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I've heard this expression several times. I'm not always sure what the phrase means. I think it means whatever the writer wants to say it means. It means the reader should do what the writer thinks other people should do. So allow me to join the crowd and tell you what I think the phrase should mean. From an Anarcho-Theocratic perspective.
First, what is the meaning of the word "church?" Lengthy theological tomes have been written to answer that question.
The Greek word in the New Testament is ἐκκλησία, ekklēsia. Here is the top-ranked Google result for that word:
What is the definition of ekklesia?
So, according to this popular article, "church" = everything that has been "called out" of everything which is not "church." So to "be the church" means to not be what is not the "church." That may be accurate, but not very practical or helpful.
Here is Wikipedia. That article is short and worth reading. It says the "church" (ekklesia) in ancient Greece was a civil, political, or governmental body. It made laws. It executed policy. It judged cases. It was where "democracy" happened.
When Jesus, the Messiah-King, told His disciples that He would build His ekklesia (Matthew 16:18), what did they think He meant? We must assume that His disciples knew something about Greco-Roman government, as well as something about the history of the nation of Israel, as recorded in the Scriptures (for them, the "Old Testament").
Compare also the Greek word πόλις, polis, which can be translated "city" or "city-state." We get the English word "political" from the Greek polis.
Augustine distinguished between The City of God and the City of Man.
POLIS: The Empire of Man vs. the City of God
The City of God began in the Garden of Eden.
The City of Man began with Cain's murder of Abel and Cain's creation of the first rebellious polis: The
Meaning of the City - Wikipedia
The Origin of "the State" ("Civil Government") - Political Philosophy 101 According to the Bible
I would argue that to "be the church" means to be the true State, that is, the true "polis," the true "ekklesia," the socio-political kingdom of God on earth.
Both "church" and "state" claim to be the source of "salvation." The State's definition of "salvation" is more Biblical than that of the Church.
There is nothing that any human society needs that can be provided better by the Greek/secular polis/ekklesia than by the Christian church, the City of God.
Notice how the Christian ekklesia rivals the secular ekklesia:
On the other hand, there are many things that the secular ekklesia does that Christians should never do:
Of course, the church cannot use the weapons of the State. "The Private Sector" uses only persuasion, while "The Public Sector" uses force and threats of violence. Every Professor of Political Science in every university on planet earth will agree that the fundamental nature of "The State" is its Monopoly on Violence. "The State" is systematic, institutionalized SIN. "Civil government" does what every member of the "private sector" would consider sinful. "Civil Government" does not exist at all if it is not violating God's Commandments. The two most obvious being
There are two functions which everyone (except anarchists) agree must be done by "the State."
Everybody agrees (except anarchists) that we need "the State" (a secular ekklesia/polis) to perform these vital functions.
The Christian Anarcho-Theocrat does not believe these functions are "vital," and does not believe they require the creation of "civil government" even if
they are [still] vital.
The Christian Anarcho-Theocrat believes that these functions were originally given to "The City of God" and more particularly to the Family, not "the State."
What happened at the time of Moses was the addition of the Levitical priesthood to the patriarchal society of Israel. The priests became centrally involved in both "capital punishment" and "holy war."
The priesthood would be much better likened to "the church" rather than to "the State."
The purpose of "capital punishment" was shedding blood to make atonement for "capital" crimes.
Blood, Atonement, and "Capital Punishment"
The command to shed blood was originally given to the Family, and the priests were added at the time of Moses to aid the family heads ("elders").
"Holy War" was also overseen by the priests, and the offensive genocidal wars of Israel against the nations of Canaan cannot possibly provide a model for any "state" today. Those wars were not "defensive," and they were priestly, not "civil." Wars were prosecuted by "the church." (The entire nation of Israel is called a "church" [Acts 7:38, ekklesia].)
"Holy War" and "Capital Punishment"
No vital social function was ever given by God to a secular political monopoly.
Suppose the State bakes yummy chocolate chip cookies and gives them to the poor. Nothing wrong with baking, nothing wrong with cookies, nothing wrong with helping the poor. But in order for these good things to be done by "The Public Sector," they must engage in taxation, which is extortion, a violation of the command "Thou shalt not steal." The "Private Sector" can bake cookies and pass them out without sinning like the State does.
I've drawn the contrast between the Christian ekklesia and the "secular" ekklesia. Actually, the civil government in Greece was "very religious" [Acts 17:22], not "secular," but we've all been trained to believe in the separation of church and secular).
The secular state/ekklesia is in rebellion against Christ's State/Ekklesia.
I think the New Testament is saying that Christians are called out of "the polis," the Greek city-state, the ekklesia of the pagans, and are commanded to build a new ekklesia, a new "polis."
James 4:4
Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
"The Church" needs to be "anarchist" with respect to the polis, the City of Man, and "archist" with respect to King Jesus, the Messiah, and the City of God.
Jesus is the One True ArchistThat link defines what an "archist" is. When the Bible says we are to leave vengeance to God, it is saying we should leave archism to God.
To sum it up, the Church should be the State. Every activity performed by the State should be performed by the Church -- unless that activity is immoral and should be performed by nobody at all.
Any entity calling itself "the church" or a "local church" which only provides "liturgical" services and doesn't have a vision for providing vital social functions which are currently usurped by "the State" is not a part of the City of God.
Is "The Institutional Church" a Part of "The Kingdom of God?""The Public Sector" ought to be abolished, and "The Private Sector" ought to be Christianized.
There are two directions to go from here.
Your typical "church" claims that it's primary purpose is related to "salvation." It's primary task is to "preach the Gospel."
True enough: What the world needs is "The Gospel," which means "Good News."
The "Good News" is "salvation."
But . . .
In the Bible, "salvation" means "deliverance" -- deliverance from the pagan polis, the secular ekklesia.
In the Bible, "salvation" is primarily social, and therefore primarily political. (Everything is "political," because everyone is a member
of a polis, either the Polis of God or the Polis of Man, and in the ancient world, the City of Man was the City of Satan and his powers (Luke 4:5-7). Jesus ascended to the
throne in heaven after all power and authority on earth and in heaven had been taken from Satan and given to Christ (Matthew 28:18-20).
The Secular polis/ekklesia promises "salvation" in the holistic Biblical sense.
When the church starts to "be the church," it will stop looking to the secular state for holistic socio-political salvation.
Make no mistake: the State will be deeply offended by that.
In the Bible, "salvation" is statelessness. We are saved from archists.
We're going to look at the overwhelming Biblical support for those claims.
Not "What is 'salvation' in the minds of most professing Christians?"
What does the Bible say?
The Hebrew word for "save" or "bring salvation" 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 name "Jesus" comes from the Hebrew word Yhowshuwa', which is derived from yasha', which is the Hebrew word most frequently translated "salvation."
Here is how a very mainstream 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?
Most of us, who were educated in State-approved schools, believe that the "safety and security necessary to maintain life" is the product of a strong State. "Anarchism" in their mind is the complete absence of safety and security.
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.
Leviticus 26
"Archists" will not go through your land. If we obey God's commandments, He will not send archists to judge us.
Notice in the following verses, social/political/military peace is promised. This is part of the Biblical doctrine of "salvation": freedom from archists. No fear of archists and the sword they bear.
Micah 4:4
4 But they shall sit every man under
his vine and under his fig tree;
and none shall make them afraid:
for the mouth of the LORD of hosts hath spoken it.
We're calling this a "Reader's Guide" because it is not yet a coherent, well-edited essay. It's a "brain dump." It's a collection of resources, someday to be re-packaged for easier consumption. You'll notice repeating headers. I've pasted a few other articles into this one. My apologies. As Mark Twain might have said, "I wanted to write a shorter web page, but I didn't have time."
Salvation is comprehensive.
In order for "the public sector" to provide salvation, it must govern "the private sector" with totalitarian authority. Even if it initially permits a limited
number of "freedoms," the secular State claims total jurisdiction over our lives. Every State says, "We can do anything we want in an 'emergency.'" Based on the
laws already on the books, you commit several crimes against the State every day of your life, but the conflict is not
completely manifest just yet. We are compliant. Like the fish in the fishbowl, we don't realize that we are swimming in the water of the State. Even though you are a criminal, the
State has bigger fish to fry. For now.
In order to give us salvation, the State needs to direct the totality of life.
The Framers of the U.S. Constitution tell us we need a "civil government" with
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The Bible says,
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These are two completely different, contradictory, rival religions. |
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James 1:27 tells us that true "religion" is looking out for widows and orphans.
The religion of Statism tells us to trust "the State" to take care of the weak.
But the religion of Statism also tells us that it is morally legitimate for the State to create millions of widows and orphans in pursuit of salvation, a "New World Order," or a "bold foreign policy." On average in the 20th century, the State created thousands of widows and orphans every single day of the year, every year for the last century. During my lifetime, the U.S. government killed, crippled, or made homeless TENS of MILLIONS of innocent, non-combatant non-white civilians around the world. The once-Christian United States is a false god, a false savior, and the enemy of God and humanity.
The Federalists gave us a new Constitution in order to un-do what the Anti-Federalists had done in the American Revolution. John Quincy Adams said,
The war was revolutionary. It began by the dissolution of the British Government in the Colonies; the People of which were, by that operation, left without any Government whatever.
The Federalists believed we could not survive as a society without any government whatever. America needed a Greek-style ekklesia.
The Framers were victims of "natural law" thinking, not Biblical Law.
Roman law, not Hebrew law.
Athens, not Jerusalem.
The Federalists now rule not only the United States, but their tentacles of the Greek ekklesia extend around the world.
Jesus is the only legitimate "Archist." All human archists are idols or false gods. The absence of creaturely archists -- "an-archy" -- is good news.
The English word "anarchist" comes from two Greek words meaning "not an archist."
An "archist" is someone who believes he has the right to impose his own will on others by force or threats of violence.
The State tells us that "anarchists" are bad people.
The Bible tells us that "archists" are the bad guys. Proof.
Most people would say the Bible is all about how to "get saved," that is, go to heaven when you die.
Actually, the vast majority of the occurrences of the word "salvation" in the Bible are talking about a peaceful and prosperous society on earth.
There are whole books in the Bible about "politics" ("Judges" "Kings") but not a single book that says nothing about the State and is wholly about going to heaven when you die.
There are 30,000 verses in the Bible. Most of them are not talking about heaven. They're talking about earth.
"Salvation" is "heaven on earth." Paradise. Utopia. Freedom from archists.
We'll look at all those verses below. It's a big job.
Jesus said we should pray that God's will would be done "on earth as it is in heaven." Matthew 6:10
Jesus said the greatest commandment is to love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. (Mark 12:30; quoting Deuteronomy 6:4-5)
100%. (Jesus was no "moderate.")
The second greatest commandment (Mark 12:31) can be summed up like this:
"Don't hurt people and don't take their stuff." (See Romans 13:8-10)
The Bible says "the State" was invented by people like Cain and Nimrod to get around these two commandments.
"archists" want to "be as gods" (Genesis 3:5), and exercise their divinity over others through force and threats of violence: taxation, incarceration, war, etc.
If Jones says, "I have an idea: Let's form a State!" and Smith says, "OK, but this time, let's have a State which will never engage in taxation or violence (punishment, war, vengeance, etc.) of any kind," Jones will say (or should say), "Well then why have a State at all?"
Good question.
The whole purpose of the State is to create a plausible-sounding excuse for violating God's commands to love your enemy, not steal, and not take vengeance.
People create "governments" because they don't trust God to provide "salvation" in the holistic Biblical sense of that word.
"Thou shalt not steal," says God, but "the State" does not exist without theft (extortion, "taxation").
"Thou shalt not kill," says God, but "the State" claims the power of life and death. If it does not, it is not a "State" or "civil government."
The purpose of the State is not just to create an efficient machine or structure for exacting revenue and inflicting violence on people. It's about a mythology. It's about a religion that inculcates faith in the machinery of vengeance and extortion.
The State exists not only to steal, but to make stealing by the State seem "responsible," "practical," "realistic," "sensible,"
and to make faithfulness seem "irresponsible," "impractical," "unrealistic," "utopian."
"Faithfulness" means trusting God, loving our enemies, not hurting or stealing.
Education is therefore an important part of the State. A Messianic State needs Messianic Education. See R.J. Rushdoony's book, The Messianic Character of American Education. Government education ("public schools") is religious. Liberal historian Sidney Mead has admitted that the public school system is America's "established church." It teaches us to trust the plutocrats in the ruling Oligarchy rather than the God of the Bible.
All the empires in the Bible were explicitly religious. Caesar was the high priest ("Pontifex Maximus") and the divine "son of god."
Today governments claim to be "secular," but the Religion of Secular Humanism is just a replacement for the
religion of Jesus Christ.
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The fundamental issue in the Bible is Providence vs. Statism.
Faith in God to provide "salvation" in the broadest sense, vs. faith in Man ("the State") to provide salvation.
The City of God vs. the City of Man, as Augustine put it.
The "Invisible Hand of Divine Providence" vs. the visible fist of socialist planners.
Faith in the creature rather than the Creator is the essence of "idolatry."
"The State" is an idol. It is a false god.
We should abolish all the kingdoms of man and put our faith in the Kingdom of God.
Christ, not Caesar, is Lord and Savior.
In order to understand the Biblical meaning of the word "salvation," it is necessary to understand that the Bible is an Anarchist Manifesto.
If you read the Bible and you don't walk away saying that we should abolish "the State" -- or as the prophet Micah put it: beat our "swords into plowshares" -- then you don't understand what the Bible is saying, or you don't understand what "the State" is saying, or both.
This is probably because you're a victim of educational malpractice.
Like me.
The Bible is saying that Jesus is the only legitimate Government. The Bible is saying that the Bible, as the Word of God, is a blueprint for a peaceful and prosperous society. The Bible is a textbook of political science. "Political" in terms of the Polis of God, the City of God, not "political" in the way the secular polis wants to rule us all as the City of Man. The Bible is a textbook of Theonomic Politics, with which we are morally obligated to replace the autonomous City of Man.
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I used to believe as you do, that the Bible is not a "political tract." Or as this idea is also stated, "The Bible is not a textbook of political science," or economics, or any field of study -- including religion. The Bible, it turns out, is not a textbook of ANYTHING. Or so I was taught.
It took me half my life to realize that the Bible is actually an anarchist manifesto.
I realize that sounds crazy.
The State claims to bring "salvation" in the Biblical sense of that word.
As I said, I realize it's going against the tide to say that the central message of the Bible is "anarchism."
The Bible is a very big book.
The State is a very big Leviathan.
Most people don't understand most of what the Bible is saying.
Most people don't understand most of the The State is doing.
The State is doing the opposite of what the Bible is saying.
But the State is trying to bring "salvation" in the Biblical sense. "Civil Government" is a secular ekklesia. The State is a false savior. It is a false god.
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 (false "gods," like Moloch, which means "king"). God delivers Israel into the hand of these false gods, 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:
God sent Israel many "saviors."
When most church-goers think of a "savior," they think of someone who gives them a ticket to heaven after they live a miserable salvation-free life on earth.
When whole-Bible Christians 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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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.Here are other key descriptions of Biblical "salvation," according to our mainstream source above:
R. J. Rushdoony wrote the following:
This is what John Adams, later second President of the U.S., wrote in his diary on February 22, 1756:
Like others of his day, Adams was a theonomist! |
In principle, Adams is advocating "Theocracy." Adams is saying we should be governed by God and His Law Book, the Bible.
This is the Biblical concept of "salvation." This is the “Vine & Fig Tree” ideal.
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.
John 4:42
Then they said to the woman, “Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard Him and we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.”1 John 4:14
And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world.John 1:29
The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!John 3:17
For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.Isaiah 45:22
“Look to Me, and be saved,
All you ends of the earth!
For I am God, and there is no other.1 Chronicles 16:23
Sing to the Lord, all the earth; Proclaim the good news of His salvation from day to day.Psalm 65:5
By awesome deeds in righteousness You will answer us, O God of our salvation, You who are the confidence of all the ends of the earth, And of the far-off seas;Psalm 67:2
That Your way may be known on earth, Your salvation among all nations.Psalm 74:12
For God is my King from of old, Working salvation in the midst of the earth.Psalm 98:3
He has remembered His mercy and His faithfulness to the house of Israel; All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.Isaiah 45:8
“Rain down, you heavens, from above, And let the skies pour down righteousness; Let the earth open, let them bring forth salvation, And let righteousness spring up together. I, the Lord, have created it.Isaiah 49:6
Indeed He says, ‘It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant To raise up the tribes of Jacob, And to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also give You as a light to the Gentiles, That You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth.’”Isaiah 49:8
Thus says the Lord: “In an acceptable time I have heard You, And in the day of salvation I have helped You; I will preserve You and give You As a covenant to the people, To restore the earth, To cause them to inherit the desolate heritages;Isaiah 51:6
Lift up your eyes to the heavens, And look on the earth beneath. For the heavens will vanish away like smoke, The earth will grow old like a garment, And those who dwell in it will die in like manner; But My salvation will be forever, And My righteousness will not be abolished.Isaiah 52:10
The Lord has made bare His holy arm In the eyes of all the nations; And all the ends of the earth shall see The salvation of our God.Acts 13:47
For so the Lord has commanded us: ‘I have set you as a light to the Gentiles, That you should be for salvation to the ends of the earth.’”2 Corinthians 5:19
that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.1 John 2:2
And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.1 Timothy 4:10
For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe.1 Corinthians 15:45
And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.Romans 5
17 For if by one man's offence death reigned by one;
21 even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.John 6:33
33 For the bread of God is He which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world.
When the Lord spoke to Isaiah and the prophets, that He would save the whole world, was He announcing a doctrine of "universalism," that every individual would go to heaven when he died? Even universalists would say no -- provided they understand the prophetic meaning of the concept of "salvation." That is, even if eternal paradise after death has been granted universally to all individuals, that's not what the prophets were talking about when they foretold the "salvation" of the entire world.
In the Bible, especially in the Old Testament, "salvation" means what economist Murray N. Rothbard described as "anarcho-capitalism" -- a vibrant global network of commerce liberated from the "strife," "war," and coercive regulatory "domination" of the City of Man. The economics of the New Jerusalem rather than the Old Babylon.
Contrary to amillennialists like Michael Horton, Christians best "serve" the world by helping to "save" it. For "serve" see here. For "save" see here. "Save the world" does not mean "preserve the world in a state of rebellion against The City of God." It means convert the whole world into the City of God. "In earth as it is in heaven" (Matthew 6:10).
The Bible is an infallible history of the human race and the origin of "Civil government."
"The State" has its origin in rebellion against God and conquest of other human beings.
Nowhere in His inscriptured Law does God command any society to form an empire or a State or a "civil magistrate."
We must agree with James Benjamin Green who, in his exposition of the chapter on the Civil Magistrate in the Westminster Confession of Faith rightly observes (concerning Romans 13:1), "It is not meant that God directly ordained the state by saying to man, Thou shalt set up a government or organize a commonwealth."
Romans 13 doesn't mean that because it never happened. God never commanded anyone to form "the State."
Franz Oppenheimer, in his book The State: Its History and Development Viewed Sociologically, distinguishes between "Economic Man" and "Political Man."
Here is an excerpt from Albert Jay Nock and the Libertarian Tradition - Jeff Riggenbach - Mises Daily
| One such question was, what is the nature of the state? Where did it come from? If the state was in fact useless for the purpose of improving human society
what was it in fact good for? So he wrote a book. It's called Our Enemy, the State. It came out in 1935, after
being delivered as a series of lectures at Nock's newly renamed alma mater, Bard College. Our Enemy, the State is a true libertarian classic, one of those
books you simply must read if you have any serious interest at all in the libertarian idea.
The state, Nock wrote,
Nock quotes the German sociologist Franz Oppenheimer, who described the typical primitive state,
Nock wrote,
In essence, then, "taking the State wherever found, striking into its history at any point, one sees no way to differentiate the activities of its founders, administrators and beneficiaries from those of a professional-criminal class." After all, Nock argued, there are two and only two means of making a living in this world. There's the economic means — earning it. And there's the political means — seizing it from someone else who has earned it. The state, Nock said, is "the organization of the political means." Does this sound familiar somehow? Does it sound, perhaps, like the rhetoric of Mr. Libertarian, Murray N. Rothbard? Nock had an immense influence on Rothbard. He also had an immense influence, apparently, on another major figure in the contemporary libertarian movement, Ayn Rand. According to Anne C. Heller, whose biography of Rand, Ayn Rand and the World She Made, was published about a year ago, it was the theory Nock had adapted from Franz Oppenheimer that inspired Rand to write The Fountainhead. |
In his book, Nock powerfully distinguishes between "political power" and "social power."
"The Church" needs to be "the society."
The Christian ekklesia needs to replace political power with social power.
Using political power to accomplish any goal, no matter how noble, is always a sin.
Anarchism: It is a SIN to be a Government
When Paul spoke to the Areopagus, he said they were "very religious."
So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are a very devout (deisidaimonesterous, δεισιδαιμονεστέρους ) people
The Greek word, δεισιδαίμων, deisidaimōn, is literally "reverent to demons." In Romans 13 terms, we would say "reverent to the higher powers." Everyone in Paul's day believed the empires were guided by demons. Paul said Christians wrestle against the powers (Ephesians 6:12). Paul proclaimed a rival Power. As the men in Acts 17 put it,
Also some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers were conversing with him, and some were asking, “What does this babbler want to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a proclaimer of strange gods,” (daimoniōn | δαιμονίων | gen pl neut) for he was proclaiming the Good News/Gospel about Jesus and the resurrection.
The word translated "strange" doesn't mean "weird." It is the Greek word ξένος, xenos, from which we get our English word "xenophobia," hatred of out-of-state foreigners. Paul was proclaiming "out-of-state powers," "out-of-polis gods." Paul was preaching a political rival to the Greek state.
Rushdoony called the City of Man "The Society of Satan."
For more on the demonic origin of the State, see:
The Origin of "the State" ("Civil Government") - Political Philosophy 101 According to the Bible
The State -- in every age -- is saying that it is our SAVIOR. It claims to be the source and bringer of SALVATION. Ancient empires made this claim explicitly. Modern regimes do so more implicitly, because they want to claim to be "secular" or "neutral," not "religious." Every "government" in the history of the human race -- up until a century or so ago -- claimed to be on the side of the true religion.
This is not to say that the State claimed to be able to ensure that you go to heaven when you die. "Salvation" is a much broader concept than that -- in the Bible and throughout the ancient world.
This claim is a huge part of this website. Details here.
One way the modern State makes you think it is not in competition with Jesus for the title of SAVIOR is by making you think that Jesus offers a completely different kind of "salvation" than the State does. The salvation Jesus brings (we are told) has nothing to do with the economy, government, society, or anything relating to this present world, but only has to do with what happens to you after you serve the Empire for your entire life, enjoying the salvation it brings, and then die.
Micah 4:1-7
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