Before this goes dead, couple things I wanted to say two days ago. First, those who follow the DJAWCHAB (don’t criticize anyone who calls himself a brother) or NEWCTB (no enemies who call themselves brothers) strategy fail not knowing Scripture. Say, for instance:
But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler—not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within the church? But those who are outside, God judges. (1Corinthians 5:11-13)
Not simply the Corinthians, but today we fail by judging outsiders and refusing to judge those who call themselves brothers. Across history and still today, far and away the most lethal enemies of the godly and the Kingdom of God are within the church. Yet foolish young men never stop yapping against the wicked outside the church, and it’s not because they are trying to protect the sheep from them. That would be valid, but read their stuff and see how hungry they are for movement and pundit and influencer status.
What we should be doing is warning our sheep to have nothing to do with such men. Not because they get their boundaries and punditry wrong. Of course they do! Rather, because they are not interested in the things of God which fill Scripture. They are worldly, and only use Scripture to promote and justify their worldliness. Never stop warning your sheep against such men, and if some won’t listen to you, expel them. One way or another.
Second, it’s been mentioned that God’s shepherds should not use the arguments of unbelievers. Wrong. Unbelievers never stop making Scriptural arguments, so it’s impossible to teach and preach without quoting their arguments and partly endorsing them. The Apostle Paul did so several times, including at the center of all corrupt paganism of intellectuals across history, Athens. Take DEI, for instance: each of those words stands for a Biblical principle (although some would be inclined not to see any Biblical basis for the first).
Maybe you want to argue the point, saying “but that’s not what they mean by those words, and what they use those words for is evil.”
Of course, and often among the people of God how we use these words is evil, also. So man up and do the heavy lifting of exposing the abuse of words, rather than throwing around letters as a cheap and easy way of avoiding that heavy lifting while cheaply calling all the foolish young men you can over to your side. In other words, there is much good believed in and sought outside God’s people, and often unbelievers are sincere in their efforts to promote it (as well as believers often being insincere in their efforts to promote it).
In the use of teaching, preaching, and arguments, don’t be lazy and dishonest intellectually and rhetorically. Don’t take the easy path of ad populum.
Third, I find myself wondering if you men read my series on Buswell? No mention of that history when it’s so pertinent here. Complaining about black racism with no mention of the centuries of white racism engaged in by our fathers strikes me as cheap and undisciplined. Most specifically, read this by my dad back in 1956, well prior to the civil rights movement. It was a radical rebuke in a magazine founded from Tenth Presbyterian Church’s sphere of leadership. Note the contrast of Dad’s arguments to any of the crud every young man is excited about today. Note particularly Dad’s tone of humble entreaty to the consciences of Christians.
I suspect this tone and method would strike today’s millenarians as weak (which proves their weakness).
These articles were well-read outside our circles, of course. I’m not worried they didn’t have an impact. What seems obvious, though, is that those listening to the foolish young men today, and traying to make common cause with them, have no knowledge of the Christian history of our own nation—which has often been racist to the very core.
In the end, Andrew and I are happy our rebuke of the rampant NETTRism among God’s shepherds and sheep today got a rebound. Love,
