And as we approach November 5th, Floridians have an opportunity to defeat a vile amendment, which is Amendment 4. We pray that God will preserve our state from such moral depravity.
We are reminded that in the year of our Lord 2024, millions of infant martyrs still cry from heaven, “How Long, O Lord?” Out of the mouths of babes and infants, heaven cries for the vindication of the saints.
All Saints Sunday is the church’s opportunity to see that the world is not as it should be and that heaven is not silent. Heaven was not silent when the saints were torn by lions, and heaven is not silent when saints are torn in the womb.
Heaven is not silent! And her cries are growing louder day after day. And today, as we gather to worship with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven, we join their cry! We pray, sing, worship the Lord of martyrs, the Lord who conquers death, the Lord who vindicates his saints!
Modern Christians, in an age of spiffy and savvy political slogans, have a certain confidence about them. They believe we can bring back the happy days of pre-1960 America with a couple of sharp moves and tweets.
But there is a difference between a healthy optimism because Jesus is Lord and stupid optimism because of our strategy department or our tiny group of revolutionaries online.
Jesus is Lord! But this is not an enticement to utopianism but to incremental societal changes, just as we expect to see in our own sanctification.
James B. Jordan wrote a superb essay some decades ago entitled “Yuppie Postmillennialism,” criticizing those who thought victory would come without suffering and hard decisions. He observes:
If we are to have a true Christian renaissance in the United States, it will not be a superficial yuppiefied religion that brings it. True Christianity must have equal time for Ecclesiastes as for Proverbs in its One Year Bibles.
This is quite a sobering warning for us in the days and weeks ahead. We live in a fallen world, which means that if we think we can bring in the kingdom in our own way and through our own strength, and our own perfectionist tendencies, we are utopionizing history. But the right way to view history is by acknowledging that we live in Ecclesiastes, and therefore we need wisdom, discernment, and patience as we seek to make God’s blessings known far as the curse is found.
And this is why we gather this morning: God is preparing us with training wheels in worship. We think we are ready to march and conquer, and then God jumps in and says, “Wait, be patient, sit down for a meal first, and worship Me.”
There are dozens of approaches to the apologetic for covenant baptism. But the one that settles the issue for me is not the circumcision/baptism connection (which I think is overused) but the clear and direct examples of infant faith in the Bible.
If it can be demonstrated that even the ‘least of these’ can articulate faith, then the defense of infant baptism becomes robust and compelling.
The premises which must be met are the following:
a) There must be examples of a covenant people that manifest faith in their infancy as a society.
b) There must be distinct examples of infants manifesting faith throughout the Scriptures.
c) There must be examples of infants partaking in the Church’s sacramental life.
d) There must be examples of faith expressed by those who do not fit the profile of intellectual self-awareness. The premise indicates that every baptism is an infant baptism, whether at eight days or eighty years. Everyone who professes faith in Christ is in his infancy.
e) There must be examples of Jesus bonding, covenanting, and offering benedictions to infants.
f) The Bible must contain examples of faith expressed through the typology of seeds. This would indicate that faith is a gift planted, which must increase through nurture and admonition.
When these six premises are fulfilled, it is undeniable that children can profess faith. This faith, I contend, transcends mere intellectual articulation of information. It is a profound trust in the authorities who guide us to Jesus, a submission to the life of the faith community that worships Jesus, an incorporation into the new humanity created by Jesus, and a participation in the songs of the Bride that exalt Jesus.
When Megan Basham’s book, Shepherds for Sale, came out, I knew it would have repercussions that would shake certain trees. Megan’s credibility has been vindicated too many times. Her assessment of high-profile evangelical figures making back-room deals with leftist ideologues is evident on a host of issues, including Climate Change, Illegal Immigration, the Hijacking of the Pro-life Movement, How the Government Used Pastors to Spread COVID-19 propaganda, Critical Race Prophets, #MeToo, and the pervasive LGBTQ movement in the Church, and more.
Those who heavily criticized Megan’s book found themselves in a conundrum: they could challenge her assertions and research (an arduous task since the book was heavily footnoted) or nitpick it to death by challenging a college reference of one of the characters. I don’t know how Megan can handle such egregious factual errors like listing of someone’s wrong academic institution and still live with the accuracy of thousands of detailed document references.
I remark sarcastically, only to observe that nitpicking is one of those things Screwtape encourages his deacon demon nephew to pursue to throw the righteous off track. And I find it surprising that such tactics become the focus of many. But what happens when such noble icons of the evangelical eco-system who have pretended to play the neutral game for a long time come out and speak their mind? What happens when they say what we all know but realize they shouldn’t have said it out loud? What happens when third-wayism becomes just a code word for Kamalaism? What happens when that happens?
When you hate Donald J. Trump so much that you would instead support the apologists for transgenderism, pro-death, open borders, LGBTQI+, and more to take the purity march. At that point, you prove that Basham’s book was merely the beginning of an unveiling. There are forces behind the scenes that are actively seeking the destruction of Orthodoxy, the moral theology of the Western Christian tradition, and the very fabric of this country.
No, there isn’t a single Christian rationale for voting for Democrat in this election season. No, there isn’t a single rationale to play the Donatist game and support a candidate so outrageously proud of her disdain for truth. No, niceness packaged as Gospel is a peculiar form of compromise. As C.S. Lewis noted, the politics of N.I.C.E. is not nice at all. In fact, they are more difficult to save (Mere Christianity).
What was considered the “Gospel-centered” movement has always been a mirage, an attempt to use the power of God unto salvation as a mask to subvert conservative politics. It was a facade to sneak in political caricatures in the name of meekness and humility. It was a cultural way of bringing sonship theology back into the mainstream. They argued that they were not political, but their politics was always headed in one direction.
But nothing is left to hide because there is nothing left to defend. The Frenches are out of the bag, and the Gospel Coalition has been reunited again. At least this time, we all know what we are dealing with, and at last, Megan’s point, and the point we have been making for years, is out for everyone to see. The trees were shaken and their fruit is evident.
When we take it seriously, many will view it strangely. It’s the reason spectators were always puzzled why Christian martyrs died singing; it’s the reason so many kings and rulers expected the Church to give up following Jesus after he died, and it’s the reason persecution throughout history caused the Church to grow even more.
Every time unbelievers expected the Church to perish, she persevered. When the world expected her to bow before her imperatives, she overcame the odds and did the opposite.
As we look around today, more than ever, we need to live out our faith with utmost seriousness. But how does this seriousness fleshes itself out? When you ask an unbeliever to characterize a Christian, it’s not uncommon for some to say that Christians are sad. This was Nietszche’s critique of Christianity—that we are dull! That’s an unfortunate assessment because the Christian who walks around in constant sadness does not represent the Gospel well. He perpetuates the claim of the unbeliever that we are a joyless people.
Augustine was the most influential theologian of the Western Church! And among his many contributions to Christian theology and philosophy, he dedicated quite a bit to the topic of love.
For Augustine, love was the way to transcend individualism; to abandon selfishness. In fact, he defined sin as misdirected love. He notes that true love is reflected in God’s own nature. God is love, St. John says. Augustine echoed that theme throughout his writings.
To say, “I love you,” only has meaning if it reflects how God wants that love directed. If “I love you” is used as a tool for manipulation, or false passions, or heresy, it is not love expressed but sin. For sin is misdirected love. Love gone wrong; love unrestricted by biblical truth; love going the opposite way of righteousness.
This morning, we come to share in that sacrificial love of God in Jesus Christ. Christ never misdirected love. Christ directed love towards sinners and we come as those forgiven by that love.
“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Let us come to worship the God of Love: Father, Son, and Spirit!
My trip to Washington, D.C., allowed me to address some of the most well-known names in Christian media and gave me an inside view of the extraordinary work being done by evangelical leaders worldwide. The labors of the Gospel in Finland, Israel, and Iran were particularly striking.
These are not insipid presentations attempting to find common ground with a 20th-century Jesus created after the image of some modernist figure. These individuals were astoundingly orthodox and deeply committed to the biblical Christ.
Among these ministries was a distinct gospel work done to Iranians. This network was created by former Muslims. In Iran, Bibles are prohibited, no church gatherings are permitted, and suicide and drug addiction have increased dramatically. These are the effects of a Christ-less culture. Yet, this ministry provides Satellite TV and 24/7 broadcasts of Gospel messages, biblical teachings, and Christian content across Iran and other Farsi-speaking regions like Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The underground church network is blossoming in this dark world, and thousands of Iranians are converting to Biblical Christianity.
As I sat in that room with those saints and greeted many of them, I was struck by the diversity of worlds gathered—Charismatics, Baptists, and Presbyterians invested in communicating the Gospel through the media, using technological tools to proclaim a message of blessedness to all the world.
I reveled in that evangelical ecumenicity. I was delighted to see distinct theological traditions, yet unafraid to defend the Western tradition against leftist oligarchies seeking to shut down the ability to spread the power of God unto salvation.
The Gospel is going far as the curse is found. If we keep our eyes toward the prize of the upward calling, perhaps we can see such endeavors as opportunities to renew our zeal for that word above all earthly powers and build a stronger Protestant coalition in the coming years!
The eccentric but poignant comedian and provocateur George Carlin once observed that “Meow” means “woof” in cat. The concept of language can be interpreted mechanically as a kind of tyrannical tool to beat up the opponent, and as Carlin observed, it can also be easily misinterpreted. However, it’s important to remember that the hearer plays a crucial role in this process. What seems to be words of comfort can be absorbed as threats, highlighting the subjectivity of language interpretation in our time. But the Bible seems to be quite concise and objective about it. Thus, if we are not willing to listen to what is said, we will hear what isn’t.
One of my favorite poets wrote,
“For last year’s words belong to last year’s language
And next year’s words await another voice.”
Words can easily be lost in time but resurface when someone least expects it. Language can be forgotten, but whoever utters the next words can be the actor of perpetual remembrance. St. James noted that the tongue is like fire. So, if you are, as Eliot notes, next year’s voice, be the voice that sets fire in the right environment with the right tone and the right target.
We should not take the name of the Lord in vain, which is to say, we should not carry language or God to any environment where it would constitute a vain cause. Language is to be used Coram Deo. Wherever language is uttered, God is. He was there when Ezekiel referred to the sexual organs of the enemies and he was there when Elijah comforted the widow.
For this reason, the Bible offers language for all times and all seasons. The language that some will view as tyrannical is actually comforting. The language that is meant to be comforting is actually manipulative. Everything in its season. This includes language.
But the art of using language, especially hard prophetic language, is an art that needs to be properly exercised. On the same token, soft and tender language also needs to be used discerningly. We cannot make judgments that condemn one and not the other.
In this lengthy essay (3,500 words), I have attempted to defend hard language. Soft language may have ten thousand defenders, but hard language may have dozens. I want to be in both camps, and those who think that hard language is unacceptable will have to deal with a plethora of biblical and classical traditions that articulate language that will make our 21st-century sensibilities say “meow.”
Some may interpret my “meows” as “woofs,” which is fine. Misunderstanding is part of the game. However, I have attempted to make misunderstandings fewer by offering some paradigms to consider in this conversation.
