“Over the last decade I have witnessed more slurs and misrepresentations of Reconstructionist thought than I have the heart or ability to count, and I am thinking here only of the remarks made by Christians in positions of leadership; elders, pastors, instructors, writers – those who bear the “greater accountability” since they lead Christ’s sheep as teachers. This has forced me as an educated believer to stand back and look more generally at what is transpiring in the Christian community as a whole with respect to its scholarly integrity. And I am heart broken…..The difficulty is magnified many times over when believers offer public, obvious evidence of their inability to treat each other’s opinions with careful accuracy….Over the last decade we have seen some extremely strong words of condemnation uttered about Reconstructionist theology. Those condemnatory words, however, have repeatedly proven to be tied to gross misrepresentations of the Reconstructionist perspective. When those counterfeit portrayals are laid aside, the cautious student will find that not one substantial line of refutation or criticism has been established against the fundamental distinctives of Reconstructionism – a transformational worldview embracing theonomic ethics, postmillennial eschatology, and presuppositional apologetics. These theological underpinnings can be shown to be sound and reliable.”
Dr. Greg Bahnsen
Foreword to The Debate Over Christian Reconstruction
Georgetown Covers Jesus’ Name For Obama Speech At Obama’s Request
“Amidst all of the American flags and presidential seals, there was something missing when President Barack Obama gave an economic speech at Georgetown University this week — Jesus.
The best photos of President Obama and his family captured during the first few months in office.
The White House asked Georgetown to cover a monogram symbolizing Jesus’ name in Gaston Hall, which Obama used for his speech, according to CNSNews.com.
The gold “IHS” monogram inscribed on a pediment in the hall was covered over by a piece of black-painted plywood, and remained covered over the next day, CNSNews.com reported.”
“If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.”
-Mark 8:38
A Key Barometer To Measure Cultural Decline
“From all that I had read of History of Government, of human life and manners, I had drawn the conclusion, that the manners of Women were the most infallible barometer, to ascertain the degree of morality and virtue in a nation. All that I have since read and all the observations I have made in different nations, have confirmed me in this opinion. The manners of women, are in the surest criterion by which to determine whether a Republican government is practicable, in a nation or not. The Jews, the Greeks, the Romans, the Swiss, the Dutch, all lost their public spirit, their Republican Principles and habits, and their Republican forms of Government, when they lost the modesty and domestic virtues of their women…
The foundations of national morality must be laid in private families. In vain are schools, academies, and universities instituted, if loose principles and licentious habits are impressed upon children, in their earliest years. The mothers are the earliest and most instructors of youth….The vices and examples of the parents cannot be concealed from the children. How is it possible that children can have any sense of the sacred obligation of morality or religion if, from their earliest infancy, they learn that their mothers live in habitual infidelity to their fathers, and their fathers in as constant infidelity to their mothers?”
John Adams
Autobiography, IV: 123
The Haters Of God’s Law Get To The Nub
Zrimec writes,
The rather clear message is that serious punishments for serious crimes are somehow to be almost relished. I find this odd and disturbing.
Certainly there should exist a certain sadness that it has come to the point where a serious punishment has to be meted out against a serious criminal, however having admitted that there should be sadness that it has come to this, we should relish whenever justice, as God defines justice, is meted out. What, does Zrimec think that we should somehow lament that justice is being done or that God’s law is being honored?
Steve Zrimec needs to read Edwards where he preaches on and on about this subject in terms of God’s justice seen at the last day. Edward’s had no problems whatsoever relishing in God’s justice being seen.
What we have here are people who are more pious than God. If God rejoices and relishes in His law being upheld should we not rejoice and relish with him? Are we more pious than God?
Steve Zrimec,
When a judge hands down a capital sentence (something with which I have no problem per se) it seems to me the fitting and wise posture would be less relish and more sobriety. Any wise judge who has a sense of what is right, true and good will tell you it gives him or her no pleasure to have to conclude a heinous matter with an equally heinous sentence. It actually causes more pain and confusion. There is nothing “beautiful and glorious” about any of it. And wise victims know the same thing.
This is mere liberal hand wringing over the sadness of what is happening to the victim (criminal) while forgetting how the criminal has violated God’s glory by violating God’s just standard. Does Steve expect me to weep when a child rapist and murderer is sentenced with a just sentence? No, I will not weep, but I will relish that the criminal has been handed down a sentence that fits the crime. I am not taking delight that the person became a criminal or that the criminal is going to be vanquished, but I am taking delight and relishing in the fact that justice is being done. Indeed, there is only one thing that could make me relish the sentence even more and that is if the criminal repented and trusted Christ before the just sentence was visited upon him.
Steve and Darryl, are both caught up in feeling sorry for the criminal while forgetting both the human victim and the assault on God’s glory that the criminal attacked in the crime committed. Steve and Darryl would have us weep over justice, in a criminal setting, being upheld.
Now, the typical comeback to this is that … “Well, we are sinners to and we deserve death as well, and so we should be slow about being too delighted with justice.” This statement confuses matters. One can still be delighted with justice while praying that grace visits the criminal before the sentence is passed on them. Personally, I believe it is wicked not to delight in God’s justice being upheld in criminal settings.
Steve Zrimec wrote,
“To love the law of God is not the same as to relish its doling out.”
This is just plain stupid.
This is like saying … “I love the law of God but I hate seeing it applied.”
Steve Zrimec,
Moreover, and again, the OT laws being cited here have not to do with creating the Good Society. They have to do with what it means to work out our salvation by God in the person and work of Jesus. Those are two very different things. Those who want the Good Society convey a chilling relish, one that should demand a lot more outrage than has been seen here (and I’m not given to outrage). Those who understand this was all a typological pointing to God’s salvation of his people show, well, a more careful handling of the matter.
Zrimec assumes what he has not yet proved. The moral law and the case law was about creating the good society. The moral law and the case law was fulfilled in Christ but the Scripture never teach that the moral law and the general equity of the case law was abrogated. Steve assumes all this but this is the matter under contention.
But at least we are beginning to see the reasons for all the competing outrage. Steve apparently believes that he has muted his outrage. I know that I have muted mine. I believe Steve and Darryl are public square anti-nomian heretics who show their despising of God and His grace by their despising of God’s Holy Law. They likewise have a equally low estimate of me. It is obvious that we are serving different Gods.
Zrimec,
“So if it’s a confession that God’s law were wise and glorious, no problem. Just be sure it is understood that such a confession is not as one who quests the Good Society, but rather as one who is a miserable sinner whose only help is in the name of the Lord our God, who made heaven and earth.”
Steve, seems to think he gets brownie points for admitting he is a miserable sinner. Nobody here disagrees with the fact that either Steve is or they themselves are miserable sinners. That is not the issue under discussion. The issue under discussion is … “Who’s Laws should we be ruled by?” Zrimec and Hart, being more pious than God, desire to be ruled by Natural law. Those who honor the plain meaning of Scripture desire to honor God’s law. Nobody gets brownie points for admitting they are sinners.
These people disgust me. They really do.
And I am glad that I disgust them.
Tea(ing) In Lansing Michigan
Today at 12 Noon I joined over one thousand other citizens in Lansing, Michigan at the Capital and exercised my first amendment right of assembly. The crowd consisted of an overwhelmngly white demographic, though the best speaker, by far, was a black minister who gave the invocation and benediction.
While there I was trying to be an observer as well as a participant. As an observer what struck me was that this was a protest movement that was bringing together people who are put off by a confluence of issues. There were signs against taxation. Signs against spending. Signs against the Federal Reserve. Signs against illegal immigration. Signs against Obama. Signs against socialism. Signs against robbing children’s future. Many signs invoking John Galt. Signs against the government’s assault on the second amendment.
Some of my favorite signs were,
1.) A sign with a picture of Obama holding a Vaseline jar with the words coming from Obama, “This is the only stimulus your going to get.”
2.) A sign with a picture of Obama with lipstick on and words that said, “You can put lipstick on a socialist but he’s still a socialist.”
3.) A sign that had pictures of “Mao,” “Lenin,” and “Castro,” with the words, “Other Community Organizers.”
4.) A sign that said, “End The Fed … It owns enough already.”
The one theme that tied all the signs together was a deep seething anger at a government that is seeking to steal the freedoms of Americans, while seeking to be an agency that “spreads the wealth” around. The people in Lansing clearly understood, to a degree, the dangers of command and control government.
I say “to a degree” because there are still some things that these kinds of American’s don’t yet get. This was seen by the insistence of opening the Tea Party with the pledge of Allegiance. These Americans are angry with their government but they do not seem to yet realize that if any solution to what they are angry about is going to present itself, it is very likely going to be the solution of secession. The pledge of allegiance doesn’t allow for secession — “One nation indivisible” — and so it seems a bit contradictory to be reciting the pledge. There was also the invoking of great presidents like “Abraham Lincoln” and “Theodore Roosevelt.” These are two presidents that are largely responsible for bringing us to the point that we are currently at in terms of centralized government.
And then there was the issue of foreign wars. Naturally, middle America loves its military and its foreign wars and that was a theme that was played up today. Unfortunately middle America needs to realize that they will never get their beefs about the Welfare state satisfied as long as they keep supporting the Warfare state. Welfare & Warfare go together in a centralized state like Obama and trillion dollar deficits and until middle America realizes it is not America’s job to do nation building middle America will continue to be raped by confiscatory taxation.
The speakers in Lansing were lame and served up mostly Ra Ra material. The one factoid I did learn that was interesting is that Michigan has recently created legislation that would require yoga training schools to be licensed. Of course there will be a licensing fee involved. Most of the speakers cited the excessive taxation, citing facts that most of the crowd there likely already were familiar with.
The important thing about this tea party was for people to see that there are other people out there that are tired of being used as the government’s ATM machine. The major regret that I had is that the speakers didn’t make it clear that this tendency towards centralized government is not a uniquely democratic problem. I wish the speakers had made it clear how wicked Bush and the Congressional Republicans had acted regarding fiscal responsibility while they were in office. Middle America has to realize that though Obama is spending Trillions to Bush’s 100’s of billions, they were two peas in a fiscally rotting pea pod.
Finally, I hope middle America doesn’t think that anybody in Washington is listening to them and or to these protests. Instead, what Washington is doing is spinning all of this protest as the actions of right wing extremist terrorists. Instead of listening Washington is declaiming that the people are the enemy of the state.
I continue to fear that all of this is not going to end well.