Authority

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The good father: teaching your children to submit to authority...

Patriarchal homeschooling enclaves are dogged by rebellion against authority. Ask me. Ask your pastor. Ask anyone.

How does it happen that a movement promoting the authority of the father of the household also ends up promoting rebellion against the authorities God has ordained outside the home?

First, the children of patriarchal homeschooling families grow up being taught not to trust...


Death and peaceful succession of authority: Augustine...

Wonderful record of Augustine's comments upon his appointment of a successor:

Letter CCXIII. (September 26TH, a.d. 426.)

The record prepared by Augustine of the proceedings on the occasion of his designating Eraclius to succeed him in the episcopal chair.

In the Church of Peace in the district of Hippo Regius.

Bishop Augustine having taken his seat along with his fellow bishops Religianus and Martinianus, there being present Saturninus, Leporius, Barnabas, Fortunatianus, Rusticus, Lazarus, and Eraclius—presbyters—while the clergy and a large congregation of laymen stood by, Bishop Augustine said:

We all are mortal, and the day which shall be the last of life on earth is to every man at all times uncertain; but in infancy there is hope of entering on boyhood, and so our hope goes on, looking forward from boyhood to youth, from youth to manhood, and from manhood to old age: whether these hopes may be realized or not is uncertain, but there is in each case something which may be hoped for. But old age has no...


Christians whose mothers never had to worry about their self-esteem...

(NOTE FROM TB: I've removed this post and hope to repost on the same subject, but taking a different tack that holds out hope and faith.)


Warning isn't easy...

We think we don't need warnings, but we do. Just like the Christians pastored by the Apostle Paul in the decadent Roman Empire, we need our pastors warning us house to house, day and night, with tears.

But we have no patience for it. Transfer us to Ephesus under the pastoral care of the Apostle Paul and listen to us whine. "Why does he want to meet with me? I don't need to meet with him. If he has something to say, he can text me. Has my wife been talking to his wife? Why can't she keep her big mouth shut?"

We want a reputation for authentic spirituality and deep theological insight, so we update and tweet spiritual-sounding quotes that make it seem as if...


Feminists and libertarians: this is my Father's world...

...for He was teaching them as one having authority, and not as their scribes. (Matthew 7:29)

Because nature never stops telling the glory of God, authority is everywhere. Keep your eye on the ball.

First, authority is the issue—not sex. Men and women deny the authority of the male of the species not because they prefer authority to be equally shared by men and women, but because they hate all authority. Especially God the Father Almighty in Whom all authority originates and from Whom it is delegated.

Feminists lash out at men because fatherhood is intrinsic to manhood and authority is intrinsic to fatherhood. Patriarchy is not hated because the pater is always a man. Patriarchy is hated because of the arche (rule).

As for rebellion, abdication and rebellion are the same sin even though God demonstrated in his dealings with Adam and Eve that the abdicator always suffers the greater judgment.

Second, although abdicators and rebels think they're making progress when they take the word "obey" out of the bride's wedding vows and preach their wedding homily on "mutual submission," it's a fool's errand. Abdicators and rebels never have removed a single bit of authority anywhere in God's creation because God is the Father Almighty and all nature sings and round us rings the wonders of His sovereign rule. This is my Father's world.

Rebel against authority all you want, but the high point of your success will be the...


Contending for Nicene Trinitarianism in an egalitarian age...

[Editors note: Prof. Steven D. Boyer's article below, first published back in 2009, clarifies the present debate over the nature and meaning of the Fatherhood of God and the Sonship of our Lord Jesus within the Trinity. Here, Dr. Boyer (Professor of Theology at Eastern University) demonstrates that the church's orthodox confession of the Trinity has, from the time of the Arian heresy, explicitly declared the order within the Trinity. Further, that this declared order (or hierarchy) is not merely analogical, nor is it limited to the Son's mediatorial work. Rather, the order must be (in some sense) ontological—and therefore eternal.

Dr. Boyer warns that the orthodox confession of the Trinity has fallen on hard times due to the egalitarian spirit of our age. He discusses the pros and cons of terminology used to discuss Trinitarian order today such as "roles," "command and obedience," and "subordination." He explains the confusion surrounding the word "ontological," pointing out that the denial of ontological order is a doctrinal error equivalent to the denial of ontological equality. Finally, Boyer makes some recommendations for word usage that may protect the order of the Trinity in this age when order and authority are despised.]

Articulating Order: Trinitarian Discourse in an Egalitarian Age1 

by Steven D. Boyer

Throughout its history, Christian orthodoxy has affirmed an understanding of the triune nature of God that includes, despite certain logical tensions, both order and equality among the divine Persons. Since most of that history played out in a social context that took hierarchy for granted and that therefore required a sturdy articulation and defense of the equality of the Persons, it sometimes appears that the tradition emphasized equality alone, and not order. But this conclusion is easily upset by a closer look at the evidence. To speak of order within the Godhead has been a commonplace ever since the patristic era, and it is often embodied especially in affirmations about the unique position of the Father in the Godhead. The Father is the “beginning of the whole divinity,” says Augustine; “the source” of Son and Spirit, says Gregory Nazianzen; the “cause of the Son”, says John of Damascus; “the principle of the Son,” says Thomas Aquinas; the “origin” of Son and Spirit, says Calvin; the “fountain of deity,” says Richard Hooker; “first in order,” says Jonathan Edwards.[1] Ordered relationships within the Trinity are as strongly affirmed by the orthodox tradition as equality is.

Yet the last two centuries have seen dramatic changes in the social context of the Western world, and many Christian theologians today work in a culture in which equality is the dominant principle. Hence, the equality of the divine Persons is easily granted in contemporary discussion, whereas the notion of order in the Trinity is often addressed with less conviction, and sometimes even with suspicion...


Homosexual marriage: where are our judges' pastors...

In response to my post yesterday condemning Judge Tanya Walton Pratt for her religious commitment to the slaughter of babies, a Christian attorney I'm close to wrote, 

The sad fact is that the federal Constitution, as defined by SCOTUS, gives any woman the right to kill her baby.... So a judge has no choice but to apply that rule... I don’t think you can fault a judge for applying even a terrible law. She has sworn to do that.

The lawyer and I both come from a long line of Presbyterians, so his remonstrance yesterday popped into my mind when, today, I read this headline about Mississippi's judicial battle over the protection of religious freedom:

The Latest: No judges sought recusal from doing gay weddings

Seriously? No judge—not even one? (And only one clerk.) 

So what does this have to do with Presbyterian pastors?

I was under the impression that First Presbyterian Church of Jackson owns the money and leadership of this small capital city (only twice the size of Bloomington, IN) of this small southern state. In fact, what about all the churches in Mississippi...


Lessons from China: "the government must be the big brother..."

Beijing lawyer Zhang Kai was arrested August 25, 2015. Zhang had been giving legal counsel to churches in Wenzhou where pastors had been arrested for opposing a systematic campaign by government officials to relegate churches' crosses from the peaks of their roofs to interior courtyards and other places hidden from the public eye.

Here's the noteworthy quote from the World article:

Yang recalled officials explaining to him that the church and the government were competing for the role of “elder brother” in society: “There can only be one big brother. The government must be the big brother.”

This is precisely the issue in these United States, also. I have no desire to aid the White House campaign of Donald Trump by saying this, but the intolerant liberalism of the West is just as authoritarian as the intolerant Communism of China. The issues are different, but the dictatorial aspirations are the same. Washington's central committees will not stop... 


A Conference on Fatherhood in South Carolina...

Feminists have been beating on the Fatherhood of God for quite some time now. Their hatred for God our Father has sunk so deep that fatherhood itself is seen as unnecessary, at best, or destructively oppressive, at worst. The sickness of our homes, our churches, and our culture can be tied back to this throwing off of God's Fatherhood and the corresponding fatherhood of men. It is nothing less than a rejection of all authority and a loss of the blessings that come with fatherhood: protection, governance, and love. Our daughters defend our country; our wives govern our homes; and our children rebel without any knowledge of the severe love of their father. The damage has been done, but our Father in heaven still rules. He makes things alive even and especially after they die. Such is our prayer for our homes, our churches, and our culture. 

To that end, please help us spread the word about A Conference on Fatherhood with Tim Bayly, September 25-26, at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Spartanburg, SC...

A Conference on Fatherhood with Tim Bayly

There is no higher calling for a man than to be a father, and yet we despise fatherhood. You, me, our culture—we don’t like dads. In fact, we hate them. We don’t ever want to be them. Where does that come from? How do we fix it? If there was ever a time to pray that the Lord would “return the hearts of fathers to their children,” it is now...


Intown's Brian Prentiss comes out of the closet...

For those of us who find the SCOTUS decision something to be celebrated, we should remember Romans 14, where the Apostle Paul advises those of us with less scruples to be gracious towards our brothers and sisters with more. (The "weaker" brother language is unfortunate here, because it seems to suggest one is right and the other is wrong...)

- Brian Prentiss, pastor of Intown Presbyterian Church, Portland; member of Pacific Northwest Presbytery, Presbyterian Church in America; M.Div. Reformed Theological Seminary, Jackson, Mississippi; former Campus Director at Campus Outreach and Collegiate Director at Briarwood Presbyterian Church. (On LinkedIn, Prentiss is commended for his pastoral leadership by Andrew Field, former pastor at Redeemer (NYC) and present board member of CCEF—David Powlison, Steve Estes, Ed Welch, etc.)

The above is excerpted from a post on the Intown Presbyterian Church (PCA) web site written by her pastor, Brian Prentiss. The post is scandalous. When the Supreme Court issued its pro-sodomy ruling, Bergefell v. Rhodes, Pastor Prentiss decided not to battle the wolf in defense of the sheep, so he wrote a bunch of gobbledigook to cover his abandonment...


The Church is responsible for Obergefell v. Hodges, and now we must get it right...

With our Clearnote Fellowship Conference a few hours away, I won't have much time the next few days to engage with this issue, but I've had some nagging thoughts as I've read the debates going on among church officers in the wake of Obergefell v. Hodges.

Any stand Christians take in opposition to the enforcement of Obergefell v. Hodges across the nation must be in light of God's Creation Order in its entirety. If we single out sodomy as the place we draw the line of civil disobedience concerning sexuality, we must ask ourselves why there? Is it really because sodomy has taken our culture to a whole new level of rebellion against God? Yes, but also no...


Church celebrities who are above criticism (I): GRACE, Bob Jones, and Bill Gothard...

...I am a nobody.  - Apostle Paul

A year or two ago, a group of pastors and elders were working with a tall-steeple church on the East coast to bring a musician on their staff under discipline for his sexual assaults against young men he taught at a local college and supervised as director of his church's high-profile music ministry. As we worked, we had conversations with others who were providing similar help concerning survivors of sexual abuse at Bob Jones University and Bill Gothard's Institute in Basic Life Principles. It's noteworthy that long before Christianity Today or World went on record against Bob Jones University and Bill Gothard, Dad Bayly rebuked these Christian celebrities and warned the Evangelical world against them. When and where?

Concerning Bob Jones and his university, Dad's warning went into print back in 1969 in his monthly "Out of My Mind" column in ETERNITY magazine. Bob Jones University had just requested permission to arm their campus security guards with automatic rifles and submachine guns...


Leadership in the PCA: protecting power structures while tossing a bone to younger men...

The third key issue (first here and second here) identified by the Cooperative Ministries Committee of the PCA at this year's General Assembly was "The rising generation of leaders in the PCA:

The rising generation of leaders in the PCA – particularly, seeking to find new avenues of including younger people in denominational leadership.

Are the fathers of the PCA really ready to grant younger men access to the reins of power? Here's a case study based on the Board of Trustees of the denomination's Covenant Theological Seminary...


Aimee Semple McPherson: conflicted celebrity evangelist...

Itinerant evangelists have proclaimed the good news in crusades and tent revivals, in fields and stadiums, in tabernacles and classrooms. Over the last 150 years, Dwight L. Moody (1837-1899), Billy Sunday (1862-1935), Aimee Semple McPherson (1890-1944) and Billy Graham (1918-present) have been household names in their eras. Each used different methods and had vastly different personalities, and was able to tap into deep undercurrents of American piety. My intent in this post is not to compare these four, but to consider a recent (1993) and major biography (400+ pages), Aimee Semple McPherson: Everybody's Sister by Edith Blumhofer .

For much of the 1920s and 1930s, Aimee was front-page news. She was a relentless evangelist, a missionary to China, a megachurch pastor, the founder of a denomination, and a leader in helping to provide for the physical needs of those who fell on hard times during the Great Depression.

Yet her life was full of contradictions. Adored by thousands … 


A heads up for those who work with missionaries

Missionaries are not known for being self-critical so here is a brief attempt at such. Perhaps it will help pastors and churches and missionary agencies give better care to them. It might also help missionaries look at themselves in the mirror.

1. Lots of missionaries work with minimal supervision either from their missionary group or home church. That means the missionary is often not used to dealing with an authority structure and being brought to account. When someone confronts him, about his work or his marriage or his personal life, he is genuinely...


Is the pope an Apostle?

The signs of a true apostle were performed among you with all perseverance, by signs and wonders and miracles. - 2 Corinthians 12:12

Well, we must grant one thing, the Vatican does know how to put on a spectacle! As a local radio host and friend who is Roman Catholic posted on Facebook upon the selection of Francis I as pontiff: "I just cracked open some Champagne. Let's see you Protestants top that!" 

But now that the show is over and the crowds have gone home, we have an important two-fold question to ask ourselves, "Is the office of the papacy from God and is the Roman Catholic pope what Catholicism claims he is?" If you are uncertain of the claim of Roman Catholicism concerning the papacy, here it is in part:


The tragedy of complementarianism....

Carl Trueman is a complementarian. Really.

He recently assured us of this, despite previously suggesting on his blog that disagreement over the Biblically-ordained roles of men and women is no basis for separation in ministry and despite holding the opinion that many complementarians embrace complementarianism "less because of the Bible and more because they apparently watched Conan the Barbarian a few too many times in their early teenage years."

Unfortunately, he's accurate in claiming to be complementarian. Professor Trueman is straight down the middle of that broad and squishy theological avenue.


Washington D.C.'s rebellion against the authority of God and man...

Is President Obama's nationalized health care a violation of our U.S. Constitution?

Of course. You have to have a law degree not to know that. The Tenth Amendment reads, "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." And in United States vs. Darby, SCOTUS yawned:

The (Tenth) amendment states but a truism that all is retained which has not been surrendered. There is nothing in the history of its adoption to suggest that it was more than declaratory of the relationship between the national and state governments as it had been established by the Constitution before the amendment or that its purpose was other than to allay fears that the new national government might seek to exercise powers not granted, and that the states might not be able to exercise fully their reserved powers.....

So now Obamacare brings one-fifth of of our economy inside the Beltway. If such a monstrous grab of authority and power is no violation of the Tenth Amendment, nothing is or could be. To argue our national rulers can usurp authority over one-fifth of our economy because they have the authority to tax the people is the sort of lunacy...


Authority and submission in the bedroom...

Under son Joseph's post, "Humble is as stupid does...," "Anne" asks the question:

Can you provide Scripture that says authority and submission, 'conquering' and 'surrendering', are to be carried out in the bedroom? Because neither Song of Songs nor 1Corinthians 7, not even Ephesians 5 in its entirety suggests such a thing.

P.S: Failure to respond will be taken as a failure to provide appropriate scripture.

To which I respond:

Dear Anne,

Concerning physical marital intimacy, function follows form...


Bus monitors, bullies, authority, and money...

Yesterday I was reminded of just how rich Americans are. Our conception of money is like that of a Roman general returning to Rome after sacking and pillaging enemy countries. We throw it down on those less fortunate than us in an attempt to make them like us. Or maybe it's an attempt to make us like us. 

By now you've probably already read about the 67 year-old bus monitor who was being harassed by Jr-high students while they video-taped their exploits. When you're in Jr-high it's easy to make fun of people who are old and fat. It's entertaining, too--and not just for 7th graders. Millions of people around the world have been entertained by the video. However, apparently it's one of those guilty pleasures, where you watch and laugh and then say, "Shame on you!" while you hide your smile.

Somebody came up with the bright idea of trying to raise $5000 dollars to send this poor bullied woman on a world-class vacation, and now, with the amount raised in excess of...