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“The Bible is anti-revolutionary from cover to cover. While Christians must disobey the state when the state demands what the Bible forbids, or forbids what the Bible demands, we may not take up arms as individuals to protect against persecution.

Alternatively, lower territorial magistrates (like a state’s governor or city’s mayor), if they are Christian or Christian-influenced or otherwise law-based liberty-lovers, must protect citizens under their care from political tyranny at the hands of a larger political jurisdiction, but this is a principled, governmental military action, not individual retaliation or mob rule. Principled opposition to tyranny is precisely what happened at the American War for Independence, which is often wrongly identified as the “Revolutionary War.”

The French had a revolution. We did not.Individual Christians may not take up arms against the state, which is God’s minister. But we should pray and work for magistrates that will protect Christians (and all other citizens) from political tyranny.”

P. Andrew Sandlin
Public “Intellectual”

1.) Psst … Andy, doesn’t the Bible forbid persecution of Christians by the state?

So, we can take up arms to protect ourselves against persecution because the bible forbids persecution but we can’t take up arms because we are individuals protecting ourselves against persecution?

2.) Just to go on record… Andy’s opinion has not been universally shared by Reformed Theologians of the past. John Knox for example thought Andy all wet.

In John Knox’s “Appellations to the Nobility and Commonality of Scotland,” Knox extended to ordinary people the right—indeed the duty—to rebel against unjust rulers. As he told Queen Mary of Scotland later, “The sword of justice is God’s, and if princes and rulers fail to use it, others may.”

“In this idea (resistance to female rulers), a principle emerged that Knox would make more of in his “The Appellation” — he no longer considered tyrannicide as the exclusive mission of divinely inspired individuals, but the vocation of every saint who would assume it.”

Kyle & Johnson
John Knox; An Introduction to his Life and Work — pg. 99

What if the state merely supports the idolatrous practices of the church? Then the people must resist. Even lowly individuals — if they speak as God’s ambassadors — have the authority to rebuke princes for their transgressions…. the real treason was not to oppose idolatrous monarch to the death.

Kyle & Johnson
John Knox; An Introduction to his Life and Work — pg. 102

“Failure to resist idolatry incurs corporate guilt and will be punished collectively.”

John Knox

“Let a thing here be noted, that the prophet of God sometimes may teach treason against kings, and yet neither he nor such as obey the word, spoken in the Lord’s name by him, offend God.”

-John Knox

In “The Appellation” Knox denounced the orthodox doctrine of (that required) Christian obedience (to wicked rulers) as sinful. He declared blind compliance to a wicked command to be sin. God has not required obedience to rules when they decree impiety. To say that God does is no less blasphemy than to make God the author of sin. Moreover, if the nobles and people comply with their sovereign in manifest wickedness, they will be punished along with him.

In “The Appellation” Know also laid the foundation for the theme of his “Letter to the Commonality,” which declared “None provoking the people to idolatry ought to be exempted from the punishment of death.” The personal status of such an individual was of no consequence, be they monarch or commoner. Moreover, the punishment of idolatry and blasphemy does not pertain to only kings and rulers. Rather, it relates to all persons according to their Christian vocation and the opportunity afforded to them by God to administer vengeance. CITING DEUTERONOMY 13, KNOX ISSUED THE CALL FOR REVOLUTION — HE DIRECTED MOSES’ COMMANDMENT TO SLAY IDOLATERS TO ALL PEOPLE, NOT JUST T THE NOBLES.

Yet Knox never called for indiscriminate slaughter. He distinguished between the treatment to be accorded idolaters, who had never known ‘true religion,’ and those who had known it but has forsaken it.”

Kyle & Johnson
John Knox; An Introduction to his Life and Work — pg. 104

In “The Appellation,” Knox now gave the covenant new political implications. Previously, the covenant obligation only demanded separation from idolatry. But now the godly (nobles and people) must punish idolatry.

The covenant provided an important theological argument for Knox. It enabled him to overcome the idea that only the lesser magistrate can revolt, thus leading him to advocate popular rebellion as a means for removing idolatry and tyranny. Knox insisted that not only the magistrates, but the people are also bound by the covenant to uphold the rule of godliness and to revenge any injustices done to God’s majesty or laws. The covenant binds not only the chief rulers but the whole people to punish idolatry and tyranny.

Kyle & Johnson
John Knox; An Introduction to his Life and Work — pg. 105

3.) “The nature of wicked princes is much like to warthogs, which if they be suffered to have their snouts in the ground, and be not forthwith expelled, will suddenly have their snouts in all the body; So they if they be obeyed in any evil thing be it ever so little will be obeyed in all at length.”

John Ponet
Magisterial Reformer

4.) Romans 13 teaches that the civil authority is “the minister of God to thee for good”, that it is the “minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil” and that rulers “are not a terror to good works, but to the evil”. When the civil government becomes anti-Christian and defends all manner of wickedness while persecuting the righteous, then it is no longer “the minister of God to thee for good”, it is no longer “a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil” but it has become “a terror to good works”. In other words, it has become the opposite of the entity of which we are told that we “must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake”.

We do not owe obedience or subjection to any such Satanic monstrosity and we ought to oppose it any way that we are able to do so.

Perhaps Dr. P. Andy, in the future, should be a little more careful in making assertions?

Tonight I was interviewed on the Nationally broadcast “Political Cesspool.” Below is the question I was asked to cover. I did not get to all my material since this was only a ten minute spot.

___

What does the 2020’s hold for Christianity and the Church?

Well, I can only answer this question based on the current trajectories I see. What I see currently is denominations heretofore considered conservative embracing Critical Race theory and Intersectionality as the cultural Marxist tools by which the broader culture can be understood. What I see are denominations heretofore considered conservative that can’t find the will to discipline those who want to continue to embrace their queer identity. What I see are denominations heretofore considered conservative that can’t find the will to discipline those who have Social Justice Warrior pastors sprinkled throughout their midst. What I see are a significant number of denominations, heretofore considered Conservative who refuse to deal with theologies which are Gnostic (R2K) Roman Catholic (Federal Vision) and Cultural Marxist (Liberation Theology).

So, all that to say that the modern visible Church in its most historically conservative expression in the West is mess and personally I see little on the horizon that is going to change any of that. Especially, since it is the so called wise-men and gurus of the Church who are so often leading the charge in re-shaping Christianity in a sub-Christian direction.

Secondly, the demographic change in the country is affecting the Church as well. Of course this is all being aided by the Church through their Voluntary Agencies. The affect of this demographic change is translated both in the Church and the broader culture as a lurch to the left. This means the Church will continue to tack to the left and this will manifest its most clearly in the continued pursuit of demonizing the heirs of Europe. The historic Americans will continue to be told to repent for the alleged sins of their forebears. That the immigration demographic will push left is proven by the known voting patterns of old Americans. All of this means, that just as in the broader culture the old Americans are being squeezed out of leadership, so it will be in the Church. Increasingly, white Christians will either conform to the New World Order Christianity or they can worship in their living rooms alone. Those who stay with the Church during this transformation can expect Christianity according to the NKVD to be the grist that comes from the pulpit.

Thirdly, the Church or Christianity will not be saved by the on the ground political realities. Both the “Never-Trumpers” and the “Trump is our deliverer” have got it wrong. Trump is neither the Messiah, nor is he Satan incarnate. The Never-Trumpers among the Evangelicals get it wrong because they are in opposition to what Trump is as a symbol and the “Trump is our deliverer” get it wrong because Trump is much the opposite of what he symbolizes. Add to that the ministerial attendants who keep time with Trump are of the “Israel is God’s people” type while the ministers who write editorials opposing Trump are of the SJW type. The Biblical Christian needs to realize that he has no dog in this fight. His dog died a long time ago.

The para-church organizations who are usually considered our friends will be of no help to Christianity and the Church. And, in point of fact I don’t think they care about that. These organizations are too often led by men who have a Darwinian worldview and they have speakers and writers who are more concerned with socio-biological evolution as a tool of analysis than they are concerned with the Word of God. Further, many of them boldly admit that they are not interested in positing any future vision of America on Biblical Christianity and the Kingship of Jesus Christ but rather prefer the broad tent approach that allows leadership to any pagan white man so long as they prioritize the white man quite apart from a Christian confession. Whiteness alone apart from a Biblical confession cannot rescue us and will only contribute to our destruction.

Fourth, in the 2020’s most denominations of any size at all will have accepted, whether in a defacto or dejure sense, the LGBTQ sodomite community in their midst. Any adherence to Biblical teaching on gender and sexuality will find one routinely being labeled a sexist and bigot.

Fifth, the antithesis will come to the fore. Wickedness will wax and wax while righteousness according to God’s law will become brighter and brighter even if not numerically on the rise. The corresponding truth to this is that it is likely the Biblical Church will experience persecution that is primarily though not exclusively economic. Biblical Christians will find it hard to function in the work place.

Sixth, the Church will continue to be antinomian. There was a time when the Church gathered every week they would hear God’s law proclaimed. God’s law is seldom heard in the Church today and Christians fail to govern their life by God’s explicit law.

Seventh, as long as the Church keeps embracing negative eschatologies it will continue to be defeated.

Of course there are solid churches out there and for those we are immensely thankful.


In the words of Dickens, “If these shadows remain unaltered by the Future, than what I see for the future is more of the same.

Now, having said all that we have to remember a couple things

First…. God can do anything. If you had asked me in the year 1510 what the 1510’s hold for the Church and Christianity I would have given a very bleak report. In 1510 nobody could have seen a Luther arising before the decade was out.

Second, God, throughout history has raised up a champion for every destroyer who shows up on the scene. In the 18^th century God raised up Edmund Burke to provide the intellectual firepower to overthrow the thinking of the Jacobin Revolutionaries.

In the 19^th century God raised up Groen Van Prinester and Dabney to provide the firepower to answer the triumphant Jacobins and abolitionists.

In the 20^th century God raised up Van Til, Clark, Rushdoony and Bahnsen to provide the intellectual firepower to answer the Marxists.
There is great reason then to hope.

Thirdly, on this score and finally, we have to remember that none of this is outside the sovereign God’s purview. What we have is what He wants according to His ordained decree. According to His revealed precepts we are to operate consistent with His Law.

Europe’s Sons, adopted by God
Have abandoned faith, and forgotten Kin
Now bear the Father’s wrath and rod
Until repentance for such sin
Judgment takes the form of a dark souled storm
Europe undergoes Abaddon’s locust swarm

Will a word of warning come from God’s Kirk?
An expected siren from the place of truth?
Alas, the prophet’s voice is now berserk
And the Holy desk is now carnival booth
Judgment takes the form of a dark souled storm
Altering the Kirk into Apollyon’s form

A consecrated remnant can still be found
A band of blades for Christ supplied
But enough to halt Hell’s Cerberus hounds?
And to turn back the rising dark souled tide?
Relief must come from He who calmed the storm
And those committed to Christ’s Reform

Arise ye clan of bards, prepare for siege
Ye sons of Christ and Europe’s blood
We must defend our Lord and Liege
We must roll back the Dragon flood
For Christ and Country and Kith and Kin
For ours as yet unborn we must win

“Cain’s nonchalant words, and his great-great-great grandson’s boast frame Cain’s line, and mark its spirit and its descent into moral and spiritual abyss. The irresponsible, ‘Am I my brother’s keeper,’ of Cain attempts to deny murder (Gen. 4:9); while Lamech’s ‘I have killed a man for wounding me,’ glories in murder (Gen. 4:23). This is certainly not the dominion intended for humanity in Genesis 1-2.”

Stephen Dempster
Dominion and Dynasty — p. 71

Dempster here provides a textual example of what Cornelius Van Til tagged as “integration downward into the void.” This idea conveys the truth that when man is steadfast in refusing to repent the only option he has left is to increasingly leverage the depth of his expressed sinfulness. This happens both individually and personally as well as generationally. If a pattern of sin is established and not deviated from the consequence will be an intensification of sin in subsequent generations. This is what we see with Cain’s line as expressed in the quote above. Lamech outstrips his ancestor in sin. He has integrated downward into the void of sin. Cain sowed the wind and Lamech is reaping the whirlwind.

This downward integration into the void continues ever downward in Genesis until we can read a few chapters later,

Gen 6:5 Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great upon the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was altogether evil all the time.

This downward integration is the reverse of what C. S. Lewis captures in his description of heaven when in the “Last Battle,” the cry upon entering Aslan’s country is “further up and farther in.” We could say that Lewis is describing integrating upward into real reality. Downward integration into the void is integrating ever downward into the void of the unreal. And that is what we find in Genesis above; “Further down and farther out.”

This idea of the downward integration into the void doesn’t end with the texts above. We find it hinted at several places in Scripture. In the Gospels we find an downward integration.

Luke 19:14 But his citizens hated him, and sent a delegation after him, saying, ‘We will not have this man to reign over us.’

John 18:40 “Not this Man, but Barabbas!” (Give us Barabbas)

Matthew 27:25 And all the people answered and said, “His blood be on us and on our children.”

Notice the obvious here. In Luke’s Gospel Christ is on the cusp of His Triumphal entry and He tells a parable that relates directly to their refusal to have Christ reign over them. However, from this point the integration downward into the void begins. In John’s Gospel we are told that not only would they not have Christ rule over them, it is also the case that they prefer a thief and murderer to Christ. Matthew gives us the final cut in downward integration into the void. It is not enough that they would refuse Christ to rule over them, not enough even that they would prefer a criminal to Christ, they even go so far as to call down generational curses upon their children in their ever increasing downward integration into the void.

Changing directions on this theme, if we consider this downward integration into the void as a philosophical phenomenon of modern man we would observe that modern man has made this idea a principle so that he believes that out of chaos, order comes. In other words modern man believes that upward integration is achieved by downward integration. This is seen in the deluded theory of evolution where chaos breeds ever increasing order.

If one believes that out of chaos, order comes, such as we find with the theory of evolution, then one will by necessity seek to sink man into his most chaotic condition and this means that fallen humanist man in his guru capacity of psychologist, school teacher, or clergy will seek not only to understand man in terms of his most chaotic essence but will provide analysis and instruction that goads man towards chaos. This means man is not to be understood in terms of His rational maturity as governed by God’s law but rather man is to be understood in his most immature expression. This means man is to be understood in terms of his most base emotions and lusts and not per a biblical informed reason. Further, if man is to be healed then man must be set free to give in to his carnal impulses and lusts for it is only by a downward integration into the void – a returning to chaos — that man can be healed. Integration downward into the void means a jailbreak on maturity and responsibility into immaturity and irresponsibility for the very purpose of pursuing wholeness.

It is not only Van Til who understood this. Aldous Huxley in his Brave New World was giving us Van Til’s “Integration downward into the void,” in a novel form. Huxley, reduces men in his dystopian future to the untrammeled functioning of their hormones. Huxley gives us Social Order maintained by the onward pursuit of the downward integration. Kurt Vonnegut also captures some of this in his “Harrison Bergeron” short story where mature reasoning abilities are crippled in order to reduce man to his base instincts.

We are living in an age that programatically pursues integration downward into the void. It takes a determined Christian effort to live contrary to that constant downward integration.

All this stands in contrast to Biblical Christianity. One way that Christianity differs from Religions and philosophies that posit that man evolved from primeval chaos is that Christianity finds chaos being structured by order so that chaos is structured from and by the God of order. The implication of this is that for Biblical Christians, when confronted with the breakdown of social order, there is a return to order (God’s law) to answer the questions of breakdown and revolution. Not so for the Religions of chaos. For the philosophies and religions of chaos order can only be achieved by returning to chaos and by the downward integration into the void. Chaos in a social order is thus healed only by more chaos and Revolution.

As an example, several years ago, I attended a school board meeting that was discussing the need for sex education in the classroom. The problem that was being addressed was the increase of out of wedlock pregnancies and STD’s among students and the solution that was being offered was to teach the students how to have “safe” sex. You see, the problem was one of chaos and the answer being offered was a return to chaos to solve the problem of chaos. This is because, at a presuppositional level, the modern humanists believes that order comes from chaos and so more chaos is the answer to chaos.

This process is the “integration downward into the void,” with the void representing chaos. Fallen humanist man will always embrace more chaos and Revolution to deliver him from chaos because fallen
humanist man believes that out of chaos order comes.

This explains our daffy culture. Sodomy becomes a problem and the solution we embrace is Transgenderism. Marriages as an institution begins to go all chaotic and so we embrace sodomite marriage in order to “stabilize” marriage. Family breakdown is everywhere and so we redefine family to include two Lesbians and their in vitro fertilized “offspring.” Integration downward into the void. Chaos breeds a return to chaos in hopes that order will emerge.

Our expectation needs to be, short of God given Reformation that we will continue in the West to go from chaos and revolution to chaos and revolution. Integration downward into the void will continue.