Handling Wheat & Tares in Home, Church, and State (Applied to Our Present Challenges)

Handling Wheat & Tares in Home, Church, and State (Applied to Our Present Challenges)

What is the rate of major moral and/or theological failure among the Ligonier/G3 conference orbit of speakers? It is quite high sadly, and these conferences were more narrowly purposed as a Christian/theological sort of conference than the more political conferences led mostly by Christians today, such as the one Joel Webbon and company are putting on at the "Christ is King: How to Defeat Trashworld" conference in April 2025. 

Theological conferences like Ligonier, etc., were "movements" in their own era, and in their own way. And I am thankful for them for the time and place in which they existed and were useful. Ligonier Ministries still serves as a good introductory purpose for Christians becoming serious about their faith and doctrine. If you focus on gleaning from their online content, you can still get benefit from them, but mostly in the more narrow areas of theology and doctrine. 

Even there, they don't help one grow into full maturity spiritually or doctrinally (only a faithful church can help sufficiently in these ways, and you must take up and read for yourself; really all of life touches on each other, body and soul, etc.), and they hardly if ever used to touch on political matters. When some did start wading into those waters (Ligon Duncan anyone? Tim Keller? Kevin DeYoung? Or a bazillion others connected to things like The Gospel Coalition or the MLK50 conference, etc.) they failed pretty miserably, some positively contributing to our national downfall, giving us Jemar Tisby types. 

So rediscoveries, retrievals, reformations, and revivals, whether doctrinal, political, national, etc., are going to have fever pitches, controversy, high points of energy, ebbs and flows, needs for sharpening and correction, course correcting, and often genuine repentance, publicly. And eventually, they are going to fizzle out, but have hopefully moved the general mass of people in a more godly and righteous direction. Otherwise, it wasn't really a positive rediscovery, retrieval, reformation, and revival at all, but their opposites. 

Now, when did we ever see the Reformed/Evangelical big conference circuit speakers repent publicly, or acknowledge virtually any wrongdoing? They would almost always, as silently as possible, sweep under the rug the moral or theological failings, and basically pretend like it never happened unless they had to address it. The assumption created is almost that these are the cardinals/archbishops of Evangelicalism/pop Reformed Christianity. If they admit sin or failure, or if a problem is noticed that is a pattern of dereliction, something is horribly wrong and their credibility would take a significant hit. And it should if they are truly charting a false path, but there is this beautiful thing called repentance, where you recognize your sin, turn from it, hating and forsaking it, and return to the Lord. 

But I know the culture in these circuits is sort of to be the holy and wise, polished and powdered gurus from on high (sages on stages) from my time at Sproul's Bible college, church, and among my friends and others who were there and family who was in inner circles there. Of course, just open your eyes for a second to the production and how things are shaped and you'll see that is exactly what it is, for better or for worse. It isn't something maliciously calculated, I don't think, but it's simply the culture of these institutions that has developed, and is in one way or another justified or not recognized.

So when you say "I am Reformed, and I love this or that ministry or public figure" you should realize you are identifying with very flawed men and ministries. That's the nature of this fallen world. Today, if we applied equal weights and measures to our present flawed understanding, we would distance ourselves from King David if not outright damn him, regardless of his repentance in Psalm 51. Further, we would apologize to women everywhere and demand David do likewise (something David never did) and undermine Patriarchal power in the home, and Kingly/magisterial rule in the State, all to make sure such an abuse of power can never happen again. David might get to keep the title of King, but he would be so neutered his power would be stripped in reality. Even if today we would argue such a ruler, whether in church or state, should be removed from office, we would basically destroy the office itself for the next person to fill it. We would limit all their powers because we would just assume they will abuse it as well, and the issue is the power, the "gun", the office, rather than the person wielding that gun/power/office. 

So guess what else happens when you ensure an "abuse of power" can never happen again? You assure that the normative, righteous use of power can never be achieved again! You have become a walking billboard for gun control advocates. "One person might go crazy again with a gun, therefore, we must get rid of the power/guns, to make sure crazy people will never use the power of guns to do harm and terrorize again." 

But just as a bad guy will always find a gun/power, and only do more damage when you make it difficult for good guys to get guns to do good with them, likewise power and structure and hierarchy exists, and we must not hamstring God's natural order. The vast majority of people will not take a gun and murder others with it. That includes fallen humanity outside of Christ.  Imagine how much better things would be if we actually taught responsible gun ownership, or even more importantly today, teach what a man is, what a woman is, and take ownership for what God has called us to be as male and female, child and adult, in the home, church, and state? This would both honor God and help mankind glorify Him as they were created in His image as male or female. This blesses everyone in home, church, and state as well, obviously, as we all pursue the greater good as a family/church/nation. 

Will people abuse power and even good teaching? Yes. When you show someone the ropes, and how to get things done, they could choose to use that for very nefarious purposes. Does that mean we should pre-emptively remove power that God has ordained in all spheres, for the sake of preventing abuse? Absolutely not. Government, whether in the home, church, or civil realm, is to punish the evildoer, not neuter themselves of actually governing/ruling, whether of the masculine authority of fathers, the nurturing nature of mothers, the keys of the kingdom from the Elders in Christ's Church, or the sword of justice and requisite wisdom of a magistrate in the commonwealth.

The younger generations, especially among the Reformed, are seeing the "hermeneutical" abuse, if you will, of those who desire that, for the sake of avoiding abuse of power, they themselves will abuse all those whom God has given power by undermining their ability to wield that authority/power/rule at every turn. This way, we will never have an adulterous and murdering King David again! Huzzah! 

Perhaps you won't (you will of course, you'll get parents and magistrates aborting children and chopping off their genitals as well as Sodomizing and everything else that we see today, with hardly the willpower to resist these evildoers with the Gospel sword or the sword of justice), but what you nearly guarantee is the thing you aimed at -- removing the power of one who could truly be a Christian Father, a Christian Pastor, or a Christian Prince in the nation, if we wish to use that language. You greatly hamper the possibility of having Abigail's or Lydia's or Titus 2 and Proverbs 31 women also, or even a righteous Deborah when the rare context demanded it. You remove the possibility of a faithful Christian leader or nurturer/helper actually having the know-how, tools, and power to wield authority effectively and for the good of those under his authority, whether a Father, Elder, or Governor, or in the domestic sphere for women/wives/mothers as well. 

When men in particular begin to realize this is happening, as we are seeing today, there is going to be a heavy, hard, and at times even violent pushback. All this does is confirm to those "agents/advocates of weakening all powers for the sake of avoiding abuse of powers" that they need to clamp down even harder on removing power from authority (which is to remove authority/rule itself), except of course their own power and authority they think they have to do this! 

We certainly should put a check on men or women or anyone for that matter who is waking up to these realities, but doing so more out of their own moral wickedness and bitterness than truly seeking a righteous recovery of these things to do good for others. In other words, yes, when we actually do see someone brandishing a gun in their hands in a cavalier and reckless way, threatening unjust violence and possibly having too much to drink, we should prevent them from taking further actions with their weapon. In other words, when you spot someone who is threatening or engaging in abuse/sin/violence, etc., you address that issue. But with wisdom. Someone who is righteously angry at the wicked and wants to do something about it, while their anger might sound like they will do something uncalled for, should be channeled to righteous ends. We shouldn't say, "because you are angry and seem a bit reckless, we are going to treat perhaps a tiny seed of murder in your heart as the full gemination of such, while simultaneously ignoring all the righteous aspects of your anger". Let us judge with more discerning and righteous judgment, please.  

So what you do not do is, for the sake of avoiding one bad guy misusing power, remove power in general, causing the countless "good guys" from being able to effectively understand or be positioned to rule in righteousness. God's law is good for all people, Christian or not, and seeing a "virtuous pagan" loving, in a human and earthly way, his wife and children well, working hard for them and staying faithful in marriage, even if he lacks personal salvation, is still a better citizen and at minimum less of a threat to the Kingdom of God/Church than those who are told nothing accurate or helpful about male headship and authority, wifely submission and tenderness, etc. Further, a temptation for pastors and probably all in authority in some ways, is to think they need to be the ones taking on the role of father in the homes of individual families. No, we should be examples in word and deed of a godly husband and father (and admit where we fall short), but we cannot replace another family's father. Imagine trying to apply that mentality such that you effectively try to fill the position of another woman's husband, and you'll see how perverse this is. Perhaps it is true that this man is not leading his family, his wife and children, as well as you are leading yours. Help and encourage him, do not try to replace him!  

Of course, the real game is that we've been told that male headship itself is the abuse of power, and that faithful wives, Prov. 31 type women, Paul's exhortations in Titus 2 to women, all of that is itself laced with abuse, embarrassing, and has to be explained away and twisted into oblivion. 

So as a Pastor, if you point out these errors and try to correct them according to God's Word and what our Reformers have actually said throughout history since the Reformation, what the early church fathers had said as well, etc., you are outing yourself, to many minds, as one who is drunk on power, likely an abuser, or at minimum an abuse enabler. Further, any evidence of someone latching onto your words or actions who is uncouth and unseemly and perhaps does misuse that power, is evidence of your own personal pastoral malpractice if you are a pastor (as I am), or if you are a layperson, or in the realm of government, you'll get treated similarly.  

It won't matter to some, sadly, that you corrected those out of line who are demonstrating actual malice and abusiveness. Even if you actually rightly exercise church discipline in the Church as an Elder, or the sword of justice in the civil realm, or the rod of correction on your wayward children as a parent in the home, it won't matter to such persons who already suspect you of giving too much power to men in the home, church, or state, or too much power and freedom in their offices/callings as fathers and husbands, pastors and elders, governors and legislators. The fact that you are near a sinner under your authority and care, while you were teaching men to be men and women to be women, makes you the bad guy, the guilty one. 

So apply all this to Christian Nationalism, or the "New Christian Right", or revived discussions about masculinity and femininity, etc.  I see a movement of reformation, trending in the right direction. Others see a horrible turn back to abuse and darkness. Sure, like any recovery or anything in general, there is an underbelly (the visible church has many thorns and tares, as we will speak more to in just a moment), thankfully by and large not really in the leadership however, far as I can tell. Return to the Ligonier and other conferences and consider how much moral and doctrinal failure has come out over the last decade or so, from many in leadership. 

But if a King David can so spectacularly fail, cover up sin, and play the hypocrite for so long, yet still find forgiveness following repentance, even when others sin publicly and spectacularly and confess it truly, there can be real forgiveness. The sin even in leadership doesn't of itself negate the things they taught or formerly practiced righteously. That's why many from my viewpoint can appreciate Ligonier and other conferences and men in them for the good they have done, but also denounce the evil that they have done and critique the very "hallowed" sage on stage structure and sweeping things under the rug to some degree, because we do not pretend that spotless righteousness is achievable or required to do some positive good this side of glory. We certainly pursue that, but we do not lie and pretend we have achieved that, or posture as if we have done so. And so when we sin, we have the ability to confess our sin and to be cleansed from all unrighteousness by Jesus Christ. The greater/greatest sin, is refusing to acknowledge your sin and sincerely repenting of it and confessing it to God Almighty and to those you have grievously sinned against. 

As I have said many times before, I think those in the "Christian Nationalism" orbit, which loosely I would include myself, have had some missteps. But for many who come out of Ligonier Conference world, they have been trained to see any missteps or admission of such as an admission of illegitimacy and utter hypocrisy, since they basically can never admit wrongdoing about themselves in a public way, without being wiped out from existence. 

I have pushed back on some online who would say they are part of the dissident right or CN orbit or whatever name is used next, who are off in their understanding and actions, seemingly spouting off from bitterness, angst, etc. I have received constructive criticism as well, and have learned much from many of these men, and I praise and thank God for them! 

So sure, like everything, there is some rotten fruit at the bottom of the apple barrel. But Jesus Himself had Judas, and his other disciples fled in His darkest hours. Paul had Demas and others who forsook him, who were with him in high places. God's people have often been wayward, idolatrous, and the godly rulers in home, church, and state that God has ordained throughout history, have always had hangers on who latch on to the ideas but twist them in malicious ways. Satan is always sowing weeds among the wheat. Have we learned nothing from reality and from the teachings of Scripture? Pretending we have achieved the inner sanctum of purity sets up a lot of Christians who have been under this delusion for their own apostasy and disillusionment with the Christian faith, because of the misguiding light of their Christian leaders and their posturing of a pureness they and their company did not truly possess. The Apostle Paul publicly decries his present sinfulness in Romans 7, and it wasn't performative. God does not at all hide the great sins from his greatest leaders in the home, church, and state. They are emblazoned on many pages of Holy Scripture. Let's learn something from this. 

Here's a basic lesson to learn -- let's stop trying to remove the weeds and tares by preventing the conditions, the good soil and sunshine and water, that allow both righteousness to flourish -- good wheat, good fruit, godliness and holiness -- along with weeds to take deeper root -- the seeds of the devil, the gnarly thorns, that root themselves in that same soil, benefiting from the same positioning of sunshine, and having water poured upon them. Let the rulers that God has ordained in home, church, and state, do some holy weeding when they see the weeds, but by no means should they mistake some sin in a true Christian as their actually being a damned weed. Further, sometimes those in the Church, or regularly attending, come as "weeds"/unregenerate but become converted truly to Christ. Shepherding and gardening takes wisdom. Do not recklessly apply the weed-eater to budding flowers, or full grown, beautiful roses because you see they have a few thorns. 

Paul said to the Ephesian Elders, largely echoing Christ's earlier words to His Apostles/Disciples, that wolves in sheep's clothing would come up from among them, that is, fellow Elders. Where did they come from, and how did they get so crafty? Undoubtedly many of them did so by learning from the best Elders, the truly godly, even being trained at sound seminaries, etc. They were cultivated in the good soil of righteous churches, and yet went astray. Perhaps they were like those who rode the wave of the mixed bag of the Great Awakenings in our nation's history, and had faith for a season, and so duped the Elders for a time. But in time, due to either threats of persecution, or the lusts of the flesh and pleasures of this world, they fall away and lose faith. Not all who seemingly begin well, end well. Remember King Saul and many others. Read and review Matthew 13, all of it really. 

Should Gospel seed ceased to be sown, since in many cases those who hear it do not become fruitful, or Satan also sows tares in our fields among the good seed (Matt. 13:24-26)? Guess what, such a stupid possibility is not even considered in Matthew 13! Once someone, or a city or people show themselves unworthy of eternal life by rejecting the Gospel Word (Matt. 7:6; 10:14; 11:20-22; Acts 13:51, etc.), then such judicious withholding of the Gospel to give it to those worthy of eternal life, whom God is preparing, ought to be done. 

None following Christ nor His often obtuse disciples/Apostles were thick-headed enough nor foolish enough to even suggest in Matthew 13 that they should stop planting fields with good seed and good fruit. The question was when and how to uproot the tares/bad fruit/thorns, and even then Jesus tells us we this must be done in such a way that the good seed is not uprooted and removed in the process, which sometimes requires "letting the situation alone" or at least only taking more measured responses than a complete removal/extermination for a time, until more is revealed, and more good is accomplished. 

To put this in plain terms. We must begin again and keep preaching what God has said, especially on male headship and rule in home, church, and state, and the duties of a woman/wife/mother in the home, doing so with eyes wide open to the fact that Satan will sow bad seed into the good soil and good words that we say, and some bad apples/sinful peoples will twist the true words and examples that we provide, and use them for sinful and nefarious purposes. We must not let scolds in the Church who failed to preach the truth on these matters and have in varying degrees abdicated their duties and authority, patting themselves on the back as they have done so, give up the righteous cause. Attempting to grow plants in this life, or shepherd animals in this life, will come with hardship and danger. Weeds will form, things will get contaminated. Jesus didn't use the analogies of plants/gardening and shepherding by accident when He described the Church/Kingdom of God and pastoral ministry, family ministry, and civil government/state ministry. 

To abort speaking the truth and living by it for the sake of starving the tares who would abuse the truth and action flowing from it, will also starve and uproot the good wheat that would have formed. Has Christ not overcome the world? Is His power not greater than the Devil's? Let us not fear man or the devil, but resist the devil and fear God, who will defeat the seed of the serpent through the seed of His Son, Jesus Christ. Indeed, in Christ He has already dealt the death blow 2,000 years ago, and is seated on the throne demonstrating that Supreme power and authority, filling His Church with His Spirit to wield His holy power over all creation, in every sphere, in home, church, and state, in business and schools and all the rest. 

We are explicitly commanded by Jesus Christ Himself to take dominion for His glory and namesake. He has warned us of the dangers and certainty that in doing so, bad fruit will be produced, bad actors and weeds will form, Satan will still sow wicked seed and cause it to germinate even through our righteous words and deeds! God has also prescribed the means to properly do the necessary weeding  -- powerful tools that He has graciously provided: the rod in the home, the keys in the church, and the sword of justice in the state. But these must be used judiciously, which doesn't mean beating the swords into plowshares, nor does it mean recklessly and indiscriminately bludgeoning everyone and everything. And certainly, a field or movement or church or business (or anything) can "go to seed/weeds" if righteous weeding is never done. That sadly happens over generations, or within one generation grievously, of many once faithful families, churches, communities, cities, states, and nations. But burning down the whole field of mostly good fruit out of a sense of purity for removing every last weed in the same field is utter madness and wickedness, destructive of righteousness, and disobedient to God and His holy Word. 

Remember Sodom and Gomorrah and Abraham's intercession for Sodom! Abraham "reminded" the Lord of His righteousness in Genesis 18: 

"And Abraham came near and said, “Would You also destroy the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there were fifty righteous within the city; would You also destroy the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous that were in it? Far be it from You to do such a thing as this, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be as the wicked; far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” 

So the Lord said, “If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes.”

27 Then Abraham answered and said, “Indeed now, I who am but dust and ashes have taken it upon myself to speak to the Lord: 28 Suppose there were five less than the fifty righteous; would You destroy all of the city for lack of five?”

So He said, “If I find there forty-five, I will not destroy it.”

29 And he spoke to Him yet again and said, “Suppose there should be forty found there?”

So He said, “I will not do it for the sake of forty.”

30 Then he said, “Let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak: Suppose thirty should be found there?”

So He said, “I will not do it if I find thirty there.”

31 And he said, “Indeed now, I have taken it upon myself to speak to the Lord: Suppose twenty should be found there?”

So He said, “I will not destroy it for the sake of twenty.”

32 Then he said, “Let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak but once more: Suppose ten should be found there?”

And He said, “I will not destroy it for the sake of ten.” 33 So the Lord went His way as soon as He had finished speaking with Abraham; and Abraham returned to his place."

We really must return to judging with righteous judgment. This article is already too long to try to give a detailed examination and application of the text above. But surely we can see that the Lord is full of mercy, and slow to anger? That the Lord builds up the righteous and spares them from the wicked, delivering righteous Lot, even when his assessment of being "righteous" is very generous and only by the grace of God? All labors at improvement, at reformation, will be fraught with difficulty and laced by the devil and sinful man's own heart with bad seed germinating into bad fruit. We have tools to deal with that. We are commanded to live for the Lord in such a way that, in fact, we will have to use them. We cannot be so "pure" in this life as to think even the best family, the best church, or the best community and its rulers will be freed of those who learn to do evil from those who instructed them to do good. To feel guilty about this reality is to succumb to the deceptions of Satan, and to ignore the clear voice of God as revealed in His Word. 

Correct the sin and evil when it comes, knowing it will come and begins in our own sinful heart and remaining lusts of the flesh. Knowledge indeed can puff up. God's Word is true wisdom and knowledge. Is studying God's Word therefore bad, since it can lead to us becoming puffed up! Strike the mouth that says such! Take up and read, slay your pride, and teach others to do the same, in all humility. By this the Lord will surely bless. Amen.