Come Down, Lord!

  Three years ago I decided - along with my elders - to use this blog to make a public statement about Sye Ten Bruggencate.  That post (a response to an article published by The Roys Report ) was followed up by two subsequent posts.  At the time I  believed this was the right course of action.  I had sought the counsel of my own elders as well as some other men I trusted, and it was our view that public statements needed to be made.  Three years have passed, and for me, at least, a great deal has changed.  I can't speak for the other men involved, but if I were to do it again I certainly wouldn't bring matters like these before the public.  I sincerely regret that decision.   I have also come to reconsider what I concluded in that third (and last) post.   Writing on behalf of myself and another minister I said, " It is our considered opinion that Sye has permanently disqualified himself from public ministry." That was, indeed, our opinion at the time. Other minister

When I was examined (in October 2011) by the Canadian Presbytery of the ARP I was asked about Federal Vision.  I told the court it was heresy.  I said I believed Doug Wilson and company were espousing heresy. Following the meeting I was taken aside by men who knew Doug Wilson and urged to consider the possibility that I had misunderstood them.  In the years that followed I encountered many reformed men who thought very highly of Doug Wilson, and the general consensus was that he had been misunderstood.   Over and over again I was told he didn't believe what I thought he believed.  I didn't have the time to pursue it myself, so I chose to believe these men.  I took a charitable view of Wilson and Moscow and eventually began recommending some of their resources, though with some misgivings.   Then, in 2020, Doug Wilson (and the church in Moscow) took a stand against covid regulations.  I was thrilled.  I was still more grateful when (in 2021) Gabe Rench publicly stood up for Cana

Over the course of the last year, I have had plenty of time to privately reflect on what transpired through 2020 and 2021, and I have concluded that on some points I was in the wrong.  I have decided to address those things here.  Some may disagree with what I have concluded, but I write here first and last for Him. First, I believe I was sometimes overly harsh and severe in my writing.  I have since removed several blog posts, which I now believe lacked grace and char ity.  I still believe the churches should have remained open through the lockdowns, but I wish I had written with a better understanding of my own heart and a more charitable view of my brothers in Christ.  I was appalled by what I saw in those days, but in my zeal to speak the truth I sometimes lacked compassion and grace.  Second, when I was wronged by colleagues in the ministry I had a choice.  I could have covered what I believed to be sin, but I chose instead to expose it to the public.  I wrote about some of it on

At the moment discussions and debates over Christian Nationalism are largely confused.  People seem to be talking past each other and little is being accomplished.  Few even agree on what Christian Nationalism is, which means that so far there has been a great deal of heat and very little light. Here I would like to make a case for a kind of Christian Nationalism.  Rather than interact with what others are saying, I would like to lay out (in brief) what I believe is a Biblical vision for the nations.  To do this I will be borrowing heavily from William Symington’s Messiah the Prince .  Symington was a pastor of a Reformed Presbyterian congregation in Scotland during the 19th century.  Raymond P Joseph writes, “Dr. Symington’s outstanding work has proved to be an enduring theological classic, one of the clearest expositions of the Scriptures in support of the proposition that Jesus Christ was appointed by the Father as King over all men and nations (Psalm 2).”  Words by Symington will