Got a story about vaccine mandates?

As a result of our recent guest post, My Line in the Sand, we have been inundated with views and comments.

To follow up on this, we at The Sojournal, are trying to collect and publish stories from people who are affected by the COVID vaccine mandate. We are keen to publish respectful articles or videos that address your personal situation. If you wish to remain anonymous, that is fine too.

If you would like to be involved, please use the contact form and we will get back to you. If you know of someone affected, please alert them to our plans.

Let’s show our overlords that we are free and principled people.

Westminster Confession of Faith 1.7 – Perspicuity of Scripture

Today we continue our walk through the Westminster Confession of Faith. Over the last month or so we have looked at the first section of the Confession which is focused on the Scriptures. In our most recent short post on the Confession, we highlighted that Scripture does not need adding to either with the traditions of men or ‘inward illumination’. We also discussed the concept of the sufficiency of Scripture and identified some important implications of these doctrines. Today we look at the perspicuity (or clarity) of Scripture.

VII. All things in Scripture are not alike plain in themselves, nor alike clear unto all: yet those things which are necessary to be known, believed, and observed for salvation, are so clearly propounded and opened in some place of Scripture or other, that not only the learned, but the unlearned, in a due use of the ordinary means, may attain unto a sufficient understanding of them.

The first thing that the framers of the confession note is that all things in Scripture are not equally easy to understand. Peter himself points out that Paul’s writings contain some difficult concepts (2 Peter 3:16). The book of Revelation seems to defy its own name, with Christians who have a high view of Scripture disagreeing as to its interpretation. It’s important to make a distinction at this point. God is a good communicator – the best in fact, since language comes from Him. So God speaks clearly in His Word, but that does not mean that no doctrines contained in Scripture are not difficult. Scripture teaches the concept of the trinity clearly, but this is not an easy thing to understand. Williamson in his book on the Confession puts it this way, ‘The clearest possible expression of Einstein’s theory of relativity does not make it “simple.” ‘Added to this is the complication that we are fallen, and there are even ‘ignorant and unstable men’ who twist and distort what God has said in his Word.

Secondly, we are informed that the things pertaining to our salvation – what we must know, believe and do, are so clearly expressed in Scripture, that even unlearned people who appropriately use ‘ordinary means’ can gain sufficient understanding. How we are saved is abundantly clear from Scripture. An ordinary layperson can determine this from Scripture. We do not need a special class of Christian to teach these things to us. This doesn’t mean that gifted teachers are unhelpful, but that the Scriptures, when read carefully, thoroughly and regularly, are sufficiently clear that ordinary men can read them and with the Spirit’s enabling understand the way of salvation and be saved.

One important phrase in this statement is “in a due use of the ordinary means“. There is a call for us here to be diligent in the reading and studying of and meditation on the Scriptures. I have been encouraged to continue my efforts in reading through the breadth of God’s Word with my family in our evening and morning Bible times rather than just sticking to the well-worn paths in Scripture.

The Resistance – Unholy Dualism – Part 3D – Conclusion

Statement 7: On the Authority of the Church

We have all grown up in times where it is assumed that the church has authority in the spiritual realm and the state in the physical realm. This is a misunderstanding. Yes, the church’s authority is a spiritual authority, but we misunderstand spiritual if we presume it means non-physical. The church’s spiritual authority has effects in the physical world. When an adulterer is excommunicated he is excluded from the Lord’s table and from the fellowship of believers until such time as he repents.

This misunderstanding of ‘spiritual’ has caused an unhealthy spiritual/physical divide. The church now has abdicated its authority in the material world to such a degree that when the state government orders it to close for months because of a virus, it complies. Without even a whimper. There seems to have been no widespread outrage at the state presuming it has the authority prevent Christ’s church from gathering.

Now part of this of course is fear. Anyone in New Zealand who is even half aware of what’s going on will realise that we have not been led by particularly courageous men in these times. (I do not write this because I am courageous. I’m not and would be no better if I were a leader in the church.) We know there would be public outrage against us if we decided to flout these man-made rules. So there has been barely a whisper on the closure of the churches. So let’s not berate our leaders too much. Most of us laity too have been cowed in these times. We need to assist them and help them develop courage. They need to know we the laity are behind them. We need to encourage them. So encourage your pastor, minister or priest. Ask them about standing up to this seemingly endless shutdown of the gathering. We are, after all, the ecclesia, the church or the gathered. It’s somewhat ironic that we aren’t gathering.

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The Resistance – Unholy Dualism – Part 3C – In the Church

It’s been a week since we began our third part in The Resistance series. We are focusing on how Christians and the church have been captured by dualism. Today we are looking at statements 5 & 6 from the original article. I’ll post them here again to refresh your memories before we take a machete to them.

Statement 5: The pinnacle of service to God is full time paid Christian ministry because saving souls is the most important business on this earth. Our job in this world is to seek to see people saved from hell – worrying about society is like polishing the brass on a sinking Titanic. We are heaven bound. Earth is important but doesn’t matter as much

Statement 6: For those who are laity, their most important service of God is found in personal evangelism and doing things for the local church institution. This is what the works of service spoken about by Ephesians 4:12 is talking about – welcoming visitors to the Sunday service, playing in the music team, making cups of teas and running the AV desk.

In evangelical circles, dualism has spread to such an extent that the pinnacle of service to God is seen as full time paid Christian ministry. While many pastors and church leaders would perhaps not express the concept in such a stark manner, the implication is there in much of the church’s current practice.

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Are you Affected by the Vaccine Mandates?

5 Comments

As a result of our recent guest post, My Line in the Sand, we have been inundated with views and comments.

To follow up on this, we at The Sojournal, are trying to collect and publish stories from people who are affected by the COVID vaccine mandate. We are keen to publish respectful articles or videos that address your personal situation. If you wish to remain anonymous, that is fine too.

If you would like to be involved, please use the contact form and we will get back to you. If you know of someone affected, please alert them to our plans.

Let’s show our overlords that we are free and principled people.

Tenacity and Intransigence

In the golden era of the Roman Empire, Pliny the Younger advised Emperor Trajan that Christians should be executed solely for their tenacity and intransigence. “Whatever the nature of their admission, I am convinced that their stubbornness and unshakeable obstinacy ought not to go unpunished.”…

Would we be convicted today for being stubborn, tenacious, unbending and obstinate? It is surely undeniable that only rarely in Christian history has the lordship of Jesus in the West been treated as more pliable or has Christian revisionism been more brazen, Christian interpretations of the Bible more self-serving, Christian preaching more soft, Christian behavior more lax, Christian compromise more common, Christian defections from the faith more casual, and Christian rationale for such slippage more spurious and shameless.”

Os Guiness in Impossible People

A Diagnostic Test for Deity

What is the functional god of a society? This struck me as I was driving somewhere recently. The news came on, and every single item in the bulletin related to the state. I was informed that the government was doing this or that, or in a few cases told what the government ought to be doing but was currently not doing.

This got me thinking. News bulletins are a reflection of what is considered newsworthy. What is newsworthy is a reflection of what a culture considers to be important. What a culture considers to be important is indicative of its worship – or its functional idol if you will. In our case, as I have argued previously this is the state.

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Westminster Confession of Faith 1.6

We continue our survey of the Westminster Confession of Faith after a weeks hiatus. In our last instalment, we looked at WCF 1.4 & 1.5 and focussed our discussion on the authority of Scripture. Today we look at WCF 1.6 which highlights the sufficiency of Scripture, an important and somewhat neglected doctrine of late as alluded to in The Resistance series.

VI. The whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for his own glory, man’s salvation, faith and life, is either expressly set down in Scripture, or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture: unto which nothing at any time is to be added, whether by new revelations of the Spirit, or traditions of men. Nevertheless, we acknowledge the inward illumination of the Spirit of God to be necessary for the saving understanding of such things as are revealed in the Word: and that there are some circumstances concerning the worship of God, and government of the church, common to human actions and societies, which are to be ordered by the light of nature, and Christian prudence, according to the general rules of the Word, which are always to be observed.

There are a few key ideas we need to note as we look at this statement. Firstly, the framers of the Confession believe that God’s written Word is complete. It is the whole counsel of God and nothing is to be added to it. This includes adding to it now with new revelations of the Spirit or adding on the traditions of men. So for example, there are those who become concerned that you haven’t had God ‘speak’ to you and others who rely on a ‘Word from the Lord’ from spiritual people in their congregations. While these might be nice and encouraging, they are not necessary, and God’s Word provides you with everything you need to live a God-honouring life. At the other end of the spectrum, you might have some churches that believe church traditions are needed to supplement God’s Word. We must not add to Scripture and we do not need to.

Secondly, there is the idea of sufficiency that we have already flagged. God’s Word contains all things necessary for the glory of God, man’s salvation and the life of faith. What we need is either expressly written down in the Scriptures, or by Spirit-filled reasoning can be deduced. This deduction from Scripture is not without danger, and incorrect deductions can be made. However, the practice itself is not wrong. Indeed Christ himself deduced things from Scripture. When dealing with the Sadducees on their silly question about the woman who had seven husbands who died he said, “And as for the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God spoke to him, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living. You are quite wrong.” This is a clear case of deducing the resurrection from the grammar of the text.

So what are the implications of this truth of sufficiency? Firstly, God has provided us all we need to be saved and to live for God’s glory. Scripture teaches this. Peter says, “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence.” Obviously, salvation can only come through the Word by the Spirit. However, for those who have the Spirit, the Word provides us with everything we need to live a life pleasing to God. This is how Paul sees things when exhorting Timothy. He says, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”

Now we must be careful not to misinterpret what is being said here. The scriptures do not talk about every topic there is. There are some things that Scripture does not touch on and God does not intend it to touch on. It is not, for instance, an engineering textbook, nor is it a book on nuclear physics. This is not a problem. God reveals to us all we need to know to bring glory to him and please him, but he gives us the opportunity to explore his world and discover what he has not revealed in Scripture directly as dominion makers. Then there are other things that He has not revealed and we cannot discover (Deuteronomy 29:29).

Finally, the writers of the Confession point out that there are some things that we ought to use our God-given wisdom in as Spirit-filled Christians. There are principles in Scripture that we ought to take and apply, but there is room for interpretation and wisdom in applying these in practical situations. The framers of the Confession point to the worship of God and the government of the church. For instance, the timing of our weekly gathering, whether we meet in a home or at a church building or how we run our annual general meetings are all examples of things Christians can use ‘the light of nature’ and ‘Christian prudence’ to decide. They are very careful to point out however that even in these situations the general rules of the Word must be observed.

The Resistance – Unholy Dualism – Part 3B – Economics

Statement 4: On Economics

What about Economics? How is our dualism seen here? Again many Christians do not think the Bible has much to say about Economics, when in fact, it is a central topic of Scripture. This is going to be a longer section because to the degree this topic has been neglected or dealt with superficially we ought to correct common unbiblical assumptions on wealth.

God created mankind for dominion over the earth. We were designed to rule over it and develop it and build a God-honouring culture. Wealth is an integral part of this. As early as Genesis 2 we see that God has placed gold nearby ready for his vice-regents to find. Although ultimately owning everything, God plainly approves of private property and disapproves of the confiscation of this property. We see this implicit in the Ten Commandments numbers 6 through 10. It is wrong to steal a man’s life, his wife, his property, his reputation or even to enviously covet what he has.

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