Category: Clint

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Clint Puritans Society Theology

Christ V. Antichrist

John Bunyan wrote a book called Antichrist and his Ruin. I’m guessing it’s one of his works that are seldom read today. People, at least in the church circles I run in don’t talk much about the Antichrist. They don’t talk about the judgement to come either. Maybe that’s why we don’t share the gospel very often.

Since I’ve been preaching through the book of Daniel, I’ve had to re-engage with the topic of the Antichrist and to consider his ‘ruin’ as Bunyan put it. And although many antichrists have been identified through history (Joe Carter lists over a half dozen), these days fewer people seem to care about the reality of godless, supernatural opposition to Christ and the gospel. We tend to be fixated on politics– good or bad– as the only level of warfare in existence. As American Senator Ben Sasse has observed, “so many of those local tribes of textured meaning [i.e. family, neighbourhood, workplace, local church] are in collapse, and people are looking for substitute tribes in politics. And I don’t think that’s going to work out very well.” So I’ve looked with interest at what a wise guide like Bunyan has to say about the Antichrist, and the spirit of antichrist which is at work “already in the world” (1 John 4:3).

Bunyan’s Introduction to the Identity of the Antichrist

In one of his opening descriptions, Bunyan sets out the way that the Antichrist is the antonym of Christ, yet deceptively so. This sense of being the opposite of Christ, but with a false veneer or duplicitous camouflage, is the character of Antichrist which Bunyan seeks to emphasize. He writes:

Antichrist is the adversary of Christ; an adversary really, a friend pretendedly: So then, Antichrist is one that is against Christ; one that is for Christ, and one that is contrary to him: (And this is that mystery of iniquity (2 Thess 2:7). Against him in deed; for him in word, and contrary to him in practice. Antichrist is so proud as to go before Christ; so humble as to pretend to come after him, and so audacious as to say that himself is he. Antichrist will cry up Christ; Antichrist will cry down Christ: Antichrist will proclaim that himself is one above Christ. Antichrist is the man of sin, the son of perdition; a beast, [that] hath two horns like a lamb, but speaks as a dragon (Rev 13:11).

Works, Volume II, 46.

Consider that according to Bunyan’s reading of Scripture, the Antichrist is obviously against Christ, but less obviously seen to be against Christ. He is against Christ in activity, but presents himself publically as a supporter of Christ (“for him in word”), even “pretending” to come after him in humility, but all with an “audacious” arrogance.

All of this means that Antichrist has a religious connection, engaged with church circles.

Antichrist subverts the church with false support.

Bunyan’s List of Contrasts Between Christ and Antichrist

Another way that Bunyan helps us to understand the Antichrist is by contrasting him with the vast superiority of Jesus Christ. In fact, even Bunyan’s contrasts are inadequate because Jesus Christ the Son of God is in a category by himself, and is utterly incomparable. But for the purposes of giving an introduction, Bunyan suggests the follow antonymic comparisons:

  1. Christ is the Son of God; Antichrist is the son of Hell.
  2. Christ is holy, meek, and forbearing: Antichrist is wicked, outrageous, and exacting.
  3. Christ seeketh the good of the soul: Antichrist seeks his own avarice and revenge.
  4. Christ is content to rule by his word: Antichrist saith, The word is not sufficient.
  5. Christ preferreth his Father’s will above heaven and earth: Antichrist preferreth himself and his traditions above all that is written, or that is called God, or worshiped.
  6. Christ has given us such laws and rules as are helpful and healthful to the soul: Antichrist seeketh to abuse those rules to our hurt and destruction. (Works, Volume II, 46.)

The descriptors which Bunyan uses to describe Jesus Christ are beautiful. Against our cultural moment, Christ is forbearing, seeks the good of the soul, rules by his word, prefers his Father’s will, and gives what is helpful and healthful to the soul. Bunyan saw in the Lord Jesus Christ one who is gratuitous in his help toward his creatures.

By contrast, the Antichrist is the opposite, though he feigns to hide his true intentions.

If we take the Bunyan’s descriptions and lay them up against our cultural moment, the zeitgeist, the spirit of the age, then you can see clearly how much the spirit of antichrist is upon us.

Think about how everyone and everything is so exacting these days. If the Antichrist is, according to Bunyan, “wicked, outrageous, and exacting” then the spirit of Antichrist is clearly evident in our social media. If you misspell something on Facebook, or mess up some grammar, someone will correct you in exacting detail. If you tweet something that is out of line with the prevailing cultural orthodoxies, you’re statement will be parsed, critiqued, and judged with an execution of shame. Twitter can be an exacting platform, that is at the same time outrageous, and not so subtly wicked.

We see that growing tendency for people to turn quickly against leaders, public servants, customer service reps, believers, churches, organizations and anyone else when they feel they have been wronged. It’s as if there is a spirit of revenge that is waiting to burst out at the slightest injury. How strikingly different is the impulse of Christ himself, who “seeketh the good of the soul”.

And of course, the church is wrestling with the problem of whether or not they will follow Christ’s rule by his word, or listen to the spirit of Antichrist which says that “the word is not sufficient”

It is a simple binary. Follow Christ or heed the Antichrist. Christ is Lord. He is God, the Son incarnate. He is above all and over all. The Antichrist would presume to set himself above the Creator. Yet the spirit of antichrist prevails even in such unlikely places as critical New Testament scholarship. For example, Robert Yarbrough documents how critical NT scholars, set themselves above Scripture, rather than under it. As reported from Yarbrough’s lectures in 2018:

Elitism, dating back only a few centuries to Germann scholars, he explained, does not necessarily take the Bible at face value and views the Bible from “a superior vantage point,” often dismissing or reinterpreting claims of Scripture. It is the viewpoint of the academy, Yarbrough said, and is marked by a critical study of the Bible that rejects a doctrinal interpretation of it.

Scholarly ‘populism’ provides a way forward in New Testament theology, says Yarbrough at SBTS Gheens Lectures, SBTS News, March 2018

Bunyan would argue that such critical scholarship is an example of the spirit of antichrist, inspiring creatures to set themselves above Christ, to pass judgement on him and his word, and to draw attention to themselves for their cleverness and omniscience.

Of course, this type of spirit is everywhere in society. Yet how different it is to find the humbled, diligent follower of Jesus Christ, who confesses him as her Lord, who enjoys his gratuity with thanksgiving tempered with awe and wonder!

The Illusion of Culture Wars?

If the spirit of antichrist presents the advance claims of “the man of lawlessness”, then we should admit that we might be wrong in our perception of where the battle lines are drawn. We need to admit that we are likely wrong that our primary battlefront is in the culture war. The culture war is the diversion. Rather, the real warfare is against the spirit of antichrist, which aims to deceive the church (Matt 24:4).

As Paul told the Ephesians:

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

Ephesians 6:12

Therefore, then as now, we need to, “take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.” (Eph 6:13) 

Antichrist and his Ruin – PDF from Chapel Library

Categories
Clint Spiritual Growth Theology

Orthodoxy, Sin and Revival

D.M. Lloyd-Jones wrote about the perils of a useless, defective or “eccentric orthodoxy”. He outlined the problem of possessing correct notions, without holiness of life:

…we can be perfectly orthodox and yet our orthodoxy can be useless if we are failing in our lives, if we are disobedient to God’s holy laws, if we are guilty of sin, and continuing in known sin. If we put our desires before him, well, we have no right to expect revival, however orthodox and correct we may be in all our doctrines and in all our understanding. You will invariably find that when revival comes men and women are profoundly, and deeply, convicted of sin. They feel that even God cannot forgive them. They have been in the Church, yes, but they have been living a life of sin, and they have know it and they have done nothing about it. When revival comes they are put into hell, as it were, and they are horrified and alarmed. They may feel so terrible about it that they stand up and confess it. That may or may not happen, but they are certainly convicted. And so sin in any shape or form is ever one of the major hindrances to a visitation of the Spirit of God.

— Revival, 67

Categories
Clint Creation Family

Reversing the Absence of Adam

It has long been recognized that Adam was nearby to Eve in Eden, yet he was absent in attention, duty, protection, and care. Adam permitted the serpent to tempt Eve, spread lies, and usurp God’s well-designed order. Adam knowingly (1 Tim 2:14) ate the fruit that was forbidden. Though he was present, he was absent in heart, head and hands. 

Since the connection between Adam and the whole human race carries so much theological weight, it can be easy to ignore other illustrations of the absence of Adam.  Consider the sad declension of the story of Cain and his descendent Lamech. Cain commits the first murder (Gn 4:8), while Lamech becomes the first bigamist (Gn 4:19). Adam is nowhere to be found. 

We know that Adam was alive because he fathered Seth at the robust age of 130 years old (Gn 5:3). But where was he when Cain was growing in bitterness, and losing strength to fight off the sin that was “crouching at the door” (4:7). Where was Adam when Lamech mused about breaking the monogamous one-woman-man pattern and taking a second wife? Did Adam aim to influence Lamech to hold fast to God’s design? Possibly Adam had to travel to Cain’s house and send that warning down the genealogical line. 

We don’t know the reason for the absence of Adam from the days of Cain and Abel to the birth of Seth. The Scriptures don’t tell us what Adam was doing. But that’s the point. Adam was not acting in any significant way to warrant inclusion in the Scriptures. Adam had abdicated his responsibility as the patriarch of the human race, and as the patriarch of his immediate family. 

Absent Adamic Fathers. 

The pattern of absentee fathers is evident from Adam to the present day. Although they may be present physically, they are practically absent in their head, heart and hands. This absenteeism leads to devastating consequences. The Cains and Lamechs of the world lack fathers and grandfathers and great grandfathers who provide leadership, security, instruction, and correction. 

Since Adam’s responsibility, and duty to provide and protect were mandated before God’s judgement, Adam’s duty to be ‘present’ was baked into the creation’s design. This is why many people today are able to recognize the need for fathers, even if they don’t have biblical commitments (such as the author of this Walrus article). It is in the nature of human beings that families need fathers (as well as mothers). 

The Adamic Abdication

When Adam was physically present but unengaged with his duty as a husband, he abdicated his God-ordained responsibilities.  This abdication is the plague of fallen fathers ever since. Fathers are forsaking their proper role in their families, while also neglecting the practical leadership, correction, protection and direction which fathers must give to their children. 

Again, the problem is not that a father may be merely away from home. Many jobs require the father to be physically absent for stretches of time. If such jobs keep the father away too much, then he needs to reconsider his employment. He might have to sacrifice his preferences or status in order to take a job that keeps him closer to home. 

But the frequent problem is that fathers are ‘around’ but unengaged. They are always distracted by other demands. The demands may be legitimate (work), or unimportant (sports, social media, hobbies). 

The absenteeism can extend to the emphasis on organized sports or other calendar-plugging activities. Often a father can give the appearance of attention given to a child by driving them to practices and games where others will direct them. This commitment can be admirable in some ways. But it can also hide the fact that a father is not engaging with their son or daughter in a way that is directly guiding them. A simple test is to see what the father and child can talk about once the sport or hobby can’t be played any longer. 

New Fathers

For fathers to take ownership of their responsibilities, they need to actively guide the development of their families. Fathers need to be present in their head, heart and hands, not just their feet. Adam’s absenteeism can be reversed. Father’s need to repent of their sinful tendency to care about things that don’t matter, more than they take action in their children’s lives. But the hope of the gospel is that there is forgiveness of sins among fathers. By God’s grace, fatherless fathers can know the guiding care, instruction and correction of a loving heavenly Father. 

Fathers can aim to reverse the Adamic legacy and begin a legacy of the Last Adam as they share the gospel with their families. No other responsibility compares to that duty. 

unsplash-logoPriscilla Du Preez

Categories
Christel Clint

Top Posts of 2019

Looking back on 2019, we launched this blog together after posting on our own blogs for a while. It’s been fun for us. We hope that what we’ve written has been a little helpful for you too.

The most-read posts of 2019 are quite different from each other. Let’s take a look:

Christel’s Top Post of 2019:

John Newton, Marie Kondo and Reflections on the 10-Year Challenge

Christel summed up the conflicts of Instragram-produced comparisons when she said:

I see this John Newton quote cycle through social media every so often. Each time I see it, my scrolling finger is forced to stop because Newton’s words resonate so deeply. They express a healthy understanding of how both sin and grace inform Christian identity.

I am not what I ought to be,

I am not what I want to be,

I am not what I hope to be in another world;

but still I am not what I once used to be,

and by the grace of God I am what I am.

For those of us who feel our “ten-year challenge” photos aren’t up to Instagram standards, all is not lost. If we have grown in godly character, the deeper lines on our face are not something to mourn. We are a decade closer to who we ought to be and want to be. By God’s grace I am what I am and His grace is enough (1 Cor. 15:10, Rom. 8:1).

You can read the rest here.

Clint’s top post of 2019 was a little different:

The Gilded Glory of Canada as a “Moral Leader”

Here is an excerpt:

The result of this immoral leadership is that Canada has the ignominy of standing in defiance of the 1989 United Nations Convention on the Rights of a Child (UNCRC). According to the website, WeNeedALaw.ca, the UNCRC preamble states, “Bearing in mind that, as indicated in the Declaration of the Rights of the Child, “the child, by reason of his physical and mental immaturity, needs special safeguards and care, including appropriate legal protection, before as well as after birth”.  

With no abortion law, Canada refuses to protect the most vulnerable people in Canada – the pre-born.

Is it cowardice or just some combination of ideology and pragmatism?

There are many reasons why Canada’s glory is merely gilded. The pastor in me thinks that the absence of any abortion law is a Canadian way of psychologizing an atonement for our sins.

By not even talking about the slaughter of the innocents, Canada can be at peace. To speak about the sins is to deny the psychological atonement that is held onto so desperately. Canada, therefore, is reconciled with itself, blotting out of its collective mind any of its sins.  But it cannot remain good.

Any such leadership is propaganda at best and tyranny at worst.

…[I] wish to thank God for his grace to Canada and his mercy. It is evident how God has blessed Canadians with people of warmth and welcome and lands of expansive beauty. How long will God withhold the application of his just verdict against our sins?

The only moral hope for Canada is in the blood of the Lamb slain for sinners like us.  In His goodness alone can we be truly good.

You can read the whole thing here.

Thank you to all of our readers, those who pray for us, and those who have shared our content through social media for the benefit of others.

May God bless you all in 2020!

Faithfully,

Christel and Clint

https://www.instagram.com/christelhumfrey/
Categories
Church Clint Gospel Ministry

“Walking in the Fear of the Lord…It Multiplied”

2019 in Review at Calvary Grace Church

It is hard to believe the amount of change that has occurred in the life of Calvary Grace Church since last December. 

Yet through all of the changes, there has been an underlying principle. That principle was described by the apostle Luke in his history of the early church when he recorded:

So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied. (Ac 9:31)

“Walking in the fear of the Lord”

Calvary Grace has had a season of ‘walking in the fear of the Lord’ in 2019. Many of us have had to count the cost of following Jesus in the midst of a culture that has grown rapidly hostile to our Lord’s truth. In living according to the truth and confessing the truth, we’ve had to have some difficult conversations with friends and fellow church members, in order to hold fast to the truth. We have been tested in 2019 with whether we would walk in the fear of the Lord or the fear of man. Happily, Calvary Grace has continued to walk in the fear of God, even when times have been hard. 

“The comfort of the Holy Spirit”

But we’ve also been walking in ‘the comfort of the Holy Spirit’ too. Palm Sunday of 2019 saw us bid a tearful goodbye to members joining together to plant Grace Cochrane Church. As we sent them off, we trusted that the Holy Spirit would be their comfort in their new work, as we seek his comfort in ours. 

Nobody could ignore the way that God galvanized the congregation of CGC in God-fearing prayer as we interceded for a church member during her hospitalization. Seeing God’s hand of mercy moving dramatically was a profound answer to our prayers. Such comfort from the Holy Spirit reminded us of the supernatural power of God to change things in our created world in ways that defy explanation. 

“It Multiplied”

After the planting of Grace Cochrane Church at Easter, Calvary Grace felt reduced, although we all were surprised that we didn’t feel empty.  The number of people who have come to Calvary Grace has begun to fill the sanctuary once again. 

What is even more encouraging than increased attendance, are the ways in which newer members have become integrated into the life of the church. Among these newer members has been a notable spirit of gratitude to God for Calvary Grace, and a thankfulness toward the members who had a hand along the way in helping CGC get established. 

Looking Ahead to 2020

We praise God for the generosity of church members to partner together in the ministry through the giving of their time, talents and treasure. As we look ahead to 2020, we prayerfully anticipate the path before us, as God wills. 

Stewardship

  • To continue to improve our financial position and pay down our mortgage. This will open up many more opportunities for local and global impact. 
  • To continue to ‘fix’ the remaining building needs now that the roof projects have been completed successfully (!).
  • To continue the retooling of our ministry structure, giving more delegation to deacons and ministry leads, and improving the processes that assist people to become healthy gospel partners, not merely attenders. 
  • To continue to support the Grace Cochrane Church, but also anticipating our next steps as Grace Cochrane becomes gradually self-sustaining. 

Spirituality

  • To get grounded in the gospel and the heart of the gospel, namely union with Christ. This is the theme of our January 24-25 conference featuring Stephen Yuille, Gavin Peacock and Clint Humfrey. 
  • To be equipped to live as exiles in our own land, yet with a heavenly destiny. 
    1. Pastor Josh  will begin January with a short series in 2 Peter
    2. Pastor Clint will resume his Daniel series on the prophetic visions. 
  • We will seek to grow in our Sunday School electives in the new year, with applied teaching, thoughtful questions and a culture of godly learning. 
  • We will aim to support the teachers who are working with our children in Sunday School, and offering to volunteer as needed.
  • We will keep praying together monthly, and having that prayer time as a high priority for our schedules, to seek the Lord– together.
  • To attend and support men’s and women’s bible studies, youth ministry, Oasis/Seniors outreach, mercy ministries, and much, much more.  

Remember that as the early church walked in the fear of the Lord and the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied. 

We continue to look with expectancy for God to bring revival to Calgary. As we look to God for a special and intense work, we also trust him that he is working in ordinary and regular ways in our midst. All his ways are good and wise!

As 2019 enters its last days, we will celebrate the incarnation of the Son of God together. Let us remember how great a salvation we enjoy. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good works as we enter 2020. (Heb 10:24).

Categories
Clint Gospel

The Radiance of Christmas Hope

This was a post I had up at The Gospel Coalition Canada. It is a relatively new network that resources Canadian Christians for gospel-centred ministry. If you would like to support this work, donate here.

Could we be any more stressed out? Probably. In the long view, we can’t be more troubled by crises in society than in Germany’s Weimar Republic, Quebec’s FLQ crisis, or the morning of September 11th in New York. There is no ‘turning back time to the good old days.’ But there is room for a lot more expectancy. We’re all looking for some hope, life, and light to dispel the gloom.

No doubt our situation is like the ancient lands of Zebulun and Naphtali, the land beyond the Jordan and even Galilee. They were described by the eighth century (BC) prophet Isaiah as “her who was in anguish” (Isaiah 9:1). There was even a sense of ‘gloom’ that had cast a shroud over the people. Isaiah had recorded that “they will look to the earth, but behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish. And they will be thrust into thick darkness” (8:22). This is how you might feel after following a Twitter thread, reading a Facebook feed, or after a hard day’s work. Or worse: after a diagnosis, a death, or a disaster.

Gloom

No gloomy life lost in confusing times and a confusing mind can contemplate a life of light. That is why depression and melancholy can be so debilitating. The idea of a life of clarity, purpose, joy, and laughter remains unimaginable to the one stuck in the anguish of gloom. Gloom and anguish choke our desires for truth, beauty and goodness. Our sin-collapsed nature makes our desires for God crumble to dust. None seeks for God—not one (Romans 3:10-11; Psalm 14:1-3).

Only the inbreaking of dawn gives hope to the gloomy who walk in darkness. That kind of inbreaking is what Isaiah prophesied would come to “the nations” (9:1). If the wonder of conversion is inexplicable, then the description of this ‘dawn’ is close to it:

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone; You have multiplied the nation, you have increased its joy; they rejoice before you as with the joy of the harvest, they are glad when they divide the spoil” (Isaiah 9:2-3).

Dawn

The great thing about the early light of dawn is its promise. Even though it can still be relatively dark out (especially on Canadian winter mornings), the inbreaking dawn assures us that the brightness of the day is coming.

Just as the Gentile nations were lifted from their gloom with the ministry of Jesus Christ (Matthew 4:15-16), we see God’s initiative to bring dawn to the darkened.

That is what our Advent celebrations should remind us about—the expectancy of the Light. John testified that “The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.” (John 1:9).

From that first dawning of the incarnation of the Son, adding to himself a human nature, he brought the light of the gospel to be witnessed by those in anguish and gloom.

In our stressed-out society and harried holiday confusion, we can relish the fact that Christ’s brilliance and warmth bring infinite lumens to sinners’ shroud of darkness. His inbreaking kingdom—the already of the not-yet—is pushing back the darkness, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:5).

This Christmas we don’t have to let the presence of darkness, smother our expectancy of Christ’s radiance. Instead let us luxuriate in his light, knowing our joy is to look upon him by faith now, and ultimately by sight. For it was truly said, “Those who look to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed.”

Categories
Canada Clint Gospel Pastors Reformers

3 Reasons You Should Preach Through Galatians

This article is published at 9Marks.org

The key takeaways are:

1) GALATIANS TEACHES US TO BUILD OUR LIVES ON A RIGHT UNDERSTANDING OF THE GOSPEL

2) GALATIANS CONFRONTS OUR DRIVE TO COMPARE OURSELVES TO OTHERS

3) GALATIANS TEACHES US THE SIGNIFICANCE OF OUR IDENTITY IN CHRIST

Read the rest of the article at 9 Marks

9 Marks is a great ministry that has helped me immensely. I highly recommend their massive journal on Complementarianism.

Categories
Canada Clint Global Society

The Best Article You’ll Read on Cultural Marxism

Like many people, I have been trying to learn more about the trends and philosophies that are blanketing society like a freezing blizzard of unbelief.

The search has lead me to find a surprising amount of consensus from different sources. On the one hand, I would expect to find Albert Mohler’s commentary ably exposing the latent philosophies which are opposed to a Christian worldview. Yet I’ve been surprised to find non-christian voices like Jordan Peterson, Douglas Murray, and many others making observations that resonate with elements of the Christian worldview.

Who would have thought a decade ago that the New Atheists would ever be siding with Christians. But now they both affirm the scientific verity of binary sexes, making them outlaws together! Darwinists and Christians together! These are strange days indeed.

The swirl of discussion centres around social justice, racism, sexism, class warfare, and the general ‘oikophobia‘, or disdain for one’s own oikos, household or country.

Although concern for equity is great in the Scriptures since God himself is called, Jehovah Tsidkenu, ‘The Lord Our Righteousness” (Jer 23:6), there is also the concern that mankind does not subvert God’s intent. It is easy for man to ascribe to himself the role of ultimate lawgiver, casting off the bonds of God’s law in favor of his own (cf. Psalm 2).

This casting off of the bonds of God is ably summarized in Robert Smith’s exposition of “cultural marxism”. His essay in Themelios is a rare combination of thorough background study, sound synthesis and a useful application to the leading issues of our own day.

Some observations about the article, as it relates to Cultural Marxism and Critical Theory:

The disdain for Western civilization

Smith writes regarding the Frankfurt school’s philosophy:

the general consensus of its members was that Western civilization was effectively responsible for all the manifestations of aggression, oppression, racism, slavery, classism and sexism that marked post-industrial society. Marcuse even went so far as to call democracy “the most efficient system of domination.”

3.4. Assessing the Work of the Frankfurt School

The philosophy of minority elitism aiming to suppress majorities

Smith quotes from Charles Taylor, the Canadian Roman Catholic philosopher:

“It is also profoundly elitist, for it ultimately forces Marcuse to see the majority of people “not as semi-rational human beings … but rather as irrational objects of manipulation … The majority must be liberated from themselves by the Marcusian minority which alone is rational.”

Smith, quoting Taylor fn 130, Charles Taylor, “Marcuse’s Authoritarian Utopia,” Canadian Dimension 7.3 (1970): 51.

The intent to undermine institutions based on Christian morality

Smith has a summary here:

While majoritarian systems always have the potential to become tyrannous, and the track-record of Western civilization is far from unblemished, to demonize the key elements and attainments of Western culture—e.g., Christian morality, family, hierarchy, loyalty, tradition, the rule of law, sexual restraint, universal suffrage, property rights, patriotism, capitalism, and technology—is both myopic and ungrateful. Furthermore, criticizing an imperfect system when you have no idea how to build a better one is more than idealistic; it is irresponsible. 

3.4. Assessing the Work of the Frankfurt School

Evaluation of philosophies impacting the contemporary scene

Smith summarizes:

Nevertheless, as ongoing interest in their work testifies,149 there is no denying that the first generation of the Frankfurt School (in general) and Marcuse (in particular) have played a significant role in shaping the contours of the current Western civilizational divide. Political correctness,150 the new intolerant-tolerance and ever-increasing erotic liberty are part of their legacy.151 Similarly, Gramsci’s ideas have also borne very real (and not particularly appetizing) fruit—not least in the arena of identity politics, intersectionality and the rise of victimhood culture (today’s versions of “class consciousness”), as well as in the fact that, in the fields of media and academia (and politics too), the “long march through the institutions” is virtually complete.152

4.1. Cultural Marxism: Fact or Fiction?

Being careful about using the Cultural Marxism label, yet without discarding it.

Smith cautions:

Given the existence of conspiratorial explanations of the nature and goals of Cultural Marxism, is there a case for avoiding the term and using an alternative (e.g., neo-Marxism or Critical Theory)? In my view, there is no inherent problem with the label, but Christians ought to be careful with how (and to whom) it is applied. 

4.3 This Calls for Wisdom

The structure of an alternative to God’s order (cf. ‘stoichea tou kosmou’ Gal. 4:3,9;Col. 2:8,20)

Here is the alternative structure which Smith points out:

For this reason, Marxism, whether in classical or cultural form, can be viewed as a corruption or parody of the gospel—replete with its own false prophet (Marx), false Bible (Das Kapital), false doctrine (dialectical materialism), false apostles (Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Marcuse), and false hope (a communist utopia).162 Therefore, the fact that Cultural Marxism is a real ideology making a real impact on our world is not good news.

4.3 This Calls For Wisdom

Speaking up, graciously but clearly

Smith quotes Albert Mohler:

While we have solid biblical reasons for seeing ourselves as “strangers and exiles on earth” (Heb 11:13), “we must not exile ourselves, and we certainly must not retreat into silence while we still have a platform, a voice, and an opportunity. We must remind ourselves again and again of the compassion of truth and the truth of compassion.”

fn 170, [170] R. Albert Mohler, We Cannot Be Silent: Speaking Truth to a Culture Redefining Sex, Marriage, and the Very Meaning of Right and Wrong (Nashville: Nelson, 2015), 151.

Closing thoughts

This article is long on philosophy, so it makes for technical reading. However, it is the kind of summary article which provides an introduction to the background of many cultural currents in the West today. The benefit of the article is that it finishes with Christian wisdom, highlighting the need to be charitable so as not to presume people’s motives, yet clear-thinking to apply biblical truth to “take every thought captive” (2 Cor 10:5).

Read the whole article here: Cultural Marxism: Imaginary Conspiracy or Revolutionary Reality?

Photo credit: Members of the Frankfurt School. Photograph taken in Heidelberg, April 1964,by Jeremy J. Shapiro at the Max Weber-Soziologentag. Horkheimer is front left, Adorno front right, and Habermas is in the background, right, running his hand through his hair. Siegfried Landshut is in the background left. (wiki)

Categories
Church Clint Gospel Ministry Theology

What Does Pragmatism Look Like in Ministry?

Churches will be tempted to give in to a survival instinct and do whatever it takes to increase attendance. They’ll work hard to “just get ‘em in the door’. The result is many different methods of attracting religious ‘consumers’ that might seem contradictory to the message being broadcast. The contradiction is justified because of the possibility of souls being saved. 

Understood in this way, the end— the greatest end– justifies the means to that end. And that is what is called pragmatism in the church.

Pragmatism since the 1900’s

The two largest and most influential of the pragmatic approaches to ministry are these: 

  1. “Decisionistic Regeneration”, i.e. creating psychological distress or emotional euphoria in order to cause someone to make an instantaneous decision in favour of Christ. 
  2. “Seeker-Sensitive” Ministry, i.e. orienting a church’s ministry toward a demographic subset of the community and addressing all of that group’s ‘felt needs’ or preferences as religious consumers. 

Now in both instances of pragmatic ministry, there is a desire to see sinners come to saving faith in Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, there is a failure to understand what saving faith really is, as well as a naivete about the danger that giving false assurance to the person who is only temporarily interested in religious things. 

Of course, ministry among real human beings will require wisdom about adiaphora, the things indifferent. This comes into play as we see changes across cultures and centuries. However, we can’t let the wisdom of contextualization give way to pragmatism which pursues results at the expense of fundamental misunderstandings about truth.

What is Faith?

In the examples of decisionistic regeneration and seeker-sensitive ministry, both types of pragmatism had thin understandings of saving faith. They thought that saving faith was merely a mental assent to certain facts about Jesus Christ. Even if repentance was mentioned (which it rarely was), it had more of the character of a momentary emotional regret, than a settled turning away from an old life, to new life in Christ. 

The seeker-sensitive model of ministry misunderstood faith as well. They thought that through the benefits of proximity to Christians, the appeal of Christian community would provide sufficient enough grounds for a person to give assent to the facts about Christ and identify as a Christian. In terms of the classic threefold understanding of saving faith, they would only be asking for knowledge and assent, without trust (notitia, assensus, without fiducia).

Nominalism

What is interesting to observe is that even leaders in the seeker sensitive movement have acknowledged that there should have been more emphasis on discipleship. The result of this neglect was that some of the largest churches in the world were filled with people who had only marginal understandings of the gospel. It became an embarrassment to the Evangelical movement that some of its largest churches were producing ‘nominal’ Christians, the very charge which Evangelicals had put to liberal mainline Protestants. 

As the 21st century enters its second decade, Christians will have to retrieve the lessons of the past, even the recent past of the last century. Pragmatism threatened to ruin the renewal movement of gospel-centred Evangelicals. 

Let us be watchful and careful that we don’t let pragmatism ruin the renewal today. 

Photo Credit: The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Print Collection, The New York Public Library. George Bellows, Billy Sunday. Retrieved from http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47dc-8e43-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99


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Canada Church Clint Global Society

The Landslide

The Soviet dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn wrote:

Imperceptibly, through decades of gradual erosion, the meaning of life in the West has ceased to be seen as anything more lofty than the “pursuit of happiness” a goal that has even been solemnly guaranteed by constitutions. The concepts of good and evil have been ridiculed for several centuries; banished from common use, they have been replaced by political or class considerations of short lived value. It has become embarrassing to state that evil makes its home in the individual human heart before it enters a political system. Yet it is not considered shameful to make dally concessions to an integral evil. Judging by the continuing landslide of concessions made before the eyes of our very own generation, the West is ineluctably slipping toward the abyss. Western societies are losing more and more of their religious essence as they thoughtlessly yield up their younger generation to atheism.


Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, “Godlessness: the First Step to the Gulag”. Templeton Prize Lecture, 10 May 1983 (London).

Most of us have never been in a landslide. I know I haven’t. So I needed to look up “how to survive a landslide“. There are only three options:

  • Run at a right angle and try to get to the outside of it
  • Get to the rooftop
  • Cover yourself with something strong

Solzhenitsyn said there was a “landslide of concessions” being made in the West (in 1983!). Those concessions to godlessness or “secularism” as it is more politely known have only multiplied since then. The tremors are unmistakable

The Trees are Tilting

One of the warning signs for a coming landslide is that that trees tilt. Normally, the stability of the ground is able to uphold tall trees, utility poles and any other high structures. When a landslide is going to come the earth beneath the trees shifts and the trees begin to tilt.

Living in a commuter community you can expect that the tremors of change in the cities may take a long time to reach you. But I’ve found that the trees are tilting. An example of this is how I was informed that the public library in my ultra-conservative town is hosting the drag queen storytimes for children.

I cite this, simply to note that in every sphere of public life, reaching beyond the dense urban centres to the family-laden enclaves of the suburbs, an ideology is being promoted that undermines biological nature and the responsibility to protect children from sexualized grooming.

The modest mandate of the public library (to lend books) inflates with ideological purposes foreign to it. So we have to conclude that manipulation of the foundations is sweeping through. The trees are tilting.

Alarmism and Anti-Alarmism

In any natural disaster, whether it’s impending or engulfing you, there is a temptation to panic. Fear of a landslide can cause people to think irrationally. They may see the cracks in the foundations or hear the rumblings, but instead of staying calm and using the time that they have to make a wise plan of action, they shout and scream and rail against the coming landslide. This is the alarmist response. It wastes precious time and energy decrying reality, not dealing with it.

The anti-alarmist impulse can paralyze a person. Since the landslide is so large, and so horrible, a person simple escapes into a false reality. We know that one of the great challenges during wildfire disasters is convincing people to leave their homes. Often, they have let themselves have escapist fantasies that the danger is not that bad, and the alarmists are exaggerating. What they don’t realize is that the danger is real, and their ignorance of it puts them in danger too.

If we take the categories of alarmist and anti-alarmist, they can helpfully clarify how many people are responding to the landslide. For example, there are Christians who see the landslide coming, but their response is to angrily decry it without giving too much thought to how to respond wisely. Their alarmism is not constructive. Their alarm scales up in its confirmation bias as the landslide gets bigger and bigger, but the only positive conclusion they offer is “I told you so”.

Likewise, the anti-alarmist impulse is prevalent among Christians. This has happened among pastors I know. Recently, after hearing a talk on the landslide issues of our day– sexuality and ethics, a pastor confessed that he had been intentionally ignoring the landslide all around him. He was afraid to bring up the reality of how bad things really were. And he was also afraid that his anti-alarmist church would view his attempts at pointing to the landslide as so much hysteria.

So we have to recognize that both the alarmist and anti-alarmist impulses are either misdirected or escapist. For Christians, when parachurch ministries engage in polemics for entertainment, they are merely alarmists who distract from constructive preparations by cleverly shouting the obvious. At the same time, evangelical denominations and institutions tend to be anti-alarmist in bent. They are so quick to tsk-tsk the alarmists, that act blissfully unaware of the landslide, and trust their own self-righteousness as a clever enough solution to any disaster that may come. Sadly they are hopelessly deluded.

Failed Emergency Plans

Not everyone has responded to the landslide in thoughtless ways. Yet many of the emergency responses people have had are flawed or failed.

When you think about a landslide, one failed emergency response might be to run away from the landslide, thinking that if you can just stay ahead of the landslide you’ll be okay.

When it comes to our modern-day, the two groups who are gripped by the “keep ahead of the landslide” plan are the Boomer generation and the corporations (and their politicians of course). Both of these groups (with lots of overlap between them), have successfully run ahead of the landslide up until now. They have been alarmed at the rumblings, but have had false confidence in their ability to outrun it.

If the landslide undermines monogamous male-female marriage, then Boomers and corporations will start with accepting divorce, then move to a series of what Solzhenitzn called, “concessions”, such as co-habitation, then abortion, then intentional childlessness, then gay relationships, then gay marriages, and then gender-fluid ‘unions’. At each point, the Boomers and the corporations have been swift enough to run ahead just enough.

But you can’t outrun a landslide.

This is why noted lesbian activist, the former tennis star Martina Navratilova is being overwhelmed by the transgender movement. She thought she could run ahead of the landslide, but her lesbianism is no longer enough. Her panic is expressed when she hastily offers obeisance and apology toward the trans movement lest she be consumed. Examples are accruing, but a common theme is how Boomers or corporations have successfully run ahead of the landslide, but now are getting completely run over.

Another failed emergency plan is the person who runs toward the landslide, like a child can run into a small wave and hop over its height. This is typified in the bombastic culture warrior who assumes that the good old days are just beyond the shifting ground under his feet. The nostalgia for lost pasts drives a person to irrationally seek to run into the slide, thinking that they have the ability to withstand the wave or to keep their heads above it and exit on the far side relatively unscathed.

The hubris of this approach appeals to many people and might be exemplified the most in the populist movements of Trumpism, Brexit and others around the world. Often the idea is that if a person can only muster up enough resistance to the wave, that person will be able to stand against it and prevail.

But since the landslide is more than a small political wave that laps the beaches of our day, resistance to it is futile. It is a wave of a zeitgeist that is deep and broad that can’t be hopped over, you’ll only be crushed.

What to Do in Disaster

There is no sense wasting breath decrying the landslide endlessly, or acting as if it’s all much ado about nothing. It won’t help to try to stay a few paces ahead of it, nor can you run at it with your fist raised in foolish rage. So what to do?

As the wiki informed me, you can run at 90 degrees from it, get to the rooftops and wait it out, or you can hide under something strong and hope you don’t get crushed or suffocated.

The 90 Degree Run

The first option seems to be the best. Evacuate the area of the landslide with a realistic view of its scope and danger. Run at 90 degrees and try to get somewhere in your life, your church, your society where you can have peace and rest again.

This first option recognizes that things will never be the same again in landslide’s path. This might be the most frightening dread of all for people. When they realize that they must leave everything behind and get away, they become displaced refugees, socially, ideologically, and even perhaps physically.

I spoke with someone who was contemplating leaving his country because of the landslide of social and political changes that are happening. He said that his great-grandparents left their country to come to a better one. Why wouldn’t he consider uprooting and moving too?

Yet even if a person remains in their country, in the same society, they have to make radical decisions about their lives. The 90 degree run must take place in the church they join, the job they do, the schooling they give, and the priorities they hold.

History is full of people who had to make these 90 degree runs. From the earliest days of the Christian church, persecution resulted in martyrdoms, yes, but also in radical flight. The Christians left their homes and in the case of the Jewish Christians, their societal networks, in order to reform them in new ways and new places. Whether it was refugees moving to Calvin’s Geneva, the Huegenot flight from France, or the Pilgrims departure to the Americas, there have been many people who have made radical choices to try to get to the outside of the landslide.

The Rooftop

The second option in a landslide is to get to the rooftop. If you’ve ever seen pictures of people who have been caught in a landslide, the survivors remain on their roofs for long periods of time, while all that is around them lies devastated by floods and mud.

In the landslide of our time, there are people who know there isn’t time to get out. They are trapped. They have either ignored the warning signs, or they have acted irrationally and are now caught.

People who are caught in our landslide are those who tried to ‘manage’ what Albert Mohler has called, “the sexual revolution”. Often people who are caught are those who are Boomers with career capital tied to institutions that are already engulfed in the landslide.

If your salary or pension is tied to one of those “tilting trees” then you likely will be hesitant to flee until it’s too late. However, some people will realize the danger, and all they can do is cut ties with their previous security (salary, pension, career status), and try to survive.

Survival on the rooftop, like all survival will involve a great restriction of life to the bare essentials. The Christian believer will become focussed locally, on their own growth in Christ, their family’s training in the faith, their local church’s order and faithfulness, and a sustainable vocation that meets their basic needs.

Like anyone who is in this position, the rooftop survivor of the landslide is not in a position to flourish. But they can survive. What they need to prepare for is to take enough provisions with them so that they can last through the initial devastation, and also the enduring aftermath. This is similar to what Rod Dreher has advocated as The Benedict Option.

It can be difficult for comfortable Western Christians to imagine a society in the aftermath of the landslide. But history is the best guide. Whether the biblical history of Israel and its fall, or the collapse of the Roman Empire, or more recently, the capitulations under Nazism or the landslide of the Russian Revolution. In each case, the aftermath of the landslide was utterly different than life before it swept through. Christians must use the wisdom of history, and the recognition of the common, fallen nature of mankind, to anticipate the possibility of a landslide that defaces all we have known in our lifetime. Getting to the rooftop might be an option that is still available to us.

Hide Under Something Strong

The most desperate measure is still better than none at all. For the person in a landslide, they might be completely caught off guard. They might be totally unaware of how engulfing the landslide will be. And when it comes, they are swallowed up.

In those brief moments, a person may be able to hide under something strong. Maybe they can have just enough of an air pocket to keep from suffocating. Maybe they can have just enough protection to keep from being crushed. But their hope is that someone else will find them and rescue them.

Thankfully, the gospel message is the strongest shield that anyone can hide under. In our cultural moment, we already see how people who have been engulfed by the landslide have found rescue from the only One who could possibly do so, Jesus Christ. Who are the survivors? The formerly gay, or trans or racists, or exploiters or adulterers. Or as Paul put it:

Or do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God.

1 Cor 6:10-11 NAS

Already in gospel-shielded churches, there are people entering who had been swept up in the landslide, who had only survived its devastating perversions by a miracle, the miracle of faith in Christ.

Constructing an Emergency Disaster Plan

If you hear the rumblings, feel the tremors and see the cracking foundations, you may still have time to act wisely and make realistic plans to survive and hopefully thrive.

A constructive plan will involve the following:

  1. Seeking after the Triune God, according to the Word of God.
  2. Catechizing yourself and your family with the Scripture, theology and song.
  3. Investing in the local church and it’s biblically mandated mission. Support biblical soundness in pastors, and promoting the training of new pastors.
  4. Believe in God as Creator, and the nature which he has assigned to mankind.
  5. Uphold the unity and distinction of male and female created in the image of God.
  6. Preserve and promote fathers in families.
  7. Protect and prioritize mothers in families.
  8. Untether yourself from institutions or structures that have given you security, but are being engulfed by the landslide.
  9. Develop parallel networks for trade and service which are not dependent on the infrastructure that may be wiped away by the landslide.
  10. Pray for miracles of deliverance from the landslide, and in its aftermath.

May God have mercy on us all.