dirk walstead

sinner saved by a gracious God. husband to a loving wife. father of seven children. elder at RRBC. reformed Baptist, but not obnoxious about it.

[dirk walstead @DirkWalstead]

RESOLVED. If I believe that God has spoken with clarity and finality in his word, I should act like it in my doctrine and in my practice.
In short, I should reflect my confidence in the God who has spoken in every area of my life.

[dirk walstead @DirkWalstead]

@The_FortyFirst Agreed

[dirk walstead @DirkWalstead]

The older I get,
And as I have children entering adulthood,
I’m realizing just how important the
“try not to be weird” approach is to being successful

Sure, we all have our quirks & flaws.
But the weird Christian homeschooler thing doesn’t have to be your default identity.

[dirk walstead @DirkWalstead]

Caveat,
I’m not saying hide anything about who you are or where you came from.

I’m actually just saying: try not to be weird.

[dirk walstead @DirkWalstead]

@gmk_julie Lot of things in Dales life aren’t ideal

[dirk walstead @DirkWalstead]

@wife2sirhusband Wait, he blocked you over that interaction? Good grief

[dirk walstead @DirkWalstead]

@apologistlayman You asked about family status, and glossed over the majority reason why we use the terms in the Bible.

Calling Mary my sister is completely biblical.
Calling her my mother, really depends what you mean, but even here, it’s not a sign of some sort of racial individualism.

[dirk walstead @DirkWalstead]

That’s nice, but she (as a fellow believer) is quite literally our sister in the faith.

The way Paul uses father is as a mentor to a younger believer, but saying Mary serves that for all believers, wouldn’t that be true for every believer who’s older than you?
i.e. church father

[The Layman Apologist 🥛 @apologistlayman]

As a Protestant, Mary is my mother. How I arrive at that and understand it is not the same way Roman Catholics or Eastern Orthodox Christians do, but she is my mother nonetheless.

Low church evangelicalism gets deeply uncomfortable with the idea of anyone being above them, so everyone becomes a brother or a sister and we are all perfectly equal. But Scripture does not actually support that flattening.

Jesus tells us that those who follow Him will receive many mothers and fathers in the faith. Mark 10:29-30, Matthew 19:29. Paul instructs Timothy not to sharply rebuke an older man but to appeal to him as a father, to treat older women as mothers, younger men as brothers, younger women as sisters, in all purity. 1 Timothy 5:1-2.

There is a spiritual family structure in Scripture/Christianity and it has hierarchy built into it. Mothers and fathers are not brothers and sisters. They occupy a different place, a place of honor.

So why insist on calling Mary our sister? I can only guess based on my own past experience, that we want her on our level. We want her equal to us rather than above us. And I am not sure that instinct comes from being careful with our theology so much as it comes from the increasingly individualistic culture we are drowning in, where the idea of anyone holding a place of honor above us feels like a personal threat.

Mary carried our Lord Jesus. She is the mother of our Lord. Calling her sister to make ourselves more comfortable says more about us than it does about her.

[dirk walstead @DirkWalstead]

@apologistlayman I’m going to ignore the first statement cause whatever dude.

Calling any fellow believer a brother/sister is biblical. So there’s that.

What makes someone a mother in the faith?
Lazarus’ sisters are my mothers, to which I go ok 🤷

[dirk walstead @DirkWalstead]

@DrAaronNew Which view is the historical baptist view?
Which one is a new innovation and change?

[dirk walstead @DirkWalstead]

@apologistlayman Why are you getting testy?
The primary way it’s used is as children of God.

Father/mother is also used for spiritual mentors.
Is Mary my spiritual mentor in a special way?

[dirk walstead @DirkWalstead]

@DrAaronNew And the reason I was “exasperated” as you called it, was because I knew the other stuff is just a smokescreen for you pushing female pastors.
Meanwhile pretending you’re doing something else

[dirk walstead @DirkWalstead]

@DrAaronNew Calling that soft complimenterianism just muddies the water.

At what point is this not a reason to just part ways, form two different groups?

[dirk walstead @DirkWalstead]

@DrAaronNew Preaching is one of, if not the primary, job of the pastor/elder.
So while a man who isn’t an elder can *fill in* on occasion, if he’s doing the job he is functioning as a pastor.
regardless of title.

[dirk walstead @DirkWalstead]

@apologistlayman lol. Are you serious right now?

Children of God is a basic NT category
Brother/sister is literally the status of everyone born of God.

[dirk walstead @DirkWalstead]

@DrAaronNew So to my first question, your concern is that it would prevent a young man in your church, possibly a future elder, from being given an opportunity to preach?

What is your position on the 2nd question?

[dirk walstead @DirkWalstead]

@DrAaronNew Sigh. If, and only if, they meet all of the qualifications of an elder.

Can you answer a couple question?
1. Do you think the amendment precludes something like 26.11 as I showed?

2. Do women meet the qualifications of an elder?

[dirk walstead @DirkWalstead]

@DrAaronNew No, do they right now meet those qualifications?
If not, it’s inappropriate for them to fill the pulpit.

The baptist tradition has historically recognized “gifted brethren”, but never as a way to sidestep elder qualifications
See 1689.11

[dirk walstead @DirkWalstead]

A “particular interpretation of”

Whatever else you could say about this, these are weasel words.
Every single passage of scripture has “a particular interpretation”

Fun thought experiment, use his arguments but on texts dealing with the trinity.

[Dr. Michael F. Bird @mbird12]

The Cruel Legalisms of Christian Patriarchy
"It is building a fence made with human hands around a particular interpretation of 1 Timothy 2:12 to make extra sure that no woman ever transgresses male authority in the church. I call it the extra patriarchum, whatever women should not be doing, double or triple the prohibition, just to make extra sure they do not do that thing."
https://t.co/EC3E6zNDrw

[dirk walstead @DirkWalstead]

@williamsjeff1 I’ve heard that works every time

[dirk walstead @DirkWalstead]

It’s like the opening scene for a disaster movie.
What could possibly go wrong?

[Collin Rugg @CollinRugg]

Plans released for a $16 billion mile-long ship capable of carrying 80,000 people.

The 'Freedom Ship' would be home to about 50,000 people, with space for 10,000 tourists and 20,000 crew members.

"The Freedom Ship is envisioned as a permanently mobile city at sea designed for long-term residence rather than short-term travel," the company says.

The ship would be about 8 times the size of the current largest ship in the world, the Royal Caribbean’s Icon of the Seas.

The plans include a 15,000-seat stadium, schools, colleges, shops, clubs, a water park, a music hall, museums, parks, and more.

The ship, which would run on nuclear, would be too large to dock and would remain in international waters.

Freedom Cruise International says it would go around the world every two to three years.

Insane.