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Anthony B. Bradley

28 Jun, 12 tweets, 3 min read

Os Guinness says the book of Exodus is the center of God's work in human history. He's right & the Matt 28:18-20-focussed evangelicals are misguided. The covenant of redemption is the center. The black church models centering on "Big God" Exodus theology. amazon.com/Magna-Carta-Hu…

Biggest Guinness take away: so many black students were lied to regarding the theology of the traditional black church & owe many now black evangelicals & black church leaders a massive apology. Herman Bavinck exposes the theological flaw of American "Great Commission" types.

He explains the George Whitefield inspired flaw this way: "[Evangelicalism] has an aggressive character, seeks only conversion, and looks for the seat of faith in the will...But it regard conversion as a sudden, momentary, and immediate act...

Therefore [evangelicalism] also misunderstands the church, baptism, and Christian nurture. In addition, it runs the risk of allowing sanctification to be absorbed almost entirely into the task of converting others. This is the reason for blind zeal without understanding,

for all those committees, and for the penitential sermons. Everything must geared toward missions; children, young men and women, must establish societies, evangelize, and mobilize efforts to make converts, and with tracts and Bibles to conquer the world by storm...

By putting the will in the foreground...[evangelicalism] lacks a harmonious anthropology of the whole person." ~Reformed Ethics, Vol 1., pg 314. And this is precisely why American evangelicals did nothing to end slavery, Jim Crow, or racism against blacks and Native Americans.

From Bavinck to Guinness, it's clear that the traditional black church is the best expression of biblical theology America has ever seen. The theological deficiency is on NT focussed evangelical world who've wrongly reduced to being "on mission" to win converts.

This explains the flaw in Jonathan Edwards, this explains the SBC's history, biblicist Presbyterians, etc. No matter how much Bavinck or Kuyper is read, if the covenant of redemption isn't the center, it's not really Reformed. Reformed folks are fully Bavinckian on this issue.😎

From Bavinck to Guinness, American evangelical theology is not the model. It's sad to see their flawed anthropology exported to other parts of the world as they export the same flawed anthropology (which turns a blind eye to human suffering as we saw in American history).

The retort will be this: "No, evangelicals care about the poor and oppressed and have orgs and missions work in that area." True but that's not the point. Evangelicalism tends to *only* justify involvement with poverty/justice issues because it will lead to converting others.

Again the money sentence, "Everything must geared toward missions; children, young men and women, must establish societies, evangelize, and mobilize efforts to make converts." Bavinck nails it! Reformed theology considers redemption cosmic, not merely conversionist. #BlackChurch

Also, if you want to see a great non-American model, check out the Scottish Presbyterian understanding of the three offices of Christ determining the work of the church! The Scottish Presbyterians more like Bavinck than US "Great Commission" evangelicals. amazon.com/Manual-Church-…

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More from @drantbradley

Anthony B. Bradley

@drantbradley

19 Apr

In Chapter 6, it becomes glaringly clear that Voddie Baucham does not understand what the "Sufficiency of Scripture" actually means. He straw mans the definition, divorces it from the Reformed Tradition, and then critiques David Platt, John O, Eric Mason, Ligon Duncan, & others.

This explains so much. Baucham's personal definition of the sufficiency doctrine is 1920s fundamentalism rather than Reformed. He says, "there's not a better book to address men on the issue of race in America than the Bible." But the "issue of race" includes economics, e.g.

The Sufficiency of Scripture is about faith. "The whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for His own glory, man’s salvation, faith and life, is either expressly set down in Scripture, or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture"(WCF 1.6).

Read 12 tweets

Anthony B. Bradley

@drantbradley

15 Apr

I'm beginning to think that Presbyterians have a distinct and unique understanding of the Sufficiency of Scripture doctrine that makes them foreigners & aliens in "Reformed" Evangelicalism. Presbyterians:

"The whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for his own glory, man’s salvation, faith and life, is either expressly set down in Scripture, or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture..." thewestminsterstandards.com/wcf-chapter-1-…

Therefore, on matters not related to faith, other sources are needed and can helpful: sociology, psychology, science, math, philosophy, economics, etc. The neo-Calvinist, 1689ers, RBs, don't seem to believe this. They take sufficient to mean "exhaustive" so CRT scares them.

Read 4 tweets

Anthony B. Bradley

@drantbradley

13 Apr

@jeff_hemmer

The @jeff_hemmer has written the*best* book on masculinity in a Christian context in print (I've ever read). He's the focus of my podcast this week. It is the most challenging & encouraging book about the masculine journey you'll ever read. #DadsMatter podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/man…

A father & son(15 yr-old) spent 10 months going out for meals to discuss this book. The son shared his experience with me, "Being able to discuss each chapter with my dad has been a wonderful experience, and I hope it has helped me grow as a man." amazon.com/Why-Black-Live…

Father/Son working through this together forced key issues. The father: "We would take turns asking each other the discussion questions. And those questions prompted other questions. I want him to feel the freedom to talk to me as a man and let me know where I can improve."

Read 6 tweets

Anthony B. Bradley

@drantbradley

25 Mar

https://twitter.com/washingtonpost/status/1374975181811298304

Elephant in the room: Asian Americans seem to prefer relationships with white people. “White supremacy seduces non-Blacks into believing that the further distance between them & Blackness the greater opportunity to become as privileged as Whites.” Exhibit A: NYC evangelicals.

https://twitter.com/washingtonpost/status/1374975181811298304

“Not surprisingly, Asian immigrants and citizens have, at times, tacitly accepted this agreement.” If you don’t believe him, go over to Instagram & look at the pictures of NYC whites & Asians. You won’t see black people. I think we need a separate black/Asian conversation.

If you come to New York City (pre-COVID) my black friends noticed, in bars and restaurants, you won’t see tables of Asians mixed with Blacks or Latinos. There are real tensions. Prof. Jospeh: “We must also recognize that anti-Asian racism is a form of white supremacy.”

Read 4 tweets

Anthony B. Bradley

@drantbradley

24 Mar

Dr. Samuel Perry once commented that many evangelicals suffer from “information isolation” (can’t find the tweet). I think it’s worse. It’s disinformation & information deprivation, within the context of isolation. Here’s why: I just had a PCA pastor attempt to rebuke me because:

My observation that, based on US history during slavery, Jim Crow, the white flight 70s/80s, etc., that I had zero expectations that US Christianity can pull off racial solidarity. Where’s the historical evidence in US history? I don’t see any, esp, during Jim Crow. His response:

(1) Christians ended slavery in America, (2) “The only persons who are going to consistently lay down their lives, livelihoods and comforts for the sake of others is the regenerated Christian.”

Read 15 tweets

Anthony B. Bradley

@drantbradley

21 Mar

@SHAQ

Fact: @SHAQ is one of the best dads in America. Data: boys that don’t roughhouse with their fathers (grades k-12) are more likely to struggle with addictions(drugs, porn, video games, etc.), lack impulse control, lack the ability to delay gratification, etc. #dadsmatter

If you don’t believe me read the data for yourself. Boys wrestling with their fathers makes the world a better place. Dads who don’t do roughhouse set the most sons up for struggle. amazon.com/Boy-Crisis-Boy…

If you don’t want to read the data. Listen to it. We’d have less sexual assault on college campuses, less teen drug use, teenage boys would struggle grades less, etc. if dads roughhoused more. It’s true.