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The lack of biblical discernment among several big name evangelical leaders and churches is now beyond disturbing.  More and more reports of a new form of church segregation are popping up around the nation.  Ironically, some of the same pastors and leaders who have been slowly but surely drinking the Kool Aid of wokeness, which claims its aim is “antiracism,” are now encouraging if not outright instituting the sin of partiality in their churches!    

The church Pastor Tim Keller leads is now seating people by COVID-19 vaccination status.  Several other churches around the country are doing likewise.  Some churches are threatening to fire employees who refuse to take the shot.  Other prominent evangelical voices, such as John Piper, David French and Russell Moore, are beating the you-must-get-vaccinated-if-you-are-loving drum like hyped-up percussionists in a high school marching band competition.  

Some of us small fry pastors saw it coming some 15 months ago.  And to be fair, several large fry pastors and leaders did too, such as Voddie Baucham, Tom Ascol, Owen Strachan, Virgil Walker, Darrell Harrison, Jon Harris, John MacArthur, Allie Beth Stuckey, and Scott Brown, to name a few.

Way back in the Spring of 2020, the pastor-elders I served with began to prayerfully formulate our philosophy and strategy regarding this thing everyone was calling the COVID-19 pandemic.  Since it was so early on, with little to no actual data available, we withheld much of our own thoughts and opinions, or at least we decided not to say too much publicly.  Secretly, I shared with a trusted pastor friend that I suspected this thing might go down in history as one of the biggest overreactions and overreaches ever, but only time would tell.  I can now let this cat out of the proverbial bag only because more and more data is actually revealing I just may have been correct (even a blind squirrel finds a nut now and then).  For example, if you haven’t heard this podcast titled “COVID by the Data” you must stop and listen now:

https://churchandfamilylife.com/podcasts/6155fe35b60cbf12ea836637 

Take a look at this webpage dashboard: https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/drew.davis1802/viz/COVID19ResponseAnalysis/Overview

But before the data was available, our pastor-elders decided to nail down a few things, namely:

1. Medical issues such as wearing masks and getting vaccinations are, by and large, issues of individual Christian conscience.  There are no explicit biblical texts demanding a believer get a vaccine, for example.  Therefore, we must be silent where the Bible is silent, and allow believers to follow the Spirit’s guidance, particularly as He impresses our consciences.  Resisting the urge to argue and pass judgment, which always goes both ways, is paramount to the peace and gospel unity of a church in matters of Christian liberty (Romans 14).  
2. The enemy was going to use the hyper-politicization of seemingly everything in our culture, but especially issues surrounding this virus, to divide us.  Therefore, we must put on the whole armor of God (Eph 6:10-20) and not be ignorant of the devil’s schemes (2 Cor 2:11).  We must not allow Satan to divide us in the local church over issues not explicitly addressed in the Scripture.  Rally around the gospel and the confessions of faith we hold to dearly.  Learn to disagree on lesser matters as brothers and sisters in Christ.  
3. Do not lord over the flock in matters of individual Christian conscience (1 Peter 5:1-5).  Forcing people to mask-up to attend worship is not biblical nor God-honoring.  Forcing people to have no contact in worship gatherings is not biblical nor God-honoring.  And discriminating against people in a worship gathering based upon vaccination status is just plain satanic.  This is precisely what God forbids in James 2:1-13.  (Ironically, what woke leaders call “loving” is exactly what this text says is unloving.)  Making reasonable provisions for those at high risk of a disease is one thing.  Mandating medical treatments and forcibly seating people accordingly is altogether another animal, one which has rabies and will destroy a church.    
4. Obey the Word of Christ first and foremost, even if it means disobeying lesser authorities (Acts 5:29), and even if it makes us unpopular by the world’s standards.  Seeking to appease the world has never been a good evangelism strategy (John 15:18-25; 1 John 2:15-17; James 4:4).
5. Do not ask people to violate their consciences as Spirit-filled followers of Christ.  To do so is sin.  Can you wear a mask in faith and do you desire to do so?  Good. Carry on.  Or, would wearing a mask be something you could not do as an act of faith (taking God at His Word and resting in His finished work in Christ)?  Then do not.  Can you receive the shot in faith?  Fine. But if not, then do not.  “Whatever does not proceed from faith is sin” (Rom 14:23).  And whatever course you pursue in these matters of Christian liberty and conscience, led by the Spirit, pass no judgment on brothers and sisters who do otherwise.  

These principles seem so clear and explicitly biblical.  But far too many Christian leaders have over-complicated matters by being lured into the political fire-fight raging all around us.  What started as a simple plea to “flatten the curve” is now threatening to consume us all.  I do not pretend to understand all the connections and ramifications of what is happening . . .   

But I do know that not everything is political.  And when something is not political, such as medical treatment of a virus which can be researched and studied and then analyzed by a data-driven approach, we ought to resist all fleshly urges to politically weaponize it.  In so doing, we end up only hurting ourselves, for in Christ we are, in fact, ultimately only one body.  Pastors like Tim Keller may be shocked to find that they actually need those unvaccinated hands they are chopping off (1 Cor 12).  We all have a common enemy, and it’s not the church member who does not see this issue eye-to-eye with you.  

And I do know that not everything is a “gospel issue.”  In evangelical circles, some leaders are desperately trying to convince us that “social justice” (as defined by CRT, not the Bible) is a “gospel issue.”  So, if we do not renounce our whiteness, drop our privilege, and become an anti-racist activist for a this-worldly socialist utopia, we are peddling a truncated gospel.  It does not take a PhD in Political Science to see how this easily morphs into the argument that if you do not mask up and get a shot, you are unloving (and love is of course the gospel issue of all gospel issues).  

But adopting socialism or advocating for capitalism is not actually a gospel issue.  Getting a vaccine or refusing to do so or trusting natural immunity is not actually a gospel issue.  The Apostle Paul includes none of this nonsense when he proclaims the gospel of Christ crucified and risen (1 Cor 15:1-4).  

Politics are important, but not ultimate.  Politics, like all of life, flow from our theology and doctrine.  It strikes me that some of the Christian leaders who told us it was OK to vote for a politicians who support abortion and all sorts of sexual sinful perversions are the very same ones now telling us we are unloving non-gospel jerks if we do not do what those politicians say.  Nevertheless, we must resist the urge to both politicize and “gospelize” everything.  True believers are bound to come down on both sides of an issue as complex as preventing a virus.  Imagine if we politicized and polarized people based upon how they approach influenza.  Chaos would ensue.  Indeed, it has.         

For decades it has been popular for evangelical churches to craft a mission statement or motto that goes something like “The Great Commission and the Great Commandment.”  Sounds biblical and good.  But I fear we have conflated the two.  

We dare not forget that the Great Commission exists because nobody, not even one of us mere mortal humans, has ever fulfilled the Great Commandment.  

Gospel sanctification is the effect of gospel salvation, but never the cause of it or even a synergistic means of it.  God help us rally around the gospel of pure grace.     

“Are you so foolish?  Having begun by the Spirit are you now being perfected by the flesh?” (Gal 3:3)                                    

For more thoughts on these matters, check out this podcast:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEeSuo96ZxA

God has ordained government as the earthly authority with the power of the sword (Rom 13:1-7).  Governments are all accountable to the King of kings for how they rule (Dan 4; Rev 18).  Governments are beholden to God’s Word to discern good from evil.  The Bible is replete, however, with examples of earthly rulers and governments who refused to stay in their lane.  Kings who became tyrants. Governments who were godless.  The form of government matters, you see, because certain forms lend themselves more effectively to accountability before God and the citizenry.  The Doctrine of Depravity (mankind is inherently sinful, willfully wicked, and impacted in all his faculties by sin) warns us about placing too much authority into the hands of a single person, or a single entity.    

Never in my lifetime have I seen so many governmental power grabs in North America and the Western World.  Never have I seen the rule of law, and the neglect of the Constitution, so endemic in our President and Cabinet members and Congress and Governors.  There are now so many blatant attempts to overthrow our system of government and dominate the everyday lives of citizens in the US that I can hardly keep track.  These are indeed perilous times.  When Big Tech and Big Business links arm with Big Government Lady Liberty is on the chopping block!     

I recently came across a few quotes on my friend’s blog and found them to be an accurate diagnosis.  Pay attention to when (the date) each quote was written.

“In the anti-Christian perspective, the function of the state, first of all, is to represent men rather than God. The state denies the sovereignty of God and, in the name of the people, it asserts its own sovereignty. Second, the modern state declares itself to be a human institution whose function is to promote human welfare. With this pretension that human welfare in the broadest sense is the state’s concern, the state usurps the right of man to govern himself under God. The state becomes the totality of government, human and divine. Third, justice is now defined as meeting man’s needs and wants. From the days of the Roman Empire to the present, the road to statism has been the assertion that “the health of the people is the highest law.” In the name of the general welfare, the state institutes general tyranny and slavery. Justice is denied to the citizen and subject in the name of social justice, meeting the needs of men en masse. But social justice is not justice at all, because it is anti-personal. The requirements of justice are the requirements of the second table of the law, that man’s life, home, property, and reputation be respected in word and deed. Social justice denies the integrity of man’s life, home, property, and reputation in the name of classes of men, of men as a body, and men as a body means the state! Thus, social justice means the denial of justice because social justice is anti-personal. It is not the property of the individual, nor his life, home, and reputation which count, but the demands of a class as embodied in the state. And, since the state takes over the function of that class, whether the nobility or workers, the class itself loses all individual rights to the state. Social justice is always a paramount and central doctrine of statism, and the pretension to general welfare concerns is an instrument to power” (R.J. Rushdoony, The Politics of Guilt and Pity, 1970).  

“Throughout the history of the Christian church, Christianity has always stood over against all forms of statism. Statism is the natural and ultimate enemy to Christianity because it involves a usurpation of the reign of God. If Francis Schaeffer was right — and each year that passes makes his prognosis seem all the more accurate — it means that the church and the nation face a serious crisis in our day. In the final analysis, if statism prevails in America, it will mean not only the death of our religious freedom, but also the death of the state itself. We face perilous times where Christians and all people need to be vigilant about the rapidly encroaching elevation of the state to supremacy” (R.C. Sproul, “Statism,” Sep. 1, 2008, www.ligonier.org) 

In the end, followers of Jesus must rest in the promise of God, come what may:

“The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against His Messiah, saying, ‘Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.’  He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision.  Then He will speak to them in His wrath and terrify them in His fury, saying, ‘As for Me, I have set My King on Zion, My holy hill’” (Psalm 2:2-6).  

The sage Psalmist still rings true to all who by grace will hear and heed:

“Now therefore O kings be wise; be warned O rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry with you and you perish in the way, for His wrath is quickly kindled.  Blessed are all who take refuge in Him” (Psalm 2:10-12).

“Woe to you who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter” (Isaiah 5:20).  

At one of the most divisive political times in our nation’s history, Speaker Nancy Pelosi knows how to bring her party together.  

The deceptively named “Women’s Health Protection Act” seeks to wipe out all the various pro-life laws passed by the states, and permanently legalize abortion on demand, for any reasons whatsoever, right up until birth.  This is one truly barbaric piece of legislation.  The only things it would protect are murder, racist infanticide, abuse of women, and oppression of the disabled.      

If there are any remaining “Evangelicals for Biden” out there, or any life-loving, God-fearing, Bible-revering Christians who somehow still justify voting for democrats, I am simply at a loss for words.  All but 1 democrat in the House of Representatives voted for this wicked legislation.  And 100% of the House Republicans voted against it.  

So, just in case we were not already crystal clear on it, the issue of abortion is at once the most divisive and unifying issue of our time.  A vote for a democrat is a vote for slicing up babies in wombs, with ruthless disregard for both the mother and child.  And, it scarcely matters how “centrist” or even “right-leaning” the democrat claims to be on other issues.  It matters not whether the democrat claims to be Christian (many in the House who voted for this sick excuse for law do claim to follow Jesus).  A vote for a democrat is a vote sure to result in millions more deaths of the most innocent and defenseless among us.  A vote for a democrat ensures America continues to push abortion down the throats of countless 3rd and 4th World nations.  When will BLM and the Critical Theorists take up the mantle of the truly oppressed?  The Democratic Party Platform is chocked full of calling evil good.    

I am sick and tired of prominent evangelical pastors and leaders, many of whom are in my own denomination, providing political loopholes and justifications for voting for democrats.  This past year’s Southern Baptist Convention had so many of our top leaders doing a jig to make sure we are somehow a-political.  Unity in the gospel was the rally cry, all while seeking to assuage the consciences of those who were patting themselves on the back for ousting a President whose tweets were mean.  I cannot personally think of anything meaner or more prideful than the promotion of abortion.  How can we be unified in the gospel, which proclaims Jesus died for people, when some among us support the wholesale slaughter of people?  

It is time for pastors and true Christians to speak out like never before.  Hit the sidewalks in front of abortion clinics like never before.  Pray like never before.  Preach like never before.  Call upon anyone who supports pro-abortion politicians to repent like never before.  Counsel at Pro-life pregnancy centers like never before!  The religion of child sacrifice in America must be stopped.  O God, help!  

This post will get me accused of being too crass.  Unloving. Unkind. 

Babies’ skulls are being crushed!  Babies’ brains are being sucked out of their heads!  Babies’ limbs are being torn apart!  Mothers’ wombs, the very God-designed incubators of life, are being made death chambers.  Mothers’ and fathers’ emotions are being mocked.  Their life-long trauma is being celebrated and endorsed.  Their most base inclinations are being stimulated.  Infanticide is being trivialized. 

And God, the Judge of all the earth, sees, knows, and cares.

Do we?

“Your glory, O Israel, is slain on your high places!  O how the mighty are fallen!”  (2 Sam 1:19)

This famous lament was uttered by David upon receiving the news of the death of King Saul and his son, and David’s best friend, Jonathan. 

It seems a fitting epitaph for what we Americans have witnessed over the last few weeks.  The military retrograde and evacuation of citizens and allies from Afghanistan has been embarrassing, to say the least.  So many of us veterans hardly know what to think.  We could not believe our eyes.  The whole thing has pulled scabs off so many wounds.  Earlier this week, I stood and teared up with a fellow pastor who served in Vietnam.  The hurt is palpable and indescribable to those who have not experienced the military life, not to mention actual combat.  To know that those 11 Marines, 1 Soldier and 1 Navy Corpsman were slaughtered right beside their warrior buddies is too much to stomach.  We grieve with their families, as well as the hundreds and thousands of grieving families in Afghanistan.  For all the President’s talk of success, it looks much more like defeat.  Dare I say Divine judgment? 

I have no intent to go on an angry rant.  God is sovereign. Period. May we trust Him, even in the midst of absolute chaos.  And I want to say that in some ways, the evacuation was amazing.  The numbers of people airlifted out successfully by our military (and many other organizations and people) are astounding.  Given the hand they were dealt by those at high echelons of command in our nation, our troops, as always, acquitted themselves with distinction and honor. 

It has been almost surreal to me to watch my old boss (then LtCol Kenneth F. McKenzie, Jr.) giving regular briefings on various news outlets.  General `rank` McKenzie, Commander of Central Command, was known to me during my two years working directly for him as a Supply Officer (1997-99), as a man of integrity.  His military IQ was stratospheric.  His grasp of military history and tactics was impressive.  We all knew he was destined for great things in the Corps.  So, I cannot believe that the “plan” we have watched unfold in the last two weeks was actually his plan.  The General McKenzie I knew was way too smart to entrust American lives to the Taliban, and would have rather taken severe beatings than to leave any Americans behind enemy lines.  I have to believe he just did the best he could, like all our troops, with the horrific situation he was put in by the President and his administration.  And maybe one day, when Gen. McKenzie is comfortably retired, we may hear the truth, or at least some of it.  One thing’s for sure, I have been praying for him diligently, as I cannot imagine being in his shoes. 

Well, friends, I don’t have much more to say.  I really do not know what to think.  Throughout Israel’s history in the Bible, God routinely gave them leaders after their own hearts.  And, God often used wicked nations to punish Israel for spurning His grace and blessings.  Read the Minor Prophets.  While I know America is not Old Covenant Israel, I am inclined to believe the Omnipotent Lord of all Creation does not change, and still governs the world the way He always has.  God alone raises up nations, appoints rulers, and also brings them crashing down (Daniel 4; Revelation).  God’s judgment upon Israel took hundreds of years to play out.  We Americans can only hope the Lord is as long-suffering with us. 

We are getting what we deserve, at least in part.  The fact that we are still a nation, still so blessed, still able to hear the good news of Jesus, the Savior of sinners who repent and confess Him as Lord, is clear evidence of God’s continued, ill-deserved, always-unmerited grace upon us.  Let’s go tell of Him . . . while we still can. 

“Why should a living man complain, a man, about the punishment of his sins?  Let us test and examine our ways, and return to the Lord!” (Lamentations 3:39-40)

A pastor friend recently posted this citation from R. J. Rushdoony, from page 111 of his book The Politics of Guilt and Pity.  I thought it worth posting again here:

“The modern state . . . has made salvation its function.  Man is to be saved from poverty, sickness, death, ignorance, sin, war, superstition, and all things else by the saving state, which works steadily to create its divine order, in the name of the saving society.  Every area the state wishes to invade and possess in the name of the welfare of man becomes its legitimate jurisdiction. A total sovereignty is asserted in the name of man. The state steadily denies the need of the Christian theological order as it claims jurisdiction over every area in terms of its royal divinity. The early church . . . yielded an obedience where obedience was due without surrender. It refused to accept freedom under Caesar by sacrificing to Caesar; it insisted on its freedom under God. The church today has almost universally accepted the messianic state . . . The church is content to have freedom under the new caesars, within the new divine monarchies, and to become its servile subject.” 

Well, if the last 18 months have shown us anything, it’s the validity of this claim.  Our federal government, and some of our state and local governments, seemingly will stop at nothing in their quest for total sovereignty over our lives.  And their currency is fear.  Always has been. Always will be. Until the One and Only real King returns to make all things right. 

May God awaken His people to stop buying what our ever-more robust socialist politicians, in bed with socialist institutions spanning every conceivable market space, are selling. Marxist utopias are founded upon hate and division, and sold to us on a platter of fear. But lies never keep their promises.  And we need not wonder where lies originate:

“He [the devil] was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is not truth in him. When he lies, he speaks from his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44).       

Imagine the horror of thousands of people who immigrated here from Marxist regimes and nations over the decades, risking it all for political freedom and economic free markets and educational freedom and religious freedom, as they watch our businesses, educational institutions and systems, governments and even churches, keep gulping down the kool-aid of wokeness (a clever label for godless Marxism in its nuanced variants such as CRT and Intersectionality).  The state won’t rest until the State is God. 

But fear not, true Church.  God is not mocked.  Caesar is not lord. Never was. Never will be.  Every king and every kingdom – Marxist, Taoist, Buddhist, Fascist, Atheist, Socialist, and Capitalist – will all bow and pass away.

“Fear not, little flock, for it is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:32). 

“Come, Lord Jesus!” (Rev 22:20)

Things have been heating up at local school board meetings all across our nation. 

And rightly so. 

Perhaps no issue I address as a pastor has stirred more hornet nests among church members than my unashamed plea for Christian parents to homeschool, private school, or do any kind of school other than public schools if at all possible. 

My position has nothing to do with my respect for Christians who teach in the public schools.  I pray for them to be salt and light in a very dark place.  I know saintly teachers who have been hog tied when trying to help their students think critically about Darwinian evolution.  And now, those same teachers are having to stand bravely against Critical Race Theory, Intersectionality, and an open onslaught of so-called “sex education” curricula that look and sound pornographic even to adults, much less the Kindergarten classes upon which they are unleashed.  How long Bible-believing Christian teachers can continue to stand against godless Teacher Unions and godless curricula remains to be seen.  But they have my prayers. 

My anti-public schools position is based upon three primary things:

1) My own personal experience. 

We pulled our oldest daughter out of 2^nd grade after the teacher sent notices home to parents that some “sex talk” had been going on between students, and they really had no idea what, where, who, when, why or how.  This forced me to recall that way back in the early 1980s, my family moved from a very rural area of North Carolina to a city in Kentucky.  It was in the city school 3^rd grade class that my classmates began educating me on all things sex, unbeknownst to my parents, of course.  What 3^rd grader wants to come home from school and tell his Mom and Dad he just learned about masturbation?  Why would I think if it was that bad in the 80s, that it’s somehow improved in the 21^st century?  Fact is, the public schools have long been a place where peers do the majority of educating one another.  Add social media and cell phones to this equation, and nothing but disaster could possibly ensue.  I remember a teen son of a friend of mine once telling his Dad that all the guys in his classes watched porn on their phones during class.  It was literally impossible for him to not see pornography somewhere at school during the normal day.  And that was a public high school in rural Kentucky! 

2) The curricula itself. 

Nearly every Christian church member, when confronted with some of the realities of the brokenness of the public education system, says, “But that’s not happening in our schools. We’re a small town. Some of our teachers are Christians.” And so on.  Well, praise God!  But we must realize that the curriculum does most of the instructing.  Teachers’ hands are often tied as to how much biblical worldview or Christianity they can insert into the classroom instruction.  I remember many years ago telling a Christian parent that atheistic evolution was being taught in every single class at the middle school level.  She looked at me incredulously.  So I asked her middle school son to let me borrow his math textbook.  I did not have to even read beyond the introduction to encounter statements about the earth being billions of years old (THE most foundational assumption of the theory of evolution).  It was stated as a fact.  In a math book!  Needless to say, she was awakened to the need to begin reading the textbooks that her son was reading in school.  That’s the only way to help them counter the devil’s lies with God’s truth!  You’ve got to know what they are reading and studying, then help them analyze and critique everything in light of the absolute truth of Scripture.  It’s a big task.  Christian parents putting their children in public schools must assess whether they’re up to it or not. 

3) The Word of God. 

The Bible makes little distinction between education, discipleship, instruction, correction, teaching, rebuke, and indoctrination.  These are all critical in raising up and nurturing children.  It’s a comprehensive view of parenting and pastoring that the Bible gives us.  We like to compartmentalize, but the Bible rarely does so.  Truth is, all education is indoctrination.  To indoctrinate simply means to teach and inculcate truths or principles into the mind.  And it is done so in hopes that the student will embrace a certain viewpoint or way of thinking and living.  There is no neutrality in education!  The end goal of teaching a student addition is to ensure he knows and believes that 2+2=4.  There are immutable principles and definitions that make it just so.  In the Bible, God assigns the primary role of educating children to parents and pastors (Deut 6; Psalm 78; Eph 6:1-4). 

Those are the three primary reasons I exhort Christian parents to strongly and prayerfully consider alternatives to the public schools.  Back in 2004, the Southern Baptist Convention voted to boycott Disney for their aggressively pro-homosexual agenda.  The next year, a motion was proposed to also boycott the public schools for the same reason!  Of course, that motion was laughed to scorn.  This despite the most respected voice in the convention, Dr. Albert Mohler, endorsing it and going on record calling for “responsible Southern Baptists to develop an exit strategy from the public schools.”  That hasn’t happened . . . yet.    

But now, it seems a year of lock-down where parents witnessed what is being taught to their children has awakened a sleeping giant.  Parents all over America are fired up about pornographic sex education and Critical Race Theory being pumped into their kids’ hearts and minds.  As well they should be.  But I fear it’s too little too late.  Only time will tell. 

Whatever educational decisions you make, please make them prayerfully.  This is not an issue that should prevent us from serving Christ in the same church joyfully together.  But it is, nonetheless, a very important issue.  Few things matter more than raising our children in the nurture and instruction of the Lord.  So, keep your eyes and ears open. Get engaged with the school boards, stand for truth, maybe even run for a position on the school board. Christian teachers, stand strong against the liberal powerhouse teacher unions.  Be bold to minister the gospel to students when God gives you opportunities.  Fear God. Not man.

To hear more:

https://www.facebook.com/elizabethjohnstonministries/videos/544450250047371/

https://youtu.be/_xx84042zd4

On Thursday, May 20^th, the Louisville Metro Council voted 14-11 to allow healthcare facilities to create “buffer zones” or “safety zones” around their entrances. 

Of course, anyone with a modicum of integrity knows this has nothing to do with healthcare.  It has everything to do with trying to ensure more women allow their unborn babies to be hacked to pieces inside their wombs.  It is yet another iteration of our morally repugnant, totally insane cancel culture.  If someone disagrees with you, and dares to voice that opposition, silence them at all costs.  Restrict their freedoms.  Ban their opinion. Create a “safe space” where nobody is allowed to say, “You’re wrong.”  Or, “please reconsider.”  Or, “may I pray for you?”  Or, “Have you thought about adoption?”  Or, “can I tell you about Jesus Christ?”   

Oh no!  We can’t have that!  Such harassment is out of bounds. 

Dr. Earnest Marshall, founder of the EMW Women’s Surgical Center (aka Abortion Mill), welcomed the legislation, telling local news WDRB, "Medically speaking, and first and foremost, our patients are psychologically damaged by the blocking, harassment, taunts and stalking for over a block when they are trying to enter our office.  This is extremely stressful and they express they are afraid on a public sidewalk.”

Well, that’s overly dramatic and mischaracterizing, to say the least.

But even if it were true, does this Doctor seriously think that being asked not to have an abortion while walking a city block is more psychologically damaging to women than actually having an abortion?  The load of guilt these women carry scars them for life, and often the father of the aborted baby is severely damaged as well.  I mean do we as a society truly believe that one can knowingly allow their baby to be slaughtered with psychological and moral impunity?  Not to mention, if the women think they’re scared, they ought to trade places with their unborn babies who are about to be on the chopping block!       

Politically, the Metro Council is claiming that a very divisive and hotly contested ruling by the Supreme Court in 1972 outstrips the clear First Amendment rights of abortion protestors, pro-life counselors, and side-walk prayer warriors.  That’s a weak political position, to put it mildly.  Abortion rights reign supreme over all other rights, so the argument goes.  This kind of argument is now being made from the Gay Marriage Supreme Court debacle.  So-called “gay rights” or LGBTQ+ rights reign supreme.    

Morally, the Metro Council is claiming that murdering an unborn baby is superior and preferable to protesting, counseling and praying outside a “health” clinic.  That’s demonic moral reasoning.  Pure insanity. 

Logically, the Metro Council is claiming that a pregnant woman must have a harassment free safe space, while turning the woman’s womb into the most unsafe space imaginable for an unborn baby.  The only reason that pregnant mom can have a safe space is because her mother did not abort her!  The abortion rights argument is bereft of logic.  It is bereft of science. It is bereft of morality.  It is bankrupt. Period.

And some of us God-fearing, Bible-honoring, Christ-loving pastors and Christians are 100% convinced that the judgment of God has been, is, and shall remain upon this nation until we finally put an end to this murderous scourge.  I simply do not see how any follower of Christ could expect otherwise.

The Metro Council voted to abuse and exploit vulnerable pregnant women. To ignore hurting vulnerable men. And to turn a blind eye to the sharp scissors puncturing babies’ tiny, precious, created-by-God skulls.  God have mercy on their souls.  God have mercy on our nation.  How can we escape His wrath? 

To the 4 Democrats on the Metro Council who voted with the Republicans against this barbaric excuse for healthcare legislation, I want to say thank you.  Thank you for your courage to buck your party’s satanic platform and agenda.  Thank you for doing what is right in God’s eyes, and for honoring our Constitutional freedoms.  May God grant repentance of sin and faith in Jesus Christ to all who have ever, or are now supporting abortion or wrestling with the aftershocks of having an abortion.  The righteous blood of Jesus can wash the vilest sinner clean.  Confess your sin and call upon His name for forgiveness.   

If you are pregnant and want or need help in the Southern Indiana region, please contact Choices Life Resource Center https://choiceslrc.org/.

In his first 100 days, President Biden has signed 42 Executive Orders.  He signed 21 in his first week in office!  That’s compared to 4 in the first week for President Trump, and 5 in President Obama’s first week.  There’s little question that this President intends to lead our nation by Executive Order.  

It’s poor leadership.  And I believe that’s true regardless of who’s President.  

I realize there may be a legitimate use of the Executive Order, but it seems to me it should be few and far between.  Time was when a President was expected to lead the nation to adopt his agenda by means of persuasion, presentation of evidence, and the art of strategic compromise.  Presidents used to work with Congress to see legislation passed that would reflect the ideals that got him elected to the highest office in our land.  If the Congress didn’t enact it as law, oh well.  Back to the drawing board.  Time to hit the campaign trail, to sit down in diners with everyday Americans, to take to the airwaves, to offer some give-n-take to key swing voters in Congress.  

But now, Congress is totally ignored. By-passed altogether. With a stroke of the Executive Order pen.

Some might say, “Rightly so!”  Indeed, Congress has proven quite sluggish in recent decades.  At times downright inept. Seemingly incapable of reaching right good compromises.  Deadlocked.  

But have we so quickly forgotten that this is by design?  

Our Founders brilliantly built such sluggishness into the legislative process precisely to prevent one man’s agenda, or one party’s platform, from so suddenly and swiftly domineering over the nation.  

But now we find ourselves awash in cultural chaos as the LGBTQ+ agenda is smashed into our faces, as the abortion agenda is driven down our throats, as massively over-priced environmental solutions are hammered into our infrastructures, as Critical Race Theory slashes us into deeper division, and as socialists keep handing us “stimulus” money presumably to help us forget about the unscientific draconian stripping of freedoms all in the name of public safety.  So much of our freedoms are lost due to our Governors’ use of, you guessed it, executive orders.  

Seems leadership by executive order is the modus operandi.  

Sadly, this has also infected the Church.  Although I have pastor friends who would respectfully disagree with me, I am standing my ground here.  I am now seeing the effects of pastors more-or-less forcing members and church-goers to wear masks and not touch one another during worship gatherings.  Though it was subtle, it was a form of “lording it over” the people, which God strictly forbids (1 Peter 5:1-5).  Although I support a pastor’s right and duty to make such decisions, in matters of Christian conscience, I have learned by God’s grace to trust God’s people.  They will find ways to love and care for each other, while respecting variance of opinions.  Indeed, we have experienced this first hand at Corydon Baptist Church – not perfectly, but consistently.  We attacked this thing a year ago with a three-pronged mantra: obey Jesus, honor the conscience, protect the most vulnerable.  God has truly blessed us.  We offer thanksgiving and praise to our great God!  It’s all of His unmerited favor in Christ.  

I am saddened, however, by what I often see and hear from other pastors and believers.  After months of no gathering, then more months of “social distancing” and masking, the entire atmosphere of churches has changed.  Many churches are still not conducting any children’s ministry, taking their cues from the ever-reliable, highly politicized public school system.  (I speak as a mad man, as the Apostle Paul would say.)  Having visited a few such churches in recent months, I can tell you that the change is palpable. And not for the better.  The critical element of our shared humanity, of our common spiritual and physical need, of our shared faith in Christ and our fear of only God, has been severely damaged.  I have had people apologize profusely for accidentally touching me.  In a church gathering!  Even the singing has taken a hit.  Depressed, isolated people just don’t sing with exuberance.  Relegating worship to pixels has hurt the cause of genuine New Testament Christianity about as much as anything in my lifetime, with the exception of heresy / false gospels.  

I mourn for the condition of the Church in America.  I pray our God will revive His people and restore His Church to the vibrant faith of our Reformer forbears.  COVID-19 exposed our ill-preparedness to suffer for the cause of Jesus Christ.  To take risks to do church His way.  To bow only to Christ as Lord.  The pandemic was totally precedented in history.  But the response from both governments and churches was totally unprecedented.  Historically unprecedented.        

But our God is in the business of Redemption and Restoration.  We need a new Exodus!  For the Lord Jesus Christ to lead us out of the bondage of self-absorption, consumeristic man-centered worship, and evangelistic marketing techniques.  We need Holy Spirit power to once again be His witnesses, and to seal our testimony, if necessary, with our own lives.  We need to learn to live for eternity.  To live so as to die well.  To follow Jesus, carrying our cross, until we lay it all down at His pierced feet.  May we remember we are under Ultimate Executive Orders from the One who has all authority in heaven and earth:

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to keep all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matt 28:19-20). 

It seems the US government has an endless supply of money.  They just keep sending us checks, don’t they?  Maybe like me, you are wondering how this is possible!  I mean, aren’t we trillions of dollars in debt?  And, maybe like me, you do not want another check from the government.  I have written my legislators multiple times begging them to stop sending me unsolicited checks.  Rather, just continue to guard my freedom and God-given right to work hard and earn a living wage.  

But they are not listening.  I think an entire generation of young adults and children are being programmed to adore socialism.  Why is the United States giving our children checks, for crying out loud?  Are they hoping this will solve the mental health crisis the draconian shutdowns have caused?  Are they building an expectation to look to government to meet all needs?  

Well, God only knows their motives.  And, to be sure, I am not against all governmental assistance.  For those small business owners (definitely not Planned Parenthood) who lost their livelihoods during the pandemic, I think financial help should be in order for them.  

But, dear Christian, if I may ask you to leave your conspiracy theories and political persuasions behind for just a moment, let me then offer another perspective.  Whether or not we asked for or desired these stimulus checks, isn’t it worth asking what God Almighty wants us to do with them?  After all, God owns the cattle on a thousand hills (Psalm 50:10), which is just a way of saying He owns it all.  So, have you prayed and asked the Lord how you might please Him in the way you spend or save these unexpected financial windfalls?  

On this Resurrection Weekend, when we celebrate the Greatest Gift ever given, let me offer some ideas on how we might honor our Righteous, Resurrected Lord with these stimulus checks:

• Tithe to your local church.  So many churches have struggled financially this past year, might this be God’s way to bless His kingdom work through the local churches?
• Tithe or give to a missionary, or to a gospel-centered missions cause.  If you do not know of any, ask your pastor.  
• Save or invest wisely.  The temptation is always to spend.  To consume it upon our lusts.  To increase our comforts and luxuries.  But the Bible is full of exhortations to save or invest wisely in order to be able to handle any future calamity (like tax hikes or another virus or just a needed automobile repair).  Please note, I am not recommending hoarding out of fear.  But rather, I am recommending a prayerful, wise savings plan.  
• Adopt a child. Adoption is such a beautiful picture of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  So many orphans and hurting children are waiting for loving parents to choose them, and rescue them, just like God in Christ has done for us.  Talk about kingdom impact!  Adopt a child and raise him or her in the “discipline and instruction of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4).  
• Help someone else adopt a child.  Not all of us can adopt.  But, we can all offer to financially help a couple in our church who wants to adopt or is in the process of adopting.  Maybe you can garner support from other church members to start an adoption fund to encourage and assist those adopting in your church family.  
• Plan an evangelistic outreach.  Warmer weather is upon us.  Throw a backyard BBQ and invite unchurched and lost neighbors, co-workers or friends.  Share your testimony of salvation at this event, or ask someone else from your church to do so.  These kinds of efforts are great ways to share the gospel with others, and to invite them to a worship service. 
• Start a weekly gospel Bible study.  Consider starting an Exploring Christianity class in your home, or at your work or school (after hours), or at your local YMCA.  Have snacks and refreshments ready, and provide notebooks and pens at your expense.  
• Buy door-hangers and pack them with sweet treats and gospel tracts.  Go hang them on the doors of a neighborhood with your small group from church.  
• Make welcome baskets for newcomers to your neighborhoods or communities.  New home construction is booming.  So, when you see someone move in, go make them welcome, being sure to include some gospel booklets / tracts, local church information, gift cards to local businesses, hand sanitizer, and so on. 
• Tip a local waiter or waitress generously.  Buy a large bag of coffee for First Responders and deliver it to them at the Police Station or Firehouse.  Buy lunches for ER nurses and doctors.
• Help a local gospel-driven homeless ministry or a ministry to Veterans, or a pro-life pregnancy center.  

This is just a short list.  No doubt, you will have many more creative ideas for honoring Christ with your stimulus checks.  Let’s start a movement of selfless evangelistic generosity, dear Christians.  Jesus is worth it.  Let’s show off His lavish, unmerited love toward us.  Let’s share the Gift!  

“Thanks be to God for His inexpressible gift” (2 Corinthians 9:15).

“But in the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a horrible thing: they commit adultery and walk in lies; they strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one turns from his evil; all of them have become like Sodom to Me, and its inhabitants like Gomorrah” (Jeremiah 23:14).  

In an all-too-common scene now in America, a peaceful protest turned violent in our Nation’s Capitol last week.  After months of what so many media outlets called “peaceful” protests foisted on American cities by Antifa and BLM, every single media outlet was quick to condemn yesterday’s violence as unacceptable lawlessness.  Southern Baptist leaders who last fall quoted MLK Jr, “A riot is the language of the unheard” in order to tacitly endorse the BLM violence, have forcefully decried the recent riot.  Dr. Russell Moore who leads the ERLC of the SBC called for the President to resign.  While I respect Dr. Moore as my brother in Christ and learned much from him when he was my professor at seminary, I am compelled to ask if Dr. Moore called for the Governors of Washington, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Minnesota to resign after BLM and Antifa riots and looting and murders overran their city streets?  Where were you, Dr. Moore when innocent business owners, many of whom are minorities, had to board up and shut down their livelihoods in Louisville, KY, in my own backyard?         

Double standards are now our only standard, it seems.  Hypocrisy is now the crown of our Nation.

Don’t misunderstand me.  I am deeply saddened by the deaths and any injuries that happened at the Capitol Building.  I was also deeply saddened by deaths and injuries to persons and property during the BLM riots last fall.  My prayers are with suffering families, and our hurting Nation.  While conservatives have traditionally claimed the moral high ground, it is now painfully obvious that rage is consuming both sides of the political aisle.  We are all sinners, after all.  All in need of a Savior.  And it won’t be a President or Party.  It will only be Jesus Christ.  

While not condoning violent riots, isn’t it still fair to ask if anyone in our media or broader culture or in our churches will assign the label of “oppressed” to those who stormed the Capitol?  If indeed “A riot is the language of the unheard,” then will anybody acknowledge that millions of Americans do, in fact, feel unheard right now?  And they’re from all skin colors, all ethnicities, all economic backgrounds.  Not everyone who attended the protest or scaled the walls of the US Capitol were maniacal anarchists.  This is the inevitable result of years of feeling unheard. Unrepresented.  Turns out white people can be oppressed too, contra Critical Race Theory!  Whether or not this election was fraudulent (and I, along with tens of millions of others think it was), the fact remains that our government had not the courage to do anything about it at all.  Nothing. Nothing to provide assurance to nearly 50% of our citizens who feel betrayed by our elected officials.  That’s a sure recipe for anger to boil over.  I mean, for crying out loud, based upon video evidence and testimony in various hearings over the last few months – suitcases of Biden ballots being pulled out from under tables, Republican verifiers literally locked out of polling places, thousands of Trump ballots found in dumpsters, election laws being changed last minute by those not legally authorized to do so, to name a few – I would argue this election in some states looked more like a Third World dictatorship than the United States of America.  And those who agree with me are being castigated and ignored by our own government, and even by those within our churches!       

Again, I am not justifying the breaking of laws or violence against citizens or government officials.  I am simply crying out on behalf of a nation I love.  A Constitution I swore to defend from all enemies, both foreign and domestic.  It is obvious the majority of the enemies of our Constitution are now domestic.  They sit in our State Legislatures and National Congress and Cabinet positions and soon enough in the White House.  It is very hard to know how to defend the Constitution from these enemies.  The preponderance of evangelical and Baptist leaders, such as Dr. Moore, claiming there is never any justification for violence against our government is disturbing.  Since when did Baptists become Pacifists?  And if insurrection is never legitimate, then aren’t these leaders essentially claiming that America was illegitimate from the very start?  Our Founders did after all, take up arms against what they perceived as irreconcilable and irredeemable tyranny.  And many of them were devout followers of Jesus Christ.  This new understanding of absolute submission to a government (any human government) sounds more like Critical Theory than Bible.  Again, I stress that I am not claiming the riots of this fall or of last week were justified.  I don’t believe they were.  But neither do I believe that all acts of war or revolution against tyranny are indefensible, even from a Christian perspective.    

I will leave the Theory of the Just War for another blog and another day.  But surely we all see the significant potential for more violence on our national horizon.  It seems inevitable as tyranny continues to strip freedoms, and as the visions for America become even more polarized.  And they will grow more polarized under the next administration.  The Biden / Harris ticket, and the Democratic Party platform to which they are beholden, enthusiastically supports: 

• Hacking off the limbs of pre-born babies, puncturing their skulls and sucking their brains out, only to reassemble them on a tray and potentially sell their body parts. 
• Continued destruction of the family the way God designed it – a husband (biological male) and a wife (biological female) raising children.  
• Denial of the reality of gender as male and female, created by God as such, for His glory.  This is both heretical theology and hokey biology.  
• Ongoing celebrations of all sorts of sexual perversions and sexual immorality.  
• Growing State control of children, including permitting underage children to get abortions or vaccinations without parental consent or knowledge (already happening in Blue States).  
• Ongoing support for comprehensive sex education in public schools being under-written by PP and other organizations whose websites would sicken even some pedophiles.  
• Socialism, which is a form of government that replaces voluntary generosity with stealing.  Higher taxes in order to rob Peter to pay Paul, and only the government gets to determine who is Peter and who is Paul.  
• Critical Theory applied to every facet of life (see my former posts for biblical critiques of CT).  This will absolutely drive already existing divisions even deeper, by design.    
• Support for the religious movement called Environmentalism.  The Green New Deal is not biblical stewardship of the creation.  It is an idolatrous religion.  
• Increased discrimination and persecution of the Church of Jesus Christ and a redefinition of the 1st Amendment.  For an example of what’s to come, we need only look at Blue States’ treatment of the Church in 2020.  Truly Bible-believing congregations had better buckle up: anti-discrimination lawsuits are coming your way soon.      

Given the above, I genuinely have no idea how a Christian could have cast a vote for this agenda.  I believe such a vote was and is sinful, and should be confessed as such.  Yes, I realize some Democrats are pro-life and anti-socialism, like Tulsi Gabbard.  But she and her ilk are a tiny minority and the party platform is what drives the overall agenda.  And I realize some Republicans support godless ideologies as well.  But in my humble opinion, the Republican candidates nearly always represent the lesser of the two evils.  In the 2016 election, I was disturbed by then candidate Trump’s past so I wrote in a candidate that I knew would not win, but who also clearly stood for godly morality and government.  Under no circumstances could I justify a vote for the Democratic Party Platform.  In 2020, I voted for President Trump as the lesser of the two sinners. Too much swagger and popping off at the mouth?  Yes.  But in my mind, he was clearly the lesser by far of the two evils.  And, unlike most politicians, he was making good faith attempts at keeping his campaign promises, especially regarding the pro-life cause and the appointment of conservative Constitutionalist judges (which may just be a critical Divine mercy for the church in years ahead).  The dearth of truly God-fearing Presidential candidates as of late is itself a demonstration of Divine judgment upon us.  We ought to fear and tremble.               

I realize this post will not gain me friends. It may anger some, maybe many Christians.  Some Christians are saying we should just stop talking politics for a while.  But abortion, racism, sexuality, gender, parental rights, and governmental tyranny are not primarily political issues.  They are first biblical issues.  Ethical issues.  Right and wrong.  So, I truly believe that unless and until Christians begin to repent for the way they so easily dismiss massive amounts of Scripture when they step into the ballot box, our Nation is doomed. Under Divine judgment. And rightly so.  “For it is time for judgment to begin in the household of God, and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?” (1 Peter 4:17).  

May God forgive us through Christ our Lord for strengthening evil hands.  For endorsing evil.  And for justifying it in the name of keeping the peace.  We are worthy of death (Romans 1:32).  God have mercy. 

Dr. Moore has often said and written, “We are Americans best when we are not Americans first.”  Amen.  Well said. On this we agree dear brother.  Right now, nearly every politician is saying “We are Americans first.”  So we need as Christians to hear Dr. Moore’s rebuttal of that philosophy.  Our ultimate allegiance is always and only to the Lord Jesus.  But we are also being forced to grapple with the reality that Americans no longer agree on what it actually means to be American.  And the best way forward is anything but clear.        

On the bright side of things, there has never been a riper field for an evangelism harvest in America.  Go tell someone about Jesus, the Savior of sinners!  Even church-goers don’t know the true gospel of salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.  So go tell.  Jesus is a living hope!  And do not forget that God is sovereign over every nation, and over every election. Even fraudulent ones.  One day every nation will bow to King Jesus.  One day earthly kings will bring their glory into the New Jerusalem, and they and their people will walk by the light of the Lamb (Rev 21).

“Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus!” (Rev 22:20).