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In this episode of the Podcast for Cultural Reformation, Dr. Joe Boot, Dr. Michael Thiessen, and Rev. Nate Wright recap the results of the recent U.S. election and help Christians think through what another Trump presidency means for the Church.
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Ideological feminists and other modern Leftists routinely accuse biblical Christians and sociopolitical conservatives of misogyny on account of their support for biblical or traditional male-female distinctions. The guiding tenet of contemporary Leftism is egalitarianism,1 particularly sexual egalitarianism, which demands across-the-board equality of men and women, not legal equality (which has been pervasive in the West for many decades and reflects the biblical view), but existential equality — there are no ontologically rooted differences between men and women that dictate some distinct callings and roles.
In the creation order man and woman are equally made in God’s image, equally valuable in his sight, and equally charged with stewarding his creation — but are not called to do all things equally. The divinely established natural order itself (in biblical terms, creation) must yield to the Leftist utopian dream that differences between men and women are merely social constructions invented by a hegemonic patriarchy remedied by monstrosities like womb-encasing males and phalloplasty-re-engineered females.
The fact that anybody with two eyes can discern there are obvious and insurmountable differences between men and women, which no surgery can mask or erase, has done nothing to impede the bizarre Leftist ideology at war with the cosmos. The cosmos will win that war.
Since this Leftist egalitarianism has gained the upper hand in Western culture, the leading political component, in fact, of the larger Sexual Revolution since the 1960s, we should not be surprised at the emergence of a conservative counter-revolution reasserting male-female differences and traditional social hierarchies. The impulses behind this reaction are warranted: sexual egalitarianism assaults God’s creational order and sows social chaos.
However, since the counter-revolutionaries are usually not guided by the word of God but by alien, worldly presuppositions, they offer no cure for the disease, and in some cases, their alternative proposal is every bit as injurious as the disease itself. An ingenious insight of Christian philosopher Herman Dooyeweerd is that apostate thought always swings between a “dialectic” of opposing poles that absolutize some aspect of the temporal order. Since apostates deny the absoluteness of the word of God, they have only the shifting sand of the temporal world on which to stand.2 They end up with one foot planted and then quickly unsettled, only to plant a foot in the opposite direction, with equally unsettling results. The Leftist egalitarianism and the conservative counter-revolution are equally futile attempts at a foothold in quicksand.
Since, in review, Leftist egalitarianism is based in modern secularism, the conservative counter-revolutionaries look around for alternative foundations resisting it. Since they refuse to submit to the word of God, they are open to alien alternatives just as spurious as secularism. One of them is ancient paganism. Enter the Bronze Age Mindset.
The Bronze Age MindsetBronze Age Mindset (BAM) is both a book3 and a movement targeting young white right-wing males. The author (who also hosts a wildly popular website of the same name) designates himself the anonymous Bronze Age Pervert. He has since been widely identified as the Romanian-American far-right figure Costin Vlad Alamariu. He holds a Ph.D. from Yale, and his dissertation was titled “The Problem of Tyranny and Philosophy in the Thought of Plato and Nietzsche.”
BAM romanticizes, embellishes, and seeks to revive the spirit of the ancient pagan world in countering the evils of modern Western civilization, which it sees as terminally diseased and fit only for a quick and violent death. Christians who have correctly pinpointed the emergence of neopaganism from the Left,4 notably in its sexually egalitarian feature, might be surprised at the seemingly out-of-nowhere emergence of a competing right-wing version. But BAM is every bit as pagan as Leftist neopaganism and by far more explicit. The book is a rambling, punchy, raunchy, occasionally intellectually coherent argument against modernity, feminism, human equality of all sorts, and, notably, biblical Christianity. To BAM, the hope for humanity is a revival of a very pagan past.
The Bronze Age MalesThe vanguard of that pagan revival is a cadre of robust, muscle-bound, beautiful young males animated by the “life force” of nature. BAM is animist (a supernatural principle pervades all life), pantheist (god is nature itself), and vitalist (life is dependent on a principle beyond chemical or physical forces). It holds that to deny the one God is not to deny the gods. Indeed, the beautiful young white muscular males will themselves become the new gods (“[m]any of the Greek heroes and gods had fair hair and blue or grey eyes,” Alamariu alerts the reader). They will cultivate their deity by “sun and steel”: lying in the sun every day and soaking up its health-producing power and, in fact, becoming sun-worshipers. In tandem, they must take up a regimen of weightlifting to enhance the godlike beauty of their physique. “Only physical beauty,” Alamariu opines, “is the foundation for a true higher culture of the mind and spirit as well. Only sun [worship] and steel [weightlifting] will show you the path.” Beautiful male bodies are the pinnacle of nature, “the body in its glorious and divine beauty.” In this Bronze world, females are subordinate creatures whose consummation of sexual desire drains young males of life-force. Therefore, girlfriends and marriage should, at best, be a tangent, necessary evil. Life’s real focus should be the formation of a camaraderie of young, white, muscular pirates and the domination of all inferiors, that is, all who are not other Bronze Age Males.
Pirates? Yes. They do not support themselves by work or vocation but rather by piracy — they pillage and take at will. Work, sweat, and toil are debasing; the pirate is the original form of the “free man.” They revel in a world they create, a world of absolute freedom on which they impose their will to power. Parents must, therefore, allow sons freedom from any oversight to express their life-force in our otherwise decadent world. Eventually, they will grow up to create a white ethnostate of their own, separate from the rest of human civilization, which they will visit occasionally to solve its recurrent problems and to exert their inexorable will. Let it never be supposed, therefore, that utopianism is an exclusively Leftist concept. BAM is right-wing pagan utopianism at its zenith.
The ultimate cause of all modern decadence is feminism, Alamariu contends, and we live in a “gynocracy,” the rule of women. The only way out of this “absolute hell” and “iron prison” of modernity is a reversion to ancient pagan animas and pantheism, recognizing that the basic truth of humanity is the life-force we must cultivate in impressionable but spiritually, psychologically, and sociologically hungry young men.
Modifying Darwin and Aping NietzscheBAM argues a modified Darwinist but almost entirely Nietzschean view of history. Alamariu agrees entirely with Darwin’s naturalism that the world is nothing but materiality. However, he accuses Darwin and Darwinists of lacking the courage of their convictions in the reluctance to support their survival of the fittest thesis as it consistently applies to humans. Of course, the original Social Darwinism, in its commitment to eugenics, was more consistent and courageous, though insufficiently so. BAM, by contrast, champions a Darwinist teleology (design toward a goal). Nature itself has its own goal, the triumph of superior humans, that is, young, beautiful, muscular white males. That is the Darwinism the Bronze Age Males must revive and commandeer.
History is not a natural progression from benightedness to enlightenment. Rather, as Nietzsche believed, it is cyclical. We will always have the enlightened and unenlightened with us, and the ancient world was populated by wiser and more enlightened individuals than exist today (“supermen”). This is why BAM espouses reincarnation. The conscious goal of the BAM is to revive their spirit. “Because of reincarnation,” he declares, “greatness can be instantaneously reborn.” Therefore, though naturalistic, BAM must advocate vitalism: the very old theory that a mysterious life principle within the natural order relentlessly impels it toward a self-sustaining and -perpetuating goal. BAM meets its paradox of holding simultaneously to both naturalism and teleology (how can a purely materialistic nature possibly have a design or goal?) by suggesting that while humans are biologically determined, we are still responsible because there is no one else to be responsible. There is nothing but nature, yet nature always favors Bronze Age Males, destined for world domination. This is the teleology and eschatology of BAM. We cannot successfully fight nature, but we can harness it.
BAM apes Nietzsche in insisting there is no transcendent morality given by God or his revelation in either creation or the Bible. The only morality is biological hierarchy. The superior humans, the supermen, impose their will on the rest of the world. In the Bible, the basic human impulse is the God-given cultural mandate (Gen. 1:28–30), exercising benevolent dominion over the non-human creation under God’s authority and for his glory. For the youthful Bronze Age Males, the cultural mandate is perverted into the quest for more “living space.” Young men need room to exercise their superiority, and they expropriate it as warriors akin to ancient pirates. (This sounds precisely like the rationale for war in most traditional societies.)
BAM epistemology (view of knowledge) reflects the deep imprint of Nietzsche. The intellect is simply an expression of will, which is a concentration of life-force. Channeling the Nazi court philosopher Martin Heidegger, Alamariu writes, “Direct perception is already intellectualized.” He means that how we perceive things is determined by the kind of being we are. The more of the life-force we concentrate and cultivate, the more we perceive the world as it really is. We do not experience the world and then interpret it; our embodied being makes our particular interpretation possible, an interpretation impossible to a different, lower kind of human being. Alamariu states, “The intellect is a purely physical quality like muscular strength.” By becoming physically superior, we become intellectually superior. (The quadriplegic Stephen Hawking must have been an outlier.)
The Western world, like the ancient world, despises Bronze Age Males, and works to deprivilege, subjugate, and crush them whenever possible. Its leaders hatch conspiracies to control and subjugate everyone else. They rewrite history such that what we today recognize as objective historical fact is actually a sophisticated modern myth. History rightly grasped is actually an account of the battles and triumphs of Bronze Age Males and their superior world.
In its place have emerged the “bugmen,” who suppress the life-force and misdirect and pervert that natural energy into attacks on human superiority. These conspirators have crafted the calm, tranquil, egalitarian society of human rights, freedom within law, and equality of all humanity, including women. This is simply hatred for nature itself. BAM believes natural law should prevail everywhere and that law, if observed, will lead to the ubiquitous superiority of beautiful young white muscular males. He writes, “Youth and beauty are universally hated in all human societies in history. These societies are run by decrepit, sclerotic old men.” What constitutes youth? Well, you are over the hill if you’re in your 30s — middle-aged bodies nauseate nature. BAM counsels its young acolytes not to reason with their opponents (he laments the Western “development of logos and reason”) but to ridicule them: “[M]ake the enemy look ridiculous … dour, old, sclerotic, ugly, and pedantic,” and never to underestimate the value of “a good prank.”
One way the Bronze Age Males disrupt the current egalitarian regime is to capture the spirit of cultural chaos — prostitutes, drug addicts, rapists, and murderers. The superior males must immerse themselves in the deepest depravity to tap into nature’s power to sow chaos, which they must unleash to gain world control: “a whore puts cocaine on your tongue, and you feel true power.” They must spend time with this despised underclass, which manifests in suppressed form the genuine spirit of the life-force that has been marginalized by the Western egalitarian regime. “In your life,” Alamariu declares, “you can break their [the bugmen’s] power and ascend to a chaos of joy and destruction.” Nihilism never sounded more delicious — the ecstasy of the destruction of everything and the return to nature and natural law spawned by the impulse within society’s most depraved.
The real world is not civilization and culture. The real world is uninhibited nature. The natural society is a “brotherhood of the free youths.” There must be a “holy war” against the enemies of the youthful gods and their uninhibited life-force. Natural law must triumph.
Bronze Age PoliticsBAM envisions a rigidly hierarchical social order with a certain kind of superior human (the Bronze Age Male) at the apex. But every social order implies a secondary yet important political order, and the Bronze Age political order coheres precisely with its social vision. It cannot be democratic, and by this BAM does not mean the sort of pure democracy that the Anglo-American tradition deplored, but, rather, precisely the sort of classically liberal order espoused by England and the United States and the modern West: the rule of law; constitutions and bills of rights; religious, political and economic liberty; negotiated politics; peaceful political transitions; and so forth. This classical liberalism leads to the egalitarian decadence we see around us, including ethnic heterogeneity. There is no way to create the BAM ethnostate without eliminating this Western, Christian-shaped constitutional democracy.
In the piratical world of the BAM, “the only right government is military government… We need warlord rule,” Alamariu advises. And in actuality, the rationale for classical liberalism is just a conspiratorial veneer designed to cover up its own sordid will to power. The U.S. Founders, for example, were merely seeking “dominion and freedom of space to expand.” They couldn’t care less about a constitution, individual rights, free speech and press as they altruistically claimed. Like Nietzsche, BAM suggests that behind the curtain of every political rationale is the wizard imposing a will to power. While the most biblical political order possible in a fallen world is one of principled liberty and self-government within the bounds of law (ultimately God’s law), the BAM political order is government by the young, beautiful, body-building, sun-worshiping elite gods imposing their will on their inferiors. The only free citizens must be the governing pirate class.
The Bronze Age Mentality Versus ChristianityBAM’s conspiratorial view of history leads it to distrust Christian history. Actually, suggests Alamariu, Christianity likely began as paganism and was only later contorted into a theological system at the center of which rules a single deity imposing universal ethics. This was the nefarious work of Christian theologians and historians. Because of the instability and subjectivity of Christian history, argues Alamariu, “Christianity is a versatile faith, capable of many interpretations.” Not that Christianity lacked any exhibition of paganism at all. Most Christian historians and theologians are ashamed (for example) of the conquistadors, but they, in fact, manifested the pagan life-force under the guise of the Christian Faith. Still, Christian history, in general, is designed to crush the life-force in man. (This also was Nietzsche’s take, by the way.)
By its very nature, therefore, BAM must repudiate the heart and soul of Christianity. The Bible is a texture of myths. Christ is not a hero because true heroes never sacrifice; they take territory. Man is not created in God’s image, because there is no God to create anything. There is no creation. Matter is eternal. There is no resurrection, only reincarnation. Perhaps Alamariu’s most explicitly anti-Christian tenet, however, is found in his statement that
So much of this [monotheistic] story makes time a line and makes matter conditional on a deity or creator that lives outside it: the creation of matter out of nothing, the creation of your soul out of nothing. Matter is dead, and in some ways, homogeneous, and its meaning is “divine” only in the sense that it reveals the creation of the external deity, or even better, just the laws he made to govern. It seems and feels wrong, or runs against the immediate perception of the world, so it requires faith, a concept unknown to ancient pagans of all kinds. For this reason, the Romans considered Christians and Jews to be no different from atheists. (emphasis in original)
BAM is thoroughly existentialist. There is only this material world and what we (especially the Bronze Age Males) make of it. There can be no faith. WYSIAYG: What you see is all you get. And what you get is a divinized nature: there is no benevolent, sovereign Creator and Redeemer God behind it and working within it all.
But God’s word tells us that without faith, it is impossible to please God (Heb. 11:6). Therefore, BAM is blatantly contra-Christian. The reason the imperial Romans considered Christians atheists is not because the Christians believed in faith but because they repudiated all the false gods of the ancient world and demanded allegiance to the one true God.5 In other words, the primitive Christians were considered atheists precisely because of their explicit repudiation of the kind of religion BAM is trying to revive.
The Bronze Age Mentality Christians and ConservativesThis contra-Christianity has not prevented BAM from influencing modern sociopolitical conservatism and conservative Christianity. Just as androgynous paganism has deeply infiltrated the Left, so Bronze Age paganism has influenced significant sectors of the Right, including the Christian Right. Matthew Continetti has shown how the New Right6 has become suspiciously like the New Left in its statist lunge. The New Right is an influential, mostly younger segment of American conservatism convinced the American Founding Protestant experiment of liberty under law has been a failure (“as momentous as this founding was, it is also where our current trouble began” 7) and must be supplanted by a new conservative statism that crushes its Leftist enemies by any means possible.8 Continetti says:
The first thing to say about the New Right is that it can get weird. Its ranks are composed almost entirely of men. They inhabit a social-media cocoon where they talk a lot about manhood, and strength, and manliness, and push-ups, and masculinity, and virility, and weight-lifting, and testosterone. “Wrestling should be mandated in middle schools,” write Arthur Milikh and Scott Yenor in the [New Right] collection Up from Conservatism. “Students should learn to build and shoot guns as part of a normal course of action in schools and learn how to grow crops and prepare them for meals. Every male student should learn to skin an animal and every female to milk a cow.”9
The influence of BAM is palpable, whether most in the New Right have read the book or not. The New Right is not simply opposed to sexual egalitarianism (as it should be). In addition, it advocates “muscular” politics, meaning the abandonment of the biblical idea of the rule of law applying to all equally, checks and balances on political power (since politicians, too, are depraved, even those on “our” side), and the state’s role as limited to protecting life and liberty and property. The New Right wants to out-Left the Left at its political power game. Virtue is the exercise of coercive political power. Virtuous liberty be damned.
Conservative Christianity has not been spared the poison tentacles of BAM. A leading platform is the American Reformer, a cadre of youngish Protestants who blame the Protestant political philosophy of classical liberalism (liberty under law) for the evils of modern culture. Human freedom leads to sin; therefore, freedom must be abolished. (Apparently, God himself was mistaken to give Adam and Eve free will in the garden.)
“Christian Vitalism”Christian Winter writes in American Reformer that young men are attracted to BAM because it offers a counter to the confines of modernity in its non-hierarchical, egalitarian order. What we need is a modified vitalism, not BAM’s pagan version, of course, but a revival of nature, which leads to human flourishing. We need to set before the eyes of young men, not the heroes and gods of ancient Greece and Rome but Christian forefathers of masculine fortitude.
Winter argues that theory and theology are insufficient to persuade these young men. They need before their eyes muscular, masculine, overcoming Christian heroes they can emulate. The idea of enlisting Christian heroes is indeed a noble objective (just read Hebrews 11), but the quick, makeshift strategy of “Christian Vitalism” in the face of the popularity of BAM as the best way to appeal to young men and forestall their gravitation to pagan vitalism is what Francis Schaeffer called a “form of the world spirit.”10 It seems a “seeker-sensitive” program for the 21st century among the very people who would have derided Bill Hybels of Willow Creek and Rick Warren of Saddleback for fashioning an ideal faith to appeal to the unchurched “seekers.”
While correlation is not causation, it is highly suspicious that “Christian Vitalism” just seemed magically to appear after and as a consequence of BAM. And it would seem less selective or even disingenuous if its heroes included obese Christian intellectuals like G. K. Chesterton, emaciated Christian prisoners like famed Bulgarian pastor Haralan Popov, and urbane and modest Christian poets like Gerard Manly Hopkins. I suspect, however, that these mighty Christian men are not the sort of male Christian heroes Winter has in mind.
This Christian-modified vitalism veers toward a new syncretism, the attempted fusion of biblical faith and pagan religion. If unchecked, it will be no less poisonous than the syncretism of ancient Israel when it attempted to fuse biblical-covenantal faith to the religion of the surrounding pagan nations. God abhors syncretism, and he sent his prophets to both plead with Israel and fulminate against its apostasy. Let us pray that “Christian Vitalism” reconsiders before it walks itself into the syncretist camp.
Recently Jeffery J. Ventrella, Senior Fellow of the Ezra Institute and noted Christian leader, posted on Facebook a reminder to the young Christian masculinists talking so much about the necessity of weightlifting that physical fitness, while creditable, is not a fruit of the Spirit. I re-posted his statement. The pushback was swift and severe. One of the nation’s young Christian masculinist leaders wrote privately begging me not to support this warning since I would alienate my audience of young men influenced by Christian masculinity (which, in reality, is the syncretistic “Christian Vitalism”). I responded that truth is truth and my interest has never been in avoiding offending a sector of my audience succumbing to sinful, worldly temptations.
It is, moreover, difficult to believe Christian-modified vitalism has grappled with the issues surrounding how the Bible’s teaching on masculinity (what of it there is; 95% of the Bible’s commands are not sex-specific) applies in an informational and postindustrial world. The Bible’s exhortations to and expectations of strength with reference to men are not arguments levelled against the sort of egalitarian and androgynous society presently afflicting the West. To argue, as many conservatives today, for the proper “roles” of men and women is to surrender the battle already. In the words of David Polansky:
Once we acknowledge the need to establish masculine roles is more pressing than the need for masculinity itself, the cat’s already out of the bag. We can argue, for example, that certain gender roles are salutary or desirable, but having admitted to ourselves that these are in fact roles, they necessarily lose their seriousness. It all becomes a kind of elaborate game. This is, incidentally, why the “trad” [traditionalist] accounts one finds on social media [like BAM] have the feeling of camp. The men are caricatures of manliness, just as the women are caricatures of womanhood. They have the same uncanny feeling one gets from encountering AI.11
In God’s creational world (even a fallen one not overrun by egalitarianism), masculinity is not a “role” to be recovered but a natural existence. How that looks in an age divinely blessed with labour-saving devices like automobiles and smartphones is not identical to how it looks in a premodern age that requires most men to skin a sheep for clothing, forge a wheel for transportation, or fall a tree for shelter. If it is necessary to revive an age that requires robust physical strength for everyday tasks, the Bible’s authority and application are severely emaciated. The man’s strength as a customer-serving warrior in the economy of contemporary culture and the wealth of free markets with which God has blessed the West, for example, is just as masculine as his strength had to be in premodern cultures. Assuming the physical strength necessary for modern bricklayers is the sort young Christian men need to aspire to impoverishes the Bible’s authority and dismisses vast areas of contemporary culture that require a different kind and measure of man’s strength.
If young Christian men are seeking guidance in our apostate egalitarian age, they should start with the book of the Bible, written specifically and explicitly to young men: the book of Proverbs. This book teaches that the true man is the man of God, and the man of God is the man of wisdom. Not a muscled physique but a righteous life is the mark of the true man. Care for the body is, of course, a biblical imperative since the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit (we must never be body-hating Gnostics). However, physical fitness is not a fruit of the Spirit, and if young males wish to become true men, they must begin with the fear of the Lord, not with a CrossFit regimen. This syncretistic adaptation of BAM to Christianity, the book of Proverbs, would identify as folly, whose end is destruction.
ConclusionOpposition to the pervasive egalitarian, sociocultural regime of our time is a Christian imperative. Biblical Christianity is simply not compatible with sexual egalitarianism, but in Jerry Bowyer’s metaphor, we cannot simply put the car in reverse; it is futile to traverse backwards on the road that led us to our present debacle in the first place. Rather, he suggests, we should do our best to “loop around” to get back to a biblically hierarchical time — which is by no means identical to a pagan anti-egalitarian time.
In this sense, we must be non-egalitarian and not anti-egalitarian. Anti-egalitarianism carries in its bosom not just an aversion to the sexual egalitarianism of our time but also concessions both to the kind of thinking that got us here and to the battle tactics necessary to combat the present destination. In other words, anti-egalitarianism is a unique modern position possible only in the aftermath of egalitarian apostasy. It is not an older biblical non-egalitarianism. Although we cannot pretend as though the apostasy never occurred, we should do our best to restore the sort of thinking culturally prominent before egalitarianism came along. That certainly is not modern pagan anti-egalitarianism.
Non-egalitarianism is rooted in the creational order: recognition of men and women equally bearing God‘s image but created to fulfill diverse callings as they share the cultural mandate. The woman was made for the man, and the man was not made for the woman, but the man knows he is incomplete without the woman and knows that his very life is bound up in hers, just as hers is in his (1 Cor. 11:8–12). Therefore, he leads, and he doesn’t dominate. Non-egalitarianism, therefore, is just as distant from the Christianized version of the Bronze Age Mindset (which is not the simple restoration of an ancient pagan way of thinking but rather the appropriation of that thinking to very unique, postmodern circumstances) as it is from modern apostate sexual egalitarianism.
Machismo and the misogyny it spawns are the marks of a mindset no less revolutionary than secular egalitarianism and the ideological feminism it exhibits. Both spring from rebellion against God’s word and Christ’s Lordship. The destiny of apostate thinking is to swing incessantly between two or more poles of intellectual insurrection, assuming it can avoid one by adopting its opposite. In reality, all contra-biblical thinking is of the same species — man’s rebellion against God and his revelation doomed for destruction and judgment apart from repentance.
Within the present secular egalitarian regime, the imperative of biblical Christians is to resist anti-egalitarianism (and its attendant Christianized version of the BAM) and work to restore non-egalitarianism. That restoration will equally restore truly biblical masculinity.
Footnotes1. Kenneth Minogue, The Servile Mind (New York and London: Encounter Books), 2010, 296. 2. Herman Dooyeweerd, Roots of Western Culture (Ancaster, Ontario, Canada: Paideia Press, 2012), 12–15. 3. Independently published, 2018. I’m working from the Kindle edition. 4. See Peter Jones, Capturing the Pagan Mind (Nashville, Tennessee: Broadman & Holman, 2003). 5. Larry W. Hurtado, Destroyer of the Gods (Waco, Texas: Baylor University Press, 2016), 37–76. 6. James M. Patterson, “Is the New Right Fascist?”, Religion & Liberty, Summer 2003, 14–25. 7. Jason Michael Morgan, “The Pernicious Myth of ‘Two Americas,’” Chronicles, October 2017, 12. 8. Derek Suszko, “The Problem of Libertarianism,” The St. Croix Review, Vol. LV, No. 4 [August/September 2022], 4–8. 9. Matthew Continetti, “The Left of the Right,” https://www.commentary.org/articles/matthew-continetti/new-right-vs-conservatism/?fbclid=IwAR1dvXqqGBECuQCKivGb3E9PfJ-C140sQMH3HTwzMD9mWjv4LYs-997IALM_aem_ASWQgQFCU42Uamu1iPt4WV2TBzP-0oHCrgfPuT9rACuFPtVzs22MJ_v3ay3Plr8qswg, accessed October 2, 2013. 10. Francis A. Schaeffer, The Great Evangelical Disaster (Westchester, Illinois: Crossway, 1984), 111–140. 11. David Polansky, “No End of Men,” Washington Examiner, October 3, 2023, 54.
The post The New Right-Wing Paganism: Bronze Age Pagan Masculinity appeared first on Ezra Institute.
In this episode of the Rebel – Podcast for Cultural Reformation, Pastor Nate Wright leads a wide-ranging panel discussion with Pastors Tom Ascol, Tim Stephens, James Coates, and Jacob Reaume, which was held at the recent The Presence of Christ Conference @ Trinity Bible Chapel in Waterloo, Ontario.
Episode Resources: Trinity Bible Chapel Website: https://trinitybiblechapel.ca/;
CHAPTERS:00:00 Opening
00:45 Intro
00:53 Welcome
01:50 Topic: Christian Nationalism & Culture
03:54 Question 1: Have You Seen a Rise of Racism/Ethnocentrism on the Right?
04:08 Answer(s) #1 – Jacob Reaume: Sadly, Yes.
04:35 Answer(s) #1 – James Coates: Online NOT in My Church
04:58 Answer(s) #1 – Tim Stephens: An Overreaction & Misunderstanding of Our Critique of Multiculturalism
06:18 Answer(s) #1 – Tom Ascol: A Few Load Voices are Overreacting to the Serious Problem of Globalism
08:12 Answer(s) #1.2 – Jacob Reaume: A Caveat
09:05 Question 2: NETTR NOT for the Better – Should Pastor Address Sins on the Right?
10:35 Answer(s) #2 – Jacob Reaume: Good vs. Evil, NOT Left vs. Right
12:45 Question 3: How would you Define Nation?
10:35 Answer(s) #3 – Tom Ascol: Definition
14:50 Answer(s) #3 – James Coates: “I am a Christian Nationalist.”
16:52 Question 4: How Do Christians Go About Advocating for Biblical Nations & Immigration
18:17 Answer(s) #4 – James Coates: Keep Standing Faithfully & Speaking Prophetically
19:19 Answer(s) #4 – Tim Stephens: Build; Do NOT Destroy!
20:50 Answer(s) #4 – Tom Ascol: The Church MUST Return to “An Uncompromising Declaration of God’s Law & Gospel”
25:00 Answer(s) #4 – Jacob Reaume: Christ is the Answer to Chaos NOT White Identity
28:05 Question 5: Is Tyranny Inescapable?
29:00 Answer(s) #5 – Jacob Reaume: “There is No Such Thing as Christian Tyranny”
29:27 Question 6: The Presence of Christ at the Center of a Vision for Christian Cultural Transformation
29:27 Answer(s) #6 – Jacob Reaume: Christian Reformations via Legitimate Lesser Magistrates Require a Transformed Population
32:48 Answer(s) #6 – James Coates: The Misguided Hearts of Young Men & the Necessity of Sanctification
36:45 Answer(s) #6 – Tim Stephens: The Supremacy of Law & Gospel & Christian Homes as a Model for Godly Society
39:03 Answer(s) #6 – Tom Ascol: Radical Christian Ordinariness
41:13 Conclusion
41:40 Outro
Think Christianly about politics with the help of Dr. Boot’s latest book “Ruler of Kings:” https://ezrapress.ca/products/ruler-of-kings-toward-a-christian-vision-of-government;
UPCOMING CONFERENCES:The Mission of God Conferences: Canada – Ontario | Saturday, Nov. 30, 2024, 9:00 EST @ Harvest Bible Church Windsor: https://brushfire.com/ezrainstitute/missionofgod2024-ontario/587020/details; Alberta | Saturday, Dec. 7, 2024, 9:00 MST@ Fairview Baptist Church: https://brushfire.com/ezrainstitute/missionofgod2024-alberta/587306.
REFORMCON ’25 | “Out of the Ashes” | April 24-26, 2025 @ Tucson, AZ: https://reformcon.org/
The WAIT is OVER!!! Pre-order your copy of the NEW updated and expanded version of Dr. Boot’s Mission of God with a brand-new study guide! Get it here: https://ezrapress.ca/products/mission-of-god-10th-anniversary-edition;
Got Questions? Would you like to hear Dr. Boot answer your questions? Let us know in the comments or reach out to us at https://www.ezrainstitute.com/connect/contact/;
For Ezra’s many print resources and to join our newsletter, visit: https://ezrapress.com.
Stay up-to-date with all things Ezra Institute: https://www.ezrainstitute.com;
Subscribe to Ezra’s YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPVvQDHHrOOjziyqUaN9VoA?sub_confirmation=1;
Fight Laugh Feast Network: https://pubtv.flfnetwork.com/tabs/audio/podcasts/8297;
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/ezra-institute-podcast-for-cultural-reformation/id1336078503;
Spotify Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/0dW1gDarpzdrDMLPjKYZW2?si=bee3e91ed9a54885.
Wherever you find our content, please like, subscribe, rate, or review it; it truly does help.
The post Christian Nationalism & Culture: Tom Ascol, Tim Stephens, James Coates, Jacob Reaume, & Nate Wright appeared first on Ezra Institute.
In this episode of the Podcast for Cultural Reformation, Dr. Joe Boot, Dr. Michael Thiessen, and Rev. Nate Wright talk about the upcoming U.S. election and help us to think Christianly about the religious root of culture and how that affects politics, elections, marriages, families, and human identity.
Think Christianly about politics with the help of Dr. Boot’s latest book “Ruler of Kings:” https://ezrapress.ca/products/ruler-of-kings-toward-a-christian-vision-of-government;
UPCOMING CONFERENCES:
Join us this October 31- November 2 @ The Presence of Christ Conference at Trinity Bible Chapel in Kitchener/Waterloo: https://mytrinitybiblechapel.churchcenter.com/registrations/events/2343549;
The Mission of God Conferences:UK | Sat, 2 Nov 2024 10:00 – 17:30 GMT @ Birmingham City Centre: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/mission-of-god-conference-2024-tickets-932486039847; Canada – Ontario | Saturday, Nov. 30, 2024, 9:00 EST @ Harvest Bible Church Windsor: https://brushfire.com/ezrainstitute/missionofgod2024-ontario/587020/details; Alberta | Saturday, Dec. 7, 2024, 9:00 MST@ Fairview Baptist Church: https://brushfire.com/ezrainstitute/missionofgod2024-alberta/587306.
REFORMCON ’25 | “Out of the Ashes” | April 24-26, 2025 @ Tucson, AZ: https://reformcon.org/
The WAIT is OVER!!! Pre-order your copy of the NEW updated and expanded version of Dr. Boot’s Mission of God with a brand-new study guide! Get it here: https://ezrapress.ca/products/mission-of-god-10th-anniversary-edition;
Got Questions? Would you like to hear Dr. Boot answer your questions? Let us know in the comments or reach out to us at https://www.ezrainstitute.com/connect/contact/;
For Ezra’s many print resources and to join our newsletter, visit: https://ezrapress.com.
Stay up-to-date with all things Ezra Institute: https://www.ezrainstitute.com;
Subscribe to Ezra’s YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPVvQDHHrOOjziyqUaN9VoA?sub_confirmation=1;
Fight Laugh Feast Network: https://pubtv.flfnetwork.com/tabs/audio/podcasts/8297;
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/ezra-institute-podcast-for-cultural-reformation/id1336078503;
Spotify Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/0dW1gDarpzdrDMLPjKYZW2?si=bee3e91ed9a54885.
Wherever you find our content, please like, subscribe, rate, or review it; it truly does help.
The post Christianity & Politics: The Presidency, Politics, and Patriarchy appeared first on Ezra Institute.
In this episode of the Podcast for Cultural Reformation, Dr. Joe Boot and Dr. Michael Thiessen sit down with Christian Concern‘s and Ezra Fellow for Public Policy Tim Dieppe to talk about the British effect on the foundations of constitutional freedoms the world over.
Episode Resources: Christian Concern: https://christianconcern.com/; Tim’s Website: https://dieppe.co.uk/.
Think Christianly about politics with the help of Dr. Boot’s latest book “Ruler of Kings:” https://ezrapress.ca/products/ruler-of-kings-toward-a-christian-vision-of-government;
CHAPTERS:00:00 Intro
00:20 Opening
00:41 Welcome
01:52 Magna Carta & British Constitutionalism
09:52 From Whence Do Our Liberties Come?
18:15 Freedom vs. Rights
20:24 The Coronation Oath & the Obvious Christian Foundation of Great Britain
25:10 Recovering a Christian Covenantal Foundation for Civil Authority in Britain and the West
30:30 The Ghost of Our Christian Past
34:10 The Prophetic Role of the Church in Politics & Culture
37:41 Principle vs. Pragmatism in Politics
41:30 Brexit: British Sovereignty & the European Union
45:11 Criticism of English Constitutional Arrangements
51:08 Faith is Essential for Freedom
52:28 Who is Truly Sovereign?
55:21 One Final Criticism: What’s with the House of Lords?
01:00:35 Wrap-up
01:02:30 Upcoming Events
01:04:07 Joe’s Unabashed British Patriotism
01:05:34 Conclusion
01:05:59 Outro
01:06:37 Rule Britannia!
UPCOMING CONFERENCES:
Join us this October 31- November 2 @ The Presence of Christ Conference at Trinity Bible Chapel in Kitchener/Waterloo: https://mytrinitybiblechapel.churchcenter.com/registrations/events/2343549;
The Mission of God Conferences:UK | Sat, 2 Nov 2024 10:00 – 17:30 GMT @ Birmingham City Centre: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/mission-of-god-conference-2024-tickets-932486039847; Canada – Ontario | Saturday, Nov. 30, 2024, 9:00 EST @ Harvest Bible Church Windsor: https://brushfire.com/ezrainstitute/missionofgod2024-ontario/587020/details; Alberta | Saturday, Dec. 7, 2024, 9:00 MST@ Fairview Baptist Church: https://brushfire.com/ezrainstitute/missionofgod2024-alberta/587306.
REFORMCON ’25 | “Out of the Ashes” | April 24-26, 2025 @ Tucson, AZ: https://reformcon.org/
The WAIT is OVER!!! Pre-order your copy of the NEW updated and expanded version of Dr. Boot’s Mission of God with a brand-new study guide! Get it here: https://ezrapress.ca/products/mission-of-god-10th-anniversary-edition;
Got Questions? Would you like to hear Dr. Boot answer your questions? Let us know in the comments or reach out to us at https://www.ezrainstitute.com/connect/contact/;
For Ezra’s many print resources and to join our newsletter, visit: https://ezrapress.com.
Stay up-to-date with all things Ezra Institute: https://www.ezrainstitute.com;
Subscribe to Ezra’s YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPVvQDHHrOOjziyqUaN9VoA?sub_confirmation=1;
Fight Laugh Feast Network: https://pubtv.flfnetwork.com/tabs/audio/podcasts/8297;
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/ezra-institute-podcast-for-cultural-reformation/id1336078503;
Spotify Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/0dW1gDarpzdrDMLPjKYZW2?si=bee3e91ed9a54885.
Wherever you find our content, please like, subscribe, rate, or review it; it truly does help.
The post Christianity & Politics: Britain & the Foundation of Constitutional Freedom ft. Tim Dieppe appeared first on Ezra Institute.
On this episode of the Podcast for Cultural Engagement, P Nate delivers the final message in his four-part series on winning the culture for Christ.
HOW TO WIN THE WORLD PAST EPISODES:
Part 1 – “Believe the World is Winnable” ft. Josh Howard: https://youtu.be/jhXUt0OFFDM; Part 2 – “War with Worship” ft. Doug Wilson: https://youtu.be/EqgR9Ewba7g; Part 3 – “Cultivate Christian Community” ft. Toby Sumpter: https://youtu.be/a5YQdrgJ_wg; Part 4 – “Recover Biblical Households” ft. C.R. Wiley: https://youtu.be/cRFIdIlSyhY; Part 5 – “Practice Hospitality” ft. Rachel Jankovic: https://youtu.be/pWXJI8_SGlE; Part 6 – “Lead Courageously” ft. Joe Rigney: https://youtu.be/iNQQciI21Rg; Part 7 – “Seek the Lost” ft. Cory McKenna: https://youtu.be/P1ZcYoqW9QQ;
Part 8 – “Tell Better Stories” ft. Ben Garrett: https://youtu.be/7orktGUPdx0;
Part 9 – “Take Bold Risks” ft. Marcus Pittman: https://youtu.be/u3LXM6a0OL4;
Part 10 – “Rebuilding Christian Institutions” ft. Jamie Bambrick: https://youtu.be/iBOJqgTJJHc;
Part 12 – “Build Biblical Marriages” ft. Jacob Reaume: https://youtu.be/sCkZgkkJ0BI.
Part 13 – “Learn to Love God’s Law Word” ft. Dr. Joe Boot: https://youtu.be/PfHYidc2elE;
WORSHIP: Bring Heaven to Earth [HOW TO WIN THE WORLD – Sermon Series: Part 1] ft. Pastor Nate Wright: https://youtu.be/PqLLA9AHAJQ;
LIVE: Faithfully in Your Sphere [HOW TO WIN THE WORLD – Sermon Series: Part 2] ft. Pastor Nate Wright: https://youtu.be/gbB8WEIsAjI
BUILD: God’s Kingdom on Earth [HOW TO WIN THE WORLD – Sermon Series: Part 3] ft. Pastor Nate Wright: https://youtu.be/SF9FfmvhfXc.
The WAIT is OVER!!! Pre-order your copy of the NEW updated and expanded version of Dr. Boot’s Mission of God with a brand-new study guide! Get it here: *https://ezrapress.ca/products/mission-of-god-10th-anniversary-edition;*
Got Questions? Would you like to hear Dr. Boot answer your questions? Let us know in the comments or reach out to us at https://www.ezrainstitute.com/connect/contact/;
Think biblically about politics with the help of Dr. Boot’s latest book “Ruler of Kings”: https://ezrapress.ca/products/ruler-of-kings-toward-a-christian-vision-of-government;
For Ezra’s many print resources and to join our newsletter, visit: https://ezrapress.com.
Stay up-to-date with all things Ezra Institute: https://www.ezrainstitute.com;
Subscribe to Ezra’s YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPVvQDHHrOOjziyqUaN9VoA?sub_confirmation=1;
Fight Laugh Feast Network: https://pubtv.flfnetwork.com/tabs/audio/podcasts/8297;
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/ezra-institute-podcast-for-cultural-reformation/id1336078503;
Spotify Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/0dW1gDarpzdrDMLPjKYZW2?si=bee3e91ed9a54885.
Wherever you find our content, please like, subscribe, rate, or review it; it truly does help.
The post Part 4 – MULTIPLY: So That the Mission Doesn’t Die With You [HOW TO WIN THE WORLD – Sermon Series] appeared first on Ezra Institute.
In this episode of the Podcast for Cultural Reformation, Pastor Nate Wright and Dr. Michael Thiessen are joined by Pastor & Ezra Fellow for Evangelism & Apologetics Jeff Durbin of Apologia Church & Studios and End Abortion Now to discuss the upcoming American election, Social Conservatism, and the need to root conservative principles in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Episode Resources: Apologia Church: ; Apologia Studios: https://apologiastudios.com/; End Abortion Now: https://endabortionnow.com/; ReformCon ’25: https://reformcon.org/.
Think Christianly about politics with the help of Dr. Boot’s latest book “Ruler of Kings”: https://ezrapress.ca/products/ruler-of-kings-toward-a-christian-vision-of-government;
CHAPTERS:00:00 Opening
00:27 Intro
00:47 Welcome
01:28 Homelife & Adoption
05:51 Conversation Set-up
07:31 How Jeff is Thinking About the Upcoming Election
14:57 Social Conservatism is NOT Enough
16:33 Christless Conservatism CANNOT Save Us
23:21 How Can an Abolitionist Vote for Trump?
38:33 What are Christians To Do When the Conservative Foundations are Destroyed? GO LOCAL!
47:30 “We’ve Got a Lot of [Exciting] Work Ahead of Us!”
48:43 God’s Law Word at the Heart of All of Society
49:13 Thinking Christianly & Other Upcoming Conferences
51:47 Conclusion
52:10 Outro
UPCOMING CONFERENCES:
Join us this October 31- November 2 @ The Presence of Christ Conference at Trinity Bible Chapel in Kitchener/Waterloo: https://mytrinitybiblechapel.churchcenter.com/registrations/events/2343549;
The Mission of God Conferences:UK | Sat, 2 Nov 2024 10:00 – 17:30 GMT @ Birmingham City Centre: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/mission-of-god-conference-2024-tickets-932486039847; Canada – Ontario | Saturday, Nov. 30, 2024, 9:00 EST @ Harvest Bible Church Windsor: https://brushfire.com/ezrainstitute/missionofgod2024-ontario/587020/details; Alberta | Saturday, Dec. 7, 2024, 9:00 MST@ Fairview Baptist Church: https://brushfire.com/ezrainstitute/missionofgod2024-alberta/587306.
REFORMCON ’25 | “Out of the Ashes” | April 24-26, 2025 @ Tucson, AZ: https://reformcon.org/
The WAIT is OVER!!! Pre-order your copy of the NEW updated and expanded version of Dr. Boot’s Mission of God with a brand-new study guide! Get it here: https://ezrapress.ca/products/mission-of-god-10th-anniversary-edition;
Got Questions? Would you like to hear Dr. Boot answer your questions? Let us know in the comments or reach out to us at https://www.ezrainstitute.com/connect/contact/;
For Ezra’s many print resources and to join our newsletter, visit: https://ezrapress.com.
Stay up-to-date with all things Ezra Institute: https://www.ezrainstitute.com;
Subscribe to Ezra’s YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPVvQDHHrOOjziyqUaN9VoA?sub_confirmation=1;
Fight Laugh Feast Network: https://pubtv.flfnetwork.com/tabs/audio/podcasts/8297;
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/ezra-institute-podcast-for-cultural-reformation/id1336078503;
Spotify Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/0dW1gDarpzdrDMLPjKYZW2?si=bee3e91ed9a54885.
Wherever you find our content, please like, subscribe, rate, or review it; it truly does help.
The post Christianity & Politics: Social Conservatism (Or Christless Conservatism?) ft. Jeff Durbin appeared first on Ezra Institute.
On this episode of the Podcast for Cultural Engagement, P Nate delivers another powerful sermon on how to win the culture by building kingdom culture through faithful service to Christ our King.
HOW TO WIN THE WORLD PAST EPISODES:
Part 1 – “Believe the World is Winnable” ft. Josh Howard: https://youtu.be/jhXUt0OFFDM; Part 2 – “War with Worship” ft. Doug Wilson: https://youtu.be/EqgR9Ewba7g; Part 3 – “Cultivate Christian Community” ft. Toby Sumpter: https://youtu.be/a5YQdrgJ_wg; Part 4 – “Recover Biblical Households” ft. C.R. Wiley: https://youtu.be/cRFIdIlSyhY; Part 5 – “Practice Hospitality” ft. Rachel Jankovic: https://youtu.be/pWXJI8_SGlE; Part 6 – “Lead Courageously” ft. Joe Rigney: https://youtu.be/iNQQciI21Rg; Part 7 – “Seek the Lost” ft. Cory McKenna: https://youtu.be/P1ZcYoqW9QQ;
Part 8 – “Tell Better Stories” ft. Ben Garrett: https://youtu.be/7orktGUPdx0;
Part 9 – “Take Bold Risks” ft. Marcus Pittman: https://youtu.be/u3LXM6a0OL4;
Part 10 – “Rebuilding Christian Institutions” ft. Jamie Bambrick: https://youtu.be/iBOJqgTJJHc;
Part 12 – “Build Biblical Marriages” ft. Jacob Reaume: https://youtu.be/sCkZgkkJ0BI.
Part 13 – “Learn to Love God’s Law Word” ft. Dr. Joe Boot: https://youtu.be/PfHYidc2elE;
WORSHIP: Bring Heaven to Earth [HOW TO WIN THE WORLD – Sermon Series: Part 1] ft. Pastor Nate Wright: https://youtu.be/PqLLA9AHAJQ;
LIVE: Faithfully in Your Sphere [HOW TO WIN THE WORLD – Sermon Series: Part 2] ft. Pastor Nate Wright: https://youtu.be/gbB8WEIsAjI
The WAIT is OVER!!! Pre-order your copy of the NEW updated and expanded version of Dr. Boot’s Mission of God with a brand-new study guide! Get it here: *https://ezrapress.ca/products/mission-of-god-10th-anniversary-edition;*
Got Questions? Would you like to hear Dr. Boot answer your questions? Let us know in the comments or reach out to us at https://www.ezrainstitute.com/connect/contact/;
Think biblically about politics with the help of Dr. Boot’s latest book “Ruler of Kings”: https://ezrapress.ca/products/ruler-of-kings-toward-a-christian-vision-of-government;
For Ezra’s many print resources and to join our newsletter, visit: https://ezrapress.com.
Stay up-to-date with all things Ezra Institute: https://www.ezrainstitute.com;
Subscribe to Ezra’s YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPVvQDHHrOOjziyqUaN9VoA?sub_confirmation=1;
Fight Laugh Feast Network: https://pubtv.flfnetwork.com/tabs/audio/podcasts/8297;
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/ezra-institute-podcast-for-cultural-reformation/id1336078503;
Spotify Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/0dW1gDarpzdrDMLPjKYZW2?si=bee3e91ed9a54885.
Wherever you find our content, please like, subscribe, rate, or review it; it truly does help.
The post Part 3 – BUILD: God’s Kingdom on Earth [HOW TO WIN THE WORLD – Sermon Series] appeared first on Ezra Institute.
The contemporary humanistic faith in an evolving universe in Western society precludes any standard above or distinct from itself; this immediately implies that the law of the state (as a product of nature) is beyond criticism by any transcendent source of authority — for there can be no such thing as a transcendent source of authority and law. This means state law is inescapably totalitarian law. There is no right, realm of justice, nor source of law beyond or above what the state enacts. As such, the modern state seeks to unite absolute power and total jurisdiction with a growing claim to total competence. As the new source of law, the humanistic secular state claims to stand above the law as the new god of being, planning and ruling over every sphere of life. This is the idolatry of statism, “It is a reductionist vision of mankind and society … a vision that absolutizes — and therefore idolizes — one aspect of the created order above other equally legitimate aspects of creation that exist independently of the state.”[1]
As a result, and in the name of secular psychology, anthropology, and sociology, our era is experiencing a reversal and repealing of biblically derived law for man’s so-called “rational law,” sociological law and social-scientific planning. This has created the modern crisis in law and politics and a growing disillusionment with and disregard for law and justice.
The Meaning of Law
The central question that confronts us in considering a Christian view of law is the nature and meaning of law. There have been a variety of views of law (jurisprudence) in modern Western thought. From the secular humanistic standpoint, there have been two main approaches to fulfill the desire to jettison God from the realm of law in human society.
In the ‘Pure Theory of Law’ (analytical jurisprudence), the question of whether a law is good or bad, just or unjust, is not the concern of jurisprudence — moral judgments supposedly cannot be defended by “rational” argument. There are various norms (situations of fact) operating in a variety of legal systems based in diverse constitutions. Each constitution is a hypothesis and legal rules are deductions from this hypothesis. Law is therefore the structural analysis of positive rules within these various systems. It is concerned with the actual and not with the ideal.
In the “Sociological School,” law as a social institution is really based in an experimental science which has the task of satisfying human desires and wants that are constantly changing. It is not concerned with deductions from first principles. As such, “human interests” are the subject of the law. The goal is the smooth working/control of a social machine in terms of various social interests. Law on this view is simply what the courts do and decide. Law is reduced to a form of legal behaviorism where we simply “scientifically observe” the way courts behave in various cases.
In either case, laws are reduced to the commands of human beings, and the goals are purely pragmatic — law is ultimately whatever “works.” If most people obey them, then they are “valid.” Certainty here is being sought not in God’s Word but in culture and experience.
God’s Law
By contrast, from the scriptural standpoint, law in its restricted (juridical) sense is not concerned with prescribing but with discovering the meaning of the concept of justice and its implications for social and political society.
The norms of law which lie at the foundation of the jural/legal dimension of created reality are different from those governing the natural sciences. Critically, in law and justice, we are not merely dealing with descriptive observation of states of affairs, but truly normative criteria for human life by virtue of creation and God’s self-revelation in scripture. People show an everyday awareness (however much suppressed) of creational norms as God’s creatures with their sense of injustice, their demands for justice, and by inescapably invoking normative criteria like truth, fairness, right and wrong, crime and punishment for legal societal relationships.
The Word of God reveals that he has placed the entire cosmos under His law-Word and ordinances for creation. This includes, but is more than, the decalogue (Ten Commandments), case law, and prophetic instruction. It encompasses all the universal ordinances that constitute the structural principles for the existence of all differentiated things and societal entities. God’s Law-Word for all reality is the condition of life. We can therefore speak of a creational law-order because of the multiplicity of laws for the various dimensions of creation.
Torah and Just Recompense
In scripture torah is translated as “law” and its essential meaning is instruction, which is reflected in some English translations. The English word instruction reminds us that we are in-structure in God’s creation. Our life is structured within and governed by God’s Law-Word. God Himself is not to be confused with His law (temporal law is not eternally existing in God), but neither is law apart from God. Rather, he binds himself to his creation law in covenant faithfulness.
Unless God in scripture teaches us the nature of creation and reveals to us His Law-Word, we would not of ourselves, in our sinful and ruined condition, seek true justice or rightly apply his norms for legal life in the political sphere. Because legal norms regulate relations between people and human institutions, what they are concerned with is the just balancing of human legal interests, that is, giving people their due. As such the principle of retribution is at the heart of legal life.
In scripture we see an excellent example of this principle formulated in what we call the Lex Talionis, the law of recompense seen in Exodus 21:24–25:
If there is an injury, then you must give life for life,eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, bruise for bruise, wound for wound.
This passage is sometimes used by thoughtless critics who think they are identifying barbarism in Scripture. However, the principle here is not that a judge is to order the burning of one who burned someone else; rather, it is concerned with just recompense. Here, in the case of personal injury, the retribution must be commensurate with the nature and scale of the offense — in short, proportionality is the governing principle. Thus, retribution must properly balance legal interests, and punishments must fit the crime.
The central meaning of justice as re-tribution is grasped through direct intuition by God’s creatures who bear His image within His law-order and it is republished in the written Word of God which is why we are able to grasp the meaning of the Decalogue. This human consciousness of accountability stems from our awareness that the judgment of God rests upon the lawless, individually and corporately. The principle of just retribution restrains excessive severity or lax leniency in the administration of justice in the courts.
Love and Justice
It is critical to observe that this justice does not conflict with love. The love of God lies at the religious root of all creation itself and is covenantal in character. Retribution is the foundation of love in its moral sense. Legal norms, which are presupposed in the commandment to love God and neighbor — since you cannot love your neighbor while denying them what they are due (Rom. 13:8-10) — are the principles for public social order, whereas ethical norms govern our personal lives. This is why not all sins are crimes.
All the moral commands of the Decalogue, such as “You shall not murder,” appeal to and presuppose the legal order, without which it has no meaning. Justice is therefore the temporal foundation of love in that it protects the weak and the wronged and restores order when disrupted by wickedness. As such, Christians must not try to break down the distinction between legal norms and the moral demand for love to neighbor as though justice is unloving!
Love certainly goes beyond justice, but not without justice as its foundation. To oppose love and justice to each other produces a false dichotomy, an artificial contradiction that can lead to a world of tyranny by shattering the very idea of justice itself.
The goal of legal justice in political life is not primarily deterrent (though that may at times be a secondary benefit); neither is it moral education or “treatment” toward rehabilitation. Crime is not a disease, but rebellion against God’s law-order that demands retribution and restitution. If crime were a disease, then you might be cured by compulsion by for any behavior the state deems a sickness! C. S. Lewis’ warning about humanitarian theories of justice is very telling:
The humanitarian theory removes from punishment the concept of desert. But the concept of desert is the only connecting link between punishment and justice. It is only as deserved or undeserved that a sentence can be just or unjust…There is no sense in talking about a just deterrent or just cure. We demand of a deterrent not whether it is just but whether it succeeds. Thus, when we only consider what will cure him or deter others, we have tacitly removed him from the sphere of justice altogether; instead of a person, a subject of rights, we now have a mere object, a ‘case’ to be in a clinic… The humanitarian theory wants simply to abolish justice and substitute mercy for it. This means you start being kind to people before you have considered their rights, and then force upon them supposed kindnesses which no one but you will recognize as kindnesses and which the recipient will feel as abominable cruelties. You have overshot the mark. Mercy detached from justice grows unmerciful. That is the important paradox. As there are plants which will flourish only in mountain soil, so it appears that mercy will flower only when it grows in the crannies of the rock of justice. Transplanted to the marshlands or mere humanitarianism, it becomes a man-eating weed, all the more dangerous because it is still called by the same name as the mountain variety.[2]
We can either retain the biblical legal norm of just retribution and stand with the law of God or be condemned to the control and “healing” of a pseudo-scientific political elite.
Law, Politics and the Lord Jesus Christ
The final and all-important manifestation of the unity of love and justice is found in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ who is both creator and redeemer. As the living Word, He is author of the jural dimension of creation as well as the inscripturated Word. In him, love and mercy, righteousness and justice, meet. At the cross, Christ has vindicated and proven the sanctity of God’s law and reconciled law and love by paying the price for man’s lawlessness. There he took the retributive punishment for sin demanded by a holy and just God while manifesting his divine love. There is thus no contradiction between law and love, or law and gospel. As Cornelius Van Til pointed out,
The very content of the Gospel is that Christ has fulfilled the law. The joy of the gospel is that man can in Christ know and obey the law and therefore live in the presence of God forever. There is no Gospel but that of the law. On the other hand, the Gospel is law because all must obey it.[3]
This good news about God’s law must be applied culturally and politically or we will only inherit a lawless world. The British Anglican thinker and reformational philosopher, Hebden Taylor, correctly saw that without belief in God’s law-order there is no valid basis for the enforcement of law in society:
When God and his laws and creation structures are rejected by nations then all defense against arbitrary power vanishes at the same time. If Americans and Britons refuse to acknowledge God as their ultimate sovereign in this life they will finish up as having tyrants as their masters because it is only God himself who can subject the powers of politicians, judges, police, and scientists to conscience. Without such a conscience enlightened by God’s Word and God’s Law there can be no abiding defence against injustice and tyranny. It is therefore imperative that Christians realise the vital necessity for a constant witness on their part to the saving, reforming and liberating power of the Lord Jesus Christ…. The Christian philosophy of life must not be allowed to hang in thin air but it must be brought down to earth in the hearts and consciences of the common people and in the concrete political, economic and legal situations of life.[4]
For the flourishing of our families and nations, the Law-Word of God must be proclaimed and commended to all power and authority.
[1]Stephen C. Perks, The Politics of God and Man: Essays on Politics, Religion and Social Order (Taunton: Kuyper Foundation, 2016), 49
[2]C.S. Lewis, God in the Dock (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1970), 288-289, 294
[3]Cornelius Van Til, The Ten Commandments (United States: Cantaro Publications, 2023), 9
[4]Hebden Taylor, The New Legality (Philadelphia: P&R, 1967), 51
The post Biblical, Creational Law appeared first on Ezra Institute.
In this episode of the Podcast for Cultural Reformation, Doctors Joe Boot and Michael Thiessen talk with best-selling author, podcaster, and blogger Mike D’Virgilio about Republicanism, its past, present, and future.
Episode Resources: Mike’s Website: https://mikedvirgilio.com/; Going Back to Find The Way Forward: Trump, A Great Awakening, and the Refounding of America: https://amzn.to/4868zRH; The Based Boomer Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@eschatology_matters/videos;
Think Christianly about politics with the help of Dr. Boot’s latest book “Ruler of Kings”: https://ezrapress.ca/products/ruler-of-kings-toward-a-christian-vision-of-government;
CHAPTERS:00:00 Opening
01:10 Intro
01:30 Welcome
06:30 Going Back to Find the Way Forward: Republicanism Red-pilled
09:52 Uprooted and Searching for Truth
11:05 Hegel’s Distorted View of History
14:00 The Upcoming U.S. Election
19:05 RINOs & the Red-pilled Right
26:40 Growing Christian Political Influence
28:16 Getting the Cultural Task of the Church Right
33:42 The Christian’s Cultural Task
36:34 Reformed Con ’25: Out of the Ashes
37:42 What Does Going Backward to Move Forward Really Mean?
43:35 From a Reformed Worldview at the American Founding and How We Got to Where We Are Now
49:25 Christian Influence on American Republicanism
51:29 The Antichrist Takeover of the Demo(n)cratic Party by the New Left
55:15 The Death of Secularism and its Political Ramifications
59:24 Special Guest Shoutout: Cromwell
01:00:00 Call to Action
01:01:31 Conclusion
01:06:36 Outro
UPCOMING CONFERENCES:
Join us this October 31- November 2 @ The Presence of Christ Conference at Trinity Bible Chapel in Kitchener/Waterloo: https://mytrinitybiblechapel.churchcenter.com/registrations/events/2343549;
The Mission of God Conferences: UK | Sat, 2 Nov 2024 10:00 – 17:30 GMT @ Birmingham City Centre: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/mission-of-god-conference-2024-tickets-932486039847; Canada – Ontario | Saturday, Nov. 30, 2024, 9:00 EST @ Harvest Bible Church Windsor: https://brushfire.com/ezrainstitute/missionofgod2024-ontario/587020/details; Alberta | Saturday, Dec. 7, 2024, 9:00 MST@ Fairview Baptist Church: https://brushfire.com/ezrainstitute/missionofgod2024-alberta/587306.
The WAIT is OVER!!! Pre-order your copy of the NEW updated and expanded version of Dr. Boot’s Mission of God with a brand-new study guide! Get it here: https://ezrapress.ca/products/mission-of-god-10th-anniversary-edition;
Got Questions? Would you like to hear Dr. Boot answer your questions? Let us know in the comments or reach out to us at https://www.ezrainstitute.com/connect/contact/;
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Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/ezra-institute-podcast-for-cultural-reformation/id1336078503;
Spotify Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/0dW1gDarpzdrDMLPjKYZW2?si=bee3e91ed9a54885.
Wherever you find our content, please like, subscribe, rate, or review it; it truly does help.
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On this episode of the Podcast for Cultural Engagement, P Nate delivers a powerful sermon on how to win the culture through living faithfully to the Lord in every sphere of life.
HOW TO WIN THE WORLD PAST EPISODES:
Part 1 – “Believe the World is Winnable” ft. Josh Howard: https://youtu.be/jhXUt0OFFDM; Part 2 – “War with Worship” ft. Doug Wilson: https://youtu.be/EqgR9Ewba7g; Part 3 – “Cultivate Christian Community” ft. Toby Sumpter: https://youtu.be/a5YQdrgJ_wg; Part 4 – “Recover Biblical Households” ft. C.R. Wiley: https://youtu.be/cRFIdIlSyhY; Part 5 – “Practice Hospitality” ft. Rachel Jankovic: https://youtu.be/pWXJI8_SGlE; Part 6 – “Lead Courageously” ft. Joe Rigney: https://youtu.be/iNQQciI21Rg; Part 7 – “Seek the Lost” ft. Cory McKenna: https://youtu.be/P1ZcYoqW9QQ;
Part 8 – “Tell Better Stories” ft. Ben Garrett: https://youtu.be/7orktGUPdx0;
Part 9 – “Take Bold Risks” ft. Marcus Pittman: https://youtu.be/u3LXM6a0OL4;
Part 10 – “Rebuilding Christian Institutions” ft. Jamie Bambrick: https://youtu.be/iBOJqgTJJHc;
Part 12 – “Build Biblical Marriages” ft. Jacob Reaume: https://youtu.be/sCkZgkkJ0BI.
Part 13 – “Learn to Love God’s Law Word” ft. Dr. Joe Boot: https://youtu.be/PfHYidc2elE;
WORSHIP: Bring Heaven to Earth [HOW TO WIN THE WORLD – Sermon Series: Part 1] ft. Pastor Nate Wright: https://youtu.be/gbB8WEIsAjI.
The WAIT is OVER!!! Pre-order your copy of the NEW updated and expanded version of Dr. Boot’s Mission of God with a brand-new study guide! Get it here: *https://ezrapress.ca/products/mission-of-god-10th-anniversary-edition;*
Got Questions? Would you like to hear Dr. Boot answer your questions? Let us know in the comments or reach out to us at https://www.ezrainstitute.com/connect/contact/;
Think biblically about politics with the help of Dr. Boot’s latest book “Ruler of Kings”: https://ezrapress.ca/products/ruler-of-kings-toward-a-christian-vision-of-government;
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Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/ezra-institute-podcast-for-cultural-reformation/id1336078503;
Spotify Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/0dW1gDarpzdrDMLPjKYZW2?si=bee3e91ed9a54885.
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The post Part 2 – LIVE: Faithfully in Your Sphere [HOW TO WIN THE WORLD – Sermon Series] appeared first on Ezra Institute.
If you missed the recent Iron Sharpens Iron Pastor’s Luncheon at Church of the Living Christ in Loysville, PA, you’ll want to catch up on the keynote address by Dr. Joe Boot.
The post Dr. Boot at the Iron Sharpens Iron Pastors Luncheon appeared first on Ezra Institute.
In this episode of the Podcast for Cultural Reformation, Pastor Nate Wright and Dr. Jeffrey Ventrella explore the intricate relationship between American constitutionalism and Christianity. They ask the question: “Is the Constitution Dead?” They discuss the historical foundations of America, the role of religion in the founding, the impact of rationalism, and the current state of constitutionalism in a nation that has largely rejected its Christian roots. Dr. Ventrella emphasizes the importance of Christians engaging in cultural and institutional power to effect change, advocating for a long-term, incremental approach to renewal and transformation.
Episode Resources: TruthXchange: https://truthxchange.com/;
Think Christianly about politics with the help of Dr. Boot’s latest book “Ruler of Kings”: https://ezrapress.ca/products/ruler-of-kings-toward-a-christian-vision-of-government;
CHAPTERS:00:00 Opening: Introduction to American Constitutionalism
00:30 Intro
00:51 Welcome
03:05 The Foundations of America: A Historical Perspective
11:31 American Idea of the Separation of Church & State
16:30 The Impact of Modernism/Rationalism on American Ideals
20:37 Evolution and the Mutation of Law & Society
24:33 Christianity’s Influence on American Governance
29:48 The Importance of a Biblical Anthropology in the U.S. Founding
33:00 Current State of American Constitutionalism
38:19 Why Do Insitutions Tend to Bloat and Shift Left?
42:09 Christian Culture & Institutional Power
44:27 Why Fight for American Constitutionalism?
51:22 TruthXchange Information
53:25 Conclusion & Mission of God Conference Information
54:14 Outro
UPCOMING CONFERENCES:
Join us this October 31- November 2 @ The Presence of Christ Conference at Trinity Bible Chapel in Kitchener/Waterloo: https://mytrinitybiblechapel.churchcenter.com/registrations/events/2343549;
The Mission of God Conferences: UK | Sat, 2 Nov 2024 10:00 – 17:30 GMT @ Birmingham City Centre: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/mission-of-god-conference-2024-tickets-932486039847; Canada – Ontario | Saturday, Nov. 30, 2024, 9:00 EST @ Harvest Bible Church Windsor: https://brushfire.com/ezrainstitute/missionofgod2024-ontario/587020/details; Alberta | Saturday, Dec. 7, 2024, 9:00 MST@ Fairview Baptist Church: https://brushfire.com/ezrainstitute/missionofgod2024-alberta/587306.
The WAIT is OVER!!! Pre-order your copy of the NEW updated and expanded version of Dr. Boot’s Mission of God with a brand-new study guide! Get it here: https://ezrapress.ca/products/mission-of-god-10th-anniversary-edition;
Got Questions? Would you like to hear Dr. Boot answer your questions? Let us know in the comments or reach out to us at https://www.ezrainstitute.com/connect/contact/;
For Ezra’s many print resources and to join our newsletter, visit: https://ezrapress.com.
Stay up-to-date with all things Ezra Institute: https://www.ezrainstitute.com;
Subscribe to Ezra’s YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPVvQDHHrOOjziyqUaN9VoA?sub_confirmation=1;
Fight Laugh Feast Network: https://pubtv.flfnetwork.com/tabs/audio/podcasts/8297;
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/ezra-institute-podcast-for-cultural-reformation/id1336078503;
Spotify Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/0dW1gDarpzdrDMLPjKYZW2?si=bee3e91ed9a54885.
Wherever you find our content, please like, subscribe, rate, or review it; it truly does help.
The post Christianity & Politics: Is the Constitution Dead? American Constitutionalism ft. Dr. Jeffery Ventrella appeared first on Ezra Institute.
OK, friends. I know we said the How to Win the World series was over, but P Nate was so inspired by it that he decided to do a sermon series on it. So, while Elder P and P Nate are busy with their 5-century plan on how to take back Canada for Christ, we thought you’d enjoy P Nate sermons.
HOW TO WIN THE WORLD PAST EPISODES:
Part 1 – “Believe the World is Winnable” ft. Josh Howard: https://youtu.be/jhXUt0OFFDM; Part 2 – “War with Worship” ft. Doug Wilson: https://youtu.be/EqgR9Ewba7g; Part 3 – “Cultivate Christian Community” ft. Toby Sumpter: https://youtu.be/a5YQdrgJ_wg; Part 4 – “Recover Biblical Households” ft. C.R. Wiley: https://youtu.be/cRFIdIlSyhY; Part 5 – “Practice Hospitality” ft. Rachel Jankovic: https://youtu.be/pWXJI8_SGlE; Part 6 – “Lead Courageously” ft. Joe Rigney: https://youtu.be/iNQQciI21Rg; Part 7 – “Seek the Lost” ft. Cory McKenna: https://youtu.be/P1ZcYoqW9QQ;
Part 8 – “Tell Better Stories” ft. Ben Garrett: https://youtu.be/7orktGUPdx0;
Part 9 – “Take Bold Risks” ft. Marcus Pittman: https://youtu.be/u3LXM6a0OL4;
Part 10 – “Rebuilding Christian Institutions” ft. Jamie Bambrick: https://youtu.be/iBOJqgTJJHc;
Part 12 – “Build Biblical Marriages” ft. Jacob Reaume: https://youtu.be/sCkZgkkJ0BI.
Part 13 – “Learn to Love God’s Law Word” ft. Dr. Joe Boot: https://youtu.be/PfHYidc2elE;
The WAIT is OVER!!! Pre-order your copy of the NEW updated and expanded version of Dr. Boot’s Mission of God with a brand-new study guide! Get it here: *https://ezrapress.ca/products/mission-of-god-10th-anniversary-edition;*
Got Questions? Would you like to hear Dr. Boot answer your questions? Let us know in the comments or reach out to us at https://www.ezrainstitute.com/connect/contact/;
Think biblically about politics with the help of Dr. Boot’s latest book “Ruler of Kings”: https://ezrapress.ca/products/ruler-of-kings-toward-a-christian-vision-of-government;
For Ezra’s many print resources and to join our newsletter, visit: https://ezrapress.com.
Stay up-to-date with all things Ezra Institute: https://www.ezrainstitute.com;
Subscribe to Ezra’s YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPVvQDHHrOOjziyqUaN9VoA?sub_confirmation=1;
Fight Laugh Feast Network: https://pubtv.flfnetwork.com/tabs/audio/podcasts/8297;
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/ezra-institute-podcast-for-cultural-reformation/id1336078503;
Spotify Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/0dW1gDarpzdrDMLPjKYZW2?si=bee3e91ed9a54885.
Wherever you find our content, please like, subscribe, rate, or review it; it truly does help.
The post Part 1 – WORSHIP: Bring Heaven to Earth [HOW TO WIN THE WORLD – Sermon Series] appeared first on Ezra Institute.
In this episode of the Podcast for Cultural Reformation, we continue our series on Christianity & Politics; Dr. Joe Boot is joined by Ezra Fellow for International Law, Comparative Politics, and International Relations, Prof. Dan Ogden, J.D., to discuss national conservatism, its Christian roots, its strengths and weaknesses and whether or not it’s biblical.
Episode Resources: Collected Works of Edmund Burke: https://www.amazon.ca/Collected-Works-Edmund-Burke-ebook/dp/B00FL2FH82; National Conservatism Overview: https://nationalconservatism.org/about; National Conservatism Statement of Principles: https://nationalconservatism.org/national-conservatism-a-statement-of-principles; “National Conservatism and Its Discontents”: https://claremontreviewofbooks.com/national-conservatism-and-its-discontents; “National Conservatism, Freedom Conservatism, and Americanism”: https://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/national-conservatism-freedom-conservatism-and-americanism; Edmund Burke Foundation: https://burke.foundation.
Think Christianly about politics with the help of Dr. Boot’s latest book “Ruler of Kings”: https://ezrapress.ca/products/ruler-of-kings-toward-a-christian-vision-of-government;
CHAPTERS:
0:00 Opening
0:43 Intro
01:04 Welcome
02:30 The Importance of Developing a Christian View of Politics
07:35 The Difference Between Political Philosophy and Public Policy
12:05 Why Do Christians Tend Not to Engage in Public Policy?
14:55 Upcoming Mission of God Conferences & Other Events
16:28 Politics: The Art of the Possible – From Theory to Application
17:00 The Problem of Statism: Defining the Beast
20:29 The Structure and Direction of the State
22:36 National Conservatism (NC): What is it?
23:23 NC’s Basic Idea of Nation
28:13 Not All Nations are Equal
29:13 Nationhood as Covenant
33:15 Covenant & Conservatism
34:13 Ruler of Kings AD
35:15 What is Conservatism?
38:06 Burkian Conservatism
41:09 Our Own Radically Rousseauian Revolution
44:43 The Political Binary: The Sovereignty of God or the Sovereignty of Man
46:15 The Principles of National Conservatism
48:11 National Conservatism: The Movement
56:23 Foreign Policy: NC Realism vs. Liberalism
01:00:16 The Newest Boogeyman: Project 2025
01:04:25 Sphere Sovereignty & Political Liberty
01:12:25 Dan’s Closing Remarks
01:14:39 Conclusion
01:15:23 Outro
UPCOMING CONFERENCES:
Join us this October 31- November 2 @ The Presence of Christ Conference at Trinity Bible Chapel in Kitchener/Waterloo: https://mytrinitybiblechapel.churchcenter.com/registrations/events/2343549;
The Mission of God Conferences: UK | Sat, 2 Nov 2024 10:00 – 17:30 GMT @ Birmingham City Centre: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/mission-of-god-conference-2024-tickets-932486039847; Canada – Ontario | Saturday, Nov. 30, 2024, 9:00 EST @ Harvest Bible Church Windsor: https://brushfire.com/ezrainstitute/missionofgod2024-ontario/587020/details; Alberta | Saturday, Dec. 7, 2024, 9:00 MST@ Fairview Baptist Church: https://brushfire.com/ezrainstitute/missionofgod2024-alberta/587306.
The WAIT is OVER!!! Pre-order your copy of the NEW updated and expanded version of Dr. Boot’s Mission of God with a brand-new study guide! Get it here: https://ezrapress.ca/products/mission-of-god-10th-anniversary-edition;
Got Questions? Would you like to hear Dr. Boot answer your questions? Let us know in the comments or reach out to us at https://www.ezrainstitute.com/connect/contact/;
For Ezra’s many print resources and to join our newsletter, visit: https://ezrapress.com.
Stay up-to-date with all things Ezra Institute: https://www.ezrainstitute.com;
Subscribe to Ezra’s YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPVvQDHHrOOjziyqUaN9VoA?sub_confirmation=1;
Fight Laugh Feast Network: https://pubtv.flfnetwork.com/tabs/audio/podcasts/8297;
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/ezra-institute-podcast-for-cultural-reformation/id1336078503;
Spotify Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/0dW1gDarpzdrDMLPjKYZW2?si=bee3e91ed9a54885.
Wherever you find our content, please like, subscribe, rate, or review it; it truly does help.
The post Christianity & Politics: National Conservatism | Podcast for Cultural Reformation appeared first on Ezra Institute.
In this, the second instalment of our newest Podcast for Cultural Reformation series on Christianity & Politics, Dr. Joe Boot is joined by Dr. P. Andrew Sandlin, Ezra Fellow for Public Theology & Cultural Philosophy, to discuss classical liberalism, its Christian roots, its strengths and weaknesses, and whether or not it’s biblical. Tune in for this riveting discussion.
Episode Resources: Virtuous Liberty ed. Dr. P. Andrew Sandlin: https://www.amazon.com/Virtuous-Liberty-Christian-Classical-Liberalism/dp/B0CN4MDQ5L; Center for Cultural Leadership: https://www.christianculture.com.
CHAPTERS:
0:00 Opening
0:40 Intro
01:00 Welcome
02:43 Recap of Last Week’s Show
03:45 The Background for the Rise of Classical Liberalism
07:30 The Idea(s) of Classical Liberalism
11:00 The Nature of Human Beings in Relation to the State
11:55 The Resurgence of Aristotelian Statism on the “Right” & the “Left”
17:36 The Unbiblical Foundation of Aristotelian Statism & the Christian Alternative
22:01 The Kingdom of God as the Totalizing Christian Principle
22:34 The Failure of the Pagan & Synthesized Anthropology & Teleology
25:26 The Impact of the Fall and its Relationship to Reformational Thought & Classical Liberalism
29:38 A Ditch on Both Sides
31:46 The Swiss Ditch
36:17 Silver Lining AD
38:03 The Breakdown of Classical Liberalism
42:04 Classical Liberalism, Limited Government & Sphere Sovereignty
47:22 The Inherent Liability of Classical Liberalism
50:55 The Absolutism of the Common Good
53:11 Christianity’s Influence on the State
55:29 The Religious Root of the State and Western Apostasy
58:11 Conclusion
01:00:29 Outro
Join us this October 31- November 2 @ The Presence of Christ Conference at Trinity Bible Chapel in Kitchener/Waterloo: https://mytrinitybiblechapel.churchcenter.com/registrations/events/2343549;
The WAIT is OVER!!! Pre-order your copy of the NEW updated and expanded version of Dr. Boot’s Mission of God with a brand-new study guide! Get it here: https://ezrapress.ca/products/mission-of-god-10th-anniversary-edition;
Got Questions? Would you like to hear Dr. Boot answer your questions? Let us know in the comments or reach out to us at https://www.ezrainstitute.com/connect/contact/;
Think biblically about politics with the help of Dr. Boot’s latest book “Ruler of Kings”: https://ezrapress.ca/products/ruler-of-kings-toward-a-christian-vision-of-government;
For Ezra’s many print resources and to join our newsletter, visit: https://ezrapress.com.
Stay up-to-date with all things Ezra Institute: https://www.ezrainstitute.com;
Subscribe to Ezra’s YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPVvQDHHrOOjziyqUaN9VoA?sub_confirmation=1;
Fight Laugh Feast Network: https://pubtv.flfnetwork.com/tabs/audio/podcasts/8297;
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/ezra-institute-podcast-for-cultural-reformation/id1336078503;
Spotify Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/0dW1gDarpzdrDMLPjKYZW2?si=bee3e91ed9a54885.
Wherever you find our content, please like, subscribe, rate, or review it; it truly does help.
The post Christianity & Politics: Classical Liberalism | Podcast for Cultural Reformation appeared first on Ezra Institute.
If you are seeking a deeply insightful and timely exploration of the Church’s mission in today’s increasingly secular world, Dr. Aaron Edwards’ review of Dr. Joe Boot’s “The Mission of God” is a must-read.
Dr. Edwards, who first encountered this significant work during his tenure as a lecturer at Cliff College—where Dr. Boot himself had studied—offers a compelling analysis now available on Clear Truth Media.
https://cleartruthmedia.com/s/363/the-tale-of-a-book-the-decline-of-the-west-and-the-return-of-the-puritans
“The Mission of God” is not merely another book on Christian mission; it is a comprehensive and ambitious manifesto that challenges the Church to reexamine its role in a society increasingly shaped by secular ideologies. Dr. Edwards candidly recounts his initial hesitations about the book, only to discover the profound impact of Dr. Boot’s arguments for a vigorous Christian engagement with the world, firmly rooted in the rich legacy of the Puritans.
In his review, Dr. Edwards delves into the book’s major themes, addressing everything from the decline of Western culture to the necessity of a Christian vision that boldly asserts Christ’s lordship over all aspects of life. His analysis not only highlights the depth and breadth of Dr. Boot’s work but also serves as a call to action for the Church to embrace a renewed sense of purpose and mission.
Whether you have already read “The Mission of God” or it has been sitting on your shelf, Dr. Edwards’ review provides a compelling invitation to engage with this critical work. Visit Clear Truth Media to read the full review—you will find it to be both thought-provoking and inspiring.
For those interested in reading “The Mission of God,” the book is available for purchase through Ezra Press. Additionally, you can preorder the upcoming 10th Anniversary Edition, which includes new content on the Church’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, expanded dialogue on Romans 13, and a chapter-by-chapter study guide. Perfect for individual or group study, this updated edition invites readers to engage deeply with God’s mission.
The post An Insightful Review of “The Mission of God” appeared first on Ezra Institute.
On this, the first episode of a new season of the Podcast for Cultural Reformation, Pastor Nate Wright and Dr. Joe Boot embark on a BRAND NEW SERIES: Christianity & Politics, in which they contrast a biblical view of politics and the State with it dualistic pretenders.
CHAPTERS:
0:00 Opening
0:14 Intro
0:34 Welcome
01:09 NEW SERIES: Christianity & Politics
01:54 Christianity & Politics Intro
03:08 Is the Bible Even Political?
08:56 Examples of Biblical Politics
17:59 The Biblical Concept of Office
20:50 The Religious Root of All of Creation
25:33 There is NO NEUTRALITY in Religion or Politics
26:23 Statism: The Pagan View of the State
37:52: ADVERTISEMENT: Silver Lining
39:38 Synthesis: Pagan Dualism and its Poisonous Effects on Christian Political Thought
54:00 Sphere Sovereignty: The Proper Foundation of a Christian View of Politics
47:27 Conference Promotions
01:02:20 Closing
01:02:39 Outro
Join us this October 31- November 2 @ The Presence of Christ Conference at Trinity Bible Chapel in Kitchener/Waterloo: https://mytrinitybiblechapel.churchcenter.com/registrations/events/2343549;
The WAIT is OVER!!! Pre-order your copy of the NEW updated and expanded version of Dr. Boot’s Mission of God with a brand-new study guide! Get it here: https://ezrapress.ca/products/mission-of-god-10th-anniversary-edition;
Got Questions? Would you like to hear Dr. Boot answer your questions? Let us know in the comments or reach out to us at https://www.ezrainstitute.com/connect/contact/;
Think biblically about politics with the help of Dr. Boot’s latest book “Ruler of Kings”: https://ezrapress.ca/products/ruler-of-kings-toward-a-christian-vision-of-government;
For Ezra’s many print resources and to join our newsletter, visit: https://ezrapress.com.
Stay up-to-date with all things Ezra Institute: https://www.ezrainstitute.com;
Subscribe to Ezra’s YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPVvQDHHrOOjziyqUaN9VoA?sub_confirmation=1;
Fight Laugh Feast Network: https://pubtv.flfnetwork.com/tabs/audio/podcasts/8297;
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/ezra-institute-podcast-for-cultural-reformation/id1336078503;
Spotify Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/0dW1gDarpzdrDMLPjKYZW2?si=bee3e91ed9a54885.
Wherever you find our content, please like, subscribe, rate, or review it; it truly does help.
The post Christianity & Politics: A Christian View of the State appeared first on Ezra Institute.
The Law Word of God is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path (Ps. 119:105), and Isaiah makes it abundantly clear that the Messianic reign of King Jesus will spread that Law throughout all the earth (Is 2:2-4, 9:2-7, 42:1-9, 52:6-53).
On this last episode of our series on How to Win the World, P Nate and Elder P are joined by friend of the show, Founder & President of the Ezra Institute, Rev. Dr. Joseph Boot, to discuss theonomy and a properly biblical view of the law and gospel distinction, and the centrality of God’s Law in the transformation of the world.
Episode Resources: Ezra Institute: https://www.ezrainstitute.com/;
CHAPTERS:
0:00 Intro
0:56 Opening & Welcome
3:07 Topic and Scripture Reading (Isa. 2:2-4)
5:08 How God’s Law Transforms Society
8:38 Properly Understanding the Law/Gospel Distinction
19:20 Hysteria Over & Misunderstandings of Theonomy
35:37 Regeneration the Heart of Theonomic Transformation
41:04 The Law as Love
42:43 God’s Total Law Word in the Life of the Church
46:19 The Goodness of the Law, Its Proper Use, and the Gospel
51:28 The Kindness & Attractiveness of God’s Law
53:06 The Aesthetic Aspect of the Law and Worship
56:52 The Beauty of God’s Law & its Ghastly Alternative
58:42 Upcoming Ezra Events
01:01:40 Closing
01:02:08 Outro
HOW TO WIN THE WORLD PAST EPISODES:
Part 1 – “Believe the World is Winnable” ft. Josh Howard: https://youtu.be/jhXUt0OFFDM; Part 2 – “War with Worship” ft. Doug Wilson: https://youtu.be/EqgR9Ewba7g; Part 3 – “Cultivate Christian Community” ft. Toby Sumpter: https://youtu.be/a5YQdrgJ_wg; Part 4 – “Recover Biblical Households” ft. C.R. Wiley: https://youtu.be/cRFIdIlSyhY; Part 5 – “Practice Hospitality” ft. Rachel Jankovic: https://youtu.be/pWXJI8_SGlE; Part 6 – “Lead Courageously” ft. Joe Rigney: https://youtu.be/iNQQciI21Rg; Part 7 – “Seek the Lost” ft. Cory McKenna: https://youtu.be/P1ZcYoqW9QQ;
Part 8 – “Tell Better Stories” ft. Ben Garrett: https://youtu.be/7orktGUPdx0;
Part 9 – “Take Bold Risks” ft. Marcus Pittman: https://youtu.be/u3LXM6a0OL4;
Part 10 – “Rebuilding Christian Institutions” ft. Jamie Bambrick: https://youtu.be/iBOJqgTJJHc;
Part 12 – “Build Biblical Marriages” ft. Jacob Reaume: https://youtu.be/sCkZgkkJ0BI.
The WAIT is OVER!!! Pre-order your copy of the NEW updated and expanded version of Dr. Boot’s Mission of God with a brand-new study guide! Get it here: *https://ezrapress.ca/products/mission-of-god-10th-anniversary-edition;*
Got Questions? Would you like to hear Dr. Boot answer your questions? Let us know in the comments or reach out to us at https://www.ezrainstitute.com/connect/contact/;
Think biblically about politics with the help of Dr. Boot’s latest book “Ruler of Kings”: https://ezrapress.ca/products/ruler-of-kings-toward-a-christian-vision-of-government;
For Ezra’s many print resources and to join our newsletter, visit: https://ezrapress.com.
Stay up-to-date with all things Ezra Institute: https://www.ezrainstitute.com;
Subscribe to Ezra’s YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPVvQDHHrOOjziyqUaN9VoA?sub_confirmation=1;
Fight Laugh Feast Network: https://pubtv.flfnetwork.com/tabs/audio/podcasts/8297;
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/ezra-institute-podcast-for-cultural-reformation/id1336078503;
Spotify Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/0dW1gDarpzdrDMLPjKYZW2?si=bee3e91ed9a54885.
Wherever you find our content, please like, subscribe, rate, or review it; it truly does help.
The post Learn to Love God’s Law Word ft. Dr. Joe Boot [HOW TO WIN THE WORLD – PT. 13] | Podcast for Cultural Reformation appeared first on Ezra Institute.
On this episode of the Podcast for Cultural Reformation, Ezra fellow Dr. Michael Thiessen and Canadian Director Pastor Nate Wright are joined by the Pastor of Trinity Bible Chapel, Jacob Reaume, to discuss the importance of the upcoming conference, The Presence of Christ (Oct.31-Nov. 2). The conference aims to shift the focus from fighting against the world to cultivating a deep love for Jesus Christ, and it seeks to unite believers around the central theme of the presence of Christ in their lives and the importance of worshiping Him.
Episode Resources:Trinity Bible Chapel: https://trinitybiblechapel.ca/; The Presence of Christ Conference: https://mytrinitybiblechapel.churchcenter.com/registrations/events/2343549; Pastor Jacob’s Blog: https://trinitybiblechapel.ca/blog/the-pastors-blog/;
CHAPTERS:
0:00 Intro
0:23 Opening
0:43 Guest Welcome
02:14 Pastor Reaume’s Biography
02:50 From Church at War to the Presence of Christ
08:05 The Timeliness of the Conference
11:36 The Focus of the Conference
12:41 Fighting for the Love of Christ
16:08 From Where Does the Christian’s Hatred Come?
19:10 Dangerous Demagoguery
20:44 The Purpose of the Conference
21:22 Conference Speakers & Topics
26:25 Breakout Sessions & Speakers
29:45 The Presence of Christ Conference AD
30:15 The Presence of Christ–the Heart of the Christian Motive
31:44 Pastors as Generalists
32:39 Preparation for the Conference
34:48 Setting the Tone for Discipleship
38:44 Corporate Worship: The Heartbeat of the Life of the Church
40:25 Modelling the Mind of Christ
43:59 Thoughtful Preaching in a Reactionary Age
47:27 Conference Promotions
49:56 Closing
50:32 Outro
Join us this October 31- November 2 @ The Presence of Christ Conference at Trinity Bible Chapel in Kitchener/Waterloo: https://mytrinitybiblechapel.churchcenter.com/registrations/events/2343549;
The WAIT is OVER!!! Pre-order your copy of the NEW updated and expanded version of Dr. Boot’s Mission of God with a brand-new study guide! Get it here: https://ezrapress.ca/products/mission-of-god-10th-anniversary-edition;
Got Questions? Would you like to hear Dr. Boot answer your questions? Let us know in the comments or reach out to us at https://www.ezrainstitute.com/connect/contact/;
Think biblically about politics with the help of Dr. Boot’s latest book “Ruler of Kings”: https://ezrapress.ca/products/ruler-of-kings-toward-a-christian-vision-of-government;
For Ezra’s many print resources and to join our newsletter, visit: https://ezrapress.com.
Stay up-to-date with all things Ezra Institute: https://www.ezrainstitute.com;
Subscribe to Ezra’s YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPVvQDHHrOOjziyqUaN9VoA?sub_confirmation=1;
Fight Laugh Feast Network: https://pubtv.flfnetwork.com/tabs/audio/podcasts/8297;
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/ezra-institute-podcast-for-cultural-reformation/id1336078503;
Spotify Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/0dW1gDarpzdrDMLPjKYZW2?si=bee3e91ed9a54885.
Wherever you find our content, please like, subscribe, rate, or review it; it truly does help.
The post Having the Mind of Christ Amid the Darkness ft. Pastor Jacob Reaume appeared first on Ezra Institute.
On this episode of the Podcast for Cultural Reformation, Ezra fellow Dr. Michael Thiessen and Canadian Director Pastor Nate Wright wade into the latest controversy concerning the latest New St. Andrews College AD and Johnny Cash’s famous (infamous?) hand gesture. This leads them to discuss the importance of setting a culture in churches and other institutions. They explore the role of pastors as cultural architects and the impact of culture on various aspects of church life. In an age of radical unbelief, how do we raise reformed rebels? Tune in to find out.
Episode Resources: New Saint Andrews College: https://nsa.edu/; New Saint Andrews AD [WARNING! VIEWER DISCRETION ADVISED!]: https://nsa.edu/blog/the-men-we-want-and-need;
CHAPTERS:
0:00 Intro
0:23 Welcome
2:06 Setting Church Culture
06:43 NSA AD Controversy
10:30 Thoughts?: Mike’s Concerns
15:32 Thoughts?: Nate’s Rebuttal
21:09 Mike: Need for a Culture of Dialogue, Repentance in a Vulgar Age
25:25 Nate: The Serrated Edge & Colourful Biblical Language & the Need to Fight Effeminacy
30:20 The Presence of Christ Conference (Oct.31-Nov.2) AD
31:18 Navigating Controversy & Disagreement Through Dialogue
39:59 Navigating Our Cultural Moment with Biblical Wisdom & Discernment
52:32 Ezra’s Culture & Programming
01:08:50 Wrap-up
01:08:59 Outro
Join us this October 31- November 2 @ The Presence of Christ Conference at Trinity Bible Chapel in Kitchener/Waterloo: https://mytrinitybiblechapel.churchcenter.com/registrations/events/2343549;
The WAIT is OVER!!! Pre-order your copy of the NEW updated and expanded version of Dr. Boot’s Mission of God with a brand-new study guide! Get it here: https://ezrapress.ca/products/mission-of-god-10th-anniversary-edition;
Got Questions? Would you like to hear Dr. Boot answer your questions? Let us know in the comments or reach out to us at https://www.ezrainstitute.com/connect/contact/;
Think biblically about politics with the help of Dr. Boot’s latest book “Ruler of Kings”: https://ezrapress.ca/products/ruler-of-kings-toward-a-christian-vision-of-government;
For Ezra’s many print resources and to join our newsletter, visit: https://ezrapress.com.
Stay up-to-date with all things Ezra Institute: https://www.ezrainstitute.com;
Subscribe to Ezra’s YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPVvQDHHrOOjziyqUaN9VoA?sub_confirmation=1;
Fight Laugh Feast Network: https://pubtv.flfnetwork.com/tabs/audio/podcasts/8297;
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/ezra-institute-podcast-for-cultural-reformation/id1336078503;
Spotify Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/0dW1gDarpzdrDMLPjKYZW2?si=bee3e91ed9a54885.
Wherever you find our content, please like, subscribe, rate, or review it; it truly does help.
The post Rightly Raising REFORMED Rebels: NSA Controversy & Cultivating Culture appeared first on Ezra Institute.
At the heart of God’s rescue plan for the world is the family…. The first and foundational institution God establishes on the earth for His glory and for the advancement of his kingdom. Is it any wonder, then, why Satan focuses so much of his attack on the church on the families that comprise them?
How do we wage cosmic war with our marriages? How do we build marriages on the rock of God’s word?
P Nate is joined by friend of the show, Pastor Jacob Reaume, from Trinity Bible Chapel, to discuss all these topics and more!
Episode Resources: Trinity Bible Chapel: https://trinitybiblechapel.ca/; Pastor Jacob’s Blog: https://trinitybiblechapel.ca/blog/the-pastors-blog/;
HOW TO WIN THE WORLD PAST EPISODES:
Part 1 – “Believe the World is Winnable” ft. Josh Howard: https://youtu.be/jhXUt0OFFDM; Part 2 – “War with Worship” ft. Doug Wilson: https://youtu.be/EqgR9Ewba7g; Part 3 – “Cultivate Christian Community” ft. Toby Sumpter: https://youtu.be/a5YQdrgJ_wg; Part 4 – “Recover Biblical Households” ft. C.R. Wiley: https://youtu.be/cRFIdIlSyhY; Part 5 – “Practice Hospitality” ft. Rachel Jankovic: https://youtu.be/pWXJI8_SGlE; Part 6 – “Lead Courageously” ft. Joe Rigney: https://youtu.be/iNQQciI21Rg; Part 7 – “Seek the Lost” ft. Cory McKenna: https://youtu.be/P1ZcYoqW9QQ;
Part 8 – “Tell Better Stories” ft. Ben Garrett: https://youtu.be/7orktGUPdx0;
Part 9 – “Take Bold Risks” ft. Marcus Pittman: https://youtu.be/u3LXM6a0OL4;
Part 10 – “Rebuilding Christian Institutions” ft. Jamie Bambrick: https://youtu.be/iBOJqgTJJHc.
The WAIT is OVER!!! Pre-order your copy of the NEW updated and expanded version of Dr. Boot’s Mission of God with a brand-new study guide! Get it here: *https://ezrapress.ca/products/mission-of-god-10th-anniversary-edition;*
Got Questions? Would you like to hear Dr. Boot answer your questions? Let us know in the comments or reach out to us at https://www.ezrainstitute.com/connect/contact/;
Think biblically about politics with the help of Dr. Boot’s latest book “Ruler of Kings”: https://ezrapress.ca/products/ruler-of-kings-toward-a-christian-vision-of-government;
For Ezra’s many print resources and to join our newsletter, visit: https://ezrapress.com.
Stay up-to-date with all things Ezra Institute: https://www.ezrainstitute.com;
Subscribe to Ezra’s YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPVvQDHHrOOjziyqUaN9VoA?sub_confirmation=1;
Fight Laugh Feast Network: https://pubtv.flfnetwork.com/tabs/audio/podcasts/8297;
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/ezra-institute-podcast-for-cultural-reformation/id1336078503;
Spotify Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/0dW1gDarpzdrDMLPjKYZW2?si=bee3e91ed9a54885.
Wherever you find our content, please like, subscribe, rate, or review it; it truly does help.
The post Build Biblical Marriages ft. Jacob Reaume I Podcast for Cultural Engagement appeared first on Ezra Institute.
On this flashback episode of the Podcast for Cultural Reformation, we go all the way back to 2017, when Dr. Joe Boot joined Apologia TV with Pastors Jeff Durbin, Luke the Bear, and Joy the Girl to discuss the relationship between the Gospel and culture.
Episode Resources: Apologia Studios: https://apologiastudios.com/;
The WAIT is OVER!!! Pre-order your copy of the NEW updated and expanded version of Dr. Boot’s Mission of God with a brand-new study guide! Get it here: https://ezrapress.ca/products/mission-of-god-10th-anniversary-edition;
Got Questions? Would you like to hear Dr. Boot answer your questions? Let us know in the comments or reach out to us at https://www.ezrainstitute.com/connect/contact/;
Think biblically about politics with the help of Dr. Boot’s latest book “Ruler of Kings”: https://ezrapress.ca/products/ruler-of-kings-toward-a-christian-vision-of-government;
For Ezra’s many print resources and to join our newsletter, visit: https://ezrapress.com.
Stay up-to-date with all things Ezra Institute: https://www.ezrainstitute.com;
Subscribe to Ezra’s YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPVvQDHHrOOjziyqUaN9VoA?sub_confirmation=1;
Fight Laugh Feast Network: https://pubtv.flfnetwork.com/tabs/audio/podcasts/8297;
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/ezra-institute-podcast-for-cultural-reformation/id1336078503;
Spotify Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/0dW1gDarpzdrDMLPjKYZW2?si=bee3e91ed9a54885.
Wherever you find our content, please like, subscribe, rate, or review it; it truly does help.
The post The Relationship of the Gospel and Culture on Apologia TV [FLASHBACK FRIDAY] appeared first on Ezra Institute.
On this episode of the Podcast for Cultural Reformation, Dr. Joe Boot and Pastor Nate Wright are joined by the CEO of Creation Ministries International (Canada) of Answers, Richard Fangrad, for a Q&A recorded LIVE at Worldview Youth Academy – Canada 2024.
The WAIT is OVER!!! Pre-order your copy of the NEW updated and expanded version of Dr. Boot’s Mission of God with a brand-new study guide! Get it here: https://ezrapress.ca/products/mission-of-god-10th-anniversary-edition;
Got Questions? Would you like to hear Dr. Boot answer your questions? Let us know in the comments or reach out to us at https://www.ezrainstitute.com/connect/contact/;
Think biblically about politics with the help of Dr. Boot’s latest book “Ruler of Kings”: https://ezrapress.ca/products/ruler-of-kings-toward-a-christian-vision-of-government;
For Ezra’s many print resources and to join our newsletter, visit: https://ezrapress.com.
Stay up-to-date with all things Ezra Institute: https://www.ezrainstitute.com;
Subscribe to Ezra’s YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPVvQDHHrOOjziyqUaN9VoA?sub_confirmation=1;
Fight Laugh Feast Network: https://pubtv.flfnetwork.com/tabs/audio/podcasts/8297;
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/ezra-institute-podcast-for-cultural-reformation/id1336078503;
Spotify Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/0dW1gDarpzdrDMLPjKYZW2?si=bee3e91ed9a54885.
Wherever you find our content, please like, subscribe, rate, or review it; it truly does help.
The post Q&A – Session 2: Dr. Joe Boot, Richard Fangrad & Nate Wright [WYA Canada 2024] appeared first on Ezra Institute.
On this episode of the Podcast for Cultural Reformation, Dr. Joe Boot and Pastor Nate Wright are joined by the CEO of Creation Ministries International (Canada) of Answers, Richard Fangrad, for a Q&A recorded LIVE at Worldview Youth Academy – Canada 2024.
The WAIT is OVER!!! Pre-order your copy of the NEW updated and expanded version of Dr. Boot’s Mission of God with a brand-new study guide! Get it here: https://ezrapress.ca/products/mission-of-god-10th-anniversary-edition;
Got Questions? Would you like to hear Dr. Boot answer your questions? Let us know in the comments or reach out to us at https://www.ezrainstitute.com/connect/contact/;
Think biblically about politics with the help of Dr. Boot’s latest book “Ruler of Kings”: https://ezrapress.ca/products/ruler-of-kings-toward-a-christian-vision-of-government;
For Ezra’s many print resources and to join our newsletter, visit: https://ezrapress.com.
Stay up-to-date with all things Ezra Institute: https://www.ezrainstitute.com;
Subscribe to Ezra’s YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPVvQDHHrOOjziyqUaN9VoA?sub_confirmation=1;
Fight Laugh Feast Network: https://pubtv.flfnetwork.com/tabs/audio/podcasts/8297;
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/ezra-institute-podcast-for-cultural-reformation/id1336078503;
Spotify Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/0dW1gDarpzdrDMLPjKYZW2?si=bee3e91ed9a54885.
Wherever you find our content, please like, subscribe, rate, or review it; it truly does help.
The post Q&A: Session 2 – WYA Canada 2024: Dr. Joe Boot, Richard Fangrad & Nate Wright | Podcast for Cultural Reformation appeared first on Ezra Institute.
In the last decade, not only have Christians seen secular institutions collapse all around us but sadly, most Christian ministries, organizations and institutions have failed us, compromised or proven themselves to be sliding to the left.
This week, P Nate is joined by Pastor and Chief Editor of Clear Truth Media Jamie Bambrick from Ireland to discuss the need to rebuild Christian institutions for God’s glory and the advancement of His kingdom.
Episode Resources: Clear Truth Media: https://cleartruthmedia.com/; Jamie Bambrick on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@jamie.bambrick; Jamie’s X: https://x.com/j_bambrick;
HOW TO WIN THE WORLD PAST EPISODES:
Part 1 – “Believe the World is Winnable” ft. Josh Howard: https://youtu.be/jhXUt0OFFDM; Part 2 – “War with Worship” ft. Doug Wilson: https://youtu.be/EqgR9Ewba7g; Part 3 – “Cultivate Christian Community” ft. Toby Sumpter: https://youtu.be/a5YQdrgJ_wg; Part 4 – “Recover Biblical Households” ft. C.R. Wiley: https://youtu.be/cRFIdIlSyhY; Part 5 – “Practice Hospitality” ft. Rachel Jankovic: https://youtu.be/pWXJI8_SGlE; Part 6 – “Lead Courageously” ft. Joe Rigney: https://youtu.be/iNQQciI21Rg; Part 7 – “Seek the Lost” ft. Cory McKenna: https://youtu.be/P1ZcYoqW9QQ;
Part 8 – “Tell Better Stories” ft. Ben Garrett: https://youtu.be/7orktGUPdx0;
Part 9 – “Take Bold Risks” ft. Marcus Pittman: https://youtu.be/u3LXM6a0OL4.
The WAIT is OVER!!! Pre-order your copy of the NEW updated and expanded version of Dr. Boot’s Mission of God with a brand-new study guide! Get it here: *https://ezrapress.ca/products/mission-of-god-10th-anniversary-edition;*
Got Questions? Would you like to hear Dr. Boot answer your questions? Let us know in the comments or reach out to us at https://www.ezrainstitute.com/connect/contact/;
Think biblically about politics with the help of Dr. Boot’s latest book “Ruler of Kings”: https://ezrapress.ca/products/ruler-of-kings-toward-a-christian-vision-of-government;
For Ezra’s many print resources and to join our newsletter, visit: https://ezrapress.com.
Stay up-to-date with all things Ezra Institute: https://www.ezrainstitute.com;
Subscribe to Ezra’s YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPVvQDHHrOOjziyqUaN9VoA?sub_confirmation=1;
Fight Laugh Feast Network: https://pubtv.flfnetwork.com/tabs/audio/podcasts/8297;
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/ezra-institute-podcast-for-cultural-reformation/id1336078503;
Spotify Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/0dW1gDarpzdrDMLPjKYZW2?si=bee3e91ed9a54885.
Wherever you find our content, please like, subscribe, rate, or review it; it truly does help.
The post Rebuild Christian Institution ft. Jamie Bambrick [HOW TO WIN THE WORLD: PART 10] | Podcast for Cultural Reformation appeared first on Ezra Institute.
On this episode of the Podcast for Cultural Reformation, Dr. Joe Boot is joined by Drs. Aaron Rock and Michael Thiessen at Worldview Youth Academy – Canada 2024 to discuss sex, dating/courtship, marriage and masculinity. You won’t want to miss this riveting conversation filled with God-glorifying insights and practical application.
The WAIT is OVER!!! Pre-order your copy of the NEW updated and expanded version of Dr. Boot’s Mission of God with a brand-new study guide! Get it here: https://ezrapress.ca/products/mission-of-god-10th-anniversary-edition;
Got Questions? Would you like to hear Dr. Boot answer your questions? Let us know in the comments or reach out to us at https://www.ezrainstitute.com/connect/contact/;
Think biblically about politics with the help of Dr. Boot’s latest book “Ruler of Kings”: https://ezrapress.ca/products/ruler-of-kings-toward-a-christian-vision-of-government;
For Ezra’s many print resources and to join our newsletter, visit: https://ezrapress.com.
Stay up-to-date with all things Ezra Institute: https://www.ezrainstitute.com;
Subscribe to Ezra’s YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPVvQDHHrOOjziyqUaN9VoA?sub_confirmation=1;
Fight Laugh Feast Network: https://pubtv.flfnetwork.com/tabs/audio/podcasts/8297;
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/ezra-institute-podcast-for-cultural-reformation/id1336078503;
Spotify Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/0dW1gDarpzdrDMLPjKYZW2?si=bee3e91ed9a54885.
Wherever you find our content, please like, subscribe, rate, or review it; it truly does help.
The post Dating, Sex, Marriage & Masculinity ft. Dr. Joe Boot, Dr. Aaron Rock & Dr. Michael Thiessen appeared first on Ezra Institute.
This week P Nate and Pootie welcome back to the show Marcus Pittman, filmmaker, podcaster and CEO of Loor.tv.
Marcus discusses with the Rebels the mandate to put art, media and entertainment under the feet of Jesus in victory. To win the world we have to win in the sphere of the arts where minds and affections are moulded. The conversation reveals a major problem in North American Christianity: it’s lost the risk taking courage it takes to win this cultural battle!
Episode Resources: Loor: https://www.loor.tv/; Babies Are Murdered Here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxDyfSHEq5g; Babies Are STILL Murdered Here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-vyYE6C8MU
HOW TO WIN THE WORLD PAST EPISODES:
Part 1 – “Believe the World is Winnable” ft. Josh Howard: https://youtu.be/jhXUt0OFFDM; Part 2 – “War with Worship” ft. Doug Wilson: https://youtu.be/EqgR9Ewba7g; Part 3 – “Cultivate Christian Community” ft. Toby Sumpter: https://youtu.be/a5YQdrgJ_wg; Part 4 – “Recover Biblical Households” ft. C.R. Wiley: https://youtu.be/cRFIdIlSyhY; Part 5 – “Practice Hospitality” ft. Rachel Jankovic: https://youtu.be/pWXJI8_SGlE; Part 6 – “Lead Courageously” ft. Joe Rigney: https://youtu.be/iNQQciI21Rg; Part 7 – “Seek the Lost” ft. Cory McKenna: https://youtu.be/P1ZcYoqW9QQ;
Part 8 – “Tell Better Stories” ft. Ben Garrett: https://youtu.be/7orktGUPdx0;
The WAIT is OVER!!! Pre-order your copy of the NEW updated and expanded version of Dr. Boot’s Mission of God with a brand-new study guide! Get it here: *https://ezrapress.ca/products/mission-of-god-10th-anniversary-edition;*
Got Questions? Would you like to hear Dr. Boot answer your questions? Let us know in the comments or reach out to us at https://www.ezrainstitute.com/connect/contact/;
Think biblically about politics with the help of Dr. Boot’s latest book “Ruler of Kings”: https://ezrapress.ca/products/ruler-of-kings-toward-a-christian-vision-of-government;
For Ezra’s many print resources and to join our newsletter, visit: https://ezrapress.com.
Stay up-to-date with all things Ezra Institute: https://www.ezrainstitute.com;
Subscribe to Ezra’s YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPVvQDHHrOOjziyqUaN9VoA?sub_confirmation=1;
Fight Laugh Feast Network: https://pubtv.flfnetwork.com/tabs/audio/podcasts/8297;
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/ezra-institute-podcast-for-cultural-reformation/id1336078503;
Spotify Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/0dW1gDarpzdrDMLPjKYZW2?si=bee3e91ed9a54885.
Wherever you find our content, please like, subscribe, rate, or review it; it truly does help.
The post Take Bold Risks ft. Marcus Pittman appeared first on Ezra Institute.
We have crossed over the mid-way point in this series “How to Win the World” after last week’s mid-season review.
This week, P Nate is joined by Ben Garrett from Haunted Cosmos to discuss the theme of storytelling. Throughout Scripture, history is described as the unfolding drama of God’s great narrative. How does understanding God’s story properly and finding our place in it help to win the world? How does reading, loving, and writing stories help advance the Kingdom of God in history?
Join Ben and P Nate for some answers!
Episode Resources: Haunted Cosmos: https://www.youtube.com/@hauntedcosmos_; Haunted Cosmos Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/HauntedCosmos; Ben’s X: https://x.com/tompawnbadil
HOW TO WIN THE WORLD PAST EPISODES:
Part 1 – “Believe the World is Winnable”: https://youtu.be/jhXUt0OFFDM; Part 2 – “War with Worship”: https://youtu.be/EqgR9Ewba7g; Part 3 – “Cultivate Christian Community”: https://youtu.be/a5YQdrgJ_wg; Part 4 – “Recover Biblical Households”: https://youtu.be/cRFIdIlSyhY; Part 5 – “Practice Hospitality”: https://youtu.be/pWXJI8_SGlE; Part 6 – “Lead Courageously”: https://youtu.be/iNQQciI21Rg; Part 7 – “Seek the Lost”: https://youtu.be/P1ZcYoqW9QQ;
The WAIT is OVER!!! Pre-order your copy of the NEW updated and expanded version of Dr. Boot’s Mission of God with a brand-new study guide! Get it here: *https://ezrapress.ca/products/mission-of-god-10th-anniversary-edition;*
Got Questions? Would you like to hear Dr. Boot answer your questions? Let us know in the comments or reach out to us at https://www.ezrainstitute.com/connect/contact/;
Think biblically about politics with the help of Dr. Boot’s latest book “Ruler of Kings”: https://ezrapress.ca/products/ruler-of-kings-toward-a-christian-vision-of-government;
For Ezra’s many print resources and to join our newsletter, visit: https://ezrapress.com.
Stay up-to-date with all things Ezra Institute: https://www.ezrainstitute.com;
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Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/ezra-institute-podcast-for-cultural-reformation/id1336078503;
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The Ezra Institute recently concluded another successful Canadian Worldview Youth Academy in Port Colborne, Ontario. This year’s event brought together 50 passionate young students eager to deepen their understanding of a biblical worldview and its application in daily life.
Throughout the week, participants were blessed with world-class teaching from an impressive lineup of speakers. Ezra’s own Joe Boot and Nate Wright, Cal Smith from Answers in Genesis, Richard Fangard from Creation Ministries International, André Schutten from Redeemer University and The Justice Centre, and Dr. Ted Fenske all shared their expertise and insights, challenging and inspiring the students to think critically about their faith and its implications for society.
Beyond the classroom, the academy was filled with exciting activities that fostered friendship and fun. Students showcased their talents in a lively talent show, enjoyed bonfires under the stars, and engaged in friendly competition through games of ultimate frisbee and capture the flag. These moments of recreation and bonding were integral to the holistic experience of the academy.
It was truly inspiring to witness the dedication of these young people who take their faith seriously and are eager to be equipped with a biblical world and life view. Their enthusiasm for applying these principles to their future vocations, whatever they may be, was palpable throughout the week.
The success of the academy wouldn’t have been possible without the tireless efforts of our mentors, who generously gave their time to guide and support the students. Equally crucial were our amazing volunteers, whose culinary skills kept everyone well-fed and energized throughout the event.
We extend our heartfelt gratitude to the Rathfon Inn and Jericho House for providing the excellent facilities that made this transformative week possible. Their hospitality created the perfect environment for learning, growth, and fellowship.
As we reflect on this enriching experience, we are filled with encouragement and hope. It’s clear that God has used this week to equip these young minds and hearts to return to their communities as faithful ambassadors for Christ. We look forward with anticipation to seeing how He will use their renewed passion and knowledge to advance His kingdom in Canada and the United States.
May the seeds planted during this academy continue to grow and bear fruit, as these young leaders apply their biblical worldview in every aspect of their lives, contributing to the flourishing of their communities and nations.
The post Another Great Year of WYA in Canada appeared first on Ezra Institute.
On this episode of the Podcast for Cultural Reformation, Dr. Joe Boot and Pastor Nate Wright are joined by Executive Director of Answers in Genesis – Canada, Calvin Smith, for a Q&A recorded LIVE at Worldview Youth Academy – Canada 2024.
The WAIT is OVER!!! Pre-order your copy of the NEW updated and expanded version of Dr. Boot’s Mission of God with a brand-new study guide! Get it here: https://ezrapress.ca/products/mission-of-god-10th-anniversary-edition;
Got Questions? Would you like to hear Dr. Boot answer your questions? Let us know in the comments or reach out to us at https://www.ezrainstitute.com/connect/contact/;
Think biblically about politics with the help of Dr. Boot’s latest book “Ruler of Kings”: https://ezrapress.ca/products/ruler-of-kings-toward-a-christian-vision-of-government;
For Ezra’s many print resources and to join our newsletter, visit: https://ezrapress.com.
Stay up-to-date with all things Ezra Institute: https://www.ezrainstitute.com;
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Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/ezra-institute-podcast-for-cultural-reformation/id1336078503;
Spotify Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/0dW1gDarpzdrDMLPjKYZW2?si=bee3e91ed9a54885.
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The post LIVE Q&A WYA Canada 2024: Dr. Joe Boot, Calvin Smith & Nate Wright appeared first on Ezra Institute.
On this episode of the Podcast for Cultural Reformation, Dr. Boot is joined by Dan Smithwick, President of the Nehemiah Institute, to talk about the appalling state of Christian education and worldview thinking among Christians and the need for Christians to think Christianly.
Episode Resources:Nehemiah Institute Website: https://worldviewcheckup.org/;
PEERS Test: https://worldviewcheckup.org/peers;
The WAIT is OVER!!! Pre-order your copy of the NEW updated and expanded version of Dr. Boot’s Mission of God with a brand-new study guide! Get it here: https://ezrapress.ca/products/mission-of-god-10th-anniversary-edition;
Got Questions? Would you like to hear Dr. Boot answer your questions? Let us know in the comments or reach out to us at https://www.ezrainstitute.com/connect/contact/;
Think biblically about politics with the help of Dr. Boot’s latest book “Ruler of Kings”: https://ezrapress.ca/products/ruler-of-kings-toward-a-christian-vision-of-government;
For Ezra’s many print resources and to join our newsletter, visit: https://ezrapress.com.
Stay up-to-date with all things Ezra Institute: https://www.ezrainstitute.com;
Subscribe to Ezra’s YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPVvQDHHrOOjziyqUaN9VoA?sub_confirmation=1;
Fight Laugh Feast Network: https://pubtv.flfnetwork.com/tabs/audio/podcasts/8297;
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/ezra-institute-podcast-for-cultural-reformation/id1336078503;
Spotify Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/0dW1gDarpzdrDMLPjKYZW2?si=bee3e91ed9a54885.
Wherever you find our content, please like, subscribe, rate, or review it; it truly does help.
The post Christians MUST Think Christianly ft. Dan Smithwick of the Nehemiah Institute appeared first on Ezra Institute.
On this episode of the Podcast for Cultural Reformation, Drs. Boot and Thiessen are joined by Ezra Institute fellow Dr. P. Andrew Sandlin to talk about the Bible as the Word of God.
Episode Resources:Center for Cultural Leadership: https://christianculture.com/;
Dr. Sandlin’s Substack: https://pandrewsandlin.substack.com/
The WAIT is OVER!!! Pre-order your copy of the NEW updated and expanded version of Dr. Boot’s Mission of God with a brand-new study guide! Get it here: https://ezrapress.ca/products/mission-of-god-10th-anniversary-edition;
Got Questions? Would you like to hear Dr. Boot answer your questions? Let us know in the comments or reach out to us at https://www.ezrainstitute.com/connect/contact/;
Think biblically about politics with the help of Dr. Boot’s latest book “Ruler of Kings”: https://ezrapress.ca/products/ruler-of-kings-toward-a-christian-vision-of-government;
For Ezra’s many print resources and to join our newsletter, visit: https://ezrapress.com.
Stay up-to-date with all things Ezra Institute: https://www.ezrainstitute.com;
Subscribe to Ezra’s YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPVvQDHHrOOjziyqUaN9VoA?sub_confirmation=1;
Fight Laugh Feast Network: https://pubtv.flfnetwork.com/tabs/audio/podcasts/8297;
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/ezra-institute-podcast-for-cultural-reformation/id1336078503;
Spotify Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/0dW1gDarpzdrDMLPjKYZW2?si=bee3e91ed9a54885.
Wherever you find our content, please like, subscribe, rate, or review it; it truly does help.
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We are thrilled to share that our first-ever Worldview Youth Academy in the United States was a tremendous success! Nearly 30 enthusiastic students from across the United States and Canada came together in the beautiful Smoky Mountains for a week of learning, growth, fellowship, and teamwork.
From daily morning worship to evening devotionals, these young adults were immersed in a transformative experience, grappling with complex issues through a biblical worldview. The Academy aimed to equip students with the ability to think Christianly in all aspects of life. Expert speakers delivered thought-provoking lectures on a variety of topics, including evolution, biblical law, masculinity and femininity, the purpose of marriage, vocation, abortion, and euthanasia.
The days were filled not only with insightful lectures but also with fun and engaging activities. Students participated in camp competitions, enjoyed lake and pool activities, and played soccer, basketball, and tennis. The talent show was a highlight, showcasing the diverse and admirable skills of the student group. The week culminated in a lively hoedown, where students enjoyed square and line dancing on the final night.
The Academy concluded with an unforgettable trip to Gatlinburg, where students marveled at the magnificence of God’s creation from Anakeesta Mountaintop Adventure Park. It was a fitting end to a week of deep learning and meaningful connections.
We are grateful for the opportunity to impact the lives of these young adults and look forward to many more successful academies in the future. Thank you to everyone who made this event possible and to the students who brought their enthusiasm and curiosity to the Academy.
The post Success at Our First Worldview Youth Academy in the U.S. appeared first on Ezra Institute.
P Nate and Pootie take a quick breather from this series eight weeks in to review the interviews and discuss what they’ve learned. There have been so many great interviews, great conversations, and so many takeaways that we needed to slow down to digest it all.
If you missed any of the episodes, now is your chance to catch up before the next half of the series drops!
HOW TO WIN THE WORLD PAST EPISODES:
Part 1 – “Believe the World is Winnable”: https://youtu.be/jhXUt0OFFDM; Part 2 – “War with Worship”: https://youtu.be/EqgR9Ewba7g; Part 3 – “Cultivate Christian Community”: https://youtu.be/a5YQdrgJ_wg; Part 4 – “Recover Biblical Households”: https://youtu.be/cRFIdIlSyhY; Part 5 – “Practice Hospitality”: https://youtu.be/pWXJI8_SGlE; Part 6 – “Lead Courageously”: https://youtu.be/iNQQciI21Rg; Part 7 – “Seek the Lost”: https://youtu.be/P1ZcYoqW9QQ;
The WAIT is OVER!!! Pre-order your copy of the NEW updated and expanded version of Dr. Boot’s Mission of God with a brand-new study guide! Get it here: *https://ezrapress.ca/products/mission-of-god-10th-anniversary-edition;*
Got Questions? Would you like to hear Dr. Boot answer your questions? Let us know in the comments or reach out to us at https://www.ezrainstitute.com/connect/contact/;
Think biblically about politics with the help of Dr. Boot’s latest book “Ruler of Kings”: https://ezrapress.ca/products/ruler-of-kings-toward-a-christian-vision-of-government;
For Ezra’s many print resources and to join our newsletter, visit: https://ezrapress.com.
Stay up-to-date with all things Ezra Institute: https://www.ezrainstitute.com;
Subscribe to Ezra’s YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPVvQDHHrOOjziyqUaN9VoA?sub_confirmation=1;
Fight Laugh Feast Network: https://pubtv.flfnetwork.com/tabs/audio/podcasts/8297;
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/ezra-institute-podcast-for-cultural-reformation/id1336078503;
Spotify Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/0dW1gDarpzdrDMLPjKYZW2?si=bee3e91ed9a54885.
Wherever you find our content, please like, subscribe, rate, or review it; it truly does help.
The post HOW TO WIN THE WORLD: Mid-Series Review appeared first on Ezra Institute.
The man who is content to sit ignorantly by his own fireside, wrapped up in his own private affairs, and has no public eye for what is going on in the Church and the world, is a miserable patriot, and a poor style of Christian. Next to our Bibles and our own hearts, our Lord would have us study our own times. – J. C Ryle
Idolatry, Folly, and the Natural Mind
The ignorant firesides of privatized Christians are a sad reality that no era of the church has been entirely without. Relatively few believers today want to bother with careful Christian thinking about culture as the prerequisite for truly Christian action in the world. Today’s Western church is generally either paralysed by a pietistic retreatism and cultural disengagement or misled by unthinking enthusiasts. The latter – ‘influencers,’ agitators and activists, loud and sweeping in opinion, the alleged victims of past generations and ready to act as judge, jury, and executioner – like revolutionaries with metaphorical guillotines, go about trying to liberate the triangle of its three sides. Invariably making haste to dispense with careful thought and get on with ‘changing the world,’ they head off to get a selfie of themselves conquering Mount Everest without knowing where it is on the map. They are ready to sternly excoriate the pastor for his privilege, alleged phobias and participation in the patriarchy before listening to his sermons or being able to find Zephaniah between the binding, never mind quote from the minor mouthpiece of divine revelation. Consequently, it is not an easy task to persuade believers to adopt a particular sort of careful thinking, studying the times in service to Christ, and harder still to make appealing the kind of Christian thought which is unconcerned with the self-justifying abstractions so popular in our woke culture for what is radically transformational – which is to say, cutting to the root of the human selfhood and by extension moving out like ripples on a lake, to touch all of life.
The self-justifying ideology that dominates society today, with its shameless moral posturing – the jiggery wokery of the West – is especially difficult to deal with because it is a form of stupidity which is less self-aware than rank evil and is no respecter of persons. It seems immune to reasoning and inconvenient truths. Intellectuals, scholars, political elites, and journalists are frequently afflicted with this brand of stupidity – indeed more so than ordinary working people who are practically forced to consume their vacuous messaging in every form of media. Stupidity is a peculiarly human condition that arises, not because of a lack of intellectual capacity, but because of a herd mentality formed around powerful propaganda – a collective stupidity. It is the abstraction Kierkegaard railed against – public opinion:
The public is a kind of colossal something, an abstract void and vacuum that is all and nothing…the most dangerous of all powers and the most meaningless…Now everyone can have an opinion, but there must be a lumping together numerically in order to have it. Twenty-five signatures to the silliest notion is an opinion.1
The collective folly that emerges is a kind of sociological phenomenon which evidently undermines rudimentary human capabilities, depriving people of their inner independence – their ability to think and assess individually and decide for themselves as an image-bearer before God. This they are prepared to renounce, with varying degrees of self-consciousness, in order to adapt their behavior to the prevailing ideological situation. In the early 1940s the noted Christian martyr in Nazi Germany, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, had time to reflect whilst languishing in prison, on how and why the highly educated German people had become afflicted with collective ideological stupidity. His comments are startlingly reflective of our own cultural moment:
The fact that stupid people are often stubborn should not hide the fact that they are not independent. When talking to him, one feels that one is not dealing with him personally, but with catchphrases, slogans, etc. that have taken possession of him. He is under a spell; he is blinded; he is abused in his own being. Having become an instrument without an independent will, the fool will also be capable of all evil, and at the same time, unable to recognize it as evil…But it is also quite clear here that it is not an act of instruction, but only an act of liberation that can overcome stupidity… The Bible states that the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. Thus, the inner liberation of man begins by living responsibly before God. Only then may stupidity be overcome.2
Transforming the Mind
The need of the hour in the West is the liberating reality of Jesus Christ and the recovery of the Christian mind – the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:16) – that leads to distinctly Christian activity. Merely political and sociological arguments will not suffice because collective folly is an abstraction, a slogan and one cannot simply reason people out of it. Liberation must come from the outside, which involves the recovery of an inner independence in confrontation with the truth.
So, what is the Christian mind? And where do we begin in the study of our time? From the standpoint of scriptural revelation, truly Christian thinking must be concerned first and foremost with Jesus Christ, being His disciple, and having His Word dwell and abide in us by His Spirit. But submitting oneself to being a humble follower does not come easily to anyone. The human inclination is always toward autonomy, preferring to live the illusion that we can legislate for ourselves, like kings without a country. Being a professing Christian in the life of the church does not entirely remove the temptation or inclination to strike out alone and follow our own desires, living by our own priorities and setting to one side the awesome and all-consuming call to be a disciple of Christ; to come and die in order to truly live. Yet this is precisely what Christ calls us to. Being a ‘living sacrifice’ sounds excruciating and involves a transformation of the mind, which implies the pain and suffering of rejection by a world conformed, in the final analysis, to a very different spirit. But the divine midwife insists this is the only way. We must be reborn, transformed and given a new heart, a new mind.
As Christians, we may claim to follow Christ, but the lifelong challenge in developing a truly Christian mindset requires regularly asking ourselves if we have followed him far enough? Have we been to Jordan and seen the dove descending, but hung back from the mountain to avoid His exposition of the law and radical insistence that only those who teach that law can be great in the Kingdom? Have we fallen asleep in pious satisfaction at the gates of Gethsemane, or lingered from a safe distance at Golgotha, never making it to the slopes of Olivet or to the Upper Room in Jerusalem with the dancing flames of fire? Is it possible that we are not yet Christian enough? It is all too easy to follow Christ only as far as is convenient, till the tarrying is just too tiring. If we are unwilling to stand under Christ’s Lordship in all of life, then we are uninvolved in key aspects of the drama and miss the significance of God’s full act in history.
The entire work of Christ in all his offices must become contemporaneous with us if we would truly be transformed by the renewing of our minds. It is not sufficient to appreciate Christ washing Simon Peter’s feet at the last supper as a model of service if we refuse to see him, let alone join him, where the bloodied Stephen saw him – exalted in heavenly places, standing up from his seat of total authority at God’s right hand. Unambiguously, we must certainly see him as priest on the road to Calvary, but we must also recognize him on the footpath to Emmaus as resurrected Lord, the gardener of creation among Arimathea’s roses, if we are to truly follow Christ and know the renewal of our minds.
In a hostile context, the temptation is to follow Him just as far as culture permits. When the storm rises and dread grips us is precisely the time we are called to step out of the boat and walk upon the Word – despite the wind and waves of the world’s antagonism. We must not suddenly become hard of hearing. And if we will not hear that Word over the inimical clamour of idolatry, we certainly cannot then speak it. If our cultural moment is allowed to determine how far we follow Christ, then we cannot follow him at all. We may perhaps hear Hosanna’s from a distance, but we won’t be found stammering with the doubter, “My Lord and my God!” We might be permitted to stand near the cross of a ‘martyr’ but not ascend to the seat of total authority with the ruler of the kings of the earth.
The sad end of hearing and heeding only the word our culture will permit is first an unwillingness, then a tragic inability to speak the whole counsel of God as faithful prophets. As priest and prophet Christ was hated, knew the world’s enmity, and warned that the spirit at work in the children of disobedience would naturally hate his followers also. But we cannot follow our prophet nor share in his sufferings if we refuse to prophesy. Many contemporary priests would rather predict with Balaam to preserve their living than stand with Elijah against Baal. It is certain an ass has spoken with more wisdom in the annals of prophetic utterance than many English bishops in recent years – hirelings who would flog the meekest of God’s prophets if they could for hindering their progress in vexing the church. Always loquacious but lacking true substance, they deceive and flatter themselves that their goal is unity when, in reality, it is revolt. Like powdered-wigged courtiers fighting over who will fetch the kings chamber pot, much of the Western church’s leadership, even amongst evangelicals, simply courts the culture – ingratiating themselves with the influential, the powerful, the professors, even senior clergy who have whored themselves to the spirit of the world. Largely in the name of scholarliness they are avidly committed to half-measures, truth to a certain degree.
The moment that God’s people call a truce and reach a settlement with the spirit of the world, the mindset of the age, is the moment they set aside the Christian mind and overturn true Christianity. The kingdom of God is indeed in this world, but not of it; it is surely present here, but it is not from here – its power, authority and mandate derive from a transcendent source. In history, the church is always the church militant not yet fully triumphant. The struggle will continue over our graves till the king comes who will open all graves. We are called to victory but not to peaceful collaboration. It is only where the battle is fiercest that the fealty of Christ’s soldiers is proved. To desert the frontline but deny cowardice and disloyalty because you once served up beans in the officer’s mess is to lie to oneself.
When God’s people say ‘peace, peace,’ when there is no peace, and sign a treaty with a rebel world, it pretends to be the church triumphant, that the struggle against lawlessness and spiritual darkness is complete – but before the consummation of Christ. Declaring an armistice with sin or striking a deal with the godless state is not a victory nor faithfulness to God’s kingdom. If the church acquiesces to blessing homosexual relationships to make peace with the culture, like the Church of England’s Synod, or meekly surrenders Christ’s authority over public worship, assembly and sacraments to the state, like many Christian leaders during the Covid-19 debacle, defeats are being dressed up like conquests. It is a tragic irony that those who preach righteousness and hope for history through following Christ to the uttermost, bringing them into direct conflict with the world on the frontlines of battle, are charged with ‘triumphalism,’ whilst popular collaborators who claim neutrality with the world, making a compact of surrender or privatization to the applause of culture, are thought pious and realistic. In reality they are triumphalist – seeking to immanentize a false eschaton by denaturing the faith, abstracting it from the affairs of daily life and coating what remains in honey so as to avoid any bitter taste in society’s mouth – for a church no longer at war is a church triumphant.
This compromised situation is one Christians should be ashamed of, as today’s unthinking Christianity, harmonized with the world, humiliates itself. Like an old man decked out in the fashions of youth, it becomes an object of ridicule. Accommodating the Christian mind to society’s whims reduces the priceless bread of life to play dough, molded to superficial preferences. Worse, those willing to sit quietly by in pious self-satisfaction amidst a failing church and culture, refusing to either understand or respond with faith and courage to the times in which they live, are traitors to the cause of the king. Our age requires men of Issachar, not cowards who, bringing counsels of despair, head for home and hearth because they saw giants in Jericho.
What kind of Christian will you be?
—
1 Kierkegaard, Two Ages, 93, 106.
2 Bonhoeffer, Dietrich.“Von der Dummheit”: Widerstand und Ergebung. Briefe und Aufzeichnungen aus der Haft. S. 17–20. Muenchen, Christian Kaiser Verlag, 1951.
The post From Fireside to Frontline: A Christian’s Duty to Understand and Act appeared first on Ezra Institute.
In this episode of the Podcast for Cultural Reformation, Drs. Joe Boot and Michael Thiessen are joined by Dr. Ted Fenske, from the inaugural Worldview Youth Academy—USA, to discuss true, biblical masculinity in our confused and effeminate age.
The WAIT is OVER!!! Pre-order your copy of the NEW updated and expanded version of Dr. Boot’s Mission of God with a brand-new study guide! Get it here: *https://ezrapress.ca/products/mission-of-god-10th-anniversary-edition;*
Got Questions? Would you like to hear Dr. Boot answer your questions? Let us know in the comments or reach out to us at https://www.ezrainstitute.com/connect/contact/;
Think biblically about politics with the help of Dr. Boot’s latest book “Ruler of Kings”: https://ezrapress.ca/products/ruler-of-kings-toward-a-christian-vision-of-government;
For Ezra’s many print resources and to join our newsletter, visit: https://ezrapress.com.
Stay up-to-date with all things Ezra Institute: https://www.ezrainstitute.com;
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Fight Laugh Feast Network: https://pubtv.flfnetwork.com/tabs/audio/podcasts/8297;
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/ezra-institute-podcast-for-cultural-reformation/id1336078503;
Spotify Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/0dW1gDarpzdrDMLPjKYZW2?si=bee3e91ed9a54885.
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The post A Blueprint for Biblical Masculinity ft. Dr. Ted Fenske | Podcast for Cultural Reformation appeared first on Ezra Institute.
As the Rebels continue the summer series on how to win the world, we turn our attention to evangelism. How can we win the world if we do not seek the lost with the transforming power of the gospel? This week, Chris invites returning guest and friend of the show, Cory McKenna, an equipping evangelist with the Cross Current, to discuss how real, biblical evangelism is the heart of cultural reformation.Episode Resources: Cross Current: https://thecrosscurrent.com/
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Spotify Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/0dW1gDarpzdrDMLPjKYZW2?si=bee3e91ed9a54885.
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The post How to Win the World – Part 7: Seek the Lost appeared first on Ezra Institute.
What is cultural apologetics? Can a biblical worldview make sense of human experience? What are some of the biggest objections to the Christian faith? Rev Dr Joe Boot, founder and president of the Ezra Institute for Contemporary Christianity shares his thoughts. This interview was recorded in front of a live audience at Holy Trinity Church, Aylesbury in partnership with Aylesbury Youth For Christ.
The post Unapologetic Podcast: Why Believe? appeared first on Ezra Institute.
It’s that time of the month again! It’s time for another Q&A with Dr. Joe Boot. This month Dr. Mike Thiessen asks Dr. Joe Boot your questions. Tune in as they discuss the religious character of culture and the religious foundation for law & politics.
Got Questions? Would you like to hear Dr. Boot answer your questions? Let us know in the comments or reach out to us at https://www.ezrainstitute.com/connect/contact/;
Think biblically about politics with the help of Dr. Boot’s latest book “Ruler of Kings”: https://ezrapress.ca/products/ruler-of-kings-toward-a-christian-vision-of-government;
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The post Q & A with Dr. Joe Boot: Religious Plurality & Theonomy [July 2024] appeared first on Ezra Institute.
The sixth episode of The Ezra Institute’s special series with the Rebels, “How to Win the World,” is one not to miss!This week, Dr. Joe Rigney joins the show to discuss the necessity of courageous leadership if we want to see the world won!Episode Resources: Canon+: https://canonpress.com/;Joe’s Resources: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Joe-Rigney/author/B00F6VS6UE?ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true;Leadership and Emotional Sabotage: https://www.amazon.com/Leadership-Emotional-Sabotage-Resisting-Anxiety/dp/1591280400/?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_w=5Hc4V&content-id=amzn1.sym.f911c8db-3a2b-4b3e-952f-b80fdcee83f4&pf_rd_p=f911c8db-3a2b-4b3e-952f-b80fdcee83f4&pf_rd_r=145-1583662-1169046&pd_rd_wg=xLPRz&pd_rd_r=d010179b-4165-440c-89aa-d957c201c871&ref_=aufs_ap_sc_dsk;Douglas Wilson & Friends with host Joe Rigney: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaUso8l3U_deJ9bAb8-rPjI3ndRP3sLgK;For Ezra’s many print resources and to join our newsletter, visit: https://ezrapress.com.Stay up-to-date with all things Ezra Institute: https://www.ezrainstitute.comSubscribe to Ezra’s YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPVvQDHHrOOjziyqUaN9VoA?sub_confirmation=1;Fight Laugh Feast Network: https://pubtv.flfnetwork.com/tabs/audio/podcasts/8297;Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/ezra-institute-podcast-for-cultural-reformation/id1336078503;Spotify Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/0dW1gDarpzdrDMLPjKYZW2?si=bee3e91ed9a54885.Wherever you find our content, please like, subscribe, rate, or review it; it truly does help.The post How to Win the World – Part 6: Lead Courageously with Dr. Joe Rigney appeared first on Ezra Institute.
In celebration of Canada Day (better known as Dominion Day) and the upcoming UK election, which happens to fall on July 4th, American Independence Day, Dr. Joe Boot is joined by Professor Daniel Ogden, Ezra Fellow for International Law, Comparative Politics, and International Relations, to discuss principles of political freedom, rights and responsibilities, good governance, and the rule of higher law.
Think biblically about politics with the help of Dr. Boot’s latest book “Ruler of Kings”: https://ezrapress.ca/products/ruler-of-kings-toward-a-christian-vision-of-government;
Got Questions? Would you like to hear Dr. Boot answer your questions? Let us know in the comments or reach out to us at https://www.ezrainstitute.com/connect/contact/;
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Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/ezra-institute-podcast-for-cultural-reformation/id1336078503;
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https://www.ezrainstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/S07E38.mp3
The post From Where Do Our Rights Come?: An Independence Day Special ft. Dan Ogden appeared first on Ezra Institute.
Happy Dominion Day, Canada! Are you having people over to celebrate? Then, you’re not going to want to miss this podcast. In this fourth episode, the Rebels are joined by Author, Podcaster, and all-around Christian influencer Rachel Jankovich to tackle the very important, often overlooked subject of Christian Hospitality! Over our summer series “How to Win the World,” P Nate and Pootie have the privilege to sit down with some amazing guests and discuss practical Christian commands that, when faithfully obeyed, push back the darkness and cultivate Christian culture! Continue to join us as we learn how to put our hand to the plough in real, tangible ways.
Episode Resources: Canon+: https://canonpress.com/; Rachel’s Resources: https://canonpress.com/collections/all/rachel-jankovic; What Have You Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/what-have-you/id1287267219;
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Stay up-to-date with all things Ezra Institute:https://www.ezrainstitute.com Subscribe to Ezra’s YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPVvQDHHrOOjziyqUaN9VoA?sub_confirmation=1; Fight Laugh Feast Network: https://pubtv.flfnetwork.com/tabs/audio/podcasts/8297; Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/ezra-institute-podcast-for-cultural-reformation/id1336078503; Spotify Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/0dW1gDarpzdrDMLPjKYZW2?si=bee3e91ed9a54885.
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The post How to Win the World, Part 5: Practice Hospitality with Rachel Jankovic appeared first on Ezra Institute.
‘The crowd is untruth. Therefore, was Christ crucified’ – Soren Kierkegaard
One of the most fascinating figures for me in the history of European thought, is the controversial and prophetic, Soren Kierkegaard. He recognized, back in the mid-nineteenth century, that Western Europe was reaching a tipping point. As a devout Christian, although he strongly believed an emphatic ‘turn’ toward a renewed consolidation of faith in the eternal worth of human beings as God’s image-bearers lay ahead, he was also convinced that before this could happen, there would be a protracted time of upheavals and catastrophes.[i] The portent of this was already heralded by the revolutionary movements of 1848 – beginning in the Italian peninsula and spreading throughout much of Europe. Shortly thereafter, Europe was rocked by two World Wars and a sexual-social revolution that continues to this day. Kierkegaard foresaw the late-modern age of radical democratization as one of steady disintegration, suffering and bloodshed, in which man would try and solve his existential problems by politics – by his own power and reason.
This, he recognized, was an essentially religious issue resulting from the uprooting of a scriptural world and life view. In fact, just as Karl Marx was embarking on what would prove a highly influential writing career, Kierkegaard noted with remarkable prescience that the godless secular movements which were emerging would arrive as ‘political’ trends but would soon be unmasked as deeply religious in nature. He wrote,
The future will correspond inversely to the reformation: then everything appeared to be a religious movement and became politics; now everything appears to be politics but will become a religious movement.[ii]
We are seeing this played out before our eyes in modern political life. Under the profound and lasting influence of Hegel and Marx, modern statism has become the neo-pagan religion of choice across Western Europe – politics is again priestly and saving in its pretentions. The conservative and classically liberal vision of a small and delimited state, focused on its task as a ministry of justice, has almost entirely given way to a plan for radical social democracy, in which the state is an omnipresent and totalizing institution in which civil government swallows all other forms of government in a parts to whole relation. This messianic state, hailed and erected by the crowd, has sought to redefine marriage and sexuality, truth and justice, the meaning of money, the value of life and the concept of law. As a result, family, church, private enterprise, and independent nationhood have been assaulted on every side.
Inevitably, sacrifices must be made to the new god – the unborn, historic freedoms, family inheritance, progressive taxes, and property. State tyranny is no longer dressed in the luxurious robes of royal privilege, and yet, adorned with the positive law of ‘the people,’ equally asserts its eminent domain. Ahab wants your vineyard, and he will plot, bribe, lie, and grind you to powder to get it, all under cover of a sovereign seal. Yes, the new god will ‘level up’ the world through a vast democratization and equalization of all life. The modern West’s mutiny against God, whether kitted out in proletarian or aristocratic, elitist boots, is of a demonic character and so no purely political solution is possible. The root problem is unquestionably the underlying religious worldview, and it is imperative it be addressed.
The masses in Europe have been bought off for decades by false and impossible promises of cradle to grave security, the omnicompetent state embracing the gullible crowd in its providential beneficence and paternal solicitude. But Dagon has toppled. And though we keep trying to stand him on end and glue his head and hands back on, some people are beginning to realise, the jig is up. The emperor has no clothes. The social democracy proffering utopian political salvation is a powerless idol, no more capable of delivering on its promises than the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel.
This is now painfully true in the UK. Like much of the West, Britain is broken, bankrupt and decaying rapidly. The British states ludicrous attempt to ‘save’ its people from Covid-19 with state largesse led to runaway inflation from which the economy has still not recovered. Its borders are overrun by both legal and illegal migrants from largely Islamic lands, and there is presently no meaningful political will to prevent it; its public services are at breaking point; twenty percent of its working age population is economically inactive, with over 50% of the nation taking more directly and indirectly in benefits and welfare than they pay in taxes, despite taxation being at a record post war high; its demography is in freefall as the family collapses; and its favorite goddess of state, the National Health Service, is teetering on the brink of total collapse; the military has shrunk to its smallest size since before the Napoleonic war as recruitment becomes an uphill struggle, and confidence in social and political institutions has reached a radical low.
The ideological difference between the two main parties in Britain is shockingly invisible. Both the Conservative and Labour Parties are addicted to an intoxicating status quo of high tax, high spend, debt ridden, la la land economic policy to appease the abstract ‘public,’ and a social liberalism unwilling to tackle head on the ruinous continuation of the sexual revolution – with both abortion and the queering of culture being a national disgrace. With few, but notable exceptions among the Tories, both the main parties promote a left-leaning social democracy, undergirded by stagnant socialistic welfare economics. Their actions show they are true believers in the fickle god of state – who now plans to save us from the climate itself, with mindless net zero policies.
Yet ironically, Britain remains in a better state than most of Western Europe. Over the English Channel, revolutionary rumblings are once again afoot in France, with elections happening on July 7. France has been riven by religious, economic, and social disintegration for decades, and its looks as though a day of reckoning is looming for the Justin Trudeau of Europe, Emmanuel Macron.
In Britain, the general election takes place on July 4th. The chances of the British public voting for their own ‘Independence Day’ from an overreaching nanny state are presently zero. Our democracy is currently eating itself, and things are liable to get considerably worse before they get better. Segments of the population are starting to rediscover their individuality from the crowd and realizing something has gone badly wrong. A form of British conservative populism is on the rise. It looks back with understandable nostalgia to the days of the Christian Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, and though it does not fully know how, because its overlooks the religious root, longs to recover its British identity – decency, fairness, politeness, hospitality, generosity, justice, with a daring ‘can do’ spirit full of hope, fortitude and faith. But July’s election will almost certainly deliver a larcenous socialist government power in the UK for at least five years, as a disillusioned and furious electorate, lurching at the ballot box from bad to worse, unwittingly decides to watch the illusion of political salvation die a painful death.
A recent prediction regarding the expected outcome of our forthcoming election from one noted political commentator in the UK makes for sobering reading. Following the crowd is almost always a ruinous course:
It will merely make a bad situation worse, further ruining an already broken Britain, and will be remembered as the last hurrah of an ancien regime that never learnt from its mistakes. Our taxes will go up to even more extortionate levels, especially on capital and property, making it even less worthwhile to work, invest or create; our drift to European-style social democracy will accelerate; our ultra-regulated economy will carry on stagnating in terms of per capita GDP, delivering paltry wage growth and ensuring children can no longer expect to be better off than their parents. The NHS, pensions and the welfare state will career ever-faster towards bankruptcy; immigrants will arrive at extraordinary rates, fuelling problems of integration and exacerbating the housing crisis; the gap between London and the rest will grow; the somewheres will still be pitted against the anywheres; the education system, state and private, will be trashed by egalitarian fanatics. Quangos and human rights lawyers will be handed even greater powers. The woke revolution will tear through more institutions; the family will continue to wither, intensifying the baby-bust; criminals will run riot; energy costs will rocket further in a mad rush to net zero, while the war on mobility will be intensified; and our Armed Forces will remain preposterously small.[iii]
For good reason, Christ never entrusted himself to the crowd – for the crowd is untruth. The 51% is not the path of righteousness. The masses that would make him king, soon called instead for his crucifixion. We can never place our faith in ‘the public’, elections or the political life of a nation. Through all the ups and downs, twists and turns of history, our faith must be in Christ alone who calls all peoples, kings, judges, and rulers to serve Him. Christ did not permit the crowd as mass-man to help him. He ‘did not permit balloting, but would be what He is, the Truth, which relates itself to the individual.’[iv] With Kierkegaard, I have no doubt that Christianity will not only have the last laugh, but will have the final word in this great struggle of our time.
[i] Soren Kierkegaard, cited in, Gregor Malantschuk, The Controversial Kierkegaard, trans., Howard V. Hong & Edna H. Hong (Ontario: Wilfred Laurier University Press, 1976), 72-73
[ii] Kierkegaard, The Controversial Kierkegaard, 73
[iii] The Telegraph, Allister Heath, ‘Britain is Heading for a Populist Tsunami Far Greater than Anything Seen in Europe’ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/06/12/britain-faces-populist-tsunami-greater-anything-seen-europe/ accessed, June 2024.
[iv] Soren Kierkegaard, in, Walter Kaufmann, Existentialism from Dostoevsky to Sartre (New York: Plume, 1975), 96
The post Election and Disintegration: A Fork in the Road appeared first on Ezra Institute.
On this episode of the Podcast for Cultural Reformation, Doctors Joe Boot and Michael Thiessen address whether or not democracy is compatible with a biblical worldview. It’s Election Season. Think biblically about politics with the help of Dr. Boot’s latest book “Ruler of Kings”: https://ezrapress.ca/products/ruler-of-kings-toward-a-christian-vision-of-government; Get your copy of “Covenant Sexuality” from Ezra Press for 20% off today!: https://ezrapress.ca/products/covenant-sexuality-1; Got Questions? Would you like to hear Dr. Boot answer your questions? Should we do this more often? Let us know in the comments or reach out to us at https://www.ezrainstitute.com/connect/contact/;
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The post Is Christianity Anti-Democratic? appeared first on Ezra Institute.
This summer the Rebels are learning “How to Win the World” through various guests discussing practical Christian theology and how it can apply to the immediate world around us. Continue to join us as we learn how to put our hand to the plough in real, tangible ways.
In this fourth episode, P Nate and Elder P are joined by Pastor/ Author C.R. Wiley of the Theology Pugcast to discuss how Christians can reclaim productive, anti-fragile, biblical households.
Episode Resources: Canon+: https://canonpress.com/; C.R.’s Website: https://crwiley.com/; C.R.’s Books: https://crwiley.com/books/; Theology Pugcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-theology-pugcast/id1452933071?ign-mpt=uo%3D4&mt=2; Fight, Laugh, Feast (FLF) Network: https://pubtv.flfnetwork.com/menu/checkout;
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On this episode of the Podcast for Cultural Reformation, Dr. Michael Thiessen and Pastor Nate Wright address the accusation that the God of the Old Testament is cruel and, accordingly, Christians should “unhitch” themselves for the Old Testament.Get your copy of “Covenant Sexuality” from Ezra Press for 20% off today!: https://ezrapress.ca/products/covenant-sexuality-1;Got Questions? Would you like to hear Dr. Boot answer your questions? Should we do this more often? Let us know in the comments or reach out to us at https://www.ezrainstitute.com/connect/contact/; For Ezra’s many print resources and to join our newsletter, visit: https://ezrapress.com. Stay up-to-date with all things Ezra Institute: https://www.ezrainstitute.comSubscribe to Ezra’s YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPVvQDHHrOOjziyqUaN9VoA?sub_confirmation=1;Fight Laugh Feast Network: https://pubtv.flfnetwork.com/tabs/audio/podcasts/8297;Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/ezra-institute-podcast-for-cultural-reformation/id1336078503;Spotify Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/0dW1gDarpzdrDMLPjKYZW2?si=bee3e91ed9a54885. Wherever you find our content, please like, subscribe, rate, or review it; it truly does help.The post Is the God of the Old Testament Cruel? | Podcast for Cultural Reformation appeared first on Ezra Institute.
In this episode of Ezra Institute’s special series with the Rebels, “How to Win the World,” P Nate and Pootie will be joined by a variety of guests talking about several key practical outworkings of theological concepts that will help Christians expand the Kingdom of God, fix what is broken and slowly but surely win the world.
In this third episode, the Rebels are joined by pastor and author Toby Sumpter to talk about the intentional cultivation of Christian community. How can we build the kind of communities that will be necessary to win the world? TUNE IN TO FIND OUT.
Episode Resources:
Canon+: https://canonpress.com/;
Having Two Legs (Toby’s Blog): https://tobyjsumpter.com/;
Crosspolitic: https://crosspolitic.com/;
Fight, Laugh, Feast (FLF) Network: https://pubtv.flfnetwork.com/menu/checkout;
Christ Church (Moscow): https://www.christkirk.com/.
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The post How to Win the World, Part 3: Cultivating Christian Community | REBEL – Podcast for Cultural Engagement appeared first on Ezra Institute.
On this Podcast for Cultural Reformation episode, Dr. Michael Thiessen and Pastor Nate Wright address the Pagan high holy month of Pride. Not only do they expose the 2SLGBTQIA+ cult for the false religion it is, but they also provide a positive biblical vision for sex and sexuality.
Get your copy of “Covenant Sexuality”from Ezra Press for 20% off today!: https://ezrapress.ca/products/covenant-sexuality-1;
Got Questions? Would you like to hear Dr. Boot answer your questions? Should we do this more often? Let us know in the comments or reach out to us at https://www.ezrainstitute.com/connect/contact/;
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The Ezra Institute brings you a new series with the Rebels when P Nate and Pootie are joined by a variety of guests talking about several key practical outworkings of theological concepts that will help Christians expand the Kingdom of God, see the dark pushed back and slowly (like leaven working through the loaf) win the world.
In this episode, P Nate and Pootie invite Doug Wilson onto the show to discuss an unlikely place for world-conquering to start… with corporate worship. Wilson lays out a vision of worship that extends from the corporate gathering of local churches to the private practices of every Christian behind closed doors. If we want to win the world, we need to start with proper worship… because, in the Christian worldview, worship is warfare!
Episode Resources:
Canon+:https://canonpress.com/;
Blog & Mablog: https://dougwils.com/;
Blog & Mablog on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEeDTCe9GnbRPbUfNwoqEYQ;
Christ Church (Moscow): https://www.christkirk.com/.
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Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/ezra-institute-podcast-for-cultural-reformation/id1336078503;
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The post How to Win the World, Part 2: War with Your Worship with Doug Wilson | REBEL – Podcast for Cultural Engagement appeared first on Ezra Institute.
It’s that time of the month again when Pastor Nate Wright and Dr. Joe Boot answer your questions. Tune in as they discuss church leadership and accountability, the intermediate state and where Christians go after they die, and Christians’ response to the pagan high, holy month of perversion and debauchery, Pride Month.
Got Questions? Would you like to hear Dr. Boot answer your questions? Should we do this more often? Let us know in the comments or reach out to us at https://www.ezrainstitute.com/connect/contact/;
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The post Q & A with Dr. Joe Boot [June 2024] | Podcast for Cultural Reformation appeared first on Ezra Institute.
The Ezra Institute brings you a new series with the Rebels when P Nate and Pootie are joined by a variety of guests talking about several key practical outworkings of theological concepts that will help Christians expand the Kingdom of God, see the dark pushed back, and slowly (like leaven working through the loaf) win the world.
This episode P Nate is joined by pastor/ author Dr. Josh Howard, who hosts the Eschatology Matters podcast, to discuss step one to saving the world… believing this world can actually be won!
Episode Resources:
Eschatology Matters:eschatologymatters.org;
Eschatology Matters YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@eschatology_matters;
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Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/ezra-institute-podcast-for-cultural-reformation/id1336078503;
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The post How to Win the World, Part 1: Believe It’s Winnable with Dr. Josh Howard appeared first on Ezra Institute.
Work is a central aspect of life. On today’s show, we continue our series, Conversations & Presuppositions, by examining a Christian view of work, wealth, and capital and investing our time, talents, and treasures to advance the Kingdom of God.
Got Questions? Would you like to hear Dr. Boot answer your questions? Should we do this more often? Let us know in the comments or reach out to us at https://www.ezrainstitute.com/connect/contact/;
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Countering Pro-Abortion Rhetoric with Grace and Truth
Some things seem best not discussed. In polite society, it’s generally recommended to avoid all inflammatory topics, and in particular, religion and politics. Since abortion hits both of these, and represents the single most divisive issue in our society, sidestepping the subject seems prudent, if not life-preserving. In an effort to keep the peace and maintain a congenial atmosphere, most would agree to let this sleeping dog lie. Outside of the realms of pro-life rallies and pro-choice protests, little is said on the topic and silence tends to prevail, leaving the issues surrounding abortion largely unaddressed. So much so, that for many people, abortion has become a non-issue all together and conveniently dismissed.
Remarkably, this silent treatment takes place despite the fact that abortions occur commonly and exact a widespread and costly toll. Of the adult surgeries done in North America, abortion is the most commonly performed, with one in four pregnancies ending in abortion.1 Following the American legalization of abortion in 1973, untold millions of preborn children have been brutally killed, skulls crushed, bodies dismembered, and remains suctioned from the womb. This procedural reality is accurately portrayed in the excellent movie, “Unplanned,”2 which, in its opening scenes, graphically depicts the black and white ultrasound image of a baby fetus being suctioned apart, juxtaposed with bright red blood filling an adjacent container. I know this from my own medical training experience, when I helped provide anaesthesia for long slates of “therapeutic” abortion cases, and remember all too well the vacutainer filling in spurts and starts with blood and body parts, as the gynecologist tried to make light of the situation with attempts at dark humor.
The murdered preborn aren’t the only casualties. Of course, women who have had an abortion suffer, as well, both in coming to their decision, and in the months and years that follow. They are the ones that have to live with the fact that their choice resulted in the death of their developing child; a decision which is often associated with deep regret, and even lifelong remorse.3 As well, there is the societal injury, devaluing human life, and not just for the preborn, but for all stages of life, from the infant through to the elderly and the infirm. Although the recent U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe versus Wade may help to stem part of this tide – allowing state legislators to place some restrictions on abortion in their jurisdictions – it won’t necessarily do much for Canada, where abortion-on-demand is readily available nationwide, right up to and including the time of delivery. Like the totalitarian state of North Korea, Canada has no laws protecting the unborn, rendering the womb a most dangerous place for many.
At the center of the abortion debate is a war on words. As Eric Bentley aptly summarized, “Ours is the age of substitutes: Instead of language we have jargon; instead of principles, slogans; and, instead of genuine ideas, bright ideas.”4 To render abortion more palatable and foster societal agreement, it is referred to as a “reproductive health choice,” and defined as “the termination of a pregnancy by removal of an embryo or fetus.” This use of medical euphemisms functions to desensitize and confuse people about what it actually is – the murder of an innocent preborn baby. Pro-abortion activism is rife with slogan usage. These catchy phrases make use of prepackaged ideas to allow for easy acceptance and to divert attention away from the grim reality of the abortion procedure. However, resorting to slogans as the primary means of propelling their anti-life views only betrays their impoverished philosophy and indefensible moral position. As such, there is ample opportunity to speak truth into this void.
As professing Christians, remaining silent in the face of widespread abortion is not an option. Jesus demonstrated unending compassion and concern for the most vulnerable in society, of which the preborn would be considered the most preeminent. As followers of the Risen Lord, like Him, we need to demonstrate concern, as well. Something needs to be said to stop the killing. So, rather than opposing the pro-abortion rhetoric with counter sloganeering, fighting fire with fire, pithy with pithy, tit for tat, our conversations need to “be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that we may know how to answer everyone” (Col 4:6). This is because the battle over the sanctity of human life isn’t just our personal fight, but rather the Lord’s, and needs to be waged on His terms. As such, “the weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have the divine power to demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God (2 Cor 10:4-5). It’s a battle that won’t be won in the political arena or the court room, but in the heart of hearts of each and every person, and not only by political might and legislative muster, but by the transformative work of the Holy Spirit, “as we take captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ” (2 Cor 10:5). The ambition of this essay is to provide an approach for followers of Christ to winsomely counter pro-abortion slogans with productive dialogue that will not only help persuade others to adopt a prolife stance, but point them to the Gospel and the need for a saving faith in Jesus Christ.
Biblical Foundation for Prolife Stance
Before engaging with those who hold pro-abortion views, it’s worthwhile considering the firm foundation on which our argumentation rests, and in the process, better appreciate their shaky one. All philosophical systems of thought rest upon a series of background assumptions or beliefs. These include a metaphysical starting point on which the system is based and from which all thinking derives – an ultimate commitment – as well as an understanding of how things are known, and known that they’re known – an epistemology – and an ethical guide for how we should live our lives – a moral standard. For Christians, the Bible is that objective starting place. The Triune God of Scripture – the creator and sustainer of the universe – is understood as being behind everything that exists. Similarly, Christian epistemology is based upon Biblical revelation. We know things because God has made them known to us through His Word, our understanding of which is enabled by the power of the Holy Spirit. Because of God’s revelation, we are brought into the Kingdom of light and are able to make sense of our experiences and understand things in their proper relationship to Him, “the alpha and the omega” (Rev 1:8). As King Solomon said, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is Understanding” (Prov 9:10). Likewise, the Christian moral standard is clearly detailed in Scripture, and summarized by Jesus as, “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind…and your neighbor as yourself” (Matt 22:37-39).
By contrast, those who reject Holy Scripture and the knowledge of God, which has been made plain in the created order, begin their thinking with themselves. Attempting to function in an automatous fashion, they set stand-alone reason as their starting point, and base their thinking and their means of knowing things on their own wits and wisdom. In regard to moral behaviour, they become their own arbiter of right and wrong, and base their ethics on their own darkened sensibilities, shaped by the surrounding values of the culture, “everyone doing as he sees fit” (Ju 21:25). Rene Descartes, who was considered the father of the so-called Enlightenment Period, formalized this approach with the assertion, “I think therefore I am.” Descartes reckoned that his ability to think – while being shut off from all external stimuli and influences – provided him with the definitive foundation for being. He referred to this ultimate commitment as the Archimedean point, named after the ancient Greek mathematician, who boldly claimed to be able to move the earth if he had a place to stand and a long enough lever.
However, like Archimedes’ metaphorical image, Descartes’ maxim isn’t workable. For Archimedes to move the earth with a lever, he would need to have, in principle at least, a place to stand separate from the created order. Otherwise, there would be no net movement, just a lot of huffing and puffing. It would be like trying to punt a boat by pushing off from the boat floor rather than the river bottom, or attempting to pull yourself up by your own bootstraps. Similarly, if we base reality on our finite capacity to think, disengaged from all else, we have no way of making sense of our experiences and our relationship to the world, beyond the confines of our subjective thoughts. We are in the woods and unable to see the forest for the trees. Like Archimedes, we also require a separate point from ourselves and the created order to objectively understand reality – a transcendent point – which only the Bible, as the transcendent Word of God, can provide.
With this in mind, the Christian approach to the ethical issue of abortion becomes quite straightforward – just don’t do it! We know abortion is wrong because the Bible says it’s wrong. While quoting Scripture may not be the most effective means of persuading a non-believer to reject abortion, it’s essential that we, who stand on God’s word, understand the Biblical underpinnings of the pro-life position. Although people from antiquity were largely indifferent to the practice of abortion, historians agree that “the language of the Christians from the very beginning was widely different. With unwavering consistency and with the strongest emphasis, they denounced the practice, not simply as inhuman, but as definitely murder.”5 This is because the verdict about abortion in the Bible is clear. The opening pages of Genesis present humankind as set apart from all other living things, created not by his law-word, but “formed from the dust of the ground” into the image of God (Gen 2:7). The sanctity of human life is explained to Noah that, “Whoever sheds human blood, by humans shall their blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made mankind” (Gen 9:6). This prohibition against murder makes the top-ten list of commandments given to Moses and is twice repeated in the Torah (Ex 20:13, Deut 5:17). Furthermore, Scripture condemns child sacrifice and makes clear not to murder the innocent (2 Ki 21:16; Ps 106:37,38; Jer 19:4), but to celebrate children as “a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from him” (Ps 127:3).
As God incarnate, Jesus lived and redeemed the entirety of human life and experience, from its very beginnings in the womb to death in the tomb. By living a perfect life before the Father, he sanctified every phase of human life, including embryonic development, when his cousin, John the Baptist, leapt for joy in Elizabeth’s womb at his presence (Lk 1:44). And Jeremiah was reassured by the Lord that he was known by God in the womb, and before he was born, was “set apart and anointed as a prophet to the nations” (Jer 1:5). Therefore, our inherent value as image bearers doesn’t begin at birth, nor at any other arbitrary cut point preceding it, such as womb implantation, or measurable brain wave activity, heartbeat, quickening, viability, or the babe’s first breath. In fact, the Apostle Paul tells us that we were chosen before the very foundations of the world (Eph 1:4). So, although our souls are inextricably connected to our physical bodies, our value is not dependent on us attaining any particular stage of development nor age of maturity. It follows then that the preborn are precious to God and deserve our unfaltering protection.
Proverbial Approach to Argumentation
Since abortion is an emotionally charged and polarizing topic, articulating a counter view requires a thoughtful approach. We need to be “shrewd as snakes and innocent as doves” (Matt 10:16), not “nasty as serpents and stupid as pigeons,” as Preston Manning quipped. Considering our response, then, we would do well to draw from Biblical wisdom and take a lesson from King Solomon, who said, “Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you yourself will be just like him. Answer a fool according to his folly, or he will be wise in his own eyes” (Prov 26:4-5). In this context, the term fool carries moral rather than intellectual meaning. Similar to its use in Psalm 14, “A fool says in his heart there is no God,” fool refers to emptiness of belief rather than stupidity. While at first blush, the two verses of this proverb may seem contradictory, their purposeful juxtaposition underscores how they necessarily complement each other and work together. In the first portion, “not answering a fool according to their folly” (verse 4), we are warned not to be drawn into argumentation based on secular thought, otherwise we are at risk of also being mired in confusion. In the second portion, “answering the fool according to their folly” (verse 5), we are encouraged to show understanding of the unbeliever’s viewpoint and temporarily put on their worldview glasses.
When applying this proverb to the real world of abortion dialogue, it works best to reverse the order, and begin by showing an understanding with the pro-abortionist position, followed by drawing out their position to its natural conclusions, and then showing its failings. The Canadian Centre for Bioethical Reform, a prolife equipping ministry, applies this method superbly.6 After first exposing the visual evidence of what abortion does to preborn children, the dedicated team of staff, interns, and volunteers winsomely articulate why human rights must begin when a human’s life begins. They do so by making use of a proven-effective three-part approach to proactively engage Canadians in productive conversations on the topic of abortion.
First, they establish a point of contact by demonstrating a level of understanding and some degree of agreement. This acts a bit like an olive branch and can help diffuse initial tensions around the topic. Second, they ask them to consider an analogous scenario involving a toddler rather than a preborn baby. This brings the conversation out from the realm of the abstract fetus and into concrete relatable terms of a living child. Third, they pose an “if/then” question to gently challenge the pro-abortion stance by demonstrating its inconsistency and contradiction. During the entire process, the aim is to steer the conversation towards the humanity of the preborn child. This is because once the pro-abortionist sees the truth of abortion and faces the reality of their stance – that abortion is the intentional killing of an innocent human being – they are more likely to soften their position, and even accept the prolife view. The hope then is to make the Gospel attractive and direct those who have held a proabortion view towards Jesus Christ, in whom there is forgiveness of sins and regeneration of sinners.
To illustrate this three-part approach, and provide some example responses, five brief scenarios are outlined below that address common appeals for abortion. For a more comprehensive review of the topic, Randy Alcorn’s book, Prolife Answers to Prochoice Questions is highly recommended.7
Scenario (1) Responding to abortion as a right to bodily autonomy
Appealing to abortion as a right to bodily autonomy is quite popular, as evidenced by the recent enshrinement of the right to abortion in France’s constitution, celebrated with the rhetorical slogan, ‘my body, my choice’ emblazoned on the Eiffel Tower.8 The contact point here is our agreement in general terms with both the right to bodily autonomy, and the importance of free choice. When Jesus died for our sins, he freely gave up his body, implying, of course, that he was not coerced, but free to do so, and that it was his body in the first place, to give up, and not Rome’s. No State should have the power over another’s body. The Nurenburg Code, 9 which was written in response to the Holocaust of Nazi Germany, has these protections, as has the more recent Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights,10 which in no uncertain terms upholds our fundamental rights to voluntarily choose to receive medical intervention or not. Up until COVID-19, the medical community honored this right, even to the point of allowing Jehovah’s Witness patients, who refuse blood products, to die of exsanguination, bleeding to death rather than being transfused. Those who were concerned about the COVID vaccines used this same slogan, “my body, my choice,” to protest against vaccine mandates. Governmental over-reach during the pandemic demonstrated how easily our fundamental rights, including the right to assembly and freedom of movement, can be immediately stripped away. Since our civil freedoms have been hard won, and are worth fighting to preserve, we can respond in guarded agreement to the pro-abortionist on this point with, “Yes, I agree. Bodily autonomy and personal freedoms are very important.”
To then build on this point of agreement, and move the conversation from abstract general terms into relatable specific terms, we can make use of an analogy between the preborn and a toddler. We could say, for example, “but imagine a mother made a choice to end the life of her 2-year-old child. Would that be an appropriate choice for her to make?”
If they respond with “no” (which is the only reasonable response), then we have established that although personal freedom and choice are important, they aren’t ultimate. They have limitations. Not all things done with a person’s body are right, nor should they all be legally protected. A person isn’t permitted to expose themself or urinate in public, nor steal or strike another at will. Our rights and freedoms need to be considered in the context of the rights and freedoms of others, and restrictions are required to prevent one person from bringing harm to another. Abortion, of course, is an example of harm in the extreme.
If there is agreement that killing the toddler would not be a good choice, then we can challenge them on the topic of abortion by asking, “Well, if it isn’t right for the mother to choose to end the life of her toddler, why would it be right for her to end the life of her preborn child?” This question draws the rhetorical slogan in this context to its logical conclusion, and demonstrates its inconsistency.
If, at this point, an appeal is made for abortion on the basis of bodily autonomy along the lines of “every woman should have control over her own body, reproductive freedom is a basic human right,” we can respond by saying that the time for the mother to exercise reproductive freedom of choice has passed. She already made the choices to have sexual intercourse and to do so without contraception, and now there are the rights and freedoms of two bodies that need to be considered –mother and child – not just her body. As a pro-abortion advocate, Mary Anne Warren admitted, “the right to control one’s body, which is generally construed as a property right, is at best a rather feeble argument for the permissibility of abortion. Mere ownership does not give me the right to kill innocent people whom I find on my property.”11
Scenario (2) Response to abortion as a solution to an unwanted pregnancy
Over 60% of unintended pregnancies end in abortion.12 The commonly used slogan to justify this outcome is, “Every child a wanted child,” with the argument that it’s unfair to bring children into a world where they aren’t wanted. The clever use of rhetorical language brings to mind a utopian world filled with lovingly cared for children, with no more child abuse and no more abandonment. And what could possibly be wrong with that? Plenty, of course, considering that the implied flip side of this slogan is “Every unwanted child a dead child.” It’s an attitude that says that the worth and dignity of the lives of children are not related to being created in God’s image, but are solely dependent upon whether or not the parent wants them.
The reasons given for abortion of an unplanned pregnancy are many and varied, and often relate to challenging circumstances, such as teen pregnancy, a broken-off relationship, lack of finances, insufficient social supports, current or anticipated educational training, or bad timing with career aspirations. These reasons, of course, have more to do with convenience rather than necessity, and convenience should never be an acceptable reason to kill someone. Besides, abortion as a proposed solution to these circumstances doesn’t get to the root of the problem, but only results in a compounding of the problem: still having to deal with the challenging circumstance, while now being a parent of a dead child.
Despite these concerns, we can nonetheless empathize with a teen parent or a financially-strapped single mother facing an unintended pregnancy, and agree that their circumstances are challenging. As a parent, I can certainly attest that it’s difficult enough to raise children with two parents and a stable income, let alone being a single parent with few supports. So, our point of contact here can be one of agreement, phrased, “Yes, I agree. That sounds very difficult. The care of a child certainly takes a level of responsibility and finances.”
Then, to build on this point of agreement, and bring the conversation from abstract generality into a real-world example, we can trot out the toddler and say, for example, “but imagine that a high school student carried through with her pregnancy because her parents promised to support her. However, let’s say that when this child turned 2-years-old, the girl’s parents could no longer provide any further financial assistance. Should the mother, at this point, be allowed to kill the 2-year-old because of lack of finances?”
If there is agreement that killing the toddler would not be appropriate, then we can challenge them on the topic of abortion by asking, “Well, if it isn’t right for the mother to kill her toddler for lack of finances, why would it be right for her to kill her preborn child for the same reason?” Again, this question draws the rhetorical slogan to its logical conclusion, that lack of finances, or any of the other challenging circumstances, cannot justify the taking of a life.
As Gilbert Meilaender wisely said, “If we seek to save ourselves by doing away with the child who is unwanted, we hand ourselves over to the destructive powers of the world… and we act as if those powers are ultimately worthy of our worship, as if they could save, and take our stand beside King Herod after he heard the news the Magi brought.”13 Rather than be brought to that murderous place, we want to celebrate children, and to point those who would harm them towards a solution that might benefit both the mother and the child; solutions for life, not death. This could include listing readily accessible supports that young mothers can access to assist them in their pregnancies, and mentioning the utility of adoption agencies to help find parents who would desire more than anything else to care for their child as their own.
Scenario (3) Response to abortion for pregnancy due to sexual assault
Although rape leading to pregnancy is not a common cause for abortion, and certainly not the driver for our society’s desire for abortion-on-demand, it’s nonetheless a terrible crime and needs to be highlighted as such. Our point of contact can be simply that: “Yes, I agree that rape is a heinous crime and should be severely punished. Steps should be taken to prevent rape from happening and there should be ample support for the pregnant mother.”
To then build on this point of sympathetic agreement, we can again make an analogy about a toddler and say, for example, “But imagine the mother of a 2-year-old who left her physically-abusive husband. Should it be permissible for her to kill her toddler, if looking at the child reminded her of her past trauma with her husband?
If there is agreement that killing the toddler would not be appropriate, then we can challenge them on the topic of abortion by asking, “Well, if it’s not okay to kill the 2-year-old child because of past trauma, why is it okay to kill a pre-born child?”
The psychological turmoil of recovering from sexual assault, however grievous, is not undone by abortion. Though the child may serve as a constant reminder of the assault that the mother suffered, and although she may forever be reminded of the perpetrator as the father of her child, none of this serves as sufficient warrant to take the life of an innocent baby. Sympathy and supports are needed for the victim, to be sure, but abortion for such cases does nothing to bring healing to the situation. If anything, the procedure of abortion with its invasive nature and cold instrumentation applied to the woman’s reproductive organs, actually mirrors the violence of rape, and only compounds the trauma of the assault with the additional guilt and shame of killing an innocent child.
The same response can apply to pregnancy from incest, also a terrible situation. However, in both instances – pregnancy resulting from sexual assault or from incest – the value of the child remains. No circumstance around conception, no matter how adverse, changes the nature or worth of the preborn child. And in both cases, the child is the innocent party, and shouldn’t have to receive the blame for the crime and be saddled with the death penalty.
Scenario (4) Response to abortion for pregnancy that threatens the mother’s life
Promoting abortion as an argument to promote safety of the mother is really a non-issue. Even under restrictive abortion laws, exceptions have always been made to protect the mother’s life. The reality of the matter is that this is an exceedingly rare situation. On infrequent occasion, high-risk pregnancies are managed in our intensive care unit at the hospital, either because of pre-existing maternal illness or complications that arise during the pregnancy. In all such cases, the intention is always to save lives, not take them. If in the course of the delivery, the baby dies, the tragic loss is understood as an unintended outcome of the life-saving efforts. Even modern medicine has its limitations.
Nonetheless, for the sake of argument and to achieve a connecting point of agreement, we can say to those who make this pro-abortion argument that, “Yes, I agree it would be a terrible situation to face a life-threatening pregnancy – bad enough when one person’s life is in danger, let alone both mother and child at risk.”
Then to begin to draw out this argument, we can ask, “But imagine that a 2-year-old child has a disease that could kill the mother, if she became exposed. Should it be permissible to intentionally kill the child to prevent the mother from dying?
The answer is clearly “no.” A multiplicity of other options would be explored to both manage the child’s condition and protect the mother’s life, of which killing the child would never make the list. If then there is agreement that killing the toddler would be wrong in this scenario, we can ask, “Well, if it’s not alright to take the life of the toddler, why should it be permissible to kill the preborn child for the same reason.” There are situations where an expectant mother may have a serious medical condition, which is complicated by pregnancy. But even so, efforts can – and should – always be made that value the lives of both mother and child.
Scenario (5) Response to abortion for a disabled child
It’s very natural for parents to want a healthy baby. Depending on the nature of the disability, raising a handicapped child can be an emotional challenge that incurs additional financial burdens. In an attempt to reduce the likelihood of disability, amniocentesis is routinely offered to women during the mid-trimester of pregnancy to detect genetic anomalies. The procedure entails the removal of a sample of amniotic fluid from the uterus for genetic analysis, specifically for Down syndrome (Trisomy-21) and neural tube defect (a condition affecting the babys brain or spinal cord). Test results allow parents the opportunity to “terminate the pregnancy,” if the risk of debility is unacceptable to them. Although considered low risk, amniocentesis can still result in needle injury to the fetus, leaking of amniotic fluid, Rh blood-group sensitization, infection, and in some cases even miscarriage.14 As a result of the procedure, normal pregnancies have been compromised and healthy babies lost. As well, abortions undertaken based on genetic testing tend to dehumanize the preborn and reduce them to a commodity – something to be kept or discarded depending upon the desire or convenience of others. This diminishes their God-given worth and dignity. By contrast, Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the Kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these” (Matt 19:14). He didn’t qualify “healthy children without disability,” but implied that all children give us a glimpse of heavenly citizenship.
Nonetheless, we can appreciate the desire for parents to have a healthy baby and the natural disappointment there would be on learning that their preborn child has a disability of some sort. So, our point of contact can again be one of agreement, phrased for example as, “Yes, I agree that it would disappointing to be told that your developing baby has a disability; everyone wants a healthy child.”
Then to build on this point of agreement, we can move the conversation forward by making use of an analogy to a disabled child, and ask, “What if a mother doesn’t learn that her child is disabled until it’s a toddler. Should she be allowed to take its life then? This use of analogy broadens the discussion and gently challenges prejudices surrounding physical and mental disabilities.
If there is agreement that killing the disabled toddler would not be appropriate, then we can challenge them on the topic of abortion by asking, “Well, if it’s not okay to kill the 2-year-old disabled child, then why should it be permissible to kill a pre-born disabled child?” This question demonstrates the inconsistency of their argument. It’s a complete contradiction to show concern for children with leukemia, give financial support to those with multiple sclerosis, and cheer on others in the Special Olympics, and then say it’s best to kill the disabled child before its born.
To up the ante, those in favor of abortion might well ask, “But what if the fetus has a condition not compatible with life?” Certainly, there are those tragic cases. Babies are sometimes born anencephalic, for example, and have an undeveloped brain, destined to die. But even in these extreme cases, our response must remain undeterred. Even though such little ones will be unable to survive in the long-term, it doesn’t mean that we should be the ones to take their lives from them. Rather, it’s an opportunity to demonstrate compassion and provide palliative care to mitigate any suffering. No one knows for sure if the child may actually have a few minutes, or hours, or even days of life. Parents should be given that time with their precious child, and be supported in their time of grief. As per Edward Trudeau’s adage, “The role of the physician is to cure sometimes, relieve often, and comfort always.”
The justification of abortion on the grounds of disability devalues the lives of those who live with disability in our society, and betrays a form of discrimination towards handicapped persons, termed ableism. In our contemporary era of doctor-assisted suicide, this sentiment calls into question whether a disabled life is worth living, or in the case of abortion, if the disabled baby be permitted to live, throwing all of these lives in jeopardy. During WWII, an estimated 300,000 physically and mentally disabled people, who were deemed unworthy to live, were systematically murdered by the National Socialist regime: a mass crime considered the forerunner of the extermination of European Jews.15 Mahatma Gandhi said, “The true measure of any society is how it treats its weakest members.” What will our measure be, if we allow the murder of the disabled preborn by not speaking up?
Humanity and Personhood of the Preborn
In all of these scenarios, a common pro-abortion rebuttal is simply that abortion should be permissible because “the fetus isn’t human.” They maintain that if the preborn are somehow non-human, this would justify their sub-human treatment. In keeping with this sentiment, Mary Anne Warren provocatively said, “A fetus has no more right to life than that of a newborn guppy.”16 This certainly seems to be the case in Canada, where being considered a human being doesn’t officially begin until after the baby exists in the birth canal, and why abortion for partial delivery remains permissible in our country. If the preborn are but a “clump of cells,” as many insist, then why not? Why should a nondescript entity, like a so-called clump of cells be treated with dignity and given human rights and protections; be kept alive if unwanted; be carried to term if deemed a reminder of rape trauma; be allowed to develop and grow, if in doing so, it places a woman’s life in danger; or be permitted to be born at all, if disabled from the get go?
Why not, indeed, unless, of course, the opposite is the case, and the preborn are human, no different than you and I when we were at their stage of development. Basic biology makes the humanity of the preborn abundantly clear. When a human sperm and human ovum fuse to produce a human zygote – the first diploid cell that forms following fertilization – the entire human genetic blueprint of the individual is established. In that moment, the complete DNA sequencing that determines the uniqueness and novel giftedness of a human being is present, which then gets worked out and developed from the implantation of the fertilized ova in the uterus, onward to birth and beyond. So, if the preborn aren’t human, what possibly could they be? If two gorillas conceive, is it not a preborn gorilla that is developing? Or two dolphins, a preborn dolphin? Even children know that gorillas don’t give birth to dolphins. So surely then, if a living organism has human parents, he or she is also a human being, no? “Yes, and Amen” is the only cogent answer; there are simply no other possibilities available from which to choose.
After losing the humanity debate, abortion advocates continue to argue their position by pointing out that although the pre-born may be considered human from a biological standpoint, they aren’t human persons from a societal standpoint, and therefore can be rightly denied human-right protections, which are afforded to the rest of us. In brief, that although the preborn are human by nature, they remain expendable because they lack the additional qualifier of personhood. It’s an exclusivity argument that says to be valued in society, you need to be human plus, where the plus is usually equated with a set of capacities, such as consciousness, self-awareness, ability to feel pain and form relationships. If these are lacking, then abortion can be justified. Human fetal life may have value to a certain extent, but lacking personhood, the preborn child’s claim on us cannot be sufficient to rule out abortion.
When asked what the differences are between preborn and born humans, people cite the preborn’s small size, their location in utero, their dependency on the mother, or their lack of awareness, all of which are simply markers of development. The differences between born and preborn babies lie solely in their differences in age. If not tampered with, the preborn baby will naturally mature and achieve all the human-plus markers. They just need time. To discriminate based on age is a form of racism termed “ageism,” the very same that Canadian elderly are unjustly experiencing in our society today.17
When it comes down to it, there’s no significant difference between discrimination based on age, to that based on any other parameter, including race or gender or ethnic background. They are all forms of discrimination and are counter to the Scriptural understanding that we are all equal before God, since “there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal 3:28) and “God shows no partiality” (Ro 2:11). So, by latching onto the developmental age of the preborn as a justification for abortion, those who make this argument, unwittingly or not, end up joining ranks with the likes of the colonial slave owners and the Nazi war criminals, who deemed those under their control as unworthy of liberty and life base on their own schemes of discrimination. The preborn are human persons, and qualify for membership in the human family simply because they are begotten of human parents.
Gospel Call
Consequently, abortion isn’t a fundamental human right to be demanded for, but rather a deplorable human rights violation to be repented of. The demand for human rights, bodily autonomy, equality, justice, and free choice, so often seen on pro-abortion placards, only really make sense within a Christian worldview. If we live in a chance universe, where life is but a crap shoot, then none of these intangibles have any tangible meaning at all. If Bertrand Russell was right when he said, “we are but a statistical anomaly in the chaos,” then the immaterial realities of rights, equality, justice…and free choice, are simply human constructs, and as such, can just as easily be knocked over as propped up. It’s only because we are created in the image of God, that we have dignity; and it is only because we have been paid for by the blood of Jesus, who died for us on the cross to atone for our sins, that we have value. Nothing matters but the Gospel, but because of the Gospel, everything matters: our lives have meaning, and our activities have purpose.
As the Bible makes clear, creation was commanded into being and set upon a designed trajectory with a planned end date. At that predetermined time, Jesus Christ, the risen Lord of the universe, will return. When he does, there will be a general resurrection, “when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment” (Jn 5:28-29). Judgement is coming for those who have done evil, and abortion is such an evil. Those who promote abortion need to realize this, both for the sake of the children who are in harm’s way, and for their own eternal sake. They need to realize that abortion is a sin, and in the process, acknowledge that their lives lived in disobedience to the Holy God are sinful, and like all of sin, are deserving of eternal punishment. “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Ro 6:23). At the same time, they need to be told that while abortion is a sin, it’s not the unforgivable sin. Forgiveness is available, for those who promote abortion, as well as, for those who have had an abortion. they are repentant and turn to the Lord for forgiveness, salvation is possible by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.
Our prayer for those who promote abortion is that they not only turn away from their pro-abortion stance and accept the pro-life view, but that they turn away from their sinful lives and accept Jesus as their Lord and Saviour. We wish for them to not only recognize the value of the preborn, but to recognize their personal need to be born again. After all, it’s not just a matter of endorsing a prolife perspective, but a matter of life and death. It would take a miracle for pro-abortionists to come to a saving faith, some might say, but so did our salvation. And if Christ can redeem us, then he can redeem anyone, even those who promote abortion. Finally, ours is not to persuade, but to be faithful witnesses to the truth. So, as we converse with those who promote abortion, we should do so prayerfully, in the hopes that our engagement with them, undertaken with gentleness and respect, might lead them to Christ. Preborn children are precious, but so too are all of God’s children, at whatever biological age of development, and at whatever point in faith development. Soli Deo Gloria.
1 https://www.guttmacher.org/fact-sheet/induced-abortion-worldwide
2 Konzelman, C., & Solomon, C. (2019). Unplanned. Pure Flix Entertainment.
3 Brown, D. Prolonged grieving after abortion: a descriptive study. J Clin Ethics. 1993 Summer;4(2):118-23.
4 Eric Bentley in New Republic 29 December 1952.
5 W.E.H. Lecky. History of European Morals: From Augustine to Charlemagne (1869; London: Longmans, Green, and Co, 1911), Vol. 2, pp. 20, 22.
6 Canadian Center of Bioethical Reform (https://www.endthekilling.ca/).
7 Alcorn, Randy. Prolife Answers to Prochoice Questions. Eternal Perspective Ministries; Multnomah Books ©2000.
8 https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/04/europe/france-abortion-constitution-intl/index.html
9 Nuremburg Code, BMJ 7 December 1996; Vol 313: No 7070 Page 1448.
10 Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights. https://en.unesco.org/themes/ethics-science-and-technology/bioethics-and-human-rights
11 Mary Anne Warren, “On the Moral and Legal Status of Abortion” in The Problem of Abortion, 2nd Ed. Joel Feinberg (Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth, 1984), p. 103.
12 https://www.guttmacher.org/fact-sheet/induced-abortion-worldwide
13 Meilaender, G. Bioethics: A Primer for Christians. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. ©1996; p. 38.
14 Kong, CW et al. Risk factors for procedure-related fetal losses after mid-trimester genetic amniocentesis. Prenatal Diagnosis. 09 October 2006.
15 Uwe Neumaerker, director T4 memorial foundation (https://www.timesofisrael.com/berlin-to-open-memorial-to-nazis-disabled-victims/)
16 Mary Anne Warren; On the Moral and Legal Status of Abortion, The Monist, Volume 57, Issue 1, 1 January 1973, Pages 43–61.
17 Fraser, S. Ageism and COVID-19: what does our society’s response say about us? Age and Aging. Volume 49, Issue 5, September 2020, Pages 692–695.
The post Conversations for Life appeared first on Ezra Institute.
Continuing our series Conversations & Presuppositions, Drs. Boot and Thiessen are joined this week by Ezra Fellow for Public Policy Tim Dieppe to discuss the steady Islamization of the West.
Episode Resources:
Questions to Ask Your Muslim Friends by Tim Dieppe: https://amzn.to/3Kc6Uig
“Is Islam a Religion of Peace?” by Tim Dieppe | Christian Concern:
https://christianconcern.com/resource/is-islam-a-religion-of-peace/;
“What’s wrong with Islamic finance?” | Christian Concern:
https://christianconcern.com/resource/whats-wrong-islamic-finance/;
“Is Islam Antisemitic?” | Christian Concern:
https://christianconcern.com/resource/is-islam-antisemitic/;
“The Challenge of Islam in the UK”| Christian Concern:
https://christianconcern.com/resource/the-challenge-of-islam-in-the-uk/
Chapters:
0:00 Cultural Leadership Academy AD
1:17 Podcast Opening
1:40 Intro & Show Set-up
4:20 Ezra Events
7:00 Topic Introduction & Palestinian Protest Footage
10:03 What is Islam?
14:00 Relationship of Islam & Sharia Law
16:20 The Islamization of the West
23:22 Islamic Finance & Sharia Entryism
27:54 Jihad
35:30 The Elitist’s False View of Islam, the Weaponization of Multiculturalism & a How Radical Two Kingdoms View Helps the Destruction of the West
40:45 Islam, Progressivism, and the Massive Rise of Antisemitism in the West
50:28 What Can Christians Do About It?
54:11 Outro
56:55 Closing Credits
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The Task
If you see a turtle perched on top of a fencepost, you know immediately he didn’t get there on his own! To excel and reach their full potential in life as followers and servants of Christ, our children cannot get there on their own either. We urgently need a rebuilding of Christian schools to partner with parents in faithfully educating their children so that in facing the task which is ‘the self,’ they can become all that God is calling them to be.
This task is an urgent one. As we look around, we are watching our deceived culture fail and decay for want of wisdom. And what error needs most is the last thing it thinks of – otherwise, it would not be error. People are casting off restraint for lack of knowledge, and what knowledge there is is frequently misapplied. What our own misled and disillusioned time doesn’t know, or more accurately has forgotten, is currently killing it. Christ has faded from view – we no longer teach in the light of His Word and so we live in the stifling embrace of our own presumptuous errors.
This is not for a lack of seers claiming to be the oracles of wisdom for the ‘moment.’ A long tradition in the West stretching back to the 6th Century BC when an intellectual movement arose in Miletus with a man later called Thales, has given the West what it came to call philosophy (lit. love of wisdom). The story of the Western philosophical tradition – a discipline looking to search out the boundaries of human experience – is a fascinating one, but without Christ, its concern for insight, knowledge and truth led to one dead end after another, producing intellectual and spiritual exhaustion. St. Paul understood well the pitfalls of a godless search for wisdom and so placed Christ at the fulcrum of all true learning, wisdom and knowledge:
For it is written: I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and I will set aside the understanding of the experts. Where is the philosopher? Where is the scholar? Where is the debater of this age? Hasn’t God made the world’s wisdom foolish? For since, in God’s wisdom, the world did not know God through wisdom, God was pleased to save those who believe through the foolishness of the message preached (1 Cor. 1: 18-25).
The apostle did not intend to say here that intellectual and academic labour is worthless – on the contrary, Paul’s own studies, inspired discourses and letters involved real mental exertion – only that without the proper grafting, it will fail and fall like a leaf because of our sins and the wind will carry it away. Human understanding and our wisdom traditions outside of Christ can only lead to error and despair. Hence, the apostle warns, ‘Be careful that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit based on human tradition, based on the elemental forces of the world, and not based on Christ’ (Col. 2:8). Our captive culture needs deliverance. We must start with our children and their education.
The Danger
In the cradle of our civilization, with the ancient Polis unable to penetrate to the root of the human condition, the intellectual pride and prominence of the Grecian world with its academies and schools of philosophy steadily declined. Cynicism and skepticism set in as people became increasingly exhausted and disillusioned with an endless proliferation of empty rhetoric and regurgitated ideas in an obviously decaying culture. It is easy to see parallels to our waning Western world in the vice-like hold of unbelief and spiritual amnesia. As Soren Kierkegaard poignantly observed:
Our age reminds one very much of the disintegration of the Greek state. Everything continues, and yet there is no one who believes in it. The invisible spiritual bond that gives it validity has vanished, and thus the whole age is simultaneously comic and tragic: tragic because it is perishing, comic because it continues.
Soren Kierkegaard, The Humor of Kierkegaard: An Anthology ed. Thomas C. Oden (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004), 220
To put the matter plainly, our society has become afflicted on all sides with a particular brand of stupidity – but it isn’t funny. Stupidity is a peculiarly human condition that arises, not because of a lack of intellectual capacity or education but because of a herd mentality formed around powerful religious ideologies – it is a collective stupidity.
The collective folly that emerges is a kind of sociological phenomenon, cultivated in many of our schools and universities, currently vividly on display, which evidently steadily deprives people of their inner independence. This they are prepared to renounce, with varying degrees of self-consciousness, in order to adapt their behavior to the prevailing ideological situation. In the early 1940’s, the noted Christian Martyr in National Socialist Germany, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, had time to reflect whilst languishing in prison, on how and why the highly educated German people had become afflicted with collective ideological stupidity. His comments are telling:
The fact that stupid people are often stubborn should not hide the fact that they are not independent. When talking to him, one feels that one is not dealing with him personally, but with catchphrases, slogans, etc. that have taken possession of him. He is under a spell; he is blinded; he is abused in his own being. Having become an instrument without an independent will, the fool will also be capable of all evil, and at the same time, unable to recognize it as evil…But it is also quite clear here that it is not an act of instruction, but only an act of liberation that can overcome stupidity… The Bible states that the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. Thus, the inner liberation of man begins by living responsibly before God. Only then may stupidity be overcome.
Bonhoeffer, Dietrich.“Von der Dummheit”: Widerstand und Ergebung. Briefe und Aufzeichnungen aus der Haft. S. 17–20. Muenchen, Christian Kaiser Verlag, 1951.
Merely modified instruction with some additional information or minor amendments to curriculum is not enough to avoid collective stupidity and cultural disaster – a new foundation for education is required. The need of the hour in the West is the liberating reality of Jesus Christ and the recovery of the Christian mind – the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:16). For the ‘fear of the Lord is the beginning (principle part) of wisdom.’ A compromising fudge of the issue won’t do. Ironically, often in the name of scholarliness, contemporary Christianity has been avidly committed to half-measures, truth to a ‘certain degree.’ But the moment that God’s people call a truce and reach a settlement with the spirit of the world, the mindset of the age, and regard education as a ‘neutral’ tool is the moment we abolish the Christian mind and overturn true Christianity.
With a truly Christian education, the goal is not to graduate students and scholars who are neither one thing nor another (neutral) but faithful, excellent, committed disciples, readied to make their mark in the various spheres of life for God’s Kingdom and glory.
The Daniel’s
A wonderful example of the end goal of Christian education is found in the great prophet Daniel – a captive in Babylon. Having been prepared by a thorough education in the Word of God and raised in a noble family, his gifts become evident, and he is recruited into an elite Babylonian college for scholars from among whom some would emerge to give guidance to society and government (Dan. 1:3-6). Along with some noble friends from Judah (Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego), who were noted for their resistance to idolatry, Daniel is identified as having real potential as an advisor in the king’s court.
The key is that these young men, because of what was instilled in them from their youth, were determined to honour God in their studies and occupations from the start. As a result, Scripture says:
God gave these four young men knowledge and understanding in every kind of literature and wisdom. Daniel also understood visions and dreams of every kind. No one was found equal to Daniel. So they began to serve in the kings court. In every matter of wisdom and understanding that the king consulted them about, he found them 10 times better than all the diviner-priests and mediums in his entire kingdom (Dan. 1:17-21).
Notice that it was God who gave them understanding, not simply in theological matters, but in every kind of literature and wisdom – just as God had given wisdom to Solomon about the human condition and the natural world to the extent that rulers from around the known world came to hear him teach. Daniel and his friends went on to distinguish themselves and find high positions in a pagan kingdom and government, and there they had a profound influence for the kingdom of God. This is what Christian education should be aiming for!
This was only possible because they worked hard and were determined to trust and obey God above all. As such, they were granted knowledge, wisdom, and understanding by the Lord Himself—the true teacher. They were intimately acquainted with the truth that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The other scholars and advisers lacked the coherence, understanding, and insight that Daniel and his friends had because the foundation of their thought was wanting.
This advantage should be even more true of the Christian student who is self-consciously subject to God’s Word-revelation in creation and scripture. In Christ, the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden so that the Christian student can avoid the pitfalls and mistakes of a godless education by seeing all things in their true context from within a scriptural world-and-life view. The literature, music, science, and technology of what we once called Christendom are testaments to God’s faithfulness in this matter, even within an imperfect culture.
We need a new generation of Daniels, Deborahs, Josephs, and Esthers, grounded and educated in the faith with their ultimate trust in God and his Word. To place our final trust in the thought and spirit of the age is to be like the unwise man who built his house upon the sand. But to put our trust in Christ and His wisdom is to be wise and build our educational house, indeed our future, on the rock.
The post Collective Stupidity & the Urgent Need for Christian Education appeared first on Ezra Institute.
Our series, Conversations & Presuppositions, has generated a lot of questions. On this week’s Podcast for Cultural Reformation, Dr. Joe Boot and Pastor Nate Wright answer some of those questions.
Enjoyed today’s Q&A? Would you like to hear Dr. Boot answer your questions? Should we do this more often? Let us know in the comments or reach out to us at https://www.ezrainstitute.com/connect/contact/;
Chapters:
0:00 Worldview Youth Academy AD
1:42 Podcast Opening
2:05 Intro & Show Set-up
5:09 Question 1: Singleness
23:58 Question 2: Excusing Israel?
43:45 Question 3: Christian In-fighting
56:02 Outro
56:55 Closing Credits
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Continuing our series Conversations & Presuppositions, Dr. Michael Thiessen and Pastor Nate Wright unpack the worldview convergence of the conflicted Red-Green Alliance between Leftist Communists/Socialists (red) and Islamists (green). What unites them is a common enemy, namely, Christ and His Church and anything built upon that sure foundation.
Episode Resources:
Watch Dr. Thiessen’s Helpful Conversations on Islam:
“Robert B. Spencer: Islam, Jihad, and Threats to Freedom of Speech” | Open Mike with Michael Thiessen: https://rumble.com/v3tj9h7-robert-b.-spencer-islam-jihad-and-threats-to-freedom-of-speech.html; or, read Robert’s Book The Palestinian Delusion: https://amzn.to/3V18s53;
“Understanding Islam ft. Dr. David Wood” | Open Mike with Michael Thiessen: https://rumble.com/v3qnfm2-understanding-islam-ft.-dr.-david-wood.html;
Want to Better Understand Islam? MUST READ:
What Every Christian Needs to Know About the Qur’an | by Ezra Fellow Dr. James R. White: https://amzn.to/3Wy6dan.
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The post Conflicted Comrades: The Left and Islam’s Unholy Alliance Against Christianity appeared first on Ezra Institute.
In the fifth episode of our series, Conversations & Presuppositions, thanks to the recent controversy in the UK, Dr. Michael Thiessen and Dr. Joe Boot wade into the current cultural conversation on euthanasia (lit. “the good death”), or as it is euphemistically called assisted suicide, join the discussion as they unpack what lies beneath the culture of death as it spreads throughout the world, and why Christians need to cultivate a thoroughgoing Christian view of the sanctity of life.
Episode Resources:
They Want To Kill Us: Here’s how and why | Dr. Jack King: https://www.amazon.com/They-Want-Kill-Us-Heres/dp/B0D172G4LG;
American Worldview Inventory 2021-22: The Annual Report on the State of Worldview in the United States | George Barna: https://www.amazon.com/American-Worldview-Inventory-2021-22-Annual/dp/1735776343;
“Assisted Suicide in Canada” | The Canadian Encyclopedia: https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/assisted-suicide-in-canada;
Documentary – The Death Debate: https://youtu.be/-Vot5bkR_VQ;
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In the fourth episode of our series, Conversations & Presuppositions, Dr. Michael Thiessen and Pastor Nate Wright examine a SHOCKING evolution in the abortion debate. Since pro-aborts have lost the scientific argument concerning when life begins, they’re now admitting that abortion is murder and arguing for their right to murder innocent, living children inside the womb.
Episode Resources:
End Abortion Now Website: https://endabortionnow.com/;
End the Killing Website: https://www.endthekilling.ca/;
[WARNING: EXPLICIT CONTENT] “Louis CK – Abortion” | YouTube: https://youtu.be/EQmER4-WwjA?si=o3aBxlcvFbwlnQC4;
LIFE SITE NEWS – “Bill Maher Reveals the Grim Truth of What Pro-Abortion Leftists Really Think” | YouTube: https://youtu.be/NrlUVr0vlPY?si=auFxAQgl9q3cJh8C;
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In this third episode of our new series, Conversations & Presuppositions, Doctors Boot and Thiessen revisit their conversation on slavery and the Bible by examining why Christianity is the only worldview that can consistently lead to liberty and how a culture’s rejection of Christ naturally leads to slavery. Choose ye this day, dear listener, freedom in Christ or slavery to sin and death?
Episode Resources:
Sam Harris on Ben Shapiro’s Sunday Special | Daily Wire: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTJTD8vzBoo;
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In this, the second episode of our new series Conversations & Presuppositions, Doctors Boot and Thiessen discuss a common objection to Christianity: that Christianity condones slavery. But does it? You’re not going to want to miss part one of this fascinating discussion.
Episode Resources:
What About Slavery in the Bible | Ask Cliffe: https://youtu.be/SSfTggjS31s?si=7RoUUPkzpohDwMiz;
Matt Dillahunty Clip: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/kva4cqeZ3rc;
Sam Harris on Ben Shapiro’s Sunday Special | Daily Wire: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTJTD8vzBoo;
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We have just celebrated Easter in our Western calendar. Calendars are important across the world because they punctuate time, its meaning and significance. For this reason, we celebrate things like birthdays and have special days of remembrance. Easter is one of those times of celebration and remembrance. But what exactly does it all signify?
Most people are still aware that about 2000 years ago in the area of the Middle East called Israel, a man named Jesus was born. Several independent ancient witnesses tell us he lived a short life in which for a few years he taught about knowing God and the true meaning of life. According to those witnesses he healed many sick, disabled, blind and deaf and even raised the dead. For claiming to be equal with God he was executed by crucifixion on a Friday, was buried and according to the ancient witness of the Gospel writers was raised to life on the first day of the week (Sunday). On what we call Ascension Day he was taken up into heaven where, as Son of God, both God and man, he rules and reigns. We call these and other days of celebration, the Christian calendar. Even famous atheist Richard Dawkins wants to identify with this cultural structure and now calls himself a cultural Christian!
From a small number of followers of Jesus, the news of this man who claimed to be one with God spread everywhere transforming the entire pagan Roman Empire. The followers of Christ were called Christians and the Good News about him came from the East to the land of Britain through the Romans in the 4th century A.D – a time our ancestors we were still drinking the blood of the dead and sacrificing children to pagan deities. It spread rapidly from 597 A.D through the mission to England of Augustine of Canterbury who came from Europe with about 40 Christian missionaries to teach and share the Good News of Christ.
So transformative was the life, death and resurrection of Jesus for people that it shattered our calendar into two halves, B.C (Before Christ) and A.D (Anno Domini), meaning the year of our Lord, changing for much of the world the meaning of history itself. That is why today you can go through Britain, Canada and the United States find in every town, hamlet and village tall church spires which symbolise the historic centre of meaning for a community. It is also why our head of state in Britain and Canada (king Charles) at his Coronation last year swore an oath to uphold the gospel of Jesus Christ and openly submitted to his Lordship.
It is not just the UK where people have just celebrated the resurrection. Over 100 million people in communist China where Christianity is supressed celebrated the resurrection. In fact, almost 2.4 billion people today call themselves Christian and believe Jesus rose from the dead – they are spread across Europe, the America’s, Asia Pacific, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East. These social facts in themselves don’t prove the resurrection, but they certainly get our attention. How can a poor carpenter who taught for only three years, never travelled more than 200 miles from his own home, was rejected by his own people, never wrote a book nor appeared on TV, died as a criminal and had no natural children, have changed the world and have so many believe he is the resurrected Lord and Son of God 2000 years later?
The bible calls the resurrection a sign. Signposts grab our attention to give directions and the miracles of Jesus – most especially the testimony to the resurrection – grabs our attention! The event of Christ’s resurrection itself is offered as the great sign and a special kind of proof that the good news about Jesus is real and relevant to us all: that he really is God in human form, died for our sin and evil ways, was raised to life to rescue us from death and a meaningless and empty way of life, and opens the way to know relationship with God forever. That is why it’s called “Good News.” I don’t prove the proof, or it wouldn’t be the proof. But the sign captures our attention and points the way.
All of us look at life and the world with a certain set of beliefs and assumptions – with a certain set of lenses. We all understand the ‘calendar of life’ in terms of a big story we believe about the world. Some believe that all human beings are is cosmic stardust and that we got here from the goo, through the zoo to you – it all eventually ends in heat death for the cosmos and oblivion. We all must answer the question of the meaning of life and address the inevitability of death. For death is the ultimate statistic – 1 out of 1 die! The English poet Steve Turner writes:
The really worrying this about death
Is that all major religions agree on it
All beliefs take you there
All philosophy bows before it
All arguments end there
Governments can’t ban it
Or the army diffuse it
Judges can’t fail it
Lawyers can’t sue it
Scientists can’t quell it
Nor can they disprove it
Doctors can’t cure it
Surgeons can’t move it
Einstein can’t halve it
Guevara can’t free it
The thing about dead
Is we’re all gonna be it!
Yet the testimony of God through his Word and people down the centuries assures us that death has admitted of one true exception. One grave is totally unique and can transform both our life and death – that one day we can in fact follow Christ out of the grave – that he has defeated death as one defeats an enemy. This is why the English philosophy professor Cyril Joad once said, “The most important question in the world is, did Jesus Christ rise from the dead?”
Through its witness to the resurrection, our own calendar binds us to the claim of the scriptures. And four, well attested historical events, admitted by the vast majority of New Testament scholars (even those who are not Christians) continue to confront us. Five independent witnesses in reliable ancient sources preserved for twenty centuries tell us of:
- The burial of Jesus
- The empty tomb of Jesus
- Reports of after-death appearances of Jesus
- The belief in the resurrection of the first disciples leading to the birth of the church and expansion of Christianity.
These facts are as historically certain as the Fall of Jerusalem in AD 70. However, when we ask what is the best explanation for these events we must decide between it being a fanciful tale/conspiracy of the disciples, a widespread delusion or the actual truth. Our answer is not determined by our grasp of history to which we have no direct access, but by our assumptions and presuppositions about what is possible or not and the status of God’s revealed Word. Our moral attitude toward God also plays a central part in what we are prepared to accept.
When the women came to the tomb early Sunday morning to anoint the body of Jesus he was not there. An Angel said to them:
“Why are you looking for the living among the dead?” …“He is not here, but He has been resurrected! (Luke 24:5-6)
When St. Paul was sharing this good news with King Agrippa while on trial, he asks the all-important question:
“Why is it considered incredible by any of you that God raises the dead?” (Acts 26:8)
If God is real as the scriptures make clear, then God can raise the dead. In addition, the resurrection of Jesus is then the final proof of the truth of his life’s work and message, to save us from our sins and restore us to relationship with God. Critically, if Christ is indeed alive, as he truly is, then you can know him. The calendar of your life has real meaning and you and I may become one of a great family across the earth that knows Jesus Christ is alive.
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In this episode, Dr. Joe Boot and pastor Nate Wright talk about the world-changing implication of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, its evidence, and its explanation. REJOICE FOR HE IS RISEN!
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In this episode, Dr. Michael Thiessen and Dr. Joe Boot respond to the recent controversial interview by Chancellor of Reformed Theological Seminary, Ligon Duncan, on the Room for Nuance podcast where he answers questions on theonomy, postmillennialism, and faithful cultural contextualization all while throwing barbs at unnamed parties and mixing up Scripture. YOU’RE NOT GOING TO WANT TO MISS THIS ONE!
Episode Resources:
“On Culture War: Doug Wilson and the Moscow Mood” by Kevin DeYoung | Clearly Reformed: https://clearlyreformed.org/on-culture-war-doug-wilson-and-the-moscow-mood/
“My Rejoinder to Kevin DeYoung” (VIDEO)| Doug Wilson via YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2mHSXAVge8
“My Rejoinder to Kevin DeYoung” by Doug Wilson | Blog and Mablog: https://dougwils.com/books-and-culture/s7-engaging-the-culture/novembers-done-kevin-deyoung.html
End Abortion Now: https://endabortionnow.com/
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In this episode, Pastor Nate Wright is joined by Ezra Fellow of Medicine and Public Christianity, Dr. Ted Fenske to discuss how to slay the dragon of pornography.
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If we ask at the most basic level what Christianity is, if we are to be scriptural, we must answer that it consists in knowing and following Christ Jesus. It is not simply affirming certain doctrines, reciting confessions or knowing historical theology to engage in learned dogmatic dispute, but in the here and now to worship and follow Jesus Christ the Lord. He is the Master, and the disciple is not greater than his Master.
Growing up in the Western tradition, we are less familiar with the ancient Eastern style of learning by literally attaching oneself to the teacher and learning their way of life and thought by imitation. We do speak of tutors, professors and even mentors, but these fall short of the ancient Jewish tradition of following a rabbi and committing to heart their teaching. When Jesus called the first disciples it was not to an academy for a lofty exchange of ideas in Socratic dialogue, still less was it to have essays or exam papers marked and reviewed by a mere tutor. When Christ called the disciple’s it was to follow him and devote their lives to him; to live with and learn from him, to memorize his sayings, witness his actions, hear his prayers, question him about his parables and tread the dust he trod. In short, to be a disciple of Christ meant and means to imitate him in everything; to take up the cross and follow him. As the apostle Paul wrote, ‘Imitate me, as I also imitate Christ’ (1 Cor. 11:1).
Imitation is the basic meaning of Christian discipleship. This is easily overlooked when we come to the question of God’s law and faithful Christian witness as a whole in a secularized and repaganizing culture. More often than not, the matter of God’s law, of theonomy, is approached by Christians in a detached theoretical way as though they personally are uninvolved with the question – theonomy as simply a matter of theological dispute or theoretical dogmatic interest. The not uncommonly derisive language of its more vehement opponents reflects a posture of treating God’s revealed law lightly or at times even with a haughty disdain.
It is impossible to see our Master in such an attitude and yet to some professing Christians, God’s law is regarded as a threat, an aberration, something parenthetical that has been and gone – an unchristian blemish on the pages of scripture that has, to all intents and purposes, been ripped out for the believer in favour of living as one personally sees fit or feels led, as though law and gospel are as incompatible as oil and water. But Jesus’ relationship to the law as author, exegete, master-teacher and Lord is of profound significance for all true disciples. Jesus modelled taking the totality of the law seriously and what matters to Jesus should matter to us (c.f. Matt. 5:17-19; John 14:15-24). What he taught we must believe, remember and teach. What he did, we must emulate and copy. If we want to call ourselves Christian, we must be truly yoked to the one true rabbi.
This is no easy task coming without a cost. For this attachment must take place in a rebellious age that wants to vanquish God, trumpet its nihilism, champion a grand levelling, and through fear and intimidation cow the faithful individual into a mouses hole. Our time embraces and effectively deifies an unofficially established order in both state and liberalising church, whilst fear and trembling before a holy God and his righteousness are abolished. Truth and justice are now made the province of man alone. As Soren Kierkegaard prophetically put it:
If you are a student, then you can be sure that the Professor is the measure and the truth; if you are a parson, then the bishop is the way and the life; if you are a scrivener, the judge is the standard…the deification of the established order is the is the secularization of everything…the established order desires to be totalitarian, recognizing nothing over it, but having under it every individual, and judging every individual who is integrated in it. And “that individual” who expounds the most humble, but at the same time the most humane doctrine about what it means to be a man, the established order desires to terrify by imputing to him the guilt of blasphemy.[1]
Such it is that the true Christian faces today, accused of blasphemy against state orthodoxy, just as Jesus was accused of blasphemy by the Pharisees who neither knew the scriptures nor the power of God (Matt. 22:29). Ours is a time where human beings have made themselves the gauge, the measuring reed, the canon, in place of God’s law-Word.
The impact of this on the church has been very great because in place of God’s law the new Pharisees, parroting the culture, elevate human preferences, customs, positivistic laws, desires and wants into articles of faith. Following Jesus is no longer the measure; the established order of the world, infecting a progressive church institute like a virus, takes the place of Christ:
So holy in fact had the Pharisees and scribes become, and so holy do men always become when they deify the established order, that their divine worship is a way of making a fool of God. Under the pretense of serving and worshipping, they serve and worship their own device, either in self-complacent joy at being themselves the inventors or through fear of men.[2]
We cannot be ruled by the fear of man but only by the Word of God. A servant is not greater than his master, and so we must be attentive to our saviour who shows us how to regard the law of God in a lawless world. Jesus said, ‘You call Me Teacher and Lord. This is well said, for I am…a messenger is not greater than the one who sent him (John 13: 13,16).
[1] Soren Kierkegaard, Training in Christianity, trans, Walter Lowrie (New York: Vintage Books, 2004), 77-78
[2] Kierkegaard, Training, 79
The post Following Master Jesus appeared first on Ezra Institute.
In this episode, the latest of our series on the family, Dr. Joe Boot and Pastor Nate Wright discuss the relationship between parents and children, how it mirrors the Triune nature of God, and how family is, indeed, the nucleus of civilization.
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In this episode, Dr. Michael Thiessen and Pastor Nate Wright recap last weekend’s Right Response Ministries Conference, “Blueprints for Christendom 2.0,” by unpacking the seven doctrines presented at the conference for Christians to rule the world righteously under the Lordship of King Jesus.
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In this episode, Michael and Joe are joined by Ezra Fellow for International Law, Comparative Politics, and International Relations, Daniel Ogden J.D., to talk about the disturbing rise of antisemitism and how to think about it biblically.
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In this episode, Michael and Nate are joined by Harvest Windsor’s Women’s Life Director, Susie Rock, to continue the discussion on the family by discussing what it means to be a woman made in the Image of God, their role in the Kingdom of God and the family, and how they are to fulfill it for the good of others and the glory of God Almighty.
Episode Resources: Harvest Windsor | A Vertical Church: https://harvestwindsor.ca/;
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In this episode, Joe, Michael, and Nate continue their discussion on the family by discussing what the archetypal fatherhood of God means for our ectypal familial relationships. Simply put, they discuss what God’s fatherhood means for us and our relationships. Oh, how sweet it is to be part of the household of God through Christ our Lord.
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In this episode, Joe, Michael, and Nate continue their discussion around Allistair Begg’s recent controversial advice to a grandmother about attending a queer wedding and his recent sermon defending his advice.
Episode Resources:
Responding to Attacks on the Family – PART 1: https://www.ezrainstitute.com/resource-library/podcast/responding-to-attacks-on-the-family/;
Responding to Attacks on the Family – PART 2:
Allistair Begg’s Original Comments: https://youtu.be/rXDYYPLwgYE?si=B0XrmelFb6BH6VC9&t=1726.
Allistair Begg’s Sermon, “Compassion vs. Condemnation”: https://www.truthforlife.org/resources/sermon/compassion-vs-condemnation/.
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In this episode, Joe and Michael continue to discuss the big compromise of Big Eva and the need for strong fathers leading well–leading biblically.
Episode Resources:
Responding to Attacks on the Family – PART 1: https://www.ezrainstitute.com/resource-library/podcast/responding-to-attacks-on-the-family/ ;
Allistair Begg’s Comments: https://youtu.be/rXDYYPLwgYE?si=B0XrmelFb6BH6VC9&t=1726.
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In the Christian world-and-life-view, we cannot make progress in truth unless we understand ourselves and can answer the question, who am I? Yet our understanding of personal identity does not spontaneously emerge from a pure inner subjectivity, even less out of theoretical scientific knowledge; it always begins as a response to somebody who relates to us as a person – first our Creator, then our parents, wider family, and friends.
The existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre realised that human beings “are a choice and for us, to be is to choose ourselves”.[i] But Sartre also recognized that human consciousness is a rebellious attempt to become God – to be totally original and create de novo. Eventually admitting this was impossible, he despaired saying, “man is a useless passion.”[ii] The Bible teaches that whenever human beings fail to become themselves in relation to Jesus Christ, by trying to ground and construct their identity in substitute gods, frustration and despair is ultimately the result. Scripture identifies the attempt to define ourselves and our lives in this way as sin – a choice to live in untruth.
We hear a great deal in our present culture about ‘authenticity’ and are constantly being told to ‘be yourself,’ to ‘express yourself’ and so on. And in one sense we must be ourselves. Indeed, God calls us to become our unique selves in terms of His purposes. Even though we belong to the human family, we are not summed up by the abstract term humanity as though we are each simply one example of a species like an earthworm or ant. As God says to the prophet Jeremiah:
I chose you before I formed you in the womb;
I set you apart before you were born.
I appointed you a prophet to the nations. (Jer. 1:4-5)
We are uniquely made with a purpose and plan in mind. Scripture says God the Father is the source, “from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named” (Eph. 3:15).We might say that we each have a divine name; God has defined our being. This is the givenness of the self. We were all intended, called forth, wanted, loved, with a specific calling to become and do that for which we were made. Yet the prophet Jeremiah still had to choose to become himself – he did not arrive in the world fully actualized as a prophet.
As creatures, the self (the ‘I’) is therefore partly a given but is not fully actualized. This means we must grow and develop, accountable in the context of God’s order, as we confront possibility and choice. It is here in the realm of both possibility and necessity that we tend to flounder. We may rightly recognize that the self is a task, a calling, and we may will to be a self, but not the true self we are created to be. Instead, we demand to decide for ourselves who we are and who we are to become. But if we lose sight of our creatureliness and the givenness of our personhood, our God-given imagination can become an end in itself and life starts to be lived through a kind of inner fantasy, actually leading us away from true selves – the reality of possibility runs wild and unrestrained.
The tragedy is that all such ephemeral choices become arbitrary because, lacking contact with one’s God-given self, they have no stability and can always come apart and be undone, for a person to try and reinvent themselves all over again. The illusion of absolute freedom makes finally for an empty self and empty life.
The astonishing claim of Jesus Christ is to being the absolute Person – the appearance of the living and eternal God, the Creator and Sustainer of all things, in time – that the Truth about life and the liberating Truth for the lost and tormented self is found in Him as a person:
I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me (John 14:6).
If you continue in My word, you really are my disciples. You will know the truth and the truth will set you free (John 8:31).
In the appearance of the God-man we do not judge the Truth, but the Truth brings our hearts into judgment by gently helping us to see that we have lived up till now in untruth. In short, we are not free in relation to Truth but must be set free, and once released by Jesus Christ, discover to our joy that we are not the ultimate criterion, nor the measure of all things. Ironically, in letting go of the illusion of autonomy, the Truth really is now ‘your truth’ because you belong to the Truth and the Truth belongs to you.
When God reveals Himself in Christ to a person, He offers true rest for the embattled and confused self by bringing to an end the wearisome struggle for true self-identity. The Saviour’s gentle yoke of necessity makes sense of our human possibility. Jesus said:
Come to Me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. All of you, take up My yoke and learn from Me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your-selves. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light (Matt. 11:28-30)
It is in the Son of God, Son of man, our Creator and brother that we discover who we truly are, and through whom we are finally liberated to be ourselves. In the words of C. S Lewis, “…it will never be lawful simply to ‘be ourselves’ until ‘ourselves have become sons of God….”[iii]**
[i] Jean-Paul Sartre, The Wisdom of Jean-Paul Satre (New York: Philosophical Library, 1956), 40.
[ii] Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, trans, Hazel E. Barnes (New York: Washington Square, 1992), 754.
[iii] C.S. Lewis, God in the Dock (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1972), 286.
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In this episode, Joe, Nate and Michael respond to yet more bad advice from Big Eva. How can we remain faithful fathers in a world full of compromise? Tune in to find out.
Allistair Begg’s Comments: https://youtu.be/rXDYYPLwgYE?si=B0XrmelFb6BH6VC9&t=1726
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In this episode, Joe, Nate and Michael discuss the centrality of the family in God’s redemptive story and consider how to disciple families and churches in an age where we have imbibed an individualistic idea of the gospel.
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A bittersweet start to 2024, as we announce some changes to the hosting of the Podcast for Cultural Reformation, but we are also excited to see the founding of a new Christian school in the Niagara region, and the work of cultural reform being implemented in concrete ways. We also take this occasion to look back on the origins and naming of the Ezra Institute, and how the podcast and our broader work will continue and grow moving forward.
Register for the Worldview Youth Academy soon to get early bird pricing!
Learn more about Niagara Classical Academy, the new school led by Ryan Eras.
Contact the school at info@niagaraclassical.com, and invest by etransfer at give@niagaraclassical.com
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In the first episode of 2024, we consider the tradition of New Year’s resolutions, look ahead at some of the newsmaking trends that we anticipate, and conclude with a prayer for a new year.
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In this Christmas replay, we discuss several opposing pairs of virtues and vices that shape our Christian character. If you’re considering how you can grow in godliness and holiness this coming year, here are some timeless biblical concepts to consider.
Would you help support the work of the Ezra Institute before the year ends? Click to donate, and thank you for all your prayers and support!
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In one of my favorite editions of the Bible there are beautiful illustrations depicting magnificent biblical scenes reproduced from the original wood engravings of Gustave Doré (1832-1883). I find many of them aid in appreciating the majesty of God’s Word-revelation, including his expressive recreation of the birth of Jesus surrounded by the shepherds on that holy night when angelic voices offered humanity a choral work like no other.
The nativity accounts of Matthew and Luke both contain an elusive and enigmatic beauty in portraying the incomparable events of that ‘fullness of times.’ Matthew tells us of magi bearing luxuriant gifts from the East who saw the shimmering star of the great King rising, calling them from their observatories and contemplations to participate in the truth of the paradox that the divine and the human were colliding in the man Jesus Christ. As if by contrast, Luke tells us of poor local shepherds whose herds would likely have provided animals for sacrifice at the temple, suddenly arrested in the crispness of the night by the glory of the Lord and the terrible beauty of an angelic host bringing evensong from the third heaven. They too are invited to participate in the day filled with eternity and promised that they will find the absolute, the paradox, wrapped in swaddling bands and lying in a manger. These exquisite images persist as a fading memory in our present cultural moment in which we wallow in the self-disgust of a debased society. And yet, despite all the efforts against it reflected in secularism’s disenchantment of life, brutalist buildings and moribund art – gripped by a cult of ugliness and utility whilst enamoured with the crude and vulgar – Christmas refuses to be painted over or demolished. The lights, the sounds, the decorations, feasts, songs and spires still draw many whose culture denies any use for the incarnation.
I worshipped recently in my local parish church situated in a small village and perched on a hillside like a lonely sparrow on a rooftop; people have worshipped Christ on this site since the time of the Saxons. Yet it was very difficult to find a seat. Extra chairs were hurriedly being put out as the last candles were being lit and bell ringers made final preparations to chime out the first two carols at the back of the nave. This ancient sanctuary was not only crowded, it was also beautiful to look at. Small children unaccustomed to seeing ancient church architecture were gazing up and around as other little ones read passages for our nine lessons and carols to the delight of the older people packed into pews like gifts in a Christmas stocking.
This scene would have been repeated many times in the shadow of great spires across weary old England, though but for a few shepherds on the fringe of human society, the humble birth of Christ was barely noticed by the world that first Christmas night, taking place as it did among livestock whose mucky old feeding trough was used as a makeshift crib. Yet somehow in the dust of Bethlehem, this tear in time is the embodiment of the beautiful in both its ordinary and extraordinary aspects; the ordinariness of the birth of a child in an impoverished setting and extraordinariness of hymns from heaven enlightened by the brightness of a unique star combining for a moment of beauty in which we sense the presence of the divine.
Our longing for beauty as a vital aspect of meaning in human life accounts for why the beautiful paradox retains a hold on so many hard hearts. As the ancient Hebrew poet foretold, truth springs, as it were, out of the earth, mercy and truth meet together; righteousness and peace have kissed (Ps. 85:10 ff). Here is mysterious beauty in everyday human form – the face of a babe in the arms of his mother. As Rembrandt’s Simeon in the Temple (1669) amply proves, the human face is a truly beautiful thing that awakens a depth of feeling, and this infant visage reminds us in a way that no other face has or can of our moral and spiritual need. The Christ child is the enchanting “paradox, which history can never digest or convert into a common syllogism. In His humiliation He is the same as in His exaltation.”[1] In the furtive beauty of Christ’s birth is true consolation in our sullied culture that, taking vengeance on its maker, incessantly paints God’s world as ugly and unlovable. Here in the quiet simplicity of the cradle a divine beauty redeems life, amplifying our joys and consoling us in our many sorrows. From the manger the beauty of peace smiles up at us in the presence of our sadness and suffering.
Time and eternity cannot be reconciled by human reasoning any more than of ourselves we can bridge the gulf between the human and divine. But now, the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. Now our eyes have seen your salvation. It only remains to participate, to follow the appointed sign of swaddling clothes. Then we might take hold by faith of the infant Jesus and discover that he is God with us.
[1] Soren Kierkegaard, Training in Christianity, trans. Walter Lowrie (New York: Vintage Books, 2004), 25
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There is a certain type of attitude or personality that creeps up this time of year that tries to suppress the joy of other believers in celebrating the birth of Christ. It alleges that Christmas was originally pagan, and that we are participating in idolatry. In today’s episode we discuss how there is good evidence that this is not the case, and that even if it were, the kingdom of God overcomes all opposition, and that all holidays ultimately belong to Christ.
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In this lecture from the 2023 Mission of God conference, Joe Boot explains the pagan nature of trans ideology, and offers a scriptural response.
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We live in an age where we are told to define and live our own truth, including the most fundamental truths about our human identity. Over against such self-determination, Scripture gives us a vision for life based on the identity of God as the transcendent Creator, of human beings as image-bearing creatures, and the fundamental givenness of the world.
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Jonathan Wellum joins us once more on the podcast to reflect on the economic year 2023, and to discuss ESG, ethical investing, and the worldview difference between a godly and ungodly approach to economics.
Learn more about Jonathan’s work.
Get tickets for Mission of God West, happening this weekend!
The post Interest Rates, ESG, and Godly Investments w/ Jonathan Wellum appeared first on Ezra Institute.
Bringing Calm to the Perfect Storm of Pornography Addiction
Pornography isn’t something new. The history of pornography dates back to antiquity, as evidenced by the sexual depictions on ancient Greek vases and the erotic frescoes of the suburban thermal baths in Pompeii. Derived from the classical Greek words, ‘pornos’ meaning ‘prostitutes,’ and ‘graphos’ meaning ‘writing,’ pornography, or ‘writing about prostitutes’ is as old as the oldest profession itself. As per King Solomon, “there is nothing new under the sun” (Eccl 1:9). Nevertheless, what has changed and set our contemporary culture of pornography consumption apart from any other era in the history of the planet is the delivery system. The advent of high-speed Internet has been the game-changer, and this not in isolation either. The ubiquitous spread of pornography throughout our society in pandemic proportions has occurred due to the convergence of a whole number of factors. These include: the outworking of the 1960s Sexual Revolution and our resultant hypersexualized culture; the repealing of Biblical law allowing for laxity in media censorship; entrepreneurial opportunism of the sex industry; and the pervasive existential suffering in our society, particularly ramped up during the COVID pandemic and its aftermath – all occurring in the context of visual-stimulus addiction from undisciplined 24/7 compulsive internet overconsumption. It’s a perfect storm, and perfectly dreadful. With porn sites receiving more traffic than Netflix, Amazon, and Twitter combined, it’s a pervasive problem, and has become one of the defining issues of our time. The ambition of this essay is to discuss the challenges posed by pornography, including the addictive potential and the insidious worldview challenge, and offer an approach to how we might effectively counter its detrimental effects. My hope is to provide the necessary equipping for the Christian community to not only meet this formidable challenge, but to recognize, in the process, opportunities for Gospel witness and favor.
My own unfortunate introduction to pornography was one of serendipity. I was innocently looking for an empty locker in the YMCA change-room when I happened upon a discarded Penthouse magazine, and in a moment all innocence was lost. Even as a prepubescent boy, I instinctively knew such a publication wasn’t intended for my viewing. The haughty eyes and body posture of the scantily clad beauty on the front cover screamed forbidden fruit. Yet the novelty of the pictorial grabbed my attention and the illicit potential piqued my curiosity. With hands trembling, I opened the cover and began to turn the pages. Unwittingly, I unceremoniously entered into a world of sexual sin and pagan idolatry. As the first nude images came into view, an explosion of tingly warmth shuddered through my body. It was a strange new excitement that welled up inside me, causing my heart to speed, threatening to pound out of my chest. I felt all flushed and faint, and had to close the magazine at one point, just to recover my senses and catch my breath. Having regained my composure, I reopened the magazine, and with hands sweating returned to where I’d left off. Those first gratuitous depictions of sexuality whet my appetite and stirred within me a deep desire for more. And more I would’ve consumed, had it not been for my swim mates entering the locker room, causing me to stow away my secret treasure for future private viewing. Later, when I was safely hidden behind my closed bedroom door, I pulled out the magazine once again and returned to its explicit material. The more time I spent pouring over those photographs, the more I wanted to. The seductive posturing and beckoning facial expressions captivated me, and stayed with me long after I’d hidden the pages back under my bed. Their images came to mind throughout the day, first thing in the morning, last thing at night, intruding into my thoughts at school, interfering with my studies, distracting me from my math lesson, even at church. Within a brief period of weeks, I had developed a certain level of pornography addiction, and inadvertently set into place a thought pattern in my brain that would prove indelible.
Mechanism of Pornography Addiction
The mechanism for pornography addiction shares similarities with other addicting substances and behaviours, which generally take advantage of the same neural pathways utilized in normal learned behaviors. Substance addictions, such as alcohol, tobacco, amphetamines, cocaine, and heroin stimulate the mesolimbic dopamine pathway, or reward center, as it’s commonly referred, as do other behavioural addictions, including gambling, gaming, shopping, and binge eating. This pleasure pathway is located within the superior aspect of the brain stem, known as the ventral tegmental area (VTA), and is interconnected to structures deep within the brain, namely the amygdala (responsible for positive and negative emotions and emotional memory), and the hippocampus (site of processing and retrieval of long-term memories), and further connected to the prefrontal cortex of the cerebrum, which coordinates and determines behavior. This complex neurocircuitry array operates by way of positive reinforcement utilizing a sensory reward system.[1] When the cortex has received and processed a sensory stimulus indicating a reward – such as the auditory praise for completing a task, for example, or the taste of sweet from a candy – it sends a signal activating the VTA to release dopamine into the amygdala and hippocampus, where this neurohormone binds specific dopamine receptors. These structures in turn release other neurotransmitters, including the naturally-occurring opioids, endorphin and dynorphin, and stimulate the prefrontal cortex, which results in the volitional repetition of the gratifying action – completing more praiseworthy tasks or grabbing another M&M, as the case may be. Taken together, the reward system and its connecting regions modulate pleasure, reward, memory, and motivation.
Over time, the repetitive pattern of stimulus/response leads to actual architectural changes in the brain. Cell growth and protein synthesis occur, along with an increase in the number of connecting neurons, and dopamine receptors at the junction points, resulting in enhanced neurological communication. Analogous to developing a city highway from a country road, these structural changes within the brain effectively improve transmission efficiency by speeding up and strengthening the associated neural networks. This dynamic process is responsible for the remarkable and all-important adaptability of our central nervous system.[2] On the positive side, this neuroplasticity provides the foundation for new learning, such as playing an instrument or developing a second language, as well as healthy habit formation, like following a daily exercise regimen. On the flip side, however, this same adaptability can allow for bad habit formation, like senselessly surfing the Internet, and is susceptible to being hijacked by substance and behavioural addictions with their resultant detrimental physiological effects.
Addiction Hallmarks and Determinants
As a clinical cardiologist working in the downtown tertiary care centre in Edmonton, I come face to face with the underbelly of substance abuse on a routine basis. In addition to my role as director of our smoking cessation program, where I address nicotine addiction and provide counsel to help patients become smoke-free, I am directly involved in numerous aspects of addiction medicine. This involvement ranges from managing alcohol-related heart failure and dysrhythmias, or cocaine-induced acute myocardial infarction, to assessing for heart valve infections in febrile intravenous drug users, or to determining the suitability of a heart for transplantation in cases where the patient has been declared brain dead from Fentanyl overdose.
In the process of it all, I have become all too familiar with the four horrid hallmarks of addiction: dependency, obsessive-compulsive behaviour, tolerance, and dysfunction. Drug dependency is marked by a desperate craving for continual access to the addicting substance, and caused by the flood of dopamine into the reward circuit and resultant endorphin rush. Once the addiction is established, obsessive-compulsive behaviour follows with the development of secretive conduct and rituals. This is caused by a rise in dynorphin levels, endorphin’s evil twin. Rather than producing feelings of euphoria and pleasure, this yin-yang counter neurotransmitter is responsible for sensations of anxiety, dysphoria, and despair, which negatively reinforce continued use of the addictive drug to avoid the withdrawal state. Tolerance occurs as the elevated levels of dynorphin diminish dopamine release, resulting in a lowering of the reward threshold. As tolerance develops, increasing amounts of the stimulus is required to produce the same desired effect.[3] General dysfunction occurs as the addiction negatively impacts the ability of addicts to function in society, often resulting in poverty and the escalation of homeless populations in our downtown areas. Addiction medicine is ugly business, and a shameful testament to the enabling liberal drug policies and legislations in our country, and increasingly so around the world.
Not all addicting behaviours or drugs exhibit the same degree of addiction. Of the natural rewards, for example, sexual stimulation has the highest potential for addiction, even more so than food, including pizza, chocolate, and ice cream.[4] In the realm of addictive substances, cocaine, nicotine, and heroin top the list for addictive potential. The four main determinants for addiction which explain these differences in the strength of addiction are the following:
- Dopamine Release
While all addictive substances and behaviours flood dopamine into the reward circuit, some do more so than others. This differential amount of dopamine released into the neural network is the key factor that separates out the potency of addicting drugs and the addictive potential of certain behaviours, and is the primary determinant for strength of addiction. The mechanism governing the amount of dopamine released into the neural network by a given stimulus is multifactorial and in part related to genetic factors, environmental conditioning, which can have social determinants (such as its illicit nature or cultural taboo), and in the case of addicting substances, its specific pharmacological properties.[5]
- Delay
The time interval between behaviour and reward is the second most important determinant for addiction, where the more rapid the dopamine peak surge in response to the drug or behaviour, the stronger the addictive potential. As a result, the mode of drug delivery is paramount. Inhalation, snorting and intravenous injection all allow for rapid onset of drug effect, and are all rapidly addictive. This explains why cigarette smoking is so difficult to quit. With one drag on the cancer stick, the active ingredient, nicotine, gets rapid access to the bloodstream by way of the alveoli in the lungs – a surface area equivalent in size to that of a tennis court – and immediately makes its way to the nicotine receptors in the brain. Aware of this potency and wanting to rescue their shrinking market, cigarette companies have been known to provide ‘free’ samples to children in developing countries (often three cigarettes bundled together) in the hopes of hooking more customers.[6] Sadly, as little as three cigarettes is all it takes to set the stage for lifelong addiction to smoking. In terms of behavioural addiction, the importance of timing between behaviour and reward plays out, as well. For example, the number of addicted gamblers escalated steeply with the advent of online gambling. While the thrill of potentially getting something for nothing hasn’t changed, clicking a ‘mouse’ provides a faster answer (and potential jackpot) than manually pulling down a lever and waiting for the fruits to all align, and is far more addictive. As a result, the devastation of losing one’s life savings can now occur quicker than ever before.
- Novelty
While the magnitude of the initial dopamine release is central to addiction potential, if there is variety of stimuli provided, then repeat dopamine surges are possible, and the potential for addiction gets magnified. This helps explain the hollow dessert leg phenomenon, when those dining out typically say ‘yes’ to perusing the dessert menu. It seems that no matter how many helpings of the main course are consumed, when the dessert menu arrives, eyes get larger than stomachs, and room is found for cake. This overriding of the brain’s satiety centre by the reward pathway forms the basis of food addiction, and has likely played a significant role in fostering the present-day obesity epidemic in our society. Entrepreneurs have capitalized on this novelty phenomenon in the marketing of their merchandise. From the various vaping products with their assorted flavors, to the variety of coolers and sours, and the explosion of craft beer options – new and different spurs consumption, counters drug tolerance, and promotes addiction. This same novelty phenomenon is true for sexual stimulation, as well. Animal studies have consistently shown that exposure to new sexual partners intensifies dopamine release.[7] Referred to as the Coolidge Effect, sexual novelty likely explains a good portion of the allure of having an adulterous relationship. It’s not so much the specific guy or gal, but the grass-is-always-greener newness of the encounter. While variety may seem like the spice of life, when it comes to addictive stimuli, it’s a path to dependence, destruction, and death.
- Accessibility
The easier it is to access an addictive stimulus, the more likely it will be accessed, and the more likely addiction will follow. Although those favouring liberal drug policies tend to promote the myth that narcotic legalization is the answer to the drug problem, reality hasn’t born this out. We have to say ‘no’ to drugs, not ‘go.’ The legalization of marijuana in Canada is an illustrative case in point. With cannabis shops lining our city streets and popping up at every other corner, increased consumption has followed suit, and not surprisingly, addiction to tetrahydrocannabinol (or THC, the active ingredient) has escalated.[8] Even though the health risks are similar to cigarette consumption, a surprising number of my patients regularly smoke cannabis, most lulled into the misperception that because something is legal, it must be good, and in the case of ‘smokin’ a joint,’ even healthy. From the dispensing of ‘clean drugs’ at hospital sites, to round-the-clock internet accessibility for gambling, easy access fosters addiction.
Considering these four determinants of addiction, it becomes abundantly clear why internet pornography is so highly addictive, and why it’s considered a visual narcotic and often referred to as the new crack/cocaine.[9] Online pornography not only satisfies all these determinants hands down, it does so head and shoulders above any other addictive behaviour or drug. Repetitive viewing of sexually-explicit material has been shown to cause dopamine release that exceeds levels produced by all other behavioural addictive stimuli, gambling and gaming included. It even exceeds levels enjoyed in actual sexual intercourse. When compared with many addictive substances, including nicotine, morphine, and amphetamines, pornography comes out on top, as well.[10] Although heroin and cocaine can produce higher peak levels of dopamine release with a resultant more intense burst in pleasure pathway activation, internet pornography can keep the pleasure going.[11] With a simple click of the mouse comes a whole new array of images, and another immediate dopamine rush. So, while the cocaine user is coming off their rocky-mountain high and plummeting into their equal and opposite reactive deep, deep low; the porn surfer can catch another wave of pleasure, and another, and another, clicking ad infinitum. The addiction takes on a life of its own, and not an addiction to pornography perse, but to the biochemical intoxication that ensues from its viewing. Taken together – the explosive dopamine surges, immediate gratification, unparalleled novelty, and resistance-free, round-the-clock anonymous accessibility – no addicting behaviour nor drug can come close to the addiction potential of internet pornography. In brief, we’ve created a monster.
Detrimental Effects of Pornography
While the harm wrought by pornography is far-reaching, extending its tentacles into all areas of our society – the church included – with untold numbers of women and children exploited by the multibillion-dollar porn industry, the pornography consumer is a casualty, as well. Under the banner of freedom of sexual expression, the powerful addiction cycle created by pornography viewing rewires the brain and traps the viewer into a state of insatiable desire for more. Ravenous pornography consumption is harmful, attacking the spiritual core of a person, and manifesting in a variety of psychosocial and biological problems, including dysfunction.
Although my medical practice as a cardiologist is pretty much above the belt, there are exceptions, and managing erectile dysfunction is one of them. Twenty-five years ago, I was considered the local Viagra Guy. It wasn’t the appellation I had hoped for when I agreed to tour the province with Pfizer and speak on the topic of erectile dysfunction, but it gave me an opportunity to meet my referring doctors, and to address their safety concerns about the use of phosphodiesterase inhibitors (the active ingredient in the little blue pill) in patients with heart disease. While those concerns have largely eased, I am still asked on occasion to see patients who suffer from impotence. These days, however, the men who struggle with erectile dysfunction aren’t just the old guys with diabetes or high blood pressure and a smoking history, but are non-smokers, otherwise healthy, and are young, some in their early twenty’s. Their problem is not one of vascular insufficiency, but internet pornography. There’s nothing actually wrong with their machinery. They don’t need fuel injection; they’ve flooded the engine. It follows then that their remedy is not a medicine, but complete abstinence. This is because unless pornography stimulation completely ceases, everything else will. Although erectile dysfunction occurs commonly in men with pornography addiction, it’s a late manifestation, and doesn’t develop until after long hours of pornography consumption, and well after permanent changes have taken place in the neurochemistry of the brain. These men have already become as dependent on porn as a heroin addict desperate for a fix, and have developed well-established obsessive-compulsive behaviours and levels of tolerance.
Tolerance is a means for the body to achieve a more stable physiological steady state, and it is what drives pornography addiction so demonically deep. The mechanism is complex and involves dynorphin-induced downregulation of dopamine receptors, as well as the accumulation of the stabilizing protein, Delta Fos-B. This “molecular switch” functions to convert acute visual stimulus responses into relatively stable neurochemistry adaptations that contribute to the long-term architectural changes in the brain that underly pornography addiction.[12] Since Delta Fos-B is a highly stable protein with an 8-week half life, it represents a mechanism by which sexually-explicit images produce lasting changes in gene expression long after the cessation of pornography use. As a result of this physiologic tolerance, more sexual stimulation is needed to bring the desired dopamine hit, leading some to engage in increasingly risky behavior, such as looking at porn at work, consuming more extreme, or even illegal porn, or acting out sexually in other ways – such as visiting strip clubs or soliciting prostitutes. In order to achieve the same level of dopamine release and reward, increased levels of pornography novelty are required. This can include viewing alternative sexual genres and fetishes, as well as those depicting sexual violence. The more perverse and shocking, the greater the dopamine response. Considering this ever-advancing insatiable process, it’s no stretch to see how pornography consumption can lead to sexual perversion and depravity.
Guilt and shame are – understandably – commonly experienced after pornography consumption. Although these feelings can get dulled over time, they end up adding fuel to a vicious cycle of distress. The guilt and shame caused by viewing pornography spur more porn consumption, followed by more guilt and shame, followed by more porn, and so on. No amount of novel pornography, no matter how intense nor bizarre, can bring comfort or alleviate the ever-present anguish. Round and round the addiction cycle goes, until the wheels finally fall off. The brain eventually fatigues, limiting the production of dopamine, and leaving the viewer craving more but unable to reach any level of satisfaction. This imbalance in the brain leads to many problems, the least of which is sexual dissatisfaction and impotence. As the pornography consumer is consumed by their addiction, feelings of anxiety mount, along with unrelenting fatigue, lack of motivation, and the inability to concentrate. Even everyday pleasures cease to provide enjoyment. It’s tragically ironic that what began as a desire for pleasure, ends up providing only displeasure. The porn addict is left bereft of any joy in life whatsoever. Yet, despite this sorry state, they still have a persistent thirst for more. Like Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s ancient mariner surrounded by “water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink,” the porn addict is abandoned to a living hell.
Ending Pornography Addiction
Escaping the trap of pornography addiction is no simple task. In many respects, it’s more difficult than getting off substance addictions. Even coming clean from heroin addiction or quitting smoking are comparably more straightforward. This is in part because with substance addictions, there are available substitutionary treatments to help lessen withdrawal symptoms during the detoxification period. With heroin addiction, for example, there is methadone, a long-acting opioid derivative, used as a less addictive replacement for heroin, that allows for a tapering of the addiction with less addictive drug. Likewise, for quitting smoking, a whole array of medicines can be of assistance, including nicotine replacement products that can effectively eliminate cigarette cravings by providing tapering amounts of the addictive ingredient, nicotine, allowing time for the smoker to gradually kick the habit. As well, for alcohol addiction, benzodiazepines can be administered to diminish the risk of delirium tremens, which often occurs with long-time overuse of alcohol, with its attendant hallucinations, tremor, anxiety, and disorientation. However, for behavioural addictions, such as gambling, gaming, and pornography, no such medical options are available. This is particularly the case for pornography addiction. The intense dopamine surge produced from the visual sexual stimuli, as well as the tolerance that develops, makes attempting to cut down the consumption of pornography as challenging as quitting completely. So, it’s either continue on in the addiction cycle or make a cold turkey stop. No middle ground tapering is available.
Compounding this challenge for all three of these addictions is the easy access, again, particularly for pornography. It’s right there at the click of a bait, or the select of a site, or the scroll down a feed. And many have allowed those compulsive clicks, selects, and scrolls to become reflex responses in their everyday moments, dominating all their waking hours. No longer, it seems, do people strike up a conversation at the bus stop, speak with others in the coffeeshop line-up, make small talk in the elevator, or say “Good morning! What a beautiful day” to passersby. Regardless of the setting, it’s all heads down and thumbs-a-flyin’ as social media accounts are viewed, text comments are shared, and blog posts are skimmed. It’s not just distracted driving that’s a concern; now there’s distracted zombie walking, distracted exercising, distracted eating, and distracted listening, to lectures, concerts, sermons, and even loved ones. All of the in-between-times have been filled in by virtual reality and absconded by computer devices. As a result, we have dwindling concentration abilities, and seemingly, the complete loss of giving undivided attention to anything else. And then double trouble, like a match to fire, pornography enters the pandemonium. Internet obsession has provided the tinder ground for the wildfire of pornography addiction to rage in our society, and to consume untold numbers.
To calm the perfect storm of pornography addiction, involvement in this milieu of Internet madness needs to end. Radical changes will be necessary, mandating commitment, discipline, and discipleship. In particular, steadfast commitment will be required to completely abstain from all forms of pornography, discipline will be needed to develop healthy digital stewardship, and Christian discipleship will be essential to provide the foundation for the ongoing support, encouragement, and accountability required for these critical changes to take place, and kindle a new affection for our loving God. The impetus for the believer to adopt these changes (as if the detrimental effects of pornography addiction weren’t sufficient cause), is the acknowledgment that pornography viewing is sinful. And like other sexual sins, including homosexuality, adultery, heterosexual promiscuity, serial monogamy, premarital sex, and masturbation, it needs to be called out as a sin requiring confession. Apostle Paul exhorts us to “flee from sexual immorality,” emphasizing that “all other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body,” reminding us that we “were bought at a price… therefore honor God with your body” (1 Cor 18-20).
This is not to say that viewing any depiction of the naked human body is sinful. Medical students studying surface anatomy are not, in doing so, engaging in sinful behaviour, nor are those appreciating Rembrandt’s nude composition of Bathsheba at Her Bath, nor Michelangelo’s sculpture of David. Pornography is neither edifying nor a proper use of artistic media, but gratuitous depictions of human sexuality. Pornography photographs may be skillfully done in terms of lighting and composition, but their content is patronizing, exploiting the sexual passions of the viewer, and presents a lie that debases God’s good gift of sex. Although Canadian law currently protects pornography under freedom of expression as an art form, this is a gross error, and considering the harmful effects that pornography has had in the exploitation of the vulnerable, objectification of women, and the causing of widespread social and community harms, such laws are shameful.[13] As Francis Schaeffer points out, “For the Christian, art is to be used for the glory of God, not just as tracts, mind you, but as things of beauty to the praise of God.”[14] If pornography is considered an art form, it is an impoverished one, that distorts beauty and profanes God. While grey areas may certainly exist between artistic expression and blatant eroticism, the sexually-explicit graphic material polluting over 1/3 of the internet bandwidth and consumed daily by millions within our society – including churchgoers and their pastors – doesn’t fit into the tiny grey debatable zone. Rather, it’s unashamedly erotic, exploitive, demeaning, and dehumanizing, and its viewing is sinful. There’s no room here for game-playing about art form or rationalizing about freedom of expression, only sincere repentance and heartfelt confession.
[1] Kalivas, PW. The neural basis of addiction: a pathology of motivation and choice. Am J Psychiatry, 2005; 162(8):1403.
[2] Olsen C.M. Natural rewards, neuroplasticity, and non-drug addictions. Neuropharmacology. 2011;61:1109–1122.
[3] Koob G.F., Volkow N.D. Neurocircuitry of Addiction. Neuropsychopharmacology. 2010; 35:217–238.
[4] Di Chiara G. Differential responsiveness of dopamine transmission to food-stimuli in nucleus accumbens shell/core compartments. Neuroscience 89: 637-641, 1999.
[5] Pulvirenti, L. Dopamine receptor agonists, partial agonists and psychostimulant addiction. Trends in Pharm Sci. Volume 15, Issue 10, October 1994, Pages 374-379.
[6] Makary, M. The International Tobacco Strategy. JAMA. 1998;280(13):1194-1195.
[7] Ventura-Aquino, E. Hormones and the Coolidge effect. Mol Cell Endocrinol. 2018 May 15; 467:42-48.
[8] Hall, W. Addiction (SSA). The implementation and public health impacts of cannabis legalization in Canada: a systematic review. 28 June 2023.
[9] Fortify: A Step Toward Recovery by Fight the New Drug. O.W.L. Pub © 2015.
[10] Hilton D.L. Pornography addiction: A supranormal stimulus considered in the context of neuroplasticity. Socioaffective Neurosci. Psychol. 2013; 3:20767.
[11]
[12] Pitchers, K. ΔFosB in the nucleus accumbens is critical for reinforcing effects of sexual reward. Genes, Brains and Behavior 2010; Vol 9, Issue 7; 831.
[13] https://arpacanada.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/ARPA-PolicyReport-Pornography-online2.pdf
[14] Schaeffer, F. Art and the Bible. InterVarsity Press ©1973 by L’Abri Fellowship, p.18.
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Ezra Institute Fellow Dan Ogden makes his podcast debut to discuss the difference between international law, which is based on common consent, and supranational law, a coercive and unaccountable system. He explains some of the strategic and economic benefits of a globally connected world, as well as the complications that arise from it, and how to think in a principled, Christian way about a tangled and high-stakes context.
The Canadian Mission of God conferences start this weekend in Windsor, Ontario! Get your last-minute tickets.
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We interact with a classic interview with Yuri Bezmenov, a KGB agent who defected from the USSR in the 1980s. He explains the strategy of cultural infiltration that has been active since the 1950s, and the work of demoralization that has been accomplished in the West. As we approach election seasons in the USA, Canada and Britain, we must be diligent to also pursue personal sanctification and not compromise on principles for the sake of temporary fixes.
Get tickets to the Mission of God conference, December 2 in Windsor, and December 9 in Calgary.
Media: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOmXiapfCs8
https://edition.cnn.com/videos/politics/2023/11/18/donald-trump-joe-biden-polling-2024-presidential-election-enten-nr-vpx.cnn
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This article is excerpted from Joe Boot’s book, Gospel Witness, available at Ezra Press.
At first glance, people could be forgiven for thinking that Islam is basically like Christianity with a few superficial differences. After all, doesn’t Islam teach belief in one God, in revelation, in marriage and family, in charity and justice, in heaven and hell? Let us examine these supposedly shared beliefs. First, it is true that both faiths speak about ‘God,’ but on examination we discover that this word (Allah in Arabic) holds a totally different content for the Christian and the Muslim mind. For the Muslim, God is an unknowable monad[1] who does not reveal himself – he is essentially an eternal will, expressed in an eternal written text sent down in stages (Surah 43:2-4; 56:77-82; 76:23). As Robert Spencer notes, “For Muslims, the Qur’an is a perfect copy of the perfect, eternal book – the Mother of the book (umm al-kitab) – that has existed forever with Allah in paradise.”[2] By contrast, for the Christian, God is a relational being, eternally existing as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, who is revealed clearly and truly in the historical person of Jesus Christ, the incarnate Word of God. The gospels and letters of the New Testament are the historically situated works of eyewitnesses, written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, which cohere completely with the inspired revelation of the historical patriarchs and prophets in the Older Testament. The human and historical element is never bypassed in the Christian understanding of God’s self-revelation to man – indeed it is essential to it because God is a covenant-making God.
Second, the nuclear family (Christian marriage) is the fundamental social structure of Western civilization; the unity of marriage between one man and one woman as taught by Christ himself has been foundational to Christian society for centuries. By contrast Islamic marriage is polygamous and is destructive of the unity, harmony and safety of the family. Ordinary Muslim men are permitted up to four wives, plus temporary ‘wives’ whilst on pilgrimage – although Muhammad allowed himself more. Third, both Christians and Muslims speak of charity, but unlike Christian charity directed toward all those in need and a fundamental aspect of Christian missionary history, Islamic charity is solely for the benefit of fellow Muslims, not of the kafir (unbeliever). Fourth, it is true that both Christianity and Islam speak of prayer, but in Islam prayer is a matter of structured recitation five times a day to an unknowable god in the direction of a black meteoric rock in the Middle East (toward Mecca), whereas in Christianity prayer is the interaction of a personal God with man in a covenantal relationship where neither form nor posture is imposed upon it to make it valid.
Fifth, both faiths speak of law and justice. But for Islam there is one law for the Muslim and another for the unbeliever (Surah 3:28; 4:144; 8:12). By way of contrast, in Christian society there is to be love for one’s neighbour and equality for all before the same law rooted in the Ten Commandments (Ex. 12: 49; Lev. 19:34, 24:22; Matt 5:44). This disparity is because Muhammad and Allah hate the kafir (Surah 9:29; 33:60; 83:34; 86:15), whereas the triune God of Scripture loves the world and came to seek and save sinners (Luke 19:10; John 3:16; Rom. 5:6-8). Sixth, in Islam, any hope of paradise is based on the arbitrary will of Allah. Paradise is a libidinous eternal state that may or may not be attained by striving in the cause of Islam, whereas in the Christian faith, salvation is by the grace and love of God alone, by faith in Jesus Christ, who calls us to follow him as his children and love one another (John 13:34-35). Lastly, both religions are missionary faiths that seek to win converts, but in Islam this is by almost any means, including killing, violence and persecution, in order to bring the non-believer to submission (as modelled by Muhammad himself, see Surah 9:29; 61:10). Whereas in the Christian gospel, good news is preached so that people might freely respond to it or reject it (Rom. 10:14ff), and if Christ’s witnesses and ambassadors suffer persecution as a result, they are to love their enemies and do good to those that hate them (Luke 6:27ff).
These stark differences are basic to the persons at the centre of the respective faiths. The true contrast between Islam and Christianity is between the persons of Jesus Christ and Muhammad. Muhammad took up the sword to convert, tax or slay his enemies.[3] Jesus Christ loved his enemies, forgave those who persecuted him and went to the cross because of the great love of God and to win a lost world by making atonement for our sin (1 John 2:2). In short, at almost every point, whilst similar theological terms may be employed by both faiths, their content is radically different. No honest and effective witness can be made to the Muslim without a candid acknowledgement of the radically different starting points we have – of the gulf that exists between the persons of Christ and Muhammad. This fundamental antithesis is expressed in the fact that the Islamic worldview always produces a radically different culture and political system to that of Christianity – grounded in its view of the divine and the foundations of moral order. If we care about Muslims and our society, we will care about facing Islam honestly and clearly in its varied implications.
[1] A leading Muslim commentator, Beidhawi, suggests that the name Allah is derived from “an [invented] root illaha = to be in perplexity, because the mind is perplexed when it tries to form the idea of the infinite.” See Geisler, Answering Islam, 14.
[2] Robert Spencer, Did Muhammad Exist? An Inquiry into Islam’s Obscure Origins (Wilmington, DE: ISI Books, 2012), 126.
[3] For a study of Islamic hostility and violence toward Jews and non-Muslims, see Elias Al-Maqdisi & Sam Solomon, Al-Yahud: The Eternal Islamic Enmity and the Jews (Charlottesville: ANM Publishers, 2010).
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Ezra Institute Fellow Andrew Sandlin joins us to discuss the strange bedfellows of Marxism and Nationalism that have been keeping company lately, as well as antisemitism and the recent rise of nationalism of several stripes, including Christian nationalism, and how a reformational perspective guards against the excesses and reactionism of both progressive and conservative ideologies that are not based in Christ Jesus.
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As governments and law enforcement deal with planned demonstrations for this upcoming Remembrance Day, Joe Boot considers the Islamic worldview commitments that are fundamentally at odds with Christian religious worldview commitments, and discuss the true and lasting peace that was accomplished through the cross of Christ.
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As followers of Jesus, our response to the LGBT challenges needs to be one of grace and truth. It’s critical that we maintain the tension between the exclusive truth claims of Christ and the inclusive grace of Christ. Although far easier to do only one or the other – either hold hard to the letter of Scriptural law and present a cold wall of opposition, or offer warm unqualified open-armed welcome – neither of these singular approaches are effective nor biblically faithful. It’s not one or the other, but a measure of both, together. Jesus didn’t dismiss the woman accused of adultery with disdain and disgust, saying “Go.” Nor did he affirm her sexual behaviour and celebrate her lifestyle, saying “Go and sin.” Rather, he protected her from harm’s way and offered her abundant life free from the slavery of sin, saying, “Go and sin no more” (John 8:11). Therefore, our response to the LGBT challenges mustn’t be one of cold condemnation, nor gushing affirmation. Rather, without compromising the biblical sexual ethic, we need to respond winsomely, communicating both our concern for biblical truth and care for struggling individuals. “For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ (John 1:17). If we capitulate on biblical truth, we forfeit the gospel and its redeeming power, and risk losing a soul to eternal judgement; and if we fail to reach out in compassion and care, we miss the opportunity to witness and share the gospel’s redeeming message. Analogous to an archer’s cross-bow, which is only useful under the tension of the bowstring (otherwise is but a weird bent stick, not even suitable for walking), as faithful followers of Christ, we need to hold fast to both biblical truth and winsome engagement in balanced tension. If we fail to do so, our efforts will yield little. We’ll either shut down dialog completely or get shut down ourselves, and run the risk of being compromised on one hand, or cancelled on the other. In either case, we’ll join the sorry ranks of “those who do not turn to the most High, are like a bow gone slack” (Hosea 7:16).
It’s also important to separate out our response to the activist movement, on the one side, from our response to someone who is struggling with their sexuality, on the other. We need to realize that these are two very separate conversations, both set on the same foundation, but expressed with different language and means. I came to this realization when I had an intense exposure to the non-heterosexual community. It was in the mid-‘80s during the height of the AIDS epidemic in Canada. I was a medical student at St. Paul’s hospital in downtown Vancouver, and did my clerkship before the introduction of anti-retroviral therapy, when acquiring HIV was akin to being given a death sentence. During that same time, my father, who was a United Church minister, was faithfully preaching the full counsel of Scripture and actively pushing back against the encroaching Gay gospel. Our frequent late-night conversations equipped me to easily recognize the worldview challenges posed by the gay movement, but did little to prepare me in my conversations with gay patients. That required the frontline experience which I acquired during those harrowing times.
As a student intern, I directly followed 8 to 10 patients at a time, the majority of whom were gay men about my age, dying of AIDS. It was heart-wrenching watching their opportunistic infections and cancers progress and, despite our best efforts, consume them. During this training time, while I was trying to memorize my differential diagnosis lists and develop my physical exam techniques, I witnessed the devastation of this pitiless disease on the human condition. All of my patients died, and I was often the one called by the nurses to pronounce them dead. It was a brutal boot camp for learning medicine, to be sure, but the experience gave me on-the-job training in humility and compassion, as I endeavored to respond to the suffering of my patients. As well, I had repeated opportunities to have conversations with them, long conversations, which went well beyond the surface medical management of their disease, and touched on their existential suffering. This is because as a student, I had a certain luxury of time, and I spent mine not just chasing down lab results and writing up histories, but at my patients’ bedsides, talking with them, getting to know their families, their lovers, and meeting their extensive friend groups and community of support. I learned something of their struggles, their frustrations and brokenness, and their desperate desire for acceptance. And as I spent time with them, listening to their stories, and developing a relationship with them, I was able to get past the initial facades, breaching topics of identity and faith. I shared my testimony with many of them, and at poignant moments, even prayed with some. Although I never agreed with their sexual confusion nor gay lifestyles, my heart broke for them nonetheless, and I have since felt drawn to reach out to LGBT patients with care and compassion.
Responding to the Struggling Individual
If we want to meaningfully engage those within the LGBT community and have constructive conversations with them, we need to be generous and communicate sentiments of concern. Opening our interactions with divisive comments about the causation of non-heterosexuality or arguments about the changeability of sexual orientation will unlikely be fruitful, and add more heat than light to the discussion. It’s not us against them, after all; non-heterosexuals are not the enemy. Sexual brokenness comes from our sinful nature magnified by our sexualized culture. It’s been estimated that over 1/3 of the Internet bandwidth is devoted to viewing pornography, which has infiltrated every part of our society, the church included.[1] We are all sexually broken to some extent, and if left to our own devices can easily fall into temptations of sinful sexual thoughts, even deeds. As Apostle Paul reminds, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23). We are all in need of Christ’s redemption and the ongoing sanctifying work of Holy Spirit, and we won’t completely escape the conundrum of sexual sin until heaven and earth are made new. So, we would do well to adopt a posture of humility, “quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry” (Jas 1:19). As we listen, we should do so not with the intent of winning an argument, but in order to make points of contact that will allow us to steer the conversation towards Jesus, the ultimate remedy. We need to endeavor to make Jesus the issue, not sexuality. As Mark Yarhouse wisely emphasizes about these difficult conversations, “the goal is not heterosexuality, but holiness.”[2]
Gender confusion and the sinful behaviour that ensues are but symptoms of a far larger problem, namely, misplaced identity. The prevailing messaging promoted by our LGBT-embracing culture is that same-sex attractions are natural, even God-given, and that such feelings not only indicate one’s true-you core identity, but that sexual behaviour is the central means to fulfillment. This so-called Gay script conflates the three distinct elements of sexual attraction, sexual behaviour, and gay identity into an all-in-one package. Even though these are each clearly distinct, if feelings are felt, it is suggested, behaviour and even permanent lifestyle adoption must inevitably follow. Of course, this just isn’t true. Feelings don’t mandate behaviour. Just because some scantily-clad woman walking past me in the grocery store might transiently catch my attention, it doesn’t mean that I, a married man, should necessarily follow her into the produce section to check out the tomatoes and get her phone number, nor that I should make a lifestyle of hanging out at the deli in the hopes of making bacon. A fleeting reflex feeling or thought doesn’t necessitate an adulterous behavioural response, nor a swinger lifestyle. We are not victims of instinct, confined to a programmed script of behaviour, but have been created in God’s image, and therefore have the freedom to choose our actions. Same-sex attraction represents temptations, not destiny. Like all other temptations, such as over-indulgence of alcohol, over-eating pastries, binging TV, or lining up for Sunday blow-out shopping extravaganzas, they can’t be given a life of their own and remain unchecked. No matter how much like “thorns in the flesh” same-sex attractions may be, they don’t need to result in homosexual behaviour, and certainly not a gay lifestyle. Those who hold up sexuality as ultimate are doomed to disappointment. It’s not just Mick Jagger who can’t get no satisfaction; no one can on those terms. No sexual experience – heterosexual or non-heterosexual – can live up to such dizzyingly high expectations, and identities formed around them won’t be able to satisfy our fundamental needs as human beings.
By opposing God’s design for sexuality, our culture has set into motion an unparalleled identity crisis, and at the same time, opened up a giant gospel opportunity for the Christian community to witness God’s love to broken people. Our task, as followers of the Risen Lord, is to provide an alternative script for those who struggle in sexual sin. We need to emphasize that it’s not sex that’s ultimate, but God, as revealed in the life, death, resurrection and calling of Jesus Christ. At its center, our identity is not a sexual issue at all, but a creational one that can only be truly defined by our Creator. While we are undeniably sexual beings, our core identity doesn’t reside in our sexuality, but is contained within the eternal relationship of the Triune living God. By necessity, our I am must be grounded in the Great I am. When we fail to grasp this biblical reality, choosing instead something smaller or distorted, such as our perceived gender or preferred sexual behaviour, we generate within ourselves an unquenchable misdirected thirst for personal significance, social acceptance, and individual security.[3] While the LGBT community attempts to provide these by affirming same-sex feelings, celebrating non-binary gender choices, and validating non-heterosexual relationships and gay lifestyle experiences, desperate emptiness remains. It’s well-documented that the LGBT group, taken as a whole, is at a substantially higher risk for poor health outcomes as compared to the general population.[4] Not only do they suffer from higher rates of depression, but also substance addictions, eating disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder and sexual abuse, and they have a staggeringly high suicide rate. Despite the propagated narrative that all this stems from societal stigmatization, these tragic problems are seen to occur at the same rates in the most LGBT-affirming of countries, as well.[5]
It’s imperative, then, that we communicate the need for an identity in Christ, and let those who label themselves within the LGBT umbrella know that they are children of God, first created in his image, fearfully and wonderfully made, and dearly loved by Him, the lover of their souls. Sharing our own personal testimony of faith is a powerful means to do so. As we tell of our own struggles with sin over the years and our own experiences with misplaced identity, such as with a work-based identity, a family-role-based identity, or a fitness-based identity, for example, we can forge points of contact, and begin “to make the teaching about God our Saviour attractive” (Titus 2:10). Jesus was a single celibate male and lived the perfect life, completely obedient to the law of God and completely fulfilled in every way. He didn’t come to earth for acceptance, significance, nor security, but to glorify God and to have mercy on sinners. With this in mind, we need to underscore that our core identity – including our essential needs for acceptance, significance, and security –be formed around a personal relationship with Christ, and Christ alone.
At the base of our engagement with members of the LGBT community, must be our concern for not only their present wholeness, but their eternal hope of salvation. God has given us the biblical sexual ethic for both our present flourishing and to prepare us for eternal communion with Him in glory. This mandates that we don’t just leave our conversations on the superficial plane of climate and Coke, but go deeper and address the essential matters of sin and salvation. Jesus was a friend to sinners, to be sure. However, he didn’t leave them in their sins, but called all people to “repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15). If all our friendship with non-heterosexuals does is comfort them in their sins, we’ve done them a serious disservice, and not acted as a friend, at all. Homosexual behaviour is sexual sin. And like other sexual sins, including adultery, heterosexual promiscuity, serial monogamy, premarital sex, and masturbation, it needs to be called out as a sin requiring confession. Apostle Paul exhorts us to “flee from sexual immorality,” emphasizing that “all other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body,” reminding us that we “were bought at a price… therefore honor God with your body” (1 Cor 18-20). It doesn’t matter if they claim they were “born that way.” We are all born into a sinful nature inherited from our first parents and “must be born again” (John 3:3). This requires a 180-degree about-face turning away from our old sinful identity to embrace our new true identity in Christ. As Apostle Paul clarified, “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Cor 5:17). A gay lifestyle, no matter if it’s “monogamous and sincere,” is still misdirected and sinful. The same applies to gay marriage… raising the thorny issue of what to do if one receives an invitation to a “gay marriage” celebration.
Responding to an Invitation to a Gay Wedding
A wedding is not like a dinner invitation or a graduation open house or a retirement party. A Christian wedding is, first and foremost, a worship service from beginning to end, celebrating the holy union between one man and one woman with God at the centre. As God’s first institution, marriage bookends the beginning of the Bible and the end, and represents the fundamental building block of human community and has historically been the foundation of Western civilization.[6] Those present at the solemnization of matrimony are not just casual observers, but are witnesses who are granting their approval and support for the holy vows that are being made. Worship of God and celebration of a holy union cannot be done if God’s Word is profaned. Since the gay union being celebrated can’t be biblically sanctioned as an act of worship, our participation in the service lends credence to a lie. Out of obedience to Christ and because of the nature of the wedding event itself, we cannot in good conscience participate in a service of false worship, nor celebrate a union that shouldn’t be celebrated.
This is true for secular gay weddings, as well. There’s nothing in the secular nature of a wedding ceremony that makes it any less of a celebration of a union. When we attend such a wedding, like it or not, we are publicly endorsing the gay union before a watching world. Although attending a non-Christian heterosexual wedding poses certain challenges for the Christian attendee in terms of the misdirection of the ceremony, at least God’s design of husband and wife is still being upheld. As a result, we can hope and pray that the couple will in time be convicted by the Holy Spirit and come to a saving faith in Christ, and lead Christian lives as a couple. However, the same cannot be said for the homosexual couple. For non-heterosexuals, our prayer would be that they would come to a saving faith in Christ and leave their lives of sin, their gay relationships included. If this all sounds “not very loving,” we need to understand that genuine love means telling the truth, not condoning a lie. Just as we must not buy into the contemporary word games of using imaginary gender designations, nor conflicting pronouns, so too, we shouldn’t fuel sexual sin by celebrating a gay union. This even holds true for Christian families with gay or transgendered children. We need to communicate our sincere love and concern for them and do our utmost to maintain our relationship with them, but we can’t condone their sexual sin nor celebrate their sinful lifestyle or union. Besides, “loving across our differences” is a two-way street. We should take time to listen to the gay couple and hear why our attendance means so much to them, by all means; but to be fair, they also need to listen to us, and understand why our faith in Christ and obedience to the Bible mandate our declining to attend. In all of these considerations, we mustn’t lose sight of the eternal wedding promised by Jesus, that we as the Church of Christ and His Bride, have been “invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb” (Rev 19:19).
Previous: The LGBT Narrative
[1] http://www.covenanteyes.com/pornstats/
[2] Yarhouse, M. Homosexuality and the Christian: A Guide for Parents, Pastors, and Friends. Bethany House©2010.
[3] Anderson, Neil T. Living Free in Christ ©1993 Regal Books.
[4] The Fenway Guide to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Health, 2nd Edition.
[5] Dhejne, C, et.al. Cohort Study in Sweden. 2011; 6(2).
[6] Zimmerman, CC. Family and Civilization. Intercollegiate Studies Institute ©2008.
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On this Reformation Day, Tobias Riemenschneider joins us from Germany to discuss the West’s death-loving culture, expressed in the horror of abortion. He explains how the wide-scale support for state-sponsored abortion is upstream from so many other forms of murder, euthanasia, the harm that it causes to women, and the folly of referring to abortion as a human right. He also discusses how God’s people can act together to resist and push back through legal channels to bring the gospel of life to bear on our culture.
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Twenty-five years ago, most people in our culture were unconcerned with Islam. It seemed remote, irrelevant and inconsequential to the majority living in Europe and North America. Few ordinary people had any substantive experience or acquaintance with its doctrines or cultural forms, and most would have considered much of the Islamic world to be backward, largely poor, and critically, benign as far as the West was concerned. That situation has been radically altered. The ideas, practices and ambitions of the Islamic world have found their way to the heart of Western Europe with large-scale immigration over the past thirty years, and high birth rates establishing populous Islamic communities in major cities. These communities are typically poorly integrated with their host society, so that some significant metropolises in Western states have become essentially socially Islamic. As such, a once-familiar cultural landscape has been quickly and profoundly changed. Today, over one hundred Shari’ah courts operate in the UK – courts which have little regard, if not contempt, for British law. One of the most powerful and visible politicians in the UK, London’s mayor, is an outspoken Muslim as is the first minister of Scotland. Muhammad is the number one name for new baby boys in the UK and Britain has become one of the world’s most important centres of Islamic finance. One in ten people in the UK under the age of twenty-five profess a Muslim faith.
With this massive social shift has come the inevitable reality of Islamic culture. There are now thousands of mosques, Islamic centres and schools across Britain and Europe; in some places, halal food is the only type of meat sold and served; Islamic banking is being offered by major financial institutions; and Britain is dealing with the highest FGM (female genital mutilation) levels in Europe.[1] Whilst most Muslims in the West want to live in peace and security to quietly raise their families, prisons and universities are becoming hotbeds for Islamist extremism and one in five Muslims in the UK have reported some level of sympathy for ISIS or Hamas. In recent weeks following the barbarous terror attacks on Israel there has been a huge increase in incidents cold-blooded.[2] Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Brussels, Marseilles, Bradford and Luton have Muslim populations of between 25-30% and many more European cities have Muslim populations between 10-20%.[3] In recent years the violent terror that has been unleashed across Europe, shocking naïve politicians and startling complacent and ignorant communities – including the 2005 London bombings[4] and cold-blooded murder of Sir David Amess, a British politician in his own constituency office in 2021[5] – has often been distanced by Western elites from the claims of Islam. The result is that many ordinary people in the West are finally beginning to ask about the real nature of Islam. What does it teach about God, truth and reality? who was Muhammad? how did he live? and what were his claims? Further, can the Islamic ideology filling headlines accommodate itself to Western society and pursue long-term peaceful co-existence in the West – a context that has historically enjoyed expansive freedoms and the rule of law, bequeathed by a Christian worldview? And for contemporary political life, will Islam adapt itself to the secular pluralism of our cultural elites?
Despite these vital questions, too few civil leaders are willing to speak openly and critically about the nature of Islamic thought, its regional or global goals, or its vision of social order. Its fundamental doctrines, cultural motives and objectives, and its historic incompatibility and therefore conflict with a Christian understanding of life and law are avoided, ignored or dismissed as right-wing propaganda. As a result, most people (including many Christians), are largely unaware that Islam is a total world and life view rooted in a particular concept of God and man, where the man Muhammad is viewed as the last and greatest prophet and exclusive vehicle of a final revelation so that, not just his ideas and teaching, but his precise manner of life, are to be followed in detail by the devout Muslim. These are things that can be learned from a brief conversation with a Muslim friend, neighbour or colleague.
Given that the life and character of a seventh-century nomadic trader and military figure from the Arabian desert is depicted as the perfect example of life to be followed, Islamic culture looks backward historically and socio-culturally to paradigms and norms that resist both critique and change. This obviously has significant implications for all aspects of future cultural development within Islam, as well as its relationship to western societies. As Gustave von Grunebaum has observed:
It is essential to realize that Muslim civilization is a cultural entity that does not share our primary aspirations. It is not vitally interested in analytical self-understanding, and it is even less interested in the structural study of other cultures, either as an end in itself or as a means toward a clearer understanding of its own character and history.… The study of error and imperfection for their own sake does not deserve a supreme collective effort. The non-Muslim world is interesting enough, but, in a sense, obsolete, its foundations outmoded ever since the final revelation manifested through the Prophet the changeless norms of individual behaviour and social structure … this attitude leads to an extreme concern with power and success in history, or more precisely, with success in history as the validation of revelation – an outlook that represents the sharpest possible contrast with the outlook that governs Christianity’s encounter with history.[6]
This incisive summary statement has far-reaching implications. Of particular significance is the contrast highlighted between the Christian and Islamic encounter with history. For much of biblical history, the progress of God’s truth, His called-out people, and His redemptive covenant of grace appear to be halted – losing ground in the conflagration with sin, injustice and evil. Indeed, in the climactic moment of that conflict in the life of Christ, the cross initially appears a moment of total defeat – which is one of the reasons why most Muslims deny that Jesus was ever crucified. Despite the physical resurrection, ascension and session of Jesus Christ to the right hand of all power and authority, the Christian is called to take up their cross and follow Him (Matt. 16:24-26), knowing and expecting that history will involve for the Christian and the church periods of suffering, exclusion, loss, decline and great trial (1 John 3:13). In fact, seasons of hardship are basic to the social expectation of Christians because the biblical worldview teaches that sinful mankind is at enmity with God by nature and is thereby hostile to those that represent Him (Mark 13:13; Rom. 8:7). As such, human nature needs to be renewed by grace (Eph. 2:2). So, whilst the Christian should labour humbly and faithfully in service to Christ in all cultural life, seeking to bring all spheres under the Lordship of King Jesus, the historical results of that work are purely in the providential and sovereign hands of God and His purposes for the nations.
For Christianity, then, biblical revelation is neither validated nor refuted by periods of apparent defeat or success for the Christian religion in any given era or cultural moment. This is not so for the Muslim.[7] As the contemporary Indian Muslim thinker, Rashid Shaz acknowledges, “We Muslims live with a paradox. If we are really the last chosen nation entrusted to lead the world till the end of time, why is it so that we are unable to arrest our own decline?”[8]
Moreover, because the ground motive[9] of Christianity is that of Creation, Fall, and Redemption in Jesus Christ, a redemption of the totality of creation by the power of the Holy Spirit, unlike Islamic faith, it is of vital interest in Christian thought to understand all cultures, their history, philosophy and civilization. This is in order to gain a greater understanding of God’s work in creation and history and to better appreciate the place of those cultures in the plans and purposes of God in the historical-cultural aspects of life. This knowledge adds not only to the Christian’s self-understanding but also to his ability to witness with relevance and clarity concerning the gospel of the kingdom to others – especially with regard to how the redemption of Jesus Christ fulfils the religious longings inherent within all cultures and among all peoples. Furthermore, this attitude leads (and has always led) toward cultural development, growth and maturity, by taking and applying what is good and which conforms to God’s Word-revelation and purpose from man’s historical and cultural experience – wherever it may be found. This fundamental difference between the Christian worldview and that of Islam is foundational to an analysis of the driving motive within Islam and its cultural implications.
[1] “The Muslim Pound: Celebrating the Muslim Contribution to the UK Economy,” Muslim Council of Britain, last modified 2013, http://www.mcb.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/The-Muslim-Pound-FINAL.pdf.
[2] ‘Antisemitic incidents quadruple in UK,’ https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-67085625 accessed, October 2023
[3] Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, “The Future of the Global Muslim Population,” Pew Research Center, last modified January 2011, http://www.pewforum.org/2011/01/27/the-future-of-the-global-muslim-population/.
[4] ‘London bombings of 2005’ https://www.britannica.com/event/London-bombings-of-2005 accessed October 2023
[5] ‘Sir David Amess, ‘Man found guilty of murdering MP.’ https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-61026210 accessed October 2023
[6] Gustave Von Grunebaum, Modern Islam: The Search for Cultural Identity (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1962), 55-58.
[7] Norman L. Geisler & Abdul Saleeb, Answering Islam: The Crescent in the Light of the Cross (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1993), 160-161. This passage illustrates how certain victories in battle were considered divine confirmation of Muhammad’s status and of God’s favor, whilst interestingly, serious defeats were not interpreted as divine disfavor.
[8] Rashid Shaz, cited in Robert R. Reilly, The Closing of the Muslim Mind: How Intellectual Suicide Created the Modern Islamist Crisis (Wilmington, DE: ISI Books, 2010), 159.
[9] The term ‘ground motive’ is used by the reformed, Dutch philosopher Herman Dooyeweerd to refer to the driving force, motive or core actuating idea at the root of any given worldview.
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Scripture has always acknowledged one single human race, and God has always dealt with His people covenantally, rather than on the basis of bloodlines. Babel was a divine act of segregation because the people were unified in wickedness and disobedience, but it is no longer normative because of Christ’s reconciling work, making the two one.
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Get tickets for the Mission of God Canada conferences. December 2 in Windsor, ON, and December 9 in Calgary, AB.
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In the first installment of this series, we saw that biblical sexuality is lived and defined in terms of creative, covenantal, sacrificial and sacred characteristics. Here I hope to demonstrate how the pagan worldview of the LBGT movement promotes precisely the opposite. The LGBT narrative rejects the Bible and celebrates the very antithesis of the Christian sexual ethic. Central to this celebration is the emphatic non-binary pronouncement of sexuality. Instead of the sacred male and female distinction, there is a blurring of all boundaries, epitomized by androgyny, where male and female reduce down to a neither-nor neutral, sexually undefined person. Since this ideology flies in the face of reality, indoctrination needs to begin early and be propped up by repeated reinforcement. This is why pre-schoolers are read LGBT children’s literature by drag queens in our public libraries, and why school children are daily encouraged to pick their own pronouns, play for either the boys’ or girls’ sports team, use either the male or female washroom, and choose whichever changeroom they’d prefer.[1] Otherwise, it’s feared, children wouldn’t give their gender or sexuality a second thought and simply be content with their God-given design, girls playing with dolls and skipping rope and boys playing with sticks and skipping rocks.
With loss of male/female distinction comes loss of function. Same-sex couples can’t biologically reproduce, and mutilated, transgendered genitalia will never function in that elegant and complex capacity, either. Since having babies is no longer possible, this central role of our sexuality gets discarded. Rather than seen as a means of procreation, sex is strictly considered a form of recreation. As journalist Gregory Herdt observed, “only by disengaging sexuality from the traditions of family, reproduction, and parenthood was the evolution of the gay movement a social and historical likelihood.”[2] Separated from God’s design of male and female, sex is disengaged from family structure, and no longer functions for reproduction and child-rearing, but merely hedonistic pleasure. Instead of being protected within a covenantal relationship, sex is let loose and considered an impersonal act, even a commodity, where masturbation and the use of pornography are legitimized and encouraged. Rather than one-flesh covenantal fidelity, promiscuity is celebrated. Children are provided graphic material on sexual practices, positions, and products, and told “not to knock it till you try it.”[3] Instead of self-giving, sex is all about self-gratification. No longer a means of tangibly expressing one’s love for one’s spouse, sex becomes an end in itself, and an idol. Deposing purity, honor and sacredness, sex becomes dirty, profane and perverse; men with other men, women with women, mixing and matching of multiple partners and orgies, with no taboos or limits, joining what God has separated, and separating what God has joined.
Impoverished Church Response
As disturbing as this flagrant abuse of God’s good gift of sex is to consider, what’s even more troubling are the disappointing ways in which the church has responded to the LGBT movement. Instead of fulfilling its God-ordained role “to proclaim the gospel, observe the ordinances, and make disciples,”[4] winsomely serving as a counterpoint and corrective for societal transgressions, the church in our day has more often than not missed the mark. Some churches have chosen to simply condemn non-heterosexuality – no dialog, no engagement, no nothing, end of discussion. Others, in an attempt to avoid conflict, have tried to keep a neutral ground and remain silent on the issue, hoping it might just go away. Still others, trying to extend grace in some sort of misdirected way, have chosen to affirm the gender identity confusion of those who struggle with their sexuality, and have even resorted to raising the rainbow flag and joining in on the Pride celebration.
Although the hostile anti-Christian attacks lobbed by the LBGT lobby groups can be vicious, our response to them shouldn’t be. We have to guard ourselves from trying to fight fire with fire, and retorting to their taunting “Oh Yah?” with an even louder “Yah!” Protesting in the streets with vulgar placards which read “God hates…” or the trite, “God didn’t create Adam and Steve,” accomplishes no good thing. Profanity, sarcasm, pettiness, and ridicule should have no place in our vocabularies. Rather, we need to exhibit the fruit of the Spirit, which is first patient and kind, gentle and self-controlled (Gal 5:22-23). As Apostle Paul reminds us, “For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world” (2 Cor 10:3-4). This necessitates, regardless of how our opposition may choose to operate, that we restrict ourselves to the high-road. William Ralph Inge observed that “The enemies of freedom do not argue; they shout and they shoot.” However, our means to advance the Kingdom of God can’t be accomplished with hostile protests or petty argumentation. It’s important that we remain biblically-faithful and ensure that our methods reflect our gospel message. Otherwise, we misrepresent Christ to the world, and only end up adding fuel to the leftist’s fire in their branding of all Christians as “haters” and “bigots.”
The attempt of the church to be neutral and avoid the LGBT controversies has been regarded as a thoughtful and gracious approach. In an interview on HuffPost, former President Jimmy Carter tried to argue that since “Jesus never said a word about homosexuality,” we shouldn’t either, particularly a harsh or condemning word.[5] As a skilled statesman and peacemaker, this long-lived politician shined like few others, but as an expositor of Scripture trying to handle the word of God, he shows his limitations. While the red letters of Jesus didn’t include the word “homosexuality” per se, Jesus had plenty to say about condemning sexual immorality, and significantly raised the bar of sexual purity, pronouncing that “anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matt 5:28). The Bible, taken as a whole, represents the authoritative Word of God with the voice of Jesus throughout, and places homosexuality clearly under the banner of sexual immorality, and condemns it explicitly (Lev 18:22; Lev 20:13; Ro 1:26; 1 Cor 6:9; 1 Tim 9). While such proof texts shouldn’t be used to clobber people, ignorance of God’s word needs to be countered. As the Christian influence on our culture wanes, so too, has the understanding of Scripture. Biblical illiteracy has become the norm in our society and even churches, and with it, many Christian churches suffer from doctrinal confusion and have become prone to liberal trends, such as actually believing the societal lie that “homophobia is the problem, not homosexuality,” or the slogan “love is love.” Slogans make for impoverished thinking. Love as some ill-defined passion may, indeed, equate with itself, but it isn’t necessarily good. Afterall, someone could love to cheat, to steal, to use pornography… Only God is good and only the biblical definition of love – that “while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom 5:8) – should be our guiding principle for the concern for others.
While the silent treatment some churches give to these challenges may derive from a superficial treatment of Scripture, or possibly even represents an ignorance as to our fundamental calling to be salt and light in the world (Matt 5:13-6) – to preserve what’s godly and expose what’s not – more likely, however, their “no comment” represents plain old cowardice, and betrays a fear of man. No one wants to offend others or be seen as harsh, but as the Bible makes clear, “The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe” (Prov 29:25). When we allow the fear of man to dominate our concerns, instead of the fear of the Lord, we are no longer trusting in God or believing that He reigns sovereign. Using our own wits and wisdom as a moral guide, we enter into tiger country, leaving ourselves wide open to temptation, compromise, and eternal destruction. Jesus warned not to fear man, but to fear God, “who can destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matt 10:28). And make no mistake, although trying to dance around LGBT controversy might provide some temporary side-stepping of conflict and maintenance of our charitable status-quo, in the end, this anemic approach will prove futile. LGBT activism is on the forward move. Just as the gay rights activists in Canada weren’t satisfied with merely Pierre Trudeau’s concession to decriminalize sodomy in 1969, so too, the LGBT activists won’t be satisfied with our present state of non-heterosexual affirmation and Pride celebration. They won’t stop until all obstacles have been completely removed from their steady forward advance into sexual depravity. The political sphere has already caved to their present demands, as has law, healthcare, arts and entertainment, media, business, and education. The church of Christ represents the final remaining bastion of truth and decency, and they’ve got us in their sights. As gay columnist Paul Varnell summarized, “The chief opposition to gay equality is religious. We may conduct our liberation efforts in the political sphere and even the cultural sphere, but always undergirding those and slowing our progress is the moral religious sphere. If we could hasten the pace of change there, our overall progress would accelerate – in fact, it would be assured.”[6] And assured it has become, in part, thanks to the silent church.
The response of some churches to affirm and celebrate the LGBT movement has led to a fundamental compromise of the gospel of Christ. Proponents maintain that the Bible is fallible, that it represents a book of its time, and that it isn’t particularly clear on the moral status of homosexuality. They assert the ancient sexual ethic of the Christian church is “irrelevant and offends moderns too much to be useful.” They hold that because the Bible was misused in the past to justify slavery and anti-Semitism, it can’t be regarded as a societal standard for contemporary human sexuality. Pastor Brian McLaren of the so-called Emerging Church stated, for example, that the beliefs of traditional evangelicals represent a “reactive, combative brand of religious fundamentalism that preoccupies itself with sexuality” and that “evangelicals who consider homosexuals sinners are really just looking for an enemy – a scapegoat.”[7] A flagrant example of gospel compromise would be the recent promotion of the so-called Sparkle Creed by a liberal Lutheran church.[8] This heretical mockery of the Apostle’s Creed refers to God to as “non-binary,” Jesus as having “two dads,” and the Holy Spirit as the “rainbow spirit” with the proclamation that “love is love is love, so beloved let us love.”
The Gay Gospel
In an attempt to reconcile pagan sexuality with the Christian worldview, gay advocates reinterpret Scripture to align with their autonomous desires. Treating the Bible as if it were some wax nose to be shaped any which way, they render homosexuality as simply another expression of God’s diversity in the created order to be celebrated. In their “fresh understanding of the Bible,” they propose that the sin of Sodom, for example (Gen 19), wasn’t in regards to homosexuality at all, but was about rape, inhospitality, or general wickedness, and the homosexuality cited in Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13 referred to prostitution or an idolatrous form of homosexuality. These proponents of the Gay Gospel suggest that when Jesus healed the centurion’s servant (who they suggest was “highly valued” because he was the soldier’s gay lover), that Jesus gave tacit approval of homosexuality. So, too, they consider the comments Jesus made about eunuchs (Matt 19:12) a favorable view of homosexuality, even though, of course, castration and sexual orientation are not at all one and the same. They go on to claim that Apostle Paul’s comment about “men abandoning natural relations” (Rom. 1:26) was in reference to heterosexuals who practice homosexuality, not born-that-way genuine homosexuals doing so. Their mistreatment of Scripture is a shameful attack on the integrity, sufficiency and authority of the Bible.[9] In essence, “they are turning to a different gospel – which is really no gospel at all… and are throwing people into confusion and trying to pervert the gospel of Christ” (Gal 16-7). Not surprisingly, their twisted and tortured exegesis has no credible scholarly support.[10]
The fruit of the Gay Gospel has been bitter. This watering down and distortion of the gospel has proven to be detrimental for the liberalized churches, dividing leadership, splitting congregations, impairing gospel witness, invalidating missional outreach, and decimating membership and church attendance. Homosexuality is a critical watershed issue of our time. By endorsing the LGBT movement, the church has accelerated its own steady and swift decline in the West.[11] Leading this decline has been the United Church of Canada (UCC), which ordained openly gay clergy as early as 1992. Over the decade prior to the 2005 legalization of same-sex marriage in Canada, the UCC provided liturgical covenants for same-sex couples, and then in 2012, elected an openly gay moderator. Once the largest Protestant denomination in the country, the UCC is now but a dying remnant, forced to sell off its church real estate in order to desperately keep afloat. Shrinking faster than any other denomination, the UCC lost over 40 percent of its affiliates in the past decade, with nationwide attendance declining to under 120,000 people, most of whom are elderly with no desire or means to move on.[12] The Anglican church of Canada has followed suit, both in their allegiance to the LGBT narrative, and with their resultant steep decline in parishioner base.[13] So too, the Lutheran Church in North America is also on the steep decline.[14] With the recent decision to bless same-sex couples, the Church of England isn’t likely very far behind this decline, either. And why should it be otherwise? As Greg Bahnsen wisely said, “When the church begins to look and act like society, there is no reason for its continued existence.”[15]
Previous: Reclaiming the Rainbow. Next: Responding with Grace & Truth
[1] “Guidelines for best practices: creating learning environments that respect diverse sexual orientations, gender identities and gender expressions, Government of Alberta, last modified January 1, 2016, https://open.alberta.ca/dataset/9781460126240.
[2] Homosexuality/heterosexuality: Concepts of sexual orientation. McWhirter, Sanders and Reinisch, eds., Oxford University Press, © 1996.
[3] https://teachers-ab.libguides.com/lgbtq/general
[4] The London Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689. https://www.chapellibrary.org/pdf
[5] https://www.huffpost.com/entry/president-jimmy-carter-bible-book_n_1349570
[6] Dallas, Joe. The Complete Guide to Understanding Homosexuality: a Biblical and Compassionate Response to Same-Sex Attraction. Harvest House Publishers ©2010. page 462.
[7] https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/themelios/article/why-evangelicals-should-ignore-brian-mclaren-how-the-new-testament-requires/
[8] https://washingtonstand.com/commentary/progressive-christians-can-now-confess-heresy-with-sparkle-creed
[9] Gilson, R. Born Again This Way. The Good Book Company © 2020.
[10] Dallas, Joe. The Gay Gospel: How Pro-Gay Advocates Misread the Bible, Harvest House © 2007.
[11] Jones, P. The God of Sex: How Spirituality Defines your Sexuality. Escondido, CA: Main Entry Editions ©2006.
[12] https://broadview.org/inside-united-church-decline/
[13] https://www.episcopalnewsservice.org/2022/12/14/anglican-church-of-canada-membership-fell-10-each-year-in-2020-and-2021-data-show/
[14] https://www.canadianlutheran.ca/decline-and-growth-a-look-at-the-lutheran-world-today/
[15] Bahnsen, G. L. Always: Directions for Defending the Faith. American Vision and Covenant Media. ©1996.
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John Cooper of the rock band Skillet returns to the podcast to discuss his forthcoming book, Wimpy, Weak and Woke. He explains how a spirit of entitlement and victimhood has pervaded Western society, with its philosophical roots in Hegel, the tragedy of Christians abandoning the truth of the Bible to capitulate to postmodern and politically correct assumptions, and offers a solution that begins at home, but grows outward to express the Kingdom of God in every area of life and society.
Get your tickets to the Mission of God conference in the UK, November 4, 2023, and in Canada, December 2 and 9, 2023.
Pre-order Wimpy, Weak and Woke from John Cooper’s website.
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The Origin of Race and Racism
It is an interesting challenge writing about Christianity versus racism because biblical faith does not recognize the modern conception of ‘race.’ As such, addressing the topic necessitates reframing of the subject within biblical presuppositions. Scripture surely does speak of tribes, peoples, and nations (Gen. 10-11; Rev. 7:9), but the word ‘race’ is not part of the lexicon of the New Testament nor the idea of ‘races’ part of the DNA of inspired revelation. In Scripture there is only one ‘race’ or blood in Adam (Acts 17:26), and so, although now greatly extended, there is ultimately only one human family – a fact vital to our theological understanding of the unity of all mankind in both our fallenness and potential inclusion within redeemed humanity in Jesus Christ, the last Adam (1 Cor. 15:21-28), our kinsman-redeemer (Is. 59:20). The gospel itself is at stake when we consider the root-unity of all humanity. It was this barrier-breaking message of the gospel of peace in the early church that overcame the old division, prejudice, and resentment obtaining between Jews and Gentiles (Eph. 2:11-22).
The ancient world into which the Christian church was birthed by the preaching of this gospel was in many respects remarkably cosmopolitan due to growing trade, increased mobility, and the expansion of Roman imperial power. Ancient peoples no doubt had their tribal and ethnic prejudices, but they tended to think of themselves in terms of religious and political collective identities rather than in the modern sense of ‘races,’ and certainly not in the ‘racial’ denominators of Mongoloid, Negroid and Caucasoid – a largely arbitrary European classification for the members of the human family.[i] Instead, religion was the defining factor for life and so at times, religious discrimination and prejudice were widespread.
The modern idea of ‘race relations’ emerged when, after some centuries of relative isolation during the Middle Ages, explorers among European nations began discovering hitherto unknown lands and peoples from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries onward. With the so-called Enlightenment and a growing exposure to foreign peoples, a race consciousness began to emerge in Europe, simultaneously developing a hierarchical pattern in which ethnic groups were arranged in order of superiority. This hierarchy was not confined to black, white and yellow ‘races;’ differences amongst Slavs, Jews, Europeans and even Anglo-Saxons were often referred to as ‘racial differences’ as well. Cultural differences in civilizational advancement, technological development, moral rectitude and refinement began to be seen not as the result or outworking of vital religious differences between peoples – resulting in the ‘opening’ or ‘closing’ of cultures to the reality of God’s law and kingdom – but as inherent, natural, or even God-ordained limitations within a biological type.
This way of thinking was given a massive boost in the nineteenth century with the evolutionary speculations of Charles Darwin – an inherently racist theory in which ‘races’ of people were thought to have evolved at different times and rates. This implied some people were closer to and much more like their apelike progenitors than others. Australian Aborigines, for example, were classified by some as ‘missing links’ between pre-hominid ancestors and modern humans. The noted evolutionist Stephen Jay Gould has admitted, “Biological arguments for racism may have been common before 1859, but they increased by orders of magnitude following the acceptance of evolutionary theory.”[ii] This Enlightenment movement from a theological understanding of humanity to a ‘scientific’ one is highly significant:
In the modern era, as Christianity’s influence receded and science began to govern together with humanism, biology came to predominate over theology. The differences between men were seen increasingly as biological and racial rather than religious…the theory of evolution fueled this developing scientific racism…. The human race was no longer the human race! It was a collection of possibly human races, a very different doctrine.[iii]
So, while ethnic prejudice is as old as humanity, ‘racism’ as a category of thought is a distinctly modern notion in the Western world. It is characterized by specific ideas of superiority and inferiority and correlated to behavioural practices involving domination and subordination on the basis of particular recognizable external features. When this kind of thinking, whether arising religiously or ‘scientifically,’ gets embedded in societal norms or institutions, ‘racism’ can take on a socio-political reality and result in various forms of discrimination in human societies.
It was, for example, paler-skinned outside invaders who brought Hinduism (Brahminism) to India. Unsurprisingly, the Brahmin (priestly) upper caste in Hindu society are typically much paler-skinned, while the lowest caste ‘untouchables’ are the darker-skinned descendants of the indigenous defeated population. The vile caste system has a religious root in the Hindu conception of the divine and at the cultural level keeps a class of people in perpetual servitude. Similar examples abound from across the world. In Japan, around the time of World War II, doctrines of Japanese racial superiority blended effectively with evolutionary thought and were widely propagated, leading to great cruelty – the hairy long-armed Europeans were thought closer to apes. The Yamato people, in particular, considered themselves a superior race, and others were brutalized and discriminated against as a result. In Europe, a notorious and murderous ideology arose in Nazi Germany around a romanticised and mythic notion of an Aryan line of racial purity to be recovered and selectively ‘bred’ to facilitate the emergence of a superior race. Blending with evolutionary ideas, this folk religion of blood and soil required the ‘purification’ of Germanic stock and greater segregated ‘living space’ at the expense of Slavic peoples, Jews, and all people of colour. In the United States, “Jim Crow” laws in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were introduced because black Americans were considered inferior to whites. Miscegenation laws were also enacted in many Southern and Western states, forbidding ‘interracial’ marriages– typically these involved laws prohibiting marriages between whites and blacks, Asians, or native American Indians. In a similar vein, the eugenics program in America and the work of Planned Parenthood led by race ideologues like Margaret Sanger viewed Italians and Jews, not just blacks, as inferior undesirables to be targeted for abortion and sterilization.[iv]
Tragically, some Christians, lacking a clear scriptural understanding, have all too easily been caught up in cultural attitudes of superiority rooted in some form of race biology. Charles Kingsley, for example, was a clergyman and one of Darwin’s close friends. He was an avid promoter of Darwinian ideas and wanted them synthesized with Christianity. Kingsley wrote:
The black people of Australia, exactly the same race as the African Negro, cannot take in the Gospel…all attempts to bring them to a knowledge of the true God have as yet failed utterly…poor brutes in human shape…they must perish off the face of the earth like brute beasts.[v]
It is clear then that much of this virulent prejudice, including the attitudes of domination or superiority, was based not just in fear of the unknown but in rationalistic assumptions and, as we have noted, false understandings of human origins. Despite the perennial appeal for intellectuals in East and West of an idea of hierarchy in nature leading to a hierarchy of peoples – whereby Aristotle held some people were slaves by nature – biblical Christianity rejects any notion of superiority and subordination of one people to another based in physical, biological, or so-called ‘racial’ characteristics and asserts that no people or culture is free from grievous sin in past and present.
The Cultural and Philosophical Context of Contemporary ‘Racial’ Tension
When it comes to the present social fixation with ‘racism,’ context is very important. The Western world is currently in a profound state of crisis. As Christian conviction and a biblical worldview has eroded leaving a deep sense of spiritual uprootedness, a loss of cultural identity has quickly ensued. Having been deliberately demoralized and de-Christianized through a process of indoctrination and social subversion, the ideology of ‘multiculturalism’ or ‘pluralism’ has been invoked to offer a new identity and sense of belonging. The problem is that it hasn’t worked. Multiculturalism and religious pluralism as ideology under the supervision and endorsement of the secular state have utterly failed and instead of harmony, radical divisions are emerging everywhere.[vi] As culturally very different peoples are forced to integrate through technocratic social engineering, including near-unrestricted legal or mass illegal immigration, tensions are reaching boiling point. The migrant crisis in both America and Europe is very real, stoking both frustration and resentment.[vii] Pointing out the self-destructive urge involved in such immigration practices gets one labelled a ‘racist.’ Yet ‘race riots’ have frequently broken out across Europe and America,[viii] whilst serious prejudice and hatred between the Black and Asian communities in Britain as well as between Indians and Pakistani’s are commonplace; here the problems of the Indian subcontinent are simply exported to the United Kingdom.[ix] This resentment is exacerbated by the political meaning of multiculturalism summed up perfectly by Thomas Sowell: “What multiculturalism boils down to is that you can praise any culture in the world except Western culture – and you cannot blame any culture in the world except Western culture.”[x] This ‘progressive’ agenda is utter folly because it is directed at the evident superiority of Western culture for at least four centuries. However, that undeniable advancement and superiority (now in rapid decline) is not rooted in biological facts, but values, beliefs, and common faith – in short, religion.
The socio-political landscape of multiculturalism provides the backdrop for this even deeper problem: the crisis of meaning at the centre of Western thought. When the meaning and thereby ordering of life shifts from centredness in Jesus Christ, the triune God, and his Word, it is inevitably sought elsewhere and because all such meaning is an imitation, a counterfeit, it will inevitably fail. One vital aspect of the question of meaning since the beginning of philosophical inquiry has been the source and ground of unity in diversity. It is this problem, expressed at the religious and cultural level, which lies at the root of the West’s social travails – including ‘racism.’
Finding unity in diversity is a question for every nation and culture. What can provide the unity to bind societies together? Central to the answer is shared meaning and purpose. As a shared meaning declines, movements for devolution or separation become commonplace. As Christianity has collapsed in Scotland, the Celtic ethnic heritage and sympathies with republicanism have replaced it, stoking a powerful Scottish Nationalist movement. In de-Christianizing Canada, French language and identity perennially feed an independence movement in the province of Quebec. The root and source of meaning for any society is inherently teleological and eschatological – that is, it involves purpose and direction or fulfilment – its movement is toward the source of ultimate meaning and cohesion, which is an inescapably religious matter. So long as the West refuses to acknowledge and grapple with the central religious dimension of shared meaning, value, and purpose in society, it will neither understand nor be able to overcome the present problem of ‘racism.’
The tension between peoples living in the West is further complicated today because it is now caught up in a three-way eschatological-meaning conflict between utopian/globalist-Marxian and ethno-nationalistic views of society over against that of the gospel of the kingdom in and through Jesus Christ. Having been variously influenced by faulty Enlightenment and Marxian conceptions of ‘race,’ ethnic origins and hierarchy, both competing groups, falling short of the truly Christian answer, propose a false solution to the difficulties. On the Marxian side Critical Race Theorists (CRT) presently dominate the political landscape who believe that only by permanent revolution against the white oppressor can we move toward the vanishing horizon of so-called ‘racial justice.’
On the growing ethno-nationalistic side, reacting to the false gospel of Marxism, advocates have their own socio-political solution to the tensions involving a need for greater ‘race consciousness’ (whether in the language of ethnicity or nation) and some measure of ethnic segregation. On this view, a careful study of nature’s law by reason is said to reveal inherent distinctions between ‘races’ or ethnicities – differences also grasped intuitively by our natural instincts regarding kith and kin to be acknowledged and applied socio-politically. This can take an Aristotelian form rooted in ancient conceptions of Natural Law, social order and custom or an evolutionary and Darwinian form rooted in biology and heredity.[xi] Ethnocentric nationalists tend to have a primordial view[xii] of identity in which your ‘race’ (blood) and ‘place’ (socio-cultural heredity) is at the centre of defining who you are – the romantic call of blood and soil – whilst Critical Theorists subscribe to a constructionist view of ‘race’ as a real but culturally invented social category used to exploit and oppress people.[xiii] The primordial nationalists tend toward absolutizing ethnic particularity (diversity) for truly living well, whilst the Marxian globalists tend toward absolutizing universality (unity), where all distinctions must be levelled and discarded. In forthcoming installments of this blog I will describe the CRT and primordial nationalist movements, demonstrating how both poles hold only a partial truth and are consequently errors.
[i] James F. Childress and John Macquarrie (ed.) The Westminster Dictionary of Christian Ethics (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1986), 523
[ii] S.J. Gould, Ontogeny and Phylogeny, (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap-Harvard Press, 1977), 127–128.
[iii] R. J. Rushdoony, An Informed Faith: The Position Papers of R.J. Rushdoony, Vol. 1 Christianity & Reconstruction (Vallecito, CA: Ross House Books, 2017), 21.
[iv] See Richard Weikart, From Darwin to Hitler: Evolutionary Ethics, Eugenics, and Racism in Germany (New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2004).
[v] Charles Kingsley, cited in Wieland, One Human Family, 30-31.
[vi] See acknowledgement of the crisis here: https://www.ft.com/content/dd122a8c-8720-11e7-8bb1-5ba57d47eff7 accessed September, 2023.
[vii] See: https://www.gbnews.com/news/us/massachusetts-national-guard-migrant-crisis-emergency
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/09/13/germany-refuses-more-eu-migrants-boats-queue-italian-docks/ accessed September, 2023
[viii] See: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/7/8/paris-memorial-march-banned-as-fresh-protests-planned-in-france and in the USA: https://www.foxnews.com/us/protests-riots-nationwide-america-2020 accessed September, 2023
[ix] See: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/leicester-riots-hindu-muslim-violence-b2173293.html Note the anti-Asian sentiment in these protests: https://thecritic.co.uk/peckham-protests-and-parasitic-merchants/ accessed September, 2023.
[x] Thomas Sowell, ‘Random Thoughts,’ Jewish World Review, 12 September 2002, cited in Wieland, One Human Family, 316.
[xi] For example, see, J. Philippe, Race, Evolution and Behavior: A Life History Perspective (Port Huron, MI: Charles Darwin Research Institute, 2000).
[xii] Primordialism is the idea that nations or ethnic identities are fixed, natural, and ancient. On this view, each individual has a single inborn ethnic identity independent of historical processes. Ethnicity is viewed as embedded in inherited biological attributes, a long history of practicing cultural differences, or a combination of both.
[xiii] Race Constructionists argue that ‘races’ are social rather than natural groups. Critical Race Theories posit on this basis that ‘racial justice’ requires us to recognize the mechanisms of ‘racial formation’ to subvert the present racial order and liberate the oppressed.
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In the wake of the recent attack on Israel by Hamas, and the Israeli response, we consider the religious roots of anti-Semitism and conflict with Israel. We also discuss the eschatological goal of Islam to conquer the earth, and the difference between a reformational approach and the historic doctrinal assumptions and commitments towards Israel from dispensational theology.
Learn more about the Christian response to the Islamic worldview in Joe Boot’s book, Gospel Witness.
Register for the upcoming Mission of God conferences in the UK and Canada.
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The Canadian government’s passage of legislation such as Bills C-11, C-18, and C-36 is beginning to bear fruit, in the form of increasingly invasive censorship policies levied on content platforms. All civilizations practice censorship, making decisions for the type of material that is suitable for public viewing; the difference is in the standard of judging and how it is applied. We should not be afraid of truth, even when it offends our own sensibilities. Rather, the testing of our opinions and assumptions against competing claims is a primary means for us to grow in knowledge and understanding.
UK and European friends, join us and Christian Concern for the Mission of God UK conference, on November 4 in Daventry.
North Americans, please join us in either Windsor or Calgary for the Mission of God Canada, on December 2 and 9.
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We’ve seen a lot of new listeners to the show in the past few months, and a warm welcome to all of you! In this episode, Joe Boot, Ryan Eras, and Nate Wright discuss how and why the Ezra Institute began, the issues and activities that we engage in, and what we’re doing next.
Get tickets to our upcoming Mission of God Canada conferences in Windsor, Ontario, and Calgary, Alberta.
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In this series of short essays, Dr. Ted Fenske offers a grace-filled prescription for how God’s people ought to respond to the cultural, ideological, religious, and medical challenges of the LGBT movement to the gospel of Jesus Christ.
As a symbol representing “the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth” (Gen. 9:16), the rainbow is a magnificent one. The glowing prismatic display arching across the sky is breathtaking to behold, and particularly after a vicious storm. I recall one such spectacle when I was a child. Unaware we were in Tornado Alley, my family stopped to visit a fair in Bemidji, Minnesota. Our tilt-a-whirl ride was prematurely brought to an abrupt halt due to a flash downpour, forcing my siblings and I to take cover in our family camper. We watched, stunned, as the sky turned dark grey and then a surreal turquoise green, while the rain pelted loud on the tin roof and gale-force winds rocked our little trailer back and forth. Just as we feared we might all be blown over and away, the storm suddenly stopped, and the sun came out bright and warm. And with it, a stunning rainbow appeared set against the purple-black sky of the receding storm. It was as the 18th-century poet, Charles Lamb aptly expressed, “After the tempest in the sky/ how sweet yon rainbow to the eye!”[1]
Although secularized over the years to signify dreamy pot-o-gold optimism or new beginnings Somewhere over the Rainbow, it wasn’t until the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Parade celebration in 1978 that the rainbow symbol was co-opted by the non-heterosexual lobby group. In 1994, commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Greenwich Village Stonewall riots of 1969, the rainbow flag was internationally established as the symbol for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) cultural movement. As the abbreviation has expanded to 2SLGBTQi (adding the 2S aboriginal two-spirited to the beginning of the older contraction, and Qi denoting queer and intersex at the end), so too, has the spread of the rainbow. These days, rainbow flags seem ubiquitous, flying not just at gay rallies, or during Pride summer, but all year round and in all places, including schools, public libraries, businesses, and even draped over the chancels of some liberalized churches. Reminiscent of National Socialism in Germany with the widespread parading of swastika flags in the public square (churches included), the Pride Flag invasion is nothing less than a foisting of an ideology diametrically opposed to the Creator of the universe and his covenantal promises. It’s a distorted rainbow revolution, pridefully boasting of what God condemns.
A Christian response to our culture’s embrace of all things LGBT is rife with challenges, both on the political front, as we attempt to winsomely defend biblical truth in the public sphere, and on the home front, as we walk alongside and attempt to provide gentle counsel to those struggling with their sexual identity in our personal circle. The LGBT movement has targeted Christianity and is intentionally and systematically deconstructing family, marriage, parenthood, and gender. It’s a daunting opposition to face, particularly since it demands not only passive tolerance, but complete and active acceptance and even celebration. And these demands aren’t merely idle threats. With the passing of the so-called Conversion Therapy Bill C-4,[2] there is in Canada a present risk of imprisonment for those who are deemed to have ‘offended.’ From faithful corporate preaching of the Word, to compassionate counsel, and even private family discussions, Bill C-4 is poised to criminalize Christian communication, including the Great Commission’s call to gospel witness. With this bill, LGBT activists have effectively silenced concerned opposition, and as a result, threaten to rescind our hard-won freedom of speech. The ambition of this series of essays is to discuss these challenges, and provide an approach to how we might effectively communicate our concerns to a growing anti-Christian culture. My hope is to provide the necessary equipping for the Christian community to not only meet this formidable challenge, but to recognize in the process opportunities for gospel witness and favor.
The LGBT movement represents the logical outworking of the me-focussed sexual revolution of the 1960s, and parallels the rise in demand for personal autonomy – to be a law unto ourselves and “be as God” (Gen 3:5). At its core, the movement is grounded on an anti-Christian worldview, steeped in pagan ideology, with roots in the fertility cults of antiquity. Like the tip of an iceberg, the immoral sexual behaviors promoted by LGBT activists represent the visible surface-level aspects of a much larger underlying worldview, which directly challenges the biblical sexual ethic. The celebration of non-heterosexual expression is in line with Plato’s Symposium, where the love of a man for a woman is considered the base and “lower form of love,” whereas the love of a man for a man a “heavenly and higher love.”[3] Such ideas have consequences, which permeate every aspect of culture, including the social, political, medical, psychological, moral, and spiritual landscape of our society. As explained by Dr. Peter Jones in his book Whose Rainbow? the decline in Christianity and rise in personal autonomy necessarily produces paganism. He comments, “Homosexuality is presented as part of a blossoming Western defence of civil and human rights and as an essential and beneficial building block of a progressive moral agenda… but it is not civil rights. It is the abandonment of theism in the last two generations of Western history, and the embrace of the spirituality of Eastern paganism.”[4]
Biblical Sexual Ethic
To better appreciate the stark contrast between the Christian sexual ethic and the LGBT movement, a head-to-head comparison is instructive. To think Christianly about sex we need to begin not with the contemporary sensibilities of our society, nor with what might seem reasonable to us and how we feel, but with the transcendent words of Holy Scripture, which represent the authoritative foundation for our understanding of sexuality and sexual behaviour. Three important points to keep in mind are the following:
First, the biblical sexual ethic mirrors God’s nature, including his creativity. God’s act of creation involved the separation of light from darkness, land from water, day from night, and woman from man. Our sexuality is grounded in God’s creational design of humankind’s binary reality, created in the image of God, “male and female he created them” (Gen 1:27). Jesus emphasized this sacred distinction when responding to his testing by the Pharisees on the matter of divorce, saying, “at the beginning the Creator made them male and female… for this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh… therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate” (Matt 19:4-6). Right down to the DNA blueprint of every individual cell in our bodies (with very rare genetic-error exceptions), our sex chromosomes read either 46XY for male or 46XX for female.[5] There is no rational denial of this iron-clad fact. And this is for good reason, since only within this biological reality of man and woman can humankind reproduce. From a biological standpoint, sex is about babies. Fundamental to our sexuality is the central role of procreation – God’s invitation to us to participate in the mystery of creation. “Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from him” (Psalm 127:3), and we have been called to “be fruitful and multiply” (Gen 1:28). Infertility is the product of the Fall and an unfortunate exception that proves this rule.
Second, our sexuality reflects God’s covenantal love. God is personal in his relational Trinitarian reality, and our sexuality is to be personal as well, protected within the covenantal relationship of marriage between one man and one woman. While spouses don’t complete each other (since each is already complete in Christ), they are to, nonetheless, complement one another, and in so doing, reflect a fuller image of God than either can alone (Gen 2:18). Since God is triune – three in one, Father, Son and Holy Spirit – and created us for fellowship and intimate relationship, sex is intended to be not only an intimate physical act, but a covenantal spiritual union. As they “become one flesh” (Gen 2:24), husband and wife reflect the very mystery of the Trinity. While each spouse retains their individual sacred distinction, as they join together in marriage, they become one inseparable and holy functional unit, husband and wife. And when held fast by the power of the Holy Spirit, as King Solomon reflected, “a cord of three strands is not easily broken (Eccl. 4:12).
Third, our sexuality mirrors God’s sacrificial and sacred nature. Since we are created in his image, our sexuality and sexual behaviour have been designed as one way we can reflect his reality to the rest of creation. Sex within the marriage covenant is to be self-giving, and so functions as a central metaphor for Christ’s sacrificial love for the Church. As Apostle Paul exhorted, “as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands,” and likewise, husbands are to “love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.” (Eph 5:24-5). As understood in biblical terms, sex is to be held sacred, and to represent nothing less than a God-ordained holy union. Christ redeemed our sexuality by placing it within the protection of monogamous heterosexual covenantal relationship. As a result, “Marriage should be honoured by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral” (Heb 13:4). The biblical boundaries around sexual expression are for our flourishing. These protections not only allow for the strengthening of the marriage bond, but they provide clarity about the nature of healthy relationships outside of marriage. Rather than being constricting, as Rebecca McLaughlin explains, God’s boundaries “give us great freedom to pursue nonsexual intimacy.” Since sex is only to be experienced within the covenantal marriage relationship of man and wife, all other relationships are, by definition, nonsexual, and can be developed and celebrated on that level, same-sex relationships included. In summary, God blesses only two sexual lifestyles: heterosexual monogamy between one man and one woman within the confines of marriage, and chastity. Sexual behaviour outside of these two forms is not appropriate for the follower of Christ.
NEXT: The LGBT Narrative
[1] Charles Lamb, “The Rainbow,” Poetry.com, last modified 2023.
[2] “Bill C-4: An Act to amend the Criminal Code (conversion therapy),” Government of Canada, last modified December 8, 2021, https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/csj-sjc/pl/charter-charte/c4_1.html.
[3] Plato, The Symposium, trans. Christopher Gill (London: Penguin Classics, 2003).
[4] Peter Jones, Whose Rainbow? God’s Gift of Sexuality: A Divine Calling (Grimsby, ON: Ezra Press, 2020).
[5] The number/letter designation here refers to the 23 pairs of human chromosomes, which carry DNA, 46 in total, divided into 22 numbered autosomal pairs and one pair of sex chromosomes, X and Y; where one chromosome comes from each parent to make a pair.
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Pastor and author Paul Dirks discusses his forthcoming book, Deep Discipleship for Dark Days, and explains why the time is ripe for Christians to embark on building healthy, godly families, churches, schools, and communities. Paul discusses how he perceived the need for this book at such a time as this, and lays out the scriptural rationale for whether rapid societal changes come from the political, natural, technological, or biological spheres, all such historical occurrences urge us to live in such a way that we are ready with a faithful response. A constant, general preparedness, and a particular discerning of the times (1 Chr 12:32) are interconnected.
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Michael Thiessen discusses the recent Crown decision to withdraw charges against Alberta pastors James Coates and Tim Stephens, as well as some other pending legal cases on the question of the relation of church and state. The cases represent victories, but Mike explains why much more advocacy needs to be done at the constitutional level to bring a truly meaningful level of legal protection for religious freedom in Canada.
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Ezra Institute Fellow Ted Fenske joins us to talk about the role of the Christian in medicine. As a veteran cardiologist, Dr. Fenske recalls his medical internship during the 1980s AIDS epidemic, and offers wisdom based on hard experience in ministering faithfully to LGBT patients.
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We conclude the conversation begun last week about Christian character, and examine biblical figures to discuss several more dichotomies of virtuous versus vicious character traits that Christians must be actively developing.
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In this episode Joe Boot draws examples from contemporary life on the importance of Christian character, and what happens when this is neglected by those in leadership. Joe touches on his time working with Ravi Zacharias International Ministries, Justin Trudeau’s separation from his wife and begins to look at opposing pairs of virtues and vices that are exhibited by biblical figures given for our example.
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In this episode, we speak with equipping evangelist Cory McKenna of The Cross Current, to review how the last three years of lockdowns and isolation have affected the work of relational ministry, the centrality of the local church, the work of discipling those who have not grown up in the church, and the spiritual hunger that people have felt in a season where we have been told to fear and avoid our neighbour.
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In this video Joe Boot explains the difference between the Christian and the unbelieving mind: To think Christianly is not to think about church-related things, but to think about all things in a way that understands Christ as the foundation of all knowledge.
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In this episode of the Podcast for Cultural Reformation, we’re joined by Richard Fangrad of Creation Ministries International as we continue our series on issues facing the church. This week’s issue is theistic evolution. Richard explains what the theory is, where it came from, and what is at stake in the evolutionary debate. As we’ll see, our source of authority has real-life implications for the doctrine of God, the nature of man, ethics, worship, and much more.
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In this episode, faculty answer questions from students at the Worldview Leadership Academy. We deal with the charge of Christianity’s closed-mindedness, whether you can idolize the Bible, apologetics and evangelism, lying to the Nazis, whether you can lose your salvation, and more. Audio quality improves around the 15-minute mark!
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Michael Thiessen of Liberty Coalition Canada joins us to discuss the latest developments in the ongoing saga of the church’s relationship to LGBT issues, and the further complication of what happens when the state gets involved. We deal with the proper use of legal process as Christians, news stories, citizenship, charity law, and the prophetic calling of the church.
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This week’s podcast guest is Dr. Aaron Edwards. Dr. Edwards was forced out of his teaching position for supporting biblical sexuality on social media. He describes his experience, and examines the failure amongst evangelicalism to speak prophetically and biblically on key cultural issues.
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Leaning heavily on the thought of ancient Greek philosophers, H.G. Wells in his 1905 novel, A Modern Utopia, sets out his eschatological views as a rational plan for the future. Though couched in a story, the book is really a philosophical discourse extolling the virtue of a world ruled by a small elite class. For Wells, history will culminate in the realization of a world-state as one vast economic zone in whose hands all force and natural resources would be vested. The ‘undying organism’ of the world-state would be the sole landowner of the earth and the only producer of energy, yet the vast majority of people would still be happy! The miserable resistors would be exiled to isolated islands. In this ideal world, manual work would gradually disappear with the help of machine technology in every aspect of life; women would be sexually liberated; eating meat would be abolished; and cradle-to-grave welfare would be provided for all. The goal is leisure and pleasure in a labour-free world:
The World State in this ideal presents itself as the sole landowner of the earth, with the great local governments I have adumbrated…The State or these subordinates holds all the sources of energy, and either directly or through its tenants, farmers and agents, develops these sources, and renders the energy available for the work of life. It or its tenants will produce food, and so human energy, and the exploitation of coal and electric power, and the powers of wind and wave and water will be within its right. It will pour out this energy by assignment and lease… it will maintain order, maintain roads, maintain a cheap and efficient administration of justice, maintain cheap and rapid locomotion and be the common carrier of the planet, convey and distribute labour, control, let, or administer all natural productions, pay for and ensure all healthy births and a healthy and vigorous new generation, maintain the public health, coin money and sustain standards of measurement, subsidize research, and reward such commercially unprofitable undertakings as benefit the community as a whole; subsidize when needful chairs of criticism and authors and publications, and collect and distribute information. The energy developed and employment afforded by the State will descend like water…[1]
In some respects, these are laughable imaginations in the wake of two World Wars and the National Socialist and Communist terror that followed its original publication, yet Wells’ novel has nonetheless been hailed for decades by progressive intellectuals as the most plausible utopia ever written and a blueprint for the modern welfare state. In the post-Covid lockdown era and age of climate hysteria, it is even easier than before to recognize how contemporary these goals sound in the social democracies of the West and amongst the globalist planners. Indeed, much of what Wells imagined has been attempted over the past hundred years of our history. The massive growth of the welfare state; explosion of a regulatory bureaucracy; public ownership or state intervention in banks and industry; the growing control and manipulation of energy production; socialized medicine; state counterfeiting of fiat currency (quantitative easing); ensuring ‘public health;’ control and censorship in the distribution of information; the control of media; state education; the subsidizing of research desired by the state; the so-called liberation of women, and so forth. All this is being attempted and needs to be paid for. Remarkably, Wells anticipates the need for people to be permitted some property to use and trade but emphasizes there will be a ‘universal maximum’ of individual freedom – it all sounds remarkably current and familiar.
Ancient or modern, the eschatology of pagan thought involves history culminating with a counterfeit ‘eternal security’ provided by a god-like State which will deliver humanity from the twin burdens of work and freedom. The meaning of history is then the realization of an essentially static order of sustainability in a cosmic-sized welfare program. But as Hendrik van Riessen grasped during the emergence and growth of the modern welfare states of the West:
Now that the ideal is being put into practice, it is evident that nothing is behind it; the “happy society” – the welfare state – is in itself meaningless. Its meaninglessness is revealed by its very stability. For the fundamental meaning of all that exists is its dependence and dynamic concentration on the origin of all meaning, and this radical unrest disturbs any stability. No enduring situation exists on the way to death, or for that matter on the way to life. To the degree that the ideal of science is more fully actualized, the feeling grows that all is vanity, meaningless. If a person rejects God’s law, eventually he will no longer see any guiding principles or perspectives. He will become a nihilist. [2]
The insight here is profound. If your worldview is faulty, if meaning is sought in the hope of imposing stability on an impersonal reality rather than in the dynamic dependence of all things upon Christ as the centre and concentration point of all meaning (John 1:1-5; Col. 1:15-20), then the failure of human technique to halt history or provide an artificial stability foreign to the nature of creation will produce only despair and feelings of hopelessness. Few things could be clearer than the fact that dread and hopelessness clings to this generation like mist in the morning hours.
Because the triune God is totally personal, not only are His image-bearers fully personal, but history itself, along with all else in creation, is part of a dynamic environment having personal significance. Just as everything in our homes is personal to us (each picture, piece of furniture, or child’s toy), because it represents an event, decision, or moment in our lives as persons, so all things are personal relative to God as their creator, governor and sustainer (Col. 1:17). There is no aspect of creation or history that is hidden or alien, standing in impersonal relation to God. In this changing world that moves in terms of the eternal purposes of God, Jesus Christ clearly assures us, “Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered” (Matt. 10:29-30). This universe of total meaning under the all-wise providence of a personal and relational God is the antithesis of the nihilistic world of the scientific social planners for whom the arbitrary Word of man in the state must become a word of totalizing power and authority.
[1] H. G. Wells, A Modern Utopia (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1967), 89-90.
[2] Hendrik van Riessen, The Society of the Future (Holland: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing, 1957), 63.
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Ezra Institute Fellow for Biblical Economics, Graeme Leach, joins us on this week’s podcast episode to discuss the phenomenon of Christians advocating for historically socialist and Marxist economic policies. Many Christians have had their economic views informed by the world rather than the Word of God, and Graeme explains how (at least) two of the ten commandments are completely incompatible with a Marxist or a Keynesian economic worldview.
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Ezra Institute Fellow Andrew Sandlin discusses his book, A Postmillennial Primer. In this episode, Andrew and Joe Boot outline the biblical case for an optimistic eschatology and the historical and ideological events that led to this doctrine’s present position as a minority perspective in evangelicalism. In dependence on the Holy Spirit and through an attentive reading of Scripture, Christians should expect that Christ will continue to establish His kingdom on earth and drive back sin, death, and the devil.
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Joe Boot and Nate Wright are back again to answer a few lingering questions resulting from the Ten Commandments podcast series. In this episode we consider how the earliest humans married and reproduced, compared with later Mosaic incest laws. We also tackle questions on how the church and the individual ought to think and act with regard to charitable status, tax exemption, and the administration of tithes and offerings.
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The notion of dying well has a certain appeal. As translated from the Greek words eu and thanatos,as good death, euthanasia would seem like something we would all want. As children, my friends and I would sometimes ask each other how we would wish to die. No one said, “burned alive” or “drowned at sea” or “electrocuted.” And aside from my quip, “to be pulled apart by lions,” offered up in jest, everyone unanimously agreed that dying peacefully in one’s sleep, at the end of a long life, was the preferred way to go. Now, with the expanded euthanasia laws in Canada, such a controlled ending is well within reach. And why should that be a problem either for ourselves or for others to choose? What’s the big deal if we simply live and let die? Certainly, as represented by its advocates, euthanasia sounds innocuous enough. Its portrayal even seems tempting: to time your exit in a controlled fashion, mentally prepared and emotionally composed, while planning it to occur, say, after you eat a special meal over a glass of vintage Cabernet Sauvignon, and play that favorite song one last time with the opportunity to say your heartfelt goodbyes to those family and friends of your assembled choosing. And just as the intravenous line gets opened up and the deadly concoction moves its way to take your life, you articulate your well-crafted last words… and then… drip, drip, drip… you’re done. C’est fini! Everyone in the room weeps and agrees how “really nice” a person you were, and like the dramatic departure of the hero or heroine at the finale of a classic silver screen gem, the curtain drops, and all applaud a life well-lived, right to the very end. Who wouldn’t want such a poetic finish? Of course, for those of us who claim to hold a biblical worldview and follow Jesus, there is that rub about the sanctity of human life, and that bit about “The Lord bringing death and making alive; and bringing down to the grave and raising up” (1 Sam 2:6), and also that “a man’s life is not his own; nor is it for man to direct his steps” (Jer. 10:23) … as well as numerous other biblical exhortations unequivocally proscribing euthanasia. So, with the Gospel in mind, and in light of the normalization of doctor-assisted suicide in our culture, what’s a Christian to think or do?
As a clinical cardiologist working in a downtown tertiary care centre, I’ve seen a lot of dying and death. End-of-life has always presented certain challenges for both patients and their caregivers. From the day-to-day logistics of coping with loss of independence and capacity, to managing ongoing symptoms of discomfort or shortness of breath, to the existential struggles of considering life’s meaning and purpose as years dwindle to days and hours, dying isn’t an easy thing to do, nor watch others do, particularly when it’s a loved one. And yet, the challenges posed at the end-of-life have become all the more complex in our current era of euthanasia-on-demand. The readily accessible option of choosing the timing, setting and mode of one’s death has forever changed the landscape of the deathbed. The ambition of this essay is to critique the common arguments used to promote doctor-assisted suicide in light of the Gospel of Christ, and emphasize the importance of having a separate two-pronged response to this issue: one to challenge those who advocate for euthanasia; and one to gently come alongside those who are considering such an option for themselves. My hope is to provide the necessary equipping for the Christian community to not only meet this daunting challenge, but to be emboldened to seek out such opportunities for Gospel witness and favor.
I well recall the debates leading up to the legalization of doctor-assisted suicide in our country. In 2014, the Canadian Medical Association arranged a series of townhall meetings live-streamed across Canada. There were on-line discussion boards designed to promote public discourse on the topic of end-of-life care, and address the “terminology and nuances in this complex and emotional area.”[1] I was involved in the Edmonton gatherings, where medical personnel and members of the public were given equal opportunity to share their thoughts and apprehensions on an open microphone. Although medical culture has since shifted leftward, at that time, I wasn’t alone in standing against euthanasia. Numerous well-spoken physicians took their turn at the mic, clearly articulating their concerns about adopting such a diametrically opposed, non-medical practice in medicine. Making use of the traditional Hippocratic Oath[2] as their base – that doctors should “neither give a deadly drug to a person if asked for it, nor make a suggestion to this effect” – cogent arguments were raised detailing the moral trespass of doctor-assisted suicide. Others explained that there was no need for resorting to euthanasia to ease a patient’s suffering. They stated that we’ve never been in a better position to expertly parry disease and provide compassionate care for the dying, nor have we had more effective means of pain control than what is currently available in Canadian hospitals today. Still others warned about the dangers of opening such a Pandora’s box. Slippery slope arguments were put forward, and cautions were clearly stated, explaining how the incorporation of euthanasia into the practice of medicine would not only compromise the trust required for sound doctor-patient relationships, but put vulnerable members of our society at risk, including the elderly, disabled, and destitute. In countering these concerns, however, members of the public overwhelmingly hijacked the discussion by either sharing emotive stories of loved ones dying difficult and painful deaths, or parroting the media reports of the day, confident that numerous safeguards would be in place to prevent abuse of euthanasia, and that it would be reserved for only terminally ill patients suffering from extreme pain.
Less than a decade later and here we are, euthanasia-on-demand, the sixth-leading cause of death in our country. Since the unanimous Supreme Court of Canada decision in February 2015 to remove euthanasia from the criminal code for “grievous illness and irremediable suffering,”[3] the end-of-life landscape has continued to change. The utilization of MAiD (medical assistance in dying) has steadily climbed with each passing year, particularly so during the shutdowns and isolation of COVID-19. Of the 30,000 Canadians who have received assisted suicide since the its legalization in our country, the majority – representing some of our most vulnerable citizens – were given their fatal injection during the pandemic, receiving death over compassionate care.[4] To underscore the scale of our growing euthanasia program, the State of California, which legalized euthanasia at a similar time to Canada and has roughly the same population as Canada, had 486 deaths from euthanasia in 2021, in contrast to our 10,064![5] As it turned out, the pandemic served as the perfect distraction to expand the eligibility criteria for euthanasia with minimal opposition. With all attention drawn to COVID case number reporting, little bandwidth was left to push back on the advancement of this liberal agenda. Despite the steady increase in euthanasia deaths in Canada,[6] as well as the staggering number of suicides occurring during the pandemic from existential suffering,[7] the government pushed ahead to broaden the indications for MAiD under the pandemic cloak. As Winston Churchill said, “Never let a good crisis go to waste.” So, despite the myriad problems created by the handling of the pandemic in our nation, our newly elected Liberal government snapped into action by ignoring them all, and instead made expanding euthanasia a top priority.
In March 2021, the landmark Bill C-7 removed the foreseeable death clause from the original legislation – that a person’s natural death must be reasonably foreseeable to qualify for MAiD – allowing people who are not dying to be considered eligible for death by lethal injection.[8] As a result, now not being limited to end-of-life, euthanasia eligibility has been extended to include persons with any non-terminal chronic illness or disability, such as arthritis, emphysema, or vision loss. Although two-doctor approval is still required for MAiD applications, it is the applicant’s sense of “intolerability” of their medical condition that arbitrates approval for death. This fits squarely with our culture’s supreme and irrational elevation of subjective feelings over objective reality. Afterall, if a 40-year-old man can identify as a girl and use the women’s washroom – and that’s acceptable in our society – who’s a doctor to say a person’s feelings of intolerability for a given ailment aren’t valid and in need of lethal remedy?
In addition, Bill C-7 further extended the eligibility criteria for MAiD by taking out other safeguards – hard-won protections that Parliament deemed necessary in 2016 to defend the lives of vulnerable individuals from wrongful death. These included the removal of the 10-day reflection period for those whose deaths were considered reasonably foreseeable. This means that a person could request death by euthanasia when they’re experiencing a bad day, for example, with no need to die another day. Thanks to this reckless legislation, same-day MAiD service is now available in Canada. The amendment not only fast-tracks the decision for suicide – an irreversible choice of enormous gravity – it completely ignores the reality of how illness affects the variability of mood and the will to live. This is particularly the case in the context of advanced illness, where the desire for death can move up and down along a continuum, sometimes within a given day, sometimes within a given hour. As Canadian psychiatrist, Dr. Harvey Chochinov attests, “there are significant correlations between the will to live and existential, psychological, social, and, to a lesser degree, physical sources of distress. Existential variables proved to have the most influence, with hopelessness, burden to others, and dignity being the most important.” Chochinov goes on to emphasize that “Health care providers must learn to appreciate the importance of existential issues and their ability to influence the will to live among patients.”[9] Considering that Canadian physicians are now being encouraged to raise the option of MAiD with their patients as a means of remedy – “I see that your arthritis is really acting up today… have you considered lethal injection?” – this bill places patients, whose moods and will-to-live will invariably fluctuate, in serious jeopardy.[10] As well, Bill C-7 removed the final consent requirement and the stipulation for mental competency at the time of lethal injection. By stark contrast to the Supreme Court of Canada vs. Carter decision, which stated that only competent people could die by euthanasia, the bill permits a doctor or nurse practitioner to lethally inject a person who is incapable of consenting, as long as that person was previously approved for assisted death. Little imagination is required to see how this can lead to an increase in coerced and tragically unconsidered deaths.
If these loosened restrictions weren’t enough, the spectre of euthanasia expansion is planned to broaden even further. Mental illnesses, including clinical depression, are currently being debated as a standalone indication for lethal injection, and projected to be included on the list of euthanasia eligibility criteria by March 2024.[11] While this is extremely problematic on a number of levels – not the least of which is that suicidal ideation is a cardinal symptom of clinical depression and a routine trigger for a physician to commit a patient to hospital for their safety – the proposed inclusion of mental illness will very likely proceed as planned. Using cultural Marxist arguments, MAiD advocates are demanding that “Patients with a psychiatric illness should not be discriminated against solely on the basis of their disability, and should have access to the same options regarding MAiD as all other patients.”[12] And there’s even more: the eligibility of mature minors and advance requests are presently under parliamentary review. This will allow further expansion of euthanasia to those under 18 years of age, as well as for anyone who wishes to stipulate the desire for MAiD along with their medical goals of care and estate planning. The upshot of all of this is that Canada has become a world leader in administering death.
To add macabre to mortality, killing in our country has now become a business. There is no denying the substantial healthcare cost savings for hospitals and nursing homes related to MAiD.[13]After all, it was this financial benefit that first allowed Hitler’s Nazi party to establish the Tiergartenstrasse-4 euthanasia program to euthanize “lives unworthy of continuance,” which as Uwe Neumaerker, Director of the T4 memorial foundation, said, lead to “the murder of tens of thousands of patients and residents of care homes, and was the first systematic mass crime of the National Socialist regime.”[14] With the aforementioned expansions to the eligibility criteria for lethal injection in Canada, funeral homes are now also positioned to make a buck. Recognizing the growing market for death-on-demand, a number of funeral homes have responded to the business opportunity by offering a one-stop MAiD funeral service.[15] Those who have been accepted for euthanasia are given the opportunity to rent a death room where they can have their last meal, watch one final movie, listen to their favorite song, and invite friends and family for their final goodbyes, even incorporating ritualized dance and involving death doulas. Then, at their chosen time, clients receive doctor-assisted lethal injection, followed by their funeral service. It’s a one-way, walk-in, ashes out, pragmatic, and pagan, death rite.
As we consider the Christian response to this growing spectre, it’s important to be clear about what euthanasia is and what it isn’t. Euphemistic terminology is rife within the euthanasia landscape. Of course, its primary purpose is to confuse and desensitize patients and professionals alike. Our Canadian adopted term, Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD), for example, which on first blush sounds very much like something we’d all want to receive as we’re nearing the end – not to be abandoned in suffering and to receive compassionate care and medical assistance… is not at all what it means. Terms like death with dignity, compassionate dying, right-to-die, terminal sedation, are all more palatable and function to soften, cushion, and foster agreement on what has been historically a very divisive issue. The word murder is disturbing for our contemporary sensibilities, but murder is what we are talking about – the premeditated intentional killing of an innocent human being. This is why the term, doctor-assisted suicide (whether lethal injection or lethal prescription) is a more accurate designation. It calls the spade for the spade it is, and helps to differentiate euthanasia from other actions which are not euthanasia.
Refusing medical care, for example, is not euthanasia, even if the refusal eventually results in death. Patients have the right to bodily integrity (or at least, historically, people have had that right until Covid vaccines were mandated). Despite governmental coercion, we in the medical community need to respect a patient’s right to refuse treatment or intervention. This is the case, even when this might lead to furthering of the disease process and death, such as when a Jehovah Witness refuses blood products. Likewise, the withdrawal of medical interventions, such as disconnecting a patient from a ventilator, or the withholding of nutrition and hydration, are not euthanasia, even if they result in the hastening of the death of the patient. The difference lies in the intention of the intervention. The burden of any medical therapy or intervention needs to be continually weighed and balanced against the expected benefits. This requires transparent practice and ongoing honest conversations with patients and their families about end-of-life. We need to not only avoid futile heroic interventions, but also any interventions – in some cases even food and water – if they are futile and only add misery and needlessly prolong the dying process.
Next, as we consider our response to MAiD, it’s critical to separate out the philosophical debate of euthanasia on one side, from the discussion with someone who is considering doctor-assisted suicide for themselves, on the other. We need to realize that these are two very separate conversations. The first is the firm defending of the Christian worldview, underscoring the sanctity of human life; the second is a gentle response of care and compassion to someone struggling in their time of personal crisis. For the former we must be “prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope we have, but do so with gentleness and respect” (1 Pet. 3:15). By contrast, for the latter, it’s not about winning an argument but witnessing God’s love. As such, we need to quietly listen, to empathize, encourage, and give testimony to “the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God” (2 Cor. 1:4). To emphasize this distinction and underscore the necessity for winsome tact in talking with those in crisis, I’ll begin by addressing this latter discussion first and the approach to debate afterwards.
In my experience of caring for dying patients, the expressed request for MAiD is not a desire to die, but rather a symptom of an unmet need. No one really wants to die. However, many choose death over living when the psychological stresses of unmet needs become too overwhelming. Death is preferred over the difficulty of living another day, or even the perceived anticipation of difficulty in living another day. There is a general misperception that patients die in inexorable pain, but this is simply not the case. Although there are always exceptions, the deathbed is most often a quiet place, a sacred space, and (pre-pandemic at least) a meeting place of family and friends, with their soft voices admixed with prayers, music, lingering embraces, lots of stories, and sometimes humour and even laughing. Interviews conducted with family members of patients in Oregon who opted for assisted suicide clearly demonstrated that the patient’s decision to proceed with suicide was not because of poor pain control or suffering.[16] Of the list of symptoms on the survey to assess degree of suffering, none were graded at higher than two out of five on the severity scale, pain included. Instances of “irremediable suffering” expose substandard palliative care provision rather than underscore the need for lethal injections. What most commonly lies behind the request to die is existential suffering. rather than physical. Pain is rarely, if ever, the driver for the request of euthanasia.
Existential suffering can take many forms. Feelings of abandonment and loneliness, for example, intensified during the hospitals’ isolation mandates during COVID-19. Some people suffer with grief over the anticipated separation from their loved ones, not being able to see their grandchildren grow up or graduate, the loss of their vocational identity, and the loss of their independence and physical abilities. Some find these changes in their function humiliating and would rather choose dying from lethal injection over dying of embarrassment. Guilt plagues others, including feelings of remorse over broken relationships, missed opportunities, and precious moments frittered away by work or sloth. Overcome by fatigue, some patients reflect a sense of futility with their failing health, and dwell on feelings of defeat, helplessness, and frustration of being misunderstood. Still others fear dependency, the loss of control, as well as the possibility of future pain. These forms of suffering are not only just as real and anguishing as physical suffering, they are just as treatable, and not with killing, but with caring.
The body of Christ is uniquely suited to address these sorts of challenges. Working through existential suffering is our thing; it’s what we as followers of Jesus need to be able to do, and what we can do. This is because we have been promised the Holy Spirit to empower us in this vital outreach. Jesus said, “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever” (John 14:16). The apostle John uses the Greek term paráklētos to describe the role of the Holy Spirit, which means to “come alongside” as advocate, helper, and comforter. As a result of the Holy Spirit indwelling us, we are empowered in our words of comfort, prayers of intercession, sacrificial deeds of care, and simple presence of support and encouragement to speak truth into the lives of those who suffer. Extreme existential suffering is alienation from God. To address this, we have ready access to God-breathed Holy Scripture to console and to convict. The biblical answer to suffering is not one of indifference, denial, defeat, or shoulder shrugging, but rather it tackles the problem of pain square-on. In the oldest book of the Bible, Job’s cry of anguish doesn’t evade or honey-coat suffering, but honestly lays it out in full view:
“Why is light given to those in misery, and life to the bitter of soul, to those who long for death that does not come, who search for it more than for hidden treasure, who are filled with gladness and rejoice when they reach the grave? Why is life given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in? For sighing has become my daily food; my groans pour out like water. What I feared has come upon me; what I dreaded has happened to me. I have no peace, no quietness; I have no rest, but only turmoil” (Job 3:20-26).
The Bible doesn’t end there, of course. God has not abandoned us to the world of suffering and despair. Rather, our pains of suffering are ultimately answered by God’s intimate involvement in the human condition at the cross. As Martin Luther said, “When you look around and wonder whether God cares, you must always hurry to the cross and you must see Him there.” The cross reminds us that God is not distant from human suffering but has become part of it. The Lord draws near to us in our times of suffering, so we can draw near to those who suffer. And as John Piper says of suffering, “the aim is that our faith might be refined, our holiness might be enlarged, our soul might be saved, and our God might be glorified.”[17] Ending lives by MAiD does not allow any of this to happen.
So, as believers, our role is to come alongside those who suffer this way, and gently uncover their unmet needs and thoughtfully address them. This will entail taking time to visit them, to provide a listening ear, a hand to hold, and offer steadfast support and Scriptural encouragement. As well, we must be prepared to advocate for patients and rally for adequate symptom control management, as needed. Contemporary palliative care is proven-effective therapy that neither hastens death nor prolongs the dying process. Hospice care support can allay concerns of abandonment and provide essential support for patients and their families until natural death ensues. Studies have repeatedly shown that patients who receive palliative care not only have higher quality of life, improved mood, and live longer, but are less likely to request doctor-assisted suicide.[18] Not surprisingly, hospice-styled palliative care as we have it in Canada is virtually unknown in the Netherlands where euthanasia has been permitted since 1984.
Depending on the situation and our relationship to the patient, we can be creative in looking for opportunities to care for some of their physical needs ourselves: applying a cool face cloth for the forehead, moistening their lips with an oral care swab, getting an extra blanket or pillow, massaging their feet, bringing in some homemade soup, and even arranging some framed family photos for the bedside table are just a few ready examples. Patients who are in the end-stage of their illness and facing death are often quite open to hearing Scripture and to prayer. I often write down Bible verses I think might speak to them on a card, sometimes even on a prescription pad, so they can have it on their bedside table and access as desired. During our visits, we should look for such opportunities, and not be shy to pray with patients, share our testimony, or read to them from our Bibles. This is the case even if they are sharing a room with others. I have had patients in neighboring beds, on more than one occasion, ask me to pray for them as well, some even coming to a saving faith. God’s plan A is not for humankind to suffer, but “for all to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim 2:4), This, of course, can only be accomplished by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.
Switching gears now, as we consider our response to the philosophical issues raised by euthanasia, it’s helpful to realize that the pro-euthanasia camp includes a wide spectrum of people with varying beliefs and views. On the one extreme, there’s the radical promotion of the culture of death, as popularized by singer and activist Chris Korda. As the founder of the anti-human Church of Euthanasia, sheencourages others to “save the planet and kill yourself!”[19] While Korda’s self-contradictory radical views may be eyebrow-raising, they are, nonetheless, refreshingly honest, and at least consistent with her anti-natalist position – that “birth and procreation are morally wrong.” More insidious in nature are those folks on the other extreme who hold a laissez-faire position on euthanasia. In a desire to avoid conflict, they believe that choosing MAiD is a personal decision that people should be free to make. Some within the Christian community have slid into this muddled live-and-let-die way of thinking, including those in leadership. The Archbishop of the Anglican Church of Canada, for example, one of our country’s largest and historically most influential Christian denominations, said, “the church should not oppose MAiD law, nor impose Christian values, but focus on providing pastoral care to people who are considering medical assistance in dying, ensuring they have the support they need to make decisions based on the value of their life.”[20] As well, the United Church of Canada (a former denominational leader in our land) has followed suit; claiming to be acting out of the “compassion of Jesus,” they offer Christianese prayers for those choosing MAiD.[21]
Soaking in the cultural decay of our land, it’s certainly easy to see how many can get caught up in the humanistic fervor of our times, fall prey to the emotive arguments, and be duped. As the Christian influence on our culture wanes, so too, has the understanding of Scripture. Biblical illiteracy has become the norm in our society, and even churches and many within the church suffer from doctrinal confusion and biblical misinterpretation. Consequently, they can become prone to liberal trends, the acceptance of euthanasia included, or least a general complacency about its importance. As Francis Schaeffer observed, “Modern man has not only thrown away Christian theology, he has thrown away the possibility of what our forefathers had as a basis for morality and law.”[22]
At the core of euthanasia is a desire for autonomy, to be a law unto ourselves. As detailed in the opening pages of the Bible, this desire was our first parents’ grave error. Original sin wasn’t sexual immorality, as many wrongly think, but a desire to “be as God” (Gen 3:5). Autonomy is an illusion; we are all dependent beings upon our holy God. As such, doctor-assisted suicide is nothing short of a direct act of defiance, and represents a flagrant and brazen rejection of God’s Sovereignty over our lives and of His Holy Law-word by which we are to live and die. Choosing to have MAiD then, is not a triviality for the Christian, nor a mere trifling misdemeanor or minor indiscretion. There is no exception when it might be permissible, nor neutral ground where it might be acceptable. “The thief comes to steal, kill and destroy” (John 10:10), and euthanasia is the Devil’s ploy to do just that. Therefore, as members of the body of Christ, we must stand firm in our faith and be prepared to defend the Gospel from such attack. As Martin Luther said, “If I profess with loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except that little point which the world and the Devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved.”
Nonetheless, many within the Christian community continue to advocate for euthanasia, some even citing biblical instances of assisted suicide to give Scriptural sanction for doctor-assisted suicide. There is the account of Abimelech from the book of Judges, for example, who asked his armour-bearer to kill him “so that they can’t say ‘a woman killed him’” (Jdg. 9:52-54), and the death of King Saul, when he said to the Amalekite to “stand over me and kill me! I am in the throes of death, but I’m still alive” (2 Sam 1:9). Of course, the mere recording of assisted suicide in Scripture doesn’t qualify as biblical sanction any more than adultery or murder recorded in Scripture would be considered approval of those sins. Abimelech’s death is God’s judgement on him in return for the evil he had done in killing his brothers, and Saul’s suicide, assisted or not, is the ultimate expression of his faithlessness towards God, not trusting in him and fighting to the end or surrendering. Furthermore, the execution of the Amalekite who had confessed to the killing of Saul made clear that his act of assisting in the King’s death was very much considered “murder of the Lord’s anointed” (1 Sam 1:14). As explicitly highlighted throughout the Torah (Exodus 20:13, 21:12-14; Leviticus 24:17-21; Numbers 35:16-31; Deuteronomy 5:17, 19:4-13),) and reinforced elsewhere in the Bible (Ps 106:37-8), we are not to be involved in the taking of innocent life, our own included.
It’s important to emphasize, then, that the acceptance and practice of MAiD – despite whatever euphemisms of compassion, care or dignity get attached to it by its advocates – is not consistent with a Christian worldview, nor compatible with the life of a follower of Jesus. Suicide may have been considered a noble act in ancient Greece, but it stands diametrically opposed to the Gospel. We Christians recognize the tragedy of death, that “the wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23), and place our hope not in the release of some rational immortal soul substance from the prison of our bodies at the moment of our death, as the pagan Greeks did, but in the resurrection from the dead, both body and soul inseparably together. Any attempt to blend pagan ideology with Christianity distorts the Gospel and forfeits its saving power. As stated in the book of Proverbs, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end, it leads to death” (Prov 14:12).
Considering our response to euthanasia advocates, we would do well to draw from biblical wisdom and take a lesson from King Solomon. In the book of Proverbs he said, “Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you yourself will be just like him. Answer a fool according to his folly, or he will be wise in his own eyes” (Prov 26:4-5). While on first reading these two verses may seem contradictory, their purposeful juxtaposition underscores how they necessarily complement each other and work together. In verse 4, we are warned not to be drawn into argumentation based on secular thought, otherwise we will also get mired in confusion. In the case of euthanasia, this would mean rather than conceding that doctor-assisted suicide is a reasonable form of medical treatment (as its advocates claim), we are to hold to a Scriptural viewpoint and maintain that euthanasia as nothing less than suicide, a social tragedy rather than a medical obligation. Authors Blaise Alleyne and Jonathon Van Maren rightly stress this critical point in their excellent book, A Guide to Discussing Assisted Suicide, which is packed full of immensely practical tactics and conversational tips.[23] The emphasis is to keep the Bible as the foundation for our thoughts. Holy Scripture needs to remain our fundamental metaphysical starting point for how we view and understand reality, since only the transcendent Word of God can provide us an objective understanding of knowledge, and an absolute standard for how we are to live our lives, and determine right from wrong. While we can’t assume biblical literacy nor deference on the part of the euthanasia advocates whom we encounter, the Bible must remain central in our response to them. Our desire is to not only attempt to persuade those in favour of euthanasia, that it’s suicide and wrong, but to demonstrate the beauty of the gospel to them, in the hopes that some might be saved.
To look further at Proverb 26, the term fool used in this context carries moral rather than intellectual meaning, referring not to stupidity, but to emptiness of belief. A similar usage would be found in Psalm 14, where Solomon states, “A fool says in his heart there is no God.” As applied to verse 5 of Proverb 26, “answering the unbeliever according to their folly,” means that we should initially show understanding of their viewpoint and temporarily put on their worldview glasses. In so doing, we demonstrate our openness to their perspective, and create a place of common ground, perhaps even helping to diffuse initial tensions around the topic. Then we attempt to show the folly of their position by drawing it out to its natural conclusions, showing its inconsistency, contradiction, or absurdity.
In the case of euthanasia, then, if the advocate emphasizes the importance of alleviating suffering, we can whole-heartedly agree. As per the parable of the Good Samaritan, alleviating suffering sits squarely with the Christian worldview of love of neighbor. With this contact point of compassion established, we can then show how the practice of MAiD doesn’t actually alleviate suffering (but rather eliminates the sufferer) and is therefore not compassionate. Not only does euthanasia fail to address a person’s underlying existential cause of suffering, but by making lethal injection available to the populace, the vulnerable in our society – the terminally-ill, frail elderly, disabled, destitute, those suffering from clinical depression or PTSD – are placed directly into harm’s way. Considering what Mahatma Ghandhi said, “The true measure of any society is how it treats its weakest members;” what does that say about euthanasia advocacy? Instead of offering the most helpless and marginalized of our society needed care and compassion, they are offered death by assisted suicide – killed, not cared for.
Alternatively, if the euthanasia advocate emphasizes the importance of ensuring equal rights for all, we can also agree. All people have been created in God’s image, and as image-bearers, we each have inalienable rights and dignity. From this contact point of equality, we can then demonstrate that the practice of MAiD actually counters equal rights. Offering MAiD to the population raises the challenging question of how we are to determine who has the right to choose their own death, and who has a right to be prevented from self-harm. In brief, who is to receive suicide promotion, and who is to receive suicide prevention? Any attempt to solve this conundrum necessarily requires us to draw some arbitrary line in the sand. In so doing, we end up producing two classes of citizens, one protected and one unprotected, which fundamentally counters equal rights. A so-called Expert Panel has been recently established by the Canadian Government to address this very challenge, with recommendations due March 2024, and will very likely lead to the expansion of euthanasia eligibility criteria to include those suffering from mental illness as their sole diagnosis.[24] And again, they will be offered assisted suicide instead of proven-effective therapy, death over dutiful care.
The philosophical discussion of euthanasia is a prime opportunity to share the Gospel. As the pro-euthanasia position is shown to be contradictory and unworkable, attention can be turned to what is consistent and workable. Only God’s Word can make sense of our experiences and provide the necessary preconditions for intelligibility, including the existence of compassion and equality. As Greg Bahnsen wisely said, “the Christian worldview is not only our hope of future salvation, it’s our only present intellectual hope.”[25] So, as followers of the risen Lord, we need to lean into that reality and push back against the culture of death with the witness of His truth. We can do so by contrasting our Christian worldview with the pagan worldview that underpins euthanasia. Points of emphasis would include that God is ultimate, not man. Only the transcendent word of God can provide the necessary standard for matters of life and death, not man’s arbitrary shifting sentiments. The explanation of our troubles is the result of the Fall and derives from our sinful nature, not because of oppression of the oppressed with paternalistic doctors “making us live too long” or “preventing us from dying with dignity.” Medicine can’t save us, nor can “following the science.” Our most fundamental troubles are not physical, but moral. The solution to our ills is certainly not to provide an unqualified equal access to death – to annihilate the sufferer – but it is to be found in Christ alone and His atoning work on the cross.
We have been called to co-labour with the Holy Spirit in the ministry of reconciliation by bringing all things under the lordship of Christ – care of the dying, disabled, and destitute included. Our hope lies not in receiving lethal injection and extinction, but in God’s promises of a time when the earth and heavens will be made new, when “there will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the former things will have passed away” (Rev. 21:4). So, let’s not live and let die, but live unto Him in all we do, living and dying, until we see “the whole world filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea” (Hab. 2:14).
[1] https://cmadialogue.ca
[2] “Hippocartic Oath,” Britannica, accessed June 12, 2023, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Hippocratic-oath.
[3] “Supreme Court of Canada Ruling” on Bill C-14, Department of Justice Canada, accessed June 12, 2023, https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/cj-jp/ad-am/scc-csc.html.
[4] David Cooke, Trudeau’s MAiD Service: A Euthanasia Program for Canada (Baptist House: Baker Brook, NB, 2022), p. 17.
[5]Alexander Raikin, “No Other Options: Newly revealed documents depict a Canadian euthanasia regime that efficiently ushers the vulnerable to a “beautiful” death,” The New Atlantis, accessed June 12, 2023, https://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/no-other-options
[6] “Second Annual Report on Medical Assistance in Dying in Canada 2020,” Health Canada, accessed June 12, 2023, https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/medical-assistance-dying/annual-report-2020.
[7] Gunnell D, Appleby L, Arensman E, et al, “COVID-19 Suicide Prevention Research Collaboration. Suicide risk and prevention during the COVID-19 pandemic,” Lancet Psychiatry. 2020;7(6):468-471.
[8] “Bill C-7: An Act to amend the Parliament of Canada Act and to make consequential and related amendments to other Acts,” Department of Justice Canada, accessed June 12, 2023, https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/csj-sjc/pl/charter-charte/c7_1.html.
[9] Chochinov, HM, “Dignity and the Eye of the Beholder,: Journal of Clinical Oncology. Volume 22, Issue 7. Sept 2016.
[10] Nationalpost.com/news/canada/canada-maid-medical-aid-in-dying-consent-doctors
[11] “MAID for mental disorders,” Dying with Dignity Canada, accessed June 12, 2023, https://www.dyingwithdignity.ca/advocacy/parliamentary-review/maid-for-mental-illness
[12] Chaimowitz G, Freeland A, Neilson GE, et al. “Medical assistance in dying,” Canadian Psychiatric Association, February 10, 2020
[13] Trachtenberg, AJ. “Cost analysis of medical assistance in dying in Canada,” CMAJ 2017 Jan 23; 189(3): E101–E105.
[14] Associated Free Press, “Berlin to open memorial to Nazis’ disabled victims,” Times of Israel, last modified August 31, 2014, https://www.timesofisrael.com/berlin-to-open-memorial-to-nazis-disabled-victims
[15] Andrew Lupton, “Funeral Homes Pivot to Offer Rooms for Medically Assisted Deaths,” CBC, last modified October 26, 2021, https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/london/funeral-homes-pivot-to-offer-rooms-for-medically-assisted-deaths.
[16] Ganzini, L et al. J Gen Intern Med. 2008;23(2):154
[17] John Piper, “If All My Sins Are Forgiven, Why Pursue Holiness?” Desiring God, last modified August 9, 2021, https://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/if-all-my-sins-are-forgiven-why-pursue-holiness
[18] Temel, JS. “Early Palliative Care for Patients with terminal disease,” N Engl J Med 2010; 363:733-742.
[19] Chris Korda, “Save The Planet Kill Yourself,” Bandcamp, accessed June 12, 2023, https://chriskorda.bandcamp.com/track/save-the-planet-kill-yourself
[20] Sean Frankling, “Church Should Not Oppose MAID Law, Primate Says,” Anglican Journal, last modified September 30, 2022, https://anglicanjournal.com/church-should-not-oppose-maid-law
[21] “Death and Dying,” The United Church of Canada, accessed June 12, 2023, https://united-church.ca/worship-theme/death-and-dying
[22] Francis Schaeffer, Escape from Reason (InterVarsity Press, 2007).
[23] J. Alleyne, B. Van Maren, A Guide to Discussing Assisted Suicide, (Life Cycle Books, 2017).
[24] “Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) Law,” Department of Justice Canada, accessed June 12, 2023, https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/cj-jp/ad-am/bk-di.html#e
[25] Greg L. Bahnsen, Always Ready: Directions for Defending the Faith, (Covenant Media Press, 1996).
The post Live and Let Die? Responding to the Expanding Spectre of Euthanasia appeared first on Ezra Institute.
In this episode we answer some more questions that emerged out of the Ten Commandments series, dealing with issues of what happens to believers after they die, and responding to the claim that the state only stepped in to provide welfare benefits because the church failed in this job.
Plus, scholarships are available for the Worldview Leadership Academy, Calgary gets a Mission of God conference, and a staffing announcement that we’re pumped for.
The post Death and Taxes: More Q&A on the Ten Commandments appeared first on Ezra Institute.
So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, 153 of them. And although there were so many, the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.”
On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”
But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water.
A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.”
When Jesus had spoken these words, he went out with his disciples across the Kidron Valley, where there was a garden, which he and his disciples entered. Now Judas, who betrayed him, also knew the place, for Jesus often met there with his disciples.
When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.
I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you.
When Jesus had said these things, he departed and hid himself from them. Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him, so that the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled…
So Jesus said to them, “The light is among you for a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you. The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going. While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.”
Six days before the Passover, Jesus therefore came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. So they gave a dinner for him there. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him at the table.
On the holy mount stands the city he founded; the Lord loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwelling places of Jacob. Glorious things of you are spoken, O city of God.
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.
In this passage Jesus declares that the Father and the Son are united in action and will, and love and life. Being so united with the Father, the Son gives life and executes judgement. Those who hear him and believe have eternal life and do not come into judgment.
Jesus is the true light which enlightens everyone and as those who have been illuminated by him, we also bear his light wherever we go.
Jesus drew Nicodemus out of the darkness of what he understood and told him that he must be born again.
Our joy is far more impressive to those around us than what we preach or teach. John the Baptist joyfully exclaimed that Jesus, as he walked by, was the Lamb of God and immediately two of his own disciples left and followed Jesus.
In the first few verses of John’s Gospel, we are introduced to Christ as the root, as the word, as the light and as the life.
This last chapter of 2 Samuel teaches us that God uses even Man’s failure to demonstrate his surpassing grace.
As we read about King David’s mighty men who fought bravely in battle, we are reminded that all believers are enlisted in Christ’s service and called to fight for him.
As David sums up his life in these final words, he doesn’t want to be known as the mighty warrior or the great king, he wants to be remembered as the sweet psalmist.
As the leader of Israel, King David is compelled to respond to Saul’s earlier crimes against the Gibeonites as well as the request to avoid risky personal combat.
As the events of Absalom’s rebellion unfold, we can find lessons to teach us about prayer and how to live a life of prayer as David did.
In the midst of the betrayal of Absalom and many of his close associates, one great question arises: Will King David remain loyal to God and his covenant?
David’s power and influence as King begins to quickly disintegrate as Absalom’s well-planned rebellion exploits almost every one of his father’s shortcomings and weaknesses as ruler of Israel.
When the Prophet Nathan confronted King David with the king’s adultery, he demonstrated the challenges that face all those who would speak God’s truth to a sinful and fallen world both in his time and today.
Trials in life come for three reasons: to manifest the life of Christ in us; to prepare us an external reward; and to commend us as ministers of the Gospel.
There are consequences to our actions. Sowing to the flesh reaps destruction, but sowing to the Spirit reaps eternal life.
Like Daniel, exiled in Babylon, many church members today during this current lockdown have become exiled: from community, fellowship, and the communion table.
Psalm 131 shows us what growing up in Christ looks like: We slowly learn to be humble, content and to have hope in the Lord.
Jacob wrestles with God all night and emerges not just wounded and limping, but also wiser and with a new name.
King David displeases God by taking a count of army of Israel. He then discovers where God wants the Temple to be built, a great blessing to the nation.
In this new series, More Than Conquerors, we want to consider how God’s people followed him in times of adversity. In Jeremiah 1, what God reveals to Jeremiah about his life and ministry is true not only of Jeremiah but also of us.
Peter’s call to action is a call to renew our Hope and the pursuit of Holiness, both of which will be brought to perfection on the day of Christ’s return.
The Covid-19 crisis is a reminder of how the world lives in the fear of death and in the grip of uncertainty. We who do not fear death or panic in the face of uncertainty must be prepared to display our certain hope wherever and whenever it is needed.
Isaiah 50 is one of four Servant Songs that proclaim the coming Messiah, the Christ, and announce ahead of time his sufferings and death.
The Lord allows the events of history to happen. By examining his ways with his people in the past we can gain insight on how we are to respond to our current crisis.
Psalm 32 is a call to repentance. God can reveal idols in our hearts but they won’t be removed unless we repent. The fruit of that repentance is a renewed life of prayer, obedience and worship.
Peter blesses God for the hope of an eternal inheritance and also for his testing and proving of our faith in the midst of trials which is for our good, turning us toward him and resulting in joy.
At a time of uncertainty, we need to listen to the voice of Jesus, the Good Shepherd, who tends, defends, and feeds his flock.
The account of David and Bathsheba is familiar; however, we must feel the weight of David’s sin. What he did was evil in the eyes of the Lord. The same sin is crouching at our door. Only Christ can save us from our sins.
The story of David and Mephibosheth answers the question of what makes someone a giver, while the story of David and Ziba tells us what makes someone a taker.
David's desire to build a suitable house for God is met with a prophecy from Nathan which reveals that God already has his own plans for a house and for David's royal line which is Christ and the Church.
The demise of the house of King Saul and the ascent of King David's shows that the consequences of our actions and how we live our lives affect not just us alone but the people around us as well.
Jesus compared the kingdom of God to a mustard seed. It starts small. David’s kingdom in Judah starts small, but it has the marks of the kingdom of God: small beginnings; the priority of prayer; benediction and invitation; and opposition.
Although we would expect the death of King Saul to bring relief and joy to David, it instead brings grief and lament which is actually a Godly response and shows that David, once again, is a man after God's own heart.
We approach this often misunderstood event in the Christmas story by looking at three topics related to the Wisemen's journey: their decision to go; a dangerous detour; and a different way home.
When the angel of the Lord announced to the shepherds the birth of Christ, their circumstances, closeness to the event and the change it brought about gave them a special perspective on this first Christmas.
There is a sense of anticipation for Simeon and Anna as they beheld the infant Christ on his day of dedication in the temple because he was the fulfillment of God's promise both to the world and to them.
This sermon considers the Gospel account of the Annunciation and the Magnificat. Luke’s account presents God’s Word to Mary and her response. God’s Word and God’s call has come to each one of us, just as it came to Mary. Each one of us must respond, just as Mary did. She shows us how to respond: we surrender to God’s calling and we glorify him and rejoice in him.
As a priest in the temple; the father of John the Baptist; the husband of Elizabeth, a relative of Mary; and, like Mary, also a recipient of a visit by the angel Gabriel; Zechariah was given a very unique perspective on the coming of the Messiah.
The closing of this letter is no more a light desert than the opening is simply an appetizer; it ties together the theme of the letter and would have been written with Paul's own hand.
Paul knows that he is leaving the Thessalonians in a situation where there is conflict and persecution and he wants to show them how to have peace amidst such stormy circumstances.
Here the apostle Paul reminds the Thessalonians of the return of Christ and the coming judgment; giving them a word of warning, of comfort, and command.
Paul speaks to the Thessalonians about death so that rather than grieving about it they will be encouraged about their future and encourage others with what he tells them.
Paul commends the Thessalonians for their great brotherly love which was becoming well known even beyond their own city; and yet he still exhorts them to love each other more and more.
Paul addresses the issue of sexual immorality in the Thessalonian church, calling them out of impurity and into holiness.
Paul's worries about the difficulties the young church in Thessalonica faced are relieved by Timothy's report of their great faith and love which gives Paul himself great encouragement amidst his own difficulties.
Paul longs to see the Thessalonians face to face because he loves them and wants to be with them in person and not merely in spirit. It is this love that drives him to send Timothy so they will not be alone.
The Apostle Paul invites us to consider the significance of the Word of God which the Thessalonians recognized immediately in Paul's preaching of the Gospel.
When it comes to spreading the message of the Gospel, how that message is lived out in the lives of God's people and presented to the world is as important as the message itself.