O Lord, thy judgments give the king,
his son thy righteousness.
With right he shall thy people judge,
thy poor with uprightness.
The lofty mountains shall bring forth
unto the people peace;
Likewise the little hills the same
shall do by righteousness.
@Elons_Rabbi That's probably for the best, but I don't block churchmen on principle so that they may be countered in the open, as warranted. Though I do have an extensive blocklist of secular political enemies and many others are muted.
I marvel that the URC would adopt the ARP statement when we have zero appeals or disciplinary cases involving “racism”, “kinism”, or “race realism” but we do have active appeals against ordained office bearers watching porn & sexually gratifying themselves in our church offices.
If you are a young woman whose parents brought her to this conference in the hope that she might find a husband, please know that you don't have to marry anyone here.
When you are of age, you can move out, find a good church, and marry someone who isn't into this stuff.
You might wish to say, with Paul, "For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge", but that would be too generous with your exhibited posture, and, prima facie, erroneous knowing these men have a greater grasp and faithfulness to the standards--and the scripture undergirding them--to which you merely pay lip-service and claim to understand.
Watching again the pure grotesqueness of Alan Strange’s speech at the URCNA—a very special kind of repulsive blend of worldliness and manipulation seen in the fake piety of Reformed church courts—I’m struck this morning with some reflections from my life among the declining Christian “conservatives”:
First: how overtly disingenuous many ministers are. Many are actually fakes and frauds (among libs and conservatives alike). They cover for each other, depending on what they’re trying to accomplish for themselves. Pharisees and Sadducees all over again. I’ve got a long list of those who’ve ended up in jail, committed suicide, fallen into drug addiction, abused children and women, wrecked their families, apostatized, lost all their children, and so on. This isn’t normal. Stop thinking this is normal. None of the varieties (the showmen of the Baptists, the nerd-club, factious Presbyterians, or the TED Talk evangelicals) are doing well at authentic maturity, stability, and integrity.
Second: it is the lukewarmness, fear of man, forgetfulness, love of money and pleasure, sexual compromise, lack of zeal for worship and the Lord, family disorder, and so forth among the godly that allows for this slow, fussy decline. A spiritual anemia among men makes them concerned about things they should ignore and thoughtless about the most important things. We become mere reactive navigators and managers of difficulties, lacking a deeper foundation for action. Personal compromise means we no longer live out of truth with clear heads and clear eyes.
Third: the people of God are largely hungry for the blessings of various streams of Christianity without a real life drawn from their roots. The consumer model of Christianity—and a sense of “winning” or “progress”—is clearly the psychological root of what Christians end up supporting. What is your particular itch, obsession, feel, style, brand preference, or lifestyle ambition? What sense of self do you desire? There is a church for you, or you can make one. Gross.
In Presby/Reformed sects like the URC and OPC, it is usually that we are the “most correct” and therefore “need to make a statement,” even as we go judiciously down the same path of downgrade that everyone else has always, every time, gone down. We’re just a fussy, slow version of modernity’s rejection of biblical and natural reality at this point.
Fourth: there is a lack of vital dependence on, love of, and duty toward the person of Jesus Christ and his will as revealed in Scripture. Everything becomes politics, psychology, and preferences dressed up in the language of Christianity. It is as if people no longer really believe Jesus is real and his Word is true. Instead, they are concerned with their place in the flow of history, their immediate pleasures and pains, and their sense of self in a shifting, chaotic world. Hurting the eccentric brand and its place in the marketplace becomes the biggest sin. Breaking rank with the brand or sect becomes the new heresy and apostasy. Jesus and his commands become window dressing, adjusted to the moment and employed as needed to justify what people already desire.
The cynical adoption of nonsensical statements about race arises from the same roots, in my opinion.
#naparc #opcga #reformeddowngrade
https://t.co/yiTOJGW62v
You could just tell those three guys in your church why Christian Nationalism is wrong. The downside is that you would have to construct an argument, but at least you wouldn't have to appeal to what everyone else thinks like a woman.
There is a lot that could be said about this clip.
1. I've met Chris on a number of occasions. I've visited his church several times, attended business meetings with him, and have known men shaped by his preaching. I've always come away thoroughly unimpressed.
2. You'll notice that we never heard his trembling voice at the microphone when the infamous scandals in his own backyard were unfolding. For example, when URCNA pastors were:
-Secretly paying others to write their sermons.
-Brutally abusing their wives.
-Caught masturbating in their church offices.
-Abusing young Reformed families in their congregations.
-Driving a pastor out of the denomination for rejecting R2K theology.
-Exploiting loopholes in the church order to punish innocent pastors while shielding guilty ones.
I never heard Chris stand up and whine into a microphone over the quiet divorce of Michael Horton and his wife, nor the fact that Horton has continued in ministry to this day despite the disqualifying destruction of his household.
3. No, you won't find videos of him publicly wringing his hands over any of those scandals. The urgency and outrage are reserved for something else: pressuring NAPARC to issue a statement condemning @PerfInjust so it can be used as a bludgeon against members of his own congregation who attended the @New_Christendom conference. Because... racism.
4. Many have pointed out the age of the men in this room. While I generally expect elders and pastors to be older, I think the observation raises a legitimate point. I've noticed that, much like dispensationalism, R2K theology and the URCNA as a whole seem to have very little appeal among people under 40.
If your church ends up embracing gay liberalism, libertarianism, and R2K theology, what's the point? Why should it exist? I can hear the same talking points from Boomer commentators on network television.
5. You hear Folkerts crying about the "CREC churches" spreading like "wild fire" across our nation. I think that this reveals his incredible ignorance on this subject:
-Stephen Wolfe is not CREC.
-The Ogden Church/Conference are not CREC.
-The CREC is actually closer to Folkerts' view on race
-If these guys think that the CREC is a problem....they honestly have no idea what is coming.
6. I've thought back to the first time I met Folkerts. I visited his church the Sunday after he became a U.S. citizen, when it was still meeting in a funeral home.
That moment has stayed with me as somewhat emblematic of how I view the broader NAPARC movement, and particularly the URCNA. It felt like foreign-born leaders lecturing American men about “racism” while gathered in a building surrounded by the dead.
7. These 3 families may very well be in for a struggle session when they return to Idaho. I would encourage them to reach out to @riemersonck. He is a faithful Pastor in their area, and can help them.
I have resolved the issue. Many of the pastors and elders all this time thought we were saying "do the eating" and they were generously complying. Let's cut them some slack, or at least a new hole in their belt loop.
If you discovered a lump, persistent pain, or troubling symptoms, you would seek help. You would make appointments. Ask questions. Follow instructions. Yet men give more attention to a sore knee than to a sinful conscience. They know their souls are cold. They know their prayers are lifeless. They know sin & the world have overrun them. If this is you, play the man and seek out a soul physician at once!
@JEdK84 You wear that name Knox, but I know it belongs not to you by spirit as you seek the solace of consensus of weak men, where my fathers, the Knoxes, even John Knox himself, often stood alone at their own peril, girded by truth itself.
One of the things I said the Glaser when he drafted the statement, was pastors cannot argue. They cannot offer a defense. The statement was intended as a 'I win the debate' trump card. Shame Glaser has an actual IQ of about 96.
Retarded is an understatement. It is downright pharisaical. It is adding the commendments of men to God's because the mealy-mouthed hireling could find no way by the standards or scripture to condemn those whom they despise. Therefore an eleventh commandment, "Thou shalt not racism" (and even yet this fails to condemn those desiring Christian government, which will require departing from the standards).
"so as, in all controversies of religion, the Church is finally to appeal unto [scripture]." - WCF1.9
It's patently absurd that there seems to be a distinct lack of this in these days.