00:00:25.220Okay. I was listening to myself. It was weird. Anyway, I was getting some feedback.
00:00:33.720So the purpose of what we're doing right now is pretty simple. I'm not going to speak for anyone
00:00:43.380else in this chat. We got Dusty Devers, who's a pastor who helped author the statement on
00:00:49.640Christian nationalism. We have Aidy Robles, who probably doesn't need an introduction,
00:00:54.440Joel Webin, Pastor Joel Webin doesn't need an introduction. William Wolfe we've had on the
00:00:58.660podcast before. And all of these guys have been advocates of Christian nationalism. They've taken
00:01:04.080the label. And I don't want to speak for them, but I know that efforts to communicate with G3,
00:01:10.160since G3 folks have been very critical about Christian nationalism, have been made. I know
00:01:15.220I made those, most notably last week. And I'm sad to say that what I was hoping would happen
00:01:23.400tonight is we would have a discussion with people like Josh Vice and Scott O'Neill, whoever else
00:01:29.140wanted to Virgil Walker, I emailed them. And that's not going to happen. They don't want to
00:01:34.820come on the podcast. They feel that I guess I've misrepresented them. I've been going back and
00:01:39.160forth in an email correspondence with Josh, but I haven't heard anything from him in a few days.
00:01:43.460So that's from my end. I know the other guys have also had their own reaching out and that
00:01:50.160kind of thing. And so what I thought was the best thing to do in this situation to clarify for
00:01:58.000people so people understand what this issue is, I'm still getting questions about it, is just to
00:02:02.700play the other side in their own words. What are they saying? Do they have legitimate points? Maybe
00:02:07.320they do. It's obviously better if we can talk to each other. But since that's not happening,
00:02:13.780the next best thing is to play their own words and then to let these guys weigh in. So that's
00:02:19.500what we're going to do um any preliminary thoughts that any of you guys want to share before we get
00:02:24.520into it i just want to say that i will be listening to this for the first time um so same same yeah i
00:02:32.020haven't heard it before i'm sure it's great we'll see ad you're the only one that i think that has
00:02:38.640actually listened to this right or yeah i listened to the whole thing uh and i did a live tweet uh
00:02:44.260kind of reaction to it so i think this will be fun honestly if if if they had started with the
00:02:51.080kind of what they said on the podcast i don't even think any of the memes would have gone
00:02:55.300would have popped off i mean the podcast is relatively tame and good i i don't agree with
00:03:01.440a lot of it but it's not it's not obnoxious the way the tweets were ad saying i don't think the
00:03:07.360memes would have popped off like like he doesn't have direct control over those i mean ad you you
00:03:12.960single-handedly uh account for 50 of those memes i'm just that is so untrue although i do cheryl
00:03:19.400quite a lot of this is really getting off to a great 80 is 80 is a me he's a meme amplifier he's
00:03:25.780not necessarily okay that's right i'm i'm not the creator i just amplify it i'm like the agent you
00:03:30.720know signal booster he's the man i'd like to say something real quick before i jump in yeah
00:03:36.200go for it yeah just that i think yeah i think that um you know you know as iron sharpens iron
00:03:44.320so one man sharpens another and a lot of that sharpening these days comes through theological
00:03:50.180and even theological disagreements and so i i hope that we can strive to represent ourselves
00:03:56.620clearly but then also engage with brothers in christ who we might disagree with and not attack
00:04:02.040them personally but to engage the substance of what they're proposing perhaps you know argue for
00:04:09.280a better case you know you know the trust of i'm sitting outside with a bug going around but you
00:04:14.300know i want to i don't want it to be personal i want it to be about the substance and that we can
00:04:19.780make a better case as we're you know on this side of the line and okay yeah and if can i jump in and
00:04:27.800say something towards that please yeah i i respect those three guys i think all of us have said as
00:04:33.640much in various places uh really respect what josh has done with uh praise mill and g3 uh the
00:04:42.180same with scott annual and his take on biblical worship um and virgil i've been friends with
00:04:48.980virgil for the longest and really respect those guys so whatever feedback uh we've talked about
00:04:56.260giving, it's just because we actually really respect these guys. It's not because we think
00:05:02.140that they are our enemies or that we want to be their enemies. This is ultimately to serve the
00:05:08.180broader body of Christ and moving a conversation forward. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And I think like
00:05:14.460what you said at the end there, this is about the glory of God. This is about trying to be faithful
00:05:20.820as much as we possibly can to obey his commands and make disciples. So without further ado,
00:05:27.240let's go to the video. This is about an hour long, so I don't know if we're going to get
00:05:32.500through the whole thing tonight, but I'm going to play portions of it. And then if any of these
00:05:37.920guys want to jump in and say, hey, hold on, we'll stop the tape and we'll just comment on what
00:05:43.480we're hearing. So this is from what, maybe two weeks ago, the G3 podcast on Christian nationalism.
00:05:50.820And one of the things that I love about what we do here at G3 is we don't race into conversations.
00:05:59.920We really take our time, listen, think through.
00:06:03.360Now, while we've been accused of not having read the material and not taking a look at what people have said, that's absolutely the opposite.
00:06:12.340Christian nationalism has been a conversation that's been happening since Stephen Wolf's book has come out in November of last year.
00:06:25.080And now that G3 has taken a stand on this issue, it looks like the conversation has kind of reached a boiling point.
00:06:33.300I want to toss things to you, Josh, and just kind of maybe even talk through a little bit of how we did what we did.
00:06:40.740I know a lot of people are talking about what we're against, but perhaps even have a conversation about what we're for.
00:06:45.120So as we tease this out and talk about it, I'm going to throw the ball to you and let you jump into it.
00:06:50.620Everything we do within G3 Ministries, obviously you men know this, is for the purpose of glorifying God and for the strengthening of local churches.
00:06:58.320So if we're writing an article, we have that aim and that intention in mind.
00:07:03.520It sort of undergirds everything that we do.
00:07:05.500So if we're having a conversation like this in a podcast, or if we're having a conference or a workshop, or if we're publishing articles, then it's always going to be with the goal of strengthening God's people.
00:07:18.200So as it pertains to the conversation of Christian nationalism, again, there's all sorts of different varieties.
00:07:23.560And I think that's really the problem, right, is that you have someone writing a book that says it's a case for Christian nationalism, but really it's a case for Stephen Wolf's version of Christian nationalism, because there's a lot of different types of Christian nationalists.
00:07:40.980when you start thinking about, you know, the political sphere, you have, you know, all sorts
00:07:47.360of strange things. Like in the article that I wrote on the differing shades of Christian
00:07:51.700nationalism, which can be found on the website, we sort of walk through some of those different
00:07:56.620forms. But one of the things that I would like to say at the beginning is that, you know, we have
00:08:03.800friends that even within a theological framework, that we would say we can agree with them on a
00:08:10.540whole lot, right? I mean, if you think about this conversation, you know, obviously, the end goal
00:08:18.400for us, ultimately, is we have our aim, I think, the way that Abraham did as this pilgrim mindset.
00:08:28.280He's basically looking at the world around him, and he's always putting his gaze on a different
00:08:36.660city, on the city whose maker and designer, designer and builder is God. We see that language
00:08:43.380in Hebrews 11. But one of the things that we're longing for, yes, is the new heavens and the new
00:08:49.380earth. We're longing for the day when King Jesus rules and reigns in a visible form here on this
00:08:56.820renewed earth. How we get to that point is going to be, in our estimation, it's going to be different
00:09:04.200than, say, our friends that hold to more of a post-millennial eschatology
00:09:08.840or, you know, the ideas of even Christian nationalism.
00:09:13.100And there's so many, you know, issues that need to be dealt with under that umbrella.
00:09:19.200Or even as far as, say, like a mere Christendom that you hear coming out of, say, Doug Wilson
00:09:25.380that's about to release a book on that very subject.
00:09:28.640We ultimately are going to be in the same place together.
00:09:32.900but how we get there and again this is a question of eschatology i think and it undergirds this
00:09:39.360conversation at various levels if you don't want to but do you see what i mean like this is what
00:09:44.820dusty was talking about like these guys are totally reasonable you know what i mean and and
00:09:50.000and and you know he mentioned you know virgil had mentioned you know what we do here is we try to
00:09:55.200you know you know try to strengthen the church or that was might have been josh i don't remember who
00:09:59.560said it but this is why we love those guys right this is what this is why we want to have conversations
00:10:04.900because everything that josh is saying here i mean obviously there's i'm not going to be totally in
00:10:10.080agreement because he's coming at it from a critical perspective it's all reasonable this
00:10:14.080these are the kind of people you want to talk to you see what i mean yeah yeah well i mean the only
00:10:20.360thing that i'm trying to figure out what he where he's going it sounds to me like he's saying there's
00:10:25.120a different city we're supposed to be looking towards and christian nationalism post-millennialism
00:10:29.920and mere christendom all contradict that outlook and so he's establishing this he's weaving this
00:10:35.080argument together uh that's what it sounds like to me can i say one thing on that note real quick
00:10:38.940just sure i know that between the five of us we disagree in terms of eschatology and that's
00:10:42.960totally fine um but from the post-millennial perspective and i think that you know you
00:10:48.240could be all mill or even historic pre-mill and agree with this statement um you got to be really
00:10:52.980careful with that word sojourner or alien or stranger so when when abraham specifically so
00:11:00.220there are cases where somebody is described as a sojourner they're in a strange land and they're
00:11:05.760waiting for god to deliver them out of it right so you think of you know israel in exile for 70
00:11:11.600years in babylon right the goal is you know i mean we have the prophet jeremiah and god speaks through
00:11:16.980him and says hey you're going to be here a while so take off your hat and stay stay a while you
00:11:21.460know and plant vineyards and give your sons and daughters in marriage but but they they even though
00:11:26.280they were going to be there a while it was still temporary that was not uh the final resting point
00:11:31.300but what's funny is that there are texts that talk about guys in exile in the old testament and
00:11:36.640describe them as sojourners but there's also the text and they mentioned abraham and i love that
00:11:41.720they did because abraham is in the same breath the same way described as a sojourner but he's
00:11:47.600described not as sojourning to the destination but even when he gets to the land of Canaan he is
00:11:53.620still described as being in a strange land as a sojourner but he was there not in a land that
00:12:00.400he's in exile in that eventually he would be removed from or delivered he's in a land that
00:12:05.740he's going to eventually his seed is going to conquer he's in a land that actually is him and
00:12:11.580his generations following him his posterity's final resting place it's their home so he's still
00:12:17.340described as a sojourner, but not in a land that's just temporary for him to wait to eventually go
00:12:23.240somewhere else. But he's a sojourner because this land is going to be his home, but it hasn't been
00:12:29.140established yet. It hasn't been conquered yet. And so from the post-millennial perspective,
00:12:35.560I don't believe that the earth is literally going to dissolve like snow or that it's literally
00:12:40.140going to be burned away with fire and a whole new earth is going to replace it. I think that
00:12:45.780the earth is going to be made new none of us here on this call are radical two kingdom guys so van
00:12:50.960drudem would say that the only thing that's going to translate into the new kingdom into the heavenly
00:12:56.060kingdom in the physical sense is our physically resurrected bodies he actually believes everything
00:13:02.000so so the verse that says that all creation is groaning with expectations for the sons of god
00:13:06.800to be revealed van drudem and westminster escondido they would say that creation is groaning to be put
00:13:12.980out of its misery for a mercy killing, to be assassinated, disintegrated. I don't believe
00:13:19.220that. I think most of us on the call, if not all five of us, don't believe that. We believe that
00:13:23.160the new heavens on the new earth is this earth made new, that it's going to be restored. And so
00:13:27.820I think Christians need to have a mindset that we're not going to have this spiritual, ethereal
00:13:33.460existence forever in heaven in the 17th dimension. We're going to have a physical, eternal existence
00:13:39.440with this body glorified, a physical body, on a physical earth, and not another earth replacing
00:13:46.240this one, but this one made new. And that's why creation is groaning with eager expectations for
00:13:51.540the sons of God to be revealed, because in their revealing, in their restoration, all creation will
00:13:56.660be restored as well. So are we sojourners like Abraham? Yes, like Abraham in a land of Canaan
00:14:02.940that we're waiting to ultimately conquer and establish and build. But this world, there is a
00:14:08.420sense in which we can say it is our home. That's my point. The funny thing to me is that all the
00:14:14.500Old Testament saints would have been in a situation where they were implementing God's law
00:14:19.120in a specific land, and yet they were all sojourners in a sense, right? So if that is true,
00:14:26.840and Abraham, of course, being the chief example of this before the Mosaic Law, but if that is all
00:14:32.960true, then it's not really as much of a—this is what I've said before, and I don't know if people
00:14:37.360agree with me in this call, but I don't think it's as much of an eschatology issue as Josh wants to
00:14:41.920make it here, because all of those guys, as you rightly said, Joel, they're in a specific land
00:14:48.460implementing God's law. I mean, that's a theocracy we're talking about in ancient Israel,
00:14:54.400and yet they're waiting for what? The city that has no foundation. They're waiting for the
00:15:00.860new Jerusalem. So I don't know. To me, it just seems like he's weaving an argument that doesn't
00:15:06.260work. In North Carolina, they say that dog don't hunt. I don't know if anyone else wants to weigh
00:15:11.280in before we keep playing. Anyone else have thoughts on this? If my connection allows me
00:15:17.520to get a thought across, can you guys hear me? Yeah, I can hear you. Okay. Look, I mean, I'm one
00:15:24.540that says I don't think eschatology should really matter so much for the conversation on Christian
00:15:28.540nationalism. And the problem is that eschatology is mattering too much for the conversation on
00:15:34.520Christian nationalism, because again, the question of Christian nationalism is how do we order
00:15:40.440our lives rightly in the nations we live in under the rule of Christ now, as he rules over all
00:15:47.020things. We don't have any idea when Christ is coming back and whatever you think is going to
00:15:52.120happen exactly between now and when Christ comes back, doesn't vitiate the need for just laws,
00:15:58.680for a peaceable arrangement between mankind, for the civil magistrate to be ruling rightly,
00:16:03.800You know, recognizing that he derives all authority from God and he should be upholding principles of justice and righteousness, you know, punishing evil and praising good as determined by God's law.
00:16:14.660And we in our updated draft statement today, we made that clear where we said Christian nationalism is primarily concerned with the righteous rule of civil authorities, not spiritual matters pertaining to salvation.
00:16:27.420And we could also add an additional common clause and say, and not striving to adjudicate, you know, the question of the eschatological return of Christ.
00:16:37.440So I you see here, I mean, we're jumping in really early, but you see Josh pivot very early to the question of eschatology.
00:16:46.300And I wish we could sort of save that to the very end.
00:16:49.700And let's figure out how we rule righteously and justly now, what we expect from our rulers.
00:16:53.960And then we'll talk about how we're waiting for Christ to come back.
00:16:56.820Well, let's keep playing this, see what he has to say.
00:17:01.220And what I'm not saying is that in order for you to engage in a Christian nationalist project
00:17:07.680that you have to embrace post-millennial eschatology, I'm not suggesting that at all.
00:17:12.640What I am suggesting is that our ultimate goal within the Christian sphere should be
00:17:18.100we believe that we're going to be there together in the end,
00:17:21.720but how we get there is going to be different as we read Scripture.
00:17:25.360Now, as we think about Christian nationalism, just as we've sort of tried to define it from, say, using Wolf's definition and others, one of the things that I can say as we even have conversations on social media with some of the people that we love and respect, we could actually say that we agree with him on a lot of things.
00:17:45.900So this idea of, well, we're against drag queen story hour at the local library, or we're against the alphabet soup of the day that's being crammed down our throat, or we're against this idea of redefining marriage from God's blueprint, or we're against all these various different influences from the woke ideologies that are being pressed upon the church today.
00:18:10.560So how do we deal with that? And so we have some people that say, well, you know, we have to have a manly, robust, muscular form of Christianity that says we're going to stand in the public square and we're going to just fight it out, you know, with all of the leaders within the civil realm.
00:18:28.900And we're going to just basically claim dominion over every aspect of our culture.
00:18:37.780And what we can agree with on simple terms is that a Christian should actually speak to the civil sphere in the public square.
00:18:48.320We should actually speak to, as John the Baptist did, to Herod and say, you should not have your brother's wife.
00:18:54.900We should actually do as John Piper did and speak to the president of the United States when he's celebrating the slaughter of innocent babies.
00:19:05.380We should actually do what John MacArthur did as he modeled in California as he speaks to the governor in an open letter.
00:19:14.620We should do what we did during COVID.
00:19:16.220And we should actually say, no, that's not the jurisdiction of the state, and the church has the right to actually gather and worship, because this is the realm and the sphere where God says that we are to obey Him, and so you can't speak to this.
00:19:34.180We should see specific boundaries, and again, I think that that's where we start to get into some of the differences, perhaps.
00:19:39.480but the the real critique that i've seen on social media is that we are like polar opposite
00:19:46.660yeah go for it did we lose you william
00:19:51.560i just want to pause it here in case we don't come back around to it
00:19:58.420yeah that was me christian nationalism answers the question what if they listen to you right
00:20:05.440like i love it josh is saying we should we should challenge the governor we should call on the
00:20:10.140president to repent we should not close our churches down right so so i want to say great
00:20:16.860what happens if joe biden listens to john piper and says okay pastor piper what should i do how
00:20:23.460should i rule that you know if gavin newsom became a christian how should he rule california
00:20:30.400was trying to answer. Amen. Amen. Yeah, that's a great question. I would go in that same vein
00:20:36.660and say that what do you do if you're a local pastor and somebody in your church is a civil
00:20:43.080magistrate? What if they're a city council member? What if they're a police officer? What if they're
00:20:47.260in the military? What if they're a governor? What if they're a mayor? One of the things that got me
00:20:53.440thinking about this, because you're right, William, and I know, John, you've talked about this a lot
00:20:57.540as well i think the eschatology post-millennial guys i think our eschatology forces us to think
00:21:03.040about it but i agree with you guys i did a post on twitter and you know a while back a month ago
00:21:07.900i agree with you that you don't have to be post-millennial to be a christian nationalist
00:21:12.240i just think the post-millennial guys you know are kind of our eschatology forces us to think
00:21:17.060about it but here's the deal whether you're pre-mill or all-mill or whatever or whether
00:21:20.980you're baptist or whether you're presbyterian what do you do as as a christian brother or
00:21:26.380especially as a pastor if you have people in your church that are civil magistrates right so not just
00:21:31.940like what if joe biden listens what about the guy who's already a civil magistrate and is regenerate
00:21:37.400and is a member in your local church and comes to you and says pastor how then should we live
00:21:42.520right how do i it makes me think of the um the roman centurions the soldiers that came to john
00:21:48.520the baptist and and they're kind of almost asking implicitly this question of does the gospel have
00:21:53.580any bearing on us too what about us does the gospel say and and notice john the baptist he
00:21:59.820now obviously it's not this thorough discourse we don't have every little thing that you know
00:22:04.720we don't have a strong you know robust political theology given to us in that text from john the
00:22:09.800baptist but notice at least at minimum what john the baptist doesn't say he doesn't say
00:22:14.220well the bearing of the gospel upon you civil magistrate lesser magistrate soldier is that you
00:22:19.540must leave you must leave off being a civil magistrate you if you're going to be born again
00:22:25.560if you're going to be a christian if you're going to be a disciple of the messiah the coming messiah
00:22:29.480then you you got to change your vocations you got to change your job that's not what john the baptist
00:22:34.180says he answers without skipping a beat answers the question and says oh yeah um the gospel you
00:22:39.920can keep your job you can be a civil magistrate but you have to do so christianly and here's just
00:22:44.860one example of what that looks like being content with your wages and not and not um uh by the sword
00:22:51.300exacting coercing um uh more you know bribes and and things like that so i i think that's just one
00:22:57.980more level of when you think of you know well is it just the post mill guys that get you there
00:23:01.860william wolf you did a great job just saying like well what about if they listen what if this and
00:23:06.220then i'm just going one step further and say and what about the civil masters that already are
00:23:10.560listening, that are born again Christians in a civil position in our churches as good standing
00:23:17.480members asking us, pastor, what do I do? Not just in my marriage, not just in my parenting,
00:23:23.040not just on Sunday. What do I do at my job? What would Christ have me do at my job? Does he have
00:23:27.860anything to say for what I do 40 hours a week? There's something else here too. And I think
00:23:34.320to give the G3 guys credit, I think they would be able to answer some of the things,
00:23:39.540what if he listens to you like especially when they talk about their work with like abolition
00:23:43.200and stuff like that they would they would say a lot of the same things that we would say but
00:23:47.140there's another issue here that that you know i'm just wondering about and i wish they were here to
00:23:51.340talk about it's like okay that's great but it certainly seems to be to me that that there's
00:23:56.140a problem with identifying as such like if you dedicate your state to the lord jesus christ you
00:24:01.300say the things that i'm doing i'm doing on behalf of the lord jesus christ i'm a servant of the lord
00:24:05.180jesus christ and therefore we're going to be doing this you know law whatever it could be
00:24:09.540i feel like that's when they would start to break out in hives like whoa whoa the state's not
00:24:14.300christian but what are you talking about the state of georgia is not christian what do you
00:24:18.340mean by that we're not just christian state uh or a christian nation or a christian city or
00:24:23.140christian anything like it's almost like you can do all the things that that that that a christian
00:24:28.720should do just like kind of like don't tell anybody about it which is the super ultra weird
00:24:33.140part, in my opinion. Did you have something, Dusty? I was just going to say, I think that
00:24:38.960these guys would affirm, like AD said, the majority of the things that we would say,
00:24:44.780and at least after some of the articles have come out, it seems that they are closer to where we
00:24:50.640are. There are a lot of things I think that we could hone in on if we were able to talk with
00:24:56.960them in person over these matters. And hopefully that'll happen soon. Hopefully they can tell by
00:25:02.420the tone of this conversation that we love these guys and we're on the same team we're just trying
00:25:07.680to refine this discussion that has been lost we're really recovering a discussion that has been lost
00:25:14.020uh from the reformers uh and the the starting of this nation and many nations for that matter and
00:25:20.300during the um the early days of america yeah we lost including john gill the baptist who preached
00:25:27.820100 years before Spurgeon in the same church who held it.
00:25:32.100Right, William? You posted something about this recently, but he held to both tables of the law
00:25:36.280being enforced by the civil magistrate. Isn't that right?
00:25:39.820All right, let's keep listening to Josh and what he's saying here.
00:25:44.740And we don't agree on all these really big things, or that we might
00:25:48.220embrace a loser theology. I disagree with that.
00:27:49.400The very first time that I heard this statement was as we were sitting at the table, we were talking about these things, leading up having conversations.
00:27:59.920I was hearing the term Christian nationalism being used then and needing some formation and, you know, specificity of definition, all of that.
00:28:11.040But that's when I first heard it was back then.
00:28:14.680And so, again, it wasn't on my radar screen in the sense of the way it is now in a sort of a movement or, you know, this popularity that we're seeing today.
00:28:26.900But, yes, we have not been those who, you know, shrink back.
00:34:22.960So again, this charge that we have, or that if you, anyone that stands against this specific
00:34:29.700form of Christian nationalism has a loser theology that should be, you know, in the same
00:34:36.680equation as Russell Moore and Tim Keller and David French, I would wholeheartedly disagree
00:34:42.960with that statement. And let's clarify this, too, because I think there are a lot of Christians
00:34:47.440out there, they love this country, they're patriots, and they hear the term Christian
00:34:53.900nationalist, and they think, oh, that just means Christian patriotism, I believe nations are good,
00:35:00.240I want the best for my nation, I love my nation over other nations, you know, all of that. And we
00:35:07.040affirm all of those things, too. Sure. We believe that nation, God has designed... Yeah, like, go
00:35:12.820ahead, William. That's just not a given, right? Like, I mean, okay, so let me commend these
00:35:18.060brothers. First of all, equal protection under the law, dusty, I don't know why you're not, like,
00:35:22.040you know popping off poppers that's fantastic like i love that we got it we got it and you know
00:35:27.280so thankful that our g3 brothers are there and i would argue that's a christian nationalist position
00:35:33.220but then scott just like really quickly buzzed through like what i've been trying to convince
00:35:39.720so many people of for the last i don't know how many years which is that christians in america
00:35:44.700should actually actually love and prioritize america over other nations and and that that's
00:35:51.200not wrong. That's right. That's a right ordering of our loves. And I've got a piece coming out
00:35:57.820tomorrow that translates my talk at NatCon into an essay where I say America first isn't America
00:36:04.720forever. It's not America best. It's not America always. But America first is how we as Christians
00:36:10.840should view our nation. But that idea has been so worked against by evangelicals for so long,
00:36:17.680translating like philosophy from people like Karl Popper and honestly George Soros that's just true
00:36:23.380it's not a conspiracy it's true and so I'm glad Scott's there but I mean so much of my engagement
00:36:29.120on Christian nationalism has been to try to get you know thousands of other people to be able to
00:36:34.940reason like Scott Annie old just rightly reasoned and the problem is that people don't reason like
00:36:40.260that so I'm glad Scott does so Scott's spot on there so many people aren't yeah absolutely
00:36:47.100Nations for a purpose. We believe that, you know, like the illustration is commonly given,
00:36:53.620you know, I love all women, but I love my wife in a special way. We believe that about this country.
00:36:58.180Absolutely. That sort of small-end nationalism, now there are other things embedded that come
00:37:05.260later, but that idea that nations are good, that we love this nation, and that we want to work for
00:37:10.940the best of this nation, we affirm that 100%. Wholeheartedly. In fact, you could not become
00:37:15.840any more patriotic than I am. I love this nation. I am grateful for this country. I am grateful for
00:37:22.540our military. I disagree with the woke movement in the military. That's a whole different
00:37:27.120conversation. I am grateful for those who have sacrificed to provide us the freedom that we
00:37:31.980enjoy. I'm for closed borders. I'm for a sovereign nation. I am pro-America. I believe in America
00:37:39.680a first, because I live here. But I am against this idea that we should legislate Christianity
00:37:50.080at any form or fashion. And so the conversation that's being developed under the umbrella of
00:37:56.640Christian nationalism is complicated, but we can agree on a whole lot of things up to a point.
00:38:04.700I'm sorry, John, I have to say one thing really quickly. I can't let that go, right?
00:38:09.320So you can't legislate Christianity. You cannot legislate the spiritual nature of Christianity. You just can't do it. Nobody is arguing that you can't. Here's what you can do. You can legislate Christian morality, and something like abolitionism is legislating Christian morality.
00:38:26.440So that's why our terms need to be very clear and careful.
00:38:29.660Even I would argue Wolf in his book, which I've read twice now, is very clear.
00:41:25.440Why run from that? It's just the truth.
00:41:28.440so there's just like a weird and again again if we were in a conversation we could we could hash
00:41:33.440that out and kind of figure out where that comes from anyway that's all yeah
00:41:37.040over we start talking about okay what is the relationship between the church and the state
00:41:46.320and does the the christian prince to use the language that's being put forth by wolf and
00:41:53.180others who are using that same language, the civil magistrate. Is this individual responsible for
00:41:59.620just the realm of Romans 13 with a hand upon the sword to punish who? The evildoers, so that those
00:42:07.420who are actually law-abiding citizens would not have anything to fear. Is that his jurisdiction,
00:42:14.340or does he also have at least some finger or hand upon the keys as well? And so certain language
00:42:22.040that's being put forth with this idea of quote-unquote leading his people to the gates of
00:42:29.520eternal salvation, it just makes me a little uncomfortable. In fact, it makes me very
00:42:34.980uncomfortable because I know church history. And as a Baptist, I don't have a complex, by the way.
00:42:40.600I've heard people say Baptists live with this complex that they've walked through persecution
00:42:45.940and that they're just a persecuted people and a woe-is-me mentality. No, I actually have a very
00:42:51.260optimistic view because I've read the end of the book and I know who wins. In fact, I know who's
00:42:56.820presently now seated upon his throne. And so one of these days Christ will return and every knee
00:43:04.080is going to bow and every tongue is going to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory
00:43:08.000of God the Father. I am not living in fear. I walk forward with great confidence every day to preach
00:43:14.760the gospel, embrace the sovereignty of God, sow the seed, water the seed, God gives the increase.
00:43:22.500But again, this idea that there's this overlap at some level with the civil magistrate with
00:43:31.900regard to the church makes me uncomfortable because I know what happened to John Rogers
00:43:38.320in 1555 at Smithfield. I know what happened to John Bunyan with the Puritans.
00:43:44.760in Bedford, England. I know what happened to Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley and the Oxford
00:43:50.320martyrs in the streets of Oxford. I know what happened to all these people throughout church
00:43:57.320history when you start looking at how the state-church relationship is conflated, and then
00:44:05.180really the question becomes at this point, who gets to determine what version of Christianity
00:44:10.140is Christianity. Yeah, that's, let me, let me stop it there. Cause he made a pretty big point
00:44:15.400and I'll just want to see if any of you want to respond to what you just heard. Uh, I went to a
00:44:19.700Baptist seminary and I'll be honest, the, some of the people that I learned from were obsessed with
00:44:25.360this. They, they really did have a persecution complex. And, uh, I've heard some strange things
00:44:32.060come out of the mouths of Baptists on this whole issue. The most recent one was at a conference
00:44:36.720where someone stood up and said Thomas Jefferson got all his ideas from Baptists about freedom of
00:44:43.040religion and freedom of conscience and like no source for any of it. But anyway, I just wanted
00:44:48.680to say that because I lived it. But I want to hear what you guys have to say about this argument
00:44:53.540that there's an overlap. Well, the thing is, we like a couple months ago, we knew how to do this.
00:45:00.560Like there's overlap all over the place. So, you know, if if, you know, murder is a crime,
00:45:05.080it's also a sin we understand that that you know families deal with that in the family way the
00:45:10.640church deals with that and according to the church and the state deals with that separately what's
00:45:14.480the what's the mystery here i i i'm i'm failing to understand this because i know he thinks this
00:45:19.460is like a you know knock down you know amazing point but really it isn't i mean we deal with
00:45:24.500this overlap all the time yeah yeah well i think okay so let me um so let's engage what they said
00:45:32.640John, because I know, I know exactly what you're talking about in Baptist circles, but let's take
00:45:36.820Josh at his word, be charitable. Like he's not living in fear. Okay. Right. He's not, he's not,
00:45:41.340he's not worrying it. He's not, he doesn't have a persecution complex. And you know what? I do
00:45:45.040think, I do think that these guys, these guys definitely have sounded a different note than,
00:45:50.320than some other folks on that who do sound like they have a persecution complex and these guys
00:45:55.340don't. So let's give them that. But then I say that when, and when Josh says it makes him
00:46:00.840uncomfortable, the idea that the magistrate reaches over to the keys, like, amen, I agree
00:46:06.020with him on that, like bringing Dikembe Mutombo, like, no, no, no, don't touch those keys. That's
00:46:10.860not your job. But again, we have to think about what are the keys for, right? The keys are for
00:46:15.260gospel professions. And again, this is sort of like a categorical blur when he goes from saying,
00:46:21.160well, who's deciding what is true Christianity? Well, okay, well, the adjudication of what counts
00:46:26.160as true religion is a fundamentally different question than the exercise of the keys, which is,
00:46:32.320you know, affirming or denying a gospel profession within the context of a local church,
00:46:37.300right? So like if a, if a group started claiming that they're Christians and that their Christian
00:46:43.200faith means that they need to be able to slaughter, this is going to be extreme example here. They
00:46:47.940need to be able to sacrifice five-year-olds in their church service. I would really hope that
00:46:53.360our government officials would be able to say, that's not Christianity, and that doesn't count.
00:46:59.800So again, like AD said, there is overlap. The state tells the church, you have to have certain
00:47:06.320building codes, or you have to close for this or not for that, right? So even though we believe
00:47:10.300in sphere sovereignty, even though we believe that the state has the sword and the church has
00:47:14.320the keys, there is overlap here. We have to think clearly, and not everything that claims
00:47:22.460Christianity, not everything that claims to be a religion. We recognize this. Satanism isn't,
00:47:26.880you know, fundamentally a religion protected by the First Amendment the way that Christianity is,
00:47:30.580and that's a good thing. And the state should be able to make that sort of adjudicating decision,
00:47:34.980and that is not encroaching upon the keys. So we're talking about the use of authority
00:47:42.420under God. I think the right way to approach this conversation is not to start from the ground level,
00:47:49.040start from humanity, but start from the level of God. You start from the very top and you say,
00:47:56.020what, where do we derive from? Where do we derive authority? And you say, well, of course it's from
00:48:01.860God. Well, who derives authority? Well, you look in the scriptures and you see that God gives
00:48:07.100authority to parents in the home. He gives authority to elders and members in the church,
00:48:14.060And he gives authority to civil authorities in the civil sphere.
00:48:18.200So if you start from the top, then you say, well, what is the purpose of civil government?
00:48:24.320If you look into that civil sphere, and you have to say that the purpose of civil government
00:48:30.140is to establish justice for God's glory and the good of all people.
00:48:35.360When we start there, then we, I think it helps us to not shy away from saying all authority
00:48:42.960is delegated from God and all authorities must be in submission to God. Now, where do we find
00:48:49.140how we're in submission? You look to his word and you can look to general revelation or the moral
00:48:55.160law that's written on the heart as well. They both confirm each other. But I think what we
00:49:02.220constantly see in this conversation is we're starting on the ground level as though there's
00:49:07.340a blank slate. That's not the place to start. The place to start is with, with God being the
00:49:13.680sovereign and in Christ, he is the essential sovereign over all. He was, uh, after his
00:49:19.620resurrection, he was seated at the right hand of the father over every authority in heaven and on
00:49:24.120earth and everyone that's named. And now he is mediating his authority on earth by the, the
00:49:31.940authorities that he has delegated. One of the things that was said in this particular section
00:49:39.000of the clip was that they just get really leery of the use of authority in the civil sphere.
00:49:47.160Well, look, we should be leery of authority, period. I mean, that's what our founders were
00:49:51.720saying, why they put in so many checks and balances. We should always be suspect of authority,
00:49:57.160but it doesn't rule out the fact that there will be authority, that there will be rule.
00:50:01.900These are inescapable realities. We need to then look to God's word as the foundation and the
00:50:11.760directives for how we rule. And when we do that, we don't have to be afraid of the fact that there
00:50:19.300are spheres or the fact that there's authority. We have to do it rightly, but we shouldn't be
00:50:25.060afraid of the fact of it. The fact that it's going to be willed wrong, well, that's a given.
00:50:32.400There's sin in the world. I willed it wrong as a parent. Elders have difficulties in their
00:50:38.400leadership, and the state will too, but we need to use the Word of God to put the parameters
00:50:44.700around authority, and I think that's the standard. Dusty, you said something interesting that someone
00:50:49.780in the chat, and I can't find it now that I was thinking of displaying it, asked about families
00:50:55.040that what about a father and a family? Don't they have to wield authority? Are they going to do it
00:50:59.040in a Christian way? And William, going back to your comment about Baptists in general, I have
00:51:03.820obviously a frustration because of other people, not the G3 guys. But even with the G3 guys,
00:51:09.700you see this kind of mentality that as Baptists, we should be very afraid if there's any kind of
00:51:16.000establishment of religion or even something that's not as aggressive as that, but there's a religious
00:51:22.140blending of some kind, because that means we're all going to get persecuted somehow. And it just,
00:51:27.760I think what you were saying, Dusty, is so true that authority is going to be there no matter
00:51:33.300what. So it's not like there's a blank slate where they're neutral and the principle pluralism works
00:51:39.080or something. There's going to be a pagan in there. There's going to be a Christian in there.
00:51:42.360and are we going to take our oath on the bible like we have for the entirety of our history
00:51:46.880or is it going to are we going to take an oath at all or are we going to have an invocation or
00:51:50.780or not is it in god we trust i mean all these questions so um anyway yeah is it going to be
00:51:56.140god we trust or in gay we trust right like that's kind of a question but you see william they jump
00:52:01.960all over you for that because it's like well i'm not going to accept the dynamic where it's either
00:52:06.000christian nationalism or you know man be pamby whatever but but what when you hear josh say
00:52:12.100something like this what's the alternative who like like like he puts this forward like there's
00:52:17.240some kind of like neutral alternative there is no neutral alternative so it's like which which
00:52:22.300which uh church decides you know who's in charge well who's doing it right now i mean what what is
00:52:28.280this mythical alternative that that is like this ideal that's where we're at right now well let me
00:52:35.560push back on let me let me push back on id there just a tad bit like i would say that i would say
00:52:40.320that the alternative coming out of the Reformation and, you know, breaking free from the Holy Roman
00:52:45.700Empire and from, in many ways, the tyranny of the Catholic Church over, you know, strict control of
00:52:52.000anybody's religion. And that even took time, right, is like what we see in the American
00:52:56.580experiment is where there is, you know, we have a constitutional system of law that doesn't
00:53:03.140establish, you know, an explicit religion and gives a freedom for churches to operate. And yet
00:53:08.680we founded this this is sort of my quip on this whole thing with christian nationalism
00:53:12.100in america is christian nationalism an effort to enshrine what was assumed at the american
00:53:18.180founding right and obviously what was assumed at the american founding is no longer being assumed
00:53:23.100and perpetuated in our society however i do like how douglas wilson makes this point which is that
00:53:28.880hey man it shouldn't be hard for us to admit that these guys got it wrong right so like you know
00:53:33.060when Felix Mance is being drowned for his newfound Baptist convictions, that is, as Dusty mentioned,
00:53:39.620we'll call it this. That's an abuse of authority. That's an abuse of ecclesial and civil authority.
00:53:44.880And so we should wholeheartedly agree with our G3 brothers when they raise these legitimate
00:53:49.000concerns from church history in the way that authority has been abused to persecute certain
00:53:54.200genuine Christian believers for their differences in baptismal theology or anything like that.
00:53:59.380We should just very clearly say, hey, I agree with you 100 percent. That was an abuse of authority.
00:54:03.920And that's not what we're envisioning. And those magistrates were ruling wrongly when they did that.
00:54:10.560Yeah. Look, during covid in 2020, Baptists, especially Baptists, really quickly learned that we had forgotten our history and our history in the 1689 and in our Baptist catechisms and and otherwise, all the answers were there.
00:54:28.540You know, and what they were telling us is that, look, there's no neutrality and bad theology hurts people in churches and it hurts people in the home.
00:54:40.860But bad laws hurt people, too. And bad law is going to come whenever you try to separate your government from God, which is an impossibility anyway.
00:54:50.840So you might as well choose the God of creation or be judged for it, and then you'll eventually come around to it anyway because Christ is king.
00:54:59.260He's going to rule. He will have every knee bowing before him in heaven and on earth.
00:55:06.680It's like who decides? Well, it's the same people that decided that Vermont was going to put Jesus Christ in their constitution.
00:55:13.980It's the same people in Maryland who decided who was in charge.
00:55:16.900It's like we knew how to do this before. We have an example of this.
00:55:20.840And so it's not a mystery, like who decides this is it's it's it's it's treated like this is like this, this this knockdown defeater.
00:55:28.260But it's like you just got to read your history book a little bit.
00:55:31.440Ryan McKeon in the chat here, who I recognize that name from Twitter, he's saying that, you know, constitutional republic is a good system and we don't need to just like abandon it.
00:55:40.480And I I I agree. It's a it's a great system. One, when the Constitution is actually enforced and it it means what it's supposed to mean.
00:55:48.460And we don't live in a post-constitutional age. And so I think I think that's right.
00:55:53.080But even in a constitutional republic, you could have some more explicit Christian Christian commitments to the morality of the land.
00:55:59.940And then also, John, even back to like the question of an establishment of religion, you know, you could I could envision and so much of this is theory and people have a hard time with theory because theory is in practice.
00:56:09.940But OK, blue skies with me envision a country where there's an establishment of religion, say England, but they don't persecute people who aren't part of that establishment.
00:56:20.280Right. So like to persecute those who who aren't part of the establishment is a wrong exercise of the authority thereof.
00:56:27.180I mean, I could envision a land where there is an established version of Christianity and yet there's no persecution happening.
00:56:33.440I'm not advocating for that, but I'm saying I can at least imagine it because I can imagine it.
00:56:39.360You know, again, gets the question of how authority is used, not whether authority exists.
00:56:45.980You know, I think a lack of imagination is a big problem that we have.
00:57:56.400It sounds like people are needing some church discipline.
00:57:58.080There's no actual answers to those sorts of questions.
00:57:59.160Yeah, that's what I was thinking. Before we even get there, I want to go back.
00:58:01.120The churches need to decide that. And, you know, there's a bishop, I wrote an article on this, I called it the base bishop of San Diego denies communion to Nancy Pelosi. And that happened, right? Like, whoever, you know, I think Biden's a Catholic. So like, he should absolutely be excommunicated, right? I mean, that's, that's, that's not the role, like, the US Congress should not excommunicate Biden. Now, that would be problematic if they tried to do it. I would object to that.
00:58:26.980but Biden should be subject to discipline. Sure. Yeah. And G3, these guys rightly want strong
00:58:34.920churches. They want biblical churches. And I think they want regenerate churches,
00:58:39.740meaningful membership, however you want to talk about it. They have proven that that's what they
00:58:43.800want. And in those kinds, we want more of those churches. We want the gospel to go out. We want
00:58:50.580the ordinances to be rightly administered. We want the gospel to be preached expositionally.
00:58:56.980We want the gospel to be clear in those pulpits.
00:59:00.180And whenever that is happening in pulpits, the interplay between the church and the civil sphere is beautiful.
00:59:10.680It's harmonious and they work together.
00:59:13.040And you've got churches actually keeping the Lord's Supper or even baptism from people who are false converts or in unrepentant sin perpetually.
00:59:26.440And I said this on the steps of the Oklahoma State Capitol a couple of years ago.
00:59:33.080There are laws to murder babies are written in every state capital.
00:59:40.320They say when, where, how they can murder children.
00:59:43.360And these legislators are pro-life and they go to churches in all these states.
00:59:49.960And the problem is not first the legislators.
00:59:53.440The problem is that these churches are not holding them accountable
00:59:57.080and keeping them from the Lord's Supper.
00:59:59.700They're not keeping the Lord's Supper.
01:00:00.900They're giving them this false sense of security.
01:00:04.400So we've got to have stronger churches, yeah.
01:02:14.640And to make this analogy, I think, easy for everyone.
01:02:17.820I don't know if you guys agree with this, but if you look, take it to a family level and it makes
01:02:21.180more sense. If you had a family that was completely dysfunctional, let's say one of the spouses is
01:02:26.660off the rails, lets the kids do whatever they want. The kids are misbehaving, irresponsible.
01:02:33.620Maybe you could remember a time back in the day when the family was functioning correctly and
01:02:37.840everything seemed to be going pretty well. Yeah, you had your problems, but you're able to work
01:02:41.800them out. Boundaries existed, but you didn't need a lot of boundaries because people were
01:02:46.000responsible. But as time has gone on and irresponsibility has crept in, the family is
01:02:50.740now dysfunctional completely. What do you do in that case? What's the solution? And I think
01:02:55.800Christian, a lot of the people who call themselves Christian nationalists are more sympathetic to
01:03:01.620solutions that would be like, well, it looks like we're going to have to have the Christian prince
01:03:05.860come in and like set some boundaries because people can't limit themselves. Self-government's
01:03:09.940gone. I guess we're going to have to impose some limits. I guess we're going to have to have a
01:03:14.540national divorce. We can't live with those people if they're making, you know, decisions that are
01:03:19.500we find to be absolutely evil and using our money to carry out that evil. So, you know, I'm for some
01:03:25.660of these outside the box solutions. I don't know if anyone else has something briefly to say to
01:03:29.260that comment. I would say, you know, as a student of American history as well, that that, you know,
01:03:35.800our founding fathers previewed for this, previewed this for us in so many ways. Everyone loves that,
01:03:41.440you know that quote you know like you know a republic if you can keep it or our system of
01:03:46.360government was made for you know holy moral people and it's unfitting for anyone else i mean
01:03:50.420there's like there's like 10 different variations of that from a variety of different founding
01:03:54.540fathers so people love that and then all of a sudden it's like oh are we maybe hitting some
01:03:58.660of the limits of this and to even consider that we are as a sudden become like a grave sin like
01:04:04.300i mean our friend josh abattoi is getting absolutely roasted today for proposing that
01:04:09.660we might need a Protestant Franco, which I get the point he's making. But, you know, there are
01:04:15.380limits to federalism, right? There are limits to our federal system. But I would argue that what
01:04:21.420we're seeing in rogue states is a real abandonment of the Constitution. And so that the federal
01:04:27.360government should appropriately bring rogue states when they when they are abandoning
01:04:32.100Constitution, breaking the natural law, slaughtering and slaughtering their kids and
01:04:36.100transiting their children, like, you know, something should be done about that. So I wouldn't
01:04:41.540say I wouldn't immediately run to national divorce per se, but I would say that we need the political
01:04:46.720will to, to, you know, to stop the great moral evils that are happening in some states and not
01:04:54.940others. Yeah. Our constitution has those, those oaths built in. Every state is supposed to exercise
01:05:04.500their authority constitutionally, and our nation is as well. But this really can get as atomistic
01:05:11.820as the citizens have responsibilities as carrying an oath as citizens. We have a constitution that
01:05:20.040actually works fairly well alongside the law of God in a lot of senses to actually deal with each
01:05:28.260states or our nation's greatest evils. And that's really where we need to go to establish
01:05:34.920justice and promote each state and each nation's or this nation's thriving. So I would say some of
01:05:42.100the goals for those states, and you have to take the hard biblical line. Unfortunately,
01:05:49.260it looks like a hard line because we've gone into so much judgment. But at one time,
01:05:56.060it didn't seem like a hard line to say, you know what? Homosexuality should be illegal.
01:06:01.720Sodomy should be illegal. But now it's just such a given in so many places that you'll
01:06:07.560have at Target men, men having tuck bathing suits right at the front door.
01:06:15.340You know, my one of our church members walked into a Target in our buckle of the Bible belt,
01:06:22.160lot in Oklahoma. And right at the very front is a bathing suit for men. It's a one, it's a one
01:06:29.700piece with, so that he can tuck his junk. Now, who's going to deal with that? Every church should
01:06:37.840be rising up. Pulpit should be rising up. We should be telling our civil authorities, look,
01:06:44.480here's a great evil because what that great evil entails is this whole genre of of serpentine
01:06:53.320theocracy it's another theocracy from the devil and we have to confront it with the gospel but
01:06:59.840we also have to call these civil magistrates if you won't legislate according to god's word
01:07:05.080then you should not be have the right to call yourself a christian and we're not going to
01:07:10.240to give you the supper if you will not repent well the civil magistrate should yank targets
01:07:16.000business license tomorrow and send the local pd to keep the store shut until they quit peddling
01:07:24.980their disgusting trans agenda and perverting the population there that's what a righteous
01:07:29.620just magistrate should do in a situation like that yeah good good points guys i want to keep
01:07:35.280playing this unless you have a quick comment no go ahead go ahead to something that that you said
01:07:40.060Josh, which is the issue of nations, nationalism. Are we unpatriotic? Are we not for America?
01:07:50.140The reality is we have been, are, and we've demonstrated that. I'm someone who's worn
01:07:55.880the uniform of this country. I've spent 12 years of my life committing myself to being willing to
01:08:03.560put myself in harm's way to defend the Constitution of the United States. I did that with great pride.
01:08:08.500Yeah. There was no shrinking back. No, you know, woe is me or or this. I can't stand for this America. I did it under presidents. I agreed with. I did it under presidents. I disagreed with. Right. I served under under Clinton as well as under under who was it? Bush. Bush the first. And on the backside, W.
01:08:28.560Sounds like a king designation. Bush the first. Bush the first, yeah. The first Bush and the second Bush. It's one of those things where I reject the idea that we aren't patriotic or that we're weak on the idea of a nation or a nation state or borders or those kinds of things where we would put America first.
01:08:49.740as it relates to the issue of the evangelical wars that we've had to face regarding wokeism,
01:08:56.980because wokeism didn't just stay outside the church. It entered the church. We had to deal
01:09:01.420with that and address those issues. When I thought about what I wanted to do with the back half of my
01:09:06.840life in coming to G3, my thought process was I want to spend the rest of my remaining days that
01:09:13.100that God gives me by his grace, working toward, arming toward, educating, encouraging, and
01:09:20.280equipping a local churches, and seeing God's glory made manifest in the people of God everywhere
01:09:26.020that this ministry would touch. As such, I didn't come here thinking, oh, there's a political aim.
01:09:32.660I can't wait for us to enter politics so that we can shape the culture. My thought was,
01:09:37.920I can't wait to be part of a prophetic ministry, willing to stand up for truth, declare that truth, speak that truth in a way that impacts culture so that we can see God's glory made manifest.
01:09:49.900Did you just admit that you're over the hill?
01:10:06.960No, I agree with you, Virgil. Not with that part. I agree with you in the sense of, you know, look, G3 consistently aims at strengthening local churches. And so what does that look like? Well, that means that there are going to be times when we're going to have to take unpopular stands.
01:10:26.580I feel like I need to take a vote, guys. Does anyone vote to skip like 10 minutes into this?
01:10:34.8401.25 speed. I don't know if I can do that. Um, I wish I could,
01:10:39.760I don't think I can in this particular format, but, um,
01:10:43.160I want to hear things in context, but this is just,
01:10:46.140we've been listening to this for almost 20 minutes and so far it's just been
01:10:49.180what G three is about and defending mostly defending G three and their
01:10:52.720Patriots. How much longer is it, John? Oh, it's really long.
01:10:55.680It's like an hour. So let's, let's, let's just drop in at 30 minutes.
01:10:58.900Let's see what's going on. Yeah. Well, you know,
01:11:01.100I really am encouraged by by so much of of, you know, what they are iterating and like for Scott to defend nationalism, not just patriotism.
01:11:11.000I mean, again, I just want to say that's great. Like, good to hear it.
01:11:15.500Yeah. Yeah. Someone's saying that I can do to to X speed. Violet is saying that I can do to that.
01:11:20.560So I'm going to work on that. But let's just drop in. Let's see. 30 minutes and see what they're saying.
01:11:26.740This actually aids in leading them to faith.
01:13:03.540It was explained to somebody, despite the fact that I grew up in a Christian household, went to homeschool, Christian high school, Christian college, wasn't a Christian.
01:13:10.920But when I was finally confronted with the gospel in such a way that the Lord ultimately used it to bring me to saving faith, it was through a pastor pointing at the Bible.
01:13:59.580So as I'm watching this, like so far what we've gotten into, so much of what I've seen from G3, whether it be in Twitter land or whether it be in this podcast or whether it be a couple of the articles, these are such easily, it frustrates me, such easily answered arguments, right?
01:14:16.320So sacralism or, you know, abuses from the state, you know, against Baptists or whatever.
01:14:22.540We are arguing for a theocracy, not ecclesiocracy.
01:14:26.480Ecclesiocracy is a church-run state, right?
01:14:29.800The Protestant pope kind of thing, that's a church-run state.
01:14:32.940We are arguing for a theocracy, which is a Christ-run state.
01:14:37.640Now, everything is not whether but which.
01:14:43.400if no other god is above it then the state is god state ism is the religion and that is a religion
01:14:49.520so it's not whether but which there will be a religion there will be a god we we believe in
01:14:54.480the separation of church and state we do not believe in the separation of christ and state
01:14:58.960so theocracy not ecclesiocracy and faithless state doesn't um is not the problem it's faithless
01:15:06.520churches so much of what they're arguing about it's funny because they're arguing against christian
01:15:10.960nationalism, but all I hear them arguing against is Billy Graham. All I hear them arguing against
01:15:16.060is bad churches. I've yet to hear a legitimate argument for why the state shouldn't be faithful
01:15:23.440and Christian. All right, let's keep playing. You have with, say, you know, a Presbyterian
01:15:32.220form of, I don't want to say government, a Presbyterian approach to discipleship as opposed
01:15:38.240to a Baptist approach in that vein? Those are two different ideas. They're going to unpack
01:15:44.920Scripture and their scriptural basis for that. We're going to attempt to do the same. I think
01:15:49.080that's a friendly conversation. Absolutely. I think the difference is when you examine
01:15:53.600Stephen Wolf's book is it's devoid of Scripture. What he is pulling from is historical philosophy
01:16:02.740on politics rather than the theology of Scripture. And that's where the differences are. That's why,
01:16:09.280and as I read this, it's easy for me to see the great differences between what Wolf is positing
01:16:16.160and perhaps maybe what a James White would say about this issue. His push is more toward, hey,
01:16:22.380at least as I've listened to James, his thing is this is going to happen through a revival. This
01:16:27.980is going to happen through that kind of thing well his approach mimics ours in that we're saying the
01:16:33.000same things as it relates to transformation happening from the inside out rather than a
01:16:39.140transformation that we're trying to install from the outside in so ours is more gospel focused
01:16:45.080gospel centered all right william i know i see your hand yeah because a couple of folks in the
01:16:50.000chat like one guy was saying like so where's the difference all right so here's the difference
01:16:53.700Right here. Here's one of the differences, which is that Christian nationalism is arguing for a both and approach, which says that we absolutely pray for revival and we want to see, you know, we want to see hearts change, lives change, you know, you know, that that sort of yeast to spread to the nation.
01:17:14.560Yet at the same time, again, to bring us back to the beginning point of this conversation, whether there's revival or not, our laws should be just.
01:17:22.700And because we know that the law is a teacher, that we can ask for the laws to be transformed.
01:17:30.340Virgil's using the word transformation.
01:18:22.760Gospel proclamation, be a prophetic voice in the culture, in the public square, unashamedly, flat-footed, straight-eyed, clear-eyed about what we're saying.
01:18:31.660rather than this, hey, we've got this 500-page volume of political theory that we think would
01:18:40.260work good, and we're going to put the Christian nationalism label on the top and then foist it
01:18:45.600upon culture. This is an important point, and emphasizing scripture, too, is an important
01:18:50.640point. I mean, one of my, really, my primary objection to this Christian nationalism proposal
01:18:57.540is that, you know, the idea of rebuilding Christendom or establishing Christianity as the,
01:19:05.860you know, for some people, just the dominant religion of our nation. Maybe we allow other
01:19:10.240religions, but Christianity is the established religion. My primary criticism is I don't see
01:19:17.680any hint of that in the New Testament. There's no hint of Christian nationalism. There is a
01:19:25.440strong emphasis on living holy lives. There's a strong emphasis on being active in the public
01:19:30.700square, raising godly children, proclaiming the gospel for the glory of Christ. But you don't
01:19:36.700find any hint of this idea of building Christian nations or conglomerations of nations into
01:19:45.020Christendom that we find in history or that is being proposed in Wolf's book or even some of
01:19:50.500these other arguments, you don't find it. What you find is an emphasis on
01:19:55.180Christian faithfulness. And again, the Christian nationalists agree with us on
01:19:58.840that. They want Christian faithfulness, we want Christian faithfulness. We're in
01:20:02.500agreement on that, but this idea of building Christendom or establishing
01:20:07.100Christian nations, that's what I just don't see any argument. I understand the
01:20:12.780theological argument, for instance, of post-millennialism or even Wolf's sort
01:20:17.200of philosophical theological arguments, you know, these arguments that, well, you
01:20:21.740know, the government has been tasked by God for the good of humanity, and we know
01:20:26.340that what will be best for humanity is Christianity, therefore the government
01:20:30.160ought to establish Christianity. I understand the logic of the argument.
01:20:33.100The question is, where do we find that in the pages of Scripture,
01:20:37.000particularly in the Scripture that gives us our marching orders as the New
01:20:44.200testament church you just don't i'm gonna stop it there guys i'm sure one of you wants to probably
01:20:49.160wait you bet this sounds like a baptist hermeneutics thing you need to handle this one i can't do this
01:20:54.540i mean i don't mind that's all i'm gonna say i don't mind taking a shot and i want to give you
01:21:00.720guys more of an opportunity to talk though uh dusty you're baptist william you're baptist yeah
01:21:05.060so uh there's a joel's baptist too let's not forget we we own joel and we're keeping joel
01:25:56.040I was just going to say, yeah, Paul talks about that.
01:25:58.060And arguably, you know, or admittedly, in 1 Corinthians chapter 7,
01:26:02.260he's talking about it in the context of marriage,
01:26:05.280a Christian being married to an unbeliever.
01:26:07.700But the principle very clearly can be stretched and applied,
01:26:11.740you know, further out than just marriage.
01:26:13.240he says each man should remain in the station that he was in when the lord called him and that
01:26:18.380goes back to you know the point i made earlier about when the you know roman soldiers came to
01:26:22.340john the baptist what do we do now that now that we're going to be you know followers of yahweh
01:26:26.280followers of christ um i guess we you know we quit being civil magistrates and he's like no you'd be
01:26:30.980christian civil magistrates um and so in the same way each man should remain in the station with
01:26:36.200you know that he was in when the lord called him uh that applies to marriage that applies to being
01:26:40.920married to an unbelieving spouse that also applies to vocation and it certainly applies to the
01:26:45.180vocation of being a civil magistrate all of christ for all of life i think one of the things that we
01:26:50.440forget in our hermeneutics right so and it's funny because g3 they're cessationist and so am i
01:26:55.120um but it's funny that uh you know the cessationist would be real quick with first corinthians chapter
01:27:00.30012 to say hey all scripture is for you not all scriptures to you well i would just want to repeat
01:27:05.780that i would just want to say okay so you can't see anything in the new testament that says you
01:27:09.260know hey we should have a theocracy and all you know christian nation well first uh first i i do
01:27:16.020see that in first corinthians 15 and that that is me being you know post-millennial right that all
01:27:20.200his enemies will be said he must reign not he will reign eventually so so i do see that i see it in
01:27:25.680isaiah 2 i see it in daniel 2 i see it in isaiah 65 i see it you know all throughout the old
01:27:30.200testament but i also see it you know confirmed in the new testament in first corinthians 15
01:27:33.980uh that nations and i see it in like you said dusty the great commission matthew 28 baptizing
01:27:39.080nations so i do see it in the new testament certainly in the old uh but eschatology aside
01:27:43.800all scripture is for us not all scripture is to us so when paul's telling for instance uh first
01:27:48.960corinthians you know 12 but also first corinthians 14 when he's saying this is how tongues and
01:27:53.360prophecy should go down in the church and this is why you should rather prophesy than speak with
01:27:57.420the tongue um you know if if for those of us who are cessationists like g3 we can look at that and
01:28:03.520he says you know eagerly desire all spiritual gifts but especially that you may prophesy
01:28:07.380All right. Well, Josh and Scott and Virgil, you're in sin, guys. Paul says explicitly in the scripture, the New Testament says eagerly desire all spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy.
01:28:17.480So are you earnestly and eagerly desiring New Testament prophecy, new revelation on a regular basis?
01:28:23.640Or are you able to look at that New Testament text and say it's for us, but there was a direct, immediate audience that it was to, to them, for us?
01:28:33.760And so in the same way, I would look at the whole, not just one chapter in 1 Corinthians with the gifts of the Spirit, but with this Christian nationalism topic, I would look at the whole of the New Testament and say, it's two first century Jews and Gentiles in a Roman-run world.
01:28:49.140But it's four, all the bedrock of the principles, everything we need is there for us 2,000 years later to establish Christian nations.
01:28:58.120Yeah. Oh, you have something, William? Go for it.
01:29:00.980Yeah, just look, I think I think this is a good question from Scott, right? Like, and I, I want to feel the weight of that question. Where do you see this in the New Testament? But I had actually want to broaden aperture where I want to look canonically, where do we see that? Where do we see this across all of Scripture, which is, you know, how are rulers supposed to use their God given authority to rule rightly?
01:29:26.520So where do I see Christian nationalism in the New Testament?
01:29:30.740Well, I see it, you know, when Jesus commands, you know, his followers to render unto Caesar what is Caesar's and to render unto God what is God's.
01:29:42.380I want to read this, 1 Peter 2, 13 through 15, where he says,
01:29:48.000Be subject for Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor supreme or to the governors, as said by him to do what?
01:29:55.840to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good what is the evil what is the good
01:30:03.100you know if you're going to punish evil and praise good according to god's standards
01:30:08.360you're a christian nationalist let's go you know essentially like you know back then and and then
01:30:13.960he says for this is the will of god that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of
01:30:18.220foolish people and then also when you look in um i think it's in second timothy i'm forgetting the
01:30:22.300reference right now but where he says pray that you know pray for rulers pray for kings that you
01:30:28.040could live quiet lives you know again that assumption there this is really important
01:30:32.760he's saying pray for your rulers that they would rule justly that's the implication so that you
01:30:37.740could live quiet lives and essentially so that the gospel could go forth you know uh paul is
01:30:43.200envisioning that when rulers and kings rule rightly because you're praying that they should
01:30:47.840rule rightly, then the gospel can spread. Christianity can continue to go forth instead
01:30:52.880of being, you know, worked against by the state. So I would say from start to finish, God understands
01:30:59.180that the institution of human authority, whether that's a king or a king or a duly elected
01:31:04.460politician, is meant to be ruling under his, you know, righteous law. So then where would I put the
01:31:10.440New Testament twist on it? Well, you know, look, when King Darius realized that God is the creator
01:31:17.080god daniel's god is god in daniel 6 he doesn't say he doesn't use the word christian now everybody
01:31:23.680needs to worship the christian god he says everyone needs to worship daniel's god the god
01:31:27.420of the hebrews yahweh right well now in the new testament we we have a name for this it's our
01:31:32.160religion it's christian right we worship christ so when we say we need to worship the creator god
01:31:37.520well who's he been revealed most fully in his son jesus christ i mean and there you have it in my
01:31:42.360in my, you know, poor reasoning, you've got Christian nationalism.
01:31:46.520Let me just say how proud I am of you as a Baptist to reference the Old Testament. I know
01:31:51.960you guys like the New Testament better. I was going to bring that up. I just want to say I'm
01:31:55.540proud of you. Thanks, Andy. Well, the point I wanted to just make briefly is that I don't want
01:32:01.960to take a burden of proof that we don't actually need to bear in this case. And if any of you guys
01:32:06.460want to take it, that's fine with me. But I've taken the position that I don't think I have to
01:32:11.700find explicitly a command for a Christian government and how to build a Christian
01:32:18.600government like the blueprints in the New Testament, because I don't think that's the
01:32:21.840purpose of the New Testament. The New Testament is written to mainly to churches and individuals
01:32:28.260providing instruction for them in this formative period. Why would you have to reinvent the wheel
01:32:34.160when you have an entire Old Testament that gives you, as a light to the nations, the laws of God?
01:32:39.360So that's not been abrogated in any way. So if you believe that, then the narrowing the scope to just the New Testament, I think, is strategic because it means that you have to try to find some verse in the New Testament when why can't you just say, well, look, God gave the whole entire canon of Scripture.
01:32:59.180jesus assumed it uh paul assumed it uh they both uh adopted the moral principles from it they even
01:33:05.580applied it to government i mean even romans 13 is about the instructions to individuals and churches
01:33:11.300it's not more so individuals and their behavior not it's not a template on forming a government
01:33:16.600we already have that so um anyway uh i got a question point john because that's what scott
01:33:23.200actually you know this this this is an interesting um hermeneutical difference you know which which
01:33:28.760maybe i think in you know very specifically scott is accurate he's like saying you know the in the
01:33:33.860imperatives of romans 13 are to believers not to magistrates okay like i'm happy to concede that
01:33:40.580you know but but still we're we're seeing a standard reiterated good and evil well who's
01:33:47.020good and evil god's good and evil yeah it's the fifth commandment you know let me just one thing
01:33:54.540The fifth commandment gives you the standard for how to submit to authority, but also how to wield authority.
01:34:03.100And Romans 12 talks about the law that's written on the heart that works alongside the conscience to either approve you or accuse you.
01:34:11.080And what's the law that's written on the heart?
01:43:17.140You know, it's, you know, and Virgil does kind of nibble around the edges of that kind of statement a couple times during this thing.
01:43:25.640And I think he's specifically referring to Stephen Wolf, his brand of it, and people that, you know, really like Stephen.
01:43:35.400It's honestly, it's just so hilarious to me because, like, in the space of, like, 30 seconds, he accuses Christian Nationals of playing the woke game.
01:43:47.140yeah i think gotta laugh yeah i will say this though i mean i hope i hope this doesn't lead
01:43:55.160to my like total and utter cancellation but i i think that like i think two things can be true
01:43:59.840at the same time i really do and let me let me put them like this i think that i do think that
01:44:05.020white men in america are are frustrated with a lot of things right like i mean even i i i've
01:44:11.500talked publicly about my concerns of raising three white young boy, you know, three new white men in
01:44:18.240the country that we're, you know, we're becoming, there's clearly, you know, I had, I sat down with
01:44:24.060a mentor of mine a while back when I was DC, and I was looking at trying to switch jobs. And I was
01:44:28.960looking at going into sort of the big, you know, the big consulting world. And this guy straight
01:44:34.500up told me, you're a white man, and you didn't go to an Ivy League school, I wouldn't even waste
01:44:39.520your time. So I do think, let's put it this way. I think that white men are frustrated in America
01:44:44.900and potentially for very legitimate reasons. That said, that's not what's driving the Christian
01:44:49.800nationalism conversation, right? No, Christianity is a white man's religion. What are you talking
01:44:54.720about? Yeah. So I think, I think there's a conflation there between a social reality of
01:45:00.880the way that white people have been treated and talked about in America lately. But that is not
01:45:06.700the driving force of christian nationalism i was looking for the i just did a podcast i can't find
01:45:12.640the name of the uh the lady but uh there was someone who's associated with james lindsey
01:45:18.180just recently and i think james lindsey's even said this that the christian nationalist types
01:45:22.340or conservative christians is what she said are based or they're woke she even used that term
01:45:26.900they're woke um and the only thing the lady who says i'm going to get caught with like
01:45:32.220some underage yeah yeah yeah it was real nice it was real nice uh anti so anti-woke wants to
01:45:39.600cancel christians it's just so anti-woke to do that um so uh the thing though that like i guess
01:45:46.660the only thing i can think of that parallels this is they're saying that well the woke people see
01:45:52.140that there's oppressors and oppressed and christian nationalists say that there's oppressors
01:45:56.300and oppressed and they think they're the ones that are oppressed because as christians uh the laws
01:46:00.260are now running against us so we're oppressed and we need some some power to come in and and stop
01:46:06.480this and so that must mean i guess that's the only thing i can think of that must make it woke
01:46:11.020somehow like you're after power to to right this wrong but the thing is like the the problem with
01:46:16.440the woke thing was that they had a broken barometer for measuring oppression right they would say it's
01:46:21.740over there it's like upside down right yeah it was false that was the issue um it's like all of
01:46:27.640human history including biblical history has oppressors and oppressed like it's it's not like
01:46:32.580it's the it doesn't explain everything it's not an ideology like marx came up with but you're
01:46:37.200going to have situations in history where there's people oppressing other people like to say that
01:46:41.580doesn't mean you're woke so i will yield the floor yeah no i completely agree with you john that's
01:46:46.440what i was trying to say earlier is that um it's not just you know we went at it against the woke
01:46:50.900stuff with the line of like this is a conflation of gospel and worse galatian heresy you know
01:46:55.040doing the gospel the whole gospel the great requirement but there were some guys doing that
01:47:01.100that they were adding legalism adding works but the thing is they weren't just adding works to
01:47:06.720the free gospel of grace through faith in christ alone but they were adding bad works perverse
01:47:12.420works like like dung works like they weren't good works they weren't righteous works by any
01:47:18.860standard so even if the categories were separate of grace gospel and law that it wasn't it wasn't
01:47:24.800they're conflating law and gospel they're conflating uh gospel with a perverse law and so
01:47:29.900all that being said it's like well this is just the woke thing well hold up um what what are we
01:47:35.360asking for what what is the position like the civil magistrate has been given a sword it of
01:47:41.800course it coerces that's what they're supposed to do they're only supposed to coerce they're not
01:47:47.580actually supposed to preach they're the only reason i file my taxes right exactly amen everything they
01:47:54.220do is at gunpoint and it's supposed to be at gunpoint so let's just make sure every the state
01:47:59.500can only do things that isaiah even talks about ezekiel talks about um about kings and rulers and
01:48:05.300compares them to like lions and bears they have claws right that like all they can do so when
01:48:11.120you're thinking of like who should i drop my kids off with not a state school right not a bear not
01:48:17.420a lion you give that to a woman who nurtures who's kind who's gentle so you so all that my
01:48:24.140whole point is the the state by design by whose design god's design it carries a sword it's like
01:48:30.560a lion it's like a bear all it does is coerce it it has no choice but to coerce so the question is
01:48:37.420should christians be using the word of god to tell them what uh should be at gunpoint what should be
01:48:43.560at the end of of a sword and g3 for the record would say yes they they would agree with us on
01:48:48.720that and they said yeah let's speak to them let's say this let's say that like yes we should be
01:48:52.580telling them the bible is telling them that they need to be doing these things but that's again
01:48:57.820the comment though that virgil made and i like virgil but the comment he made about it being
01:49:02.020woke none of the whole woke social justice movement the problem with that was that it was
01:49:08.380a perversion of everything that the word of god says it says hey don't worry about uh of that um
01:49:15.500don't worry about whether or not that person pulled out a gun the perpetrator pulled out a gun
01:49:20.280and pointed at a police officer all you need to know to determine what was just is what color
01:49:25.480was the police officer and what color was the guy who got shot right what we're not we're taking off
01:49:31.340the blindfold we're exercising partiality so the problem with wokeness was that it wasn't just
01:49:36.760The irony is that everything you read, the Statement on Christian Nationalism and the Gospel, go to thestatementonchristiannationalism.com.
01:49:43.920We just released the new version, updated version today, thestatementonchristiannationalism.com.
01:54:04.860Well, again, if you're going to pray your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, then pray and expect Christ to answer those prayers.
01:54:16.840If you're going to seek first the kingdom of heaven and all his righteousness, well, what are you actually seeking?
01:54:23.700Well, you're seeking personal holiness for sure, but you're also seeking the rule of Christ in his kingdom.
01:54:28.760So when we start to talk about the purpose of government, I'll go back to something I said earlier.
01:54:36.460We have to start with thinking about it from the very top.
01:54:41.860Christ has all rule and authority, and so the purpose of government is to glorify God in the use of authority.
01:54:50.240And in that use of authority, every person, 1 Corinthians 10 31, must do all that they do, whether they either drink or sleep or govern to the glory of God and to Christ deserves the obedience of the nations, the his government and of its increase and of peace.
01:55:15.020There will be no end. And as soon as we have more and more churches faithfully preaching the gospel, holding these legislators accountable for keeping with their confession of faith in how they legislate in doing their work heartily as unto the Lord, I think we'll see not just revival, but we'll also see reformation in the spheres.
01:55:40.160We're seeing it in our church. We're seeing it. And I think there is a massive reformation in fathers leading their families in family worship and fathers leading in the churches and saying God's call on us is a lot more than what we may have been taught and what we have received.
01:56:00.360and they're coming back to the scriptures.
01:56:02.360And I think the same thing is actually happening right now in the civil sphere.
01:56:05.780And these conversations like this, conversations that matter,
01:56:09.560are actually pushing us closer to a biblical worldview
01:56:15.780than what a lot of us received, especially pre-COVID.
01:56:27.440and then we can let Joel go after this.
01:56:30.140I would just say that if you're if you're a Baptist and you support religious liberty and you reject the myth of neutrality, which is critical, and you can see that sort of the collective pre-liberal commitments that are either explicitly Christian or natural law, which I argue are very much one in the same, you know, are needed to sort of re-pour sound societal foundations in America.
01:56:58.220then you know christian nationalism is the program for you another baptist craig carter
01:57:04.360wrote an article on this um you know in american reformer and i've pulled up some of the quote here
01:57:09.320he says somebody has to say no to the radical secularists who want to tear everything down
01:57:14.880and i would say who's going to say no you know christian nationalists are going to say no
01:57:19.340you know and he says why do people today seem to think that tradition in history is irrelevant
01:57:23.960and that we have to invent everything about our political system out of nowhere.
02:04:52.020post-constitutional in some ways. We the debt and everything else financially is unsustainable.
02:04:59.460We're worse off than our parents were. And that's just economically. But morally, I mean,
02:05:04.000we're sinking really fast. We don't want our kids groomed. I mean, all of these things
02:05:08.660are culminating and bubbling up. And people don't want the same old talking points and solutions
02:05:18.500that haven't worked during their entire lifetime. So I think this stuff isn't going away. And as
02:05:23.960Christians, hopefully we need to think about ways that we can understand. And look, even if you
02:05:30.360don't agree with Christian nationalism, you're going to have people in your ministries or in
02:05:33.380your churches who are attracted to this kind of stuff. How do you minister to them? How do you
02:05:37.280encourage them? What kinds of positive things that you have in common with them can you encourage
02:05:42.200them towards? Because there seems like there are plenty of those things. So it's just a shame to
02:05:48.020me, I guess, that we couldn't have a conversation tonight like we wanted to. Just a back and forth.
02:05:54.340I don't even need to be part of it. And I've said that in my own messages to Josh. I don't
02:05:58.900need to be part of this, but I would love to see that kind of a brotherly interaction. And if you
02:06:03.680can find Common Cause with James Lindsay, right? And have him on a podcast. And you can certainly
02:06:09.520have Common Cause with your brothers who are using this particular label and you agree with on
02:06:14.800probably 90% of stuff. So I just want to say that my hope is that there'll be a reconsideration of
02:06:25.520this. My platform's open. I'm sure any of the men here would open their platform up. It doesn't
02:06:31.100matter where it happens, doesn't really matter who all is part of it, but for really productive
02:06:36.300discussions, respectful discussions that take place, I'm all for it. And I know all you guys
02:06:41.380are too. So yeah, let's pray for that. Let's look forward to the possibility of that. But let's
02:06:48.240keep, you know, with conviction going down the road that we think God has called us to. And I know
02:06:52.600for everyone in this particular chat right now, we believe that Jesus is Lord, and we think that
02:07:00.320a distinctly christian government is a good positive thing and a distinctly christian
02:07:05.720culture is a good positive thing and we'd like to preserve some of what we've lost so um with that
02:07:12.340i want to just thank you guys all again uh for joining me and unless there's any urgent final
02:07:17.260thoughts we'll end the podcast i i got one that i think i knew you i knew william i know i know
02:07:23.100this is who i am it's just like this is how i work right i'm an iterative i'm an iterative guy
02:07:27.000It's why I love Twitter, actually. But I just want to say this, like, because, John, I want to help us all here because of like, we are not saying this is more important than the gospel.
02:07:38.320We just aren't right. Like, that's not what we're saying. You know, like, you know, only one life will soon be passed.
02:07:45.620Only what's done for Christ will last. But we are here saying that the gospel is of first importance.
02:07:52.840and this is also important too but it's not more important our hope isn't finally in christian
02:07:59.080government nobody here is saying that i just want to try to take that take that response away from
02:08:04.480anybody who listens to this and makes it all the way to the end our hope is in christ our hope is
02:08:08.320in the gospel and we just also want to see the civil rulers be faithful to christ in their
02:08:15.020appropriate spheres gospel then government awesome all right well god bless guys have a good night
02:08:22.840Whoa, whoa, whoa. You're going to want to hear this. Our next two conferences are coming up
02:08:26.960quick. We've got first, our fall conference. This is November 11th and 12th. That's a full
02:08:33.060day Saturday and a holdover for the Lord's Day, November 12th. Who's speaking at this conference?
02:08:39.440Well, we've got Jared Longshore and Chris Wiley and yours truly, Pastor Joel Webb. And what's
02:08:45.380the title? The title is The Household and the War for the Cosmos. Now I know you're thinking,
02:08:50.780wait a second, you can't use that title, Joel. That's the title for Chris Wiley's book. Well,
02:08:55.420I can use it because he's going to be there speaking and he gave me his permission. We're
02:09:00.020going to be talking about the household as the basic building block for pushing back the kingdom
02:09:05.580of darkness in this world. We're going to be talking about biblical patriarchy. We're going
02:09:10.260to be talking about marriage and parenting, how to keep your kids, how to shape and form them like
02:09:16.040straight arrows, like sharp arrows that do damage to the kingdom of darkness. Training our children
02:09:22.560in the fear and ammunition of the Lord. A full day on Saturday, November 11th, and then holding
02:09:28.160Jared Longshore over for the Lord's Day, November 12th, to preach at my church, Covenant Bible Church
02:09:34.220in Central Texas. You can register at the early bird rate, which will not last long, but you can
02:09:40.820register at the early bird rate today by going to rightresponseconference.com. Again, that's
02:09:47.320rightresponseconference.com. Now our second conference is our spring conference. This is
02:09:53.040Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, March 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. The title for this conference,
02:10:00.000Blueprints for Chrysidom 2.0. Blueprints for Chrysidom 2.0. We don't want to revert back to
02:10:07.320chrysidom 1.0 although it would certainly be a whole lot better than the clown world that we're
02:10:13.180currently living in but we recognize despite the phenomenal features of a prior chrysidom there
02:10:19.720were certain bugs that we'd like to see worked out so we're not going back we are pushing forward
02:10:25.560to chrysidom 2.0 we believe that the blueprints are seven doctrines for ruling the world righteously
02:10:33.700What are these seven doctrines? Well, it's reformed confessionalism, it's covenant theology,
02:10:39.860it's biblical patriarchy, it's presuppositionalism and Kuyperianism and general equity theonomy and
02:10:47.880hopeful eschatology post-millennialism. Who's going to be teaching us on these doctrines?
02:10:54.020Voldemort, he who must not be named, Pastor Douglas Wilson himself. You also got Mr. Bright
02:11:00.680hearth mr king's hall mr haunted cosmos pastor brian sauve and we also have dr joseph boot and
02:11:09.260of course yours truly pastor joel webin we'll be doing seven primary lectures as well as two 90
02:11:16.080minute panels with all the speakers together and we'll likely add a couple more speakers along the
02:11:22.340way again that's march 1st 2nd and 3rd friday saturday and sunday it's blueprints for
02:11:30.560Acrysidum 2.0. We've got the early bird rate going right now, but it will run out quickly.
02:11:36.500So go to rightresponseconference.com, rightresponseconference.com to register today.