One of my parishioners has done a great job putting together a liturgical chart for 2024. As we enter into Lent, I hope you will print it and use it for your edification and calendar.
The Church Calendar Pie by Lydia Slaughter
War of the Priesthood Interview on Kuyperian Commentary
The War of the Priesthood No. 1 in Pauline Studies
At least for now, this is what you see:
Translation of II John 9-13
Verse 9: Everyone who goes ahead and does not remain in the teaching of Christ does not have God. Whoever remains in the teaching has both the Father and the Son.
Verse 10: If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house or give him any greetings (or: “rejoicing” chairen).
Verse 11: For whoever greets him (shares in; fellowships with; associates in mission) fellowships in his evil works.
Verse 12: Though I have much to write to you, I would rather not use paper and ink. Instead, I hope to come to you and talk face to face so that our joy may be complete.
Verse 13: The children of your elect sister greet you.
Notes: There is a liturgical exchange taking place in the church. They greet one another, which is a way of building orthodoxy among them. Those who do not greet do not understand the life of the Church and are to be chastised. Hospitality is greater than simply providing food.
Uniting Around a Common Time
It wasn’t Bob Dylan who first said the times they are a-changin’! It was a plentiful band of prophets ranging from Samuel to Solomon who saw times changing for God’s people. It was a group of time masters from the line of Issachar who saw the world changing and adapted to the changing world by the power of the unchanging God. When the gods are multiplying, we take more thoughts captive to the obedience of Jesus Christ.
The times are a-changin,’ but the problems don’t change; there are just methodological adjustments we must make to face the times. Humanity has been plagued by the same liturgical and sociological sins for the last 6,000 years. We are beset by scoundrels within and without who despise God’s laws. But the Church unites around a common time.
The times are changing for all of us. The wicked may have different strategies than in the 1950s; they appear more committed to overthrowing the kingdom of light. Our response is not idle repose but active time-reading exercises, which means the saints must see the design of the wicked and act appropriately to the challenges of our day.
Probably very few of us even contemplated 20 years ago the ethics of attending a gay wedding or how to deal with visitors considering sexual transitions. But the times they are a-changin’! Christians will need to see the times and apply the Word of God to the proliferation of evil in our society, which is much more explicit because of the sociology of evil constantly reinventing its transgressions.
Unsurprisingly, the answer to these changing methods and aggressive strategies of evildoers is worship—and within worship, intimate communities, more singing and food, and more faithfulness to our calling. Of course, this means we need men leading their homes and lives. It means our young men must come out to play more and leave the basement behind. It means children in worship. It means homilies of praise and songs of adoration all around. But any list will crumble if we are not gathering to do the first thing God calls us to do—to worship.
So, let’s not fear the changing times but apply the worship of all ages to the pervasive evil of our day gathering with our communities on the Lord’s Day to adore Father, Son, and Spirit. Come, let us worship the Triune God with whom there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.
The Case for the Other Floridian
With DeSantis out of the race and Nikki Haley offering her candidacy as a gift to comedians, only one candidate is left. He is far from ideal, but he is the other Floridian the country needs.
In my latest substack, I make a case for the Donald as the synergist the Republican Party must have to defeat Kamala Harris or her clone, Joe Biden, in the coming elections.
I also offer some notes from David Bahnsen’s upcoming book soon to be published on Work and the Meaning of Life. This is already becoming one of my favorite books of the year. I wish I had read it before I wrote my chapter on labor and leisure in my dissertation.
Interview with Steve Jeffery on the Politics of the CREC
Friendship in the Twitter Age
The implication that I need to break off friendships and relationships with people of different Christian political and theological traditions is absurd. While I will have continual public and private disagreements with them, I will also remember that 99% of pugilism on social media NEVER translates to pugilism face-to-face.
A quick story to make the point.
In my doctoral study days, I sat in a class at RTS with several pastors, some of whom were well-published and recognized in the Reformed tradition. We had to post our names in front of our seats. While this was several years past the Federal Vision controversy, some people still talked as if it were 2002 perpetually. The pastors in that class knew who I was and were even privately sympathetic to the objectivity of the covenant.
As everyone was walking into class, a particular figure who had been renowned for his opposition to Federal Vision, even becoming a sort of itinerant traveler to Presbyterian courts across the country functioning as a prosecutor of all things FV– which he believed was polluting NAPARC congregations–sat down across from me.
Once he glanced at my name and I took a peek at his, it was apparent we had heard of each other. He had read some of my articles and was keenly aware of my affiliations and associations. I had read plenty of him to determine that certain human beings don’t deserve my attention, and he was a frontrunner for that title.
I watched his demeanor closely during class. The class was an overview of Puritan practices. At one time, a poem from a great Puritan was read, and he was emotionally moved. Despite his effort to condemn virtually all my friends, he was humanized in my eyes.
When the lunch break came, I immediately went towards him. I shook his hands, and my first words to him were: “How about lunch tomorrow after class?” It’s as if we both knew instantly it needed to happen.
I don’t need to go into details, but our lunch was extraordinary. We asked each other forgiveness for things that were said behind the scenes and even publicly in writing. He had already been going through some transitions in his thinking and realized that much of his disdain for the FV/CREC was eating him up inside and damaging his soul.
Ever since, we have exchanged thoughts and notes and read each other’s doctoral thesis, and have had meals together here in Pensacola when he visited.
The idea that relational lines are set on social media and that friendships must be ruined makes no sense. There is a clear reason the Apostle John writes that he prefers to see you face-to-face than write in ink. He knew that warnings are received more persuasively through fleshly interactions.
Remember these things.
My New Book is Available for Pre-Order
I am really delighted to announce that my new book is ready for pre-order: https://nogginnose.com/war-of-the-priesthood/
I have attempted to produce a work that is accessible but yet meaty enough to draw you to the text. The goal is to provide something for a Bible/book study that would engage our minds and call us to be ready for action. This overview of the Armor of God will offer a fresh perspective on a familiar passage of Scripture.
With new books, you only have a limited time where interest exists, so please bear with me as I make the rounds in the days ahead to publicize this little gem.
I am also profoundly grateful to those who endorsed and readied the book for publication. Writing a book, at least for me, is a community project.
“Be prepared for a substantive paradigm shift. In this book, Uri Brito offers a sound Biblical interpretation of an all-too-commonly misunderstood and misapplied truth. In the process, he serves up a practical, inspiring, and refreshing vision of the calling of every gospel believer.” – George Grant
What Does It Mean to Discern the Body?
The Church constitutes the body of Christ. When you come to worship, in one way or another, you are connected to the people of God. The Apostle Paul stresses this element in I Corinthians 10. He exhorts us to discern the body of Christ when we come to the Lord’s Table. But, for Paul, this is not a call to intellectually grasp the fullness of the physical body of Christ or develop a precise atonement theology that harmonizes with the writings of the Patristics and Reformers.
Instead, Paul’s entire context has been to unify the Church in Corinth (chpts.11-14), which has been plagued with ethical corruption.
Paul says that these divisions between rich and poor, slave and free, male and female, are contrary to the unifying purposes of God in the world. God sent his Son to reconcile the world unto himself and unite his people to this covenant blessing.
And this leads to Paul’s reference.
Discerning the body means understanding the nature of the Church, and the nature of the Church is to be united together to worship the crucified and risen Messiah. In other words, Paul is not addressing the intellectual inability of a person, but he is directing his warning to the one who is bitter with his brother, to the one who is sowing discord within the church, and to the one who fails to strive for unity.
The Lord’s Table is a reconciliatory table, and all those who live in the nature of that unity, baptized into the Triune Name, are welcome to take and eat and drink, for we are eating and drinking the manna from heaven and the wine of salvation.