Wisdom

One of our family practices is eating breakfast together and beginning the day with Scripture and prayer. Recently we have begun working through the book of Proverbs. The other day we came to the following section.

Wisdom cries aloud in the street,
    in the markets she raises her voice;
 at the head of the noisy streets she cries out;
    at the entrance of the city gates she speaks

Proverbs 1:20-21

It’s a verse we’ve come across before, but this time I paid more attention. I thought about the way wisdom is something that deals with the practicalities of life. Wisdom is about applying the Lordship of Christ to mundane and earthy things. Thus, it is interesting that wisdom cries out in the street, the market and at the city gates. These are the places where business, politics and justice are conducted.

Christianity is not a faith that remains a personal matter. It is not just about you and your quiet time with Jesus. It’s not just about a wonderful experience on Sunday in corporate worship. These things are important. But we are also called to live out this faith as we exercise dominion under the King of kings and Lord of Lords. That means our faith informs our everyday business and political life which sometimes concerns those of a more pietistic faith. A focus on the right doctrine and a personal faith in Christ is all very well and good, but if our private and public worship does not lead to wisdom in the mundane practicalities of life in God’s world, there is a problem.

Brief Thoughts on the Lay of the Land

2 Comments

It’s been obvious to all but the most panicked and fearful that the foolishness of the last couple of years has worn itself out. Even apologists for the government’s authoritarian actions earlier in the shamdemic are critiquing the validity of mandates in an omicron environment while still sanctimoniously congratulating themselves on having supported the control health measures, and ‘loved their neighbour’ through their support of state coercion of citizens to be vaccinated. They rest in the self-righteous knowledge that they have helped save New Zealand.

Except that they haven’t. Sure people weren’t dying of covid when we were all locked in our homes for weeks on end and refusing to let people visit our island nation. But what’s happened since the arrival of omicron? Their god the state through its Messiah figure Ardern promised salvation from covid damnation through the sacraments of masks and vaccination. But like all false gods, this one has failed miserably, much to the mirth of the true God (Psalm 2). Only the truly naive and self-deceived can believe that this has all been worth it. Rampant inflation is one of many signs that God is not mocked. Idolatry always ends badly.

Read More

Great Content

2 Comments

I have been listening to The King’s Hall podcasts over the last few weeks. Thus far the content has been engaging and thought-provoking. Highlights for me have been the critique of the ‘Big, Fast and Famous” evangelical model of church and the podcast devoted to revivalism and decisionism. You can find the episodes listed here. If you want to understand why the Western church is in such a mess, these two episodes are well worth your time.

You can find the aim of the podcasts in the about us section of the website. The King’s Hall exists to make self-ruled men to rule well and win the world. They define a self-ruled man as one who is ruled by the Spirit of God. The ruling well aspect looks at the masculine call to dominion in whatever the Lord calls a man to. The ‘win the world’ aspect defines the Missio Dei (Mission of God) as nothing less than winning the world. There is no truncated gospel with a secular sacred divide here. While aimed at men, I think there is much to recommend the content to women too.

Prayer, the Church and the Christian

2 Comments

In my time attending fairly typical evangelical churches, I have noticed a pattern in public prayer. Those who pray about national or international situations do so with a distinctly socialist / left wing approach. The solution is always centralist intervention and control. This is the standard approach to prayer that is acceptable in most evangelical churches. Woe-betide anyone who steps outside of this script. It will be deemed as the terrible sin of ‘being political’. This is typical of a culture where secularism is by default seen as neutral and anything that challenges it is seen as religious.

Read More

Shepherds – how is your flock doing?

1 Comment

The failure of the New Zealand church through the pandemic ought to be clear to all except the most blinded by now. I suspect that when we eventually get back to normal, the church won’t look like it did in 2020. Many individual churches have been weighed and found wanting. The rot that was already in some of the timber but painted over with nice glossy paint so that the average Christian didn’t notice it has been exposed for just about all to see. It turns out paint over dry rot counts for nothing when someone comes along and squeezes that timber hard. So what has happened to the flock?

Read More

The Resistance – Evangelism and the Lordship of Christ – Part 4

1 Comment

Due to the events currently taking place in New Zealand, we had to postpone continuing The Resistance series. The events including mandated vaccines for health care professionals, teachers and others as well as rules that will punish churches who choose to operate non-segregated services. This only goes to prove what we suggested at the beginning of this series.

It certainly feels like we are on the edge of something. And when I say “something”, I do not mean pink cupcakes with chocolate sprinkles. More the kind of something that Gandalf refers to when sitting with Pippin on the walls of Minas Tirith and says, “It’s the deep breath before the plunge.”

Things are certainly intensifying, fault lines are showing, and we are beginning to see division. In some ways this is healthy. All around New Zealand the reactions to what is going on are telling. We learn which pastors are courageous, and those who can only talk a good game. Those who have sold out because of their desire to look socially acceptable to the powers that be are obvious as are those who are controlled by fear of man rather than fear of God. We continue to see the divide between Christians who actually have a Christian worldview and those who have a personal faith, but have been deluded by the shallow and deceptive philosophies of this world. I suspect these divisions will become clearer and lead to changing alliances and movement among churches.

So now is a good time to once again continue our series on Christian resistance in these times. Thus far we have covered the first 3 requirements: repentance over individual and corporate sin, dependence on the Word, Spirit and prayer and confronting the dualism that has stripped the church and its members of strength.

Today we will briefly focus on the fourth requirement of Christian Resistance.

We must develop and practise an evangelism that not only calls for personal salvation, but Christ’s lordship in every sphere of life. In other words we must disciple the nations to obey everything that Christ taught and call unbelievers to recognise Christ’s kingship on earth.

Read More

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.

Read More

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.

Read More

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.

Read More

The Resistance – The Word and Prayer – Part 2C

Yesterday we sought to give some practical suggestions which will help Christians make the Word and prayer central to their households. This is an essential step as we build the Christian Resistance and seek to see New Zealand turn back to Christ. As each family cell in the Resistance is led by men who prioritise the Word and prayer, we should expect to see God working great things. His Word will not return to him empty but will achieve the purpose for which he sent it out (Isaiah 55:11). And we know that purpose: it is that the knowledge of the Lord will fill the earth as the waters cover the sea (Habakkuk 2:14).

4. Hold to the Sufficiency of Scripture Practically

It is also vital that as we read the Scriptures we hold to the sufficiency of Scripture. And I don’t mean just nod intellectually to this concept. I mean actually believe and act upon it. The Apostle Paul wrote these words that most Christians know by heart. “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.” (2 Timothy 3:16-17) Paul argues that Scripture can be applied so that the man of God can be complete and equipped for every good work.

Do we know what to think about helping the poor? The Scriptures are sufficient for developing a robust and Christ-honouring approach. Do we want to know how Christians should respond to the COVID-19 lockdowns and potential vaccine mandates? We should search the Scriptures. Do we want to know whether redistributive tax policy is a Christian approach to government? We have the Scriptures which enable us to be equipped for every good work, whether it is in politics, family life, work-life, economics or science.

Read More