1. THE GOSPEL ACCOUNTS

And to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces, who call out to the other, and say, ‘We played the flute for you and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.’ For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon!’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Behold a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a friend of tax gatherers and sinners!’ And wisdom is vindicated by her deeds (Matt 11.16-19/ Luke 7.31-35).

Jesus was controversial at least in part because of his table manners. His ways of eating and drinking caused offense. Indeed, we see here a hint that certain people in Israel believe Jesus is worthy of death because of his dinner habits (Deu 21.20). Eating and drinking appears to be at the heart of His struggle with His contemporaries in First Century Palestine.

Every nation is Israel now.  If God judged Ninevah and then had mercy when they repented, all nations now are much more under the judgment of God and also much more assured of mercy if they repent.

(Of course, it is true that no nation is now Israel in one sense, but it was also true that it would have been blasphemous for Ninevah to imitate God’s law by building a temple.  But the basic promise to save the repentant applied to Ninevah and it much more applies to any nation in the new covenant age.)

Jesus is “the ruler of the kings of the earth” (note this is from Revelation 1.5 but it gives Jesus’s present title, not a future prophecy).  He is the Davidic king who rules the all kingdoms, not just one.

When Daniel interprets Nebuchadnezzar’s vision, he doesn’t say that a trans-dimensional rock falls to the earth in a different reality so that it leaves the kingdoms of the world unaffected in a common grace realm.  He says the rock shatters the image into dust and then grows into a mountain that fills and waters the whole earth.

Once only Israel was Israel, but now Jesus says to go and disciple all the nations because he has been given all authority in heaven and on earth (Matthew 28.18-20).

So, yes, the church is institutionally distinct, but it remains the case that all nations need to repent and believe the Gospel and trust God to save them.

Q. 191. What do we pray for in the second petition?
A. In the second petition (which is, Thy kingdom come), acknowledging ourselves and all mankind to be by nature under the dominion of sin and Satan, we pray, that the kingdom of sin and Satan may be destroyed, the gospel propagated throughout the world, the Jews called, the fullness of the Gentiles brought in; the church furnished with all gospel officers and ordinances, purged from corruption, countenanced and maintained by the civil magistrate; that the ordinances of Christ may be purely dispensed, and made effectual to the converting of those that are yet in their sins, and the confirming, comforting, and building up of those that are already converted: that Christ would rule in our hearts here, and hasten the time of his second coming, and our reigning with him forever: and that he would be pleased so to exercise the kingdom of his power in all the world, as may best conduce to these ends.

Economically, it was naïve. Trying to solve pricing problems on the other side of the world through our shopping choices may make us feel better, but it is unlikely to have much effect, except possibly to make the situation worse. Basic economics tells us that the usual reason prices for a particular commodity are low is that too much of it is being produced: supply and demand. This normally motivates some farmers to move into other crops that are in shorter supply, and thus have a higher price, giving greater return to the farmer. It’s why those nasty free markets tend to promote efficiency and prosperity.

However, artificially propping up the price of a commodity distorts this process and removes the incentive for farmers to diversify. In fact, it does the opposite: it creates an incentive for others to start producing that crop (since it has a guaranteed higher price), thus increasing output and putting an even further downward pressure on price. So there is a reasonable chance that the well-meaning ‘Fairtrade’ movement may actually make things worse in the long run for the majority of third world farmers. The world is very complex place, and solving problems in the world (economic and otherwise) is very difficult. The intuitively obvious action (let’s give some farmers more money for their coffee by buying Fairtrade) may, in fact, end up having larger negative consequences we haven’t stopped to consider.

The same is true for nearly all the practical, secular problems we face. And the larger, more complex and more distant the problem, the more resistant it is to simple, feel-good solutions. It’s why being a politician is such an unenviable task. Even if you’re smart enough to foresee some of the byproducts and consequences of your policies, there will be unforeseen negative results and implications that will only become apparent over time. (We could have the same conversation about global warming, and whether we really have any idea how bad it will be, and whether our proposed solutions will, in fact, make things on the whole better or worse—but let’s leave that for another time!)

This is not just an economic judgement born of observation (although the older you get, the more you observe this phenomenon in action); it is a theological observation as well. It’s the world that Ecclesiastes 3 describes for us so beautifully—a world in which we can see glimpses of order and goodness, and in which we can affirm that everything has its right time, and yet a world which eludes us. We cannot see the whole—neither in all its parts and variety, nor in its future. This is the burden God has laid upon humanity, Ecclesiastes tells us. It is the frustration he has afflicted us with so that we might seek him, who alone sees all and knows the meaning of all.

via The Sola Panel | Smell the coffee.

That question can be answered in several ways. If one is among a group of atheists, for example, one might make the existence of God a basic part of the definition of Christianity. But I wish to pursue this question in order to demonstrate why North American evangelicalism, in many of it’s different varieties, is sub-christian. Christianity is, contrary to popular opinion, not a “belief-system” or a “world view” any more than France or England is a belief system.

This horribly reductionist understanding of Christianity, instead of being challenged by Scripture, imposes itself upon Scripture. Evangelical readers are given ready-made categories of doctrine within which they are taught to fit the things which they read in the Bible. All sorts of possibilities are closed off without thought, obvious questions are never asked. Christianity is presented as a belief system, and perhaps an experience available to individuals that they may be “saved.”

As a product and adherent to the Reformation Tradition within the stream of Christian history, I am glad to have the resources of Covenant Theology available to me so that I have been able to recognize some of the problems with modern Evangelicalism. But it has been disappointing to discover, that “Calvinists” are just as much prone to the spirit of the age as any other North American Evangelical. Thus, the purpose of this paper is not only to introduce Evangelicals to Covenant Theology, but especially introduce self-styled heirs of the Reformation to it as well. And in doing so, I want to present not one variant on the Christian tradition, but rather the essence of any tradition that can call itself Christian.

TO BE CONTINUED

Her message was that, if you are too busy making a living, then you are morally compromised.

So the paid activist who makes a living by advertising for companies that sell products and services was condemning the people who made her life possible.

I remember P. J. O’Rourke back in the eighties pointing out that there will always be Leftist because

Trouble is fun.  It will always be more fun to carry a gun around in the hills and sleep with ideology-addled college girls than to spend life behind a water buffalo or rotting in a slum.

And that is why conservatism will always be unromantic, unhip, and uncool.  Living a quiet life is not a glorious quest (except it is, but that requires the eyes to see).

And it is also why the state and the corporations or the corporations and the state–the predator class–will always have the time and energy to increase their control and exploitation of their lives.  Everyone likes power and profit but some people had to earn it.  Others work for it without earning it.  That is politics.

To rip into people for not being political beings is to basically despise conservative life.

In any case, Dana’s panic was largely driven by her confidence that if passed “health care” could never be repealed.  But that underestimates what is going on.  The entire twentieth century was a bubble that is about to pop.  Everything is about to be repealed, especially the “rule” that once enacted it is impossible to repeal a law.

We live in glorious times.  No need to beat up the people living through them.

The person was outraged, but this is simply the nature of democratic governance.  It puts people in power who have no more long-term interest in the future of the nation than the average person.

But these elected office-holders are required to make decisions that affect the long-term interest of the nation.

And these elected office-holders can greatly better themselves and their immediate circle of family and friends by 1) doing things that keep themselves in office and 2) simply acquire stuff they can take with them (or their family and friends) when they leave office.

And many of these opportunities will be at the expense of the long-term good of the nation.

It is superstitious irrationality to expect such a system to work in the best interest of the nation.  What is happening to our country could not be otherwise.  Ruin was always our fate.  Democracies are only trajectories to mass destruction.

YouTube – Keiser Report №26: Markets! Finance! Scandal!.

And he said to the disciples, “The days are coming when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it.”

A Psalm of David.

The Lord says to my Lord:
“Sit at my right hand,
until I make your enemies your footstool.”

The Lord sends forth from Zion
your mighty scepter.
Rule in the midst of your enemies!
Your people will offer themselves freely
on the day of your power,
in holy garments;
from the womb of the morning,
the dew of your youth will be yours.
The Lord has sworn
and will not change his mind,
“You are a priest forever
after the order of Melchizedek.”

The Lord is at your right hand;
he will shatter kings on the day of his wrath.
He will execute judgment among the nations,
filling them with corpses;
he will shatter chiefs
over the wide earth.
He will drink from the brook by the way;
therefore he will lift up his head.

OK… so what happens?

From Luke 20 (and Matthew 22/Mark 12):

But he said to them, “How can they say that the Christ is David’s son? For David himself says in the Book of Psalms,

“‘The Lord said to my Lord,
Sit at my right hand,
until I make your enemies your footstool.’

David thus calls him Lord, so how is he his son?”

From Acts 2:

Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing. For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says,

“The Lord said to my Lord,
Sit at my right hand,
until I make your enemies your footstool.”

Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.

From Hebrews 1:

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs….

…And to which of the angels has he ever said,

“Sit at my right hand
until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet”?

Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?

From Hebrews 5:

So also Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed by him who said to him,

“You are my Son,
today I have begotten you”;

as he says also in another place,

“You are a priest forever,
after the order of Melchizedek.”

In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek.

From Hebrews 6:

We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

From Hebrews 7:

Just read the whole chapter.

From Hebrews 8:

Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, a minister in the holy places, in the true tent that the Lord set up, not man.

From Hebrews 10:

And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.

From Hebrews 12:

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

From Ephesians 1:

For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

From First Corinthians 15:

Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures…

…But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For “God has put all things in subjection under his feet.” But when it says, “all things are put in subjection,” it is plain that he is excepted who put all things in subjection under him. When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all.