I find it ironic that some SBC Christian Nationalists rail against the IMB’s vaccine requirement on grounds of conscience. Why? On the one hand, they argue that individuals should be free to refuse the vaccine without being compelled to take it. I agree. On the other hand, these same figures want the state to exercise significant authority over matters of religious belief and practice. That is where I struggle to follow the argument. If we are concerned about a religious organization setting a condition for missionary service, shouldn’t we be even more concerned about the state binding people’s consciences on religious matters? Which is it? Does liberty of conscience matter only when we agree with the choice someone makes?

Earlier, I posted a video with commentary about the conversation below that I agreed with. However, I later learned about his broader views, which I do not want to promote or endorse. Reposting with a screen recording of the relevant commentary. Josh McPherson: "We're here to govern, not Pastor." Josh Howerton: "Ahhhh...That's important." Josh McPherson "I get nervous with the word accountability. Because I think sometimes it can be a way where men with less courage control men who have more courage and they're afraid they're going to get them in trouble. The private shouldn't be able to tell the lieutenant where we go." The defining feature of the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) is Apostle-governed churches where you have one man (whether they use the word Apostle or not) at the top who directly "hears from God" in order to lead and direct the church. This is exactly it. They are telling you. They are literally saying it out loud. Friends, if you are in a church that is led this way, you are in a very spiritually dangerous situation. I'm saying this because I care about your soul. I pray you find wisdom to see clearly and find a church that has biblical leadership in place.

Just a few days before our black lab died I took this picture. For the last year he always carried this dog toy. It was his little red star that squeaked. The toy almost made him act like a puppy again. He took it everywhere. Now it sits on my bookshelf.

Joel is always fun to listen to.

Hmmm. Is this what they mean by “common good conservatism”? 👀

No principled conservative can support the woke right. Nor can any principled libertarian. Racist socialists belong with the Democrats. If you agree with the socialists taking over the Democrat party…then you are not a Republican, not America First & not a conservative.

There’s a faction of the right that is completely antithetical to the values and principles of our founding. In fact, their dialect mirrors the left, which is why they advocate for Marxism on the right. The best description for these people are right wing communists.

I’m in the middle of three book projects. Let’s just say I have been reading and writing a lot.

As someone who takes history seriously (and has spent much of my life helping people understand the causes of things) I have little patience for the Machiavellians who insist they are recovering the ideas and institutions of the pre-WWII world while participating in a project that could produce precisely the opposite of what they promise. What they call restoration will become fragmentation. What they call liberty will become a liberty-less order. And what they present as protection from modernity will ultimately lead toward a Balkanized, algorithmically managed tyranny. In the name of preserving civilization, they may be helping construct the conditions for its transformation into something far more centralized, technologically mediated, and hostile to genuine human freedom. The promised utopia is their sales pitch. The machinery being built underneath techno-feudalism is the thing worth examining.

Preaching on the Parable of the Sower.

We made a little shadow box for our dog Wrigley. The tags were on his collar over the years. The red collar was the last one he wore. The picture is Wrigley a few months before he died with his favorite toy. The prints they made at the vet.

I just got the book proofs for my forthcoming book. Let the final edits begin.

25 years ago, we didn't know who the enemy was. Today, we know exactly what it was: radical Islam. But we've taught our kids that if we dare say the truth, it could offend the terrorists.

“John MacArthur’s historic sermon explains why 9/11 happened, but also ultimately why all disasters happen. And we need to know the answers because today we struggle to keep up with a seemingly endless sequence of disasters. “We don’t need to be overwhelmed and overtaken by calamitous events. But we do need to be armed with answers. And in this sermon, John MacArthur provides those answers from Scripture, along with a powerful, divine warning to everyone about the ultimate disaster—falling victim to God’s eternal wrath.” gty.org/blogs/B160916/friday…

Where were you 25 years ago? I was in High School. The world has never been the same. Some of my friends responded by going into the military. I highly respect that decision. 9/11 made me go into the ministry. We all responded to the needs in our own ways.

When examining the post-liberal/integralist movements (such as Christian Nationalism), it is important to understand that nearly all of the men who have supplied the structure to the movement (Deneen, Reno, Pappin, Vermeule etc) share the common belief that the precipitating cause of out-of-control moral decay is the historic result of the Protestant Reformation. Therefore, to achieve their goals, a transformational Protestantism that is increasingly more Roman Catholic or Orthodox (especially Russian Orthodoxy) in structure, function, and hierarchy is necessary as a path towards total ecumenism that will eventual lead to perennial theology. But the core of this movement, as @ConceptualJames and I have been stating for nearly a decade, is Hegelian. The spiral of the dialectic from the abstract moment to the negative moment and finally the concrete moment where the contradiction is resolved through Aufhebung (sublation) - a process where the old form is destroyed yet preserved at a higher level. It is when the strategic dialectic reaches the concrete moment that a new, richer, and more comprehensive concept emerges, integrating the truths of both the original idea (the abstract) and its negation into a unified whole: a synthesis. Of course, the pathway towards ecumenism can only be accomplished with a willing Protestant dance partner: because you can't perform a dialectical dance without a dialectical dance partner. This is why works by Reno, Pappin, and Deneen are foundational within what represents itself as the "Protestant Reformed" side of Christian Nationalism. And within this movement is the necessity of process of sublation: destroying the old in a very Maoist sense but yet preserved within the new - or the resurrected "faith" that will seek to be universal after a heightened period of conflict. One of the additional consequences of this forced, strategic, purposeful ecumenism is the death of the Protestant work ethic and meritocracy. A Protestant work ethic is impossible to sustain in an algorithmically governed post-work world guided by a digital god: a digital god that is estabishing that not one maverick molecule will escape its control. @realmikolson @tundpodcast @ConceptualJames @billroach_ @HwsEleutheroi @RichPierce14

I would deport these individuals. They are attacking our way of life and our founding documents.

Hear me now: Sharia law has no place in America. It is fundamentally inconsistent with the Constitution of the United States, and we need to stand together to stop it now. A simple truth: when people tell you who they are, believe them. When Hasan Piker says “America deserved 9/11,” he means it. When Mamdani says he wants to “seize the means of production,” he means it. When Abdul El Sayed says he has an “obligation” to comply with Sharia law, he means it. And when James Talarico says he wants to “dismantle capitalism,” he means it. Now understand, not every Democrat in the House and Senate believes this. But they are all afraid of these radicals, because that’s where the money and the energy and the young people are in the Democrat Party.

This may be one of the most shocking firsthand videos from September 11, capturing the South Tower collapsing as terrified people run for cover. 25 years later, the terror of that moment remains unimaginable. 😟

The balkanization advocated by several Christian Nationalist figures is a return to the feudal model of Cuius Regio, Eius Religio. This time will just be on a much grander scale.