The Riddleblog

“Shall Christ Be King of the Nation?” Ask My Great, Great, Grandmother

My longstanding interest in family history has been a rewarding and interesting endeavor. As genealogists often quip, “if you shake the family tree hard enough, the nuts will fall to the ground.” Yes, there are a few “nuts” in my family lineage (Rufus Riddlesbarger— tax dodger, inventor of birth-control devices, all around scoundrel), and a murderer (Raymond Bernard Finch), whose notorious crime and trial in 1960-1961 became the basis for a Perry Mason episode. There are also several notables including a US Senator (Harrison Holt Riddlebarger). But I get that a post like this could quickly turn out to be the equivalent of watching someone else’s family home movies. I’ll spare you.

There is one direct ancestor on my maternal line whose story may be worth consideration. My great, great, grandmother, Jenny Bland Beauchamp [hereafter JBB] (1833-1914), was a Baptist preacher’s wife, and an author (she wrote a book on Christ’s second advent, Our Coming King in 1895, as well as an earlier book, a polemic against the Church of Christ, Maplehurst; or Campbellism not Christianity in 1867). She was a prominent prohibitionist and activist in Denton, TX. The entry about her in the on-line Handbook of Texas is remarkable. By all accounts, she was a force with which to be reckoned.

If you live in a current or former dry county in Texas, you have her to thank. According to the Handbook of Texas History,

During the final year of her presidency, Mrs. Beauchamp traveled more than 5,000 miles lecturing and organizing for temperance; by the close of her administration Texas had 1,600 WCTU members, organized into about 100 local unions. Jenny Beauchamp was elected to a fifth presidential term in 1888 but declined to serve because of ill health. Like her husband [Rev. Sylvester A. Beauchamp], she was also an active worker in the state prohibition movement in the 1880s.

What brought her to my recent attention is the current debate over Christian Nationalism. Her essay in the Union Signal of February 6, 1890, wrestled with the question “Shall Christ be King of the Nation?” and provoked a snarky critical review in the Freedom Sentinel penned under the initials A.T. J.

JBB opens with the question, “Shall Christ Be King of the Nation?” She affirms that “every loyal Christian heart must answer this question in the affirmative,” which she qualifies with a follow-up question. “But in what sense will Christ be King of the Nation?” Her explanation affirms the complexity of the question as well as that of her proposed answer.

To read the rest, follow the link below

B. B. Warfield on the Celebration of Christmas

In a review of a German book beautifully illustrating the art associated with the celebration of Christmas written by Georg Rietschel (1842-1914), who was a professor of theology at Leipzig University (H. T. Barry Waugh: Warfield on Celebrating Christmas) , B. B. Warfield concludes by raising the following questions:

1). What can be said for the customs [of Christmas] to which we have committed ourselves?

2). There is no reason to believe that our Lord wished his birthday to be celebrated by his followers.

3). There is no reason to believe that the day on which we are celebrating it is his birthday (Michael Kruger: Five Misconceptions of Christmas).

4). There is no reason to believe that the way in which we currently celebrate it would meet his approval.

These questions cause Warfield to conclude with the follow challenge; “are we not in some danger of making of what we fondly tell ourselves is a celebration of the Advent of our Lord, on the one side something much more like the Saturnalia of old Rome than is becoming in a sober Christian life; and, on the other something much more like a shopkeeper’s carnival than can comport with the dignity of even a sober secular life?”

Christmas is a difficult time for Christians precisely because of these important questions raised by Warfield. What do we do when a secular holiday and all the things that go with it (some good, some terrible) becomes thoroughly intertwined with the Christian celebration of our Lord’s birth and incarnation? There is something wonderful about an annual gathering when families and friends come together, feast, share gifts, and make family memories. There is something awful when “Frosty the Snowman” plays in the annual rotation of the FM radio station of Christmas music right after “Joy to the World.”

To read the rest, follow the link below:

Michael Horton Nails It -- No "Christian" Nations in the New Covenant Era

Follow the link below to view Michael’s recent discussion of Christian nationalism (from TGC).

"If My People"

It is common to hear Christians claim that America is a “Christian nation.” What, exactly, does that mean? One thing it does not mean is that America has a divinely established national covenant with God similar to God’s covenant with Israel.

Because our Lord’s promise of divine protection and deliverance is given to the church (Matthew 16:18), the temptation is ever-present for Christians to mistakenly assume that our Lord’s promise extends beyond the church to that nation in which they live. Support for such divine protection is found by an appeal to 2 Chronicles 7:14 — “If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”

The claim that “God is on our side” usually surfaces when politically active American evangelicals see themselves in another skirmish in the ongoing culture war–contending with secular-progressives for the soul of the nation in a Manichean struggle between good and evil. In the heat of battle, Christians invoke covenant promises made by God to national Israel, mistakenly assuming these promises apply to the United States because the United States is a “Christian nation,” and therefore like ancient Israel, allowing appeal to God’s promise of protection and eventual victory upon the condition, “if my people humble themselves.”

To read the rest of this post, click on the link below

Two New Riddleblog Publications

I have uploaded two essays from the old Riddleblog to “Riddleblog Publications.”

You can find them here:

Eschatology by Ethos

A Rival to Biblical Christianity