McAtee Contra Rev. Jim Cassidy’s Putrid R2K

“The anabaptist view of church and state is not two kingdom, but one. They want to apply Christian morality to the sphere of the magistrate. And since Christ said love your enemy and turn the other cheek, the state is to be wholly pacifist.

Unfortunately, the anabaptists are sorely mistaken. The Reformed have always recognized the legitimate role of the state to use coercive force, and to punish according to the lex talionis principle. They also recognize that Christian morality in love of enemy and forgiveness of sin is required of believers.

How do these two things sweetly comply? Only according to a Reformed version of two kingdom theology as you find, for example, classically defined in James Bannerman.

The basis and powers of church and state are distinct. The church’s basis is love and service empowered by the Word. The state’s basis is retributive justice empowered by the sword.”

Rev. Jim Cassidy

OPC Minister

Once again we see the Clergy get matters all bollixed up. Really, are we even surprised any longer?

1.) AnaBaptists, not wanting anything to do with”the world” were clearly two Kingdom. They understood that there was their own community and that there were those who were not part of their community. They believed one set of principles guided their own Kingdom they lived in while believing that another set of principles governed over those “outside the faith.” Can you say “Two Kingdoms” Jim?

This is the same reasoning R2K uses. There is one set of principles for the church realm, as set by God’s special revelation, and another set of principles for everywhere else as set by Natural Law. The only difference is that R2K calls that realm ruled by Natural Law “common,” whereas the Anabaptist call that realm not ruled by their community, “wicked.” In the end, R2K’s “common” looks a great deal like the Anabaptist’s “wicked.” We only have a changing out of the word used.

Now to be sure, inside the Anabaptist Kingdom the Anabaptists believed that God’s word applied to all matters but as they were (and are) terrible heretics are we surprised that they got that all bollixed up? All because the heretical Anabaptists misapply God’s Word to their living in their communities is that reason to think that God’s Word can’t be properly applied to all areas of life. Cornelius Van Til put it this way;

“All proper human activity is therefore activity within the Kingdom of the Christ.”

CVT

Christianity and Barthianism — p. 228

And again;

“You cannot expect to train intelligent, well-informed soldiers of the cross of Christ unless the Christ is held up before them as the Lord of culture as well as the Lord of religion.”

Cornelius Van Til

I quote CVT here because Cassidy likes to think of himself as a CVT fan. Cassidy clearly doesn’t understand CVT.One more from Van Til’s nephew;

The radical, totalitarian character of religion is such, then, that it determines both man’s cultus and his culture. That is to say, the conscious or unconscious relationship to God in a man’s heart determines all of his activities, whether theoretical or practical. This is true of philosophy, which is based upon non-theoretical, religious presuppositions. Thus man’s morality and economics, his jurisprudence and his aesthetics, are all religiously oriented and determined.

Henry Van Til
Calvinist Concept of Culture

2.) Cassidy is wrong to suggest that in the Reformed view the Magistrate has to always follow Lex Talionis in adjudication. That is clearly seen in Reformed Magistrates practicing commutation and pardoning for those who, according to the Lex Talionis, should received punishment. That this is Biblical is seen in Jesus parable of the unforgiving debtor where the Magistrate forgives the debtor his great debt.

3.) Love of enemy and Lex Talionis doth sweetly comply when in each case we exercise what is required of God’s law towards both our enemies and towards those who are before the magistrate, inasmuch as we do unto them what is assigned to us in our particular jurisdictions.

4.) When the State gives retributive justice empowered by the sword it is at that time practicing love and service empowered by the Word.

That is not to deny that Church and State have distinct functions. It is true that the Church proclaims grace while the State provides justice but there is false dichotomy in Cassidy’s thinking. When the Church practices discipline there is justice going on and when the State practices discipline there is love and service going on. It is merely that these look different in different jurisdictional realms. The State does not have the keys and the Church does not have the sword but they still, in a Biblical order, doth sweetly comply.

Cassidy’s R2K is heterodox at best.

Are The Jews Still The Chosen People? …. Are the Jews Today Really Jews?

Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.

Mt. 12:31

You stiff-necked people with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit, just as your fathers did.

Acts 7:51

Read in the context of the unfolding of Redemptive history these passages should be coupled together. In Matthew Jesus communicates that Blasphemy against the Son will be forgiven but blasphemy against the Spirit would not be forgiven. That Israel blasphemed the Son is clearly seen in their crucifying Jesus and by screaming…. “His blood be upon us and our seed.”

When we get to acts we see Stephen saying that Israel is now blaspheming the Holy Spirit as seen in always resisting the Holy Spirit. Throughout the book of Acts we see Israel blaspheming the Holy Spirit by rejecting the messengers of Christ. At this point there are multiple witnesses to this blaspheming of the Spirit.

In light of this Blasphemy of the Spirit, in AD 70 Christ serves divorce papers on Israel and cuts them out of the Olive Tree (Romans 11). Before that time the Israel of God among the Hebrews are gathered into Christ and so when the divorce papers are served in AD 70 it is true what was predictive in Romans 11 that “all Israel was saved.”

This reading fits with the multitudinous passages in the New Testament that communicate that God was done with (divorced) Israel. First we have the parable of the non-productive fig tree (Luke 13:6-9) which finds the servant conceding to cut down the barren fig tree (Israel) if it does not produce fruit after a year (it didn’t). Then there is Jesus cursing the fig tree, saying; “May you never produce fruit again (Matthew 21:18ff) .”

The most clear indication that God was done with the Jews is seen in Matthew 21:33-46. Here it is clearly and unmistakably taught that the Jews are divorced and cast out.  In the story a landowner plants a vineyard, lets it out to farmers, and moves far away (33). The landowner represents God and the farmers represent the Jews (45). When harvest time comes, the owner of the vineyard sends servants to collect his share of the fruit, but the farmers beat, kill, and stone these servants (35). These servants represent the prophets (Luke 11:47) God sent to the Jews through the centuries, and how the Jews mistreated such prophets (Luke 13:34). Lastly the landowner sends his son to collect, but the farmers kill him also. This son represents God’s son Jesus Christ of course.

Jesus asks his audience in verse 40 “When the lord therefore of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen?” His audience correctly answers “He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen ….” Jesus reaffirms this conclusion by saying in verse 43 “The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.” Precipitated by their longtime disobedience, with the final straw being the killing of the son of God (Matt 23:37-38), the kingdom of God would be taken from the Jews and given to the Gentiles. In AD 70 the Lord of the vineyard came in His judgment coming and He miserably destroyed Israel, scattering them to the wind in the destruction of the Temple and of Jerusalem. In this judgment coming of the Lord Christ the Jews as a people were eternally divorced by God never to be grafted in again to the Olive Tree as a nation. Certainly, individual Jews can be, and praise God are saved but as a people God is done with the Jews.

So read Redemptive Historically, the blaspheming of the Holy Spirt was committed by Israel and they were cut off for that blasphemy (much as the faithless generation in Canaan was cut off from the promised land), just as Jesus had prophetically spoken as recorded in the NT.

As such we know that to interpret Romans 11 as still being future to us about a great ingathering of the Jews is a misinterpretation of the passage.  The ingathering of Jews spoken of there in Romans 11 was future to Paul but past to us and indeed throughout the book of Acts, starting with Pentecost, we do see many Jews grafted back into the olive tree of Romans 11, and in the end all of Israel who was the Israel of God was saved before that AD 70 return.

Also, one has to consider the mistake it is to read Romans 11 as if it referred to physical Israel because in Romans 9 God had clearly stated that “not all of Israel is of Israel.” So, this idea that God still has work to do with the Jewish nation that is tied to His eschatological clock is just bollix. National Israel is in no way tied to God’s eschatological clock, though as postmillennialists we believe that what Jews remain upon the coming of Christ many will be saved as being part of other nations.

We note this final thought above due to the fact that it is an open question as to how many genetic Jews exist yet today. The book, “The Thirteenth Tribe” by Arthur Koestler, as one example, questions whether those whom we call “Jews” today are really, in fact, genetically Jews. Most of them seem to be from Khazaria or are Edomites. The ironic thing is that lately there are reports that the Palestinians in Israel who are being slaughtered by “the Jews” are indeed more Semitic than the Israelis killing them. Of course if it is true that those called “the Jews” today are Khazaria then the whole infrastructure of much of Evangelical and evene Reformed theology has the ground cut out from underneath of it. For the Reformed, if this is true, they will definitely need to re-adjust their interpretation of Romans 11.

From The Mailbag — Could You Give A “Back Of The Napkin” Explanation Of Kinism?

“Hey brother, when you have a minute could you sketch out for me a quick ‘back of the napkin ‘ explanation of kinism and what the opponents of kinism are all twisted up about. Just haven’t been able to nail it down. No rush, I know you are with family and it is Advent, so whenever you are inclined.

Thanks.”

Kyle Patrick

Hello Kyle;

Thanks for asking.

Remember, per your request this is a back of the napkin kind of explanation. Much more could be said.

Kinism is the doctrine that God, by His creative and providential work has set men in families, clans, tribes, and nations and because of that there is a natural and biblical requirement to prioritize and order our loves in just such a fashion.

Kinist do NOT deny that they also have responsibilities to those who share a common faith who are not in those concentric circles of natural responsibilities but they recognize that normatively we are to provide for our own relatives and especially for members of our own household, realizing that the man who does not prioritize his own Kin has denied the faith and is worse than an infidel.

Further, Kinists do NOT believe that conversion strips a man of his race, nation, tribe, clan, or family. Instead, Kinists believe that grace restores nature and as such conversion and sanctification lifts us to be the best sons, daughters, fathers, husbands, Uncles, Aunts to our own people that God in creation intended us to be.

In brief Kinism is anti-Gnosticism.

Finally, people (especially Christian Clergy it seems) are all tied up into knots and hysterical about Kinism because;

1.) They were educated in Government schools and so have bought into the egalitarian swill.

2.) They think the civil rights era was all about Christianity when in point of fact it was all about Marxism.

3.) They are afraid of the peer pressure. Their children might not be able to marry just the right people. They might not get the promotion at work. They might get shunned by friends for believing Christian truths held for every generation by Christians until 1950 or so. Most people are basically cowards.

4.) They follow the crowd.

I hope this helps Kyle. If you have more questions I’d be glad to field them if I am able.

How Stupid Can A Supreme Court Justice Be — Reflection on William O. Douglas

“To say therefore that the search for truth is not man’s mission may seem to some to be the ultimate sin. But those who construct a political system on the basis of their truth create Totalitarianism…. Truth is not the goal, for in most areas, no one knows what truth is.”

William O. Douglas — 1898 – 1980
Former Supreme Court Justice of the United States
Book — Freedom of the Mind

Wm. O. Douglas was the longest serving SCOTUS Justice in US history. He was remembered by TIME magazine as “the most doctrinaire and committed civil libertarian ever to sit on the court.” The quote above demonstrates that. Wm. O. Douglas also demonstrated his lack of concern for truth in his life as he burned through three marriages before finally marrying a fourth time to a woman 46 years his junior.

Wm. Douglas wanted to avoid truth in his political system so as to avoid totalitarianism and he says this not realizing what an idiot he is as he is now pursuing the construction of a political systems based on the truth of no truth, sure to end up in the totalitarianism of relativism.

And this is EXACTLY where we have come. Douglas’ vision has won the day.

Look, in the end those who are opposed to whatever truth is incarnated in a political system (even if true truth) are going to scream “totalitarianism.” If God’s truth was made the standard in our political system wicked men would insist that they are living under tyranny, just as I scream “tyranny” having to live under a political system that gives us the truth of Satan’s truth.

This statement also ties in for us the inevitable connection between theology and law. All law is a conviction regarding truth. Even the law of relativism is a conviction regarding truth. Truth can never be arrived at without theology. Wm. O. Douglas’ Theology was “man the center,” since Douglas presupposes there is no transcendent God who can provide truth for any political system.

The fact that anybody ever thought that Douglas was some kind of judicial intellect is just amazing. This guy is a full blown idiot. A college sophomore could write such drivel.

Ehud & Bret Tag Team On Kinism

“Even if imperfectly conceived under the various schools of paganism, race consciousness, nationalism, segregation, and anti-miscegenation laws were normative in the ancient world. And the exceptions wherein integration was promoted were invariably in terms of the most aggressive anti-Christ imperial orders such as Babylon, Assyria, Babel, the Soviet Union, and the UN.”

Ehud Would
Faith and Heritage — pg. 327

I think we have to add the US, Europe, Australia, and South Africa to that list now.

God’s revelation teaches us that Nationalism is the Biblical social order and Nationalism by definition means a people descending from a common ancestor. Now, certainly Kinists understand that the pursuit of “one drop” rules is nonsense and so intuit that nations can exist while having within their borders those who do not belong to the core people group, but the fact that exceptions might exist doesn’t change the rule.

Also, it should be said here that Kinists pursue these truths out of love for God and love for others. It is not love to kith and kin to allow the social order to become mamzer. Indeed to be party to such is to hate God, our children, and our neighbor.

However, now we must realize that we have lived 60 years in the mad pursuit of a social order that is essentially a disintegration into the void. Our identity is increasingly become one of non-identity — a nihilistic approach if one ever existed.

Such a program, unless arrested, will end in blood and chaos. Empires always eventually fly apart. We have seen this in our lifetimes with the evaporation of the former USSR.

And whose purpose does this mass integration serve? It serves the goals and designs of Marxism, which is itself the theology of Hell. The end goal is the elimination of peoples, places, and family. If all are kin then nobody is kin.
Of course all this is driven by the desire to destroy the Creator-Creature distinction. If no horizontal distinctions exist as between peoples than the final assault on destroying the distinction between God and man is more easily achieved. Or, if one prefers, the destruction of horizontal distinctions is birthed by the present reality that the distinction between God and man has been blotted out. However, one argues this, the loss of peoples, places, and families is intended to pull Christ off His throne and destroy the faith once forever delivered to the Saints.

If we lose here we lose everything.

And that is why we will not lose. God will no more be mocked in 2024 in His world than He would not be mocked at the tower of Babel.

Those who fight against Christian Nationalism/Kinism/Ethno-Nationalism war against heaven. In this warfare against God Christians are especially going to be sorrowful and sorry for ever calling righteousness wickedness.

In my world, such people if  upon being instructed in the Christian faith on this matter continue to insist on “cosmopolitanism,” “Liberalism” and “Alienism,” are outside the faith.