BONUS EPISODE - John MacArthur & ＂Loser Theology＂ ｜ Live with Pastor Joel
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Summary
Pastor John MacArthur of Grace Community Church in Los Angeles, California has infamously said, "We lose down here. Speaking to Christians, speaking to the church of Jesus Christ, we are going to lose. We will not waltz into the kingdom as you took over the world." Pastor Joel Webbin responds.
Transcript
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Many of you are unable to financially support this ministry because you're spending your
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take the time to do so. Thank you so much. God bless. So Pastor John MacArthur from Grace
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Community Church in LA, California, has infamously said, we lose down here. Speaking to Christians,
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speaking to the church of Jesus Christ, we are going to lose. We will not waltz into the kingdom
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of God. The post-millennial hopeful eschatology is a sham. The reality is that we lose down here.
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Don't take my word for it. Go ahead and take MacArthur's. Let me play the clip and then I'll
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break it down. Oh, guess what? We don't win down here. We lose. You ready for that? Oh, you were
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a post-millennialist. You thought we're just going to go waltzing into the kingdom as you took over
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the world. No. We lose here. Get it. They killed Jesus. They killed all the apostles. We're all
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going to be persecuted. If any man come after me, let him, what? By himself. Garbage of prosperity
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gospel. No, we don't win down here. Are you ready for that? Just to clear the air. I love this
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clarity. We don't win. We lose on this battlefield, but we win on the big one, the eternal one.
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I love that clarity too. Let me start with that. I love that clarity because a lot of times we talk
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around one another. We use ambiguous language. We are not clear about our theology, the implications
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of our theology what we actually mean what we actually believe and so here we have john
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macarthur not a bunch of christian nationalist advocates which i would be one right i'm not
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necessarily excited about the label but i do fall into the camp we don't have a bunch of christian
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nationalist you know young reformed and restless guys saying hey this is loser theology no you have
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john macarthur who ironically would be the protestant pope he himself saying we hold to
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loser theology. It is clarity. I love this clarity, says Dr. John MacArthur. And I love it too,
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says Pastor Joel Webbin. I appreciate when we're honest about what we believe. That is his belief.
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That is his theology. We lose. We lose. We lose. Calling it loser theology is not a pejorative.
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It is not harsh. It is not rude. It is not mean. It's not mocking. It is the accurate label chosen
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not by again the christian nationalist side of the aisle but rather chosen by john macarthur
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and those that he represents himself it is his term loser theology now let me give a little bit
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of friendly brotherly advice loser theology is not going to play well with young christian men
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this is what watching the leaky dispensational again using john macarthur's own labels he would
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say that he is a dispensationalist albeit he says a leaky dispensationalist leaky dispensational
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we've got something coming on here leaky dispensational pre-millennial eschatology
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it's not going to play well and watching it and those who are advocates of it is kind of like
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watching the last living dinosaur slowly walk off into the horizon right it's it has an expiration
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date that is rapidly approaching. This very novel theology, dispensationalism, namely,
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it's only 150 years old. We've got Darby. We've got the Schofield Bible. You've got certain events
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like Israel becoming a nation state in the 40s. And so 70 years, people got excited. You've got,
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you know, all these things happened that made us think in a certain term. This is not biblical
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theology it doesn't have its roots within 2 000 years of church history historic premillennialism
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we can track it back to justin martin right that's arguably the oldest eschatological viewpoint
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quickly on the heels we have all millennialism and post-millennialism but dispensational
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premillennialism is not historic premillennialism it is a dying breed it came on the scene in the
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1800s. It is a novel idea, and it has run its course. Three terms that you should be familiar
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with. Now, I'm going to define them in the way that I'm using them, so don't inject to me a
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certain meaning that I don't actually intend. Here are the terms, and I will define them.
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Gnosticism, Pietism, and Nihilism. Gnosticism, Pietism, and Nihilism. I do believe that these
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are accurate theological terms, not in every sense of the word, but this is how I mean it.
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Gnosticism, that there's a radical dualism, a radical divide between the spiritual and the
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physical, between the sacred and the secular. That's a part of John MacArthur's theology and
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those who would throw their hat in the ring with him. That is a part of their theology. It is
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a Gnostic theology, not in every historical sense of the term Gnostic, not with special
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secret knowledge, not with an elite group that knows things by mystic revelation and everybody
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else is in the dark. I'm not using the term in that sense, but it is Gnosticism in the radical
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divide between the sacred and the common, between the spiritual and the physical, that Christian
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faith has no real practical physical implications for a nation, for the world, for your family.
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that is a dying breed of theology it will not work well with young men because of the nature
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of young men but it also doesn't work well with the scripture which is vitally more important
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not just that it doesn't appeal to a certain group of people right christian theology will
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always not appeal to a certain group of people namely unbelievers right if that was the only
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reason the only objection i had to this theology then we would have a problem we would be doing
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eisegesis rather than exegesis, but it does not pair well with the scripture. That's first and
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foremost. So Gnosticism, a radical divide. I'm using the term to say it's all the emphasis on
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the spiritual, but none of the implications of the physical. Another way to say it would be like
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this, right? Are we in a spiritual war or a cultural war? Is there a culture war going on?
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There's a lot of guys in the MacArthur type camp that would say, it's not a culture war. Stop
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fighting the culture war stop caring about the culture war it's a spiritual war okay well here's
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the reality it's both and here's why it is first and foremost a spiritual war that is thoroughly
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biblical that is objectively what's going on in the world today a spiritual war right our weapons
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are not carnal but spiritual our our our battle is not with flesh and blood but with principalities
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and spirits. But here's the thing, get a whole biblical theology. So cross-reference over from
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our battle not being with flesh and blood, but then look at what Paul says to Timothy. Paul says
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to Timothy that Satan takes captive people to do his will, that we should rebuke our opponents
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with gentleness, not knowing if God would grant them repentance after having been taken captive
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by Satan. So here's the deal. Our battle is against a principality, a spiritual entity,
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creature, namely Satan himself. But here's the deal. Satan employs within his ranks flesh and
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blood. So there is a sense in which our battle is with flesh and blood because our spiritual enemy,
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he employs flesh and blood in the ranks of his army. So it is first and foremost, a spiritual
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war, but with culture implications. And here's another reason why. The reason why there are
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cultural, physical, tangible, earthly implications of this spiritual war happening right now is
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because the spirits that are at war care about the earthly creation. God cares about the world,
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the cosmos, the physical world that he created. He's at war with Satan. Guess what? Satan cares
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about the world he wants to be the prince of this air he wants dominion over the physical earth he
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doesn't want to just reign in the 17th dimension he wants to have dominion and reign and rule in
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the physical reality in the cosmos so god cares about the physical creation the world satan that
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he's at war with he cares about the physical world and in terms of people leftists and progressives
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and Democrats, they care very much about the physical world. There's only one group that I
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can think of that doesn't seem to care about the physical world, and it's evangelical Christians.
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Christians, we are the only people who don't care about the culture war, who don't care about the
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physical world, that don't care about the welfare of our nation, that don't care about these things
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because we're Gnostic. At some level, maybe not all the way, the whole nine yards, but at some level,
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we have given into Gnosticism, at least in the reality of it being all about the spiritual and
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not about the physical. Gnostic. Okay. Second, Pietism. I mean that in the sense, defining my
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terms, that everything is private. So Gnostic, it's all the emphasis on the spiritual, none on
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the tangible, the physical, the literal. Pietistic, what I mean is in Pietism, it's all private
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rather than public. John MacArthur famously wrote his article after the lockdown of churches with
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COVID, right? He said, Christ, not Caesar, is head of the church. Yes and amen, Dr. MacArthur,
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a million times over. But I would urge you to consider going one step further, and here's the
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biblical support for it, Ephesians chapter 1 verse 22. It says this, that God has appointed Christ
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as head of the church. No, as head of all things to the benefit of the church. Biblically speaking,
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we can say that Christ, not Caesar, is head of the church. We can also say Christ, not Caesar,
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is head of the public square. He's head of the state. Christ is not only head of the church,
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he is rightfully head of every square inch. He bought it by his blood. Romans 13 says that
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Caesar is an autonomous leader. No, that he's the highest leader with no authority above him. No,
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what it says is that Caesar is God's diaconate, God's servant, that ultimately he has an authority
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above him. He's not the final ultimate authority, even in the political realm, because that realm
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also has to submit to Jesus. Psalm chapter 2, the kings of this earth and princes of this world,
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kiss the son s-o-n kiss jesus that is pay homage to the son submit to the lordship of christ
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lest his wrath be quickly kindled right so so caesar is a deacon of god he is underneath god
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christ is uniquely not exclusively but uniquely head of the church in the sense that the church
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is the only entity for which christ died so christ is head of the church in a unique way
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but he is not exclusively head of the church. He is head over all things, including the public
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square, including the body politic, including the government. He is head over Caesar as well.
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Our faith is not private pietism, but it is private and piety is good, but it is private and
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public. It is not just pietism, private, but not public. It is not just Gnosticism, spiritual,
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but not physical and lastly it is not nihilism the clip that we've just seen i would say at least at
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some measure it reeks of pietism private versus public it reeks of gnosticism spiritual versus
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physical and nihilism meaning it's not a red pill it's a black pill you lose young man who wants to
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serve Christ and be faithful to him, buckle up for losing. No. See, the difference between post-mill
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and all-mill and pre-mill and the whole nine yards is this. Here's the difference. To be fair
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to these eschological positions, they all believe that Christ wins. The question is how? How does
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Christ win? Does Christ win despite a losing church or does Christ win through the church?
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I will build, not just sustain my weak, faltering bride.
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No, I will build, that is expand, increase, and advance my church,
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and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.
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He's saying that because of his life, death, and resurrection,
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and glorious ascension to the right hand of God Almighty where he's ruling and reigning here and
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now because of that reality the church is on the offense hell the gates is on the defense and you
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can picture it like this the church of Jesus Christ is the battering rams in the battering
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ram in the hands of Jesus himself ramming up against the gates of hell and that hell will
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not prevail, meaning that the gates, the defense of hell, will not be able to ultimately withstand
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the advancement and building and increase of Christ's church in the world today. So does Christ
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win? If you're pre-mill, yes. If you're all-mill, yes. If you're post-mill, yes. But the question is
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how does Christ win? And the answer is that he doesn't win despite a losing church. He wins
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progressively throughout real human history in this real world through an advancing church that
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is the biblical model pietism gnosticism and nihilism is on its last leg it will not continue
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this dispensational 150 year old theology is going away if you would like to not go the way of the
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dodo, then I encourage you to get with the scripture and take a biblical position about
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these things. It appeals to young men, but more importantly, it's faithful to what God has said
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in his word. All that being said, one quick plug. If you want to go to a conference that says we win
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down here instead of we lose down here, and here are the practical and theological methods for
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winning the church experiencing victory in the world, then come check out our conference coming
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up March 1st, 2nd, and 3rd of 2024. It's called Blueprints for Christendom 2.0. The subtitle is
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Seven Doctrines for Ruling the World with Doug Wilson, Brian Sauve, Joe Boot, and yours truly,
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Joel Webin. This is a Right Response Conference. If you'd like to register, then go right now to
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rightresponseconference.com again that's rightresponseconference.com to take advantage of
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our current early bird rate for blueprints for chrysidom 2.0 seven doctrines for ruling the
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world that's reformed confessional theology it's covenant theology it's biblical patriarchy
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it's presuppositionalism it's kyperianism every square inch all of christ for all of life
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its general equity theonomy the goodness of god's law applied to every element every realm within
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human society and lastly hopeful eschatology post-millennialism if you want to learn about
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these things seven doctrines for righteously stewarding and ruling the world establishing
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the blueprints for achrissidom 2.0 again march 1st 2nd and 3rd that's a friday through sunday
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2024 sign up today right response conference.com thank you so much for tuning in and i look forward
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to talking to you again shortly god bless can i be frank with you for just a second right here at
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the end look some of you guys you're financially supporting this ministry and from the bottom of
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my heart i say thank you i cannot thank you enough however some of you you just you can't
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afford it. In fact, some of you shouldn't afford it. Let's be honest. I mean, we're living in Joe
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Biden's ridiculous economy. Our nation and our totalitarian political elites lost their minds
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doesn't matter if people change the definition of a recession. We are living in a recession right now
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You cannot support financially this ministry at this time, nor should you, but you could still
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