Advent Thoughts for Our Time

By Dr. Alan D. Strange, President of Mid-America Reformed Seminary

Much has happened since I last wrote a President's Message to our readers. Here at the Seminary, we've had to deal with several challenges, particularly in terms of personnel. As always, the Lord has been and is taking care of us, and we are happy to go forward in his service. We always remember that whatever evil the enemy may purpose for us, God always turns it to our good. In that respect, just to note some particulars, we are grateful for the encouraging golf outing and fundraiser that we had and for the Center for Missions and Evangelism Conference, both of which, especially the latter, exceeded all our expectations, even though we were operating, personnel-wise, at a diminished capacity. The Lord provides.

Violence and National Tragedy

We've also seen hardship on the national level. Shootings and killings of various sorts continue to occur in our deeply troubled nation. One that has had an unusual impact on society broadly, including the church, even our churches, has been the death of Charlie Kirk. One of my children put it well: the death of any political figure for his views is tragic; when that figure is not an officeholder but an influencer or pundit, it's especially jarring. The question always hangs in the air: Who's next? Who among us who express views publicly that some don't like may become a victim of an assassination?

Thankfully, the response to Mr. Kirk's death has not been vigilantism, rioting, or the like as we've witnessed in recent years as a reaction to developments opposed by many. Many instead participated in services of mourning and prayer, a better response than violence in response to violence. Mr. Kirk's memorial service was also quite unusual. Never in my lifetime have I seen politicians testify as clearly to the gospel as some did at Kirk's service. It seems like a throwback to the nineteenth century in some respects. Other addresses were quite political, as expected at such a memorial, since Mr. Kirk was a significant political commentator and activist.

The Blurring of Gospel and Politics

The memorial service was like what Mr. Kirk himself had become in more recent years: more religious in his interactions, especially on campuses, than previously, while remaining quite decidedly politically conservative, in fact, an ongoing supporter and promoter of the President and his whole MAGA agenda. He, of course, had every right to do that in a society like ours, as does a liberal like Ezra Klein, just to pick someone on the opposite side from Kirk, and to remain free from any legal strictures in doing so, operating under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. And anyone, right or left, should be able to do so without being shot and killed.

Surely, we have experienced, as Carl Trueman has been alleging, some sort of dehumanization that many are starting to realize, a loss that extracts a high cost and that more, even some secularists, are lamenting; Trueman ruminates on these developments, arguing that perhaps a new humanism is in the offing, there even being some notable conversions (Russell Brand not least among them), pointing toward a better day than the one that expressive individualism has landed us in.

Our Responsibility as Reformed and Presbyterian Christians

One thing that we, as confessionally Reformed and Presbyterian, can do that's helpful and needed in the present moment is to remind everyone that the gospel is always clearly to be distinguished from so much of what some may be currently associating with it. The gospel, as the heart of the Christian faith, is the life and death of Christ for His people. The Christian faith is never the Bible's doctrines plus some political views on the left or right. All of this is especially appropriate in the Advent/Christmas season when people may be more open to distinct Christian witness than at some other times of the year.

This is important to note because one could hear Mr. Kirk on campuses, under his "Prove me wrong" banner, defend some aspects of Christianity and in the next breath defend MAGA distinctives as if they were all the same thing, not pausing to say before the political part, "now Christians may have different views than mine about what I'm saying now." It was often presented as a package deal, as if theological teachings smashed together with rightist political views properly make up one grand thing called the Christian faith. The Bible defines the Christian faith, and that is what we should be holding forth as the church's witness to the world, now and in every season.

Dr. Alan D. Strange is President of Mid-America Reformed Seminary