day no. 16,847: too great a disctinction

“The Nation that makes a great distinction between its scholars and its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting done by fools.” — Thucydides

The church that makes too great a distinction between its politics and its doctrines will have its policies determined by pagans and its creeds defined by communists.

The church that is all politics has a national flag behind the pulpit and the news cycle for its sermons. 

The church that is all beliefs has a Bible on Sundays, but not one on Super Tuesday.

Thinking and fighting go together like religion and politics. They are to be differentiated, but never separated. They can be discussed in isolation, but they cannot be done that way.

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

Religion is political because Christ is King. Politics is religious because Christ is the King of all kings. Thinking is warfare because Christ imposed enmity between the seed of Eve and the seed of the serpent. Warfare is thoughtful because Christ died on purpose.

day no. 16,846: whoever trains the children, controls the future

“Whoever trains the children controls the future.” — Steve Wilkins, The Public School Movement

This principle is in place whether or not it is pursued faithfully in covenant with God or wickedly in covenant with sin. The way they are raised is the way the children will go. This, of course, is not entirely without exception, but it is to say that exceptional circumstances are required in order to change this trajectory. This principle is a gift of God to godly parents who stand on His promises, but it can serve as a curse to those who take for granted the grace of God. The wicked watching from outside the covenant have not been blind to the potential that parenting provides for the future; and not wanting children of their own, they have set their sights on the spiritually orphaned children of the covenant with an eye to convert them to apostasy.

“Without undervaluing any other human agency, it may be safely affirmed that the Common School, improved and energized, as it can easily be, may become the most effective and benignant of all the forces of civilization.” — Horace Mann

Sin has not missed the memo.

Schools do more to shape the future than Sunday mornings; not because Sunday mornings lack power or effectiveness, but because the Lord's Day was never meant to replace the six days of schooling that takes place when sitting in one's house, walking by the way, lying down in the evening, or rising up in the morning.

School is wherever you are being taught.

"You may not be paedobaptist or postmill, but the left is and that's why they're winning." — Ben Merkle

You may not lay claim to your children or to the future, but that isn't stopping sin from doing so. It has no reason to assume its success, but nevertheless, it arrogantly plows ahead. You, however, have promises from God in His Word about your children. It is not arrogant to believe them. It is not priggish or presumptive to have faith in God. Our children belong to Him and so does the future. In Christ, our children will be kept in covenant and the future conquered by Him through them.

The future belongs to those who want it bad enough to fight for it now. The meek, who will inherit the future, do so not because they hung back, but because they girded themselves up under the mighty hand of God, and got to work.

day no. 16,845: Atticus is SIXTEEN

Happy 16th Birthday, Atticus!

It is hard to believe that we are celebrating one of the last several birthdays you will have in our home. Before you know it, you will wake up to your first birthday at a different address. You will thank God for your life, your breath, and everything else, check your phone and see a birthday wish from me and your mother with a video of your siblings singing to you likely to follow later that morning. You will, in all likelihood, be local enough to stop by and say Hi and we will sing and celebrate the man you have become and growing into.

But today and for now, you are still here, but you are now 16.

I am excited to meet the man you will be on that day when you have to "come home" for Christmas. I don't know all of the details of what he will be like or how he will have grown, but I do know that I will love him, like him, respect him, and welcome him home with a handshake and a hug.

Here is a list of things I enjoy about you now and am excited to see grow up:

You are a great artist. I love your graphic novels and am looking forward to diving into The Hands of Fate over my Christmas break.

You are a gun enthusiast. It will be fun to watch your interests grow with your opportunities to acquire more gear and practice your plinking.

You are tall. Are you done growing yet? Time will tell. God is giving you your own personal ladder. They're called legs and the top shelf is no obstacle for you. Hanging your Christmas lights on your home someday will be a breeze.

You are smart. You like to know what's going on and to think about what you think about what's going on. This will bode well for the world to have more men with eyes in their heads and thoughts behind their eyeballs.

You are a good friend. You enjoy having fun with your friends at church and like spending time with people. You make friends easily, like at the Christy airsoft battles. You are easy to like.

You are a hard worker. You do a great job of getting up on time and getting after your work when out on Mr. David's farm. You have earned his respect through your hard work. Respect is earned. It is the best paycheck. And you have been building up a good bank account.

You have initiative. You are not scared to chase down what you like. You know what you want and want to be turned loose to go get it. This will be a blessing to your family .

You are handy. While I was away for work a few weeks ago, you fixed the dryer. You understand basic mechanics and know how things fit together. You aren't afraid to take things apart because you are sure you will be able to put it back together.

You are funny. You don't always crack wise, but when you do, you crack well.

You are a good son. I like being your dad. You love the people I love. You love your mom and your siblings and your church and your God.

I am proud of you.

Happy 16th Birthday, Atticus.

Here's to many, many more.

Love, Dad

day no. 16,844: history is the outworking of religious commitments

“Inescapably, history is the outworking of religious commitments.” — R.J. Rushdoony, Non-Interventionism as a Constitutional Principle

Whatever we see happening on the surface is a result of religious undercurrents. Worship is never without works. Faith is never void of follow through. The fingertips reveal the heart. What men push for is what pushes them.

"Culture is religion externalized. It is the form that religion takes in the lives of men." — Henry Van Til, The Calvinistic Concept of Culture

Pop culture is the product of pop religion. Popular religion has a "I'm proud of my culture" sticker on the back of its electric vehicle. The prevailing religion in the West is on display on our billboards. Our television screens are merely private billboards where we choose the advertisements we like best and play them on repeat.

Without revival there will be no reformation. We cannot rebuild Christendom with lukewarm bricks. The first place the kingdom needs to be made manifest is in the hearts of men. Where God is moving men, He will move them to build. Men made in the image of God and remade in the image of His Son are not consumers of someone else's culture, but creators of Christian culture beginning in their habits lived out in their homes and then extended out to their respective heritages.

day no. 16,843: God alone constitutes a majority

"There is no longer any room for hope. If we wish to be free-- if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending--if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained--we must fight! I repeat it, sir, we must fight! An appeal to arms and to the God of hosts is all that is left us! 

They tell us, sir, that we are weak; unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot? Sir, we are not weak if we make a proper use of those means which the God of nature hath placed in our power. The millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us. The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, sir, we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable--and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come. 

It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace-- but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!” — Patrick Henry, March 23, 1775

God alone constitutes a majority. The man who acts in accord with His commands does not act alone. He is never rogue.

2 Kings 6:15-17

And when the servant of the man of God was risen early, and gone forth, behold, an host compassed the city both with horses and chariots. And his servant said unto him, "Alas, my master! how shall we do?" And he answered, "Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them." And Elisha prayed, and said, "Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see." And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.

He is no renegade who relies entirely upon the written, immutable Word of God Almighty. He is no slave to self or State. He is free in Christ before God and man: clean in conscience and clear in conflict.

"One man with God is always in the majority.” — John Knox

God alone is the only majority. Anyone joining Him merely joins the majority. He is never the minority. He cannot be outvoted. Anyone to whom He gives grace is a minority. He cannot be strong-armed into action. Anytime He shows mercy, He shows it to an inferior. He is a majority who looks out for the needs of minorities. He is a majority who is not exclusively self-interested. He is the kind of majority who leverages His position to set the minorities free.

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.

The one who walks with God never walks alone or in shackles.

day no. 16,842: men cannot honor a past that indicts their present failures

"Men cannot give a meaning to history that they themselves lack, nor can they honor a past which indicts them for their present failures." — Rousas John Rushdoony, The Biblical Philosophy of History

Man cannot create meaning. He cannot extend to history what he doesn't have. Man cannot manufacture and export existential value. He doesn't have the ability to produce it or the authority to confer it. He also cannot import the meaning of history into the present without being tongue-lashed by the past. He cannot be a prodigal who runs home unrepentant. He cannot return to the past without reforming his present behaviors. And since man has no intention of being humbled, he doubles down on his pride and invents religions as though they were meaning machines and ignores the past as though it were not meaningful.

Psalm 78:1-11

Give ear, O my people, to my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old: Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done. For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children: That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children: That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments: And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not stedfast with God. The children of Ephraim, being armed, and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle. They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in his law; And forgat his works, and his wonders that he had shewed them.

History tells us of some fathers who forgot God and fell and others who lived to report it. Our faithful fathers differentiate themselves from our false fathers by living to tell the stories of God's faithfulness of our false father's unfaithfulness. Our covenant keeping kin have survived to relay the tales of our covenant breaking brothers.

“People who take no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors will never achieve anything worthy to be remembered with pride by remote descendants.” — Thomas Babington Macaulay

We must honor our covenant keeping kindred while heeding their warning regarding our covenant breaking forebearers.

"Men who raise families that remain in fidelity to tradition will end up with descendants ruling the world.” – E.H. Looney (cf. Psalm 112:1-2)

We must not keep the traditions of our false fathers, but we must keep the traditions of the patriarchs who endured the disdain of our covenant breaking brothers in order to preserve for us the faith once for all delivered unto the saints.

day no. 16,841: John Smith was better attuned to nature than Pocahontas

"The revival of natural law thinking among Protestants today has led many to see in nature more than the Hobbesian red and tooth and claw. This is a positive development, but let us not fall into the opposite error, into the Disney-fied view of nature in which benevolence alone domesticates nature, somehow making the crops grow and wild animals prance and dance around us. John Smith was better attuned to nature than Pocahontas." — Stephen Wolfe, The Case for Christian Nationalism

You cannot properly understand the world without knowing the Word. A Christian is better equipped to take dominion than a noble savage. That isn't to say that noble savages cannot rise to the level of their understanding, but it is to say that a Christian worldview rises above noble savagery. It is uniquely capable of viewing the world correctly and of shaping it according to the commands, purposes, and pleasure of its Creator and Sustainer.