Old Paths Podcast

Michael & Cody take up the topic of women and modesty. First, they define woman; second, they define and distinguish modesty; third, they consider some examples of immodesty and applications of modesty, including motives for modesty; and fourth and finally, they wrap up with objections and submitted questions. Highlights:Nature, experience, and Scripture on womanSocial and aesthetic power of womanPersonal & sensual modesty / immodestyWhat is the relation of modesty to the law of God?Other principles, like charity and loyaltyWhat place do women have in social media?Loud, argumentative, unruly womenWomen in male spaces: why a problem?What constitutes sensual immodesty?How have modesty standards regressed?The magistrate & public immodestyRosaria Butterfield, Chris Gordon, Anthony DiehlShould pastors preach on women's modesty?The use of "whore" and immodestyWomen weaponizing sexualityThe refreshing, enriching power of modestyFor whom are the sensual treats?Is modesty objective or subjective?What is the relationship between modesty in dress and behavior?Must women hide their figure to be modest?Are pants immodest? What about makeup? Showing hair?The red dress controversyMust modesty be boring?Resources:David Silversides'⁠ sermon on modesty⁠⁠Manuscript⁠ of SilversidesFree book:⁠Christian Modesty & the Public Undressing of America⁠ by Jeff Pollard

S2E15—Marrow 8: Providence — Michael & Cody continue through ⁠⁠The Marrow of Theology⁠⁠, by William Ames, with particular focus upon Providence. Highlights: What is providence? its etymology? its parts? and how is it distinct from the decree, counsel, and creation? How should we consider God's attributes (e.g. justice, wisdom, holiness) in relation to providence? Primary and secondary causes: what are they, why should we care, and what can we learn? Participation in the divine. Should this doctrine beget activity or passivity in us? The abuse of providence. Ordinary and extraordinary providence; Hurricane Helene and western North Carolina. What is God's incarnate justice and comfort? How do they relate to providence? President Donald Trump and the bullet—extraordinary providence? Fear and thanks. Conservation and government: what are they: how can we see them today? what can we learn? Paul, Titus, and the imitation of God's conservation and government. Common government vs. special government. How does God cause secondary causes? How can we draw comfort from the seeming conflict of secondary causes? Thomas Cartwright's applications. Romans 8:28 and providence. If God causes all things, does he cause sin? If not, do we have hope? How should Christians think this through?

S2E14: Haitian Crusaders w/ Matt Marino — Cody, Michael, & returning guest, ⁠Matt Marino⁠, engage in discussion on two chief topics: the dynamics of immigration and the metaphysics of historiography. Inspired by Matt's two articles: ⁠Who is the Sojourner?⁠ and ⁠The Lost Tools of Learning from History.⁠ Highlights: Sojourner—defined and abused. Is America being deliberately destroyed through illegals? Abuses of Scripture to justify demographic warfare. Can we love humanity in general? Who is a neighbor?—can Wolfgang Musculus help us here? The imago Dei and immigration. How is our compassion exploited? Is the government required by God's law to remove illegals? Who is a native? Is C. Jay Engel's "Heritage American" helpful? Can Aristotle help? What place does race play? Culture? The ⁠"Anglo-Saxon supremacy"⁠ demanded by the VA Senate in 1905 + the NC and SC demands of immigrants of Celtic, Teutonic, and Saxon origins. Is America facing an identity crisis? Has the 1965 Hart-Celler Act radically redefined America? The failure of Blacks to assimilate into White America—real, important? Discussing race & politics without lighting our hair on fire. The reality of race as expressed in voting patterns. Hostiles vs. Hospitables. If the "immigrants" are in need, why are they all military-aged males? Natural law—does it require distinct nations and borders? The place of voting in these things. Political liars and gaslighters. Is the invasion of illegals a judgment of God? Gideon & Samson as lesser saviors of God's people while God was yet judging his people. The prophets on strangers as a judgment. Passivity and pacifism—besetting sins of our age and church? Is it a matter of natural law to defend your own people and place, even using violence if need be? How John Piper & James White fail here. Metaphysical thinking and the Crusades, the Civil War, and WW2. What place should the Civil War have in our thinking today? The South as one of the last holdouts of Christian orthodoxy; as a real opponent against egalitarianism, including upholding slavery; and as upholding racial superiority and inferiority. Are things that are not the gospel important? "Not the gospel" is deployed against political interests. Apolitical posture—idolatry? The punch right, kiss left spirit. Should "metaphysical thinking" be applied to WW2? The failure of piecemeal facts vs. the narrative. The place of shotgun facts in destroying the narrative. Proxy battles vs. substance, e.g. Romanists vs Protestants, the Crusades, etc. Can a syllogism convert the masses? The place of vibes and memes in sociopolitical renewal. The Holodomor, 10M Germans starved, Adolf Hitler & Christianity. Righteous deconstruction. Stephen Wolfe as a brilliant Twitter troll. Historiography as self-loathing and damning heroes. Dabney & Secession; Crusades & the present invasion of the West by Islam. The difference between how Crusades may have been used by Romanists in the past vs. how they are abused today against us. Responding effectively to the shibboleths and struggle sessions of words like racist, Nazi, white supremacist, and events like WW2, the Civil War, and Civil Rights. The danger of friendly fire & undue fear. Do not play the disavowal game. Purity spiraling & the failure of the Right to unite against a common enemy. Struggle sessions as opportunity for victory. The rationality of becoming white supremacist.

S2E13—Marrow 7: Creation — Benjamin, Michael, & Cody continue through ⁠The Marrow of Theology⁠, by William Ames, with particular focus upon Creation. Highlights: Creation ex nihilo. What is the creator-creature distinction? Is macro-evolution compatible with Christianity? What about micro-evolution, speciation, & natural selection? Will earth or heaven be our final home? The 3rd heaven and annihilation of earth. What are angels, and why is the idea of angel-human hybrids stupid? 1 Enoch, Jude, Nephilim, sons of God & daughters of men. Fanciful speculation about the angelic and spiritual world. Pit bulls—utter abomination or useful destroyer of creatures? "Grace restores nature"—what does this mean and why should we care? Is it crucial? Ames & Paul: modern sexists. Do ladies need to get out of politics? Beth Moore & Rosaria Butterfield. Men need to restrain their women. Dominion—what is it? How should it factor into our thinking and ethics?

S2E12—Marrow 6: Decree of God — Benjamin, Michael, & Cody continue through The Marrow of Theology, by William Ames, with particular focus upon the decree of God. Raised in this episode: The counsel of God. Divine perfections in the decree. Thomas Cartwright on the question. What role does God's glory have in the decree? The danger of denying God's decree. In what ways does God's decree govern time and history? How should we meditate upon this? Learning from Stonewall Jackson. Middle knowledge and its failure. The free offer of the gospel and its relation to the decree. Why do some deny the free offer? How should this chapter prevent abuses in preaching and evangelism? Infralapsarianism vs. supralapsarianism. Does Ames take a side? What does Dabney say? The problem of evil and the decree of God.Buy A Treatise of Christian Religion by Thomas Cartwright ⁠⁠here⁠⁠.Visit ⁠⁠Sacra Press⁠⁠ for more books.

S2E11—Stephen Wolfe: CN Civil Law Q&A — Benjamin, Michael, & Cody are joined again by ⁠Stephen Wolfe⁠, this time to discuss some of the material from his book, ⁠The Case for Christian Nationalism⁠, specifically chapter 6 on the topic of civil law. Michael gives a brief update on his OPC situation. Highlights: Why has this chapter not had as much interest as others? What is the relationship between civil law and natural law? Is it possible for secular liberals or libertarians to affirm Stephen's position? Do we need to oppose individuality and collectivity? Would Owen Strachan approve of Stephen's use of Cicero? James Lindsay vs. R. L. Dabney. How is this material both intellectually and experientially satisfying? Does the magistrate have power to touch the conscience? What is the danger of the magistrate being prudentially minded? Is the magistrate forbidden from any interest in the souls of his people? Can the Christian Prince use civil power to facilitate religion and spiritual good? Is Stephen saying anything new here, or can we find this in men like Thomas Cartwright? Why does the magistrate punish heresy or blasphemy? What can we learn from the way people treat "racists"? Does the shifting national expression of Old Covenant Israel suggest that the judicial law is universally applicable? What are some of the weaknesses of theonomy? Has Stephen's opinion of theonomists changed since writing his book? What does Stephen think about some of the civil problems in Canada? Is there a sharp distinction between revolution and civil resistance? What are the books that Stephen is working on?

S2E10: Eschatology & Israel Part 2 —Benjamin & Cody continue their discussion and debate concerning Israel in Romans 9-11, briefly reviewing the ground covered in the last episode, and marching forward through many of the particulars in chapters 10 and 11.Cody maintains and elaborates on his position that Romans 9:6 and Romans 11:25-26 is speaking of True Israel vs. False Israel, and that Paul's interest is to parse through the complexity of the present using the past (the OT) as a key, rather than to predict some distant future event, and that when Paul speaks of Jewish salvation he is incredibly reserved. Benjamin maintains and elaborates on his position that every instance of the word "Israel" concerns only ethnic Israelites, i.e. elect vs. non-elect, and that Paul envisions a definite future salvation for the Jewish nation, which Benjamin sees as being rooted in places from Ezekiel and Jeremiah.Touched on in this episode: What does Paul mean by "their fulness" in Romans 11:12? Why does Cody think men make unwarranted deductions about ethnic Israel's future in Romans 11? To what end has the Jewish nation fallen? What is the "mystery" of Romans 11:25? Are there any other passages which should bear upon this question? Why does Paul use the word οὕτως in Romans 11:26, and how should this best be translated and understood? Is Jeremiah 31 in any way relevant for the future of the Jewish nation and its salvation? Is Hosea important to understanding the identity of Israel in Romans 9-11? What should we make of Paul's citation in Romans 11:26-27? Is it from Isaiah? Is it salvation? Is it judgment? Is there a chiastic structure to Romans 9-11? In what way is the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 relevant to our interpretation of these things?

S2E9: Eschatology & Israel Pt. 1 — Benjamin & Cody take up a more free-form discussion. They lay out the basics of eschatology, both in terms of the millennium and the different interpretive approaches. Then they follow this up with a longer debate on Israel and Romans 9-11, where their differences and disagreements are shown. Touched on in this episode: Benjamin & Cody's different experiences with eschatology and the question of the future of the Jews. Why care about the Jews in relation to eschatology? What is the context of Romans 11? How should we understand Israel in Romans 9:6? What is Paul's burden in Romans 9-11? Is Paul prophesying the future or parsing through the present? What did Calvin and others say on Romans 11:25?

S2E8: Piety Provoked — Benjamin, Michael, and Cody take up the topic of piety provoked, derived from Psalm 119:139. They parse through the key parts, raise a number of scriptural examples and confirmations, and give some applications. They touch on things like: Zeal must issue in being provoked. Should we have enemies? Is there a place in the Christian life for hatred? to be indignant? to wield anger? The danger of false or misguided zeal. Examples from Paul, Phinehas, David, Elihu, and Christ. The balance between mocking and weeping. Whether warnings against being a reactionary are useful or straitjacket us from agency? The inevitability of zeal and being provoked. Why did Luther counsel Melanchthon to sin boldly? The unintended danger of faddish zeal. What are some benefits of being provoked? Is it always wrong to allow the enemy to dictate the terms of battle, or are there instances where God blesses those who fight in faith and embrace the antithesis?

S2E7—Divested from the Ministry: Interview with Michael SpanglerBenjamin, Michael, & Cody join together for a discussion and interview centered around Michael's recent divestiture from the ministry. They touch upon: Michael's conversion and Christian experience. The Aimee Byrd controversy. The present divestiture.⁠An Act Censuring Ministers for their Silence from the Church of Scotland, 1648⁠—Cody raised this repeatedly in the episode⁠Michael's Divestiture Summary⁠ on X (Twitter)