Pastor of Veritas Reformed Church (FORC)
Tuscaloosa, AL
Joined August 2023
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On Reformation Sunday, we covered the biblical doctrine of justification by works. @VeritasReformed
sermonaudio.com/sermons/1026…
Johnathan Brown retweeted
"Can a Christian vote Democrat?"
That’s the wrong question.
Better one: Can a Christian back a platform that celebrates abortion and redefines male and female, then call it loving his neighbor?
Scripture defines love. Not the party.
Your answer?
Johnathan Brown retweeted
“Christians” who don’t want pastors talking about politics from the pulpit are telling on themselves.
Tell me the issues you don’t want your pastor talking about, and I’ll tell you where your conscience knows you’re out of line with Scripture.
“All of Christ for all of life.”
"God in rewarding good deeds does not look to merit or worthiness. For no work is so full and complete in all its parts as to be deservedly well-pleasing to him, and farther, there is no one whose works are in themselves well pleasing to God, unless he render satisfaction to the whole law. Now no one is found thus to be perfect. Hence the resource is in his accepting us through unmerited goodness, and justifying us, by not imputing to us our sins. After he has received us into favor, he receives our works also by a gracious acceptance. It is on this that the reward hinges. There is, therefore, no inconsistency in saying that he rewards, provided we understand that mankind, nevertheless, obtains eternal life gratuitously." - John Calvin
Johnathan Brown retweeted
A couple things on this, because progressives use this to bully and intimidate (conservative) pastors into silence:
1) While I am very clear about the evil of many policies currently being advanced by the DNC and CLEAR moral asymmetry between the proposed policies of the parties, I do not endorse candidates right now.
2) Progressives selectively report churches to the FFRF every year. You'll never see this article about the (primarily AA) churches Democrats are in every week leading up to an election. It's an attempt at street-level lawfare.
3) Articles like this are toothless and you should just chuckle at them. We have a lawyer that argues Religious Liberty cases before SCOTUS at Lakepointe. No church in US History has ever had their tax exempt status removed for a sermon, much less for one in which a candidate was not even endorsed.
4) In the words of a couple knowledgable guys I consulted with, it's a harassment and intimidation tactic to silence pastors.
Intent of this post isn't to be combative, but I have realized this fear has intimidated some pastor friends and after looking into it, wanted to remove that fear.
BOTTOM LINE: You are 100% free to be clear with your people about the (radical) moral asymmetry between the current proposed policies and ideologies of the parties AND to encourage your people to vote as an application of the command to be “the salt of the earth” and to “seek the welfare of the city” and to “live your neighbor”.
Johnathan Brown retweeted
How to vote as a Christian in America in 2026 is not complex.
A common ploy among evangelicals with left-leaning sensibilities is to nuance voting to death. They know it’s morally indefensible to support the Democratic Party of Death, but they so loathe conservatism that they need a way to persuade Christians not to vote Republican.
Enter the Character Argument: “How can Christians support Ken Paxton, a noted adulterer? Aren’t we the people who should demand better? Doesn’t character matter?”
Character does matter. It’s lamentable that vanishing few politicians have good character. But this line of argumentation abandons reason on a number of fronts. Here are a couple.
1. The active support of evil is itself emblematic of low character. Joe Biden and James Talarico are outwardly calm and genteel men. Yet both actively support the mass murder of unborn children, the desecration of marriage, and the erasure of creation-order gender distinctions. They are pursuing the success of evil. That makes them evil. Supporting straight-line violations of God’s Law is to be an evil person—the embodiment of low character.
2. Voting is first and foremost about supporting a candidate who most upholds justice and laws consistent with the will of God. Voting has always been about this. Character is not irrelevant, but a vote supports a public agenda. Supporting a Democratic candidate is therefore obviously sinful and wrong.
One of the Enemy’s most subtle tactics is to nuance morally simple issues. Resist this.
"We, indeed, acknowledge with Paul, that the only faith which justifies is that which works by love (Gal. 3:6); but love does not give it its justifying power. Nay, its only means of justifying consists in its bringing us into communication with the righteousness of Christ." - John Calvin
Johnathan Brown retweeted
“In Him” we live and move (Acts 17:28).
“In Him” we have redemption (Eph 1:7).
“In Him” we are heirs (Eph 1:11).
“In Him” we were sealed (Eph 1:13).
“In Him” we are built together (Eph 2:22).
“In Him” we have boldness (Eph 3:12).
We are nothing without Christ.
"[God] justifies not partially, but freely, so that they can appear in the heavens as if clothed with the purity of Christ." - John Calvin
"The answer is very easy: as Christ cannot be divided into parts, so the two things, justification and sanctification, which we perceive to be united together in him, are inseparable. Whomsoever, therefore, God receives into his favor, he presents with the Spirit of adoption, whose agency forms them anew into his image." - John Calvin
"To justify, therefore, is nothing else than to acquit from the charge of guilt, as if innocence were proved. Hence, when God justifies us through the intercession of Christ, he does not acquit us on a proof of our own innocence, but by an imputation of righteousness, so that though not righteous in ourselves, we are deemed righteous in Christ." - John Calvin
"Thus we simply interpret justification, as the acceptance with which God receives us into his favor as if we were righteous; and we say that this justification consists in the forgiveness of sins and the imputation of the righteousness of Christ." - John Calvin
