeoman farmer who had done better than most yeoman farmers and yet was by no means of the plantation class. His children and grandchildren were gathered with him on this Saturday. Tomorrow was a big day for the Mitchell family as the two newest grandchildren were being baptized at the 1st Presbyterian church in Columbia SC. Thomas was enjoying all the grandchildren busy about his feet. The oldest of the 12 grandchildren was 6 and while the youngest three were still at their Mother’s breast. God has blessed Thomas beyond his ability to understand God’s goodness. Not only was there the grandchildren but there was also the fact that all of his adult children and their spouses loved Christ and shared a Christian worldview. There was nothing more pleasing for Thomas to look across his small farm and see his grandchildren playing all the while discussing what was on the horizon for his family, his community, and his people.

Despite Thomas’ satisfaction with God’s blessings on his family still his mind was troubled… deeply troubled. It was apparent to all that a civil war was descending on his household. His children and grandchildren would not remain untouched by what Thomas feared was coming. So, while he was genuinely thankful for God’s blessing he knew that the storm clouds that had long gathered were about to let loose. What would happen to his family?

His son and sons-in-law were fighting men’s age. All three of them were armed to the teeth in the expectation of the hot civil war. Already the cold part of the civil war had begun and the temperature continued to rise.

There were reports of potential slave risings on several of the plantations. The slaves had taken up the motto of “Slaves Lives Matter,” and it had become a bit of a talisman that one could hear whispered among the slaves. There were even rumors that the international banking interest was secretly funding those provoking a slave revolt.

So, on this Saturday before the Lord’s day Thomas’ mind was a mix. Rejoicing in his family, but aware of the hatred of the seed of the serpent was all around he and his.

His adult children didn’t understand. Perhaps because they had more faith. Perhaps because with much learning comes much sorrow. Thomas Mitchel knew his history. He read closely on the French Revolution. He knew that in 1860 what was descending on his family was merely part II to the original production in Paris and all of France. He knew of the bloodshed. He knew of the cruel and sadistic treatment of the Revolutionaries against the Vendee — both dead and living — once they were finally conquered. He had nightmares where the guillotine terrorized him in his sleep. He knew the ultimate goal was to remove the Christian faith from the face of the earth. What would happen, not only to his family, but also the Christian families of his neighbors?

And it didn’t help that when he visited his family in the North so much of the Yankee clergy believed that “something needed to be done about those racist Southerners,” who weren’t buying all that was behind the motto of “Slaves Lives Matter.” Already free blacks in Northern cities were agitating by pulling down statues of Andrew Jackson and Columbus while demanding that Lincoln take Fredrick Douglas as his VP candidate. The free black voice had gained a real foothold in the Republican party.

Thomas was musing on all this when he heard his wife, Jane, call him for the evening meal. They gathered around the table, his three children, their spouses, Thomas and Jane and their 12 Grandchildren. Thomas gave thanks for God’s blessings. Thanked God for the Baptisms tomorrow. Thanked God for the careers of each of the men — careers that allowed their wives to be Mothers of their children and keepers of the home. Thanked God that He was the God of battle and finished by asking that God might keep them from unrealized fears and that God would forgive him specifically for seeing a future that was dark and troubled.

In Genesis 3:15 we learn that there are two communities. No more… no less. One can belong to the community of the seed of the serpent or they can belong to the community of the seed of the woman – The Messiah’s community. They can be in God’s covenant community or they can belong to the Serpent’s covenant community.

As the history of history of redemption unfolds as between the covers of Genesis to Revelation we see these two communities in contest. Cain kills His brother Abel. Noah and His family are a community in distinction from the community that didn’t have a ticket to ride. There at the Tower of Babel you find the serpent community who are intent to build a name for themselves but God has other designs in the next chapter as He intends to build the Messianic community through Abraham and so promises to make a name for Abraham. This community will be so great that through this community and the final seed it is hurtling towards all the Nations of the earth will be blessed.

The Scripture continues to unfold with the contest between these two covenant communities locked in mortal battle. I’m just choosing some of the highlights and in choosing these highlights I am suggesting that this a lens we should be reading all of Scripture through.

Don’t worry … I’m getting to Baptism

Of course there is that contest between these two covenant communities in Exodus where Pharaoh and Egypt strikes at God’s covenant community to destroy it. So stark is this contest that Pharaoh is quite literally wearing a serpent on his crown as a sign of Egypt. Egypt strikes at God’s covenant community and God’s crushes Egypt. The two covenant community clash and God’s covenant community wins out.

In Judges the we meet the woman of Thebez. Abimelech, belongs to the seed of the serpent community and we find him channeling God’s people into a citadel with the purpose of burning it down around them. Up steps the Woman of Thebez. She launches a millstone from the citadel and BOOM it lands on Abimelech’s head and kills him. Abimelech struck the covenant community’s heel and the seed of the woman crushed his head.

Lets recall Jael and Sisera in Judges 4. There the Canaanites had arisen to strike at Israel. Their leader was Sisera. In God’s economy and to Israel’s embarrassment through the Generalship of Deborah, Sisera is put to flight. He finds refuge in the tent of Jael who promises him rest, safety from Barak’s pursuit and some goat’s milk. Right when he was feeling safe, dear sweet Jael comes in and drives a tent stake through his temple thus crushing his head.

We could cite dozens of example…. One more.

There stands the giant Goliath and swallowed in his shadow stands the puny David. Goliath is clothed armor that very likely was covered in snake skin. You know the story. Before long David is cutting his head off thus crushing his head.

Anyway .. there stands these two covenant communities. No more … no less. And they are constantly throughout Scripture at each other’s throat. The serpent community striking the heel. The Messiah’s community crushing the serpent’s head. It climaxes with the death of the Messiah. The serpent finally believes that his community has won out but with the resurrection the Serpent’s head is definitively crushed.

So… here are these two covenant communities. Now the question becomes how does one become a member to the covenant community? In the OT we know that God calls, Abraham responds in faith and Abraham is known as God’s friend. However, God also requires that Abraham take as a sign circumcision in order to identify all those who would be members of the covenant. It is not only Abraham who must be circumcised but also all of the males in Abraham’s household who are to receive the sign of the covenant. If you have this sign of the covenant one is in the covenant community and so are part of the contest between the Serpent’s covenant community and the Messiah’s covenant community.

Before we move on, we must note here that this covenant is trans-generational. Once one is in the covenant one belongs to the covenant community not only of the present but also of the past and the membership anticipates a belonging into the future once one is gone. Joseph, asked for his bones to be taken into the promised land. At the end of his life he understood he would still belong to the covenant community after his death and so asked that they would take his bones with them into the promised land. Joseph thus testified that in being a member of God’s covenant community we are members with those covenant members who will come after us even after we are gone. That we are part of the covenant with those who were before us is seen in the language of Scripture. Throughout the Scriptures we God is often identified by later generations as “the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” The book of Hebrews speaks of those, “being dead, yet they still speak.” They have gone before us but they remain part of the trans-generational covenant community.

So, we have this covenant community of the Messiah. It stands in antithesis to the covenant community of the Serpent. We enter into this covenant by faith in God’s Messiah and are required to give a sign of the covenant to the babies in the covenant community… in the OT that sign was circumcision.

Now we come to the NT and the covenant rolls into the NT, except it is a New and Better covenant. What makes it New and better is that it is no longer promissory but is now fulfilled. All that was only anticipated is now realized in Jesus Christ.

And because all is realized in Jesus Christ those signs and seals that were of a promissory nature in the Old Testament are changed. The Passover which spoke of a deliverance is changed to the Eucharist which speaks of the deliverance now accomplished in Christ, And circumcision as the sign of membership in the covenant – a sign that required blood letting — is now changed out for the water of Baptism since with Christ’s bloody Cross work there is no longer any need for blood rites. Christ commands water as the sign of the covenant membership.

And who is given the water sign of the covenant? Well, we are nowhere told in the New Testament that the children are no longer to be part of the covenant community was they were in the Old Testament. We are not given a positive command in the New Testament to forbid the children from being given the sign of the covenant. Nowhere do we read, “Verily Verily, I say unto you, marvel not when I say unto you that your seed is no longer counted as God’s seed.”

No, we understand that just as in the Old Covenant so now in the New and better covenant the household of God is still characterized by the sound of babies babble and children’s play. We understand that we could hardly refer to the New and better covenant as a new and better covenant if it were the case that the new and better covenant required us to leave our children outside the covenant.

We realize the riot we find in Scripture at the notion that the Gentiles are now in the covenant and we are left a little stunned that anyone would suggest that no riot would have likewise followed at the news that not only are the Gentiles in the covenant but that also children who had always been in the covenant are now no longer to be considered members of the covenant.

And so because we find no positive command from God in the Scriptures to cease giving the children the sign of the covenant we give them the privileges of the covenant membership. They are part of God’s covenant community and we extend to them the judgment of charity that they are blood bought and sealed by Christ. They are now part of the covenant contending against the covenant of the serpent. And as members of God’s covenant community – a covenant community, in part defined by our opposition to the covenant of the serpent – we train our children to fight against our and their mortal enemy as they grow. We train them that our thinking is different than the thinking of those who are members in the covenant of the serpent. We train them to realize that the Law we live by is different than the law-word of those who belong to the covenant of the serpent. We train them that our belief system, our confession, our worldview stands in opposition to the seed of the serpent covenant community. We train them for Kingdom work as activists for God’s covenant Kingdom wherever God plants them as His agents. We and they are the King’s people and we think and act like the King’s people. And in this age that is characterized by fighting for the expansion of the crown rights of Jesus Christ.

This morning we baptized children thus ratifying God’s covenant.

These Children were born into the web of pre-existing relationships – both vertically and horizontally. They are silken cords that are connected to the past through their Kin and are silken cords that will connect kin past to kin yet to come so that the generations together form a trans-generational web of covenant unity. This is the idea of covenant. We are not born atomistically, belonging to ourselves. We are born belonging to God and so to God’s family — a family which begins with — but isn’t limited to our blood family. Part of the idea of covenant is that we are organically related and connected through Christ and to each other so that with the birth of each new child the covenant web continues to connect the honored past with the gloriously anticipated future.

Today, the Smithsonian Museum posted a tour-de-force on the problems of the white race, inclusive of white privilege, systemic white racism, white supremacy, white superiority, white nationalism and all other phrases having to do with the sinfulness of being white.

I object.

I object, if only because the whole notion of whiteness is a deflection to what the enemy is really railing against and that is culture that Christian white people through the centuries have produced. The bee in the Cultural Marxist bonnet is not so much the whiteness of the white man (though that certainly remains a component of their abhorrence) as it is the belief system, customs, and culture that is associated in their Marxist minds with being “White.”

That, that is the case is seen in words of the article linked above,

“Whiteness and white racialized identity refer to the way that white people, their customs, culture, and beliefs operate as the standard by which all other groups of are compared. “

You see the complaint is really not about the whiteness of white people so much as it is their customs, culture, and beliefs. It is not primarily our white skin that is the ultimate put off for the multi-hued Marxists (though that certainly bugs the colored Marxists) as it is our world and life view. Further, if one peels back that world and life view one would find it is our religion that the Cultural Marxists are enraged over. Even further from there, if we keep peeling the onion we would find that their rage is ultimately pointed at God and His Christ who sits in heaven. It is not so much white people that the multi-hued Cultural Marxists are trying to destroy as it is the God of the Christian White man. If they could get rid of the Triune God of the Bible and His ruling Christ they wouldn’t bother with their bitching and moaning about the white man.

If we consider their complaint about white culture one must keep in mind that culture is merely the outward expression of a people’s inward beliefs. Culture is theology externalized. Culture is the outward manifestation about what a people believe concerning God. Culture says, “this is what we believe about God.” So, when the multi-hued practitioners of the Frankfurt school and their God forsaken new proletariat complain about “whiteness,” they are echoing voices of long past saying, “We will not have this man rule over us.”

The enemy snipes and cavils for one reason and one reason only and that is because they own a different God than the white man owned as the white man built Western civilization. And even though the heartbeat of Western civilization is all but stopped, the remaining shallow and weak pulse of Western Civ. and the Christianity that created it still is enough to send these mavens of Moloch into a irrational rage. They can’t get their hands directly on God and so they are clever enough to know that if they can genocide the one people group which God has been pleased to use to carry the perfume of His glory for the last millennium and more then they will succeed in doing to the God of the Bible what Lewis’ demon horde did to Aslan.

So they attack white supremacism, white privilege, white nationalism, white superiority, and whitey white white-man. All of this hysteria is about pulling God from His throne.

God sits in heaven and laughs.

All of this lament over the white man is merely evidence of adherents of a false god lamenting over the fact that their god is not in the ascendancy. The problem for them though is that their Cultural Marxist god doesn’t exist.

Psalm 115:⁴ But their idols are silver and gold,
    made by human hands.
⁵ They have mouths, but cannot speak,
    eyes, but cannot see.
⁶ They have ears, but cannot hear,
    noses, but cannot smell.
⁷ They have hands, but cannot feel,
    feet, but cannot walk,
    nor can they utter a sound with their throats.
⁸ Those who make them will be like them,
    and so will all who trust in them.

The gods of the multi-hued Cultural Marxist is a deaf, dumb, blind, irrational, retarded deity. As such the Cultural Marxists, per Psalm 115 are likewise deaf, dumb, blind, irrational and retarded. They cannot pull the God of the Bible and His Christ off the throne though they certainly can, if God wills it, defeat His people.

The only way we, as God’s people … we, as the children of our hero Fathers who built Western civilization … we, as those who have inherited the great and rich legacy of men and women who saw God more clearly than we do can be defeated is by refusing to return to our first love. However, if we will not practice repentance, if we will not cease surrendering to every Cultural Marxist demand, if we will not once again become familiar with God’s law as the battle ax to slice and dice cultural Marxism we will, for a season, perish.

We must fight! However fighting apart from repentance is promissory of absolute and total defeat.

God grant us grace to both fight and repent. Otherwise what we are facing makes the French Revolution look like a Aesop fable.

“The belief of white superiority has been part of the United States since its inception. The white European imperialists who settled here believed they were inherently superior to nonwhite groups. These beliefs justified atrocities like the genocide of Native Americans and nearly 250 years of African slavery. After slavery, white supremacist ideologies manifested into a series of laws that would limit the freedom of African Americans, known as Black Codes and Jim Crow. White supremacy and its legacy can still be found in our legal system and other institutions through coded language and targeted practices. “

Smithsonian Museum Article
For their Black History Display

Let’s be clear here. When we speak about ontology all races are created equal in the sense of all men, regardless of race, being the Imago Dei. From the Orientals of Asia, to the Ndebele, Xhosa, Shona, and Zulu of black Africa, to the brown man of India and South Africa, to the white man of Europe, all races of men, considered ontologically are Image Bearers and so are equal in that regard and will always remain equal. Man qua man will never be able to strip himself of being an image bearer of God.

However, when we speak about the taxonomic value of races as a matter of comparison there can be no doubt that for the past 1500 years or so that the White race, as it as been shaped by the Christian faith, has been clearly without dispute superior. When the White man showed up on these shores the Native Americans were not the noble savage that the Romanticist worldview desires to create. No, the Native Americans were serving gods who delighted in the pain that their servants could inflict on their captives. The Native Americans were in may cases cannibals. The Native Americans were treating their women like pack mules. Now, to be sure some Native American tribes were less monstrous than other tribes but they were all clearly inferior to the Christian White man. The same is true of the savage black brought from Africa. Taxonomically speaking the White man was clearly superior. The white man was sailing the seas, building cathedrals, developing complex legal and social orders, building inventions that were stupendous, and exploring and discovering lands so that trade routes could connect continents with the effect that the Christian Gospel traveled along these trade routes to bring the good news of Jesus Christ and Him crucified to the taxonomically and comparatively backward people of other lands.

Where the legal system of White men was superior to the “legal systems of the non-Caucasian” they were superior because those legal systems were based on God’s law.

None of this is to say that the white man was without sin. It is merely to say that the Christian white man was superior, and often remains superior to men who are the suppliants of other inferior gods who leave them as inferior as the wastrel gods they serve.

So, ontologically all men were and are created equal but when it comes to the taxonomies of the various races there can be no doubt that by God’s grace alone the White man has been superior. The White man just needs to get used to that idea and quit apologizing for their taxonomic superiority and remain humble by reminding themselves that it is only the God of the Bible who has caused us to be superior.

We would also do well to remember that to whom much is given much will be required.

Genesis 17:11-13,27

[11] And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you. [12] And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed. [13] He that is born in thy house, and he that is bought with thy money, must needs be circumcised: and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. [27] And all the men of his house, born in the house, and bought with money of the stranger, were circumcised with him.

Could Abraham attend a church today? I mean, he bought people with money, and those people would have been called SLAVES. Further, could God attend church today? I mean, after all, God told Abraham to circumcise his slaves so that the slaves as slaves would be members of God’s household as members of Abraham’s household.

Further, despite the fact that Abraham owned slaves, Scripture still refers to Abraham as a “friend of God.”

First Presbyterian in Columbia, SC, better take every mention of not only James Henley Thornwell and Benjamin Morgan Palmer plaques off their church and conferences they should also take Abraham and even that slave sanctioning God out of their Bibles.