Is apologetics (often) a waste of time?

That is not the point. (You just quoted the proofs for me)

The point is that the Gospel will not save a nation it is more likely to shatter it asunder.

Richard

PS maybe this is a topic worth exploring elsewhere? Can the Gospel unify?

How about something that is simply untrue?

This would depend on whether proponents of this theory consider godliness to be greatness in itself, or whether they expect to be rewarded for it with the actual greatness - a good job, home with a white picket fence in small town America, a nice car, a big telly, bikes for the kids, health coverage and a guaranteed retirement for everyone.

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If your goal is to make America great, I think you have already thrown Godliness out the door.

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This title came to mind, I haven’t read it, but I thought the cover was amusing

1000007040

We together believe that mankind cannot come together in a true unity until they do so in the second Adam, the only one who is capable of overcoming the sorts of things that divide us.

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Are you speaking for humankind or Christians? I do not believe that you have the authority to do either.

Unity does not have to mean identical. it can just mean tolerance. It would appear that tolerance is not part of (your) Christianity.

The idea that all should have one belief is what motivates dictators. They believe that the only true peace is when everyone follows their lead. What you are saying is just the same. We can only have peace when all are Christians!

I think even God might disagree with that.

Richard

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  • Anything by R.J. Rushdoony is theonomic propaganda, and not a comic book.
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That’s Doug and Thabiti speaking, but I agree with them

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I explicitly reject theonomy because reasonable people can disagree about the Bible… but I am unsure what unity among believers in Jesus will look like while disagreeing about the Bible… I don’t see it as my place to be concerned about it anyhow

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To quibble a little here, this book may only be about Van Til’s presuppositional epistemology/apologetics… I’ll check out the TOC and get back to you…

Hard to say based on TOC, the Kindle sample had no references to politics, theonomy, political, or government

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I don’t send anyone anywhere, I just deal with the text.

I ‘preach’ the Gospel that Jesus did, and He said it is divisive.

No, that’s your position – you put your ideas above the scriptures and say everyone else is wrong when they stick with the scriptures.
You are so intolerant you see intolerance any time someone dares disagree.

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Have a seat and let Uncle Terry take you on a really short ride:

  • R. J. Rushdoony
  • Chalcedon Foundation
    • The Chalcedon Foundation has been listed as an anti-gay hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
    • The Chalcedon Foundation describes itself as a Christian educational organization oriented toward promoting Christian reconstruction, emphasizing the Cultural or Dominion Mandate. The Foundation’s founder, Rousas John Rushdoony, who is known as “father of Christian Reconstruction” theology, advocated the imposition of Old Testament. Newsweek magazine described the Chalcedon Foundation as “a think tank of the Religious Right, including the Moral Majority” Rushdoony himself claimed that his movement had 20 million followers, although not all of them are members of an organization.
    • Chalcedon Foundation roots in the late 1960s evolved from Rushdoony’s career as an Orthodox Presbyterian pastor. Rushdoony, and a handful of Ph.D.s and ex-seminarians wrote books and articles that were not especially popular at the time. Forty years later, however, secular journalists characterize Rushdoony’s movement as “the spark plug behind much of the battle over religion in politics today”. Rushdoony’s work via the Chalcedon Foundation challenged conservative Christians to “take the whole Bible seriously—including inconvenient verses in the Old Testament that most Christians, even biblical literalists, politely ignore.”
  • Modern heirs of Rushdoony can be found in American Vision
    • American Vision is a United States nonprofit organization founded in 1978 by Steve Schiffman. It operates as a Christian ministry, and calls for “equipping and empowering Christians to restore America’s biblical foundation.” The organization promotes Christian reconstructionism and postmillennialism and opposes dispensationalism. Gary DeMar (Gary DeMar - Wikipedia) was the organization’s president from 1986 to 2015. From 2015 to March 2019 Joel McDurmon was president, during which time DeMar was Senior Fellow. Gary DeMar returned as president in March 2019 when McDurmon resigned.
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Where is this coming from? It’s a nice science fiction story but that’s all it is; Egypt was thriving long before Abraham showed up – like a couple of millennia.

And are you really saying that Egyptian theology counts as science???

No, you haven’t – you haven’t even addressed it. I don’t think you even know what the word means! To address it you would have to show first of all how it is possible to have literature that lacks a genre.

That’s exactly why genre is important – you can’t read literature from two periods that are thousands of years apart as though they’re the same, and you definitely can’t read them as though they were written in your worldview in a genre you can recognize.

None of which has a single thing to do with genre.

BTW, you still haven’t explained why you don’t read Tom Clancy books as literal history – they match your criteria by which you say the Old Testment is history.

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Sure if you define it as the sons of Zebedee did. But theirs was a terrible definition then and an even worse one now.

Well, that makes Paul and Jesus dictators! Paul said there is one faith, not a whole menu, and Jesus said anyone not with Him is against Him.

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I do not see how you can say that. Unlike you I do not insist that I am right or that my view of scripture is right.

Again, I have no idea where you get that from. It is just not true. faith is individual not dictated.

Actually, if you read the text, it is Jesus Himself who is divisive not His Gospel.

The Gospel is the death and resurrection of Christ and the meaning there of.

Christianity includes the teaching but Jesus was talking about causality not intent. The Gospel is not intrinsically divisive but it causes division because of who does or does not accept it.

The Gospel of Love is anything but divisive.

But maybe that is not explicitly stated enough for you.

Richard

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My quibble was with regard to

I know a little about his theonomy, I just don’t think it forms a significant part (if any at all) of the book we are referring to

  • LOL!
    • From my first link,

  • " The Rushdoonys separated in 1957 and later divorced. About this time, Rushdoony transferred his church membership from the American Presbyterian Church to the Orthodox Presbyterian denomination. The Orthodox Presbyterian Church’s newsletter, The Presbyterian Guardian, reported in July 1958 that “the Rev. Rousas J. Rushdoony… was received and a new Orthodox Presbyterian Church organized, consisting of sixty-six charter members who had separated from the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. in Santa Cruz.” In their petition the group asked that Rushdoony be ordained as their pastor and stated, “[W]e cannot abide in any church which seeks to define righteousness or sin, salvation or sanctification, except in terms of the Word of God. We have witnessed, here in Santa Cruz, against modernism, man-made perfectionism, and church bureaucracy”. The newsletter article goes on to report, “The Presbytery in receiving the church also examined Mr. Thomas Kirkwood and Mr. Kenneth Webb as prospective elders, and they with Mr. Rushdoony were constituted the session of the church”, and announced the publication of Rushdoony’s By What Standard? later that year.
  • A Rushdoony book without the words “no references to politics, theonomy, political, or government”???
    • This may difficult for you to imagine, but try anyway. Imagine a cliff in time, with 1959 at the top of the cliff.
    • Now trace the chronology off the cliff and down in time and space, into La-la Land.
  • Now you tell me, where and when do you think he started thinking and writing about politics, theonomy, or government the U.S.?

Take a look and see if Van Til was a theonomist

You want me to carry your water for you, and I decline.
Wanna get a clue?

Rushdoony, c. 1958

In Santa Cruz, Rushdoony became a reader of the Christian libertarian magazine Faith and Freedom, which advocated an “anti-tax, non-interventionist, anti-statist economic model” in opposition to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal.[16] Faith and Freedom 's views on government aligned with Rushdoony’s fears of centralized government power, given the Rushdoony family’s memories of the Armenian Genocide.[17] Rushdoony contributed articles to Faith and Freedom, including one describing his observations of the Duck Valley Indian Reservation, arguing that government support had reduced residents to “social and personal irresponsibility”.[18][19]

The Rushdoonys separated in 1957 and later divorced. About this time, Rushdoony transferred his church membership from the American Presbyterian Church to the Orthodox Presbyterian denomination. The Orthodox Presbyterian Church’s newsletter, The Presbyterian Guardian, reported in July 1958 that “the Rev. Rousas J. Rushdoony… was received and a new Orthodox Presbyterian Church organized, consisting of [sixty-six charter members] who had separated from the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. in Santa Cruz.” In their petition the group asked that Rushdoony be ordained as their pastor and stated, “[W]e cannot abide in any church which seeks to define righteousness or sin, salvation or sanctification, except in terms of the Word of God. We have witnessed, here in Santa Cruz, against modernism, man-made perfectionism, and church bureaucracy”. The newsletter article goes on to report, “The Presbytery in receiving the church also examined Mr. Thomas Kirkwood and Mr. Kenneth Webb as prospective elders, and they with Mr. Rushdoony were constituted the session of the church”, and announced the publication of Rushdoony’s By What Standard? later that year.[20]

Based on what I am seeing the book is a strict introduction to Van Til’s presuppositional epistemology/apologetics