Matt Marino

It's good to aim truth at the biggest crowd, but not to measure truth by that crowd. Take regular inventory of this by Jesus's own standard. But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man. John 2:24-25 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. John 3:19-20 The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil. John 7:7 But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. John 8:45

Failure to understand this is perhaps the leading cause of male boredom and therefore many other sins.

If Christ is King of the church, why merely human officers at all? “Every king has officers under him, who are charged with the execution of his laws, and who have authority from the crown to do justice and judgment. Judges and magistrates are the office-bearers of a kingdom, deriving their power from the monarch under whom they serve, and putting the laws in force among all ranks and classes of the people. Hence a very palpable division of a kingdom is into rulers and ruled – those whose duty is to administer the law, and those who are bound to obey it. The same distinction holds in the kingdom of Christ. It also consists of rulers and ruled – the office-bearers entrusted with the dispensation of the laws, and the people who are commanded to yield them submission. This is very plain, from Heb. 13:17 – ‘Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account.’” Thomas Witherow, The Apostolic Church: Which Is It? 17

Reasons for the average person choosing a church were already getting bad by the mid-19th century. “Most people who withdraw from the communion of one Church to connect themselves with another, and thus exercise their right of choice between the various forms of ecclesiastical government, are induced to give their preference from motives such as should never influence an intelligent Christian. They are guided by feeling rather than by judgment. They do not first ascertain the leading principles of the denomination from its acknowledged standards, and then examine these principles in the light of the Word of God. The bulk of mankind are not intellectual enough to search for principles and weigh them. At least, they do not take the trouble, but are influenced in their choice, either by the authority of some great man, or the moral worth of some particular persons, or the piety and eloquence of some local minister – or perhaps by paltry pique, or petty gain, or love of the rank or fashion of the world, or by some other equally low and vulgar consideration.” Thomas Witherow, The Apostolic Church: Which Is It?, 11

Setting aside Alsted and Junius-maxxing for the day, as I have to persuade some youngins of Presbyterianism tomorrow. So there may be some sporadic Thomas Witherow quote-bombs this evening. “It is very common for professing Christians to draw a distinction between essentials and non-essentials in religion, and to infer that, if any fact or doctrine rightly belongs to the latter class, it must be a matter of very little importance, and may in practice be safely set at nought. The great bulk of men take their opinions on trust; they will not undergo the toil of thinking, searching, and reasoning about anything, and one of the most usual expedients adopted to save them the trouble of inquiry, and to turn aside the force of any disagreeable fact, is to meet it by saying, ‘The matter is not essential to salvation; therefore we need give ourselves little concern on the subject.’” The Apostolic Church: Which Is It? 7

@CalRumRedivivus I have no idea! They are greater than DG Hart could have ever imagined!

@RefClassicalist How do they already have editions coming out of everything?!

If one errs concerning the first article of the Apostles Creed, which is about creation, then he will not be able to make progress in the second part of the Creed, which is about redemption. Alsted, Natural Theology

“Natural theology also prepares man for the school of grace. For if anyone errs in the first article of the Apostles’ Creed, which concerns creation, they will never be able to proceed correctly to the second part of the Creed, which pertains to redemption.” Johann Alsted, Natural Theology

RCs need to move on from Karl Barth. He was never one of us. Anyway, I’ll be inflicting Junius on the unsuspecting masses soon.

Low IQ movement is excited to find that Joe Kent held a different view on Iran six years ago, and that CNN will tell them that 💯 % of them are still in a lather about what 💯 % of them self-identify as. This is supposed to constitute counter-evidence against the thesis that Trumpian populism is brain rot. No, instead you have earned 👇

@__Conall Biblicists hit hardest. Trad-fad-chasing retrievalists hit even harderest.

To go deep into scripture is to become Presbyterian.

Imagine trying to fight off carjackers with your wife and kids in the car, while at the same time using a drone to chase down a band of baddies on the other side of the world. Hard to do, I imagine. That’s the argument. That’s the only argument you need. Don’t be obtuse and slanderous.

I voted for regime-change here at home.

Not a week goes by when I don’t ask: Where’s Norm Macdonald when we really need him?

Another casualty in the loss of realism was the attention span. The very ability of the mind to see patterns and explain diverse phenomena in terms of more general explanatory categories (common causes, ends, actors, errors, etc.) is a function of realism. This post strictly concerns metaphysics and theoretical thought, having nothing to do with current events. Also, that last sentence is false.

The boomer cope and boomer-adjacent cope over this is copious. May the Trump camp be left desolate as soon as possible, so we can get on with the real war against our homeland. Good for @joekent16jan19 🫡

@PressSec No one believes you.

There are many false claims in this letter but let me address one specifically: that "Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation."   This is the same false claim that Democrats and some in the liberal media have been repeating over and over.   As President Trump has clearly and explicitly stated, he had strong and compelling evidence that Iran was going to attack the United States first.   This evidence was compiled from many sources and factors. President Trump would never make the decision to deploy military assets against a foreign adversary in a vacuum.   Iran is the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism. The Iranian regime is evil. It proudly killed Americans, waged war against our country, and openly threatened us all the way up to the launch of Operation Epic Fury.   Iran was aggressively expanding their short-range ballistic missiles to combine with their naval assets to give themselves immunity – meaning they would have a degree of a capabilities that would give them immunity to hold us and the rest of the world hostage.   The regime aimed to use those ballistic missiles as a shield to continue achieving their ultimate goal – nuclear weapons.   The President, through his top negotiators, gave the regime every single possible opportunity to abandon this unacceptable course by permanently giving up their nuclear ambitions in exchange for sanctions relief, free nuclear fuel, and potential economic partnerships with our country.   But they would not say yes to peace because obtaining nuclear weapons was their fundamental goal.   President Trump ultimately made the determination that a joint attack with Israel would greatly reduce the risk to American lives that would come from a first strike by the terrorist Iranian regime and address this imminent threat to America’s national security interests.   All of this led to President Trump arriving at the determination that this military operation was necessary for U.S. national security, which is why he launched the massively successful Operation Epic Fury. The Commander-in-Chief determines what does and does not constitute a threat, because he is the one constitutionally empowered to do so - and because the American people went to the ballot box and entrusted him and him alone to make such final judgments. And finally, the absurd allegation that President Trump made this decision based on the influence of others, even foreign countries, is both insulting and laughable. President Trump has been remarkably consistent and has said for DECADES that Iran can NEVER possess a nuclear weapon. As someone who actually witnesses President Trump’s decision-making process on a daily basis, I can attest to the fact that he is always looking to do what’s in the best interest of the United States of America — period. America First.

Calvin on the paradox of vestiges of true grace in the false Church of Rome. “Therefore, while we are unwilling simply to concede the name of Church to the Papists, we do not deny that there are churches among them. The question we raise only relates to the true and legitimate constitution of the Church, implying communion in sacred rites, which are the signs of profession, and especially in doctrine. Daniel and Paul foretold that Antichrist would sit in the temple of God (Dan. 9:27; 2 Thess. 2:4); we regard the Roman Pontiff as the leader and standard-bearer of that wicked and abominable kingdom. By placing his seat in the temple of God, it is intimated that his kingdom would not be such as to destroy the name either of Christ or of his Church. Hence, then, it is obvious that we do not at all deny that churches remain under his tyranny; churches, however, which by sacrilegious impiety he has profaned, by cruel domination has oppressed, by evil and deadly doctrines like poisoned potions has corrupted and almost slain; churches where Christ lies half-buried, the gospel is suppressed, piety is put to flight, and the worship of God almost abolished; where, in short, all things are in such disorder as to present the appearance of Babylon rather than the holy city of God. In one word, I call them churches, inasmuch as the Lord there wondrously preserves some remains of his people, though miserably torn and scattered, and inasmuch as some symbols of the Church still remain—symbols especially whose efficacy neither the craft of the devil nor human depravity can destroy. But as, on the other hand, those marks to which we ought especially to have respect in this discussion are effaced, I say that the whole body, as well as every single assembly, want the form of a legitimate Church.” Institutes, IV.2.12

Calvin on the Word defining and marking the essence of the church versus the external shell. “In this way the Romanists assail us in the present day, and terrify the unskilful with the name of Church, while they are the deadly adversaries of Christ. Therefore, although they exhibit a temple, a priesthood, and other similar masks, the empty glare by which they dazzle the eyes of the simple should not move us in the least to admit that there is a Church where the word of God appears not … Nay, Jerusalem is to be distinguished from Babylon, the Church of Christ from a conspiracy of Satan, by the discriminating test which our Saviour has applied to them, “He that is of God, heareth God’s words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God” (John 8:47). In short, since the Church is the kingdom of Christ, and he reigns only by his word, can there be any doubt as to the falsehood of those statements by which the kingdom of Christ is represented without his sceptre, in other words, without his sacred word?” Institutes, IV.2.4

Calvin on why separation from Rome was not schism from the church. “There, instead of the ministry of the word, prevails a perverted government, compounded of lies, a government which partly extinguishes, partly suppresses, the pure light. In place of the Lord’s Supper, the foulest sacrilege has entered, the worship of God is deformed by a varied mass of intolerable superstitions; doctrine (without which Christianity exists not) is wholly buried and exploded, the public assemblies are schools of idolatry and impiety. Wherefore, in declining fatal participation in such wickedness, we run no risk of being dissevered from the Church of Christ. The communion of the Church was not instituted to be a chain to bind us in idolatry, impiety, ignorance of God, and other kinds of evil, but rather to retain us in the fear of God and obedience of the truth.” Institutes, IV.2.2