Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne, Yet that scaffold sways the future, and, behind the dim unknown, Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own.
“Some have complained that Luther was too severe. I will not deny this. But I will answer in the language of Erasmus: Because the sickness was so great, God gave this age a rough doctor … If Luther was severe, it was because of his earnestness for the truth, not because he loved strife or harshness.”
Phillip Melanchthon
Luther’s Funeral Oration
“I was born for this purpose, to fight with the rebels and the devils and to lead the charge. Therefore my books are very stormy and war like. I have to uproot trunks and stumps, hack at the thorns and hedges, and fill the potholes. So I am the crude woodsman who has to clear and make the path. But master Philip comes after me, meticulously and quietly, builds and plants, widows and waters happily according to the talents God richly given him.”
Martin Luther
Recently, a friend told me in a online conversation that I had gotten my orneriness back quickly following surgery. It was a good natured quip that found me replying that “McAtee is Scottish after all.”
Honestly though, his quip did sting a little. It is not my desire to be remembered someday as always being cantankerous, ornery, or curmudgeonly. In point of fact, I think, that most people who know me personally would not reach for those adjective first as descriptors.
Having said that I admit that I can get prickly, but I trust when the prickliness comes out there is some higher and greater principle that I see of being in danger.
God has gifted me with the ability to see the implications of ideas if left unattended. This means that my orneriness quotient rises in direct correlation to otherwise good people championing ideas that will end in bad results if not “nipped in the bud.” (A little Barney Fife lingo there.)
I don’t want to bring tension into relationships among the few of us who are left defending the gates by criticizing too sharply things that are said by my fellow gate defenders. However, I also do not desire for the gate defenders to have ideas that will lead to some bad outcomes if those ideas are allowed to fester.
It is not always easy to decide when to be irenic with the brethren and so let matters pass unspoken to, and when to go all “tomahawk chop” on people that are otherwise on your side. It takes discernment and I freely admit that I likely often fail here.
I do teach my students that one of the dangers of drawing one’s worldview net to tight is that one begins to see embers in thinking that one becomes easily convinced will turn into raging forest fires if not doused.
At the end of it all though, I am convinced that we are living in an age that generally speaking could use a little more orneriness. I’ll work on being irenic if more of you will work a little on being an old cuss like myself.
“When it goes well with the righteous, the city rejoices; And when the wicked perish, there is jubilation.” Proverbs 11:10
“And Miriam answered them, Sing ye to the LORD, for he hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea.”
Exodus 15:21
“So let all thine enemies perish, O LORD: but let them that love him be as the sun when he goeth forth in his might. And the land had rest forty years.”
Judges 5:31
“Then they will throw dust on their heads as they weep and mourn and cry out: “Woe, woe to the great city, where all who had ships on the sea were enriched by her wealth! For in a single hour she has been destroyed. ”Rejoice over her, O heaven, O saints and apostles and prophets, because God has pronounced for you His judgment against her.”
Revelation 18:19-20
Here at Iron Ink we have written more than once on the necessity to rejoice in the fall of the wicked. We have cited these same verses and ones like them to substantiate our claim that when the wicked die the response of the God’s people is to pop some corks, pour some champagne, and party.
And of course the wicked do the same thing when the righteous fall. The Papists struck a medal in honor of the murdering of the Huguenots in France. The Papists likewise hoisted a tanker at the death of the great Cromwell.
It is just the nature of reality to rejoice when God’s enemy and your enemy falls dead.
One problem with contemporary Christians is that we try to be “nicer than God.” God doesn’t weep with sorrow when His enemies perish. In point of fact God kills His enemy’s dead.
And so when enemies of God die we should kill the fatted calf, rollout the bubble making machine, and raise up our glasses to our glorious King for defending His Church.
And all of the above, my friends, should be our frame of mind regarding the death of one “Rev.” Timothy Keller (1950 – 2023). With a long and agonizing death stemming from pancreatic cancer Keller’s scourge of God’s Church has finally ended.
Keller’s wickedness is un-challengeable. I offer the following links to sustain the charge as to Keller’s Ahab like behavior against God and His Church;
If the reader desires more chronicling of Tim Keller’s wickedness they only have to punch in the name “Tim Keller” in the search link at Iron Ink.
Keller had spoken repeatedly of how the Frankfurt school had profoundly influenced him. Keller’s vision was a Christianity which had the soteriology of scripture as combined with the morality of Gramsci. Anyone with a mere smattering of knowledge about the “Frankfurt school” knew immediately that Keller was, intentionally or unintentionally, a Marxist change agent leading a fifth columnists insurrection inside the visible Reformed Church to the end of redefining Christianity through a Cultural Marxist prism. This is why I have hated Tim Keller for decades now. I was not fooled by his “clever” rhetoric and Straussian writing methodology wherein clarity of meaning is purposefully avoided by the means of excessive nuance and qualification. I was not fooled by his slick presentation and charming personality. I was not fooled by his appeal to the cultural elites. The man was the very incarnation of what we might expect of a modern Mephistopheles. Tim Keller was C. S. Lewis’ “Uncle Screwtape” all dressed up.
So, because of all of the above and a host more of others, I am rejoicing at the news of Tim Keller’s death, which I heard while I was myself only clinging to life. I do weep at the same time that Tim rejected the demand that all men everywhere repent. How can grace saved sinners not weep, in this sense, at the death of each of the wicked? I weep because Tim rejected Christ and now it is too late for Keller to repent, but I rejoice that his wickedness is mercifully and finally at the end. No longer will Keller scourge the Church.
Still, we who remain are now left in cleaning up the mess that Keller left behind. We who remain are left having to slay all the Kellerite acolytes who are manning PCA pulpits across the land. We who remain are left having to explain that Christianity can’t be read through the prism of the ne0-Marxist Frankfurt school. We few who are left have the gargantuan task of preaching the Kellerites out of the Reformed Churches. The Kellerites control the PCA and have a large voice in other Reformed Institutions. So, we have a fight on our hands because these lesser spawn of Mordor is not going to simply walk away any more than Keller did.
In closing allow me again to have a personal word. Keller was a Marxist change agent but understand that the dialectical way these agents of change are working in the Reformed churches right now. On the one hand we have the dominionists change agents like Keller who believe that the Church should definitely engage in culture to bring change but the change that the dopes following Keller desire a change in the direction of cultural Marxism. At the same time the “anti-domininionists” school embodied by R2K is working to clear opposition for the Kellerite dominionionists. R2K teaches that the Church should be silent regarding cultural issues. This silences any biblical dominionists who would see the pulpit ring with “thus saith the Lord” on any number of issues. The effect of the silencing accomplished by R2K on Biblical dominionists in the Church is to give more leverage and power to Frankfurt school dominionists in the Church.
I’ve never been a Math and Science (STEM) kind of chap. All of my interests and abilities have been in what has been questionably dubbed “the humanities” — you know, History, Philosophy, Theology, Literature and even Sociology. It wasn’t that I didn’t make an effort at Math and Science its just that it took me too much time to que up to a speed where I could be in the middle of the pack. Because of this reality, languages were a struggle for me as well. In Undergrad I tried Accounting and failed miserably. I also took a twirl in Economics but unfortunately my Economics classes were long on the Mathematical equations in order to come with GDP (Gross Domestic Product) and GNP (Gross Net Product) and very short on Economic theory. I only later learned that I had some proficiency at Economics as theory. However, I had precious little proficiency at Economics as Mathematics. This reality explains how I struggled to get through the required statistics class in undergrad.
It was only when I took Theology courses I began to realize that here was something that I could excel at. For whatever reason Theology just clicked and made sense. In point of fact, in short time fellow students were coming to me for help with their theology. Theology clicked faster than even politics history and philosophy — all subjects for which I finally received a BS degree. However, that was due to the fact that I was also being taught presuppositionalism (epistemology) at the same time and it took a few years before lights turned on. I remember to this day being assigned as a Freshman to read Francis Schaeffer’s “Escape From Reason.” Some of you may recall that this small book is less than one hundred pages. As I read each word and turned each page I had no idea what I was reading. It may was well have been as been written in French. Still, I was bound and determined to read it cover to cover despite not understanding a single word I was reading. I wanted at least to be able to say that I had tried. When the exam came I was ready to walk away from College. All my course work was beyond me. I was not ready for College. I told the Lord that if I failed the Schaeffer exam (and I had already failed more than a few exams and classes at this point) that I was walking away from College. So, I went in like a trooper and took the exam and fumbled my way through it the best I could and just knew I had failed miserably. I was sure that I was finished with this whole college thing.
However, as the Professor (Dr. Martin) graded his Freshman classes on a curve, the fact that the rest of my peers were even more bumfuzzled than me rescued the day. I went to look at the grade curve, posted on Martin’s door, and there I discovered that my failure in understanding was a average failure of understanding. I had not failed but had received a “C” on the exam and I said to the Lord, “apparently you don’t want me leaving here,” and so I stayed and pressed on. It took a couple years of failing more than a few classes before I began to get a grip on matters, but that grip never included math and science. (Though in biology and the pig dissection with its pure memory work, I aced.)
All of this to set up what I am learning now on the intricacies of the human body. With my surgical procedure on the horizon I have been required to learn about the human heart. I have been reading on the subjects and listening to lectures and I have to admit that I am stunned at the precision and order there is about the human body. A Presbyterian would say that “everything in the human body is decent and in order.” There is nothing about the human heart that bespeaks chaos or happenstance. I keep muttering to myself over and over again, “We are indeed fearfully and wonderfully made,” and “What is man that thou are mindful of him. Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels and crowned him with glory and honor.”
In my learning I have come away asking myself, “How can anybody who studies all this as a career and living not believe in design and a designer?” “How can any medical Doctor not be a servant of Christ?” How can they study all this and not fall on their faces before their Creator God?
Then I was reminded again that the natural man is at warfare with God (Romans 8:7). It all came forcefully upon me of the power of the fallen mind to suppress the truth in unrighteousness. Then I was reminded again what grace and privilege it has been to have been sent the Spirit of the living God so as to be able to see and interpret all of life in light of the reality of God. There is no difference between me and any genius surgeon who does not see that the human body screams DESIGN and so DESIGNER except for the fact that sovereign grace has arrested me and opened my eyes while the genius surgeon continues to suppress the truth in unrighteousness and so can only see time plus chance plus circumstance.
There are a few truths I’m pressing with this entry. The obvious one is how all of creation screams a Creator God. The second one is the necessity of gratitude that the Spirit of the living Christ has turned on lights so that the Christ believer is living in a illuminated world that is bright with the reality and glory of God. Everything proclaims the handiwork of God. Our prayer is that we would, over time, see that more and more clearly. The third truth I’m trying to push in this entry is for the person who may think that they don’t have the ability to understand theology, philosophy, history and academics in general. Don’t give up. Keep pressing on. Make it a matter of prayer. If God could turn on lights for me so that a kid who graduated High School with a 1.9 GPA and who was jagged and broken around the edges then His grace can turn the lights on for any one upon whom His grace is given. However, lets me honest, ignorance, like demons, is not cast out except by prayer and fasting. (Not to mention a stubborn refusal to allow the material to conquer you.) There has to be a willingness to be seen as stupid by your peers who are ahead of you initially. (My stories here are the stuff books are made of.) There has to be a willingness to suffer the dismissal of professors who are hinting that “you’re not college (seminary, ministry) material.” (More stories and more books.)
The mindset of people who are in the position that I was in and remain in is to take the mindset of the tortoise in his race with the hare. People like you and I just need to keep praying and plugging away morning, noon, and night in order to get to the finish line.
You may not think you have it in you and it may be the case that your talents lie elsewhere but all of God’s people are called at some level to “study to show thyself approved, a workman who needeth not to be ashamed.”
“The American Revolutionaries revolted against the British crown because they rejected the legitimacy of the monarchy, even an ostensibly Christian, theocratic monarchy. That some Americans today are even considering going back to that mess of pottage is astounding. It suggests that they have not digested 1 Samuel 8 and that, like the Marxists, they imagine theocracy has not worked because the right people have not tried it.”
Dr. R. Scott Idiot
R2K Cheerleader
IQ of a Potato
Bret responds,
1.) The Colonial Americans did not revolt because they rejected the legitimacy of a Monarch. The Colonial Americans revolted because they The American Revolutionaries revolted against the British crown because they rejected the illegitimate rule of a legitimate monarch. King George III had violated the political charters and covenants of the colonies and having violated those political charters and covenants the Colonialists understood they had to obligation to obey a otherwise legitimate Monarchy who had declared his illegitimacy by his actions in violating the political covenants that had been entered into by King and people.
2.) Now Christian pro establishment of religion people are “like the Marxists?” What a nekulturny Clark shows himself to be. Personally, I don’t want to go back to a Christian strongman Prince such as Stephen Wolfe advocates. I would prefer a return to muscular Christian Constitutional Republicanism. However, having said that and understanding that Enlightenment political theory is decidedly NOT Christian I can understand people thinking that a Christian strongman Prince man might be the way to go.
In closing let’s note something Cornelius Van Til (CVT) said. CVT wrote that people could be incredibly bright but still incredibly wrong. The analogy that CVT used is that of a miter saw. People’s minds are like miter saws that can be incredibly sharp but suffer from cutting at the wrong angle every time. I suppose it is possible that Clark is not an Idiot. I suppose he is just a CVT miter saw that cuts at the wrong angle every time. Either way… Idiot of miter saw don’t send your sons to be taught by R. Scott Clark.
“American religious pluralism works. There are indeed those on the radical cultural left who are seeking to impose a kind of new national religion. The answer, however, is not to react by seeking to overthrow the American experiment in favor of theocracy, but rather to reargue and reassert the American principle of religious pluralism. We should resist the theocrats of the left and the right.”
Dr. R. Scott Idiot
R2K Dissembler
Bret responds,
1.) Pluralism is a myth since pluralism does not allow for a Christian religion that resolves that there should be no other God’s before the God of the Bible in the public square. So, we do not live under pluralism. We live under a religious establishment that makes the State is God since it is the State which is the supreme entity that determines how far any God can walk in the public square. The State is, because of Scott’s putative religious pluralism, the God who is God over all the Gods. THAT is NOT pluralism. That is a system where there is one God (the FEDS) and all other gods must genuflect before that God. What we have is the old pluralistic Roman system that allowed for all the gods to be present in the public square as long as each of them pinched incense to Caesar. That R2K and Scott can’t see this and insists quite to the contrary that we live in pluralism just screams that this man should not be allowed within 10 miles of a pulpit or lectern.
2.) American religious pluralism works? Scott keeps using that word “work.” I do not think it means what he thinks it means. Well, I suppose if you believe that 50 million dead babies means “working” I guess it does. I suppose if you believe Drag Queen Story Hour, gender surgery for children, and sodomites marry uranians means “working” than I guess it works.
Do you see what I mean by repeatedly saying the man is an “idiot?” Only an idiot would say “American religious pluralism works.”
3.) Theocracy is an inescapable category. See earlier entry on this point. No government is arranged so as to avoid theocracy. Clark is an idiot.
4.) Of course everyone argues for theocracy since it is never an argument of if but only of which. Scott himself is arguing for a theocratic arrangement as embraced by Hume, Rousseau, and Voltaire. He probably doesn’t even know that since he is blind to his own worldview.
5.) Religious pluralism (so called) has got us where we are at and R. Scott Idiot suggests the remedy for where we are at is more religious pluralism (so called)? The man is a towering Idiot.