What Is Liberty?
GENEALOGY · LIBERTY What Is Liberty? A genealogy of a changing definition, Filmer to Berlin Almost everyone says he favors freedom. The argument is over what freedom is: free from what, free to do what, and who gets to decide. Each time the definition moves, the meaning of law, rights, government, and equality moves with […]
But Not By Me
EXEGESIS · HOSEA 8:3–4 The kings and the images Israel made for itself Hosea 8:3–4 charges Israel with making its kings and its gods for itself. We read it in Brenton’s Septuagint, show that the American order makes its rulers the same way, and name the answer Scripture gives. Download the paper (PDF)One-page summary (PDF) […]
The Voice Of Jonadab
ARGUMENT · FATHERS AND SONS The Voice of Jonadab Our Father How far a father’s word binds his grown sons, and where God stops it The sons of Jonadab were grown men with wives and children of their own when Jeremiah set wine before them in the house of the Lord, and they refused it […]
All The Days Of The Judge
ARGUMENT · REVIVAL AND RULE All the Days of the Judge The remedy for a nation is political, and revival from below is not In 1952 Billy Graham told his hearers that “the only hope for our country is a spiritual and moral awakening—a revival.” In 2013 he wrote that “when God sets out to […]
Let Your Yea Be Yea
ARGUMENT · MOTIVE AND MEANING Let Your Yea Be Yea Whether a voter’s motive decides what his vote means Tell a Christian that his vote claims a power the people do not have, and he will often answer that he meant nothing of the kind. He votes for good laws, out of love for his […]
Compel Them To Come In
ARGUMENT · THE HOUSE AND THE NATION Compel Them to Come In Against the claim that forced worship cannot please God Roger Williams said that forced worship stinks in God’s nostrils, and John Locke that a ruler’s force can do nothing for a man’s soul. We agree that only faith pleases God and that no […]
Better Than The Alternative
ARGUMENT · THE LESSER EVIL Better Than the Alternative Against the lesser-evil vote, however it is worded Every election, Christians hear that both candidates are flawed and that one of them is still better than the alternative. John Halle and Noam Chomsky made that case to the American left in 2016, and Wayne Grudem made […]
Freedom: From What and to What?
ARGUMENT · LIBERTY AND AUTHORITY From What, and to What? What Scripture means by free, and what Americans mean by it Mike Pence, then Vice President, closed his 2020 convention speech with Paul’s words, “where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom,” and drew from them that “freedom always wins.” Freedom is a […]
One Kingdom, Not Two
ARGUMENT · CHRIST AND THE MAGISTRATE One Kingdom, Not Two Against the two kingdoms doctrine, from Calvin to Escondido David VanDrunen of Westminster Seminary California teaches that God rules the world through his Son in two ways, the church as Redeemer through the Scriptures and the rest of human life as Creator and Sustainer under […]
Kings Shall Be Thy Nursing Fathers
ARGUMENT · SCRIPTURE AND THE MAGISTRATE Kings Shall Be Thy Nursing-Fathers Christian nationalism argued from the text of Scripture Mike Winger has asked for a defense of Christian nationalism from the text of Scripture, thorough enough to establish both what the passages mean and how they apply, and particular enough that it is not what […]