Archive for March 2026
Bridal
In reality, and more consistent with early Patristic witness, God’s Word is and so has the highest authority. The reason this is so is that internally, metaphysically, the Scriptures are the Word of God, the Self-revelation of the uncreated mind and will of the Triune God who condescended to cause these to subsist in the form of recorded or inscripturated human language. They are His living Voice. They, the Scriptures, are therefore not merely inspired human speech, not merely spiritually influenced, but God’s own Word speaking through man. This is what gives Scripture its unique, ultimate authority, because God’s Speech has ultimate authority intrinsically. The Church, by contrast, is Bridal, is a creature, is receptive, existing on the side of created being (though, of course, indwelt by the Holy Spirit). But, as Bride, it is only through God’s creative and maintaining Word that the Church is made to be, to exist, God’s Word being the sole cause of the Church and the Scriptures, and so the sole ground of man’s knowledge. This is how there can be a Berean Principle, which exists to show that recourse to God’s Word is recourse to the more fundamental. EOP, however, makes the Church to be not only the arbiter but also the determiner of God’s truth such that recourse to the Berean principle is rendered moot and impossible. (Joshua Schooping, Disillusioned, 163)
Responsive
Eastern Orthodox Presuppositionalism (EOP) is an ecclesiological epistemology, i.e. anti-catholic. In other words, according to EOP, the epistemological ground or cause of knowledge is said to be rooted in Eastern Orthodox ecclesiology, for EOP holds that the EOC is a precondition of intelligibility and knowledge. In contrast, Reformed Presuppositionalism (RP) is rooted in the Verbum Dei, with its epistemological ground seen to be God’s Word, and its epistemological consequence being unto and causative of ecclesiology. Put more simply, the RP position is that we can know the Church because of the transcendentally fundamental nature of God’s Word, not vice versa. The EOP position is that we know God’s Word because of the Church, thus causing the Scriptures and epistemology to submit to the Church (i.e. to ecclesiology).
Now, if the Church becomes a precondition for knowledge, then the Church becomes a viciously circular precondition for its own self-knowledge, and hence self-attesting, self-justifying, and finally irreformable, which is just what we see in the EOC. In other words, EOP epistemology ceases to be Bridal, ceases to be receptively and responsively confirmatory of the Bridegroom’s Word but rather determinative. (Joshua Schooping, Disillusioned, 161, emphasis added)
Irrevocable
For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. (Romans 11:29)
A precise futurist reading of Romans 11 proves too much. Egypt and Assyria (recall their repentance in the time of Jonah) are also objects of God’s calling:
In that day five cities in the land of Egypt will speak the language of Canaan and swear by Yahweh of hosts; one will be called the City of Destruction. In that day there will be an altar to Yahweh in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to Yahweh at its border. And it will be for a sign and for a witness to Yahweh of hosts in the land of Egypt; for they will cry to Yahweh because of the oppressors, and He will send them a Savior and a Mighty One, and He will deliver them.
Then Yahweh will be known to Egypt, and the Egyptians will know Yahweh in that day, and will make sacrifice and offering; yes, they will make a vow to Yahweh and perform it. And Yahweh will strike Egypt, He will strike and heal it; they will return to Yahweh, and He will be entreated by them and heal them. In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian will come into Egypt and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians will serve with the Assyrians. In that day Israel will be one of three with Egypt and Assyria—a blessing in the midst of the land, whom Yahweh of hosts shall bless, saying, “Blessed is Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel My inheritance.” (Isaiah 19)
So too Ammon, Moab, and Elam:
“Yet I will bring back the captives of Moab in the latter days,” says Yahweh. . . .
“But afterward I will bring back the captives of the people of Ammon,” says Yahweh. . . .
“But it shall come to pass in the latter days: I will bring back the captives of Elam,” says Yahweh. (Jeremiah 48-49)
Of course, I do believe that all nations will be brought into the kingdom.
Indeed He says,
‘It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant
To raise up the tribes of Jacob,
And to restore the preserved ones of Israel;
I will also give You as a light to the Gentiles,
That You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth.’ (Isaiah 49)
Its gates shall not be shut at all by day (there shall be no night there).
And they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it. (Revelation 21)
But it is ridiculous to claim that they will be brought into the kingdom in some ossified form that was frozen two to three millennia ago.
The kingdom and the power
I have a recollection that Jordan taught me to think of there being a fairly straight-line relationship between the church’s faithfulness in baptizing her babies, and the world’s being taught by that to practice abortion. But as I’ve done some digging, I think this is maybe an implication that Jordan never explicitly drew out.
Jordan’s four essays on dominion are a helpful prelude to this idea. (Peter Leithart treats these ideas at book length in his excellent book, The Kingdom and the Power.) In his essays, Jordan explores a number of ways in which the church disciples the world. He gives some very specific examples such as tithing and church discipline, but concerning abortion he comments only in general about how it is resisted by the church.
Jordan makes a similar statement in his reflections on reconstructionism:
I tend to think that if abortion stops in this country it will be less because of Operation Rescue—although I’m not totally opposed to rescues—it will be less because of that than because in a whole lot of little churches around this country that nobody ever saw, people were faithful and just doing their work as Christians, and we’re not ripping off their employers, and we’re pleasing God. And God was pleased, and one day he changed Pharaoh’s heart. And then it stopped.
See, causation in history is not what we think it is. The causes of change in history are invisible, and that’s why we have to believe them by faith. We look at history in our history books, and we see political movements change in history. I think when we get to heaven, we’ll find out what actually caused changes in history were a whole bunch of people that we’ve never heard of who pleased God or who angered God and made God do things. You see what I’m saying and what that means practically speaking is we can do that in worship. In church, in the life of the church, the whole body life of the church, focused on Sunday, gives us power, and I think that that the Christian reconstructionist position—the way it’s usually set out—tends to be a little bit blind to that because too much focus is put on things outside the institutional church.
I’m not sure what year that was. In a 1994 tape series he talks about world transformation. He specifically says that “I’m not going to talk about infant baptism in here, but I am going to talk about a church question a little bit more broadly than that and try to get you to see what I think the Bible says about the centrality of the church in the transformation of the world.” That transformation includes the baptism of the nations:
Jesus said in the Great Commission, “Go, therefore, and disciple all nations, baptizing them.” Baptizing what? Nations. How do you baptize a nation? Well, Israel was baptized in the Red Sea and in the Jordan River, and now what Jesus is saying is all the nations are to be baptized. Israel was made into a theocracy. Okay, please don’t get up and run out of the room because I use that word. They were ruled by God. Some people really freak out at this idea of theocracy. A theocracy is a Christian republic under godly laws, okay? Israel was the first. Jesus now says every nation is to be discipled. Every nation is to be baptized and is to go from being a pagan nation to being a Christian nation. What happens when a nation goes from being a pagan nation to a Christian nation? It changes its laws.
Jordan then comments specifically on abortion:
If we try to reform society directly, we will fall into political activism. And there’s a definite place for political activism. I’ve been involved in it one way or the other for 25 years. I’m not opposed to it, but long term it doesn’t work. And now God is forcing us to see this, and I’ve picketed on abortion for a long time. I don’t say this to boast, I just want you to understand where I’m coming from. I’m not anti-political. The first article I ever had published against abortion was in 1970. That’s three years before Roe v. Wade. Abortion was legal in New York State, and I was already writing against it as a Christian activist. So I know what that is and I believe in it, but my experience tells me and the Bible tells me that’s not good enough. Some of this I’ve learned the hard way. And now the RICO bill is going to be used to arrest anybody who does that kind of thing. So we’re going to be forced back on what will we do.
And I’m going to suggest to you that we could get rid of abortion in this country in 10 years very easily. We could get rid of it in a month. I would say in three days. It would take three days to get rid of abortion in this country. But it wouldn’t come through political action, education, family psychiatry, personal renewal, personal discipleship. . . . Well, this kind of direct action does some good, but it doesn’t bring long-term relief. The truth is, the church has to be reformed before anything else can be. The church must be reformed not perfectly, but adequately.
Now, let me give you some biblical perspectives on this. Some of this you’ve heard many times. I’m just going to try to make it practical because here we are talking about church and society and it’s easy for us to begin to think if we write enough letters, if we vote Republican enough times, if we take over Republican Party precincts, if we do all this stuff, that’ll bring change. No, it’ll just bring short-term relief. It won’t bring change.
Jesus says in Matthew 28, “all power has been given to me in heaven and on earth.” Do you believe that? How many don’t believe that all power has been given to Jesus in heaven and on earth? I think most of you do. What Jesus said.
Are you in union with Christ? Yes. Therefore, all power has been given, in a sense, to you. What power? The power to disciple the nations, baptizing the nations, and teaching the nations to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.
Now, we want the United States to shape up. We want the United States to be a basically Christian nation, tolerant of others, but with clean streets, like it used to be. Jesus says all power has been given to him to disciple the nations, and we’re in union with him, and we have access to that power. And we’re the only people who do have access to that power.
So if America’s in bad shape, guess whose fault it is? It’s not the devil’s fault. It’s not Teddy Kennedy’s fault. It’s not Hillary Clinton’s fault. It’s not any pagan’s fault. It’s your fault. It’s my fault. If we have been given the power, and we have, and the country’s in bad shape, it’s our fault.
I haven’t been able to find any place where Jordan directly links infant baptism and abortion, so I think this must be an application that I made over time. I believe it’s a valid application.
I gotta have my orange juice. 