Here is the article. Weird statement: "Reconstruction has slowly absorbed, congregation by congregation, the conservative Presbyterian Church in America (not to be confused with the progressive Presbyterian Church [USA]) and has heavily influenced others, notably the Southern Baptists."

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Scott Roberts
Ruling Elder, Lakeside Presbyterian Church (PCA)
Southlake, Texas

Sha! As if!

I'll post some links when I find them of Chalcedon responding to the Mother Jones article...

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Chris Rhoades -33
Good Shepherd Presbyterian Church (PCA) Nashville, TN-Under Care

Vera theologia non theoretica, sed practica est; Finis siquidem eius agere est hoc est vitam vivere deiformem. - Martin Bucer
""True theology is not theoretical, but practical. The end of it is living, that is to live a godly life."

Someone's smoking something weird.

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Chris Coldwell, Lakewood Presbyterian Church (PCA), Member
• Naphtali Press: Presbyterian & Reformed Books
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The Regulative Principle: Samuel Miller gives a succinct statement of this principle when he writes that since the Scriptures are the “only infallible rule of faith and practice, no rite or ceremony ought to have a place in the public worship of God, which is not warranted in Scripture, either by direct precept or example, or by good and sufficient inference.”

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Thats a tooooo strange article. Did someone forget that God already knows what the state of things is?

Talk is made of reconstructing society...seems someone should have started when the christians were getting fed to the lions.....as if somehow society at this point in time is something new as far as the immorality goes.....

did I not read something about Sodom and Gomorrah...and was that not more than 20 years ago?

Gods people have always been at odds with 'the world'....seems to me like these people need to figure that out, get over it and get on with Micah 6:8

ya think?

I am sure that the author of the article does not have a clue beyond what he was fed for the magazine...

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Grace Farmer
Member, Mid Cities Presbyterian Church (OPC)
Bedford, Texas

BTW, the PCA news bulletin which mentioned the article describe the publication as "left of center." I had never heard of Mother Jones before.

Is that online? Would you mind posting a link if it is? Thanks!

I was reading a review of a book. The criticism was that the author was a Christian Reconstructionist, which Hal Lindsay calls a form of Christian Nazism. What is up with this?!

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JC
URCNA
PA, but homesick for SC

"Who says you can't go back, been all around the world and as a matter of fact. There's only one place left I want to go, who says you can't go home" Bon Jovi

Thats a new one on me...but if you think about it...any view that differs with his dispy-ness is something that he would not necesssarily agree with. Besides we all know that anyone who does not like something or someone will use the word nazi very very freely and totally out of context.
Of course there are a couple of bloggers out there that advocate the reconstructionsist theme and seem to be those that would have no problem a all stoning other believers of different schools of thought...

Lindsey's polemic against Christian Reconstruction was called The Road to Holocaust. The nazi connection in Lindsey mind was unmistakable.

Tommy Ice, another noted dispensational literalist, wrote a chapter in Dominion Theology: Blessing or Curse? titled "Is Christian Reconstructionism Anti-Semitic?" According to Ice, "The danger lies in their misunderstanding of God' s plan concerning the future of the nation Israel. Reconstructionists advocate the replacement of Old Testament Israel with the church, often called the " New Israel." They believe that Israel does not have a future different from any other nation."

For both Lindsey and Ice these charges are all based on their understanding of CR's so-called "tendencies" and "rhetoric ". It's not real anti-semitism, but rather "theological anti-Semitism." Which simply means you don't have a dispensationalist view of Israel and the church.

This forms the basis of the supposed CR anti-semitism.

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Tom Albrecht
Member, Covenant URCNA, New Holland, PA.

"I'm not a famous man. I'm just a simple country doctor with horse sense."

Chris: It was in an email blast relating to this publication. I don't see it on the web site.

Here's another older version of the story: http://www.publiceye.org/magazine/chrisre1.html

I author of the Mother Jones article could have taken most of his story from this one dated 1994.

P.S. I'm certain I've read the MJ article before, or one so like it that the MJ one is almost plagiarized. All that seems different is the name of the church named in the narrative. It was all "right-wing conspiracy" stuff only with a few men leading it.

[Edited on 1-19-2006 by Civbert]

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R. Anthony Coletti
Midway Presbyterian Church (PCA)
Jonesborough, TN
[i]et venite et arguite me dicit Dominus[/i]

This is true if Karl Marx was center. :P

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Grace and Peace in Christ,

Brett Rader
Member
Redeemer Presbyterian(PCA)
Austin, TX

I didn't even know that holds true for OPC either...

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Ryan
1689 London Baptist Confession

The word 'reconstruction' seems to imply that Christianity lost some sort of struggle and needs to gather its troops and play catch-up with paganism. That just seems silly to me. God has been, is, and always will be providentially in control of all things, including the progression of a nation and its leaders. The heart of a king is in the hands of the Lord. The gospel will be triumphant whether or not America survives as a republic.

Silly? Well, Recons do not hold that position anyway (at least not the Reformed branch). But if you are going to define the terms that way...
Christian reconstructionism is the sanctification of all areas of life.
What does the Bible say about:
Law
Politics
Economics
Education

You might disagree with CR, fair enough, but these are quite valid questions to ask. In fact, do answer the questions in the negative is to maintain that there is an area of life outside of Jesus's lordship.

Now, to the article itself;

This article is part of the reason why I am postmillennial. Sin makes one stupid, as witness the article. Stupidity cannot win in the longrun. Humanism is bankrupt and will self destruct. Humanism is a culture predicated upon the worship of death. While I do not encourage the Republican Party, the Democrats have been killing off their constituency for the past 40 years. Generally, chirren vote the way their parents vote. But in democratic cases the parents have killed the chirrens off. On the other hand, and I will soon post my Heiland article, Christians win by obedience.

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J. B. Atken
John Knox PCA
Layman, M.A. student at Louisiana College

Civbert, you probably did read it before. I read it last November at this site:

http://www.theocracywatch.org/john_s..._mj_nov_05.htm

You will note that the citation in that article says Mother Jones Nov/Dec 2005. From a quick scan, I think it is the same article. Obviously someone forwarded the draft to the theocracywatch people before it went into print and they jumped the gun.

Vic

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R.Vic Bottomly
Providence Reformed Baptist Church, Tacoma, WA

Click to get: Board Rules -- Signature Requirements -- Suggestions?

It's quite left of center.

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Chris
Member at Grace Community Baptist Church, Mandeville, LA

Beware of a religion without holdfasts. But if I get a grip upon a doctrine they call me a bigot. Let them do so. Bigotry is a hateful thing, and yet that which is now abused as bigotry is a great virtue, and greatly needed in these frivolous times. I have been inclined lately to start a new denomination, and call it "the Church of the Bigoted." Spurgeon