Family The most basic structure of interpersonal relationships in the human experience is the family. Even friendships which can at times supersede familial relationships are necessarily second to the family. This is because the existence and care of the family members is rooted in the primary relationship which is the marriage between the husband and the wife. Of course, in a fallen world still dealing with the effects of sin and judgment, individual families may not reflect this ideal, but the exceptions in this case prove the rule. Marriage At the center of the family, as designed by God before sin marred His good creation, is the marriage of man and woman (Genesis 2:18-25). Since this is the case, this is also the point that is most critical in both individual and societal development. So goes the phrase “the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world.” It is true that marriage and forming families is the most important foundation in cultural edification. This is why marriage has always been the point of attack from the world, the flesh, and the devil. The corruption of marriage and perversion of children is a direct attack against the image and glory of God in this world. This means that to see the promotion and proclamation of the kingdom of God it must first and fundamentally come to the family home before the chambers of the political capitals of the nations. Godly men loving their wives as Christ does the church and godly women respecting and submitting to their husbands as the church does to Christ (Ephesians 5:22-33) is far more formidable against the principalities and powers of darkness (Ephesians 6:11-12) than any decision from any congress, court, or caesar! Children Children are a blessing from the Lord for parents, churchess and communities (Psalm 127:3-5). Today, many societies and nations, especially among the developed world are in a demographic crisis because for far too long these nations, including our own, have not valued kids as the blessing that they are. The problem in our world is not a swelling population but rather an aging population. We need more children, not less. The secular world has considered children either a luxury for those who want them or a liability to be discarded on the altar of convenience. This claim is easily established by even a cursory look at abortion statistics are the ongoing debate over something that should not only be illegal but unthinkable. Our children are the most direct, important and receptive opportunities that we will ever have to advance and extend the kingdom of God in the world. Through the evangelization and discipleship of our children and children the Lord providentially brings under our care and influence we can not only advance the kingdom numerically and geographically but chronologically into the future. This has always been key to God’s intention to spread His kingdom through the catechesis and education (Deuteronomy 6:7-9) of believing children for the building of believing communities. So as individual people become truly transformed believers as we saw last week, they form godly families that are crucial to the advancement of God’s glory and kingdom in the world which cannot be thwarted by any political regime. Next week, we see how these families should commit to one another in healthy Biblical churches.
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Autonomy In our exercise to understand the right relationship between our faith in Christ and the sovereign reign of Christ over all things, I want to begin with the smallest realm of authority and work our way out. Jesus is Lord and He has all authority (Matthew 28:18). I am not conceding the idea of Christ as the ruler of all things at all. But rather, arguing that the application of Christ’s rule works its way out from the smallest to the largest jurisdiction. It must be noted that while this article deals with the smallest unit, it is the most crucial and foundational to the rule of Christ in every sense. In this post we are dealing with individual or self government. The term “autonomy” refers to self-government, or the right of self government. This is probably on a popular level what most of us think about when we think about liberty or freedom. However, our self rule still means that the self is being governed. This is not anarchy. Each one of us, even those under regimes that attempt to destroy human agency and freedom are still autonomous at least in that our thoughts and beliefs cannot be controlled regardless of what is done to our bodies. Your Bad Self But the issue at hand in a fallen world is that left to ourselves we are sinners. This means that the acting governor over our hearts is our own sin (Titus 3:3). In this text Paul calls this state of governance slavery. It is ironic that the more humans rebel in sin, thinking that we are exercising our liberty, in reality we are only becoming more enslaved to those very passions and pleasures. We must remember that our sinful self rule is illegitimate. All humans are fully under the reality of all authority being subject to Christ, this includes our self authority. So while still in sin it is not only the sinful actions that are sinful but our rebellious self governance that is sinful. This is why in the quintessential passage (Exodus 34:5-7) about God’s character we are told by the LORD Himself that He forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin. Transgression is rebellion. If God would not forgive rebellion then no one would be saved because our every sinful action and attitude is rebellion. This is the bad news that we are dead in trespasses and sins (Colossians 2:13). If God would only deal with us upon the condition of our own righteousness then we are justly to be utterly condemned and doomed. A New You But God does not just leave all of humanity to the judgment of our own self rule. In the sovereign purpose of God Jesus comes as the good Shepherd (John 10:11-14) and the righteous King (1 Timothy 6:13-16) to bring us under His good government. We must therefore be born again and regenerated so that we are set free from the tyranny of our sinful self governance to true citizenship under the reign of Christ (Philippians 3:20)! God explained to us through the Prophet Jeremiah (Jeremiah 31:33-34) that this new government would not by the external means of legislation and enforcement but by the eternal means of a changed heart. Upon this new heart is written the good and righteous law of God, and dwelling in this new heart is the very presence of the Holy Spirit of God! So, the most relevant question at this point should be how do we move from our bad self to a new you? The answer is that we must trust in this gracious sovereign King and humbly by His power repent of our rebellion, while confessing truly and honestly that He is Lord (Romans 10:8-13)! If you have not yet been born again then I implore you to look to Christ and plead for Him to rescue you right now! The Covenantal Commission Matthew 28:18-20 is the passage usually referred to as the Great Commission. In this text, Jesus tells the disciples about His authority over everything, both heavenly and earthly, as well as their role in heralding this reality to the world. The New Covenant is fundamentally different from what has come before and so news of the kingdom must go forth, announcing the victory and reign of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords (Revelation 19:15-16). However, Jesus not only tells them to proclaim the good news of salvation and His kingdom, but also to teach or instruct about obedience to Him. The question that must be considered is who are the Apostles told to instruct? This is such a straightforward passage that I think many of us read it almost too casually, assuming that we understand the full meaning. In the course of this article I want to lay out the distinction between the way many in the Christian nationalist and Theonomic camps would understand the text, with the way I understand the text. Disciples of All Nations This is the issue of contention. When you read the phrase “make disciples of all nations” how do you understand it? Before you read on, spend some time thinking about the phrase. What seems to be the most natural and plain way to understand Jesus' words. There seems to be two ways that it is understood. First, it seems that many read that the “nations,” as whole entities, are supposed to be made disciples. This would obviously mean that the individual nations (political entities) would need to be taught how to obey Christ. This would also mean that it is the nations that are to be baptized according to the trinitarian formula. If this is the correct understanding of the phrase then we should all be Theonomists, at least, and maybe even Christian nationalists. The other alternative is that Jesus is telling the Apostles to make disciples “of'' or “from” all the nations. This would mean that it is not the nations as political entities that are supposed to be taught obedience to Christ, but rather individual believers from that national group. This would also make sense of the command to baptize the disciples that are being made, not the national entity. I believe that this interpretation is strengthened by the fact that the word translated as “nations” has a much broader semantic and theological range than just geopolitical nation states. The term is “ethnos” and generally refers to the gentiles or the nations. But these can and often should be taken as referring to the people group not the political group. In this interpretation Jesus is calling for disciples to be made from every kind of person in the world. Regardless of distinction every type or kind of person must be represented among the disciples of Christ. I also think that we see this reflected in the glorious culmination of the kingdom of Christ revealed in heaven. We are told in Revelation 7:9 that there will be gathered before the throne of God and the Lamb a great multitude “from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages.” If this text is the sovereign fruit of the great commission then it would seem clear that the disciples being made and taught to obey Christ are individuals who hear the good news of salvation and through the convicting and converting work of the Holy Spirit are born again (Titus 3:5). In this case, while we should expect good fruit from more and more people being saved as the gospel goes forth and flourishes in a culture, a nation or all nations cannot be made disciples because that designation belongs to individual image bearers of God who belong to Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 6:19b-20) and are those zealous to do His will (Titus 2:14). And these are citizens of Christ’s Kingdom (Philippians 3:20-21) and members of His body, the church (1 Corinthians 12:27)! Now with this scriptural basis, in the weeks to come I want to argue for Christian Localism in the areas of personal holiness, family discipleship, local church commitment, and faithful community engagement. The Christian State The label “Christian Nationalism” is popular these days both among Christians and unbelievers. One of the challenges in commenting on this issue is that there are almost as many different definitions of this term as there are people. The term can mean anything from a God and country flavored Christian patriotism to a call for a Christian political state. The spectrum between these views allows for much misunderstanding, confusion, and miscommunication. For the purpose of this series of articles, I am going to be responding to “Christian Nationalism” as a perspective believing that the theonomic application of God’s law should be the rule for the state as well as the church. By using the term theonomic, I am meaning the equitable application of those principles contained in the Old Testament law to our modern practices. Many would call this general equity theonomy. While I agree with the general application of wisdom from God’s law to our practices today, we must not forget that we live as New Covenant believers from the standpoint of the fulfillment of all the law of God in the covenant keeper, our Lord Jesus Christ. It is my view that church history is clear that the mingling of church and state is fraught with danger not only for heretics but for true Christian brothers with dissenting opinions. However, the issue is what is consistent with Scripture. If the Bible teaches that we should be implementing the general equity of God’s law and the Lordship of Christ through the laws of the state then we should do that. However, I am going to argue in this series that this is not what the Scriptures teach about the role of the government or the church. Biblical Baptist From the outset I want to be clear that I am not writing from a neutral position. I am a biblical Baptist and therefore I am going to make my argument from this perspective. In the Scripture God has laid out for us certain necessary realms of governmental authority. We often think of government only in terms of the political sphere such as local municipalities, state governments and the federal government. But the church is also a realm of governmental authority under the headship of Christ (Colossian 1:18). Also, the family is a realm of governing authority under the headship of the husband/father. Even each individual must learn to govern his/her own actions. Of course, each person should submit to Christ in their self governance. My intention in this series is not to exhaustively critique the Christian Nationalist movement but to instead make a positive argument for what I am calling “Christian Localism”. I believe that this is the most consistent way to understand the Lordship of Christ over all realms of authority while maintaining the biblical distinctions and discontinuity between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. Simple Thesis Jesus has all authority on earth and in heaven and He is plundering the enemy’s house (Luke 11:14-23) through the proclamation of the gospel and the regeneration of individuals, which cannot and will not be accomplished through the implementation of governmental mandates or edicts. My simple thesis is that the kingdom of God and Christ does not come as a top down imposition on the nations but rather a bottom up transformation of individual hearts through regeneration (Titus 3:4-7). The text at the root of contention is the Great Commission from Matthew 28:18-20 so we will deal with that text specifically in next week’s post. Celebration Many people are probably excited this time of year, looking forward to a summer full of freedom and fun. School is out and vacations are planned. Those folks who adore the summer heat and swimming or other water sports have been waiting for just this time of year. Maybe you enjoy the summer festivities. My own hometown has the annual homecoming festival this weekend, full of fun for the whole family. Most of all, it is an opportunity to see people that we haven’t seen, maybe, since last year. You may be looking forward to the firework fun of the fourth of July or summer cookouts in the backyard. For those of us who love life, this June marks the one year anniversary of the overturning of Roe V. Wade decision. This is certainly something worth celebrating. Of course, the holocaust of abortion has not been totally ended and we pray for that day. However, we are thankful that many babies are alive today that would have been aborted if the law had stayed the same for another year. We, as Christians, should remember that we do have something to be thankful for as we celebrate Life month, as I saw Dr. Owen Strachan labeled it on (twitter). Haughty But we must acknowledge that our sinsick, secular culture also has something that they desire to celebrate. They call it Pride month. The idea is to celebrate all forms of aberrant sexuality and gender confusion. Yet, it should be obvious to those with a biblical worldview that pride and arrogance are equal opportunity when it comes to celebrating sin. If you fancy yourself as moral and upright because you do not support the secular agenda including homosexuality and gender confusion while you continue in your own unrepentant sin, then you are also captured by your own pride and hubris. The Scripture is clear that pride is at the heart of our sin (1 John 2:16) and pride in our heart will result in our sure destruction (Proverbs 16:18). Christians cannot continue in sin and think themselves more holy just because their sin is of a different kind or classification. I do not dispute that there are classifications of sin, however, the most damaging aspect is the light of truth being sinned against (Matthew 11:20-24). For Christians it should be unthinkable that we would continue in sin any longer when we have received grace from God (Romans 6). The secular world will have to answer for their rebellion against all the clear communication given by God in nature. They are not only fools, but living in willful ignorance of the obvious nature of God’s world and truth (Romans 1:18-32). Humble So what should our Christian response to the overt pride and rebellion of our culture be? I would like to encourage our response to be contrite humility before the Lord. The Bible does not only condemn pride but it also praises humility (Proverbs 18:12). It is humility that marks the Christian becoming more like Christ (Philippians 2:3-5). As we grow in our sanctification we inevitably must grow less prideful and more humble. This is because we understand even more the failings of our own sinfulness and our great need for God’s amazing grace! The contrast that our world needs to see is not that we can match them toe to toe in shouting down the other side, but rather that we excel in humility before the Lord of Glory. I am not saying that we should be passive and quiet referring to sin or the proclamation of the gospel but only that we should do both from a posture of humble pleading and loving persuasion not judgmental and angry condescension (2 Corinthians 5:11-15). Brethren, this is the ministry of reconciliation that we have been given by our Lord and King and it begins with humility that gives us boldness to proclaim the glorious good news of the gospel. This good news is the only true cure for the evil culture cancer of our day. |
AuthorEddie Ragsdale Archives
May 2024
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