https://lausanne.org/podcast/demonstrating-godly-character-in-the-u-s-air-force
As a Christian who turned my back on the US military my expectations for this podcast were pretty low. In some respects Jerry White was refreshing in that he thinks through his actions more than a lot of people do, and yet I still cannot agree with his reasoning.
https://pilgrimunderground.blogspot.com/2024/05/the-evangelical-gospel-of-hiroshima.html
Someone suggested to me that in The Evangelical Gospel of Hiroshima I failed to properly take into account the question of the congressman's office and his duties and the obligations it entails. Tim Walberg would be remiss if he didn't take those interests into account - including hard questions of foreign and military policy. As an office holder he has responsibilities and tasks that are laid upon his shoulders and sometimes this would necessarily entail an appeal to a moral hierarchy.
Trumpite (and thus non-Traditionalist) Roman Catholic Taylor Marshall published this little promo video the other day. Though others have pointed this out, few Dispensationalists realize that the Seven Epochs of Church History schema (based on the Seven Churches of Asia Minor) finds its origin in Counter-Reformation Roman Catholicism. The same is actually true of the larger Dispensational scheme.
https://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/is-work-good
Reading this piece from Ligonier, it felt like a sale pitch, like I was being sold a package. And what is the product? It's the Protestant Work Ethic, so critical to the Magisterial Reformation's sacral programme. All of life in this world is made into holy Kingdom work and is an act of transformation.
On the contrary, the so-called 'Dominion Mandate' is no longer fulfilled by us – but by Christ in the New Heavens and New Earth. The work in the garden was Kingdom work – but once the Fall took place and they were exiled to the East of Eden, Adam and Eve no longer dwelt in the Kingdom. Rather, they awaited the seed, the One who was to come, the One who would defeat death – for there is no death in God's Kingdom.
Recently I heard a sermon which I continue to think about. Based on a section of Psalm 119, the visiting speaker did a decent job moving through the passage verse by verse and exhorted the congregation to focus on Scripture, make it central to your life, meditate on it, and so forth. So far so good.
Recently I had the opportunity to speak with yet another pastor by phone – once again of an Evangelical church about forty-five minutes away.
https://churchandfamilylife.com/podcasts/6390cc89fad8bafe3a9ec787
At about the twelve minute mark we come to:
5. Be on a Budget
Budgets are very helpful, but contrary to the narrative being
provided, there are people who spend years trying to get that money set aside
for tires or whatever and can never get there. Life keeps happening and because
the margins are too tight, they can't meet those goals. Others have volatile
incomes – shift workers whose hours change every week, or those who are
self-employed. A sickness can throw everything off and then while you're trying
to get it back on track – a car repair comes up that you can't pay for.
Sometimes it can take months to get back on track, but by then something else
has likely happened. These people are not necessarily doing anything wrong –
they're simply struggling.
https://churchandfamilylife.com/podcasts/6390cc89fad8bafe3a9ec787
Contrary to its claims, this podcast seemingly exists to
proclaim the insufficiency of Scripture because not only is the doctrine of the
New Testament ignored when it comes to money, its applications and attitudes
about mammon, possessions, and worldliness are rejected and replaced by an opposite
set of values.
It's one thing for Christian musicians to compose works that are informed or influenced by the faith and the ideas associated with it. But when such music is labeled 'Christian' then several important lines are blurred. It becomes a form of 'sacred' music in the minds of many and as such its performance can be associated with worship.
https://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/preserved-god
Leaving aside the misguided (though not unexpected) use of a
Winston Churchill quote, the problem with Parsons' argument is that he doesn't
define what saving faith is. And interestingly if you get a half-dozen
Confessional theologians into a room and ask this question, you'll likely end
up with a heated debate and a lack of consensus.
https://issuesetc.org/2022/06/29/1802-just-war-dr-jonathan-shaw-6-29-22/
The fact that Jonathan Shaw is a retired military chaplain
already discredits him and identifies him as one sold out to the military
machine, and one that was willing to make endless compromises in order to do
so. Military chaplains are not worthy of any regard or respect. They are to be
rebuked.
That said, let's consider some of his points with regard to
the Just War tradition.
https://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=107221718125272
Matt Slick antedates the rise of New Calvinism – I remember
him from the 1990's, but in many respects he's one of several figures that
anticipated the movement and even now can and should be identified as a member
of that camp.
https://g3min.org/on-baby-grands-and-expensive-hymnals/
This would have to be reckoned as a sequel to a previous post
responding to G3 on the issue of pianos. Apparently this ministry website
excels at missing the point.
https://afr.net/podcasts/it-s-my-turn/2022/may/to-be-a-visionary/
In some respects I grow weary of writing these critiques and
yet will no one call these people out? Will no one expose their false teachings
and blatant deceit?
https://www.breakpoint.org/is-it-biblical-to-honor-our-nation/
Evoking the memory of the apostate Richard John Neuhaus, BreakPoint commentator and Colson protégé John Stonestreet attempts to address the dangers of idolatry regarding nationalism, and yet in keeping with patterns often seen in his commentaries he misses the central point and falls into error.
Rather than seriously seek to limit or warn concerning the
dangers of nationalism, he in fact encourages it and blurs the lines that
already cloud contemporary Evangelical thought.
https://www.newgenevaacademy.com/master-of-divinity-in-worship-and-liturgy.html
The Dispensationalist teacher Jimmy DeYoung died in August of Covid-19. I had listened to him on and off for years. His programme appeared on the local Evangelical radio station and it seemed like many times we were in the car when it aired. I took great exception to his teachings. Misunderstanding the Bible on a massive scale, the outworkings of his aberrant theology took a particularly bad turn when it came to political Zionism and support for the often violent Settler movement in the West Bank, and Likud policy in general.
https://www.vcyamerica.org/crosstalk/2021/06/14/u-s-flag-under-attack/
Every once in awhile I grit my teeth and listen to an episode
of this radio programme that represents a fusion of John Birch Society-inspired
ideology and Protestant Fundamentalism. Not everything on the show is bad but
most of it is and some episodes are certainly worse than others.
This episode (linked above) was one of the bad ones. The
entire discussion is rooted in a false premise and as such the whole discussion
goes off the rails.
This was a disappointing read to say the least, all the more
when one considers this woman is an Evangelical (whatever that means anymore)
and has even been placed into a position of semi-leadership within the Church –
how else should one understand the contrived extra-Scriptural office of Worship
Leader?
Her Atlantic article is a case of The Accommodationist Triad (see
below) at work. In this case, feminism and psychology are being applied and leading
to theological liberalism and ultimately the abandonment of Christian ethics.
And don't think divorce isn't in the cards for this woman. A Biblical case to
the contrary would carry very little weight with her.
The Mint Press News article wades into confusing waters as
there is some truth in the assertions of racism at work in the narratives of
Christian Nationalism but these realities are vigorously denied by most in that
sector – as is the reality of American imperialism.
There is so much dishonesty at work, the revising and
romanticisation of history and imposed metanarrative that it's very difficult to
get through to the adherents of Christian Nationalism (a variant of
Dominionism) that they have in fact departed from historical truth and
certainly New Testament Christianity.
