Answering R2K On “Continuing Cities”

For here we do not have a continuing city, but we are seeking the city which is to come. (Heb. 13:14)

Radical Two Kingdom “Theology” in order to prove that Christians should NOT be politically involved or political activists as armed with a Church endorsed understanding of Scripture twist this Hebrews passage to support their public square Quietism. Per R2K, Christians are to not worry about the culture because that is being culture warriors. This passage in Hebrews is leveraged by R2K fanboys in order to communicate that since we don’t have a lasting city therefore we shouldn’t be over involved in the non-lasting cities while we are seeking this non corporeal city.

How do Biblical Christians counter this fallacious handling of the text?

Well, first we understand the Hebrews 13 passage in context. The writer to the Hebrews is NOT saying that since Christians are seeking out a disembodied city we are to be unconcerned with the cities we inhabit to the point that we don’t seek to have our cities reflect the character of God.

The writer to Hebrews was communicating to the Hebrew Christians that THE city of all cities (Jerusalem) though still standing was not the beau ideal. The recipients of the letter to the Hebrews were to understand that there was a better and more permanent city that they had already come to and that was the Jerusalem of above (Hebrews 12:22-23). This was important to communicate to these Hebrews because the temptation that they were prone to was to give up Christianity in order to return to Judaism. So, the point here wasn’t that the Hebrews were to become Retreatists in terms of their place of residence but rather it was to tell the Hebrews “Don’t go back to anti-Christ Judaism.” After all, they had a heavenly city to cling to (Heb. 12:22-24) as it relates to the cult function for which they were looking. Those Hebrews didn’t need an Aaronic Priesthood, daily blood ablutions, or the venerating of the Temple. Those were obsolete because fulfilled in Christ.

In point of fact and quite to the contrary to the insistence of the R2K fanboys that Christians shouldn’t seek to transform our cities and cultures in a Christ honoring direction we see that in Acts 17 in Ephesus, the Gospel does challenge city-state power structures. There in Acts 19 the Christians, upon the impact of the Gospel, did understand their current city as lasting enough to bring magic books to be burned, old gods to be eschewed, and economic realities reorganized.

Further, Matthew 5:5 teaches that Christian are to inherit not only lasting cities but also the whole earth. How can we inherit the earth if we are to eschew it per R2K malfeasance.

Of course there remains a “not yet” to the Christian eschatological understanding. Scripture teaches that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Scripture teaches that these light and momentary afflictions are nothing to be compared to the weight of glory that shall be revealed in us. But until the time we join the Church at rest we are to be part off the Church militant and that means seeking to exercise the dominion that we have been given in Christ Jesus.

Christendom (and the Church as seen by the prevalence of R2K “theology”) is currently occupied by a foreign pagan people and is being ruled over by usurpers and this is, in part, due to the fact that we have putative theologians in the Reformed Church insisting that those who are most Holy are those who most quickly surrender to those who hate Christ. Quite to the contrary the role of the people of the Kingdom of Christ is to overthrow the usurpers, to turn the foreign pagan people back into hewers of wood and drawers of water unless they repent and to incarnate the ever present Lordship of Jesus Christ and His Kingdom into every nook and cranny of existence.

This is, in part, what…”Thy Kingdom come thy will be done on earth as in heaven” means.

Renounce the Mephistophelian R2K… become Christian.

A Delightful Recipe For National Populism

National populism is characterized by four realities in the body politique.

1.) Distrust

National populism could not gain traction were it not for the widespread distrust by Joe and Sally Sixpack that Johnny and Mary Elite are selling them out. National Populism gains steam because of this public distrust. Barack Obama understood this when he talked about people clinging to their guns and religion and then Obama gave them every reason to keep clinging to their guns and religion. The rank and file, while perhaps not wise, are not stupid. They can see that they were the losers in the 2008 bail out where those who caused the crisis were those who profited by the crisis. They can see that it is the future of they and their seed that is being sold out by the open borders elite. They can see that their clergy and churches are no longer places that can be trusted. Distrust of the elite makes for populism.

2.) Destruction

National Populism is National populism because the historic Europeans and Americans have a sense that the Elite intend to cut their throats. From being forced to accept wild Immigration to being forced to shut up via strident political correctness to the ever shrinking ownership of the American pie, the traditional American realizes that they are playing for keeps and that if they do not respond with a National Populist impulse they will be sleep with the fishes.

3.) Deprivation

There is a sense among the historic Americans that the future is not promissory of something better for their children then it was for them. This strikes at the heart of the age old concept of the American dream. Traditional Americans are convinced that they are being deprived the future, the income, and the identity that was their birthright and the birthright of their parents before them. Their dollar buys less, their employment is less certain, and their safety less taken for granted. National Populism rolls because of this sense of deprivation.

4.) De-Alignment

The old alignments are failing. This is in part because of the Academic community’s ability to destroy meta-narrative narratives. As such there is a weakening of bonds between what was once traditional alliances. Increasingly the idea of a “mainstream” of thought or tradition or party loyalty has disappeared. This has in turn allowed for a desire to de-align from old alignments and to realign with the idea of Nation as found in National Populism.

National populism rolls because of the presence of these culturally characteristic traits. One can be sure that now that the genie is out of the bottle National Populism is NOT going away. The impulse is going to continue to identify with a point of stability and that point of stability is going to be found in the Nation — a point of stability that has survived for over 500 years.

God Names & Exegetes Himself

18 And he (Moses) said, “Please, show me Your glory.”
19 Then He said, “I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” 20 But He said, “You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live.” 21 And the Lord said, “Here is a place by Me, and you shall stand on the rock. 22 So it shall be, while My glory passes by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and will cover you with My hand while I pass by. 23 Then I will take away My hand, and you shall see My back; but My face shall not be seen….”

Exodus 34:5 Now the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. 6 And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, 7 keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.” “The meaning of the divine name and thus the very person of God are revealed in the two texts. The first one exposes what God will do when he discloses His name to Moses on the mountain, and the second one exegetes the content of that meaning.
The first text anticipates the second. Moses wishes to see the divine glory and God permits him to see the divine goodness — tantamount to proclaiming the divine name in his hearing.”

Stephen G. Dempster
Dominion and Dynasty; A theology of the Hebrew Bible — pg. 105-106

What must not be missed here, if Dempster is correct, is that God binds up His name and the exegesis of His name not only with the idea of His graciousness, mercy, longsuffering, goodness, truth, justice and forgiveness but also with the idea of divine freedom, or as Calvinists prefer, divine sovereignty. God’s very name is and means His ability to have compassion and to not have compassion on whom He sovereignly chooses and refuses to choose.

Of course, legion are the name of the Evangelicals who refuse to accept this proposition. Per, the expansive Arminian camp inside Evangelicalism it is absolutely denied that this is the character of God’s name. God’s name is not “divine freedom,” but “divine lack of freedom.”

If God says is divine freedom is the very essence of who He is, doesn’t it teeter on the denial of God to deny God’s freedom? Of course this divine freedom operates in the context of grace, mercy, forgiveness, long-suffering and goodness but as Pharaoh discovered it also operates in the context of justice and wrath.

To deny God His essence by denying Him is divine freedom is to create an idol instead of God. Hard Arminians, never mind Open Theists have taken to themselves a God who is not the God as God names and exegetes Himself in Exodus 33 & 34.

There’s A New Proletariat Kid In Town

In Classical Marxism the enemy is the Bourgeoisie because owning the means of production they are the oppressor class to the oppressed proletariat. As such the workers of the world must unite to throw off the economically forged chains of the bourgeoisie. Said action, if successful, brings in Utopia where all are economically equal.

In Gramscian Marxism (Cultural Marxism) the enemy is not only the bourgeoisie but is also inclusive of those who are cultural creators or gatekeepers as together they own not only the means of production but also they have the hegemonic power to create and sustain the narrative that keeps the oppressed, oppressed. In Gramscian Marxism the proletariat is comprised of all those who, not only are deprived the means of production, but also of all those who are in rebellion to the narrative that the oppressors use to oppress them in their defiance. We might style this new proletariat as “the grievance class.” These are those who have comprised the counter-cultural flotsam and jetsam who have lived in defiance of the culture created by the largely (though not exhaustively) Christian, White, Patriarchal, and morally traditional, cultural creators and gatekeepers.

Classical Marxism and Gramscian Marxism both attacked the foundation of Christianity as the cornerstone problem they believed they needed to rid themselves of. Classical Marxism focused on economic Christianity as its enemy. Gramscian Marxism’s assault was and is much broader, much more inclusive compared to the much narrower proletariat in Classical Marxism, and much more comprehensive in terms of all it stands opposed.

This give explanatory power then to who comprises the new proletariat. The new proletariat is comprised of minorities who have been convinced that the white man, uniquely, oppressed them in their origins, the pervert who has been convinced that sexuality is not a matter of the structure of the Cosmos, the female who has been convinced likewise that gender is not a matter of the structure of the Cosmos, together with the remaining Classical Marxist economic proletariat. Throw in the guilt ridden white man and woman conditioned by the cultural zeitgeist, Academia which seems to believe that there is forgiveness to be found for a largely misinterpreted past in fanning the flames of envy, the contemporary church which is reinterpreting Christianity in light of Gramscian Marxism, and now Corporate America which sees dollar weight shifting in favor of the triumph of Gramscian Marxism and one discovers that the new proletariat is both the voting base of the Democratic party and the roll call for the modern clergy

Sheol and Egalitarianism

The Hebrew word “sheol” occurs 66 times in the OT, 58 times in poetry. The frequent prepositions with it show that it refers to the grave. The biblical poets use rich and varied figures to depict it. Sheol has a mouth (Ps. 141:7) that “enlarges” (Is. 5:14), and it is “never satisfied” (Prov. 27:20, 30:16). It is so powerful that no one escapes its grip (Ps. 89:48 [49]; Song 8:6). It is like a prison with “cords” (II Sam. 22:6) and a land that has “gates” (Isa. 38:10) with “bars” (Job 17:16). Here corruption is “the father,” and the worm “the mother and sister (Job 17:13-14). It is “a land” of no return to this life (Job 7:9), an abode where all social and religious distinctions cease. Rich and poor (Job 3:18-19), righteous and wicked (Job 3:17, Ps. 49:10) lie together. It is a land of silence (Ps. 94:17), darkness (Ps. 13:3 [4]), weakness and oblivion (Ps. 88:11-18 [12-19]). The destructive nature of this realm is intensified by “Abbadon” (Job 28:22; Parov. 15:11; 27:20; Gk. Apollyon, from apoleia, “destruction” [Rev. 19:11]. Pity Job — he finds the prospect of the grave better than life! (Job 10:18-22)

Bruce Waltke
An Old Testament Theology — pg. 965

Note especially, concerning Sheol

“… an abode where all social and religious distinctions cease. Rich and poor (Job 3:18-19), righteous and wicked (Job 3:17, Ps. 49:10) lie together.”

Sheol is where egalitarian utopia is finally fully implemented. Those who advocate for Egalitarianism are the advocates for Sheol (the grave) and the only thing Egalitarianism can produce is a grave social order. In Sheol we find perfect equality and the perfect equality that the Cultural Marxists (both “Christians” and non Christians) are aiming for will yield a grave like existence.

And the ironic thing is that the egalitarianism that is being pursued isn’t even serious. Egalitarianism is a smoke screen to put a global Elite into ascendancy over all the rest of the cattle mankind.