Gospel Freedom and the Law
If we are going to survive the onslaught of post-Christian ideologies, we need to embrace the freedom we have to love God’s Law, freedom that comes through the saving gift of the Gospel. For in knowing that Christ, who fulfilled the Law perfectly, and who is now righteousness for us, we are free to love his Law and to strive to uphold it, without fearing the consequences of the inevitable failures we bring to it.
Gospel Freedom to Love the Law
What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law.
Romans 7:7
How can one stand firm in the shifting sands of a post-Christian, progressive age? How can we be equipped to discern God’s voice amongst the world’s alluring alternatives?
The answer is certainly not blowing in the wind, nor can it found by looking within. It’s actually where it has always been: The undivided, unchanging, Word of God. As Christians not only do we need to reflect on the good news of the Gospel, but also about why it is good news. That realisation can only come through a growing love for God’s “Law” and how it relates to the cross of Christ. Of course, “Law” in this sense is not to be understood as a set of rules tied to a judicial system, but rather as God’s loving instructions for life.
Any attempt to treat “Law and Gospel” as exclusive entities and not two threads intricately woven by the same divine hands, is to render the Gospel no Gospel at all. Loving the God of the New Testament but rejecting the God of the Old is a bit like believing the sun can set despite never having risen. It’s not only confusing, it’s a theological absurdity.
Salvation is by grace through faith, but does that render God’s Law obsolete? Certainly not. Grace detached from the conviction of God’s Law can become a grace accepted on one’s own terms, a grace that universally accepts sinners as they are without acknowledging the need for repentance according to God’s unchanging Law.
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.
Titus 2:11-14
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Guilty of Christian Nationalism?
Written by Dr. Peter Jones |
Tuesday, July 5, 2022
We find ourselves in an increasingly divergent clash, not of nationhood but of ultimate worldviews. Certainly the accusation of “Christian nationalism” fails to do justice to the Christian vison. The goal of the Christian faith is not social control but recognition of the cosmic lordship of God the Creator and Redeemer over all things, including all nature and all nations.The latest critics of the Christian faith accuse Christians of being selfish, out-of-date, non-constitutional “Christian nationalists” who would impose all the Christian rules on everyone around them. Think Ku Klux Klanners parading through Washington, DC in the 1920s to defend “Protestant America.”[1] Or the The Handmaid’s Tale or a Christian version of 1984. Christians will, they believe, impose an Old Testament-like Christian theocracy on all citizens of the modern state, in which only Christian truth is allowed and the death penalty is employed for various sinful acts. Christian nationalism is decried by many who cry “fascist,” or “domestic terrorist.” Some Christian liberals see their understanding of Christian Nationalism to be “a threat to national security and domestic cohesion,” and even “the greatest threat to the witness of the church.”
Freelance writer David Bates tweets: “[Christians] will go after every office and seat, from the White House to school boards, city councils, even library boards…This is what fascism looks like in America in the 21st century.”[2]
Cari Marshall, a board member of the Texas Democracy Foundation, believes “Christian Nationalism” amounts to “domestic terrorism.”[3]
MSNBC host Joy Reid said via Twitter she was “glad to see the mainstream media beginning to make it plain [that] Christian nationalism poses a very real threat to American national security and social cohesion.”[4]
Adrienne Quinn Martin, the Democratic Party chairman of Hood County, Texas, was among many who used the term “White Christian Nationalism.” According to Martin, “You can’t compromise with people who view opposition as evil and believe they are on a mission from God. White Christian Nationalism has to be defeated, there is no middle ground.”[5]
Jemar Tisby, an antiracist black scholar, graduate of Reformed Theological Seminary, in an article entitled “Myth that Powers White Christian Nationalism” argues that “White Christian Nationalism is the greatest threat to the witness of the church and to the future of democracy in the United States.”[6]These visceral accusations reveal much about the present spiritual state of the culture. The more Western culture turns to pagan thinking, the less it identifies with its Christian past. The normativity of biblical truth dissipates, and what we used to call Christendom falls back under an onslaught of what we can begin to call “pagan nationalism.”
In Finland, a once deeply Lutheran culture, the Helsinki Court of Appeals charged Paivi Rasanen (medical doctor, government minister of the interior, member of the Finnish Parliament since 1955, and Christian believer) with three counts of “ethnic agitation” for publicly questioning the decision by the Evangelical Lutheran Church to support the Helsinki LGBT Pride events, while including a copy of the text of Romans 1:24-27. The court imposed monetary fines and insisted that her publications be censored. A district court in Helsinki recently dismissed all claims against her, but then the public prosecutor produced 26 pages of reasons to reopen the case. Paivi Rasanen’s fate is still wide open.[7]
In America, pagan nationalism shows up in the politicization of anti-biblical morals. Common moral binaries of the past, like normative heterosexual marriage and male-female distinctions, are denied. Instead of biblical morals influencing the policies of the nation, it is anti-biblical morality that is imposed on all, as is evidenced in the coming project of the [sexual] Equality Act, that will punish all who do not adopt the LGBT agenda. Already, the Christian College of the Ozarks is challenging a Biden administration directive that would force religious schools to open girls’ dorms, showers, and other private areas to males. If the college operates according to its beliefs, it risks devastating financial penalties. Over less obviously religious themes, the Biden administration has recently accused parents who do not want their children taught Marxist Critical Race Theory or radical gender philosophy as “terrorists” who must be controlled by the FBI and the Department of Justice. Thankfully, those who formed the Disinformation Governance Board were incompetent. On the surface, at least, this Board no longer exists. But one has to wonder which democratically-elected politicians would even consider that controlling and punishing public speech is a laudable moral value. But this should not surprise us, since some progressives reject even the central philosophies behind the founding of the country. So, the growing politicization of sexual morals and the rejection of traditional governing principles in the West are truly leading us down a path to the normalization of “pagan nationalism.”
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The Hidden War
In speaking out against abortion, therefore, we must not forget that few other sins cause more heartache or anguish of soul. Very few women today are offered viable alternatives, and almost none of them are pointed to God, who alone can answer their need. A woman who has had an abortion suffers great torment of conscience, and her isolation and endless pain can be healed only at the cross – only by finding Christ. Christians need to feel the immeasurable pain that so many women bear in their hearts for their lost children. Who of us can cast the first stone? (John 8:7) Woe to us if we ever become cold toward a woman who has had an abortion!
Yet you brought me out of the womb; you made me trust in you, even at my mother’s breast. From birth I was cast upon you; from my mother’s womb you have been my God. Do not be far from me, for trouble is near and there is no one to help. Psalm 22:9–11
Almost a century ago, in response to the idea of “modern” family planning, Eberhard Arnold wrote, “In our families we hope for as many children as God gives. We praise God’s creative power and welcome large families as one of his great gifts.”1
What would he say now, in an era where contraception is standard practice and millions of unborn children are legally murdered every year? Where is our joy in children, and in family life? Our thankfulness for God’s gifts? Where is our reverence for life and our compassion for those who are least able to defend themselves? Jesus is very clear that no one can enter the kingdom unless he or she becomes like a child.
Sex without regard for the gift of life is wrong.
The spirit of our age is diametrically opposed not only to the childlike spirit but even to children themselves.2 It is a spirit of death, and it can be seen everywhere in modern society: in the rise of murder and suicide rates, in widespread domestic violence, in abortion, the death penalty, and euthanasia. Our culture seems bent on going the way of death, of taking into its own hands what is God’s domain. And it is not only the State that is at fault.
How many churches sanction the murder of unborn children under the guise of supporting women’s rights? The sexual “liberation” of our society has sowed tremendous destruction. It is a false liberation built on the selfish pursuit of satisfaction and pleasure. It ignores discipline, responsibility, and the real freedom that these can bring. In the words of Stanley Hauerwas, it mirrors “a profound lack of confidence that we have anything worthy to pass on to a new generation…We are willing our deaths.”3
The majority of people today have no qualms of conscience when the life of a tiny being is prevented or destroyed. Once considered the greatest blessing God can give, children are now considered in terms of their cost: they are a “burden” and a “threat” to the freedom and happiness of the individual.
In a true marriage, there is a close connection between married love and new life (Mal. 2:15). When husband and wife become one flesh, it should always be with the reverent recognition that through it new life may be formed. In this way their sexual union becomes an expression of creative love, a covenant that serves life. But how many couples view sex in this way? For most, the pill has made intercourse a casual act, divorced from responsibility and supposedly free of consequence.
As Christians, we must be willing to speak out against the contraceptive mentality that has infected our society. Too many couples have bought into the popular mindset of sexual indulgence and family planning on demand, throwing to the wind the virtues of self-control and trust. Sex for its own sake, even in marriage, not only cheapens sexual intercourse but erodes the foundation of self-giving love necessary for raising children. To engage in sexual pleasure as an end in itself, without regard for the gift of life, is wrong. It means closing the door to children, and thus despising both the gift and the Giver (Job 1:21). As Mother Teresa once said:
In destroying the power of giving life, through contraception, a husband or wife is doing something to self. This turns the attention to self, and so it destroys the gift of love in him or her. In loving, the husband and wife must turn the attention to each other, as happens in natural family planning, and not to self, as happens in contraception.4
Routine contraception undermines the fulfillment and fruition of two who are one flesh, and because of this we should feel revulsion toward the attitude that consistently seeks to avoid the responsibility of bearing children.
None of this is to suggest that we are to bring children into the world irresponsibly or at the risk of the mother’s health and well-being. The size of one’s family and the spacing of children is a matter of tremendous responsibility. It is something for each couple to consider before God, with prayer and reverence. Having children too closely together can place an especially difficult burden on the mother. This is an area where a husband has to show loving respect and understanding for his wife. Again, it is vital that a couple turn together to God and place their uncertainties and fears before him in faith (Matt. 7:7–8). If we are open to God’s leading, I am confident that he will show us the way.
To abort any child is to mock God.
The contraceptive mentality is but one of the manifestations of the spirit of death that makes new life so unwelcome in so many homes. Everywhere in society today there is a hidden war going on, a war against life. So many little souls are desecrated. And of those who are not prevented by contraception from entering the world, how many are callously destroyed by abortion!
The prevalence of abortion in our society is so great that it makes Herod’s slaughter of the Innocents tame in comparison. Abortion is murder – there are no exceptions. If there were, the message of the gospels would be inconsistent and meaningless. Even the Old Testament makes it clear that God hates the shedding of innocent blood (Prov. 6:16–17). Abortion destroys life and mocks God, in whose image every unborn baby is created.
In the Old Testament there are numerous passages that speak of God’s active presence in every human life, even while it is still being formed in the womb. In Genesis 4:1 after Eve conceives and gives birth to Cain, she says, “With the help of the Lord, I have brought forth a man.” She does not say, “With the help of Adam,” but “with the Lord.”
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What Two Gilded Age Christian Socialists Would Say to Evangelicals Today
These Gilded Age Christians would challenge us to examine the roots of our dearly held individualism critically. Rogers and Ely stressed a fraternity and equality based in their Christian anthropology — an understanding of humanity’s deep solidarity as divine image bearers. Given how many Christians around the world routinely vote for various social democratic parties, the politics of American evangelicals may be rooted today more in their Americanness than in their theology.
The rehabilitation of socialism’s reputation among Millennials and Gen Z has grabbed the attention of political analysts in recent years: “Socialism as Popular as Capitalism Among Young Adults in U.S.” (Gallup). “Majority of Gen Z Americans Hold Negative Views of Capitalism” (Newsweek). “Young Americans Increasingly Prefer Socialism” (Heritage). It’s surprising. Wasn’t the long debate between free markets and socialism resolved in 1989 with the fall of the Berlin Wall? Wasn’t Karl Marx relegated once and for all to history’s dustbin?
What does this mean for American Christians? Few religious traditions have been as wedded to capitalist principles as American Protestants in the twentieth century. Evangelical thought and practice often mirror free enterprise’s elevation of the self-reliant individual and its fear of intrusive government. Just mentioning socialism or social justice leads to heated debates and threatens to split churches along generational lines.
There was a time when conversations about socialism weren’t as controversial among orthodox Christians. Before American Protestantism was polarized into liberal and conservative, there was a period of ferment during the Gilded Age (1865–1900) when economic, social, and political positions hadn’t yet hardened. Inspired by an earlier, mid-century English movement of Anglican clerics, and by recent labor unrest, a small circle of American Protestants began to explore the affinity between Christian and socialist ideas.
The energetic Episcopal priest, W. D. P. Bliss organized the short-lived Society of Christian Socialists in 1889, and some American Protestants even spoke at gatherings where speakers argued fervently for building a cooperative commonwealth on biblical principles. These Christians’ case for an egalitarian communitarianism invoked Moses and Jesus, rather than Karl Marx, and their arguments are worth revisiting. Indeed, their arguments anticipated C.S. Lewis’s overlooked observation in Mere Christianity (1952) that the New Testament’s social ideal looked “very socialistic.”
In a day when there’s a socialist revival among young people, understanding the perspectives of these Christian socialists from history is more than an antiquarian curiosity.
Edward H. Rogers
One Christian socialist addressed the ecumenical Evangelical Alliance at its Washington, D.C. meeting in 1887. Edward H. Rogers was a Methodist layman, shipyard worker, and Boston labor organizer. He’d led efforts to organize the Christian Labor Union that met in Boston’s famous Park Street Church.
As Rogers stepped to the podium for a session titled “Relation of the Church to the Capital and Labor Question,” he began not with tales of oppression or economic commentary but with a message about Christology from John 1. Most Protestants focused on Christ as a personal Savior and emphasized his identity as Prophet, Priest, and King, but John stressed that “all things were made by him” (John 1:3). Rogers emphasized that as the incarnate agent of Creation, Jesus is “the Master Workman of the laboring classes.” He also pointed out how the Gospels disparaged workers being reduced to “hirelings,” dependent wage earners with little personal investment in their work.
Having laid this theological foundation for Christian socialism, Rogers turned to analyze the current economic crisis and its social costs. Subsistence wages paid to industrial workers confirmed for Rogers the error of treating human labor as an abstract commodity. Wage competition led employers to not adjust wages for marital status or number of dependents. The result was the “break down of the family.” The new social sciences helped Rogers see these broader consequences of worsening inequality, and he believed that they appeared, in fact, to “confirm the doctrine of the Bible.”
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