Colin Samul

Husband, Father, Reformed Presbyterian Teaching Elder. Lifelong student of Theology and Philosophy. I’m the guy that did the UFO podcast for Cultish (posted 👇)

[Daniel O'Connor @DSDOConnor]

So many are already falling for the trap he has laid, before the movie has even been released.

"Christianity is fine with aliens, Spielberg, darn you! This doesn't shake anyone's Faith! Look at what CS Lewis wrote!," we see mid-info Christians already shouting in response to this bait.

Because they think -- wrongly -- that Spielberg is going to explicitly attack Christianity with this film via aliens, so they are preemptively trying to win that battle.

But Spielberg isn't that dumb.

I'm of course speculating, because I haven't seen the movie. (When it comes out I'll realease a full analysis; please stay tuned.) But I suspect that Spielberg is preparing something altogether different with this film.

He's not going to try to present Aliens as existing and as a refutation of Christianity.

He's going to present Aliens as existing and refuting "medieval, dogmatic, closed-minded" Christianity; particularly as refuting traditional Catholicism. Maybe he'll even present Aliens as "fulfilling" Christianity, or finally giving it a "more evolved" makeover.

Why?

So that the mid-info Christians noted above will breathe a sigh of relief and rest content knowing they have the approval of Spielberg (and the secular masses) so long as they "expand" their notion of God to include extraterrestrials...

... and that very "expanded" notion of God just so happens to be the very "expansion" required to accept the Great Deception.

[Romesh "Rom" Prakashpalan @romeshp]

@RevJimOPC How could Daryl Hart, with all of his online ... antics, ever be on such a serious committee? A cursory look at the man's social media history could be used to discredit this committee's work, making it seem like a ... bad joke.

[Colin Samul @ColinSamul]

@BerithPress Glad DG could be part of your celebration!

[Colin Samul @ColinSamul]

Here is my visual representation of what I predict this report will look like.

[Jim Stevenson @RevJimOPC]

The #OPCGA determined approve Overture #1 to establish a study committee of 5 with 2 alternates. They are as follows:

1. David Van Druned
2. Alan Strange
3. Lane Tipton
4. Daryl Hart
5. David Innes
6. Zach Lautenschlager
7. David Noe

[Colin Samul @ColinSamul]

@Rural_KS_Pastor I would argue the former exists, in part, due to the church’s neglect of the latter.

[Colin Samul @ColinSamul]

@Bootlegregore @katrosenfield Tongue in cheek my friend

[Stephen Wolfe @PerfInjust]

In the modern version of two-kingdom theology (M2K), the state is limited by soteriology and ecclesiology, and the state is adventitious as a post-fall divine ordinance.

All three are inherently theological.

So, knowing the limits of politics requires theological knowledge.

But, in M2K, civil rulers as such cannot have theological knowledge, or at least have no competence in it.

Thus, in the M2K system, civil rulers have either no knowledge of their limitations or no competence in judging those limitations.

The solution is to say that the church dictates those to the state, which makes the church over the state (a violation of 2K).

Or the M2K system is simply incoherent.

[Colin Samul @ColinSamul]

This clip is more relevant than ever

[Brandon Corley @BrandonCorley99]

While I'm not a theonomist this is probably the realest thing Bahnsen ever said

[Colin Samul @ColinSamul]

Interesting observations from Alexander McLeod on the consequences of denying innate ideas and natural theology:

“Men of no mean penetration, learning, or piety have branded with the name of vice many of the legitimate acts of our obedience to the law of our nature—the voice of God, speaking through the constitutional propensities of the human mind—a voice with which revelation is ever consistent, and which it is designed not to contradict but enforce. They have called my earnest desire and endeavors after personal salvation, my strong affection for those who are united to me by natural ties, my gratitude to my Benefactor, by the name of vice; they have attributed them to sinful selfishness and have industriously endeavored to persuade men to expunge them from the list of Christian duties or virtues. In their denial of innate principles you perceive the source of these absurdities. You discover the cause, not in the excess of metaphysical refinement, but in the want of a previous examination of first principle; in a fundamental error respecting the constitution which God has given to human nature, a constitution which revealed religion uniformly addresses, and which it is designed to repair, to sanctify, and to perfect.”

[Berith Press @BerithPress]

Can we expect to see a Presbyterian study committee to address the ideologies and policies that led to this?

[Colin Samul @ColinSamul]

@RedPandaKoala “I’m autistic” has just become code for “I have mysterious super powers and you should take me seriously.”

[Colin Samul @ColinSamul]

Well stated.

[Stephen Wolfe @PerfInjust]

I’ve been able to look over the latest study report. I agree with some of it and obviously disagree with several things. The authors have, in several places, confounded and confused nature/grace (in ways they wouldn’t allow in their theology seminars, I hope), earth/heaven, and ecclesial/civil; they’ve restricted government action in ways that few would recognize historically; and they have, in violation of Reformed principles, extended spiritual equality from theology and the church into politics and civil society.

The thing is, they must do this to affirm political liberalism—pull from theology to get universalist and egalitarian liberalism. And that’s the worst part of it. It functionally requires PCA ministers to be modern political liberals. Few Presbyterians born before 1965 could be ministers in the PCA. The report baptizes postwar liberalism.

I recommend that people read Reformed Christian Politics to find a better method, consistently applied principles, a close reading of the Standards, and faithfulness to the broad Reformed tradition. The irony is that we leave more room for variations of political arrangements. This recent report insists that the timeless politics of Jesus is modern liberalism.

I’m traveling. So I’ll provide an in-depth response later.

[Stephen Wolfe @PerfInjust]

The neatest thing about the timeless politics of Jesus is that it was discovered in the 1980s/90s and now if you disagree, you’re outside the faith.

[Berith Press @BerithPress]

Many of us operate under a Hegelian presupposition that the unfolding time brings us closer and closer to truth and goodness through institutions, and religion (of which Christianity is a species) is one of those institutions.

The word "progress" has now acquired to itself both the passing of time, and the virtue of goodness.

When "semper reformanda" is seen through this lens, categories are confused, and the truth is harmed.

It is not that new developments are necessarily always bad. It is just that their newness is not in itself a virtue, and thus by itself, they cannot prove anything.

[Colin Samul @ColinSamul]

Wild times we are living in.

[ABC News @ABC]

The Catholic archbishop of Washington, D.C. removed a well-known priest as an exorcist of the archdiocese after he made public comments suggesting that UFO sightings were the work of demons.

Read more: https://t.co/0KBBiLExeB

[Colin Samul @ColinSamul]

@RedPandaKoala Darkhorse Candidate

[Stephen Wolfe @PerfInjust]

"It is characteristic of tyrants that they cannot tolerate heroic natures; and among the inconveniences of a popular state, this is also significant: that heroic and excellent men are hardly tolerated in it. This is because the people love equality and parity, which heroic natures surpass, and therefore the people hate and suspect them." Keckermann