Not in Our Hands

Posted on March 21, 2024 by ehurst

The Covenant People of God are in the world, but not of it.

We can declare the Conservative Dads’ pin-up calendar evil. It’s all we can do to avoid staring at it ourselves, but we should never twitch a finger toward keeping it out of the hands of others. I won’t tell you to avoid places where such a calendar is displayed; you will need to construct your own self-discipline about such things. Any help I can give you must be more individual, face to face, than attempting to formulate rules for everyone.

And even in so saying, I’m presenting an individual eldership choice that may not work for other elders and their communities. I cannot know what they face and what their membership is like. But I will go so far as to suggest that leaving it in their hands is something that should be a part of any Christian culture we propose, even as we offer to help them think through things that are difficult.

The question is not what you discern, but that you discern. I want to promote the duty to pull in that responsibility down to the lowest level of spiritual leadership. If you are in a position to provide moral covering for others, then it’s a duty you cannot pass to a higher elder authority.

I’m convinced that we have done this job wrong for most of the past 2000 years. It might have been done well when Paul was still traveling across the Mediterranean Basin, but it didn’t take long after his fellow apostle John died for things to go sour. Very quickly the church elders of the Second Century AD began drifting into a culture that was foreign to divine revelation. It’s gotten only more remote since then.

The fundamental mission of the community of faith is (1) manifest the Covenant Word by living it so as to harvest the blessings and (2) using that testimony to call out to the unconscious Elect and bring them into the Covenant community. There is absolutely nothing we can do for the non-elect. The focus is glorifying God the way He wants it to happen, and those two points are a good summary. This is quite consistent with what Jesus said about the two commandments of feudal love and submission to the Father, along with loving His other servants the way He does. Do you see the parallel in thought?

Our biggest problem is that vast number of Elect currently trapped in non-covenant bodies, a form of church that is entirely too compromised with the world. It’s wrong to simply leave them there, but we must discern how God wants us to reach them. We cannot use the methods of the Harlot Church to rescue her prisoners. They must leave voluntarily, with a will to find the Father’s glory in ways they cannot already do.

It’s a careful balance between treating them as family and acting as if they are still lost in pagan enmity. In many ways, we shouldn’t care if their bodies and time are used in mainstream church activities, so long as their hearts are with the covenant community. They will eventually leave the mainstream on their own, so mainstream church membership is not really the issue.

We can trust the Lord to handle stuff like that. The one thing on which we can focus is loving them as covenant family. If the Lord does not use that to draw them out, that’s His problem. Again, The community cannot exist as intended until the individual is redeemed. Our focus is not on their bodies; that’s their mission. We focus on their hearts, and the warfare of the heart is not at all like that of the flesh.

If they don’t know they need what we have, we cannot give it to them. We should not attempt to sell it, as it were. All we can do is manifest it by how we discipline our own flesh. The Spirit must call them by building a flaming desire that drives them out of their bondage.

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The Priority of Redemption

Posted on March 20, 2024 by ehurst

Let’s talk a little about a distinctly Christian culture. Following Christ means doing things the way He did them. On the one hand, we recognize that He lived in a specific context that isn’t ours. On the other hand, we must learn what part of His context reflected the way His Father intended humans to live in this fallen world. Jesus’ world reflected only one manifestation of the Father’s intentions. I’m sure we all have our own take on where that balances out. Here are some issues I think require attention.

First, there is the pragmatic issue of knowing that God will never grant His people political dominance on this earth. The mere thought of trying to assert such dominance over some portion of humanity via political power means completely leaving the path of Christ. He pointedly avoided doing that. If people were not led to a community of faith and righteousness by something inside of them, then it would never do them any good at all. That internal pull is a miracle. You can approximate the external organization for people, but you cannot empower obedience without the Holy Spirit. Flesh cannot do the will of God.

The very best we can hope for is building an atmosphere in which those empowered by the Spirit of God have good choices, and are protected from really bad ones. There absolutely must be leadership and some form of government, but the submission of dependents requires a miracle of trusting God to work through His human servants.

We are unequivocally commanded to form a community of faith, but it must be ruled by faith internally, not by external compulsion. Even here, we are not absolutists: We have the practical matter of children who need structure and guidance to survive into adulthood. Thus, the core of living by faith includes the idea of thresholds at which people are granted autonomy within the community. We shepherd the people based on what they can handle. The issue is moral covering as God provided. There are many forces in this world that are not human and not restricted to human options.

We are obliged to recognize a higher realm of power that is very real, and that our fallen human nature is allied with them against our own best interests. Facing off against those forces that are almost unanimously against God’s will for humanity, our only hope is take full advantage of the limited powers God grants in His revelation. He promises to inhibit those greater powers through our obedience to His revelation. But the key to His power in us is declaring war on our fleshly selves, bringing that beast into submission to a higher will.

We are accountable by faith — a feudal submission to God for doing things His way in this life. We have to absorb His priorities. His guidance can never be reduced to mere human language. No matter how we formulate His guidance, it will have gaps and blockages that never quite fit the reality of how we live. He expects the community of faith to recognize this, and to remain sensitive to His voice as a whole community.

Having said just this much, just a few paragraphs, makes us wholly alien to the social and political atmosphere of the US. There is so very little in American society that reflects God’s ways that we should be shockingly different. Granted, not everything in American society is objectionable, but for us to fail in distinguishing ourselves means we have failed our mission.

On the one hand, we recognize that America is being ripped apart by implacable and opposite visions for society. On the other hand, it’s very hard to realize that the obvious conflict takes place within a basic set of assumptions about reality that in themselves are false. The options offered by our society are equally objectionable. Again, it’s not in the particulars so much as the fundamental assumptions.

Let me cite one example to highlight this issue: Conservative Dad’s Real Women of America. The calendar itself, and the women depicted on it, represent all that’s wrong with conservative politics. If you really do want to see those pictures displayed on your wall somewhere, you have yet to tame the flesh. You are still serving the Lord’s enemies. The mere act of putting themselves on display in such a manner should indicate how thoroughly unqualified those women are for your attention; they are defiled and would destroy your faith.

It’s not that we could change society and make it better behaved. That might make some elements of our lives a little easier, but it won’t help them one little bit if we somehow gained the power to compel their behavior to fit biblical expectations. They are still damned, on the highway to Hell, serving the Lord’s enemies.

The community cannot exist as intended until the individual is redeemed. That there are so many efforts to create a community first, and then to drag individuals into it, shows that we have not yet learned God’s ways. Christian culture is not a static thing we can depict; it is merely the living and morphing reflection of God’s people coming together in a given context.

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Tracking Two Realms

Posted on March 19, 2024 by ehurst

Nothing in this human existence matters on a par with the Presence of the Holy Spirit. Of course, His absence also matters. But it’s not all or nothing in the sense of how His Presence affects us. There is that huge factor of how well we go along with His guidance. That’s the point of pursuing peace with God (shalom).

But once we establish that reality, there is nothing else in human existence that matters on that level. Your talents and intelligence have no bearing on the issue of peace with God. You may have competitive advantages or disadvantages in almost every other aspect of human existence, but none of that matters in Eternity, nor peace with God here below.

If you do not understand shalom as the summum bonum of life here, then you don’t understand anything that matters.

I have only a rough idea of what my IQ might be if it were measured. I don’t care. And while my flesh may be intimidated, my heart is not the least bit concerned about people who have a higher score. The only way I’ll offer them any respect is if their intelligence is in service to our Lord. Without a rather evident shalom, they are fools by definition.

There is no conclusive test from outside a person’s soul. You cannot know about someone else’s election. Scripture does offer a few indicators to what we might look for in someone else, but it’s only a functional estimate.

For example, in written works, I look first for humility. If your writing doesn’t indicate humility and some level of self-effacing, I must assume you don’t know the Holy Spirit very well.

Granted, I’m not talking about someone who is a pushover. A potent sense of divine calling will fill you with confidence and authority. That is not inconsistent with humility, though our western heritage tends to view the two as opposites. Boldness is not arrogance. It means you have no doubt your God is behind whatever He commands you to do, and you are not afraid of the idea that He will let you fail. You rather expect to fail in one sense or another, simply because this fallen existence is accursed as a whole. But arrogance leaves no room for even acknowledging failure in any way, whereas confidence and humility means you know better than to invest in something that isn’t part of your mission.

Another is a sense of compassion for those who suffer, and a genuine affection for fellow believers. In a broad general sense, there must also be a sense of accountability to the Scripture. That ends up being almost the same thing, since Scripture makes so very much of affection for your faith family. Again, love is not defined as doting, but of genuine concern for the welfare of another, whether you can do any good or not. See the previous paragraph for deciding when you can do any good.

Somewhere down the line from those essentials, I admire a spirit of adventure. Would you be willing to jump onto an impossible task simply because you know that obedience is the one thing at stake? Success is simply not a major consideration. The only success in the Kingdom of Heaven is your willingness, your merciless execution of the fleshly nature so that your heart can take the lead. Are you open to a divine call to fail? Do you understand that our response to spiritual and moral challenge is what glorifies the Lord, not whether we can accomplish something humans can discern without the Holy Spirit?

In general, there are more than enough statements in the New Testament about what Christian conduct should be. People who advocate for any form of moral laxity are not your covenant family. They might be allies on some level, but nothing closer. Never mind their protestations, they are not “fellow Christians” because they don’t actually follow His teaching.

You need not consider me a Christian brother if you hold to different standards. I rather expect you wouldn’t. There’s no insult in this; it’s just the way we are required to operate. The point is that you have looked at the issue, and that you have standards for deciding who is and isn’t family of faith. You should be humble enough to recognize it’s your best estimate, not something that you would declare universally for everyone else.

Allies are people with whom you have some substantial differences, but due to the situation, you need to find a way to work alongside of them on a particular issue in our human existence. Thus, I might declare Catholics allies on this or that social concern, but otherwise not covenant family. I have no call from God to be harsh or difficult with Mormons, and even some pagans are harmless to the gospel message. There’s no particular push in the Bible against a truce with people who stay out of the way.

And there is certainly no gospel requirement to rule over anyone in human affairs. We have no business getting involved in human government unless/until we are talking about a covenant nation. There are none in this world right now.

The significance of the Christian Reconstructionist movement in Moscow, Idaho is that it may come to constitute at least an approach to covenant government of some kind. As long as they expect to stay under the US Constitution, that won’t happen. But should the Union come apart, that could change in the American Redoubt. We should keep watching.

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Miracle Growth

Posted on March 18, 2024 by ehurst

I’m often amazed at how people often operate on false assumptions about the gospel message.

The Kingdom of Heaven is a kingdom of (a) the Elect who (b) aspire to live by the Covenant of Christ. Election was completed before any human walked on this earth. There is no human decision involved in Election. The only decision humans can make is to aspire to live by the Covenant, the “b” part above.

We all know that a lot of people pretend to “b” without “a”. There is nothing any human can do about that problem, though we can make some adjustments in how we associate in communities, so that it’s more difficult to pretend. But the point here is that we know there’s some pretense, and that there is no way to escape it totally. You can know for certain you are elect, but you cannot know about the brother or sister next to you in your faith community. You can get people to join your community, but you cannot ascertain that they are Elect.

You can produce hundreds of children, but there is nothing you can do about their election. You can raise them to be decent, but you cannot make them morally good. Only spiritual birth can change our nature, and that comes only to the Elect.

The covenant communities could simply stop having children altogether and it would not change the number of spiritually born. In theory, the covenant community would still grow from simple evangelism. This is why Paul could suggest it’s a good idea for believers to remain unmarried; it would not harm the growth of the gospel. It would be very tough to live that way, given our human natures, but it could work just fine for what really matters.

We don’t know for certain what motivated Paul to suggest that. He makes general comments about the state of the world in which they lived at the time, but we don’t have enough data to make the issue really clear. There’s no deep underlying Hebrew value at work, and nothing else in New Testament history to make it obvious. Whatever it was, the urgency wasn’t sufficient to dissolve existing marriages. And the whole of his letters suggest a full expectation that church leaders would mostly be married. It was just his personal recommendation that celibacy was a good idea.

Somehow, the folks in India where Thomas ministered got the idea that the pinnacle of Christian faith demanded celibacy. It’s part of their teachings today. And somehow that did not prevent the spread of the message. They had a different cultural attitude about such things than is common anywhere in the West.

So far as we know, Jesus was celibate. The logic goes like this: Jesus clearly taught that fornication and adultery were sinful. That covers everything sexual, leaving only a godly covenant marriage as the sole option. And He could hardly have been hypocritical about it as the Son of God. On top of that, He warned of a coming tribulation around Jerusalem. When it comes, He said that having small children would be a serious liability. It would make survival very difficult.

We can extrapolate that Paul was thinking about that when he gave his advice to certain churches. If that kind of teaching came to the ears of the general public in that part of the world, it would be a strong filter against fake believers in that culture (unlike India).

I could cite other teachings that would gain ridicule in Paul’s world. Christ rising from the dead is a big one. While the Jews were a primary source of hassles, there were other sources all too willing to persecute Christians for their faith. In spite of this, the Christian religion grew simply from new converts. That is, the Elect were being called up, recognizing that this was their tribe. The worse the persecution got, the more they grew.

Somewhere within the next generation or two, something in the New Testament Christian religion was lost. By the time of Constantine, church leaders were simply worn out on facing persecution. They had lost that fire of the first generation of those who followed Christ. They were so thrilled that an emperor had a use for them they were quite willing to agree with his policies for them and their religion. Instead of waiting for the Elect to awaken, they were ready to make the Christian religion a matter of imperial policy.

Today, it seems the vast majority of church leaders are convinced that Christian religion worked just fine like that. There are various mixtures of thinking that their brand of religion has conquered or should conquer the world. It shows up in their writings mostly as an underlying assumption. They will debate whether it should come by persuasion (logic, rhetoric, etc.) or by law, but the net result is about the same.

Folks, martyrdom built churches, not marketing.

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Another Vision of the Future

Posted on March 17, 2024 by ehurst

I did not foresee the American Redoubt coming. I’m not surprised that people fleeing the Blue States are heading to that region of the US. I expected Christian Nationalism as a political movement to show up there, but I didn’t expect such a strong religious movement to arise about the same time.

I had no doubts that the Gospel Coalition was a dead end. It smelled like worldly compromise a long time ago, and when the leadership began to embrace elements of wokism, it was no surprise to me. John Piper and his allies are now quite irrelevant. The center of gravity will move away from Bethel College. The Enemy was able to seduce that bunch because their model of evangelism is still rooted in Decision Theology. It makes them vulnerable to the necessity of gaining a positive impression with the mainstream audience. It won’t be so easy to subvert the folks in Moscow, Idaho; they aren’t interested in courting the mainstream.

God is going to use the American Redoubt. Let me suggest that, given all the factors involved, the American Redoubt portion of the US will quite likely survive better the coming global catastrophes. They will be insulated from the worst man-made political disasters, and the natural ones will be ameliorated by the geography and climate there. The US coastlands will be wiped out.

Make no mistake: I preach that civilization will be destroyed, and that the majority of the human race will die. Let’s not get bogged down in the details just now; it’s coming and God’s people can sense it on the horizon.

By force, our Creator will remove an awful lot of sin and temptation by crushing humanity down into a very weak position. Bare survival will be the all consuming concern. While the memory of global communications will still be around, God will enforce insulation and isolation on a scale that rivals the Tower of Babel and even the Flood.

This will be an act of mercy. This is how He designed us to exist in this world. We are supposed to be scattered and isolated. We are supposed to be tribal and feudal. This is the genuine “Big Reset” that humanity faces, not the silly artificial one planned by our rulers.

My fundamental mission and calling is to declare the warnings, and to suggest ways to be ready for both the catastrophes and what follows. If anyone else senses a call to join in, by all means, let’s work together as much as we can. But let’s be real: There are limits and we must discern and appreciate them.

My convictions say this is not The End, not yet. Yet, I suspect few of you reading this will survive. I’m certain I won’t. All I’m doing is planting the seed of how to keep the gospel witness alive for whatever tomorrow it is that comes.

I’ll reiterate that the American Redoubt is well positioned for a higher than average survival rate. Discussing the particulars serves little purpose; that I sense it in my bones is enough reason to believe it. God favors that general location for His own inscrutable reasons. If you sense the call to go there, be aware of what you will face, as the rising political power there will include a lot of Christian Nationalism’s influence.

Oddly enough, Christian Reconstruction is more of the Presbyterian/Reformed traditions, and that means it rejects the Dispensational heresy. Yet, among the Christian Nationalists also gathering in the American Redoubt, I won’t suggest an absence of Dispies, just not a full-blown Christian Zionism. I note that the American Redoubt leadership loudly welcome Jews to move there. Still, I believe Dispensational religion will take a major hit.

All the more so as I expect Israel to go away. I believe that lie is about to die. It will be hard to maintain the Dispie heresy when the object of their hope disappears. I still foresee an exodus from mainstream churches that rely on Zionism as part of their identity. I sense that Zionism’s power will climax just about the time Israel is crushed — whatever that means in detailed terms. All I can see is the absence of Israel’s false presence in the future.

But make no mistake, the Devil’s Chosen will still be around in one form or another, by whatever name they use in the future. It’s anybody’s guess how he will use them, but I seriously doubt there will be anything new.

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NT Doctrine — Ephesians 5-6

Posted on March 16, 2024 by ehurst

The whole point of this two-volume series is to highlight the continuity between the Old and New Testaments. One thing we notice is that the ritual conduct under Moses was far more stringent than the broader code of conduct. This is reversed in the New Testament. Ritual purity is not gone, just reduced to generalizations. Instead, the purity of heart is the emphasis, and thus, any code of conduct is structured quite differently. Insofar as there is a Christian Law, it is more strenuous, but is essentially a matter of asserting privilege to live above sin, not wallowing in restrictions.

These final two chapters of the Ephesian letter are mostly exhortation that sounds very much like a summary of Christian Law. The life of privilege looks like this. Walk worthy of Election. Insofar as there is doctrine to extract, that would be it.

Of particular interest is the strong statement about a Christian household, which runs over into the final chapter. The patriarchy is rooted in God’s revelation of Himself as a Father figure who also happens to be Creator and Lord. The way that Christ handled His own Body is how a man deals with his wife. His wife is his greatest, most valuable treasure on earth, but she is not a deity. He is worthy of her submission because of willingness to sacrifice for her.

The issue with children is very firmly rooted in Moses. It bears no resemblance at all to American society in which youth and childhood are sacred. Also, there is a very strong parallel between fathers/children and masters/slaves. It’s a two-sided sword; being a Christian means it’s not a one-way relationship.

But a softening of ritual does not mean absence. If there is anything I might highly recommend believers today should turn into a ritual, it is the “Armor of God” passage. It should not be something that turns into a trademark that everyone shares everywhere. Rather, believers should prayerfully consider making it song, or a prayer ritual that guides our awareness, particularly in times of difficulty when you know the Enemy is attacking.

The courier who brought this letter was Tychicus, someone who had spent time with Paul in his Roman custody. In those days, a private courier was the only way correspondence could travel. It was for sure this courier would then return to Paul with whatever response the churches offered.

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Sane Limits

Posted on March 16, 2024 by ehurst

Bear with me a moment, as this will seem at first like chasing a rabbit. The rabbit is running in the same direction we are.

Do you understand the inherent flaw of that academic discipline called Economics? It’s one unquestioned assumption is that economic improvement is an unalloyed good. That’s also its greatest lie. It’s part and parcel of the whole Satanic lie that our life in this world matters for its own sake. There is this permanent fundamental lie in mortal existence that better is possible, and that we have the capacity and wisdom to make it happen.

Yet, it remains forever out of reach. The theory is never matched by performance, ever. This because the theories do not take into consideration certain fundamental truths. Humans are fallen; they cannot possibly be repaired or redeemed from within the system itself. The notion that the Bible provides better information for a better human theory is a part of this big lie.

Instead, the Bible promotes a de-emphasis on trying to improve the human condition. The Bible teaches that this life matters only for its utility, the utter necessity of enduring it until something better is opened to us. There’s a paradox here: On the one hand, we must do it together in community. On the other hand, we must arrive at community individually. I doubt there’s an easy way to explain this. There is something fundamentally wrong with human unity that contains a fatal, toxic seed. The unity must come from outside the human sphere. It requires powers that humans will never hold.

To talk about “fate” is another false lead. It’s not as if nothing is in our hands. The question we need to answer for ourselves is just what part of the picture is in our hands, and to accept the very painful realization of what isn’t. This is why the study of economics is flawed; it assumes the only question is finding the leverage. It rejects a priori the limitations imposed by the Creator.

And this is true of every other academic discipline. They are all based on the assumption that humans are in a position to make things better, so let’s all study to see how. Nobody wants to talk about the inherent limits of improving the situation.

(And nobody wants to talk about how the situation itself is fundamentally variable, how unstable reality itself is.)

There is a Creator God, and He has placed non-human beings in positions of power under His hand. They make decisions with a certain range of freedom that we cannot imagine. And their power to have their will with us is, for all we can discern, is unlimited. Further, their plans and purposes are largely inscrutable, except for a limited amount of divine revelation that indicates things, but never clearly states much. We get a model that we can use, a fuzzy one with soft edges. It’s just enough to help us understand why things will never work out as humans wish.

The core of biblical Hebrew philosophy and culture is recognizing the limits of mortality. We might know something about improving the economic, social and cultural problems we see, but if that’s all we know about it, then we are wholly lost. There is an awful lot of power at work in our human situation that is not within our grasp. Fighting it is not simply foolish, but egregiously stupid.

Here’s the key to leadership from a strong Hebraic viewpoint, and worded in opposition to the typical western viewpoint: You cannot do it. There are things you can help with, but you cannot make it happen. You can only be obedient to your own calling. And when you are obedient, you stand in a position to receive guidance by Spirit and conviction that allows you to see the limits and stop trying to cross them, to call back fools under your care who try to go too far.

Do you see how Rigney’s contention sounds rather similar? He still assumes too much on what we can accomplish in this world, but at least he understands that we must assert the limits of what leaders can and should do for the individual. Perhaps to make his parable a little better, we should say that you cannot pull anyone out of their pit of sorrow. You can get close enough to be heard when you tell them how they can get out of it themselves, but you cannot get them out by anything less than the miraculous power of God. They are there because of how they react to reality, which includes that powerful operations of beings far above our level.

When economists tell us that international trade can create far more wealth to spread around, we can tell them that it also loads us down with problems we should not have to face, problems we cannot possibly solve. International trade should be a very small element in economics, not a massive false solution to all ills. We need a lot less influx of global problems, because we can scarcely solve our domestic issues. Humans are designed by God to live in small and mostly insular enclaves. I’m not saying closed off tight, but that the openings need to be a whole lot smaller than they are now.

No human, nor group of humans, is competent to control the flood of evil that must always come from with wide open borders. We don’t need and cannot use more stuff, more knowledge, more kinds of people, and the inevitable conflicts, etc. You cannot get one without the other. One of the biggest, fundamental commands from God is, “Mind your own business.” With that comes the command that you had better learn what your business is, and what isn’t.

The shepherd realizes that sheep may love the taste of foliage in the jungle, but that sheep are not made to face the threats of the jungle. There are already threats enough in the open pastures they were designed for.

The US must be broken up; it will be broken up. God has so decreed. Let the resulting smaller states develop their own unique cultures. Let them become harsh and difficult on the globalists who call for cosmopolitan mixing, since they are lying about how good it would be. And then, let us pray that the leadership of these new countries built from the broken shards of an evil empire some day realize that some things cannot be fixed. What we need is a better idea how to live within sane limits.

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Catching Stampede Refugees

Posted on March 15, 2024 by ehurst

Here is the prophetic part of this series.

The faith movement in Moscow, Idaho prefers the label “Christian Reconstruction”. The leadership there takes much from the old RJ Rushdoony school of teaching. Hint: Rushdoony was an Armenian deeply motivated by the way his people had been oppressed and slaughtered by Turks. He felt American Christians had not done enough to save his nation. He was very noteworthy for his frustration with the otherworldly faith of some previous generations of American Christians (this was before the sudden growth of Dispensationalism in the US during the 1950s). In other words, he rejected the outcome of something he could not control. His response was to build a doctrine of Christian religion that would put a burden of responsibility on westerners to do more to protect “Christian” Armenians, as well as other “Christian” peoples. To him, “Christian” was a human national identity. His followers have tried to hide this part of Rushdoony’s story.

He would despise my teaching on Christian Mysticism. That’s not to say he was evil, but I would say misguided. If you are curious, here are some of his books. I’ve read enough to know it’s not for me. There is a link between Christian Reconstruction and Christian Nationalism, but the current manifestation of the latter is not a good match to the former.

Again, I say that God is involved in the American Redoubt movement. His involvement manifests itself in various threads of the faith teaching growing in that part of the country, despite the Christian Nationalist movement behind the nascent American Redoubt. The collection of political movements that might be found under the flag of Christian Nationalism do not reflect God’s agenda. Rather, He’s using them to destroy something else.

I fully expect a measure of human success from both the religious and political movements gathering in the American Redoubt. God will use politics in the same sense that He’s used any previous empire or political movement to weave a far larger tapestry that humans cannot comprehend. He told Daniel that, in human terms, the Babylonian Empire and civilization was a gold standard of sorts, but it was clearly not a reflection of His Word. It was just an expendable tool, though a really good one. I believe it’s the same for American Redoubt and Christian Nationalism. They do not reflect His Word, rather a biased and superficial reading of it, but He will use them as really good expendable tools. And the Theonomy movement in Moscow will also be rather successful.

I mentioned Rigney’s take on empathy because it’s one of the better, less offensive representations of what the faith leaders in Idaho are about. In many ways, it represents the essence of rejecting the mainstream globalist idolatry, of offering a genuine alternative. There is a dire need for Christian leadership (in turn based on Christian manhood) that isn’t beholden to the mainstream. John Piper is mistaken as part of a very large movement among Baptists and allied evangelicals to compromise with the mainstream simply to avoid facing persecution. It’s cowardice, plain and simple. We need to call it out. It’s not that Rigney is right about leadership itself, but he does have something of a corrective that moves things in a good direction.

The mainstream is going to implode. It’s time is past, but it’s so very huge that the collapse will take a while. America will be decentralized by divine force, and the American Redoubt will gain a potent identity that will make its presence felt for a long time. This is why we are talking about it; this will become a significant presence in the lives a large portion of the American population. Bethel College and the Gospel Coalition will fade into the background; those people have shot themselves in the feet.

Look for a resurgent manhood identity image to arise in the American Redoubt; look up “Man Rampant” as a source on what to expect from them. It will not be wholly biblical, but they will claim it is. Knowing this is important; it’s why the Radix Fidem community spends so much time trying to expose the unconscious biases of western Christian religion. The Christian Reconstruction movement does offer a compelling logic, but only for folks who don’t understand that they are flogging a dead horse. Still, the flogging itself will become a thing, and a big one, for quite some time into the future.

Understand: This is a whole lot better than the mainstream globalism. A substantial portion of the American population is long past ready to see globalism die. This thing in the American Redoubt is a reaction to something truly evil, though it’s not the best we could do.

This too shall pass. There will always be people caught up in this stuff, dragged along because they happen to be there when the invasion comes. It’s not a question of fleeing to or from that region of the US; you should have already gotten a word in your convictions about where you need to live during this apocalypse. But you also need to be aware of what flavor of lie will invade your world and how to identify and cling to the truth. We need to prepare an answer to this twisted gospel message so that those whom God calls back out of it have a safe place to flee.

That’s what Radix Fidem has always been. We are the refuge for that small number God calls out of some stampede that isn’t right for them.

Just a little more…

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Empathy or Not?

Posted on March 14, 2024 by ehurst

I would never pretend to declare what is normative for Christianity itself as the manifestation of Jesus’ teachings. I’m simply stating my own convictions in reaction to this particular brand of Christian religion, regardless who reads or agrees with me.

God is working in the American Redoubt. The peculiar politics of Christian Nationalism is not the whole story; there is a sort of reformation or renewal of faith (called “Christian Reconstruction”) that isn’t really involved in the politics. Let’s be clear on that. Throughout history since New Testament times, we have seen a great many moves of the Spirit. Predictably, those that spread the most among people and across boundaries had good things in them, but somehow seemed to get off track, and even hijacked. I believe that’s happening in the American Redoubt.

That God is involved means at least some of the flow is sweet refreshing Water of Life. You may need a filter to remove the grit and debris of human obsessions, but it’s worth the trouble.

Here is one sweet swallow: The Sin of Empathy. The author (Joe Rigney) casts the linked article in the flavor of one of his favorite writers from a previous generation, CS Lewis. The article echoes The Screwtape Letters, in which CS Lewis seeks to show us something of the demonic motivations, in which a senior demon writes to his nephew who is an apprentice tempter. Under this dramatic cover, Lewis seeks to reveal truth from the backside.

Some of Lewis’s story is silly nonsense, filled with cultural biases that are not in the gospel message, but have been read into it by westerners like Lewis. Rigney’s replay of that theme does not escape the same flaw. Still, it offers one very interesting nugget: American mainstream images of empathy are not a good match for the compassion of Christ.

In sum, the mainstream whining demands that you sacrifice your identity and pickle yourself in someone else’s sorrow, lest you stand accused of not caring enough. This is the quintessence of left-wing political ethics. The individual must be dissolved in order for the whole of society to move forward to some ill-defined glowing image of Nirvana. Rigney gets it right, in that each of us keeping our God-given identity is critical. We cannot crawl down into the pit of suffering to save someone, unless we at least have ourselves tethered to some anchorage outside of the pit. We don’t join them there; we try to get them out.

This raises the question of the person stuck in the pit and holding them accountable for wanting to get out. Too many find their home in the pit; it becomes the source of their power over others. We call it “victimology” these days.

Thus, Rigney calls empathy (by that definition) a sin. He’s published other stuff based on this theme, and you can look him up online. He has a book on leadership, but I believe the article linked above gives us the essence of what he might have to say.

His association with the religious movement centered in Idaho was taken as support for Christian Nationalism and got him kicked out of his job as president of Bethel College and Seminary in Minneapolis, MN. Their loss, not his. Now he’s moved to a similar institution in Moscow, Idaho. The various influencers who control the purse strings at Bethel were embarrassed by the mainstream complaints that Rigney was racist, was the kind of man who would cover up “me too” complaints, etc. Rigney’s writing wasn’t consistent with the agenda of Bethel College and Seminary, nor particularly with Christian Nationalism. It was Christian Reconstruction, AKA Theonomy.

Side note: Bethel is one of John Piper’s projects, associated with Desiring God and The Gospel Coalition. Piper has become recently notorious for his apparent compromise with wokism. He promoted the vaxx, for example. There are counter-complaints from the Christian Nationalists aimed back at John Piper in particular, and Baptists in general.

Yes, Christian Nationalism is just an echo of the old Dominionist/Theonomy school of religion. But they aren’t the same thing; Theonomy can lead to Christian Nationalism, but doesn’t demand it. The latter is merely one application of the former. But they are hard to separate when viewed by outsiders. Both posit that human government is obliged to promote the gospel, and to suppress heresy, so that we can all return to Eden while still in our fallen state. Do you see how this echoes a lot of other older heresies? Christ dying on the Cross was not a political failure; He didn’t care about human politics in the first place. The Cross was a victory, and we all need our own crosses to follow Him. We must renounce this world, just as He did.

As for Rigney, I don’t argue against the notion that the mainstream brand of empathy is wicked, and results in great evil. But the word “empathy” itself does not indicate something evil; Christ also exercised empathy. His death on the Cross came with our sin and sorrow placed on Him. Without His brand of empathy, we cannot break through the barrier of spiritual isolation that keeps people away from the gospel message. Don’t tussle over the words; empathy can be done well and poorly. Like everything else in human baggage, it can be abused or it can be blessing.

I do agree that good covenant leadership requires that we be aware of how empathy is abused in the mainstream. But I also maintain that good covenant leadership does not seek to influence human politics outside of the covenant community. And that the only way to form a covenant community is by attraction, not by pushing outward and conquering others. The very moment someone is compelled, it is no longer the gospel they are obeying. A charitable reading of the Christian Reconstruction movement in Moscow, Idaho is that they are trying to form a genuine covenant community. We’ll see.

There’s more…

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Take Another Lap

Posted on March 13, 2024 by ehurst

Let’s agree on something: I’m a nobody. All I have is my own experience with Christ. I claim no authority other than that of the Holy Spirit. If He moves you to read my stuff, then it’s your duty. Otherwise, I’m just another bit of wind whistling in the rocks of the desert. Either way, I cannot be silent.

Christian Nationalism is a package of half-truths. It comes to Scripture with a preconceived notion of an end product that needs some flavor to identify it. Because it makes false assumptions about Christ and His Father, it is riddled with perversions of what the Bible has to say about life here. The basic principles of moral truth get twisted into lies. The people who promote it don’t know Jesus very well.

I have no doubt that, should my chatter come to their attention, I would be counted among their enemies. It’s not a question of whether they are honorable, have integrity, or any other such noble imagery. It’s a question of whether they are on course. I say they are not. I have no interest in calling their names and shooting at them. It’s not about the people; I’ll endeavor to keep this all about the ideas.

Within our cultural context, the best way to help people see Jesus is to make this about Him, not about those who claim to serve Him. I don’t want to provoke a “circle the wagons” response that serves no purpose other than to distract from the key issue. I’m claiming that they don’t really know Jesus in the first place. Whether they are God’s Elect is not the issue; they aren’t getting hold their divine inheritance from the Covenant.

The reason for discussing them is the recent surging of their combined voice calling from a different kind of wilderness: The American Redoubt. This refers to inland states in the American northwest: Idaho in particular, but including Montana, Wyoming and western counties of Washington and Oregon. It’s politics, not a genuine faith movement.

There is an actual faith movement going on at the same time. The center of gravity seems to be Moscow, ID. It is not my kind of faith, but I cannot deny the Lord is at work there.

This article describes things from the obvious political angle. It paints a picture of right-wing refugees from western Blue states congregating among their own kind in a defensible stronghold. Yes, I am acquainted with saner folks who moved up there, so realize that the linked article is at least partly hype. Be aware that there is a very large movement here that is quite diverse across a wide range of opinion about what it means to do things right. What gets mainstream attention is the political threat to globalist orthodoxy, which is meant to distract from the real issues.

Thus, the mainstream talks about this political manifestation as the core nature of what’s going on there in the American Redoubt. I can tell you quickly that this is false. It’s just the outward manifestation of something with far greater substance. But because it has a political face, any effort to research the movement will yield mostly comments about the internal conflicts.

The existence of internal conflicts is entirely natural, but it distresses those involved. They want greater unity for the sake of effectiveness, and that’s the fatal flaw. They are trying to exercise control over something God will not put in their hands. Their very worldly orientation prevents them from seeing how God actually wants to work in this movement — and He most certainly does want to work there.

The people involved in the political side are going to miss the miracles God is doing with or without them. They aren’t going to see where the miracles manifest because they don’t understand His plans, and don’t know what to look for. God is sponsoring the exodus, but everyone is carping about their comforts and refusing to see the greater joy in the destination. They are going to provoke God and end up taking extra laps around Mount Sinai.

There’s more…

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