day no. 17,405: barbaric and baseless

"We live in a terrible time of war and rumor of war; with a barbaric danger of the real reaction that goes back, not to the old form, but to the old formlessness. International idealism in its effort to hold the world together in a peace that can resist wars and revolutions, is admittedly weakened and often disappointed." — G.K.'s Weekly (1936)

In the beginning the earth was formless and void and then God spoke form, structure, and distinction into existence. Paganism wants to return to the void, Christendom wants to return to the Garden. Barbarism is based on chaos. It places its faith in the randomness of its impulses which this day might be to tear something down and tomorrow might be to build a golden calf. Barbarism is baseless. It is not orderly. It is interested in deformation and defamation, not in reformation and exaltation. Christendom wants to return to the revealed forms of God's good earth and to give Him glory in doing so. Barbarism wants to burn it all down and trash the reputations of all involved along with it. Christendom is honoring your father and mother incarnate. Barbarism is following your heart on steroids.

"Christianity could draw life out of the depths of Paganism; but mere Modernism cannot draw on the depths of either." — G.K.'s Weekly (1936)

Once upon a time, pagans really were searching. They were not rejecting revealed truths, they were searching for any truths. They could see the stars in the skies and the seasons of the year and their hearts and minds gravitated toward explanations. Christendom came along with answers. Christendom can see where the pagan was on the right track. Modernism, on the other hand, cannot see anything good in either. They mock the pagan for his simplicity and the Christian for his complexity. They belittle myths and benight the truth. They are too smart to be taken in and too stubborn to be taken out of their chronological snobbery.

Christendom can sift the good, if there is any to be found, out of anything that has any good in it. Modernity cannot be bothered by sifting through anything and rather insists on inventing new ways to be hackneyed. Because they ignore the past, they repeat it under the guise of "new and improved." It is Christ or chaos. You will worship the Creator and your will bow to the void. You will bring glory to God on purpose through faithful worship or you will bring glory to Him by accident through the judgment you store up for yourself.

day no. 17,389: free to give and costly to get back

"Freedom is already being lost in a network of police prohibition... English liberty may well be entirely lost. I should not write this if I did not think that it may also be saved. But I could not write it without recording my own conviction that there is only one way of saving it." ― G.K. Chesterton, The Illustrated London News (1920)

Freedom can be freely given away, but it cannot be taken back that way. 

Galatians 5:1

Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.

If you have been set free, you must resist the temptation to use your freedom to enslave yourself. Freedom is full of responsibility and that can be a heavy burden to carry, so heavy that some opt for the weight of chains. They prefer bondage and endless bureaucracy to the weight of personal responsibility and endless liberty.

John 10:9

I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.

When attempt to break yourself free from the kingdom of Christ, you break away from the kingdom of freedom. You do not find open prairie beyond the fence, you find the abyss. Inside the fence through the narrow gate, there is space to play, but outside the gate and beyond the fence is only the void.

"We have lost our national instincts because we have lost the idea of that Christendom from which the nations came. In freeing ourselves from Christianity, we have only freed ourselves from freedom. We shall not now return to a merely heathen hilarity, for the new heathenism is anything but hilarious." ― G.K. Chesterton, The Illustrated London News (1920)

There is no heathen hilarity waiting to embrace those who adopt a libertarian pipe dream. There is no freedom at the end of the road of every man doing what is right in his own eyes. You do not get Heaven on earth like that, you get the book of Judges. If we are to be free, we must return to Freedom. He is the way, the truth, and the life and no one comes to the Father or to freedom but through Him. Getting back to Christ will cost us a lot. Not just something, but everything. And if we are not willing to give up whatever gains we imagine we have found without Him, we will never get back to the font of freedom that gave us the freedom in the first place.

day no. 17,385: back when the pagans were orthodox

"The England of the 17th century was so saturated with Biblical, Puritanical, Protestant theology, that everybody was orthodox, even the pagans." — Douglas Wilson, Plodcast #426: Why Aren't More People In Jail

The pagans of yesteryear were more orthodox than the professing Christians of many in our day. Christendom had so saturated the world in 17th century England that the most reprobate sinner knew his catechism. He knew what he was rejecting and he knew that he was rejecting it. He did not reject the existence of God or His claim over him per se, he rejected his duty to obey Him. He did not dispute the duty, he simply failed to fulfill it. This is not a better situation for the unconverted per se, at least not eternally, but it is a better situation for society in general and arguably better for even the unconverted in the meantime as it provided the option of repenting of their unrepentance.

"Everybody was ostensibly a cultural Christian. Almost all of them had been baptized in infancy into the church. But the Reformation had been so thorough and so widespread that everybody knew the categories: these are the converted people and these are the unconverted people... In these days, it appears from how Baxter talks to them that he is fully expecting the unconverted to identify themselves as unconverted: 'Yes, I'm a Christian. Yes, I'm baptized. Yes, I go to church. And Yes, I'm unconverted." — Douglas Wilson, Plodcast #426: Why Aren't More People In Jail

Christendom does not guarantee that everyone will be Christian in the sense that they will go to Heaven when they die, but it doe guarantee that everyone will be Christian in the sense that they will belong to the visible church and have to break with it in the invisible recesses of their heart. It required an honest rejection of the claims of Christ without rejecting His right to claim them.

Oh, that we may once again live in a land where the most unconverted neighbor is conversant in the catechisms. This brings the weight of the law to bear on everyone, even those who do not claim to worship its Giver. This is Calvin's second use of the law with it acting as a restraint or a deterrent to the behavior of those who were not believers, and whose depravity could otherwise manifest into all manner of lawlessness. Those who oppose Christian Nationalism on Christian grounds are depriving pagans of their opportunity to be better men.

They shall come mild as monkish clerks,

With many a scroll and pen;

And backward shall ye turn and gaze,

Desiring one of Alfred's days,

When pagans still were men.

— G.K. Chesterton, The Ballad of the White Horse

Unbelievers and believers used to have more in common. Pagans knew enough to know that they were looking for answers. In that, they and the Christians agreed. Life had a meaning somewhere out there and we are all obligated to obey whoever it turned out to be and whatever it is they wanted from us. They disagreed as to who or what it was, but agreed on the premise that there must be a who and a what in order for everything else to hold together.

C.S Lewis' Christmas Sermon for Pagans emphasizes the same sentiment as Chesterton does here. Give me a good ol' fashioned pagan any day compared to what we have now. The intelligentsia of the enlightened modern man refuses to look up for answers. While the old fashioned unbelievers saw animals in the stars, they at least were looking in the right direction. Modern unbelief doesn't only refuse to believe in the one, true God, but fails to believe or take the time to consciously concoct an alternative. That doesn't mean they don't have a belief system, but highlights the fact that they don't know that they even hold to one.

"The modern world is filled with men who hold dogmas so strongly that they do not even know that they are dogmas. It may be said even that the modern world, as a corporate body, holds certain dogmas so strongly that it does not know that they are dogmas." — G.K. Chesterton, Heretics

The problem with modern man isn't that he has become modern, but that he is no longer a man.

day no. 17,320: american milk and honey

“Jesus is either the Messiah promised in the Old Testament, or He is not. There is no real way to split the difference on such a question. If the claim is false, then Christians are guilty of perpetuating the most preposterous fraud ever. If the claim is true, then pious Jews studying the Old Testament are like Shakespeare scholars who have devoted their lives to the study of Hamlet, but who have failed to recognize the prince of Denmark. As just mentioned, it is not possible to have Jesus be the Messiah ‘for the Christians' and not the Messiah ‘for the Jews.’ That might seem like a mild form of relativism, but relativism always metastasizes.” — Douglas Wilson, American Milk and Honey

Either Christians understand the Old Testament better than the Jews or they don't. If Jesus is the Christ, then they understand the prophets better than the Jews. But if Jesus is not the Christ, then the Christians have utterly confused and possibly even corrupted the teachings of the Old Testament.

“After the destruction of the Temple in AD 70, all they had left were their erroneous traditions. This is why modern Judaism is best considered a heresy of the Old Testament faith, and not a representation of it. To be a Christian is to maintain that the fulfillment of the Old Testament is in the Christ of the New Testament, and not in rabbinic Judaism.” — Douglas Wilson, American Milk and Honey

Modern Judaism is a Christian heresy. Since Jesus is the Christ, the entire Bible is Christian, thus making modern Jews heretics and apostates.

“The traditions that Jesus so violently rejected were the traditions of the first half of the Talmudic stream. Indeed, the Talmudic traditions of the elders were the reason why Jerusalem was judged so severely.” — Douglas Wilson, American Milk and Honey

Jesus rejected Talmudic Judaism. He confronted it and was killed by it. He rose from the dead to overcome it and came back in 70 AD to put an end to it. Jesus judged Jerusalem for its sins, the primary one being its rejection of Him and secondarily being its rejection of the prophesies concerning Him.

“So according to Christ, the rabbis had been supplanting the teaching of the Word of God for the sake of their traditions, and they had been doing this for centuries [Mark 7:6-13]. To be clear, what Jesus is talking about here is a gradually forming Talmud.” — Douglas Wilson, American Milk and Honey

The perverting of God's Word had been ongoing for sometime, but it did not fill up the measure of its sins until it met Jesus and rejected Him. Not only that, but it plotted against him and jury rigged a case against Him in order to snuff Him out. It did not merely reject Him for their own purposes, but it tried to ensure His wholesale rejection by having Him killed.

“Many Christians, particularly some in the dispensational tradition, regard our differences with the Jews as extreme denominational differences, but still somehow within the pale. But modern Judaism is not the religion of the Old Testament. It is something else entirely. It is not the biblical faith with Jesus left out.” — Douglas Wilson, American Milk and Honey

Judaism is not just the Old Testament faith marching past Christ until our present day. The Old Testament faith culminated in the coming of Christ. Adam was a Christian. Abraham was a Christian. Moses was a Christian. David was a Christian. They looked forward to His day.  There was no way to hold the Old Testament faith that did not involve looking ahead to the Messiah. You cannot reject the Messiah and say that you are still in the Old Testament faith. To reject Jesus is to admit that you were never part of the Old Testament faith. Whatever you believed and continue to believe at that point, based on your rejection of Him, is apostate, heretical, and antichrist in its inception. Any form of Old Testament religion that continued after the ascension of Christ was antichrist by nature. It was based on a rejection of Him. That was the foundation of the faith. The destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD removed any attempt to pretend differently. The old system came to an end. The only way to perpetuate something beyond that was to hold to a heretical version of it you already had for such a time as this.

“The New Testament warning, delivered to the Gentiles, is [to] not become like your persecutors. Do not turn into your adversary. If you turn into what you hate, it indicates you only thought you hated their sleek arrogance of power. You didn’t hate it—you envied it.” — Douglas Wilson, American Milk and Honey

Christianity hates Judaism the way it hates Islam. Both are Christian heresies and both should be met with fierce opposition. But we do not hate the Jews the way the Jews hated Jesus. We do not hate the Muslims the way they hate us. We hate Allah because we hate evil. We hate Judaism because we hate evil. But we love our enemies. We love them well by opposing them well. And it goes without saying that supporting their efforts is not opposing them well because it is not opposing them at all.

day no. 17,319: apostasy and liberty

"Religious liberty was a development that grew up out of the Protestant West. It is our baby. We invented it. So people shouldn’t talk as though a decided Protestant culture is the enemy of such liberty . . . it is the historic foundation for it. So a Protestant approach to religious liberty will preserve the maximum amount of religious liberty, including for Catholics, while an absolutist and blind embrace of the idol 'religious liberty' will destroy religious liberty. We must have fences; we must have form and freedom together. Christ can provide that, while the Void provides nothing." — Douglas Wilson, Virgin Mary Parades in a Free Republic

We live in a time where people utilize their freedom of speech to deride the thing that gave them that freedom. That is permissible, but it is foolish. They should be allowed to be stupid, but their stupidity should not go unchallenged. You can make an idol out of the second commandment just as you can make one out of the first amendment. There is a way to use a regulation to cause irregularities. There is a way to use freedom to restrict freedom. 

Freedom of conscience and freedom of speech are not secular values. Time and chance acting on matter do not produce "diversity is our strength." Only apostasy can create such a thing. The secular West is merely the apostate West. It is like the prodigal son spending all its inheritance on worthless things. It has money in the bank because of where and when it was born, but it can only waste its inheritance on loose living. It cannot build any capital that way. It will have nothing to pass along, even the freedom of speech and conscience that it has enjoyed will be taken from its children if it does not come to it senses in the midst of the pig slop.

Unless the West returns to Christ, it will starve to death.

John 6:35

And Jesus said unto them, "I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.”

day no. 17,293: national poisons and local antidotes

“The national antidote generally grows wild in the woods side by side with the national poison." — G.K. Chesterton, What I Saw in America

God often provides the cure to be in the same proximity as the poison. Where racial vainglory and bigotry are poisoning the well, honor and humility grow nearby. Honoring your father and mother does not require you to dishonor someone else's father or mother. God has made a way for everyone to obey without anyone having to hate their neighbor. You can be proud of your people without disparaging other people. There are ample reasons to be embarrassed by our parents and to be proud of them. If you point out only the embarrassments of other people's parents while pointing out only the achievements of our own, we sin against our neighbor. We must remember our people's faults and the achievements of other people's parents. I say this merely because the temptation is to overlook your culture's faults and fixate on the faults of others. The opportunity for humility is near by the one to honor. Anyone can honor God by honoring their parents while not repeating their sins. 

day no 17,197: God with us is God for us

“There is one political maxim which comforts me. ‘The Lord reigns!’” — John Newton

Christ is King and the increase of His government will know no end. 

Isaiah 9:7

Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.

Emmanuel is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty and He will remain sitting there until every last one of His enemies has been added to His footstool, save death. At that point, He will stand up and return to look death in the face before putting an end to it forever. Jesus tasted death for us all and He will one day vanquish death once and for all. Jesus escaped the clutches of death when He rose from the dead on the third day. He will provide the death blow to the grave on that final day. Until then, death is on death row awaiting its sentence and Christ is crowned in Heaven as He will be on earth. 

God with us is God for us. 

day no. 17,174: Christendom or Chaos?

“These culture wars have been with us from the very foundation of our nation. They are not something new that erupted when the first hippies started to disrupt Berkeley. From the very beginning, we have had men like Patrick Henry wanting America to take her place among the nations of Christendom. And also from the very beginning, we have had men like Thomas Paine, who wanted something much more like the French Revolution.” — Douglas Wilson, Mere Christendom

Christ or chaos is always the choice before us. It always has been and it always will be. There are no other choices. You will either worship Christ or you will worship chaos. Nations will either be governed by the law of Christ or by the chaos of antichrist. You can drink from the rivers that make glad the city of God or you can not drink from them. But there is no other stream. If you do not drink from the living waters, you will die of thirst. 

Isaiah 55:1-2

Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.

So, with all that said, come. Won't you come? Please come. Don't die of thirst. Not when there is ever-flowing, free grace right in front of you. Get down on your knees and lap it up like a dog. Be baptized in it. Drink it like down like sweet wine and be refreshed. Be washed from your sins and separated from them. Rise again and walk with a clean conscience before God and man. Slake your parched soul in the Savior. If you don't, you will drown in your sins.

“Are you not thirsty?" said the Lion.

"I am dying of thirst," said Jill.

"Then drink," said the Lion.

"May I — could I — would you mind going away while I do?" said Jill.

The Lion answered this only by a look and a very low growl. And as Jill gazed at its motionless bulk, she realized that she might as well have asked the whole mountain to move aside for her convenience.

The delicious rippling noise of the stream was driving her nearly frantic.

"Will you promise not to — do anything to me, if I do come?" said Jill.

"I make no promise," said the Lion.

Jill was so thirsty now that, without noticing it, she had come a step nearer.

"Do you eat girls?" she said.

"I have swallowed up girls and boys, women and men, kings and emperors, cities and realms," said the Lion. It didn't say this as if it were boasting, nor as if it were sorry, nor as if it were angry. It just said it.

"I daren't come and drink," said Jill.

"Then you will die of thirst," said the Lion.

"Oh dear!" said Jill, coming another step nearer. "I suppose I must go and look for another stream then."

"There is no other stream," said the Lion.

— C.S. Lewis, The Silver Chair

day no. 17,131: hate speech and higher learning

“If you want the fruit called religious liberty, you have to want the tree that this kind of fruit grows on. This means that if we want maximum liberty for people who don’t believe in Jesus, then we will have to . . . believe in Jesus.” — Douglas Wilson,  Mere Christendom

People who hate Jesus will be less free under governments that also hate Jesus than they would be under a government that loves Him. Liberty is a Christian concept. It is only a value in places where Christ is valued. Anyone who hates the Lord should give thanks to the void for those that do for they make it possible for haters to have a better life.

2 Peter 2:19

While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.

College campuses promote free speech, but they create a world where opinions are cancelled. Hate speech is the brainchild of higher places of learning.

Galatians 5:13

For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.

Those who use their freedom for the sake of their flesh will end up enslaved to their passions. There is no liberty outside of the Lord.

day no. 17,130: Christian Nationalism is religion and politics in perfect harmony

“I have hazarded the guess that you are not even close to being tired of dealing with the subject of Christian nationalism . . . well, neither am I. The two traditional topics that will get you shushed big time at large family gatherings at Thanksgiving—religion and politics—are very conveniently combined in this discussion, and bundled into just one topic. A model of efficiency.” — Douglas Wilson, Larry Arnn and the Hillsdale Half Step 

Would you like to live in a Christian nation or a nation that produces the kind of people who applaud the assassination of a Christian speaker in broad daylight? I would like to live in a nation where that question is obviously rhetorical. That is not the nation we live in, however. Some people not only need to be asked, but some people actually answer the inquiry by selecting the second option. They are, after all, the ones thanking the void that Charlie Kirk has left the chat. The only way to have a nation where people don't parade their perversions in public is for that nation to return to Christ. The same can be said for a family. The only way to be able to talk about these kinds of things without wanting to kill each other is to be part of a family where Christ is acknowledged as slain for our sins and raised from the dead.

“I never discuss anything else except politics and religion. There is nothing else to discuss.” ― G.K. Chesterton

Christian nationalism is the combination of religion and politics. Discussing either one can make most people uncomfortable so it is not surprising that talking about something that necessarily combines the two makes everyone uncomfortable. That is why many left-leaning, Gospel Coalition friendly Christians do not like Christian Nationalism. It is too political. That is why right-leaning, Fox News friendly conservatives do not like Christian Nationalism. It is too religious. 

day no. 17,124: the deacon of wrath

Romans 13:1-9

Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same: For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake. For for this cause pay ye tribute also: for they are God's ministers, attending continually upon this very thing. Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour. Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

The civil magistrate is the deacon of God's wrath. It carries the sword because it is required to execute justice. Just as deacons in the church of God answer to their elders and execute their orders, so the state answers to God and executes His orders. They are not permitted to slay whomever they find offensive, but only those lawfully convicted of crimes for which God requires execution. Caesar is the only one given jurisdiction to execute, but Caesar does not have the right to define who should be executed. Those orders, like their sword, come from God.

Deacons in the church of God have a fund set aside for them by the elders from the tithes of the people. These funds are at their disposal in answering and responding to immediate needs within the local body. They do not have access to the entire tithe, but only the portion set aside by the elders and designated for these purposes. In similar fashion, the state should not have access to everyone's entire income. In fact, it can, at most, require 9%. The first and the best go to God, so 10% of a person's income goes to their local church. That leaves 90%. If the state takes their full 10%, that amounts to 9% of the person's overall increase. This leaves the person in question with at least 81% of their increase when all is said and done.

The state must use their 9% to execute justice. If their scope is limited to their God-given jurisdiction, they should find themselves adequately compensated for their duties. They carry the sword and must keep them sharp and cleaned up after the fact. If the state, however, uses the sword to try to take more than 9%, it is in violation of its authority and outside its God-given jurisdiction. God has not permitted Caesar to define what is Caesar's. He has reserved that right to Himself. He has not given the state the authority to redefine reality. God is the Dictator. His words define reality and His Word must be obeyed. The state may not contradict or dictate otherwise.

When the deacons of the church allocate portions of the deacon fund to a person or project, they are distributing someone else's money. The deacon fund does not belong to the deacons. It is the church's money and they are its stewards. In similar fashion, the state does not own the taxes they take. They are spending someone else's money. They would do well to remember this when making decisions about how, where, and when to spend its resources. The state owes its people justice and their taxes are to be spent to that purpose (and no other). How much more so then is it prohibited to use taxes to propagate injustice in either harassing otherwise law-abiding people or refusing to apprehend and execute law-breakers?

day no. 17,094: local loyalty and the grace of nations

“Local loyalty follows on the universal brotherhood of all men. The Catholic says, ‘Of course we must love all men; but what do all men love? They love their lands, their lawful boundaries, the memories of their fathers. That is the justification of being national, that it is normal.’” — G.K. Chesterton, The Catholic Church and Conversion

It is a good land that is full of sons who honor their fathers and mothers just like they honored their own. That land is blessed beyond measure. It will go on as it goes with the grain of grace.

Acts 17:26

He hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation.

God has given every man his time and his place. Everyone is born for such a time and such a place as the one they were born. Those who say, "Thank You," will inherit the whole shebang. They get to keep their father's land as they keep their Father's commands.

"For it is a wild folly to suppose that nations will love each other because they are alike. They will never really do that unless they are really alike; and then they will not be nations. Nations can love each other as men and women love each other, not because they are alike but because they are different." — G.K. Chesterton, What I Saw In America

Because Christ is King, every nation has Christ in common. They may not share much else in common, but that, alone, is enough to bind them together more than any common language or customs. The blood of Jesus is a better bonding agent than any shared experience, skin color, or sports team. In Christ, the hostilities are ended and the divine diversities are finally, truly celebrated.

Revelation 7:9

After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands.

The nations are nourished by generations. One thing all men have in common is how much they love their own homes. In that spirit, Christendom will conquer the world. Every man will honor his own father and mother because he loves his home and his heritage. In so doing, he brings great glory and honor to his Heavenly Father above from whom all good and perfect gifts come down.

In the end, the brotherhood of all men will be based on each one honoring his own father and mother to the glory of God our Father. 

day no. 17,086: old guard neutrality and new earth exclusivity

"The Christian Church had from a very early date the idea of reconstructing a whole civilisation, and even a complex civilisation. It was the attempt to make a new balance, which differed from the old balance of the stoics of Rome; but which could not afford to lose its balance any more than they. It differed because the old system was one of many religions under one government, while the new was one of many governments under one religion.” — G. K. Chesterton, The New Jerusalem

The old guard was a system that tried to accommodate many religions under one government. The myth of magisterial neutrality was alive and well and wanted to help all the religious inclined to just get along so that they, the civil magistrate, could just keep their jobs and not spend most of their time refereeing arguments between obscure doctrines they didn't care much about. 

Christendom introduced a new system. One that suggested we try to accommodate apostates and heretics under one religion. Christ is King and come along quietly. That meant, you were free to reject Christ in your heart, but you could not reject His reign. You could be a devotee of Allah, but you could not hold public office with that private conviction.

The old guard is alive and well. Secular neutrality will always make its pitch for being the place where everyone can COEXIST. But that is merely to make the claim that all religions are false. Christendom is the claim that at least one of those religions is true. The rub comes in its insistence that it also the ONLY one that is true. Everyone, however, can only coexist under Christ in a sense. Religious freedom, i.e. freedom of conscience, is a uniquely Christian value. Christendom does not force anyone to profess something they do not believe, but it does forbid anyone who tramples the blood of Jesus underfoot to hold positions of power and influence in the government. The Church has persecuted people's conscience's before, but when they did so, they were wrong. Why? Because Christ forbids. So, I agree with the atheists and unbelievers who say that the Church has gotten this wrong before, but I ask them to identify whose standard it is why which they were wrong to do that. That person, the standard, is the one, true God and His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.

1 Corinthians 15:24-26

Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.

Pluralism is not a plan. The gods will not just all get along. Christ is King. Every enemy will be destroyed by conversion or submission. His footstool will not leave anyone or anything out. He will not fail to conquer someone or something. Everything is the Lord's and everyone is called to repent.

day no. 17,072: nations are normal

“Nationalism is a nobler thing even than patriotism; for nationalism appeals to a law of nations; it implies that a nation is a normal thing, and therefore one of a number of normal things. It is impossible to have a nation without Christendom; as it is impossible to have a citizen without a city. “ — G.K. Chesterton, Irish Impressions

God made men to be social and it is not good for man to be alone. And so, societies occur naturally in God's good world. In other words, nationalism is normal. 

Genesis 35:11

And God said unto him, "I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins."

One man and one woman united in marriage make more people and raise them together. Those people grow up to marry and make more people. All of those people have something in common and so households are established and nations are born.

Psalms 33:12

Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.

A nation is sons and daughters honoring their fathers and mothers simply because they are their fathers and mothers, but a nation that honors the Lord honors its fathers and mothers because the Lord is God and commands them to do so. The one is normal and natural, the latter is supernatural. Kingdoms come and go, but Christendom only increases.

Isaiah 60:12

For the nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish; yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted.

Any nation that will not honor the Lord will eventually lose its impulse to honor its own fathers and mothers. Bitterness, envy, father hunger, and resentment will reign and fathers and mothers will be deposed. Nations like that dissolve by becoming abominations.

Revelation 21:24

And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it.

Those that honor the Lord will live forever. Everything their fathers and mothers accomplished will be tested by fire and that which was built of gold, silver, and jewels will only be made better. It will endure in the new earth. The treasures of the nations will bless the other nations as they gather under one crown, the Lord Jesus.

Christ is King.

Christendom come.

day no. 16,959: along came the Rock

And the face of the tyrant is darkened,
His spirit is torn,
For a new King is throned of a nation—

A child is born.

— G.K. Chesterton, The Nativity

Herod hated the idea of another king. His cowardice feared the foretold Christ and his countenance fell at the tales of His fruition. So, he had the sons of Bethlehem slain. He cast a wide net in order to catch the Christ and killed more kids than he needed to in order to make sure he could accommodate the mystical math of the prophets. 

Yet, for all of Herod’s froth and bubble, the King escaped his impotent rage and was born. He reigned in His mother's womb before He reigned in the manger. He reigned in the caravan as a kid before He reigned in Cana as the barkeep. He took on the tent of human flesh in order to camp among us. He set up shop and got to work. And the temper tantrums of a tinpot tyrant could not stop the Son of God as He went forth to war.

Herod was deposed and his throne was exposed. He was sitting on sand when along came the Rock.

day no. 16,894: Christian Nationalism — plain and simple

Matthew 28:18

And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.

The entire controversy surrounding Christian Nationalism can be summed up by how you answer one, simple question: "Can the State be wrong?" If you answer, "Yes," then come, and welcome, to Jesus Christ — you are a Christian Nationalist.

Ephesians 1:20-23

God raised Christ from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

If there is no God above the State, then the State is god. 

If there is no absolute above the State, then the State is absolute.

Acts 4:12

Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

If the State can be wrong, then there exists Someone who can tell it that it is wrong. 

That Someone is Jesus Christ.

day no. 16,891: the privilege and the problem of picking

“And ye, O peoples, to whom God gave the liberty to choose your own magistrates, see to it, that ye do not forfeit this favor, by electing to the positions of highest honor, rascals and enemies of God.” — Abraham Kuyper, Lectures on Calvinism

The freedom to choose a husband is only a blessing if it is used to choose a man committed to keeping his vows. The freedom to choose your church officers is only a blessing if it is used to choose good men committed to the church's governing documents. The freedom to choose your magistrate is only a blessing if it used to choose men committed to keeping the terms of the constitution and covenant of the country.

Proverbs 29:2

When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice:

but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn.

The wicked are defined by their breach of covenant. They rule according to another standard. They impose foreign counsel upon their domestic wards. The majority can be wrong. The minority can be right. 

Proverbs 16:25

There is a way that seemeth right unto a man,

but the end thereof are the ways of death.

A purely democratic, popular vote, winner-take-all approach to governance guarantees a standard outside of God will guide, which is to say, it will lead by misleading its people.

day no. 16,885: Christendom come

Matthew 6:9-10

Pray then like this: 

“Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name. 

Your kingdom come,

your will be done,

on earth as it is in heaven.”

Ephesians 1:7-10

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

Philippians 2:9-11

Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Colossians 1:15-18

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.

1 Corinthians 15:24-27

Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For “God has put all things in subjection under his feet.”

Christendom come.

Thy will be done.

On earth as it is in Heaven.

Amen.

day no. 16,883: the dead man who haunted Hitler

"Hitler was obsessed with Kuyper, a man who had been dead for twenty years when Hitler launched his attack on the Netherlands. What high praise for this man whose chief desire was to bring true praise and honor to the Lord Jesus." — George Grant, The Kuyperian Vision of Christ's Lordship

Kuyper was a dead man who haunted Hitler. Kuperian categorical distinction, commonly referred to as sphere sovereignty, and the kingdom of Christ were the bane of Hitler's existence. Kuyper brought the Name of Jesus to bear everywhere and that meant that anyone hellbent on treading anywhere in Christendom would break their own ankles.

"Why did Hitler fear a man that had been dead for twenty years? Hitler feared Kuyper’s view on the role of God in everyday life. For Kuyper believed that God continually influenced the life of believers, and daily events could show his workings. As Kuyper famously said, 'Oh, no single piece of our mental world is to be hermetically sealed off from the rest, and there is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry: ‘Mine!''” — George Grant, The Kuyperian Vision of Christ's Lordship

All of Christ for all of life is a tough nut to crack and people who live that way are not easy to bribe or battle. A people who push Christ to the corner of everything will have a place that is defended from top to bottom, side to side, front to back by the Word of God. A pillar of fire by night and a cloud of smoke by daybreak makes for timid neighbors.

"Kuyper lived out this notion and helped create a culture completely juxtaposed to the world order that Hitler had hoped to impose." — George Grant, The Kuyperian Vision of Christ's Lordship

A culture consumed by Christ is ordered according to His Word. Chaos cannot stand against Christ. Tyranny preys upon disordered people, but well-ordered, free-spirited slaves of Christ cannot be bought or beaten.

"One desire has been the ruling passion of my life. One high motive has acted like a spur upon my mind and soul. and sooner than that I should seek escape from the sacred necessity that is laid upon me, let the breath of life fail me. It is this: That in spite of all worldly opposition, God's holy ordinances shall be established again in the home, in the school and in the State for the good of the people; to carve as it were into the conscience of the nation the ordinances of the Lord, to which Bible and Creation bear witness, until the nation pays homage again to God." — Abraham Kuyper

day no. 16,881: Christ or Christless?

"When a comprehensive Christian worldview is applied to the whole of life even those who protest the claims of the Gospel must live in accordance with its categories." — George Grant

When a person condemns Christianity for stirring up strife, causing wars, supporting slavery, reinforcing racism, sustaining sexism, or cultural conquest, they can only do so using Christian categories of sin. They can only condemn Christianity under the authority of Christ. Without Christendom, there is no foundation from which to declare any of those things to be wrong. Why should a Christian be ashamed of racism? Because Christ is Lord. If Christ is not Lord, why is racism wrong? Says who?

The fact that warmongering, kidnapping, race baiting, misogyny, and brutality are considered wrong (i.e. sinful) is because Christendom has come to bear heavily upon the individual and collective conscience of the world. Because Christ is King, His categories are codified throughout His Kingdom; and that is an everlasting kingdom without earthen borders.

Daniel 7:14

And to Him was given dominion

and glory and a kingdom,

that all peoples, nations, and languages

should serve Him;

His dominion is an everlasting dominion,

which shall not pass away,

and His kingdom one

that shall not be destroyed.

Deplorable acts are only considered to be so because they are Christless. There is no other standard that can be consistently brought to bear upon any thought, word, or deed.