Author — Perry Josue
Grim shadows lie across the West;
Darkness beats within its breast.
No succor comes to its fallen folk;
No fire nor flame the zeal to stoke –
Its dormant knights to action brave
Their land to free and quickly save.
The men are worn with cares and blind;
Comfort’s ease is all they mind.
They laugh with joy – in madness’ grip
As their children slide and fall and slip
Away to Satan’s charms and power
And seek their wealth in Babylon’s bower.
Hark yet the cries of the faithful few,
Who hold the truth their father’s knew!
The battle cry leaps upon their lips,
Strong their arm and bright the tips
Of their father’s swords – sharp, agleam
With Christ’s firm hope and Kingdom dream.
Ready now, you men of remnant born!
Raise the banner and look not forlorn.
Man’s courage lasts but a wav’ring hour
But finds its strength in Jesus’ power.
The savage hordes and traitors’ ranks
May break the body, and yet give thanks.
Look! Your graves you dig in Truth’s defense
Are but a small yet blessed expense.
The faithful thousand with the knee unbent
Their blood poured out but their souls unspent –
The martyr’s copy of the Lord’s great Cross,
In death is victory and no bitter loss!
Death itself is the tam’d slave of Grace;
Step close now and behold its face.
Tremble not before suff’rings’ teeth;
Hold fast the Faith and redeemed belief.
Stand unmoved for Christ – for kith and kin!
So shall you fight, so shall you win!
Your sacrifice a new dawn will bring
A blessed kiss from Christ our King.
Your tombs will echo loud the praise
Of your descendants taught to raise
Their voice in song to God alone,
While He sits and smiles upon His Throne.
John Calvin Goes All Godzilla On James White’s Bambi
John Calvin vs “flighty and scatterbrained dreamers” (James White being our example today):
”The renewal that is the reality of true Christians is one that obliterates social, ethnic, and historical connections — the beautiful and radical unity that marked the apostolic message is based upon a truth that sociologists and politicians cannot grasp.”
Dr. James “Flighty and Scatterbrained Dreamer” White
“Regarding our eternal salvation, it is true that one must not distinguish between man and woman, or between king and a shepherd, or between a German and a Frenchman. Regarding policy, however, we have what St. Paul declares here; for our, Lord Jesus Christ did not come to mix up nature, or to abolish what belongs to the preservation of decency and peace among us….Regarding the kingdom of God (which is spiritual) there is no distinction or difference between man and woman, servant and master, poor and rich, great and small. Nevertheless, there does have to be some order among us, and Jesus Christ did not mean to eliminate it, as some flighty and scatterbrained dreamers [believe].”
John Calvin (Sermon on 1 Corinthians 11:2-3)
To sum it up, James White believes for a Christian “the renewal” (i.e., regeneration) obliterates our social, ethnic, and historic connections, that is who God has created us in our corporeal realities. On the other hand John Calvin says that those who believe what White believes are “flighty and scatterbrained dreamers.”
Psst … Dr. Andy… It’s Not Quite That Cut And Dry
“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?
Is God A Racist?
I.) “The inhabitants of Crete, of whom he speaks with such sharpness were undoubtedly very wicked. The Apostle, who is wont to reprove mildly those who deserved to be treated with extreme severity, would never have spoken so harshly of the Cretans, if he had not been moved by very strong reasons. What term more reproachful than these opprobrious epithets can be imagined; that they were “lazy, devoted to the belly, destitute of truth, evil beasts?” Nor are these vices charged against one or a few persons, but he condemns the whole nation.”
John Calvin
Commentary Titus 1:12
“Condemns the whole nation.” Why isn’t John Calvin considered a racist? Why isn’t he sinning because he is guilty of the sin of demeaning other peoples group? By today’s standard, the Holy Spirit, St. Paul, and Calvin are all guilty of racism.
Could it be that it is not sin to make general
observations that are negative about people groups if those
observations are demonstrably true? If this is so then the whole sin
of “racism” may well be utter nonsense and absurd. If this
is so then maybe the whole notion of racism as sin may indeed be a
Trotskyite invented sin so as to contribute to the destruction of the
Christian faith.
II.) “The Cretians are always liars: lying is a sin common to human nature, and appears in men as early, or earlier than any other; and all men are guilty of it, at one time or another; but all are not habitually liars, as it seems these Cretians were: lying was a governing vice among them; they were not only guilty of it in some particular instances, but always; … it (lying) was a sin they were addicted to: some countries are distinguished by their vices; some for pride; some for levity, vanity, and inconstancy; some for boasting and bragging some for covetousness; some for idleness; some for effeminacy; some for hypocrisy and deceit; and others, as the Cretians, it seems, for lying; this was their national sin.”
John Gill
Racist commentary on Titus 1:12
So, explain to me when it is observed, based upon demonstrable evidence that people groups today might be prone to sloth, or violent crime, or being grifters it is sin to say that “X” people group are criminal, or lazy or violent?
Further,
if it is accurate to generalize like this why would it be wrong to
profile individuals from distinct people groups?
III.) “The
very word “to Cretize” (kretizein), or to play the part of a
Cretan, was invented as a word synonymous with “to deceive,” “to
utter a lie;” just as corinthiazein. “to play the part of a
Corinthian,” signified to commit a still darker moral offence.”
Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
Note what St. Paul does in Titus 1:12 is that he negatively characterized a whole people group and he does so by and under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
What else can we conclude with this kind of language, as analyzed by today’s standard, that God is a racist?
Allow me to submit that the Titus 1:12 passage all by itself makes hash out of the modern charge of racism unless we are willing to conclude that God Himself is a racist. Noticing the obvious is not sin. Identifying demonstrably true characteristics of people groups, even if negative, is not sin.
If it is sin, then God is a sinner.
Interview With The Political Cesspool
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 18th century God raised up Edmund Burke to provide the intellectual firepower to overthrow the thinking of the Jacobin Revolutionaries.
In the 19th century God raised up Groen Van Prinester and Dabney to provide the firepower to answer the triumphant Jacobins and abolitionists.
In the 20th 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.