Good churches are few and far between. Good, uncompromised, Biblically Faithful churches are very hard to find right now. In this video, Pastor Joel talks about why this is happening and how you can help.
00:24:58.280and it's like I finally finally got towards the end of that Luby's buffet line and all of a sudden
00:25:05.140I see this little chalkboard sign and it says chef's special seven course meal and it gives
00:25:13.740each item for each course and I'm looking at my three trays and seven plates you know and I'm
00:25:22.220realizing all right I've been I've been trying to master this you know Luby's buffet line for you
00:25:27.380know, 10 plus years now. And I'm looking over there at the chef special and I see like, I'm
00:25:33.920like 93% of what the chef said. And now I have a real serious choice to make. I'm either going to
00:25:41.360say that, that the 7% where I differ from the chef's recommendation is because I'm better than
00:25:48.280the chef, because I know more than the chef, because the chef got most of his recommendations
00:25:54.920right but at the end of the day this particular lubies connoisseur knows more than the guy who
00:26:01.640actually cooks up the food or i can say maybe the chef knows something i don't and i could just take
00:26:09.640his word for it and i could go ahead and swap out that seven percent where i differ from the chef
00:26:14.800and just trust that the chef got it right not just reform doctrine but confessionally reformed
00:26:22.260not just a calvinistic baptist who holds to the five points of calvinism but he's a
00:26:27.740dispensationalist rejects covenant theology right he's a non-sabbatarian uh he's you know he
00:26:35.160may maybe the chef in this case if we're talking about reformed historic confessions
00:26:42.020to the big ones being the 1689 second london baptist confession of faith that i prescribed to
00:26:48.060or the Westminster, 1646, Westminster Confession of Faith.
00:26:52.260Those are the two primary ones on both sides of the aisle,
00:26:54.760whether you're Paedo-Baptist or Credo-Baptist,
00:26:56.920but both historic confessions of Reformed theology, robust and detailed.
00:27:04.080You know, the 1689 is about, you know, in book form, it's about 85 pages long.
00:27:08.480So, you know, it's not 700 pages, but it's also not your general statement of faith.
00:27:13.040It's three pages long that you would find, you know, on a church website.
00:27:15.900it's it's lengthy and it's thorough and here's the deal it's not just one chef right you you've
00:27:23.480got nehemiah cox and benjamin keech and you've got all these different pastors and theologians
00:27:28.420that came out collectively and and worked through these theological debates for hours and days and
00:27:35.600months and years and finally came to a consensus whether it be the westminster or the 1689 the
00:27:42.060process the general process and how they determined these doctrines as being biblically faithful is
00:27:47.960is comparable on both sides so either the not just the chef but the team of world-class chefs
00:27:55.660got it right and i might add all the chefs over the last uh hundreds of years right because these
00:28:03.200these are documents historic confessions that that somebody you know a team of brilliant bible
00:28:09.440scholars came up with but but not just that they have been tried and true tested and tried and true
00:28:16.260over the last centuries by other people saying yeah the Westminster Confession of Faith is still
00:28:22.400good 1689 still good so either either these guys are right or or they're wrong but um but I got it
00:28:35.320right. And so I spent so much of my life and it was, it's not just that, um, that I, that I was
00:28:41.520risking the, the very real opportunity of theological error, but I was also exhausting
00:28:48.540myself. A lot of my pastoral ministry opportunities were swallowed up with, with, I would just, I had
00:28:58.800to study. I had to study. I still have to study to show myself approved. Every Christian does.
00:29:03.360I'm not negating that, but there's an immense relief and safety and security that comes with
00:29:10.520being inside of a historic confessionally reformed tradition. That's what I'm saying.
00:29:20.500So all that being said, seven doctrines that I'd be looking for if I'm looking for a local church.
00:29:25.480The first one is I want that church to be reformed and I want that church ideally to be
00:29:31.120confessionally reformed, not just a Calvinist like John Piper would be an example. Sam Storms
00:29:38.800would be an example. Wayne Grudem would be an example. John MacArthur would be an example.
00:29:43.520I don't just want him to be a Calvinist, Calvinistic Baptist, but I want him to be
00:29:49.000confessionally reformed, a reformed Baptist. Somebody who is not just holding to the five
00:29:54.360points of Calvinism and reformed in terms of their view of soteriology, but I want them to
00:29:59.320be thoroughly reformed i want them to be reformed in the category of soteriology salvation certainly
00:30:05.680but i also want them to be reformed in their view not just of of the gospel but their view of the
00:30:10.760law i want them to be sabbatarian i want them to be covenantal and not dispensationalist i i want
00:30:19.120them to be thoroughly reformed or confessionally reformed tried tested and true so first thing
00:30:26.880that I'd be looking for is a confessionally reformed church one because it's thorough it's
00:30:31.760accurate it's tested and true but also because it binds the ordained ministers the officers of that
00:30:39.900church elders and deacons or on the presbyterian side of the aisle you would have teaching elders
00:30:45.160and ruling elders they have a bifurcation of elders so two some presbyteries would have three
00:30:50.240types of elders but primarily two types of elders a teaching elder a ruling elder and then deacons
00:30:56.860But in both regards, the officers, ordained officers of the church in the Presbyterian or Baptist church, if it's confessional, not just Calvinistic, but reformed, confessionally reformed, not only is that tried, not only has that passed the test of time and therefore provides a high level of doctrinal accuracy,
00:31:19.500But it also provides a level of accountability, accountability and safety, because it binds the ordained officers of that local church within the theological parameters of a 85 page, not a three page general confession of faith on the website.
00:31:40.700but but it binds them you know statement of faith but it binds them to a 85 page you know or 100
00:31:48.700page depending what your font and print is but a much more thorough and lengthy and detailed
00:31:55.600confession of faith or statement of faith so that you know when you show up at that church
00:32:00.800that now guys can still compromise you know but but you at least stand a much better chance of
00:32:08.900being able to trust that the elders and deacons ordained officers of this local church i they're
00:32:14.900not just five point calvinist when it comes to salvation but they are confessionally reformed
00:32:19.700i've got there's still things outside of the confessions head coverings is not covered by
00:32:23.900the westminster head coverings is not covered by the 1689 so there's still going to be theological
00:32:29.540questions that you're going to have to inquire where do the pastor stand on this particular
00:32:33.180the issue but you've got at least 85 pages of doctrine that's settled that you you can know
00:32:39.340where they stand and you can know that where they stand is where many other faithful men have stood
00:32:45.060for centuries before them that's encouraging so number one would be confessionally reformed
00:32:52.560all right so that covers calvinism that covers the gospel in terms of it's not synonymous with
00:32:57.680the gospel but i'm including the gospel in that more particularly it being a a biblically faithful
00:33:02.840theologically accurate framework for presenting the gospel and it can also covers historic
00:33:08.700confessionalism that's number one number two covenant theology now some of these things fall
00:33:15.300within the confession um but then some of them out of these seven doctrines are not covered by
00:33:20.740confession but i view them as being vital um to a church is not only at the doctrinal positions that
00:33:27.560that particular church holds to and preaches publicly from the pulpit, but doctrines that I
00:33:33.720think are integral in the way that it shapes the actual living out of the Christian faith of a
00:33:40.180local church. It shapes their praxis. It shapes the way they live, not just their theology and
00:33:49.240theory, but their theology and practice. Okay, so we'll get to some of those, but first confessionally
00:33:53.560reformed second covenant theology that's in both of the historic reformed confessions westminster
00:33:58.760and the 1689 covenant theology but i think that it's worth its its own mention it's that important
00:34:05.000for me i would not i would not be willing to take my wife and children to a dispensational church
00:34:13.080that doesn't mean that every dispensational church is heretical that's certainly not true
00:34:19.560there are guys who are generally biblically faithful who are dispensational ish like john
00:34:27.900macarthur who by his own testimony would describe himself as you know um there's hard dispensationalists
00:34:35.240and he would describe himself as a leaky dispensationalist i believe that john macarthur
00:34:39.680by and large is a guy who has been incredibly faithful i'm very grateful for him um so hear
00:34:47.060that disclaimer and take this with a grain of salt. Um, but if I lived in LA, which I would
00:34:52.900never live there, but if I did live in LA with my wife and children, uh, we would not, we would not
00:34:58.800be members at John MacArthur's church. Um, because I believe that dispensationalism is that
00:35:04.160problematic. I believe that theologically, um, it is so problematic that even a leaky dispensational
00:35:11.280approach is going to produce a fruit in my wife and me and my children that I do not want to see.
00:35:19.540So, reformed, confessionally reformed, covenant theology, understanding that God works through
00:35:26.840covenants. There's more that could be said about covenant theology, but we'll leave it there.
00:35:30.720The third one would be, and this is kind of systematically building, but this is in the
00:35:35.040vein of covenant theology biblical patriarchy biblical patriarchy whatever church that i'm
00:35:42.300looking for i want to know that that church is patriarchal and as a litmus test this is this is
00:35:48.380key as a litmus test i want to know that the pastors of that church are willing to say
00:35:53.560the p word patriarchy from the pulpit not complementarian i want to know that they
00:36:01.440are patriarchal and will say that they are patriarchal publicly without blushing.
00:36:07.660Patriarchy simply means father rule, father rule, rule. Biblical patriarchy is the idea that first
00:36:15.580and foremost, we live in the capital T, capital F, the father's world, that God is a father.
00:36:23.560He's not a mother. It's not a sister. He is a father. He identifies himself and represents
00:36:29.440himself and conveys himself in paternal terms as a father. He's the father of lights. Every good
00:36:36.620and perfect gift comes down from the father, the father of light. So God is a father and God
00:36:43.160predominantly works in the world through fathers. There are three divinely instituted or divinely
00:36:50.600instituted spheres, sovereign spheres in human society. That's the home, the church, and the
00:36:56.960state and each of these is governed by fathers there are familial fathers the mother is not the
00:37:04.420head of the home husband is the head of his wife and he is the head of the home head of the children
00:37:10.600the wife as mother in regards to her relationship with the children she bears authority but even her0.55
00:37:17.940authority works in concert and it stems from the father she's in a sense the the viceroy or the
00:37:26.080deputy of the father, but he is the head of household. He's the head of household. So God,
00:37:33.500the father works in the world through human fathers in the realm, the sovereign sphere of
00:37:40.100the home, the family, God works through familial fathers in the church. God works through
00:37:46.180ecclesiastical fathers, right? There's a reason why elders must be men. And the beauty of being1.00
00:37:53.280confessionally reformed c.a is that deacons as ordained officers in the church also are required
00:38:00.740to be men the Westminster and the 1689 say this explicitly if you are part not a Calvinistic
00:38:07.220Baptist church again right not just like an Acts 29 church or something but you're part of a true
00:38:12.480blue confessionally historic reformed Baptist church or reformed Presbyterian church you're
00:38:19.700going to have not only male elders but also a male diaconate male deacons i find it you know
00:38:26.700i feel like it should be fairly obvious um that in acts chapter 6 where we see you know the
00:38:33.740introduction of the diaconate that one of the things that the apostles asked for is you know
00:38:39.560go and find us seven men filled with the holy spirit men right there from from the very beginning
00:38:47.280we need seven deacons all of them need to be men and then somehow we end up with female deacons
00:38:52.800later on i i think that's silly and i've done a lot of work and you guys have heard even in
00:38:58.620recent episodes of theology applied with like zach garris which just came out a couple weeks
00:39:02.700ago if you want you if you haven't watched that video you can go back and watch that but we talk
00:39:06.320about the deaconate we talk about first timothy three likewise their wives and how some people
00:39:11.360you know translate that as women so there's one list of qualifications for a male deacon and one
00:39:15.860for, you know, list of qualifications for a female deacon. That's the wrong interpretation.
00:39:20.080That's not how you read it. If you want more theological, you know, and biblical support for
00:39:26.040that, you can watch that episode of Theology Applied. So I'm not going to spend a lot of time
00:39:29.660on that right now. But the point is this, in the ecclesiastical sphere, the sovereign sphere of
00:39:34.780the church, again, it's fathers that God works through. It is, you know, the leaders of the
00:39:40.920church and i would argue again both elders and deacons are male and they are spiritual fathers
00:39:46.820so it's familial fathers in the home it's ecclesiastical or spiritual fathers in the church
00:39:52.960both elders and deacons and then it should be what's supposed to be as civil fathers in the
00:39:59.360sphere of the state that we would have you know some guys would use the language of the christian
00:40:05.420prince but even with that is not the christian princess is the christian prince that yes our
00:40:13.540civil magistrates should be qualified men they should be men that's one of the judgments that
00:40:21.100we see in the prophets in the old testament it's actually a judgment of god for a nation
00:40:26.580a civil nation to be ruled by children or by women that's a judgment the fact that you have
00:40:35.400of Nancy Pelosi. That is God's judgment. And certainly we have corrupt, terrible male civil
00:40:43.600magistrates in our nation today. But that doesn't change God's word. The fact that there are bad
00:40:52.880men who are in positions of civil authority doesn't mean that women should be in positions
00:40:59.020of civil authority god is a father the father and he works and blesses the father's world the world
00:41:06.420that he has made through human fathers in each of the three divine institutions that he established
00:41:12.480familial fathers in the home ecclesiastical fathers in the church and civil fathers in the
00:41:19.000state all right so confessionally reformed covenant theology speaking of covenants there's
00:41:25.200always a covenant head, a federal head, right? This is just a basic understanding of covenant
00:41:31.880theology and how covenants work. There's always a covenantal head. Adam is a covenantal head,
00:41:36.940right? If you're not in Christ, you're in Adam. There's only two categories. You're either in
00:41:41.480Christ, the second Adam, he is your federal representative, right? You're in Christ and
00:41:46.840clothed in his righteousness. You have union with Christ by the spirit through faith, or you are in
00:41:53.020the first Adam. You're either in the last Adam or the first Adam. If you're in the first Adam,
00:41:57.680then you're underneath his federal headship. He represents you. He's the head of that covenant.0.92
00:42:03.340And as being a covenant member in Adam's covenant, then you're a covenant breaker
00:42:09.080because Adam broke that covenant. It was a covenant of works that God established with
00:42:14.080Adam and he broke the covenant and the penalty for breaking the covenant was death. And so
00:42:19.140you're a dead man spiritually speaking you are a dead man walking you are under the just
00:42:24.760condemnation of god and there's no hope apart from switching covenants switching your membership
00:42:29.980and having a new covenant covenantal head federal head from the first adam under the covenant of
00:42:35.660works where where you're a covenant breaker because your federal head broke that covenant
00:42:40.400you have followed suit and broken that covenant too and and are due the the just penalties for
00:42:46.540covenant breaking namely death and eternal death or you transfer membership to another covenant
00:42:53.700namely the new covenant the covenant of grace with a new federal head namely christ who has fulfilled
00:43:00.560all the terms of that covenant and he has fulfilled them not only for his own sake but for the benefit
00:43:06.420in in the stead as a substitute for all the covenant members now christ is through faith
00:43:13.720and by the work of the spirit you have union with christ and you are part of the new covenant
00:43:18.320and you receive all its blessings and promises so confessionally reformed covenant theology is key
00:43:25.760and biblical patriarchy flows out of covenant theology biblical patriarchy so i'd be looking
00:43:31.040for a church that is reformed i want them to be more than just calvinistic i want them to be
00:43:36.360confessionally reformed i want that church not to be dispensational i want them to adhere to
00:43:42.240again see point a this is part of being confessionally reformed covenant theology
00:43:46.480that is the historic confessional position i don't want a doctrine that burst onto the scenes in you
00:43:52.820know 150 years ago aka dispensationalism i want an old doctrine that's been around for 2000 years
00:43:59.480aka covenant theology so i want confessionally reformed churches i want covenant theology
00:44:06.260churches and within covenant theology if they're really covenantal and they're not bashful about
00:44:11.940it and they're not woke and they're not feminist and they're not just trying to kowtow to the
00:44:15.960culture, then they're going to have no qualms and make no apology about being patriarchal because0.99
00:44:22.000covenant and patriarchy go hand in hand. It's hand in glove. And so I want to find a church
00:44:29.340that adheres to biblical patriarchy. All right. Confessionally reformed covenant theology,0.70
00:44:34.500biblical patriarchy next presuppositionalism presuppositionalism i want to be a part of a
00:44:41.960church if i'm looking for a church i want to find a church that is presuppositional i want that
00:44:47.520church to be in line with cornelius van till and not with thomas aquinas in other words and this
00:44:56.800is another that would take a lot of time if you want more details on this you can watch one of
00:45:00.740our theology applied episodes that i did a while back with dr james white you could also go and
00:45:06.400check out the sweater vest dialogues on canon channel and see a discourse between doug wilson
00:45:14.480and james white about thomism those who would adhere to the teachings of thomas aquinas and
00:45:21.260the problems with that thomas aquinas was ultimately commissioned by the roman catholic
00:45:26.100church to essentially baptize, as it were, Aristotle. And so it's taking Greek and philosophy
00:45:37.380and metaphysics and imposing those on the scripture. And basically, in a sense, I really
00:45:43.000do believe that Thomism, in a sense, denies the premise of sola scriptura, that it basically says
00:45:51.000that scripture is not sufficient, that we can't really understand the Trinity, we can't really
00:45:55.820understand the essence and nature of God and the inner workings of the three persons of the Trinity
00:46:00.300and we can't understand revelation and we can't understand how God speaks and we can't understand
00:46:04.960this and we can't understand that apart from something apart from scripture plus something
00:46:11.520else namely reason right divine revelation from God the scriptures special revelation but also
00:46:18.300man's reason we need man's reason to supplement God's revelation in order to know what God has
00:46:24.580actually set. Whereas presuppositionalism, Cornelius Van Til, obviously I believe it's
00:46:30.180older than him. I believe it would track back all the way back to Romans chapter one and two with
00:46:34.800the apostle Paul. But Cornelius Van Til is the one who is probably most known for this
00:46:40.360presuppositional approach. And this was taken up by guys like Greg Bonson. And Greg Bonson is
00:46:45.700often remembered in regards to how he took the presuppositional approach to scripture,
00:46:49.900sola scriptura the scripture alone and and apply that into the realm of christian ethics and that's
00:46:57.560where you get this idea of general equity theonomy and bonson did go on record saying that he was not
00:47:03.200just a theonomist but a general equity theonomist which is again c point a the confessionally
00:47:08.640reformed position that is what the 1689 and the westminster say in regards to the civil codes
00:47:16.000under the old covenant given to israel uh that you know the moral law of god the ten commandments
00:47:21.920the decalogue both the first table and the second second table love your neighbor as yourself are
00:47:27.120our obligation to our neighbor first table love the lord your god with all your heart soul mind
00:47:31.720and strength um so our obligation to god the ten commandments the decalogue is the moral law of god
00:47:37.240and it endures forever it's immutable and that includes the fourth commandment of the sabbath
00:47:41.800and jesus did not remove the sabbath but rather by virtue of being lord of the sabbath and by
00:47:46.940virtue of his bodily resurrection jesus renewed not removed but renewed the sabbath from the last
00:47:53.680day of the week to the first the sabbath still stands but is now the lord's day the first day
00:47:58.040of the week so all that being said and that wasn't constantine in the roman catholic church that was
00:48:02.140done for all the way back to the apostles we find it in scripture and it was done for hundreds of
00:48:06.560years before Constantine made it cool. So all that being said, that's the Decalogue, the moral law of
00:48:11.700God. But in terms of the civil codes, the civil law of God, like having a parapet, a border around
00:48:18.160your roof, those kinds of things, or muzzling an ox when he treads the grain, we see as the example
00:48:23.820of the apostles, the apostle Paul cites a civil code like muzzling an ox, and he uses that in the
00:48:30.520general equity, right? The moral principle underneath that particular civil code given
00:48:36.920to Israel under the old covenant, he takes the general moral principle and applies it to why
00:48:41.760you should pay your pastor. Don't muzzle the ox while he treads the grain, right? The worker
00:48:45.760deserves the wages. So all that means that's general equity theonomy. That's saying that
00:48:50.700we're not just going to take the moral law of God. That's certainly eternal and immutable,
00:48:54.720the 10 commandments, but we're also going to take the civil codes and we're not going to just take
00:48:59.440the civil codes and do a one-step process of just dropping them wholesale on American culture today
00:49:07.140in 2023 without any amendments or application or revisions. But what we're going to do is we're
00:49:15.040going to take all the civil codes. We're going to track the civil codes back to the moral law
00:49:19.760to find the general equity. And then we're going to, with wisdom, carefully apply that
00:49:24.640to our time and our place today right so a border around your roof of your house to protect the
00:49:30.300sanctity of human life uh speed limits on the road for cars right that you know so anyways all that
00:49:36.700being said Bonson was a general equity theonomist um and he took he was a disciple of Cornelius
00:49:43.160Van Til and he took the presuppositional presuppositional hermeneutics and and and
00:49:49.240understanding the scripture and applied it to the realm of Christian ethics and that's where you get
00:49:53.880general equity theonomy but more renowned than bonson's work on theonomy perhaps is his work
00:50:01.600in the realm of apologetics and that's where we really get we get the work of cornelius van till
00:50:06.420but now applied to a defense for the christian faith apologetics and that's where we get
00:50:12.020presuppositional apologetics right if you're wondering well who who's a presuppositional
00:50:16.400apologetic uh apologist today well that you know your quintessential examples would be you know
00:50:22.120like James White or Jeff Durbin, right? This presuppositional approach, basically saying
00:50:28.760that neutrality is a myth. There is no moral neutrality. Every man has an allegiance. Christ
00:50:34.780said, you're either for me or you're against me. That man is per Romans chapter one. He knows the
00:50:40.640truth, but he is lying and suppressing the truth and deeds of unrighteousness. The presuppositional
00:50:46.520apologist rather than a classical apologist or evidential apologist the presuppositional
00:50:53.980apologist what he's going to be very careful to insist again and again and again is he's going
00:50:58.600to say that the bible is true and it's the highest authority so he's not going to say here's an
00:51:04.280argument for from reason that supports the credibility and authority of the bible because
00:51:09.620what the presuppositional apologist never wants to do is he doesn't want to inadvertently ever
00:51:14.860say that there's a higher authority than scripture that you can trust scripture because this other
00:51:20.460authority right and inadvertently what we're saying there is this other more um more credible
00:51:26.980and higher authority scripture should be viewed as an authority because the higher authority said
00:51:31.800so and what's the higher authority um evidence um reason um sense perception would be one of you
00:51:42.220know the classical apologists would point towards they would say our five senses are reliable and
00:51:46.920these are the reasons why we can trust that our five senses are reliable and here's you know
00:51:50.900Aquinas and what he did with Aristotle in terms of of metaphysics and and and reason and these
00:51:56.840kinds of things and and consciousness you know I think therefore I am you know those kinds of
00:52:01.000things and and so we're gonna we're gonna start with you know man's consciousness and we're gonna
00:52:05.080move from man's consciousness to argue that therefore uh the existence of God no we want
00:52:11.180to argue down we want to start with god we want to start with the scripture and we want to say
00:52:16.620you know this is true because the scripture says you know this is true and anytime you you you say
00:52:22.240anything to the contrary like well how do i know that there is a god or how um we're going to call
00:52:27.020you on it we're going to say that you're lying and suppressing the truth and deeds of unrighteousness
00:52:30.660because that's what the bible said that god um the existence of god has been plainly revealed
00:52:36.920displayed the character of god right his eternal um power and divine nature have been clearly
00:52:44.220displayed and not just clearly displayed but but the bible actually says in romans 1 clearly
00:52:48.820perceived right so not just that god clearly put the message out there uh but that it wasn't you
00:52:55.000know it wasn't picked up right that you know it wasn't received it was lost in translation no
00:53:00.160god god clearly displayed um his revelation natural revelation but but then also man perceived
00:53:08.540the message was received by man it's been perceived by man and anytime man um he he
00:53:15.140contradicts uh the existence of god and the truth of god's word um it's not because he's
00:53:20.880ultimately ignorant it's because he's rebellious you could say it like this i think in many ways
00:53:27.160the heart of presuppositional apologetics and just the presuppositional approach is that0.66
00:53:33.040that rebellion does not stem from ignorance but rather ignorance stems from rebellion
00:53:39.880very often what unbelievers and even christians will buy into this rhetoric
00:53:44.840but very often what you'll hear the unbelievers say is well i don't know if there's a god
00:53:50.160and because i don't know if there's a god and you know essentially what they're saying is that it's
00:53:56.180not my fault. God failed, right? The failure, the onus is on God to reveal himself and God failed
00:54:02.320to sufficiently make himself known. And so therefore I'm intellectually ignorant. And0.91
00:54:07.700because I'm intellectually, uh, intellectually ignorant of God, because God failed to sufficiently0.95
00:54:13.480reveal himself, prove himself. Um, I'm therefore morally absolved in terms of my behavior, my
00:54:20.520rebellion. So I'm free to rebel against God's law. I'm not bound by his law. I'm morally absolved
00:54:27.060of guilt and culpability in terms of my rebellion because of my ignorance. And my ignorance is not
00:54:34.540my fault. It's not culpable ignorance, willful ignorance. That too, ultimately God is at fault
00:54:40.400because I'm not ignorant because I'm choosing to be ignorant because I'm lying and suppressing the
00:54:45.560truth and deeds of unrighteousness precisely as the bible says but rather because god failed to
00:54:50.640make himself known and i think that classical apologetics and evidential apologetics hear
00:54:58.920that rhetoric of the unbeliever and uh and they give it credence in some measure to some extent
00:55:06.040they say oh okay yeah okay whereas the presuppositional apologist someone like van till or0.96
00:55:13.000Bonson or James White or myself, we would say, no, you're a liar. How dare you? No, you're not0.99
00:55:20.500in the judge's seat. Jesus is not on trial. The triune God is not on trial here in your courtroom.
00:55:28.840No, you stand in God's courtroom. He's in the judge's seat. The angels and host of angels and
00:55:35.900the great cloud of witnesses, they're sitting in the jury seat. You're the defendant. You're the
00:55:42.060one on trial. And God has already mounted an impenetrable prosecution. And he has proved
00:55:52.100without a shred of doubt, without a reasonable doubt, that God has done everything he was
00:55:58.720required to sufficiently reveal himself. And your problem is not that you're ignorant,0.99
00:56:03.520therefore you rebel. Your problem is that you're rebellious, therefore you give yourself a self0.99
00:56:09.960lobotomy as it were in order to try to be ignorant the chief problem with man anthropology0.83
00:56:17.320with the bible's anthropology and what it says about unregenerate man apart from salvation is0.94
00:56:23.040not that he's ignorant therefore he morally rebels it is that he is morally rebellious in his nature
00:56:30.380because of sin in sin did my mother conceive me in iniquity i was brought forth david says in the
00:56:37.040psalms from conception because of the curse of sin because he's under his father adam as federal
00:56:43.560head in the covenant of works and he is a covenant breaker his whole nature has been marred by sin
00:56:49.680and therefore he is a sinner and a rebel and because he's rebellious he chooses to make himself
00:56:57.360ignorant ignorance stems from rebellion not the other way around presuppositional i want to go
00:57:04.880to a church so all that being said that's the fourth characteristic out of these seven number
00:57:09.080one confessionally reformed number two covenant theology number three biblical patriarchy number
00:57:14.300four presuppositional i want to go to a church that's presuppositional because i believe that
00:57:19.440the presupposition presuppositional church and presuppositional theology holds the scripture
00:57:25.600in higher regard it's that simple i i think that that is the theological position that gives the
00:57:33.920highest credence to scripture. And I want to go to a church that gives the highest credence
00:57:39.040to scripture. So I'm going to opt for a presuppositional church rather than a Thomist
00:57:45.060church. All right. Number five. Number five is, let me think, Kuyperianism. Now this is interesting
00:57:54.320because John Harris, who's a friend of mine, I love John and he does such good work. John Harris
00:58:00.620with conversations that matter. If you're not already subscribed to his channel, you need to
00:58:04.680go over there. It's on YouTube. It's also on every major podcast platform, Spotify, iTunes,
00:58:11.220et cetera, but conversations that matter. John Harris has been sounding the alarm on critical
00:58:18.320race theory and the social justice gospel and those kinds of things since, I mean, he was one
00:58:23.260of the first, you know, Votie Bauckham probably beat him by maybe a couple of years, but John
00:58:26.920Harris was right there um you know it was like Votie Bauckham was maybe the earliest and then
00:58:32.040you have you know Michael Fallon with Sovereign Nations he was early on warning guys and being
00:58:36.400faithful about that John Harris was right around that time but one of the early guys who was who
00:58:42.660got a lot of backlash for the record John Harris I I tweeted this the other day and um people liked
00:58:49.140it because as a general concept if you don't name situations and people then then nobody's bothered
00:58:54.180by it but i'll probably name a couple situations of people and offend half of you we'll probably
00:58:58.620check out but um i i tweeted something like this i said um when i i've realized over the years i've
00:59:05.460come to realize that it's actually quite easy to gain a large audience and popularity from a
00:59:13.480biblically conservative theologically and culturally and politically conservative platform
00:59:17.640being right i said this being right is not what gets you backlash what gets you backlash is not
00:59:24.740being right it's being first israel always killed the prophets and then the later generations of
00:59:32.540israel built tombs to honor those prophets right everybody likes charles spurgeon you know why
00:59:40.280people like charles spurgeon because charles spurgeon has been safely buried underneath six
00:59:45.380feet of dirt for over a hundred years that's why they like him if charles spurgeon was alive today
00:59:53.020most of you would hate him you would well we like dr martin lloyd jones we just don't like macarthur
01:00:01.540no no no what mark my words a hundred years from now when macarthur's good and dead
01:00:09.540um your average christian will be talking about how yeah i stand with macarthur i wish we still
01:00:17.240had macarthur today you know he he's probably rolling over in his grave i'd be on his side
01:00:22.140but people weren't when he was alive they were attacking him left and right constantly all the
01:00:30.820time so all that being said you don't get a ton of backlash for taking the right position
01:00:35.560but you do get a ton of backlash for taking the right position first right there is such a thing
01:00:41.500as the Overton window moving and and here's the thing the irony the tragic irony is it's the
01:00:48.740prophetic lowercase p you know prophet type guys who who sound the alarm first that get all the
01:00:56.440backlash but they're the guys who actually move that Overton window so that other guys later on0.92
01:01:01.740can come in and say yeah wokeness is dumb and now like like if you if you talk if you talk about0.80
01:01:08.260woke theology and social justice gospel and critical race theory and intersectionality0.95
01:01:14.260diversity equity and inclusion as those these are things that are contrary to the teachings
01:01:20.000of scripture and that these are things that are compromised theologically dangerous you say those
01:01:25.600kinds of things now in 2023. And, and you'll have a lot of evangelical support. A lot of
01:01:31.980evangelicals are progressive. Yeah. About half of them will disagree with you, but about half of
01:01:35.960them will agree with you. But if you say those same things back in 2017, you'd have virtually
01:01:42.260no support. People would say that you were harsh, that you're, you're being racist, that your white
01:01:52.140privilege is showing well what happened think about that for a second i know some of you guys
01:01:57.880you're dispensational pre-mill guys so you you know you're very committed to everything always
01:02:02.240getting worse so this is a hard concept for you that the overton window has shifted in a positive
01:02:06.820direction that something actually got better right because because you're convinced that
01:02:10.880things can only get worse and that's the plan of god but just humor me for a moment on this one
01:02:15.940issue over these last, let's say five to eight years, it has gotten better. The Overton window
01:02:23.840has shifted, right? Like the wicked side of the room for lack of a better label, the wicked side
01:02:30.040of the room has only gotten more hostile and wicked, but, but the righteous side of the room
01:02:34.740that's taking the right position and biblical fidelity, that side of the room was like five
01:02:40.340people in 2017 and now it's like 50% of the room. A lot of people have been won over to recognizing
01:02:49.440that, that wokeology is a bad idea. How did that happen? John Harris, Aidy Robles, Michael O'Fallon,
01:03:03.920Votie Bauckham, God bless him forever. That's how that happened. That's how that happened.
01:03:10.340And so my point is just to say that I love John Harris.
01:03:14.620I disagree with him, however, on one particular issue.
01:03:17.640And he just put out a podcast on it today, which is funny because I was already planning
01:03:21.020on doing this and I'm not going to change my plans.
01:03:23.760But John Harris is not a big fan of Abraham Kuyper.
01:03:26.580He doesn't like, you know, John Harris really struggles with the category of common grace.
01:03:32.620Now, when I say Kuyperianism, I should say this.
01:03:35.680I mean Kuyperianism the same way that I mean Calvinism.
01:13:47.620And that Jesus through the church is subjecting progressively
01:13:52.140his enemies throughout human history this gospel age one by one as a footstool for his feet
01:13:59.160and the last not first but last enemy that christ will subject underneath his kingship
01:14:05.620upon his final physical return is death there's not one square inch arts will be redeemed and i
01:14:16.660understand harris you know and the guests that he had on his show today and other guys they don't
01:14:20.900like the term christianized right they don't like you know that we're christianizing culture
01:14:26.120christianizing the world christianizing governments politics society nations
01:14:32.700but i think it's a good word i do because i think it's a biblical word because the great commission
01:14:40.920as many people as they've tried lord knows they've tried they'll keep trying until the cows
01:14:45.900come home but um but they're wrong it is not the proper greek exegetical hermeneutics
01:14:53.320the great commission is not that we go and baptize individuals out of nations
01:14:59.960that's not the great commission the exact wording and what christ is saying and notice he prefaces
01:15:08.280it by saying i have all authority on earth and in heaven so jesus he he leads he prefaces the
01:15:14.100statement he's about to make the marching orders he's about to give to his body the church here on
01:15:18.580earth he prefaces this commandment the great commission by saying i have all authority so
01:15:24.980listen up and i don't just have authority in the 17th dimension but here on earth every square inch
01:15:31.040and this is what you need to do i have all authority and this is what i'm commanding you
01:15:36.020You are to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name, into the name
01:15:45.480of the triune God, and not just preaching the gospel and making converts and doing the
01:15:51.620work of an evangelist, but also, here's your general equity theonomy, teaching them to
01:15:57.020obey all my commands, my law, gospel and law, law and gospel, both in the Great Commission.
01:16:04.300go and make disciples of nations we don't just make disciples of individuals individuals are
01:16:13.500the only people who will be saved so when we speak of saving grace yes and amen a thousand times it
01:16:20.380is true that saving grace only applies to individuals god saves in terms of eternal
01:16:27.260salvation penal substitutionary atonement jesus died for individuals he died for a collective
01:16:34.120covenantal corporate bride but it is made up of individuals from among out of every tribe tongue
01:16:40.620and nation but in terms of discipling the nations this doesn't just mean that we make disciples of
01:16:46.780individual people out of every nation but that the nations themselves will be discipled the nations
01:16:52.860are christ's inheritance the nations as the scriptures say will flock to mount zion just like
01:16:59.340they did it'll be an even greater sense and we'll see it progressively happen throughout human
01:17:03.680history but we saw a glimpse a prophetic glimpse of this even under the old covenant when Solomon
01:17:09.840was king in Israel the son of David that David made war and God gave him great victory but then
01:17:16.920Solomon came into power and he had great wisdom he built the temple and through the peace that
01:17:23.740had been achieved by his father David and his conquest and war as a great hero a great a great
01:17:30.820champion solomon now with wisdom and times of peace he leads the nation into immense prosperity
01:17:38.380unparalleled prosperity and all the other nations it's not just that israel sees this and is in awe
01:17:45.940of of of the wisdom of solomon which is ultimately god's wisdom but all the other nations see this
01:17:53.240as well and the nations connect the dots they don't just say that solomon's wise the other
01:17:58.040nations recognize the scripture says this they recognize that the prosperity and blessing of
01:18:03.560Israel comes from the fact that they have superior laws that they have the law of the one true God
01:18:10.440Yahweh to where even kings and queens the queen of Sheba comes and and she says to Solomon I've0.84
01:18:16.980been told of all your splendor and all these things of your and behold not even the half of
01:18:21.680it was told to me and she cites specifically she says even your servants are happy right notice
01:18:27.980that's one of the signs of a kingdom or a nation or a society culture when it's under the blessing
01:18:34.400of God is one that blessing comes from obedience to the law of God wisdom and blessing are always
01:18:40.780tethered together and wisdom is not just the wisdom of man but the revealed wisdom of God
01:18:46.140in his law word and when a nation receives the wisdom of God his law and obeys it and has
01:18:52.860righteous wise rulers who love like david they don't just acknowledge the moral rightness of
01:18:59.240god's law but they delight in the goodness of god's law the practical and tangible benefits
01:19:05.780of obedience to god's law that we live in the father's world and that the father has constructed
01:19:11.460the world and built into the very fabric of the world that he has made a rule book for life and
01:19:16.880when we follow the rules things go better and and when when a person gets that but not just a person
01:19:22.340a society and a nation and rulers get that even other nations will flock and see that kind of
01:19:30.020blessing and prosperity and even they even despite the fall of sin back to presuppositionalism
01:19:36.400because the vestige of the image of god remains even that is a testimony they can recognize that's
01:19:41.980a testimony of the goodness of god's law they'll be able to draw the correlation and connect the
01:19:47.300dots, that the prosperity and blessing of a nation comes from the moral superiority of their laws,
01:19:55.020that they have equal weights and measures, right? There was a direct correlation in the minds of
01:20:00.220other nations for a long time, and we're eroding those foundations, sadly, but for a long time with
01:20:06.860the West and particularly America, you think of the prosperity of America, other nations,
01:20:12.700they want to be an American citizen. They want to come here if they can,
01:20:15.760And they want to come to Lady Liberty, but they also recognize the correlation between Lady Liberty and Lady Justice, who is blindfolded, no partiality, who has scales that are even in her hand, equal weights and measures, and who has a sword, meaning capital punishment, just punishment, proportional justice, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, life for life,
01:43:50.900he is um and so there's a way of being having an optimistic eschatology that actually
01:43:58.320ironically produces pietism and apathy apathy and so when i say you want a post-millennial church
01:44:06.360i mean a post-millennial church but a church that is optimistic in their eschatology but also
01:44:10.720painfully practical in in seeking to redeem um all of society back to the kaiparian piece
01:44:18.940all of christ for all of life and that's why i i so admire doug wilson and you know all the guys
01:44:24.960at moscow and christ christ church there is that um they're not just you know hashtagging that
01:44:31.480post mill uh but they're redeeming a town they really are i mean half the town like adamantly
01:44:38.100hates them to be fair but um but it's not just a bunch of christians in a big church they don't
01:44:43.540just have a big church. Doug didn't just spend 40 years building a big church. He built a school
01:44:50.520and a college and a publishing house and multiple other people raised up to start businesses and
01:45:00.480restaurants and buy land and build houses. And it's, it's all of life. So it's hashtag
01:45:08.640that post mill jesus is going to win and we're going to get to work and we're going to get to
01:45:14.220work so if you're just now tuning in if you're looking for a local church seven doctrines that
01:45:20.280i think are important to look for confessionally reformed covenant theology
01:45:26.720um biblical patriarchy presuppositionalism kyperianism general equity theonomy
01:45:37.080and post-millennialism again i know some of you guys disagree with some of my secondary doctrines
01:45:43.480not all this is primary not all this is you know um required for christian orthodoxy right such as
01:45:50.900post-millennialism you can be all male and be orthodox you can be historic pre-male and be
01:45:55.540orthodox and you can be dispensate. No, you can't actually. Um, but you can be those other three.
01:46:00.340I will not include dispensational pre-millennialism, but you can be historic pre-mill.
01:46:04.760You can be R-mill and you can be post-mill and be within the realm of orthodoxy.
01:46:08.440All right. So you can differ on these things within reason. You can not be a big fan of
01:46:13.700Abraham Kuyper. I think you're wrong, but you can reject Kuyperianism. Um, and, and really,
01:46:21.340I think that's a semantic thing though. I really do. I think the difference between me and
01:46:25.360Harris again, I'll probably have him on the show and just talk to him about it. Cause I know we
01:46:28.620agree. I think he just, he's like, don't, don't say common grace, Joel, you know, um, don't say
01:46:34.640Christianize the nation say this, uh, you know, we, I think a lot of it's just language and we're
01:46:39.920talking past each other. Uh, so I think that's more semantics, but my point is you can not be0.91
01:46:44.940and be faithful within theological faithfulness, orthodoxy. Um, so not all these, I'm not saying
01:46:53.200these seven doctrines are um are prerequisites for for christian orthodoxy so please hear that
01:47:01.020disclaimer here at the end i said it up front i'm saying it again these are not prerequisites
01:47:06.760theological prerequisites to be within the banner of christian orthodoxy but you tuned in so i'm
01:47:13.180assuming you wanted to hear my thoughts my thoughts are my counsel pastoral counsel to you is if you're
01:47:20.000looking for a church and you want it to have a spine you want the preacher to have a little spice
01:47:26.360in his sermons and some masculine courage and you want that church to be involved and and not
01:47:34.820pietist right not not progressives compromising theologically culturally politically not progressives
01:47:43.020but also not pietist and just kind of we do church and that's it and we're not really involved
01:47:49.220If you want a church that's not progressives and also not pietists, but actually really faithful and theologically rich, but also painfully practical in daily Christian living, then I think what you're looking for is a church that's confessionally reformed, adheres to covenant theology, biblical patriarchy, presuppositionalism, Kuyperianism, general equity theonomy.
01:48:19.220and post-millennialism. I think that if you find a church like that, I think you will do well.
01:48:26.780I think that you will be grateful. Can I be frank with you for just a second,
01:48:30.960right here at the end? Look, some of you guys, you're financially supporting this ministry,
01:48:35.500and from the bottom of my heart, I say thank you. I cannot thank you enough. However, some of you,
01:48:42.580you just you can't afford it. In fact, some of you shouldn't afford it. Let's be honest. I mean,
01:48:49.820we're living in Joe Biden's ridiculous economy. Our nation and our totalitarian political elites0.98
01:48:57.920lost their minds over the last three years due to COVID. We have written checks that we simply
01:49:05.420cannot cash. It doesn't matter if people change the definition of a recession. We are living in
01:49:11.980a recession right now, regardless. Some of you are struggling to afford a carton of eggs at the
01:49:18.860grocery store. You cannot support financially this ministry at this time, nor should you,
01:49:25.540but you could still help us tremendously. I am asking you, please, if you're willing to do so,
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