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To the Mourners at Covenant Presbyterian Church

Posted on March 29, 2023March 29, 2023 by RKM in Announcements

We here at Rogues & Kingdom men would like to extend our condolences and our sorrowful prayers towards Pastor Chad Scruggs who lost his beautiful little girl, the congregation at Covenant Presbyterian Church, the Covenant School and all those who lost loved ones in Monday’s tragic event where three 9-year-old students and three school staff members were murdered by a former student of the school.

The Lord said that the mourners in this age would be blessed for they will be comforted (Matthew 5:4). No one would in those days and in ours would attribute blessing to a mourner. Someone who mourns is someone who has generally suffered loss and not gain, sorrow and not joy. Isaiah prepared the way for this coming enigma. The comfort of the mourner was a sign that the Messiah had come. Those who awaited the coming of the Messiah were expecting that He would bring comfort to the broken hearted in this world especially to His people. We are told in Isaiah 61:1-2 that not only would He bring good news, but that He would bind up the broken hearted (v.1), proclaim liberty and freedom (v.1) and in the context of our verse, that He would comfort those who mourn (v.2). Isaiah continues to declare that the Messiah would:

To grant those who mourn in Zion,
Giving them a garland instead of ashes,
The oil of gladness instead of mourning,
The mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting.
So they will be called oaks of righteousness,
The planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified. (Isaiah 61:3)

Rest assured that our mourning will turn to praise because in it, God will be glorified! As grievers, we will experience that great day of comfort when Jesus will wipe every tear from our eye and all our mourning will turn to rejoicing.

Brothers & Sisters, we mourn with you this day and you are in our prayers!

With Love,

Your brothers in Christ

RKM

No Fury Quite Like It

Posted on March 25, 2023 by RKM in Church Practices

Christians are a people who live in this world but are not of the world. Well, supposedly they are. We participate in the societal structure of their community just like everyone else and this contribution takes on the form of holding jobs to support our loved ones. Christians also like to talk about how they’re affiliation with the faith makes them a unique type of professional. As an example, there are Christian barbers, evangelical bakers and plenty of Christian politicians. One that stands out on a personal level is a local used car company in my local community which advertises itself as a Christian business with old fashion values and while I’m sure there are intended ethical differences contrasting it from a secular used card lot, they still sell sub-level cars and service. I know this because I purchased one and have regretted it to this day. They sell awful cars much like the secular lot just down the road. But once they associate the term Christian with the sign, you are advertising your business and your faith as Honest Larry the sleezy Christian car salesmen. They produce services exactly like secular men/women but add the Christians tag to their role to excuse this sub-level amenity. This is especially alarming when a brother sells a brother a lemon.

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The Book of Hosea: Chapter 3

Posted on March 24, 2023 by RKM in The Book of Hosea

The narrative in Chapter 3 shares a thematically identical structure to that of chapters 1-2 except that it is given in the first person rather than the third and utilizes different terminology to convey the same ideas. What has burdened the interpreters of this chapter is whether or not the woman in question is Gomer and even whether chapter 3 is parallel to chapters 1-2 at all. It seems if we follow the text chronologically that we are left with, not Hosea acquiring Gomer for the first time, having children, separating due to her adulterous ways, but reacquiring her post-unfaithfulness to him. This is the first time that the term adultery is used in the book[1]. Some argue that this needs to be a new woman since the children are not named but the parallel symbolism of Israel/Gomer and Hosea/Yahweh is still in place hence it would be a strange deviation from the entire argument to suddenly move to another lady to communicate the same symbolism.

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Mr. Suave’s Purity Performance

Posted on March 12, 2023March 15, 2023 by RKM in Church Practices

As I mentioned previously, interactions among Christians are significant to the spiritual health of a believer and further our fellowship together is a manifestation of our unity. These interactions are to be guarded and be pleasing to the Lord. We are sometimes so preoccupied in delving into political and social wars especially against the sexual revolution with the expectation to change the direction of the wind that we forget about cleaning our own room first. If we are going to push the sexual purity narrative against the sexual immoral, it needs to first happen within your heart and the walls of your local congregation.

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Fire Starters

Posted on March 8, 2023March 8, 2023 by RKM in Church Practices

Experiencing the great bride of Christ on earth is a wonderful encounter that has enriched me in many ways in my life. I’ve been a churchman for many years and take pride in partaking in the beauty of God’s assembly especially its head. The body of Christ is an ongoing growing body that has yet to reach maturity and let’s face it, it has a long way to go. When we consider the local church, there are many ways which it has matured since the days of the apostles, but in other ways it has stayed the same. But the survival of a local church relies upon maturity, or we end up with a nursery rather than a church! Some need to be more spiritually grounded than others or else how do we exercise the great commission? I say spiritually here because this is not about age, but about wisdom and scriptural/spiritual soundness. When Paul wrote to the local churches (and to some of his helpers), he didn’t do so to convey to them a bunch of trivial slogans but wanting to share the inspired wisdom of his age. He understood human interactions well enough to write a manual on ecclesiastical comportment in 2023. The apostle wrote for his day and God knew it would apply for the rest of history.

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The Book of Hosea: Chapter 2 (2)

Posted on March 3, 2023March 3, 2023 by RKM in The Book of Hosea

We now enter a transition in the second half of the chapter from a description of the justice and shame for their sins to a glorious restoration and conversion of the nation; A similar pattern from the previous chapter. Yahweh moves to describe a great reversal from His judgment upon the nation, to a restoration of the glory days of old and a transformation from being Lo-Ruhamah & Lo-Ammi to a people who receive mercy and become the people of God. It is God who will conquer these things and seek her out through his mercy and grace. He will go into further detail in this segment to describe the great restoration. This won’t be simply a reversal to take them back to pre-Jeroboam, but it will be as the days of her redemption from Egypt.

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The Eschatology of Jesus: French Edition

Posted on February 24, 2023February 23, 2023 by RKM in En Français, End Times/ Eschatology

One can well imagine the number of theological works published on a regular basis in the English language worldwide. I’m sure we`d be surprised at the sheer number. Other languages are not so fortunate, and some have little resources available. Living in Canada, especially in the larger city centres, you may hear many languages being spoken but the two prevalent today are still good old English and French. I thought I’d contribute to sharing my theological insights to my fellow French speaking brethren. So, without further adieux, I’d like to share with you one of my works in the French language.

Previously, I published a summary of the eschatology of Matthew 24 in a 60+ page document where I went through the texts of Matthew 21-25 focusing on how this chapter relates to the overall understanding of the 2^nd coming of Christ. After some hard work with my Petit Robert dictionary, I’m proud to present you all with the French edition which you can find here.

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The Book of Hosea: Chapter 2 (1)

Posted on February 17, 2023 by RKM in The Book of Hosea

It is always good to remember that chapters and verses in the bible were not included in the original autographs. This is an example where it could affect the context if we depend too readily on these divisions. The first verse in Hosea’s 2^nd chapter is a good example of the significance of this. The passage is interlinked with 1:10-11 rather than introducing a new segment. Previously, the prophet spoke of a future reversal for the nation in Yahweh’s dealing with them. The great day of Jezreel (1:11) demonstrated the renewal of the first son of Hosea. Now, in 2:1, the same is said of the 2^nd & 3^rd child. In this instance, Jezreel seems to be the one addressing his siblings, Lo-Ruhamah and Lo-Ammi. The two will experience a similar reversal in their state going from being shown no compassion and not my people to receiving mercy and being transformed into “my people”. This is to be taken symbolically of the renovation of the nation since note that the prophet uses the plural “brothers and sisters”.

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Trudeau’s Head

Posted on February 7, 2023 by RKM in The Kingdom

If you’ve followed my overview of the book of Amos, you may have discovered themes that seem all too familiar, and perhaps you may have wondered how on earth did he know about Canada in 2023? Aside from being a seer, the history of men is a vicious reoccurring cycle of trading up what is good in God’s blessings to embrace that which is not. In Amos’ day, the kingdom of the north prospered economically, and they enjoyed a time of relative peace surrounding their borders. But with that prosperity came the sins of arrogance, greed, indifference, and a lack of purity especially in their worship. Men began to oppress others financially by charging outrageous prices for goods and impoverishing them to the detriment of forcing them to become slaves. They banished the mouthpieces of God’s word and threatened to have Amos brought before the king for criticizing their debauchery (Amos 7:10-17). They began to see themselves, not so much as a nation of Yahweh worshippers, but one that accommodated other forms of worship to other gods, and they weren’t too fond of criticism. They’d even gone so far as to erect a temple to Canaanite gods in Samaria (1 Kings 16:29-34) and seemingly few had a problem with it (1 Kings 19:18: 2 Kings 10:18-28). Bethel became a brothel and the people may have become a little too excited to go to that church on Sunday to participate in the sexual perversion with the temple prostitutes. The most horrible part of this delusion is that they thought they were immune to judgment both spiritually and tangibly. They thought they were fine because they still offered some form of worship to Yahweh, all the while mingled with the adoration of Baal. They banked heavily on their military position and wealth as fool proof detractors from anyone interrupting their comforts which, I might add, was proven to be dead wrong. There was a pendulum style shift in their economic standing in these periods where they went from a wealthy nation during the reign of Jeroboam, to losing everything due to heavy taxation, social chaos and losing control of their livelihoods due to their Assyrian neighbours. They eventually fell to the Assyrian army and were taken into exile.

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Putting Your Pistols Back in Your Holsters

Posted on February 3, 2023February 3, 2023 by RKM in Church Practices, Guest Posts

Guest Post by: The East Side Monergist

Recently, I read a piece by Carl Trueman titled Yes I am a Christian, just like those over there that really hit home in terms of the mindset among evangelical/protestant circles. So much of what I’m reading and seeing happening these days in Christendom is just reinforcing and incentivizing a need to be more gracious with each other as Protestants. We need to really look at different traditions with more focus upon unity rather than distinctives simply for the sake of solidarity and unity and strength based on first order issues. Over and over again, we’ve been spoiled or sinful or graceless enough to splinter ourselves and have become foolishly divided by secondary and tertiary order issues that we can’t even truly claim to be a part of or include others in the same faith. We spend so much time treating our brothers in the faith as though they are heretics and maybe even unworthy of the title Christian altogether all the while we see agnostics, atheists, wiccans and satanists grow in unity and solidarity. We are fighting our way into being arguably the smallest and most divided faith system in the world.

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