Robert Hasler

church planter / public theology / 🇺🇸

[Robert Hasler @rdhasler]

Some big news to share. The Hasler's are moving to Texas!

I've accepted a call to plant the first PCA church in Abilene, TX. Our family is very excited for this opportunity to be part of the amazing things the Lord is already doing in West Texas.

But we can't do this alone. So, could I ask you to...

1. Pray for us. Pray for our family, for our core group, and for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit on this mission church. We are hoping to be arriving Spring 2026 but many things have to come together before then.

2. Tell your friends! If you know anyone who is looking for a church in Abilene or would like to support a PCA church in Abilene, I'd love to talk with them.

3. Consider financially supporting us. We will need to raise some significant funds over the next couple years as we get this church off the ground. If you or your church would like to give to a confessional, ordinary means of grace, P&R church committed to the Great Commission and reaching the lost with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, you can DM/text/call/email me. I'd love to talk to you about this work!

"And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved"

[Robert Hasler @rdhasler]

@MattGiesman Matt, I’ll save my ungracious responses to you for our next person to person chat

[Robert Hasler @rdhasler]

Sincere question: Is it fair to say that the report by the PCA’s Ad-Interim Committee on CN articulates the view that the American Presbyterians ***completed*** the Reformation?

[Robert Hasler @rdhasler]

@MrMRCline

[Robert Hasler @rdhasler]

@MattGiesman So you would read it as acknowledging a reformation just not a final one. Fair enough?

[Miles Smith IV @IVMiles]

This is actually correct. There is an establishmentarian principle that undergirds disestablishment. You have to have something that actually makes religious liberty work. It doesn’t happen in a vacuum.

[Robert Hasler @rdhasler]

I think there are sections that could be suggestive of the latter.

And it sure seems like some of the strongest advocates on this site for that view are reading the report with a sense of vindication.

However, much smarter men than myself, not to mention serious scholars in the know, have told me the report does not go so far.

[Jared Nelson @brothernelson]

I’ll put my Westminster Standards hot take out here: It’s not illegitimate for a state to ask the church to gather on a matter. Nicea, Dordt, Westminster -These were prompted by the state asking the church to do church things. Church can say “no.” But the state can ask.

[Robert Hasler @rdhasler]

Also, FTR, when I said “sincere question” I meant it. The document also includes a lot of qualifications that suggest holding a 1646 view doesn’t put you outside the camp of faithful Christianity; it’s just not compatible with our present standards.

I’m just a bit confused and genuinely curious how other people are reading it, but based on my timeline I don’t think I’m alone.

[Robert Hasler @rdhasler]

"The cumulative effect of the revisions was to change the magistrate’s relationship with the church from that of an active custodian to one of impartial protector."

"The historical record—from the Adopting Act of 1729 through the formal revisions of 1788—consistently shows that American Presbyterians believed the original Confession gave too much authority to the civil magistrate in matters of religion, and they intentionally revised it to correct what they regarded as an error."

"it is the opinion of this Committee that a PCA officer cannot hold to the view of the civil magistrate taught in the 1646 version of the Westminster Confession, or to any form of Christian Nationalism that envisages a more robust role for the magistrate in religious matters than is specifically enumerated in the text of the 1788 revisions without taking a stated exception to our Standards."

I think it's fair to say that the Committee lands firmly in the camp that believes 1788 represents a break from 1646, not merely as a point of prudential application of principles in a new context but as a reformation of past error.

[Robert Hasler @rdhasler]

Resolved: to continue studying Reformed political theology only more and better

[Robert Hasler @rdhasler]

@porterharlow @JoshuaTorrey @jamesrwoodtheo @scottrswain “sir, house is unpacked, sermon manuscript complete, and I’ve drafted several hot takes on the CN report to post to X”

[Robert Hasler @rdhasler]

I’m really behind on sermon prep and unpacking my house so this was really inconsiderate of the PCA’s Committee on CN to drop their report today.

I’m looking at you @jamesrwoodtheo and @scottrswain https://t.co/rM8SPsqZ4Q

[Robert Hasler @rdhasler]

@JoshuaTorrey @jamesrwoodtheo @scottrswain

[The Knowledge Archivist @KnowledgeArchiv]

"Evil cannot create anything new, it can only corrupt and ruin what good forces have invented or made"

—J.R.R. Tolkien

[Matthew Schmitz @matthewschmitz]

“Obsession” is just one example of the rise of heteropessimist horror, a genre that channels Gen-Z’s despairing view of relationships.
https://t.co/TDJgmuQ5Nc

[Robert Hasler @rdhasler]

“Modern scholars want the eighteenth century, or what they call the American Enlightenment, to be an either-or: religious or secular, scripture or reason. But those living at the time thought of these as both-and.”
https://t.co/FoC5abW4gm

[Robert Hasler @rdhasler]

@realDaveCias Amen. Let him know he can always reach out to us if he has any questions or anything like that. Happy to pass along my contact info

[Robert Hasler @rdhasler]

Hillsdale has a special place in my heart, not just because it’s where I met my wife, but because it gave my wife and I a shared love for the life of the mind.

Two hearts woven together through mutual contemplation of what is good, true, and beautiful.

Homeric.

[Paul Anleitner @PaulAnleitner]

Deconstruction can’t go on forever.

@PageauJonathan explains to me why Hollywood’s constant subversion of myths and fairy tales can’t kill them.

People are searching for meaning.

They’re hungry for a better story, and now is the time to tell it.