The border between New York and New Jersey is not worth spilling a drop of blood. Both states were at one time explicitly Christian, committed to advancing the Kingdom of Christ.
The border between Canada and The United States is not worth spilling a drop of blood. Both nations should be explicitly Christian, committed to advancing the Kingdom of Christ.
All nations and races should be joined together in the worship and service of Christ the King.
We propose the elimination of "national interests" and subordinating all borders to the interests of the Gospel of Christ.
We call this
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By the time you read to the bottom of this webpage, we hope you will agree with us on the most controversial claim of our day:
Jesus is the Christ
The name "Jesus" comes from the Hebrew word for "savior."
The word "Christ" is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew word for "Messiah" (anointed king).
Nobody believes that Jesus is currently reigning as the promised Messiah over a global Christocracy. If I can convince you that Jesus is the Christ, you and I may be the only two people on the planet who believe it.
This will completely change the way you look at the world, and the way you look at the Christian religion. We call this the “Vine & Fig Tree” worldview.
The “Vine & Fig Tree” worldview - Micah 4:1-7
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Notes
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Believing this prophecy and working for its fulfillment is what it means to be human. Walking in God's paths and converting aggression and hatred into healing and love is why God put us here.
Here are nine "Core Values" of "Christian Globalism" that can be seen in Micah's vision
Some are stated in a provocative, "politically incorrect" way.
Others are obvious and non-controversial -- until you try to practice them with any consistency.
There should be a university that offers a major in Christian Globalism.
Oh, wait . . . there was one. It was called Harvard College and was formed in 1636.
Too bad that Harvard doesn't exist anymore.
Micah 1:1 The Word of the Lord that came to Micah of Moresheth in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem. Micah 4:4 Micah 4:6 |
We believe the Bible is the Word of God. Some people call this "Bibliolotry." Fine. Whatever.
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Micah 4:1 And it will come about in the last days That the mountain of the House of the LORD Will be established as the chief of the mountains And it will be raised above the hills |
Jesus is the Christ, today. Right Now. | "The Mountain Established"
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And the peoples will stream to it. And many nations will come and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD And to the House of the God of Jacob, |
The World must be Christianized.
"All nations, all peoples"
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That He may teach us about His ways And that we may walk in His paths." For from Zion will go forth the Law Even the Word of the LORD from Jerusalem. |
Jesus alone is the Christ, the Lord, the King, the Lawgiver, the Judge | "His path, the Law-Word"
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And He will judge between many peoples And rebuke mighty, distant nations. Then they will hammer their swords into plowshares And their spears into pruning hooks; Nation will not lift up sword against nation And never again will they train for war. |
Peace through Peace, not through "Strength." | "Swords into Plowshares" |
And each of them will sit under his | "Patriarchy" is a hated word. It doesn't mean what you think it means. The monogamous heterosexual family is the root of civilization.
Homosexuals, transgenders, cross-dressers, and others who violate Biblical commands are undermining civil society. |
Vine and under
his fig tree, With no one to make them afraid. For the LORD of hosts has spoken. |
"Salvation" in the Bible means the restoration of the conditions of the Garden of Eden (Genesis 1-2)
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Though all the peoples walk Each in the name of his god, As for us, we will walk In the Name of the LORD our God forever and ever. |
"Character" is sometimes defined as "What you do when nobody is watching." It can also be defined as "What you do when you are being watched by people who oppose your values." Like your boss who might fire you if you come out in favor heterosexual marriage; your peers who accept the mainstream media; Antifa bloggers who threaten to "dox" you; etc. Character: The ability to stand against the crowd, in faith, in obedience to God. The commandments of God, lived out in practice. Examples What if all the politicians, university professors, TV commentators, bloggers, newspaper editors, rock stars, scientists, CEO's, athletes, authors, and think-tanks repudiate the Vine & Fig Tree vision and tell you not to believe it? We live in an age of perpetual adolescence. A "Revolt against maturity." Christians must Grow up. At the same time, we are called to Service. We are called to bless and pray for those who oppose us. The ultimate character trait is Love. |
In that day, saith the LORD, will I assemble her that halteth, and I will gather her that is driven out, and her that I have afflicted; And I will make her that halted a remnant, and her that was cast far off a strong nation: and the LORD shall reign over them in mount Zion from henceforth, even for ever. |
"No man is an island."
Community: Serving the weak rather than the powerful | The "driven out" and "afflicted"
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Jesus is the Christ
Jesus is the Messiah Today
Jesus is the King Right Now
All other kings are idols. All other governments are idolatrous.
This webpage will take a couple of hours to read. Understanding "Christian Globalism" is a lifelong task. Too bad you weren't able to study this in your state-controlled years of schooling.
I want to consider with you four subjects:
- The Bible
- Man and Society
- God and Government
- The Gospel
Within these four subjects are seven steps to prove that Jesus is the Christ, now reigning over a Global Christocracy.
- 1. The Bible
- • Daily Sharpening
- • Principles of Interpreting Prophecy
- • The Blessings of Obeying the Bible -- God's Standard (Blueprint)
- 2. Man and Society
- • Purpose of Man (Calling)
To build the Kingdom of God by working (obeying God, serving others)- • The Fall of Man -- the Desire to "be as gods"
To build the Kingdom of Man without working (playing God, oppressing others)- 3. The Kingdom of God and Salvation
- • God saves sinners (archists) from the consequences of their sins (archism)
- • God's Kingdom vs. Man's Government
- • Salvation = Freedom from archists.
- • The Vine & Fig Tree society.
- 4. The Vine & Fig Tree Gospel
In these seven themes there are 12 key Scripture texts I would like you to consider before we get to the verse which proves that Christian Globalism is the Gospel.
Bible 1. Acts 17:11 2. Proverbs 27:17 Prophecy: Principles of Interpretation 3. Isaiah 9:6-7 4. Daniel 2 5. Isaiah 65:17-20 Man's Purpose 6. Genesis 1:26-28 God's Blueprint 7. Leviticus 26 Government: Man's vs. God's 8. Isaiah 33:22 9. 1 Samuel 8 10. Mark 10:42-45 Salvation as Freedom from Archists 11. Over 300 "Salvation" Verses 12. Habakkuk 2:14 - Salvation and Civilization Christian Globalism is “the Gospel.”
Other subjects on this page:
| Self-Evident Truths | Theocracy | The Bible | God's Sovereignty | Theonomy | Eschatology |
| America | Capitalism | Christian Reconstruction | Education | Coaching | Church | Politics |
| Creationism | Prayer | Extremism! | Misunderstandings of Christian Globalism
We're ready to start the argument sequence.
I am a "Bible-believing" Christian. Feel free to accuse me of engaging in bibliolatry, fundamentalism, extremism, creationism, Calvinism, Theonomy, etc. Guilty as charged.
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The first text I want to impress upon you is 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.
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.
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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.
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I am not against "authorities" or "experts." I rely on them and quote them. 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.
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.
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.
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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.
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.
The idea that tens of thousands of human beings can live in one apartment building is provocative. There are seven billion human beings on earth today. The entire population of the earth can be "squeezed" into one-third of the state of Texas, each one enjoying a home with the population density of the home in which I grew up, with one-third of the state given to business and industry meeting all human needs, and one-third of the state given to parks and recreation. That leaves the other 49 states empty. The entire African continent would be uninhabited by human beings. Asia and India, with their billions of people, could live much more comfortably in Dubai-style apartments in one-third of the state of Texas. And thousands of years from now, when mankind has fulfilled God's command to "be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it" (Genesis 1:26-28; 9:1) and there are 700 billion, or a 1,000 billion (trillion) human beings on earth, the vast majority will be Christians. David Chilton writes:
6while 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!
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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.
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Daniel 2
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 Messianic Kingdom grows. Of its increase "there will be no end" (Isaiah 9:6-7). That means it will never be "perfect." Even in "the New Heavens and New Earth" 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.
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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."
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.
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.
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Such Promises ("blessings") are found in our fourth text: Leviticus 26 (see also Deuteronomy 28).
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.
Our text here is "the Dominion Mandate," Genesis 1:26-28. Also, Genesis 2:15,19
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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.
I have benefited from a book entitled, Images of the Spirit by Meredith G. Kline. Kline suggests that the physical theophanic Glory of the Holy Spirit, who hovered over the original earth creation in Gen 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." 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.
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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, Christians who believe Jesus is the only Legitimate Archist 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.
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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.
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.
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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.
Click bait. To "click," just keep reading.
Man's basic sin against God is the desire to "be as gods."
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.
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 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.
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."
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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.
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 Thou also multipliedst their children as the stars of heaven, and broughtest them into the land, concerning which thou hadst promised to their fathers, that they should go in to possess it.
- 24 So the children went in and possessed the land, and thou subduedst before them the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, and gavest them into their hands, with their kings, and the people of the land, that they might do with them as they would.
- 25 And they took strong cities, and a fat land, and possessed houses full of all goods, wells digged, vineyards, and oliveyards, and fruit trees in abundance: so they did eat, and were filled, and became fat, and delighted themselves in thy great goodness.
- 26 Nevertheless they were disobedient, and rebelled against thee, and cast thy law behind their backs, and slew thy prophets which testified against them to turn them to thee, and they wrought great provocations.
- 27 Therefore thou deliveredst them into the hand of their enemies, who vexed them: and in the time of their trouble, when they cried unto thee, thou heardest them from heaven; and according to thy manifold mercies thou gavest them saviours, who saved them out of the hand of their enemies.
- 28 But after they had rest, they did evil again before thee: therefore leftest thou them in the land of their enemies, so that they had the dominion over them: yet when they returned, and cried unto thee, thou heardest them from heaven; and many times didst thou deliver them according to thy mercies;
- 29 And testifiedst against them, that thou mightest bring them again unto thy law: yet they dealt proudly, and hearkened not unto thy commandments, but sinned against thy judgments, (which if a man do, he shall live in them;) and withdrew the shoulder, and hardened their neck, and would not hear.
- 30 Yet many years didst thou forbear them, and testifiedst against them by thy spirit in thy prophets: yet would they not give ear: therefore gavest thou them into the hand of the people of the lands.
- 31 Nevertheless for thy great mercies' sake thou didst not utterly consume them, nor forsake them; for thou art a gracious and merciful God.
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.
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.
"Salvation" is holistic/cultural/economic, not just a ticket to heaven when you die. We'll see this below in more detail.
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A society that is Biblical is archist-free. Our next three texts show this.
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Our fifth 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
Notice all three "branches" of government are seen here.
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.
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Israel rejected this concept.
Israel wanted visible physical archists like the Gentiles had. Emperors, Pharaohs, Molochs, and Caesars.
This brings us to our sixth key 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 seventh text, Mark 10:42-45, where the Greek word underlying the English word "anarchist" is found. (We looked at this passage above.)
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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.
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.
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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.
The Hebrew word for "save" or "bring salvation" is "yasha." Here is how a very mainstream, non-anarcho-preterist scholar defines 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.
I admit that I say many controversial things. That definition is not one of them. It is thoroughly Biblical. That's a very conservative, mainstream reference work. Let's look at it in more detail.
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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" 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.
Here are other key descriptions of Biblical "salvation," according to our mainstream source above:
The Bible describes "salvation" as being placed onto a large piece of property that supplies everything you need:
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.
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One of the blessings promised to the obedient in the Bible is "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.
Jesus: Savior but not Messiah?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.
- 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 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.).
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"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.
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.
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“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. This phenomenon is not yet on the radar of archists. It will dramatically increase when Christians become widely recognized as a Dispute Resolution Forum. It will exsanguinate the State by doing so.
Freedom from archists is the Gospel (good news).
Galatians 3:8
And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the Gospel unto Abraham, saying, "In thee shall all nations be blessed."
The Scripture preached "the Gospel" to Abraham.
Q.: What was the good news?
A.: World-wide blessing.
Q.: What is "blessing?"
A.: Salvation: Being delivered from our enemies and living securely in peace and prosperity, free from archists in a “Vine & Fig Tree” world.
Q.: How do we obtain God's blessing?
A.: By faithfully obeying His commandments.
Q.: Is that possible before the Second Coming?
A.: That is the promise of the New Covenant.
- Jeremiah 31
- 31 “Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah— 32 not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the LORD. 33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.
- Ezekiel 11:19-20
- 19 And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh:
20 That they may walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and do them: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.- Ezekiel 36:27
- 27 And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.
Jeremiah 31:33 + Galatians 3:8
New Covenant = obedience to God's Law
New Covenant = blessing throughout the world
New Covenant = salvation/peace/safety
New Covenant = freedom from archists
Your church will not likely support you in pursuing New Covenant obedience to God's Law.
Especially if God's Law is understood as prohibiting archism.
You may be interested in joining "The Perfect Club."
Your church may become your mission field.
We have worked hard to create this website, and we're still working on it.
If you feel you have been helped by our work, remember that "the laborer is worthy of his hire" (
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"Polis" is the Greek word behind the English world "political." It is most often translated "city-state." The City in ancient Greece was often an independent State. It was also wholly religious, not "secular" as states today purport to be.
For more on the polis see here. For Biblical grounds to equate "Kingdom" and "Polis" see here.
Because man is created in the Image of God (see Kline above), man is qualified/commanded to build God's Messianic Kingdom on earth.
It is a popular myth that
The Bible says the exact opposite:
For a thorough defense of this contrast, see Jesus and the Law of Moses (Torah). See also Why Jews Don't Believe In Jesus.
Can there be a "Good" Archist?
The British historian Lord Acton put it this way:
Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority; still more when you superadd the tendency or the certainty of corruption by authority. There is no worse heresy than that the office sanctifies the holder of it.
The exercise of political power is problematic. We should assume that "great men" -- that is, powerful men -- men who wield "the sword," that is, the compulsory force of "the government" -- are morally corrupt. Bad men, not good men. This assumption should be considered confirmed if he increases his own power during his time of "public service."
Nebuchadnezzar's statue (Daniel 2) represents the world before Christ. Before the Prince of Peace was born, the world was dominated by Satan and his minions. Life was violent. The "Preterist" believes that the Messiah bound the Strong Man at the beginning of the Messianic Reign. The Biblical "anarchist" believes that "civil government" has a demonic origin. Our job as Christians is to continue the task of putting to death the old man
Most church-goers believe that empires are good; that they are God-approved, morally legitimate, and socially necessary. You might think that many in Daniel's day and in Christ's day were doubtless confused by the prophecy of the destruction of the greatest empires in the world: Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. After all, didn't these great empires provide social order? Wouldn't their destruction lead to "anarchy?" On the other hand, maybe they were smarter than we are. Maybe they suffered under conquest, tribute, forced labor, confiscation of children, random conscription, and other horrors of depraved, child-sacrificing homosexual would-be gods that they rejoiced at the thought. If they read the Bible, they knew that empires were a punishment "ordained" by God against a people who rebelled against God's Commandments. God ordained evils like "the sword." The Bible says all empires are evil. Their history is demonic. Their demonic character was clearly seen at the time of Christ. The Empire represents a refusal to allow God to be Lawgiver, Judge and King.
The claim that the binding of the demonic Strong Man occurred in the past, and the call to abolish archism in the present, are not refuted by a common misunderstanding of Romans 13. That passage is about the demonic "powers." God sovereignly controls all things, but that does not mean that God gives all things His moral seal-of-approval. The State has God's Seal-of-DISapproval. Our website on Romans 13 covers these issues in more detail:
The New Testament was written in the last days of the Old Covenant. The "night" of the Old Age was passing (Hebrews 8:13). We are Now in the Daytime of the New Covenant, and we are now to live in the Day (Romans 13:11-13; Luke 1:78; Malachi 4:2; Revelation 22:5; 1 John 2:8). In fact, as James Jordan points out, the entire Old Covenant economy could be viewed biblically as being the “night” and the New Covenant as the “day.”
The moon, of course, governs the night (Psalm 136:9; Jeremiah 31:35), and in a sense the entire Old Covenant took place at night. With the rising of the Sun of Righteousness (Malachi 4:2), the “day” of the Lord is at hand (Malachi 4:1), and in a sense the New Covenant takes place in the daytime. As Genesis 1 says over and over, first evening and then morning. In the New Covenant we are no longer under lunar regulation for festival times (Colossians 2:16–17). In that regard, Christ is our light.2
Following this same idea, Zacharias prophesies at the birth of John the Baptist that he would be “the Sunrise from on high” who shall “shine upon those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, To guide our feet into the way of peace” (Luke 1:78–79). The light of Christ creates the everlasting day, so that in the New Jerusalem,
the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. In the daytime (for there will be no night there) its gates will never be closed; and they will bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it (Rev. 21:23–24; compare Is. 60:19–20).
Christians who live in the Day do not need to kill. God will hold us to the higher standard.
“And [Jesus] came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh. For through him we both [Jews and Gentiles] have access by one Spirit unto the Father” (Ephesians 2:17-18).
This is the truly “good news” of the Star of Jacob, the Star of Bethlehem, and the King which it announces.
The American Vision: Why a Star?
- 1 John 2:22
- Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son.
What is a "worldview?" It's becoming a popular word in some circles. A Worldview is a pair of glasses through which you view the world. It is the foundation upon which you build the structure of your life. It is the grid which filters and sorts billions of facts and makes sense out of life. A worldview can be active or passive, Christian or secular:
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Most Christians look forward to Micah's age of peace. Vine and Fig Tree* differs from most other Christian organizations in our commitment to bring Micah's "Vine and Fig Tree" prophecy of Christian Globalism to fulfillment before the Second Coming of Christ. This idea strikes many Christians as heretical -- and many atheists as a delusion. Before they will be ready to be shown how to do so, they need to go through a program to convince them that it is legitimate to try. Accordingly, we have divided this list of V&FT websites into two parts:
Once you accept the goal of working to fulfill Micah's "Vine and Fig Tree" Prophecy, you'll hunger for the tools. But Part 1 is the hardest part. It requires rethinking many old, cherished ideas. Once those ideas have been turned inside out, it is possible to begin developing the skills needed to build on Micah's blueprint.
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Vine and Fig Tree will be considered by most Americans to be a "radical" or "extremist" organization. Sam Adams' call for America to declare independence from Britain was considered by some to be radical and extremist, and many Americans did not actively support it.
Many people who are criticized as "extremists" are justly criticized for supporting a bad idea or cause (e.g., racism, jihad), and doing so in an obnoxious or violent manner. We believe there is no higher, more noble, or more ethical cause than working to bring about Micah's "Vine and Fig Tree" vision, and we are committed to doing so in a logical, winsome, and peaceful manner.
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But those who feel that Vine and Fig Tree is "extremist" are correct, as we'll see below. Let's begin with America's Declaration of Independence. That document declares that there are certain "self evident" truths. Anyone who begins with these self-evident truths and pursues them with any consistency ends up with Micah's "Vine and Fig Tree" vision, as America's Founding Fathers did:
There is nothing more important for any human being than to line up under these self-evident truths. Our conscience tells us about these truths. Atheists are self-contradictory and self-destructive. Tyrants and dictators are dangerous because they seek to suppress these self-evident truths so that they may "be as gods" (Genesis 3:5). And everyone who rejects the grace of God and His atonement through Christ seeks to gain atonement by various degrees of a masochistic self-flagellation or a sadistic scapegoating of others. You can see this in members of your family or church, co-workers at the office, and genocidal extermination by the governments of the earth.
That is why there is a fifth element of the "self-evident truths" articulated by America's Founders:
On TUESDAY, MARCH 20, 1781, "The United States in Congress assembled, agreed to the following proclamation":
The United States in Congress assembled, therefore do earnestly recommend, that Thursday the third day of May next, may be observed as a day of humiliation, fasting and prayer, that we may, with united hearts, confess and bewail our manifold sins and transgressions, and by sincere repentance and amendment of life, appease his righteous displeasure, and through the merits of our blessed Saviour, obtain pardon and forgiveness
On MARCH 6, 1799, President John Adams proclaimed a day of fasting and prayer, that Americans would
President Adams proclaimed a day of prayer to this Trinitarian God because "God's invisible attributes," "even His eternal power and Godhead," are "clearly understood through the things that are made," so that atheists "are without excuse." (Romans 1:20) Every human being ever created -- even those in so-called "pagan" lands -- need only take the next step to get back to God. We may not know exactly where that step will eventually lead us, but every human being, created in the Image of God, has a conscience that knows what the next step should be (Romans 2:14-15). This knowledge is often suppressed in favor of selfish and evil lifestyles (Romans 1:18-19). But this knowledge of the Triune God of the Bible is still "self-evident" to every human being.
America was clearly created as a Christian Theocracy.
"Theocracy" is a "self-evident" truth, though the word is passionately hated by many.
The word "theocracy" comes from two Greek words:
If God is over a nation as Ruler or "Supreme Judge," then that nation is "under God." Until very recently, America has always been considered as a nation "under God," which is to say God "rules" over America, which is to say America is a Theo-cracy. Obviously, given the statements of America's Founding Fathers above, America is a Christian Theocracy. More evidence of this is here:
Every nation is a "theocracy," because every nation has laws, and all laws are based on morality, and all morality is based on a religion or "worldview," and the ultimate principle that determines law, morals, and ethics is that system's god. The religion of "Secular Humanism" worships Man. In a "secular" nation, "Man" is god (which usually means "The State" is god or savior).
Secularists want Christians to believe that
Of course, Secular Humanists never ever use the word "theocracy" to describe their own position, only that of the group they want to demonize as the boogey-man or the bad guy. But Secular Humanists want their god (Man) to be the ruler of our nation, rather than the God of the Christian Bible.
Secularists say that those who support "Theocracy" are "extremists." Secularists are against Christian Theocracy, and extremely so. The only people who accomplish anything in this world are "extremists."
As we said above, your worldview is either Christian or non-Christian, active or passive.
So the character and destiny of America is determined by the battle between activist Christian extremists and activist atheist extremists. Lukewarm Christians and atheists will have their lives shaped by the activists.
America was founded by activist Christians. The "self-evident truths" they declare in the Declaration of Independence strike at the heart of the atheist theocracy dreamed of by Secular Humanists. Our defense of these self-evident truths should be whole-hearted, not apathetic. Jesus says those who are not "extremists" -- passionate about these self-evident truths -- are nauseating to Him (Revelation 3:16). Micah's Vine and Fig Tree vision is one of world peace and health, a product of the global worship of Jesus Christ. There's something dysfunctional about a human being who is not fanatically in favor of the end of war and the conditions Micah describes: world salvation. Atheists don't react with alarm at lukewarm Christians who are easily controlled by secularists, but don't like the idea of Christians bringing about the global worship of God. So for the most part, Micah's Vine and Fig Tree vision is either loved or hated. Only the less-than-human are lukewarm.
Vine and Fig Tree is an attempt to secure and pursue these self-evident truths with passion. So that makes us
ChristianExtremists.org, .info
The idea of building a social, political, and intellectual philosophy on The Bible strikes Modern Man as foolish. You probably had a college professor who said, "The Bible is just an archaic collection of contradictions written by primitive peasants who believed in myths and passed these fairy tales down with additional contradictions and mistakes." You may have read some of the recent best-sellers or seen some of the many websites on the Internet which claim that the Bible not only contains examples of violence, but that it defends slavery, oppression, domination, and mass murder. Religion makes the world worse, they say, because it is a defense of non-rational delusions, clerical hypocrisy and the Spanish Inquisition (according to these websites), and only atheistic secularism can create a rational society.
Vine & Fig Tree disagrees with the modern view. Christianity has civilized the barbarians, freed the slaves, opened hospitals, and defended the weak and the poor. Christianity built Western Civilization. Atheism has built gulags, concentration camps, bureaucracies, and other monuments to self-ism and power. As Christians mature and become more like Christ, they become more humane; as atheism becomes more consistent with its own premises, it becomes more tyrannical, destructive, genocidal, even suicidal.
We believe every word in the Bible is the Word of God. We believe God had complete control over the prophets and the authors of the books and letters in the Bible, and they wrote the exact words God wanted to be written. The words communicate absolute truth which mends the torn fabric of life when put into practice. The starting point in every one of the Vine & Fig Tree websites is the Bible.
The Bible is the most significant book in all of human history. Even if you're an atheist you can admit this, if only for the same reason TIME Magazine selected Adolph Hitler as "Man of the Year" in its January 2, 1939 issue, an award given not to the best, but only to the most "significant." The Bible has had more influence on more people, creating more powerful and lasting institutions, than any other book in human history. The Bible is the history and blueprints of Jews, Catholics, Protestants, and thousands of missionaries that have altered governments and shaped the lives of billions of people. More books have been influenced by the Bible than any other book. If you're an atheist, you may not like that influence, but the Bible is more "significant" than any other book.
Imagine that a UFO landed in front of the White House and a representative of an extraterrestrial race gave the President a book that described in detail the plans this superior race had for the planet earth, and asked the President to
decide whether or not we would cooperate. What a hubbub there would be! CNN and FOX News and all the Networks would have nearly uninterrupted coverage of this event, with 24-7 live remote cams showing the UFO on the White House lawn, continuous reporting on the
deliberations in Washington D.C., unending speculation by the pundits on what the book says, what the President will say in response, what planet the UFO was from, etc., etc., etc. Relentless coverage. All the world would be watching the reports, many people would stay home
from work to watch the wall-to-wall coverage; marriages and vacations would be cancelled to wait for word on the future of the planet -- life on earth would come to a virtual standstill. And yet the mainstream media does not give this kind of attention to a Book that is even more significant than a book from a UFO: a revelation from the Creator Himself, the Lord of all the extraterrestrial planets and galaxies in the Universe. And most Christians give less attention to the Bible than they do to FOX News' coverage of intoxicated Hollywood celebrities. They devote more time each day to reading the sports section of the newspaper than they do the Bible. |
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If you profess that the Bible is actually a revelation from God, then the Bible is more than "significant," it is awe-inspiring evidence of the grace of God. Imagine the Creator of the entire universe sitting down next to you on the front porch, explaining how the world came into being, how it works, and how you can "glorify God and enjoy Him forever."
The average church-goer has not read the Bible from cover-to-cover. This is not consistent with the claim that the Bible is a revelation from the Creator of the universe. How should a Christian treat the Bible? What place should it have in your life? What if today's televangelists have not been accurate in their presentation of the message of the Bible? Shouldn't you find out for yourself what the Bible says? What if kings, popes, inquisitors, and authors have not been consistent with Biblical principles?
On the other hand, what if they were from now on? What if businesses, schools, governments, and the media were to give to the Bible the place it deserves? The primary purpose of Vine & Fig Tree is to bring about a Bible-believing world. That means a Bible-literate world, and a Bible-practicing world.
Most people who say they don't believe the Bible have never read the Bible from cover to cover. Some who love to debate about the Bible have searched through the Bible solely with an eye to discovering "contradictions" and other excuses for not putting themselves under the authority of "the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God." Morality is the motive. When it comes to the Bible, there is no neutrality.
Even most people who claim to be "bible-believing" Christians have never read the Bible from cover to cover. For both Christians and atheists, we recommend starting here:
"The goal is the developed Kingdom of God, the New Jerusalem, a world order under God's law."
R.J. Rushdoony, The Institutes of Biblical Law (Nutley, NJ: Craig Press, 1973), p. 357.
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To "exercise dominion" in a fallen world is to bring every area of life --with its autonomous violence and hatred -- under the dominion of Christ, and the influence of Theonomic love.
How can the world ever be transformed into a Vine & Fig Tree world? Most people can't imagine this, because their God is a small god who lives only "down in my heart," or else their God is big, but lives very far away and never gets involved in our lives here on earth. Many other believe that man's will is "totally depraved," but -- ironically -- God can't violate man's "free will," so the world can only get worse and worse.
Micah's prophecy begins with these words: "It shall come to pass." How does Micah know what will come to pass? How can he be so sure? There are only two possibilities.
- Micah is a good guesser, a clairvoyant, a psychic, or a medium, operating in a random, meaningless or demonic-controlled universe.
- God told Micah what would happen, and God knows because God predestinated the entire history of the universe from beginning to end.
This is a subject that sharply divides many who call themselves Christians.
There have always been many Christians who believe that when the history of this planet and this universe and every individual reaches its conclusion, "every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Romans 14:11-12; Philippians 2:9-11). If God is Sovereign then this prophecy is absolutely true, absolutely guaranteed, and God knows how every molecule in the universe will work toward this goal. If God is not Sovereign, then this prophecy is just a guess, or a wish, and maybe every knee will bow to Satan instead. "Who knows?"
God knows.
Understanding God's Sovereignty is the key to understanding the Bible and growing in obedience to the Bible as God's very Word. It is the key to having faith and being able to persevere in our assignment until we're victorious.
God is the Creator. He created everything that exists. Creation implies predestination. The entire universe, from beginning to end, was predestined; that is, before it was created, it was a plan in the mind of God, who determined that it would come into existence.
Nobody was around when God created the universe. Nobody forced God to create the universe a certain way. God created the universe exactly the way He wanted it, ex nihilo - out of nothing. There was no guess-work involved because God is omniscient (omni-, all; science, knowledge). God created every single molecule in the universe, and there was no other being, force, or "natural law" in the universe to prevent God from creating everything exactly the way He wanted it. A decent computer programmer can tell you what his program will do if you turn on the computer and press a certain button. A bad programmer can only guess what the computer will do. God is more knowledgeable than the best computer programmer. He knows the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10) because He created the universe to move to that end. God has told us what history will do, because God created history. God created time, space, and matter, exactly the way He wanted it, knowing exactly what would happen because He created it to happen His way. History is His-story.
Nobody can be a prophet unless God tells that prophet what is going to happen (Isaiah 41:22,23; 44:7; 45:21; Daniel 4:35; Proverbs 19:21; Isaiah 43:13). God can tell us what the future holds because God created the past exactly the way He wanted it, so that it would produce exactly the future that God wants (a human way of speaking, since the "past" does not "create" the future, God creates the future). God does what He wants because He created all things and owns all things. God had complete, exhaustive knowledge of everything He created, because everything which can be known was created by God. There are no surprises for God. All of these ideas are summed up in the word "predestination."
There are instances of, I would say, an almost astonishing providence in our favor; our success has staggered our enemies, and almost given faith to infidels; so we may truly say it is not our own arm which has saved us. The hand of Heaven appears to have led us on to be, perhaps, humble instruments and means in the great providential dispensation which is completing. We have fled from the political Sodom; let us not look back lest we perish and become a monument of infamy and derision to the world.
We love because He first loved us.
If the Prophet Micah or the Apostle Paul could sit down with you right now as you're looking at your computer monitor, and you were to explain how the words you're reading began on my keyboard and came to your home, and how interconnected we all are, with computer builders, software designers, phone companies, satellites, cable companies, supplied by trucks, trains, and planes, linking us together, and how America now consists of 300 million people, the majority of whom claim the name of Christ, and how for 200 years Americans are generally able to walk the streets or travel across the country without carrying a sword, and how even the people we call "poor" own television sets, cars, and many own homes which are more luxurious than those owned by kings in Paul's day, and if Micah and Paul could walk down the aisles of your local grocery store, and hear the stories of how all those products got from field and factory to the store, both Micah and Paul would say that Christ has brought about the fulfillment of Micah's prophecy. They would be astounded. They would break down in tears and profusely praise God. We live in truly amazing, wonderful times.
Yet you and I complain a lot. We have so many problems. Millions of people think the fulfillment of Micah's prophecy is hopeless until Christ comes again. Millions of people believe the world is getting worse and worse and Jesus is soon going to "rapture" all the Christians away and let the planet go the remaining short distance to hell. It is, after all "The Late Great Planet Earth," where "Satan is Alive and Well."
There are clearly two very different ways of looking at the world, at life, at progress, and at the future. One view seeks to create heaven on earth (and has done quite well, at least in the eyes of Biblical writers), while the other is content to permit hell on earth, expecting Jesus to give us a new heaven and new earth on a silver platter. This is why it is important to study the Biblical doctrine of dominion and eschatology
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Many Christians do not accept this view of eschatology. They believe the world is getting worse and worse, with the real king, Satan, calling the plays. This demonic quarterback is kicking our team's butt, and our only hope is for Jesus to come soon, to pick up His planetary football and go home. "This was the blessed hope of the early church," they say. A cult called "The Plymouth Brethren" made this view popular only about 200 years ago, and it came to dominate evangelicalism by the 1970's, but after so many followers falsely predicted the Rapture in 1981 (40 years after the formation of the State of Israel in 1948, minus 7 years of Tribulation) and then again in 1988, the view is rapidly losing its most passionate supporters.
This once-popular pessimistic view has been called "pessimillennialism." The fastest growing view of the future, however, might be called "optimillennialism."
Either this happened when Jesus said it would happen, or Jesus was a false prophet.
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Part of the belief that "Jesus is coming soon" is the prediction that evil is getting stronger and stronger, and things are getting "worse and worse" -- a self-fulfilling prophecy, if Christians stop working and start waiting for the Second Coming. Why would you choose to believe that the earth is being surrendered to Satan rather than conquered by Christ? The Bible is not the story of God losing out to Satan and being forced by Satan to destroy the entire planet in frustration. If you wish to believe the more optimistic view, you will find yourself supported by the Bible -- the whole Bible, from cover to cover. Here are places to begin:
Go to "Second American Revolution" Tools
If you think of words like "robber barron" and "exploitation" when you hear the word "capitalism," you're a victim of educational malpractice. You've learned about capitalism from socialists.
Just a few generations ago, the vast majority of human beings lived in poverty. The exceptions were kings and emperors. Today, ordinary people like you and me enjoy wealth which those who lived a couple of centuries ago could not even dream about. It is capitalism which has brought hundreds of millions of human beings out of poverty. The rest of the world -- the world of poverty and disease -- still lives under emperors and despots.
The essence of "capitalism" is private property free from violence. This is also Micah's Vine & Fig Tree ideal: everyone dwelling safely under his vine and fig tree; a vision of private property in a world which has repudiated violence by beating "swords into plowshares."
If you ask most university professors for their feelings about "capitalism," you will get negative reactions. Most Americans sort of grudgingly support capitalism rather than socialism, but very few people consider themselves fanatic supporters of "capitalism," and almost no one supports pure laissez-faire capitalism, with no socialism whatsoever. Nearly everyone believes that capitalists rip off the poor unless bridled by wise and compassionate government politicians (who -- don't reveal the secret! -- are nearly always businessmen or friends of businessmen who do favors for their colleagues and will return to business after their stint in "public service). Many vigorous critics of "capitalism" define capitalism as an exploitative collusion between business and the State. All of these definitions of capitalism come from people who are against freedom and in favor of government planning and regulation.
Every scholar who describes himself as a vigorous defender of capitalism rejects those definitions, and contends that
True capitalism is a social system based on the rejection of the initiation of force or violence against others.
That definition will come as a surprise to most people. Most people are as ignorant about the real meaning of capitalism as they are about the real meaning of the Bible. The Bible is about loving your neighbor, including the poor; it is not about perpetuating clerical hierarchy or "religion." Capitalism is about loving your neighbor (and the poor are the greatest beneficiaries of capitalism); it is not about buttressing the power of corporations or the State.
Many people equate "capitalism" with "competition," which has violent connotations of big business crushing the mom 'n' pop store, management crushing labor, monopolists crushing consumers, the rich crushing the poor, "dog-eat-dog" "law of the jungle." Those who defend capitalism will explain that "competition" really means freedom. If a monopolist is crushing consumers, freedom of competition means I can set up a business to compete with the monopolist, offering consumers a better choice -- without government officials (elected by the monopolist) telling me I can't. "Competition" means the freedom to serve the consumer in more effective ways than the competition. In a world without force or fraud, service is the only way to profit.
"The Invisible Hand" In 1776 Adam Smith wrote Wealth of Nations in which he explained how capitalism creates the wealth of nations. If you're reading these words on a computer monitor or printed out from a personal computer you are wealthy beyond the imagination of every single human being alive in 1776. Yet most people are ignorant of how this extraordinary wealth came into being. They are unable to defend the system that created it. That system is capitalism. Not the visible hand of a dictator or bureaucracy, but the invisible hand of voluntary associations of millions of human beings. Smith said:
Every individual neither intends to promote the public interest, nor knows how much he is promoting it. It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our necessities but of their advantages. He is led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention.
In God's Providence, voluntary associations and exchanges make the world a better place. When I give you 50 cents for the newspaper you sell, you are not "ripping me off," because I value your newspaper more than I value my 50 cents. Nor am I "ripping you off." You value my 50 cents more than you value your newspaper. Every business deal is a transaction of mutual benefit, and trillions of mutually beneficial transactions take place every day, bettering the world -- as long as the transactions are voluntary and the participants observe "the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God." A world under God's Law has no need for dictators, czars, bureaucrats, and prime ministers.
The whole world knows that capitalism works and socialism is a failure. The fall of the Berlin Wall and the breakup of the Soviet Union shout this truth across the globe:
And yet, virtually everyone in the United States has been trained in government schools and by a government-dominated media to believe that
This is the same as saying that we must not eliminate all threats of violence and the initiation of force against others. This is a denial of Micah's command to beat swords into plowshares.
Both the Bible and Capitalism are about peace. Most people believe something nearly opposite.
Socialism could never have done these things, so we say to socialists, "Laissez-faire!" Pure laissez-faire capitalism is commerce and society without any regulation, intervention, interference, or any initiation of force by "the State."
Very few have heard of this idea, but it was an influential movement that created "the Religious Right" and helped elect Ronald Reagan, even though Christian Reconstructionism is highly critical of the Religious Right and Reagan's secular conservatism. Christian Reconstructionists proclaim "the crown rights of King Jesus." They argue that it is the moral obligation of Christians to recapture or destroy every institution for Jesus Christ.
The means by which this task will be accomplished is Biblical Law. These are the "tools of dominion." The Christian Reconstruction movement believes that these four doctrines represent consistent Calvinism and the mature thinking of the Protestant Reformation:
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Go to Christian Reconstruction Tools
"Open Borders" destroys American jobs. Our answer.
Non-Anglo-Saxon races destroy "our" culture and standard of living. Our answer.
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The first tool for the fulfillment of Micah's Vine & Fig Tree vision is prayer.
Vine & Fig Tree's prayer page is a daily program of prayer for global Christianization. It follows Q.98 of the Westminster Shorter Catechism:
- Prayer is
- • an offering up of our desires unto God
• for things agreeable to His will,
• in the name of Christ,
• with confession of our sins,
• and thankful acknowledgement of His mercies.
This program dramatically re-orients our focus and opens the channels of God's blessings.
The second tool for the fulfillment of Micah's Vine & Fig Tree vision is our own disciplined character.
"Voting" for the "right" candidate is not the answer. These candidates would have to have developed the character traits required to pursue and fulfill Micah's vision before a Christian could vote for them. But nearly all politicians have been moving in the opposite direction for years, beating plowshares into swords and seducing people away from Micah's "Jerusalem."
If you want to be rewarded by Christ for being a trusty tool for the building of His Kingdom and the fulfillment of Micah's Vine & Fig Tree vision, you have to be sharp and solid. This means developing the character of Christ. All of our daily programs feature a process of character development taken from the Psalms, in which David vows to be useful to God. Christians who are working to fulfill Micah's Vine & Fig Tree vision are working to become:
Accomplished | Accurate | Alert |
Amiable | Analytical | Aspiring |
Available | Bold | Calm |
Cautious | Charitable | Chaste |
Cheerful | Compassionate | Composed |
Benjamin Franklin observed, "[O]nly a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters." A world in which property is safe from princes and pirates, with every one dwelling safely under his own Vine & Fig Tree, is a world in which the vast majority have been trained from infancy to live out these character traits. A world in which a majority believe they are not qualitatively different from pigs is a world in which the life and property of human beings is up for grabs, and the grabbers and the grabbees will both cry out for powerful political messiahs to bring them their version of "salvation."
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Since the Bible is foundational, we must learn the Bible.
Capitalism and the Bible: A Parallel. As we have seen, many people think of "capitalism" as a rationalization for the exploitation of the poor by the rich. Most of these people have never read a book about capitalism by someone who defends capitalism (most economics textbooks are written by critics of capitalism, defenders of government planning). Capitalism, as we have seen, means freedom from violence, emphasizing the harmony of interests that exist between people, and pointing to the possibility of peace and prosperity, where the poor are the greatest beneficiaries of the benevolent nature of capitalism. In the same way, people who suspect that capitalism hurts the poor have vague suspicions about the Bible, but have never read the Bible from cover to cover or a defense of the Bible as a blueprint for a non-violent, non-hierarchical society. Most Americans -- even most church-goers -- have gotten their ideas about the Bible from university professors, Hollywood thespians, and the wealthy adult handlers of adolescent rock-stars, all of whom deep-down hate the Bible and capitalism. In V&FT programs you'll find an intelligent, well-documented defense of a libertarian Vine & Fig Tree society.
Most church-goers have never read the Bible from cover to cover. They're acquainted with a few verses, but most of the Bible's pages collect dust. If the Bible is the Word of God, then all of the Bible is important. Most of the Bible is about the conflict between socialism and Vine & Fig Tree-style capitalism. There are whole books in the Bible about governments (Judges, Kings) and most of the Prophets preach against governments. This is certainly an important, if not the dominant theme of the Bible, yet most people assume the Bible is mostly about going to heaven when you die. Vine & Fig Tree offers programs that teach the Bible in a way no one else does, combining a reading of the Bible with a practical, real-world application of its principles, including examples of application by America's Founding Fathers, the Puritans, the Reformers, and Christians during the so-called "Dark Ages" (which weren't "dark" at all). These programs offer insight into the Bible unlike anything you'll get from either end of the spectrum. These programs encourage and empower you to help create a Vine & Fig Tree society.
Here's how we do it:
These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the Word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so. |
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Our goal is to be approved by Christ, but as we develop the character of Christ by obeying God's Commandments, we find we have the approval and admiration of other admirable people.
There are no additional "tools" or websites under this category. The websites described above contain all the information about God's Sovereignty that is needed to understand Micah's "Vine & Fig Tree" prophecy, and the rest of our websites contain the action steps to put this belief into practice. [back]
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- Deuteronomy 5:1 And Moses called all Israel, and said to them: “Hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgments which I speak in your hearing today, that you may learn them and be careful to observe them.
- Proverbs 9:9 Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser; Teach a just man, and he will increase in learning.
- Isaiah 1:17 Learn to do good; Seek justice, Rebuke the oppressor; Defend the fatherless, Plead for the widow.
- Micah 4:3 He shall judge between many peoples, And rebuke strong nations afar off; They shall beat their swords into plowshares, And their spears into pruning hooks; Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, Neither shall they learn war anymore.
The key to understanding eschatology is actually the past. There are two radically different views of the future, and they are the result of differing views of the past. Most Christians never give serious attention to the choice between these two views.
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One view says sin reigned for 4,000 years, then Christ came at the first Christmas and inaugurated what Dispensationalists call a "parenthesis" age. After this "parenthesis age" is the "millennium," where Christ comes again and reigns for 1,000
years, at which time Satan musters an army against the King of kings in a global rebellion which Satan is just about to win, but Christ ends the game by taking His cosmic football and going home. In other words, the entire historic purpose of the human race -- to exercise dominion
over the earth under God -- the reason why God created the human race and put us on this planet -- is never fulfilled. The past (God's purpose for creating human beings as stated in Genesis 1:26-28) has no bearing on the future. Even Christ cannot
fulfill God's divine purpose. Satan and evil have ultimate dominion in history (time).
History = 6,000 years of sin + an aborted 1,000 year Kingdom = 7,000 years of satanic dominion. This is why we call it "pessimillennialism."
There is another view, one in which God's Dominion Mandate sees fulfillment in history. When the Pilgrims stepped off the Mayflower, a majority of all Christians sang the "Gloria Patri":
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost,
as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen. Amen.
That last line is completely unintelligible to most modern Christians, as are these verses from the King James Version (1611):
Isaiah 45:17
But Israel shall be saved in the LORD with an everlasting salvation: ye shall not be ashamed nor confounded world without end.Ephesians 3:21
Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.
Does God have bigger plans for planet earth than a mere 6,000 years of rebellion, failure and evil and 1,000 years of an almost-but-not-quite Millennial Kingdom? Does Christ's Kingdom last a shorter period of time than the Byzantine Empire (c. 300-1453 A.D.)?
Isaiah 9:7
Of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end
Is human life on earth predestined to be
The Bible is a very large book, yet most people are only familiar with a few verses. There are untapped reservoirs of Biblical truth which open up a new way of looking at life and your purpose in it. God placed human beings on earth to enjoy optimillennial dominion. Are you working to create heaven on earth for future generations, world without end?
Christian Dominion begins with an understanding that Jesus is not "coming soon."
Once again, the past is the key to understanding our future, and the nature of this first-century "coming." Israel was given tremendous privilege, and with it, special duties and tremendous responsibility (Luke 12:47). The Old Testament is a long history of Israel's rebellion against God, repudiation of her duties, consummating in her murder of God's own Son. Just like the book of Jonah concerned Nineveh, the New Testament concerns Israel in her last days (Luke 11:29-31). With Israel's judgment behind us, our future is glorious.For the Son of Man is about to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works. Assuredly, I say to you, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.
Matthew 16:27-28
Part of the belief that "Jesus is coming soon" is the prediction that evil is getting stronger and stronger, and things are getting "worse and worse" -- a self-fulfilling prophecy, if Christians stop working and start waiting.
Why would you choose to believe that the earth is being surrendered to Satan rather than conquered by Christ? The Bible is not the story of God losing out to Satan and being forced by Satan to destroy the entire planet in frustration. If you wish to believe the more optimistic view, you will find yourself supported by the Bible. The whole Bible, from cover to cover. Here are places to begin:
Micah speaks of a world which functions prosperously without "the sword." Most Christians don't appreciate how this prophecy can be fulfilled because they don't appreciate God's blessings, understand how providence operates in the world today, and how -- without coercion or violence -- God brings about the fulfillment of the promises of world-wide blessings.
The Christian Reconstruction Movement was the incubator for Vine & Fig Tree. The movement had a significant though underreported effect on politics and education (by initiating the Christian exodus out of public schools into Christian schools and home schools) back in the 1970's and 1980's. With the death of its leading figure, R.J. Rushdoony, it seems to have vanished. Is there a future for "Christian Reconstruction?"
There are some who are called "Theonomists" who applaud Singapore and Saudi Arabia for their strong anti-crime programs, holding that the real power of "Christian Reconstruction" to make society better is the power to execute various classes of criminals. Vine & Fig Tree questions Capital Punishment and promotes the more pacifist strategy of Micah. The Christian Reconstruction movement, if it is to ever again be a formidable force for social change, must understand this important truth:
The greatest obstacle to (or enemy of) Christian Reconstruction is "the State."
The first generation of Reconstructionists strongly defended the existence of "the State," though it spoke in libertarian terms of the need to "reconstruct" or Christianize the State. A Christian State is as much a contradiction in terms as a Christian Reich, a Holy Roman Empire or a Christian mafia. Reconstruction requires elimination of the State, nationalism, imperialism, and republicanism. This requires elimination of the myth of the legitimacy of violence. We have described the steps under "capitalism" above. In order to lead in the 21st century, the Christian Reconstruction movement must adopt anarcho-capitalism. In addition to 'DominionPacifism" and "DominionAnarchism," the Christian Reconstruction movement must adopt:
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We began this survey of Vine & Fig Tree's webpages with "self-evident truths," rooted in our being creatures of a loving and personal Creator. The Bible says all human beings display the work of the Creator's Commandments written on their hearts. But many people harden their hearts, and in order to deny God's Laws, they deny that the universe has a Creator. Aldous Huxley, grandson of "Darwin's bulldog," Sir Thomas Huxley, has frankly confessed that a meaningless, random universe suits him better than a world of service and personal responsibility under God:
I had motives for not wanting the world to have meaning; consequently assumed that it had none, and was able without any difficulty to find satisfying reasons [justifications, rationalizations] for this assumption. The philosopher who finds no meaning in the world is not concerned exclusively with a problem in pure metaphysics, he is also concerned to prove that there is no valid reason why he personally should not do as he wants to do, or why his friends should not seize political power and govern in the way that they find most advantageous to themselves. . . . For myself, the philosophy of meaninglessness was essentially an instrument of liberation, sexual and political.
Many Christians have discovered that evolutionists have lied to them. The promotion of the theory of evolution has been buttressed by frauds, hoaxes and icons. Evolutionists say evolution is a scientific "fact," when it is no more "scientific" than creationism. But many Christians have gone on to discover that the reason evolutionists lie is not just an abstract academic "scientific" dispute over "facts." Evolutionists lie because they want to steal your property and seduce your wife. Evolutionists call it "liberation," but it is the seizing of political power for the seizing of your wealth, and the seizing of wealth to fund hedonism, adultery and perversion.
The issue in the Evolution-Creation debate is not just "science" or "facts," it is politics and morality. It is wealth and sex. It is pure mystical, sexual, religious, political power.
Vine & Fig Tree is a 501(c)(3) non-profit educational organization.
Our mission is to help bring about the fulfillment of Micah's "Vine & Fig Tree" prophecy (Micah 4:1-7).
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People say Christmas has become too "commercialized." They say we've lost "the real meaning of Christmas."
What is the real meaning of Christmas?
People who say Christmas has become commercialized will answer that question like this:
But what is the meaning of the birth of some guy named Jesus? What is the significance of the birth of that guy?
This website says something very controversial.
Nobody agrees with it.
The whole world disagrees with it.
Are you ready?
In 2019, almost nobody believes that statement to be true.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.
And -- most surprisingly -- the vast, overwhelming majority of professing, church-going (or non-churching) Christians do not believe that Jesus is the Christ today.
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.
The angels told the shepherds that the birth of the boy in Bethlehem meant "Peace on Earth."
A favorite Christmas carol mentions this announcement:
It came upon the midnight clear, That glorious song of old, From angels bending near the earth To touch their harps of gold: "Peace on the earth, good will to men, From heaven's all-gracious King." The world in solemn stillness lay To hear the angels sing. |
Another Christmas carol notes that Christian churches pay lip-service to this announcement::
I heard the bells on Christmas Day Their old, familiar carols play, and wild and sweet The words repeat Of peace on earth, good-will to men! |
But the poem, written during the Civil War, expresses some doubt:
Then from each black, accursed mouth The cannon thundered in the South, And with the sound The carols drowned Of peace on earth, good-will to men! |
The poet today might write about "The War on Terrorism."
And in despair I bowed my head; "There is no peace on earth," I said; "For hate is strong, And mocks the song Of peace on earth, good-will to men! |
But the poet had something many of today's Christians lack: Optimism:
Then pealed the bells more loud and deep: "God is not dead, nor doth He sleep; The Wrong shall fail, The Right prevail, With peace on earth, good-will to men." |
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:
For lo!, the days are hastening on, By prophet bards foretold, When with the ever-circling years Comes round the age of gold When peace shall over all the earth Its ancient splendors fling, And the whole world give back the song Which now the angels sing. |
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 2019.
But we have to believe in the real meaning of Christmas:
Jesus is the Christ.
But most people who call themselves "Christians" don't really believe this.
The two most controversial words in that statement are the words "IS" and "THE."
Most church-going Christians believe that Jesus will become the Messiah at a future Christmas, a future advent, a future "Second Coming." But the word "IS" -- present tense -- is the wrong word to use about Jesus being the Messiah. To say that Jesus
"is" the Messiah is to say that He already became the Messiah and began ruling in the past. The word "preterit" is from the Latin word for "past," and the idea that Jesus began ruling as Messiah in the past is called "the
heresy of preterism."
The word "Christ" also has many meanings. The basic meaning is "anointed," as in "king" (Matthew 21:5 ), e.g., "King of Israel" (John 1:49). Jesus is also called a "Ruler" (Micah 5:2), a "Potentate" (1 Timothy 6:15 ), a "Governor" (Matthew 2:6 ), a "Captain" (Hebrews 2:10 ), a "Prince" (Isaiah 9:6 ), and many other words (some of which we aren't familiar with in our day, like "Horn" [Luke 1:69 ]) which are political in nature. Many political terms can be inferred:
Our point is that Jesus is the -- THE -- the ONLY -- legitimate king, prince, ruler, president, prime minister, governor, legislator, judge, and potentate. If we simply practice what we preach -- by obeying His commandments -- we will have a peaceful, orderly, and prosperous society. All other earthly kings, princes, rulers, presidents, prime ministers, governors, legislators, judges, and potentates are illegitimate usurpers and anti-Christ. I know what you're thinking. "What are you, some kind of ANARCHIST?" That suspicion is the kind of thing we were all taught in schools run by earthly kings, princes, rulers, presidents, prime ministers, governors, legislators, judges, and potentates. We are never taught what Jesus taught. Jesus said the kings of the gentiles love to impose their will on other people by political and military force, but Christ's followers are not to do these things (Mark 10:42-45). Mark uses the Greek word from which we get our English word "anarchist." He says the kings of the Gentiles love to be "archists." But Christians are NOT to be "archists." So some folks will say all this talk about Jesus being THE Ruler -- the only legitimate Ruler -- will lead to "anarchy." Obeying Jesus as the Christ will certainly lead to the elimination of bloodthirsty empires and their Caesars, Pharaohs, and Führers. But it will certainly not lead to chaos and lawlessness (which is what most people have been trained to think of when they hear the word "anarchism" or contemplate the absence of "archists" in the swordless Kingdom of Christ). Taken together, the two words "IS" and "THE" are branded as the heresy of "anarcho-preterism." This website maintains that "anarcho-preterism" is "the real meaning of Christmas." This website maintains that "anarcho-preterism" is "the Gospel." |
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The name "Vine & Fig Tree" comes from the fourth chapter of the prophet Micah, and is set forth below. You've probably heard Micah's words before -- we beat our "swords into plowshares" and everyone dwells safely under their own "Vine & Fig Tree."
America's Founding Fathers were familiar with this vision: "Vine & Fig Tree" is the worldview that made America "the greatest nation on God's green earth."
George Washington's Diaries are available online at the Library of Congress. The LOC.GOV website introduces Washington's writings with these words:
No theme appears more frequently in the writings of Washington than his love for his land. The diaries are a monument to that concern. In his letters he referred often, as an expression of this devotion and its resulting contentment, to an Old
Testament passage. After the Revolution, when he had returned to Mount Vernon, he wrote the Marquis de Lafayette on Feb. 1, 1784:
This phrase occurs at least 11 times in Washington's letters.
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The phrase occurs a number of times in Scripture. These references are visual reminders of the Hebrew word for salvation, which means |
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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. |
The best place to see the Vine & Fig Tree ideal is in the book of Micah.
Surprisingly, you'll almost never hear this prophecy mentioned at Christmas.
And it will come about in the last days That the mountain of the House of the LORD Will be established as the chief of the mountains And it will be raised above the hills |
Are we in the "last days?"
When did this establishment take place? |
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And the peoples will stream to it. And many nations will come and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD And to the House of the God of Jacob, |
Is Christianity doomed to minority status throughout history? Hasn't Christianity been growing since the first century? | |
That He may teach us about His ways And that we may walk in His paths." For from Zion will go forth the Law Even the Word of the LORD from Jerusalem. |
What should be the Christian's attitude toward the Law? Isn't every Word of a "Lord" "Law?" | |
And He will judge between many peoples And render decisions for mighty, distant nations. Then they will hammer their swords into plowshares And their spears into pruning hooks; Nation will not lift up sword against nation And never again will they train for war. |
Are we commanded to beat our swords into plowshares today? Or do we wait for the Second Coming? Are Christians "pacifists?" |
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And each of them will sit under his | What is a family? What about private property? |
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Vine and under
his fig tree, With no one to make them afraid. For the LORD of hosts has spoken. |
What about technology? What about the military? What is it that really brings "security?" | |
Though all the peoples walk Each in the name of his god, As for us, we will walk In the Name of the LORD our God forever and ever. |
What if all the politicians, university professors, TV commentators, bloggers, newspaper editors, rock stars, scientists, CEO's, celebrities, athletes, authors, and think-tanks repudiate the Vine & Fig Tree vision and tell you not to believe it? | |
In that day, saith the LORD, will I assemble her that halteth, and I will gather her that is driven out, and her that I have afflicted; And I will make her that halted a remnant, and her that was cast far off a strong nation: and the LORD shall reign over them in mount Zion from henceforth, even for ever. |
Should we strive to be on top, or to help those on the bottom? Is God on the side of those who have accomplished much by their own power and initiative, or is He on the side of those who are willing to be used by God to accomplish much to His Glory? |
Most people who call themselves "Christians" today believe that Micah's prophecy will not begin to see fulfillment until Jesus returns to earth a second time. But 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," and the world is more obedient to God's Commandments today than it was before Jesus was born. The world is more peaceful. 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, 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:
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. The belief that a prophecy was fulfilled in the past is called "preterism."
If your pastor has heard of "preterism," and especially if he uses the term "hyper-preterism," he likely believes that it is a dangerous heresy, and that anyone who is a “preterist” has denied the Christian faith, and is not to be counted as a true Christian. Gary North says Pastors should not even debate a preterist. Just kick him out of your church.
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:
Acts 2 14 But Peter, standing up with the eleven, raised his voice and said to them... “This is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:
17 ‘And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God,
And signs in the earth beneath: Blood and fire and vapor of smoke. 20 The sun shall be turned into darkness, And the moon into blood, Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord. 21 And it shall come to pass That whoever calls on the name of the Lord Shall be saved.’ 22 “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know— 23 Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death; 24 whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it. 25 For David says [Psalm 16:8–11] concerning Him: ‘I foresaw the Lord always before my face, 29 “Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. 30 Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, He would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne, 31 he, foreseeing this, spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ, that His soul was not left in Hades, nor did His flesh see corruption. 32 This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses. 33 Therefore being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you now see and hear. 34 “For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he says [Psalm 110:1] himself: ‘The Lord said to my Lord, 36 “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.” 37 Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” 38 Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.” |
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." This is "preterism."
Let's examine the word "anarchism," which is even more offensive to most Christians than "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.
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).
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 (see more below), 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.
But Jesus called them to Himself and said to them, "You know that those who are considered rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. {43} Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant. {44} And whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all. {45} "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many." |
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.
We have been brainwashed in "public" schools (run by archists) to believe that an "anarchist" is:
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.
Jesus says His followers are not to be archists. Connect the dots.
www.HowToBecomeAChristianAnarchist.com
Mark 10:42-45 (and other passages we're going to be considering in a moment) teaches that
This isn't just a "fringe" idea. In fact, "Anarcho-Preterists" go much further. They claim:
From cover to cover, the Bible is an "Anarchist Manifesto" and urges mankind to eradicate the institution of "civil government" or "the State." It will take approximately 90 minutes for me to lay out my arguments and for you to follow them Biblically in a loving (1 Corinthians 13:5-7) way.