Follower of Christ // Aspiring Man of Issachar // @UAH_BSB // Former @SBAHSBaseball // Soli Deo Gloria // ianreagan23@gmail.com
Huntsville, AL
Joined June 2020
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With all this talk about the doctrine of election can we just appreciate how beautiful the story of God’s redemptive arc is:
God created us in order that we may partake in his great love and experience his unfathomable glory forever. Mankind however, represented by our first federal head Adam, in our pride rebelled against the God who had given us all that we ever could have wanted or needed, we rebelled against the one who created us, the one from whom all goodness, truth, and beauty flow. Because of this choice we fell into a state of sin, in which we loved sin. Because of our great love for sin, we were now incapable of choosing God and that which is good, true, and beautiful. Because God is perfectly holy, righteous, and just, this means that He hates sin, therefore we deserved to spend eternity separated from Him and His glory. We were on a one way path to death and hell with nothing to stop us. But God, the two most powerful words in the history of the world. But God again in an overflow of His love and desire to have us experience His glory elected from the beginning those who were to be His. He then became incarnate in the second person of the trinity, Jesus Christ, to redeem His sheep. He did so by living a perfectly righteous life, worthy of being in communion with God, in doing so covering us in His righteousness so that when God looks at us He no longer sees the rebellious sinners which we were but instead the perfect man that Christ is. He then went to the cross and died the horrific death we deserve on our behalf. Taking on the wrath of God in order that He may remain perfectly just while still being gracious and merciful. He did all of this, specifically for you, yes you. The third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, then makes us dead sinners alive so that we may receive Christ as our savior. Once we have been born again, forgiven of our sins, and cloaked in Christ's righteousness, God then, by His power, holds those who are His so tight that they may never fall away from Him again.
This is the story of our salvation. It is from beginning to end a display of God's love for His sheep. It is He who elects, justifies, redeemed, sanctifies, and glorifies. May He not be robbed of an ounce of glory for His monergistic work for those whom He loves.
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Ian Reagan retweeted
The only way to rebuild Christendom is to rebuild the church. The church is always the core of the kingdom, the first form the kingdom takes in the world. The alpha form of the kingdom is a book, water, bread, and wine. It doesn't end there, but that's where it always starts.
There is no way to rebuild Christendom with building Christian institutions - not just the church, but the Christian family, the Christian school, Christian businesses, Christian media, and so on - as the outworking of the church's discipleship ministry. Further, there is no way to rebuild Christendom without influencing already existing institutions - various levels of civil government, small businesses, corporations, the arts, etc. But the secularists who presently occupy and control these institutions will not surrender them without a fight. Thus, the church has to train men to be courageous and shrewd culture builders and culture warriors.
It’s Christ or chaos. Either men of Christian virtue will rule or things will continue to get worse… if the latter, the question is merely at what pace.
If the Republicans get hammered in the mid-terms, it will NOT be because of the far right presence in the party. It will not be because of rightwing podcasters. Most people are not online enough for that to matter. It will be because so much of the American electorate is morally demented. It will be because the Republicans continue to trot out so many worthless candidates, like Ken Paxton and Vivek, whose only virtue is that they aren't as terrible as the Democrats. It will be because of Trump's unresolved war with Iran and the affordability crisis that has not gotten any better.
However, the RINOs and neo-cons will use defeat as a reason to try to purge all far right elements from the party. They will try to pivot the party away from America First and MAGA back to what it was before Trump. In other words, they will take a bad situation and try to make it even worse.
I have my differences with elements of the far right. But when Muslims and Marxists are trying to take over your country, the far right is not main threat we face. To treat it as such is a massive miscalculation.
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Fired up for the Lords day tomorrow!
For Christ was born to die, in order that we may eat and drink instead. Thanks be to God!
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Ian Reagan retweeted
Columbus Day should serve as a reminder that God overthrew the prior inhabitants of this continent for practicing human sacrifice and other abominations. God sets his face against nations and peoples who shed innocent blood, especially by means of child sacrifice, and allows them to be overthrown by foreigners. If we do not repent of our child sacrifice by abolishing abortion in the fear of God, our nation can only expect similar judgment.
So I guess nobody reads the Old Testament anymore. Public executions are good and right, how do I know? Because the Bible tells me so (Leviticus 24:14-16, Numbers 15:32-36, and like 10 other places). God commanded public executions therefore we have a just category for it.
In fact human life is so valuable, being made in God’s image, that he who sheddeth man’s blood, his blood shall be shed (Gen. 9:6) (another command from God).
“BuT tHaTs ThE olD TesTaMeNT.” God commanded public executions, so for public executions to be unjust one of two things must be true. God changed His mind or God is unjust. Of course neither can be the case, for our Lord is both perfectly just and good as well as immutable.
Even if we went along with this Marcionist logic, the argument would still not stand. The government is the 3rd institution given to us by God, for the express purpose of rewarding the righteous and exacting God’s vengeance on the evildoer (Rom. 13). I don’t believe Paul could have been any clearer in warning the evil doer by using the language and imagery of the government bearing the sword.
I’ll add also this statement is rich coming from a Catholic, whose own church magisterially commanded the execution of “heretics” by the state under threat of excommunication for authorities who refused to do so (Unam Sanctam, Fourth Lateran Council, Council of Constance, Pope Innocent VIII 1487 bull calling for extermination of Waldensians).
Public executions are actually good when in alignment with the law of our Lord.
Our appetite for and habituation to violence will be our society’s downfall.
Public executions don’t teach respect for human dignity and God’s image; they make violence a spectacle for public entertainment, and they corrupt the young and innocent. In modern America, there is no need for executions — they only breed vengeance, violence and dehumanization.
Satan loves this.
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Christ in His great commission to the church did not spit out empty words. Christ intended for the church to succeed in its mission of bringing the nations under the Lordship of Christ.
To think that Christ commanded one thing but yet it is virtuous to fail in what He commanded, or worse, to glory in defeat is absurd.
This is not to say there is no glory in a virtuous response to defeat, however, the glory lies not in the defeat itself but the victorious Christ. The church will win and we have been commanded to go win, therefore rest not unto the victory is won!
Michael Clary's book "Loser Theology" does a fine job summarizing one of the biggest problems with contemporary evangelicalism. We are afraid of winning, afraid of success, afraid of power, afraid of influence. We think there's virtue in losing, as long as we are nice about it. Winsomeness, rather than courageous faithfulness, has become the measuring stick. "Don't rock the boat" respectability has become an idol.
It's important to understand that loser theology is nothing new -- especially where I pastor in the Deep South. What's being called "loser theology" by Clary and others is just the same old pietism that has dominated Southern evangelicalism since at the least the mid-19th century, if not earlier. The Second Great Awakening, followed by losing the War Between the States, turned the Southern church in an effeminate direction. This is seen in the preaching, focused narrowly on conversion/salvation rather than the discipleship in terms of the whole counsel of God. It's seen in eschatology, which turned from the robust postmillennialism of older Southern theologians to a pessimistic form of dispensational premillennialism. It's seen in the revivalistic praise music that replaced traditional kingdom-oriented psalms and hymns. It's seen in the white knighting that goes on - even most Southern conservative churches are ruled by a shadow matriarchy, not the men who actually hold office. In some denominations, like Presbyterianism, "loser theology" was dressed up in sophisticated-sounding theology, like the "spirituality of the church," but the result was the same as low-church Fundamentalism: a church that withdrew more and more from the culture, ceding cultural space to the secularists. There have been clumsy attempts to counter "loser theology" in the Southern church, especially since the 1970s, with the rise of the Religious Right and the Moral majority, but they have not been deeply grounded in Scripture or the mission of the church so they quickly fizzled out and the default pietism returned.
Yes, the Bible Belt continues to have some cultural inertia. We are the most politically conservative region in the nation. The South is a wonderful place to live and raise a family. But there's no question churches in conservative Southern states punch way below their weight class. One would be hard pressed to find many places in church history where so many Christians have made so little difference in their culture. Southern Christians do not have to accept the rule of their secular overlords - and yet they do. We all too often think of losing as proof that we are being faithful. We are generally cultural pacifists rather than cultural warriors. For the best features of the Bible Belt to be preserved and advanced, this has to change. I, for one, believe the Bible Belt is worth saving and building upon to create a new Southern Christendom.
@dmichaelclary
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"Blessed are you, O Lord, the God of Israel our father, forever and ever. Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all. Both riches and honor come from you, and you rule over all. In your hand are power and might, and in your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all. And now we thank you, our God, and praise your glorious name.” (1 Chronicles 29:10-13)
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Ian Reagan retweeted
Millstones were made for this.
Just grotesque and evil.
Obergefell did this.
Obergefell must be destroyed.
@MakeKidsGreater
May our theology be an active theology that motivates action! Do what you believe, Do what you profess!
David’s exhortation to Solomon to complete the temple that had been all planned out before him to complete:
“Then David said to Solomon his son, ‘Be strong and courageous and do it…’” (1 Chronicles 28:20)
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Great stories create great men.
“Since it is so likely that children will meet cruel enemies, let them at least have heard of brave knights and heroic courage. Otherwise you are making their destiny not brighter but darker." - C.S. Lewis
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I can’t tell you how fired up I am for a reformed Christian to be in a position of influence in cultural discourse. To add on top of my excitement, it’s a fellow CREC brethren who is unashamed and leans into the word of our Lord!!! @haymes_joshua
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