Kinism in the CRCNA Overture Rough Draft II

My first draft drummed up great feedback and ideas. Thanks to all who’ve contributed. Here’s the second draft.

I.             Introduction

HopeCommunity Church has learned that a new teaching is finding a foothold in some Christian Reformed Churches. We believe this teaching, called Kinism, is heretical based upon our examination of Scripture, the confessions, and previous acts of Synod.

Kinism is a recent grassroots theological movement within the broader Reformed community. Like other grassroots movements, Kinism claims no single organization or leader. It has no well-known or published works. It lives on the internet through various blogs and a now-defunct scholarly journal.

No one leader or organization dogmatically defines Kinism. What follows is a summary of Kinist beliefs found on Kinist websites.

  • Race is defined as common patrilineal descent and is the sum of inheritable traits held in common with near and distant relatives.
  • Culture is an external expression of religious belief combined with race and the location of a people group.
  • A nation is made up of a single race and culture sharing a single language under a single civil government. Kinists call this kind of nation a religio-ethnostate.The only responsibility Christians have to those of other faiths is to share the gospel.
  • God forbade interracial, inter-religious marriage in the Old Testament and carried that prohibition forward into the New Testament church. Interracial marriage is considered unequal yoking and destructive to society.
  • Those seeking to establish a New World Order use multiculturalism, interracial marriage, and transracial adoption to destroy God-given diversity.
  • Europe is the historic seat of Christendom. The New World Order wants to Christendom which was established by white males. Therefore, the white male is especially under attack by the forces of the New World Order.
  • Envy of “their superiors” motivates minorities. Therefore minorities must be separated from their (presumably) white superiors.
  • Christians’ spheres of responsibility are family, race, town, state, region, and country. “…Christians should favor the native and the normal over the alien and the novel.”
  • Adoption should be rare and transracial/international adoptions should prohibited.

Kinism finds its home among confessional, Reformed churches. Kinists rightly affirm the following:

  • The Triune God glorifies himself through a beautiful, diverse creation.
  • God made humanity in his image.
  • Humanity, without regard to race, is fallen in sin is by nature under God’s wrath for transgressing his just and righteous law.
  • Humanity, because of our sin, is incapable of salvation outside God’s grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. Salvation is for the glory of God alone.
  • God has revealed all this to his chosen people, the church, through the Scriptures by the power of the Holy Spirit.
  • God has gathered his chosen into the body of Christ, the church, which is a community of faith called to minister to one another and the world through sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Kinism blends orthodox Reformed theology with an ethnocentric hermeneutic resulting in the affirmations above.

Kinism, as defined through Kinist websites and preachers, is antithetical to a lived gospel in God’s diverse world. Different Christians will object to various points in Kinist theology. However, the job of the church isn’t to evaluate the existence or absence of a New World Order, the likelihood of one world government, or other items in the Kinist agenda. The church is the body of Christ, which judges all theological claims in light of Scripture and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, while there may be much to object to coming from the Kinist camp, this overture will only address those items which are in blatant violation of Scripture’s clear teaching and the Reformed worldview as expressed in our historic creeds, confessions, contemporary testimony, and acts of Synod. On those grounds, we object to the following points of Kinist theology:

  1. Interracial marriage is contrary to God’s plan.
  2. God has ordained separation in a religio-ethnostate which necessitates racial separation in all areas of life.

II.          Why Should Synod Address Kinism?

Giventhat Kinism is a minority view within the broader Reformed community, some may wonder why Synod should address the problem? There are at least five reasons Synod should address this issue rather than shrug it off as a minor disturbance in the broader Reformed community.

  1. A single pastor within the Christian Reformed Church has propagated Kinism in his teaching, preaching, and online writings. For years, he was able to teach Kinism as a pastor of the CRCNA, which necessarily associates our denomination with this heresy. This pastor was allowed to continue in error because his supervising council and classis were theologically ill-equipped to respond. We understand that he would have likely been able to continue in his heresy had he not made blatantly racist, sexist, and anti-Semitic statements on social media which exposed the core of his Kinist beliefs. Finally, after years of complaints to this pastor’s elders and classes which did nothing to curtail his teaching, the pastor left the CRCNA and took his congregation with him after being exposed on social media.
  2. Kinism could very well be a pervasive theology within the CRCNA. Was this one pastor the only officebearer in the CRCNA who is a Kinist? We certainly hope so, but we simply don’t know. Perhaps he was just the loudest voice of Kinism in our denomination. Synod should declare loudly for all officebearers to hear – Kinism will not be tolerated in our church!
  3. While the CRCNA did amazing work in the 1970s, ‘80s, and ‘90s to refute the heresy of Apartheid in South Africa, many current CRCNA officebearers and members are unfamiliar with their work. There is nothing entirely new in this overture. The theological arguments of Kinism are indistinguishable from those of Apartheid theologians. Kinism is simply Apartheid by another name. Yet, elders and classes in the CRCNA were unable to deal with Kinism in their midst due to ignorance of past decisions by the CRCNA.
  4. Given the current political climate in North America surrounding race, the CRCNA would be wise to reiterate unequivocally our Biblically and confessionally informed denunciation of Apartheid. The church must proclaim to the world our love of neighbor without regard to race.
  5. Our hope with this overture is to give officebearers and classes the appropriate theological knowledge to refute Kinism and confront any officebearer who may propagate Kinist theology.

III.        Familial Relations – Kinist Claims

Kinistsclaim the following:

  1. “That those seeking a New World Order find the boundless diversity in God’s creation an intolerable hindrance to earthly unity. That they seek a one-world government, a one-world religion, and a one-world man. That multiculturalism, miscegenation, and transracial adoption are all means to their ends.”
  2. “That the God of the Old Testament, who forbade interracial, interreligious marriages to His covenant nation, is the same as the God of the New Testament. That marriage between parties who are not naturally congenial is unequal yoking. That unequal yoking in marriage or in society at large is destructive of Christian harmony, association, and growth.”[1]

IV.        Familial Relations – Scriptural Problems

Paul wrote to the Colossians about division in within the body of Christ. He addressed them as those who “…have been raised with Christ…”[2]  and then went on to admonish them against sin that would harm their interpersonal relations. “You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. 8 But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. 9 Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.”[3]

The church in Colossae was raised with Christ. They had put off the old self with its practices and put on a new self. Paul then draws the logical conclusion of this real spiritual change in the church. “Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.  12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.”[4]God removed the wall of division between Jew and Gentile. All people within the church constitutes a people. God’s chosen peoplewas no longer merely a rough sketch of ethnic Israel, but all people who have been raised in Christ and put off the old self with its practices.

Peter concurs with Paul. “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”[5]Peter, as a zealous Jew, could not be more explicit: God’s people are one nation.

The church, which constitutes a single people, is then free to operate as one people. There isn’t the slightest hint of maintaining old ethnic differences between people in God’s one nation. Kinists downplay the real change that God has effected through his saving grace, insisting that while we may constitute one church, we are in fact a separate people.

Marriage is the most intimate of relationships and mirrors the church’s relationship with God. Paul told the ethnically diverse church in Ephesus, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.”[6]

Paul draws a parallel between the relationship of Christ to his church with the marriage relationship between a man and a woman. Christ is analogous to the husband in the marriage relationship. Christ loved the church to the point of dying for the church, which includes people from every nation. Christ does not marry many wives, each one constituting a separate nation. Rather, he marries one wife, the church, whose defining characteristic is her holy and blameless nature, not her skin color. Kinists claim to want to maintain God-given distinctions, yet they ignore the fact that Christ has done away with ethnic distinctions in the church through his marriage to a single bride.

Kinism claims that interracial marriages are forbidden by the God of the Old Testament and the New. We agree that God forbade marriages between the nation of Israel and other nations in the Old Testament. However, marriage between the nations was not prohibited upon the basis of race alone. Scripture clearly testifies that God’s primary concern in forbidding marriages in the Old Testament to the nations was not their ethnic background or skin color. Instead, the LORD wanted to keep his people free of the detestable practices of the nations. His concern was that they remain faithful to their covenant partner and not forsake him for the gods of the nations.

“When the LORD your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations—the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you— 2 and when the LORD your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally. Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy. 3 Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, 4 for they will turn your sons away from following me to serve other gods, and the LORD’s anger will burn against you and will quickly destroy you.[7]”

“After these things had been done, the leaders came to me and said, “The people of Israel, including the priests and the Levites, have not kept themselves separate from the neighboring peoples with their detestable practices, like those of the Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites, Ammonites, Moabites, Egyptians and Amorites. 2 They have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and their sons, and have mingled the holy race with the peoples around them. And the leaders and officials have led the way in this unfaithfulness.”

3 When I heard this, I tore my tunic and cloak, pulled hair from my head and beard and sat down appalled. 4 Then everyone who trembled at the words of the God of Israel gathered around me because of this unfaithfulness of the exiles. And I sat there appalled until the evening sacrifice.”[8]

Between the Old Testament and New, we find a striking thematic unity. God warned his people in to avoid intermarriage between the nations based upon their detestable practicesin the Old Testament. In the New, the LORD reminds us that we are no longer a people with detestable practices. Those old people are dead. We, the church, are a new people. Continuing in Ezra we read,

“But now, O our God, what can we say after this? For we have disregarded the commands 11 you gave through your servants the prophets when you said: ‘The land you are entering to possess is a land polluted by the corruption of its peoples. By their detestable practices they have filled it with their impurity from one end to the other.”[9]

Scripture is clear – there is nothing intrinsically wrong with any particular race. The line of demarcation between Israel and the nations was not their lineage, but their covenant status with God. Israel was a covenant partner with God. The LORD was their God, and they were his people. The Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites, Ammonites, Moabites, Egyptians and Amorites had no such relationship with God. Marriage between Israel and the nations caused God’s people to abandon their covenant with God. Therefore, Israel should not marry people from the nations.

God’s plan for his people was that they should marry others who are in covenant with God. This concern is echoed in the New Testament. Paul, writing to the ethnically diverse church in Corinth, did not mention national distinctions as he warned against unequal yoking. Rather, unequal yoking is a function of righteousness versus wickedness, light and darkness, Christ and Belial.

“Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? 15 What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? 16 What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.” 17 “Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.” 18 “I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”[10]

Paulexplicitly prohibits unequal yoking with unbelievers. He calls the church to be separate from those in darkness who worship foreign gods. Paul doesn’t call the church to be separate from people of a different color or national origin. We, the church, are the temple of the living God, not separate temples, one for each nation, as Kinism would imply.

Biblical evidence against Kinism’s binding the Christian conscience by declaring marriage between different ethnicities sinful is clear. The CRC has recognized the Biblical case against prohibiting of men and women from different ethnicities marrying for decades.

V.           Familial Relations – Confessional Problems

Our confessions and Contemporary Testimony recognize the radical unity we have in Christ.

“The church is the fellowship of those who confess Jesus as Lord. She is the bride of Christ, his chosen partner, loved by Jesus and loving him: delighting in his presence, seeking him in prayer— silent before the mystery of his love.”[11]

“We are the family of God, serving Christ together in Christian community. Single for a time or a life, devoted to the work of God, we offer our love and service to the building of the kingdom.  Married, in relationships of lifelong loyalty, we offer our lives to the same work: building the kingdom, teaching and modeling the ways of the Lord so our children may know Jesus as Lord and learn to use their gifts in lives of joyful service. In friendship and family life, singleness and marriage, as parents and children, we reflect the covenant love of God.”[12]

The Heidelberg Catechism declares that our baptism incorporates us into God’s covenant people just as circumcision incorporated people into God’s Old Testament nation. “Q. Should infants also be baptized? A. Yes. Infants as well as adults are included in God’s covenant and people, and they, no less than adults, are promised deliverance from sin through Christ’s blood and the Holy Spirit who produces faith. Therefore, by baptism, the sign of the covenant, they too should be incorporated into the Christian church and distinguished from the children of unbelievers. This was done in the Old Testament by circumcision, which was replaced in the New Testament by baptism.”[13]

The Belgic Confession tells us that by our baptism we are set apart from all other nations as God’s children. “Having abolished circumcision, which was done with blood, Christ established in its place the sacrament of baptism. By it we are received into God’s church and set apart from all other people and alien religions, that we may wholly belong to him whose mark and sign we bear.  Baptism also witnesses to us that God, being our gracious Father, will be our God forever…It washes and cleanses it from its sins and transforms us from being the children of wrath into the children of God.”[14]

VI.        Familial Relations – Synodical Statements

During theculmination of the Civil Rights struggle in the United States, Synod declared concerning interracial marriage, “Holy Scripture does not give a judgment about racially mixed marriages; contracting a marriage is primarily a personal and family concern. Church and state should refrain from prohibiting racially mixed marriages because they have no right to limit the free choice of a marriage partner.”[15]

Synod recognized that Christ’s redemptive work made the church one, without distinctions that require separation. “For a true understanding of the rights, equality, and we should see all men not only as creatures of God, made in His image, but also as those who have sinned, and need redemption. Therefore in our relation to fellow believers we should recognize the new unity which all Christians, regardless of race, have by virtue of being redeemed by Christ.”[16]

VII.      Societal Segregation – Kinist Claims

Kinists advocate separation of people from different ethnic backgrounds when it comes to marriage. Unfortunately, they also extend the supposed requirement of racial separation to every sphere of life including in the church and state. Kinists would use the force of the state to establish racial boundaries as was done in the American South during segregation and South Africa during their policy of Apartheid. The following statements from Kinists supporting segregation run contrary to the stated positions of the CRCNA:

“That sin is a universal deformity in human nature, and that no perfect society is possible this side of Heaven. That Christians should work to limit human error by seeking those conditions which are inherently productive of a harmony of interests, both in marriage and in society at large. That a harmony of interests naturally exists between people who are similar.”[17]

“That man, as a creature, is necessarily limited. That because he is limited, his responsibility to others is also limited. That human responsibility is Biblically regulated by relationship, such that we have a greater responsibility to our own family, race, town, state, region, and country, than we do to “the other”. That Christians should favor the native and the normal over the alien and the novel.”[18]

“We affirm the multi-national multi-racial makeup of Christ’s Church. We further affirm that the nations and races are themselves individual expressions of Providence, separated and cultivated by God to check the spread of evil and add to His glory, to be preserved kind after kind in this world and eternally in the world to come. We affirm that all attempts to amalgamate humans into one mixed mass are in open rebellion against God’s law and His sovereignly created boundaries.”[19]

“Our grandfathers called those advocating for diversity and integration “infidels” who had abandoned the Bible for “modernism” and were (sp) leading the Christian flock astray.”[20]

“God is the author of segregation and racial separation.  Our grandfathers rightly believed that those who rebelled against racial separation rebelled against God Himself, the Author of those boundaries.”[21]

“That the ideal Christian social order is an extension of the family concept, considered at a larger scale. That Biblically, a nation is a large group of people of common patrilineal descent, living in a common geographical location, and having a shared religion, history, language, and civil government (a religio-ethnostate).”[22]

VIII.   Societal Segregation – Scriptural Problems

Kinism routinely underestimates the importance of the church. They state, “…responsibility is Biblically regulated by relationship, such that we have a greater responsibility to our own family, race, town, state, region, and country, than we do to “the other””.[23]Completely missing from this statement is the church. Family, as defined by blood relation, takes priority over family as defined by the Spirit of God who makes all Christians brothers and sisters.

The CRCNA rightly views the role of the church in evangelism through the lens of the Great Commission. “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”[24]

After his death and resurrection, our Lord told his disciples, ““But[25]you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

Jesus sent his ethnically Jewish disciples into the broad gentile world with the good news. By the power of the Holy Spirit, the church was dispersed throughout the world to minister to all nations. Kinists might respond that Jesus command maintains national distinctions. After all, he didn’t say, “Go, make all nations one.” While he does not explicitly state in this text that all nations are to become one, the Holy Spirit in other inspired texts noted above does that very thing. In Christ, we are one people.

The Holy Spirit empowered God’s people for their ministry to all nations.

“Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. 6 When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken. 7 Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language? 9 Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, d 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome 11 (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!”[26]

The Holy Spirit empowered the disciples then sent them out to fulfill Jesus’ prophecy that they would be his witnesses in Judea and Samaria. “On that day a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria.”[27]

The Lord push Phillip directly into cross-cultural ministry. “26 Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Go south to the road—the desert road—that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” 27 So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian t eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of the Kandake (which means “queen of the Ethiopians”). This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, 28 and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the Book of Isaiah the prophet. 29 The Spirit told Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.”30 Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked. 31 “How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.”[28]

Philip, a Jew, taught the Ethiopian how to read the Scriptures. Philip shared the good news with the Ethiopian and then baptized him.

Nowhere in Scripture do we find even the implicit teaching that people from one ethnic group should be wary of evangelizing people in another ethnic group. Even more importantly, we find nowhere in Scripture even the implicit command that Christians should set up separate ethno-states.

What we do find in Scripture is Jesus’ explicit command to engage in missions to the entire world, the Holy Spirit empowering missionaries and changing the hearts of people through the preaching of the gospel, without regard for ethnic heritage. While wisdom dictates that evangelism should be done in culturally appropriate ways which maintain cultural practices that do not conflict with Christ’s teaching, the Scripture strongly rejects the idea that missions should only be done intra-culturally.

IX.        Societal Segregation – Confessional Problems

Kinist statements run contrary to Scripture, our confessions, and the Contemporary Testimony which stress the unity of all believers.

“The Spirit gathers people from every tongue, tribe, and nation into the unity of the body of Christ. Anointed and sent by the Spirit, the church is thrust into the world, ambassadors of God’s peace, announcing forgiveness and reconciliation, proclaiming the good news of grace. Going before them and with them, the Spirit convinces the world of sin and pleads the cause of Christ. Men and women, impelled by the Spirit, go next door and far away into science and art, media and marketplace— every area of life, pointing to the reign of God with what they do and say.”[29]

Article 36 of the Belgic Confession describes the role of the civil government saying, “We believe that because of the depravity of the human race, our good God has ordained kings, princes, and civil officers. God wants the world to be governed by laws and policies so that human lawlessness may be restrained and that everything may be conducted in good order among human beings. For that purpose God has placed the sword in the hands of the government, to punish evil people and protect the good. And being called in this manner to contribute to the advancement of a society that is pleasing to God, the civil rulers have the task, subject to God’s law, of removing every obstacle to the preaching of the gospel and to every aspect of divine worship. They should do this while completely refraining from every tendency toward exercising absolute authority, and while functioning in the sphere entrusted to them, with the means belonging to them. They should do it in order that the Word of God may have free course; the kingdom of Jesus Christ may make progress; and every anti-Christian power may be resisted.”

The Belhar Confession reminds us that, “…Christ’s work of reconciliation is made manifest in the church as the community of believers who have been reconciled with God and with one another.” Reconciliation means the bringing together of different groups into unity. The Belhar continues, “…that this unity must become visible so that the world may believe that separation, enmity and hatred between people and groups is sin which Christ has already conquered, and accordingly that anything which threatens this unity may have no place in the church and must be resisted.” A necessary result if unity in the church means a rejection any doctrine which:

  • which absolutizes either natural diversity or the sinful separation of people in such a way that this absolutization hinders or breaks the visible and active unity of the church, or even leads to the establishment of a separate church formation;
  • which professes that this spiritual unity is truly being maintained in the bond of peace while believers of the same confession are in effect alienated from one another for the sake of diversity and in despair of reconciliation;
  • which denies that a refusal earnestly to pursue this visible unity as a priceless gift is sin;
  • which explicitly or implicitly maintains that descent or any other human or social factor should be a consideration in determining membership of the church.[30]

HopeCommunity Church submits that the role of the church is to support political action that allows the free association of those within the church in accordance with our confessions. The role of the state is to protect our freedom to share the gospel with the entire world. Kinism would deny the church this freedom through the establishment of a religio-ethnostate resembling apartheid.

X.           Societal Segregation – Synodical Statements

The CRCNAhas a well-documented history of dealing theologically with segregation. As a church founded by Dutch immigrants and connected to Dutch Reformed churches in South Africa during the state’s policy of Apartheid, the CRCNA strongly rejected the forced segregation of people based upon their ethnic background. We are deeply indebted to the work of the CRCNA as they formulated a response to apartheid, which is simply Kinism made manifest.

Kinism and Apartheid are, at their core, an effort to divide the church of Jesus Christ. The CRCNA delineated how the church is to be both diverse and unified in “God’s Diverse and Unified Family” which states:

“The church, Christ’s gathered body in the world, is the means by which God intends to reveal himself, to proclaim the good news, and to unite all things in Christ.

In John 17, Jesus is more precise as to how the church reveals God. Jesus prays that all the people who believe in him “may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you” (John 17:20–21). Why does he want them to be one? “May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. . . May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me” (John 17:21, 23). When the church is one, people see God. The power of the church’s witness lies precisely in its new oneness in Christ, a oneness of believers that transcends external differences.

The church will be effective in the mission God has given it only when it understands and lives out of a vision that appreciates both its unity and diversity in Christ. The church is one in Christ (1 Cor. 1:10–17; 12:12–13). Christ is the one foundation of the church (1 Cor. 3:11) and the one head of the body (Eph. 1:22–23). “There is one body and one Spirit just as you were called to one hope when you were called—one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all” (Eph. 4:4–6). The church, however, is also marvelously diverse. Just as the body has feet and hands and eyes and ears and is incomplete without all those parts, so the body of Christ is made up of many parts. In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul teaches that each part of the body is necessary to make the body function with complete effectiveness, and all parts have equal dignity, regardless of size or function. The gifts of the Spirit to the church are marvelously diverse (1 Cor. 12:27–31; Eph. 4:11–13; Rom. 12:3–8).

This teaching on the unity and diversity of the church is extremely important as we think about matters of racial and ethnic diversity in the church. On the one hand, Scripture calls us to be one in Christ. This is not just some theoretical oneness. It is a visible, actual unity of people with one another because they share in the common source of life—Jesus Christ. This unity is so real that the world comes to know God through it (John 17:23). This scriptural call to unity judges the church in its lack of unity.

Nevertheless, unity does not obliterate differences. To be whole, the body needs each part. In terms of racial and ethnic differences, the goal in the church is not to rub out those differences and try to make everyone the same. Each of us has a particular race, ethnicity, and culture. We do not cease to be Korean or Kenyan or American when we become part of the body. Rather, each particular person (and community) plays a part in making the body whole. Each person and community brings unique gifts and makes unique contributions. In the Spirit, diversity is no longer threatening; it is enriching. Unity and diversity together confirm that indeed the church is the Lord’s work, not our own.”[31]

Working out the unity through diversity calls the church:

1. To pray and work for the increased enfolding of ethnic-minority persons into the CRCNA in order to reflect more fully the racial and ethnic diversity of Canada and the United States.

2. To ensure the equitable representation and meaningful participation of ethnic-minority persons in leadership and other roles of influence at all levels of denominational life.”[32]Which is antithetical to Kinism.

Synod stated in 1983, “Synod is deeply grieved and disturbed over the unbiblical ideology and persistent practice of apartheid/separate development in the society of South Africa and within and white Reformed churches and the consequences these have, such as is evidenced by the fact that there are separate churches for believers of different races so that even at the table of the Lord racial separation is maintained.”[33]

Synod continued in 1984, “It is the judgment of the synod that-where citizenship (with the full rights and privileges of membership) in a territorial state is allowed or disallowed on the basis of race or nationality (ethnic identity);

-where membership (with the full rights and privileges of membership) in a congregation of the church of Jesus Christ is allowed or disallowed on the basis of race or nationality;

-where participation in the Lord’s Supper is allowed or disallowed on the basis of race or nationality;

-where free and untrammeled participation in the economic life of a community is allowed or disallowed on the basis of race or nationality;

-where unrestricted participation in the public educational system of a society (or political entity) is allowed or disallowed on the basis of race or nationality;

-where unrestricted participation in social units (marriage/family, political parties, service or cultural associations, labor organizations, athletic organizations, etc.) or social functions (weddings, funerals, recreational or cultural gatherings, etc.) or public facilities (medical, travel, entertainment, athletic, recreational, service, etc.) is allowed or disallowed on the basis of race or nationality;

-or where the according to any human being of the official status of a: person with full dignity, rights, and privileges is conditional upon his/her having been assigned by authority a specific racial or national identity: there race and/or national identity have been made an absolute that fundamentally conditions and qualifies the common humanity of all human persons (as absolute, if not more so, than the created distinction of male and female). As a result, the state, which under God is appointed the guardian of the rights and privileges of every human being and the defender of ‘justice, becomes a power structure enforcing a false ideology and administering systematic injustice. As a result, also, the church, which in Christ has been made and called to be the one, new reconciled humanity, denies its confession of unity in Christ (one, holy, catholic church) and repudiates its calling to live together as the one body of Christ that acknowledges only the distinctions of spiritual gifts.

Where such an ideology is the guiding principle for the systematic policies of the state and where the evil of such an ideology, with all its sinful consequences, has been clearly and persistently exposed: from within the church itself and where the ‘church(es) nevertheless continue to support and/or do not oppose such an ideology and its resultant injustices, and where they reflect that same ideology in their own life and structure, a status confessionis concerning this matter must surely (though :humbly and with anguish) be acknowledged.

Any church that supports or warrants such an ideology in the name of the Word of God is untrue to the Word of God, and the teachings it propounds in support or defense of such ideology must be judged heretical. And any church that does not vigorously oppose such an ideology must be judged guilty of disobedience to God’s Word and to Christ its Lord.”[34]

We, as a denomination, understood that we could not be associated with such an evil practice given the theological and ethnic similarities between South African supporters of Apartheid and the CRCNA. Likewise, we should be equally forceful in our denunciation of Kinism as it is rooted in the Reformed tradition.

The CRC has recognized the church and state’s role in race relations is not to facilitate segregation, but to allow Christians to freely associate with other Christians in love regardless of race. “Believers should be equipped by the church through teaching and discipline to serve God, in all spheres of society, individually, and where possible, corporately. Believers must also proclaim the commandment of love in race relations and make it applicable to the affairs of civil government and the structures of society.”[35]  Kinist’s desire to establish an ethno-state runs contrary to the CRCNA’s stated goal of proclaiming the commandment of love in race relations in civil government.

Synod clearly expressed that interracial worship is a starting point for living lives with people of different ethnic backgrounds when possible. “The unity of the Body of Christ should come to expression in common worship, including Holy Communion, among Christians regardless of race.  It may be that linguistic or cultural differences make the formation of separate congregations, often with their own type of preaching and worship, advisable: in these cases it is wise not to force an outward and therefore artificial form of unity but to recognize the differentiation within the circle of God’s people. However, the worshipping together of people of different races, is a sign of the deepest unity of the church, and can be an example for the life of society as a whole.”[36]

XI.        Overture

HopeCommunity Church overtures Classis CA South to overture synod to do the following:

  1. Declare that Kinist teaching constitutes a serious deviation from sound doctrine.
  2. Declare that any officebearer who teaches or promotes Kinist theology is worthy of special discipline in accordance with Article 83 of the church order.
  3. That Synod 2019 acknowledge, with lament, the historic and present use of our beloved Reformed theological tradition to perpetuate hateful racial prejudice and the theological error of Kinism.
  4. That Synod 2019 instruct the executive director to create, through the appropriate agencies, education, instruction, and discussion opportunities for church leaders and lay members to recognize and refute the heresies of Kinism and white nationalism in various social contexts where we may encounter it.

Grounds:

  1. We believe God has called the Christian Reformed Church of North America to minister to the entire world.
  2. We believe Kinism in the CRCNA is contrary to our stated vision to be, “…a diverse family of healthy congregations, assemblies, and ministries expressing the good news of God’s kingdom that transforms lives and communities worldwide.”
  3. We believe tolerating Kinist theology and worldview in the policy, clergy, or office bearers of the CRCNA communicates loudly that Christian Reformed Christians do not welcome people from ethnically diverse backgrounds in our ranks.
  4. We believe segregation based upon race is antithetical to the gospel of Jesus Christ.
  5. In 1968 Synod declared, “…that members of the Christian Reformed Church ought freely to receive as brethren, regardless of race or color, all who repent of their sins and who profess their faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord; that exclusion from full Christian fellowship on account  of race or color is sinful; and that if members are judged responsible  for such exclusion they must be dealt with according to the provisions  of the Church Order regarding Admonition and Discipline.”
  6. We compromise our mission to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with our neighbors when we harbor the heresy of Kinism within our denomination.

 

[1]http://tribaltheocrat.com/2013/08/what-is-kinism/– Accessed 1/12/19

[2]The Holy Bible: New International Version. (1984). (Col 3:1). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[3]The Holy Bible: New International Version. (1984). (Col 3:7–10). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[4]The Holy Bible: New International Version. (1984). (Col 3:11–12). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[5]The Holy Bible: New International Version. (1984). (1 Pe 2:9–10). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[6]The Holy Bible: New International Version. (1984). (Eph 5:25–28). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[7]The Holy Bible: New International Version. (1984). (Dt 7:1–4). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[8]The Holy Bible: New International Version. (1984). (Ezr 9:1–4). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[9]The Holy Bible: New International Version. (1984). (Ezr 9:10–11). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[10]The Holy Bible: New International Version. (1984). (2 Co 6:14–18). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[11]Contemporary Testimony, Point 35

[12]Contemporary Testimony, Point 46

[13]Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 74

[14]Belgic Confession Article 34

[15]Acts of Synod 1969, page 51

[16]Acts of Synod 1969, page 50 and 51

[17]http://faithandheritage.com/about/ sourced 12/5/18

[18]http://faithandheritage.com/2013/08/what-is-kinism/

[19]http://faithandheritage.com/about/ sourced 12/5/18

[20]http://faithandheritage.com/2013/08/is-segregation-scriptural/ sourced 12/5/18

[21]http://faithandheritage.com/2013/08/is-segregation-scriptural/ sourced 12/5/18

[22]http://faithandheritage.com/2013/08/what-is-kinism/

[23]http://faithandheritage.com/2013/08/what-is-kinism/

[24]The New International Version. (2011). (Mt 28:18–20). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[25]The New International Version. (2011). (Ac 1:8). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[26]The New International Version. (2011). (Ac 2:5–11). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[27]The New International Version. (2011). (Ac 8:1). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[28]The New International Version. (2011). (Ac 8:26–31). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[29]Contemporary Testimony, Point 30

[30]Belhar Confession, Article 2

[31]God’s Diverse Family, pages 22-23

[32]God’s Diverse Family, page 29

[33]Acts of Synod, 1983 page 712

[34]Acts of Synod, 1984 pages 603-604

[35]Acts of Synod, 1969 page 51

[36]Acts of Synod, 1969 page 51

A Bit on Sola Scriptura

The following is a response to a loved one regarding scripture.

Cousin, thank you so much for taking the time to write this essay! I appreciate your thoughtfulness and I sense that you’ve wrestled and ached with these questions for a long time. I’ve struggled with these issues myself, even to the point of completely abandoning the Christian faith and throwing myself into I agnosticism and Islam. As Doug mentioned, we all come to these discussions with baggage. The church itself has tons of baggage and is usually reactionary. We’re all reacting to something. I also sensed years ago after some discussion with you that this is where you’d end up theologically.

I haven’t condemned you to the fires of hell. First, that’s not my job. Second, I see no warrant in scripture to pronounce the anathema on anyone because of their view of scripture or the atonement. Scripture is pretty clear – do we completely trust in the right Jesus? If so, then we are his disciples and co-laborers in the Kingdom of God. From what I can tell reading your post, you still believe in Jesus as the eternal Son of God who took on human flesh and died for the sins of the world (though we might differ on how his death did that, how it is applied, or who/what is “the world”). My concern for you is, given your understanding of scripture, that you may one day abandon your faith. Cousin, you are in my prayers.

I completely agree with you that our discussion must account for our presuppositions. After all, a house built upon sand will wash away. Yet, a house built on rock will not fall. The house built on the rock is the house built upon the words of Christ and those who follow those words.

There are a few problems with your take on sola scripture. First, you seem to think it’s lead to a proliferation of denominations. But, let’s look at that claim. Let’s look at the different “genres” of Christianity and their view of scripture.

The most quoted source on the number of Christian denominations is the World Christian Encyclopedia (WCE), which states there are 33,000+ denominations. Certainly, if all these denominations held to sola scriptura, and they all had drastically different theology, then sola scriptura is a nice theory that it doesn’t hold water in real life. However, they break the 33,000 down into the following genres.

  1. Independents (22,000 “denominations”) – these are small churches not affiliated with larger denominations. Perhaps because of a theological problem with the idea of denominations, geography, political, or socio-economic reasons. I think it’s important to note that the existence of these churches does not imply that they all have different statements of faith. In fact, since they are not lumped with the “Marginals” category, the are mostly Trinitarian, and believe in salvation by the grace of God alone through the blood of Christ. Inside this group, we find several denominations that do not hold to sola scriptura, like the Quakers, Independent Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Catholics who split from Rome after Vatican II.
  2. Marginals (1,600 “denominations”) – this includes non-Trinitarian groups like Jehovah’s Witnesses, LDS, Unitarian, etc. The groups do not hold to sola scriptura, and thus have no bearing upon the veracity of sola scriptura.
  3. Orthodox (781 “denominations”) – I honestly don’t know how they broke the orthodox down into this many denominations. However, we know that the Orthodox do not hold to sola scriptura, yet by the same methodology as the rest of these so-called denominations, still have 781.
  4. Roman Catholic (242 denominations) – again, I don’t know how these denominations are broken down, yet by the same methodology this non-sola scriptura group has 242 denominations.
  5. Anglicans (168) – Anglicanism, though historically holding the idea of sola scriptura, has also been largely influenced by the government of England. Do most Anglicans today hold to sola scriptura? Probably not.
  6. Protestant (9,000) – even among this group, the WCE includes groups like Adventists and different types of Quakers, who do not hold to sola scriptura.

Now, let’s look at those churches who do hold to sola scriptura. As you know, I’m a pastor in the CRC. Our confessions, which we believe accurately reflect the teaching of scripture, are the The Forms of Unity. While we are a different denomination from the OPC and have different confessions, our theology is not appreciably different. The denominations were formed using different standards because the people who formed them came from different geographical regions and spoke different languages.

Should we expect all of God’s people to worship in the same way? Is Christianity a mono-culture, or are God’s people made up of every tribe, nation, and tongue? How many of these denominations exist because they meet the specific needs of specific communities within Christendom? Should we expect the Chinese or Mexican immigrant to worship in the same church as a third-generation Dutch American? I don’t think so. Bottom line, sometimes different denominations exist for very good reasons- historical, cultural, linguistic, etc., that have absolutely nothing to do with theological differences stemming from sola scriptura.

Even non-Reformed churches that hold to sola scriptura will profess that God exists as Trinity, Jesus is the eternal Son of God who came in the flesh, born of the virgin Mary, died for this sins of the world, and will one day come again. That’s a tremendous amount of unity within the diverse church. On the essentials, sola scriptura is a home run. It does exactly what it’s supposed to do, which is, “…teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

I know you’ve read lots of Ehrman. However, even Ehrman has stated that essential Christian beliefs are not affected by textual variants in the NT manuscript tradition.

I don’t know what you’re referring to when you say “the early church.” From my reading, the early church had a high view of scripture and would reject your take on it. If you’re referring to the period of inscripturation, then of course sola scriptura has a different flavor. God was in the process of inspiring new scripture. The fullness of God’s scriptural revelation came in time. It wasn’t dropped out of heaven on day one, or even over the period of one lifetime as Muslims suppose it should. God chose to reveal himself progressively, in scripture, through people, in time, and with consistency. Adam didn’t know in Genesis 3 that the heal that would crush the serpent’s head would be nailed to a cross, because he didn’t have the fullness of God’s revelation. Again, salvation doesn’t come through our theory on scripture, or even how much scripture we have. The consistent message of scripture is that God makes and keeps his promises – faith in those promises, which is his gift, is how we live in his presence and establish his kingdom.

One of the earliest testimonies on the sufficiency of scripture is Irenaeus who said, “We have learned from none others the plan of our salvation, than from those through whom the gospel has come down to us, which they did at one time proclaim in public, and, at a later period, by the will of God, handed down to us in the Scriptures, to be the ground and pillar of our faith.”

Even Origen, who had questions hermeneutics, said, “No man ought, for the confirmation of doctrines, to use books which are not canonized Scriptures.”

So, what about hermeneutics? Is the historical-grammatical hermeneutic of the Protestant church an a priori imposition upon scripture? Is our hermeneutic our idol? Why can’t we use Origen’s allegorical hermeneutic to determine what scripture really means?

I think this answer comes down to consistency. Does any particular hermeneutic provide any consistent interpretation of scripture? If a hermeneutical method provides inconsistent interpretations, then we must conclude that God’s Word is saying everything, and nothing, at the same time. Is he a God of confusion, or a God who brings order? Those who use the historical-grammatical hermeneutic have, in my mind, provided a consistent understanding of scripture. You may disagree, but I think the evidence is overwhelming (see above discussion on denominations).

But what about the Gnostic gospels? What about the very diverse Christianity that developed in the early years after the death and resurrection of Christ? Surely, the diverse opinions at the time imply that Christianity could be many different things. The orthodox just won the argument because they got on Constintine’s good side!

I think your presuppositions are showing if you accept this argument. You presupposition is that God did not clearly reveal himself, and this diversity/confusion in the “early church” is evidence of that. But, let’s think about it for a moment.

If I make up my own phone book, with inaccurate phone numbers and names, that have no bearing in reality, does that mean that the legitimate phone book is false? What if 500 people made up 500 different phone books, all of them with false information? Would any of them discredit the true phone book? A diversity of opinions does not speak one way or another to the veracity of any single truth claim.

Likewise, a diversity of interpretations doesn’t imply the lack of a proper interpretation of scripture. You could present me the recipe for bread. I could look at it and tell you it makes candy canes. If you follow the recipe, will you make bread? Yes. Will you make candy canes? No. Some interpretations are much better than others, and it’s ok for the church to discuss different ways of viewing a text. I think it’s one of the ways God has given the church to grow in love for one another, to bring us together over his word, and wrestle with it. In the meantime, the LORD has made the text perfectly clear on the essentials of the Christian faith.

Does sola scriptura do injustice to the role of the Holy Spirit? I think you’d be hard pressed to find any person who hold to sola scriptura who would say the Holy Spirit is hands-off when it comes to our view of scripture.

The Belgic Confession is clear that the Holy Spirit is intimately involved in illuminating scripture for God’s people. “We receive all these books and these only as holy and canonical, for the regulating, founding, and establishing of our faith. And we believe without a doubt all things contained in them— not so much because the church receives and approves them as such but above all because the Holy Spirit testifies in our hearts that they are from God, and also because they prove themselves to be from God. For even the blind themselves are able to see that the things predicted in them do happen.” – Belgic Confession, Article 5.

This also deals with the issue of canonization. The church does not declare the canon. Rather, God has created the canon and the Holy Spirit moves us to recognize it. Does God move some and not others? Yes. Does that mean we have the wrong canon? Maybe. Do even churches with slightly different canons believe the essentials of the faith? Of course. I’ve heard of Christians in North Korea who only had a book of Matthew, yet the LORD saved them in spite of the full canon of scripture.

Jesus does say, “You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.” You seem to be of the opinion that Jesus is indicting scripture. Jesus is not testifying to the failure of the scriptures, but the wickedness of the human heart.

Sola scriptura, as I mentioned earlier, does not remove the Holy Spirit from the equation. Those who solely rely upon the scriptures, without the illumination of the Holy Spirit, will not find Christ. The Holy Spirit is essential. Yet, he works through the scripture as a means.

Certainly, I agree that the scriptures are not an end in themselves. Rather, they exist so that people may know Christ. John said as much. “But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” John 20:31.

We cannot deny that God uses this instrument, scripture, to bring people to faith by the power of the Holy Spirit. I don’t know if you’re creating an intentional straw man, or if you’ve actually encountered people who would claim scripture is more important than Jesus. I’ve never personally met a Christian who would claim such a thing.

I have some other things to get to today. Thanks again for your response. I do love you and pray for you and your family. Please feel free to respond if you have the time.

James T. Hodgkinson, Bernie Sanders, Antifa, Mainstream Media, and The Culture of Political Hate

This morning, James T. Hodgkinson went to a Republican baseball practice and started shooting. My prayers go out to Rep. Scalise and the other victims, their families, all the officers that came to the scene (two of whom were injured), and Hodgkinson’s family, who are undoubtedly in the pit.

Hodgkinson’s actions resemble those of a jihadi seeking salvation through the shedding of blood. He was religiously motivated. His religion is a political one. His religion puts the moral code of a party above all other considerations. Instead of shouting, “Allahu akbar!” Hodgkinson asked, “Are these (the people practicing at the baseball diamond) Republicans or Democrats?”

We’ve discovered that he was an avid Bernie Sanders supporter. He wrote copious letters to the editor of his local newspaper in which he regurgitated the Sanders doctrine of soaking the rich to pay for government programs. His social media account was full of diatribes against Republicans. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with political discourse and expressing our political opinions. It’s part of our American tradition, and I know for a fact many of my Republican friends have posted harsh criticisms of Democrats. This is nothing new.

What is new in our modern American experience is that those who sit across the aisle from us are no longer people with whom we disagree. For many, those with whom we disagree have become an evil boogyman. Hodgkinson, like jihadis, believed that when someone is evil (according to their definition of evil), when they are supposedly coming after you, going to attack your way of life, suppress and oppress you, when mere words are weapons that cause physical damage, when you believe the only way to further your agenda is to shut down all opposing views, violence is a reasonable response. This is the calculation that the cult also known as “Antifa” has made. Opposing views are inherently wicked and must be shut down by any means necessary.

Why would Hodgkinson and the Antifa crowd believe all of these things? Author Scott Adams noted that Hodgkinson was “radicalized by the mainstream media.” I couldn’t agree more.

I’ve never been a Trump fan. As a Christian, I don’t believe Trump is fit for high office. He doesn’t have the moral fortitude to resist the temptations of power. In fact, no men or women do without constant accountability checks.

However, when I glance at the news and the absolute hatred the media has for the man, they make me want to defend him! The amount of snark coming from mainstream media publications has exposed what little credibility they’ve had as “objective news sources” (whatever that means) to be a complete fraud. Our media is full of political hacks who are pushing the ideas that radicalized Hodgkinson.

Kathy Griffin thinks dangling a bloody head of Trump is funny.

rs-kathy-griffin-4e3e3d77-5f5f-44a9-bf9d-21e5c4b2b407

Joss Whedon tweeted a report about Chechen police arresting and killing gay men, saying, “This is harrowing, and it’s where we’re headed if we don’t unite and act. Please use your #resistance skills to address this atrocity.” Whedon also tweeted a picture of scantily clad Nazi women dancing around a picture of Hitler with the caption, “Inauguration seems festive…”

screenshot_51

Keith Olbermann referred to Trump on his provocatively named program The Resistance as, “demagogue, liar, idiot, despot, simpleton, traitor, schmuck, asshole, buck-passer, puppet, lunatic, toddler, fascist, jerk, schmo, schnuck, dipstick, lamebrain, and jackass.” Fascist? Really? Traitor? Maybe James Hodgkinson was listening to Olbermann as well. Apparently, he posted on his Facebook page, “Trump is a Traitor.”

CNN’s Reza Aslan called Trump, “a piece of shit.”

Bob Woodward has noticed the mania over Trump as well. In an interview on MSNBC, Woodward said, “I think it’s time to dial back a little bit about because there are people around … who are kind of binge drinking the anti-Trump Kool-Aid. And that is not going to work in journalism. Let the politicians have that binge drinking.”

SNL skits that mock the administration are covered with the veracity of a real “Spicy” press conference.

Let’s not forget the media stepping all over themselves to make a story out of a Presidential typo. Our government’s been in a war for 16 years, bailed out billionaires, over two million Americans are incarcerated, and covfefe is a story?

I could go on, but I won’t. Just go check out Google news right now, and I’m sure you’ll easily find some article getting snarky with Trump.

The media’s behavior is consistent with their leftist ideology. Sanders famously gathered large crowds of people who loved his message. Sanders singled out one group of people for scorn and ridicule, much as the Republicans have singled out welfare moms and immigrants. According to Sanders, rich people are the cause of all of our problems. They have too much, and they shouldn’t have it. Sanders’ solution? Use the threat of violence from the state to force those wicked rich people to give up their wealth.

Sanders’ recently attacked another group he finds distasteful – Christians. After reading a historically and doctrinally orthodox statement from Russell Vought, President Trump’s nominee to be deputy director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, which stated that Christ is the sole way of salvation (John 14:6) and that all who are not in Christ stand condemned (John 3:18) Sanders went on the attack.

“Do you believe this statement is Islamophobic?” Sanders inquired. Apparently, Sanders couldn’t see the plank in his own eye, as his question was blatantly Christophobic. Sanders attacked historic, orthodox Christianity saying Vought, “is not someone that is what this country is supposed to be about.” Thankfully, the Democratic Party was too corrupt to allow Sanders to have the nomination.

Sanders issued a statement after the attack, saying, “I am sickened by this despicable act. Let me be as clear as I can be. Violence of any kind is unacceptable in our society and I condemn this action in the strongest possible terms.” I’m glad Sanders said this, but the plank in his eye continues to fester. Does he not see that all of his proposals use violence to achieve change? What is involuntary taxation but the use of force to take people’s money from them? Violence is inherent in all leftist ideology, and the experience of the 20th century, in which millions were killed by the left, bears witness to the fact.
Should we be surprised when our politicians make “the other” out to be wicked, unAmerican, evil, Nazis, despots, that people take up arms to fight? Should we be surprised when Antifa decides anyone who disagrees with them is a Nazi, and that it’s ok to punch Nazis?

Marxist theology (yes, I said theology) is wicked. Its god is the state. The election of Trump is heresy, an infidel in the temple (aka the White House). It has no understanding of human nature. It believes it can create a perfect world through the will of humanity. It is a Tower of Babel. Am I going against everything I’ve already said? Shouldn’t we all just get along?

It’s fine to call evil for what it is. The difference is that we, as Christians, are called to love our enemy and pray for those who would persecute us. Sanders is wrong. His ideology is dangerous. I have no doubt that if he were put in power we would all suffer. Yet, he needs our prayers, as does our fallen President.

Let’s unite in Christ, and stop letting Republicans and Democrats divide us.

RESPONSE TO GRE COMMUNICATION RE SAME-SEX MARRIAGE: A “Traditionalist” Contribution to Ongoing Discussion in the CRCNA (August 2016; revised March 2017) John Cooper, Calvin Theological Seminary

This is Prof. John Cooper’s response to the Classis Grand Rapids East study on same-sex marriage. Thankful for scholars of integrity like Prof. Cooper. Edited without footnotes by me.

Introduction

The following observations respond to the Classis Grand Rapids East study of same-sex marriage ( http://www.classisgreast.org/downloads/ssmstudyreport2016.pdf ), which Classis sent to Synod 2016 as a Communication ( Agenda for Synod 2016, 663-668). (I assume that the reader has a copy.) My comments are not a complete, fully articulated or fully documented assessment but are significant critical observations about important assumptions, data, arguments, and conclusions of the Report. (I can articulate and document more fully if necessary.) I offer this response because I remain convicted that the basic issue is the integrity of the CRCNA’s use of Scripture, not merely its sexual ethics or view of marriage. Sexual sanctification for all of us should continue as we anticipate the next synodical study.

The GRE Report is a significant contribution to the denominational discussion because it articulates what many who are open to same-sex marriage are thinking. It summarizes and examines “the biblical/theological support currently offered by Christian proponents of same-sex marriage ”, presumably presenting the best arguments available. As a result, the CRCNA and the study committee appointed by Synod 2016 can examine what thoughtful, committed CRC members actually regard as a valid case for reconsidering or supporting same-sex marriage rather than debating straw persons and hypothetical positions. In this way the GRE Report contributes toward a clear debate and, hopefully, a definitive conclusion.

Summary of the Report (See GRE Report, pp. 6-10)

 

The GRE study is well written, irenic, and seeks to promote the good of the CRCNA. It acknowledges the authority of Scripture and Reformed hermeneutics. It points out that the Holy Spirit has led the church to change its understanding of Scripture on other issues, and it offers reasons for reconsidering the Bible’s teaching about normal and disordered sexuality, sexual activity, and same-sex marriage. Its first reasons are current biological and psychological studies of sex and gender. Then the Report summarizes the Reformed approach to Scripture, presents readings of relevant texts on both sides of the issue, and claims that some on both sides are reasonable, use legitimate methods of interpretation, and therefore warrant reconsideration of the CRCNA position on what Scripture teaches. The final sections offer extra-biblical reasons for reconsidering or favoring same-sex marriage, including the harm done by forbidding it, historical changes in marriage, and the positive experiences of people, including Christians, in same-sex relationships. In sum, the Report claims to present a variety of reasons that are sufficient for the CRCNA to reconsider the teaching of Scripture and which some members regard as sufficient to affirm that Scripture allows same-sex marriage.

Summary of this Evaluation

The GRE Report rightly affirms the final authority of Scripture and Christian Reformed doctrinal and hermeneutical standards. It must therefore make a plausible case according to these standards that at least one set of biblical interpretations open to same-sex marriage appears to be as legitimate and tenable as the prohibiting interpretations. If the Report does not make this I conclude that the Report fails to make a case both for same-sex affirming interpretations of Scripture and for the status it gives to extra-biblical data for the following reasons.

 

First, its treatment of Scripture is flawed and inadequate to validate the alternative interpretations it presents–in three ways: 1) Its statement of the nature of Scripture (especially its plenitude and perspicuity) and its account of Reformed hermeneutics are incomplete and sometimes skewed. More seriously, in later sections it adds a “hermeneutics of experience” to Reformed hermeneutics (106), which is either redundant (because Reformed exegesis already discerns biblical compassion and justice and interprets experience) or else it inappropriately uses current experience and extra-biblical notions of compassion and justice to determine the teaching of Scripture. 2) It does not apply Reformed hermeneutical criteria to evaluate the interpretations it presents, and thus it completely fails to show that any new reading appears reasonable, legitimate, or even plausible by Reformed standards. 3) It provides no comparative evaluation of the interpretations it presents to determine whether they are equally tenable, or whether some are clearly better than others (cf. the perspicuity of Scripture). In spite of these serious omissions, the Report declares that there are reasonable and legitimate interpretations on both sides of the issue. In effect, it pronounces a verdict without evaluating the arguments and evidence of the attorneys on both sides.

 

Second, the Report gives too much weight to current science, experience, and perceived beneficial outcomes as reasons for reconsidering Scripture. Its appeals to the current science of sex and gender and to the history of marriage ignore or blur the crucial difference between creation and fall, and it mistakenly elevates science to the status of general revelation. Further, its arguments for same-sex marriage based on personal experience and perceived benefits do not consider biblical warnings against the possibilities of self-deception and confusing the goods of earthly life with the goods conducive to everlasting life.

For all of these reasons (elaborated section by section below), the GRE Report does not make a good case for the CRCNA to reconsider biblical sexual ethics. It certainly does not give sufficient reason to conclude that Scripture allows same-sex marriage. It presents a lot of complicated and confusing material but does not explicitly state or implicitly contain a cogent argument or combination of arguments (“multiple strands”) for its conclusions.

Nevertheless, I believe that the study of the biblical teaching about sex and sexual norms commissioned by Synod 2016 is warranted by the fact that a significant number of people in the CRCNA are either confused by the Report or perhaps even believe that it makes a legitimate case. We need an honest, definitive study of Scripture explicitly done according to the CRCNA doctrine of Scripture and hermeneutics for the sake of education, pastoral care and guidance, denominational unity, and confessional integrity.

Here follow some comments on each section of the GRE Report, explaining and supporting this critique.

 

Section 1: Guidance of the Holy Spirit and the reinterpretation of Scripture.

The Report correctly lists issues on which the church has reinterpreted Scripture in response to developments in science and social ethics. It would be more balanced if it also acknowledged issues–such as God’s unique creation of humans and ethical issues about life and death–on which the church has not changed after considering current science and culture.

In addressing the nature of Scripture in Section A, the Report mentions its inspiration and authority, but it does not mention the perspicuous and plenary character of biblical revelation. Perspicuity means that the Bible is clear and compelling on important matters of doctrine and life–not obscure, tentative, or ambiguous. If its “plain meaning” is occasionally not clear to ordinary readers, it will become clear through the church’s faithful learned study. Plenary means that all of Scripture is revelation. We should acknowledge everything that texts teach and not exclude anything without sufficient reasons consistent with Scripture itself. The Report omits these crucial categories and thus does not use them to evaluate the interpretations that it presents.

Section C, “Scripture interprets Scripture” (an implication of plenary revelation), affirms only that new interpretations must be consistent with other biblical passages. It does not affirm the heart of this principle—that the texts are meant by the Holy Spirit to illuminate and reinforce each other . For example, Leviticus 18 and Paul’s statements in I Corinthians 6 and I Timothy 1 help determine the meaning of Romans 1. Mutual illumination is a much stronger connection than mere absence of contradiction. The Report fails to evaluate whether the new interpretations actually “let Scripture interpret Scripture” and how well they do so. It nevertheless declares that some on both sides are “reasonable” and use “legitimate methods.”

 

Section D addresses God’s accommodation of the language and historical situation of original texts, mentioning Scripture’s toleration of slavery and polygamy. But it does not present the clear criteria (stated below) by which Reformed and other church traditions distinguish between Scripture’s temporary injunctions and its enduring principles, and thus it does not use these criteria in Sections 5 and 6 to evaluate the interpretations it presents. It also does not note that Scripture almost always challenges its historical-cultural circumstances rather than affirming them or adopting their meaning. The Report’s omission of these crucial aspects of historical exegesis are a serious liability in Sections 4-6 because the key issue is whether Scripture’s negative judgments about specific kinds of sexual relations are temporary or permanent.

Section E claims to avoid the slippery-slope problem—the danger that reinterpreting Scripture to allow same-sex marriage will lead to permitting sexual promiscuity and polygamy. The Report affirms sex within marriage and considers allowing LGBT people to marry, but it does not allow sex for unmarried people. This position is arbitrary, however, because although it does not permit extra-marital sex, it implicitly undermines the biblical prohibitions against “faithful” and “fulfilling” extra-marital sex. It sets up the slippery slope in this way: Accepting the new interpretations of the relevant biblical passages validates the methods they use–methods which readily deconstruct the biblical view of marriage as the sole context for sex (e.g. one might argue that Genesis 1 mentions procreation but not marriage). Combine that outcome with appeals to science, psychology, and the benefits of sexual fulfillment, and there are more than sufficient reasons for allowing sexual relations among mutually caring, freely consenting individuals in unmarried relationships. Thus the Report’s affirmation of sex within permanent marriage is arbitrary by its own standards. It holds a double hermeneutical standard—one for traditional marriage and another for sexual orientation–which is a slippery slope. (I note in passing that this slippery slope has similar implications for the doctrines of the creeds and confessions—the Trinity, incarnation, atonement, everlasting life, etc. Thus it is implicitly a confessional as well as biblical issue.)

 

Section G claims that same-sex marriage increases human flourishing. But this begs the question about what Scripture teaches that God wills. Real flourishing is everlasting life and whatever is conducive to it. The CRCNA position promotes flourishing in this life by affirming our renewed nature in Jesus Christ by the power of the Spirit, by condemning homophobia, stereotyping, and discrimination against LGBT people, and by striving for their full affirmation and inclusion in church and community. But the CRCNA does not believe that any sexual activity contrary to Scripture contributes to genuine human flourishing, no matter how good it seems. It is certainly not conducive to everlasting life in God’s kingdom. True compassion does not encourage sin. True justice does not defend the right to sin. Unless Scripture demonstrably does not forbid all same-sex activity, Section G promotes an unbiblical view of the good life.

Section 2: Advances in scientific understandings of sex and gender, intersex and transgender; Section 3: Same-sex attraction and gender variance: disorder versus creational variance.
Current Science Does Not Distinguish Creation and Fall

These two sections summarize a great deal of valuable information about how current science understands the causes, variety, and dynamics of same-sex attraction and gender variance. The CRCNA should benefit from this information by updating the science of the 1973 report, better understanding the experience of LGBT people, and thus enabling more effective support and relevant pastoral care.

 

The GRE Report also appeals to this material as a reason to reconsider our understanding of “normal” gender and sex. But it is both a logical mistake and inconsistent with biblical-Reformed doctrine to suppose that current biology, psychology, and sociology can alter our normative understanding of sex, gender, and marriage, as the Report does.

The logical mistake is the is-ought fallacy, which confuses what is normative with what is statistically “normal”. One cannot infer how things ought to be from the way they currently are, even if they are universal. Racism and sexism are wrong even if all humans believe they are right. Cancer and genetic defects are “fallen” even if they inevitably affected everyone. In the same way, sexual disorientation, ambiguity, and confusion might be “normal” but not normative in a fallen world. Furthermore, the view that gender-polarity is normative is completely consistent with recognizing that males and females manifest a diversity of body-types, personality types, and styles of self-expression, and that complex biological processes are involved in sexual differentiation. This diversity rightfully challenges narrow stereotypical

 

The theological mistake softens the antithesis of the fall against creation. Science studies the current world, which is fallen. (I’ll address science and general revelation below.) The fallen world does depend upon the creation order, which God sustains, like a parasite feeds on its host. But it also seriously deviates from and distorts the creation order, rendering it dysfunctional and perverse. Thus scientific generalizations, even if they are universally true, actually describe the way that fallen human nature functions. Nonetheless, science can often help us understand the good and healthy order of creation and how deviations occur. Healthy cell reproduction and cancer is a graphic example.

The underlying problem in the Report is the assumption that the current science of sex and gender reveals how humans have developed and functioned ever since God created us. On pages 20-21 it appeals to gender variance and homosexuality in the animal world to reconsider what is normal for humans. But that data is relevant only if humans were created exclusively by evolution from animals without any supernatural input or transformation by God and there has been no change in human nature and functioning. This assumption is not scientific biology but theistic evolutionary naturalism, a problematic theological perspective. It is rejected by many Christians who affirm evolution and hominid ancestors, including the Roman Catholic Church, precisely because it fails to distinguish creation and fall.

For these reasons, what current science says about sex, gender, and self-perception is not sufficient to challenge the normative nature and boundaries of sexual identity and sexual activity as revealed in Scripture. At most, science supports the (Christian) ethical imperative to reform our false assumptions about human identity, sexuality, and sexual dysfunctions in a fallen world. Current Science is Not Part of General Revelation

The GRE Report gives too much weight to current science for another reason–its view that science is part of general revelation. In Section 4, Guidelines for Interpreting Scripture, paragraph 1 (43) it explicitly states: “Taking Scripture seriously leads to recognizing the sciences as a form of revelation given by God…” If science is a kind of revelation, then it might carry some secondary weight in relation to Scriptural revelation.

But identifying science as general revelation is theologically mistaken, and the GRE Report misrepresents the report of Synod 1972 on the Nature and Extent of Biblical Authority. The 1972 Report ( Acts , 1972, 540) identifies general revelation with creation and states that science as part of the cultural mandate can provide insight into creation. In Reformed theology, science is a reading of the book of nature, just as theology is a reading of the book of Scripture. Both are fallible human interpretations of revelation that stand under the Spirit’s illumination of Scripture as the final authority for our understanding of nature, history, and redemptive history.

Both science and theology are included in God’s providence of the fallen world he is redeeming, but providence is not the same as general revelation. Providence both sustains what is good and regulates what is evil, including false theology and science. What happens in the world reveals God’s plan for history, and in that way providence reveals God’s permissive will. But general revelation proper does not include what is false, sinful, and evil. It is primarily how the creation reveals God’s eternal deity, power, and wisdom (Psalm 19, Romans 1). Secondarily, general revelation discloses God’s normative will for human life–how creation itself witnesses to God’s will so that even people who do not have God’s written law still have a general knowledge of right and wrong via conscience and the natural-moral order (Proverbs 8, Romans 2). Our understanding of general revelation must always be clarified and corrected by Scripture.

In sum, the entire GRE Report gives significantly more weight to current science than historic Reformed theology allows. It treats science as part of general revelation, which gives science the status of revelation, whereas the history of science is merely part of God’s providence of the fallen world he is redeeming. Discerning how current science helps us understand God’s will for human sexuality is far more complex and tenuous than the Report acknowledges.
Science is not a Neutral Perspective

Furthermore, the Report does not raise any questions about the perspectives—primarily evolutionary naturalism (which is distinct from biological evolution) and cultural-moral pluralism–from which most contemporary natural and social scientists make judgments about sex, gender, and what is “normal.” Of course science deals with facts. But it also develops concepts, definitions, and systems of complex ideas which are not testable facts but hypothetical constructions that involve philosophical, worldview, and value assumptions. Disciplines that deal with sex and gender are prime examples. At the very least, Christian scholars should sort through this material to distinguish well-established facts from the debatable interpretations and cultural evaluations commonly given to them. Many of the definitions and inferences about sex and gender are controversial even within the secular scientific establishment, and some are as political and “politically correct” as they are empirical. Surely human sexuality should be approached from an explicitly Reformed/Christian perspective on science and human nature.

 

The Appeal to Experience

Sections 2 and 3 document much pain, suffering, and self-rejection experienced by LGBT people which result from negative social-cultural and theological-ecclesiastical judgments about the disposition and the practice of alternative kinds of sexuality. Both the suffering itself and the sinfully judgmental and hostile attitudes of individual Christians, churches, and society at large are lamentable, culpable, and ought to be challenged vigorously.

But normalizing the dispositions and affirming the practices are not the only helpful responses. In recent decades many Christian churches have addressed homosexuality–the CRCNA virtually first among them—and have distinguished sexual orientation/disposition as an involuntary consequence of the fall from voluntary sexual activity, which they regard as sin. Many churches are embracing LGBT people and developing ministries that support them. An increasing number of congregational and para-church ministry programs successfully nurture, encourage, fully include, and rely on the ministry gifts of LGBT members. Regrettably, other churches and individual members have not embraced the reforms of recent decades. So the suffering and self-rejection of many LBGT people because of some Christians continue.

The GRE Report does not consider these positive efforts. Instead, in this section and especially in Sections 9 and 10, it agrees with those LGBT people who respond that allowing their disposition but rejecting their sexual expression is existentially undermining and impossible to live by. The Report insists that acceptance requires affirmation of sexuality without having squared that claim with Scripture.
A Related Confusion of Creation and Fall

The GRE Report also softens the antithesis between creation and fall in its appeal to the experience and theology of people who regard their disabilities as good creations, not as effects of the fall. Many deaf, blind, and paralyzed people develop amazing abilities to compensate for what they lack and experience strong solidarity with others like them. Some regard themselves as created that way by God, consider their unusual abilities as essential to their identity, and even envision themselves as deaf, blind, or paralyzed in God’s everlasting kingdom. In the same way, some LBGT people regard their orientations as variations of good, not fallen.

 

But this position is incompatible with the clear and strong antithesis between creation and fall in Augustinian-Reformed Christianity. Further, Scripture and common sense both regard good design, structure, and function as correlative. If someone designs something to work a certain way and it does not, then something is wrong. If God designed and created humans with “very good” eyes, ears, and limbs, and they do not function properly, then something is wrong. Lack of proper function is not an alternative creational “very good,” although the marvelous ways by which people cope with disabilities is part of God’s providential “common grace” in a fallen creation. But like all effects of the fall, these disabilities need healing, and they will be healed at the resurrection. As signs of the Kingdom, Jesus not only forgave sins but also healed bodies and personalities so that they functioned properly.

Affirming disabilities as created “goods” is a pastorally well-intentioned but biblically misguided attempt to be inclusive. The GRE Report’s appeal to this perspective to support alternative sexuality displays questionable theological judgment. (There are sound and compassionate biblical theologies of disability which we ought to endorse.)

SECTIONS 4-6: HERMENEUTICS AND EXEGESIS OF RELEVANT TEXTS

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Sections 4-6 are most crucial because they interpret Scripture. The GRE Report affirms that Scripture is the final authority. It presents a number of readings of relevant texts on both sides, and it claims that there are legitimate readings which allow same-sex marriage.
However, Sections 5 and 6 are the weakest part of the Report and fail to make a case for even one alternative to the traditional interpretation. The problem is not primarily with the summary of Reformed hermeneutics in Section 4, although it is brief, slanted in spots, and incomplete. The fatal problem is that Sections 5 and 6 do not apply the criteria of Reformed hermeneutics to the interpretations they present, they do not evaluate those exegeses in terms of Reformed hermeneutics, and they do not compare the interpretations to determine which are more sound and tenable than others.5 Instead, Sections 5 and 6 merely juxtapose traditional and same-sex affirming interpretations with no evaluation whatsoever. Nevertheless, the Report declares that some unspecified texts on both sides are “reasonable” and use “legitimate methods.” This conclusion is completely without justification or support.

The conclusion is also inadequate because the perspicuity of Scripture implies that in principle the Bible has only one true meaning and thus only one sound interpretation. In practice Reformed churches regard the true meaning as the one determined by the best exegesis of Scripture, all things considered. If one clear meaning cannot be established, or if more than one can be justified by equally sound exegeses, then Reformed churches have refrained from affirming one interpretation as doctrine and have allowed all that are equally exegetically possible. The Report gives no help at all in this regard because it provides no comparative

 

As a result, the Report is rhetorically deceptive. It presents many complex interpretations that are confusing to people who are unable to evaluate them. It declares that there are “legitimate” interpretations on both sides, and thus that there is a compelling reason for the CRCNA to reconsider Scripture. Some CRCNA members even believe that the Report provides sufficient reason to affirm same-sex marriage. But these impressions and conclusions are false and misleading. The Report neither validates same-sex marriage nor warrants reconsideration because it does not validate any of the interpretations it presents by the Reformed criteria stated in Section 4. If there are sound affirmative exegeses, it does not identify or validate them. Section 4. Guidelines for Interpreting Scripture According to a Reformed Hermeneutic

This section is a generally accurate but incomplete summary of the grammatical-literary-historical-theological method of the Reformed, confessional, and evangelical Protestant traditions. (“Reformed hermeneutics” is not narrowly CRCNA.) The reader should consult the Report itself to understand the following observations.

Paragraph 1 is sound except that it identifies science as an aspect of general revelation whereas the Belgic Confession and the 1972 Report identify general revelation with creation and providence. This point was explained above.

Paragraph 2 is basically sound except that it could state more precisely that Scripture is authoritative on everything that it teaches—it is plenary revelation. It reveals theological worldview truths about the physical world even though it does not teach physics or chemistry.

Paragraph 3 rightly points to salvation through Christ as the central theme of Scripture. But it may unintentionally downplay the importance and truth of other teachings of Scripture. It is correct that some texts are more directly and explicitly about salvation through Christ than others and that Scripture is not simply a book of rules or timeless truths. But everything the Bible teaches is true—not just salvation through Christ–including sexual boundaries that do not change over time. Jesus affirms enduring doctrine as part of the Gospel in his Great Commission (Matt. 28).

 

Paragraph 4 rightly points out the historical features of organic inspiration. But it omits another important aspect of “organic,” that the full meaning of every part of Scripture is correlative with—determining and determined by–every other part within the cumulative whole of Scripture. Section 7 alludes to this point when it states “Scripture should interpret Scripture.”

Paragraph 5 rightly calls attention to the historical location of the original text and that applications of the original doctrine might change in other historical contexts. However, it does not state the criteria by which we determine which doctrines and commands remain constant and which ones change with historical circumstances. Reformed hermeneutics has well-developed criteria derived from Scripture itself—whether the New Testament reaffirms Old Testament laws (e.g. the Commandments) or considers them fulfilled in Christ and transcended (e.g. kosher laws and OT civil legislation). This omission in the Report is a serious problem because the whole issue hinges on whether the sexual boundaries in Leviticus 18 and Paul’s epistles are universal or historically limited.

Paragraph 6 is stated well. Its claim that the “plain” meaning (i.e. the clearest, most arguably correct interpretation) of the text is an important criterion to ward off subjective readings. Here an implication of the plenary character of Scripture is briefly acknowledged. But because the debate about Scripture involves detailed scholarship, this section could have added that “plain” is primarily a judgment of thoughtful common sense (the Reformation insistence on the Bible for the laity) and secondarily the best interpretation by the church’s confessionally faithful scholars. The Report does not use this principle in evaluating the exegeses in Sections 5 and 6, some of which are not “plain” at all but hypothetical, arbitrary, convoluted, or obscure.

 

Paragraph 7 about Scripture interpreting Scripture is accurate but too brief. It should invoke the plenary character, that is, the fullness of biblical revelation— tota Scriptura . Either here or in Section 5 the Report should indicate that all texts about marriage and sexual activity in creation, fall, redemption, and discipleship from Old to New Testament constitute the interpretative framework within which each should be understood. This principle is crucial for the debate because many interpretations select or “cherry pick” the data, as well as the other texts and the doctrines which they apply in their exegeses instead of doing a complete job. Unfortunately, the Report neither specifies nor applies this criterion to evaluate how well its featured exegeses perform.

Paragraph 8–that obscure texts are to be interpreted according to clear texts–is crucially important as an aspect of Scripture interpreting Scripture. This principle likewise reflects the perspicuity, clarity, or “plain meaning” of the text. Regrettably this principle does not function in evaluating what is clear and obscure in the relevant texts or how the exegeses considered in Sections 5 and 6 rank in applying this criterion. Some are arbitrary, improbable, or speculative.

Paragraph 9 concerning the Holy Spirit is correct and important. The Holy Spirit never leads the church to affirm what is contrary to the teaching of Scripture or to find in Scripture meanings that cannot be warranted by sound exegesis. The Spirit may lead the church to revise its understanding of Scripture or modify its applications in response to historical developments. But the Spirit also sustains the church in the faith “once and for all delivered to the saints”–the Word of the Lord that stands forever. Appeals to the “leading” of Holy Spirit and for the church to be “always reforming” give no support to affirmative views of same-sex marriage unless they are shown to be tenable from Scripture. “Always reforming according to the Word of God ” is the complete maxim. Perhaps the great work of the Spirit in our generation is not to change our interpretation of Scripture but to reform and empower us to love and nurture LGBT people according to the current position of the CRCNA. So we turn to Sections 5 and 6.

Section 5. Interpretation of biblical passages referring to gender differentiation and same-sex intercourse

I will not engage in a point-for-point critique of this section but merely make some comments on key issues.

The Summary of Findings does not judge exclusively in favor of the traditional or the affirming position. It notes similarities and differences of interpretation within both positions and between both positions. But it concludes that some on both sides are reasonable and legitimate. Point 1 (p. 56) states:

“We found reasonable dispute among scholars over the interpretation of these contested passages. By reasonable , we mean that scholars demonstrate that they can legitimately reach multiple conclusions about these passages using sound methods , with healthy motives. This does not mean that scholars cannot be said to have reached an incorrect interpretation or conclusion. It does mean that scholars and authors of various viewpoints cannot be dismissed summarily on the basis of their methods and motives without engaging with the merits of their arguments. (We should clarify that not all scholars and authors we read or quoted necessarily self-identity as Reformed or would necessarily subscribe to each of the Reformed hermeneutical criteria laid out in the previous section, though at least some affirming scholars do. In any case, Reformed readers can and should subject any interpretation to those hermeneutical criteria, as we did.)” (My emphasis.)

 

I do not dispute anyone’s motives. But I do dispute the truth of Point 1. The Report has completely failed to demonstrate that these scholars reach opposite conclusions by “reasonable” and “legitimate” exegesis using “sound methods. ” It does not apply the criteria of sound Reformed hermeneutics that it lists in Section 4 or evaluate the interpretations and conclusions in terms of them. It has not “engaged the merits of their arguments.” All of the interpretations consider original languages, make historical references, mention other texts in Scripture, and seem very learned. But there is much more to proper and thorough Reformed exegesis than that. In addition, the Report makes no comparative evaluation of the interpretations to see which earn higher scores by Reformed standards—which has the best claim to be the true interpretation.
The Report merely describes—it briefly summarizes and compares conclusions of various exegeses.

Surprisingly, it nevertheless claims that it does provide such an evaluation. “Reformed readers can and should subject any interpretation to those hermeneutical criteria, as we did .” I repeat: There is no such evaluation in the GRE Report—no determination of proper and complete grammatical, literary, historical, and theological interpretation that takes into consideration all the relevant data; no determination which interpretations are exegetically most perspicuous, plenary, and plausible, and which are unwarranted, obscure, speculative, or arbitrary. Interpreters who self-identify as Reformed are not Reformed if they do not read Scripture in a Reformed way. If the committee made such an evaluation, it is not in their Report.

For the record, let me state that some of the traditional (exclusively heterosexual) interpretations presented are likewise weak, incomplete, or mistaken. Even the 1973 Report is sometimes incomplete or less than explicit in its application of classical Reformed hermeneutics, and it does not clearly spell out its exegetical-theological method, although it is intentionally Reformed and consistent with Report 44 on the inspiration and authority of Scripture, adopted by Synod a year earlier. All interpretations should be judged by the same Reformed standard.

Some Specific Criticisms and Illustrations

A major deficiency of virtually all affirming interpretations is their failure fully to acknowledge plenary revelation– tota Scriptura— to interpret Scripture according to Scripture, that is, to apply “the analogy [reiteration] of Scripture”—which includes everything in the Bible relevant to a particular topic. Virtually all affirmative interpretations select part of the text as its real point and explain away other parts. “Marriage is about relationship, not gender.” “Paul meant lust, not loving same-sex acts”. “Paul’s term refers to demeaning same-sex acts, not loving relationships.” “Sodom was about inhospitality and rape, not homosexuality.” All these conclusions conflict with the plenary nature of Scriptural revelation unless the limitations are clearly and decisively warranted by thorough exegesis and the analogy of Scripture. None of the limiting interpretations is validated in this way.

Let me illustrate inadequate interpretations by noting some decisive features that must be considered by a sound reading of Genesis 1 and Romans 1.

In Genesis 1, the “very good” human nature that God created is male, female, and reproductive, however one understands the image of God.6 Those who deny that heterosexuality is normative in Genesis 1 ignore the fact that male-female correlation is one of several creational polarities in the text—heaven and earth, day and night, sea and land, animals and

6 Both genders together image God, but God is not gendered, so gender is not part of the image of God. Procreation, like having dominion, is either part of the image or expresses it. Both are normative callings for humanity in Gen. 1. Affirmative interpretations which claim that same-sex marriage images God ignore the distinction between the narrow (created, regenerate) and broad (universal fallen) image of God. Same-sex marriages exemplify the latter but cannot exemplify the former, which includes holiness (cf. Lev. 18) humans—which constitute the basic order that structures and regulates human life . The regulative character of the creation order is also expressed in Psalm 19, Romans 1-2, and in the creation-wisdom theology of Proverbs 8. In addition, the analogy of Scripture requires that Genesis 1 be interpreted in terms of Genesis 2 and all other texts about marriage and gender, including those in which Jesus and Paul appeal to creation as normative for marriage and gender relations. Theologically, the normativity of creation order is crucial to the entire Reformed worldview (cf. Our World Belongs to God )— creation, fall, redemption, consummation—and to Reformed ethics, which holds that God’s normative will is evident to all from creation order (Psalm 19) through conscience (Rom. 2), and that the Commandments, which reiterate the Law of Love (love God above all and neighbor as oneself) are rooted in the creation of humanity as the image of God (Gen. 1). Reformed theology, worldview, and ethics as a whole do not make sense without the normativity of creation order, including gender polarity. All of these data must be considered in a thorough—plenary canonical—interpretation of Genesis 1. The Report itself notes that the traditional position typically affirms that heterosexual marriage is normative in Genesis 1 and 2, whereas the affirmative position typically denies it (50). Are both positions equally reasonable and legitimate? Surely not by Reformed standards.

Sound interpretation of Romans 1 must likewise consider everything we know from the rest of Scripture. Cultural context is a secondary aspect of historical exegesis. Paul makes clear statements about male homosexual practice elsewhere (1 Cor. 6; 1 Tim. 1), where he uses a term derived from the Septuagint Greek text of Leviticus 18 and 20 and associates same-sex relations (without qualification or limitation) with violations of the Commandments–clear hermeneutical marks of a universal norm, not a limited application. Further, Paul was trained by the Pharisees, and the church at Rome had a significant Jewish membership who would naturally understand him as affirming Leviticus and rabbinical teaching, not an obscure Roman view. What’s more, Romans 2:12-16 continues to speak of God’s universal law which is known even by those who do not have God’s inscripturated law. Romans 1 must be read in terms of all these factors. When it is, the plain common-sense meaning is overwhelmingly corroborated by sound and thorough scholarship. It is exegetically unreasonable to limit or reduce Paul’s prohibition to lust, or sex contrary to personal orientation, or pagan practices. Reformed historical interpretation first locates texts within the biblical canon and then relates them to extra-biblical culture. It does not define or relativize the meaning of Scripture in terms of culture (e.g. defining Paul’s terms for same-sex acts in terms of pagan practices) without clear and sufficient reason. In fact pagan culture actually confirms the historic reading of Paul: Even those Greeks and Romans who accepted homosexual behavior regarded nature ( phusis ) as universally normative and for some even as divine. In sum, interpreting Romans 1 as perspicuous and plenary revelation concludes that homosexual behavior of any kind is against nature (the universal normative order) and manifests God’s punishment, which abandons people to follow their own fallen desires.

Of course Paul is not describing Christian homosexual behavior, a notion he would consider as a total oxymoron! If he were addressing Christians in homosexual relationships, he would say exactly the same things that he said about incest (also prohibited in Lev. 18) in 1 Cor. 5:1-2: don’t engage in such pagan behaviors, and if necessary, shun those who do so that they repent.
The Report’s Sections on Biblical Interpretation Do not Support its Conclusion

The GRE Report simply describes positions taken on Genesis 1 and Romans 1. It does 22

not evaluate how well they exegete texts and “let Scripture interpret Scripture.” It declares unspecified examples on both sides to be “reasonable” according to “legitimate methods” without comparative evaluation by the standards of Reformed doctrine of Scripture and hermeneutics.

This absence of theological, hermeneutical, and exegetical evaluation completely undermines the Report’s claim that there are legitimate interpretations supporting both sides, and therefore that the CRCNA has sufficient reason to reconsider the 1973 Report’s conclusions about Scripture. More significant, it entirely vitiates the claim of CRCNA members who believe that the Report provides “multiple strands” of reasons sufficient to affirm that Scripture allows same-sex marriage. There is no affirmative case in the GRE Report, even implicitly. At most it offers interpretations for the denomination and synodical study committee to evaluate.

(For a source that briefly outlines and applies Reformed hermeneutics and evaluates both traditional and affirming exegeses accordingly, see my article, “Not Like Women in Office: Scripture, Hermeneutics, and Same-Sex Relations” in Calvin Seminary Forum , Fall 2015, as well as the articles by Weima, and Leder for Reformed readings of the Old and New Testament texts; http://www.calvinseminary.edu/ministry-connections/publications/forum-archive/ .)
Interpretive Pluralism and the Dreaded Slippery Slope

This outcome leaves the Report operating with what looks like a postmodern pluralistic hermeneutics. The latter regards as legitimate and reasonable all seriously argued interpretations without determining by standard criteria (as in legal adjudication) that some are reasonable, some are not, and some are more reasonable than others. This impression is not encouraging for Bible-readers who believe that God’s truth in Scripture is clear. The GRE Report claims to use Reformed hermeneutics but unintentionally promotes interpretive pluralism.

This implication undermines the Report’s own Summary of Findings , 5:

 

We found that debate over these passages did not concern or threaten any core creedal or confessional beliefs. Scholars and all church members, of various viewpoints, can and do confess the sovereignty of God, salvation through Christ alone, the authority of Scripture, and all of the major tenets of the Reformed creeds and confessions. Marital and sexual ethics are not insignificant, but are of secondary significance compared with the core beliefs that unify the church and all its confessing members” (56-57).

To the contrary, if the collage of interpretative strategies presented in Sections 5 and 6 displays a “legitimate” and “reasonable” diversity of “sound methods,” then no issue of doctrine or ethics, including confessional (e.g. infant baptism, the Belgic Confession on revelation and Scripture) and creedal statements (e.g. the Nicene Creed on the Trinity and two natures of Christ), is beyond reasonable and legitimate dispute. The fact that those who support same-sex marriage also continue to affirm the creeds and confessions instead of modern or postmodern theology is their custom or choice, but it is not warranted or supported by their approach to Scripture. Biblical, creedal, and confessional integrity is the primary reason why I challenge the GRE Report as a minister in the CRCNA and professor at Calvin Seminary.

The conclusion that both sides legitimately interpret Scripture elevates experience to be a determinative hermeneutical factor in the rest of the Report, as acknowledged in the Summary of Findings at the end of Section 5 (my underlining):

The GRE Report places the 1973 Report side-by-side with much more recent interpretations as though they are equal competitors. But the juxtaposition is unfair. Sustained same-sex affirming scholarship by Christians only got started in the late 1970’s and 80’s and has since developed standard arguments and conclusions that continue to the present. The 1973 Report cannot be expected to respond to what was written later. Nonetheless, even though the 1973 Report occasionally seems unclear or anachronistic by comparison, its exegesis stands up very well, often anticipating and challenging later affirming interpretations. The CRCNA position on sexuality is based on the 1973 Report but does not depend its precise definitions or exegetical arguments. We should not forget that the conclusions and recommendations of the Report are overwhelmingly inclusive and pastoral far earlier than most other denominations. Competent scholars who defend the traditional position have continued to engage in the debates of the last forty years, and they successfully challenge the affirmative position using the standard biblical hermeneutics of the Reformation tradition. Most theologians who affirm same-sex

unions readily acknowledge that the historic approach to Scripture yields the traditional position on sex and marriage, but they believe that Scripture is culturally limited and not normative for us on that issue. They do not attempt the futile task of reinterpreting Scripture itself to be consistent with same-sex marriage. The CRCNA study committee will produce a much stronger up-to-date defense of the traditional position than the 1973 Report by challenging affirmative arguments of the last forty-five years on a more level and well-marked hermeneutical playing field.

Section 7: Historical, Biblical, and Theological Foundations for Marriage

I limit myself to a few key issues in this section, which approaches the topic this way:

“To contend that traditional marriage is defined as ‘one man and one woman’ ignores thousands of years of history. We briefly review how marriage has changed over millennia and in particular in the last seventy-five years. We also examine theological issues particularly relevant to same-sex marriage in the church.”

My first observation is that this history narrates marriage in a fallen world and has no relevance for the normative biblical view of marriage. My second claim is that history actually corroborates that marriage is heterosexual in spite of all the changes. This is a poor argument.

The first section is marriage in secular history. It notes many variations about age, ethnicity, social and economic class, motivations for marriage, etc. But it offers no historical exception to the definition of marriage as heterosexual and no justification whatsoever for switching categories from age, ethnicity, class, etc. to sexual orientation. The argument commits a glaring category mistake, a non-sequitur .

The next section is about marriage in the Bible. It mentions polygamy, does not point out that polygamy was rejected permanently after the exile, and notes divorce in the NT. But it does nothing to relativize the claim that male and female is the biblical standard.

The same is true of the section on marriage in the CRCNA. Changes regarding “headship,” the role of women in church and society, and latitude on divorce are entirely irrelevant to changing the definition of marriage from “one man, one woman.”

The section on Theological Definitions of Marriage addresses biblical passages. I strongly disagree with the claim (91) that affirming theologians, such as Brueggeman, Brownson, and Vines, implement the same approach to the historicity and normativity of Scripture as is stated in the 1972 CRCNA Report on Scripture. But they do not. Instead they use data and methods that are more at home in modernist and postmodernist biblical scholarship.

There are several problems in this section, but the most egregious is the attempt to separate sex and gender from procreation. This strategy is also evident in Brownson’s attempt to separate kinship from procreation (94-95), as though kinship is possible without procreation. Neither in ancient paganism, nor in common sense, nor in Scripture can sex, reproduction, and the human community be separated. “Every tongue, tribe, and nation”–God’s family in his everlasting Kingdom–are all descendants of the fruitfulness of our first parents (Gen. 1). We are family. Separating sex and reproduction is an modern (individualistic hedonistic) abstraction—an arbitrary either/or rather than a both/and. God created marriage both for procreation and fellowship (whatever exceptions some marriages exemplify in the fallen world). God also created many non-sexual kinds of fellowship in addition to marriage which will remain in God’s everlasting Kingdom when marriage is no more. Separating sex and reproduction contradicts the perspicuity and plenary nature of Scripture, which affirms both in correlation.

Another fallacious argument in Section 7 relativizes heterosexual marriage by tying it to

patriarchalism and oppressive kinds of headship (Paauwe 95).7 This association conflates marriage as created and fallen. The true redemptive solution is in Ephesians 5:21ff, which reiterates God’s original intention: heterosexual marriage in which mutual submission and Christ-like love image the relationship of Christ and the church. To claim that rejecting patriarchalism opens the door for homosexual marriage is another complete non-sequitur , as is the equivocation of spiritual and biological fruitfulness (96).

Celibacy

Celibacy in the Bible is both a gift to some and an obligation for all who are not married. The Report’s attempt to assert one and deny the other is another violation of the perspicuity and plenary character of Scripture, which clearly teaches both. Admittedly, desire for sexual expression can be powerful whether people are married or not. But we are enjoined to celibacy nonetheless if we are not married. Vastly more heterosexual than LGBT people wrestle with unfulfilled sexual desire, although not because of their sexual orientation. Christian churches must take this existential problem seriously and deal with it pastorally for all unmarried people. But the GRE Report’s repeated suggestion that sexual expression is necessary for love, intimacy, touching, etc. is confused and false. It conflates personal and sexual intimacy. Non-sexual love and intimacy are available in family, friendship, church community, social solidarity, and other relationships created by God.

In this section the Report asks whether celibacy is required of homosexual people. It turns for its answer not to Scripture but to research by the American Psychological Association

7 When Paauw applies this view to gender issues, she states, “The more mutual, the more egalitarian, the more flexible one’s view of what it means for marriage partners to be complementary, the more room one has to embrace same-sex marriage” (Paauw, 2013, quoted in the GRE Report) which emphasizes the similar character, needs, and satisfactions of hetero- and homosexual people. This section simply declares without biblical support that celibacy is a special gift and that same-sex people are rightfully suspicious of heterosexuals who restrict sex to marriage (97). It closes with a rhetorical call for change: “Is the church ready to revise its understanding of Scripture as it has done historically with slavery, anti-Semitism, segregation, interracial marriage, divorce and adultery, and women’s equality?” (98) This call presumes that Scripture is open to same-sex relationships, but the Report has not made the case. This section virtually equates opposition to same-sex marriage with endorsement of slavery, anti-Semitism, racism, and the other evils it lists. The charge is slanderous if not true.

Section 8: Social and Psychological Goods Typically Enabled by Marriage

There is no doubt about the benefits that a good marriage brings to both partners. It is the most comprehensively intimate relationship possible for humans in this life—personal, spiritual, emotional, and physical union. Want of a marriage partner is an onerous burden for many people, not just those with same-sex attraction.

But this section fails to maintain consistently the crucial distinction between personal intimacy and sexual intimacy and thereby caricatures the position of traditional Christians and the CRCNA. Scripture and common sense know the difference between close personal relationships that are sexual and those which are not. Family, friendship, cohabitation, and other close relationships provide spiritual, personal, emotional, and even physical intimacy, such as touching and hugging. These contacts satisfy basic needs, and without them most people do not flourish. The CRCNA and the 1973 Report forbid none of them to same-sex attracted people.

Obviously, good sex is a distinct and wonderful addition. But many people enjoy good, fulfilling lives without sex, whether celibate by choice or factors beyond their control.

This section of the GRE Report repeatedly fails to distinguish between the love of marriage and the non-sexual love of close personal relationships. It also fails to distinguish the benefits of marriage from those of civil unions, which can have the same legal rights without arbitrarily redefining marriage in a way that is without precedent in human history. Most traditional Christians and churches do not say what the Report alleges: “You must live alone and have no intimate friends. It is sin for you to live with a loving partner.” (95) Certainly the 1973 Report does not. Once this confusion is eliminated and the caricature exposed, the rational and rhetorical force of Section 8 is weakened considerably.

In addition, if it is truly a consequence of God’s goodness, justice, and compassion that the benefits of sexual intimacy be available to all, then the church must rethink its prohibition of sex outside of marriage. After all, millions of people of all sexual orientations are unable to marry for all kinds of reasons beyond their control—personality, lack of partner, circumstances, poverty, health, age, etc. If a good God who gifted the human race with sexual needs and desires wants us all to flourish with creational good, as this section claims, and if celibacy is a gift given only to some, as the previous section claims, then a good God wants all people as best they can to seek mutually consensual and satisfying sexual relationships without harming others, and the church needs to revise its sexual ethics accordingly. CRCNA members who favor same-sex marriage, believing that it is justified by Scripture and required by God’s justice and mercy, must either concede other sexual boundaries or else explain why their interpretation of Scripture affirms same-sex relations but preserves the traditional limit to sex within marriage. The diverse hermeneutical repertoire they approve inevitably supports the progressive view of both. Moving any of the traditional boundaries will leave the church unable to resist the principle of modern liberal sexual ethics—whatever is for self-determined benefit by the mutual consent of competent persons without harm to others is OK. Why not sex with friends, roommates, and even with family members if it expresses true affection and shared Christian faith? After all, there are legitimate, reasonable disagreements about the biblical view of these relationships, and it is reasonable to claim that Scripture is limited to its cultural-historical circumstances. Compassion, justice, and positive experience should be decisive. Birth control, a social safety net, knowledge and drugs to combat STDs, and redefinitions of family and kinship have rendered the biblical prohibitions obsolete now that the Spirit has finally enabled us to understand God’s real intention for sex—interpersonal communion. This rationale is enabled by the case for same-sex marriage, which deserves to be held responsible for all of its implications. The GRE Report unwittingly concedes a lot more than it realizes.

 

Section 9: Psychological Issues Involved in Considering Full Inclusion vs. Non-inclusion

This section contains important information about the nature and causes of same-sex attraction and the effects of negative social, moral, and religious judgments about it. Its accounts of the suffering of people with same-sex attraction are heart-wrenching and lamentable. Its allegation is sobering: that the church’s traditional position, including the 1973 Report, is existentially devastating, makes emotional health impossible, and makes the church repulsive to most LGBT people. The church ought to acknowledge this suffering and deal with it tenderly and realistically. These negative dynamics are a significant reason for reconsidering Scripture.

 

But the main problem with this section is precisely that it subtly plays emotion—what it calls “compassion, kindness, love, and empathy” (106) against the traditional reading of Scripture, which it suggests is too rationalistic (clear, systematic, compelling, and definitive?). It asserts a hermeneutical principle: “Any biblical interpretive conclusion must be congruent with God’s justice and mercy” (106). This claim is obviously true. But by the standard of Reformed hermeneutics, it is either redundant (because God’s compassion and justice as taught in Scripture are already reflected in the church’s position), or else it applies current cultural standards of compassion and justice to determine what Scripture teaches, making culture the final authority. Current cultural attitudes and social psychology do not reveal God’s justice and mercy accurately because they are affected by the fall. The point is this: If Scripture teaches that same-sex activity is against God’s will, then this prohibition expresses God’s justice and mercy, which require that we help people live chaste lives. It is not just or merciful to encourage people to disobey God’s will even though they feel fulfilled by doing so. However, if as the GRE Report suggests, Scripture is unclear or misunderstood, then justice and mercy could lead the church to change. But the Report has not made a case that the church’s view of sex and marriage is mistaken or that affirmative views are valid. Thus it does not make a case that God’s justice and mercy require rethinking the issue of sexual boundaries.

 

The Report goes further than warranted in condemning the church’s position. In fact its rhetoric sides with progressive contemporary sensibilities in favor of same-sex unions and judges the church to be an agent of death. “For the church to impose a celibacy requirement on homosexual Christians who have not been equipped by the Spirit with the gifts for life-long celibacy, and who yearn for the same intimacy that heterosexuals are encouraged to pursue, runs contrary to God’s desire for human flourishing and contrary to Paul’s advice to prevent sexual immorality” (112). A harsh judgment without justification.

 

But if the church is correct in its reading of Scripture, then the Report is condemning Scripture. If it condemns Scripture, by implication it condemns God who inspired Scripture as his revealed word and will. God turns out to be unloving and unjust to have created people with desire for sexual intimacy and then to deny them a way of satisfying it. Serious charges!

We must show all the love, compassion, justice, and inclusion deserved by our LGBT brothers and sisters. But if Scripture does teach what most of the universal church understands it to teach, then all of the suffering described in this chapter may not be ameliorated by affirming same-sex activity as the will of God. Then a just and merciful God does call all unmarried people to celibacy, just as it calls all of us to chastity. Perhaps the new thing the Spirit is doing in the church is to transform our hearts and minds so that we faithfully love, nurture, and use the gifts of LGBT people within traditional biblical boundaries rather than reimagining Scripture.

Section 10: Personal Stories of LGBT Christians

I whole-heartedly affirm the theme of this section–that we listen to the stories of LGBT people. Much of their negative self-evaluation, experience of rejection, emotional turmoil, and spiritual depression result from unbiblical, unfair, and unloving treatment, misunderstanding, stereotyping, rejection, and even condemnation by families, pastors, churches, and society. The stories in this section narrate a great deal of wrongly inflicted suffering, and in spite of it they witness to the grace of God and to love, forgiveness, and fruits of the Spirit. I do not question the sincerity and authenticity of these Christian testimonies, and I accept that their sense of satisfaction in their relationships is as strong as married heterosexuals.

 

My first observation is that most of the hurt and suffering identified in Sections 9 andnarrated in Section 10 would have been avoided–and much good would have resulted–from faithful application of the principles affirming LGBT people that are set out in the 1973 Report. The resources for biblical self-understanding, grace, forgiveness, unconditional love, and personal nurture in family, friendship, church, and society are affirmed by the CRCNA position. Many other churches now take a similar stand. The real problem–acknowledged more than once by Synod–is our collective failure to live out these principles. Had we been faithful, only the problems arising from required celibacy would have arisen in these personal stories.

The crucial issue once again is the final authority of Scripture. If the church’s doctrine that sex belongs within heterosexual marriage is true as taught by the Bible, then it is not true that same-sex unions conform to God’s will even though the persons involved truly love the Lord, manifest the fruits of the Spirit, and live satisfying lives by earthly standards.

All redeemed sinners are capable of self-deception about God’s will. We are able to mistake apparently satisfying fulfillment of fallen needs and sinful desires for God’s blessing and approval of our behavior, whereas the satisfaction might only reflect God’s graciously tolerant providence or forbearance of discipline in spite of our disobedience and self-deception.

Examples of mistaken self-evaluation abound in Scripture and in our lives. David was God’s messianic king, but he killed Uriah, married Bathsheba, and felt good about himself until confronted by Nathan. Peter was wrong but thought he was right several times in the Gospels and Acts. Nowadays, spiritually active Christians deceive themselves that a bit of soft porn is OK if it helps them be more relaxed and productive in the rest of their lives. Some unmarried Christians who pray together and share emotional intimacy feel very good about sharing sexual intimacy as well. Some faithful Christians after prayer and soul-searching decide that suicide, abortion, or euthanasia is right. The Lord certainly can forgive these sins, but they are sins in spite of our judgments to the contrary.

 

All Christians are capable of deceiving ourselves that a practice forbidden in Scripture is OK because we judge that it contributes to our perceived happiness and well-being. In ethics this kind of reasoning is pragmatism or consequentialism: the end justifies the means; the outcome validates the activity. But this reasoning is not biblical or Christian. Nowhere does Scripture permit or sanction sinful behavior because it is enacted by sincere Christians who find it beneficial. But this section of the GRE Report implies that same-sex relationships are permissible and sanctified if the partners are Christian, faithful, and find sex fulfilling.

In sum, the basic issue in this section once again is the final authority of Scripture. Experience that runs counter to Scripture could be a reason for reconsidering what the Bible teaches. But if Scripture teaches traditional Christian sexual boundaries, then people who disagree are simply mistaken and self-deceived even though they sincerely believe that the perceived benefits of such behavior indicate God’s approval. The GRE Report has not made a plausible Reformed case that Scripture is unclear or misunderstood, and it does not take account of possibly mistaken self-evaluation. Thus its appeal to the testimony of Christians in same-sex relationships carries no weight against the traditional view.

Conclusion

The GRE Report is a helpful contribution to the CRCNA discussion about same-sex 35

marriage because presumably it presents a strong case for reconsidering and perhaps reaching new conclusions about Scripture’s teaching on sex and marriage. The Report rightly affirms that Scripture is the final authority and acknowledges that it ought to present ostensibly Reformed affirmative interpretations of the relevant texts in order for the CRCNA to reconsider its position on same-sex marriage. It offers a variety of exegetical, scientific, historical, and experiential reasons for reconsideration. “The strength of the overall argument comes from
how these different strands reinforce each other,” it claims (6).

But the Report fails to show that there are any plausible Reformed interpretations of Scripture allowing same-sex marriage because it does not evaluate any that it presents by Reformed hermeneutical standards. If there is an arguably tenable interpretation among them, the Report does not identify or validate it. Further, its appeals to science, history, and experience do not recognize that those sources reflect the fallen creation and thus that they do not reliably disclose the will of God for sex and marriage. They might provide reasons for reconsidering the biblical view of sex and marriage if Scripture were unclear or ambiguous. But since the Report has not made a case for rereading Scripture, it has provided no reason for using extra-biblical sources carry to reinterpret Scripture. In sum, the Report presents inconclusive reasons for reconsidering Scripture and no sound reasons at all for affirming same-sex marriage.

However, the fact that more than a few members of the CRCNA accept or are confused by the reasoning and conclusions of the Report is sufficient for the denomination to engage in a definitive study of the biblical teaching about the nature and norms of human sexuality.

Worshiping God in Beauty…in Prison

I’m the pastor of Celebration Fellowship, a prison congregation of the Christian Reformed Church. Last night I met with our music team. The team consists of seven inside members of Celebration Fellowship and one outside member. These men get about thirty minutes a week to practice for our service, and somehow they are able to competently lead the church as we sing our praises to God. The music isn’t always perfect, but the men participating on that team give 100%, and we are often shocked at the beauty that we experience through their musical talents.

As we were discussing worship for the evening, one of the men said, “Pastor Andy, you smell like rainbows.” It wasn’t the first time I’ve been complimented on my cologne. In fact, I can barely go two weeks without one of our inside members mentioning the scent I’m wearing.

In prison, things don’t smell good. They often smell bad. There is no potpourri air freshener. There is no cologne. The cleaning chemicals clean, and nothing more. The first time I walked into a prison chow hall, the scent of the place frightened me. At best, things in prison smell functional – like everything else in prison.

The buildings are functional. Nothing extravagant or more than what’s absolutely necessary. They provide the bare minimum shelter from the elements. The racks provide the bare minimum of comfort for sleep. The food provides the bare minimum nutrition for life. The clothing is uniform, blue and orange, warm enough in the winter and cool enough in the summer. In prison, everything is the bare minimum necessary, except for beauty.

One has to look hard for beauty in prison. It is a place that society keeps intentionally ugly. After all, most believe prison should be an ugly place for ugly people who’ve done ugly things.

We don’t tend to think of beauty as necessary for life. If by life we mean simply continuing to exist, then maybe beauty isn’t necessary for life. However, life as we think of it Biblically is one that requires more than the bare minimum. Biblical life is a life of fruitfulness and abundance of God’s blessings. The eschatological feast is one of the finest wines and foods. It is life, not in the bare minimum shelter, but in the Lord’s mansion. Life in God’s kingdom is one in which we don’t wear baseball caps, but beautiful crowns of gold. The Old Testament church built the temple as a way to transport worshipers into a shadow understanding of the beauty of being in God’s presence. That beauty is for the already and the not-yet.

So, if we believe that God is truly present in our worship, then we must believe that we will see that fruitfulness and abundance among his people. The life that our Lord gives us is a beautiful life, where we walk in his ways, in the light of the truth, and cherish the beauty of his creation through the talents he’s given his people. When we expect beauty, peace, and tranquility, the ugliness of the world becomes glaringly obvious. Our incarcerated brothers have tasted God’s beauty and their eyes are opened to the ugliness around them. As God’s people, our incarcerated brothers want to make prison beautiful, a place where God dwells.

What a strange people the church is in prison. The church stands out, not like a sore thumb, but like a green thumb. In a place of the bare minimum and ugliness, we find abundance and beauty through God’s people. In a place of scowls and anger, we find men smiling and raising their hands in joy to praise the Lord in song. In a place where things smell bad, we enjoy the scents that take us out of the ugliness and into God’s beautiful rest.

The Law by Frederic Bastiat – Defense of Life, Liberty, and Property: A Collective Action Based Upon Individual Rights

Summary

  • “Each of us has a natural right –from God –to defend his person, his liberty, and his property.”
  • “If every person has the right to defend –even by force –his person, his liberty, and his property, then it follows that a group of men have the right to organize and support a common force to protect these rights constantly. Thus the principle of collective right –its reason for existing, its lawfulness –is based on individual right.”
  • “Thus, since an individual cannot lawfully use force against the person, liberty, or property of another individual, then the common force –for the same reason –cannot lawfully be used to destroy the person, liberty, or property of individuals or groups.”
  • “The law is the organization of the natural right of lawful defense. It is the substitution of a common force for individual forces. And this common force is to do only what the individual forces have a natural and lawful right to do: to protect persons, liberties, and properties; to maintain the right of each, and to cause justice to reign over us all.”

My Thoughts

Bastiat’s concise writing makes saying anything about it seem redundant. He has covered all the angles, and thought through his writing with an extraordinary degree of precision and logic. It makes me wonder how anybody could read “The Law” with its simple logic and not come away from it convinced that the law should be limited to three purposes: protect life, protect liberty, and protect property. 

Life, liberty, and property are all gifts of God, and people have the right (though not necessarily the obligation) to protect them using force if necessary. These claims are backed up by scripture. 

“If the thief is found breaking in, and he is struck so that he dies, there shall be no guilt for his bloodshed. If the sun has risen on him, there shall be guilt for his bloodshed.” – Exodus 22:2-3

“By these letters the king permitted the Jews who were in every city to gather together and protect their lives — to destroy, kill, and annihilate all the forces of any people or province that would assault them, both little children and women, and to plunder their possessions…” – Esther 8:11-12

I do not find any specific Biblical reference for the use of force to protect liberty. However, a simple reading of the scriptures shows us that freedom is something that is important to God. He is the God who set his people free from slavery in Egypt (Exodus 20:2). He is the God who set his people free from bondage to sin(Galatians 5:1). Jesus died so that we might be free from the law of sin and death (Romans 8:1-2). Christ’s death and resurrection was even meant to free creation from bondage and corruption (Romans 8:21). Jesus came to proclaim freedom to the captives (Luke 4:18). Though there is no scriptures that I could specifically find that say, “Defend your liberty with violence if necessary,” it’s quite clear that the LORD was willing to kill (in the case of the Egyptians) and die (in the case of Christ) to defend and protect liberty. In fact, the New Covenant in Christ is one of freedom (Galatians 5:1).

Any so-called truth that doesn’t conform to God’s word is not a truth, but a falsehood. Bastiat’s reasoning so far passes the Bible test, so we can continue with our analysis.

Bastiat’s argument is, since we individually have the right to protect our life, liberty, and property, then we have the ability to collectively protect the same. Since collective force is permitted due to the individual right, and to explicitly protect and defend the individual right, then the law (collective force) is no longer lawful if it is used to violate an individual’s life, liberty, or property. 

If this is the case, and I believe it is, then the vast majority of our so-called law is illegitimate. The volumes of law that emminate from Washington DC, our state, and local governments does nothing to protect life, liberty, or property. In fact, most of it costs people their lives, robs them of their God-given liberty, and steals their property. 

How does a Christian react interact with illegitimate authority? I see some exegesis of Romans 12 and 1 Peter 2 in my near future…

The Law by Frederic Bastiat – Life, Liberty, Property Are Gifts

Summary

  1. The law, which was supposed to prevent crime, has been perverted. Instead of preventing crime, it is a weapon of criminality. Instead of preventing crime, it codifies it.
  2. Life, liberty, and property do not exist because of human legislation. The are the gift of God. Human legislation exists because humanity has life, liberty, and property.

My Thoughts

As a pastor, I appreciate that Bastiat starts in the right place. That is, he starts with the recognition that life, liberty, and property are gifts from God. It is God who created humanity. It is God who gives us life (Job 33:4), liberty (1 Peter 2:16), and property (Psalm 115:16). It is worth noting that while life and property are universal according to the scriptures, liberty is not. In fact, the only way to true liberty is through Jesus Christ. It is Christ who sets us free from bondage to sin and sets the captives free.

What does it mean that God gives us life, liberty, and property? I don’t believe these gifts are all given in the same manner. God gives us life because he creates all life. Nobody but God gives us life because we don’t have extra life laying around that we can distribute. For example, we can’t take some extra life and give it to our dead loved ones. We have no power to give life or take life . Human science has yet to create life from scratch. We did nothing for it. It’s a pure gift. Though people may do acts of violence against others, nobody dies without God’s sovereign decree (1 Samuel 2:6). Bastiat, while acknowledging God’s creation of life, also charges humanity with good stewardship of life. “The Creator of life has entrusted us with the responsibility of preserving, developing, and perfecting it.”

Property is different from life and liberty because it is something tangible. We can give, exchange, and steal property. However, even in the giving or exchange of property. we must recognize that these material possessions are the gift of God. Ultimately, all things are God’s things (Psalm 24:1) which he is free to give and take away (Job 1:21). If all things are ultimately God’s, does that mean we can’t own anything? Yes and no. We can’t own anything forever. When we die we can’t take it with us. However, God does give us the rights of stewardship over his gifts for a time that he determines. Hence, the eighth commandment – thou shalt not steal!

Liberty is the only one of the three gifts of God Bastiat focuses on that is entirely immaterial. We cannot hold liberty in our hands like we can hold life and property. We can’t accumulate a pile of liberty to save for retirement. We can’t get get a liberty transfusion so that we can have more liberty. We can’t exchange it. The only thing it seems we can do with liberty is steal or lawfully remove it from others. We do this when we lock them up in prison. So, the government and the law can’t give us liberty for two reasons. First, it’s not the government’s to give. It’s God’s to give. Second, the government doesn’t have any accumulated freedom that it can distribute. Liberty existed before government and it will exist in any non-coercive environment.

Therefore, like life and property, God has given us liberty that we might be good stewards of it. He has entrusted us with his gifts, not so we may abuse them, but so we may care for them and help them flourish.

God’s gifts of life, liberty, and property are the basis for Bastiat’s argument that the law, which is supposed to prevent crime, is actually a tool used to perpetrate crime. This idea will be more fully developed as I continue looking at Bastiat’s “The Law”.

The Law by Fredric Bastiat – Introduction

I’m completely unfamiliar with this work and picked it up solely upon the recommendation of people like libertarian thinker Tom Woods. Since I don’t really know what I’m getting myself into with this book, I took a look at the preface. Turns out, this book isn’t really a book. It’s a pamphlet written by Bastiat before and during the French Revolution.

Let me say right out of the gate that I’m not particularly knowledgable about the French Revolution. I remember a bit of what I learned in school. That is, the monarchy had been abusing its power. The Queen of France, Marie Antoinette, made light of the suffering of peasants who were starving due to famine by saying, “Let them eat cake.” A bit of research reveals that these words were never actually spoken by the queen, but this supposed quote was used after the French Revolution by supporters of the Revolution to make political hay for the cause. I also remember that King Leo, during a famine, was so fat that guillotine couldn’t cut through the girth of his neck.

The rhetoric of the French Revolution was that there were two types of people in France: the haves and the have nots. This should sound familiar to us today. It’s a narrative that people like Bernie Sanders have been peddling. There is the 1%, who have the vast majority of wealth and privilege in the United States, and then there is the 99% who live off the meager scraps that fall from the fat 1%’s table.

Of course, the difference in living standards between the 99% of Americans in the 21st century is vastly different than the life of the 99% in 19th century France. Yet, we see violence constantly simmering under the surface in American politics. It seems not a day goes by without some Trump supporter smacking a non-Trump supporter. Likewise, anti-Trump protesters don’t seem to understand the concept of peaceful protest. Just yesterday anti-Trump supporters attempted to violently interfere with a peaceful gathering of California Republicans. Politics brings the worst out of people – including me.

Within the two primary sides of American politics, we find fear peddlers. The fools on the left peddle fear of the 1%, fear of declining wages, fear of Christians, fear of the death of the American Dream due to the influence of the rich and powerful upon our legislative process. The fools on the right peddle fear of the immigrant, fear of the Muslim, fear of the media elite, and fear of the masses rising up against traditional power structures. These fools aren’t necessarily fools because they are misdiagnosing problems within our country. It seems to me both sides have some valid complaints. They are fools because they look to the institution of government, which causes most of these problems, to be the mechanism for remedy of these problems.

Bastiat offers a voice that we cannot find within the American political system. From what I understand, this work contains presents the political theory of Classical Liberalism. My hope, in reading this pamphlet is that Bastiat will help shed some light on our current political morass. We shall see.

When Helping Hurts, Chapter 9 – “And to the Ends of the Earth”

Synopsis

  • This chapter mainly deals with the concept of micro-financing or MF. MF takes business away from loan sharks in the majority world. MFs provide means to credit at a reasonable rate to encourage self-sufficiency through the development of small businesses (usually ten people or less).
  • Large-scale manufacturing has been most economists solution to the poverty of the majority world. However, large-scale manufacturing happens slowly, requires infrastructure, etc. Small businesses can be up and running quickly.
  • Wealth accumulation that provides a cushion for small businesses can be difficult in the majority world, where culture may dictate that when a person has accumulated anything, it should be shared with the community. Therefore, there is a desperate need for savings that are secure and private.
  • One mode of MF is to put borrowers into borrowing groups that require members to guarantee each other’s loans. This leads to a high rate of repayment.
  • Difficulties in MF include problems in providing savings services, failure to reach the extreme poor (who may require loans in the five to twelve-dollar range), failure to reach the rural poor, exclusive focus on businesses, and lack of evangelism and discipleship activities.
  • Any church or ministry that gets involved with MF needs to do their homework and know what they’re getting into.
  • One model is the SCA, or Savings and Credit Association that encourages fellowship and discernment among the community. The provide affordable loans and a means for savings.
  • People may view MF as a cure-all for poverty, but it only addresses part of the need. Never forget that we have poverty of relationship with self, the community, and God. Holistic poverty alleviation must address all areas of poverty.
  • Business as Missions (BAM) is another model. Entrepreneurs start businesses in the majority world, providing jobs, education, and increased productivity through their investment.

My Thoughts

Micro-financing is fascinating. It’s amazing what a few well-placed loans can do to encourage economic development and self-sufficiency in the majority world. What relevance does this have for the poor in the United States?

In my ministry, I mainly deal with men who are released from prison. For the majority of them, they have no job. They have no housing. Many don’t even have a supportive family. When they apply for a job, they will have to share with the prospective employer that they are a felon. It takes a special business owner to extend employment to a felon. So, their job prospects are not good.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if these men could start their own businesses? They would get off public assistance, move out of subsidized housing, and become productive members of society that give back for what they’ve taken. Unfortunately, very few of the men that come out of prison have the necessary skills to run a business. So, MF would not be a good solution for most of them, but the few that are willing and able to run a business could make a dramatic change in other returning citizens’ lives by taking them on as employees.

It seems to me that many drug dealers are already entrepreneurs. Why? It’s the avenue of business that’s open to them. The startup costs are minimal. The product is in high demand. The profit margin is tremendous, but the cost to the community is tremendous. Also, there’s a reason the profit margins are so great – the risk of failure means years of incarceration.