Read My New Book

Thank you for checking out my website.

I'm assuming you're an acquaintance of mine. I doubt that any of the world's 7 billion people went to Google and searched for the ideas in this book, and got this website as a search result.

You're here because you're doing me a favor by checking it out. Thanks for that.

Why should you read my new book?

I'm not very good at marketing. To be honest, I can only think of reasons why you would not want to read my book.

First, it's really long.

I mean really, really long.

In fact, I'm converting this book into a college curriculum. More on that below.

Second, it's a very controversial book.

I think it's probably the most controversial book ever written.

I should qualify that: the most controversial non-pornographic book ever written. The most controversial books have always been controversial because they contained sexual content that pushed the boundaries of social convention. Years later, those controversial books would be considered "mainstream." I hope my new book will someday be considered "mainstream." In 2024, however, I run the risk of being arrested for being a "hateful" "bigot" or "domestic terrorist." Your church would never allow me to become a member.

But you may never get to the controversial parts, because

Third, the book sounds really boring at first: it's a sermon on my favorite Bible passage. Nobody wants to read a sermon. Here's the text:

Here's a summary of my sermon on this text:

1. This passage predicts the reign of the Messiah, the Christ

2. When this Messiah appears, all nations will make a commitment to obey God's Commandments.

3. God's law requires peace.

This book contains many ideas that will force you to think about what you believe. Even if you don't agree with my conclusions, you'll be a better person for wrestling with them.

Consider these three verses

Acts 17:10-12 

Now these [The Bereans] were more noble than those in Thessalonica,
in that they received the Word with all readiness of the mind,
searching the Scriptures daily, whether these things were so.
 

Proverbs 27:17

Just as iron sharpens iron,
friends sharpen the minds of each other.
 

Proverbs 18:17

"The first to state his case seems right until another comes forward and examines him."

If you are like I once was, you won't support the idea of beating "swords into plowshares." I used to think the U.S. military protected the world from evil. No longer. "Pacifism" is just the tip of the iceberg. There are many other controversial issues in this "sermon."

Puritan sermons could be 2 or 3 hours long. They weren't "feel good" sermons; they made the listener think. They were more educational than "inspirational." Like a college class. Church-goers today don't want to be forced to think, and especially to re-think cherished ideas. But the Bible says it's a good thing to be confronted with new ideas, and to be forced to re-think them. Even if you don't change your mind.

Finally, you should read this book because you are a victim of educational malpractice. If the men who signed America's Declaration of Independence could travel through time from their day in 1776 to our day in 2024, they would say you are a victim of educational malpractice. Children in their day were taught the Bible, including Micah's prophecy, and they could understand the meaning of the Declaration of Independence. Today's education system is atheistic. The government says public school teachers cannot teach students that the Declaration of Independence is actually true:

• that there really is a God, and His existence is a "self-evident truth"
• that our rights really are the product of the intelligent design of our Creator
            (not a gift from the government)
• that all Americans really are obligated to conform their lives to
            "the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God"
• that one day our actions really must pass judgment with
            "the Supreme Judge of the world"
• that all Americans should have "a firm reliance on
            the Protection of Divine Providence."
• that Americans have a duty -- not just a right
            -- to abolish any government
            that becomes a tyranny.

None of these things can be taught as truth in a school controlled by the governments of

• Iran
• North Korea
• Communist China
• The United States

You are the product of hours and hours and hours of Bible-free atheistic indoctrination.

My book and online university will help you learn what the average 12-year old knew in 1776.

There are already revisionist books on America's Christian Heritage. Here are two:

• The Case for America's Christian Heritage | American Vision
• Original Intent Wallbuilders

My new book says two things:

1. We need to return to the Christian/Biblical foundations
2. We need to build more consistently on that foundation.

As I attempt to show, America's Founders were not consistent. Micah says the foundation is "Jerusalem," but America's Founders attempted to build on a foundation of "Jerusalem and Athens."

Table of Contents

• Preface
  • why I wrote this book, why it’s important, and what the reader will take away from it.
• Introduction (as suggested by a writing guru)
  • I’m going to provide valuable ideas and information.
  • I’m the guide you should trust to give you this valuable information.
  • I’m going to get to the point and not waste your time
  • Hook the reader
  • Tell a story about the reader’s current pain
  • Tell a story about the reader’s potential pleasure
  • Tell them what they’ll learn
  • Describe the author’s background/origin of book
  • Set up the book with a call to action

Exposition and Elaboration of Micah's Text

Verse 1:

0. The Bible is the Word of God:

"for the mouth of the LORD of hosts hath spoken it."

1. God is Sovereign:

"it shall come to pass"

2. The Reign Began in the Past:

"in the last days"

3. The Mountain is Eden:

"the mountain"

Verse 2:

4. Global Conversion:

"people shall flow unto it."

5. God's Law:

"the Law shall go forth"

6.. Education:

"He will teach us of His ways"

7. Spontaneous Obedience:

"we will walk in His paths"

Verse 3:

8. The Messiah Reigns:

"He shall judge"

9. Pax Christi, Not Pax Romana:

"they shall beat their swords into plowshares"

Verse 4:

10. Freedom from Archists:

"none shall make them afraid"

11: The Family:

"every man under his Vine & Fig Tree 

12: Service:

[Genesis 1:26-28]

13: The Garden/Land:

Vine & Fig Tree 

14: The Fall of Man:

[Genesis 3:5 - the desire to be as god, to make people fear you]

15: Salvation:

"none shall make them afraid"

Verse 5:

16: Jerusalem versus Athens:

"Although all people will walk every one in the name of his god,"

17: Community:

"We will walk"

Verse 6:

18: Charity:

"gathering the afflicted"

19: Gospel:

Good news of a new kingdom

20: Justification:

Allegiance to the New Kingdom

Verse 7:

21. Church:

"House of the LORD" in "Mount Zion"

22: Eternity:

"for ever and ever"

This is more like a "Systematic Theology" book than a mere "sermon."

But it's also more like the Unabomber's Manifesto than it is a boring seminary book. (But unlike the Unabomber and the U.S. Federal Government, this book does not advocate bombs, but beating "swords into plowshares.")

Let's get a bird's-eye view of Micah 4:1-7. Then we'll look at the passage with increasing attention to the details, and I'll offer Biblical proof for my more controversial claims.

Micah says

Q.: How does Micah know what will come to pass?

A.: God told him. This is seen in verse 4:

Q.: How does God know what will come to pass?

A.: God is in control.

Next, Micah says,

Q.: When will this come to pass?

A.:

What is meant by the phrase "the last days?" Turn on the TV and the prophecy preachers will tell you we are now living in "the last days."

They are mistaken.

Perhaps Micah meant "in the distant future." But the writers of the New Testament consistently affirmed that they were living in "the last days," and the best interpretation of this phrase is that they were living in the last days of the Old Covenant. Either way ("last days of the Old Covenant," or "distant future") the New Testament writers said they were living in "the last days." They were also living in the first days of the New Covenant. We are not living in the last days of the Old Covenant.

Let's look at three components of that phrase:

First,

The original "mountain" was the Garden of Eden, from which flowed four rivers (downhill). The temple on Mt. Zion was a model of the Garden.

The "house" of the LORD is the temple. The temple of the LORD: Where is it today? It was destroyed in A.D. 70 by the Romans. This definitively ended the Old Covenant. The New Testament writers say that the new temple is made up of God's People.

This "establishment" has already happened. The new temple (God's People) was being built even before the old temple had been destroyed. The virgin-born Jesus of Nazareth was seated in His new temple as the Messiah of Israel (Acts 2:36). Messiah = King. This Kingdom was established in past, not waiting for a  second coming of the King in our future.

The nations around Israel built their own "high places" in an attempt to imitate God's Mountain-Garden. The neo-conservative woke regime in Washington D.C., as well as the UK, UN, NWO, WEF, the "former" USSR, etc. are all rival "mountains." Christ has a superior jurisdiction over them all.

This began happening in Acts 2, and has continued since, with ups and downs through history.

Notice the words of exhortation and education.

Too many Christians today think there is a conflict between "Law" and "Gospel." Micah didn't think so.

Who is "He?" It is clearly Jesus the Messiah. The first nation He judged/rebuked was the nation of Israel, who murdered their King. This took place in "the last days" of the Old Covenant. Perhaps Jesus is about to judge the U.S.A., a once-Christian nation.

Peace is a major theme in the Bible. Yes, there are many historical accounts of wars in the Bible, but what is the point of this history? What are we to learn from ancient Israel's wars and idolatry?

Jesus is "The Prince of Peace." Many (if not most) Christians today claim that wars must increase until the "Second Coming" of Christ, sometime in our future. This is based on an erroneous interpretation of Matthew 24:6. There are fewer wars today than there were in Micah's day. Christians have enough financial and electoral power to end all the wars currently taking place in the world today.

Q.: What would happen if Christians never voted for any politician who promised "Peace through Strength," that is, "peace" through killing millions of innocent people?
Q.: What would happen if Christians never voted for any politician who promised to use the power of the sword (the State) to engage in extortion ("taxation") to fund mass murder by the military?
Q.: What would happen if "the Law shall go forth" out of the New Temple of God's People, and they never voted for any politician who promised to violate the commands against murder and theft?

A.: All of today's politicians would have to resign from "the public sector" and get jobs in "the private sector."
The "Public Sector" ("the sword") would be abolished.
"Public Schools" exist to brainwash you into believing that beating swords into plowshares would be a terrible thing.

This was the most popular Bible verse in America 300 years ago. This was the original "American Dream."

There is a contrast between the people of "Jerusalem" and those outside. The early church father Tertullian (c. 155 AD – c. 220 AD) spoke of the outsiders as "Athens."

Perhaps in his day Christians were being told to "Listen to the Academy!" just as Christians in our day are told "Listen to the Science!" But Micah says the temple of the living God will not be corrupted by the temple of man the would-be god.

Augustine wrote about the conflict between "The City of God" and the city of man. Where is your "citizenship?"

Next, Micah says,

God rebukes unbelieving nations, but then restores them and gives them faithful obedience.

God's People are part of that process, by extending mercy to those God has rebuked (Matthew 25:31-46).

 The Kingdom that Christ inaugurated in "the last days" of the Old Covenant lasts forever.

Of the increase of His government and peace
There will be no end
Isaiah 9:6-7

That's the 30,000-foot view. I would like to dive down and look at Micah's prophecy in a little more detail.

I suspect you can already see some of the more controversial points. I'll get into the controversies in more detail.

Here are some controversial themes that can be found in Micah's prophecy. I find 23 "core values" in the passage, and each one can set off a firestorm of controversy. But when fully understood, each one is a source of great comfort, optimism, and "good news" ("gospel").

⁴ But they shall sit every man under
his vine and under his fig tree;
and none shall make them afraid:

Vine & Fig Tree
Daily Life

Checklist of the 23 Themes in this text:

Theme 0. Bibliolatry: God speaks, we worship the Word
Theme 1. Calvinism/Predestination: "It shall come to pass"
Theme 2. Preterism: "in the last days"
Theme 3. Creationism: The "mountain" = Eden
Theme 4. Optimillennialism: "Peoples will stream; nations will come"
Theme 5. Theonomy: "the Law of God"
Theme 6. Education: Theonomic/Jerusalem/Family/business
Theme 7. Character: although all people Athens, we will Jerusalem
Theme 8. Theocracy: He shall judge
Theme 9. Pacifism: "swords into plowshares"
Theme 10. Anarchism; Anarcho-Capitalism: no violence = no state || Jesus is the One True Archist
Theme 11: Patriarchy: "His Vine"
Theme 12: Dominion/work/service
Theme 13: Agrarianism: Vine & Fig Tree
who are those who would "make afraid?" Archists:
Theme 14: Fall of man; Sin How did some become "Archists?"
Theme 15: Salvation: None shall make them afraid
Micah says the law will go forth from Jerusalem
Theme 16: Jerusalem versus Athens
Theme 17: Communism vs. property: "WE will walk"
Theme 18: Socialism and the poor: caring for the ones "God has afflicted"
| The Lord Shall Reign:
| | Theme 19: Gospel: A proclamation of a rival kingdom
| | Theme 20: Justification: choosing Jerusalem over Athens
| From Mount Zion
| | Theme 21. Church (House of the Lord on Mount Zion)
Theme 22: Eternity

I acknowledge that some of these ideas are considered "heresy" in many circles. Please recall those three verses mentioned above. Some people love attacking heresies. There's a lot of red meat for such people in this book. Other people don't like controversy. I'll try to make these controversies attractive to such people.

America was once the most prosperous and admired nation in history, because these now-controversial ideas were widely circulated and believed. These ideas have been banned (because they're "controversial") and America's prosperity has been transformed into bankruptcy, and admiration into loathing and ridicule.

Book publishing gurus say the money is not in the book, but in the "back end."

As I hinted at above, I dream of creating an online university to promote the ideas of my new book. I call it

Vine & Fig Tree University

Here's the website ("not ready for prime time"):

Vine & Fig Tree University - A Harvard Education for Less Than $5,000

I created a non-profit tax-exempt corporation to promote these ideas::

Vine & Fig Tree

Our Goal for the Planet: The message of the angels to the shepherds on the first Christmas: And this is the sign unto you: Ye shall find a Babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, and lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, And peace on earth among men in whom He is well pleased. Our Goal for You: To be one in whom God is well pleased: His lord said unto him, `Well done, thou good and faithful servant. Thou hast been faithful over a few things; I will make thee ruler over many things. Enter thou into the joy of thy lord.' Matthew 25:21 Our programs are designed to transform you into: An Extraordinary American An Extraordinary Christian An Extraordinary Human Being These were the three goals of Harvard graduate Samuel Adams, "The Father of the American Revolution."

  “Vine & Fig Tree”  in American History

Two centuries ago, the “Vine & Fig Tree” vision transformed America into the most prosperous and admired nation in human history. Tragically, we then experienced The Paradox of Deuteronomy 8: God blessed us, but we forgot God and said, "My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth” (Deuteronomy 8:17), and then God judged our pride by turning our prosperity into bankruptcy and admiration into ridicule and hate. The United States is now despised around the world as a self-centered post-Christian bully.

George Washington's Diaries are available online at the Library of Congress. At one time, the LOC.GOV website introduced Washington's writings with these words:

Under My Own Vine and Fig Tree, 1798 Jean Leon Gerome Ferris Virginia Historical Society Lora Robins Collection of Virginia Art

      Peter Lillback, author of a 1,000-page study of Washington's life and thought, has found more than 40 references to the  “Vine and Fig Tree” vision in Washington's Papers. Other scholars keep finding more, it seems.
      Many other American Founders wrote of this ideal.
      "Vine & Fig Tree" is the original "American Dream."
      The phrase occurs a number of times in Scripture. These references are visual reminders of the Hebrew word for salvation, which means

• peace,

• wholeness,

• health,

• welfare, and

• private property free from pirates and princes.

When today's Americans hear the word "salvation," they usually think about going to heaven when they die. When the writers of the Bible used the word "salvation," they wanted you to be thinking about dwelling safely under your own Vine & Fig Tree during this life -- much more often than they wanted you to be thinking about what you'll be doing in the afterlife.

Page Smith was a historian, winner of the Bancroft Prize, earning his M.A. degree in 1948, and Ph.D. degree in 1951 from Harvard. In his book Religious Origins of the American Revolution (Scholars Press, 1976), Smith writes about graduates from the older Harvard, like Samuel Adams (class of 1740), John Hancock (class of 1754), and John Adams (class of 1755). He says the passage in the book of Micah about “every man…under his vine and under his fig tree” was

the most potent expression of the colonist’s determination to be independent whatever the cost,…having substantial control over his own affairs. No theme was more constantly reiterated by writers and speakers in the era of the Revolution.

Here's a few examples, including some post-Revolution writers looking back.

Foundations of a "Vine & Fig Tree" Society

In 1892, the Supreme Court of the United States proudly boasted that America was legally, technically, officially, Constitutionally, and organically a "Christian nation." Looking at the "organic utterances" the Court referred to, we see that America was not just generically Christian, but a Protestant nation. Smith says,

The American Revolution might thus be said to have started, in a sense, when Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the church door at Wittenberg. It received a substantial part of its theological and philosophical underpinnings from John Calvin’s Institutes Of The Christian Religion and much of its social history from the Puritan Revolution of 1640-1660, and, perhaps, less obviously, from the Glorious Revolution of 1689.

Indeed, Smith adds, in early America, the Reformation

left its mark on every aspect of the personal and social life of the faithful. In the family, in education, in business activity, in work, in community and, ultimately, in politics, the consequences of the Reformation were determinative for American history.

Put another way, the American Revolution is inconceivable in the absence of that context of ideas which have constituted radical Christianity. The leaders of the Revolution in every colony were imbued with the precepts of the Reformed faith.

By "radical" Christianity, Smith refers to the Bible. "Radical" comes from the Latin word for "root," and the Bible was the root and foundation of protestant Christianity in colonial America. "Sola Scriptura!"
By "Reformed faith," Smith draws a distinction between Calvinism and Lutheranism. America was not just a Protestant nation, but a Calvinist nation.

The Westminster Standards are the highest expression of "the Reformed Faith."

A truly well-rounded American education would include study of Luther's 95 Theses, Calvin's Institutes, and the Westminster Standards. And of course the Bible itself. Can you name one college in America that requires study of these texts by all students?

Christian Philosopher Cornelius Van Til said "There is no alternative but that of theonomy and autonomy." The Law of God and the law of man. When society is governed by the Law of God in the Bible, it is free from the tyrannical rule of Autonomous Man. As remote or repugnant as Puritanism may be to some, Smith says “it is essential that we understand that the Reformation in its full power was one of the great emancipations of history.”

It is unfortunate that Calvin and his progeny were not consistent Christian Theocrats. As we will see, they tried to combine "Jerusalem and Athens." Instead of a pure "Theocracy," which literally means "God governs," they wanted clergymen -- or clergy-approved men -- to govern. This is not pure "Theocracy." Rule by clergy is "Ecclesiocracy."

The Puritan Church-State of Massachusetts created Harvard in 1636, and in 1647 created "public schools." The purpose of both was to promote widespread understanding of the Bible. Bible-educated citizens would then help create and maintain a Christian Theocracy. The Founders of Harvard believed that it was necessary to create a "civil government" to promote religion and civic order. They did not understand how religion and social order could be promoted by a Market Freed from threats of government force. Vine & Fig Tree University exists to promote this "paradigm shift." It will not take thick textbooks and long classroom lectures to do this. It simply requires taking the most basic precepts of the Bible seriously and consistently. This is not complicated or "tricky." It doesn't require high levels of intelligence. It takes high levels of ethics. Just be a consistently moral person, and ignore the "experts" who say the Bible is outdated or "utopian."

---

Warning!
You Are About to be Offended

by the following audacious claim:

---

America became the most prosperous and admired nation in history because it was a Calvinist Theocracy.

---

You were trained by your government-approved teachers to be offended and appalled at that claim. Yesterday's secular clergymen stripped public schools of Calvinism and the Bible. Today's clergymen are the CEO's of the Military-Industrial Complex and Wall St., who oscillate between corporate boardrooms and "smoke-filled rooms" in Washington D.C. A secular ecclesiocracy is just an "oligarchy." The United States -- the woke/neo-conservative regime in Washington D.C. -- is an oligarchy. It is still a "theocracy," with every man his own god, and the State as the apotheosis of Autonomous Man. "The Government," as Hegel put it, is "god walking on the earth."

"Theocracy" is an inescapable concept. Even "democracy" is a theocracy: "vox populi, vox dei" -- “The voice of the people is the voice of god.”

Pity the nation whose gods are Joe Biden and Donald Trump.

As we noted above, Calvinism made America the most prosperous and admired nation in history. Removing Calvinism transformed America's prosperity into bankruptcy and admiration into ridicule and hate.

---

Vine & Fig Tree University

I'm working to create an online "university" which can be put on a hand-held electronic device for billions of Muslims and billions of "Christians" around the world. It will give the student the Bible-based education that America's Founding Fathers received when they were children.

At Vine & Fig Tree University we're trying to duplicate the now-extinct Harvard University -- a Bible-based Christian university founded by the New England Puritans to promote the Christianity of the Protestant Reformation in the New World -- which is now an atheistic university at war with the original goals of Harvard.

The Founders of Harvard University (the church-state of Massachusetts) also created the first public school system. It was based on the Bible, and created Bible-literate students qualified to enter Harvard University.

Graduates of today's government-run "public" schools have been brainwashed into believing that Harvard's original Christian worldview is not as good as today's atheistic worldview. Nobody wants an education approved by the Protestant Reformers and the New England Puritans. Nobody is searching in Google to find a university that teaches what Harvard's Founders wanted students to learn in 1636 -- and nobody knows as much about the Bible and social virtues as Harvard expected high school applicants to know before their first college class.

But at Vine & Fig Tree University we believe that Harvard's Founders were not perfectly consistent with the teachings of the Bible. So we seek to reform the reformers. We want to be more pure than the Puritans. But our reforms are viewed as heretical, and we only incur additional wrath from those who already oppose the original Founders of Harvard.

Vine & Fig Tree University takes its name from the Bible verse which historians claim was the most popular Bible verse in America from 1600 to the American Revolution. (That's saying something significant, because America's public school system was designed primarily to teach everyone the Bible. If you were to ask today's Americans who their favorite opera singer is, they would draw a blank, because they can't name a single opera singer. Likewise if you asked today's Americans what their favorite Bible verse is. Some may have heard of "John 3:16," but otherwise know as much about the Bible as they do about opera singers. This was not the case in early America.)

Here is the foundational text for Vine & Fig Tree University:

This is the foundational Bible passage for America, a land of “Liberty Under God.”  “Vine & Fig Tree” is the original “American Dream.” Nobody educated in the colonial American one-room schoolhouse believed in "the rapture," and all of them could have told you that a government is an "abomination" which forces people to "recognize" or "celebrate" the "marriage" of two homosexuals. Micah's prophecy does not fit into the popular "prophecy charts" of most churches.

But Americans from 1600-1800 only scratched the surface of this passage. And from 1800 to today, this passage has been flushed down the Orwellian "Memory Hole." Out of 300,000 churches in America, the number of churches that take this passage seriously (and agree with the perspective advanced here) can be counted on your right hand.

Let's combine these themes from Micah's prophecy with the chapters of the Westminster Standards.

After 1647, students wishing to enroll in Harvard were required to give their assent to the Westminster Standards in order to be admitted as a student. Probably nobody who will be starting as a Freshman at Harvard this Fall has studied the Westminster Standards, much less agrees with them. Applicants to Harvard in the early 1600's had a much higher level of academic attainment than graduates of atheistic public schools -- victims of educational malpractice -- in the early 2000's. And high school students in the 1600's already had a Biblical worldview before their first day of college. 

The Westminster Standards

The Westminster Confession of Faith and the Larger and Shorter Catechisms were written in the 1640's. They reflect the growth of Protestant theology that began in 1517 with Luther's "95 Theses" and continued under men like John Calvin.

John Frame says

The assembly’s Confession of Faith, completed in December, 1646, is the last of the classic Reformed confessions and by far the most influential in the English-speaking world. Though it governed the Church of England only briefly, it has been widely adopted (sometimes with amendments) by British and American Presbyterian bodies as well as by many Congregational and Baptist churches.

B.B. Warfield, professor at Princeton in the late 1800's, wrote of the Westminster Standards,

[T]hey are the final crystallization of the elements of evangelical religion, after the conflicts of sixteen hundred years. . . . [T]hey are the richest and most precise and best guarded statement ever penned of all that enters into evangelical religion . . . .

Richard Gardiner, in his impressive collection of "Primary Source Documents Pertaining to Early American History," lists many sources which introduce the average Secular Humanist to the now-unknown religious foundations of American Revolution and Government. Among these sources are the Westminster Standards. Gardiner says of them:

The Westminster Confession of Faith (1646) In addition to being the decree of Parliament as the standard for Christian doctrine in the British Kingdom, it was adopted as the official statement of belief for the colonies of Massachusetts and Connecticut. Although slightly altered and called by different names, it was the creed of Congregationalist, Baptist, and Presbyterian Churches throughout the English speaking world. Assent to the Westminster Confession was officially required at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. Princeton scholar, Benjamin Warfield wrote: "It was impossible for any body of Christians in the [English] Kingdoms to avoid attending to it." The Westminster Catechism (1646) Second only to the Bible, the "Shorter Catechism" of the Westminster Confession was the most widely published piece of literature in the pre-revolutionary era in America. It is estimated that some five million copies were available in the colonies. With a total population of only four million people in America at the time of the Revolution, the number is staggering. The Westminster Catechism was not only a central part of the colonial educational curriculum, learning it was required by law. Each town employed an officer whose duty was to visit homes to hear the children recite the Catechism. The primary schoolbook for children, the New England Primer, included the Catechism.  Daily recitations of it were required at these schools. Their curriculum included memorization of the Westminster Confession and the Westminster Larger Catechism. There was not a person at Independence Hall in 1776 who had not been exposed to it, and most of them had it spoon fed to them before they could walk.

The Shorter Catechism begins with this notice:

"Weaker capacity." Like 5-year olds.

The "Larger Catechism" is described as "a Directory for catechising such as have made some proficiency in the knowledge of the grounds of religion." Like 12-year olds. A Protestant Bar-Mitzvah.

90% of the "Pastors" of today's churches do not know as much about theology as the average 8th-grade American in 1776.

Many people are rightly disturbed by the idea of a government official entering a home and dictating what children should learn when it comes to religion.
But they are also offended by the idea of God Himself entering a home and dictating what children should learn when it comes to religion . . . or any other subject.

The word "Theocracy" is a frightening boogeyman in our day. Harvard University and the Westminster Standards were both designed to promote a Christian Theocracy. Neither one embraced the modern concept of "separation of church and state," which more accurately means "separation of God (religion, Christianity) and Government." Harvard/Westminster stood for the proposition that both Church and State must be "under God." Vine & Fig Tree University questions whether "the State" -- which is a Monopoly of Violence -- can ever truly be "under God," that is, obedient to God's Commandments. Similarly concerning the institution called "the church." The Westminster Assembly, predominantly Presbyterian, was strongly opposed to Roman Catholicism, yet in many ways is still very similar to Roman Catholicism in structure and power-dynamics. John Milton said "New Presbyter is but Old Priest writ large."

The Bible says all believers are priests and kings:

Revelation 1:6 
Jesus Christ has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

Revelation 5:9-10
And have redeemed us to God by Your blood And have made us kings and priests to our God; And we shall reign on the earth.

Roman Catholics claimed to have priests; Harvard and Westminster denied this.
Harvard's most notable graduates in its first 200 years -- Samuel Adams, John Hancock, John Adams, etc. -- denied the claim of "the divine right of kings."
Vine & Fig Tree University contends that we are all priests and kings, and nobody is a priest or a king.
Vine & Fig Tree University denies the modern concept of "separation of church and state." We believe in "the abolition of church and state," that is, abolition of monopoly priesthoods and political oligarchy. We believe in an orderly self-governing society, and a truly religious (James 1:27) society, without the institutions of "church" and "state."

Both Harvard and Westminster believed in the institutions of "church" and "state" because "the church fathers" did. Not everything "the church fathers" believed came from the Bible. "The church fathers" believed many things because Aristotle and Greco-Roman humanism taught them to believe these things. One of the primary purposes of Vine & Fig Tree University is to strip away Greco-Roman humanism and go back to the Scriptures. At many points the Protestant Reformers and the New England Puritans wanted to "reform" and "purify" in this way, but they were products of their time.

Vine & Fig Tree University and "The Great Commission" is not about promoting any particular church or denomination, nor any particular nation. The only legitimate "church" is the Body of Christ, and the only legitimate nation is "the holy nation" spoken of in 1 Peter 2:9.

Here are the chapters of the Westminster Confession, with links to the section below where we compare the Westminster Standards with the core values of Vine & Fig Tree University:

What is the Chief End of Man?

Q.1: What is the chief end of man?
A.1: Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever.

I say "famously" because 300 years ago, 90% of  the English-speaking world could have answered that question from memory. (In 1700, it is estimated that approximately 10% of English-speaking people identified as Catholic, while around 90% identified as Protestant.)

God-Centered Life

Rick Warren began his multi-million best-selling book The Purpose Driven Life with the four words "It’s Not About You." Those are good words, and yet the book really was all about the reader. And the reader's church.

John M. Frame writes,

The lordship of Christ is not only ultimate and unquestionable, not only above and beyond all other authorities, but also over all areas of human life. In 1 Corinthians 10:31 we read, "Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God" (cf. Rom. 14:23; 2 Cor. 10:5; Col 3:17, 23; 2 Tim. 3:16-17). Our Lord's demand upon us is comprehensive. In all that we do, we must seek to please him. No area of human life is neutral. [note: This was the insight of the great Dutch thinker Abraham Kuyper. He saw that the lordship of Christ requires radically different Christian forms of culture. Christians should be producing distinctively Christian
     • art,
     • science,
     • philosophy,
     • psychology,
     • historical and
     • biblical scholarship, and
     • political and
     • economic systems.
And Christians should educate their children in distinctively Christian ways (note the God-saturated education urged in Deut. 6:6ff. after the challenge to love God exclusively). For many of us, such considerations mandate home schooling or Christian schools for our children, for how can we otherwise compete with up to seven hours a day of public-school secularism mandated by law? In any case, Christians may not take the easy road, uncritically following the thinking of the unbelieving world. Consider Kuyper's remark: Of all the territory in the creation, Jesus says, "It is mine."
John M. Frame, Apologetics to the Glory of God, p. 7 text+n.11

Does God have an ego problem, that He always needs His creatures to praise Him and glorify Him?
Or do we have an ego problem, that we fail to be grateful to our Creator for life and for the blueprint we have in God's Law that shows us how to create an enjoyable life?

As we work our way through Micah's prophecy, the "Dominion Mandate," and the Bible from The Garden of Eden to the New Jerusalem, we'll see that man's chief end (goal or purpose) is to build the City of God, that is, the Vine & Fig Tree society.

Westminster Standards

• Day 1: Reformation Day and The Chief End of Man

23 Themes

0. The Bible as the Word of God

I have numbered this theme "0" (zero) because it undergirds all the other themes.

The Westminster Confession of Faith begins with a chapter on the Bible. And rightly so. Everything taught at Vine & Fig Tree University is grounded in the Bible because the Bible is the Word of God.

Some people call this view "bibliolatry." Like we make the Bible into an idol. But an "idol" is a false god. The Bible is the Word of the True God.

The Bible is the Word of God, written by the will of God

"Bibliolatry" is closely related to "predestination," which we look at next. If you believe in "free will," or that God cannot "violate" man's "free will," then you cannot logically believe that the Bible is the Word of God.

The words in the Bible were written by the hands of human beings, but I believe the Bible is the Word of God. God speaks through those human words. This says something
    • about the words,
    • something about the human authors of the words,
    • as well as something about the God of the Bible.

The Words:

In Galatians 3:16, the Apostle Paul makes a theological argument based on whether the word in a quotation from Genesis is plural or singular. The words matter.

The human authors:

God wrote the Bible using "human pens." God made their hands move the way He wanted them to move. In the Bible, the will of God is sovereign over the will of man. 1 Peter 1:21 says

For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

Of course, it was the "will" of Moses and Isaiah and Paul and other authors to write down words. Moses wrote what God told him to write, but perhaps Moses would say he wrote those words "of my own free will." Nobody pointed a gun at Moses' head and forced him to write. But what Peter says is controversial. Even though Moses and other Biblical authors freely wrote the words they intended to write, God was doing something through them and the words they wrote. They did not write those words solely by their own "free will." Their hands moved the way God willed them to move.

It's true, we can tell the differences between the words Moses wrote, the words Luke wrote, the words John wrote, and the words Paul wrote. They all had their own individual personalities and writing styles. But the men who wrote the words of Scripture had their lives — their parents, training, and life experiences — all orchestrated by God so that — guided by the Holy Spirit — they would write the exact words that God wanted to be written so that God could communicate exactly what He wanted to communicate to the human race. Their words are God's words. God's will trumps their will. Paul told Timothy that God "breathed out" His words through these human authors (2 Timothy 3:16, [theópneustos (Strong's #2315, from 2316 /theós, "God" and 4154 /pnéō, "breathe out"]).

The God of the Words:

To say that the Bible is the Word of God is to say that God's will is sovereign over the will of man. Some people find this deeply offensive.  God made the mouths of Moses, David, and Isaiah speak the words God wanted spoken. God made the hands of Matthew, Paul, and John write the words God wanted written. If God did not overrule the "free" and fallible will of man, how did their will to speak and write beget the infallible Word of God?

Some will say that since God predestines even sin, and then punishes sinners for the sin God predestined them to commit, it would be better if sinners had never been born. They had no "free will." They had no choice. "That's not fair." And if it's not "fair," it can't be true. This claim is logical. If a man has no free will, and gets punished for what God predestined him to do, it would be better for him if he had never been born. But Mark 14:21 says exactly that: God predestined Jesus to be sinfully put to death:

"The Son of Man indeed goes just as it is written of Him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had never been born.”

That's pretty scary. Judas had no choice in whether he would be born. God created Judas without asking Judas for permission, and predestined Judas to commit a terrible sin (John 19:11).

But Judas was created in the Image of God. All sinners are created in the Image of God. And in the end, every knee will bow and every sinner will admit that God's Judgment is fair (Isaiah 45:23; Romans 14:11; Philippians 2:10-11). All sinners will say "I admit. I sinned." All sinners will admit that God is just. Even though He predestined them to sin (Romans 9; Isaiah 10).

Christians who oppose the Sovereignty of God and uphold the "free will" of man claim that predestination "makes man a puppet." But as I said, man is clearly not a puppet; man is created in the Image of God, and we all know this. But the Bible agrees that God's sovereignty makes man a "puppet" of God's decree. The Bible describes man not as a "puppet," however, but as a bucket of water.

Well, not a bucket, but a river of water.

Proverbs 21:1
The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, 
Like the rivers of water;
He turns it wherever He wishes.

How is this not like being "a puppet?"
Is a meandering river created in the Image of God?
How is the opponent of God's Sovereignty not making an accusation against God?

"Bibliolatry"

I believe the Bible is the Word of God.
Jesus is the Word of God incarnate; the Bible is the Word of God inscriptured.
Some people call this "Bibliolatry." I worship the Bible. That alarms nearly every church I know.

• This claim (the Bible is the Word of God) is either true or false.
  • If true, it demands your full and immediate attention.
  • If false, then the prophets are liars and the Bible is evil.
  • But if false, there is no such thing as "evil." The universe is meaningless, impersonal, and without moral values. One man's "child molestation" is another man's "sexual orientation."
• If you accept the values of Vine & Fig Tree rather than the values of Harvard-educated dictators around the world, then it is clear that the Bible has been the most important book in the history of the human race. It has been the blueprint for "civilization." Governments that ban the Bible have been savage tyrannies, their people impoverished and uneducated.
• The Bible is a textbook for every subject of human thought and action.
• The Bible: The Word of God

The Bible claims to be the Word of God. It claims that God speaks to human beings. It claims that God used human beings the way I am using a keyboard as I write this.

Let's consider first the claim that God speaks, and the Bible is God speaking to us.

• If this claim is false, and the universe is just a meaningless, accidental result of molecules bumping into each other for endless eons, then there is no difference between a nurse and a serial rapist. Both are doing what they like, and both enjoy whatever their DNA makes them enjoy.
• If this claim is true -- if the Bible is God Himself speaking to us -- it doesn't seem like very many church-goers are listening very seriously.

Imagine that a UFO lands on the White House lawn, and an extraterrestrial being hands the President a Peace Treaty. The ET says, "Read this Treaty. It tells you how to cure cancer, end war, obtain free energy, eliminate the threat of global warming, and extend lifespans by hundreds of years. If you agree to abide by its terms, our race will help your race. If you do not agree, we will destroy you. We will wait right here for your answer."

Network television will have their cameras at the White House 24/7. Commentators will be speculating endlessly about what the extraterrestrial Treaty says, and whether or not the President will accept their terms. People will cancel vacations and having children, breathlessly waiting for the decision, knowing their entire future hangs in the balance.

If there are any ET's in the universe, they were created by the God of the Bible. His Word is more important than the word of any ET.  But we spend more time watching CNN or FoxNews than we spend listening to the Bible, even though the news channels aren't covering anything as interesting as a UFO on the White House lawn. For some, "news" doesn't get our attention as much as sports, soaps, or celebrities.

All the while, we have a book from the Creator of the universe sitting un-read on a shelf next to the Flat Screen TV.

What the heck is wrong with us?

The Bible as Treaty of Unconditional Surrender

The Bible is a Peace Treaty -- a Covenant -- that God is willing to enter into with those who have been in rebellion against Him. The Treaty calls for unconditional surrender on our part. The Treaty promises blessing -- "salvation" -- on God's part.

• Covenant as Treaty of Unconditional Surrender
• How to Become a Christian by Signing God's Treaty of Unconditional Surrender
• Justification by Allegiance

The ethical and moral significance of a covenant of unconditional surrender is sometimes masked by theologians who focus on "covenant theology" as a theological buzzword.

• The Myth of "Covenant Theology" - "Covenant Theology" and Pacifism

The "Berean" Spirit

Here is perhaps the #1 reason no church wants to be infiltrated by someone who believes the Bible was actually written by God.

The Bereans are commended for questioning the church. They heard a message from the Apostles and checked what they heard with the Scriptures. There is no entity on planet earth who wants their members questioning what the church has taught and comparing church doctrine with the Bible.

Especially regarding the "heretical" ideas I'll be raising below.

Even though Protestant churches champion "sola Scriptura" and the "priesthood of all believers." They don't really mean it. They don't like Bereans.

The Bereans appeared to be like modern libertarians, with their bumper-sticker that says "QUESTION AUTHORITY." The Apostles gave them the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but the Bereans didn't just take the Apostles' word for it, but checked what they were told against a higher authority, the Scripture. The Bereans are more dogmatic authoritarians than those who mindlessly accept the word of clergy or creeds.

Additionally, the Bereans studied the Bible "daily." The verses on that link show that daily engagement with the Bible is an imperative.

audio

The Bible is our starting point

I am a "Bible-believing" Christian. Feel free to accuse me of engaging in bibliolatry, fundamentalism, extremism, creationism, Calvinism, Theonomy, etc. Guilty as charged.

This attitude makes one a better Christian, as seen in our second text.

Just as iron sharpens iron,
friends sharpen the minds of each other.
Proverbs 27:17

My goal in this article is to be your "friend." I hope you'll be my friend as well, and challenge my thinking in a loving way. I hope you'll learn the skill of benefitting from opinions which are contrary to your own.

Vine & Fig Tree University goes against the grain of "church history" and the "experts." I am not against "authorities" or "experts." I rely on them and quote them. I believe the data and premises of the "experts" leads to my conclusion. An "expert" can be your friend and sharpen you, but you might have to pay the expert ("mentor," "professor" "seminary"). This article is free. May you be sharpened. May we be friends.

Third text:

Proverbs 18:17
"The first to state his case seems right until another comes forward and examines him."

What you learned in church seems right to you. Wait until you compare it with what the Bible says.

Extremism

I love the Lord with all my heart, mind, soul, and strength. Not just part-way. That makes me an "extremist." People tell me I take the Bible to an extreme. I think I just take it consistently. At least I try.

If you disagree with this -- if you want to avoid "extremes" -- then you want to be at point "M" on the chart below:

Do you want to be a Grade "A" Christian? Then you had better avoid being a Grade "Z" Christian with  all  your heart, mind, soul and strength.

If you are not an extremist in defense of the Bible, what is the guiding principle that prevents you from being a defender of tyranny, atheism and hate? Is "moderation" the Grand Principle that you believe will keep America from collapsing into chaos and lawlessness? When Jesus said "Love your neighbor," was He really just telling us not to hate our neighbor, to avoid extremes, and have an attitude of "moderation" toward our neighbor? Can Lukewarm Indifference ever be Christlike?

Even if my goal were no more than "moderation," if you are at point "Z," I must be an "extremist" in the opposite direction, and advocate "A" in order to get you to point "M,"  because if I only advocate "Moderation,"  "Z + M" only brings you to point "T." Life is a tug-of-war. If you don't pull the rope with every ounce of strength you have, you're in the mud. Jesus said the struggle to overcome the world is "agonizing."

I advocate "A" on the scale above. I'm trying to get you to adopt "A" as your position as well. If you're a Moderate and I move you toward "A" to any degree, I've succeeded. For now.

If you follow some of what the Bible says, you are not following anything the Bible says. If you pick and choose, you are your own god.

Even if you choose to follow Jesus 99% of the time (using your "free will"), it is still YOU who are choosing, you who approve of 99% of Jesus' commands, you who put yourself in the place of God and judge some of what Christ said to be wrong,  you who are acting as lord of your life. You view religion as a Smörgåsbord. You pick and choose depending on what YOU like, but do not view the Word of God as an absolutely binding package deal. Everybody agrees with something Jesus said, even some real sickos. A Christian is someone who believes everything Jesus said. Nothing less than full submission counts for anything.

I say that not on the grounds that the Bible teaches something other than "free will," but because if God cannot "violate" man's "free will," there cannot be a Bible at all.

So let's consider what the Bible says about God's Sovereignty.

1. The Sovereignty of God - Calvinism/Predestination

How does Micah know what will "come to pass?"
Answer: God told him (see "Bibliolatry" above).
How does God know what will "come to pass?"
Answer: He predestined it.

God is omniscient, and knows the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10; Acts 15:18), because the future has already been created.

Life as a Play

In his work The Praise of Folly, first printed in 1511, Renaissance humanist Erasmus asks, "For what else is the life of man but a kind of play in which men in various costumes perform until the director motions them off the stage." In his The Merchant of Venice,  written about 85 years later, Shakespeare had one of his main characters, Antonio, compare the world to a stage:

I hold the world but as the world, Gratiano;
A stage where every man must play a part,
And mine a sad one.

A few years later, in his comedy As You Like It, one of his characters says,

All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely Players;
They have their exits and their entrances,

This can reflect a cynical outlook. But it can also reflect the Bible, and be much more optimistic.
Is life a play, with God as the Screenwriter and Director, who creates actors to play the parts in His drama, all for His Glory?

Some would say a "yes" answer "violates" man's "free will." But the Bible says that when God calls an actor off the stage, the actor will confess that God was a great screenwriter, and was not unfair in creating the actor to play his part, which was written for him before he was born.

When is your birthday? Why did you choose to be born on that day? Did God ask your permission to be born on that day? Or did the Director decide when you would "enter the stage?"
There is no such thing as "free will." Darwinists will be the first to tell you this. Your DNA tells you what to do. Billions of years of evolution tell you what to do.
So you must face this question:

Were you brought into existence by the meaningless, impersonal "laws of physics," or were you brought into existence by a personal God who is Love?

Some say that predestination "makes man a robot." But you and I both know that we are not robots. We were created in the Image of God. We have the capacity for reason, to plan for the future, to compose and appreciate symphonies. We understand God's Commandments, and we have a moral obligation to obey them. We know that as we get in the car and drive to the prostitute's house, that we should turn the car around. We know that God is just to hold us responsible for our actions. In the end of God's Play, "every knee will bow and every tongue will confess" that we made the choice to sin and God is just and fair to hold us accountable (Isaiah 45:23; Romans 14:11; Philippians 2:10-11). These things cannot be said about the other animals. They can't appreciate God's Play the way His image-bearers do.

Omnipotence is the basis for omniscience. God knew what every atom in the universe would do before He created them, because He created everything that way. There was no other god or being co-existing with God to force God to create the world in a way God did not want it to be. God knew what He was doing. He created everything the way He wanted.

All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing;
He does according to His will in the army of heaven
And among the inhabitants of the earth.
No one can restrain His hand
Or say to Him, “What have You done?”
Daniel 4:35

Evolution is an impersonal "struggle for survival."
God is Sovereign, but God is also Love.
This has tremendous implications for our actions in history.

Calvinism: "Liberty Under God"

• John Calvin: Founder of America
• Calvinism at Harvard
• Sovereignty and Optimism

Providence

The Declaration of Independence (1776) says that those who conform their lives to "The Laws of Nature and of Nature's God" can have "a firm reliance on the Protection of Divine Providence."
Protection is a personal act of love.
"Providence" is the opposite of "deism."

Prayer = anti-deism

• Sovereignty
• Authority
• Victory
• Power
• Kingdom
• Christmas vs. Rapture

Futurists say that "prophecy" reveals a grim future. War, Great Tribulation, the Antichrist, and Armageddon are all predestined (though not all futurists would use that word -- but what's the difference between "prophesied" and "predestined?").

Micah does not say that tribulation and annihilation has been predestined, but a Vine & Fig Tree world has.

PredestinationOnline.com

Audio

The Sovereignty of God

I believe in God. There are a lot of people in churches on Sunday morning who say "I believe in God," but what evidence is there of this on Monday through Saturday?

I believe God is the creator. The Bible says God created everything there is, probably no more than 10,000 years ago. (Yikes! A "creationist!" A "fundamentalist!")

There is an unbridgeable gap between the Creator and the creature (Romans 1:25).

The Westminster Confession and Catechisms set forth a "Calvinist" doctrine of God. Many people hate that term. I believe in "the Five Points of Calvinism." Calvin would not have let me in his church. Calvin would have put me to death.

If I were to describe what I think God is like, most people would say they don't believe in that kind of God. And they're even more offended that I try to impress this "Calvinist" theology into every area of my life, even "secular" areas, including Monday through Saturday.

Predestination

Before the Creator created all that is, the Creator knew the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10; Revelation 1:8; Revelation 21:6, 13). God knows the future because God created it. The future has already been created. This is called "predestination," meaning the destination of the creation was designed and set in motion before ("pre") it was even created. The path of every molecule and sub-atomic particle in the universe was set in motion, and is carefully and lovingly conducted by God through history to its predestined end. The thoughts I think and the feelings I feel are wave-particles of energy and chemicals that travel across the synapses of my brain and through my heart and "reins." All predestined by God. Some say my belief makes man a "robot." But God did not create man as a robot. You and I both know that we are not "robots." God created man in His Image. That means when I think and plan, when I paint a picture or compose a symphony, when I build a log cabin or a skyscraper that can house 25,000 people, I am engaged in the wonder-filled task of exercising dominion over the earth (Genesis 1:26-28), something animals do not do.

No matter how glorious I think man is, by virtue of his being created in the Image of God, there are those who feel that my conception of God "violates" human "free will."

The Myth of "Free Will"

Jesus Wrote the Bible Using Human Penmen

Is God the "Author of Sin?"

This question is often asked.

If God predestined Judas Iscariot to sin by betraying Christ, and also predestined Pilate to commit a lesser sin (John 19:11) of ordering Jesus to be murdered (Acts 2:23; 4:28; 1 Peter 2:8), doesn't this mean God is the "author of sin?"

There is a fundamental ambiguity in this question.

"Sin" is the violation of God's Law (1 John 3:4). God cannot violate His own Law. Sin is rebellion against the authority of God. God cannot rebel against Himself.

So when we consider the sins of Judas, Pilate, and the rest of humanity, and when we consider that the Bible says their sins were predestined by God, the question "Is God the Author of Sin" needs to be clarified.

The question is, "Is God the Author of THEIR sin?"

The answer is no, because they are created in the Image of God. It's their sin against God, not God's.

The Westminster Confession's answer to this question is not as clear:

WCF 3.1 God from all eternity did, by the most wise and holy counsel of his own will, freely and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass (Rom 9:15, 18; 11:33; Eph 1:11; Heb 6:17); yet so as thereby neither is God the author of sin (James 1:13, 17; 1 John 1:5), nor is violence offered to the will of the creatures, nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established (Prov 16:33; Mat 17:12; John 19:11; Acts 2:23; 4:27-28).

WCF 5.2 Although in relation to the foreknowledge and decree of God, the first cause, all things come to pass immutably and infallibly (Acts 2:23), yet by the same providence he ordereth them to fall out, according to the nature of second causes, either necessarily, freely, or contingently (Gen 8:22; Exod 21:13 with Deut 19:5; 1 Kings 22:28, 34; Isa 10:6-7; Jer 31:35).

God is Not the Author of Sin

Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess ((Isaiah 45:23; Romans 14:11; Philippians 2:10-11)) that God is not the author of sin, because every tongue and knee -- every human sinner -- was created in the Image of God.

"Free Will" is Anti-Choice

Predestination is an inescapable concept.

But there is a predestination of love, and another predestination of meaninglessness.

Modern Darwinists are increasingly agreed that "free will" is a myth. We do what our DNA tells us to do, evolutionists say. The illusion of free will is exercised in a meaningless universe, where everything happens randomly with no purpose.

"Calvinism" teaches that human beings are created in the Image of God, a God who is Love (1 John 4:8), and the entire universe is moving toward a loving goal. God has predestined all this.

The Bible says we have a moral obligation to choose between these two rival systems of predestination.

Joshua 24:15
And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”

1 Kings 18:21
And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word.

Deuteronomy 30:19
I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live;

As we will see below, the Bible says man was created to build the City of God. For the Darwinist, man's only objective is "the survival of the fittest." "The fittest" is defined as "the one who survives." If your own survival depends on killing others or stealing from them, then you have a "moral" duty kill and steal. The only moral is survival.

2. Preterist Eschatology

Eschatology

The word "eschatology" comes from the Greek word for "last." It is the study of "last things" or final things.

The Westminster Confession relegates eschatology to the last two chapters of the Confession. But in the last 200 years it has become a much more important subject than it was 400 years ago, when the Westminster Standards were written.

• "futurism" vs. "preterism,"
• "pessimillennialism" vs. "optimillennialism."

Terminology

If you've never studied "eschatology," you'll need to become familiar with a few theological terms:

"Millennium"

This refers to a period of great blessing. A "Golden Age." Usually thought of as the time when Jesus reigns as the Christ (Messiah).

Theologians ask how this "millennium" relates to "the Second Coming" of Christ. Which comes first: the Second Coming or the Millennium?

• Premillennialists contend that the Second Coming occurs before ("pre-") the "millennium."
• Postmillennialists contend that the Second Coming occurs after ("post-") the millennial Golden Age.
• Amillennialists contend that there never will be a "Golden Age" on earth. ("A" = "alpha privative," the Greek letter alpha meaning "not" or "the absence of")

Premillennialists and Amillennialists generally believe that before the Second Coming, things get worse and worse. Premils believe that at the Second Coming, Jesus begins to reign as the Messiah on earth. Amils believe that at the Second Coming, human history on earth ends and the eternal state begins.
Postmillennialists believe that Christ is reigning now, making the world conformed to His Law, and that at the Second Coming human history on earth ends and the eternal state begins. So Gary North has coined two new terms:

• "Pessimillennialists" are premils and amils, who are pessimistic about converting nations and sanctifying human history before the Second Coming
• "Optimillennialists" are postmils who are optimistic about human society being Christianized before the Second Coming and the end of human history.

The subject is extremely important in our day, because the subject is plagued by errors, and these errors are popularly believed and have a global impact. Millions of copies of books speculating about "the last days" have been sold in this generation. These erroneous beliefs have a powerful influence on U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. Millions of people have been killed because of "pessimillennial" beliefs. Millions more -- maybe billions -- will be killed in the future if premillennialism continues to guide U.S. foreign policy. It's a "self-fulfilling prophecy."

• There's a Slight Problem With Premillennialism - Gary North @ LewRockwell.com

Everything about Micah's “Vine & Fig Tree” prophecy is undermined by today's erroneous eschatologies. They all deny that it is even possible -- much less mandatory -- for us to beat our "swords into plowshares" and pursue the fulfillment of Micah's “Vine & Fig Tree” prophecy. Eschatology is critical. (We wouldn't necessarily place the subject at the very top of the list, but it occurs right off the bat in Micah's prophecy, so here it is. But it deserves higher placement than the last two chapters of the Confession.) 

Micah says his prophecy will begin to be fulfilled in "the last days." What does this mean? Commentators suggest two meanings:

1. "The latter days" means "days in the distant future."
2. The Apostles, writing in the New Testament, repeatedly state that they are living in "the last days." Prophecies like Micah's (e.g., Joel's prophecy in Acts 2) which said they would be fulfilled in "the last days" are said by the Apostles to be seeing fulfillment in their day. Many scholars believe they are referring to "the last days" of the Old Covenant. The Apostles were living in "the last days" of the Old Covenant and the first days of the New Covenant.

I believe "the last days" of the Old Covenant are now in our past. We are not now living in "the last days" of the Old Covenant. The Old Covenant came to a definitive end in AD 70 when the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed. As a result, Jesus is reigning as the Christ today.

• The Last Days
• Thesis 85: The Last Days of the Old Covenant

Preterism

The Latin word for "past" is praeter. The word "preterism" comes from the Latin word for past, which is brought into English words like "the preterit tense" and a school of eschatology called "preterism." Saying a prophecy was fulfilled in the past is called "Preterism."

In the early decades of the 21st century, this word has become very controversial.

According to Peter in Acts 2, and elsewhere in the New Testament, the Apostles were living in "the Last Days" of the Old Covenant. This is when Jesus was made the Christ: in the past.

Three Principles for Interpreting Prophecy

Interpreting the Bible is not hard. It doesn't take a high I.Q. (Intelligence Quotient). It takes a high M.Q. (Morality Quotient). Interpreting the U.S. Constitution is similar. The Constitution was designed to thwart tyranny. But some people want tyranny. The tyrant wants power, and "We the Sheeple" want freedom from responsibility, and we believe the promises of the tyrant to bring "equality" and "fairness." If you cherish immorality, you will deliberately misinterpret and distort the Bible.

How do we correctly interpret Micah's  “Vine & Fig Tree” prophecy, as well as others which speak of the Messiah? Sometimes the form of prophecy can confuse us. Often it is poetic, rather than "scientific" or "historical" or reminiscent of journalistic "neutrality." It is designed to encourage us today. That is, to encourage us to obey God's Commandments.

Churches split over obscure doctrines, but they are united in their silence in the face of disobedience to the plain commandments of God.  Murder, destruction, perversion: "Let's not get into politics; let's stick to doctrine."

Jesus said, "If anyone wills to do His will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God or whether I speak on My own authority." (John 7:17 NKJV) If you want God's will to be done on earth as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:10), and if you are willing to do God's will yourself, your obedient spirit will open your eyes to understand the harder parts of the Bible.

The Bible teaching ministry I founded is called  “Vine & Fig Tree.”  The name comes from the 4th chapter of Micah. It talks about a day we beat "swords into plowshares." I believe that's not just a prediction about Micah's future, but a command for us today. I believe the Bible -- from cover to cover -- commands pacifism. War -- "the sword" -- is an evil.

You are welcome to try to "sharpen" me on this issue. Others have certainly tried. I am willing to admit that ISIS-inspired psychos kill innocent people around the world, and sometimes it's hard to believe that the Babe born in Bethlehem and laid in a manger on that "Silent Night" was really the Messiah, the Prince of Peace. But despite ISIS, I believe Micah would agree that Jesus is now reigning as Messiah and Prince of Peace.

In Micah's day, seven hundred years before the coming of the Messiah, half of all human beings died as a result of archist violence.
There was no such thing as "liberty" in Isaiah's day. Today we enjoy liberty because the Messiah came two thousand years ago.
Today, the vast majority of human beings die of "natural causes" rather than violence. The exceptions to that blanket statement are easily remedied by professing Christians in America. It's a matter of ethics, not fate or eschatology. We are commanded to bring about the continued and expanded fulfillment of these prophecies. Jesus gave us enough to consider them "fulfilled," and everything beyond that is just frosting on the cake.

Sanctified Imagination

If Micah could travel through time 2,700 years to our day, he would fall on his knees in praise and faithful gratitude to God for fulfilling his prophecies. We are not so grateful. We should be.

But we can start where we are and imagine even greater fulfillment of the "messianic" prophecies. We should take upon ourselves the exercise of faith and imagine how the earth will look 2,700 years into our future, and work and plan for that day.

Micah and Isaiah would say that their prophecies have been gloriously fulfilled. Those of us living today are the beneficiaries of centuries of theological sanctification from Isaiah's day, and can imagine even greater ways in which those prophecies can be further fulfilled.

But most Christians do not believe that Christ is fulfilling those prophecies and reigning as Messiah today.

The premillennialists are wrong for a number of reasons.

A. The Messianic Kingdom is Everlasting.
Not just 10 centuries, as millennialists hold

Isaiah 9:6-7
⁶ For unto us a Child is born,
Unto us a Son is given;
And the government will be upon His shoulder.
And His name will be called
Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
⁷ Of the increase of His government and peace
There will be no end,
Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom,
To order it and establish it with judgment and justice
From that time forward, even forever.
The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.

Micah 4:5
As for us, we will walk
In the Name of the LORD our God
forever and ever.

Micah 4:7
and the LORD shall reign over them in mount Zion
from henceforth, even for ever.

The Messianic Age Never Ends --  "world without end." Of the baby Jesus it was foretold:

Luke 1
³² He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David:
³³ And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.

This reign began 2,000 years ago. And it has only just begun.

while it is fashionable for modern Christian intellectuals to speak of our civilization as "post-Christian," we should turn that around and make it Biblically accurate: Our culture is not post-Christian - our culture is still largely pre-Christian!⁶
6. Cf. Loraine Boettner, The Millennium (Philadelphia: The Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Co., 1957), pp. 38-47, 63-66; Benjamin B. Warfield, "Are There Few That Be Saved?" in Biblical and Theological Studies (Philadelphia: The Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Co., 1968), pp. 334-350. Warfield cites William Temple: "The earth will in all probability be habitable for myriads of years yet. If Christianity is the final religion, the church is still in its infancy. Two thousand years are as two days. The appeal to the 'primitive church' is misleading; we are the 'primitive church'"; and James Adderly: "But we must remember that Christianity is a very young religion, and that we are only at the beginning of Christian history even now" (pp. 347f.).

and

The actual number of the saved, far from being limited to mere tens of thousands, is in reality a multitude that no one could count, so vast that it cannot be comprehended. For the fact is that Christ came to save the world. Traditionally -- although Calvinists have been technically correct in declaring that the full benefits of the atonement were intended only for the elect - both Calvinists and Arminians have tended to miss the point of John 3:16. That point has been beautifully summarized by Benjamin Warfield:

You must not fancy, then, that God sits helplessly by while the world, which He has created for Himself, hurtles hopelessly to destruction, and He is able only to snatch with difficulty here and there a brand from the universal burning. The world does not govern Him in a single one of its acts: He governs it and leads it steadily onward to the end which, from the beginning, or ever a beam of it had been laid, He had determined for it. ... Through all the years one increasing purpose runs, one increasing purpose: the kingdoms of the earth become ever more and more the Kingdom of our God and His Christ. The process may be slow; the progress may appear to our impatient eyes to lag. But it is God who is building: and under His hands the structure rises as steadily as it does slowly, and in due time the capstone shall be set into its place, and to our astonished eyes shall be revealed nothing less than a saved world."
Benjamin B. Warfield, from a sermon on John 3:16 entitled "God's Immeasurable Love," in Biblical and Theological Studies (Philadelphia: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Co., 1968), pp. 518f.

[New York City contains not just residences, but businesses (e.g., "Wall Street") and parks (e.g., "Central Park"). The "Texas" link we provided above does not make this distinction.]

Then there are other planets.

People who want Jesus to return and set up a 1,000 year kingdom (when He's already/only been reigning for twice that long) and then end the whole "earth" business are quitters with no vision. That's probably most church-going Christians.

B. The Messianic Kingdom Grows Gradually

Daniel 2
In the days of the Roman Empire, the Rock is born, and His Kingdom begins to take over the world.
The transformation is not instantaneous.
The Messianic Kingdom is not handed to us fully-developed on a silver platter
after we passively wait for it.

The statue in Daniel 2 represents the archist paradigm of the pre-Christian world. In Luke 4, Jesus was tempted by Satan:

⁵ The devil, taking Him up on a high mountain, showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. ⁶ And the devil said to Him, “All this authority I will give You, and their glory; for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. ⁷ Therefore, if You will worship before me, all will be Yours.”

Jesus destroyed the entire demonic imperial paradigm. The Last Adam restored the seed of the First Adam to our original purpose of building the City of God. But the weeds of the City of Man still need to be cut down as a part of tending The Garden. Replacing the City of Man with the City of God is a process called "sanctification." It applies socially as well as individually.

Isaiah 9:6-7 also shows us this idea of perpetual growth. The NRSV renders verse 7:

His authority shall grow continually

The  Vine & Fig Tree prophecy of Micah (4:1-7) also shows numerous evidences of continual growth:

• The nations are "streaming" to hear God's Word (verse 2), but they have not all gathered there yet.
• The nations are learning God's Law, but they are not fully "learned."
• The Law-Word of God has not fully "gone forth."
• Some people are saying to other people, "Let us go up to the Mountain of the Lord." This is "exhortation." This is persuasion. This is a process.
• The Messiah has not finished "rebuking" the nations,
• nor rendering decisions in their disputes. (verse 3)
• Not all swords have been hammered into plowshares
• "They" (the nations) must beat "their" own swords; the Messiah doesn't do it for them in one fell swoop.
• "Assembling," "gathering" and "making" (verses 6-7) are processes, not instant passive (for us) transformations. "We the People" have duties to carry out.

"We have duties." "Let us go." These are significant statements. They relate to themes we will look at below: Theonomy, Theocracy, Capitalism. They relate to the issue of predestination and free will, which we looked at above.

"Outright"

Some people don't believe that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah predicted by the Old Testament prophets. Let's look at a Jewish website and an article called "Why Jews Don't Believe In Jesus." It says,

Jews do not accept Jesus as the messiah because . . . Jesus Did Not Fulfill the Messianic Prophecies.
What is the Messiah supposed to accomplish? One of the central themes of biblical prophecy is the promise of a future age of perfection characterized by universal peace and recognition of God. (Isaiah 2:1-4, 32:15-18, 60:15-18; Zephaniah 3:9; Hosea 2:20-22; Amos 9:13-15; Micah 4:1-4; Zechariah 8:23, 14:9; Jeremiah 31:33-34)

We will look at the word "perfection" in a minute. But first let's look at the phrase "universal peace and recognition of God." Jesus did not fulfill those "Messianic Prophecies" in the way many Jews thought the Messiah would do it. For example, they expected the Messiah to be a Warrior-King who would destroy the Roman Army that was occupying Israel under a military dictatorship, and then restore "national sovereignty" to Israel.

I would like to suggest that Jesus is in fact fulfilling those Messianic Prophecies, and understanding why this is true can revolutionize your faith. (For a detailed response to that article from the Jewish website, click here.)

Most people who call themselves "Christians" today believe that Micah's prophecy (and the others cited) will not begin to see fulfillment until Jesus returns to earth a second time. This second coming will be "pre-millennial." So even though Jesus did not fulfill these Messianic Prophecies at His first coming, Jesus is still the Messiah, because He will fulfill these prophecies at His second comin. The Jewish website understands this rationalization:

       Because no one has ever fulfilled the Bible's description of this future King, Jews still await the coming of the Messiah. All past Messianic claimants, including Jesus of Nazareth, Bar Cochba and Shabbtai Tzvi have been rejected.
       Christians counter that Jesus will fulfill these in the Second Coming. Jewish sources show that the Messiah will fulfill the prophecies outright; in the Bible no concept of a second coming exists.

The Rabbi is correct: "in the Bible no concept of a second coming exists." But the Rabbi is mistaken to claim that these prophecies will be fulfilled "outright." But millions of Christians agree with him. That word "outright" is a very important word. Maybe it's the most important word in history! Another way of saying "outright" is "instantly." "All at once."

• It is a top-down or socialist concept of history, rather than a bottom-up capitalist/free market concept.
• It is a passive concept of society, rather than dominion-oriented.

Those two points are important, and we will be returning to them and emphasizing them over and over again.

If Micah could travel through time from his day seven centuries before the birth of Christ to our day 20 centuries later, he would think that these Messianic prophecies had been fulfilled "outright." The world today is dramatically different from the world of Micah's day. The Bible teaches that Jesus was born during "the last days" of the Old Covenant, and He put into effect a New Covenant, and as a result of this New Covenant, billions of human beings have been streaming to "the mountain of the Lord" (Micah 4:2), and the world is more obedient to God's Commandments today than it was before Jesus was born. The world is more peaceful. The world is more civilized. The Pentagon, the Mainstream Media and secular academia do not want you to understand this.

Nor do most clergymen. The more perceptive clergy will say that our belief that Micah's prophecy is already being fulfilled (along with all the other Messianic prophecies), and that we should continue beating swords into plowshares, is "dangerous" and "heretical."

We should obey Micah's prophecy outright. All at once. Immediately.

We will discuss this further when we discuss "pacifism" below. Or see this essay: Why Postmillennialists Must Be Pacifists.

But the dramatic contrast between Micah's day and our day was not accomplished "outright," but "By Little and By Little." By many people taking personal responsibility and exercising dominion.

The desire for Christ's Kingdom to see perfection "outright" is the same desire that promotes "rights" and "entitlements" rather than duties. Premillennialism destroyed postmillennial America.

Luke 17:20-22
²⁰ Now when He was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, “The kingdom of God does not come with observation; ²¹ nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.”

Luke 10:9
“heal the sick there, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’”

C. Process, not Perfection

The Messianic Kingdom grows. Of its increase "there will be no end" (Isaiah 9:6-7). That means it will never be "perfect." It's always growing towards something better. Even in "the New Heavens and New Earth" -- which many think of as an eternal state of perfection -- there is sin and death. But it is so much better than life in Isaiah's day, that it could only be communicated using wild, poetic language that has led many to believe it would be sinlessly perfect.

Isaiah 65:17-20

No longer will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days,
Or an old man who does not live out his days;
For the youth will die at the age of one hundred

And the one who does not reach the age of one hundred
Will be thought accursed.

Psalm 37:22

For such as be blessed of Him shall inherit the earth; and they that be cursed of Him shall be cut off.

Why would anyone in "the New Heavens and New Earth" be thought "accursed?" What basis would there be for entertaining such a notion, if there will be no sin? No sin, no curse.

 

Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

It is justly observed here by Mr. Scott, that “the event alone can certainly determine whether this is meant literally or figuratively; but it is evident that the universal prevalence of real Christianity would so terminate wars, murders, contentions, idleness, intemperance, and licentiousness, as greatly to lengthen out the general term of man’s life. Many diseases which now destroy thousands and tens of thousands in the prime of life, and communicate distempers to succeeding generations, would, in that case, scarcely be heard of any more; and thus the human constitution would soon be much mended, and children would generally come into the world more vigorous and healthy than they can do while vice so greatly prevails. What God may further intend in this matter we cannot determine.” Vitringa’s view of the passage seems to have been, that “there shall be no violent or punitive death in this holy city, but that all the inhabitants being holy, all shall die full of days and happy....”

In the eyes of most Christians, God Himself -- the Second Person of the Trinity -- comes to earth twice, and is still unable to persuade or empower human beings to exercise dominion in a loving, honest, and faithful manner. The first Christmas was full of promise, but ends in failure. So Christ comes a second time, thousands of years later, bringing an army of resurrected saints with Him, takes a seat on a throne in Jerusalem, rules with a rod of iron in a believers-vs.-unbelievers police state, and still, it all ends in failure. Toward the end of the 10th century of Christ's Messianic reign, Satan reigns for "a little season" (Revelation 20:3), encouraging masses of people to rebel against the personal, visible reign of Jesus Christ Himself. Seeing that He is going to lose the game, Jesus takes His football and goes home.

The very popular Christian writer Dave Hunt has written:

In fact, dominion – taking dominion and setting up the kingdom of Christ – is an impossibility, even for God. The millennial reign of Christ, far from being the kingdom, is actually the final proof of the incorrigible nature of the human heart, because Christ Himself can’t do it.[1]

"Impossible even for God." The Creator's idea of creating man in His Own Image and telling man to exercise dominion over the earth, converting the earth to God's Temple, building the City of God, was a mistake. Progress is not possible. Only regress. Earth is a failure. Jesus' prayer ("Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven") is just tilting at Satanic windmills. As Hal Lindsey put it, "Satan is Alive and Well on Planet Earth." Poor God.

Didn't God know when He created human beings that it would all turn out in failure? Why did He bother?

Jesus is the Messiah today, forever; not to be waited for in the future, to reign for a few short years, and to then lose a war when Satan is released "for a little season." But to be obeyed today.

"Perfectionism."

Too many Christians expect a perfect millennium to be given to passive Christians at the second coming, but denounce those who actively try to be perfect in this present age. Join THE PERFECT CLUB.

Prophecy as Law

When God promises a blessing (or when He threatens a curse) we know what God thinks is good or bad. If we respect God, we feel a moral obligation to pursue the good and eschew the bad.

David Chilton reminds us (Days of Vengeance, p. 27) of the words of B.B. Warfield: Prophecy is about Ethics, not just speculation about what will be handed to us on a silver platter in the future. It's real purpose is to cultivate obedient lives.

"We must try to keep fresh in our minds the great principle that all prophecy is ethical in its purpose, and that this ethical end controls not only what shall be revealed in general, but also the details of it, and the very form which it takes."

Benjamin B. Warfield, "The Prophecies of St. Paul," in Biblical and Theological Studies (Philadelphia: The Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Co., 1968), p. 470.
 

This is why Postmillennialists Must Be Pacifists.

• Postmillennialism

• Pacifism

3. Creationism

Creationism

Under the discussion of God's sovereignty (above), we discussed the concept of being created by impersonal forces of "nature" vs. being created by a personal and loving God.

But many Christians say God "used" evolution to create man.

The Bible says four rivers flowed out of (downhill from) Eden, indicating that Eden was on a "mountain" or elevated plateau. Ever since then, and throughout the Bible, the mountain has been a reminder of Eden. The Garden of Eden is a major theme in the Bible.

Was there actually a Garden of Eden in history? Are the first few chapters of Genesis a chronicle of history, or a "religious" poem of some kind? How would Jesus answer that question?

Jesus treated Genesis as actual history. See Matthew 19 for an example. For centuries, Christians believed in creation four thousand years before the birth of Jesus. If you can believe that Jesus rose from the dead, in violation of "scientific law," why can't you believe God created all things a few thousand years ago?

Under this label of "Creationism" we have four intersecting themes:

• Preterism (the past)
• Optimillennialism (the future)
• Archism (the present)
• Jerusalem vs. Athens

Politicians who feel threatened by the Bible, seeing it as an "anarchist manifesto" want you to believe the Bible is "pre-scientific" and cannot be trusted. Karl Marx said his "scientific socialism" was grounded in history. Jesus grounded His teachings in the history in Genesis. Marxists and Christians have very different views of history.

One of the biggest tests of Biblical character is the ability to stand against "the science" of evolution. "Listen to the science" we are constantly told. Is your faith informed and able to stand against the crowd?

Evolutionism is not science; it is a religion; it is the religion of archism. Like covid hysteria and tyranny, it is one example of a "Mass Formation Psychosis." ("Archism" is the belief that members of a ruling class have the right to impose their will on others by force or threats of violence. Jesus said His followers are not to be archists "like the kings of the gentiles" (Mark 10:42-45).

Jesus is the One True Archist

The New Jerusalem is a New Creation.

Micah 4:1-2 says Jerusalem (Mt. Zion, the mountain of the House [temple] of the Lord) will be "established." This is actually the creation of a New Jerusalem. This is the restoration of the conditions that originally existed in the Garden of Eden.

Evolutionary premillennialism sees a vast past and no future. It's all going to end in our day.
Creationist preterism sees creation in a recent past, re-creation in Christ "the Last Adam," and a vast future building of the Kingdom of God (the New Jerusalem) ahead of us.

Planet earth is a miracle, not an accident. Supernatural design, supernatural creation, supernatural administration. There is no such thing as "nature."
Creating/Building the New Jerusalem will be a supernatural act, but we (you, I, and all God's Image-Bearers who make up His Temple) still have moral obligations to expend energy on behalf of this work of edification. We cannot be passive. But in the end, Christ gets all the credit and glory.

Isaiah 65:17-18

17 “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth;
And the former shall not be remembered or come to mind.
18 But be glad and rejoice forever in what I create;
For behold, I create Jerusalem as a rejoicing,
And her people a joy.

Hebrews 12

²² But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, ²³ to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, ²⁴ to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.

4. Optimillennialism: Global Hospitality and Conversion

Micah predicts that the world will be Christianized.  | "All nations, all peoples"

This is a major theme in the Scriptures (the Old Testament)

The Universal Spread of Christ's Kingdom

• A Gospel of Victory
• Great Commission or Wimp Commission?
• Hal Lindsey: Passé Prophet of Pessimillennialism
• Appendix: A Scripture Checklist
  • The Christmas Conspiracy: The Take-Over
  • Global Triumph in the Psalms
  • Global Triumph in Isaiah
  • Global Triumph in the Prophets
  • Isaiah 60
  • Global Triumph in the Minor Prophets
  • Zechariah 9
  • Zechariah 14

This offends pessimillennialists, who believe we must wait for Christ to give passive Christians their millennium at the second coming. And it offends those who believe that "all religions are equal; we're all headed up to the top of the same mountain, just climbing along different paths." They say we're "arrogant" "bigots" for speaking of the global conversion to Christianity.

But in the last few decades, it has become obvious that one religion is not like the others. This forces us to examine the claim held by Christians in the past, that one religion is superior to the others. In recent years, our attention has been caught by the religion of Jihadism. This religion is not going up the same mountain as those who say all religions are equal. The religion of Jihadism wants to blow-up the entire mountain with everyone on it; even if this kills the suicide bombers themselves. They don't believe in converting others to their religion by persuasion/reason, but by force. If you believe all religions are basically equal, that religion destroys your claim. There are many other religions that will do that.

All religions are not "basically the same."

There are many false religions and there is only one true religion.

• God's Creation is a universe, not a multiverse.
• True "diversity" means all ethnic groups are invited to become Christian
• Not "European," or "American," but Christian.
• This has been happening for two millennia.
• The world is not getting worse and worse. Proof: "civilization" -- the "City of God" -- Civitas Dei -- is taking over, replacing the "City of Man."
• No Bible College in America will admit that the world is dramatically more Christian today than it was 2,000 years ago.
• No Bible College in America confidently believes that the best is yet to come.

Statist "Globalism" -- The world will not be Christianized by government coercion.

• Globalism
• Christian Globalism is not the "Great Reset" or "One World Government"
• "Christian Nationalism" is not the answer to Marxist Globalism: No Christian is a "Christian Nationalist" 
• Catholicism, not Rome-ism
• Planetary redemption
• End of racism, a "mass formation psychosis."
• End of nationalism
• "Optimillennialism"
• Confidence in the prospects of human progress toward a Christian world.
• Open Borders: end of Xenophobia.

Conversion of the Gentiles

Optimillennialism is optimism about the future progress of the Kingdom of God on earth. It defies entropy, and is not evolutionary. Therefore Optimillennialism depends on Creationism.

There has been a dramatic shift: the most dramatic shift in human history. Those who worshiped the God of Abraham were a tiny minority before Christ; today a majority of the human race claims to worship the God of Abraham. We'll revisit that claim below. Micah says false religions will be replaced by the True Religion. We're in the infancy of "church history." The Body of Christ is just beginning to learn how to walk.

Audio

5. Theonomy

The word "Theonomy" comes from two Greek words meaning "God's Law."
It stands for the proposition that the entire Bible is the Word of God and we are to be governed by it.
This is controversial because many Christians do not believe they have to obey any of God's Laws if they are recorded in the pages of what New Testament writers called "The Scriptures" and what we today call "the Old Testament."
"Theonomy" stands for the proposition that the Bible is a blueprint for the creation of Global Christian Civilization.
It stands for the proposition that God is our ultimate Authority, and He has the right to command us.
This is controversial because many Christians in our day do not believe they are obligated to obey God's commands during the work-week, in businesses or the "public square," but only on Sunday mornings in a "church" or in their "spiritual life."

• We are to bring every area of life under His jurisdiction, under His Law.
• Isaiah 33:22 -- Jesus alone is the Christ, the Lord, the King, the Lawgiver, the Judge | "His path, the Law-Word"
• "Theonomy" ("God's Law") is a forbidden subject in every Bible College in America.

When Americans learned the Bible in public schools (and public schools were Bible schools), America was the most prosperous, most admired nation on earth. America sent missionaries around the globe. Now the U.S. exports weapons and pornography. Americans are increasingly lawless.

• Law-Word
• Theonomy
• Justification by Allegiance
• Christian Reconstruction:
  Application of God's Law to Nations/Governments
• "Laws of Nature and of Nature's God." (Declaration of Independence)
  William Blackstone said these laws are only to be found in Holy Scripture.

• The God who gave you life deserves your respect
• Every Word this God speaks deserves your attention/obedience
• Bible is not just for "private" religion, "down in your heart"
• Also for public policy
• Textbook for every area

Being "judgmental" vs. Hitler
"Those who will not be governed by God condemn themselves to be governed by tyrants" -- William Penn

More on Theonomy

Audio

Our moral obligation to obey God's Commandment counters those who complain that our advocacy of predestination leaves man without "free will." You are morally obligated to choose to obey God's Law. I don't know whether you have been predestined to be obedient or not. But you know what you must do, and you will eventually admit that you chose to do what you wanted to do. Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that our Sovereign God is perfectly fair (Isaiah 45:23; Romans 14:11; Philippians 2:10-11).

The Westminster Catechism contains an exposition of the Law of God under the category of the Ten Commandments. This exposition is, on the whole, wonderful. If we take these three commands seriously:

• "Thou shalt not steal" (Exodus 20:15; Leviticus 19:11; Ephesians 4:28)
• "Thou shalt not kill." (Mark 10:19, quoting Exodus 20:13)
• leave vengeance to God (Romans 12:19)

the implications are astounding.

Nobody disagrees with these views in the abstract, but if I make them too practical, or apply them to the wrong people, then these views become heretical and offensive. Together these views lead me to a conclusion that everyone rejects. Passionately rejects. I used to reject it myself when I was younger. We'll consider it below.

"Swords into plowshares" is highlighted by Micah as essential element of "optimillennialism" (global conversion and "Christian Reconstruction") and Theonomy (God's blueprint). But no Christian Reconstructionist advocates "swords into plowshare" for fear of being accused of being a "pacifist" (covered below)

God's Law plainly says "Thou shalt not steal/Thou shalt not kill" and this rules out the "monopoly of violence" known as "civil government," but "Reconstructionists" are not "abolitionists," because they fear being labeled as "anarchists!"

Opposition to "civil government" is based on the superiority of self-government. That is, each individual obeying God's Law.

Theme 6.. Education: Theonomic/Jerusalem/Family/business
Theme 7: Character: although all people Athens, we will Jerusalem
Theme 8. Theocracy: He shall judge
Theme 9. Pacifism: "swords into plowshares"
Theme 10. Anarchism; anarcho-Capitalism: no violence = no state || Jesus is the One True Archist

Micah says the law of God must be taught, and people will stream to learn God's Law. Therefore Theonomy leads to Education (#6 below).

When children are taught God's Law at home, they become habitually obedient. They instinctively stand up against evil. We call this "character," #7 below.

When we obey God's Law, God Governs us.

The word "Theocracy" = "God Governs"

Theonomy (#5) therefore leads to Theocracy, Theme #8 below.

Some deny this. Theologians divide God's Word into two or three groups. The first group is called "The Moral Law." Laws against murder and theft are in this category. The second group is called "the ceremonial law." Laws about priests and shedding blood for atonement are under this category.

Everyone says they agree that "the ceremonial laws" have their fulfillment in Christ, rather than in a levitical priesthood and temple sacrifices. But some have divided "The Moral Law" by breaking off laws which have a social (rather than strictly individual) character. They call these social laws "judicial laws" or "civil laws." Those who say these laws are not part of "the moral law" usually say these laws are no longer binding, and governments today are not morally obligated to obey them.

Upon analysis, this division doesn't make sense. Is "Thou shalt not kill" part of the "moral law?" Most would say yes, along with "Thou shalt not steal." But if all my friends "vote" for me and "elect" me to be a "civil magistrate," am I still prohibited from stealing (levying a "tax") and killing ("capital punishment")? If the answer is yes, our next two themes are correct: pacifism and anarchism, which we hope to prove below.

Why "Capital Punishment" is part of the "Ceremonial Law," not the "Judicial Law"

• Genesis 9 - blood
• Overview
• Death Penalty Debate
• The Myth of "The Judicial Law"

Consider the commandment, "Thou shalt not kill." (Exodus 20:13, quoted by Jesus, Mark 10:19) That link contains the exposition of the 6th Commandment in the Westminster Larger Catechism. It is "a pacifist manifesto." If pacifism is true, and if "thou shalt not steal" is true, anarchism follows logically. Nothing in "the judicial law" or "the civil law" retracts the force of the 6th commandment and exempts those who call themselves "civil government."

Here are the next 5 themes:

Theme 6.. Education: Theonomic/Jerusalem/Family/business
Theme 7: Character: "Although all people Athens, we will Jerusalem"
Theme 8. Theocracy: "He shall judge"
Theme 9. Pacifism: "Thou shalt not kill," therefore "swords into plowshares"
Theme 10. Anarchism; anarcho-Capitalism: no violence = no "state" or "civil government" || Jesus is the One True Archist

6: Education

The text says "HE may teach"
How does Jesus teach 8 billion people from a throne in Jerusalem?
If He can teach the world to obey God's Law from Jerusalem, why can He not teach the world from the right hand of the Father in heaven?

Jesus uses His Body -- believers -- to teach the nations everything He commanded (Matthew 28:18-20).

Teaching God's Law is central to the establishment of a Vine & Fig Tree society.

Deuteronomy 4:9f.; 6:7f., 20f.; 11:18-21, etc.
The Family teaches the Law
http://bit.ly/teach-your-children
Education must be Theonomic/Theocratic: the central command is to teach God's Law.

Teaching God's Law-Word must dominate our daily thinking. The texts in Deuteronomy say our whole day should be centered on God's Law. This would certainly apply to "schools and the means of education."

But today's schools ban the Bible. The Bible cannot be endorsed or promoted in "public" schools. Children are therefore taught that the Bible can safely be ignored. Children are taught that the Bible is an ancient relic that has no relevance to their daily lives, or to the daily life of the Government.

There is no "neutrality."

Teaching God's Law (the Scriptures) determines your greatness in Christ's Kingdom:

Matthew 5:17-19
17 “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. ¹⁹ Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

• Matthew 28:18
  And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
  ¹⁹ Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, ²⁰ Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the age. Amen.

Education is something all of us must do.

• Parents must educate children
• Employers must educate employees

Law - teaching all the nations through hospitality and open borders.

Different from evangelism - Converting the existing generation vs. teaching the next generation

"Education" includes "character" by way of "apologetics" and service.

Lifelong learners / lifelong teachers

Therefore Education by Patriarchy produces character.

Aristotle said, "Give me a child until he is 7, and I will show you the man. The Jesuits are said to have adapted this: "Give us a child till he’s 7 and we’ll have him for life." Proverbs 22:6 says, "Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it." Schools are remedial: they make up for what parents neglected to teach children during those formative, "pre-school" years. What schools fail to teach, businesses must make up for.

The Gulag Archipelago

This is the title of A three-volume history of Russian imprisonment by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.

The word "gulag" is a Russian Acronym: Glavnoye Upravleniye Ispravitelno-Trudovykh Lagerey -- “Chief Administration of Corrective Labour Camps”

An "archipelago" is a chain or cluster of islands in a larger sea. Indonesia is an archipelago. Off the coast of Finland is an archipelago of some 40,000 small islands.

In the larger sea of Russia, there were thousands of labor camps. They were businesses in a communist system.

In America, public schools are a gulag archipelago -- thousands of camps, not for forced labor, but for compulsory atheistic indoctrination. Businesses are considered by some to places of slavery: "wage slavery." Walmart -- a chain of businesses -- would be considered by some like a gulag archipelago.

The Education/Business Gulag Archipelago

Forced labor is intended not only to produce goods and services for the enslavers, but also to indoctrinate, educate, and train the prisoners.

Businesses educate more people than churches.

• Sunday School consumes only a half-hour (when all is said and done) of a student's time each week.
• Employers teach employees not to steal office supplies and show up for work on time.

Much more could be done by businesses.

A great example is the "mataburro" that educated the "tabaqueros."

• Google search
• Google books

A "tabaquero" is someone who works with tobacco, often rolling cigars in a "tabaqueria" (cigar factory). In many Tabaquerias en Cuba and in New York City, there was a left-wing, revolutionary, or socialist bias. The tabaqueros, working in rows of desks that looked much like a schoolroom, were indoctrinated by "readers" who would read socialist writings to the workers. Any worker who expressed capitalist sympathies would be answered by the "mataburro," literally "donkey killer," who would read socialist doctrine that would slay the "misinformation" of that "capitalist ass."

Businesses today inculcate workers with a "woke" agenda.

Biblical businesses will employ Theonomic mataburros, creating a chain of islands of education.

More: The Gulag Archipelago (vineandfigtree.org)

7: Character

"Character" is the ability to stand against the crowd, in faith, in obedience to God.

• What you do when nobody is watching; when you think you can get away with it.
• What you do when everybody is watching (and mocking). Do you abandon God's Law to look "cool."

Micah highlights the importance of teaching God's Law.

Ethics is more important than genius.
An ethical society with average IQ has a higher standard of living than a pervasively unethical society with many Einsteins and "geniuses." Egg-heads can spend their time slicing and dicing arcane questions in science and philosophy -- which may be "true" in some sense -- but miss "the weightier matters" of God's Law -- Justice, Mercy, and Faith (Matthew 23:23).

True education enables a Christian to stand against unbelief.
The ability to stand against the crowd, in faith, in obedience to God.

Ethics is more important to civilization than intelligence.

Character and pacifism - forgiveness, nurture vs. rule
Character and Kingdom-building/optimillennialism | leadership

Character

John Adams compared the American Revolution with the French Revolution, and concluded that the difference was character.

While our Country remains untainted with the Principles and manners, which are now producing desolation in so many Parts of the World: while she continues Sincere and incapable of insidious and impious Policy: We shall have the Strongest Reason to rejoice in the local destination assigned Us by Providence. But should the People of America, once become capable of that deep simulation towards one another and towards foreign nations, which assumes the Language of Justice and moderation while it is practicing Iniquity and Extravagance; and displays in the most captivating manner the charming Pictures of Candour frankness & sincerity while it is rioting in rapine and Insolence: this Country will be the most miserable Habitation in the World. Because We have no Government armed with Power capable of contending with human Passions unbridled by  morality and Religion. Avarice, Ambition  Revenge or Galantry, would break the strongest Cords of our Constitution as a Whale goes through a Net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other

In the same way, a Free Market is made only for people with Godly character.
"Anarcho-Capitalism" only works in a Christian nation.

Step 1: Murder Your Old Man!

Most theologians oppose "perfectionism," but where is perfection denounced by Scripture?

I studied law and passed the California Bar Exam. I was completely qualified to become an attorney, but the Supreme Court of the United States has ruled that Christians -- whose allegiance to God trumps their allegiance to the government (Acts 5:29) -- cannot be permitted to take the oath required of all attorneys. Details.

An oath is an act of religious worship, not a secular formality.

Vows are an important tool in developing character according to God's Law. Understanding Vows

"Though everyone Athens, we will Jerusalem." See "Jerusalem vs. Athens," below.

Galantry, gallantry, as used by John Adams in this context, is defined by Websters Dictionary, 1828 edition as:

GAL'LANTRY, noun

1. Splendor of appearance; show; magnificence; ostentatious finery. [Obsolete or obsolescent.]

. . .

5. Vicious love or pretensions to love; civilities paid to females for the purpose of winning favors; hence, lewdness; debauchery.

8. Theocracy / Christocracy

The "He" in this passage is Jesus the Messiah.

"Theonomy" = "Theocracy"

He will teach us of His ways,
and we will walk in His paths:

³ And He shall judge among many people,
and rebuke strong nations afar off;

The Law-Giver is our Judge and King (Isaiah 33:22). If you don't believe in Theonomy, then you don't believe Jesus is a Christ-King. He's just a homeless story-teller. He has nothing to say to "strong nations" -- Pharaoh, Caesar, Hitler, Stalin, Trump, or Biden. Jesus cannot command them to repent if there is no Theonomy.

Micah is prophesying a global Theocracy.

How Does the Messiah Rebuke Nations?

This is an important question. Also, Why Does Jesus Have To Rebuke Nations?

Under the premillennial scheme, are there false kings and false kingdoms in the Millennium, after Christ's Second Coming and enthronement in Jerusalem? If there are, how does the premillennial vision of the "millennium" differ from "the church age" in which we now live?

The postmillennialist and preterist contend that Jesus is the Messiah today, right now, and is rebuking nations. But how does He do that if He is not seated on a throne in Jerusalem? The premillennialist needs to explain how Jesus is able to rebuke and govern the people of Brazil and Canada when He is sitting in Jerusalem, but cannot rebuke nations if He is sitting at the right hand of God in heaven.

The word "Theocracy" comes from two Greek words meaning "God Governs."

God "governs" us when He issues commandments and holds His subjects personally responsible to obey them. Those who believe the Bible obey His commandments and are blessed. Those who reject His reign violate His commandments and experience God's rebuke and curse. See Deuteronomy 28 and Leviticus 26. Blessing and cursing are both examples of God governing.

Daniel 2 is a prophecy of global Christocracy. In the days of the Roman Empire, Daniel predicted, Christ would be born. He would crush the ancient Demonic Imperial Paradigm and begin spreading His own Kingdom over the earth. Historians have documented the on-going fulfillment of this prophecy, which continues today (though not without local and temporary ups-and-downs, and not without failure to distinguish the "civilization" of Athens and that of Jerusalem):

• How the Irish Saved Civilization - Thomas Cahill
• How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization - Thomas E. Woods
• Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World - Tom Holland
• How Jesus the Messiah Produced "Western Civilization"

Theocracy and Providence

The entire world of human action can be governed by Jesus the Christ without Pharaohs, Caesars, Führers, SWAT Teams and Political Technocrats. This government is called "Providence."

But just as Jesus is our Christ -- our anointed King and High Priest -- so believers -- all believers -- are priests and kings. We are the Body of Christ, and Christ executes His reign through us. True Christians are Theocrats in our families, businesses, communities, and every area of human action. Not archist Theocrats, as we saw above; Christlike Theocrats. Just as Adam was placed into the Garden to build it up into the New Jerusalem, so we are called to administer a global Christocracy.

In the centuries after the fall of Rome, merchants set commercial standards and resolved disputes without politicians. This was the world of the Lex Mercatoria. Lex Mercatoria is a legal phrase which has come to signify the power of a stateless society to prevent most disputes and in a peaceful, harmonious and orderly way resolve those disputes that arise -- without dependence upon tax-funded political institutions such as monarch, crown, parliament or congress.

• The history of the Lex Mercatoria
• Self-government versus "the government"
• Sanctions: Market or Political?
• Free Market Justice

The prophet Micah speaks of the universal reign of God's Law over the earth.

Here again is John Adams, inviting us to think about a world where human law-makers are put out of business, and God's Theonomy replaces man's law-books and creates God's Theocracy. R. J. Rushdoony wrote the following:

In principle, Adams is advocating "Theocracy." Adams is saying we should be governed by God and His Law Book, the Bible. "God governs" is the literal meaning of "Theocracy." Rushdoony says "Theocracy" is anarcho-capitalism.

America was originally a Theocracy. That is, America originally acknowledged that God was in charge and we had a moral obligation to obey Him.

James Madison, "the Father of the Constitution," is reported to have said,

We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all of our political institutions upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves ... according to the Ten Commandments of God.

America was originally a Christocracy.

Benjamin Rush signed the Declaration of Independence and served in the Presidential administrations of John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison -- each of whom came from a different political party. And of what party was Rush?

I have been alternately called an aristocrat and a democrat. I am now neither. I am a Christocrat. I believe all power . . . will always fail of producing order and happiness in the hands of man. He alone Who created and redeemed man is qualified to govern him. [An Eulogium Upon Benjamin Rush, M.D. - Google Books ]

Only our Creator and Redeemer should be our Ruler (Romans 1:25).

America was originally a Trinitarian Christocracy.

On March 6, 1799, President John Adams proclaimed a national day of prayer in which Americans would

• call to mind our numerous offenses against the Most High God, confess them before Him with the sincerest penitence,
• implore His pardoning mercy, through the Great Mediator and Redeemer, for our past transgressions,
• and that through the grace of His Holy Spirit we may be disposed and enabled to yield a more suitable obedience to His righteous requisitions in time to come;

Everyone lives in a theocracy. Either the God of the Bible governs us, or some other god, or everyone gets to be his own god. Usually, the State is seen as the apotheosis of Autonomous Man, and "God walking on the earth," as Hegel put it.

Postmillennialism/Preterism claims that Jesus became the Christ/King in the past, and now IS the Christ.

But to say "Jesus is the Christ" is to say that Jesus alone is the Christ/King.

The "kings of the gentiles" (Mark 10:42-45) bitterly resent this claim. They say that John Adams, in principle, is advocating "Theocracy" or "anarchy."

No, Adams wasn't advocating "anarchy" directly. Adams' purpose was just to praise the Bible.

But nobody in government today would ever say what Adams said: We should take the Bible for our only law book.

That's too "radical." It's extremist. It's "homophobic." Or something. Only a "domestic terrorist" would say something like this.

Taking Jesus as our Messiah and the Bible as our only lawbook puts "the kings of the gentiles" out of business. We should listen to John Adams, and pray "that through the grace of His Holy Spirit we may be disposed and enabled to yield a more suitable obedience to His righteous requisitions" in every area of our lives.

The Holy Spirit holds Theocracy together.

• Spontaneous Order
• Government by the Spirit

The Holy Spirit holds Theocracy together through the preaching and teaching of the Word:

The Sword of the Lord

Jesus can rule the nations because the Word of God is the Sword of the Lord, and is more powerful than the military sword of man:

Matthew 26:52
Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.

Micah 4:3
and they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
and their spears into pruninghooks:
nation shall not lift up a sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war any more.

Hebrews 4:12
12 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

2 Corinthians 10:3-5
3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, 5 casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,

Ephesians 6:17
17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God;

Isaiah 11:4
4 But with righteousness He shall judge the poor,
And decide with equity for the meek of the earth;
He shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth,
And with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked.

Isaiah 49:2
2 And He has made My mouth like a sharp sword;
In the shadow of His hand He has hidden Me,
And made Me a polished shaft;
In His quiver He has hidden Me.”

Hosea 6:5
5 Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets,
I have slain them by the words of My mouth;
And your judgments are like light that goes forth.

2 Thessalonians 2:8
8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming.

Revelation 1:16
16 He had in His right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength.

Revelation 2:16
16 Repent, or else I will come to you quickly and will fight against them with the sword of My mouth.

Revelation 19:15
15 Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.

Revelation 19:21
21 And the rest were killed with the sword which proceeded from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse. And all the birds were filled with their flesh.

A global Christocracy is possible because God uses His Sword-Word to change hearts and bring world peace through global obedience.

So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. (Romans 10:14-17)

This is why we are commanded to read, study, and meditate on God's Word daily. My case for the “Vine & Fig Tree” worldview will only be persuasive if you read the verses of Scripture and let them change your mind. Theocracy happens when we proclaim and obey God's Sword-Word (Matthew 5:19).

The Body of Christ

Christ is the ruler in a Christocracy. But Christ rules through His Body. "The Body of Christ" is sometimes called "the Church," but that makes some people think we're talking about church buildings and the College of Cardinals. But the Body of Christ is every believer.

14: Sin and the Fall of Man

• "strong nations" are the result of "the fall"
• This was not a "fall" ("Oops, I slipped!), but a rebellion, a war against God.
• Satan's temptation was to "be as gods" (Genesis 3:5).
• "gods" are political leaders, notably of the "strong nations" Micah speaks of
• The temptation to "be as gods" is the temptation to be archists.

16. Jerusalem vs. Athens

• "knowing" good and evil = determine good-evil for self
• Autonomy vs. Theonomy

• rebuke of nations brings repentance
• pacifism is the result of repentance

10. Archistlessness

• The result of pacifism is archistlessness

Jesus is the Christ

Your local church probably does not believe that. The phrase sounds unobjectionable, but only because nobody thinks very deeply about it.

Jews have thought about it. They deny that the virgin-born Jew from Nazareth is Israel's Christ (a Greek word which is equivalent to the Hebrew word "Messiah"). Jesus is not their King.

But surprisingly, most people who call themselves "Christians" don't really believe these four words. They don't believe Jesus is -- in our day, right now -- fulfilling all the "Messianic Prophecies" of the Bible, prophecies which are relegated to a time often called "The Millennium."

The two most controversial words in that statement are the words "IS" and "THE."

Jesus is the Christ.

When you first hear it, you might think that the juxtaposition of "Jesus" and "Christ" is obvious and not at all controversial. But when you dig deeper, it appears that this is the most controversial proposition on planet earth.

• Jews don't believe that Jesus is the Christ ("Christ" means "Messiah").
• Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists don't believe that Jesus is the Messiah, fulfilling Old Testament prophets who voiced the Word of our Creator-God.
• Atheists don't believe anyone is or ever will be a "messiah."

And -- most surprisingly -- the vast, overwhelming majority of professing, church-going (or non-churching) Christians do not believe that Jesus is the Christ today.

• Maybe they believe that Jesus has the "right" to be the Christ
• Maybe they believe that Jesus offered to be the Messiah, but the Jews rejected His offer, so He settled for offering them a ticket to heaven when they die ("Savior," but not "King"). (An offer they also reject, because who wants to spend eternity hanging out with a deluded con-man who falsely claimed to be the Messiah and rejected the Law and the Prophets [held dear by the Jews]?)
• Most likely they believe that Jesus will someday ("soon") become the Messiah, when He comes again, a second time.
• But they all agree that Jesus is not -- today -- reigning as Messiah (exercising His rightful powers at full level, high-octane, from a throne in Jerusalem). The Messianic reign is for tomorrow, not today.
• Why do they celebrate CHRISTmas instead of JESUSmas? Why do they call themselves CHRISTians instead of JESUSians?

This website defends the proposition that Jesus is the Messiah right now, and has fulfilled or is fulfilling all the "messianic prophecies" -- even those prophecies most Christians reserve for "the millennium."

Jesus is the Christ. Today.

This means we can have peace on earth. Today.*

The angels told the shepherds on the first Christmas that the birth of a Jewish boy in Bethlehem meant "Peace on Earth."

And this is the sign unto you: Ye shall find a Babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, and lying in a manger.
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,
Glory to God in the highest,
And peace on earth
among men in whom He is well pleased.

A favorite Christmas carol mentions this announcement:

Another Christmas carol notes that Christian churches pay lip-service to this announcement::

But the poem, written during the Civil War, expresses some doubt:

The poet today might write about "The War on Terrorism."

But the poet had something many of today's Christians lack: Optimism:

Probably a majority of self-described Christians today believe the future belongs not to "The Prince of Peace," but to "the antichrist," "great tribulation," "Armageddon," and global war and suffering.

Sure, things will be much better after The Second Coming of Christ. Then we will have "peace on earth." But not before.

Apparently, the angels were mistaken. They thought the first advent of Christ meant "peace on earth."
Apparently the only meaning of Christmas is

"You can go to heaven when you die, and leave all the war and suffering on earth."

This website challenges the prevailing pessimism.

Many people complain that the Bible is filled with war, slavery, and violence. "How can that be the Word of God?" they ask.

But the world before Christ really was filled with war, slavery, and violence. Many historians note that most human beings died violent deaths, or died prematurely from the violence of slavery, conquest, captivity, and all forms of human violence.

If they could travel through time from their day to ours, every prophet who spoke of the coming Messiah would fall on his knees in gratitude to God for the fact that most people on earth today die peacefully, not violently. They would be utterly speechless walking down the aisles of your local WalMart. The character of human life was changed dramatically by the babe born in Bethlehem. And further change is possible:

Christ has already eliminated 99% of all the violence that existed in the world before the first Christmas.
With the poet who "heard the bells on Christmas day" we should note that with the birth of Jesus, 

This website claims that Christians could end 99% of the remaining violence in the world in 2024.

But we have to believe in the real meaning of Christmas:

Jesus is the Christ.

9. Peace / Non-Violence / Pacifism

I believe that God says "Thou shalt not kill." "Everybody knows" that Jesus commanded His disciples to be "pacifists," but most churches say we can't take that to an "extreme."  Most churches defend some killing. If someone personally insults you, you might be a "pacifist." It's OK to be "super spiritual" in your "private" life. But if some foreigner publicly insults your secular government, you'll "support the troops" as they drop bombs and kill children. "Spiritual" in the private sector, "responsible" and "practical" and "realistic" in the public sector.

Not only does Jesus command us not to kill, but even to love our enemies (Matthew 5:44). This is challenging, but do-able. Failure to shoot for this target ends up justifying mass murder.

During the 20th century, hundreds of millions of human beings were murdered by atheists, many of whom attended churches regularly. During my lifetime, "Christians" who worked for "my" government killed, crippled, or made homeless tens of millions of innocent non-combatant civilians around the world. I think the United States is the enemy of God and humanity. I guess other Christians think it's OK to inflict mass suffering and terror in order to keep gas prices down. "U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!" "I Pledge Allegiance...."

The Bible says we should beat our "swords into plowshares" (Micah 4). Most churches disagree. They cheer their members when they don the uniform of a soldier for a "New World Order."

Jesus commands us to

1. Love our enemies (Matthew 5:44)
2. Forgive enemies (Matthew 6:14-15)
3. Bless enemies (Romans 12:14)
4. Pray for enemies (Luke 6:27-28)
5. Give gifts to enemies (Romans 12:20; Matthew 5:42; Luke 6:30)
6. Resist not evil (Matthew 5:39)
7. Turn the other cheek (Matthew 5:39)
8. These commands are not just for "personal relationships." They apply to enemy governments as well.
• Pay your taxes; don't take up arms against the Red Coats ("Render unto Caesar," Matthew 22:15-22; Mark 12:13-17; Luke 20:20-26).
• When the enemy government enslaves you for one mile, Go a second mile (Matthew 5:41). If you take this verse seriously, it means "national defense" is a sin. In short, to follow "in His steps" (1 Peter 2:21), you have a moral obligation to "be subject" (Romans 13) to sinful acts which the defendant/perpetrators/invaders have a moral obligation to repent of (cease and desist).
9. Christians should believe that it is always sinful to kill a human being ("Thou shalt not kill." Mark 10:19, quoting Exodus 20:13). (Link goes to an exposition of the 6th Commandment by the Westminster Larger Catechism, which in many ways is a pacifist manifesto.) Better to be killed than to kill.
10. Patrick Henry famously said, "Give me Liberty or give me Death." That's stupid and unBiblical. The Bible says slaves are to serve their masters the way they should serve Christ, not commit suicide so that they don't have to serve anyone. But then, Patrick Henry didn't really mean "give ME death." He meant "Give Death to anyone who threatens to take my Liberty." His famous speech is called "A Call to Arms." It was delivered in a church.
11. During the "Cold War" against Communism, we often heard the slogan, "Better dead than Red." This is a re-branding of Patrick Henry. The Christian should say, "Better Red than dead." Or, "Better to live under the domination of Reds than to turn the Reds into Dead Reds."
12. Christians are commanded to leave vengeance to God (Romans 12:14-21)
13. If you preached a sermon in defense of pacifism, and told members of your congregation not to enlist in the armed services, you would lose most of your members. That's the sermon I would preach.
14. In short, even if I get snubbed as a "pacifist" (a demeaning epithet, an insult), I will take Jesus seriously and follow Him. [more in-depth: The Case for Pacifism]

Pacifism

I was born in the year of "Sputnik," the Russian satellite that inaugurated "the Space Race" which was a part of "the Cold War." I wasn't yet in high school when the Vietnam War raged, and when the nation was divided by anti-war protesters. I was raised to believe that socialism was evil and capitalism was good. I believed that the anti-war protesters were a bunch of anti-American commies. (They may well have been incited by Communists and used by Communists as tools or pawns in Moscow's attempt to bring down the American/capitalist system. But they were on the right side of an immoral war.*)
During my lifetime, "my" government has killed, crippled, or made homeless TENS OF MILLIONS of innocent, non-combatant, non-white civilians. The United States drops a bomb somewhere in the world every 12 minutes, on average. Barack Obama, who won the Nobel Prize for Peace, maintained U.S. military bases in nearly 100 nations around the world, and dropped thousands of bombs on homes, schools, hospitals, factories, and weddings around the world.

I always believed the U.S. military was a force for good.
It was only when I became a fundamentalist Bible-believing Christian that I began to question all this.

The message of this sermon is that a person is not a real Christian if that person is not a pacifist. You may not agree with the conclusion, but following the argument will stimulate thought. You will be glad you gave the argument some attention.

Most people would agree that a person who says we should hammer our "swords into plowshares" and "never again train for war" (Micah 4:3) is a "pacifist." Is this a "fringe" belief or is it central to the Christian faith?

Consider James 1:27

Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

Victim of U.S. Bombing "It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones." Luke 17:2 .

If it's wrong to fail to "visit" or "watch over" widows, it is certainly wrong to create widows by killing their husbands.

The United States is the greatest Widow-Maker on earth. This makes the United States the enemy of pure religion.

But I had been raised to believe that all good Christians were to "support the troops."

In the last section of Matthew 25, Jesus says the way you treat widows and orphans and the sick and homeless and illegal aliens and those in prison is a measure of how Christian you are. People who traumatize widows and orphans and cause them to cry themselves to sleep at night are probably "goats," not "sheep."

Take an American child who has not yet entered government-run schooling and show the American child a photo of a child in Yemen or Iraq who has had her arms blown off by a U.S. bomb. That American child will know that something is wrong. Show that same photo to that same child after the child has graduated from Harvard University and has a prestigious job in the U.S. State Department. Watch the five-dollar words start flying: "Collateral Damage." "Realpolitik." "U.S. Partners and Allies." "National Security Interests."

Pacifism and Enemies

Some might say that we are not commanded to take care of women and children if their husbands and fathers are our "enemies." That is, if those poor men have been conscripted at gunpoint by a tyrannical dictatorship and forced to fight against "U.S. armed forces" invading their homeland. After all, they are our "enemies." "Kill the commies." "Support our troops."

But Jesus commands His followers to love their enemies.

Jesus sacrificed Himself to save His enemies.

The heartfelt desire of every true Christian is the
Regeneration,
Repentance,
Restitution,
Reconciliation, and
Redemption
of "the enemy."
Not the destruction of the enemy.
In short: "Love your enemy." (Matthew 5:43)
"Thou shalt not kill." (Exodus 20:13).
You cannot love your enemy after you kill him.

It is better to be killed than to kill. Jesus chose to be killed rather than to kill.
1 Peter 2:21 commands us to follow "in His steps" at precisely the point where physical violence is unrighteously threatened against us. Whether by a home invader or a nation invader.

All of this is obvious to a child, but we adults don't buy this nonsense.

"Pacifism" Defined by Christ

The word "pacifism" comes from the Latin word for "peace." It does not come from the English word "passive." Supporters of the Vine & Fig Tree worldview are active in beating swords into plowshares.

The dictionaries usually give two definitions for "pacifist." First, an opponent of war. Second, an opponent of self-defense. That second definition is inaccurate. I know of no pacifist who would say that if you have a shield and someone comes after you with a sword, you cannot defend yourself against aggression with your shield.

The real issue is lethal "self-defense." If your sword-bearing attacker gets tired of whacking his sword against your shield, and lies down to take a nap, the pacifist would say you should defend yourself against further attacks by running away, not by cracking your attacker's skull open with your shield.

Our definition of "pacifist" is "one who keeps the commandments of Christ."

Here's what "swords into plowshares" pacifism means:

Jesus said ("Thou shalt not kill." Mark 10:19, quoting Exodus 20:13).  John Calvin recognized that

"The sum of this Commandment is, that we should not unjustly do violence to any one. Under the word 'kill' is included by synecdoche all violence, smiting, and aggression."[1]

Jesus also said "Thou shalt not steal," (Matthew 19:18; Exodus 20:13-16; Deuteronomy 5:17-20), meaning, Thou shalt not confiscate someone else's property.

So can we all agree that basic Christian morality includes this:

• "Don't Hurt People and Don't Take Their Stuff"

But Jesus goes further.
He says we are not to hurt our enemy. Even if our enemy hurts us first.
We are not allowed to confiscate the stuff belonging to our enemy, even if he's our enemy because he did not join us in voting for the winning candidate. So how does the world get to the “Vine & Fig Tree” world? According to the Bible, just follow basic Christian morality:

• "Don't Hurt People and Don't Take Their Stuff"

Then if someone else decides to hurt you or take your stuff.

• Exhort your enemy to repent (Matthew 18:15-17)
• And if this fails to bring repentance, restitution, and reconciliation with your enemy,
• Leave vengeance to God (Romans 12:19-21; quoting Deuteronomy 32:35)

That means that if someone hurts you or takes your stuff, and you seek reconciliation, but you're rebuffed, then you cannot hire a Mafia "hit-man" to take vengeance against your unrepentant enemy.

Most Christians will agree with that.

But here's the kicker:

If someone hurts you or takes your stuff, and you seek reconciliation, but you're rebuffed, then you cannot "vote" for a "representative" to tax your neighbor and build a "military-industrial complex" to take vengeance against your unrepentant enemy. You will vote such politicians out of office. If you vote all non-pacifists out of office, you will no longer have a "government."

All pacifists are anarchists.

Anarcho-pacifism

• Thou shalt not kill
• Thou shalt not steal
• Peace
• Swords into Plowshares
• Standing Armies
• Government = force
• Non-Aggression
• No retaliatory force
• Capitalism: The Economics of Peace

Myth:

• OT = violence, slavery
• Jesus = irrelevant utopian hippie pacifist; not "practical" or "realistic."

Fact:

• Bible = “Vine & Fig Tree”  
  utopia

Peace through Peace, not through "Strength." | "Swords into Plowshares"

• Most universities are extensions of the Military-Industrial Complex.
• Jesus is our Savior, not the Pentagon
• Vengeance belongs to God
• "Archism" is sinful.
• No Bible College in America will admit that Jesus commands us to be pacifists, we should not "support the troops," and we should abolish "the Department of Defense."

Pacifism leads to Anarcho-Theocracy

Peace is the opposite of Violence. The State is a monopoly of violence. Therefore pacifism produces anarchism or archistlessness.

• Non-Archism

Audio

Capitalism is Economic Pacifism

Walmart does not threaten to drop a bomb on your home if you cross "the red line" and shop at another store. That's what "the government" does. Capitalists use persuasion rather than violence.

• Persuasion, not Coercion

Jesus commands us to love our enemies, but also to try to win them back to faithfulness. But sometimes persuasion does not bring instant success. We mentioned Matthew 18 above. Jesus lays out steps to follow to win back an erring brother. But if these steps fail, the church must "excommunicate" the sinner. This should be the basis for a capitalist economy.

• Free Market Dispute Resolution Organizations

A free market economy depends on Godly character. This in turn requires Godly education. We saw above what John Adams said in this regard:

We have no Government armed with Power capable of contending with human Passions unbridled by  morality and Religion. Avarice, Ambition  Revenge or Galantry, would break the strongest Cords of our Constitution as a Whale goes through a Net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other

Substitute "free market" for "Constitution."

Vengeance

Nobody can read the Bible and avoid the conclusion that the institution we call "the State" is institutionalized vengeance.

If someone does something you don't like, you are prohibited from taking vengeance, from confiscating his property, or depriving him of his life.

You are also prohibited from hiring a "contract killer" to kill him. Wouldn't you agree? You personally didn't do the killing -- the "hit-man" you hired actually did the killing -- but you share in the guilt.

You are also prohibited from "voting" for someone to be your "representative" and kill people you don't like.

Every political science professor in every university on planet earth will agree that the essential nature of "the State" is violence. It claims a "monopoly on violence."

• The State: A Monopoly of Violence

So
   • if you oppose violence,
   • if you oppose theft, and
   • if you oppose vengeance,
every political science professor in every university on planet earth, and every seminary professor, and every pastor of every entity calling itself a "church" is going to say you are an "anarchist."

10. A Stateless Economy: “Anarchism”

In the "North Garden" of the United Nations in New York is a statue of a man beating a sword into a plowshare. Inscribed on the pedestal are the words "We shall beat our swords into plowshares," although the U.N. website says the title of the statue is "Let us beat swords into plowshares." Isaiah is quoted, in the prophecy which directly parallels the passage in Micah. The statue was a gift to the United Nations in 1959 from the compulsory sword-enforced "Union of Soviet Socialist Republics." The U.N. says the statue "symbolizes man’s desire to put an end to war and transform tools of destruction into tools to benefit mankind."

Does "man" really have such a desire? See Theme 14 below.

What would it take to "put an end to war?" If this desire were to be put into force, what other effects would it have?

Micah says nations will not "train for war." If there were sufficient political will to abolish West Point, what else would be abolished?

If there were sufficient voter mandate to abolish West Point and not go to war, you would wonder if voters wouldn't also abolish the rest of the U.S. government.

If you are a pacifist (Theme 9 above) you are also an "anarchist." If there is no justification for war, there is no justification for "the State."

I think every Professor of Political Science would agree with that claim. If you reject the idea of "National Defense" (all wars are "defensive"), you won't form "the State."

Let's examine the word "anarchism."

The word comes from two Greek words meaning "not" an "archist."

An "archist" is a "ruler." We here at Vine & Fig Tree invented the word "archist," deriving it from a Greek word found in Mark 10:42-45, from which the English word "anarchist" is derived. 

An "archist" believes he has the right to impose his own will on others by force or threats of violence.

We have been brainwashed in "public" schools (run by archists) to believe that an "anarchist" is:

• a bomb-throwing
• assassin
• who rejects the doctrine of private property,
• seeks to foment disorder, chaos and riots in order to overthrow the government by force and violence
• and establish some dreadful political ideal like "the dictatorship of the proletariat," where everyone is his own god and criminals run wild.

Anyone can be called an "anarchist" by someone who wants to vilify an opponent, but most of those who call themselves "anarchist" have reached their position by their opposition to violence. I am a pacifist, therefore I am opposed to any institution of systematic violence and coercion (e.g., "the Mafia," "the State," etc.).

By etymological definition, the opposite of an "anarchist" is an "archist." By being trained to believe that "anarchists" are bad, we've been subtly inculcated with the belief that those who protect us against "anarchists" (logically, "archists") are good.

But the Bible says archists are bad, and explicitly prohibits us from being archists.

And as we will see below, Jesus prohibits His followers from aspiring to rule over others. Jesus said a Christian must not be an "archist."

An "archist" is a "ruler." We here at Vine & Fig Tree invented the word "archist," deriving it from a Greek word found in Mark 10:42-45, from which the English word "anarchist" is derived. In the Gospel of Mark, chapter 10, Jesus discovers His disciples arguing about who is going to be the "greatest" in the Kingdom of God. Their concept of the Messiah was someone who would use force and violence to vanquish the Roman occupation army that held Israel under tribute. They looked forward to the coming of a Messiah who would enlist them into a Messianic Israeli Army which would "stick it to" the Romans. But just as Micah said we should beat "swords into plowshares," Jesus said His disciples should "love your enemies," and if their soldiers conscript you to carry their provisions for one mile, you should go with the occupation forces two. (This form of pacifism completely refutes the legitimacy of "national defense.") The disciples didn't understand that Jesus' Messianic Kingdom was quite unlike the kingdoms of the world.

The word translated "rulers" comes from the Greek word from which we derive our English word "anarchist" ("a + archist" -- the first "a" is the Greek letter "alpha," known as the "alpha privative," meaning "not"  --     a[n]archist  -- the letter "n" bridges the "alpha privative" and the word "archist").

"Lords," "rulers" and "great ones" are "archists."

An "archist" believes he has the right to impose his will on other people by force. He need not rely solely on persuasion. He need not give others anything of value in exchange for what he wants from others. He can threaten violence, and carry out those threats if he doesn't get what he wants. It would be sinful for others to engage in such violent extortion or vengeance, but the "archist" claims a "legal" and moral right to do what others must not do.

Jesus clearly says His followers are not to be "archists." They are to be "servants."

A Christian society is an archist-free society.

Jesus says His followers are not to be archists. Connect the dots. Christians must be "an-archists."

www.HowToBecomeAChristianAnarchist.com

All Pacifists are Anarchists

If you oppose violence, you cannot be an "archist."

A logically consistent Christian pacifist is also an anarchist, for two reasons:
     • First, a pacifist is against violence, and "the State" is institutionalized, systematic violence;
     • Second, Jesus prohibits His followers from being "archists"
An "archist" is one who believes he has a right to impose his own will on others by force or threats of violence. Chiefly, the "archist" imposes his will on others through the machinery of "the State," whose tactics include
   • fines,
   • prisons,
   • torture,
   • executions,
   • armed invasions, and
   • terrorism.
The Christian, on the contrary, believes it is always sinful to impose your own will on others by initiating force or threatening violence. (We are to be servants, not "archists." Mark 10:42-45.) I know, that sounds "weird." "Anarchism?" Aren't "anarchists" bad people?

As I read the Bible,  the bad guys are the "archists." Chapter after chapter in the Bible says "archists" are false gods.

Only Jesus is a legitimate Archist.

By etymological definition, the opposite of an "anarchist" is an "archist." By being trained to believe that "anarchists" are bad, we've been subtly inculcated with the belief that those who protect us against "anarchists" (logically, "archists") are good.

Capitalism vs. Socialism
Free Markets vs. Coercive Central Planning

To put it favorably:

• 100% pure laissez-faire capitalism. 0% Socialism, 0% fascism 0% communism, 0% corporatism, 0% crony capitalism, 0% keynesianism, 0% democratic socialism
• 100% Free Market
• Sounds good to some people, sounds horrible to others (who think positively about things like "socialism")

To put it unfavorably:

• anarchy

People who want some socialism, some fascism, some communism -- but especially people who want full communism or total socialism -- see pure capitalism as "anarchy." One economist, Murray Rothbard, coined the term "anarcho-capitalism" to describe a society with 0% socialism, 0% fascism 0% communism, 0% corporatism, 0% crony capitalism, 0% keynesianism, 0% democratic socialism, and a 100% pure Free Market.

But without any socialist bureaucracies whatever, and without any armed KGB agents whatever, and with no military parades with tanks and missiles led by Generalissimo So-and-So, people who favor some socialism or a little bit of communism see "anarcho-capitalism" as just plain "anarchy."

Even more offensive to modern Christians than the belief that Jesus is the Christ today (and we shouldn't be waiting around for a second advent of Jesus) is the claim that Jesus is THE Christ today; that in our day there is no other legitimate Christ, no other legitimate king.

Nobody believes in "kings" anymore. So let's update our language.

• Jesus is the only legitimate President, Governor, Prime Minister, Premier, Chief Executive, or Emir.
• Jesus is also the only legitimate Legislator. Jesus is a One-Man Legislature.
• Jesus is "the Supreme Judge of the World" (to quote the Declaration of Independence); the only legitimate Judge or Justice.
• Jesus is the only legitimate Department of Homeland Security and Joint Chiefs of Staff.

As we will see below, Isaiah 33:22 confirms this:

For the Lord is our Judge,
The Lord is our Lawgiver,
The Lord is our King;
He will save us

As we will see below, it was a mistake for Israel to want an earthly king to replace God (1 Samuel 8).

Mark 10:42-45 (and other passages we're going to be considering in a moment) teaches that

• Christians are prohibited from aspiring to be "archists."
• Christians are prohibited from trying to elect an "archist" to any public office.
• There should not be any "public offices" at all.
• Eliminating "public offices" would dramatically raise our standard of living (if we obey all the commands of Jesus the Christ).

When the people become more moral, and reject violence and coercion, they reject socialism, fascism, and what we call "civil government." And those who get a paycheck from "the government" will denounce the absence of coercion as "anarchy!" So the Marketing Dept. says we should call it "Archistlessness."

Archistlessness

The word "anarchist" comes from two Greek words meaning "not an archist."
Q.: What is an archist?
A.: A bad person. A person who lacks Godly character. Seeks to be god, impose vengeance, regulation by threats of violence.

Beating "swords into plowshares" implies a theory of government, as well as a theory of eschatology.

• Political Philosophy: What kind of "government" has no "defense department?" Isn't that the whole purpose for forming a "government?"
  • It is. No war = no need for "government"
  • A free market can resolve disputes without a "monopoly of violence."
• Eschatology: When will governments go out of business? Which nation will be the first nation to abolish their armies?
  • Can a purportedly Christian nation like the U.S. wait for evil nations like North Korea and Iran to be the first to do the right (Godly) thing and beat their swords into plowshares, and then -- only after the bad guys obey God -- the good guys can obey God? Are the good guys supposed to lead, or follow?

Anarcho-Preterism

Even more offensive to modern Christians than the belief that Jesus  IS  the Christ (today) (and we shouldn't be waiting around for a second advent of Jesus) is the claim that Jesus is THE Christ today; that in our day there is no other legitimate Christ, no other legitimate king.

Nobody believes in "kings" anymore. So let's update our language.

• Jesus is the only legitimate President, Governor, Prime Minister, Premier, Chief Executive, or Emir.
• Jesus is also the only legitimate Legislator. Jesus is a One-Man Legislature.
• Jesus is "the Supreme Judge of the World" (to quote the Declaration of Independence); the only legitimate Judge or Justice.
• Jesus is the only legitimate Department of Homeland Security and Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Isaiah 33:22 confirms this:

For the Lord is our Judge,
The Lord is our Lawgiver,
The Lord is our King;
He will save us

Some conservatives, like David Barton, have seen this verse as a justification for three "branches" of government. But these functions are interchangeable. "Judges" in the Bible "ruled" as kings do. Jesus is a "unitary" Savior who discharges all the responsibilities which human "government" wants to monopolize.

 As we will see below, it was a mistake for Israel to want an earthly king to replace God (1 Samuel 8).

And as we will see below, Jesus prohibits His followers from aspiring to rule over others. Jesus said a Christian must not be an "archist."

Nor can a Christian "vote" for archists.
If God prohibits you from stealing, you cannot "vote" for someone to steal for you.
If God says you cannot hurt other people, you cannot "vote" for someone to hurt other people for you.

Mark 10:42-45 (and other passages we're going to be considering in a moment) teaches that

• Christians are prohibited from aspiring to be "archists."
• Christians are prohibited from trying to elect an "archist" to any public office.
• There should not be any "public offices" at all.
• Eliminating "public offices" would dramatically raise our standard of living (if we obey all the commands of Jesus the Christ).

People who don't see earthly "archists" as bad guys are themselves guilty of idolatry.

The Bible is an "Anarchist Manifesto." From cover to cover, the Bible condemns archists -- violent people, like Cain, Lamech, violent men that provoked the flood in Noah's day, Nimrod, and so on. These evil, violent people are the ones who created "civil governments."

Christians who strongly oppose "anarchism" (I used to be one of them) believe the Bible prescribes (not just describes) civil governments. They believe God's Law contains laws for "governments."

The Myth of "The Civil Law"

Every political science professor in every university on planet earth will agree that the essential nature of "the State" is violence. It claims a "monopoly on violence." Wikipedia || Encyclopedia Britannica || Oxford || More: The State as Monopoly of Violence

Using the Greek word from which we derived the English word "anarchist," Jesus plainly says His followers are not to be "archists." Mark 10:42-45. We are to be servants, not "archists." "Not" + "archist" = "anarchist"

Only Jesus is a legitimate Archist.

People who don't see earthly "archists" as bad guys are themselves guilty of idolatry.

God says "Thou shalt not steal."
You would never go up to your next-door neighbor, put a gun to his head, and say "give me some of your money."
But you vote for people who promise to do this on your behalf, and give the money to you or people you approve of.

There is no ethical difference between "taxes" and "extortion."

Here's an example of me butting-in on someone's blog and promoting my views: Godwords.

"What about Romans 13?" I'm always asked this question when I say I'm an "anarcho-pacifist."

Romans 12 and 13 are a unit on not resisting evil. "Bless those who persecute you" (Romans 12:14) does not mean that persecutors have God's ethical approval. They need to repent. We are not to resist evil (Romans 12:19), but to overcome evil with good gifts (Romans 12:21), even (turn the page) the most evil entity on the planet: The State (Romans 13:1ff). Paul refers to the Empire as "the Powers." Everywhere that Greek word is used in the New Testament, it means "demonic." Even the Romans believed that demons (daimones, daimoneV) guided the Empire.

The message of Romans 13 is "be subject to evil." The message of Romans 13 is not "evil is good."

Yes, "all things work together for good" (Romans 13:4; 8:28), even evil things, like "principalities and powers" (Romans 8:38) and their sword (Romans 8:35).

But evil people have a moral obligation to repent of things that pacifists have a moral obligation to submit to.

www.Romans13.com

People like you and me

who are willing to beat swords into plowshares

are opposed to violence-based empires and systems of "government"

like socialism, fascism, and totalitarianism of every label.

We support 100% pure laissez-faire capitalism. We almost had this back in America's “Vine & Fig Tree” days. Jacob Hornberger describes those days:

Our ancestors brought into existence a society in which there was no income tax or IRS, one where people could keep everything they earned and decide for themselves what to do with it. There was no Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, farm subsidies, education grants, food stamps, public housing, or FDIC. Indeed, there was no welfare state or mandatory, coercive charity. There were no drug laws. There were very few economic regulations, especially at the federal level. No minimum-wage laws. No occupational-licensure laws. No Federal Reserve. No fiat money: the official U.S. money consisted of coins made out of precious metals. No immigration controls. No public (i.e., government) schooling. No national-security state. America had a relatively small army that was nothing like the enormous military establishment and military-industrial complex that exist today. No foreign military bases. No regime-change operations, coups, foreign interventions, foreign aid, or alliances with foreign regimes. No CIA. No NSA. No official programs for mass surveillance, torture, and assassination.

That is the most remarkable political and economic achievement in history. Never in history has there existed such a society. It was the closest that people have ever come to what libertarians envision as a genuinely free society. Notwithstanding the exceptions (e.g., slavery and tariffs), the result was the freest and most prosperous nation in history and certainly among the most peaceful and harmonious for most of the time (the Civil War, the Mexican War, slavery, and the war against American Indians being notable exceptions).

Today the exceptions have become the rule.

A 100% pure laissez-faire capitalist society depends on people being committed to obeying God's Law, particularly laws that require families to take care of their own, and neighbors to take care of families that cannot. Getting rid of tyrannical government requires a great moral elevation in society. It requires extreme Biblicism among "We, the People."

So what is the result of extreme Biblicism? Where will that lead?

I call it the “Vine & Fig Tree” worldview. I created a non-profit organization to promote this worldview.

www.VineandFigTree.org

People tell me that my extremism is "unrealistic," "impractical," and "utopian."

In his diary on February 22, 1756, John Adams, later second President of the United States, wrote this:

Suppose a nation in some distant region should take the Bible for their only law book, and every member should regulate his conduct by the precepts there exhibited! Every member would be obliged in conscience,
     • to temperance, frugality, and industry,
     • to justice, kindness, and charity towards his fellow men; and
     • to piety, love and reverence towards Almighty God.
What a Utopia, what a Paradise would this region be.

I believe the only law book we need is the Bible. I'll say more about this in just a minute. The Bible is a textbook for every subject, not just religion. In our day, that's one of the most offensive things anyone can say.

I know my way around a law library. I've spent hundreds of hours in law libraries studying the law books of civil government. I passed the California Bar Exam, but was denied a license to practice law because America -- once a Christian nation -- is now a secular nation, and Christians cannot become attorneys, according to the Supreme Court of the United States, because their allegiance to God's Law Book trumps their allegiance to Washington D.C.'s law books. Details.

Not everyone is going to take the Bible as their only law book, and behave like Jesus commands all men to behave. What should we do about these people? Jesus gave us a step-by-step blueprint to follow in Matthew 18. Here's how that could work out. The Bible never commanded human beings to form "governments" to deal with criminals by taking vengeance against them. In fact, it is a sin to create a government. Creating a government is a rejection of God (1 Samuel 8). The cost to society of a government is greater than the cost to society of criminals under anarcho-pacifism. We'll return to this below.

Nor do most clergymen. The more perceptive clergy will say that our belief that Micah's prophecy is already being fulfilled, and that we should continue beating swords into plowshares, is "dangerous." They will warn you that we are promoting the ancient heresy of "anarcho-preterism." They are correct (we are indeed promoting "anarcho-preterism") except for two things:

1. This position is not "heretical." It is the core of the evangelical message of the Bible. (The word "evangelical" comes from "evangel," which means "good news."). That's what this website is all about.
2. This position is not "ancient." I just made up the term "anarcho-preterism" last Thursday.

Distilled into a single proposition, Vine & Fig Tree stands for this:

Jesus is the Christ Today

To say that Jesus is the Messiah today is to say that Jesus became the Messiah in the past, rather than saying He must come again (in the future) before He can begin His Messianic Reign.

It's easy enough to prove that Jesus was made the Christ in the past. Peter explains it in Acts chapter 2. After the Apostles spoke to a large audience of people "from every nation under heaven" (Acts 2:5) in all their various foreign languages, Peter explained that this was a fulfillment of an Old Testament prophecy. He further explains how Jesus had already fulfilled the Davidic prophecies about the enthroning of the Messiah:

God made Jesus of Nazareth the Christ -- 2000 years ago -- fulfilling the Old Testament prophecies concerning the throne of David. Peter and other devout Jews came to believe this; Christians should believe this; today's Jews do not. What was happening in Peter's "present" happened in our "past."

Even more offensive to modern Christians than the belief that Jesus is the Christ today (and we shouldn't be waiting around for a second advent of Jesus) is the claim that Jesus is THE Christ today; that in our day there is no other legitimate Christ, no other legitimate king.

Nobody believes in "kings" anymore. So let's update our language.

• Jesus is the only legitimate President, Governor, Prime Minister, Premier, Chief Executive, or Emir.
• Jesus is also the only legitimate Legislator. Jesus is a One-Man Legislature.
• Jesus is "the Supreme Judge of the World" (to quote the Declaration of Independence); the only legitimate Judge or Justice.
• Jesus is the only legitimate Department of Homeland Security and Joint Chiefs of Staff.

As we will see below, Isaiah 33:22 confirms this:

For the Lord is our Judge,
The Lord is our Lawgiver,
The Lord is our King;
He will save us

As we will see below, it was a mistake for Israel to want an earthly king to replace God (1 Samuel 8).

This means that a Christian economy is 100% "capitalist" and 0% "socialist."

Many people today grossly misunderstand those terms. They think "capitalism" means politicians support big corporations. They think "socialism" means politicians have "compassion for the poor." What causes confusion is the term common to both ideas: "politicians."

From a Biblical perspective, politicians are wanna-be christs.

All governments are oligarchies: monarchs have their "advisors" and enforcers; republics have their "deep state."

A society that is Biblical is archist-free. These three texts show this.

Our first text is Isaiah 33:22

For the Lord is our Judge,
The Lord is our Lawgiver,
The Lord is our King;
He will save us

Some have said that all three "branches" of government are seen here. Probably not the way the Hebrews thought, but the point is that God is our Governor. God provides Government.

God governs from heaven through Providence, not visible physical enthronement in Jerusalem. This is the major error of the "pre-millennialists." See the discussion of the "invisible hand" above. Micah's Vine & Fig Tree prophecy (Micah 4:1-7) says

And He will judge between many peoples
And render decisions for mighty, distant nations.

While it's true that Jesus is the Word, the Word does not judge by sitting on a visible, physical throne in Jerusalem. "The Word" that judges nations is God's Law:

For from Zion will go forth the Law
Even the Word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

As we saw above, man's chief purpose on earth is to build the City of God. The New Jerusalem is not handed to man on a silver platter fully-built. It is built by the "invisible Hand" of "Divine Providence," but God uses obedient and responsible human agents. An "invisible" Hand requires visible human servants, who are hands, feet, eyes, and other "members" of the Body of Christ.

Israel rejected this concept.
Israel wanted visible physical archists like the Gentiles had. Emperors, Pharaohs, Molochs, and Caesars.
This brings us to our second text: 1 Samuel 8

Read the passage. Read the commentary in that link. The Bible says Israel, in desiring a king like the Gentiles had, was rejecting God. This is an awe-ful and profound indictment. Israel, "the chosen people," rejected the God who chose them, preferring the central-planning archist gods of the pagans. The Israelites were idolators.

Of course, Israel's rejection of God didn't stop God from governing. We hear much from premillennialists that Jesus offered Himself to Israel as Messiah, but Israel rejected Him as King, so He could only be "savior." This is nuts. Jesus was King whether the Jewish establishment wanted Him or not, and He destroyed apostate Israel in a day of fiery vengeance.

Luke 21:20 
“But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is near. ²² For these are the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled.” 

Luke 19:14,27
¹⁴ But his citizens hated him, and sent a delegation after him, saying, ‘We will not have this man to reign over us.’
²⁷ But bring here those enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, and slay them before me.’”

Matthew 22:1-14
But when the king heard about it, he was furious. And he sent out his armies, destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city. (cf. 2 Thessalonians 1:3-10)

We see the error of 1 Samuel 8 in Christ's apostles before they were filled with the Spirit. They not only wanted Jesus to be a visible physical archist to overthrow the Roman occupation army, they too wanted archist powers to take vengeance on their oppressors. None of this has a place in Christ's Kingdom. This is seen in our third text, Mark 10:42-45, where the Greek word underlying the English word "anarchist" is found. (We looked at this passage above.)

1 Samuel 8 teaches that the desire for a visible, physical archist is a rejection of God.

In the ancient world, all empires and politicians were religious. The emperor/pharaoh/caesar was a deity. Politicians were gods and mediators/priests.
Today the politician -- and the Polis -- is said to be "secular," but this is only evidence of the religion of Secular Humanism.

In the Old Testament, archists were called "gods" (Ps 82, etc.).
The desire for a physical, visible archist = idolatry
Human archists = false gods = idols

There is no such thing as a "good" archist.
By definition, "the government" is an institution which claims the right to steal, kidnap, and murder. If it doesn't make that claim, and does not accomplish its goals through violence (which would otherwise be universally acknowledged as sinful in "the private sector"), it's not a "government" and is not made up of archists. It's just a Rotary Club or some other voluntary association. (Which would be a good thing. Voluntary non-violent non-coercive associations provide all the governance any human society needs:
       • homeschools educate,
       • businesses discipline, and
       • competitive free market Dispute Resolution Organizations resolve disputes.
This is "governance" without "the government.")

"The State" is a criminal enterprise. It is prohibited by God's Law, even if God Himself "ordains" it (brings it into existence), like God created Assyria (Isaiah 10) or Rome (Luke 21:20-22) to judge (rape, pillage, burn, destroy) Israel.

Followers of Christ are prohibited from being archists.

11. Patriarchy

The monogamous heterosexual family is the root of civilization. "Patriarchy" is a hated word. It doesn't mean what you think it means.

We use the word "patriarchy" to describe a society where the Family is the central unit. A "patriarch" is not a wife-beater; but the beginning of the "family tree.". Patria is the Greek word for "Family," and arche is the Greek word for "beginning" (see John 1:1 - Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος, En archē ēn o logos, "In the beginning was the Word").

Modern feminists say we must "Smash the Patriarchy!" "The Patriarchy" refers to social institutions like church and state which are dominated by men. Conservatives say only men should be priests and kings; women should not be "ordained." Feminists want women to be priests and kings as well as men. The Biblical view is for nobody to be "ordained." No human being should be a priest or a king. Only Jesus is our Priest and King. The Biblical way to "Smash the Patriarchy" -- "The Establishment" -- The Military-Industrial-Civil-Financial-Pharmaceutical-Academic-Religious-Entertainment Complex -- is not to expand it to include women, but to abolish it altogether.

This verse from Micah assumes "family values" taught elsewhere in the Bible in more detail. It also assumes the family history -- that is, the history of patriarchy -- discussed above.

• Family
  • Male + Female
  • Father + mother
  • XX ≠ XY
• Homosexuality, Abortion, Archism -- It's "a package deal"
• Patriarchy
• Self-Government
• "Economics" = "family government"

• Christian morality begins at home.
• Vine & Fig Tree is a decentralized family-centered society
• Government: Patriarchal or Political?
  • Jesus is our Priest and King
  • All Christians are priests and kings
  • No humans are priests or kings.
• Imagine a society made up entirely of loving families and no priests and no politicians.

Pierre Joseph Proudhon: Patriarchy and Agrarian Jurisprudence

The modern concept of "separation of church and state" -- which really means the "separation of God and the Public Square" -- denies the concept of Biblical Theocracy. This website not only denies "the separation of church and state," but promotes "the abolition of church and state."

The Bible uses “Vine & Fig Tree” imagery to describe a time when we beat our "swords into plowshares" and everyone dwells peacefully under his own “Vine & Fig Tree.” The New Testament describes Christians as "sons of Abraham" the Patriarch. Abraham and Sarah were not under the rule of any State or Empire. The desire to have a creaturely king is a rejection of God the Creator as King (1 Samuel 8; Romans 1:25). The real meaning of Easter is that Jesus is now -- in 2022 -- the only legitimate King. Every king on planet earth should immediately abdicate and get a real job in "the Private Sector." This is one reason why every government in the last 2000 years has eventually banned the Bible. Even the United States, where The Supreme Court has ruled that public school teachers cannot tell students that Jesus the King says "Thou shalt not steal" (Matthew 19:18; Exodus 20:13-16; Deuteronomy 5:17-20). Creaturely kings are "false gods" in the Bible, and they correctly view the Bible as a threat to their idolatrous reign: to them, The Bible is an "Anarchist Manifesto." According to the Bible, creaturely government is "The Most Dangerous Idolatry." It will take me a while to convince you that the Real Meaning of Easter is “Vine & Fig Tree.” I'll have to persuade you to read a lot of Bible verses through new eyes. 

Abraham and Sarah did not "go to church." Their priest was Melchizedek, as is ours.

Family = "undemocratic" says progressives

John Adams: importance of mothers

Audio

The Family is God's central unit of society. The family is commanded to teach God's Law. Therefore next installment: Education

12. Dominion

Vineyards and orchards require tending. The fruit (produce) requires packaging and transport if being sold to others.

The Purpose of Man

Our text here is "the Dominion Mandate," Genesis 1:26-28. Also, Genesis 2:15,19

Here we read the purpose for which God created Man.
Human beings were created to "exercise dominion" over the earth as stewards of God's property.
This means growing and building the Kingdom of God, for the glory of God.
This means transforming a wilderness into a Garden, and the Garden into the City of God, the New Jerusalem, a city of unlimited growth and wealth.

Genesis 1:2

And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.
And the Spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters.

I have benefited from a book entitled, Images of the Spirit by Meredith G. Kline. Genesis 1:2 is a "theophany" -- an appearance or manifestation of God on earth. Kline suggests that the physical theophanic Glory of the Holy Spirit, who hovered over the original earth creation in Genesis 1:2, served as the "divine model" for man's creation. In expounding these themes, Kline develops a system of typology where the Garden of Eden, the tabernacle, temple, priest and prophet are all modeled after the archetypal form of the Glory-Spirit, which is a model of heaven itself. Jesus taught us to pray that God's will would be done "on earth as it is in heaven" (Matthew 6:10). Comparing the first chapters of Genesis and the last chapters of Revelation suggests that man's original purpose is nothing less than building the City of God, the New Jerusalem. Edenic motifs are clearly seen in Revelation 21. The "newness" of the "New" Jerusalem is the absence of the ceremonial temple, and the liturgical or restorative patterns of reconciling God and sinners found in the Old Covenant. Just as man was to "dress and keep" the Garden, so he was/is to dress the entire world into the City of God.

Some people object to our belief in predestination. They say this destroys man's responsibility for action. But they also deny that man has a responsibility to take the actions necessary to bring heaven to earth and build the City of God. The the “Vine & Fig Tree” worldview places more responsibility on man than those who deny God's predestination.

Many people object to the idea that man builds the Kingdom of God. They say this is "humanistic," and that the Polis of God must be created wholly by God with no participation by man, and then handed to man on a silver platter. Correct thinking on this issue requires a "paradigm shift." Hal Lindsey represents the old paradigm:

There used to be a group called "postmillennialists." They believed that the Christians would root out all the evil in the world, abolish godless rulers, and convert the world through ever-increasing evangelism until they brought about the Kingdom of God through their own efforts. Then after 1000 years of the institutional church reigning on earth with peace, equality and righteousness, Christ would return and time would end. These people rejected much of the Scripture as being literal and believed in the inherent goodness of man. World War I greatly disheartened this group and World War II virtually wiped out this viewpoint. No self-respecting scholar who looks at the world conditions and the accelerating decline of Christian influence today is a "postmillennialist."
Hal Lindsey, The Late, Great Planet Earth, 1970, p. 176

The idea that Christians would bring about the Kingdom of God "through their own efforts" is a real red-flag for these kind of Christians. They say it reeks of "secular humanism."

Obviously, "anarcho-preterists" do not believe that The City of God is designed by a joint act of Congress. The New Jerusalem is not the vision of an ecclesiastical council or synod, or ecumenical one-world religion. But even as the leaders of church and state conspired together to kill Jesus, even today they are unwittingly orchestrated by the "Invisible Hand of Divine Providence" to enlarge the City of God.

The New Jerusalem is the Bride of Christ, and she must adorn herself for her Husband with righteous acts (Revelation 21:2; 19:7-8; Psalm 45:9-14; Isaiah 54:5; 61:10; 62:4).

But God still gets all the credit.

• "Church" as house; our duty to build the Kingdom of God.

Consider the "Division of Labor" (Romans 12; 1 Corinthians 12).
There is not a single person on planet earth who can build a pencil from scratch. This is because all the labor and skills required to extract the raw materials from God's Creation and assemble them into a pencil are divided among many human beings, no one of them possessing all the skills and knowledge needed to plant and harvest trees, extract and refine chemicals, and build the equipment which fabricates a pencil. While Faber-Castell might get credit for making pencils, many other companies had a hand in the task. Previous generations saw the global human economy as being overseen by an "Invisible Hand." Also called "Providence," about which we'll see more below.

Ultimately, only God can get credit for building the New Jerusalem, but man is commanded to do the work.

Imagine the construction of a large apartment. I mean really large, like 432 Park Avenue, the tallest residential building in New York. Or five of the ten tallest buildings in the world, found in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. One of these buildings can house 25,000 human beings. Who gets "credit" for building one of these buildings? Maybe the architect -- except it was a team of architects. Maybe the CEO of the Construction firm, but he personally does not know how to build a cement mixer. Suppose your vocation is being a plumber, and you were hired to install a unique sink in one of the residences on the 32nd floor during the construction of one of these buildings. Do you get credit for building the building? Of course not. You knew very little about what kind of building was being constructed. You were just fulfilling your individual calling as a plumber. Should you say, "This is not my building, so I'm not going to contribute to its edification?" That would be disobedient.

Each human being has a calling to build part of the Kingdom of God. It is man's job to build the kingdom. God gets all the credit.

Man's divine purpose on earth is to create a flourishing anarchist society, overseen only by an Invisible Hand.

• The Invisible Hand and the Division of Labor

Work, not Theft || Service, not "Public Service"

A Jewish scholar named Franz Oppenheimer divided people into two groups.

The first group he called "Economic Man." "Economic Man" engages in work, produces things of value (or provides valuable services) and gets paid, then trades that money for things other people produce.

• The Business Covenant (patriagora.com)

The second group he called "Political Man." These people do not produce, they confiscate.

Because Christians are "pacifists," they believe in overcoming evil with good. In Romans 12, we respond to evil with food or drink, and in Romans 13 we respond to evil with gifts of money, hoping in these cases that God will grant repentance to those who do evil to us.

Taxation is extortion, a form of theft. There isn't a single verse in the Bible to which any human being alive today can point to and say, "This verse assures me that if I declare myself to be the king, I can threaten you with violence if you do not give me the money I demand, and God will not hold me guilty of sin."

If someone sins against you, and you do everything Jesus says to do in order to help that person repent and right his wrongs, Jesus says to "excommunicate" him (our modern terminology, not His), and treat him like someone who cannot possibly be a genuine Christian: "a tax collector" (Matthew 18:17).

If there is no theft, there is no "State." "Civil Governments" do not exist without "taxation," which is theft. "Civil government" is distinguished from businesses and charities by its claim to have a right to steal.

We are to "serve" (worship) God, and we are to serve others (Mark 10:42-45). We serve others in businesses and charities. We do not serve others by ruling over them in "governments."

Private Service Creates Public Order

"Public Service" Creates Disorder

The Blueprints of Dominion - Revisiting Theme 5

There is a standard by which we judge our efforts at constructing the Kingdom of God. It is the Bible.

Specifically, God's Law. (All of Scripture is Law, because all of Scripture is breathed-out by God, who is our Lord, and every utterance of a Sovereign is to be respected and obeyed by His vassals.)

The Bible makes up the blueprints for the building of the New Jerusalem, the Kingdom of God. These Blueprints were drafted by the Master Architect. We are to follow the blueprints as servants and laborers, but God gets the glory. As Calvin put it:

As soon as we acknowledge God to be the supreme Architect, who has erected the beauteous fabric of the universe, our minds must necessarily be ravished with wonder at his infinite goodness, wisdom, and power.

Rushdoony has written that God's Law is God's Plan for Victory and Dominion. God's Law commands us to build the Kingdom of God, and tells us exactly how to do this. God's Law both commands and promises success in building the Kingdom of God.

Such Promises ("blessings") are found in texts like Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28.

Salvation and Dominion - Anticipating Theme 15

Obedience to God's commandments brings blessings, specifically, the blessing of peace.
Peace means freedom from the initiation of force or threats of violence by others. Since archists are those who employ violence as a means to an end, "peace" means "freedom from archists." The Bible distinguishes "workmen" from the "horns" of power (Zechariah 1:18-21), and if we work to build God's Kingdom and do not become archists, God will keep those nasty archists away from us:

Proverbs 16:7
When a man’s ways please the LORD,
He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.

The Blessing of Freedom from Archists
Obedience to God's Law is blessed by God with anarcho-capitalism.

Exercising dominion according to God's Law brings God's Blessings, which constitute "salvation."

By comparing the first two chapters of Genesis with the last two chapters of Revelation, it becomes clear that Man's purpose is to build the City of God, the New Jerusalem.

• God gives the blueprints
• Man does the work
• God gets the glory

The Hebrew word for "glory" is related to the word for "weight." In the Bible, gold makes better money than paper. [Explore this theme] Man's purpose is to create real wealth.

In the third chapter of the Bible, Satan enters the scene and tempts Adam and Eve to build their own city instead of God's City. "Ye shall be as gods" Satan said, by drawing up your own blueprints, determining for yourself what constitutes "good" and "evil," and building the City of Man.

We see this in Genesis 11: The Tower of Babel. "Let us make us a name," Man said.

If you're not building a city for the glory of God, you're building a city for the glory of Man. The City of Man is inevitably The Society of Satan.

Two Cities

Augustine wrote a book called De Civitate Dei, "On the City of God" (Civitas Dei). The first words of the City of God are ‘gloriosissimam civitatem Dei,’ ‘the glorious city of God.’

The opposite of the City of God (Theonomy) is the City of Man (autonomy), although for Augustine, the opposite was civitas terrena, the "earthly city," which tends to confine the City of God to heaven. Augustine was not always correct. The conflict between these two cities is not geography (location), but authority (moral legitimacy). Jesus told us to work and pray that God's will would "be done on earth as it is in heaven." Peace is not just for heaven, as we see in Luke 2:

¹⁰ And the angel said unto them, “Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

¹¹ “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

¹³ And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,

¹⁴ “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, among those with whom He is pleased!”

If we follow God's Blueprints, we get peace, purpose, and life.
If we follow Man's blueprints, we get violence, meaninglessness, and escape into death.

1. Violence

The City of God is built with plowshares.
The City of Man is built with swords.

Jones has a blueprint.
Smith has a blueprint.
Whose blueprint will be followed?
The Sword will determine this.

The City of Man is tyranny. The City of God is Liberty.

But man soon tires of tyranny.

2. Chaos - Meaninglessness

When Man attempts to escape God's blueprints, he tries anything and everything.

"Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us."
Psalm 2:3

If God sees black and white, autonomous man will find "50 shades of [sadomasochistic] grey." He attempts to overthrow God's order by descending into chaos. Revolution is the religion of chaos. "Through revolution everything returns to chaos, and out of chaos comes “a new and regenerated world” (James Billington, former head of the Library of Congress).

The City of God is order. The City of Man defies God through chaos. But to say there is no meaning, no law, is usually just an excuse to impose one's own law on others.

And we're back to tyranny.

3. Escape

Some folks, seeing the violence (imposed, centralized) on the one hand, and the chaos (libertinism) on the other, seek to escape. They choose drugs, mind-numbing mantras, or suicide.

Your Choice

If Man reject's God's blueprints, and attempts to draft his own blueprints, we get:

• Violence, statism, war
• Chaos, meaninglessness
• Death

These are the three forms of the City of Man.

God has called out a "church" to build the City of God. But Christ's "church" is not Jewish or Roman in its character. In the New Jerusalem, unlike the Old Jerusalem, there is

no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.
Revelation 21:22

Man's purpose is to build the City of God, the New Jerusalem.

• God gives the blueprints
• Man does the work
• God gets the glory

God's Choice

If we think we might want to repent of building the City of Man, what does the City of God look like? What do God's Blueprints say?

God's Blueprints cover every area of life. The Bible will re-create everything and lay in place a new foundation:

• Relationships - family, friends, neighbors, associates
• Culture/Institutions - language, church, state, music, ethics
• Community/Government - nation, state, community, neighborhood
• Creation/Environment - the creation and the use we make of it
• Economics/Vocation - jobs, income, economic activities
• Science/Technology - tools, technologies, ways of knowing and using the creation
• Religion/Spirituality - Christianity, Islam, atheism, church, spiritual life
• Education/Development - formal schooling, life experience

God's Law: Blueprints of Dominion and Prosperity 

Here is where Module 5 "Theonomy" and Module 12 "Dominion" intersect.

The Bible is not primarily a "religious" book, it is a civil, social, political, economic, book. It is a "dominion" book. While there are big chunks of the Bible that appear to be "religious" (like the book of Leviticus), it is obvious that the Bible as a whole intended for this "religious" element to be discarded like training wheels. When priesthood is removed, the Bible is seen as the "Law-Word" of God.

     If the Bible is not true, there really is no such thing as "Law" except the "positive law" of the State.
     Every home school curriculum needs to teach children ""The Laws of Nature and of Nature's God," that is, Biblical Law.
     It was one of the most important features of early American public schools that they inculcated "religion and morality," a.k.a. "piety and virtue." America's Founders believed that religion and morality were "necessary for good government and the happiness of mankind," and this was the explicitly stated reason why schools were created.
     One of the centerpieces of early American education was the Westminster Shorter Catechism. It was in virtually every single classroom in America, and in nearly every home. One of the finest features of that work is an exposition of the Ten Commandments, including "the duties required" and "the sins forbidden" by each commandment. This is the foundation of the Common Law and American Law. A school curriculum is not complete without a daily study of the Ten Commandments. Rushdoony's The Institutes of Biblical Law would be an appropriate text for home-schooled high-schoolers. Here is an outline of a home-study program that I still haven't finished, as well as links to the Westminster Standards.

The Ten Commandments prohibit:

For more than 300 years -- roughly 1600-1900 -- "the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God" -- that is, the Bible -- permeated America's schools and American culture. These laws are the foundation of civilization.

Ten Principles for a Free Society

The Ten Commandments in a Biblical Worldview

The Ten Commandments Moral Inventory and Meditation Program

• Rules for the Right Understanding of the Ten Commandments
• How to Examine Yourself in the Mirror of the Ten Commandments: Ask "Who?"

Preface to the Ten Commandments

From Rushdoony's Institutes of Biblical Law:

• Introduction: The Importance of the Law
• The Validity of Biblical Law
• The Law as Revelation and Treaty
• The Direction of the Law

1. Overview
2. Do I Agree With God's Word?
3. Have I Violated This Commandment?
4. Am I Resolved to Obey it in the Future?
5. How This Commandment was Applied in Early American Law
   1. Idolatry and the Ten Commandments

• Day 67: Duties Required in the First Commandment, part 1
• Day 68: Duties Required in the First Commandment, part 2
• Day 69: Sins Forbidden in the First Commandment, part 1
• Day 70: Sins Forbidden in the First Commandment, part 2

From Rushdoony's Institutes of Biblical Law:

• The First Commandment and the Shema Israel
• The Undivided Word
• God versus Moloch
• The Laws of Covenant Membership
• The Law as Power and Discrimination

1. Overview
2. Do I Agree With God's Word?
3. Have I Violated This Commandment?
4. Am I Resolved to Obey it in the Future?
5. How This Commandment was Applied in Early American Law

• Day 71: Duties Required in the Second Commandment
• Day 72: Sins Forbidden in the Second Commandment, part 1
• Day 73: Sins Forbidden in the Second Commandment, part 2
• Day 74: Reasons Annexed to the Second Commandment

• What is "Worship?"

• Day 81: Religious Worship, part 1
• Day 82: Religious Worship, part 2
• Day 83: Christian Liberty and Liberty of Conscience, part 1
• Day 84: Christian Liberty and Liberty of Conscience, part 2
• Day 85: The Word of God in Worship, part 1
• Day 86: The Word of God in Worship, part 2
• Day 87: The Word of God in Worship, part 3
• Day 88: The Word of God in Worship, part 4
• Day 89: Of the Sacraments, part 1
• Day 90: Of the Sacraments, part 2
• Day 91: Of Baptism, part 1
• Day 92: Of Baptism, part 2
• Day 93: Of Baptism, part 3
• Day 94: Of The Lord's Supper, part 1
• Day 95: Of The Lord's Supper, part 2
• Day 96: Of The Lord's Supper, part 3
• Day 97: Of The Lord's Supper, part 4
• Day 98: Of The Lord's Supper, part 5
• Day 99: Of The Lord's Supper, part 6
• Day 100: Of Communion of Saints, part 1
• Day 101: Of Communion of Saints, part 2

From Rushdoony's Institutes of Biblical Law:

• The Lawful Approach to God
• The Throne of Law
• The Altar and Capital Punishment
• Sacrifice and Responsibility
• Holiness and Law
• Law as Warfare
• Law and Equality

1. Overview
2. Do I Agree With God's Word?
3. Have I Violated This Commandment?
4. Am I Resolved to Obey it in the Future?
5. How This Commandment was Applied in Early American Law

• Day 75: Duties Required in the Third Commandment
• Day 76: Sins Forbidden in the Third Commandment, part 1
• Day 77: Sins Forbidden in the Third Commandment, part 2
• Day 78: Reasons Annexed to the Third Commandment
• Day 79: Of Lawful Oaths and Vows, part 1
• Day 80: Of Lawful Oaths and Vows, part 2

• The Oath of Office
• An Oath is an Act of Religious Worship

From Rushdoony's Institutes of Biblical Law:

• The Negativism of the Law
• Swearing and Revolution
• The Oath and Society
• Swearing and Worship
• The Oath and Authority
• The Name of God

1. Overview
2. Do I Agree With God's Word?
3. Have I Violated This Commandment?
4. Am I Resolved to Obey it in the Future?
5. How This Commandment was Applied in Early American Law

• Day 102: The Fourth Commandment, part 1
• Day 103: The Fourth Commandment, part 2
• Day 104: The Fourth Commandment, part 3
• Day 105: The Fourth Commandment, part 4

From Rushdoony's Institutes of Biblical Law:

• The Sign of Freedom
• The Sabbath and Life
• The Sabbath and Work
• The Sabbath and Authority
• The Sabbath and Law
• Appendix 4. The Economics of Sabbath Keeping by Gary North

1. Overview
2. Do I Agree With God's Word?
3. Have I Violated This Commandment?
4. Am I Resolved to Obey it in the Future?
5. How This Commandment was Applied in Early American Law

• Day 106: The Fifth Commandment, part 1
• Day 107: The Fifth Commandment, part 2
• Day 108: The Fifth Commandment, part 3
• Day 109: The Fifth Commandment, part 4
• Day 110: The Fifth Commandment, part 5
• Day 111: The Fifth Commandment, part 6
• Day 112: The Civil Magistrate, part 1
• Day 113: The Civil Magistrate, part 2
• Day 114: The Civil Magistrate, part 3
• Day 115: Of The Church, part 1
• Day 116: Of The Church, part 2
• Day 117: Of Church Censures, part 1
• Day 118: Of Church Censures, part 2
• Day 119: Of Synods and Councils

From Rushdoony's Institutes of Biblical Law:

• The Authority of the Family
• The Promise of Life
• The Economics of the Family
• Education and the Family
• The Family and Delinquency
• The Principle of Authority
• The Family and Authority
• The Holy Family
• The Limitation of Man's Authority

1. Overview
2. Do I Agree With God's Word?
3. Have I Violated This Commandment?
4. Am I Resolved to Obey it in the Future?
5. How This Commandment was Applied in Early American Law

• Day 120: The Sixth Commandment, part 1
• Day 121: The Sixth Commandment, part 2
• Day 122: The Sixth Commandment, part 3 - "Capital Punishment"
• Day 123: The Sixth Commandment, part 4 - "Lawful War" I
• Day 124: The Sixth Commandment, part 5 - "Lawful War" II
• Day 125: The Sixth Commandment, part 6 - "Necessary Defense"
• Day 126: The Sixth Commandment, part 7 - conclusion

• "National Defense" is unBiblical
• "Capital Punishment" is unBiblical
• There is no "Just War"
• A Politician's Moral Inventory

From Rushdoony's Institutes of Biblical Law:

• "Thou Shalt Not Kill''
• The Death Penalty
• Origins of the State: Its Prophetic Office
  • See also John Frame's Doctrine of the State
• “To Make Alive”
• Hybridization and Law
• Abortion
• Responsibility and Law
• Restitution or Restoration
• Military Laws and Production
• Taxation
• Love and the Law
• Coercion
• Quarantine Laws
• Dietary Rules
• Christ and the Law
• Work
• Amalek
• Amalek and Violence
• Violence as Presumption
• Social Inheritance: Landmarks

1. Overview
2. Do I Agree With God's Word?
3. Have I Violated This Commandment?
4. Am I Resolved to Obey it in the Future?
5. How This Commandment was Applied in Early American Law

• Day 127: The Seventh Commandment, part 1
• Day 128: The Seventh Commandment, part 2
• Day 129: The Seventh Commandment, part 3
• Day 130: The Seventh Commandment, part 4

Family Values:

• Abortion
• Adoption
• Bio-Ethics
• Taxes Destroy Families
• Child-Labor Laws
• Early Education and Child Care
• Higher Education
• Education
• Euthanasia
• Homosexuality
• Hospitality
• Marriage: A God-Ordained Institution
• "Marriage Amendment"
• Evangelism and Social Order
• Pornography
• Homeschooling
• Sexuality and Culture

• Democracy Assassinated the Family
• Marriage Amendment
• More Republican Support for Homosexuality
• Pink Pistols Survey

From Rushdoony's Institutes of Biblical Law:

• Marriage
• Marriage and Man
• Marriage and Woman
• Nakedness
• Family Law
• Marriage and Monogamy
• Incest
• The Levirate
• Sex and Crime
• Sex and Religion
• Adultery
• Divorce
• The Family as Trustee
• Homosexuality
• Uncovering the Springs
• The Mediatorial Work of the Law
• The Transvestite
• Bestiality
• The Architecture of Life
• Faithfulness

1. Overview
2. Do I Agree With God's Word?
3. Have I Violated This Commandment?
4. Am I Resolved to Obey it in the Future?
5. How This Commandment was Applied in Early American Law

• Day 131: The Eighth Commandment, part 1
• Day 132: The Eighth Commandment, part 2
• Day 133: The Eighth Commandment, part 3
• Day 134: The Eighth Commandment, part 4

• A Politician's Moral Inventory

From Rushdoony's Institutes of Biblical Law:

• Dominion
• Theft
• Restitution and Forgiveness
• Liability of the Bystander
• Money and Measure
• Usury
• Responsibility
• Stealing Freedom
• Landmarks and Land
• The Virgin Birth and Property
• Fraud
• Eminent Domain
• Labor Laws
• Robbing God
• Prison
• Lawful Wealth
• Restitution to God
• The Rights of Strangers, Widows, and Orphans
• Injustice as Robbery
• Theft and Law
• Appendix 3. "Stewardship, Investment, and Usury: Financing the Kingdom of God" by Gary North

1. Overview
2. Do I Agree With God's Word?
3. Have I Violated This Commandment?
4. Am I Resolved to Obey it in the Future?
5. How This Commandment was Applied in Early American Law

• Day 135: The Ninth Commandment, part 1
• Day 136: The Ninth Commandment, part 2
• Day 137: The Ninth Commandment, part 3
• Day 138: The Ninth Commandment, part 4

From Rushdoony's Institutes of Biblical Law:

• Tempting God
• Sanctification and the Law
• The False Prophet
• The Witness of the False Prophet
• Corroboration
• Perjury
• Jesus Christ as The Witness
• False Witness
• False Freedom
• The Lying Tongue
• Slander Within Marriage
• Slander
• Slander as Theft
• “Every Idle Word”
• Trials by Ordeal and the Law of Nature
• Judges
• The Responsibility of Judges and Rulers
• The Court
• The Procedure of the Court
• The Judgment of the Court
• Perfection

 
 

The Tenth Commandment

 

1. Overview
2. Do I Agree With God's Word?
3. Have I Violated This Commandment?
4. Am I Resolved to Obey it in the Future?
5. How This Commandment was Applied in Early American Law

• Day 139: The Tenth Commandment
• Day 156: Aggravated Sins, part 1
• Day 157: Aggravated Sins, part 2
• Day 158: Aggravated Sins, part 3
• Day 159: Aggravated Sins, part 4
• Day 160: Aggravated Sins, part 5

From Rushdoony's Institutes of Biblical Law:

• Covetousness
• The Law in Force
• Special Privilege
• Offenses Against Our Neighbor
• The System

The Secular Messianic State will always allege that your exercise of religion is "political," because politics is a substitute for true religion:

James 1:27 says

Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this:
to visit orphans and widows in their trouble,
and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.

This verse, according to some churches, says true religion is "social action," and the "church" must not be involved in "social action." Jesus says this will be the ultimate criterion of judgment on The Day of Judgment (Matthew 25:31-46). Not sacraments or church attendance.

Politicians are happy to put up a façade of social action, because they do so with other people's money. But social action which is not an extension of the reign of the Messiah, through His Body, is not real social action.

Revisiting Theme 1: Predestination

Critics of "Calvinism" allege that God's total, sovereign predestination of all things makes man a "puppet" or "robot." But we know that we are not "robots," and God does not treat us as mindless automatons. God treats us as beings created in His Image. God has given man dominion over the earth (Genesis 1:26-28). God's Law (Theonomy, Theme #5) is a comprehensive blueprint for building a new world. Theonomists build Civilization.

Those who deny God's Law and God's Predestination end up with a vision of man which is worse than a puppet. Man is ultimately meaningless. Without duty, there is no sin (1 John 3:4). There is no moral or ethical difference between a loving parent who daily, sacrificially, nurtures a child into adulthood, and a child molester. In the Bible, God's total sovereign predestination is paired with man's dominion and glorious duty to build the City of God. Denial of God's sovereignty is paired with a meaningless fleeting existence.

Man has more dignity as a creature of a sovereign predestinating God than he does as the random accident of an impersonal cosmos.

Some of those who oppose God's predestination cannot tolerate randomness and meaninglessness. They seek replace God's predestined order with Man's predestination. The City of Man is a city of tyranny, as oligarchs and philosopher-kings ("horns," Zechariah 1:18) seek to predestine the "craftsmen" (Zechariah 1:21) and create order without God (but see Luke 1:68-70). But political predestination, like Rome, always falls.

Calvinists build; autonomous man destroys.

‘We will not have this man to reign over us.’ (Luke 19:14)

‘Better to rule in hell than to serve in heaven.’ (Milton, Paradise Lost)

‘All they that hate Me love death.’ (Proverbs 8:36)

In other words, all who hate a predestinating God love disorder. They hate the City of God.

God's predestination does not conflict with man's duty to follow God's Law and build Christian Civilization. This is a glorious calling. Autonomous man's self-predestined calling is disorder and death.

Conclusion

It is the task of "the Church" (The Body of Christ) to "exercise dominion" (Genesis 1:26-28) and glorify the garden (Genesis 2:5,15); in short, to "build." We build the Body of Christ into the Lord's House. We build the earth into the Lord's Temple. We tear down the city of man and build the City of God. And when the New Jerusalem is complete, Christ the Master-Builder will get all the praise and credit.

The Empires of the world will say this interferes with their agenda. It violates "the separation of church and State."

The Empires are correct.

13: Agrarianism

The story of the Bible is "paradise lost" and Paradise Restored.
The story begins in a Garden and moves toward the goal of a Garden-City.
Man rebels against the City of God, and God saves rebellious man from the City of Man, promising to restore man to the fellowship that existed in Eden. Salvation is Edenic restoration.

Micah 6:8
He has shown you, O man, what is good;
And what does the Lord require of you
But to do justly,
To love mercy,
And to walk humbly with your God?

1 Corinthians 4:12
And we labor, working with our own hands. Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we endure;

Ephesians 4:28
Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need.

1 Thessalonians 4:11
that you also aspire to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you,

If you're building a house and growing food, helping neighbors in distress, and walking humbly with God, you will be blessed. The blessings God promises in Deuteronomy 28 are (on the surface) appropriate for an agrarian society. Does all this mean agrarianism is normative?

Agrarianism vs. Industrialization

In an editorial comment in Calvin's Commentary on the Psalms, James Anderson adds to Calvin's comments on

Psalm 15:5

He that putteth not out his money to usury, nor taketh reward against the innocent. He that doeth these things shall never be moved.

The Jews were prohibited by the law from taking usury or interest on money lent to their brethren, but not on what was lent to strangers; that is, foreigners of other countries, (Deuteronomy 23:20.) The manifest design of this prohibition was, to promote humane and fraternal sentiments in the bosoms of the Israelites towards each other. A more remote end seems also to have been aimed at, viz., to check the formation of a commercial character among the Jews, and to confine them as much as possible to those agricultural and private pursuits, which would seclude them from intercourse with the surrounding nations, as it was not very likely that a practice of this nature would be extended much among foreigners which was prohibited at home." -- Walford's New Translation of the Book of Psalms.

God's Laws concerning "false weights and measures" prohibit the expansion of credit by the Federal Reserve or any central bank.

Gary North claims that if we follow Biblical Law, especially the law concerning sabbath rest, industrialization becomes impossible.

I dealt with these issues in my 1986 book, The Sinai Strategy: Economics and the Ten Commandments. I devoted Chapter 4 and Appendix A to the sabbath. I reprinted them in the 2012 edition: Authority and Dominion, Volume 2, Decalogue and Dominion, Chapter 24, and Volume 5, Appendix E: “The Economic Implications of The Sabbath.” If you are serious about exploring the theological and economic implications of the differences between the Sabbath law and the laws governing the Lord’s Day, I recommend that you read these chapters.
Chapter 44: Lord’s Day | Gary North

Some people dismiss the Bible as primitive and "agrarian" and therefore irrelevant to the modern world. But what has the "modern world" brought us?

* The Atomic Bomb * monosodium glutamate * smog * MTV * HMO's *
* "The Death of God" *
* "safe" abortions * "safe" sex * "assisted" death *
* The Death of Man *

"Salvation" in the Bible means the restoration of the conditions of the Garden of Eden (Genesis 1-2)

• But Man's goal and purpose is to build the Garden into the City of God. (Revelation 21-22)
• Is "Industrialism" possible without the sword (police and military) of "the State?"
• What kind of industrialism would emerge in the absence of "False weights and Measures" and extortion-subsidies?
• Will we have "agrarianism" or "technocracy?"
• Who gets to decide for you?
• Who gets to decide for hundreds of millions of people?

Studies in Mutualist Political Economy: Industrialism vs. Decentralism -- The Role of the State

Agrarian Man vs. Industrialist Man: Political vs. Economic Man

Pierre Joseph Proudhon: Agrarian Jurisprudence

Environmentalism

Wilderness vs. Garden: Wilderness = disorder; Garden = Order

Audio

"Salvation" in the Bible means the restoration of the conditions of the Garden of Eden (Genesis 1-2).
Blessings from God are in contrast to technocracy under man.

But Man's goal and purpose is to build the Garden into the City of God. (Revelation 21-22)

Living off land depends on owning the land. Therefore Agrarianism is related to Property.

Would you be willing to live for hundreds of years in the Garden of Eden with a community of sanctified people . . . but no cell phone?

• Garden
• Eden
• Land
• Property
• There are 30,000 verses in the Bible, and an Edenic theme runs through them all. But most church-goers only know about John 3:16

14. The Fall of Man and Sin

The Bible does not speak of the "fall" of man. It was not a "fall," as in "Oops! I fell!"

It was a rebellion.

It was war against God. Man took the side of Satan against God.

The "Evolution" of Man

Satan did not describe rebellion as a "fall," but as an evolution into godhead.

Genesis 3
⁴  And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
⁵ For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

"Knowing good and evil" in Genesis 3:5 carries the force of determining good and evil for yourselves. History shows that when man obeys God, life is heavenly; when man is his own god, as John Adams put it, “this world would be something not fit to be mentioned in public company — I mean hell.”

John Milton, in his work Paradise Lost, put these words in Satan's mouth:

To reign is worth ambition, though in Hell:
Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.

In other words, I choose to be my own god,

even if I have to live in dark poverty, suffering, and chaos,

rather than obediently admit that God is God,

even if that leads to enjoying paradise and utopia.

"Ye shall be as gods" (Genesis 3:5).
"gods" in the Bible refers most often to archists.

Man's basic sin against God is the desire to "be as gods."

“But his subjects hated him and sent a delegation after him, saying, ‘We don’t want this man to rule over us!’” (Luke 19:14)

An aspect of this rebellion is the desire to get something for nothing, or something without working for it. (James Jordan has argued that Adam and Eve would eventually have been allowed to eat of the Tree of Knowledge, but they were required to work for it first and earn it.)

This desire is a major motivation for forming "the State" and conquering other people. (The other one being vengeance.)

God is man's Governor. Man rejects God's Government by desiring to be his own governor. Rather than serving his neighbor, fallen man seeks to rule over his neighbor as an archist.

God punishes man for his rebellion by granting him his wishes. When man lusts for political power, God gives it to him.

Then in His mercy, God saves the repentant sinner by delivering him from the political disease.

If we obey God's commandments, we will not have war; God will not send "the sword" against us.

I will argue below that peace is possible only in a state of "an-archy," that is, the absence of "archists." This too is a "paradigm shift."

When we disobey God's Law, God sends archists as a judgment/curse against us.

We see this repeatedly in the Scripture. Israel lusts after gentile archists (like Moloch, which means "king"). God delivers Israel into the hand of these pagan archists, and Israel cries out for deliverance, and God delivers them by sending a deliverer, or "savior" or "judge" who "saves" Israel from the pagan archists.

Excursus:
Here is an "excursus" on God's "ordaining" of "the sword." It should make you an anarchist -- if you read all the verses.

Thesis 13: The Fall of Man

The Depravity of Man

The Fall of Man -- the Desire to "“To Be As Gods” -- “Knowing Good and Evil” 
To build the Kingdom of Man without working (playing God, oppressing others).

Thesis 12: The Fall Of The Angels

15. Salvation

Micah says "no one will make them afraid."

Who are the people who make other people "afraid?"

Archists.

God says He will deliver (save) His people from archists.

We saw above how fallen man seeks to rule over other men. God sends these men as curses on those who rebel against His Law. But He blesses those who obey Him with freedom from archists; by saving them from archists.

Archists as Curse

We see this repeatedly in the Scripture. Israel lusts after gentile archists (like Moloch, which means "king"). God delivers Israel into the hand of these pagan archists, and Israel cries out for deliverance, and God delivers them by sending a deliverer, or "savior" or "judge" who "saves" Israel from the pagan archists.

Here's how Nehemiah sums up Israel's history of rebelling against God's Law and then being "saved" from the consequences of their disobedience:

Nehemiah 9:23-31

²³ You also multiplied their children as the stars of heaven,
And brought them into the land
Which You had told their fathers
To go in and possess.
²⁴ So the people went in
And possessed the land;
You subdued before them the inhabitants of the land,
The Canaanites,
And gave them into their hands,
With their kings
And the people of the land,
That they might do with them as they wished.
²⁵ And they took strong cities and a rich land,
And possessed houses full of all goods,
Cisterns already dug, vineyards, olive groves,
And fruit trees in abundance.
So they ate and were filled and grew fat,
And delighted themselves in Your great goodness.
²⁶ “Nevertheless they were disobedient
And rebelled against You,
Cast Your law behind their backs
And killed Your prophets, who testified against them
To turn them to Yourself;
And they worked great provocations.
²⁷ Therefore You delivered them into the hand of their enemies,
Who oppressed them;
And in the time of their trouble,
When they cried to You,
You heard from heaven;
And according to Your abundant mercies
You gave them saviors who saved them
From the hand of their enemies.
²⁸ “But after they had rest,
They again did evil before You.
Therefore You left them in the hand of their enemies,
So that they had dominion over them;
Yet when they returned and cried out to You,
You heard from heaven;
And many times You delivered them according to Your mercies,
²⁹ And testified against them,
That You might bring them back to Your law.
Yet they acted proudly,
And did not heed Your commandments,
But sinned against Your judgments,
‘Which if a man does, he shall live by them.’
And they shrugged their shoulders,
Stiffened their necks,
And would not hear.
³⁰ Yet for many years You had patience with them,
And testified against them by Your Spirit in Your prophets.
Yet they would not listen;
Therefore You gave them into the hand of the peoples of the lands.
³¹ Nevertheless in Your great mercy
You did not utterly consume them nor forsake them;
For You are God, gracious and merciful.

God sent Israel many "saviors." When Bible-believers think of a "savior," they think of someone who will save Israel "out of the hand of their enemies." The angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph, and said:

Matthew 1:18-23

Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins.

A first-century Jew, steeped in the Scriptures, would hear this as a promise to save "His people" from the consequences of their sins, the curses imposed on them by God because of their rebellion against His Law. John the Baptist's father "Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit, and prophesied, saying"

Luke 1:67-80

⁶⁸ “Blessed is the Lord God of Israel,
For He has visited and redeemed His people,
⁶⁹ And has raised up a horn of salvation for us
In the house of His servant David,
⁷¹ That we should be saved from our enemies
And from the hand of all who hate us,
⁷⁴ To grant us that we,
Being delivered from the hand of our enemies,
Might serve Him without fear,
⁷⁵ In holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our life.
⁷⁹ To guide our feet into the way of peace.”

The Babe born in Bethlehem saved Christians in the first century from their enemies: the Jews who collaborated with Rome. Then the Rock destroyed Rome, and has filled the earth with Christian Civilization -- The City of God. The growing and filling continues.

Let's look at "salvation" from three perspectives:

• Salvation in Bible
• Salvation under Idols
• Salvation in the U.S.A.

Salvation in the Pages of the Bible

When most Christians think of "salvation," they think of going to heaven after they die.

The purpose of this section is not to deny that equation, but to put the word "salvation" in a more Biblically holistic perspective.

Most of the time, in most of the verses, "salvation," "save," or "savior" in the Bible does not refer to anything after death.

Consider this classic Christmas text:

Luke 2:8-20

⁸ Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. ⁹ And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. ¹⁰ Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. ¹¹ For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. ¹² And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.”

¹³ And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying:

¹⁴        “Glory to God in the highest,
              and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

What would a first-century Israelite think if an angel of the LORD announced the coming of a "savior?" They would doubtless think back to all the saviors in the [Old Testament] Scriptures. Those saviors did not just promise a ticket to heaven when everyone died. They promised to save Israel from the consequences of her sins. Those consequences included "the Sword." Freedom from the sword is one aspect of the holistic Biblical concept of Salvation, and one of the benefits of a Biblical savior. The savior brought the benefits ("blessings") of obedience upon a people who had not been obedient, but who had repented of their disobedience.

Jesus was a Savior in this Biblical tradition. He came to bring Salvation. He came to save His people from their enemies, so they could get on with the work of building the New Jerusalem.

Biblical Definition of Salvation

Read every verse in the Bible which contains the words "save," "savior," or "salvation." The vast majority of those verses are not talking about being converted and going to heaven when you die. They are talking about being delivered from archists.

"Salvation" =  “Vine & Fig Tree”  

The name "Jesus" comes from the Hebrew word Yhowshuwa', which is derived from yasha', which is the Hebrew word most frequently translated "save" or "salvation."

Here is a part of a definition of the Hebrew word for "save" [יָשַׁע yasha] from a mainstream theological text:

Eden and Salvation - David Chilton

"None to make afraid" verses

Because "Gospel" is the "good news" that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the King, Gospel = archistlessness.

A Biblical "Savior" Brings Biblical "Salvation"

"Salvation" is holistic/cultural/economic, not just a ticket to heaven when you die. We'll see this below in more detail.

1. The word: yasha
2. The deed: what "saviors" did -- they did just not pass out tickets to heaven when you die.

"Savior" = "Deliverer" (Deliver from evil, from enemies)

1. evil/enemies were raised up by God as "punishment" or incentive to repent
2. evil/enemies are the consequence of unrepentant sin
   1. idolatry - false religion
   2. political alliances with pagans
   3.  trusting in violence/archism
3. Deliverance from evil = saved from sins (and the consequences of sin, which are God's judgments)

The Hebrew word in the Bible

Read every verse in the Bible with this Hebrew word. Read the paragraph in which the verse is found. Become acquainted with the story -- the "narrative" -- in which this paragraph is found, and walk away with a different vision of "salvation."

Salvation

Anarchist optimillennialism is a new paradigm. A new way of looking at human social organization ("government").

And a new way of looking at "salvation."

Let's elaborate a bit on the "blessings" and "cursings" which are found in God's Law (e.g., Leviticus 26).

When Israel rejected the government of God and lusted after Gentile archists, God delivered Israel into the hands of her archist lover/idol. Then Israel cried out for deliverance from these archists. This deliverance is the doorway through which we can gain a larger understanding of the Biblical doctrine of "salvation."

Most Christians think "salvation" means "going to heaven when I die." They focus on a tiny fraction of the Bible, and ignore the vast majority.

"Salvation" -- in the vast majority of Biblical texts -- means "anarchism." "Salvation" means a "libertarian" society. Some would call it an "anarcho-capitalist" society.

The Libertarian Party requires party members to affirm but one proposition:

I do not believe in or advocate
the initiation of force
as a means of achieving political or social goals.

People who will not make this pledge are "archists." They believe they have a right to impose their will on other people by force, usually by "the sword" -- political or military power.

Being an "archist" is un-Christian (Mark 10:42-45). We are not to spread Christianity with the sword. We are not to vote for archists who promise to bring salvation.

What is "Salvation" in the Bible?

Not "What is 'salvation' in the minds of most professing Christians?"

What does the Bible say?

The Hebrew word most frequently translated "salvation" or "save" is yasha'. In various derivatives it can be translated "deliverance," "victory," "safety," "security," and "welfare." (The Greek equivalent also carries the idea of "health.")

What does the government promise? We have a Department of Health, a Welfare Department, a Department of Homeland Security -- all components of the Biblical concept of "salvation." "The Government" (a.k.a. "civil government") is always a substitute for God. God is our Governor (Isaiah 33:22), and He brings salvation.

Consider again the Hebrew word for "save" or "bring salvation" -- "yasha." Consider again that very mainstream, non-anarcho-preterist scholar's definition of that Hebrew word:

Yasha and its derivatives are used 353 times. The root meaning . . . is “make wide” or make sufficient: this root is in contrast to sarar, “narrow,” which means “be restricted” or “cause distress.” To move from distress to safety requires deliverance. [T]he majority of references to salvation speak of Yahweh granting deliverance from real enemies and out of real catastrophes. That which is wide connotes freedom from distress and the ability to pursue one’s own objectives. Thus salvation is not merely a momentary victory on the battlefield; it is also the safety and security necessary to maintain life unafraid of numerous dangers.
Hartley, John E. (1999). 929 יָשַׁע ["yasha"], in R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer, Jr. & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, vol. 1, pp. 414-15.

Consider first the phrase "safety and security necessary to maintain life." This is also the "safety and security necessary to maintain a prosperous and humane society." In order to go to WalMart and buy a shopping cart full of food and household accessories, there has to be a global network of businesses who create and transport millions of products by making billions of economic calculations and transactions. Millions of human beings have to get to work on time, run the trucks on schedule, choose to work instead of stealing and robbing, and work the graveyard shift so that when you get to the store, all the items you want are neatly arranged on the shelf in an order which makes it possible for you to quickly find what you need and get on with life.

Who should we trust for "safety" and "security?" What does the Bible say?

The Bible repeatedly says that if we obey God the Lawgiver by loving our neighbor through productive service, God our Judge and King will "bless" us with peace and prosperity. "Peace" means "safety" and "security." These are all components of the Biblical picture of holistic "salvation."

But there are those who want to supplant God the King by promising to give us salvation if we will vote for them.

• "safety" is part of holistic Biblical "salvation"
  • the government has a "National Highway Traffic Safety Administration."
  • it also has an Occupational Safety and Health Administration
  • there's the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
  • don't forget the Consumer Product Safety Commission
  • I'm sure you check the government's FoodSafety website every day, just like Betsy Ross, Dolley Madison, and Abigail Adams used to do.
• "security" is part of "salvation"
  • we've been trained to think the government provides "National Security."
  • or " Homeland Security
  • or Social Security (not)

"Safety" and "security" are blessings from God, not government. We enjoy "safety" and "security" when our nation is Christian and observes "the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God," that is, the Bible. Nobody enjoys "safety" and "security" when the government becomes a tyranny which bans the Bible and people behave like pagans.

• The Bible promises that as Christianity pervades a society, even pagans will start acting like Christians.
• Then we will all enjoy "salvation."
•  Jesus is "the savior of all men, especially those who believe." 1 Timothy 4:10

Here are other key descriptions of Biblical "salvation," according to our mainstream source above:

• being placed in a "wide" space
• having "sufficient" quantities of things needed (God's Covenant promises more than you "need")
• opposite: having your options "narrowed"     \   Q.: Who does these things?
• opposite: being "restricted"                             | A.: Archists
• opposite: experiencing "distress"                   /   "Blessing" = "salvation" = freedom from archists
• "the ability to pursue one’s own objectives" without someone else telling you what to do and imposing their will on you by force
• living life unafraid of "dangers" [dangerous people, i.e., archists who threaten your liberty and prosperity]

The Bible describes "salvation" as being placed onto a large piece of property that supplies everything you need:

• Psalm 118:5 
  I called upon the LORD in distress: the LORD answered me, and set me in a large place.
• 2 Samuel 22:20 
  He brought me forth also into a large place: He delivered me, because He delighted in me.
• Genesis 26:22 
  He moved from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it; so he called it Rehoboth, saying, “Now the LORD has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.” 
• Hosea 4:16 
  For Israel slideth back as a backsliding heifer: can now the LORD feed them as a lamb in a large place?
• Psalm 31:8 
  and hast not delivered me into the hand of the enemy; Thou hast set my feet in a broad place.
• Psalm 18:19 
  He brought me forth also into a large place; he delivered me, because he delighted in me.
• Psalm 66:12 
  Thou hast caused men to ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water: but thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place.
• Psalm 69:35
  For God will save Zion, and will build the cities of Judah: that they may dwell there, and have it in possession.

In the Bible, Godly men are shown to be concerned about living in a “large” land. Of course, in a more agrarian society, “large” is better, as far as land goes. But when God promises to save us by putting us into a “large land,” it’s clear that more is included than going to heaven after living for decades in a narrow land before we up and die. What is the modern equivalent of a “large land?” It varies from person to person, but it includes some form of economic prosperity and political Liberty. “Liberty” and “large” are Biblical concepts we are not familiar enough with. Let’s review them and put them in our brains, so that as we read the Bible we will be more aware of them.

• Genesis 34:21
  “These men are at peace with us. Therefore let them dwell in the land and trade in it. For indeed the land is large enough for them. Let us take their daughters to us as wives, and let us give them our daughters.
• Exodus 3:8
  So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites.
• Judges 18:10
  When you go, you will come to a secure people and a large land. For God has given it into your hands, a place where there is no lack of anything that is on the earth.” 
• 1 Chronicles 4:40
  And they found rich, good pasture, and the land was broad, quiet, and peaceful; for some Hamites formerly lived there.
• Nehemiah 7:4
  Now the city was large and spacious, but the people in it were few, and the houses were not rebuilt.
• Nehemiah 9:35
  For they have not served You in their kingdom,
        Or in the many good things that You gave them,
        Or in the large and rich land which You set before them;
        Nor did they turn from their wicked works.

One of the blessings promised to the obedient in the Bible is "liberty."

• LEVITICUS XXV.X (25:10)
  proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all its inhabitants.
• Psalm 119:45
  And I will walk at liberty,
           For I seek Your precepts.
• Isaiah 61:1
        “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me,
        Because the LORD has anointed Me
        To preach good tidings to the poor;
        He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
        To proclaim liberty to the captives,
        And the opening of the prison to those who are bound; 
• Jeremiah 34:8
  This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people who were at Jerusalem to proclaim liberty to them:
  Jeremiah 34:15-17
  15 Then you recently turned and did what was right in My sight—every man proclaiming liberty to his neighbor; and you made a covenant before Me in the house which is called by My name. 16 Then you turned around and profaned My name, and every one of you brought back his male and female slaves, whom you had set at liberty, at their pleasure, and brought them back into subjection, to be your male and female slaves.’
  17 “Therefore thus says the LORD: ‘You have not obeyed Me in proclaiming liberty, every one to his brother and every one to his neighbor. Behold, I proclaim liberty to you,’ says the LORD—’to the sword, to pestilence, and to famine! And I will deliver you to trouble among all the kingdoms of the earth.
• 2 Corinthians 3:17
  Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
• James 1:25
  But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.
• James 2:12
  So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty.

"Liberty" means "freedom." But "freedom from what?" In the pages of the Bible, the answer is almost always: "freedom from archists."

One of the blessings promised in Leviticus 26 is "peace," or freedom from those who bear the sword. Those who bear the sword are archists. They are also called in the Bible "enemies."

Of course, "freedom from" is always for the purpose of "freedom to" -- freedom to serve and obey the Lord.

The name "Jesus" comes from the Hebrew word Yhowshuwa', which is derived from yasha', which is the Hebrew word most frequently translated "salvation." "Jesus" means God will save. It was said of Jesus at His birth:

Luke 1:71  

That we should be saved from our enemies
and from the hand of all that hate us;

74 That He would grant unto us, that we
being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve Him [exercise dominion and build His Kingdom] without fear [living under our "vine and fig tree" "with no one to make them afraid" (Micah 4:1-7)]

This is what "salvation" means in the Bible.

The specific enemies Christians had in the first century were of the Jewish establishment, but I believe Jesus the Messiah will save us from our enemies today -- whoever they may be, whenever we live -- if we obey God's Law.

"But isn't the real meaning of salvation 'being forgiven of your sins and going to heaven when you die?'"

Most church-goers ask this.

Forgiveness of sins = restoration to fellowship with God,
Forgiveness of sins = restoration to our original Edenic Mandate to build the Kingdom of God.

Forgiveness of sins is a means to an end, not an end in itself.

The overwhelming majority of Christians today agree with Jews who say that Jesus is not the Messiah. The vast majority of Christians believe that Jesus will not reign as Messiah until there is a second Christmas -- a second Advent, or "second coming of Christ" -- which is really the first coming of the Christ, since at His first Advent Jesus came only as "savior," -- that is, someone who secures for us a ticket to heaven when we die -- and not as "Christ" -- that is, someone who delivers us out of the hand of our enemies, sets us in a wide open place, opens the bounties of heaven, and makes our land like Eden, so we can enjoy a  “Vine & Fig Tree” society.

Many Christians in our day say that the Jews rejected Jesus as their Messiah, therefore He could only offer to be their Savior. This is so confused it's hard to know where to begin.

1. Most Jews accepted Jesus as Messiah; only the corrupt upper-crust establishment rejected Jesus (Acts 2:41, 47; 4:4; 5:14; 6:7; 12:24; 19:20; 21:20; Matthew 13:31-33; John 12:24,42; 3:2; 11:45; 19:38; Colossians 1:6).
2. Jesus' claim to be a "savior" (i.e., to forgive sins [but not to punish sins as a Messiah would]), was considered blasphemous by the Jews who rejected Jesus as Messiah (Matthew 9:2-8; Mark 2:3-12, Luke 5:18-26)
3. Just because someone does not want Jesus to reign over him as Messiah is no impediment to Jesus (Luke 9:14,27). Jesus reigned as Messiah over the apostate Jews by directing Titus to destroy those who rejected Jesus as Messiah with the Roman legions in AD 70.
4. There is no Biblical distinction between a "Messiah" and a "Savior."
   Most Christians today say Jesus came 2,000 years ago only as "Savior," and only when He comes again (in our future) will He reign as "Messiah." But if you look at how the Scriptures use the words "save" and "savior," you can easily see why no 1st-century Jew would have understood such a distinction. It is not in the Bible. In the Scriptures, "saviors" did the work of "messiahs." We saw above how Nehemiah says God sent many "saviors" to Israel after they became dissatisfied with their Gentile archist lovers:

   Nehemiah 9:27

   Therefore Thou deliveredst them into the hand of their enemies that vexed them: yet in the time of their affliction, when they cried unto Thee, Thou heardest them from the heaven, and through Thy great mercies Thou gavest them saviors, who saved them out of the hand of their adversaries (cp. Luke 1:71,74).

   The idea that Jesus is only a "savior" but not the Messiah is not a Biblically tenable position. There is almost no hint in the Bible that any "savior" would do nothing to "save" his people in this life, but only in the next.

A "savior" brings "salvation." Doesn't that make sense? But what is "salvation?" It is not, Biblically speaking, going to heaven after you die, having lived a life without being "saved" in the holistic Biblical sense of that word. In the Bible, saviors brought freedom from archists for God's People. See the discussion of the Hebrew word for "salvation" above.

These "saviors" were sometimes called "judges." The various "kings" of Israel could also serve as "saviors" because they would "save" Israel from her oppressors (1 Samuel 9:16; 2 Samuel 3:18, etc.).

"Saviors" in the Old Testament served what we could call primarily "messianic" functions." Biblically speaking, "savior" is virtually a synonym for "messiah." And "Messiah" is a political term, that is, a term that does not have primary reference to us after death, but reference to our lives today, in their holistic cultural, social, political, civil, economic, recreational, and legal dimensions.

A "Messiah" brings political changes. A "savior" brings "salvation." But the Biblical definition of "salvation" is not just a short-term relief on the battlefield, but long-term liberty from archists. See the definition of the Hebrew word for "salvation," yasha, which we looked at above.

A true "savior" is the Messiah who brings Christian civilization, that is, "salvation" over the long haul, now over twenty centuries.  See the five books listed here: Christian civilization. (That's an important link.)

Jay Wile writes (An Interesting Observation from China | Proslogion):

Recently, I read an article by Dr. Paul Copan entitled, “Jesus-Shaped Cultures.”¹ In that article, he makes the case for how faithful Christians have transformed the societies they have served. For example, he discusses the Ethiopian famine that took place in 1984 and 1985. Brian Stewart, a CBC journalist, noted that it was Christians who were on the front lines of the famine, giving aid to the suffering. Their service was such a powerful witness to him that it started him on his journey to becoming a Christian himself.

While Copan’s article is interesting, it led me to a book that I thought was even more interesting. It is entitled Jesus in Beijing: How Christianity Is Transforming China And Changing the Global Balance of Power, and it is written by David Aikman, who served as a journalist for Time Magazine from 1971 to 1994. In his role as a Time correspondent, he visited China several times and even lived in China for two years as Time’s bureau chief. He returned to China in 2002 to gather the information he needed to complete his book.

He begins the book in a dramatic way. It is worth quoting at length:²

The eighteen American tourists visiting China weren’t expecting much from the evening’s lecture. They were already exhausted from a day of touring in Beijing. But what the speaker had to say astonished them.

The Victory of Reason Listen Now | Download

“One of the things we were asked to look into was what accounted for the success, in fact, the pre-eminence of the West all over the world,” he said. “We studied everything we could from the historical, political, economic, and cultural perspective. At first, we thought it was because you had more powerful guns than we had. Then we thought it was because you had the best political system. Next, we focused on your economic system. But in the past twenty years, we have realized that the heart of your culture is your religion: Christianity. That is why the West has been so powerful. The Christian moral foundation of social and cultural life was what made possible the emergence of capitalism and then the successful transition to democratic politics. We don’t have any doubt about this.”

This was not coming from some ultra-conservative think tank in Orange County, California or from Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia. This was a scholar from China’s premier academic research institute, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) in Beijing in 2002. (emphasis mine)

In his book, Aikman suggests that Christianity will transform China to the point where it won’t even be communist anymore. He suggests that in the next thirty years, nearly one-third of China could be Christian, making it one of the largest Christian nations in the world and a strong ally of the U.S.

2. David Aikman, Jesus in Beijing: How Christianity Is Transforming China And Changing the Global Balance of Power, pp. 5-6

See also: The Iona Institute | Christianity the reason for West's success, say the Chinese

In asking whether Habakkuk's prophecy has been or is being fulfilled, and whether the knowledge of God covers the earth as the waters cover the sea, don't ask those who should admit that they know the Lord; ask the Scriptures whether they ought to admit it. Sometimes they won't, but many times they will. Truth is truth, whether we admit it or not.

Today, the Chinese are "streaming" to Zion (Micah 4:1-2). So are people in Latin America, Africa, and even India, according to Philip Jenkins. Humanity has been flowing to Zion for 2,000 years, but the rate may be accelerating in other countries, even as it decelerates in our own country. This acceleration is not yet on the radar of American archists. It will dramatically increase when Christians become widely recognized as a community of peacemakers who resolve disputes through forgiveness and (temporary, it is hoped) excommunication (Matthew 18:15-17). Peacemaking and dispute resolution will be the result of "revival" and will exsanguinate the State.

Conversion is from Autonomy to Theonomy. It means "the Last Adam" restores us to the Edenic position enjoyed by the first Adam, before the Fall. We are transformed from rebels to friends, and we begin the work of clearing the thorns and thistles left by the first Adam, and building the Garden-City of the New Jerusalem, the temple/palace of the Last Adam.

If God offered to bring salvation in the holistic Biblical sense -- beating swords into plowshares, millions of lives spared, living peacefully under their Vine & Fig Tree, but you would not to go heaven when you die, would you give up heaven for yourself in order to procure Biblical salvation for billions of people?

An Offer from God

16. Jerusalem vs. Athens

Micah says God's Law -- the blueprints for a  Vine & Fig Tree society -- will come from Jerusalem.

800 years later, the church father Tertullian would ask:

Popular conservative writers like Eric Metaxas, Ben Shapiro, and Larry Arnn, claim that Western Civilization is the combination of Jerusalem and Athens. Unpopular conservative writers like Cornelius Van Til and Gary North contend that Jerusalem and Athens are at war, and that when Athens ascends, Jerusalem declines, and civilization along with it.

Van Til said “There is no alternative but that of theonomy and autonomy.” "Conservatives" like Leo Strauss, who claim Western Civilization is the combination of Jerusalem and Athens, but who do not agree with Van Til, end up discarding Jerusalem (Theonomy) and pursuing autonomy. "Listen to the Academy" they said in centuries past. "Listen to 'the Science'" they say today. Evolution; "wear a mask"; Climate Change.

The "Classical" Ideas of Athens

In a nutshell, Autonomy and Statism

1. Autonomy: Rebellion Against God

The measure of all things was either individual man or collective man (the Empire). This resulted in Debauchery, Superstition, and Corruption.

1. Pederasty. This is the homosexual union of an older married man with a teenage boy. The men often met the boys on their way to the gymnasium, the building in which the boys danced and played sports naked. The men then became the boys' lovers and teachers.

2. Demonism. The Greeks were polytheistic. Greek family life rested on a system of sacrifice to demons that masqueraded as the spirits of dead male relatives. So did clan life, which became political life. These demons also presented themselves as underground gods and spirits, who demanded sacrifices and special rituals to keep from destroying people. On this point, see the works of the early 20th century archaeologist-historian, Jane Ellen Harrison. This never gets into the textbooks, although specialists are well aware of it. (See on Socrates, below.)

3. Warfare. At the center of the literature of classical Greece was Homer's poem, The Iliad. It is the story of how Achilles' resentment against King Agamemnon raged because the king took his kidnapped concubine for himself. All the other men had concubines for the ten years they were at war. But no children are mentioned by Homer. Now that's real Greek mythology! Their wives stayed home and kept the ritual home fires burning -- to placate the family's departed male spirits. Athens destroyed itself in Pericles' needless imperial war against Sparta. Then the Macedonians conquered war-ravaged Greece. But the textbooks praise Pericles as a pillar of wisdom, reprinting Thucydides' posthumous version of Pericles' suicidal imperial oration.

4. Slavery. At least one-third of Athens was enslaved. The figure was as high in Sparta. Every household owned a slave. This provided leisure for their owners, who despised physical labor as beneath them -- servile. Slavery was a universal institution in Greece.

5. Autonomy. Greek philosophy was based on the ideal of man's mind as completely sovereign -- no personal God allowed.
(Well, not quite. Socrates claimed he was given guidance in his thinking by a demon (daimon). But rationalistic scholars, beginning with Plato, have always downplayed this. They have sometimes said this was just hyperbolic literary language. Socrates could not really have believed in a demon. After all, they don't.)

6. Welfare State. At least one-third of all male Athenians were on the government's payroll in the time of Pericles.

7. Human Sacrifice. This was a basic theme in Greek literature. It was part of Athenian religious liturgy. There was no widespread movement to decry the earlier practice. The great expert here was Lord Acton, who wrote a long-ignored essay, "Human Sacrifice," in 1864. It is online here. It is included in Volume 3 of Selected Writings of Lord Acton, published by the Liberty Fund. From the day he published it in order to refute the great historian Macaulay, historians have refused to incorporate it in their narratives. It is way too embarrassing.

8. Cyclical View of Time. The Greeks did not believe in long-term progress or a final judgment -- just endless cycles forever: rise and fall, rise and fall. According to the historian of science, Stanley Jaki, this was why the Greeks never developed science, only technologies.

9. Female Inferiority. Wives were only for procreation. They could not be citizens. They had no legal rights. A man needed a male heir to perform the ritual sacrifices to feed him after he died. Women had no political influence except as prophetesses and mistresses.

You would not want to live in ancient Greece or Rome. See also this and this. You would say they were "uncivilized." Bishop Augustine was saddened by the fall of Rome, but Salvian the Presbyter understood that real civilization is based on Christian morality: Salvian rejoiced at the fall of the Roman Empire.

2.  Government by Men rather than by God

There were in fact wise old men in Greece and Rome who could see that their "civilization" was debauched and corrupt. America's Founders often quoted these dissidents. But what standard did the dissidents use to measure Greece and Rome? Ultimately, the dissidents had no solid place to stand in order to critique their crumbling empire. They had no objective standard outside themselves and their own society. They basically had the same world-and-life-view as the most corrupt and debauched members of society.

So an important category of "classical" ideas is the idea of "government" -- the Philosopher-Kings, or the wise old men who would guide society to prosperity. Emperors claimed to be guided by demons.

Jerusalem vs. Athens
Theonomy vs. Autonomy
Biblical Law vs. "Natural Law"

James 1:27
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

James 4:4
You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

A friend of Athens is the enemy of God.

Theonomy and The State

Chapter 19 of the Westminster Confession seems to endorse "Theonomy," but it actually repudiates it, and is fundamentally flawed.

• Where the Reformers Went Wrong

Section 4 of chapter 19 says:

4. To them also, as a body politic, He gave sundry judicial laws, which expired together with the State of that people; not obliging any other now, further than the general equity thereof may require.

This statement is a serious error. This is based on Greco-Roman categories, not the categories of Hebrew Law, or Biblical Law. We must consider four key terms:

• body politic
• judicial laws
• expired
• general equity

Israel was not a "body politic" in the conventional sense of "politics." Our word "politics" comes from the Greek word polis, which can be translated "city," "city-state," or even "empire." Babylon was a city and an empire. Rome was a city and an empire. Augustine wrote a book called

• The City of God.

This stands in contrast to "The City of Man." 

• POLIS: The Empire of Man vs. the City of God

When did "the body politic" of Israel "expire?" AD 70? But didn't true, believing, Israel continue past the destruction of Jerusalem under the government of the Christ, the Messiah? 1 Peter 2:9.

Israel was not a kingdom of politicians, but a "kingdom of priests" (Exodus 19:6). Israel did not become a "political" body until 1 Samuel 8, when Israel rejected God as her King (as the text explicitly reveals), choosing to emulate the pagan nations around her. It was not God's intention that Israel "mature" from a tribe-based kingdom of priests to a polis-based kingdom of politicians. The Patriarch Abraham is our model, and it was Moses' goal that Israel become Abrahamic patriarchs again (Numbers 11:29).

• Government: Patriarchal or Political? 

The word "economics" comes from two Greek words meaning "law of the home." For Abraham, all law was economic law, no law was political law.

• Economic Man vs. Political Man 

Abraham's priest was Melchizedek (Genesis 14:18), just as our priest is Christ (Hebrews 7). Moses gave Israel "Levitical law." When Israel disobeyed God's "economic" law, there were laws that brought cleansing, or atonement, for violations of the "economic law." The Levitical priesthood was temporary; a kind of social "training wheels." Today the Levitical laws can only be obeyed by faith in Christ, "the Lamb of God" (John 1:29).

The "economic law" reflects the unchanging moral character of God.

• Is the Law of Moses (Torah) Still Binding? -- A Theonomic Answer

We could call this social system

PATRIAGORA:
Patria | Family + Market | Agora

The Bible says Abraham obeyed My Voice, and kept My Charge, My Commandments, My Statutes, and My Torah. (Genesis 26:4-5) In this entire body of laws, none could be called "judicial laws" or "civil laws." Moses gave laws for patriarchs (heads of families) not politicians.

None of God's Law in "the Scriptures" has "expired" as the Westminster Confession erroneously claims. We still have a High Priest and a Temple to attend to. We have a King who governs us. If we don't entertain guests on the roof of our house, we don't need to build a rail around the roof, but if we do have people up there, we need to follow Deuteronomy 22:8, which some today would call a "judicial law." In generations past, when Americans understood the Bible better than we do today, American juries awarded verdicts in tort cases where safety rails were not in place, based on Deuteronomy 22:8.

To say that these "expired" laws only bind governments if the government sees some kind of "general equity" is to open the door to totalitarianism. This "general equity" theory is based on Roman law, not Biblical Law. See this:

• The Myth of "The Judicial Law"
• and especially the link to Calvin's attack on Deuteronomy: Benjamin Nelson Describes Calvin's War on Biblical Law

This has very important implications. This is not just about "law." This line of argument is calling for a complete re-organization of human society. "Patriarchy" is, as Gary North describes it, a "Bottom-Up Theocracy."

The Duty of Man

Q. 5. What do the Scriptures principally teach?
A. The Scriptures principally teach what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man.
(Westminster Larger Catechism)

We live in a culture that does not want to be reminded of its duties. It prefers to talk about its "rights." I don't believe in "human rights."  I don't believe in "Justification by mere belief." I believe in Justification by Allegiance.