The Christian Nationalism Statement

You can say what you want, but you won't around me. Sheep among misfits. A misfit in the trailer park at night. A misprint with the six cents. Been sick ever since my brother died of an O .D. My two cents never made sense.

Either to me or anyone else inside of the sheep fence. My 9th Smith on my right side. Why you staring at your cop dot sign and my John Hancock on the dotted line? Tell me what's the bottom line. The bottom line is I'm not right.

I'm not left, but this elephant won't fight. There's nothing left but the spotlight. Hold my beer, you can find me in the moonlight. You can say what you want. You can say what you want, but you won't around me.

You can say what you want. You can say what you... I'm wits in the deep end and I can't find my assigned seat to sit in. My theology don't fit in. Black sheep of the Reformation sheep pen. To the Reformed, I'm just another Baptist baptized again.

The bastard child of Anabaptist. Host to child of Reformation society. We don't need your education. Give me a Bible and a bookshelf of dead men. Cigars, bourbons, and beer cans. Bow ties, tattoos, and bearded men.

Making Reformation great again. You can say what you want. You can say what you want, but you won't around me. You can say what you want. You can say what you want, but you won't around me. No, you won't around me.

Introduction to Open Air Theology and the Christian Nationalism Statement

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Open Air Theology. My name is Jeff Rice. I am one of the pastors, elders at Covenant Reformed Baptist Church here in Tallahoma, Tennessee. If you're ever in the area, please come by and visit.

If you're in a place where you don't have a biblical church, I would suggest you figure that out. Tennessee is a good place to live and we'd be happy to have you in Tallahoma. I'm here with my good friend, Brayden Patterson.

Brayden, introduce yourself, brother.

Yeah, I am Brayden Patterson of Valley Baptist Church in Hagerman, Idaho. If you live in that area in southern Idaho, it would be a blessing to have you at church on Sunday with us worshiping with saints.

As well as I do a YouTube channel called Reformed Ex-Mormon. I'd love for anybody to go check it out. It's just a blessing to be a part of Open Air Theology along with Haps Addison, who is not able to make it here with us tonight.

Yeah, so Haps Addison is in the process of moving to Tennessee. He's going to be a part of Covenant Reformed Baptist Church. He's going to help me get my drug program up and started. As some of you may know, I wrote a repeatable 12-step program called Remedy.

It's recovery through biblical discipleship. Brother Haps is going to come and help me actually get that started. Let me get that started and help me write some curriculum for it. So what's up, man? How you doing, brother?

Oh, dude. Fantastic. Fantastic. Yeah. So I was telling you earlier, you know, as some of y 'all know, I have an electric bike. And I wrecked that thing twice today. First time I just laid it down in my yard.

I was kind of doing figure eights around a tree. And I was actually videoing it as I was doing it, right? So that wreck is on video. And then a few minutes later, I'm kind of coming out of my yard and I hear a voice, right?

And it said, do a willy. And I yanked the bar and tried to do a willy and fell back and my butt hit my driveway and the bike landed on my big toe. And my big toe is jacked up along with my butt. So I don't know if you can say butt on a Christian podcast, but I got a trailer in my back view.

So I mean, you know, it is what it is, right?

Well, you can't tease us like that. If you got it on video, dude, you got to post that thing later today. The first crash. And that's something I've learned is if I have a bad day and I've failed already, it just means to give up.

Like, don't.

Well, I wished I would have filmed the second one, too. So that would have been that would have been go, right? Yeah. Like it would have went viral because I'm gonna be honest with you. When I landed, I said a bad word.

Oh, did you? I did. It hurt. My butt hurt so bad. I was trying to get up real quick and, you know, hoping no one saw me. Yeah. I'm probably not gonna be able to walk right for at least three weeks. I might have to have Pastor Cal to carry me up into the pulpit Sunday.

So today's topic is a big, juicy one, right? Christian nationalism. And our plan really is to just a few guys, some Presbyterians, some Baptists come together and they wrote a statement. And I believe Joe Webb and edited it maybe.

And it's been getting a lot of hype, gaining a lot of hype and causing a lot of drama at the same time, especially on the Twitter sphere and YouTube channel battles. And so, as y 'all know, like, I'm a myself and Brayden, we are Reformed Baptists, 1689 Federalist.

We don't identify ourselves with a movement that's called theonomy. We don't identify with theonomy because we are Reformed. If you are Reformed, you don't have to add something else into the pot. Right.

Because we have the three uses of the law. Second use of the law deals with how the government should use the law. And so we don't have to add something that was started, let's say, 40 years ago. We have something historical that's been here, that stood the test of time.

And so we hold to law and gospel distinction and we hold to the three uses of the law as well as the three distinctions of the law. And so our plan today is that we're going to. Brayden, I don't have it pulled up.

Brayden is going to read.

Oh, from this. I can't read. Yeah.

Brayden is going to read each article from the statement and we're going to say if we agree with it and if we agree with it, we're going to give our opinion why. And if we disagree with it, we're going to give our opinion why.

Right. And we're going to be looking at it from a Reformed Baptist, 1689 Federalist position. And kind of glancing over it, there's a lot of things, a lot of things I agree with. Right. As long as they're not trying to take Moses and drop him in America.

I'm fine with that. Transcendent law. Ten Commandments. Bring it. What? We're right here. We want that. We want that. But we don't want to kill off our mission field at the same time. And so and I know not all theonomists hold to that position, but we have talked to some who do hold that position.

So I'm not strawmaning anybody. There are some theonomists that they just let's kill them all. Right. And so we're going to read this. Brayden is going to read the statement and we're going to give our thoughts.

And if you like. OK, if you don't like it. OK, whatever. You know, like I'm an ex-gangbanger. I've had people I've been ganged. I've been shot at. I got hit in the face with a brick. You making a video about me?

So, you know, it is what it is.

You know, I think I think it also I'm happy that you brought up the three uses of the law since I was what we did. I believe our last podcast or show, whatever you want to call this over. It's been a hot second since we've been able to get on together and do one of these.

We're hoping to have hops here tonight. But like Jeff said, Hops isn't going to be able to make it just because of moving stuff and whatnot. But we are coming at this with things that we've already established in previous podcasts.

So I think that's something that anybody that's watching this should take note of, that we are not just jumping into this diving into the deep end in that sense. Jeff and I have been talking about law within the Bible for now a hot second, I would say.

So it's definitely something that's been on our minds. And so, like Jeff said, I've perused this document already. I read the first half today pretty deeply and in depth. And like Jeff said, there's a lot of things that seem to be pretty good in this document to start off with.

On another note, before we get started, just for anyone who may listen to this, if you do have tension and you want to have a conversation, we would love to have you on. That would be great. And also, I've been trying to put this out there for all those who do hold to a strong view of theonomy.

I mean, again, we are Reformed Baptists, we're confessionalists, so we do hold to general equity. You don't have to be a theonomist to hold to general equity. You just got to be Reformed. I am willing to.

Here's my challenge. Let's open the book of Galatians and let's walk through Galatians expositionally and have a conversation. Because I am convinced that Galatians shuts down any idea of it. It gets rid of both the Abrahamic covenant according to the flesh.

That's where the circumcision comes in. If there is no sign, there is no covenant. The Abrahamic covenant according to the flesh, not according to the promise or the spirit, according to the flesh. And the Bible clearly states in Galatians 3 that the law, and it's speaking of Moses, was only until Christ.

Only until Christ. And until someone can exegete that passage, like I've been trying to get people to do. I really don't want to hear anything else. I want to hear that Galatians, especially chapter 3, exegete it.

Where it says that it is only until Christ. Speaking about the Moses law. So let's read this statement and let's see what happens.

Reading the Definition and the Need for Clear Terms

Yeah, so I have it pulled up here. So I'll just read through the definition to begin with. And then I will pause. After that, there's the introduction. And then after that, they get into the different articles.

So I'll read the definition to begin with. Definition. Ephesians 1, 20 -21. Philippians 2, 9 -11. Colossians 1, 15 -18. Romans 13, 1 -4. 1 Peter 2, 14. Deuteronomy 6, 5. And Matthew 22, 37 -39 is what they have here for that definition.

I'm trying to pull up the statement.

Did we send it on the... Yeah, I sent it in the Facebook Messenger. It's in there.

Okay, I'm trying. Or no, no, I did not actually. Let me hear. I got you though. I can pull it up and send it to you.

If you can put it in, that would be great. Hold on one second. And what I'll do since this is sweet, amazing social media is I can go on to the chat that we're in right now and post it in there too. So then everybody knows what we're talking about.

This is what we're discussing. There's a lot to look over, so yeah. It'd probably be good if we both are looking at it. This is how we are discussing. But yeah, if anybody that's watching this would like to follow along, I shared on my Facebook Jeff's podcast right now that we're in, and I just left a comment with the link to the article that we're talking about right now.

I'm going to also post it on.

Man, it's so small I can hardly...

And I can keep on reading it just as long as you can keep on... I'm going to turn it this way. ...have some decent understanding about what we're reading. So yeah, let me read the definition again in short.

Definition. Christian nationalism is a set of governing principles rooted in Scripture teaching that Christ rules the Supreme Lord and King of all creation who has ordained civil magistrates with delegated authority to be under him or the people to ordain their ordained jurisdictions by punishing evil and promoting good for his own glory and the common good of the nations.

What do you think about that definition?

I don't see anything wrong with the definition.

Go ahead and read the introduction. Yeah. I would actually just pause real fast on the definition. I don't think that's a thoroughly fleshed-out definition. From what I've heard other Christian nationalists talking about, that to me is not...

Well, that's one of my problems with it is that there's no consensus, right? There isn't. Everybody... You have this group with Joe Evan, and I can't think of it. I'm sorry. I don't know the other guys' names.

Please forgive me. They come together, and they wrote this statement. But everyone who is waving the flag for it, like each one that I've spoken with or watched videos on all had something different to say.

It's kind of like with the Hotheonomy thing, right? It's all over the board.

There's nothing set in stone. Yeah, it's hard. When we talk about doctrines and somebody says the word hypostatic union, everybody knows what you're talking about. If somebody says... Calvinism. Calvinism, everybody knows what you're talking about, right?

Whereas with this, it seems like it's a very loosey-goosey definition. And maybe even for somebody that was putting this document together, was watching this, I would encourage you to maybe be a little bit more fleshed-out in your definition because to me, that is not with enough clarity to what this document, I think, is arguing for.

Maybe that would be a helpful critique. I don't disagree with the definition or anything that that definition is teaching, but just maybe some advice on that.

You want me to read the introduction now? Yeah, I'm trying to send it to a different file of mine, hoping that it'll pull up better. One of the ones that I use my sermons for. All right, got it. You got it now?

Yeah, it's a lot bigger. A lot bigger now, okay. You want me to read it, introduction? Yeah, I mean, it's still too small for me to... I'd really have to get on it.

I got you. Yeah, no, I got you. You just follow along.

I can follow, but...

Yep, so introduction. Christian nationalism is primarily concerned with the righteous rule of civil authorities, not spiritual matters pertaining to salvation. The desire for a Christian nation is not a distraction from the gospel, but rather an effort to faithfully apply all scripture to all life, including the public square.

As such, Christian nationalism...

Stop right there. Stop right there. I have a problem with that. Okay. I have a problem with that. It's not pertaining... I mean, so it says, not spiritual matters pertaining to salvation, right? There's no way to have a nation, a Christian nationalism, apart from gospel.

It being spiritual, right? Earlier, I gave a definition. Well, not a definition, kind of an analogy of a Christmas tree. And I know some of you people, you know, X the Christmas tree, right? So, I mean, if you're one of those folks, it is what it is.

You'll still get the analogy, right? When you put together a Christmas tree, you start at the base. Normally, they come in three separate sections, right? You got the base, the bottom, the middle, the top.

And then you start putting the ornaments on. And the last thing that you put on is the star, right? And so, with me, I see the star as being Christian nationalism, right? And the base would be me loving my wife and my kids, me.

And I'm working my way up, right? I'm loving my neighbor, which is law. Love is law. Love is a command. That's law. But it's still me doing what Christ told me to do. And then I'm witnessing to my neighbors, right?

I'm preaching Christ. And I'm building the tree up, right? In order to have what I would think true Christian nationalism, because everyone, like if we're honest, like we want our nations to be Christian.

It's not about establishing law, you know, like top down, right? The star. You don't start with the star. You start with the base of the tree. Again, it starts with loving my wife and my kids, loving my neighbors.

And the way that I love my neighbors is I witness to them. And I want you to imagine if every Christian, every Christian, was to go out and preach the gospel, knock on doors, do something, right? We would see it.

We would truly see a revival in our nation. And our society would be Christian. And when our society becomes Christian, the majority, then the laws will reflect what the society holds to. You see what I'm saying?

And so let's say that we vote, you know, Christian leaders in whenever it's time for the next vote. Well, they come in and let's say they establish law. Well, four years later, there's a chance that they have to leave and another group of people enter in, right?

And they could change everything that the previous leader got started. Like we've been seeing this over and over in our country. That's why it can't start there. It has to start in the family. It has been out of the home to our neighbors, loving them, preaching Christ, society, a reformation, a revival takes place in our society.

The laws will reflect the society. So to me, it has to begin spiritually. It has to begin with the gospel. Does that make sense?

Yeah, I think so. One thing I was thinking about, as you were just saying that, and something that I've been thinking about today, is when we think about the term Christian nationalism, right? Christian nationalism.

If you were to break down those words, how would you define a Christian, right? And most of the time, we would say something along the lines of a follower of Christ, right? Like that's a pretty….

Someone who has been born again, who has been given faith to believe, and repentance to turn from sin. That is a Christian.

That is a Christian, right? And I'm thankful that you bring that up, right? Because when we talk about then the next word, nationalism, how would we define that word? If nationalism, like that would maybe be geographical, political, society, governing laws, an ethnic group of people.

However you want to define that nationalism, I think we could all come to some rudimentary understanding of those things. Right. Nationalism does not…. You cannot enforce law that creates somebody to be a Christian.

They have to be, as you just said, they have to be born again. They have to have repentance and have faith in Jesus Christ in order to be a Christian. And the problem is this.

If you were to establish that law, and the nations are not Christian, what you're going to have next is rioting, civil war. And Christians are called to live peaceably. And so it goes against…. Again, listen, I want our nation's Christian.

I want it so bad that every chance I get, I go and knock on doors and stand on street corners and preach the gospel. Because I believe it starts at the trunk. I love my wife. I love my kids. I love my church family.

I love my neighbors so much that I'm willing to look like a fool before them so that they may hear preach Christ crucified.

Yep. I like it. Well, do you want me to keep on reading?

Yeah, go ahead. Sorry. Okay. Nope, you're good. This might take a few months to read all the way through.

It's all good. So I'm going to back up to the sentence prior that we just read over. Actually, I'll just start at the beginning. So Christian nationalism is primarily concerned with the righteous rule of civil authorities, not spiritual matters pertaining to salvation, period.

The desire for a Christian nation is not a distraction from the gospel, but rather an effort to faithfully apply all Scripture to all life, including the public square, period. That's where we left off last.

So now this is the new sentences, the new section. As such, Christian nationalism is not just for civil authorities, just as submitting to Christ's lordship is not just for civil authorities, but for all people.

After the Lord Jesus declared His sovereign authority, Matthew 28, 18, He gave the great commission and command and commanded His followers, empowered by His everlasting presence, to make disciples of all nations and to baptize them and teach them to obey all that I have commanded.

Our Lord did not exclude all civil authorities from the command to submit to His authority and display allegiance to Him. And then there's another paragraph down. Do you have anything to say about that?

Well, I mean, just the idea right here where it's speaking about the great commission, make disciples of all nations. Again, this is ethnos, which actually could be translated as Gentiles. Make disciples of all Gentiles.

It's not necessarily, I mean, it would be an interpretive standpoint to say that this is speaking of geopolitical nations versus Gentiles. And again, I think I would say it's both and, but the only way for it to be geopolitical would be that the society becomes born again.

A nation is going to reflect the society, right, plain and simple. So again, I'm all for discipling the nations, baptizing them because they're Christians, not because they're infants, not because of anything else, but because of profession of faith and teaching them, right?

We had Jamie Terry on here. Do you remember that episode? And we spoke about Matthew chapter 28. And one of the things that, of course, I can't remember everything that was said there, but we are commanded to make disciples.

This is us going out and preaching the Gospels. And those who come to faith, we baptize them in the church. And they, those who have been baptized, are taught from the pulpit. Like that's how it's done.

And if you have that interpretation of that verse, hey, high five. I'm with you there. That's what I was talking about earlier. It has to be spiritual. It has to be gospel first. Yeah.

I just can't read this text and I would have issue. And since it mentioned it, I guess this is a decent time to talk about it for sure. I have a huge issue with taking this verse and then applying it for us to today to go into civil magistrates and say that this text, like that's every time I ever hear a post-millennial Christian nationalist talking about this text.

It almost seems like the only way they apply it is for the civil magistrate. Like this is for us to go and change nations, not just individuals, but nations. And I just don't see that. First of all, as you said, it's ethnos, which is the Jewish disciples of Jesus.

They're being told to go and make disciples amongst the Gentiles.

And we see that taking place in the book of Acts.

And notice this. Jesus does not say, go to Israel and change their nation. He says, go unto the Gentiles and change them. And he's not saying to the nation, like to the state. He's saying, go and make the disciples, individual disciples, not large scale states, countries, all these kinds of things.

He's talking about you go out and you evangelize and proclaim my name amongst the people, not amongst the how, whatever you would want to call it. Amongst the states, essentially. Like you said, I'm not advocating for somebody not to do that.

I think that's totally right on. I've done that myself. I've gone up and talked before people. I do that continually. And so I'm not arguing against that. However, I think it's misapplying this text. If we're saying that this is primarily for a means of changing nations, rather than changing individual disciples within nations.

I think that that's an incorrect take on this text. So, okay. We recognize the existence of other definition of Christian nationalism. We certainly do not endorse every iteration of Christian nationalism and explicitly repudiate some such forms.

That's what we were talking about earlier. There's no consensus on it.

Yep. As will be evident in our affirmations and denials. Yeah. Yeah, which Christian nationalism is not. There's nothing new underneath the sun, right? Christian nationalism has been a thing for a very, very long time.

Right. And it always fails. That's the other thing that people don't like to look at.

I mean, Israel was Christian nationalism, right? It was a geopolitical people who were governed by the law. And they could not keep the law, right? The gospel is the righteous for the unrighteous. The righteous meaning law keeper.

Unrighteous meaning law breaker. They, plus you and I, have broken God's law. We are the law breaker. God sent his son, the righteous, to keep the law in our stead as a substitute and to take our punishment for us not being able to keep the law in his death, right?

And that's why it was only until Christ, because it clearly states at his baptism it was to fulfill all righteousness.

Well, I'm thankful that you bring up Israel because I think Israel is a prime example of this, right? That you have a nation that at majority is called God's people. Not even just majority. They are called God's people in the text.

God's covenant people. They are people that have this law that's imposed to them. But what typically, and we haven't gotten into this document so far, but I think the idea of what Christian nationalism is, and I know that it says this later on, is to hopefully direct the people within the nation unto God and have faith and saving faith in Jesus Christ, right?

Which is a great hope. I would hope for everybody I talk to to have that at the end of the conversation, is hopefully I have directed them in that direction. I totally am on board with that type of language.

However, in Israel, the majority of the people were not true Israel. Were not true Israelites. They did not have faith in the coming seed. There is a plethora of times where you see God pouring out wrath against his own people because they don't have faith in Yahweh.

They don't have an actual saving faith in Yahweh. And so just because law is there, just because they have this outward appearance, in fact, what you might have just done is just created a people that thought that they were secure in law rather than actually having faith in a future coming Messiah.

Romans 10, they saw it by law keeping and not as though it was by faith. I'm glad that you brought that up. As covenant theologians, we would say that there's the one covenant of grace, which is revealed in the Old Testament.

But as a 1689 Federalist, and I would debate anyone on this, it was only a promise. And so you see this promise of a greater covenant throughout the Old Testament. But they were never really told to believe in that promise.

They were told to keep the law. And in one sense, it's three uses of the law, right? The first use is the law is a mirror. Again, I said this on that one episode. If I go to the mirror, I wake up in the morning, I go to the mirror.

The mirror reveals to me what I look like. So if I wake up, my beard, you know, it's kind of all everywhere. I got hair sticking up and, you know, the mirror doesn't lie to me. I mean, even when I get the hair down and the beard looking good, it still tells me that I'm ugly, right?

Like it doesn't sugarcoat anything. Well, that's what the law is to do. And so instead of the scriptures telling them to look to that promise seed, it gives them the law and tells them to keep it. They should have been able to look at it and say, you know what?

I cannot keep it. What else must I do? And then the story of Abraham comes into play. Abraham believed God. What did he believe? That an offspring would come from him that would inherit the land, keep the law, and bless the nations.

And by holding to that, looking to that, that's where salvation is found. Reckoned with righteousness. Reckoned with righteousness. The law is a tutor. It points us, it should be, because of the first use of the law, it should be pointing us to the Messiah who then would come and fulfill the law, who now has come and has fulfilled the law.

And we are, like Abraham, justified, counted righteous by faith in the promise seed, which is the covenant of grace, which is the new covenant. Right. Right. The Old Testament doesn't specifically point that out.

Like you can't say here's a book chapter and verse where it tells you to look to the promise seed for salvation. Right. This is something that's revealed to us as we open up the passages of the New Testament.

But you can read it and see how Abraham was reckoned with righteousness and following the footsteps of Abraham. And those that do, the Bible says they are the spiritual seed of Abraham. And that's why there was Jews who were the physical seed of Abraham and who were also the spiritual seed of Abraham.

The physical seed of Abraham is no more. That covenant is no more. It's the spiritual seed of Abraham, the new covenant.

And, you know, I think it's a great reminder, too, that the physical law-keeping descendants of Abraham crucified our Lord and Savior, the seed of Abraham. Right. You know, like these were people that were in a Christian nation that did such a thing.

Like they, yeah, which is another conversation for another day. But you talk about that example of people that are fooled into thinking they have a righteousness in and of themselves through the keeping of the law.

We have that even today. Like I was reading an article on this earlier. But even in the Bible belt today, right? Like where do we see some of the most largest numbers of attending Christians? Or when I say Christians, I go put parentheses around it, right?

Bible belt, right? Where do we see the most amount of people that don't actually know Jesus in the United States for the most part that are confessing to know Jesus? The Bible belt, right? Because they are in this atmosphere that teaches Christ, yet they are fooled into not actually believing in Christ.

They fool themselves into thinking they have something that they really don't, right?

Yeah, well, it's kind of like in the Presbyterian church. It is. The idea that you have these Presbyterians. Again, I love my Presbyterian brothers. But the idea, you baptize your infant. Your child grows up thinking that it's in the covenant.

And even if the infant, when it grows up, does profess faith in Christ, that person still has the sin of not obeying the gospel in the sense of receiving baptism. We have not received the sign. They have not received the sign.

They haven't. And so millions of Christians, when they die, they're going to die without receiving the sign because they were told that they had already received it. Yep.

How many Christians have you talked to that have said, Oh, I'm a Christian. I was baptized when I was a baby, right? There's so many that I've talked to about that. And that's like their evidence of salvation.

And I'm blown away with that kind of a response, right? Yeah, same here. It's ridiculous. So just because you're born into something like a Christian moral stance nation does not mean therefore you were a Christian.

That's why I have an issue with that term, Christian nationalism.

Before you read any more, let me read what Romans 10 says at the very beginning. And this was what, let's say if the Christian nationalism, what's been stated here is established tomorrow, 50 years down the road, this is what it's going to be.

Brothers, my heart, desire and prayer to God is for them, speaking of the Jews, and for their salvation. For I testify about them. They have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. The knowledge here would be the coming of the sun.

For not knowing about the righteousness of God, which is Christ, and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

We're trying to establish a law, and by people keeping that law, they're going to be considered a part of Christian nationalism. And Christianity, it's by faith alone in Jesus Christ. The message is preached, God grants faith and repentance.

That's the righteousness of God, is being found righteous in Christ. Not in law keeping. Who among us as Christians keep the law? If you're raising your hand or patting yourself on the back, brother, you don't know God.

You don't know God. You need to repent. And I would like to get into 1 Timothy, but there's a lot of article here, and we'll get to it eventually. Maybe not tonight, maybe in the 40th message on this, but keep reading.

Article 1: Scripture as the Source of Truth

Okay, so you may sign this document and delineate if you affirm civil authorities' legislations both tables of the law or only the second table after the article. It can never be both tables. They said both tables.

They have an either or option in this document.

It can never be both tables.

No, it absolutely can't be.

We cannot force people to believe in Christ. 1 John 3 23 -24 tells us how you keep the first table of the law. And that's by believing in the name of the Son, Jesus Christ. You want to keep the first table?

You want to love God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and all your strength? Believe in Jesus Christ. We cannot force people to believe in Jesus Christ. I wish we could, and it actually took, but we can't.

We are honored to receive signatures now. If you affirm the statement as it stands, we do not accept anonymous signatures. In July, we will host an editorial summit to discuss any necessary amendments.

Follow the next day by a conference. Details forthcoming. We affirm and deny the following propositions. Article 1. Yep. Article 1, the source of truth. We affirm that the Bible is God's Word, breathed out by Him as the only sufficient, certain, inerrant, infallible, necessary and final authority for all saving knowledge, faith, what we must believe, and obedience, how we must live.

We affirm that the light of nature in man and God's works, in creation and providence, reveal God's power in nature, leaving civil authorities without excuse for failing to govern justly as His servants.