9Marks' Jonathan Leeman's Take on Christian Government and Politics

All right guys, I was gonna do a full video today, but I gotta be honest.

I'm feeling a little bit rough I and I'm not sure what I've got but Definitely a cold of some kind so I don't know do you guys think this would be helpful if I responded to this

Jonathan Lehman article I'll include a if you haven't read it. I'll include a link to it in the description of this video

I don't know man. Maybe I'm just a little too cynical for this. I I just don't know It's just uh, it's it's really hard to take this guy.

Seriously, you know I'm famous for calling him a weasel a few years ago

You know right now where everyone's telling us to like lower our rhetoric, you know, calm down everyone

That's what they're trying to say. We need amnesty. We need amnesty Patience calm down. I want to I want to amp it up.

I mean, I don't think he's just a weasel This guy's a snake man. This is subversive stuff Jonathan This is subversive stuff and I think

I think you know that I had a conversation with the brother this weekend who said he had a bone to pick with me because you know,

I so often call the things that Jonathan Lehman says stupid and he says they're not stupid Jonathan Lehman knows exactly what he's doing

He's a trained subversive and he's being subversive with the language. He uses the topics he chooses to address.

I completely agree I think he's a smart man. I don't think he's just accidentally stupid at certain times.

I think he's intentionally being subversive I Don't know. I mean, it's very hard to take seriously even just the this is not even the article

This is just something he pulls from the article This is like his like mic drop moment that he he pulled out on his Twitter He says actually a

Christian nation does exist and it's called the church It's comprised of people from every nation on earth

Perhaps the best way to become a real Christian nationalist then is to join a church And so it's very clear.

He's trying to say, you know, yeah There's really no Christian nations except for the church and you can instantly whenever someone has an argument like this

Try to apply their argument to the family right to the family So so does a

Christian family exist? Because obviously we understand that the Bible talks about us as brothers and sisters and we're you know

When we're converted we were adopted into the family of God. We understand that but but I'm still a father, right?

I'm still a father. I'm still a husband. I'm still a child of my parents, right? Like it doesn't the grace of God and being an in God's family doesn't erase the fact that I'm still in my

Biological family as well. I still got duties unto my father and mother I've still got duties unto my wife and to my children and things like there's still a way for me to be a

Christian Family outside of the church in particular, right? Like the family is a certain unit of government and we run that as a

Christian family The church is a separate, you know unit of government and we run that as a church.

There's certain duties There's certain jurisdictions that the church has that the family has and then of course The civil governing authority is a third unit and you can be a

Christian civil governing authority and you have different jurisdictions Than the church and the family does and so there's a way to be a

Christian in all of those Capacities that's separate from the church, right? We understand that and Jonathan Lehman this whole article if you just keep replacing

Christian nationalists with Christian family You can see how how vacuous it is and it's very hard to take seriously at one point.

Actually, it's interesting He addresses this whole idea about the label Christian family And what he says is you can only call a

Christian family a Christian family if every individual is a Christian It's just like a throwaway line and it's like that makes absolutely no sense at all

Like like if I'm a Christian father, right and we have six kids and then what my I've got a 13 year old boy

He decides he wants to have sex with his girlfriend. So he doesn't want to be labeled as a Christian anymore Do I now start organizing my family differently to accommodate the non -christian that's in my family?

Do I say, okay? Well, I know we used to pray and we used to sing, you know, you know the the doxology before dinner or after dinner

I know we used to do that But that was when we were a Christian family when all of us were Christians now that one of us isn't you know

We would need to accommodate that and we're not gonna organize. I'm not gonna be explicitly Christian father anymore

I'm not gonna have an explicitly Christian organization of my marriage, you know I'm the I'm the I'm the leader of the household.

My wife's the help me, you know, the children are there We're not gonna organize that as explicitly Christian not gonna call ourselves a

Christian family Yeah, because one of us isn't a crit. Does that make any sense? It does it's hard to take that seriously

He he just kind of that's just kind of throwaway line for him and it's just like I don't know I mean, it's subversive for sure.

Maybe it guys tell me do you think it'd be helpful for me to really just go into this? completely

I I'm having a hard time taking it. Seriously. I really am guys. You got to help me out here

I I do this channel for you guys. I do it for you So if you find if you think this would be helpful, let me know

Let me give you another reason why I'm having a hard time taking it. Seriously, you know There's a point in the article where he expresses like a lot of concern that you know if we identify the nation as a

Christian like if we have a Christian government and It's gonna be confusing for missions because you know now it's like the government is it has the keys of the kingdom, right?

We all know that that the church has the kings the keys of the kingdom the government has the sword But if the government starts calling itself

Christian like if it's if it's burying the Christian sword Then people are gonna be confused and it's gonna be hard for missions because people are gonna think well the my government's a

Christian So I'm a Christian and we're not gonna we're not gonna be able to give the gospel to people like that because it's they're gonna be

Nominal Christians, they're gonna think they're already in the kingdom and it's gonna be very hard because it's basically like the government is saying who's in And who's out like who's a

Christian and who's not who's who's? clean enough for worship of the trolley

God and who's not and Yeah He's expresses a lot of concern and I have a hard time taking that seriously coming from the guy

Who promoted the idea that the government actually does have that power and closing down church like like if this guy just like a matter

Of a year ago two years ago wasn't encouraging churches to stay closed because the government told them to It'd be a little easier to take this could this very deep concern clutching his pearl seriously

But it's impossible to take maybe it's not impossible. I shouldn't say that It's hard to take seriously knowing what this man did

Just like two years ago and has not apologized for and it's not Repented of and it's not taking it back and not even said oopsie for goodness sake

It's like you like You are you guys were all closed down because the government told you to They said that you shouldn't worship a certain way and you believed him you said okay government.

We won't worship that way So so excuse me if it's a little bit difficult to take this concern very seriously that people are gonna be so confused

I'm just a nominal Christian I don't I don't really need the gospel if that's if people are confused about that That's your problem as the evangelist if they think they're what do we do now say this is not really complicated, right?

What do we do with the nominal Christian now? We give them the gospel we take them through the the whole thing

I mean, there's different methods of doing it. You got the way of the master. You got you know, the the Romans wrote There's different ways you could do it

But but so he's acting like oh, this is a real concern. This is not a concern John. This is a play

You're running a play. That's what this is. You're not actually concerned You're subversive and you're running a play pretending like you're concerned when you're when your actions which actually show us what you actually believe

John They actually prove this is not a concern of yours at all. Not a concern at all

Overall, I mean and again guys tell me if you want me to do the whole article I will I will I'm just having a hard time taking it seriously and I feel sick

So like maybe I just don't want to do it. I don't know But this whole article it really it strikes me just to tie this up in a bow as Jonathan saying, you know, look

I Think it's okay, and I believe that Christians should influence the government but only like in the field of battle right like the public square is the battle of the gods and So long as we're engaging in that battle, that's okay.

You can you can believe what you want. You can battle and duke it out but the minute you start winning the minute you have the authority to actually implement a

Christian version of morality of the civil governing authority a Christian civil governing authority that bears a

Christian sword, right? We're not spreading the gospel with that Christian sword. What we're doing is what the

Bible says we should do with it. We should be Executing vengeance upon the evildoer and promoting what is good with that sword.

That's why we have it We don't bear that sword in name. We don't bear the name of the Lord in vain We bear the sword because God says so the minute you start winning.

Well, that's wrong. That's Christian nationalism You shouldn't do that. But as long as you're duking it out and you're actually not winning.

He's cool with it This is a this is a in short. I think this is an article that's subversive

And I think it's promoting a loser version of Christianity Which is not the Christianity that I see when

I read Psalm 110 in any case Let me know if you want me to do the whole article. I will I'm just having a hard time taking it seriously

And like I said, maybe it's just because I'm not feeling well, and I don't want to go into the whole thing God bless you all.