Ethan Bogan

“[T]he longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth – that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid? … [A]nd I also believe that without His concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better than the Builders of Babel.” (Benjamin Franklin) In the Founders' minds, no political party, leader, or military had the power to build, sustain, or save this country. However, the saving inability of these institutions does not mean they are not used by God as vessels to accomplish His purpose, since “there is no authority except from God, and those which exist have been appointed by God (Romans 13:1).” Americans are uniquely positioned to live in a republic — a representative democracy where we vote for representatives who legislate on our behalf. If, as Christians, we believe Jesus is the Word (Jn. 1:1), that He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life (Jn. 14:6), and that the Word of God is profitable in all matters of life (2 Tim. 3:16-17), should we not desire to see these eternal truths influence the representatives we elect and the legislation we pass? It is, therefore, the moral obligation of every American Christian to use their voice to profoundly influence political outcomes in this country.

Is political involvement part of Christian faithfulness or a distraction from it?

@JoshuaBarzon Luke

If you could only read of of the 4 gospels for a whole year (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) which would you pick?

With regard to "Judeo Christian": The 10 Commandments are Jewish. The great stories of the Old Testament are Jewish. The Jews developed the idea of subsidiarity as the alternative to tyranny and slavery. The Jews established the cultural preconditions for the rise of universal literacy. The fate of Israel at the hands of the Islamists is the fate of the West. This rising tide of anti-semitism sickens me. Those of you engaging in it for your oh-so-moral reasons—you're despicable. And remember, you proud "Christians" objecting in all your purity to the term: Christ Himself was a Jew.

Do you have trouble reading the Bible consistently? I do. I fully believe the words in 2 Timothy 3:16 that, "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness." Psalm 1 describes a man whose "delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night." It goes on to say that in all that man does he will prosper. I know the value of the Word. I know that it comes from God. Furthermore, you don't have to piece things together in some special way to come to the conclusion that God wants us to read his Word. It's spelled out over and over for us in the scriptures. So, why do I and others have such a hard time being consistent in reading the Word? We know we should do it, and we know the value is there. What gives? I'll tell you what I think it is: Pride. I'll break it down into two parts: 1. "I already know that." I've probably read the Bible cover-to-cover over a dozen times in my lifetime, not to mention countless studies of individual books, chapters, or passages. It's easy for me to fall for the lie that I know the Bible pretty well, and that the utility in reading it more is limited. While it's true that I may know the Bible better than most people, the fact is that God is infinite. The Knowledge and Wisdom God has to impart is infinite. There's on amount of studying God's Word that will get you across the finish line of totally understanding everything God has for us. It goes on forever. This is not a never-ending journey of tiresome drudgery. It's an exciting race to get to know the God of the universe as well as possible. Every new insight is beautiful and awesome, and absolutely worthwhile. 2. "Self-directed learning vs. God-directed learning." While I often have to convince myself to sit down, open the Bible, and read a few chapters, I never have to convince myself to open my phone and start searching or scrolling. While their may be more than one reason for this, I believe a big part of it is that I'm drawn to finding the information I'm interested in getting right now. I have the world of knowledge at my fingertips on my phone, and I can read about anything I want. I get to decide what I need to know, and I can pursue it casually, spending a total of 15 seconds on a given subject, or obsessively, pouring hours and hours into while taking advantage of the efficiency of information that the internet and AI afford us. That's now what reading the Bible cover-to-cover is like. Sure, you can do studies that focus on certain sections of the Bible, even certain themes, but when you're just doing your daily reading, one chapter to the next, you read whatever God puts in front of you. It's not about what you want to know right now. It's not about what you believe is the most pressing issue for to learn more about. It's about what God wants you to know more about. We live in a world that is all about looking inward. We may be amongst the most selfish people in history. We certainly have an unprecedented level of comfort and individual customization for how we live our lives. Almost everything seems tailored for our particular, individual wants, needs, and preferences. But that's not healthy. It's narcissistic. Humans naturally trend towards narcissism. We want to love, adore, even worship ourselves. But who we should love, adore, and worship is God. God's wisdom and knowledge are infinite. Ours is finite. Whatever your priorities, whatever things you want to know right now, God has important knowledge and wisdom to give you that is ultimately more important than what you want to know, even than what you believe you need to know. You may or may not be able to see the importance in it, but it's there. Oh and I've got good news - this isn't necessarily an either-or type of situation. It's not a zero-sum game. You can read the Bible and go on to study and read about other things. There are many hours in a day. Just set aside some time to read the Bible, even just a couple chapters a day. Don't just skim it. Dive into it. Stop and re-read sentences or paragraphs when you need to. Ponder it. Pray about what you read. Today part of my reading covered 1 Corinthians 13, aka the "love" chapter. In it the Apostle Paul famously wrote that, "If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal." He talks all about the value of love, and at the end of the chapter even says, "So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love." Love reigns supreme. It's easy to forget in such a crazy, tumultuous world. But it's an important reminder for me. After reading that chapter I stopped and prayed that God would help me to love the way I ought, to love Him with all my heart, soul, and might, and to love my neighbor as myself. Read your Bible. It's worth it. I promise. SOLI DEO GLORIA

So much noise online regarding the term "judeo-Christian." Guys -- in academia it's simply the term that describes the combined corpus of Old and New Testaments. The Jewish heritage of the Hebrew scriptures combined with the New Testament. That's it. I know you want there to be some conspiracy but there isnt, that's the way we're using it. It has nothing to do with geo-politics or a one world order.

@JoshuaBarzon This is pretty awesome! Thanks for making the giveaway possible!

Congrats to @ethanlbogan on being “picked” to win this amazing barzonDESIGN.com giveaway!!! 🎉

@JoshuaBarzon @StandardBible Following @charitymurrell

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Hello Mrs. Owens, You told millions of people that Tyler Robinson "wasn't even there." That you felt "confident stating that Tyler Robinson did not kill murder Charlie Kirk." He was on camera. Prone on the Losi rooftop at 12:22. Shot at 12:23:28. DNA on the screwdriver at 30 quintillion to one. DNA on the rifle at 1.7 octillion to one. He told his family what he did. His parents helped him surrender. He texted his roommate: "I am, I'm sorry." He engraved "Hey Fascist! Catch!" on the ammunition a month before he used it. You said police "didn't even question" Lance Twiggs. He was interviewed twice. FBI the morning after. Joint state-federal team seven months later. His own attorney. Voluntary phone surrender. You laughed when you said it. You told Shawn Ryan a shaped charge killed Charlie. That PETN was in his microphone. The medical examiner says gunshot wound. Bullet fragments were recovered from his body. A .30-06 Mauser with Robinson's DNA was found in the woods. Neither side — not prosecution, not defense — has mentioned explosives. Not once in four days. You said the shot came from below. The Losi building is above the amphitheater. You called Erika Kirk a "clinical psychopath" to an audience of millions. You said the assassination was "an occult ritual." You said Charlie was "sitting in a pentagram." You told people Israel killed him because he refused Netanyahu. You made over a hundred episodes. You built a franchise on a dead man's name. And the hardest fact of all: Tyler Robinson's own defense lawyers — the people whose entire career is on the line to get him acquitted — have refused to make a single one of your arguments. Not one. They're challenging DNA methodology. They are doing their jobs. You were doing something else entirely. Charlie Kirk changed my life. He platformed my work when nobody knew who I was. He had my back when I was doxxed. I was the ten-thousandth most important person in his world and I will never be able to repay him. So I did what I know how to do. I read every transcript. I watched every hour of testimony. I cataloged your claims and I held them up against what was said under oath. Every single one failed. I don't know why you did this. I'm not going to speculate on your motives, because that would make me exactly the kind of analyst I've spent my career refusing to be. But I know what you did. You told people confident lies about a dead man's murder, and millions of them believed you, and some of them turned that belief into threats against his widow. The trial continues. And every day of sworn testimony is another day your words get tested against reality... under oath, on the record, where it counts. I'll be here for all of it... because just as Charlie defended me, I will do what little I can to defend his legacy and @TPUSA and @MrsErikaKirk from evil.

A pastor is responsible to teach his congregation to love the following: 1. Jesus 2. Their own families 3. Their own local church 4. Their own nation 5. The poor, strangers, and enemies The order of priority for numbers 3 and 4 is debatable, but the rest is not. We are not infinite. We cannot love everyone equally, in the same way, at the same time. Love must be rightly ordered. Augustine gave classic expression to this concept in what is often called “ordo amoris” — the order of love. “Progressive Christians” may agree that we should love Jesus first, (though often not to the exclusion of the false gods of other religions). Then they would tell you to love the poor, strangers, and enemies second — even to the detriment of your own family (because they usually care more about virtue signaling than actual justice). Then they would tell you to resent your nation and feel ashamed of it. And lastly, they would encourage you to leave the local church, deconstruct your faith, and hate “organized religion.” The real problem is not merely that “Progressive Christianity” is not true Christianity. The deeper problem is how many genuine Christians are unknowingly influenced and deceived into adopting unbiblical progressive ideas today. Common symptoms include: 1. Feeling awkward about calling other religions false 2. Feeling embarrassed by their own nation — obsessing over its handful of weaknesses while overlooking its mountains of greatness 3. Becoming confused about cultural issues like immigration, welfare, and socialism 4. Failing to grasp the importance of local church community, service, and accountability A good pastor will teach his congregation how to love practically, faithfully, and in the right order. Fair warning: doing this will get a pastor labeled “legalistic,” “arrogant,” “political,” “Christian nationalist,” “mean,” “racist,” and every other scare-label meant to intimidate one away from being faithful. That’s okay. Do it anyway.

I was raised learning the Bible. In adulthood, I began to go back and read the literary classics, only to find every great work was a shadow of the scriptures. The Bible is the DNA, the source code of the West. People who don't know the Bible don't understand America.

"We need to recover an offensive Christianity in which the natural characteristics of men are not diminished but directed toward their proper end. We need men capable of aggression, assertiveness, and self-defense who are submitted to Christ. If we are unable to conceive of an offensive Christianity, which gives no ground to the enemy, doesn't cater to communists, and exercises agency after God's glory, we will be ceding the battlefield to those who lack the requisite virtue to govern God's world according to His Word" (33, emphasis added). Offensive Christianity is indeed "the culmination of a lifetime of older and wiser men who have knowingly and unknowingly invested" (xxi), for truly the same Spirit—who humbled the hardest hearts of men, who molded the greatest of minds, who raised up the mightiest of voices, and who strengthened and equipped courageous warriors—is now seen in yet another link in a generational chain of men who by faith gained approval (Heb. 11:2). While @jchasedavis masterfully addresses the root causes which have led to the emasculation of Christian men, he simultaneously refuses to remain pessimistically fixated on past mistakes, urging men instead to move forward through a rejection of apathy and a confident embrace of agency, both individual and collective. Our Lord Jesus did not commend the "careful" servant, nor did He commend the "successful" servant. He commended the faithful servant (Matt. 25:23), and there remains both incredible grace and tremendous responsibility in such a characteristic that is recognized by our Savior. For faithfulness is by definition action, not mere intellectual assent. Christian men cannot consider "their responsibility in solely immaterial terms" (5) and are therefore called to meekness: utilizing God-given strength under the control of Jesus Christ in every sphere of influence they are placed in. It is here—the pursuit and encouragement of meekness—that the modern evangelical church has largely failed, for, as @j_bambrick points out, "Today's evangelical pastors are typically women of both sexes." Rather than leading the church under the authority of the Chief Shepherd with the confidence that "the gates of Hades will not overpower it" (Matt. 16:18), such "shepherds" have sought to please men, rather than accepting their role as bond-servants of Christ (Gal. 1:10). Lacking testicular fortitude and attempting to make the gospel "palatable", they have allowed evil ideas to prevail, and through their silence they participate in them. However, in pursuit of this worldly ambition, such men have failed to understand that "should the church fail to address these issues biblically and cogently, with courage, then those who are interested in stopping the wickedness in our world will invariably find voices outside the church to justify any manner of action to resist it. Strength will return, but it will be anything but Christian" (33). May this book serve as a clarion call for all men to direct their God-given masculinity toward its proper end as they seek to protect, provide, and preserve for posterity to the glory of God. A huge thank you to @Maxwell_pringle who graciously gifted me a copy of this book. *This review was written voluntarily and reflects my own personal opinions. It does not necessarily represent the views of the author or any other individual.

@Maxwell_pringle @jchasedavis @FoundersMin @charitymurrell

Win a FREE copy of “Offensive Christianity” by my friend J. Chase Davis. 2 winners will be selected ahead of Father’s Day. To enter: like + repost, & tag someone below. Picking 2 winners on 6/1. Be sure to follow @JChaseDavis and @Maxwell_Pringle

The fundamental issue with this debate over criminalizing abortion in red states is one of discipleship. If we say that a woman who knowingly and willfully kills her child is not answerable for murder and should face no consequences, we are simply encouraging the society to kill their children. If we support her legal immunity to kill her child because she has been indoctrinated by the culture to view abortion as empowerment and a "right," then she and the aborting father have no reason to seek to improve themselves. If society can always be blamed, then the individual is never responsible. “If you adopt the view that a man is not responsible for his own behavior, that somehow society is responsible, why should he seek to make his behavior good?” — Milton Friedman

@JoshuaBarzon @Markins @charitymurrell

Win a FREE copy of “Daddy, How Much Do You Love Me?” by my friend Matt Markins. We are picking 10 winners ahead of Father’s Day. To enter: Follow @JoshuaBarzon and @Markins , like + repost, & tag someone below. Picking 10 winners on 5/28. 📖 🎁

@Founders_Press @charitymurrell

Founders Press began 30 years ago this year! We are so thankful to the Lord for how He has sustained us and blessed our efforts over the last three decades. To celebrate 30 years of publishing, we will be offering many giveaways over the next few weeks! Make sure you’re following our new Founders Press social media pages to not miss your chance to win FREE resources. First up… 📚 GIVEAWAY: CONFESSIONAL BUNDLE Three winners will receive: - The 1689 Confession in Modern English - Baptist Symbolics Volume 1 & 2 - 1689 Bookmark - 1689 Coffee Mug To enter: - Follow @Founders_Press. - Share this post. - Comment below tagging 1 friend. Giveaway will close Monday, May 25th at 11:59 PM ET. Winners will be randomly chosen and contacted next week via private DM. 🚨 We will only contact you from THIS account. Beware of fraudulent accounts claiming to be Founders Press or Founders Ministries. All accounts asking you to sign up, open links, or pay for entrance for this giveaway are fraudulent. 🚨 This giveaway is only open to participants aged 18+ with a mailing address in the contiguous United States ONLY. Giveaway will close Monday, May 25th at 11:59 PM ET.