With R2K Darryl Hart Becomes An Orthodox Gnostic

Just a few lines regarding Gnostikoi Hart’s latest temper tantrum over at moldlife.

1.) D. Gnostikoi Hart accuses me of a lack of intelligence. Now this is what we would expect from someone of the Gnostic faith. I don’t have the special knowledge that Gnostikoi Hart has therefore I must lack intelligence. In Darryl’s Gnostic world intelligence equals having a special knowledge that only the enlightened Gnostikoi can have. All others are obviously just too stupid to plumb the secret knowledge.

2.) Darryl complains that without his special knowledge I can not have certainty. Darryl’s R2K teaches him that no one can have certainty regarding finding solutions to social woes in Scripture. Here we see that Darryl can find certain knowledge in the Scripture that one can’t be certain but those who disagree with R2K can’t find certainty.

Now lets tease this out. Darryl insists that R2k, “denies the certainty that supposedly comes with finding the solutions to social woes in Scripture .”

In light of this, let’s make a small list,

a.) Sodomite marriage — R2K denies the certainty that supposedly comes with finding the solutions to social woes in Scripture.

b.) Abortion — R2K denies the certainty that supposedly comes with finding the solutions to social woes in Scripture.

c.) Passing laws allowing Bestiality — R2K denies the certainty that supposedly comes with finding the solutions to social woes in Scripture.

d.) Killing off 4 million Ukrainian Kulaks in a policy of political starvation — R2K denies the certainty that supposedly comes with finding the solutions to social woes in Scripture.

e.) The State pursues a policy where it owns all property — R2K denies the certainty that supposedly comes with finding the solutions to social woes in Scripture.

f.) The State pursues a policy wherein they have legal ownership of all children — R2K denies the certainty that supposedly comes with finding the solutions to social woes in Scripture.

3.) Darryl complains about my lack of intelligence and yet he seems to hold that somehow having a “B” in one’s name accounts for why people reject R2K. I suppose in Darryl’s special Gnostikoi knowledge “B” is an evil letter that has less light in it then the letters D-A-R-Y- and L.

4.) Yes, R2K, destroys the Gospel. Any “Christian” movement that has ministers holding that it would not be an offense unto discipline if a Church member campaigned politically to overturn laws forbidding bestiality obviously is destructive of the Gospel. Any “Christian” movement who has Seminary professors saying publicly that Christianity can allow into its membership, those who advocate that sodomite civil unions should be made legal is a movement that is destructive to the Gospel. This is really not that controversial.

5.) Darryl seems to think that teaching Economics in the context of a Christian Worldview is destructive of the Gospel. I would dearly love to see that teased out.

6.) Darryl accuses me of being Manichean. Actually that is not true since a Manichean worldview would require me to believe that God and Satan are equally equipoised against each other so that neither of them can advance. I simply don’t believe that. God is sovereign. Satan does absolutely zero to resist God’s sovereign doing. Darryl is just practicing the politics of personal destruction when he suggests that I am Manichean. (Isn’t it interesting how the dualists accuse the non-dualists of dualism?)

7.) Darryl will have to take it up with Scripture when I talk about the Kingdom of God rolling back this present wicked age. Colossians 1 says that, Christians have been translated from the dominion of Darkness to the Kingdom of God’s dear Son. I am merely using the language of Scripture when I write about the triumph of God’s Kingdom over the opposition of the Serpent. No Manicheanism here.

8.) Darryl reveals his lack of suppleness in his thinking when he doesn’t seem to understand that many people I read and recommend others to read can have insight precisely because they have stolen Christian capital in their own Worldviews and writings. This stolen capital thus make them worthy of reading. It’s called plundering the Egyptians from what they plundered from us to begin with. Even an intelligent Professor like Darryl ought to understand this. In this complaint Darryl really reveals his lack of understanding of non R2K positions. We need to have compassion, patience and sympathy upon those who struggle to understand.

9.) Poor, confused Darryl asks,

“But how can Rabbi B account for the truths that non-believers, people who belong to Satan’s kingdom, see?”

Now anyone who has read Van Til could answer this even if in a haze. The answer is that they have borrowed capital in their worldview. No Worldview is perfectly anti-Christ and so Christ haters will often import, inconsistently, Christian capital into their worldview to get their Christ hating agenda off the ground. Has Darryl never read Van Til?

10.) Darryl’s accusation that I employ the antithesis only when convenient has been put to rest by #8 and #9. What Darryl then proceeds to tell us is that he employs the antithesis only when convenient. It is convenient for Darryl to employ it when it comes to Church membership. But it is not convenient to use it when using it in 95% of his living that goes on outside the Church.

11.) Darryl mentions God’s Kingdom vs. Christ’s Kingdom. Is that Kind of like the Dispensational distinction between the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Heaven?

Seriously though … I get Darryl’s putative point. According to R2K, God rules over all things providentially but has entrusted to Christ a Spiritual Kingdom that has nothing to do with God’s providential rule outside the Church.

I’ll just speak to that via a quote from Ridderbos. Darryl’s worldview capacity may not allow him to understand this quote but certainly others will.

“But the Kingdom of God also defines the Church in its relation to the world. The Church has a foundation of its own, has its own rules, its own mode of existence. But precisely because of the fact that it is the Church of the Kingdom, it has also a positive relation with the world, for the Kingdom of God is seeking acceptance in the world.
A sower went forth to sow. And the field is the world. That is why the Church is seeking catholicity. And this catholicity has a double aspect, one of extension and one of intensity, in accordance with the nature of the Kingdom. So the Church is as wide as the world. The horizons of the world are also the horizons of the Church; therefore its urge to carry on missionary work, to emigrate, to cross frontiers. This is because the Church is the
Church of the Kingdom. She is not allowed to be self-contained.

But there is also an intensive catholicity of the Church because of the Kingdom. The Church is related to life as a whole. It is not a drop of oil on troubled waters. It has a mission in this world and in the entire structure of the world. This statement does not arise from cultural optimism. This is the confession of the kingship of Christ. For this reason, too, the Church is the Church of the Kingdom.

And the third remark is my concluding one: as Church of the Kingdom, the Church is seeking the future. She has received her talents for the present. But her Lord who went into a far country will return. Her waiting for Him consists of working. Otherwise she will hear: What have you done with my talent?”

Herman Ridderbos,
“When the Time Had Fully Come: Studies in New Testament Theology”

Random Thoughts Connecting Pelagianism to Modernity and Theistic Evolution

1. Pelagians “deny original sin”.

Sin is not transmitted to the whole human race by Adam’s fall. Sin grew by imitation. Thus, infants are free from original sin.

Pelagius insisted that God would not command something of man that man cannot accomplish. He reasoned that a divine command implies human ability (responsibility implies ability). A favorite saying of his was, “If I ought, I can.” Therefore, he taught that no one inherited the sin nature from Adam nor were they ‘born in sin’. Infants are born tabula rasa (Latin for a ‘blank slate’) and are therefore perfectly capable of obeying and pleasing God. His error here on the fundamental doctrine of original sin led to his belief that a person could live a sinless life. He said that, “a man can be without sin and keep the commandments of God, if he wishes.”

According to St. Augustine the Pelagians held

“. . . actual sin has not been transmitted from the first man to other persons by natural descent, but by imitation. Hence, likewise, they refuse to believe that in infants original sin is remitted through baptism, for they contend that no such original sin exists at all in people by their birth”

This is contrary of course to the Romans 3:9-20 but also to passages like Psalm 51:5.

5 Behold, I was born in iniquity, and in sin hath my mother conceived me.

What the Pelagians held to is the idea of sin by imitation and what this meant is that in order for sin to be eliminated bad examples need to be eliminated. This is called environmentalism. It is the idea that we sin because of bad examples around us. Our Parents set a bad example and we imitate it. Our extended family sets a bad example and we imitate it. This inevitably leads to a conclusion that the way to rid sin is to change the environment where all the bad examples are being set. This in turn, when given its head, leads to all kinds of social engineering projects whereby the attempt is made to create a better social environment so that we can create a New Humanist Man and so arrive at a better if not perfect world.

In this regard we live in a Pelagian world. People are not held responsible for their sin because their sin isn’t their fault. It is the fault of the environment. And so the Psychology industry booms as this industry is used to provide a type of salvation in helping us to overcome our environment and so become a righteous people. The Psychologist tells the patient that what is responsible for their behavior is environmentally driven. Whereas the minister tells the person that they in their sin are responsible for their behavior.

And so the Christian answer to this has always been that the problem is NOT that the sinful environment creates sinners who imitate its example but rather the problem is that sinners create sinful environments. The solution then is NOT to change the environment to change sinners. The solution is to change sinners in order to change the environment and this is done by the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit in the context of the Preaching of the Gospel and the setting forth of the Sacraments.

2. Pelagians “say that the grace of God whereby we are justified is not given freely, but according to our merit”.

Of course this is a denial that we were “Dead in our Trespasses and sins.”

From this claim stems three associated errors to back it up.

First, free will is inherent in the nature of man such that there is an “absolute autonomy for the will. Thus, for Pelagius freedom would be destroyed if the will were inclined to evil because of sin or if it needed to be strengthened by another’s help”. So, we have the denial of any interior influence on free will. The will is free.

Pelagianism, concerned to protect this Free Will, insisted that if people are born sinners by nature (if sin is something we inherit) it would be unjust for God to hold individual sinners responsible for their sin. That is why Pelagius reasoned that the human will must be totally free—inclined to neither good nor evil—or else our choices cannot be free. If our choices are not free, then we cannot be held responsible for what we do. So, how can we be held responsible for how we were born?

And the answer to this is simply that we can be held responsible by God for how we were born because we are responsible in as much as we are in Adam.

Romans 5:18 [a]Likewise then, as by the offense of one, the fault came on all men to condemnation, so by the justifying of one, the benefit abounded toward all men to the [b]justification of life.

Pelagianism denies this covenantal union in favor of the each and every sovereign individual.

All of this leads to the second error that the Law in the Old Testament as well as the preaching and example of Christ are only an external influence on us.

By external influence only the Pelagian believes that it is a influence by our observation or learning. We see the example of Christ we learn the law and then we can follow them. There is no necessity of a renewing work within us. Once observing Christ’s example. Once learning the law we can do it on our own.

Augustine summarized against this by saying,

“. .. by the law of works, God says to us, Do what I command thee; but by the law of faith we say to God, Give me what Thou commandest. Now this is the reason why the Law gives its command,—to admonish us what faith ought to do, that is, that he to whom the command is given, if he is as yet unable to perform it, may know what to ask for; but if he has at once the ability, and complies with the command, he ought also to be aware from whose gift the ability comes”.

Scripture teaches consistently that it is God’s grace working within us that is prior to our working out what God commands.

Philippians 2:12-13 — “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”

Third, Jesus came to remit our past sins only, forgiveness of which we merit through good acts, but with no reference to power over sins in the future. Grace as understood by Pelagius becomes a totally external act from God to enlighten us that “we may have from the Lord God the help of knowledge, whereby we may know those things which have to be done.”

3. They “say that in mortal man . . . there is so great righteousness that even after the washing of regeneration, until he finishes this life of his, forgiveness of sins is not necessary to him”.

And so Pelagians held that a perfection could be reached in this life.

St. Augustine’s definition of perfection included a true self-awareness of one’s imperfection coupled with a movement forward toward Christ-likeness. Augustine leveraged passages like Philippians 3 where St. Paul says he desire to,

Phil. 3:11 be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith … 12 Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.

So God gives us righteousness in Christ by faith not by our own righteousness in keeping the Law as the Pelagians would have us believe. St. Augustine says the righteousness the Pelagians are describing in this life will only be attained in our resurrected bodies in the next.

Bible scholars at the time of Pelagius recognized the contradiction between Pelagiaus teachings and Scripture. As a result, Pelagianism was condemned as heretical at church councils that included the Councils of Carthage (in 412, 416 and 418), the Council of Ephesus (431) and the Council of Orange (529). Pelagians remains as outside of orthodoxy today as it was 1600 years ago.

But their is a New Pelagianism in town and it is married to Modernity and it is called “Theistic Evolution.” Along the way I hope to tie Theistic evolution to Pelagianism. Theistic evolution is the idea that Evolution is true but adds the twist that God is the one who kicked off Evolution and who is guiding it along the way. At least some variants of Theistic evolution are teaching,

“that people do not all originate with Adam and Eve but that, “humans descended from a group of several thousand individuals who lived about 150,000 years ago.”

This attack on the historical reality of Adam and Eve, typical of Modernity, but now also found among those promoting Theistic Evolution is now in the Homeschool community through a reach out organization called Biologos,

In 2010 BioLogos president Darrel Falk wrote:

“Option #1 [that Adam and Eve are actual historical people] is the standard argument put forward by those who believe in a young earth created by God in six twenty-four hour days less than 10,000 years ago. BioLogos exists in no small part to marginalize this view from the Church. A fundamental part of our mission is to show that Option #1 is not tenable.”

This idea has been floating around at least since 1925,

“The evolution of man from lower forms of life was in itself a new and startling fact, and one that broke up the old theology. I and my contemporaries, however, accepted it as fact. The first and most obvious result of this acceptance was that we are compelled to regard the Biblical story of the Fall as not historic, as it had long been believed to be. We were compelled to regard that story as a primitive attempt to account for the presence of sin and evil in the world …. But now, in the light of the fact of evolution, the Fall, as a historic event, already questioned on other grounds, was excluded and denied by science.”

Charles E. Merriam
New Aspects of Politics, 3rd Edition — pp. 59-60

This idea though is not restricted to the Homeschool community or in musty old books but has even been recently promulgated in the CRC Banner when it was written and published this past May that,

“Traditionally we’ve been taught that Adam and Eve were the first human pair, Adam made out of dust and Eve from one of Adam’s ribs. But sustaining this doctrine is extremely difficult when we take seriously the human race as we know it today sharing ancestry with other primates such as chimpanzees. Where in the slow evolution of homo erectus and homo habilis and homo sapiens do Adam and Eve fit? We will have to find a better way of understanding what Genesis tells us about Adam and Eve, one that does justice to Genesis and also to what the Bible teaches about their connection to Jesus.”

The fact that Pelagainism is among us in terms of a Modernity that desires to interpret all of reality via the centrality of man is seen even in the CRC Banner’s Pelagian suggestion that we need to re-think Original Sin. In the quote that follows you find the Pelagainism of Modernity being advocated,

“According to this doctrine (Original Sin), the fall of Adam and Eve is an actual historical event that plunged the entire human race into sin. Ever since, both the guilt of sin and the pollution of sin, theologically speaking, have been passed on from parent to child in such a way that we all come into the world tainted by them. We say that our children are conceived and born in sin. But if Adam and Eve are not understood as real historical people, then there can hardly be an inheritance of sinfulness from parent to child all the way back to Adam—in which case the entire doctrine of original sin falls by the wayside. We will have to find a better way of understanding not only what sin is but its effect on the population in general—a way that does justice both to the Bible and to science and that helps us understand how sin works in our own lives under God.”

So, the point here is that even though Pelagianism was rejected over 1500 years ago it is making a comeback via Theistic Evolution which itself is just one component of the Modernity project.

And I’m hoping that you will join with me in giving up all this Theistic Evolution, this Modernity, This Pelagianism for Lent.

Another aspect of this is to understand that the current Pelagian Modernity project also falls under the head of interpreting the Bible with a anti-supernatural presupposition. In other words, what the Pelagain Modernity project is doing as it puts forward Theistic Evolution is that it begins with the assumption that the Supernatural can not be true and then proceeds from there reinterpreting all the supernatural of the Scriptures in the context of naturalistic presuppositions.

So, what we have is Modernity coming into the Church via Theistic Evolution and the consequence is a new kind of Pelagianism in the Church where not only Original Sin is denied but also nearly all the doctrines that make Christianity — Christianity. The result then is a Christianity that would not be recognizable to the Saints who have gone before.

Illustration — Egg

Here is the lesson:

As the Church has repeatedly rejected Pelagius assertion that Adam’s sin and guilt was NOT transferred to all of Adam’s descendants how is that we now are suggesting, in keeping with Modernity, that Adam was not a real person in space and time History? What our Denomination is promoting in print is far worse than what Pelagius promoted. At least Pelagius believed Adam was a real person who lived in space and time. This Denomination and many others are advocating, in keeping with Modernity, that all of Christianity must be re-tooled in order to fit the hair-brained speculations of a Science that is uninformed by Christian presuppositions.

Romans 5:18 teaches,

18 Therefore, as one trespass[a] led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness[b] leads to justification and life for all men.

You see the problem here right? If there was no historical Adam and no fall and so no original sin then that calls into question the whole characterizing of the Lord Christ as the Second Adam who takes away our sin and provides for a positive righteousness which Adam forfeited. If we lose a real Adam and Eve, a real Fall into sin, and the reality of Original Sin we lose the Faith once forever delivered unto the Saints. If we lose Original sin we lose Christ crucified.

And we are of all men to be pitied.

Now a brief word about Science. The way that Modernity desires to frame this is that this is a contest between Science and Theology. Nothing could be further from the truth. As I have taught you here repeatedly, Science is worldview and Theology dependent. This is not a contest between the facts of Science vs. Ideas from the Bible. This is a contest between a Science that is informed by a Christian worldview vs. a Science that is informed by a Pagan Worldview. It is a clash of Theologies. But the Modernity / Pelagian cause is advanced by telling you that Scripture has been overwhelmed by their Science. Don’t you believe it. Remember, scientific “facts” require a philosophy of fact to make sense and if your philosophy of fact is in error all your facts will be in error. We are contending that the Theistic Evolutionists who are part of the Modernity project have their philosophy of fact wrong and so their are serious problems with their facts.

Illustration — Puzzle Box.

Conclusion,

This has vast implications,

If you would like to see the consequences of this Pelagian version of Modernity that yields a theology where original sin is denied — the place to look is at the Soviet Gulags, the Cambodian Killing Fields, or the Cuban Psychiatric wards. If man has no original sin then we have no reason to think that man is basically sinful. If man is a blank slate and not sinful then man can be molded to become a better if not perfect human being. Historically speaking, part of that molding process is the Gulag, the killing fields, and the Communist Psychiatric wards.

If man is not basically sinful then man is either basically good, and only needs to discover his goodness, or man is neutral and so is a plastic that can be molded to fit the State’s ends and so needs to be socially engineered to achieve Utopian desires.

Most people don’t have the capacity to trace out the consequences of their ideas and so they unwittingly embrace what their Church is doing in reinterpreting Christianity through a Modernity grid that resurrects Pelagianism via theistic evolution.

The few of us who get it must raise our voice to protest this silliness that, if given its head, will get us all killed.

Timbers Forcing On Us A New Slavery — Timber #1 New Plausibility Structure For Marriage, Sex, and Family

In 1858, in his “Housed Divided” speech Abraham Lincoln complained about what he saw as a conspiracy between Stephen Douglass, Roger Taney, Franklin Pierce, and James Buchanan to force upon the Nation slavery.

“When we see a lot of framed timbers, different portions of which we know have been gotten out at different times and places and by different workmen — Stephen, Franklin, Roger, and James, for instance — and when we see these timbers joined together, and see they exactly make the frame of a house or a mill, all the tenons and mortices exactly fitting, and all the lengths and proportions of the different pieces exactly adapted to their respective places, and not a piece too many or too few — not omitting even scaffolding — or, if a single piece be lacking, we can see the place in the frame exactly fitted and prepared to yet bring such piece in — in such a case, we find it impossible not to believe that Stephen and Franklin and Roger and James all understood one another from the beginning, and all worked upon a common plan or draft drawn up before the first lick was struck.”

We live in similar times where we are seeing a lot of framed timbers by different workmen being constructed to the particular end of forcing upon the Nation a new slavery. As Biblical Christians we view the current social order and see any number of social ills present. What we don’t tend to see, I think, is the fact that these social ills are all serving a unified purpose, end, and goal. That purpose, end and goal is the complete unraveling of what small residue of a Christian Worldview that remains among us as a people. The goal in this piece is to look at the timber of sexual perversion as one of many means of destroying the little remaining residue of the Christian West. In successive articles I hope to look at other timbers that have been cut and shaped as a new house to replace Biblical Christianity.

An overview of these cut timbers, beyond the issue of perverted sex and the reduction of marriage which I will consider here, are the erasure of borders as seen in the constant push for amnesty, Obamacare, overturning of the second amendment, common core curriculum, Agenda 21, and the co-conspiratorial role of the “Evangelical” and “Reformed” contemporary confessional and conservative Churches and its ministers in the destruction of Biblical Christianity. All of these are agreed in the purpose, goal, and end of overthrowing the shards of a Biblical Christian social order.

The bulwark of any Christian social order is the Trustee Family. In order to successfully overthrow a Christian worldview and social order the Trustee and even Domestic family must be attacked and overthrown in favor of the Atomistic family. Of course this attack has been undergoing since Women’s suffrage movement with the diluting of male leadership by the extension of the vote to women and then with WW I and II with the thrusting of women out of the home and into the heretofore prominently male work force (i.e. — Rosie the Riveter). It continued on with Margaret Sanger’s campaign of Birth control and on through as the revolution successfully unleashed the Birth control pill. Later we had the ugly Feminism as championed by the likes of Bette Friedan and Gloria Steinem. The destruction of the family in the West continued with the advent of No fault divorce and then with the push for gender destruction and sodomite marriage we have seen the extension of these earlier expressions of the constant Revolution of Modernity. Along the way we have seen the burning of the bras and women being set free from the putative drudgery of being a housewife and Mother.

Along the way we have redefined love, sex, and marriage and the relationship of each with the other. This rearrangement has served to largely destroy the idea of Biblical family. Whereas in a Biblical social order Marriage is the proper context where romantic love and sex are pursued and so find legitimacy, with the onslaught of Modernity and its Revolution against the family what we have now is Romantic love as the proper context where sex and possibly marriage are pursued and so find legitimacy. What this means is that “falling and being in love” now serves as the proper justification for sexual relations and then possibly marriage and “falling out of love,” or, “not loving you anymore” is all the justification needed for pursuing new sexual liaisons and divorce where marriage is in place. In other words in the social order of Modernity, sex and marriage are justified and given moral status by the nebulous and fleeting emotion of “romantic love.” This is in contrast to a Biblical social order where romantic love and sex are justified and given moral status by marriage.

Since romantic love is the sine qua non for the existence of sex and marriage, sex and marriage proliferate as the ephemeral idea of romantic love waxes and wanes. The commitment expressed in Marriage, before God and man, as found in a Christian social order, which gave stability to marriage, children, and the broader culture is now eclipsed in Revolutionary Modernity where commitment is to the sovereign self and its transitory sense of “romantic love.” The first consequence of this is instability and the proliferation of unbalanced “homes,” and “families” that are comprised of all kinds of weird and creative combinations of children from successive marriages which were derivative of “romantic love.” In Modernity, under one roof one can find half siblings in one direction, half siblings in a different direction, step siblings, full siblings and who knows what else. In a Christian social order this kind of thing might be seen but would be understood as not the norm. In our culture it is seen with great frequency.

Now, the next successive consequence that has come out of this is the push for sodomite “marriage.” (I use the word “Marriage” only as a means to communicate to the modern mind. In all actuality it is an impossible absurdity to use the word “marriage” as related to any other arrangement than a man and a woman.) With the removal of marriage as the legitimate context where sex and romantic love were to be legitimized and pursued in favor of romantic love being the proper context where marriage and sex can be pursued it was only a matter of time before the participants in this perverted arrangement would themselves be perverts. If Romantic love is the context wherein marriage and sex is to be pursued who is to say that two men or two women (or three women and one man, or one woman and three men, etc.) can’t be officially “married?” In Revolutionary modernity, Romantic love is what gives marriage and sex its meaning and if that is granted then the coupling of perverts is bound to eventually occur in this new perverted plausibility structure.

What is interesting about Romantic love, being required as the atmosphere wherein sex and marriage derive their meaning, is that what happens over the course of time is that the quotient of necessary Romantic love present for men to lose their integrity and for women to love their chastity continues to decrease. A sexual tryst between the unmarried two generations ago might have found Romantic love demanding a certain amount of time “dating,” certain gifts exchanged, certain promises given, meeting the parents etc. A sexual tryst between the unmarried today in what is popularly called “hooking up,” looks more like two random dogs coming together after a good sniff.

And with this new perverted plausibility structure Christianity is undermined in favor of some kind of Gnostic religion. I offer Gnosticism (in a weird combination with Cultural Marxism) as the religion of Revolutionary Modernity because Romantic love is a Gnostic reality. Unlike Christian marriage where you have corporeal legal covenantal and juridical categories and documents creating and sustaining marriage, in the new plausibility structure of Romantic love you have nothing but ephemeral feelings and any marriage documents that do exist, have no real substantive meaning.

A third consequence of Revolutionary Modernity against marriage and the family is the displacing of the command control structures inherent in Biblical Christian marriage and family. As the Romantic love plausibility structure for sex and marriage places its death grip upon the West the result is that the family no longer has the stability necessary to do anything but survive (and even that is questionable). The command and control, historically associated with Christian families in a Christian social order, does not disappear but rather is seized by some other social order institution. In our social order the institution that is absorbing for itself the command and control historically belonging to the family is the State (FEDS). Whereas in a Christian social order families leave an inheritance, businesses, and reputation legacy for subsequent generations to live up to. In Revolutionary Modernity the FEDS gobble up inheritance, cripple the ability of small family businesses to survive and by the FEDS policy regarding morality they themselves attack any possible trans-generational reputation legacy. Command and control, in Revolutionary Modernity, where Romantic love is the new plausibility structure for marriage and sex, works over the course of time to strengthen the God-State (FEDS) over against God’s design of the Trustee family as the foundation for Christian social order.

A fourth consequence of Revolutionary Modernity where Romantic love is the necessary context wherein sex and marriage find meaning is the diminution of individual character and moral fiber. Once sex and marriage are set free to find meaning in the fields of Gnostic Romantic love the result is a unwillingness of people who have embraced such a plausibility structure to stand against any immorality at all. Perverted, and uninhibited sex (and all sex outside of marriage is perverted and uninhibited) always works to diminish people as perverted sex tears at their moral fiber to resist all other immorality. If and when people are giving into their personal immorality the consequence is that they will have little morality left to stand against any other social order injustice. Being enslaved to their lusts they find no ability to resist the varied lusts of anybody else. This moral anarchy eventually leads to social order implosion which in turn leads to some kind of Tyrant coming to the fore.

Finally, as consequence, where Revolutionary Modernity leads where Romantic love is the necessary context wherein sex and marriage find meaning is the complete and final destruction of Biblical Christian marriage. If sex and marriage are merely the outgrowth of Romantic love then sex and marriage can exist anywhere and anyplace that any romantic love exists. As long as Romantic love exists all the components of sex and marriage are negotiable. Whether gender roles, the means by which children are secured (in-vitro with Lesbians?, surrogate Mother for sodomites?, dinner setting adoptions [get the whole set]?, natural children?, etc.) who takes who’s last name, or who pays for what, once marriage and sex is merely the creature of Romantic love Biblical Christian Marriage is dead dead dead. Similarly, once the legitimacy of sex is merely the creature of Romantic love then sex and gender are open game to any definition and arrangement.

The cure for all this of course is understanding and embracing that God alone is the one who gives meaning and definition to all reality. Once that is admitted then repentance must follow for our insisting that reality is a social construct that we can determine apart from God. Repentance is not just a turning from our sin of vain imaginations but a turning to Jesus Chris who is both God’s forgiveness and His Word reality.

The hour is late. To be honest I believe that the hour is too late. It is too late to turn back on a societal National basis. We are no longer on the precipice so that turning back might be possible. We have already fallen off the cliff and now we are merely waiting to hit bottom. Yet, for all my pessimism, I know with God all things are possible and that in Wrath God might even yet remember mercy.

I keep raising my voice in hopes that God might grant mercy to some.

Darryl Hart Is Wrong About Evans

D. Gnostic Hart writes,

Bill Evans is baaaaaaaaaack with another dismissive post about 2k. I am not sure why he grinds this ax, though I have ideas. Also, I detect another attempt to tarnish 2kers with unmentioned and unmentionable implications of their position — the guilt by association technique:

We will cheerfully admit that 2K advocates have some legitimate concerns, particularly that the mission and witness of the church not be hijacked by political and cultural agendas. But in this instance the cure is worse than the disease. While 2K theology may well scratch the itch of Christians who need a theological excuse to remain silent in current cultural conflicts, it is both less than biblical and less than faithful to the decided weight of the Reformed tradition.

Evans shows that he still does not understand 2k. Plenty of 2kers talk about law and politics. The point is for the church only to speak or declare what God has revealed, and in the case of gay marriage, for instance, the Bible does teach what marriage (is?), and that Israel and the church are to enforce biblical norms. But Scripture does not say what a constitutional republic’s marriage policy is supposed to be.

Darryl may have problems discerning these matters but John Calvin had no problem identifying what a constitutional Republic’s marriage policy is supposed to be. It is supposed to be in keeping with God’s revealed law-Word.

…“But this was sayde to the people of olde time. Yea, and God’s honour must not be diminished by us at this day: the reasons that I have alleadged alreadie doe serve as well for us as for them. Then lette us not thinke that this lawe is a speciall lawe for the Jewes; but let us understand that God intended to deliver to us a generall rule, to which we must tye ourselves…Sith it is so, it is to be concluded, not onely that is lawefull for all kinges and magistrates, to punish heretikes and such as have perverted the pure trueth; but also that they be bounde to doe it, and that they misbehave themselves towardes God, if they suffer errours to roust without redresse, and employ not their whole power to shewe a greater zeale in that behalfe than in all other things.”

Calvin, Sermons upon Deuteronomie, p. 541-542

Calvin’s pen seems pointed at the seditious and perilous Ana-baptists whose application of the judicials gave, not Godly commonwealth judicial laws, but anarchistic Münster judicial laws. It is interesting that Darryl’s position here and the Anabaptist position, which Calvin is writing against, seem to be one and the same.

Calvin also wrote on this topic,

“And for proof thereof, what is the cause that the heathen are so hardened in their own dotages? It is for that they never knew God’s Law, and therefore they never compared the truth with the untruth. But when God’s law come in place, then doth it appear that all the rest is but smoke insomuch that they which took themselves to be marvelous witty, are found to have been no better than besotted in their own beastliness. This is apparent. Wherefore let us mark well, that to discern that there is nothing but vanity in all worldly devices, we must know the Laws and ordinances of God. But if we rest upon men’s laws, surely it is not possible for us to judge rightly. Then must we need to first go to God’s school, and that will show us that when we have once profited under Him, it will be enough. That is all our perfection. And on the other side, we may despise all that is ever invented by man, seeing there is nothing but *fondness and uncertainty in them. And that is the cause why Moses terms them rightful ordinances. As if he should say, it is true indeed that other people have store of Laws: but there is no right at all in them, all is awry, all is crooked.”

* fondness = foolishness, weakness, want of sense and judgment

John Calvin
Sermons on Deuteronomy, sermon 21 on Deut. 4:6-9

Calvin again, contra Hart’s uncertainty,

“The let us not think that this Law is a special Law for the Jews; but let us understand that God intended to deliver us a general rule, to which we must yield ourselves … Since, it is so, it is to be concluded, not only that it is lawful for all kings and magistrates, to punish heretics and such as have perverted the pure truth; but also that they be bound to do it, and that they misbehave themselves towards God, if they suffer errors to rest without redress, and employ not their whole power to shew greater zeal in their behalf than in all other things.”

John Calvin, Sermon on Deuteronomy, sermon 87 on Deuteronomy 13:5

In another particularly prescient treatise for our labors against R2K, Calvin wrote against pacifistic Anabaptists (paging R2K fanboys) who maintained a doctrine of the spirituality of the Church which abrogated the binding authority of the case law,

“They (the Anabaptists) will reply, possibly, that the civil government of the people of Israel was a figure of the spiritual kingdom of Jesus Christ and lasted only until his coming, I will admit to them that in part, it was a figure, but I deny that it was nothing more than this, and not without reason. For in itself it was a political government, which is a requirement among all people. That such is the case, it is written of the Levitical priesthood that it had to come to an end and be abolished at the coming of our Lord Jesus (Heb. 7:12ff) Where is it written that the same is true of the external order? It is true that the scepter and government were to come from the tribe of Judah and the house of David, but that the government was to cease is manifestly contrary to Scripture.”

John Calvin
Treatise against the Anabaptists and against the Libertines, pp. 78-79

And for good measure on the same subject here is Turretin,

XI. “Although Christ did not commit his church to Tiberius, but to Peter, still he did not exclude princes from the care of religion (he called them nursing fathers); nor did he who said “Kiss the Son” repel kings as such. The ministry of the word is committed to pastors; but the care of the state no less to the magistrate; in which state if the church exists, why should not the pious magistrate as such both afford entertainment to the church and keep off the wolves, who in the name of pastors lay waste the flock? Otherwise, by the same argument, I shall have denied that the defense of religion belongs to the magistrate because he gave no commands about religion to Tiberius.”

Francis Turretin, Institutes of Elenctic Theology, Vol.III, — 319

So, given these quotes from Calvin and Turretin we could wish that Darryl would be honest enough to quit calling himself a “Calvinist,” and go with some other moniker like “Gnostic,” “Anabaptist,” “Libertarian,” or “Manichean.” In the end if we have no word from Scripture on what the ethics of societal social orders are supposed to look like then we are left with a ethic for social orders that finds what is to be normative being determined by might makes right. Mao’s, “power grows out of the barrel of a gun,” becomes the norm for social order ethics.

D. G. Hart writes,

And this gets to the heart of the disagreement — not to mention where Evans not only fails to understand 2k but also the Reformed tradition. If the entire world is Christ’s kingdom, then we would expect all lawful authorities to enforce God’s revealed will. But the Bible tells us quite clearly that the entire world is not Christ’s kingdom — the world consists of believers and unbelievers.

One might think that there is a very strong suggestion here, by Darryl, giving us a Anabaptist paradigm. First, you have Christ’s Kingdom where all the believers are (Church). Then you have every place else that is “not Christ’s Kingdom” (i.e. — “The World”) However, unlike the Anabaptist paradigm in the “Not Christ’s Kingdom” you have both believers and unbelievers cheek by jowl. Let’s call that the mixed or common Kingdom.

Now, here’s the question? Where is Satan’s Kingdom in this two Kingdom model? Darryl and R2K tell us specifically that the World (presumably planet earth outside the Church) is neither Christ’s Kingdom nor Satan’s Kingdom but a common (neutral?) Kingdom. What we need to ask here then is ‘Where is Satan’s Kingdom?’ You know… the Kingdom of Darkness that Colossians 1 talks about Christians having been translated from? It can’t be the case that when men are translated from the Kingdom of Darkness to the Kingdom of God’s dear Son, that they have been translated from the R2K common Kingdom since believers and unbelievers exist together in the common Kingdom. It looks like R2K needs to go to a R3K model or join the Anabaptists in just calling the common Kingdom the evil world. Indeed, in point of fact, I am convinced that in R2K we have a kind of inconsistent Anabaptist hybrid where the R2K word “common” is merely exchanged for the Anabaptist word “evil,” in reference to “the world” which is not Christ’s Kingdom. Like the Anabaptists, R2K can dismiss “the world” as being a realm where Christian standards are not to be expected nor even applied while being, at the same time, a realm where the Church does not have to be concerned. Unlike the Anabaptist model R2K can still participate in “the world” as long as no absolute standards, as drawn from the Scriptures, are championed. Like the Anabaptists, R2K insists that the Church and Christ’s Kingdom are exactly coextensive. Unlike the Anabaptists, R2K allows Christians to work positively in “The World.” As I said, it looks that R2K is just a kind of hybrid of Anabaptist social order theory.

D. Gnostic Hart writes,

The Bible also tells us — contrary to mid-twentieth-century western foreign policy — that Israel no longer exists as the covenant people. The church is now the new Israel, and the church does not have temporal jurisdiction. That means that the church transcends national borders and magistrates’ rule. In other words, what goes on in the church is different from what goes on in the state — the state of Russia, the state of Canada, the state of Japan. Christian’s should expect the church to practice God’s law. But whether Christians should expect non-Christian governments to enforce God’s law upon people who do not fear God is a very complicated question.

Here Darryl is conflating things that should not be conflated. Even in OT Israel there was distinction made between the Church and the State. Israel was God’s covenant people but with their social order stratification there was maintained a distinction between Church and State. All this to say that where we find Biblical Christianity in the ascendancy in a Nation there we would expect to find Christian governance without Ecclesiastial governance. All because the Church is not given jurisdiction with the eclipse of Israel does not mean that there is no such thing as Christian governance.

What goes on in the Church is different than what goes on in the State and no adherent of vanilla Biblical Christianity would ever say otherwise. The Church hold the Keys. The State holds the sword. However, vanilla Christianity recognizes that the usage of the sword must be according to some transcendent absolute standard. This is why Biblical Christians in Japan, Russia, and Canada, all advocate for law rooted and grounded in God’s revelation, whether implicitly or explicitly. This really isn’t that complicated.

D. Gnostic Hart writes,

The problem is that Evans fudges this very question when he says — in direct contradiction of the Confession of Faith:

. . . the kingdom of God and the institutional church are wrongly equated by 2K advocates. There is a rough consensus among New Testament scholars that the kingdom of God is a much more comprehensive reality than the institutional church, and this misidentification of the church and the kingdom has all sorts of unfortunate results, such as confusion over the nature of “kingdom work” and the silencing of Christians from speaking to societal issues.

Well, how would Evans rewrite this if he considered what the Confession — pre-1788 revision — does say?

The visible church, which is also catholic or universal under the gospel (not confined to one nation, as before under the law), consists of all those throughout the world that profess the true religion; and of their children: and is the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, the house and family of God, out of which there is no ordinary possibility of salvation. (25.2)

That’s not exactly the same thing as the kingdom of God. But when the Confession goes on to say — again, pre-1788 revision, “Unto this catholic visible church Christ hath given the ministry, oracles, and ordinances of God, for the gathering and perfecting of the saints, in this life, to the end of the world: and doth, by his own presence and Spirit, according to his promise, make them effectual thereunto, (25.3), it is saying that the kingdom of Christ and the visible church are doing something distinct from what the state or magistrate does — “the defense and encouragement of them that are good, and for the punishment of evildoers” (23.1). And this distinction between the spiritual nature of Christ’s kingdom (remember “my kingdom is not of this world” anyone?) and the temporal nature of the state’s rule, also explains why the Confession (pre-1788 revision again!) says the church should stay out of the state’s bee’s wax:

Synods and councils are to handle, or conclude nothing, but that which is ecclesiastical: and are not to intermeddle with civil affairs which concern the commonwealth, unless by way of humble petition in cases extraordinary; or, by way of advice, for satisfaction of conscience, if they be thereunto required by the civil magistrate. (31.4)

So the notion that 2k is outside the Reformed tradition on the nature of Christ’s kingdom is wrong.

1.) The evidence that the Kingdom of Christ and the Church are not identically synonymous in Reformed history and among Reformed Theologians is massive. Here are just a few quotes,

“The Kingdom may be said to be considered a broader concept than the Church, because the Kingdom aims at nothing less than the complete control of all the manifestations of life. It represents the dominion of God in every sphere of human endeavor.”

– Berkhof, Systematic Theology, pg. 570

“If professing Christians are unfaithful to the authority of their Lord in their capacity as citizens of the State, they cannot expect to be blessed by the indwelling of the Holy Ghost in their capacity as members of the Church. The kingdom of Christ is one, and cannot be divided in life or death. If the Church languishes, the State cannot be in health; and if the State rebels against its Lord and King, the Church cannot enjoy His favor. If the Holy Ghost is withdrawn from the Church, he is not present in the State; and if He, the ‘Lord, the Giver of life,’ be absent, then all order is impossible, and the elements of society lapse backward to primeval night and chaos.”

A.A. Hodge, Evangelical Theology

“The thought of the kingdom of God implies the subjection of the entire range of human life in all its forms and spheres to the ends of religion. The kingdom reminds us of the absoluteness, the pervasiveness, the unrestricted dominion, which of right belong to all true religion. It proclaims that religion, and religion alone, can act as the supreme unifying, centralizing factor in the life of man, as that which binds all together and perfects all by leading it to its final goal in the service of God.” (page 194)

Geerhardus Vos
The Teaching of Jesus Concerning the Kingdom of God and the Church

“Scripture is the Book of the Kingdom of God, not a book for this or that people, for the individual only, but for all nations, for all of humanity. It is not a book for one age, but for all times. It is a Kingdom book. Just as the Kingdom of God develops not alongside and above history, but in and through world history, so too Scripture must not be abstracted, nor viewed by itself, nor isolated from everything. Rather, Scripture must be brought into relationship with all our living, with the living of the entire human race. And Scripture must be employed to explain all of human living.”

Herman Bavinck,
“The Kingdom of God, The Highest Good”

For Darryl to suggest that the Confessions require us to read that the Reformed, like the Anabaptists, believed that the Kingdom and the Church are exactly co-extensive is just embarrassing.

2.) Clearly R2K is outside the historic voice of the Reformed Church. R2K is a complete innovation that is reading the Confessions and Reformed Church – State History through the cramped spectacles of Anabaptist hybrid “thinking.”

3.) Darryl, following the WCF, wants to rightly insist that the Church is not to involve itself in the affairs of the Magistrate but we are living in a time when it is not the case that the Church is involving itself in the affairs of the Magistrate so much as it is the case that the Church is telling the Magistrate that it can not involve itself in the affairs of the Church. The Church must speak a “thus saith the Lord” on issues that the State has taken up in contradiction to God’s voice. Issues like abortion, sodomite Marriage, property, etc. are issues that find the Magistrate meddling in the affairs of the Church more than it being the case where the Church is involving itself in the affairs of the Magistrate.

4.) Hart continues to butcher John 18:36. If Hart’s handling of the rest of Scripture is like his handling of John 18:36 people should absent themselves anytime he tries to teach Scripture. Darryl continues to try to appeal to John 18:36 as a proof text that Gnosticism is true. However, we learn from B. F. Wescott speaking of John 18:36 a very different understanding,

“Yet He (Jesus) did claim a sovereignty, a sovereignty of which the spring and the source was not of earth but of heaven. My Kingdom is not of this world (means it) does not derive its origin or its support from earthly sources.”

The Gospel According To John — pg. 260

D. Gnostic Hart writes,

“In fact, those who expand the kingdom the way that Evans does under the influence of either Kuyper’s every-square-inchism or Finney’s millenialism are the ones who are outside the Reformed tradition and who threaten the gospel.

Read again, almost all the earlier quotes I have given in this post. Darryl Hart has just said that all those chaps are outside the Reformed tradition and that they all threaten the Gospel. Darryl, in saying this, reveals his “theology” as stupid.

D. Gnostic Hart writes,

And this goes to the heart of what animates 2k — a desire to preserve the integrity of the gospel and the church’s witness by not identifying the gospel or Christian witness with matters that are not Christian or redemptive but are common or related to general revelation. Once you begin to expand the kingdom as Evans so glibly does, you wind up doing what Protestant liberals did when they attributed to economics or agriculture or medicine on the mission field redemptive significance or what Social Gospelers did when they identified Progressive policies as signs of the coming of the kingdom. Only the church has the keys of the kingdom and all the Reformed confessions state explicitly that the magistrate may not hold them.

That means that the kingdom of Christ comes through the ministry of the church, not through the administration of the state or the advancement of Western Civilization or the building of the metropolis. Preaching and the sacraments establish the spiritual kingdom, not Broadway, the Tea Party, or a Supreme Court ruling.

1.) Darryl assumes what he has yet to prove and that is the idea there are matters that can never be “Christian.” Darryl assumes that there are realities that can be neutral and not animated by Theology. This is in no way true and if that is not true every thing he says that follows from that is likewise not true.

2.) Darryl with his Anabaptist identifying of the Kingdom as exactly coextensive with the Church accuses Evans of being Liberal. Think about it.

3.) The fact that the Magistrate does not hold the Keys to the Kingdom does not mean the Magistrate can not act in a Christian manner. No vanilla Christian desires to see the Magistrate hold the Keys. No vanilla Christian sees the Magistrates work as being “redemptive.” However it is possible for Magistrates to wield the sword and so provide justice in a way that is in keeping with Biblical Revelation.

4.) It is R2K that destroys the Gospel. R2K allows an alien theology to shape the zeitgeist so that all our thought categories are conditioned by that alien theology. Then Darryl expects that, despite that alien theology creating a culture hostile to Biblical Christianity, that the Church will remain unaffected by that hostility and false theology so that it can herald a clear Gospel message. Our contemporary setting screams that Darryl is wrong. Church Growth, Emergent, Pentecostal, Arminian, R2K,etc. churches all demonstrate that the zeitgeist pagan theology is shaping our Churches and so our Christianity. Pentecostalism is shaped by animistic theology. Emergent by cultural Marxist theology. And R2K by libertarian / Anabaptist theology. In point of fact the only Christian Churches which are swimming upstream in this miasma of lunacy are those Churches who understand the Biblical Christianity makes truth claims that impact every area of life.

With A Half-Twist

A reductio on an article that ran in a Reformed Denominational magazine. As originally published it found the word “homosexuality,” or “gay” wherever you find the word Necrophilia in my reductio.

by Name withheld

February 21, 2014 — I am a Christian. I was born and raised in a Reformed Church and educated in its schools from kindergarten through college. I am also a Necrophiliac. These two characteristics define my life more than anything else: more than my education, career, marital status, or the number of children I may have.

As a Necrophiliac Christian, I am an oxymoron to many.

I do not easily embrace myself as a necrophiliac man. I’ve only come to do that after many years of wrestling with the Scriptures, with God, with myself. I sought counsel from pastors and Christian therapists, tried ex-necrophiliacs for Jesus ministries and every reparative therapy program I could find. I begged God to change me and in despair attempted suicide. I studied every angle of the questions “How do I become ‘not necrophiliac’?” and “What must I do to love alive people?” In my study of Scripture, I wrestled with the passages interpreted to condemn Necrophiliac behavior, with creation order, the nature of sin, and the process of sanctification. And I prayed. My sexual orientation did not change.

Like every other Necrophiliac person in my Reformed denomination, I am mindful of my church’s understanding of Necrophilia. “Love the sinner, hate the sin” is a cliché implying that I am sin personified. Tony Campolo has observed that Jesus says the opposite: “Love the sinner and hate your own sin. And after you get rid of the sin in your own life, then you can begin talking about the sin in your brother or sister’s life.” Obviously therefore it is wrong for any sinner to denounce necrophilia as aberrant. I wish the Church would learn that. After all, the Church is full of sinners just like me. Our sins may vary but since we are all sinners no one should be allowed to denounce another person’s “sin.” (Unless of course we are denouncing the sinners who denounce other people’s sins or when we are denouncing Necro-phobia.)

Meanwhile, where have all the necrophiliac sons and daughters of your church gone? Many—I dare say most—have left your churches and your hometowns. Their church home became unsafe when they—like me—learned the pastor’s response to people like us.

It may surprise you that there is a deep spiritual longing within my necrophiliac friends, a longing and a struggle to reconcile “Jesus loves me, this I know” with an attribute that many in the church consider an abomination. My friends grew up loving God—that has not changed. But as a result of being rejected, many have given up on the church, and, tragically, on God.

The culture has is sure to change. Necrophiliac marriage is sure to become legal in Canada and in some states. The U.S. Supreme Court will one day surely strike down any laws forbidding necrophilia. The Boy Scouts of America one day will have special merit badges for sharing a sleeping bag with the dead. I foresee the day when celebrities, athletes, and business leaders will “come out.”

The church seems unprepared to respond to these situations legally and with moral authority. How do congregations pick up the pieces of shattered families after the failure of mixed-orientation marriages of necrophiliac people who enter into a heterosexual marriage, believing that it would make them acceptable to God and the church? How do they welcome necrophiliac couples who attend services or who wish to be married in the church?

My understanding of the Scriptures has changed dramatically over the years. If “insanity” is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results, I was going insane seeking “freedom” from being a necrophiliac. Jesus confronted me with the words “I have come to give life and life abundant” (John 10:10). These words trumped “abomination theology.”

Coming out has not been easy—for me or for my family. But it has brought life.

Isn’t it time for the church to welcome back its necrophiliac sons and daughters, along with their spouses and children? Isn’t it time to encourage everyone to know the love of God for each and every one of his children?