Could there be a more volatile time for a presidential election in our nation?  I am forever thankful my hope is not in this world!  

And yet, I may not as a follower of Christ, shirk my responsibilities in this world.  And you may not, either, dear Christian.  We must shine as lights in this crooked and perverse world and hold out the word of life (Phil 2:14-16).  We must seek justice and love mercy, as God defines those terms (Mic 6:8).

One of the ways we are blessed in this country to be able to effect righteous laws, or righteous changes, is by voting in our elections.  If you do not like our current electoral system, feel free to replace it with that of any other nation in the world. But I warn you – you’ll be sorry.  

So, Christians, please vote!  I want to spend the next few weeks of blog posts, leading up to Election Day, examining what I believe are the key issues that should drive how we vote as the chosen, blood-bought people of God in Christ Jesus.  It is not my intent to hyper-analyze each issue. Rather, I simply want to state the issue. Examine the two party platforms on the issue, then ask, “What says the Lord?”  

Issue #1 – Abortion. 

In some ways, we need not go beyond this issue. Yes, I have been for decades and continue to be a “one issue voter.”  While Christians like me have come under criticism from other well-meaning Christians, I ask all Christians to watch this video, and then tell me that voting for any candidate whose party platform supports this is pleasing to our Creator.

https://youtu.be/A16gzm9eaa8 

Abortion is not just murder (the taking of the most defenseless and innocent life).  Abortion is gruesome murder. Abortion is tortuous murder. We would puke if we saw this happening to a kitten or puppy in the womb.  How must God grieve to see His image-bearers carved up like a Christmas turkey?  

For a comparison of party platforms, https://downloads.frcaction.org/EF/EF20I08.pdf  

What the Bible says about this issue is so crystal clear that I sense little need to even try to expound upon it. “Do not murder” (Exodus 20:13).  If a person caused a pregnant women in ancient Israel to miscarry or caused harm to her babies, the punishment was death (Exodus 21:22-25).  God’s view is clear. And how in the name of all things unholy we have tolerated this evil in our nation for 50 years is beyond me.  

I can easily imagine (and dream of) a generation some 50 years from now looking back on us and renouncing our sins or complacency in the matter of abortion.  Asking, “How could they?”  Just as we today have renounced our past sins of chattel slavery, so may future generations rise up and renounce us for allowing our tax money to fund baby slaughter houses. For spending millions of dollars making companies rich that fund abortion genocide mills. 

O God release us from this curse!  Forgive us!  Our only plea is the righteousness of Christ and His atoning death in our place. Bring us as a nation to repent of this evil. Give us leaders who will finally eliminate it from our society.  And grant churches the grace to serve hurting mothers. To hold out the gospel to them. To adopt more babies. And to move with compassion to a lost world in need of the Savior.  Lord, forbid any Christian called by Your name to vote for a candidate who personally, or via his or her party platform, supports abortion in any way.  Heal our land of this bloodguilt.  For Christ’s sake. Amen.

“Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth” (Psalm 46:10).

It’s been a really noisy year so far.  It’s bound to get even louder in the next few months.  

So many voices. So many tweets. So many FB posts. So many debates. So many non-stop “breaking news” casts.  So many protests. So many riots. 

And in the midst of it all, it seems the enemy attempted to silence our pulpits.  Or, at least quieten them down or reduce their influence and impact.  

And in the midst of it all we Christians have too often snapped. At one another! The emotional strain of all the voices in our ears driving us to sometimes prioritize policies and preferences over people. To wrongly caricature those in our church family who hold different opinions on tertiary matters.  Forgetting not one of us has all the truth about what in the world is happening to our world.  

We have even at times blocked one another. Silenced one another. And in some cases (gulp!) even unfriended one another. In the same church family!  To the very ones God says we are “one body” with, and simply cannot do without (1 Corinthians 12).  

Preaching through Colossians this year has been enthralling. At least it has for me. I cannot speak for my poor listeners!  Today, as I kick off Labor Day weekend with all my fellow Americans, and my precious church family, I prepare to preach about the great struggle Paul had for the churches of Colossae:

“That their hearts be encouraged, being knit together in love” (Col 2:2).        

This is Paul’s great wish. His great strategy for the Colossians Christians to not be tricked by false doctrine. To live out the faith together in mutual encouragement and love. The Greek text reveals that the same kind of strength and courage given to us by Holy Spirit God is precisely what Paul has in view for the church.  We are to be imitators of God. We are to share the encouragement and comfort He has given us with one another (2 Corinthians 1).  

And what is to be the primary thrust of our mutual encouragement?  

“To reach the riches of full assurance of the understanding and knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col 2:2-3).  

So, dear Church. I want to strongly encourage you, all of you, all of us, to spend this month intentionally encouraging one another. To pursue Christ for all He’s worth!  To take practical steps to show love to someone, maybe even the very one you blocked or unfriended.  To send that text with a strong, Christ-exalting Bible verse. To point out those evidences of grace. To express gratitude for each other.  

Seriously. Pick your first victim (in a good sense). Now encourage. Do something. Say something. To put the comfort and strength and courage of God into his or her heart. Then pick a second victim. And a third. All month long. 

Shut out the noise. Turn off the news. Turn off your phones for a few hours each day.  Log off all the sites that clamor for your attention. That scurry to be the first to give you some new bit of information. 

Go sit quietly with your Bible. Read a Psalm. Ask God to burden you with someone, a brother or sister in your church family that may need your encouragement. If this sounds overly-mystical, then just start working your way through your church membership directory!  Pray that the Lord would give you a love for the person. To increase your love for him or her.  Find a way to connect via encouragement.    

Then, encourage. Do something encouraging for him or her!  I am not an expert on 1000 ways to encourage others. I am your fellow learner and struggler. But I have found over and over, if I but drown out the noise of life, and turn my heart toward God and His blood-bought people, I will inevitably commit an act of encouragement.  

Let’s make this month one of “September Silence.”  

Silence all the clanging gongs of talking heads. Muffle the noisy cymbals of our culture and our crazy post-modern, robotic existence.  Get with God. Listen to His voice revealed in His Word. 

And from that place of silence and stillness before your Creator-Redeemer, encourage someone else so that you might be knit together in love.  Imagine the difference this might make in this church family!  A month filled with no harsh voices, no retweets, no lofty opinions, no angry debates, no fear-mongering, no latest-greatest data dumps, no nothing. 

Except Word-driven, Christ-exalting, Faith-Fueled Encouragement.       

O, what a powerful, promising month this might be!

Will you join me?  In September Silence?

Geology was my second love in college.  I was one course away from a minor in geology, but couldn’t find a way to make it fit in my hectic 18 hour a semester schedule driven by my Naval ROTC requirements.  In hindsight, it was a grace.  After all, who wants to be a professional rock licker?

I arrived at Vanderbilt University with a God-given faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and a grace-enabled unshakeable trust in the Bible from Genesis to Revelation.  While I was not exposed to much of Darwin’s theory or the accompanying geologic epochs (millions and billions of years) in high school (it was the late 80s /early 90s), Vanderbilt’s Geology Department deluged me in it.  I was fascinated with their theories of how it took so ridiculously long to form all the geologic wonders of this world. And I learned much about how reasonable some of these theories can seem, if no other alternatives are ever presented or discussed. 

But of course I arrived at the university with an alternative deeply ensconced in my mind and soul.  It was so simplistic sounding, though, that I rarely had courage to even mention it to my peers, much less my professors.  I wish I had been exposed to the work of Answers in Genesis and the Institute for Creation Research back in those days.  But Henry Morris and Andrew Snelling were total strangers to me then.  Turns out, what sounded so simple to me – that God flooded the entire earth with a massive catastrophe the likes of which had never been imagined – actually has good scientific backing!

You see, when you look at the Grand Canyon, or massive cave systems, or lakes, rivers, creeks and oceans, or jagged mountain peaks that clearly were thrust up from the deep, you are staring at evidences of the righteous wrath of a Holy Creator God!  This likely explains why none of my atheist professors ever mentioned even the remotest possibility that the Genesis Flood was true. To admit such a thing, well, that would be too much to bear for sinful truth-suppressors who want to live as their own gods (see Romans 1:18-32).  Nevermind the evidence of perfectly un-eroded rock layers all over the earth. Nevermind fossils of millions of dead things buried in rock layers laid down by water all over the earth.  Nevermind petrified trees jutting through many multiple rock layers, all of which supposedly laid on the earth for millions of years.  (That’s an old tree, I’d say!)  Evidence be damned!  We shall not admit anything in Genesis is literally true.  For if we do, it might inevitably lead us to conclude if we do not repent of our sins and crawl by faith onto the Ark who is Jesus Christ, we too shall be drowned in God’s wrath.  Come to think of it, this is pretty much how Jesus concluded the Sermon on the Mount (Matt 7:24-27). 

A few days ago, I was watching a TV show on Volcanoes.  I think it was on the Discovery Channel, but do not quote me on it.  My teen daughter was nearby and I called her in the room quickly to discuss what they were claiming on the show.  The scientists were examining lava rocks on Iceland.  The lava had cooled and formed rocks in a circular shape.  Very neat. Look kind-of-like large snails.  The show then explained that the only place scientists had ever observed lava cooling into spherical shapes was under water. 

Are you listening? 

This phenomenon has only ever been actually observed happening under the oceans!  But of course the show went on to claim emphatically that since these scientists knew this mountainous area had never been under water, they developed an elaborate theory of things that happened millions of years ago over aeons of time to somehow replicate what they have only ever observed happening under ocean water.  Makes perfect sense to me!  Deny the obvious conclusion.  Throw true observational science under the bus in the name of the gospel of geologic epochs. 

I recently read an article (https://phys.org/news/2020-07-texas-cave-sediment-upends-meteorite.html) about scientists having to go back to the drawing board regarding the cause of the Ice Age.  For many decades, the theory was a meteorite hit the earth, causing the Ice Age.  But sediment deposits in a cave in Texas now disprove the theory, showing instead that a “period of major volcanic eruptions” caused the earth to cool. 

You mean something like “on that day the fountains of the great deep burst forth” (Genesis 7:11). 

Volcanoes. Earthquakes. Geysers. 40 days of torrential rain.  World-wide catastrophe. An earth covered now by water will inevitably possess a much cooler atmosphere.  Much of it will freeze as the water subsides. And the ice will scar up the land and leave lakes and canyons as it too recedes back to its place closer to the poles. 

Wow. Sounds simple. And true.  But not because it makes better sense of the scientific data (though it clearly does).  But because God said so. 

Be careful who you trust. 

“Let God be true though everyone be a liar” (Romans 3:3). 

 https://www.icr.org/ice-age//

https://answersingenesis.org/search/?refinement=&language=en&q=ice+age+questions

As a native Kentuckian, with a Wildcat love and Bluegrass in my veins, I never thought I would hear myself say, “I am so glad to live in the Hoosier State!”  

But say it I have. Repeatedly. For several months now.

Our part of Indiana has been quite sheltered from much of the virus madness.  My back porch looking out over my garden and the woods behind it, is a long way from Indianapolis.  Governor Holcomb has gone out of his way to honor churches and our Constitutional freedoms during this COVID-19 crisis.  While we may not agree with his every decision, I still think we can, as Christians, thank God for his leadership and pray for God to keep giving him wisdom and courage.  And if all else fails, remind yourselves it could be worse – you could be living in Kentucky. Or California!  Then pray for them.

I simply cannot imagine what it must be like to be a follower of Christ in California right now.  A pastor in Ventura County has come under intense scrutiny.  You should take 20 minutes right now to listen to his impassioned argument and plea to his community, church, state and nation:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JptA_y86q8c&feature=youtu.be&t=24  

While my own interpretation of the data surrounding this virus closely mirrors this pastor’s, my personal stance on it rests less on the US Constitution, less on fallible and corruptible data, and more on the infallible Word of God.  The State simply has no authority to dictate matters of internal church governance.  Christ rules as Head of the Church and He does so, practically speaking, through elders / pastors who serve as under-shepherds of His flock (Acts 20:28; Eph 4:11-12; 1 Peter 5:1-5).  

While I am grateful our Founders codified the right to religious assemblies in the 1st Amendment to our Constitution, I am even more grateful that they did so as a recognition of our “inalienable rights” that come only from God.  The Pastor in Ventura County rightly pointed to this historical reality.  And this principle is what seems to be lost in our culture; or, if not lost, outright hated.  

If God commands, a human right is established.  If God forbids, no human right exists.  So, if God commands us as Christians to worship Him, to sing to Him, to gather in His name, to show hospitality to one another, and to bear one another’s burdens, for example, then a truly good government will uphold those rights for their citizens.  And if God forbids murder, then a truly good government will outlaw abortion, along with all other forms of murder.  And if God condemns homosexual conduct, then a truly good government must at bare minimum strongly discourage it. If God condemns lying, then a government must encourage truth-telling.  If God says a man must work to provide for his own, then a government must give him that right and strive to provide ample opportunity for him to do so.    

This is how human rights should work. It’s a rather simple concept. Our Founding Fathers grasped it, though like every other human on the planet, they did not live it out perfectly.  But O how far we have fallen!  Our governments, federal and local, all across this land, now promote evil and discourage good.  And even within the church, we cannot seem to stand together on issues that are clearly and explicitly commanded or forbidden by God in Scripture.  And if the Church of Christ in the United States of America loses this basic concept of rights derived from God alone, what hope is there for our sin-loving, Christ-hating culture?  We have only just begun to experience anarchy and lawlessness.

No fancy strategy or attractional church programs can fix it. It’s time to fast and pray.

For over 50 years, Pastor John MacArthur has heralded the gospel of salvation for sinners by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, to the glory of God alone!  And he has done so because, like the Reformers who pre-dated him by 500 years, he believes in the absolute authority of Scripture alone.  

And now, under the tyranny of Governor Gavin Newsom, our brother in Christ and the elders with whom he serves at Grace Community Church of Sun Valley, CA, find themselves forced to make an Acts 5:29 stand.  “We ought to obey God rather than men.”  And in the “Land of the Free” this pastor is now being threatened with arrest by the very government sworn to uphold his freedom to religious assemblies and his free speech rights.  O, dear Christians of America, can you hear our brothers in Chinese “reeducation camps” crying out for us to stand firm?!  Can you hear the desperate pleas of our sisters in North Korean labor camps begging for God to give us grace to resist this tyranny?!  Do you hear the cries of the believers in Pakistan whose churches are routinely burned and whose daughters are often captured and forced to marry Muslim men three times their age?  Are we listening, Church?  Is my own Southern Baptist Convention listening?  As Black Lives Matter now burns Bibles in the streets, whose voice or voices are we going to heed?  

O God, give us grace to realize that right now, if we are born-again followers of Jesus Christ, we are all John MacArthur!  Regardless of whether we agree with every point of doctrine he has taught over the years, we cry out to You, Maker of heaven and earth, to fight for him as your chosen man.  We ask, O Lord, that You would prevent His arrest.  Yet, as our Savior taught us to pray, not our will, but Yours be done.  If You have ordained suffering and even imprisonment for the cause of Christ, give our brother strength.  Use him wherever You send him, to proclaim salvation in no other name other than Jesus!  Bring men and women to submit to the Lordship of Christ Jesus the Lord by the courageous ministry of Pastor MacArthur.  Grant the church he shepherds an extra measure of grace, increased courage, and everlasting hope in the Rock and Redeemer whom they love and serve.  May they stand with their pastor and his family in this trial.  May the fame and name of Jesus be lifted even higher. May You turn the enemy’s schemes back upon his own head. O Almighty God, turn the heart of Governor Newsom.  Bring this earthly ruler to his knees. Humble him and grant him repentance of sin and faith in the one and only Ruler whose kingdom shall not end.  May thousands of sinners in California be born again by a massive move of Your Spirit, as they see Your power and love on display in and through Grace Community Church.  Awaken them to their dire need of the salvation only Jesus gives.  Deliver them from Your righteous wrath by the bloody cross of Christ.  Be merciful to them, O Lord, for Your own sake.  

“Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, who through the mouth of our father David, Your servant, said by the Holy Spirit, ‘Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together, against the Lord and against His Anointed,’ for truly in this city there were gathered together against Your holy servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever Your hand and Your plan had predestined to take place. And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to Your servants to continue to speak Your word with all boldness, while You stretch out Your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of Your holy servant Jesus” (Acts 4:24-30).  

Amen.              

“And He is the head of the body, the church” (Colossians 1:18).  

The last three weeks of preaching have been sheer ecstasy for me!  We circled our theological and devotional wagons around Colossians 1:15-20. Any Christian who is not immensely and deeply blessed by drinking up this high Christology may not actually be a Christian.  If God the Father’s eternal purpose is to ensure His Beloved Son has preeminence in all things, then how could our purpose and goal as believers and as churches be otherwise?  

Competitors to King Jesus’ Headship over His Church in America have never been more prevalent.  Back in March, when our governments began insisting churches and everything else shut down due to a virus with a 98% survival rate, I seemed to be in the minority even of my pastor friends when I vehemently protested.  I was, `rank`ly, shocked at how many pastors simply acted as if the government was acting perfectly within its rightful authority.  But I barked then, and am still barking that the government, whether local, state or federal, has no jurisdiction or authority in the Church of Jesus Christ!  Alexis De Tocqueville warned Americans in the early 1800s that whatever rights or freedoms they gave up to government, they would not likely ever get them back.  

Was he right?  As Governors all across this land take steps backwards to lock everything down again, what will churches do?  As Governors and local health departments and mayors tell Christians to stop assembling, to wear masks if they do assemble, to stay six feet apart, to not take communion, to not baptize, to not eat together, to not sing, to not visit the sick, to leave the elderly alone, what will churches do?  Having already caved to this Marxist madness, I am not sure anything we do at this point will make much impact; for we already proved we are more than willing to cede authority that only rightfully belongs to King Jesus to King COVID.  I mourn for the anemic condition of the Church in America. And I pray for churches who are standing firm in obedience to the Lord Jesus to be sustained by the Holy Spirit, and to be willing to pay whatever price is necessary to submit to His Lordship alone.

We are being offered a new gospel.  The State is now offering to rescue us from . . . wait for it . . . the State!  The wrath unleashed upon us by government, literally destroying the livelihoods of millions of Americans, will be alleviated by the government graciously giving us money.  Or, in some circles, medical science will save us from what medical science has done to ruin us.  And in the meantime, we seem to have forgotten the urgency of the only true gospel – that God saves us from His own righteous wrath by the sinless life, the substitute death, and the powerful resurrection of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.  And unless our neighbors repent of their sin and believe this gospel, all the “safe, socially distant” measures in the world won’t help them in the end!     

Sadly, millions of former church-going Christians (or at least those professing to be so) have taken the bait.  Barna Research recently released a study which surveyed church-goers over the months of April and May https://www.barna.com/research/new-sunday-morning-part-2/?fbclid=IwAR2fS4Q0gyaeCP-NOLjGSb_Gth_O1XYIt_gsvKugIBsplHQrTjVu4yKS9iU.  This study found that 1 in 3 former church-goers did not bother to stream their own church’s or any church’s “online worship” service. For two months!  They just stopped altogether. And they do not seem eager to return to in-person gatherings either.  In other words, they have been in a 4 month long state of disobedience to King Jesus.  It may be possible for a truly born again person to live in sin for four months, but nobody who takes the words of Christ seriously should bank on it (Luke 6:46).      

Some of us saw this coming. And no, you didn’t have to be a prophet or have any special powers to predict this outcome.  There’s a practical side to it. Stop anything for 4 months and it is excruciatingly difficult to `rank` that habit back up again.  But more importantly, I think, there is a theological side to it. The question at the bottom of it all is “Who will be King?”  

Will we continue to follow King COVID?  King Fear?  King Safety?  King Comfort? King Health?  King State?  King Medicine?  

All these surely have their place in society.  But none of them make good Kings.  None of them can ultimately save.  None of them can bear up under the title “Messiah” or “Lord.”  And if we do not decide right now to shake off these idols, we may well pay an everlasting price.  

Though there is much to mourn, I also think it must be a good thing for Americans who profess Jesus as Lord and Savior to finally have to count the cost.  For pastors who have struggled for decades to purge church membership rolls of those half-hearted, non-committed professors of faith, well, God is purging for you.  And when God does something, it’s always done well!  Those left standing shoulder-to-shoulder, and those still visiting the sick, and those sitting in pews singing at the top of their lungs, and those still urging their neighbors to trust Christ, and those still risking something to love people in person, and those still soaking up the preached word from their pastor who is “among them” (1 Peter 5:2), these humble, obedient by grace, faith-fueled warriors may just turn our communities upside down for Jesus once again.  O God make it so!

And to the flock at Corydon Baptist which God has entrusted to me, your faith through these last four months has inspired me, and has brought great glory to King Jesus!  You dear born again believers have been answering the question – who will be King? – for months now with a resounding, “Jesus is Lord!”  What an honor and delight to serve Christ, to serve you, and to serve Christ with you.  The true Head of the Church is worth whatever suffering He has ordained for His body.  Let’s press on in His name!

In the previous two posts, I have argued that the agenda and worldview of Black Lives Matter is not biblical.  It is anti-Bible and anti-gospel.  This is because it is based on Critical Theory, or Critical Race Theory.  The underlying assumptions of CRT ought to disturb any Bible-believing Christian, regardless of skin color.  For a quick overview take a listen:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_8ub4ziXNA

Now, in some ways, I do think the BLM has allowed (perhaps encouraged?) their movement to be hi-jacked by ANTIFA.  I do not think most Americans who are showing sympathy for the mistreatment of black people support the violent methods of ANITFA (now rightly declared a domestic terrorist organization).  But friends, please hear me.  There has got to be an unmasking of these links, these connections that are fueling violent criminal activity and civil lawlessness and the attempted overthrow of our Constitutional Republic.  If BLM does not support such aggressive tactics or wants to distance itself from the mob attacks, then it should denounce ANTIFA and all violence immediately!  But as it stands, it appears obvious they intend to stay fully connected to (if not funded by) ANTIFA.  I pray that freedom-loving, law abiding Americans, Christian or no, will begin to implore BLM to cut ties to any groups advocating or committing criminal acts of rioting, looting, murder or vandalism.  Denouncing crime is not, and should not be something that is difficult for any of us to do regardless of our skin color or ethnicity.  Listen to what Lt. Col. Allen West has to say in this short clip:        

https://www.frc.org/updatearticle/20200630/destroy-monuments 

If evangelical Christians of all skin colors and all denominations do not wake up to the underlying worldview driving this insanity train, we will all find ourselves marked out as Enemy of the Woke State which ANITFA seeks to establish once our Republic topples or implodes.  For those unfamiliar with the worldview of CRT, let me draw from my notes taken during a lecture given last year by Ryan Fullerton, Pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church in Louisville, KY.  Pastor Fullerton did a superb job of boiling down Critical Theory, in five statements:

1. CT sets itself up as a comprehensive worldview.  

In other words, it wants to be the lens through which people interpret the world and everything in it.  Critical Theorists claim they know what’s wrong with the world and how to fix it.  And in so doing, they set themselves up as rival kings to the One and Only King, the Lord Jesus Christ.  And their theory is bereft of biblical doctrine, biblical categories, and biblical truth.  It really is the age-old battle of man’s word versus God’s word.  Satan’s original strategy of “Did God really say?” has not changed!  

2. CT divides the world into two groups – oppressed and oppressors.

Individualism dies when Critical Theory is embraced.  Now, don’t get me wrong.  I do not think everything about individualism is correct.  As Americans we have idolized individual choice and preference.  For example, the way most Christians view the local church is far too individualistic, so that whenever something doesn’t suit my preferences, I just leave and go to the next purveyor of personalized services (i.e., another local church) rather than obey God and “bear with one another in love” (Eph 4:2).  But what CT does is it subsumes all individual traits and identities into one of the two groups.  So, everyone on the planet, then, is either oppressed or oppressor.  It matters not that you, a white man in America, have a heart that by God’s saving grace in Christ embraces all peoples as worthy of dignity and love.  You must repent of racism simply because of your group identity (all white men are viewed by CT as oppressors).  But is the world really this simple?  Are no white men ever oppressed? Ask the Scottish Covenanters or Irish slaves of yesteryear.  Pastor Fullerton noted that in setting up the world this way, CT teaches a new Doctrine of Original Sin.  That is, your sin is simply being born into an oppressor group and there just is no forgiveness for it, ever.  There is only a requirement for you to perpetually apologize to everyone for your “whiteness” or your “upper-middle-class-ness” or your “maleness” or your “heterosexual-ness.”  And then you must be fired from your job, even if you are truly sorry for your past sins and/or the sins of your oppressor ancestors.      

3. CT says salvation for humanity is solely about liberation from oppression.

If they meant liberation from the oppression of your sinful nature and your soul-deep rebellion against God and His Law, then we Christians could jump on board!  But of course, Critical Theorists define oppression only in terms of the oppressor-oppressed continuum (see above paragraph).  CT proponents often cry out against any attempt to have the ideas of anyone they classify as “oppressor” determine law or become the norm of society.  CT hates hegemony, or the control or dominance of one social group or nation over another.  That is, of course, unless it’s their own ideas or “group” that dominates!  The self-contradiction and hypocrisy is palpable.  And the fact is, all laws reflect some group’s values.  The only question is which group’s values are reflected in our laws, and upon what authority?  In general, CT uses the fact that the United States was originally founded by white men, to then encourage all the laws and definitions that they embraced be cast aside.  An easy example is the definition of marriage as one man and one women, or sex as male or female.  For humanity to be saved, CT claims all use of hegemonic power must be abolished (except their own use of such power).  But Jesus came to set the captives free from sin (Luke 4:18-19; John 8:31-47).  If Christ came to establish or overthrow political oppressors, He failed miserably.  Make no mistake, one day He will return to establish His literal rule and reign over all the earth, but we dare not confuse His first coming with His second.  This is the classic error of the social gospel. “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom was of this world, my servants would be fighting, that I might not be handed over to the Jews. But My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36).  

If Critical Theorists, BLM and ANTIFA truly cared about the oppressed, they would be advocating for the US to use its military might to demolish the regimes of North Korea, China, Iran, Nigeria and Somalia, to name but a few.  Instead, they often support such regimes and seek to overthrow America!  If BLM hates slavery (and who doesn’t?), then why are they not throwing their millions at organizations on the front lines of the sex-trafficking war around the world?  If our American government is toppled, do we seriously think the world will be a better place?  And just what do we think ANTIFA and BLM would put in the place of our Constitutional Republic?  Utopia?  A godless Eden?            

4. CT privileges minority voice.

Now, please do not hear what I am not saying.  Christians have always valued sympathetic and even empathetic listening.  We value the last, the least and the left-out. Because our Savior did.  He touched lepers and was kind to prostitutes.  He healed the outcasts and saved them from their sins, bringing them into the only kingdom that lasts forever (John 9).  God chose Israel, the least of all the nations (Deut 7:7).  We must intentionally serve widows and orphans (James 1:27).  So yes, we need to listen to all the voices represented in our nation.  And our political system is gloriously geared to give all a voice through the ballot box and a representative form of government!  But friends, we must also strive to keep a godly balance as we hear voices.  Is the majority voice always right?  No! But neither are minority voices. Rather, what we need is to seek to bring ourselves under the rule of One Voice – the very voice of God as expressed in His Word.  For only His voice is always right.  Our personal life experiences, valuable and meaningful and worthy of sympathy as they may be, are not ultimate.  CT makes life experiences ultimate truth, which inevitably can only mean relativism rules (what’s right for me may not be right for you). The irony is they reject individualism as it pertains to the two groups / classes of oppressor-oppressed, yet embrace it in ethics!  CT’s brand of ethics is what some call “Ethnic Gnosticism.”  It claims that my group gives me a secret knowledge not available to those outside the group.  How does this lead to mutual understanding, empathy and true care for humanity?  If I as a white man can truly never understand or know anything at all about what it might be like to be in an oppressed class, then what motive do I have to listen or care at all?  Listen to this sermon for more on this topic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ip3nV6S_fYU

5. CT holds to double standards.

Seriously. Critical Theorists do not even hide it or apologize for it.  They want two standards. One for the oppressed group (as they define it) and one for the oppressor group (as they define it).  We are seeing this overt hypocrisy consume our society and culture at every level.  Do you like what you see and hear all around you?  If not, then you had better get “unwoke” dear Bible-loving, Christ-exalting Christian.  As Pastor Fullerton put it, “Jesus was an equal opportunity Convictor and Savior.”  Well, amen.  

As our great Christmas hymn exclaims, “And in His name all oppression shall cease.”  

And only in His name.  

“Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ!” (Ephesians 4:17-20)

In our last post, we assessed the faulty worldview of the Black Lives Matter movement, particularly as it pertains to the idea of “race.”  By abandoning the Bible’s teaching that there is only one race, Adam’s race or the human race, and espousing the man-made theory of multiple races, we have only exacerbated the situation.  Whenever we add to or subtract from God’s Word, we fall under a curse (Prov 30:5-6; Rev 22:18-19).  America is living out that curse right now.  [previous blog post]

But the Church must not buy into the world’s narrative.  We must not cave to the culture’s categories, or definitions.  Racism itself is being redefined before our very eyes.  We are being told that if we do not tow the BLM line, and join the movement, that we are racists!  We are being told that if we do not adopt the language of Critical Race Theory and Intersectionality, that we are only adding to the oppression, or are ourselves privileged oppressors.  Many evangelical leaders and churches and denominations, including my own Southern Baptist Convention, are falling prey to this worldly non-sense. 

Of course the true Church comprised of born again followers of the King of Glory and Prince of Peace oppose oppression!  Of course we hate the sin of partiality, one form of which is racism or more accurately partiality based upon skin colors!  Of course we affirm the dignity of every human life!  And when the true Church has gotten these things wrong in the past, the Lord Christ who is the head of the Church has always granted her humble confession of sins and repentance. 

Racism, especially as defined and espoused by the BLM is the new #MeToo Movement.  Just a year or so ago the unpardonable sin was to just be accused of sexist behavior or mistreatment of women.  Many prominent men were fired from jobs and removed from posts without so much as a trial or any evidence.  The #MeToo Movement insisted all women are truth-tellers and all men are liars.  That women cannot ever oppress or manipulate or abuse men.  But this is not what God says (1 Kings 3:16-22; Rom 3:10-18).  Consider Proverbs 18:17, “The one who states his case first seems right, until another comes and examines him.”  But far too many in the church bought into the #MeToo philosophy hook line and sinker!  No doubt their motives were mostly good (there are some so-called churches and denominations who simply will do almost anything to remain “relevant” to our culture, but we pray they are the minority).  We all want to stand against abuse of any kind. Period.  But we cannot and must not allow the culture to dictate the terms of what that means, looks like, or what terms or definitions we must use in discussing the matter. 

For a classic example, consider the electronic billboard I saw just yesterday.  It read “The United Methodist Church says Black Lives Matter!”  Do you get the irony here?  The UMC also ordains into the gospel ministry those practicing a homosexual lifestyle!  The UMC is not true to the Scripture at all.  They gave up the doctrine of the inerrancy and sufficiency of the Scripture.  So now anything goes to somehow show themselves cultural relevant.  And God is not pleased nor is He honored.   

Racism, as defined by BLM, CRT, and Intersectionality, is the new unpardonable sin.  But the actual agenda of BLM defies what they are claiming is their primary motive – racial equality and to end systemic law enforcement or judicial racism / oppression.  For example, the official platform of BLM supports Planned Parenthood.  It is hard to deny the racist origins of Planned Parenthood.  Margaret Sanger was a flaming racist and eugenicist who believed in atheistic Darwinian evolution.  Abortion doctors have targeted black people for decades by strategically planting their murder mills in minority communities, all under the guise of “family planning / services.”  BLM also officially supports the LGBTQ agenda.  It is hard to see what link they think this has to stamping out police oppression of black people.  The founders of BLM have been open about their militant Marxist agenda, as well as their intent to completely eradicate the family unit led by a husband and wife.  All of the chaos being wreaked, including the statue toppling and rioting and looting and hijacking of mainstream media and domination of public school and state university curriculum is straight out of the playbook of Karl Marx, Lenin, Stalin, Mussolini and Hitler.  So as a movement, BLM is simply incompatible with genuine biblical Christianity.  Period. And I am thankful for the black voices now rising up to say so (see links at bottom of this article).  God give us courage to “speak truth to power,” or to those seeking to seize power.

BLM is spiritually bankrupt. Eradication of racism and other sins of the heart is not a project any socio-economic program or picketing or protesting can accomplish.  George Soros may well fund the upending of our Constitutional Republic based upon free market capitalism, but he cannot save the sin-sick heart of mankind nor produce any real righteousness in him.  Make no mistake, just like the Climate Change or Green Movement, BLM is a religion.  And there is no salvation of any kind, nor forgiveness of sins against a Holy Creator God, available in it at all.  There’s only One Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus who gave Himself a ransom for all (1 Tim 2:5-6).  Only Jesus can and will make this broken world new (Rev 21:5).      

BLM is also scientifically bankrupt.  For all our talk as a society of being “science-driven” it turns out we are mostly emotion-driven.  Atheist John McWhorter, Professor at Columbia University, has been pointing out the need to pay attention to the actual facts of research for decades.  While I lament his atheism, I applaud his courage as a black man to point to the hard data.  We must ask: Do the research statistics actually back up the claims being made by BLM?  Are more black people killed by cops, as a percentage of population, than white people?  What is BLM doing to address black on black crime and the proliferation of gangs?  Does the disintegration of God’s design for marriage and home in black communities have any bearing on these issues?  Will BLM admit that the cities where race relations are the very worst have been governed by democrats for many decades?  Will BLM address the matter of police unions padding the pockets of the Democratic Party and protecting bad apple cops as being at least a part of the problem?  Will BLM honor the black voices of those standing in opposition to their agenda and their claims?  Will the black lives of Candace Owens and the Hodge twins (Conservative Twins on Youtube) matter?  Will their voices be heard and respected?  Will anyone other than Fox News give a voice to the black men and women of Project 21 or The National Center for Public Policy Research?  And will the Church listen to men like Dr. Voddie Baucham?  I am including links to these people and organizations below, not because I endorse everything they say or think, but because I believe their voices are quickly becoming the minority voices most likely to be persecuted and oppressed in America, and are worthy of our prayerful consideration.  In all our listening and talking, we must as Christians keep the total sufficiency of Scripture as our ultimate authoritative voice and guide. 

None of what I have written here should be interpreted as a polemic against Christians and the Church continuing to fight against hatred and oppression, and for human dignity, human life, and human flourishing.  The true Church always has stood against evil and for good, as defined by God in the Bible.  And we must continue to do so.  We lament mistreatment of any people.  We do desperately want to see harmony between peoples of all skin colors and ethnicities.  But we do not embrace BLM as the answer.  We must never look to any human government or movement for ultimate salvation.  For no utopia can ever exist on earth until Jesus Christ is literally acknowledged by every tongue as Lord of all (Phil 2:5-11).  And so as we go about doing good to all people, and especially to the household of the faith, let us not neglect our main mission – to preach Christ crucified in the stead of ruined sinners, and raised for their justification.  Our experiences in our culture may well differ based upon many factors. But our ultimate need as humans is the same.  We need the Lord’s grace to rescue us from our sin! 

I want no one to come into our worship service at Corydon Baptist and feel like an outsider. No! We want to reflect the Father in Heaven who welcomes outsiders to come inside His house of grace by repentance of sin and faith in Christ, where all things are reconciled by the blood of His cross (Col 1:20).  May God make it so. The voices of the weak and oppressed matter greatly to God, and to us. But we offer and embrace no solution to man’s plight other than the blood of Jesus.              

For further information and voices worth hearing:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PiilN9PAZiQ
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pd1swytlzBg
• https://nationalcenter.org/
• https://nationalcenter.org/project-21/?utm_source=Amazon+Advocacy&utm_campaign=be1f33bc40-standing-up-for-those-who-stand-against_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c235f8a6c8-be1f33bc40-159050388

“If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?” (Psalm 11:3)

What started as a fringe movement among the politically socialist-with-a-tinge-of-anarchist crowd in America, has almost overnight become “mainstream.” 

The movement is known as BLM, Black Lives Matter.  To which nearly every American I know or even know of would answer, “Of course the lives of black people matter.  What’s your point?”  And now that we are all starting to see what their point really is (which seems more about political upheaval and total revolution against the form of government known as a Constitutional Republic resting upon free-market capitalism than about the value of any people’s lives), it is frightening and deeply disturbing, at least to many of us lovers of freedom within the constraints of good law and order. 

Now I know I am already being labeled as a racist, just because of that last paragraph.  My wife posted a quote from a prominent black pastor, Tony Evans, to her social media last week.  Something like “All lives matter from the womb to the tomb.”  She was immediately met by implied accusations of racism, and this from two women she grew up with and was friends with all throughout high school.  In other words, they know better!  They know my wife is not a racist.  But to even dare to offer a different perspective these days is sure to get us labeled.  I know of pastors who are just pretty scared to even say anything right now. Darned if you do. Darned if you don’t.

Well, dear Christians who love absolute truth as God has revealed it in the Bible, we are just going to have to get used to being called names. Of being falsely accused. Labeled. Attacked. Hated. Like our Savior.  Jesus told us there’d be days like this (John 15:18-25).  My dear, sweet ultra-non-confrontational wife simply removed her post, rather than challenge her friends’ insistence that the standard for racism is complete agreement with their viewpoint.  But I wish she had responded something like this:

Of course black lives matter.  But why? The worldview that has caused us to focus on our differences, and upon our skin colors (a simple matter of melanin) is Darwinian evolution.  Racism in our post-modern world is primarily the product of the atheistic humanism taught in public schools for the last 50+ years. It derives from an underlying belief in Darwinian evolution.  This is not to say racism did not exist prior to Darwin.  Of course it did because hatred resides in every human heart apart from the grace of God rooting it out by the application of the bloody sacrifice of Jesus.  But our form of racism in the western world has most definitely been brought on by the notion that we are all not from a common ancestor. That we evolved from different “evolutionary trees or chains.”  This leads to the idea of a higher class or a more evolved line than other lines.  And it has wreaked havoc on our world.  Watch the documentary “What Hath Darwin Wrought?” by Todd Friel for more details on my argument. 

You see, I do not accept your categories.  We have a disagreement at the foundational level.  I do not believe in races.  I believe in a race. One race. The human race. Adam’s race. I trust the word of our Creator who reveals Himself to us in the Scripture, the Holy Bible. The Bibles teaches God “made from one man [blood] every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth” (Acts 17:26).  The Bible speaks of tribes, tongues, nations and people groups / ethnicities. It never indicates any human being is of any race other than Adam’s race. The human race. The notion of multiple “races” has actually foisted more racism upon us than anyone could have imagined!  That view seeks to magnify and vilify our differences, when the Word of God says the diversity God programmed into human DNA redounds to His glory and is to be celebrated! 

This does not mean we ignore skin colors and ethnicities and cultures.  No! We embrace them as part of God’s good design for humanity, particularly as we see those cultures redeemed by God and brought under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.  There is a reason the heavenly vision God gave the Apostle John is one of unified worship: “And they sang a new song, saying, ‘Worthy are You to take the scroll and to open its seals, for You were slain, and by Your blood ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth’” (Revelation 5:9-10).

Can you see it?  All the peoples of the world singing in harmony to Jesus?  All the skin colors of the world will be there. Adam’s race now redeemed by the Second Adam, Jesus Christ. Reigning with Him. In perfect unity. Only Jesus cures racism!  Only Jesus unites all peoples!  Or, more accurately, I should say only Jesus restores all kinds of peoples to the foundational truth that they have been one people all along.  It is our sin that insists on erecting and re-erecting walls of division among peoples in this world. In the end, the only division among humanity that will be is in Christ or not in Christ, saved or lost, justified in Christ or condemned outside of Christ.  And none of that is based upon skin color!  The children’s ditty has it right, “Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world, red and yellow black, brown and white, they are precious in His sight.”   

So the only way for me to be a racist is for me to hate all humanity. Every single person. To have animosity towards the entire human race. Because that’s the only race there is.  This does not mean I have never committed the sin of partiality. I have and God has always exposed it and given me grace to repent of that sin and seek to mortify it in my heart.  But as for me, I accept only one race. We are therefore disagreeing on the most fundamental level. Our definitions are not even the same! 

The human genome project has verified that the genetic difference in various so-called “races” is so miniscule that we have to conclude even scientifically that we are all one race.  But that research finding is not being heralded in science books and at science fairs and from the halls of academia because it just does not fit their narrative. Their worldview cannot account for it. But God’s Word has been heralding it all along.  For more inspiration along these lines, see these sermons / clips:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoJGYCc7EUg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ip3nV6S_fYU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCivUBcap8Q

So yes, black lives matter!  Amen! Shout it from the rooftops! But this is true only because all lives matter. And only the Christian worldview can consistently make such a claim. There is absolutely no foundation to say black lives matter, or brown lives matter, or any lives matter, if you believe in Darwinian evolution.  And the destruction of the very foundation laid by Genesis 1:27, “So God created man in His own image . . . male and female He created them,” is precisely what has led us to this moment of insanity, mistrust, animosity, outrage and outright anarchy in our society. 

I urge you therefore to give up the world’s categories and definitions.  Cling to God’s categories and definitions.  For only there do we find lasting hope for a truly just and loving society.     

Our nation is in chaos.  It appears a “perfect storm” is upon us.  So many hurts and calamities combining to create mass confusion, extreme emotionalism, knee-jerk calls to action, and even greater hatred and division.  A pandemic. Government abuses of power. Then a very public murder. Then another murder. Then more murders, riots, looting.  All the while a “mega drought” plagues the Southwest, tornadoes rip through the South and hurricane season is upon those in the East.  And oh, let’s not forget all the riots and protests are sure to cause a massive spike in COVID-19 cases (at least if what we have been told for months about this virus is actually true).  One can only expect more shutdowns and economic woes if that does occur.  God help us!

Too many Christian leaders, prominent and obscure, seem to want to start talking all about these kinds of things the moment they are happening. Gotta get my tweet out before someone else does! Gotta stay fresh. Current. Relevant. Gotta endorse certain movements before bothering to research them to see what they really stand for and are proposing. Gotta get woke.  

While I do intend to address various issues in the weeks ahead pertaining to some of the chaos taking center stage in our nation and world, primarily for the sake of the local church I shepherd and serve, I am fully convinced that where we must begin is on our knees.  Not kneeling at a local protest. Rather, kneeling beside our beds with our wives and children, kneeling in our church houses with our brothers and sisters, kneeling with other local churches in area-wide calls to prayer.  Why is our first inclination in the Church today to tweet or start a Facebook debate?  Let us pray. 

Almighty God, it is You who have created us and not we ourselves.  Forgive us, Lord, when we try to live as our own gods. We ask as Your chosen people, those whom You have redeemed by the blood of Jesus, that You create in us first a hatred for sin in our own hearts.  “For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel?” (1 Peter 4:17) Help us, Holy Spirit, to pull the logs out of our own eyes that we might once again help our neighbors and society and nation and leaders identify the specks in their eyes. 

Where we have tolerated abortion, please forgive us. Where we have winked at sexual perversions and distortions of your design for marriage, for sexuality, for gender, please forgive us. Where we have cheated on our taxes or conducted our business in under-handed ways, or spent Your money in ways that defy Your holy Name, please forgive us. Where we have caved to Darwinian evolution and all of its implications in every facet of our society, please forgive us. Where we have allowed education systems to remove God, denigrate the Bible, and replace the gospel with a foundation of atheistic humanism, please forgive us. Where we have shown partiality, or harbored animosity in our hearts based upon the world’s category of “race,” please forgive us.  “And He made from one blood every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth” (Acts 17:26). And “here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all. Put on then as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, meekness, humility, patience” (Col 3:11-12).  Forgive us, Lord, for allowing the Church to be segregated by walls of partition Jesus has torn down at the cross!  Forgive us Lord for not fighting against oppression and violence, whether individual or systemic, wherever it is found.  And for our prayerlessness in the face of such demonic onslaught over many decades in our nation, O Lord, forgive.  What we are experiencing now pales in comparison with the everlasting lake of fire that we justly deserve, as individuals and as a nation.  So we pray, “In wrath, remember mercy” (Habakkuk 3:2). Our only plea is the righteous life, death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son and our Savior.  Politics, education and money cannot fix this. Only Jesus changes and purifies human hearts. Help Your people again proclaim the gospel boldly, from coast to coast.   

Our hearts are grieving as Christians in Your Church, and as Americans. We have seen injustice. We have watched precious men and women of all skin colors, all made in Your image, die needlessly or be harmed by violence and hatred and malice. We mourn for all the families who have lost loved ones or livelihoods in recent calamities, whether pandemic, storms, police abuse of power, or rioters abuse of privilege. O God help! O God save! O God! We need You! Heal us by Your gospel. Restore unto us the foundations of true justice and true mercy, as revealed only in Your Holy Word the Bible. We beg for Your grace in Christ to flood this land. We praise You for both Your acts of judgment, and Your acts of mercy; for You do all things well. Revive Your Church in America O Sovereign One. Awaken sinners to their absolute need of the Salvation and Lordship of Jesus the Messiah.  Make Your Church in America holy again. So we can yet again declare Your holy law and your holy cross with clarity of conviction. Restore our prophetic voice in this land. Employ us in Your kingdom service to spread the Name and Fame of Jesus to our next door neighbors, and to the peoples who have yet to even hear the Name.  And should You ordain for America more suffering and judgment, O Father God grant Your people endurance in Christ Jesus. Be glorified in us as we worship You whatever the circumstance or cost!   

“O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive. O Lord, give heed and act. Delay not, for Your own sake, O my God, because Your . . . people are called by Your name” (Daniel 9:19). Amen.