A brief rundown of Tim Keller's origins, testimony, and how he channels George Orwell's 1984.

https://www.pactuminstitute.com/podcasts-videos/iron-rhetoric-ep-23-the-testimony-of-tim-keller-and-his-doublethink

"Orban added that in contradistinction to propaganda by proponents of multiculturalism and mass immigration who aim to destroy national identity, it is in fact the national community itself which forms the true cultural basis for the Hungarian state."

https://www.pactuminstitute.com/the-pactum-blog/viktor-orban-at-cpac-the-nation-is-the-cultural-basis-of-the-hungarian-state

"God is of course glorified through our suffering for his Kingdom, but not any more or less than He is when we actually use wealth and prosperity to advance that Kingdom, the purpose for which we have been created in the first place (I Corinthians 10:31)."

https://www.pactuminstitute.com/the-pactum-blog/the-reality-of-covenantal-blessings-versus-the-heresies-of-the-health-wealth-and-prosperity-gospel

"Knowing God through his revelation teaches us that the worldly way of knowing is flawed. More than that, the worldly way of knowing is idolatry. When we think that we 'know' that
fire burns and bread nourishes, rather than knowing that God causes fire to burn and bread to nourish, we make idols."

- Andrew Zawislanski, Evangelical Mysticism (2023)

https://www.amazon.com/Evangelical-Mysticism-Andrew-Zawislanski/dp/1387318535/

Pastor McAtee explains how grace doesn't destroy, but rather restores nature.

https://www.pactuminstitute.com/podcasts-videos/iron-rhetoric-ep-24-grace-restores-nature

"Forsaking the supremacy of the divine, transcendent moral order as authoritative standard for societal and political arrangements in favor of the supremacy of mankind, manifesting epistemically in rationalism and empiricism, conflicts with divinely ordained creation ordinances which shape reality, inevitably culminating in an anarchy based in epistemic arbitrariness. From this anarchy, government or corporate tyranny alone is often presented as offering any kind of liberation."

https://www.pactuminstitute.com/the-pactum-blog/sovereignty-authority-and-liberty

Today we celebrate Ascension Day.

Heidelberg Catechism question 49:

How does Christ's ascension into heaven benefit us?

First, He is our Advocate in heaven before his Father.
Second, we have our flesh in heaven as a sure pledge that He, our Head, will also take us, his members, up to Himself.
Third, He sends us his Spirit as a counter-pledge, by whose power we seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God, and not the things that are on earth.

In this week's episode pastor McAtee discusses the blank slate theory as it was popularized by John Locke. In this discussion, we will find that Tabula Rasa is not a Christian or biblical category.

Please keep Rev. McAtee in your prayers as he is currently recovering from undergoing open heart surgery.

https://www.pactuminstitute.com/podcasts-videos/iron-rhetoric-ep-25-blank-slate-tabula-rasa

"In Pakistan, for example, millions of textile workers have lost their jobs over the past few weeks because the state-run electricity provider now can’t afford to provide electricity to factories. In Kenya, civil service workers simply did not receive their salaries last month, and in Zambia inflation has soared to 50%, unemployment has hit a two-decade high, and the national currency has lost 30% of its value in a matter of months."

https://www.pactuminstitute.com/press-statements/china-s-debt-slaves-are-facing-socio-economic-collapse

"[H]is remarks clearly represent an attack on the traditional agrarianism and private property rights which form the bedrock of the family life and culture of conservative Americans."

https://www.pactuminstitute.com/the-pactum-blog/john-kerry-s-assault-on-private-property-rights

The Statement on Christian Nationalism has been changed in light of the Pactum Institute's recommendations and now proposes a far more biblical definition of nationhood. It reads:

"We affirm that a particular people are necessarily bound together by a shared culture, customs, history, and lineage while sharing common interests, virtues, languages, and worship."

The original statement did not include lineage.

https://www.statementonchristiannationalism.com/

In this week's episode pastor McAtee recounts a conversation in which Jones posited that deconstructionism in English Literature is merely Sola Scriptura as applied to literary texts.

https://www.pactuminstitute.com/podcasts-videos/iron-rhetoric-ep-26-e-michael-jones-contra-mcatee-and-friends

"For the past 20 years the German economy has exhibited almost no real growth whatsoever. In contrast, India's economy continues to defy expectations and grow at around 7% annually."

https://www.pactuminstitute.com/the-pactum-blog/india-poised-to-become-world-s-fourth-largest-economy-as-germany-falters

"Today, the ideas of Christian Nationalism as it has historically manifested on the British Isles continue to be adhered to by the Free Church of Scotland, the Free Church of Scotland (Continuing) as well as the Reformed Presbyterian Church of Ireland."

https://www.pactuminstitute.com/the-pactum-blog/christian-nationalism-and-the-churches-of-england-and-scotland

"The Dutch Reformed Church and the Dutch nation therefore simultaneously arose out of the same historical struggle for liberty"

https://www.pactuminstitute.com/the-pactum-blog/christian-nationalism-and-the-dutch-reformed-church

Pastor Bret reviews a lenghty quote on eschatology from Richard B. Gaffin.

https://www.pactuminstitute.com/podcasts-videos/iron-rhetoric-ep-27-does-gaffin-have-a-point-in-his-critique-of-postmill-not-so-much

"Her study focused on female academics who identify as feminist, and she found that those who are critical of gender identity theory are being silenced, harassed, and openly censored."

https://www.pactuminstitute.com/press-statements/feminist-scholar-in-the-uk-censored-for-not-supporting-transgenderism

In this week's episode, pastor McAtee discusses Cultural Marxism as the worldview currently posing the greatest threat to Biblical Christianity.

https://www.pactuminstitute.com/podcasts-videos/iron-rhetoric-ep-28-cultural-marxism

"We can only hope that in future, the just principles upheld in this decision will be consistently applied to all peoples or ethnicities in America, since everybody deserves to be treated equally before the law."

https://www.pactuminstitute.com/press-statements/us-supreme-court-rules-7-2-in-favor-of-familialism

"The head of the Department for Religious Education of the Presbyterian Church of Korea, Cheong In-wa, famously attended the Eleventh World Sunday School Convention in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1932, where it was declared that 'the gospel of Jesus ought to meet the needs of the people in the life and circumstances where each lives; it should give expression to the latent aspirations in the national subconscience. Each people has its typical ways of feeling, its different aspirations. These peculiarities should ... find expression in the religious life of the people. Here we find the real meaning of Christian nationalism'."

https://www.pactuminstitute.com/the-pactum-blog/christian-nationalism-and-the-korean-presbyterian-churches