Toby J. Sumpter's Blog

Thanksgiving 2025
Js. 4:1-10

Prayer: Father, we live in a world infested with envy, and it is causing strife in our families, our communities, and our nation. So we ask for more grace. We ask for the kind of grace that would fill us with deep gratitude, so that you might raise us up to positions of leadership. We ask in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Introduction
In the first century just after Jesus ascended into heaven, the unbelieving Jews murdered Stephen, and Saul of Tarsus was breathing threats against the Christians in every city. The temptation to go dark was great. The Christians were hated, lied about, and mistreated. It would have felt very justified to bitterly hate those Jewish zealots (and their Roman collaborators), and James says to have done so would be to join their carnal, devilish ways.

James writes to remind us all that God has determined to conquer this dark world with His grace. This seems counter-intuitive. Grace means mercy for the wicked. God justifies the ungodly. God’s plan was to save the leader of that violence and evil. True grace has a backbone, but it is a radical, humiliating grace. Grace humiliates all human pride. This is the wisdom of God and the ground of all Christian gratitude.

The Text: “From whence come wars and fightings among you? Come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain…” (Js. 4:1-10)

Summary of the Text
Why do people fight and argue, and why does it sometimes turn violent? James says that it is rooted fundamentally in our desires (Js. 4:1). Apparently things had gotten so bad that some had even killed because these desires were consuming them (Js. 4:2). James says that even though they are praying, even their prayers are infected with this evil (Js. 4:3). He calls these Christians adulterers and adulteresses (indicating that it was men and women) because they were embracing the demonic powerplays of the world, just like Israel of old, but this actually makes them God’s enemies (Js. 4:4, cf. Hos. 3). James asks whether the Scriptures teach this theme of spiritual and political adultery in vain? (Js. 4:5) (The whole Old Testament is about this theme.) He asks: does the Spirit that dwells in us really lust with that kind of envy (Js. 4:5)? Of course the answer is an emphatic “no.” 

But the Spirit doesn’t just leave us to our lusts and desires: He doesn’t leave us in that dark place to be consumed. He gives more grace, especially to the humble (Js. 4:5-6). This humility submits to God, resists devilish tactics, draws near to God, and confesses all sin (Js. 4:7-8). This humility results in true sorrow over sin and expects God to grant cleansing and exaltation (Js. 4:9-10). 

Politics of Envy
In the New Testament, “envy” is closely associated with zeal and indignation. Stephen says that the sons of Jacob were driven by zeal/envy in their persecution of their little brother Joseph (Acts 7:9). In Thessalonica, the Jews were moved with zeal/envy and teamed up with “certain lewd fellows of the baser sort” and assaulted the house of Jason (Acts 17:5). Paul says that the unbelieving Jews have “zeal without knowledge” (Rom. 10:2), and he recalls that before he met Christ he was so zealous he persecuted the church (Phil. 3:6). In Acts 5:17, the high priest and Sadducees are filled with “indignation” [zeal/envy] and threw the apostles into prison. So envy is closely associated with what feels or even looks like a righteous indignation and zeal but is driven by a deep malice and bitterness and therefore often turns violent. 

But how is envy like zeal or righteous indignation? James says that our wars and fights come from our lusts and desires that are twisted (Js. 4:1-3). They are twisted by a counterfeit “wisdom” that is earthly, sensual, and devilish (Js. 3:15). So envy is an intense desire that has been twisted. But a desire or ambition for what? Envy is twisted desire for justice. Of course envy/jealousy can be simple covetousness – wanting what other people have (greed), but the most twisted forms of envy are done up in the drag of righteous indignation: “they are misusing that gift!” “they are being evil!” This malicious envy hates what “they” are doing with that money/influence/power, and the implication is that if you had it, you wouldn’t misuse it. You would use that money/influence/power/job/etc. for “good.” 

Righteous indignation tempts men to justify bitter malice. It lusts to take power, in order (it tells itself) to stop evil and do good. But James says that is a kind of spiritual/political adultery. You are lusting for pagan power. Your desire is being twisted by a wisdom that is earthly, sensual, and devilish (Js. 3:15). And James says you can tell by the foul words that often accompany it (Js. 3:8-11).

He Gives More Grace
But God gives more grace. God gives more grace to foul mouths and dark hearts. God gives grace to the bitter, the angry, the violent, the devilish. And the offer of grace is the offer of true exaltation and glory (Js. 4:6, 10). One of the central marks of the devil is despair, and despair often turns bitter and furious. But God gives more grace.  

God gives grace to the humble – those who submit themselves to God. The opposite of despair is deep gratitude. “In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you” (1 Thess. 5:18). “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” (Phil. 4:6 ESV). Fight bitterness by thanking God for your circumstances and all the challenges. You can tell the difference between truly righteous indignation and the kind that is turning dark and bitter by whether you can truly give thanks for the circumstances.

Resist the devil and cleanse your hands (Js. 4:7-9). These go together: you resist the devil by confessing your sins quickly. Do not let the sun go down on your anger, or leave room for the devil (Eph. 4:26-27). Check your heart: “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you” (Mt. 5:44). Do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good (Rom. 12:21). The power of the devil is specifically through the power of the fear of death, but Christ broke that power through His death and the forgiveness of our sins (Heb. 2:14-15, Col. 2:14-15). So mourn and confess your sins and cleanse your hands and hearts. Get rid of all bitterness so you can resist the devil.

Conclusion
This “lifting up” includes being lifted up to positions of true authority and power. Joseph was lifted up and seated next to Pharoah. Daniel and his friends were lifted up in Babylon and Persia. After many years on the run, David was lifted up and the kingdom was united under him. And of course Jesus Christ who humbled Himself to become a man was crucified for our sins – sins He didn’t commit, and He was raised from the dead and lifted to the Father’s right hand and given the name above every name. While we were His enemies, Christ died for us. Never forget this. God saves His enemies. 

This is the wisdom of the gospel, the wisdom of God, which is a stumbling block to Jews and complete folly to Greeks (and Americans). We do believe that we will win. The Kingdom of God will win. And I believe we have good reason to hope that America will turn back to Christ. But that is the only way. We will win because Christ has won. And this is not some kind of hyper-spiritualized vision. All the nations will come and worship before Him. 

Therefore, our zeal and our longing must be calibrated to this mission. And when it is, there is no room for apathy and what grows up instead is a far greater ambition. The problem with carnal wisdom and bitter envy is that its vision is far too small. But grace is expansive and full of gratitude.

Prayer: Father, I ask that you would root out all the bitterness in our hearts. And I pray that you would root out the bitterness that likes to pretend that it is just righteous indignation, righteous anger, which is really just malice and envy and wrath. Father, I pray that in its place would be deep gratitude, and I pray that our Thanksgiving celebrations would be sweeter and more potent than ever because You give more grace. And we ask in Jesus’ name who taught us to pray…

Mt. 19:3-9

Prayer: Father, we know that there is great turmoil in our land particularly on this subject of marriage, divorce, and remarriage, and so we ask Your Holy Spirit to come now and apply Your life-giving word to our lives so that we might see clearly, understand rightly, and obey You in all things. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Introduction
We live in the ruins of a great civilization that was built in many ways by faithful men and women, who kept their marriage vows. Nevertheless in fallen world, sin will wreak havoc, and we need to know what to do when sin happens. The fundamental duty is confession of sin and forgiveness in the gospel, but marriage is a public covenant and therefore sometimes there are public ramifications for certain sins.  

The Text: “The Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him, and saying unto him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause?…” (Mt. 19:3-9)

Summary of the Text
The Pharisees were not honest inquirers, and they tried to draw Jesus into a trap by asking Him about a long stand controversy in Judaism, over whether Dt. 24:1 taught that men could divorce their wives for “any cause” as well as “sexual immorality” (Mt. 19:3). Jesus responded by going back to the creation of marriage, grounded in the creation of man and woman in the image of God, and the way God makes two into one (Mt. 19:4-6). Still wanting to quarrel over the law, the Pharisees pressed Jesus on Dt. 24, and Jesus said that the law allowed for divorce because of the “hardness of your hearts.” But He insisted that the law was only ever intended to allow for divorce for sexual immorality – other causes turn remarriage into adultery (Mt. 19:7-9). 

Overview of Divorce & Remarriage
The Bible teaches that marriage is a human covenant that God established at creation (Gen. 2, Mal. 2:14). But like other human covenants (e.g. civil covenants), it is a covenant that can be broken, but when it is broken, unlike a mere contract, it is always violent (Mal. 2:16). Sometimes it is allowed or even necessary, but it is always painful and traumatic. 

The Bible gives two basic grounds for divorce and remarriage, with a couple of subcategories. Those two categories are sexual immorality and desertion (WCF XXIV. 5, 6). Jesus speaks very clearly to the ground of sexual immorality, and that was the original ground that Moses allowed (Dt. 24:1). This can apply to undisclosed sexual immorality from before a marriage or overt adultery during the marriage, which can include persistent and unrepentant pornography (Mt. 5:28).  

As for desertion, in Ex. 21:10-11, the law limited polygamy by allowing that if a man took a second wife and did not provide food, clothing, and marriage rights for the first wife she was free to go. Likewise, in Eph. 5:28-29, it says that a man must care for his wife as his own body, which includes food and clothing at bare minimum. So the argument is that if a man willfully deserts his wife or utterly refuses to fulfill his covenant obligations, it may amount to desertion. Sexual refusal of a wife could amount to the same thing (1 Cor. 7:3-5).

In 1 Cor. 7:10-11, allowance is made for separation without remarriage. This seems to have been what Jesus meant when He said that Moses allowed for divorce because of the “hardness of hearts.” In that case, Jesus made it clear that if someone in that circumstance proceed to remarry someone else, they would be committing adultery (Mt. 19:9). When that happens, a new covenant has been formed (even if illicitly), and while the sin should be confessed, the new marriage should be honored – a spouse should not divorce and return to the previous spouse (Dt. 24:3-4). 

When a believer is married to an unbeliever, Scripture encourages the believer to remain married in order to be a godly influence on the unbelieving spouse and any children (1 Cor. 7:12-16). But if the unbeliever is not pleased to dwell with the believing spouse, the believer may let the unbelieving spouse depart, and the believer is not under bondage to that marriage and may remarry (1 Cor. 7:15). Of course if a spouse dies, the marriage covenant is also dissolved, and the living spouse is free to remarry in the Lord (1 Cor. 7:39).

Studying Arguments
The Westminster Confession wisely notes that “the corruption of man… is apt to study arguments unduly to put asunder those whom God hath joined together in marriage…” And it adds that when it comes to these things “the persons concerned in it [should] not [be] left to their own wills, and discretion…” 

From all of this, we can see that divorce and remarriage have been topics fraught with corruption from the beginning. After sin entered the world, sin introduced rivalry between the first man and his wife: “thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee” (Gen. 3:16). What was intended by God to be an ordered relationship of immense blessing is frequently twisted by sin into less than the glory it was designed for. And sinful men and women are “apt to study arguments” whether scheming to break covenant and commit adultery or at the very least to merely justify their various causes and blame one another (cf. Gen. 3:12). 

In our day, we have the mess of pornography, sexual perversions, no-fault divorce, and the great heresy of feminism. Broadly speaking, western men made a deal with the devil and took the offer of free and easy sex in exchange for women running everything (leaving neither men nor women happy), creating what some have called the “longhouse” effect, turning many of our cultural institutions feminine. 

God create women to be naturally far more concerned about relationships; and God created men to be naturally far more concerned about accomplishing a mission. These are glorious tendencies and gifts in their rightful places, but for example when judges are more concerned about sympathizing with criminals than executing strict justice, crime and violence spread (Dt. 19:13, 21, Eccl. 8:11). When churches are more concerned about unity than truth, heresy and immorality infect the congregation (Jude 3-4, 2 Tim. 3:1-9). 

Conclusions
In the face of all our arguments, Jesus points us to God’s creation order, which points us to Christ, the perfect husband (Eph. 5). While we are naturally much like the Pharisees trying to trick the answers we want out of Scripture, Jesus refuses to let us off the point: God created us for something better. Male and female is glory. And while we have all sinned and fallen short of that glory, Christ came to restore that glory. While fornicators, adulterers, effeminate men, and sodomites will not inherit the Kingdom of God, such were some of you, and Christ came to wash you clean and justify you by His Spirit (1 Cor. 6:9-11). 

The only way out of this mess is through this gospel, but it cannot be a gospel that is merely thought in your head or warms your heart. It must be a gospel that comes out of your fingertips. It must be gospel obeyed in every area of life (cf. Rom. 10:16, 2 Thess. 1:8). How is the gospel obeyed? It is obeyed by faith, but this is not a dead faith – it is a living faith, a faith that works by love (Gal. 5:6). And what does it do? It gives men power to imitate the love of Christ who laid His life down for His bride, suffering for sins He did not commit in order to make her lovely. And it gives women power to imitate the glory of the church, who submits to Christ in everything. 

In Psalm 128, which we sing a lot around here, it literally says, “Happy is everyone that fears the Lord and walks in His ways.” Happy. And then it says it again in the next verse: “You will eat the labor of your hands, and you will be happy.” Same word. This is a call back to Psalm 1, the introduction to the whole Psalter: “Happy is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stand in the way of sinners, or sit in the seat of the scornful.” All of those options are not just wrong; they are lame. They are a drag. They are not any fun. But God’s ways are fruitful and happy. Meditating on the law of God day and night is not drudgery; it’s not boring. It is the water of life; it is Ent-water that makes you grow like a tree. And it makes you fruitful in every season. That means you’re happy in every season. 

Why? Psalm 128 says this happiness flows from the satisfaction of enjoying the fruit of your labors, a wife like a fruitful vine adorning your house, and children like olive plants all around your table. Happiness is hard, productive work, a fruitful wife, and children around your table. Behold, this is how a man is blessed who fears the Lord, and then to see that blessing, that happiness, bestowed on your children and grandchildren. That is the good life, the happy life. 

Benjamin Franklin said that wine is a constant proof that God loves us and loves to see us happy. He was channelling Psalm 104 which says that God gave wine to make the heart of man glad, oil to make our faces shine, and bread to make our hearts strong (Ps. 104:15). So when Jesus came, it is no accident at all that His first miracle was at a wedding, and His first miracle was turning water into wine. And it says that Jesus did this first miracle in order to manifest His glory. What is that glory that He manifest? Glory makes things shine. Glory makes everyone say, “Wow.” Glory is beauty. Glory is achievement. Glory is stunning. This is why Scripture says that the whole earth is full of God’s glory. It is His masterpiece. He made the beauty of colors and music and taste and smell; but He also made the glory of nuclear power and radio waves and electricity and cell phones. And we’ve only just scratched the surface. 

In the beginning, God created the universe, and He put Adam in a garden and gave him a treasure map. He told Adam that the river that flowed out of the garden parted into four heads: the first one went down to the land of Havilah where there was gold, and the gold of that land was good, and there were also bdellium and onyx stones. And then there were three more rivers: two of them went to other lands that God named Ethiopia and Assyria, and the fourth was left as a complete mystery. In other words, in the beginning God made man and called him to explore. God called Adam to the glory and joy of adventure. This is the happiness of eating the fruit of your labors. It is the happiness of exploring the rivers, finding the gold, and bringing some of it home.

One modern example of this is the fact that nearly all modern microchips and semiconductors are made out of silicon – which is why we call that part of California where so much modern technology has been invented “Silicon Valley.” But did you know the silicon is basically found in sand? In fact, it’s the second most common element on earth, right after oxygen. What was down those rivers? Silicon for cell phones. What was down those rivers? Glory. 

But happiness and glory are compounded in community. We all know this. You see something amazing. You find something amazing, and your first instinct is to tell someone else about it. This is why we have “share” buttons on everything. This is because shared delight, shared joy multiplies the happiness exponentially. This is part of why it is not good for man to be alone. Happiness is not merely the adventure of hard work; happiness is bringing home some of the fruit of that labor to share with your wife and your children. Look babe, silicon!

Sin is what destroys this happiness, but Jesus came to restore our joy. Jesus came, and the first thing He did was make wine at a wedding. Jesus came to restore fellowship between human beings, to restore the blessing of work and marriage and family. Jesus came to restore the glory of the adventurous good life. To paraphrase Franklin, Jesus’ first miracle is a constant proof that God loves us and loves to see us happy. And it’s no accident that Jesus turned the Jewish water of purification into wine. By the blood of His cross, Jesus has washed away all our sins; He has purified us of all our failures. And His blood is now proclaimed in the wine of communion. His blood is our joy. His blood reconciles our enmity. His blood pays our debts and covers our shame, so that we can get back to work. And He is risen from the dead so that we can get back into the joy. 

So Cole, my charge to you is to be a happy husband. Be happy in your work. Be happy in your wife. And be happy in the pile of kids we trust God will bless you with. But this happiness is only possible if you fear the Lord and walk in His ways. If you fear man, if you fear your wife, if you fear economic disaster or cultural collapse, you will take your eyes off Jesus and then you won’t be able to walk on the water with Him. The central assignment the Bible gives husbands is to love their wife. This means you must seek to understand Emma, and even when you don’t, cheerfully keep trying. This also means you must lead her toward Christ and holiness, which is to say happiness. Another way to say all of this is that you must imitate Christ who brought the wine to the party. But ultimately, He did this by laying His life down for His bride. So you must do the same for Emma until you die. 

Emma, my charge to you is to be a happy wife. You’ve probably heard the saying, “happy wife; happy life.” But it often gets twisted into making everything orient to the wife, but even if you might selfishly want that, you will never be happy like that. No, God created the universe such that a man must be oriented to Christ and His mission under Christ, and that a woman is most happy when she is oriented to Christ by being oriented to her husband. Your main assignment is to respect your husband. A lot of Christian women think that this means doing what they would find helpful. But it turns out men really are from Mars and women are from Venus. In other words, what a woman finds helpful is often interpreted by men as disrespectful. This often comes in the form of words: what a woman thinks is just reminding or encouraging easily comes off as nagging and Proverbs says that a woman can do great harm this way. This is why Peter says that a woman ought to try to win her disobedient husband over without a word and by her gracious and submissive spirit, which is lovely in the sight of God. This really is challenging because every woman is married to a fallible, fallen man. But you need to know that your gracious respect of Cole will be a way more powerful in ministry than piles of reminders and exhortations. 

And through the wine of the gospel you’ll both be a lot more happy. 

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Amen. 

Photo by Samsung Memory US on Unsplash

Rom. 13:1-2

Prayer: God, our Father, we live in a land that has experienced Your astonishing blessing, and we confess that in many ways we have thrown it all away. We know that this is fundamentally because we have not heeded Your Word, submitting to Your authority. But we are here now to hear and obey, so grant a great Reformation in our nation, beginning with us. In Jesus name, Amen. 

Introduction
Liberty is not the freedom to do whatever you want. Humanistic lusts always end in tyranny, slavery, and destruction. Liberty is the freedom to obey God, to live according to His law under His blessing. Liberty is doing what you were made for. This begins with conversion to Christ and the gift of self-government by the Holy Spirit. Which is why the tip of the spear when fighting for liberty in any nation is the preaching of the gospel, preaching conversion to Christ. 

But when individuals are converted to Christ, they begin to build truly free societies based on the Word of God, which subvert the tyrannical tendencies of paganism. Therefore, the foundational governments that God has established of family, church, and state are the foundational checks and balances that limit human tyranny and truly set men free. It all begins with conversion to Christ and self-government, but apart from these institutions fully functioning, human power tends to consolidate and swallow up the others. Men tend toward Babel, apart from the Holy Spirit and these powers checking one another. In many respects, the 16th century Reformation was a restoration of the family and state to check the power of the Roman Church. In our day, we need a restoration of the family and church to check the power of the state. 

The Text: “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation” (Rom. 13:1-2).

Summary of the Text
Our text charges every soul to be subject to the higher authorities, which incidentally includes all higher authorities (Rom. 13:1). All authorities have their authority assigned by God and the Lord Jesus Christ, Who is the only One who has been given all authority in Heaven and on Earth (Rom. 13:1, Mt. 28:18). Resisting lawful authority is therefore resisting God and therefore is asking for God’s judgment (Rom. 13:2). And again, this includes authorities themselves: they must not resist their assignments or the assignments God has given to other authorities — otherwise they are asking for damnation (Rom. 13:2).

Delegated & Limited Authority
Remember that the Apostle Paul was a deft theologian who had something of a rap sheet. What he is explaining here is nothing other than what he lived out in all his run-ins with religious and political authorities. While Romans 13 has sometimes been abused to justify tyrannical authority, it is actually an incredibly freeing text and is one of the great Biblical texts insisting on limited government. 

God has established three primary “higher authorities” in the world: parents, elders, and magistrates, establishing the governments of family, church, and state. Because these governments have their power from God, they do not have the freedom to redefine their assignments or jurisdictions – that would be resisting God and asking for His judgment (Rom. 13:2). This also means that each government is required to respect the jurisdictions of the other governments: parents, elders, and magistrates must be subject to one another in their respective jurisdictions (Rom. 13:1). A church that meddles in family matters is being tyrannical just as a magistrate who meddles in church matters is being tyrannical. There are sometimes matters that fall on the line or necessarily involve multiple jurisdictions, and in those cases God requires wisdom, taking responsibility, and careful delineation of duties. 

Family Government
God has assigned to parents and families the jurisdiction of education and discipleship of children as well as caring for the basic welfare of the family (food, clothing, housing) and health care provision and decisions (Dt. 6, Eph. 5-6, 1 Tim. 5). This is why it was tyrannical for magistrates (or pastors) to try to force health care decisions during COVID. This is fundamentally why we object to government schools, government funding of private schools, as well as all other socialized forms of welfare and health care. It is disobedience to God because God has not assigned that authority to the civil magistrate. It is also inefficient, ineffective, and will always ultimately trend violent. Remember that taxes always come with the threat of coercion. In Scripture, Samuel warned the people that if they demanded a king like the other nations he would tax them up to 10% (1 Sam. 8). The implication is that a magistrate who taxes as much as God’s tithe is setting himself up as a god. That level of taxation is also an inherent attack on the government of the family, stealing what God intends to build the wealth and power and influence of families. 

The Church is to be the backup support for the family (1 Tim. 5). While we may be grateful for all the rumbling about “school choice,” the goal we have to keep our eyes on is true liberty, which is families using their own money to fund their own educational choices, and churches and local communities helping (freely), not government funded “choice” via coercive taxes and wealth redistribution. The recent Idaho legislation is a tax credit, which means it is taking other peoples’ money and giving it to other people. We can be thankful that some folks may be able to get out of government schools, but it’s not yet truly freedom in education. 

Civil Government
The magistrate’s primary assignment is the executing of God’s wrath on evildoers with the sword of justice (Rom. 13:4). This is a ministry of violence, which is why Christians must always think in terms of “limited government.” This justice is to be blind and impartial (Dt. 1:17), and it is to be based on due process (two or three witnesses) and strict retribution without pity (“eye for eye”) (Dt. 19:21). Incidentally, this is why you don’t want the civil government running health care or education: it will always trend violent. In every nation where socialized medicine takes root, give it fifteen minutes, and they start talking about euthanasia. 

This violent ministry establishes the biblical legitimacy of the death penalty, especially for murder (Gen. 9:6). What Jesus prohibits is personal vengeance, but elsewhere He upholds the legitimacy of the death penalty (Mk. 7:10). We see the same principle at work in Romans 12-13: if your enemy has broken into your shop and you caught him and he’s thirsty, give him something to drink and call the cops. 

By the same token, the Bible prohibits families from carrying out civil penalties (Dt. 21:18-21), and therefore, neither may the church. The standard for good and evil is God’s moral law found in the Ten Commandments and in the way those principles are applied in Old Testament civil law – what the Westminster Confession calls, “the general equity.”

Church Government
The church is assigned the authority of preaching, administering the sacraments, and church discipline (Mt. 28:19-20, 16:18-19, 18:15-20). The center of this is Lord’s Day worship, and this is why churches must guard against multiplying too many ministries or programs. This means teaching the whole Bible and applying it to all of life – and that requires constant teaching, preaching, writing, explaining – which is why we have given ourselves to this work in our community, but this does not mean micro-managing politicians or families in the assignments God has given to them. 

This is why we insist that the separation of church and state is actually a biblical and Christian idea, not the invention of humanists. What they want is a separation of God and state, but that is to resist God and invite His judgment (Rom. 13:2). There is a long and glorious prophetic tradition where God’s ministers declare to kings and magistrates “thus says the Lord,” and we fully intend to carry on that tradition (e.g. Nathan, Elijah, John the Baptist, etc.). 

Sins vs. Crimes
An important distinction that Christians need to keep in mind is the difference between sins and crimes. The reason this distinction matters in the first instance is because it identifies whose jurisdiction we’re talking about. Moral and religious people have a bad habit wanting to turn every bad thing into a crime, but crimes are the jurisdiction of the civil government. However, not all bad things are the jurisdiction of the civil government and therefore not all bad things are crimes (or should be). When the problem is poor education or health care, Christians should not be looking to the civil government for solutions, except in so far as we are asking the state to get out of the way. Christian families and businesses should be looking to solve those problems.

For example, covetousness is a sin, but it is not a crime. Hate is a sin, but it is not a crime, until or unless it turns into murder, theft, etc. Drunkenness is a sin, but we should have never passed the 18th Amendment. Sins are the jurisdiction of individuals, families, and churches, generally depending on the severity of the sin. We see this distinction first introduced in the Mosaic law: crimes may be generally identified as requiring restitution or violent punishment (“eye for eye”). But there are a number of commands in the Mosaic law that have no penalty attached them and there are others that only require ceremonial rites (washing, sacrifice, etc.). In a godly land, all crimes would be defined by Scripture and would also be sins, but not all sins would be crimes. 

Conclusion
The central claim of the Christian faith is that Jesus is Lord. He is Lord because He is God and because He died for our sins and rose from the dead, triumphing over sin, death, and the devil. To say that Jesus is Lord is to say that He is Lord of all lords and King of all kings. This means that all authority is derived and delegated and therefore limited by Him personally and covenantally – beginning with self-government. 

In other words, no human government is absolute. All human authority answers to Christ, and all human authority is required to answer to the other human authorities in the jurisdictions Christ has assigned. Every soul is to be subject to the higher powers: family power, church power, and civil power. Why? Because Jesus Christ is Lord. And for the same reason, when powers overstep their authority, “rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.” The Lordship of Jesus Christ is the foundation of all true liberty.

Prayer: Father, teach us to fully submit to Christ so that we may live in true freedom. Grant us this liberty in our land, as we take up the responsibilities You have given to us. And we ask for this Reformation in the name of Christ…

Photo by Vinayak Sharma on Unsplash

Introduction
This last weekend has reminded me of the necessity of classical education and of the fact that we still have work to do, speaking of which, I look forward to seeing many of you in Nashville next week. So last Friday I posted an article entitled “Israel is Our Apostate Brother,” and as I told one friend, it was like catnip for internet anons. And let me be clear, I don’t mind the honest questions at all. I don’t mind even very direct disagreement that engages the actual arguments. Happy to spar. But the funny thing was the number of unhinged comments, completely disconnected from reality. I lost track of how many comments accused me of taking money from Israel. There were other comments speculating that said-non-existent-money was how Canon Press was able to offer 10 Million for Christianity Today (ha!). Other comments accused me of “shilling for Israel” and spouting “Zionist slop” and “selling my soul.” 

But look, if I had to guess, most of those comments are coming from people who have listened to three podcasts about alleged Israeli corruption and interference in American politics (OK, maybe four). But here’s the deal: when I visited Israel, I was meeting with conservative Jews who *acknowledge* Israeli corruption. They were not hiding the fact that Israel has been dominated by progressive and globalist socialists. They actually invited one such member of the Knesset to talk to us so we could hear directly from the horse’s mouth. 

I was invited to Israel because these conservative Jews know that there is deep state corruption and conspiracies in both of our nations, and they want our respective nations to be truly free, independent, and self-determining. They are Israeli/Jewish nationalists who want to establish an Israel-First doctrine, even as they want and respect the need for America to be America-First (and Christian). These are conservative Jews who would want to see all the ponzi-cash games and blackmail to stop. 

But I Repeat Myself
What I wrote in my article is that Israel is a cut-off natural branch, a disinherited old covenant brother. And the only way back into God’s blessing is through Jesus the Messiah. I don’t know how to be more clear than that. My *only* point was to take Paul’s language in Romans 11 seriously: “As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers’ sakes. For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance” (Rom. 11:28-29). Yes, I fully realize that some good Reformed brothers take the central claim of Romans 11 — of a re-grafting-in of Jews into the covenant vine as something that already happened in the first century AD, prior to the destruction of the temple. But you should know that the futurist position has been a mainstream view in the Reformed tradition. If what I wrote is shilling for Israel and you call yourself Reformed, you’re accusing much of your own tradition. And this tradition is not dispensationalist. Let me repeat that: I’m not a dispensationalist. I’m what I guess you could call a “soft supersessionist.”

But even if you take the “in-grafting” of Romans 11 as already fulfilled, I’m still not sure how Romans 11:28-29 can possibly mean that modern Jews are absolutely no different than any other pagan: “The gifts and calling of God are without repentance.” Some translations say “irrevocable.” How can they be “irrevocable” if they were in fact “revoked” at 70 AD? Israel lived in exile in the Old Covenant for hundreds of years without temple, without sacrifices, and yet God restored them. Why couldn’t He restore them to Himself after thousands of years, if they turn to Christ?

At any rate, I also wrote that as with any apostate family member or friend, the apostasy really matters. Given the apostasy, there would be any number of tensions, disagreements, and perhaps even periods of time where there was little-to-no contact. How could this be taken as anything other than implying the same thing about modern Jews and the modern nation of Israel? And while I agree that Jews and the modern nation state of Israel are not necessarily synonymous, they do heavily overlap. To the extent that Israel self-consciously considers itself Jewish, that overlap is hard to disentangle. Bur regardless, depending on what they’re doing, it could be necessary to oppose them, resist them, reject them, or avoid them entirely. If that’s “shilling for Israel,” that’s some 4D chess for you, and I have no idea how it works. Faithful are the wounds of a true friend, and we are no “friend” of Israel if we do not resist every form of corruption and blasphemy.

And Another Thing
One of the other slanders raised in the aftermath of our recent CrossPolitic episode was that I am calling modern Israel some kind of bulwark against the LGBT movement. Ha. Double ha. A number of “helpful” people have been linking news stories of Pride Parades from Haaretz and other progressive propaganda rags to help me see the error of my ways. Look, I *know* that Israel has been a progressive haven. I acknowledged the Pride Parade in Tel Aviv on our CrossPolitic show. Heck, I saw the Pride flags in Tel Aviv with my own two eyes. But I also saw a Trump flag in Jerusalem, for whatever that’s worth. A bunch of you didn’t listen to the whole show and listened to slander about it and then spread that slander around like a bunch of gullible old ladies. 

What I said was that there is a “conservative resurgence” in Israel that is a frontline against all forms of barbarism — including LGBT perversions in Israel. Slow down and try to breathe: “a conservative resurgence in Israel.” I’m talking about people I met personally who take the 10 Commandments seriously, believe in natural marriage, male and female, the blessing of children, are pro-life, and are working for constitutional law and justice. And what I said on the show was that insofar as global LGBT perversions align with Hamas and Islamic barbarism (witness all the Palestinian flags next to Pride flags), the conservative Israelis are on the front line of that battle. Read my words carefully. Think about what I’m actually saying, not the bad thing you wish I were saying so you could keep screeching. I know there are massive forces of progressive perversion in Israel, and I know that our American progressive perverts are in bed with them (literally and politically and economically). But there are *some* conservative Israelis fighting back. For example, did you know that there is an anti-Pride parade in Jerusalem every year? Don’t you think that matters? Israel also has the highest birthrate among Western nations. Doesn’t that matter at all?

A number of bots (I believe this is the most charitable reading) wondered if I had “kissed the wall” and of course several AI generated photos appeared with yours truly wearing a kipah. But if anyone had cared to actually listen to our CrossPolitic episode on our trip to Israel, you would know that we closed the episode describing the incredibly sad scene at the Western Wall, and how I cannot describe it as anything other than a form of lost superstition. But it is also true that God gave me a deep compassion for the Jews, a deep sorrow for them, and for our friends in particular, a true love for them and prayer for their salvation in Jesus Christ. A bunch of the hysteria surrounding these recent conversations appears to me to be nothing but unfettered rage and hate. If you can’t write a coherent response to a pastor on social media without gnashing your teeth and spitting at your screen, yeah, I’d call that real live antisemitism. And ironically the same “hate” you seem to want to expose in the Jews is growing like a malignant tumor in your own heart. Remember the old saying, bitterness is like eating rat poison and hoping the rat dies. Talk about shilling for Israel, only very ironically.

Conclusion: A Way to Hold it All Together
Look, it’s possible to assume that there is great corruption and conspiracy at the highest levels of societies (CIA, FBI, Mossad), as I do — heck, if there’s a deep state in the US, why wouldn’t there be deep states in other countries, including Israel? It’s possible to believe that, and to also believe that God sits in Heaven and laughs at all their pitiful attempts to conspire against gravity, basic math, and the Lordship of Jesus Christ — as I also firmly believe. This means that Christians should work to expose, resist, and destroy every vestige of that corruption (in America, Israel, England, and wherever we’re entangled), but they should do so while believing that Christ is King and the machinations of men are futile, worthless, and vain. 

And closely related to all of this is the fact that I believe every nation on earth has demented elements that must be resisted, rejected, and destroyed. And I believe that every nation on earth has elements that are either good and glorious or else natural goods that can and should be redeemed. America, England, France, China, and the modern nation of Israel have elements of these things: some true Christian glories, some demented and foul sins and idols, and some natural goods that are not yet redeemed in the blood of Christ. Natural goods are always a bit dicey to praise and affirm. On the one hand, we should be truly grateful for the common grace that allows unbelievers to produce good things for the world, like inordinate numbers of Nobel Peace Prizes. On the other hand, we have to recognize that natural goods are also sources of pride that keep many out of Heaven because they think they don’t need Jesus. So it takes wisdom. By the same token, I can be thankful for Israel’s resistance to Islamic barbarism, and at the same time uneasy about the likelihood of nationalistic hubris that denies the need for Jesus Christ. The true form of every nation is found in Christ, and apart from Christ, no amount of common grace can overcome the demented elements — and that’s true for America, as well as Israel.

Introduction
In these incendiary days, it’s hard to get people to take their own positions seriously. And what I want to talk about is the virtue of natural affection, the Jews, and the nation of Israel. 

In recent years, there has been a resurgence of discussions surrounding the virtue of natural affection, love of family, community, and nation. The Greek word for this is “storge,” and the Bible uses its opposite twice to describe the depravity of man: “without natural affection” (Rom. 1:31, 2 Tim. 3:3). As Paul says, “But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel” (1 Tim. 5:8). In other words, there is a natural instinct to care for those nearest to you that even unbelievers ordinarily understand. 

This natural, instinctive love of families, parents, children, and siblings is part of the foundation for broader societal cohesion. Through covenant bonds in marriage, church, and nation, natural affection is oriented toward higher goods and loves like human friendship, as well as selfless love of enemies, and ultimately God Himself. 

Ruth the Moabitess famously expresses this natural affection bound by God’s covenant with Israel: “for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God: Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried” (Ruth 1:16-17). 

However, in some of these conversations, the discussion has turned strangely bitter and dark, or as some of us have taken to calling it “dank.”

Our Older Covenant Brother
If we are to take the virtue of “natural affection” seriously, it really must be part of our conversation surrounding our relationship to Israel and the Jews because the Bible teaches that the Jews are our apostate older brother. 

In the parable of the Prodigal Son, the story’s glorious ending is cut off in something of a cliff hanger with the stubborn refusal of the older brother to enter into the celebration. While there are any number of applications, one of the clear points of the parable is that the Gentiles are the younger prodigal brother who wasted God’s gifts in riotous, sinful living for centuries, but they are coming into the Messiah’s kingdom ahead of the Jews, who are offended by God’s mercy and grace. “And he was angry, and would not go in: therefore came his father out, and intreated him…” (Lk. 15:28). 

In the other parable with two sons, Jesus explicitly ties it to sinners and the Jewish leaders: one son says he will obey but then doesn’t; the other son says he will not obey but then changes his mind and obeys. And Jesus explains the parable, “Verily I say unto you, that the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you. For John came unto you in the way of righteousness, and ye believed him not: but the publicans and the harlots believed him: and ye, when ye had seen it, repented not afterward, that ye might believe him” (Mt. 21:31-32). 

Romans 11 explains this situation the same way: “As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers’ sakes. For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance” (Rom. 11:28-29). The Jews are enemies concerning the gospel, but they are beloved because of the fathers – which fathers? Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And those fathers have now become our fathers in the covenant. 

Romans 11 says the Jews are natural branches that were cut out of the covenant vine. Believing Gentiles are wild branches that have been grafted into the vine. This image is describing something like adoption. God’s natural son, unbelieving Israel, is currently estranged and disinherited, and His adopted son, the Gentile Nations, have been welcomed home by faith in Jesus Christ. This really is amazing grace.

But Paul says there is no room for boasting against those branches that were cut out, since God can still remove fruitless, arrogant Gentile branches, and he says that those apostate branches are still “natural” branches. Don’t miss that word “natural.” And Paul underlines his point explaining that when Jews believe in Christ, they take to the vine far more easily: “For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?” (Rom. 11:24, my emphasis)

Putting this Together
So the Bible teaches that the Jews are our apostate older brother. Imagine your own older brother grows up in the faith and apostatizes. Apostacy means someone has fallen away or rejected a faith formerly embraced. In this case, we are referring to the covenant of God, which the Jews were members of until they rejected Jesus as the Messiah. 

Obviously, depending on any number of details, you may or may not get along with your estranged, apostate brother, but do you owe your apostate brother anything at all? Is your apostate brother just another random human being in the world? Or does the fact that you are biologically and naturally related still matter even if the relationship is severely strained? The question answers itself. 

Even unbelievers know the answer to that question.

To whatever extent it is possible to honor that natural, familial bond, a Christian ought to seek to do so. This may be as superficial as attending birthday parties, or sending anniversary cards, or civil family gatherings at holidays. Of course this also means certain careful distinctions. Just because you are brothers, doesn’t mean you go along with whatever he says or does. Sometimes it will be necessary to strongly disagree or rebuke or even resist, and there may be periods of silence or no contact at all. Jesus says that loyalty to Him will sometimes seem like hatred of family (Lk. 14:26). And yet, he is your brother for all that. If he were destitute, you would want to do anything you could to provide for him (1 Tim. 5:8). Your heart breaks for the broken fellowship. You pray for his restoration and salvation constantly, and you regularly think about how you might be used by God toward that end.

And so it is with Israel and the Jews. They are enemies for the sake of the gospel, but they are beloved for the sake of our fathers. And because of the virtue of natural affection, we owe them a kind of care that is different from all the other nations of the earth. They are lost; they are apostate apart from faith in Christ. And so like Paul, our hearts should break for them. They were Paul’s kinsmen according to the flesh, and he insists that they are our “kinsmen” according to the old covenant. 

Samuel Rutherford was no dispensationalist, but he understood the situation well, changing the image to that of an older sister: “I could stay out of heaven many years to see that victorious triumphing Lord act that prophesied part of His soul conquering love, in taking into His kingdom the greater Sister, the Jews… Oh, what joy and what glory would I judge it, if my heaven should be suspended till I might have left to run on foot to be a witness of that marriage-glory, and see Christ put on the glory of His last-married bride, and His last marriage love on earth; when He shall enlarge His love-bed, and set it upon the top of the mountains, and take in the Elder Sister, the Jews, and the fulness of the Gentiles!”

Conclusion
Of course there are Jews we must resist and rebuke, and there are no doubt Israeli policies that must likewise be rejected. A bunch of these apostate brothers have run pell-mell into all kinds of pagan and progressive wickedness, and many others are still trying to earn their righteousness by the law and standing like the older brother, fussing outside the party. And if we run the analogy out a little further, it seems that our Father got tired of our older brother’s insolence and kicked him off the family estate for about two thousand years. And now (apparently), since 1948, the Father has allowed him to move back on to the estate. It seems like a perfectly reasonable question to ask how well it can go for him while he is still at odds with our Father.

At the same time, to whatever extent he’s fighting off bad guys that want to destroy all of us, I don’t see any problem thanking him for that. And when some of them win Nobel Peace prizes for breakthroughs in medical science and technology, we ought to acknowledge that and honor them. When some of them work alongside us for the end of sexual confusions and perversions and celebrate natural marriage and the blessing of children, we can and should appreciate that.

But none of this means that Israel should be free to manipulate American domestic or foreign policies (to whatever extent that may or may not be happening). Natural affection means that Christian Americans should be committed to a kind of biblically framed America-first policy, just as a faithful Christian father cares for the needs of his own household first. A man who does not do this is disqualified from pastoral office: for how can a man rule in the church of God who does not rule his own household well (1 Tim. 3:5)? And how can we be very helpful to any other nations, if we do not have our own nation in order?

But just as an estranged brother still bears the family resemblance and even acts in some ways reminiscent of our family culture, out of love and honor for your parents, you would do anything you could to show care and kindness that doesn’t compromise the gospel or other duties, so too, we ought to think, pray, and act, toward our apostate older brother so that he might come home to our Father.

Introduction
It appears to me that we may be living in a post-exile moment. For the last 70 years, America has been in a kind of “exile” of humanistic secularism, but over the last several years, perhaps beginning in earnest during Covid, accelerating in the assassination attempt on Trump, and culminating in Charlie Kirk’s murder and his memorial service, the conservative movement has increasingly insisted that America must return to Christ, that America is and always has been a Christian nation.

The Jewish exile in Babylon and the socio-political dynamics that led to their return to the land seems to me to be one of the more intriguing stories in Scripture. You have Daniel and his three young friends in Babylon early in the exile, standing courageously, exerting a growing influence, no doubt protecting many other exiles. You have the story of Mordecai and Esther saving many Jews and thwarting the plots of Haman. And you have Ezra and Nehemiah leading the return back into the land, rebuilding and renewing covenant with God. And there’s a chance that they all knew one another, or at least overlapped somewhat. There’s a long and tangled debate about the exile and post-exile chronology – who is Cyrus or Artaxerxes or Darius, exactly? And I won’t go into the theories here, but it’s at least possible that some of those names are actually royal titles (like Pharaoh/Caesar) and not proper names, and it’s therefore possible that the “queen” mentioned in Neh. 2:6 is none other than Esther.  

This means that the miracle of the return from exile in Ezra and Nehemiah was a miracle that God worked through the means of a number of different men and women being raised up by God to stand firm in the face of fierce opposition. And it appears that God has been doing something similar for us over the last number of years. Just think about the odd and colorful coalition of voices and figures: Rush Limbaugh (like a voice in the wilderness), Charlie and Erika Kirk, Tucker Carlson, Tulsi Gabbard, Elon Musk, Pete Hegseth, Douglas Wilson, and of course, Donald Trump in the middle of it all. And I’m not assigning any particular parts to any of these characters. As these things go, people can play different parts and blends of parts. And of course there are a multitude of other parts in the background: other podcasts and writers and mothers and pastors and friends. 

A Couple of Lessons
If something like this is correct, there are two main conclusions, I would draw from this lesson. 

First, the need for courage, heroism, and hard work is now. There was not a “breakthrough” moment when all the faithful coasted back into the land and reestablished the kingdom. It was a slog all the way through. From Daniel and his three friends standing faithfully against the constant corruptions of the Babylonian deep state to Esther and Mordecai’s daring exploits to Nehemiah rebuilding the city walls with swords and trowels to Ezra and Haggai and Zechariah teaching, preaching, and admonishing the people: Reformation comes by the work of the Spirit and the sweat, blood, and tears of the faithful. And it’s not just one person; there were thousands upon thousands doing their part faithfully, courageously sacrificing, serving, keeping their hands to the plow, risking lives, livelihoods, and reputations for the glory of God and the restoration of Israel. Our moment calls for the same thing: an uncompromising persistence, pulling toward the goal: all of Christ for all of life, all of Christ for all of America. 

Second, I want to underline a particular part of the persistence required. While God clearly worked through a colorful coalition in those days, and therefore we too need to learn to work with and alongside people that are crusty, creepy, or simply loose cannons (Nebuchadnezzar, Haman, and numerous antagonistic court officials in Babylon, the princes in the land harassing Nehemiah and the people, not to mention the many Jews who themselves often compromised), at the same time, there were numerous principled stands against compromise that could have resulted in death and destruction. This is what God uses. Daniel and the three friends refused the king’s food and wine; the three friends refused to bow to the statue; Daniel refused to stop praying; Esther interceded when it could have cost her life; Nehemiah stood against the enemies in the land; and Ezra rebuked the people for their intermarriage with pagans. 

Conclusion
This moment, this Charlie Kirk moment, has clearly revealed the absolute impotence of the seeker-friendly models of cultural engagement. The David Frenches, Russell Moores, and Rick Warrens of this age sold their principles for seats at the tables of the blind magicians of the king’s court. It is the Daniels that refused the king’s meat who have something to say to the king, and because they refused to compromise, the Elon Musks and Don Jrs. are confessing that the God of Charlie Kirk is the true God of Heaven. Whether or not they truly believe (yet), they can see the difference between integrity and chasing fads. 

This Charlie Kirk Memorial moment seems to me to be the signal to “return to the land.” With the entire presidential cabinet at the memorial, and the President giving his enthusiastic blessing to the whole proceedings, whatever his remaining confusions, whatever the state of his soul before the Lord, our nation just confessed faith in the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. We just recommitted ourselves to be a Protestant Christian nation. And God does not take these things lightly. He takes these things seriously. We just renewed covenant, or at least we said we fully intend to, and the whole world watched and it was glorious. And now we have work to do.

We have many high places that need to be torn down. Now the work begins in earnest. Now we need to rebuild the walls of Christendom, and we have to expect more opposition, more mockery, and all kinds of pressures to slow down, to compromise, to not speak out. This moment still requires wisdom and grace, but it requires even more courage, even more sacrifice, even more hard work, and a certain hard-headed persistence in the work. They will try to get you to come down off the walls, but as Nehemiah insisted, we cannot come down, the work is too great.  

Introduction
Bald-faced evil is always shocking. But this just hits harder.

The crack of a rifle and the slumping over of a 31-year-old husband and father, who has given his life to going to college campuses to engage in open dialogue, free speech, and Christian persuasion – is simply a horrific, unspeakable evil. A good man was intentionally murdered in what appears to be a well-planned assassination in broad daylight, in front of a crowd of thousands, and then, if that were not all evil enough, eruptions of gleeful, frenzied, and delirious celebrations of the murder. A young man willing to talk to anyone, answer anyone’s questions in good faith, and the determination of someone or several someones that it had to be silenced permanently, cheered on with ghoulish delight. 

Evil has tried this before many times, and it has failed every time. It has celebrated with similar repulsiveness. But it still knocks the wind out of you.

Ultimately, what the shooter and his demonic cheerleaders are aiming at is the Triune God. What this Devilish evil really wants is to pull Christ down from His throne and try to crucify Him again. But they can’t, and so they put bullets in the necks of His faithful servants and bay at the moon. But they still haven’t succeeded. Charlie Kirk is more alive now than ever. He was welcomed to the great cloud of witnesses in Heaven. And the Spirit that cleansed and animated him is alive and well in all who believe. Not only that, we know that Christ takes these kinds of attacks personally. When Jesus confronted Saul on the road to Damascus, He asked, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” In the immortal words of Johnny Cash, “Sooner or later, God’ll cut you down.”

You Done Messed Up A-Aron
Right after the obvious grief and sorrow, my next thought has been to think that the Murderous Left has just shot itself. I do not mean that we do not still have much work to do: beef up security, punish crime swiftly, execute murderers, root out all the corruption, defund every vestige of DEI communism, clean up our cities. But I suspect that this evil act will do far more to wake up the Conservative Christian Church than perhaps anything else could. When a young husband and father cannot go on college campuses and share the gospel and talk culture and politics without getting shot, none of us are safe. As a number of people have pointed out, Charlie stood for ordinary Christian Americans; he stood for us, and the Murderous Left just made it clear that they want us all dead-silent.

But there’s no chance of that. The Conservative Christian movement just got ten times stronger, maybe many factors more. And the way that many on the Murderous Left are openly celebrating Charlie Kirk’s death or justifying the violence publicly is only many more nails in their cultural coffin. They will be fired, cancelled, and exiled from polite society. Careers are ending, public shame will descend, and one hopes and prays that at least some of them are delivered from the demonic rage and restored to their right minds through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. Different points of view vigorously defended and debated are welcome — even really wrong ones; celebrating political violence publicly because someone holds a different point of view is nothing short of yelling “fire!” in a crowded theater and ought to be prosecuted as such.

Speaking of our language, we need to keep our eye on this ball. They hate us because of Jesus Christ and His truth. Yes, they are fixated on race and ethnicity and sexuality and income and oppression because they are committed to their atheistic and materialistic religion, but we must not be lured into their rhetorical traps. We can certainly answer their folly, but the fundamental divide is between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent, the children of Abraham and the sons of the Devil. And if Charlie had been black, they would have killed him just the same. They want Clarence Thomas dead too. They hate white people because as it happens the Christian West has been largely white.

Conclusion
We know God doesn’t allow these things without very good reasons. On the one hand, nothing can give a young wife and mother her husband back; nothing can replace the father of two young children, and yet, Jesus Christ is the resurrection and the life. His peace passes all understanding, and He is our infinitely wise Lord and King. We are His servants, His soldiers, and where He commands, we willingly go. And as we go, faith seeks understanding. There will always be elements of providence that we will never understand until we stand before His majesty in glory, but nevertheless, faith leans forward, looking to see what our King is doing. And I think we can see just a little bit at the moment.

Charlie was a good man and a Christian man, and he was at the forefront of engaging our dark culture (college campuses) with the light of Christ. He was hated because of that, and he was killed because of that. And therefore, he should rightly be considered a Christian martyr and a true patriot. He died for his faith in Jesus Christ and his love of our Christian nation.

The first martyr Stephen was killed in Jerusalem, and the disciples were scattered preaching everywhere. The very thing that the Jewish leaders were trying to silence, went viral. And that is what I anticipate here. Nothing can replace Charlie Kirk. He was a unique human being who was a beloved husband, father, son, friend, and leader – whose presence will be sorely missed. But we serve the God who always turns what wicked men mean for evil into astonishing good. And it’s not even close. He is working for us an exceeding and eternal weight of glory. 

Jesus said that unless a seed goes into the ground and dies, it will not bear much fruit. And so I am praying that this is a real Turning Point, what Charlie gave his life for, a moment where America turns back to Christ in an unmistakable way, rejects every vestige of the false idol of secular neutrality, decisively rejects and drives all evil and lies from this land, and insists that we are a Christian nation, a Christian people, under God and His good law, which Charlie spent his life insisting, is the only basis for a truly free and prosperous society. 

Introduction
Well, the internets are ablaze with the yapping howls of feminists and their male lapdogs. Their holy sacrament of voting has been questioned by thoughtful Christians, and they are breathing heavily into brown paper sacks. Even the Secretary of Defense has given us a friendly cheer, “All of Christ for All of Life,” and so panic has set in, along with the usual accusations of handmaid tale atrocity, racism, and whatever other old vegetables they can find in the back of their fridge. Part of the panic in certain sectors is simply the fact that we don’t care. A CNN story about Christians who really believe the Bible used to get a bunch of important people slightly nervous or embarrassed, but this time hardly anyone has flinched.

Everyone knows that in God’s providence Doug Wilson is the catnip of liberals everywhere. I suspect it’s the way he chuckles when he is really amused; it really is offensive to angry people for someone to be that happy. But of course they insist that it’s all kinds of other things like hatred of women, racial bigotry, and machinations of world domination. But when those slanders hit everyone who actually knows the man as utterly ludicrous, they fall flat, because it sounds like you’re accusing Santa Claus of something nefarious. And then right on schedule, you have all the rhetorical effectiveness of Jadis the White Witch of Narnia.

My 16 Seconds
But this time around, I got 16 seconds to speak into the microphone, and even though I wouldn’t claim it was my favorite 16 seconds of an hour or so interview, I certainly stand by every word I said, and I’m grateful to say it again here. When asked about women voting, I said that in my ideal society we would vote by household and, being that the head of the household is ordinarily a man, I would be the one that would usually cast our vote. When Pamala Brown asked me what would happen if my wife and I disagree about who to vote for, I said that would make for a good discussion. She also asked my colleague Jared Longshore specifically about repealing the 19th Amendment, and Jared cheerily announced that he would support that. And the high-pitched screeching commenced on the interwebs.

Now there is much that could and should be said about this entire discussion, and we don’t have time or space for it all here. And I should also note that the 19th Amendment is hardly something that any of us spends much time thinking about or worrying about here in Moscow. I honestly can’t remember the last time anyone mentioned it. I’m a lot more concerned about my garden. But for anyone who is honestly interested, perhaps even some moderns who view such an idea as an archaic curiosity, here are a few thoughts on the subject. 

Our First 150 Years
First, let us recall that our country functioned for almost hundred and fifty years before the 19th Amendment. And while there were no doubt sins and evils needing correction during that time, the reputation of America, particularly with regard to how it viewed and treated women, was incredibly high. For example, Alexis de Tocqueville writing in 1835, said: 

“As for me, I shall not hesitate to say it: although in the United States the woman scarcely leaves the domestic circle and is in certain respects very dependent within it, nowhere does her position seem higher to me; and now that I approach the end of this book where I have shown so many considerable things done by Americans, if one asked me to what do I think one must principally attribute the singular prosperity and growing force of this people, I would answer that it is to the superiority of its women.” 

Nearly a hundred years before women’s suffrage, the reputation of America was that it’s singular prosperity and growing force was due to the superiority of its women, who by and large concentrated their efforts on the “domestic circle,” in which she served in a position of high honor and authority – and all without having the so-called “right to vote.” Try to let that sink in for a minute between sobs. 

Real Representation & Limited Government
Now part of what moderns cannot get their head around is that I do not actually believe in disenfranchising women (and neither do my colleagues). We actually believe, like Tocqueville noticed, that women have the highest position in society when they rule their houses well. Not only that, but when households voted, the women were better represented. In other words, I believe women had more of a vote and more influence on society before the 19th Amendment. 

Even Richard Weaver once wrote: “The reestablishment of women as the cohesive force of the family, the end of the ‘long-haired men and short-haired women,’ should bring a renewal of well-being to the whole of society… George Fitzhugh’s brutal remark that if women put on trousers, men would use them for plowing has been borne out, and I think that women would have more influence actually if they did not vote, but, according to the advice of Augusta Evans Wilson, made their firesides seats of Delphic wisdom” (The Southern Tradition at Bay, 325).

The point is not to have less godly feminine influence on society. The point is actually to have more.

Even as it stands today, if we were to take the current screeching logic, I would like to point out that women do not vote on any of the bills that appear before Congress. Female citizens are denied the right to vote on every single one of them, all day long, even on Tuesdays. And you call this a civilized society?! Of course, male citizens are denied the right to vote on bills before Congress also. We all vote for “representatives” and “senators” and those folks vote on our behalf (sometimes well, sometimes poorly). So I might ask Mrs. Brown what she does when she disagrees with her senator, and I suspect that she would say something like, ‘if it’s really important she would have a conversation with them, write them a letter, send an email, call their office, etc.’ Ah… but do you feel that your dignity as a woman has been threatened by being represented? (I assume not.) Of course, some progressives would swallow the reductio and insist that we will not have true freedom until we have pure democracy, every citizen voting for every bill, every law, everywhere. But that sort of blinkered folly is a joke for another day.

So it was that for a hundred and fifty years, these United States recognized the government of the family, that a family is a unit, and while it is a unit that can disfunction, it is a natural and created good part of a healthy, functioning society. The demand for a woman’s right to vote was the demand for the federal government (and thereby the states) to assume the disfunction of the family. The implicit assumption was that the head of the household was not representing his wife well or in some way was utterly incapable of representing her, which was an implicit attack on the goodness and cohesion of the family unit. While families have always still had the option of ignoring the attack, and working to preserve unity and like-mindedness, the legal pressure has continued to build. There is a logic that flows from the assumption of disunity and disagreement. It was sort of an electoral prenup — based on the likelihood of disagreement and dissolution.    

Edmund Burke called the various associations and governments outside civil government (e.g. businesses, schools, families, churches) “little platoons,” and in a free and virtuous society, they function as checks on totalitarian governments. If the only point of integration and unity is the central government, then that government will inevitably have all the power. But classical Christian political thought has insisted that the centralizing of political power inevitably leads to corruption and tyranny (aka Babel). The notion of “limited government” is a thoroughly biblical concept, and it goes hand in hand with the idea of “separation of powers,” the idea that power should be spread out as much as possible.

Despite all the claims that “Christian theocracy” would be a totalitarian hellhole, you should remember that during the forty years surrounding the founding of our country, the single most quoted text in all the writings of the founding fathers was the book of Deuteronomy. It was cited twice as often as John Locke. And so we have three branches of our federal government, but originally, we also had states that checked federal power, and counties that checked state power, but there were also these “little platoons” throughout society, and the principle one was the family.

Conclusion
Now, you may have any number of remaining questions or concerns about exactly how voting ought to operate, but at the very least, any reasonable person ought to be able to explain why for a hundred and fifty years, the worldwide reputation of our nation was that our women were in some of the highest positions as they ran homes and supported their husbands. I mean, now that we have scaled the great civilizational heights of OnlyFans and the possibility of gay dudes renting your womb, or super gay dudes dressing up like women in order to share your restrooms, I mean, you can at least understand why some of us think we took a wrong turn at Albuquerque.

One final question, and I realize that this is no slam-dunk argument, but it’s an interesting thought experiment. Maybe you’re a center-right or maybe even a center-left type who laments the destruction of the family. Maybe you aren’t sure biblical ethics are entirely applicable to modern nations, but you look around and see the hellhole progressivism has created and you think to yourself, “it sure seems like things were better when there was more marriage, less divorce, and kids grew up in intact families.” So here’s the question: Would you be willing to trade the 19th Amendment for that? 

Yes, I understand that there are reasonable questions regarding whether the trade would actually work. Fine. But I think a reasonable person ought to consider the question. The old Christian notion is that God made the world in a such a way that it flourishes when we run along those grooves. One of those grooves is the goodness and blessing of family, and when that family is flourishing, it is a great blessing when a man can say, “As for me and my house…”  

Psalm 5

Prayer: Father, we confess that one of our great modern sins is a failure to hate like You hate. We have accepted the world’s warnings that hate is always evil, when the Bible clearly teaches that You hate evil, and that we must also. At the same time, we know that our hearts are slippery, so guard us on every side and rule us by this word, in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Introduction
We live in a warzone. The world, the flesh, and the devil are enemies prowling to take us out. This is why we must be continually armed and on guard. And every day when you wake up you are either acknowledging this war and preparing for battle, or else you are constantly unprepared and regularly caught off guard. And central to this war is learning to hate like God hates.

One popular slogan is, “Hate has no place here,” but when we ask what they mean, they will say something like, “we are against bigotry, fascism, racism, etc.” And we might ask, do you hate those things? But if you don’t hate evil, you are evil.

“The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate” (Prov. 8:13).

The Text: “To the chief musician upon nehiloth, a psalm of David. Give ear to my words, O Lord, consider my meditation. Hearken unto the voice of my cry…” (Ps. 5:1-12).

Summary of the Text
This psalm of David (like a number of others) was part of a collection for the choir director and was played (probably) on wind instruments (“nehiloth”). The psalm begins with a three-fold plea for God to hear his words, and he prays because God is his King and his God (Ps. 5:1-2). This is a prayer offered “in the morning,” at the beginning of the day, and the center of David’s meditation is that no evil can dwell with God, folly cannot stand before Him, and He hates all workers of iniquity (Ps. 5:3-5). God destroys liars because He hates their violent ways (Ps. 5:6). When David wakes up, his first thought is God’s war with evil. 

Instead of making peace with evil, David goes into the Lord’s house by God’s mercy, and he worships in reverent fear (Ps. 5:7). He does this in prayer. He asks God to lead him in righteousness because of his enemies because their mouths and throats are foul open graves (Ps. 5:8-9). Finally, David asks God to destroy the wicked by letting them destroy themselves with their sin, but he asks that God would fill those who trust in Him with great joy, surrounding them like a great shield with piercing spikes on it (Ps. 5:10-12). 

When You Get Up in the Morning
David says “in the morning” twice in a row (Ps. 5:3), underlining the fact that before he does anything else, He looks up to His King and His God (Ps. 5:2-3). In many ways, whatever you “look up to” first thing in the morning is what you are reckoning your King and your God. Your King and your God is what orients your life, your mission, your day. Is it your work? Your house? Friends? Social media? This need not be overly complicated: “Lord, please help me today.”

We’re not told the exact circumstances of this psalm, but David particularly asks God to hear his “groaning” – which is apparently related to the evil and enemies around him (Ps. 5:1). Sometimes our days are filled with groaning because we have not brought our groaning to the One who can handle all of it. “Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you” (1 Pet. 5:6-7). Beginning your day with prayer is an act of humility: He is God. He is King. 

One of the reasons you need to talk to God in the morning is because you are in a war zone. In 1 Pet. 5:8, the very next verse after the command to cast all your cares on God, it says to be vigilant because the devil prowls seeking whom he may devour. This is one of the reasons we need to pray and sing the psalms regularly: we have enemies and the psalms remind us of this fact. We are at war, and many of our enemies are aiming at our souls. Read Scripture in the morning, the Word of God is the sword of the Spirit. 

God Hates Workers of Evil
Sometimes Christians says things like “hate the sin not the sinner,” but this is a platitude that doesn’t quite capture what the Bible teaches. Part of the problem is that we have been catechized by the world (our enemies) to believe that love and hate are mutually exclusive. But that is simply not true. God clearly hates all workers of iniquity (sinners) and has loved all of them to some extent, granting them life, causing the sun to shine on them and the rain to fall on their crops. Likewise, we are to learn to do this as well. We ought to hate evildoers, and we are to love our enemies (Mt. 5:43-45). So God hates and loves sinners in different ways, and so should we. 

The only place where God has determined to distinguish between sinners and their sin is in the cross of Jesus Christ. God does not merely send lies to Hell; He sends liars to Hell. He does not merely send lust to Hell; He sends adulterers to Hell. And the hatred of God is often to give people over to their evil demands: “let them fall by their own counsels; cast them out in the multitude of their transgressions” (Ps. 5:10). 

We see this elsewhere also: “The mouth of strange women is a deep pit: he that is abhorred of the LORD shall fall therein” (Prov. 22:14). “When they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened… Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves” (Rom. 1:21-24). Godly hatred stands against evil, and then at some point lets the evil go unchecked. 

No Pleasure in Evildoing
Part of the insidiousness of sin is that it flatters us (Ps. 5:9). Flattery is a destructive lie that masquerades as goodness, justice, or pleasure. It says, even though my parents don’t approve, it’s really fun and God approves of fun. It says, I have to do this because it’s not fair and God cares about justice. Or it is entertained by filth and says, I just really like the acting, the story, the soundtrack, etc. 

“Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful” (Prov. 27:6). This is the primary weapon of our enemies and all evil: the kisses of enemies – flattering lies. It flatters you by promising you entertainment, wisdom, beauty, or friends. But evil is foolish because it doesn’t actually work in God’s world, but more than that it is violent and bloody (Ps. 5:5-6). It comes packaged as being cool, being smart, being sexy, being relevant, but it’s an open grave of reeking rot. Their throats are open graves. Paul quotes this verse in Romans 3 to describe the universal rot of sin. There is no benign sin. It consumes and destroys. God takes no pleasure in it, and therefore neither may we. He will destroy all of it, and we must not long for it like Lot’s wife or we may be destroyed with it. Drop it and run. A little lust, a little drunkenness, little lies, is like a little cyanide, a little cancer. 

Conclusion
God hates wicked people in the world, but God also hates wicked people in His church. Jesus says that there will be some who ate and drank with him, who listened to His teaching, and He will say to them: “I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth…” (Lk. 13:27). 

God’s wrath is against all sin, all workers of iniquity, and therefore, the only safe place is in Christ, where God’s wrath has already been satisfied. Everyone is born a worker of iniquity; everyone is born with a throat that is an open grave. Everyone is born under the wrath of God: “Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)… For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast” (Eph. 2:3-9). We have been brought near to God by His mercy. 

Repentance means turning around, going the other way. This means learning to hate, to completely reject the wrong way. This is why, in another place, Jesus says that if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off, if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out – it would be better for you to go to heaven with one hand or one eye than to be cast into everlasting fire with both your hands and eyes (Mt. 18:8-9). This kind of repentance requires you to hate your sin. Cut it off. Do whatever it takes to stop. Get rid of your computer, your smart phone, your credit card, Netflix; delete the app, delete the playlist, quit your job, move, stop hanging out with those friends. Legend says that when the Spanish landed in Mexico to conquer the Aztecs, Cortez burned their ships so they couldn’t retreat Spain. What evil has God assigned you to fight? Land your troops today and burn the ships. Treat your sin like Samuel treated Agag the King of the Amalekites and hack it to pieces. You have been saved by grace, do not let sin have dominion over you. You have been baptized into His deatha resurrection, do not let sin reign in you more. Christ is risen from the dead, go and sin no more. 

Prayer: Father, please do whatever it takes to show us our sin, show us the evil that You have called us to hate, and show us Your great mercy and love, so that we might hate like You hate and walk in the light as You are in the light. And we ask for this in Christ’ name, who taught us to pray…