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The World We Made: Coming soon...

UPDATE: There’s been lots of interest in this podcast, with about 2000 listens from 30 countries and counting! If you haven’t subscribed yet, we’ve added a few links to make it easier for those of you who aren’t on iTunes, which is most of you. (Welcome non-Apple fanboys.) Don't miss an episode. Scroll down and subscribe now.

"These are the confessions of American Christians recovering from American Christianity. This is the world we made."

Warhorn Media is pleased to announce a new podcast hosted by Jake Mentzel and Nathan Alberson and featuring Tim Bayly. The World We Made is designed to help ordinary American Christians think through the difficult issues we face in our culture today. Season 1 is about homosexuality.

Over the course of the first season, we talk with Tim about how we went from having anti-sodomy laws in all 50 states (just 50 years ago) to where we are today. What are the changes Tim has seen in his lifetime? What exactly do they mean? What part did the culture play and what part did the church play? How are regular Bible-believing Christians supposed to respond? What has Tim learned as a pastor to help equip us for the challenge of ministering to men and women tempted by homosexuality?

These are the questions we'll be unpacking over the course of eight 20-minute episodes. We'll start out slow and easy, and things will pick up steam as we get closer and closer to the end. You won't want to miss it, so check out the trailer (above), and go ahead and subscribe now in iTunes or Android (or wherever you listen to your podcasts—Google Play Music, Stitcher, TuneInRSS feed) so you're ready when the first episode drops (July 17). 

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Rooting for President Trump...

Dad was from New York City. Until his sister came to live and die with us in 2001, her abode was the same Flushing apartment Dad found and moved his parents and sister into back in 1940 while he was a student at Wheaton College. Hear tell the building's owners had a blowout party to celebrate Aunt Elaine's departure after sixty years of rent control on her corner apartment.

So I've always known and kept track of The Donald, and for decades the souls I serve as pastor have observed my—shall I say it publicly?—loathing for him. My disgust with the man long predates his entry into politics. But if anything, The Donald's election as president has modulated my loathing. Yes, it continues; but now it's mixed with a certain grudging appreciation (as well as respect for the office of President)...


Asleep in Zion...

This is a sermon preached by my father over thirty years ago, a couple weeks before he died. It's short. Give it a listen:

Is Holiness Possible Today (With a Warning from Esau)

If this sermon jolted you awake, it's time to find a church where you and your loved ones will be blessed by God with a faithful pastor who exhorts, admonishes, and rebukes his sheep. Life is short and without holiness no man will see God.

You say you have a Reformed pastor who's never told you that?

Run for your life.

* * *

The painting is Hogarth's "The Sleeping Congregation."


Standing in the gap: what does it mean?

Nobody standing in the gap in the wall

Nobody standing in the gap. Nobody rebuilding the wall. But what need? There are no enemies visible (yet).

(By Joseph Bayly, posted by TB) When discussing what is unique about our church, one of the things I often bring up is the concept of "standing in the gap." I'm referring to a biblical analogy of a protective wall around a city. If the wall is broken in a certain place, that is a gap in the wall. In case you are wondering, gaps are not good. In the book of Ezekiel, God uses this analogy and we see three things that faithful men do to "stand in the gap"...


Arsene Wenger and pastoral leadership...

Here are some good statements on leadership by embattled Arsenal manager, Arsene Wenger. Exchange "church" for "club," "session" for "board," "pastor" for "manager"...

A strong club is people who make the right decisions. That's why I think the board is important and the manager is important in a football club. And what has gone wrong in modern society? ...


Dreher, Chaput, and Esolen: sacraments and culture...

The lead book review of the April 2017 issue of First Things is Notre Dame prof Patrick Deneen's group-review of three prognostications for the future of Christianity in North America. Each work is set against the backdrop of the sexual anarchists' revolution concluded in 2015 by the Supreme Court's Obergefell decision.

The books' authors are Rod Dreher (a former Methodist who converted to Roman Catholicism, then to Eastern Orthodoxy), and two Roman Catholics—Charles Chaput, archbishop of Philadelphia, and Tony Esolen who serves as professor of English at Providence College. Before critiquing these men's religious faith, let me say that I have often been grateful for the leadership of both Charles Chaput and Tony Esolen...


On the occasion of Michael Farris leaving HSLDA: thoughts on the church's reformation...

Neither the slaughter of one-quarter of our children we liltingly refer to as "abortion," nor the promotion of sodomy and the denial of First Amendment rights of Christians who object to it, will be repealed in our courts. Any remedy will have to be legislative.

Legislation, though, depends upon the will of the people and at this point we, the people, do not have the will to stop either of these obscenities. Nor very many others.

How might this change?

The history of the early church shows the way. The men who knew Jesus went out preaching, and in time the Roman Empire turned away from effeminacy, sodomy, female rebellion, and child slaughter that was characteristic of their pagan religion.

Now, though, Christendom is in its death throes. Seventy-five years ago, J. Gresham Machen said America was living...


Only lawyers should be ordained to pastoral ministry...

For a few years now, I've been telling men I think a law degree and some experience litigating should be a prerequisite for ordination to pastoral ministry. Seriously.

Where am I coming from?

Think of the reformation of preaching this would produce.

Men who preach would have been trained to say "no" and to speak towards the inevitable judgment. They would understand their purpose and the effect going beyond yes to no would have on the souls under their care. They would have been acclimated to controversy and would view adversity as the necessary environment for truth to be revealed so it may be embraced. For error to be revealed so it may be rejected.

The curriculum of most seminary training today is...


Amanda Nunes beats the shit out of Ronda Rousey...

The story topped the Google news page this morning. Last night in Sin City, Ronda Rousey was kicked, bashed, and smashed into submission 48 seconds into her mixed martial arts match with Amanda Nunes. No one went to jail for abusing a woman. The cops didn't stop the abuse. A ref stopped it and awarded the perp the match. 

This is the state of the union of man and woman in these United States today. We're a majority Christian nation and we get our jollies watching what's pictured here. Think about it. Undoubtedly you were more offended by the headline of this post than the pic accompanying it, and that's the point.

It is impossible for these perverted women to make so much money doing what they do...


Mothers and children first...

By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion.

How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?  - Psalm 137:1-4

Yes, I voted for The Donald, today. In the final analysis, I considered not voting for President at all, writing in a candidate, or going third party to be roughly equivalent. At this late date nationally, none of them commend themselves to me. Years ago when Joe Sobran was still alive and I had some hope that pastors might start preaching again, the third party option had some credibility. But then we saw a real third party develop in the Tea Party movement and it became apparent third parties provide no solution to the larger problem—which now appears to be permanent.

Our two candidates accurately reflect who our nation is...


On the election: a prophet in our midst...

My brother-in-law, Jim Lingo, forwarded this to our family asking us all to watch it. Instead, I read the transcript evidently provided by a machine. The transcript is rough, but readers will be able to make the corrections and fill in the blanks. The sermon is preached by Pastor Tom Nelson of Denton Bible Church.

Back 2,000 years ago, John the Baptist was imprisoned for preaching against the incestous sexual perversion of the one holding political authority over him. The man's name was Herod and eventually Herod rewarded John's prophetic witness by cutting off his head.

While John was still in prison. Jesus, declared to the crowds that John the Baptist was not effeminate... 


Trump and Clinton: which form of sexual degradation do you hate most...

You remember how Wayne Grudem recently endorsed Donald Trump, saying he'd been teaching "ethics for 39 years" and Donald Trump was a "morally good choice" for president of these United States.

Now Grudem deleted that endorsement and has called for Trump to withdraw from the race. He apologizes for not looking more carefully at Trump's pattern of sexual debauchery before calling him a "morally good choice." Grudem issues a good apology. He's specific and the apology doesn't end with the word "but."

After apologizing, though, Grudem goes on to make the same case for voting for Trump he made in his earlier post. The only thing missing is his former personal endorsement of Trump the man. So what about Trump the man and Clinton the woman?

No one remembers that Ronald Reagan...


What to do when Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, or Donald Trump is your president...

The sons of Israel lived among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; and they took their daughters for themselves as wives, and gave their own daughters to their sons, and served their gods. The sons of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and forgot the LORD their God and served the Baals and the Asheroth.

Then the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, so that He sold them into the hands of Cushan-rishathaim king of Mesopotamia; and the sons of Israel served Cushan-rishathaim eight years. When the sons of Israel cried to the LORD, the LORD raised up a deliverer for the sons of Israel to deliver them, Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother. (Judges 3:5-9)

Under the post "Wayne Grudem's ethical casuistry," Mr. Alex Guggenheim commented: "You are going to get either Trump or Clinton. It's time to grow up and take responsibility for delivering one or the other to us."

Here's my response:

Dear Mr. Guggenheim,

You're avoiding the long game. I understand why you're doing so, but don't accuse those who think about history and judgement or blessing in more than four-year increments of being immature and irresponsible. I would say it's precisely the opposite—that those incapable of thinking and choosing anything other than short-term goods are the ones who are immature and irresponsible. Contrary to what all Donald Trump's supporters are telling the church right now, this election cycle...


The good father: a church with Biblical discipline...

We've been saying that a father does nothing more important for his children than choosing a church. But our culture presses us into the mold of individualism, so Christians have come to think of religion as "just me and Jesus" with the church a sort of religious social club. But get this: across history, Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholics, and Protestants have all been in agreement that the Church is essential for salvation.

This is typical of what Roman Catholics say. It's from their 1997 Catechism:

All salvation comes from Christ the Head through the Church which is his Body.

Reformed baptists and presbyterians say the same. This is from our most loved doctrinal standard... 


The good father: you are what you eat...

The last thing you think about when your first child is born is your church. Rather, your mind is focussed on the hospital (or midwife) bill, whether you have enough diapers, how long your mother-in-law will stay, which car seat to buy, whether you and your mother-in-law will get along, whether your mother-in-law and your wife will get along, when your baby's conehead will go away... But the church?

Isn't the church like a sound system; if you have to think about it, it's failed? Your wife has just given birth to your first child and the church should stay in the background. Yeah, the first day or so it would be nice if the pastor and his wife visit, hold the baby, read Psalm 139 (except those crazy verses near the end), pray, and leave. Also, it would be nice if the church women helped with food. They can fill your refrigerator with...


Daddy Tried...


The world hangs by a thread...

When the Sons of Israel entered the Promised Land, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob warned them against the the wicked practices of the Canaanites. The Canaanites had given themselves to the most awful wickedness, and now their land was spewing them out.

Yahweh warned His people that if they turned to the same wickedness practiced by the Canaanites—sexual perversion and the slaughter of their own babies, for instance—the Promised Land would spew them out, too...


2005 called. They want their podcast back...

CNB iTunes Artwork.jpgWe're a little behind the times, but we're better late than never, right? Clearnote Church in Bloomington has had it's sermon audio available online at our website for a long time, but today I'm pleased to announce that you can also subscribe to it on iTunes. Here's the link.

We're using Podbean.com to provide the hosting and the RSS feed, and you can check out our Podbean page right here, if that's your thing.

Many thanks to all the volunteers who made this happen! Enjoy!

 


Republican candidates want their daughters drafted...

Fifteen years ago, even the feminist pastors on the Ad Interim Study Committee on Women in the Military of the PCA's General Assembly were opposed to women being drafted. They were in favor of women serving as combatants and they ridiculed committee members who were opposed, saying our view of women was to keep them "barefoot and pregnant." Still, none of them wanted their daughters drafted.

These male church officers were pleased with the feminism they had already made their peace with because it put money in their pockets. (Note that pastors who are hard or soft feminists all have wives who work full time and earn good money.) These pastors and elders also didn't ever want to have to say "no" to anything their daughters wanted to be or do—doctor, special ops, lawyer, president, whatever.

But their daughters drafted? No. Absolutely not.

Try as we might, it was impossible to shake these men loose from their firm belief that ideas have no consequences and one thing never follows another.

These are the men who have been preaching to Republican politicians the past fifteen years...


Justice Primer; is this really a scandal?

Canon Press has pulled their recent book, Justice Primer, from their list, issuing an apology for some few sentences which were unattributed to their original authors. Doug Wilsons' co-author, Randy Booth, has acknowledged he is the guilty party, and the father-rule haters are gleeful at their success in humiliating Doug.

Yet here in the calm, solely by the grace of God, there are a couple things that need to be said about pastors and books.

Most pastors, to a greater or lesser degree, use manuscripts in the pulpit, and therefore write from 2,500 to 10,000 words each week, just for their preaching. As we write those manuscripts, we have first read and read other men's preaching and teaching, so when it comes to writing our manuscript, we pull in direct quotes from others' work and face the decision whether to cite that work in our manuscript, itself; but also, whether to cite that work in our preaching on Lord's Day. It's similar to the work of a prof lecturing. If we had a way to record profs' lectures and run them through a search site that included all copyrighted works, it's long been my conviction that a large percentage of academics' lectures would be found to contain plagiarism. But is it really that simple?

We can all see the difference between preaching and lecturing, on the one hand, and blogging and writing articles and books, on the other hand...