john reasnor

In the same way, knowledgeable, influential, and capable women in certain Christian circles are treated like a threat to insecure men. Like a rageful Call of Duty gamer ready to throw his controller across the room, many comparatively low-intelligence, less influential, and less capable men throw temper tantrums on Twitter because certain women are making them look bad.

Sometimes evil men will fight for righteous causes.

In an ever-increasingly polarizing and tribalistic society, it's more important than ever to understand this. More than that, it's vital that we stand with God first rather than any tribe, movement, cause, church, or so on.

Christians, let me be very clear. Dobbs expressly codifies the idea that the life of the preborn is not a fundamental right. This decision negates federal protection of abortion but also blocks federal protection of the preborn.

John MacArthur was my father's favorite preacher. My dad, a retired Baptist preacher, used to order his sermon tapes, and I remember listening to MacArthur in the car with him. It was usually either MacArthur or the Eagles.

All other factors being equal, why is it that we often choose to advocate for the rich and powerful against the weak and vulnerable? I often hear that we can't assume that David is a rapist, but why is it considered normal to assume that Bathsheba was an adulterous harlot? Brothers and sisters, all other factors aren't equal in this story.

When we look to ourselves instead of Christ, when we lean on our works, when we believe that what we do is what sustains us, this is a denial of the one and only Gospel that saves. No matter what cultural war rages around us.

Over the years, many things have been labeled as occultic or pagan by certain sects within Christianity. Holidays such as Halloween, Christmas, and Easter, as well as certain kinds of stretches and personality tests, have been condemned as "pagan." What is less evident in these condemnations is what the condemners actually believe paganism is. So let's discuss that.

In a world, and sadly also a Church, obsessed with power, one of the most striking and beautiful things about the Gospel is how it turns worldly authority dynamics on its head.

Either Salem Books Publishing is unaware of Chicago standards and is still using them as an excuse, or he doesn't care that Voddie's book includes these severe ethical problems. It would have been better to admit to a severe formatting mistake (as best), but now the publisher is left with defending a version of the Chicago style that doesn't exist.

But what’s the response of the right-wing? Instead of saying, “you know, being compassionate is a good thing, but this is how to really care for people well,” the right-wing has instead decided to market themselves as the assholes who don’t care about anything but the “facts” and “statistics.”

There’s a high statistical likelihood that at least some of the calloused, shock-jock, far-right commentators who dismiss, minimize, or outright mock the importance of mental health are suffering greatly and silently with their own mental health problems.

Pastor Doug Wilson and Christ Church elders played a central role in overturning justice and placing a young child within reach of a serial pedophile. The sexual predator then, tragically, acted on his perverse desires. In doing so, the elders who placed this child in harm’s way, and then in their denial of any wrongdoing, are unfit for public ministry. They are the shepherds who let wolves into the flock. They are the keepers of a goring ox let loose upon the people of God. There is forgiveness in Jesus Christ for this sin, but our leaders are to be above reproach. Let us fear God rather than men in this ordeal.

I just went back and read what I wrote four months ago concerning COVID-19. When I decided to go back and read my 53 thoughts, I expected to be proven wrong on a few points. After all, so much has changed. We have gone through various popular conspiracy theories, the official story has shifted more than once, and there seems to be a new COVID related controversy every week. Instead…

Blame-shifting is among the first sins committed by man. When both Adam and Eve decided to disobey God, it was not long before Adam shifted the blame to another. When God called to Adam in the garden to hold him to account, Adam pointed to Eve, not himself. It is significant that God called to Adam first and not to Eve. This does not lessen her sin, but it does speak to the leadership role Adam should have played and did not. Adam, as a covenantal head, bears responsibility. It was not just for himself and Eve; fallen humanity has Adam as their covenantal head. Instead of protecting the woman, correcting the woman, loving the woman, he went along with her sin and became a party to that sin. Then he blamed her.

A few years ago Joel McDurmon and myself exchanged articles debating the merits of incrementalism in the context of abortion legislation.

We serve a King that wept over Jerusalem (Luke 19:41-44) and who also turned over tables (Matthew 21:12). We serve a King that gently comforts and sternly judges. In a world of hypersexualization and gender confusion, Christians should be very careful not to reductionistically assign some characteristics of our Lord Jesus as “masculine” and others as “feminine.” Not only is this overly simplistic and almost cartoonish versions of masculinity and feminity not biblical, but they can also be very dangerous and lead to only more gender confusion. I can’t answer all of these difficult and complex questions, but I can offer a warning.

Historical southern slavery indeed has some artificial and shallow similarities with Biblical slavery. No dispute there; after all, they are both often just called “slavery” with no qualification. But, brothers and sisters, do not be confused; they are not in the same category, even broadly speaking. Southern slavery, as it actually was, has as much to do with Biblical slavery as a righteous Leviticus 24:17 death penalty has to do with a thug murdering a woman in a random back alley. They are both a form of “killing,” but one is justice and leads to redemption, while the other is lawless, evil, and pure destruction.

Donald Trump has become widely proclaimed as “the most prolife president ever.” I agree. 

What does this teach us? It teaches us that if someone does what they can for good (according to God's Law) with the position or political power available to him, God will judge him according to his actions. God will not judge him or her based on how Godly that government is insofar as that lack of godliness is not dependent on the Christian. God will not judge him or her based on what other people do in that same government. A faithful second in command of all of Egypt is not guilty of the blatant tyranny and idolatry of the government of Egypt. Likewise, a faithful modern State Representative is not guilty of the blatant oppression and idolatry of the US Government. Further, Christians voting for a sold bill of abolition, or voting for a good man, is not "violence" or an endorsement of any kind of injustice. 

While debating immigration with fellow Christians, I have grown very used to seeing the same bad arguments over and over again. In addition to these five “biblical” reasons to oppose immigration, there is also more abstract reasoning such as common fear and xenophobia. However, out of the attempts to use scripture to justify strict border control, these arguments have been, by far, the most common. 

In 1992 David Chilton gave this lecture on "Ecclesiastical Megalomania" at the Third International Conference on Christian Reconstruction. Though links are sometimes shared of this lecture, I wanted to highlight it once again. Megalomania, especially of the ecclesiastical variety, is a disease upon the church, and this lecture puts forth some basic principles having to do with authority and submission in the context of the local church.