Sean Brand

Husband and father following Christ.

[Zachary Garris @ZacharyGarris]

William Ames (1576-1633) said it’s a sin for pastors to not apply doctrine in their sermons.

“Each doctrine when sufficiently explained should immediately be applied to its use.”

For “the chief purpose of the sermon…is the edification of the hearers.”

“They sin, therefore, who stick to the naked finding and explanation of the truth, neglecting the use and practice in which religion and blessedness consist. Such preachers edify the conscience little or not at all.”

-William Ames, The Marrow of Theology, 1.35.29-30

[Michael Foster @thisisfoster]

A friend asked:

“If you could identify one ‘bucket’ of qualites or maybe more narrow quality you would want discipled into women in your church, what would it be? Said another way, what is missing most that women should be displaying in their feminine Christ likeness?”

My answer:

“I guess I would call it a passion for domestic duties, even when they're challenging. My observation is that, despite all the girl-boss narratives, many modern women are remarkably weak in resolve and quick to fold under pressure. They ought to be resilient when it comes to the very things they were especially made for.”

[J. Chase Davis @jchasedavis]

Keller Center fellows enjoy dunking on “faith, family, freedom” evangelicals whom they view as simpletons.

But they have their own folk theology. It’s called androgyny. There’s no such thing as becoming a godly man or a godly woman. Just sexless meat sacks of “virtue.”

[Sean Brand @SeanBrand17]

@FavaAnthony @jonharris1989 https://t.co/x1QKmdUJww

[Smash Baals @smashbaals]

There’s no such thing as “gay marriage”

[Zachary Garris @ZacharyGarris]

Seminaries were founded in the early 1800s to train ministers.

They are not merely graduate schools of theology.

But encouraging women to enter seminary treats them as such—and this does not serve the church well.

[Kallie Kriel @kalliekriel]

Today we mourn those who died during an ANC terror attack that took place in Church Street, Pretoria, exactly 43 years ago on 20 May 1983. The bombing resulted in the deaths of 19 people, both black and white.

[Jaco Kleynhans @JacoKleynhans]

On 20 May 1983, a car bomb exploded at around 16:30 in Church Street, Pretoria, outside the Nedbank building (hired by the South African Air Force). The bomb went off early, killing 19 people (including the two MK operators in the car) and injuring 217. Many of the victims were civilians in a busy shopping area during rush hour. It was one of the largest terrorist attacks in South Africa’s history.
The attack was carried out by uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK), the armed wing of the African National Congress (ANC). It was planned by a special operations unit under the command of Aboobaker Ismail, with the approval of Joe Slovo and Oliver Tambo. The attack was made possible by the support of left-wing extremists from Europe. The ANC accepted responsibility, and MK members later applied for amnesty from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). The act of terrorism was a deliberate terrorist attack by a left-wing, Marxist-inspired liberation movement (ANC/MK) against innocent civilians. 43 years later left-wing terror against Afrikaner civilians continues in South Africa today.

[Fixing Education @FixingEducation]

Students remember more when they write it down on paper. Not type it. Not screenshot it. Write it!

The act of writing slows students down, adds tactile feedback, and helps lock it into memory.

[Zachary Garris @ZacharyGarris]

It’s hilarious when people respond with “this isn’t the 1950s.”

The fact is domestic women were the norm in all of history, and the Bible even commands women to be “workers at home” (Titus 2:3).

No one cares about the 1950s. But we do reject the feminism of the 1960s.

[Sean Brand @SeanBrand17]

@guy_canadian3 @ZacharyGarris Chronological snobbery is what you're position is called.

[Zachary Garris @ZacharyGarris]

I’m aware Titus 2 isn’t a popular message in our feminist culture.

But it’s the Word of God, so I’m preaching it.

If women followed Titus 2, there wouldn’t be egalitarianism or FFOs in the church. And the U.S. birth rate wouldn’t be 1.6.

[Sean Brand @SeanBrand17]

@ZacharyGarris Instead what I keep hearing and seeing is, the youngest kid is now at school so now mom go go into the workplace or pursue some acedemics instead of doing their duty to the younger women in their family and church.

[Zachary Garris @ZacharyGarris]

If more women in the PCA were practicing Titus 2, then we wouldn’t have a problem with Functional Female Officers.

Younger women should be busy with domestic duties.

And older women should be busy training the younger women in those duties.

[Zachary Garris @ZacharyGarris]

One problem I've observed in American culture—even in the church—is that older women check out in life.

"I've already raised my children," they say.

But where does it say that in the Bible?

In fact, Titus 2 commands the opposite. It shows that women's work isn’t done just because their children are grown (or they never had children).

The Apostle Paul commands "older women" to not be "malicious gossips nor enslaved to much wine" (Titus 2:3)—two things that signify women have too much time on their hands.

Rather than wasting time in sin, older women are to be "reverent" in behavior and "teachers of good things" (Titus 2:3).

By "teachers," Paul means the older women are to train and "encourage the young women" in domestic duties (loving husband and children, submissive, "workers at home") and in exercising Christian virtue (being "sensible, pure...kind") (Titus 2:4-5).

The reason Christian women should do these things is "so that the word of God will not be dishonored" (Titus 2:5). This implies that doing such things pleases God and in fact honors His Word.

Older women must follow this teaching, but pastors must also preach this to the older women. Pastors must call our older sisters in Christ to be "reverent" in their behavior (Titus 2:3).

And if they are wasting their remaining time on earth, we must call older Christian women to repent. They should first and foremost help their daughters and daughters-in-law in raising their grandchildren, as part of their familial duties.

But older women must also mentor young women in the church. They must start spending time with them. They must teach and model Christian virtue. Books studies are not enough. They must get in the homes of younger women and "encourage" them in their domestic work and the virtue needed for such work (Titus 2:4-5).

[Zachary Groff 📖 @ZGroff]

Just stumbled on this banger of a statement from French theologian Henri Blocher about religious truth...

"When we study non-biblical religions, we constantly discover a fascination with intermixture and a kind of longing for a universal dissolution of differences."

This is found on page 72 of his 1984 Inter-Varsity Press title, In the Beginning: The Opening Chapters of Genesis.

Today, I would humbly add that we find the same fascination in purportedly biblical religions. Modern egalitarianism, which runs rampant in Anabaptist-influenced strains of so-called Evangelicalism, is the expression of "a kind of longing for a universal dissolution of differences."

An extreme distortion of the priesthood of all believers has supplanted the gifts the ascended and reigning Christ has bestowed upon His church, and chaos ensues. May the Lord spare us from this wicked "universal dissolution of differences."

[Sean Brand @SeanBrand17]

@ZacharyGarris I agree there is more. In our community I am concerned that we have now employed permanent onsite counsellors at our denominational school. The main person being a lady.

[Berith Press @BerithPress]

Next month, Lord-willing.