Jason Cunningham

PCA ( Southern Presbyterian, Scots-Irish, USMC

[Jason Cunningham @ReformedTrain]

"Do not put yourself at odds with the Word of God. For truly, it will persist as surely as the Rhine follows its course. One can perhaps dam it up for a while, but it is impossible to stop it.” - Zwingli

[Jason Cunningham @ReformedTrain]

Webb is a great story teller and this is an excellent history of our Scots-Irish heritage...another good read is also Cracker Culture
https://t.co/TfcV3CWzkf

[Jacob Webb @Jacob_A_Webb]

This just jumped to the front of the queue. I look forward to starting it today.

[Rural Pastor @Rural_KS_Pastor]

Is it fair to ask why it doesn't seem the ecclesiastical energy spent on CN has also been spent on feminism, egalitarianism, progressivism, and leftism?

Maybe I'm insulated, but the net effect of the latter seems far more consequential to the life and fellowship of the church.

[Jason Cunningham @ReformedTrain]

@Jacob_A_Webb @hulsey95 My favorite room in the house - 20 years a homeschool room turned library

[Jason Cunningham @ReformedTrain]

This seems problematic...

Christian piety is best promoted and protected when the civil magistrate "promotes and protects" the free exercise of Baal worship? #PCAGA

[Jason Cunningham @ReformedTrain]

@BringePeter It should be bulletproof since it’s still running HTML 1.0

[Jason Cunningham @ReformedTrain]

@Jacob_A_Webb I know it was a long journey, brother - "When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world."

[Michael Clary @dmichaelclary]

Seven thoughts about the Rio Grande Presbytery's suspension of @ZacharyGarris.

1. Pastors are in the word-speaking business. It's literally in our job description. We are called to speak what is true and correct error (2 Tim 4:1-5). Garris' job is to speak words to uphold the truth and correct error.

2. Garris was not convicted for being wrong. He was convicted for sarcasm. That's a standard the Old Testament prophets, the Apostle Paul, and Jesus Christ himself wouldn't meet. Sarcasm is a legitimate rhetorical tool in the pastor's toolkit. The Presbyters who voted to convict him obviously had a personal vendetta against Garris and used the courts to lawfare a good man.

3. The idol of decorum is a problem with modern evangelicalism. The PCA will tolerate gay affirming pastors like Greg Johnson (of Revoice infamy), but will not tolerate truth tellers like Garris whose only crime is hurting someone's feelings.

4. Decorum is an idol because it gives power to the weak bureaucrats of the institutional class. Strong men like Garris speak truth plainly and directly. Weak men weaponize subjective standards of decorum to punish any speech that offends them. No doubt, the Rio Grande presbyters who voted against Garris feel justified in their decision. They probably see themselves as righteous martyrs after the overwhelming backlash they've received since their ruling. But their standard is a highly subject rule of decorum, not the word of God.

5. The Rio Grande presbytery's attack on Garris is also an attack on every faithful pastor in the PCA (and beyond). Scripture tells us to not charge pastors with wrong without clear evidence of serious sin (1 Tim 5:19-20). This is not favoritism for pastors, but a recognition that every pastor is in a spiritual battle.

6. The Rio Grande presbytery's attack on Garris is also an attack on the sheep of his church. This decision harms the souls of God's people by wearying their shepherd and distracting him from the work he's called to do. The RGP is trying to deprive God's people of their shepherd. Their attack on Garris is the same as an attack on Garris' entire church.

7. Finally, the Rio Grande presbytery was doing the devil's bidding by attacking Garris. Their ruling would undermine the authority of the word of God in the church and sow seeds of doubt in the hearts of God's people.

Calvin addressed this. Calvin said pastors need to be protected from frivolous charges like this as a "remedy against the malice of men" because "none are more liable to slanders and calumnies than godly teachers."

He goes on to say, "this is the craftiness of Satan, to draw away the hearts of men from ministers, that instruction may gradually fall into contempt. Thus not only is wrong done to innocent persons, in having their reputation unjustly wounded, (which is exceedingly base in regard to those who hold so honourable a rank,) but the authority of the sacred doctrine of God is diminished" (Calvin's commentary on 1 Tim 5:19).

The Rio Grande Presbytery's actions were shameful, and I pray the PCA's higher courts do the right thing by overturning RGP's ruling and vindicating Garris.

[Jason Cunningham @ReformedTrain]

Hus, Wycliffe, Luther, Wishart, Covenanters, Reformers, etc and ad nauseam, hit hardest

[Presbycast @presbycast]

Independents, religio-political entrepreneurs, schismatics, outlaws, or fugitives from church justice may not be the best men to take advice from if you are a member of a confessional presbyterian denomination, imperfect though it be.

[Jason Cunningham @ReformedTrain]

"Blasphemy, clerical abuses, ecclesiastical mistrust, religious pluralism, Hindu idols, and Muslim mosques are not the hallmarks of a healthy relationship between the church and the state."

[Bennie Castle 🌲🇸🇴 @CalRumRedivivus]

https://t.co/USOHw1SjOg

[Jason Cunningham @ReformedTrain]

John - I think what is unclear is that you seem to imply ‘we want black churches planted by black people for black people’ as a legitimate mission-oriented effort to reach a culturally distinct people group, or at least let’s give them the benefit of the doubt.

And please correct me if I’m wrong, but if the statement above was ‘white southerners’ who certainly share common culture and customs and can by all definitions be called a culturally distinct people group, you would denounce as sinful.

For all your explanations above, it still appears to just come down to a double standard.

[Jason Cunningham @ReformedTrain]

@johnandrewwords @Jacob_A_Webb @realmattcarr @irishpresby @ZacharyGarris @PerfInjust so American Black is a particular culture with a particular community but American White is not?

[Jason Cunningham @ReformedTrain]

@johnandrewwords @Jacob_A_Webb @realmattcarr @irishpresby @ZacharyGarris @PerfInjust so ""a movement of white rural church planting and ministry for and by White Rural Americans" would be acceptable? I'm not trying to bait you, just trying to understand the distinction...

[Jason Cunningham @ReformedTrain]

@johnandrewwords @Jacob_A_Webb @realmattcarr @irishpresby @ZacharyGarris @PerfInjust John - Would you say something like this falls under your definition?

"a movement of black church planting and ministry for and by Black Americans"
https://t.co/zyD6CZIxeK

[Jason Cunningham @ReformedTrain]

@demyronhaynes Pastor Haynes - all due respect, do you mean something like this?

"in partnership with Perimeter Church and MNA's African American Ministries, Kindred Hope will ignite a movement of black church planting and ministry for and by Black Americans."

https://t.co/zyD6CZIxeK

[Sean McGowan @irishpresby]

According to the Westminster Directory for the Publick Worship of God,

The call to worship is to be done by the minister.

The public reading of Scripture is to be done by the ministers, teachers, or ministerial candidates.

Prayer before the sermon is to be done by the minister.

Preaching is to be done by the minister.

Prayer after the sermon is to be done by the minister.

Administration of the sacraments done by the minister.

Benediction done by the minister.

We can argue about the place of Ruling Elders leading the elements, but it’s very clear that no lay persons (men, women, or children) were leading any of the elements.

Additionally, when WLC 156 says “all are not permitted to read the word publicly to the congregation” the DPW provides the context needed to understand who the divines meant.

Laypeople (excluding ministerial candidates) are not to read the word in public worship.

#PCA

[Jason Cunningham @ReformedTrain]

https://t.co/Alv1eJzCiw

"It’s natural to love your own people as we respect other people-groups as well."

[Jason Cunningham @ReformedTrain]

Seeing the parental relation is what the Scripture describes it, and seeing Satan has perverted it since the fall for the diffusion and multiplication of depravity and eternal death, the education of children for God is the most important business done on earth. It is the one business for which the earth exists. To it all politics, all war, all literature, all money-making, ought to be subordinated; and every parent especially ought to feel, every hour of the day, that, next to making his own calling and election sure, this is the end for which he is kept alive by God— RL Dabney

[Jason Cunningham @ReformedTrain]

A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of people.

Only a small "inside" group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many.

Out of war a few people make huge fortunes.

Smedley Butler, #USMC

[Jason Cunningham @ReformedTrain]

@irishpresby I’ve used Lee’s book and combined it with Scripture that I use for high school guys