Finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another; love as brothers, be tenderhearted, be courteous; not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary blessing, knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing.” I Peter 3:8-9 NKJV https://bible.com/bible/114/1pe.3.9.NKJV
Fire Pit Fridays – first three Fridays of November 6pm – watch No Quarter November blog post, have a drink if desired, and some theological and applicational discussion. https://noquarternovember.com
Love in unity of the essentials.
Love in discussion of the practical lived out faith.
Love in rejoicing together in our Savior.
Love in growing in the faith.
May it be in love, fruitful, edifying, and a blessing. “Finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another; love as brothers, be tenderhearted, be courteous; not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary blessing, knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing.” I Peter 3:8-9 NKJV https://bible.com/bible/114/1pe.3.9.NKJV
Nov. 10 NQN Fire Pit Friday 6pm – Two big topics: (1) Justice (rooted in God’s absolute standard) vs. Empathy (untethered from reality or morality) in the Israel-Hamas context, and (2) can political ideals (democracy, religious freedom) pre-suppose a Christian worldview? Or do those ideals come from a Christian worldview pre-supposition (and is that an attribute of Christian Nationalism)? Could tackle both or one, wherever the conversation leads.
1) Video: https://youtu.be/VDGwGfPl9WQ?si=E0drsjjxAY8EYjIs
Blog: https://dougwils.com/books-and-culture/s7-engaging-the-culture/a-pinch-of-incense-to-the-genius-of-democracy-2.html
2) Video: https://youtu.be/AHyoPYcz_xk?si=EiWzYOpPtFJlLwPD
Blog: https://dougwils.com/books-and-culture/s7-engaging-the-culture/a-pinch-of-incense-to-the-genius-of-democracy.html
Three articles I read this week emphasize that we do not look to secular, Godless, thought or systems to address the practicalities of Christian cultural engagement! God’s absolute truth and biblical standard must pre-suppose all thought and understanding. Justice and Politics must be informed by our Christian worldview.
Justice. Current “a la carte approach to theology starves us of the riches of the historic Christian tradition. Moreover, it forces many to look to secular thought to address the practicalities of Christian cultural engagement rather than to Scripture… What if we applied our big-God theology all the way out to the corners, even in the area of justice?” As Lord over every aspect of our spiritual, physical, and thought lives? “God’s sovereignty applies not only to personal salvation; it also means that he governs the whole course of redemptive history according to his unchanging plan (Eph. 1:11)… As heirs of the Reformation mantle of sola Scriptura, we should always bring our systems under the intense scrutiny of Scripture. At the same time, we must not be bare biblicists, neglecting the treasures of covenant theology and its particular applications to our cultural moment.” How Covenant Theology Clarifies Justice Issues https://founders.org/articles/how-covenant-theology-clarifies-justice-issues/
Sympathy. the difference between sympathy and empathy was the difference between objective truth and subjective felt “truth.” … Mankind is fallen, bent, twisted. It is not prudent or wise to untether any of his emotional states—even the ones we glibly assumed were benevolent… The biblical view of man is that he is by nature an object of wrath (Eph. 2:3). Is anyone righteous? Not even one (Rom. 3:10). Left to our own devices, we spend our energy hating one another and being hated (Tit. 3:3). Before conversion to Christ, we must be restrained and held back from evil externally. After conversion to Christ, we are constrained internally by the Spirit of God, who enables us to mortify our remaining sinful impulses. Not to put too fine a point on it, man is not basically good…. If you have a biblical doctrine of man, you will want to see him tethered to the rock of justice. If you have an unbiblical doctrine of man, you will assume that he is a natural-born sweetie pie, and that leaving him to pursue his ethical development in some self-paced way will somehow turn out well. This is the thin mist of naive ethical theory, seeping out from under the door jams of all our major Thinkeries.” Empathy as the Headwaters of Cruelty https://dougwils.com/books-and-culture/s7-engaging-the-culture/a-pinch-of-incense-to-the-genius-of-democracy-2.html
Christian Nation? “Our new Speaker of the House Mike Johnson has freaked a bunch of people out by acknowledging his Christian faith openly and unashamedly, and by saying that he plans to begin every work day there at the Capitol by utilizing a little prayer chapel that is close by his new offices. Now whether or not Johnson actually is a Christian nationalist, he certainly drew the charge of Christian nationalism almost instantly. He did this by means of a little trick where he avowed that his Christianity would have something to do with how he discharged his office. He did not use any approved line like “my faith, which is very personal and precious to me, will not have any influence on how I make political decisions.” … a number of conservative Christians who are very critical of formal Christian nationalism are mysteriously fine with Johnson and friends praying together on government property because, say they, that kind of devotion is personal and private. They approve of that sort of piety. The problem for them would come if someone tried to extract an agenda for action from the Scriptures, and on the basis of scriptural authority. That is where they would start to get restive and more than a little bit jumpy.” But where do the ideas of “religious liberty”, “democracy”, “free speech”, and the “Constitution” come from? “Religious liberty makes sense in some worldviews, and is flatly rejected by others. The idea of limited government as represented by our Constitution is dependent upon a certain worldview, and cannot be sustained by other worldviews. Is Owen willing to recognize that in order for us to have all the things he believes in, we must first have an established and shared set of preconditions that makes belief in such things possible? … I believe in religious liberty also, but I know and understand that such liberty arises from one worldview, and not from others. So if you believe in religious liberty, and you actually want it to happen, then that means you must also want the framework of such liberty to be understood by our rulers, and incorporated into our constitutional infrastructure. And that is what we mean by Christian nationalism… you cannot consistently believe in the Constitution unless you also believe in the kind of society that produced it. And the kind of society that produced it was a Christian one.” The Joy Juice of Democracy https://dougwils.com/books-and-culture/s7-engaging-the-culture/a-pinch-of-incense-to-the-genius-of-democracy.html
Interesting applicational exercise: all cultures equal, or a Christian worldview of the value of life, evil of murder, and justice applied. “Charles James Napier, commander-in-chief of British India, enforced a ban on the Hindu practice of burning widows. When a group of irate Hindu priests asserted that the customs of their nation should be honored, here is how Napier responded: ‘This burning of widows is your custom; prepare the funeral pile. But my nation has also a custom. When men burn women alive, we hang them and confiscate all their property. My carpenters shall therefore erect gibbets on which to hang all concerned when the widow is consumed. Let us all act according to national customs.’” https://x.com/benzeisloft/status/1722727774505284092?s=46&t=Ag2lESY3ntUopWo1gN17hw
You are the Christian governor of the colony. Do you empathize with the colonized and allow the burning of widows? Do you look to truth tethered justice to establish a Christian worldview based civil order?
Concluding thought question: How are we as the church preparing to care for one another if God sends cataclysmic judgement, to fight against evil, to advance the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ?
Supporting Ref.
Eric Metaxas: Awake, You Who Sleep (2023) https://youtu.be/8AkvuGZfTg0?si=aBpVlgzKNh-UocDs “In the face of a darkening and confused culture, Eric Metaxas makes a career out of bringing both encouragement and a challenge to believers. He calls for Christians of conviction to stand firm, speak the truth, and do so with the hope that comes from our faith in the gospel. Eric is a happy warrior for the application of a Christian worldview to every aspect of our lives.”
TS&TT: Larry Taunton | Infiltrating The World Economic Forum https://youtu.be/9WzDFMC17fg?si=5Z1f3D2473iCBn0f “Tom Ascol and Graham Gunden welcome Larry Taunton back to the show to discuss the World Economic Forum. They talk about some the WEF Genesis and their agenda, while hearing about Larry’s personal experience after infiltrating their 2023 meeting in Davos, Switzerland.”
Coming soon to Founders Press. “A Revolutionary Reading of Romans 13: A Biblical Case For Lawful Subjection To The Civil Magistrate and Dutiful Resistance To Tyrants” – By Timothy Decker
The Doctrine of the Lesser Magistrates: A Proper Resistance to Tyranny and a Repudiation of Unlimited Obedience to Civil Government by Matthew J. Trewhella https://a.co/6Mn2RHk
The Magdeburg Confession: 13th of April 1550 AD by Pastors of Magdeburg https://a.co/cWOPNHu
If You Can Keep It: The Forgotten Promise of American Liberty by Eric Metaxas https://a.co/5vUxwdQ
Celebrate Liberty! Famous Patriotic Speeches & Sermons by David Barton https://a.co/8FZFVWt
Hitler, God, and the Bible by Ray Comfort https://a.co/7Oc9vB9
When a Nation Forgets God: 7 Lessons We Must Learn From Nazi Germany by Erwin W. Lutzer https://a.co/hFGQ1zI
The Founders’ Key: The Divine and Natural Connection Between the Declaration and the Constitution and What We Risk by Losing It by Larry P. Arnn https://a.co/iIqY7ad
God’s Double Agent: The True Story of a Chinese Christian’s Fight for Freedom by Bob Fu, Nancy French https://a.co/8oUBngH
The White Horse King: The Life of Alfred the Great by Ben Merkle https://a.co/64ce4sw
THE GOOD NEWS
There is a God that created the heavens and the earth. We humans are created in His image.
We are sinners, we have rebelled against Him, our Creator. Our rebellion has brought “all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice… envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness” to the world. Romans 1:29-31 ESV https://bible.com/bible/59/rom.1.29-31.ESV
Therefore we justly deserve our due punishment of death and damnation, “as it is written: ‘None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.’” Romans 3:10-12 ESV https://bible.com/bible/59/rom.3.10-12.ESV
But good news! God is merciful and loving. Jesus is God the only begotten Son and He took our punishment upon Himself in our place. Jesus rose from the dead, defeating death and securing the hope of our salvation.
“For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.” 1 Corinthians 15:3-8 ESV https://bible.com/bible/59/1co.15.3-8.ESV
““Brothers, what shall we do?” And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”” Acts 2:36-38 ESV https://bible.com/bible/59/act.2.36-38.ESV
We need only repent and believe it. Repent: turn away from our sins, proclaim Jesus is lord and savior, and we will be forgiven our sins and have life ever after! “because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.”” Romans 10:9-11 ESV https://bible.com/bible/59/rom.10.9-11.ESV
There is hope. Believe in Jesus! ““For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16 ESV https://bible.com/bible/59/jhn.3.16.ESV
It doesn’t matter who you’ve been or what you’ve done, God stands with arms wide open, ready to forgive you. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9 ESV https://bible.com/bible/59/1jn.1.9.ESV
Dobra Family Ministry 