Pastor Scott Lively Corrects Andrew Torba re: "Christian Nationalism"

 

Scott Lively's Mission Dispatch, September 22, 2022, Observations and Action on Current Events, History and Theology. Photo above is at Tel Gezer archaeological site looking west toward Jaffa, Israel. Subscribe HERE. Contact/Comment HERE.  DONATE HERE.

Open Letter to Andrew Torba re “Christian Nationalism” Dear Brother Andrew. I am a Hebraic-oriented Evangelical Christian attorney, pastor and historian who has devoted my entire adult life in Christ to Christian social, cultural and political activism. I bought your book “Christian Nationalism” to support the mission of Gab Social, and want to offer you some constructive criticism.  At the outset, I want to commend you for your courage and vision in taking on the powers and principalities of the present age by working to break the chains of censorship and suppression of free speech, particularly of the biblically-informed views that so powerfully contradict the secular humanist dogma of our Marxist would-be masters. They are the true enemies of “Judeo-Christian” civilization, and of course I choose that phrase intentionally to respectfully contradict your well-intentioned but misguided representation of its meaning and purpose relative to our national identity and heritage.  I will also add that I am both a member of Gab and a vehement defender of your right to address the distinctions between Judaism and Christianity. I do not consider you an anti-Semite, and in fact believe that the secularized ethnic Jews working to destroy your work are actually far more anti-Semitic than they claim you are in that they deny and/or defy the Torah, whereas you worship and revere its Author.  What defines a “Semite” (Shemite) if not Yahweh-worship? It certainly can’t be an ethnic connection to Shem (or Abraham or even Jacob) which virtually all humanity now shares because of genetic diffusion over millennia. No, it must be the practice of true Judaism, whose terms are defined by the Torah and Tanach (Old Testament Scripture), NOT the Talmud (commentaries on the Scripture by various Hebrew scholars with widely divergent views, values and validity).  Indeed, Judaism itself is as factional as Christianity but on a smaller scale, only because it’s so much smaller in numbers. Jews are not just doctrinally divided, but notoriously so! As the famous old joke goes “Ask two Jews, get three opinions.” Thus, to cite the view of any Talmudic “sage” as representative of all Jews or Judaism itself (as you did on page 56) is as intellectually dishonest as an anti-Christian Jew or Secular Humanist cherry-picking from the collective works of Christian scholars to define all Christianity.   You begin Chapter 4 “This is Not a ‘Judeo-Christian’ Movement” asserting that “Christianity and Judaism are totally distinct, incompatible, and irreconcilable religions.” In one essential sense that is true because, as you emphasize, Judaism denies that Jesus Christ is the Messiah. BUT, unlike all the other people groups of the world that also deny Christ (including all the secular factions in our diverse MAGA and populist/conservative movements whom you rightfully seem very comfortable collaborating with), true Torah-faithful Jews believe in A Messiah who will do all the things that Christians anticipate Jesus Christ will do on His second coming. Most Jews simply “missed the bus” on Jesus/Yeshua during His first advent (by God’s own plan), but remain standing in line for the next one, which Romans 11 tells us they WILL catch, when (as God adds in Zechariah 12:10) “I will pour out on the house of David and on the people of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and prayer, and they will look on Me, the One they have pierced [and] mourn for Him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for Him as one grieves for a firstborn son.”  You and I presumably share all or most of that would be considered the most fundamental tenets of the Christian faith, and many non-essential doctrines too. But we differ strongly on “supersessionism” (replacement theology) which you defend as the justification for your personal theology. Importantly, what you have laid out in “Christian Nationalism” is your personal theology, which does not represent Christianity as a whole, but only one slate of views among the constellation of denominations. That’s not a problem insofar as you admit it, and don’t attempt to impose your interpretations on non-essentials as dogma on the rest of Christendom. The flaw in your analysis of supersessionism (page 57) is the appeal to tradition (one of the classic fallacies of formal logic)  Whenever we justify ourselves by church tradition instead of the Bible itself, we depart from sound Holy Spirit guidance to tenuous worldly humanism – the common error behind Roman Catholicism’s self-authorizing “Magisterium” theory and Talmudic Judaism’s self-authorizing “Revered Sages” club. Correcting that error in Christendom was the implicit premise of the Reformation, but unfortunately, the reformers failed to reform numerous extra-biblical human-created doctrines in Protestantism, including the RCC’s dramatic changes to the God’s holiday calendar, the presumed right of the church to enforce dogma through murder (i.e. Calvin’s execution of Michael Servetus), and a severe Greco-Roman cultural bias in interpreting Scripture that differs markedly from the Hebraic cultural perspective of the Apostles and the Prophets. Many of those human-created doctrines were quickly jettisoned as Protestantism splintered into numerous factions, such as Presbyterianism that made the world-changing quantum shift from the top-down ecclesiastical power-pyramid exemplified by the papacy (and Anglicanism) to bottom-up self governance authorized by the “priesthood of all believers” and organized like the Jerusalem Council of Acts 15. THAT is the deepest foundation-stone of America and of the modern movement for constitutionalism (foreshadowed by the Magna Carta in 1215, also heavily influenced by Jews).  The process of getting from Scottish Presbyterianism to the Pilgrim Separatism of the Plymouth Colony was heavily influenced by Christian-Jewish cross-pollination. Indeed, I know from my studies of this, that there would never have been a US Constitution or the populist overthrow of the western monarchies if not for the 16th and 17th Century Hebraic Movement in Holland and Great Britain. And that is why America is and has always been “Judeo-Christian.” It has nothing to do with how many Jews were active in the physical founding of America, or how Christian-centric the first state constitutions were, it is simply an honest acknowledgment of the Jews’ role in nudging Christians back to their First Century heritage that made America possible: a shared intellectual property right, if you will, like co-authors of a book or a scientific theory.  Lastly, you asserted on page 61 “It is impossible to overstate the importance of the historic cataclysm that was the Destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in 70 AD.” Sorry, but it not only IS possible, you have done it. If that post-millennial doctrine were true, the real proof would have been unmistakable over the next thousand years, especially the end, but of course, it didn’t look at all like the Millennial Kingdom of prophecy – because Christ’s earthly kingdom, while very near, has not yet begun. You would know that if you studied the Bible from the literal Hebraic perspective, but you don’t and I respect that as your right within the bounds of Christian liberty.  My point with the prior paragraph is to illustrate that factionalism will be the death-knell to any attempt to build unity on a theological foundation, which is why the Founders and subsequent Christian generations chose the broadest possible platform – Bible-based Yahweh-honoring monotheism (exemplified in our national motto, “In God we trust”) – and not any flavor of Christian sectarianism (which led to many serious conflicts among the denominations in our early days as a nation and thus the ban on establishing state “religions” – meaning “denominations” -- in the “Establishment Clause” of our constitution.)   I don’t expect you to change your theology based on one letter from me, but I do hope you will reconsider your gratuitous exclusionary rhetoric regarding our spiritual cousins in the House of Judah, treating at least the many who share our cultural values (and the all-important Creationist paradigm) with the same basic respect and comradery you show to Atheists in the MAGA and conservative movements. And I offer my assistance in making this necessary course-correction if you care to accept it.  Pastor Scott Lively, J.D., Th.D.

Brown Supremacy at the Public Housing Project in East LA

Driving from Downtown LA through East Los Angeles, I saw this mural on the side of a public housing project.

What is going on here?

Is this some kind of slow-walking reconquista or what?!

This is pretty creepy stuff. I submit that much of the reason why so many Latin American countries are failing is that they are holding onto their pagan roots rather than embracing the full glory of the Judeo-Christian Western Tradition, which rests in the primacy of Christ Jesus, His Finished Work, and the New Covenant.

I made a few remarks about the above mural while driving through East Los Angeles:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46XTqjZdDvY

Breaking: YouTube Strikes Down My Video Against Anti-Semitism for ... Hate Speech!

Yes, it begins.

I can't believe this.

Yesterday (March 29, 2018), I posted a video where I commented on the rising trends of Anti-Semitism emerging on YouTube and among otherwise new conservative, or "Red-pilled" chat groups.

This is ridiculous.

I simply spoke for about ten minutes against the anti-Israel, anti-Zionist sentiment among different alt-right or "conservative" groups. A hostility to Israel has become a new form of chic, as well.

Here's the statement from YouTube:

Here is the video:

I am uploading the video to GAB at this time. It should be ready very soon.

Jordan Peterson, Celebrity Intellectuals, and the Counsel of the Ungodly

Canadian professor and psychologist Jordan Peterson is the latest YouTube pop-culture conservative phenomenon. He deserves recognition. His erudite responses to complex issues are stirring and instructive. He has given hope to young men too long weighed down by an academic diktat toxic to masculinity.

I began listening to his unique insights on many issues, including how to solve problems, find meaning, and understand the complexities of life. I also heartily embrace his recognition that Communism is evil, that we should stop blaming everyone else for our failures, and that human nature is flawed. How badly Western societies need to return to these moral fundamentals. Much of the agony and hatred in this world would cease if human beings recognized that man is born dead in his trespasses, in need of a Savior, in need of a transformation from spirit to mind, which will end in the resurrection of our bodies.

He is also one of the foremost voices speaking against the activism culture sweeping universities. Without mincing words, Peterson rails against social justice warriors, scolding them to get a life and fix themselves rather than directing their hatred and self-loathing victimization at others. His interview with British journalist Cathy Newman was stunning. He took down all her worst examples of left-wing journalistic malpractice without breaking a sweat, and without cursing, swearing, or demeaning the journalist, although she would have deserved it. He is also a celebrated author: 12 Rules for Life: The Antidote for Chaos. God knows this world is chaotic as it’s lost the moral underpinnings of Judeo-Christian values in a sea of -isms.

And yet …

Peterson has been very dodgy on the issue of God. For a man who has disparaged post-modernism and its corrosive influence on our culture, he jumped around the question when asked. “What do you mean ‘God’?” he responded on one interview. What do you mean “what do you mean?”, Dr. Peterson? That was probably the most post-modern answer I had ever heard, despite his savage yet smart denunciations of post-modernism in the past. He could have articulated a conception of God and answered the question. Do you believe in a Creator? Or are you an atheist?  Actually, Peterson has denounced atheism. When it comes to the Jesus question, though, he hedges his bets, and has recently announced that he will come to a decision about Jesus Christ in three years.

Yes, he is also a celebrated author, all well and good. Chaos is instinctively abhorrent to human beings. Even those who just want to watch the world burn have a reason for it. But this cycle of celebrated intellectuals who  spout off ideas and aphorisms in the spotlight is not new. Like Dr. Phil, Marianne Williamson, and Suze Orman, Peterson gives us advice and outlines rules and precepts on how to live, and it all boils down to “Follows these rules, and you can rule over the problems that follow you.”

One problem: mankind has repeatedly tried and failed to fix himself and/or the world around him. If we could repair our flawed natures, Peterson wouldn’t be having extended discussions about the moral evils of this world. He wouldn’t have a job as a psychologist in the first place. The rugged individualism he seems to promote is actually pretty weak, come to think of it. I have noticed that some of his views are rather secular, in conflict with the Bible. We did not create ourselves. So where did we come from? Peterson dodges a question fundamental to our moral, cultural, and political legacies.

When I reflected on these concerns, that Peterson is offering another self-help movement, it amounts to nothing more than “the counsel of the ungodly”. Here’s the verse where I draw this label from:

“Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.” (Psalm 1:1)

I don’t think that Dr. Peterson is malevolent or evil, for “ungodly” means anything that is not of God. But let’s not fool ourselves. All men are sinners who have forfeited God’s glory. (Romans 3:23). To man’s unending consternation, he falls prey to his secret sins (cf. Psalm 19:12), and finds himself unable to remove his faults. This tension exposes an essential dilemma in Western thought. We want to rely on objective metrics, free of jingoism and bias, yet at the same time man is tainted with his own leanings plus the sin principle. We see evil in the world, and yet our efforts seem to create more evil, especially if men apply their limited solutions to everyone, regardless of others’ specific situation. Ultimately, man seeks his own good, whether at the expense of others or not. He establishes rules, yet even the rule-maker cannot make it by his own rules. Such is the riddle and ridicule of man’s fate on the earth when he looks to himself.

The first verses of the First Psalm asserts that our blessings do not flow from man and his company, but God’s Word. This counsel of the ungodly business is a recurring problem in the Body of Christ and the world. We go from one guru, intellectual, and lecturing busybody to another hoping for fixes. Yet sin can’t be fixed. There is no repairing a fallen world. Do we really think that we can rely on ourselves to fix ourselves, when it took a mighty, divine Creator to breathe life into us? Christians should not apologize for basing their world view, their moral compass on the unshakable Word of God.

Man needs redemption and regeneration, the grace of God flowing in our lives through God’s abundant gift of righteousness (Romans 5:17). The answers to life’s problems are not found in the mouths of men who live in the world but in Him who made and then redeemed us. Why not rest in the wisdom of Him who has been from the beginning? (1 Corinthians 1:30; 1 John 2:13).

The Best Way to Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month: Build the Wall!

On October 6^th, 2017, President Trump officially celebrated Hispanic Heritage Month.

Honestly, I have no problem with our President and government recognizing different cultures, as long as they have contributed to the American mosaic. Remember the sage words of Hector Saint John de Crevecoeur, the French-born American farmer who outlined the new American nationality to the world: “What is this American? This new man? He has become an American by being received in the broad lap of our great Alma Mater. Here individuals of all races are melted into a new race of man, whose labors and posterity will one day cause great changes in the world. Americans are the western pilgrims.”

There is the beauty of this wonderful country. Our backgrounds do not predetermine our future, nor undermine our potential. We can celebrate our ethnic heritage while rejoicing in our shared, new identity as Americans. Among those “western pilgrims” include men and women of Hispanic descent. Admiral David Farragut commanded the Union Navy during the Civil War, helped implement the Anaconda Plan to squeeze Southern ports and commerce into submission: “Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!”

Some of the most ardent Hispanic-American patriots have lived in the United States for generations, if not centuries. They include Governor Susana Martinez, who can trace her heritage back to the early 1800s, before the New Mexican territory joined the United States. Today, Latinos for Trump have shaped the political and cultural discussion in my home state of California, as well as other border states like Texas, Arizona, and Florida. Here in Los Angeles, Latinos for Trump, starting with Marco Gutierrez from Discovery Bay, and also including Harim Uzziel (Sephardic Jew as well as Hispanic), Elsa Aldeguer, and many others throughout the Los Angeles region are outspoken in their support for the president. Political correctness did not slow them down or silence their enthusiasm for the President.

Trump’s demand for a wall actually bolstered voters’ respect for him. Peggy Noonan, columnist for the Wall Street Journal and former speech writer for Ronald Reagan, marveled at the staggering number of Latinos who had pledged their support for Trump. No doubt, President Trump reached out very capably to Hispanic communities throughout his campaign. Who can forget Myriam Witcher at the Las Vegas, Nevada event? “I’m Hispanic, and I vote for Donald Trump!”

So, Trump celebrated his first annual Hispanic Heritage Month, and the media gave it scant attention. Wayne Dupree went off on them for their cursory glance at the event, especially following his incredible, industrious efforts in Puerto Rico along with the teams of first responders in the region. (How about the fact that 30% + voted for Trump in 2016).

Instead of reporting on the whole event at the White House, AOL and the Business Insider fixated on someone else: Fredy Burgos, a conservative Republican and active member of the Virginia Republican Party Central Committee, showed up to the White House Hispanic Heritage Month event sporting the trade red baseball cap. The mainstream media went crazy, not just because of the cap, but for what it read: “Build the Wall!”

I could not agree more. This hat was a brilliant trope, a perfect signal for the event, and a ground-breaking moment to advance Trump cause. Since when did the construction of a wall amount to racism? The most contentious moment of the Trump campaign followed from his Phoenix, Arizona speech. “When Mexico sends her people, they’re not sending their best ...” And the rest is political history, and astounding history because in spite of the sage wisdom of consultants, Beltway bureaucrats, and K Street lobbyists, Trump’s stark, critical remarks about illegal immigration and its damaging impact on Americans resonated with voters. He won the election, after all, and many Hispanics for Trump told me that he was spot-on with his remarks.

Like Fredy Burgos, they want the wall! In city council meeting after city council meeting, Latinos for Trump have been outspoken in their demands for border security. One organizer in our movement, Faris Ibrik of Texas, now living in West Hollywood, told me about his life in Mexico. Not only did he not receive fair special treatment while going to school, he faced discrimination of his own, since he was born in the United States, and also of Middle Eastern background.

When Trump sounded the alarm about immigration from Mexico, not only was he not offended, but he decided right then “I’m voting for Trump!” That brings us back to Fredy Burgos. “Build the Wall” his hat declared to the audience and to the world. Defend one’s country is not racist, but an expression of sovereignty.

For Burgos, the wall is more than a concrete barrier for public safety. Cultural Marxism, the disdain for America’s egalitarian Judeo-Christian republic, is undermining us, and Virginia’s political Establishment wants Burgos removed from the Central Committee. But Latino for Trump Burgos won’t be stopped. He wants that wall. A secure border means a secure American identity committed to the E Pluribus Unum vision outlined by Crèvecoeur in one of his letters.

Leaders in different Hispanic communities have declared their support for border security and deportation of illegal aliens. It’s time for the political class in Washington, Republican as well as Democrat, to listen and follow through. If Trump wants to put a perfect finish on Hispanic Heritage Month, then he needs to build that wall! Mexico has a wall. Colombia has secure borders, too. Border walls are not only acceptable, but they are as Hispanic as anything else. The United States needs the wall. Prototypes are lining up in San Diego. The House of Representatives has appropriated $1.6 billion, with another $10 billion to follow. There’s no stopping us now.

President Trump’s outstanding defense of the United States, our flag, and our culture is precisely what we need, American values which President Trump vowed to uphold, defend, and promote. There is no better way for him to do so than to “Build the Wall!”

Flashback: Cheating Chad Mayes Led CAGOP Convention Prayer Breakfast

                     


I attended the late February, 2017 CAGOP Convention.

That was the first convention I attended as a delegate, too.

For the first time, I attended the prayer breakfast on Sunday, just before the Convention

Even then, I was not happy with Assembly Minority Leader Chad Mayes.

He had abstained on SB 1146, the legislation which was initially designed to shut down every Christian college in the state of California. It was watered down, but even then it was still bad, and he should have voted "No".

Also, he was more interested in playing nice than standing strong. I had confronted him about SB 1146 and illegal immigration. He was more interested in playing nice and pretending to listen.

He refused to offer substantive answer, then he ran away from us:

We refused to play nice when we attended his event in Yucaipa:

I had no idea that he was playing hanky-panky with another man's wife, too.

I look back on Mayes leading this prayer breakfast, though.

This is just insane. How can someone have such blinding arrogance?

Of course, I could sense that there were serious spiritual issues with this man. When someone talks about God as "The Lord", and has no sense of warmth or kindness in their spirit, you recognize that this person is just going through the motions.

It's all a veneer. How right I was. I sensed something about Mayes from early on that he liked playing a game, that he wanted to give off a form of godliness, but had no power behind it.