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It's Saturday, December 9, 2023.

Today’s edition covers a new film that targets “Christian Nationalism,” a South Carolina church’s record-breaking Sunday of baptisms, the history behind celebrating Christ’s birth on December 25, and more.

“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge” (Hosea 4:6a). Here’s some knowledge.

Of Christian Concern

AN UPCOMING DOCUMENTARY FILM TAKES AIM AT “CHRISTIAN NATIONALISM”

Screenshot of the title card from the trailer for Rob Reiner’s upcoming film God & Country. (YouTube/IGN Movie Trailers)

On Thursday, actor and filmmaker Rob Reiner, an unbeliever, announced a new film about “the rise of Christian Nationalism” titled God & Country. On the social media platform X, Reiner posted the documentary’s trailer with the words, “Christian Nationalism is not only a danger to our Country, it’s a danger to Christianity itself. Our film will be coming to theaters In February. Watch the trailer here.”

The trailer, which features a number of familiar figures in evangelicalism, such as Russell Moore, David French, and Phil Vischer, vilifies “Christian Nationalism” as un-Christian, malicious, divisive, and anti-gospel, with authoritarianism as its goal. A juxtaposition of ominous soundbites from interviewees with images of riots seems to suggest that Christian Nationalism was a driving force behind the violent skirmishes at the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Many Christians on social media did not receive the trailer well. Some responses were mocking. Former Trump official William Wolfe commented, “Friends, don’t feel like you need to take these people seriously. They aren’t serious people. It’s okay to laugh at this.” Popular YouTube Bible teacher Mike Winger responded to the trailer with apparent sarcasm, “Surely this will be a thoughtful examination.”

Other responses focused on calling out the participants in the film. A pastor named Ken commented, “Shame on all those professing Christians who have partnered with Rob Reiner in this film. This is nothing more than a hit piece against Christianity under the cloak of ‘Christian Nationalism.’” Journalist Ben Zeisloft and others zeroed in on Russell Moore, accusing him of being a political operative—an opinion which found support from the likes of pastors Tom Ascol and, by way of a years-old clip, Tom Buck.

Journalist Megan Basham wondered whether the millions of dollars that the evangelical magazine Christianity Today is allegedly raising for their “2024 Vision” (notice: 2024 is election year) will have any connection to a project that editor-in-chief Russell Moore has been promoting, “The After Party.” Basham says the goal of the After Party is “to convince evangelicals they need not vote for conservatives.” The implication raised here is that Reiner’s film may have the same goal: to cleave Christians from conservatism.

SOUTH CAROLINA CHURCH BAPTIZES 141 NEW BELIEVERS ON A SINGLE SUNDAY

Photo: Jose Vasquez

Upstate Church in Simpsonville, South Carolina—also known as First Baptist Simpsonville—baptized 141 new believers on Sunday, far outpacing their record of 30 or 40 at one time. This surprising response across the six campuses of the multisite megachurch followed a month-long evangelistic series focused on church ordinances.

Senior Pastor Wayne Bray told Baptist Press that they had restructured the services to allow for time to confirm spontaneous decisions, of which there were many. “We were very careful to make sure every decision was confirmed,” he said, “turning away multiple people who needed more time to talk through their decision.”

This wave of baptisms in Simpsonville is only the latest of religious revivals and mass baptisms that have occurred recently, according to The Christian Post. The first such event was the widely reported spontaneous time of worship at Asbury University in Kentucky, which lasted for days back in February. Since then, though, there was also a crowd of around 4,500 baptized in Pirate Cove, California in July—perhaps due in part to the influence of the recent film Jesus Revolution.

“We have held baptisms at Pirate's Cove [before],” said Pastor Greg Lauri of Harvest Christian Fellowship, who organized the event, “but nothing we have done comes close to this event we just did. It may be the largest baptism in history.”

Also Noteworthy

→ Theologian Dr. Aaron Edwards sues a Methodist Bible university for allegedly firing him over a social media post in which he voiced opposition to homosexuality in the Church.

→ A federal judge rules that Christian humanitarian organization World Vision unlawfully discriminated against a woman in a same-sex marriage by rescinding a job offer to her, in one of the first cases of its kind following the 2020 US Supreme Court decision that gender identity and sexual orientation are protected under Title VII.

→ The Russian Supreme Court bans the “international LGBT movement” from Russia, calling it an “extremist organization.” The move is celebrated by the Russian Orthodox Church.

→ Nearly one quarter (23%) of young Brits (aged 18-34) agree the Bible should be banned if it’s deemed to contain hate speech, according to a poll by Whitestone Insights.

Content Catch-Up

Recent, notable content by Christian creators.*

→ Rob Bell Defeated In Debate: On the YouTube channel Wise Disciple, former debate teacher Nate Sala analyzes a discussion between the heterodox Bible teacher Rob Bell and pastor Andrew Wilson, highlighting Wilson’s masterful debate tactics as an example for Christians to emulate in apologetics. (Video)

→ James Tour vs. Lee Cronin: Christian chemist Dr. James Tour debates origin of life researcher Dr. Lee Cronin on origin of life issues, in a follow-up to Tour’s contentions that the field of study is far less advanced than is often claimed. (Video)

→ Atheist Rage Quits: Christian apologist David Wood and ex-Muslim atheist known as the Apostate Prophet team up to analyze a recent debate between atheist Matt Dillahunty and Christian Andrew Wilson (a different Andrew Wilson from the one above), during which Dillahunty became upset and walked out. (Video)

*Not necessarily an endorsement

The Bible, Briefly

You Shall Not Add To It or Take From It

Moses Comes Down from Mount Sinai (Ex. 19:25,20:1-17), by Gustave Doré, 1866. (Public Domain)

In Deuteronomy 12:29-31, Moses commands the ancient Israelites, in anticipation of their conquest of the Promised Land, to not investigate or adopt any of the local pagans’ ways of worshipping. He emphasizes that their worship practices incorporate “every abominable thing that the Lord hates,” up to and including child sacrifice by fire.

He then adds, “Everything that I command you, you shall be careful to do. You shall not add to it or take from it” (Deuteronomy 12:32).

In his commentary on this verse, the 16th-century reformer John Calvin observes, “In this brief clause he teaches that no other service of God is lawful, except that of which He has testified His approval in His word…” Any other “modes of devotion,” Calvin writes, “are absurd and infected with superstition…”

To worship God without idolatry, then, requires “a knowledge of the true God…derived from His word, and mixed with faith.” Plus, “By forbidding the addition, or diminishing of anything, he plainly condemns as illegitimate whatever men invent of their own imagination…” Anyone who tries to worship God in a manner He has not prescribed has invented “false gods.” 

Calvin applies this passage to the conflict of his own times, calling out “all the ceremonies of the Papal worship” as “a mass of superstitions,” and saying that “all her chief rulers and ministers” are “blinded with that stupidity wherewith God has threatened” in Isaiah 29:13-14. (In that passage, God says “the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the discernment of their discerning men shall be hidden.”)

Consider how this principle may apply to our own times. Are there practices that we have added to or taken away from God’s prescribed ways of worship? Is it possible He has blinded otherwise wise and discerning men due to such violations? These questions may only be answered by prayer, as in David’s words: “Who can discern his errors? Declare me innocent from hidden faults” (Psalm 19:12).

Church History Tidbit

A December 25th Birthday?

Detail of Mausoleum M. Mosaic under St. Peter’s Basilica, AD 3rd or 4th century - interpreted as Christ represented as the sun god Sol Invictus. (Public Domain)

The Bible doesn’t give a date for Jesus’ birth, and—according to Christian history scholar Andrew McGowan—His birthday was apparently not celebrated for the first two or three centuries after His earthly life. Around AD 200, Christian writer Clement of Alexandria lists a number of possible birthdates, none of which include December 25. The first mention of December 25, McGowan writes, is in “a mid-fourth-century Roman almanac” called The Philocalian Calendar. Why, then, did December 25 emerge as the date that’s commonly celebrated? Historians offer at least two hypotheses.

The Calculation Hypothesis

Proposed in 1889 by French scholar Louis Duchesne, one theory suggests the date for Christ’s birth was calculated from the supposed date of His conception, March 25. (December 25, of course, is exactly nine months later.) So, why March 25? Because that was calculated to have been the date of His death (the day before Passover, according to John 19:14), and there was an idea in ancient times (perhaps coming from Talmudic Judaism) that the date of His death must be the same as the date of His conception. Also, some ancient writers, like Augustine, found it appropriate that Jesus would be born on the winter solstice, the day “whence light begins to increase.”

The History of Religions Hypothesis

Some scholars, like religious studies professor Bruce David Forbes, find the calculation hypothesis unconvincing. Instead, they point to a number of pagan festivals that were celebrated around the same time: Saturnalia (around December 17-23), the January Kalends (starting New Year’s Eve and lasting several days), and the less-popular birthday of the sun god Sol Invictus (December 25). Forbes writes, “Some way or another, Christmas was started to compete with rival Roman religions, or to co-opt the winter celebrations as a way to spread Christianity, or to baptize the winter festivals with Christian meaning in an effort to limit their excesses. Most likely, it was all three.”*

The bottom line is we don’t know for certain the day of Christ’s birth. The Bible neither clarifies a date nor commands that it be celebrated on a particular occasion each year. The dating is a tradition passed down from ancient times, and the reasons continue to be debated.

____________

*Bruce David Forbes, Christmas: A Candid History (Berkley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 2007), 30.

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Why "18:15"? The name Project 18:15 is based on Proverbs 18:15: “An intelligent heart acquires knowledge, and the ear of the wise seeks knowledge.” The aim is for this weekly email—a Christian news briefing, a Bible study, and a Church history lesson rolled into one—to be one way you keep abreast of current events and acquire knowledge you might not acquire elsewhere.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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