Ben Whittinghill

Christ is my life. Husband, father, and Lead Pastor of @RivertownVT.

[Ben Whittinghill @benwhitt]

2 Timothy 2:23–26: Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. 24 And *the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome* but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, 25 correcting his opponents with gentleness.

[Melissa the Hopeful🏠Homemaker @BiblicalBeauty]

Rosaria Butterfield boldly sharing truth at the Answers for Women conference this weekend, apparently after eating a breakfast of Grape-Nuts sprinkled with gunpowder:

"...It's a sin to tell a lie, but it's also a sin to believe a lie. And so, there is no such thing as a gay man or a lesbian woman or a transgender woman (and then you can fill in all of the different categories that come under the umbrella, LGBTQ).

And the reason is because, in Genesis where we have to start, we are given our identity. Our identity is in the image of God, bearing it as a man or as a woman. There are two kinds of people in the world—a man or a woman.

A man who says he's a gay man is a man with a sin pattern that Jesus came to help set him free from if he will mortify it, repent, believe, go to war. It's very hard to do that. I'm not suggesting it's easy, but that is our job, and you know what? It's not just somebody whose indwelling sin is homosexuality who happens to have that call. It's everyone, because we are all born in the sin of Adam. And it is because of the sin of Adam that we have sin in our nature.

And that quite frankly means that every person in this room needs to wake up every morning, drive a thousand fresh nails into your choice sin and do that before breakfast and then do the same thing before lunch. And if you do that, Satan's gonna get a little tired of you.

But here's the problem, homosexuality is the only sin pattern with a civil rights group behind it. And therefore, people who are deceived, as I was and Christopher [Yuan], by the lusts of our flesh have a cheering community behind you, and this is where you get the rub.

You see, it used to be that the church was clear and the world was the world, but because we have wolves in shepherds' clothing, we have way too many young people who are leaving the true church and claiming, 'Well, my same-sex attracted pastor told me it's not a sin to be gay.'

And you know, we are to be wise as serpents and gentle as doves. I want to be gentle with the people who are trapped in the lie of LGBTQ, but I am not gentle with the wolves...I quite frankly think they need to get a job selling insurance until they repent..."

[Apologies for my shoddy video skills, but sadly, a big monitor was placed on the stage, blocking my view of the speakers for the Q&A.]

[Ryan Helfenbein @RHelfenbein]

This is brilliant and timely. Reflecting on Charlie and Voddie, we know third-wayism is dead.

The false teaching of “neither left nor right” and the “11th Commandment” has been fully exposed.

Thank you @NRBCEO and @ostrachan with @VoddieBaucham @charliekirk11 @ericmetaxas

[Peter Leithart @PLeithart]

I watched only snippets of the Charlie Kirk memorial, but I'm overwhelmed with gratitude to God.

No living person, I suspect, has seen so many high public officials testify so clearly to the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

I am grateful for Tucker Carlson's exhortation to repent, starting with me.

I'm grateful for a Vice President, a Secretary of State, and a Secretary of Defense who talk openly about Jesus, the incarnate Son, exalted now to be King of kings.

Like many, I was stunned by the words of Erika Kirk: Forgive, rather than nurturing revenge. Love, not hate. Love your enemies and those who persecute us.

Pray this isn't a one-off. Pray those who testified to Jesus speak and live and rule as disciples of Jesus. Pray that President Trump really hears what he heard on Sunday.

And, for now and above all, give thanks to our God and Father through the Lord Jesus Christ.

[Protestia @Protestia]

"He was a true believer. Only Christ is King, our Lord and savior. Our sins are washed away by the blood of Jesus. Fear God and fear no man."

United States Secretary of War Pete Hegseth speaking at Charlie Kirk's memorial:

[Pastor Rich Lusk @Vicar1973]

Conservative churches and pastors that have tried to downplay the culture war and political issues for the last 5+ years are going to hit a crisis point, if they haven’t already.

The left/right divide keeps getting bigger, with the Charlie Kirk martyrdom and memorial service as the latest signs that the left and right sides of American culture and politics are getting further and further apart. It will soon be impossible for any institution to include both in a way that allows them to peacefully coexist. The left keeps drifting further into moral chaos and the right keeps getting more Christianized. The left is getting more explicitly demonic; the right is getting more explicitly Christian.

A pastor who has tried to keep the peace between left and right advocates in his congregation will face an impossible task. And that means he will have to make hard decisions, which will likely cost him quite a bit. We are at the fork in the road. Third-wayism is dead. Telling people, "It doesn't matter that we disagree so long as we are nice to each other" is not going to work any more. Jesus is not a Republican - I grant that. But the devil is definitely a Democrat. The lines are clearly drawn.

[Pastor Rich Lusk @Vicar1973]

A few random observations after the Charlie Kirk memorial service:

I wish I was about 30 years younger so I could live for several more decades in the America we are on the cusp of creating. Obviously, things could get derailed. Nothing is guaranteed. But the trajectory we are on is encouraging. The future is bright. The Republicans are stacked with men who would make great Presidents and successors to Trump in carrying forward the MAGA torch. (Vance is my favorite at this point.) More importantly, it is obvious there is a renewed interest in Christian faith, not only as the way of eternal salvation, but as a civilization-building force. This is especially true of young men who have found in Charlie a man worthy of emulation.

Obviously not all the speeches were equally great, but many of them were explicitly Christian and proclaimed the gospel. To hear the VP of the United States openly declare that, "It is better to be persecuted for your faith than to deny the kingship of Christ” was quite amazing. Rob McCoy, Frank Turek, and Marco Rubio gave very clear gospel presentations to millions of people. The Secretary of War declared Jesus’ kingship. Tucker Carlson called on everyone to humbly repent of their own sin. Erika Kirk gave amazingly biblical counsel to men (“Be a leader worth following”) and women (“If you are a mother, that is the single most important ministry you have”). She was a model of what a godly wife should be in that situation. Trump Jr. displayed the kind of common sense we need - like the goal of making one income families the norm again and renouncing political violence. It was very impressive and encouraging overall.

Maybe the most powerful moment was when Erika Kirk talked about how her husband was trying to reach disaffected, missionless young men, precisely like the one who killed her husband. I know some people will criticize her for forgiving the murderer apart from his repentance. But I think that’s nitpicking. We should be willing to forgive, even if the transaction of forgiveness remains incomplete because the offender will not confess and repent, and she demonstrated that willingness. Also, from the sum total of the speeches, it’s obvious that personal forgiveness and civil justice (in the case the death penalty) are not at all at odds. A murderer can be forgiven while still suffering the consequences of his actions. The use of the sword to bless the righteous and terrorize the wicked is clearly built into the MAGA program at this point. MAGA is all about law and order, and restoring the rule of law in our land.

Charlie Kirk’s character and courage were honored. His political convictions were certainly clear in the service. But most importantly, his faith in Jesus was set forth as the center of his life and the key to everything he did. Charlie was honored; but Jesus was honored even more, which is what Charlie would have wanted. Charlie was presented as a Christian who was guided by his faith when he got involved in politics, not someone who instrumentalized his faith for political purposes.

The service showed how much a man with a vision and a work ethic can accomplish. It’s astounding to consider how much Charlie transformed our nation in his all too short life.

What we witnessed in the memorial service was Christian nationalism in nascent, immature form. Not everyone who spoke was a Christian - and Christian nationalism doesn’t require that. But what we saw is even people who do not share Charlie’s faith in Jesus showing open respect for Christianity. Everyone at the service was operating under the Christian gaze.

We cannot make America great again without making America Christian again, which means making America Biblical again. MAGA needs MACA and MABA.

Republicans in the past paid lip service to a god - a vague faith that never got defined. In this service, many politicians were explicitly Christian in their faith. It’s a remarkable shift in a very short period of time.

Whatever Charlie’s eschatology was, he was a practical postmillennialist.

As the left gets more Satanic, the right gets more consistently Christian. The lines are more clearly drawn than ever. The service and the events of the last 10 days clearly demonstrate that.

If ever the Christian right, as the Christian right, as a political movement, was going to resort to the kind of anarchic violence we see on the left, this would have been it. The most famous and popular rightwing Christian apologist was murdered in broad daylight. And yet what do we see? No riots. No gunshots. No violence. Instead, we got a massive prayer meeting in a packed stadium, live-streamed to millions more all around the world. And we saw a wife (now a widow) who forgave her husband’s killer. The two sides are not the same. There is no moral equivalence here.

Reformed Christians might be tempted to look down on the style of worship and music in the service and the imprecise theology on display. We should resist that temptation. What good is mature theology if you don’t enter the fray and get into the battle? Evangelicals charging the gates of hell with slingshots and BB guns are more effective than Reformed Christians who leave their jet fighters in the hangar and their battleships in the dock. An immature theology combined with courage and a willingness to act will always be more effective than mature theology and worship that never enter the fray. Reformed Christians love to be the Monday Morning Quarterback who criticize the normie evangelicals in the arena, but those who are in the arena are the ones through whom God is working to bring change.

Perhaps the most important thing of all is that Charlie Kirk’s legacy was accurately portrayed. Charlie always made clear the cultural, political, and civilizational impact of Christian faith. Charlie was willing to connect the dots in a way that many pastors are not; he linked his faith to his economics, to his convictions about marriage and family, to his views of immigration and nationhood, to his belief in limited government, etc. In other words, he presented the Christian faith as a comprehensive system of truth that works in the real world. He challenged people (especially college students) with a biblical worldview, showing that Christian faith answers coherently and compellingly all the pressing personal *and* political questions of the day. That came through in the memorial service, and for that I am grateful.

[Ben Whittinghill @benwhitt]

Testing https://t.co/d87NuaZR4m

[Ben Whittinghill @benwhitt]

@howertonjosh @treypowell3 Link to Small Town Summit podcast: https://t.co/QGbxFZxHka

[Ben Whittinghill @benwhitt]

@howertonjosh @treypowell3 This thread was a great encouragement, Josh. Thanks for taking the time to post it.

I actually get to host a podcast that does this in New England with Small Town Summits. May it’ll be a blessing in a similar way - how God is using faithful, unseen ministry in small-town NE.

[Ben Whittinghill @benwhitt]

My heart in a picture. So thankful for the mother @kaylawhittinghill is to these treasures! https://t.co/qnOz65tp8F

[Ben Whittinghill @benwhitt]

Luke 17:32–33: Remember Lot’s wife. Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it.

[Ben Whittinghill @benwhitt]

Just posted a photo https://t.co/shxrDTqRGN

[J.C. Ryle @JCRyle]

We must read our Bibles like men digging for hidden treasure. -@JCRyle

[Jon Tyson @JonTyson]

The primary goal of the enemy is to keep you from union with God.
(Eldredge)

[Lila Rose @LilaGraceRose]

.@LiveAction investigators captured 7 Planned Parenthood facilities willing to aid human traffickers with abortions on trafficked children.

Countless court cases also show the abortion industry willing to cover up these brutal crimes.

[Lila Rose @LilaGraceRose]

Sex traffickers love Planned Parenthood.

They kill the children of their victims, refuse to report suspected abuse, and help sex traffickers' continue their horrific abuse.

[Ben Whittinghill @benwhitt]

So stunned and sad. @darrinpatrick family, we are praying for you.

https://t.co/piKrvhmwOE

[Beth Moore @BethMooreLPM]

A harvest is coming, people of faith. We get to directly impact what that harvest will be. What we sow into this season we will reap. If we sow to the Spirit, we will reap the Spirit. If we sow to our angry, spiteful, panicky, divisive, proud flesh, this is what will flourish.