The Origin of "the State" ("Civil Government")
Political Philosophy 101
According to the Bible

The Bible from Cover to Cover

The Bible starts off with Satan's temptation: "Ye shall be as gods" (Genesis 3:5). Throughout the Bible, "gods" are political, not strictly theological; a violation of the First Commandment more than the Second Commandment. As a percentage of the Bible's 30,000 verses, the main theme of the Bible is "politics." Specifically, the Bible is an anti-political manifesto.

America's Founding Fathers, following the Protestant Reformers, did not get this right. This has led to the murder of hundreds of millions of people, the enslavement of billions, and the theft or destruction of trillions of dollars of private property in just the last 120 years.

Defining "Family," "Church," and "State"

If asked to date the origin of the Family, the average seminary student would say "Genesis 1 and 2." Full credit.

If asked to date the origin of the Church, the average seminary student would say "Matthew 16:18," where Jesus says "on this rock I will build My church." Half credit. In Acts 7:38 Stephen speaks of "the church in the wilderness" on the way to the Promised Land. Hebrews 2:12 says that King David said, "I will declare Your name to My brethren; In the midst of the church I will praise You." Hebrews 11, the "Hall of Faith," contains the names of many people whom Christians might expect to see in heaven, because they are members of the "church of the firstborn" (Hebrews 12:23). But we'll leave the origin of "the Church" to another class.

"The Origin of the State" is obviously a different question from "The Origin of the Church" or "The Origin of the Family." So first we must define "the State." That requires us to define the term "Political Philosophy."

Political Philosophy

If you don't get "political philosophy" right, you won't get nursing, engineering, accounting, or any other vocation or field of study right.

That claim sounds strange, precisely because we haven't gotten it right for at least two hundred years.

The word "philosophy" comes from two Greek words meaning "love of wisdom." "Political Philosophy" means love of political wisdom. What does "political" mean?

The word "political" comes from the Greek word polis (πόλις). One might conclude from a quick look at a lexicon that the word polis means "city" and that's the end of it.

But the word means more than that. Not just because it can also mean "city-state" or even the entire "State." Babylon was a "city," but also an Empire. Rome was a "city," but also an Empire.

In addition to covering something as broad as an "empire," the polis was also a religion.

Greek political experience . . . was summed up in the polis, the city-state . . . which both Plato and Aristotle assumed to be the highest expression of the common good, that is, the embodiment of a moral value. In modern language the polis can only be described as both a "State" and a "Church." The whole destiny of man was involved in the State. We are apt to forget this, when in present-day speech we use a Greek word, "Politics," to indicate merely the science and art of government.
Alexander Passerin d'Entrèves, The Notion of the State, Oxford Univ. Press, 1967. See also Fustel de Coulanges, The Ancient City: A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome (Garden City, New York: Doubleday Anchor, [1864] 1955.

"Political" in this sense is not "merely the science and art of government" nor the clash between two political parties ("Democrat" and "Republican"), or between "liberals" and "conservatives." It is a war between two irreconcilable religions.

Religion

Paul Tillich was a professor of Religion at Harvard University, one of the five highest ranking professors at the University. He defined "religion" as "ultimate concern." In this sense everyone is religious, though some people live out their religion with passionate dedication, and other people are just duds. This fits well with the Biblical perspective, which sees everyone as religious, though some live out the true religion, while others suppress the truth and create their own religion. There is an almost endless variety of false religions that oppose the religion of the Bible. The details of these false religions are unimportant compared to the true religion. It's very binary.

St. Augustine alluded to this binary conflict in his book The City of God, which described the conflict between the "City of God" and the "City of Man." The City of God is the Kingdom of God, or Empire of God. Rushdoony called the "City of Man" "The Society of Satan." When Tertullian asked, "What indeed has Athens to do with Jerusalem?" he was asking, What does the City of Man have to do with the City of God? Implied answer: nothing. We can therefore distinguish between two kinds of "political philosophy":

We might also distinguish between

A humanistic philosophy of the Polis will downplay God's City and emphasize the City of Man, in all its varieties.

Credit for the creation of "the State" may well go to Cain, who built the first "city" (Genesis 4:17), followed after the Flood by Nimrod, builder of Babel (Babylon) (Genesis 11:4).

This doesn't look good for "the State."

Some writers, hoping to rehabilitate the pedigree of the State, have suggested that the origin of "civil government" can be found in Genesis 9, where God told Noah to shed the blood of those who shed innocent blood. But the more careful scholars have seen that these commands were given to Noah "and his sons" (Genesis 9:1), that is, to Noah as a "family," and no "civil government" existed at that time. Noah the Patriarch was both priest (Genesis 8:20ff.) and prince. As Noah's sons multiplied and spread out, it was men like Nimrod who built the first cities (Genesis 10:12). The name Nimrod can mean "hunter of men" or "rebel against God."

No entity or institution can be called a "Godly institution" if it engages in systematic and repeated violation of God's Commandments. But that's what "the State" does. If an entity is not violating God's Commandments, it's not a "State."

The State is a "Monopoly of Violence"

"The State" is institutionalized, systematic violence.

Every professor of political science in every university on planet earth will agree that the fundamental nature (or most basic definition) of "civil government" (or "the State") is

Proof:

Mainstream scholarship is summed up in the Encyclopædia Britannica:

State monopoly on violence, in political science and sociology, the concept that the state alone has the right to use or authorize the use of physical force. It is widely regarded as a defining characteristic of the modern state.

In his lecture “Politics as a Vocation” (1918), the German sociologist Max Weber defines the state as a “human community that (successfully) claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory.” The modern state, according to Weber, emerged by expropriating the means of political organization and domination, including violence, and by establishing the legitimacy of its rule.

Moses gave the command of God, "Thou shalt not kill" (Exodus 20:13). John Calvin recognized that "The sum of this Commandment is, that we should not unjustly do violence to any one. [U]nder the word 'kill' is included by synecdoche all violence, smiting, and aggression."[1] More than 50 other texts which explicitly mention "violence" clearly condemn violence to our neighbor.[2]

"The State," quite simply, is an institution of sin. Like "the Mafia," "The State" cannot exist without sinning against God. More on this subject: "Defining 'Government'"

Franz Oppenheimer

The great Jewish sociologist Franz Oppenheimer, in his book The State: Its History and Development Viewed Sociologically, draws the distinction between people like
       • Seth and Cain, and
       • Noah and Nimrod.
       • Abraham and Chedorlaomer
Godly men like Abraham, Seth, and Noah, Oppenheimer calls "Economic Man."
Rebels like Cain and Nimrod and "the kings of the gentiles" (Mark 10:42-45), Oppenheimer calls "Political Man."

Economic Man
vs.
Political Man

The word "economics" comes from two Greek words meaning "home" + "law." Economics begins with feeding your family.

More about Franz Oppenheimer

What follows is from Albert Jay Nock and the Libertarian Tradition by 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,

did not originate in the common understanding and agreement of society; it originated in conquest and confiscation. Its intention, far from contemplating "freedom and security," contemplated nothing of the kind. It contemplated primarily the continuous economic exploitation of one class by another, and it concerned itself with only so much freedom and security as was consistent with this primary intention; and this was, in fact, very little. Its primary function or exercise was … maintaining the stratification of society into an owning and exploiting class, and a propertyless dependent class. The order of interest that it reflected was not social, but purely antisocial; and those who administered it, judged by the common standard of ethics, or even the common standard of law as applied to private persons, were indistinguishable from a professional-criminal class. …

The positive testimony of history is that the State invariably had its origin in conquest and confiscation. No primitive State known to history originated in any other manner … no primitive State could possibly have had any other origin. Moreover, the sole invariable characteristic of the State is the economic exploitation of one class by another.

Nock quotes the German sociologist Franz Oppenheimer, who described the typical primitive state,

in respect of its origin, as an institution "forced on a defeated group by a conquering group, with a view only to systematizing the domination of the conquered by the conquerors, and safeguarding itself against insurrection from within and attack from without. This domination had no other final purpose than the economic exploitation of the conquered group by the victorious group."

Nock wrote,

Any considerable economic accumulation, or any considerable body of natural resources, is an incentive to conquest. The primitive technique was that of raiding the coveted possessions, appropriating them entire, and either exterminating the possessors, or dispersing them beyond convenient reach. Very early, however, it was seen to be in general more profitable to reduce the possessors to dependence, and use them as labour-motors. … [This] modified technique has been in use almost from the beginning, and everywhere its first appearance marks the origin of the State. …

The State, both in its genesis and by its primary intention, is purely anti-social. It is not based on the idea of natural rights, but on the idea that the individual has no rights except those that the State may provisionally grant him. It has always made justice costly and difficult of access, and has invariably held itself above justice and common morality whenever it could advantage itself by so doing.

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.

The Demonic Origin of "the State"

The Bible says more about "the State" than simply the work of mere mortals like Cain and Nimrod. The Bible clearly links The State with demonic forces. Everywhere the word "powers" occurs in the New Testament, reference is make to demonic powers. In speaking of "the powers that be," Romans 13 is no exception to this rule. Demonic and rebellious men and powers are always the unwitting "servants" or "ministers" of a sovereign, all-controlling God.

Start with the essay "Stars and Idolatry" in the Romans 13 essays here.

Then see how the Bible consistently refers to the State as "evil."

More:

"Our citizenship is in heaven" (Philippians 3:20).

The City of God is true civilization (a word which is derived from the Latin word for polis). The City of God is the true Society. The City of Man is at war with true society, true civilization. It leads to social atomization, with every man his own autonomous god.

Had James written his letter after Augustine wrote City of God, he might have said:

Do you not know that friendship with the City of Man is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the City of Man makes himself an enemy of God.
James 4:4

We cannot be friends with the "political philosophy" of the City of Man, which is the political philosophy taught in every college and university on planet earth -- even colleges identifying as "Christian." There are no exceptions. Some of them call the curriculum of the City of Man "classical education." The Bible has a unique political philosophy which is the opposite of a humanistic or "classical" political philosophy. Jesus says the citizens of His polis must love their enemies (Matthew 5:44) and offer them sanctuary and citizenship when they renounce their allegiance to the City of Man and sign a treaty of unconditional surrender to the City of God; the secular polis says enemies can be destroyed. According to the Bible, Jesus is the only legitimate "Archist." Jesus said His followers must not be "archists" (Mark 10:42-45). The secular polis worships and serves the creature rather than the Creator (Romans 1:25; Isaiah 33:22; 1 Samuel 8:7).

A Biblical Political Philosophy is not just one aspect or component of a Biblical worldview. "The City of God" is itself a comprehensive worldview, just like the City of Man is. As d'Entrèves said above, "the whole destiny of man" is involved in your choice of "citizenship." You live out your entire life, in every dimension, in every walk of life, as a citizen of either the City of God or the City of Satan. Everything flows logically from that choice of citizenship. Citizenship is the most basic choice in life. Which is to say, "political philosophy" is the most basic course of study.

In the first semester at Vine & Fig Tree University, every student will survey the Bible to see why every humanistic City, every society of Satan, every polis, eventually bans the Bible as an "anarchist manifesto." Even the United States has banned the Bible. Public school teachers in the U.S. cannot teach the Bible the way Moses, Isaiah, Jesus, and Paul would teach the Bible; the Bible can only be taught the way Carl Sagan or other atheists would teach the Bible: as the irrelevant relic of a pre-evolved tribal community, and not the infallible Word of The Creator. This is because even though America's Founders thought of themselves as creating a Christian polis, they absorbed too much from Athens -- Plato, Aristotle, and the City of Man -- and planted the seeds of the destruction of their Christian nation, the New Jerusalem.

At Vine & Fig Tree University we hope that, 200 years after the founding of America, the time has come for a truly Biblical Political Philosophy; one that equips us to live in the City of God and not be friends with the City of Man.

Defining "Government"

"Political Science" is an interesting term. Most people think about politics patriotically rather than scientifically. If you define "politics" or "government" with precision and objectivity, you can see more clearly that it is unBiblical.

  1. The Nature of "the Government" -- Force
  2. Representative definitions
  3. Taxation
  4. Prison/punishment
  5. War vs. Criminal due process
  6. "anti-government?"
    1. trust no one
    2. McManus/Gow letter
    3. "privatize" = eschew criminal acts
    4. Hodge
  7. Service: A "Well-Governed" Society.

1. The State: The Institutionalization of Violence

The word "government" can be used in different ways.

In family, school, neighborhood association, and groups of all kinds, there is "government." When we obey "the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God," our society is orderly, peaceful, harmonious and well-governed. James Madison, "the Father of the Constitution," is reported to have said,

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

Every individual and every business and institution created by voluntary associations of individuals is morally obligated to be well-governed, and to respect the rights of others to life, liberty, and property. "Self-government" creates a society of "Liberty and Justice for all."             

What is "THE Government?"

"Self-government" -- following the commandments of God -- is what it means to be human.

But "the government" ("the State") claims the right to seize the property of others by force, have those who resist beaten and raped, and kill all those who get in the way. "Self-government" is vitrue. "The government" is violence.

George Washington is reported to have said,

Government is not reason, it is not eloquence — it is force. Like fire it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master. . . .

"Private" persons and businesses can only raise money by persuasion. A business can entice a customer to exchange his money for the goods and services produced by the business. A charity can persuade donors to give money voluntarily. But the State raises money through force and threats of violence

2. Representative Scholarly Definitions

Political scientists and scholars in the field of political economy agree with George Washington. The essential feature of "the State" is its use of force to achieve its objectives.

Ludwig von Mises, the most influential political economist of the "Austrian" school of economics, gives us this definition of a "State":

The state is essentially an apparatus of compulsion and coercion. The characteristic feature of its activities is to compel people through the application or the threat of force to behave otherwise than they would like to behave.

Government Equals Force by James Bovard

Suppose I come up to you and say, "If you murder anyone I'll kill you." I am compelling you through the application or threat of force to behave otherwise than you might like to behave; am I a "State?" Not necessarily; Mises continues his definition:

But not every apparatus of compulsion and coercion is called a state. Only one which is powerful enough to maintain its existence, for some time at least, by its own force is commonly called a state. A gang of robbers, which because of the comparative weakness of its forces has no prospect of successfully resisting for any length of time the forces of another organization, is not entitled to be called a state. The state will either smash or tolerate a gang. In the first case the gang is not a state because its independence lasts for a short time only; in the second case it is not a state because it does not stand on its own might. The pogrom gangs in Imperial Russia were not a state because they could kill and plunder only thanks to the connivance of the government.

Consider this question: under Mises' definition, and based on the account in Genesis 14, was Abraham a "State?" It would certainly seem so.

Paul (Romans 13:1) commands us to obey "the powers that be." How does this find expression in Genesis 14? Were there no "powers?" Was Abraham "the powers?" Was it a more complex situation? Was Abraham fighting "the powers" by fighting the "United Nations Peace-keeping Force," this demonic alliance of kings? It seems clear that in Abraham's life there was no earthly "State" outside of himself, and this situation is acceptable in the eyes of God. (Nevertheless, to advance our thesis, we will never call Abrahamic Patriarchies "states." "State" will be a term reserved for non-familial or supra-familial systems of social structure.)

"The State" is thus a group of individuals who can steal from and kill a selected target of people without expecting any other group to be willing or able to stop them.

Augustine, in his book City of God, wrote this:

Justice being taken away, then, what are kingdoms but great robberies? For what are robberies themselves, but little kingdoms? The band itself is made up of men; it is ruled by the authority of a prince, it is knit together by the pact of the confederacy; the booty is divided by the law agreed on. If, by the admittance of abandoned men, this evil increases to such a degree that it holds places, fixes abodes, takes possession of cities, and subdues peoples, it assumes the more plainly the name of a kingdom, because the reality is now manifestly conferred on it, not by the removal of covetousness, but by the addition of impunity. Indeed, that was an apt and true reply which was given to Alexander the Great by a pirate who had been seized. For when that king had asked the man what he meant by keeping hostile possession of the sea, he answered with bold pride, What you mean by seizing the whole earth; but because I do it with a petty ship, I am called a robber, while you who does it with a great fleet are styled emperor.

The essential point of this Thesis is that God in the Bible nowhere gives any individual or group the right to steal or kill, even if they call themselves "the State." Being a politician does not make taxation less theft, or war less murder.

More definitions.

3. Taxation

When a business in the "free market" needs to raise money, it must use persuasion to entice the voluntary support of others. By contrast, when "the State" needs money, it takes it by force. This taking is called "taxation." (Other forms of taking, such as fractional reserve banking, asset forfeiture, and debasement of the currency, are also used. These "revenue enhancement" devices are, like taxation, also immoral.)

       It is important to remember that government interference always means either violent action or the threat of such action. The funds that a government spends for whatever purposes are levied by taxation. And taxes are paid because the taxpayers are afraid of offering resistance to the tax gatherers. They know that any disobedience or resistance is hopeless. As long as this is the state of affairs, the government is able to collect the money that it wants to spend. Government is in the last resort the employment of armed men, of policemen, gendarmes, soldiers, prison guards, and hangmen. The essential feature of government is the enforcement of its decrees by beating, killing, and imprisoning. Those who are asking for more government interference are asking ultimately for more compulsion and less freedom.
       [I]n face of the modern tendencies toward a deification of government and state, it is good to remind ourselves that the old Romans were more realistic in symbolizing the state by a bundle of rods with an ax in the middle than are our contemporaries in ascribing to the state all the attributes of God.

Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, 1949

"Fasces" from the shield of the
Partito Nazionale Fascista

The Fasces: Weapon of Political Thugs
see fascism

"New Deal" fasces,
Mercury Dime

4. Prison/punishment

When the target refuses to "contribute" its money to "the State," the target is threatened with prison. Such threats are calculated to create "voluntary compliance."

"There Oughta Be a Law!"

Actually there already is a Law. The Declaration of Independence speaks of "the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God."

When someone says
"There ought to be a law!"
he really means
"There ought to be government action
 -- there ought to be vengeance --
there ought to be misery and pain inflicted on the person who offended me!"

Suppose Jones wants some extra money. He asks Smith for some money and Smith refuses. Jones threatens to lock Smith up in the Jones Basement for five years with a violent sociopath, who will beat and rape Smith every day for the next five years. Smith pays up. That this form of coercion is at the heart of the State's "criminal justice system" is seen in this opinion from the Los Angeles Times in June of last year (before any allegations of cooked-books or any other illegal conduct had been made against Enron):

     Here's what California Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer said at a press conference about Enron Corp. Chairman Kenneth Lay: "I would love to personally escort Lay to an 8-by-10 cell that he could share with a tattooed dude who says, 'Hi, my name is Spike, honey.'"
     Here's why Lockyer should be removed from his office of public trust: First, because as the chief law enforcement officer of the largest state in the nation, he not only has admitted that rape is a regular feature of the state's prison system, but also that he considers rape a part of the punishment he can inflict on others.
     Second, because he has publicly stated that he would like to personally arrange the rape of a Texas businessman who has not even been charged with any illegal behavior.
     Lockyer's remarks reveal him to be an authoritarian thug, someone wholly unsuited to holding an office of public trust.
     But his remarks do have one positive merit: They tell us what criminal penalties really entail.
     Contrary to some depictions of prisons as country clubs, they are violent and terrible places.

Tom G. Palmer,
'Hi, My Name Isn't Justice, Honey,' and Shame on Lockyer,
L.A. Times, Wednesday, June 6, 2001 || more
"The State" is "a violent and terrible" idea.

5. "War" vs. Criminal Due Process

The State claims the right to kill. The State is symbolized by the sword for this reason.

Osama bin Laden was accused of conspiring to vandalize the World Trade Center and murder its occupants. Instead of being pursued by law enforcement agents, in accord with Constitutional procedures, the power of "the sword" was invoked. War does not observe constitutional limitations. Thousands of non-combatant Afghanis were killed in "the war on terrorism."

6. Is this an "anti-government" attitude?

a. "Trust No One" -- An American Ethos
 
How do libertarians respond to the accusation that they do not have enough trust in government? John Adams wrote in 1772:

There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty."

Should libertarians have more confidence in their government? Thomas Jefferson, 1799:

Confidence is everywhere the parent of despotism. Free government is founded in jealousy, and not in confidence; it is jealousy, and not confidence, which prescribes limited constitutions to bind down those whom we are obliged to trust with power.… In questions of power, then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.

James Madison warned the people of Virginia (1799):

the nation which reposes on the pillow of political confidence, will sooner or later end its political existence in a deadly lethargy.

Madison added in Federalist No. 55,

[T]here is a degree of depravity in mankind which requires a certain degree of circumspection and distrust. . . .

Trusting government, having "confidence in government," is un-American.

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 force of "the government" -- are morally corrupt. This assumption should be considered confirmed if he increases his own power during his time of "public service."
    

b. McManus/Gow letter
  
c. Religion as "Private" = failure of public criticism of criminal acts by the State
 
In the modern world, the State claims to be "neutral" with respect to religion. "Religion" is said to be "private." It is religion that says "Thou shalt not steal," and so by privatizing religion, the State avoids criticism based on its violation of Divine Law. Requiring the State to be "under God" is derided as "imposing religion on others," or violating a mythical "separation of church and state." Criticizing the State based on religion is (conveniently) undignified and inappropriate.
1. "The Laws of Nature and of Nature's God."
2. The Myth of "Private Religion"
 
d. Hodge: Moral Revulsion
This thesis is not rooted in hedonism or antinomianism. Our desire to abolish the State is motivated by the fact that (to adapt the words of Princeton professor A.A. Hodge in 1887) the State is

the most appalling enginery for the propagation of anti-Christian and atheistic unbelief, and of anti-social nihilistic ethics, individual, social and political, which this sin-rent world has ever seen.[*]

In particular, the State engages in more theft, murder, and kidnapping than any other group of people, including the criminals from which the State promises to protect us. The State is, without close competition, the greatest thief and mass murderer on the planet. The 20th century, marked by the final destruction of Christian localism and the rise of the secular State, has been the century of mass death on a scale unparalleled in human history.

[*] A.A. Hodge, Popular Lectures on Theological Themes, Phila: Presbyterian Board of Publications, 1887, p. 280, quoted in R.J. Rushdoony, The Messianic Character of American Education, Nutley, NJ: The Craig Press, 1963, p. 335. Hodge was referring to the government-run school. But all of government, as propagator of law, is an educator. See R. Lerner, “The Supreme Court as Republican Schoolmaster,” 1967 Sup. Ct. Rev. 127. Legal systems educate the masses. They set the agenda for private citizens (see "private religion," above)

7. Service: A "Well-Governed" Society

There are several features of a well-governed society. All of them require attitudes of service. None of them require theft, violence, or threats of force.

  1. The Education of Children
  2. Employment and Vocational Training
  3. The Care of the Elderly
  4. Care of the Fatherless
  5. Care of the Ill and Handicapped
  6. Freedom of Conscience

Service

A well-governed person, who yearns for a well-governed society, wants to place firm limits on "the government."

But can there be too many limits on "the government?" What if the chains of the Constitution strangle "the government" or "the government" is abolished all together?

I believe this would be a good thing.

"But wouldn't that be anarchy?" some might ask.

If you equate "anarchy" with "lawlessness." then "anarchy" is a bad thing. But if you understand that "anarchy" means "the absence of archists," then your next question should be, "What is an archist?" Keep reading on this page if you want to learn more about "law" and "lawlessness," or click the link below to find out why good and moral people are against "archists."

Rejecting Archism: It is a SIN to be a Government

How To Become a Christian Anarchist

Free Market Dispute Resolution Organizations

The Nature of Government

What is the "State"?

The State as Criminal

Order without Violence

Let's Review.

The Biblical Case for Anarchy

I realize that's a totally goofy-sounding thing to say. I used to believe the Bible was against "anarchy." "Anarchy" is a bad word. "Anarchists" are bad people. I've always thought that.

I now believe that the Bible is an "Anarchist Manifesto." I now believe the Bible says -- from cover to cover -- that "archists" are the bad guys, not "an-archists."

Let's begin with three basic moral principles:

  1. Don't hurt people
  2. Don't take their stuff.
  3. If someone does this to you:
    1. love your enemy (Matthew 5:44)
    2. forgive him (Matthew 6:14-15)
    3. exhort him to repent (Matthew 18:15-17)
    4. leave vengeance to God (Romans 12:19-21)

Rule #2 means "Taxation is theft."

"Taxation" is unconsented theft and aggression. It is the moral equivalent of extortion. It is a threat of violence upon failure to "fork over the dough."

Rule #3 means:

Rule #3 also means that followers of the executed Christ are "pacifists."

Governments are created to evade Rules #1 and #2 and #3.

If a group of people are not taking people's stuff and threatening to hurt people, they are not a "government." Maybe they are a "Rotary Club," but the core definition of a "State" is a "monopoly of violence."

Obviously, since the Bible prohibits violence and theft, the Bible prohibits the creation and maintenance of "civil government."

And if the mark of the City of Man is violence, then the mark of the City of God is peace. The word "pacifism" is derived from the Latin word for "peace" (not "passive").

Since the Bible commands us to be pacifists, the Bible commands us to "submit" or "be subject to" evil, like cheek-slappers, tax collectors, and centurions.

But when Jesus says "Resist not evil," He does not mean "evil" is good. Evil is evil, but we are commanded to submit to it without returning evil for evil.

When Paul tells the Romans "Bless those who persecute you" (Romans 12:14), he is not saying that persecutors are a "divine institution" and have God's permission to persecute Christians, and will not be judged or condemned by God for beheading believers, but will be rewarded for being God's "servants" or "ministers."

Evil people "serve" God's purposes even by sinning.  These "servants" will be condemned and judged by God for doing the evil things that "serve" God's purposes.

There is no verse in the Bible that anyone alive today can use to prove that it's OK for them to become "the State" and to tax people and threaten violence against people.

Verses that command us to be pacifists and "be subject to" taxes and military invasions do not prove that military invasions are ethical or moral or do not result in God's wrath and condemnation of the invaders and the tribute collectors.

As pacifists, we obey them all, no matter how tyrannical, and we do not resist them. (Of course, "we must obey God rather than man" (Acts 5:29). It is not a sin to be taxed, but it is a sin to commit violence against someone, even if you're "just following orders.")

It is a sin to "govern" people. All governments are under God's wrath and condemnation. There is not a single exception. We should abolish all governments by exhorting archists to repent.

See how simple this is?

This is really simple to understand, but initially it is hard to accept.

It is hard to accept that you've been brainwashed, and you're a victim of educational malpractice at the hands of schools created and operated by the City of Man.

It will be hard to accept the idea that you are right and everyone else is wrong.

It will be hard to accept the idea that such a simple concept that yields peace and prosperity is opposed by a complex rationalization that leads to tyranny, poverty, and mass death.

It takes a Ph.D. to not be an anarcho-pacifist.

Continue reading only if you need more explanation.

Definitions:

I would like to prove to you that

Moses gave the command of God, "Thou shalt not kill" (Exodus 20:13). John Calvin recognized that "The sum of this Commandment is, that we should not unjustly do violence to any one. [U]nder the word 'kill' is included by synecdoche all violence, smiting, and aggression."[1] 

Taxation is theft (extortion). Money is extracted under threats of violence. Ultimately, the threat to kill.

If you don't have taxation, you don't have "civil government." A society without "taxation" is a society without "the State."

Therefore, the opponent of violence is an opponent of "the State." The logically consistent pacifist says that "the State" should not exist.

Governments exist because God creates them to punish evil, covetous, or rebellious people.
God created the psychopathically violent empire of Assyria to punish Israel (Isaiah 10).
God created the empire of the Medes to punish Babylon (Isaiah 13).
Nebuchadnezzar was God's "servant/minister" to take Judah captive (Jeremiah 25-27).

The Christian pacifist would say that those who defend the violent monopoly of the State are sinning against God.

Every "government" in the history of the world has eventually banned the Bible, believing it to be an Anarchist Manifesto, which it is. Even the government of the United States makes it illegal for public school teachers to endorse or promote the Bible as a divine revelation.

Every Christian is a "Pacifist."
Every Pacifist is an Anarchist.

"Anarcho-Capitalism" is 100% pure laissez-faire capitalism with 0% Socialism/Communism/Fascism/Keynesianism.

Some church-goers insist that we MUST have SOME socialism. 100% capitalism (anarcho-capitalism) is sinful, they insist.

They would concede that we might be permitted to have a free market in computers, cars, housing, clothing and groceries, but there are some goods or services which MUST NOT be provided by businesses or non-profit organizations which are freely chosen by consumers. An "oligarchy" (a small group of men relative to the size of consumers) must have a monopoly in the provision of these goods and services, without any competition. Consumers must not have a choice. Anyone going into business to provide these goods and/or services in competition with "the government" must be threatened with physical violence and driven out of business.

Of course, if someone goes into business to compete with YOUR business, you are not allowed to threaten your competitors with physical violence in order to drive them out of business. Your only recourse is to serve your customers on a higher level than your competitors.

You may consider your competition as your "enemy," but Jesus commands you to love your enemy and serve consumers at the highest level.

But "civil governments" are allowed to destroy their competition, both domestically and internationally.

Anarcho-Capitalism is economic pacifism.

Point #3 means it is immoral not only to take vengeance by your own hand, but immoral to hire a contract killer or "hit man."

Would this not also mean it is immoral to "vote" for a vengeance-taker?

Instead of "voting" for vengeance-takers, shouldn't we exhort vengeance-takers (and those who voted for them) to repent of vengeance-taking, and leave vengeance to God (Romans 12:19-21)?

But wouldn't these three obvious Biblical points logically result in the abolition of all "civil governments?"

  1. civil governments hurt people
  2. and pay their own salaries by taking your stuff
  3. They don't leave vengeance to God.

Some will say that this line of thinking -- taking these verses literally -- would lead to "anarchy," so this line of argument cannot be true because "everybody knows" that anarchy is bad, and "everybody knows" that the Bible commands all human beings to create and maintain "civil governments."

Does it really?

Suppose I had supernatural powers of persuasion, and while your back was turned, I persuaded every human being on planet earth to repent of vengeance-taking and repent of funding acts of vengeance through "taxation" (which is the moral equivalent of theft, violating point #2 above). In other words, all politicians repented, abdicated, completely abolished "the public sector," and got real jobs in "the private sector." No "civil governments" were left on planet earth. Human beings lived in a social condition which economist Murray Rothbard called "anarcho-capitalism."

What Bible verse can you point to to prove that this stateless society is sinful, and needs to vote for vengeance-takers and tax-collectors?

What Bible verse would you point to
to prove that any human being
has the moral authority to take money from other people by force or threats of violence ("taxation")
and use that money to fund acts of vengeance?

What Bible verse would you point to
to prove that any human being
has a moral obligation to "vote" for someone to take money from other people by force or threats of violence ("taxation")
and use that money to fund acts of vengeance?

I would say it is a sin to create a monopoly of violence. I would say Christians have a moral obligation to abolish all governments (using persuasion, not violent revolution). We should leave "government" to God.

As it stands right now (before I initiate my program of supernatural mass persuasion), we do not live under "anarcho-capitalism." Suppose instead of advocating "anarcho-capitalism," I told you that God wanted ME to be your king, and I told you that you need to pay me "tribute" or "taxes."

You would reply that I am not your king, and you are not under my jurisdiction. You are a citizen of another kingdom: "The United States of America."

That's the wrong answer, from a Biblical perspective, for several reasons.

The first thing you should say is that you are a citizen of Christ's kingdom, which is the only morally legitimate government. You should tell me to repent of being an "archist" and become a citizen of Christ's "holy nation" (1 Peter 2:9). Why would you say I am not your governor because Joe Biden is, rather than saying I am not your governor because God is?

The second thing you should say is that I have no verse of Scripture to support my claim that I have a right to engage in extortion to fund acts of vengeance. There is no verse of Scripture which any human being anywhere on planet earth today can point to and say "This verse gives me the right and moral authority to engage in extortion of taxes to fund acts of vengeance. This verse proves that I can kill my enemies and take your money to pay for it. Plus, this verse proves that if anyone else tries to take vengeance on their enemies and fund their vengeance-taking through extortion, I can initiate force against them and threaten them with physical violence for trying to compete against me and undermine my monopoly of violence."

Not one verse can legitimately be used to support the creation of "the State," a monopoly of violence.

This is why every government on earth agrees that The Bible is an Anarchist Manifesto.

I might reply that while Donald Trump's government takes more than 2/3 of everything you earn. I, as your king, would demand much less. You would be a better steward of the resources God has entrusted to you by being subject to my tax collection instead of Trump's.

You would reply that Trump's army is bigger than mine, and you and I would be crushed if we didn't pay them their extortion.

True point. But surely might does not make right.

What makes the State right? What gives Caesar the right? Why should all Americans rise up, like America's Founders did in 1776, and declare our independence, and demand that everyone who gets a paycheck from "the Public Sector" resign and get a real job in the private sector?

You truly do not realize how ironic your allegiance to the United States is. It vastly exceeds the allegiance your government has for you.

But you resist abolishing the U.S. government and allowing anarcho-capitalism to thrive because you believe "government" is good. Even though America's Founders -- who abolished their own government in 1776 -- would be horrified at how lawless, tyrannical, and anti-theistic your government is. Abolishing "civil government" is dangerous, unpatriotic, and somehow unBiblical, you believe.

What Bible verse gives people calling themselves "the U.S. Federal Government" the right to exercise political sovereignty over your state?
What Bible verse gives people calling themselves your "state government" the right to exercise political sovereignty over your county?
What Bible verse gives people calling themselves your "county government" the right to exercise political sovereignty over your city?
What Bible verse gives people calling themselves your "city government" the right to exercise political sovereignty over your neighborhood?
What Bible verse gives your neighbors the right to exercise political sovereignty over your family?
(For the words "exercise political sovereignty" think: "send the tanks," "send armed marshals," "taze, handcuff, and imprison." Ultimately, put you to death.)

Every civil magistrate -- every monopoly of violence -- eventually declares outright war on God and the Bible, just as the United States of America has banned the Bible from its established church, the public school system.

But if you reject my claim to be your sovereign to whom you owe taxes, why do you accept the claim of Joe Biden to be your sovereign? And, again, which verse in the Bible gives "The United States of America" the moral right to tax you to fund acts of vengeance, violence, and promotion of atheism, homosexuality and abortion?

Imagine an anarcho-capitalist society, living on an uncharted island in the Pacific, unknown to any current government, population 144,000. There are 12 families in this society. Each family is headed by a very Godly patriarch like Abraham, Noah, Job, the Prophets or the Apostles, or Godly kings like Hezekiah or Josiah. Just as Abraham had as many as 12,000 people in his "household,"1 each of these 12 families are equally large. You would agree it is the most just society in human history -- except for one thing.

There is no "civil government."

Whenever there is a crime, it is adjudicated following the principles Jesus laid out in Matthew 18:15-17, and the appropriate Biblical response to that crime is executed by the island's family heads, and judges are chosen on a Free Market basis, if they are needed.

But there is no "civil government." No monopoly of violence. No tax collectors. "Anarcho-capitalism."

Where is the verse which says
that someone has the moral right to demand that this patriarchal society
vote for him to be the "civil magistrate," and empower him to seize property
to fund acts of vengeance, and threaten violence against competitors?

Which verse says Caesar was morally justified in invading and conquering Israel, and putting Israel under tribute?
When Jesus said, "Resist not evil," "Go the second mile," and "Render unto Caesar," He was de-legitimizing violent revolution by the "Second Amendment" crowd of His day, who wanted to take up swords against conquering invaders, but He was not legitimizing conquest, murder, and enslavement by archists like Caesar.

And beyond that, where is the verse which says that someone
has the moral right to say to Abraham or Noah or Job or any Godly family head,
"You may no longer administer justice. I have a monopoly on the provision of legal services,
and I will enforce my monopoly with violence."

Why is it insufficient to be a citizen of the "holy nation" mentioned in 1 Peter 2:9 (see also Philippians 3:20).

People who are not anarchists and pacifists silently condone the killing and destruction of tens of millions of people, and the atheistic indoctrination of those that remain alive. They deny that Jesus is the only legitimate Archist.

Think about one of those dull statistics above: Today the U.S. drops a bomb somewhere every 12 minutes on average.

Imagine that someone detonates one of these bombs in your neighborhood. Down the street a bit, so that the only damage that is done to your house is maybe some particulate matter is dropped on your lawn. No big deal, right?

Are you kidding? Your house would be rocked, even if not damaged. You would look out the window in horror to see several of your neighbors' homes in rubble. Every decent and humane psychologist would say you have experienced the kind of trauma that one experiences through the death of a spouse or child. Not only would your house be rocked, but your whole world (psychologically speaking) would be rocked. "What is going on in our world?"

The U.S. government does this to millions of people every year.

The people in Washington D.C. are sociopaths.

The people in your city ("law enforcement") who enforce the diktats of the violent atheistic federal government are also sociopaths.

If you are not an anarcho-pacifist, you are experiencing a form of PTSD without realizing it.

Murder, Blood, Atonement, and "Civil Government"

Suppose I murder your son in a fit of anger.

You cite Genesis 9:4-6 for the proposition that my blood should be shed:

Genesis 9:4-6 -- Blood must be shed

But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. 5 Surely for your lifeblood I will demand a reckoning; from the hand of every beast I will require it, and from the hand of man. From the hand of every man’s brother I will require the life of man. 6 Whoever sheds man's blood, By man his blood shall be shed; For in the image of God He made man.

But suppose you don't know that I was the one who murdered your son. Nobody knows this. It's an unsolved homicide. Should you urge your civil government -- and its Levitical priests -- to follow Deuteronomy 21:1-9?

Deuteronomy 21:1-9 -- Blood must be shed in cases of Unsolved Homicide

5And the priests the sons of Levi shall come near; for them the LORD thy God hath chosen to minister unto Him, and to bless in the Name of the LORD; and by their word shall every controversy and every stroke be tried: 7Then they shall answer and say, “Our hands have not shed this blood, nor have our eyes seen it. 8 Provide atonement, O LORD, for Your people Israel, whom You have redeemed, and do not lay innocent blood to the charge of Your people Israel.” And atonement shall be provided on their behalf for the blood. 9 So you shall put away the guilt of innocent blood from among you when you do what is right in the sight of the LORD.

To my knowledge, no Christian advocates the literal observance of this law. Here's why.

Suppose I confess to the murder, and can supply evidence to back up my confession.

Should Numbers 35:33 be followed?

Numbers 35:33 -- Blood must be shed in cases of a Solved Homicide

33 So you shall not pollute the land where you are; for blood defiles the land, and no atonement can be made for the land, for the blood that is shed on it, except by the blood of him who shed it.

Should my blood be shed?

Who should shed my blood?

You?

You and your neighbors?

People calling themselves "the civil government?"

Since I provided the evidence against myself, and testified against myself, should I shed my own blood?

What if people calling themselves "the civil government" refuse to prosecute me, or a jury of my peers refuses to convict me, but I believe my blood needs to be shed to cleanse the land (Hebrew, כָּפַר kaphar, make atonement, Strong's #3722) Should I shed my own blood?

What if you believe that only the blood of Jesus can cleanse the land of the shedding of innocent blood (which I shed).

Should people calling themselves "the civil government" threaten to hurt you if you don't pay (be taxed) for "executioners" to shed my blood, even if you don't want my blood shed?

Suppose I murder your son and I am Jeff Bezos, the wealthiest man in the world, and I promise to become your slave for life, and pay you $100 million a year for the rest of my life out of the money I earn at Amazon.com. Suppose you want the proceeds of my forced labor more than my shed blood? Should people calling themselves "the civil government" threaten to hurt you if you don't pay (be taxed) for "executioners" to shed my blood, even if you don't want my blood shed?

These are the questions every society must answer:

Who was Franz Oppenheimer?

Franz Oppenheimer was born on March 30, 1864 in Berlin; he died September 30 1943 in Los Angeles. This is not the Oppenheimer associated with the Atomic Bomb. Our Oppenheimer exposed the mythology of the "social contract" theory of the State, by showing its roots in conquest and violence.

Oppenheimer started out as a physician. Then he studied economics and wrote his PhD dissertation on David Ricardo. After accepting a call to serve as Chair for Sociology and Theoretical Political Economy at Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt/Main (the first chair dedicated to Sociology in Germany) a cooperative agricultural community of individual farms (called a "Moshav") was founded by Jews using Oppenheimer's blueprint. Oppenheimer later taught in Palestine. He fled Nazi persecution to Los Angeles, and became a founding member of The American Journal of Economics and Sociology.

Oppenheimer's book The State looks at the origins of this political entity:

"The State, completely in its genesis, essentially and almost completely during the first stages of its existence, is a social institution, forced by a victorious group of men on a defeated group, with the sole purpose of regulating the dominion of the victorious group over the vanquished, and securing itself against revolt from within and attacks from abroad. Teleologically, this dominion had no other purpose than the economic exploitation of the vanquished by the victors."

"No primitive state known to history originated in any other manner. Wherever a reliable tradition reports otherwise, either it concerns the amalgamation of two fully developed primitive states into one body of more complete organisation, or else it is an adaptation to men of the fable of the sheep which made a bear their king in order to be protected against the wolf. But even in this latter case, the form and content of the State became precisely the same as in those states where nothing intervened, and which became immediately 'wolf states'." (p. 15)
Economic Man and Political Man

Oppenheimer made the compelling observation:
"There are two fundamentally opposed means whereby man, requiring sustenance, is impelled to obtain the necessary means for satisfying his desires. These are work and robbery, one's own labor and the forcible appropriation of the labor of others. Robbery! Forcible appropriation! These words convey to us ideas of crime and the penitentiary, since we are the contemporaries of a developed civilization, specifically based on the inviolability of property. And this tang is not lost when we are convinced that land and sea robbery is the primitive relation of life, just as the warrior's trade - which also for a long time is only organized mass robbery - constitutes the most respected of occupations. Both because of this, and also on account of the need of having, in the further development of this study, terse, clear, sharply opposing terms for these very important contrasts, I propose in the following discussion to call one's own labor and the equivalent exchange of one's own labor for the labor of others, the “economic means" for the satisfaction of needs, while the unrequited appropriation of the labor of others will be called the "political means." (pp. 24-25)
Albert Jay Nock introduced these concepts to American readers in his own book Our Enemy, the State.

h/t Wikipedia
Posted by at

Addendum

Ecclesiology as Political Philosophy

When Jesus said "I will build My church" (Matthew 16:18), He was not forever re-defining what people would do at 10:30am on Sunday mornings. Nor was He understood by His disciples to be doing so.

The Greek word translated "church" is ἐκκλησία, transliterated into English as ekklēsia. This word meant something before the conversation recorded in Matthew 16 took place.

Here is the Wikipedia article on "ekklesia." That article is short and worth reading. It says the "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. Athens had an ekklesia. Sparta had an ekklesia.

This "political" aspect of "ekklesia" is very important, but is usually ignored.

Our English word "ecclesiology" means "the doctrine or study of the church." The word is obviously derived from the Greek word ekklesia. But discussions about clergymen, sacraments, and the Sunday morning "worship service" was not what anyone was thinking when Jesus said "I will build My own ekklesia."

The ekklesia represents "the Kingdom of God." "Kingdom" is a political term. The Kingdom of God is the Polis of God. It is a rival to all the kingdoms of the world (Luke 4:5-6; Revelation 11:15). The ekklesia is the capitol of this polis. It is the Statehouse. It is the governing body. It claims political/civil jurisdiction over our businesses. It is "civic," not "religious." (Ultimately, everything in life is religious, but our thinking has been distorted. "Religion," as Francis Schaeffer noted, has been relegated to the "upper story" of a two-story building. What's really important and relevant to life is in the lower story. But in the New Testament, as in the Greco-Roman world,  "church" -- the ekklesia -- is supposed to be political, not ecclesiastical. Practical action, not religious feelings or robes and tiaras.)

Is "The Institutional Church" a Part of "The Kingdom of God?" -- 2,328 words

When Jesus said "I will build my own ekklesia," He was saying "I will build My own government." At the end of His earthly ministry, the disciples would ask Him, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6). They were asking, "Will you at this time inaugurate the military defeat of the Roman occupation forces and make Israel an independent, sovereign political jurisdiction with its own ekklesia?"

Peter, the great Satan, was an offense to Jesus, because Peter was “not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men” (Matthew 16:23). Peter did not fully understand that Jesus was teaching His disciples to be pacifists, not armed revolutionary militia men. Nevertheless, His "church" would be revolutionary in its effect. After saying "I will build My ekklesia," Jesus went on to say, "and the gates of hell will not prevail against it." David Chilton comments,

Matthew 16:18 — Christ's promise that "the gates of hell shall not prevail against the church"— is often watered down to mean only that the church will be divinely protected against attacks by the forces of evil. Come now. When have you ever heard of gates attacking anything? Gates do not attack. Gates defend. The picture here is not that of the church besieged by the forces of evil. It's the other way around. The church is the one on the offensive. God's people are attacking the forces of evil, and Jesus promises that the ungodly will be defenseless under our attack. We will win! We share Christ's dominion now, and we are to extend that dominion throughout creation, confident of victory. (p. 237)

The City of God will defeat the City of Man, in time and in history. We are engaged in the building -- edification -- of a rival government.

Why "Church" is a Fine Translation of "Ekklesia" -- 32,000 words

The founders of Harvard would have understood this political philosophy. They were creating a "City upon a Hill," a New Jerusalem. They were Theocrats. But their Jerusalem had too much Athens.

Politics and Religion

A Biblical "Political Philosophy" is religious in a way that offends secular political philosophers.
A Biblical "Political Philosophy" is political in a way that offends religious thinkers and influencers.

1 Peter 2:9
But you are a chosen generation, a royal [political] priesthood [religion], a holy [religion] nation [political], His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;

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

Revelation 5:10
And have made us kings and priests to our God;
And we shall reign on the earth.”

Every human being should be a Christian.
Every Christian should be a priest and a king.
No human being should be a liturgical priest or a political king.
Being or having a creature for a king is a rejection of the Creator as King (1 Samuel 8:7; Romans 1:25; Isaiah 33:22).
Being or having a creature for a priest is a rejection of Christ the Creator as priest.

Hebrews 10:11
And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, 13 from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. 14 For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.

Hebrews 2:17
He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.

Hebrews 4:14
Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15 For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

This kind of thinking is offensive to both "politics" and "religion." It is both political and religious (which is neither religiously nor politically correct) and it is neither political nor religious, which is both "anarchy" and "sacrilege."

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

Vine & Fig Tree

Vine & Fig Tree is a 501(c)(3) non-profit educational organization.
Our mission is to accelerate the fulfillment of Micah's "Vine & Fig Tree" prophecy (Micah 4:1-7).

Supporting: love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, sobriety
Opposing: Secularism, Humanism, Anti-Family Sex, Hedonism, Autonomy, Totalitarianism, and Mass Death

The name "Vine & Fig Tree" comes from the fourth chapter of the prophet Micah, and is set forth here. 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." It  could be called "The Original American Dream."
Our Goal for the Planet:

The message of the angels to the shepherds on the first Christmas:

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

 Our Goal for You:

To be one in whom God is well pleased:

His lord said unto him, `Well done, thou good and faithful servant. Thou hast been faithful over a few things; I will make thee ruler over many things. Enter thou into the joy of thy lord.' Matthew 25:21

Our programs are designed to transform you into:

  • An Extraordinary American
  • An Extraordinary Christian
  • An Extraordinary Human Being

These were the three goals of Harvard graduate Samuel Adams, "The Father of the American Revolution."

Here is the foundational text:

Micah 4:1-7

1 But it shall come to pass,
in the last days
that the mountain of the house of the LORD
shall be established
in the top of the mountains,
and it shall be exalted above the hills;

and people shall flow unto it.
2 And many nations shall come, and say,
Come, and let us go up to
the mountain of the LORD,
and to the house of the God of Jacob;
and He will teach us of His ways,
and we will walk in His paths:
for the Law shall go forth of Zion,
and the Word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

3 And He shall judge among many people,
and rebuke strong nations afar off;
and they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
and their spears into pruninghooks:
nation shall not lift up a sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war any more.

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.

5 Although all people will walk
every one in the name of his god,
we will walk in the name of the LORD our God
for ever and ever.

6 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;
7 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.

As I'll show below, this was the most popular Bible verse in American 300 years ago. Millions of people came to America because they wanted to live peacefully on their own property, free from princes and pirates. “Vine & Fig Tree” is the original "American Dream."

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

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

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

3. God's law requires peace.

If this were just a Hallmark® Card, nobody would be offended at this. But I'm an "extremist."

“Vine & Fig Tree”  in American History

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

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

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:

"At length my Dear Marquis I am become a private citizen on the banks of the Potomac, & under the shadow of my own Vine & my own Fig-tree."

This phrase occurs at least 11 times in Washington's letters.

"And Judah and Israel dwelt safely, every man under his vine and under his fig tree" (2 Kings 18:31).

"Under My Own Vine and Fig Tree, 1798" by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris, Lora Robins Collection of Virginia Art, Virginia Historical Society
Under My Own Vine and Fig Tree, 1798
Jean Leon Gerome Ferris
Virginia Historical Society
Lora Robins Collection of Virginia Art
      Peter Lillback, author of a 1,000-page study of Washington's life and thought, has found more than 40 references to the  “Vine and Fig Tree” vision in Washington's Papers. Other scholars keep finding more, it seems.
      Many other American Founders wrote of this ideal.
      "Vine & Fig Tree" is the original "American Dream."
      The phrase occurs a number of times in Scripture. These references are visual reminders of the Hebrew word for salvation, which means
• peace,
• wholeness,
• health,
• welfare, and
• private property free from pirates and princes.
When today's Americans hear the word "salvation," they usually think about going to heaven when they die. When the writers of the Bible used the word "salvation," they wanted you to be thinking about dwelling safely under your own Vine & Fig Tree during this life -- much more often than they wanted you to be thinking about what you'll be doing in the afterlife.

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

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

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

Foundations of a "Vine & Fig Tree" Society

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

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

Indeed, Smith adds, in early America, the Reformation

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Warning!
You Are About to be Offended

by the following audacious claim:

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

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

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

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

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

Fourth, this book is really hard to read. Not because it uses big words and technical jargon, but because it challenges what you believe. It challenges beliefs you were taught to believe in 13, 17, or 20+ years of atheistic schooling, and continue to have reinforced by mainstream media, and you're not even aware you believe those things, but when I challenge those beliefs, you'll freak out.

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

Consider these four verses

Acts 17:10-12 
Now these [The Bereans] were more noble than those in Thessalonica,
in that they received the Word with all readiness of the mind,
searching the Scriptures daily, whether these things were so.
 
Proverbs 27:17
Just as iron sharpens iron,
friends sharpen the minds of each other.
 
Proverbs 18:17
"The first to state his case seems right until another comes forward and examines him."
 
Proverbs 25:2
It is the glory of God to conceal a thing:
but the honour of kings is to search out a matter.

The Bible encourages study of the Bible. The Bible discourages letting it accumulate dust on the shelf.
The Bible is the Word of God. It makes sense to figure out what God is saying, and not to substitute the words of men for the Word of God.

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

Finally, you should read this book because you are a victim of educational malpractice. If the men who signed America's Declaration of Independence could travel through time from their day in 1776 to our day in 2025, they would say you are a victim of educational malpractice. Children in their day were taught the Bible, including Micah's prophecy, and they could understand the meaning of the Declaration of Independence. Public schools were created to make sure everyone in town could read and understand the Bible, because that's where our laws came from. Today's education system is atheistic.

Searching the Scriptures daily, being sharpened with iron, and being cross-examined, are not things most Americans today want to do. They prefer kitty videos. This is quite different from Americans 300 years ago.

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

Today's government says U.S. public school teachers cannot teach students that the Declaration of Independence (the "birth certificate" of America) is actually true. If you're like me, you attended atheistic ("secular") schools that were prohibited by law from teaching you that:

These are things the Declaration of Independence sets forth.
None of these things can be taught as truth in a school controlled by the governments of

Yes, the United States. You are the product of hours and hours and hours -- 13, 17, 20 or more years -- of Bible-free atheistic indoctrination.

My book and online university will help you learn what the average 12-year old knew in 1776. If you're a high school student thinking about going to college, take a few months to work through this book and you'll either change your mind about spending $100k and 4 years of your life in college, or you'll graduate with your faith intact. If you've already graduated from an atheistic university, you will be de-programmed from the most dangerous and authoritarian cult in the world: the United States. Does that sound crazy? America's Founding Fathers would undoubtedly think the same thing about you and your government today.

In 1892 the Supreme Court of the United States proudly boasted that America was officially, legally, technically, Constitutionally, and "organically" a "Christian nation." I'm fond of the old America, a Christian "republic," but I loathe today's atheistic U.S. Empire.

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

These books say what the Supreme Court said a century ago. My new book says two things:

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

That shouldn't be controversial, but it is.

As I attempt to show, America's Founders were not consistent with the Biblical Blueprints. Micah says the foundation is "Jerusalem," but America's Founders attempted to build on a foundation of "Jerusalem and Athens." I think that was a mistake. That's where controversy begins.

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

Writing gurus advise me to write a Preface and Introduction to "hook" you into reading the book. I hope to motivate you to focus with intention and exercise mental and moral discipline to soak up a new way of looking at the world. I admit this won't be easy, even though the words themselves are on an 8th-grade level.

Micah says

1 it shall come to pass,

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

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

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

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

A.: God is in control.

Next, Micah says,

the mountain of the house of the LORD
shall be established

Q.: When will this come to pass?

A.:

in the last days

What is meant by the phrase "the last days?" Turn on the TV and the prophecy preachers will tell you we are now living in "the last days." They mean the last days before the Second Coming of Christ. Or the last days of planet earth.

They are mistaken. The have been mistaken for 2,000 years.

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

Some writers say we're living in a period called "the last days," and it represents the entire time between Christ's first coming and His second coming. "The Last Days" could be thousands or millions of years. But these scholars do not believe Christians have a moral obligation to beat "swords into plowshares."

Let's look at three components of that phrase:

the mountain of the house of the LORD
shall be established

First,

that the mountain

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

the house of the LORD

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

shall be established

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

in the top of the mountains,
and it shall be exalted above the hills;

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

and people shall flow unto it.
2 And many nations shall come, and say,

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

Come, and let us go up to
the mountain of the LORD,
and to the house of the God of Jacob;
and He will teach us of His ways,
and we will walk in His paths:
for the Law shall go forth of Zion,
and the Word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

Notice the words of exhortation and education. That's our job.

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

3 And He shall judge among many people,
and rebuke strong nations afar off;
Who is "He?" It is clearly Jesus the Messiah. The first nation He judged/rebuked was the nation of Israel, who murdered their King. This took place in "the last days" of the Old Covenant. Perhaps Jesus is about to judge the U.S.A., a once-Christian nation.
and they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
and their spears into pruninghooks:
nation shall not lift up a sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war any more.

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

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

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

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

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

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

2 for the Law shall go forth of Zion,
and the Word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

5 Although all people will walk
every one in the name of his god,
we will walk in the name of the LORD our God
for ever and ever.

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

What indeed has Athens to do with Jerusalem?  What concord is there between the Academy and the Church?... Our instructions come from “the porch of Solomon”.... Away with all attempts to produce a mottled Christianity of Stoic, Platonic, and dialectic composition!  We want no curious disputation after possessing Christ Jesus...!
Tertullian, Prescription against Heretics (VII). 

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

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

Next, Micah says,

6 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;
7 And I will make her that halted a remnant,
and her that was cast far off a strong nation:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Table of Contents

Exposition and Elaboration of Micah's Text

Micah 4:1-7

1 But it shall come to pass,
in the last days
that the mountain of the house of the LORD
shall be established
in the top of the mountains,
and it shall be exalted above the hills;

and people shall flow unto it.
2 And many nations shall come, and say,
Come, and let us go up to
the mountain of the LORD,
and to the house of the God of Jacob;
and He will teach us of His ways,
and we will walk in His paths:
for the Law shall go forth of Zion,
and the Word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

3 And He shall judge among many people,
and rebuke strong nations afar off;
and they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
and their spears into pruninghooks:
nation shall not lift up a sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war any more.

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.

5 Although all people will walk
every one in the name of his god,
we will walk in the name of the LORD our God
for ever and ever.

6 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;
7 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.

Verse 1:

0. The Bible is the Word of God:
"for the mouth of the LORD of hosts hath spoken it."
1. God is Sovereign:
"it shall come to pass"
2. The Reign of Christ Began in the Past:
"in the last days"
3. The Mountain is Eden:
"the mountain"

Verse 2:

4. Global Conversion:
"people shall flow unto it."
5. God's Law:
"the Law shall go forth"
6.. Education:
"He will teach us of His ways"
7. Spontaneous Obedience:
"we will walk in His paths"

Verse 3:

8. The Messiah Reigns:
"He shall judge"
9. Pax Christi, Not Pax Romana:
"they shall beat their swords into plowshares"

Verse 4:

10. Freedom from Archists:
"none shall make them afraid"
11: The Family:
"every man under his Vine & Fig Tree 
12: Service:
[Genesis 1:26-28]
13: The Garden/Land:
Vine & Fig Tree 
14: The Fall of Man:
[Genesis 3:5 - the desire to be as god, to make people fear you]
15: Salvation:
"none shall make them afraid"

Verse 5:

16: Jerusalem versus Athens:
"Although all people will walk every one in the name of his god,"
17: Community:
"We will walk"

Verse 6:

18: Charity:
"gathering the afflicted"
19: Gospel:
Good news of a new kingdom
20: Justification:
Allegiance to the New Kingdom

Verse 7:

21. Church:
"House of the LORD" in "Mount Zion"
22: Eternity:
"for ever and ever"

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

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

About the Author

As of January 2025, I work full-time at WalMart, bringing home about $12/hr. Out of my paycheck I pay for all the websites I have created for a non-profit tax-exempt organization called “Vine & Fig Tree,” which I founded and began writing for in the late 1970's. Virtually nobody I have met at Walmart knows the following about me; both customers and co-workers would chuckle at the idea of a lowly Walmart employee writing a book. Or a series of books. Or a college curriculum.

I was born in the year of Sputnik, the Russian satellite that kicked off "the Space Race," which was part of "The Cold War." The Vietnam War was part of "The Cold War." This was followed by "The War on Terror." I'm pretty sure that when I was first old enough to vote, I voted for candidates who supported the Vietnam War. I was raised a conservative Christian, and conservatives support a "strong national defense."

In high school I changed from a "conservative" Christian to a radical "fundamentalist" Christian. I met an author/speaker named R.J. Rushdoony. Rushdoony championed "Christian Reconstruction." He opposed secular government, and advocated "Theonomy" (from two Greek words meaning "God's Law"), and what most people would call "Theocracy." Rushdoony founded an organization called Chalcedon. Rushdoony's writings helped create "The Moral Majority" and get Ronald Reagan elected President in 1980. In 1982, reflecting on the "Reagan Revolution," Newsweek magazine identified Chalcedon as the "think-tank" of the religious right. Compared to Rushdoony, Reagan was a liberal, and Rushdoony did not vote for Reagan, and while leaders of the religious right read Rushdoony, their followers never heard Rushdoony's name, because he was a theological "hot potato." Before I graduated from college I became a "Chalcedon Scholar" and started writing a monthly column in Chalcedon's flagship periodical.

I eventually became more radical than Rushdoony. I think I was becoming logically consistent with the Bible and Rushdoony's version of a Bible-based society. Rushdoony wrote the following:

This is what John Adams, later second President of the U.S., wrote in his diary on February 22, 1756:

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

Like others of his day, Adams was a theonomist!

Adams graduated from Harvard, a university established by Calvinist Theocrats like R.J. Rushdoony. Abolishing all law books except the Bible, and making the Bible the legal blueprint for society, is a radical idea. You could call me a Calvinist Theocrat, like John Adams, John Hancock, Samuel Adams, and other graduates of the older Christian Harvard University. If these men could travel through time to our day, our current government would call them "domestic terrorists." Abolishing all government codes of law will get you called an "anarchist," even if you want to replace those statute books with the Bible, which gets you called a "Theocrat." In the late 1970's I took a college class on Political Philosophy taught by Libertarian Party Presidential Candidate John Hospers. One of the texts in his class was Murray N. Rothbard's book For A New Liberty. Rothbard was an anarchist. He advocated a stateless society. Hospers was a "minarchist," a libertarian who believed in the necessity of a (very small) government. Rushdoony's criticisms of the secular State had already made me an anarchist, though Rushdoony despised that word. Rothbard gave me permission to use that label in public.

Like other "Christian Reconstructionists," I had thought of myself as "TR" -- "Truly Reformed"; following the Protestant Reformers more consistently than other Protestants. But in the early 1980's I learned more about the Anabaptists of the 16th century. They were put to death by Calvinist Theocrats. I concluded that in many respects the Anabaptists were better Theonomists than the Calvinists. Anabaptists are considered to be Protestants, because they weren't Catholics, but are more likely to "beat swords into plowshares" than the other Protestant Reformers, called "Magisterial Reformers" because of their collaboration with the civil magistrate ("The State"; the "sword"). I eventually concluded that God's Law ("Theonomy") commands pacifism. I read about anti-war activist Dorothy Day, who was mentored by a French philosopher named Peter Maurin. Maurin was an advocate for the poor, and might also be called the first "Christian Reconstructionist," "reconstruction" being a favorite word of his. As Jim Wishloff wrote, "Peter Maurin considered both liberalism and conservatism and concluded that neither was adequate to effect a reconstruction of the social order." Dorothy Day sought to implement Maurin's Program. Day converted from left-wing socialism to Catholic Christianity, and began publishing an answer to the Communist Party's newspaper, The Daily Worker, with a periodical of her own, The Catholic Worker. I spent the better part of the next decade in the Catholic Worker movement, helping run a homeless shelter. Maurin envisioned a radical right-wing movement, but today's Catholic Worker movement is considered left-wing. They don't care too much about the Bible and theological orthodoxy, so they became the only movement that would let me in. The conservative groups I used to be affiliated with were shocked by my radical Biblicism (anarcho-pacifism), and excommunicated me.

James 1:27 says true religion is protecting widows and fatherless children, but when I was young I had voted for politicians who promised to create widows and fatherless children by killing husbands and fathers -- all part of a "strong national defense." All told, during my lifetime, the federal government of the United States has murdered, maimed, or made homeless tens of millions of innocent non-combatant non-white civilians around the world. The United States drops a bomb somewhere in the world every 12 minutes, on average. No other government, including Iran, North Korea, and Communist China, has been as evil and as dangerous as the U.S. Federal Government has in the last 40 years. You might say the government of North Korea is more evil, but it's not more dangerous to the rest of the world. Statistically speaking, the average human being on planet earth is more likely to have her "unalieanable rights" violated by someone on the payroll of the U.S. Federal Government than by someone from Russia, North Korea, Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas, or any organized crime syndicate ("Mafia," "Yakuza") or drug cartel (Los Zetas, Sinaloa, etc.).

America's Founders created a limited government, with "checks and balances," a "separation of powers," limited by a "Bill of Rights." But we no longer live in "America," but under "The United States," arguably the most powerful centralized government in the history of the human race. Pharaoh had the Israelites for slaves, but did not have the global reach the U.S. Empire has. And the U.S. does not promote Christianity. The opposite, in fact. Washington D.C. is the enemy of God and humanity. Russia under Putin does a better job of promoting "traditional morality" than the U.S. In fact, the U.S. opposes "family values" and seeks to impose the opposite on weaker nations around the world.

So you can call me an anti-American anarcho-pacifist Calvinist Theocrat.

Nobody at Walmart does.

This is a photo of a U.S. tank proudly flying a U.S. flag burning down a house-church in Waco, TX, killing dozens of innocent men, women, and children. I can't "pledge allegiance" to that flag after seeing that.

That's a photo of a neighborhood in Iraq. "Your tax dollars at work." Or is it Gaza?

That is not a photo of "Hitler Youth" saluting "Mein Führer." These are schoolchildren in Southington, Connecticut, reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in 1942, before the Nazi Salute became offensive to Americans. A year earlier, Arch R. Everson, a taxpayer in Ewing Township, New Jersey, filed a lawsuit against government funding for parochial schools. His case was a landmark decision in the U.S. Supreme Court. It led eventually to the removal of voluntary Bible reading and voluntary prayer in government-run schools. I attended these atheistic fascist schools. In 1961 the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a law requiring school teachers to be Christians and prohibiting atheists from taking an oath to support the constitution and holding government offices. Such laws had existed for hundreds of years. Nobody who signed the Constitution thought such laws were "unconstitutional." I studied law and passed the California Bar Exam, but was denied a license to practice law because I was a Bible-believing anarcho-pacifist. While atheists were once denied government office, in the U.S. today Christians are -- unless they pretend to be atheists. Details.

America's Calvinist Founding Fathers would say that today's atheistic federal government is far more evil and tyrannical than the government they overthrew in the "American Revolution."

Here is more than any sane person wants to know about the author.

I suspect you can already see some of the more controversial points. I'll get into the controversies in more detail. Here is an outline of those controversial themes that can be found in Micah's prophecy. I find 23 of them in the passage, and each one can set off a firestorm of controversy. But when fully understood, each one is a source of great comfort, optimism, and "good news" ("gospel"). (I believe it will be helpful to review Micah's prophecy more than once.)

Micah 4:1-7

Key Controversies
4 for the mouth of the LORD of hosts hath spoken it. 0. Bibliolatry: God speaks, we worship the Word
1 it shall come to pass, 1: Calvinism/predestination: "It shall come to pass"
in the last days 2: Preterism: "in the last days" of the Old Covenant
that the mountain 3: Creationism: The "mountain" = Eden
the house of the LORD The temple of the LORD: Where is it today? "Mount Zion."
Is the "institutional church" a part of the Kingdom of God?
shall be established This has already happened (Acts 2:36)
in the top of the mountains,
and it shall be exalted above the hills;		 USA/USSR/UK/EU/NWO/WEF etc. are all rival "mountains"
and people shall flow unto it.
2 And many nations shall come, and say,		 4. Optimillennialism: "Peoples will stream; nations will come"
                               This is currently happening.
Come, and let us go up to
the mountain of the LORD,
and to the house of the God of Jacob;
and He will teach us of His ways,
and we will walk in His paths:
for the Law shall go forth of Zion,
and the Word of the LORD from Jerusalem.		 5: Theonomy: "the Law of God"

6. Education: Theonomic/Jerusalem/Family/business:
"Come, let us go."
"He will teach us."
Law/Word "shall go forth."

7: Character: spontaneous obedience to God's Law.
3 And He shall judge among many people,
and rebuke strong nations afar off;		 8: Theocracy / Christocracy: "He shall judge"
and they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
and their spears into pruninghooks:
nation shall not lift up a sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war any more.		 9: Pacifism: "swords into plowshares"

10: Archistlessness: no "sword" = no "Government" or "State"
Jesus is the One True Archist | What is an "archist?" Answer

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

Vine & Fig Tree
Daily Life

Family Education Family Business
11: Patriarchy: "His Vine"

6: Education: Family does the teaching of God's Law
                      Family businesses teach God's Law

7: Character: VFTU teaches God's Law because
                       ethics is more important than "genius"

 12: Dominion/work/service - figs and grapes must be picked, and prepared to serve consumers

13: Agrarianism: Vine & Fig Tree

17: Property/Communism: Sharing is Christian, but compulsory "sharing" is theft.

18. "Socialism" - The home as community center, home for the homeless/afflicted.

 

4 But they shall sit every man under
his vine and under his fig tree;
and none shall make them afraid:		 Who are those who would "make afraid?" Archists:

14: Fall of Man; sin: the desire to "be as gods" (Genesis 3:5)

15: Salvation: "None shall make them afraid" "dwell safely" || verses
5 Although all people will walk
every one in the name of his god,
we will walk in the name of the LORD our God
for ever and ever.		 16. Jerusalem vs. Athens

7: Character vs. "Mass Formation Psychosis"
standing alone against public lawlessness and unbelief

17: WE will walk; communism vs. individualism/property
6 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;
7 And I will make her that halted a remnant,
and her that was cast far off a strong nation:		 18. Socialism: Many people believe that "socialists" care about the poor,
but "capitalists" only care about themselves. Socialists would never accept
Micah's claim that the Lord "afflicts" people for their bad choices, and
socialists ignore the fact that "capitalists" manufacture things that
the poor want to buy. But socialists are sometimes correct when they
point out a capitalist who "afflicts" the powerless. The Bible says
the way we treat the "afflicted" is the way we treat Jesus Himself.
and the LORD shall reign over them in mount Zion
from henceforth, even for ever.		 Lord Shall Reign

19: Gospel: A proclamation of a rival kingdom

20: Justification: choosing citizenship in Jerusalem over Athens

Mount Zion

21. Church (House of the Lord on Mount Zion) - false temple, false "we"

For ever and ever

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

Checklist of the 23 Themes in this text:

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

I acknowledge that some of these ideas are considered "heresy" in many circles. Outside the walls of the church, other ideas are considered "disinformation." I originally thought I could write a very positive and encouraging book, since the idea of living peacefully under one's vine and fig tree is the original "American Dream," and was the most popular Bible verse in America 300 years ago. But I don't think a purely positive approach will work. Most people today have been brainwashed to have an automatic visceral negative reaction to anyone who tries to take the Bible seriously and make it a blueprint for public policy. Please recall those three verses mentioned above. If you don't like controversy, I'll try to make these controversies as attractive as I can.

On the other hand, some people love attacking heresies. They love to denounce ideas they disagree with and play the role of the "Defender of the Faith." There's a lot of red meat for such people in this book.

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

America was settled by Christians who wanted "religious freedom," that is, freedom from versions of Christianity they rejected. Most people in our day don't care about religion, much less doctrinal precision. Americans today see the conflicts of the past -- conflicts that led to the creation of America -- as petty disagreements between two groups of fanatic, theocratic Christians. Clergymen can indeed be petty and authoritarian. But some of the controversial issues are also the foundations of civilization. I want to show that if you get these big issues wrong, you undermine civilization. America will become a "third-world nation." Get these issue right, and you transform a wilderness into a garden; Canaan into Jerusalem.

Despite many agreements with the Puritans (which modern Americans reject), the Puritans would have considered this book to be dangerous and heretical. If you attend any church, your church will banish this book. If you're a "heresy hunter," you'll find plenty of heresies here. I grant the "institutional church" considers some of these ideas to be dangerous heresies, but I'm confident I can prove to you that the ideas are Biblical. An 8th-grader can read the verses I'll be lining up, and see the difference between what those verses say and what Washington D.C., the Vatican, and your "local church" all say. It's not about I.Q. The Bible was written to ordinary people 2,000 or more years ago. It's not that hard to understand; it's hard to get past our anti-Biblical training.

Vine & Fig Tree University

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

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

Vine & Fig Tree University

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Micah 4:1-7

1 But it shall come to pass,
in the last days
that the mountain of the house of the LORD
shall be established
in the top of the mountains,
and it shall be exalted above the hills;

and people shall flow unto it.
2 And many nations shall come, and say,
Come, and let us go up to
the mountain of the LORD,
and to the house of the God of Jacob;
and He will teach us of His ways,
and we will walk in His paths:
for the Law shall go forth of Zion,
and the Word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

3 And He shall judge among many people,
and rebuke strong nations afar off;
and they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
and their spears into pruninghooks:
nation shall not lift up a sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war any more.

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.

5 Although all people will walk
every one in the name of his god,
we will walk in the name of the LORD our God
for ever and ever.

6 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;
7 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.

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

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

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

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

The Westminster Standards

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

John Frame says

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

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

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

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

indent.gif (90 bytes)The Westminster Confession of Faith (1646) In addition to being the decree of Parliament as the standard for Christian doctrine in the British Kingdom, it was adopted as the official statement of belief for the colonies of Massachusetts and Connecticut. Although slightly altered and called by different names, it was the creed of Congregationalist, Baptist, and Presbyterian Churches throughout the English speaking world. Assent to the Westminster Confession was officially required at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. Princeton scholar, Benjamin Warfield wrote: "It was impossible for any body of Christians in the [English] Kingdoms to avoid attending to it."
indent.gif (90 bytes)The Westminster Catechism (1646) Second only to the Bible, the "Shorter Catechism" of the Westminster Confession was the most widely published piece of literature in the pre-revolutionary era in America. It is estimated that some five million copies were available in the colonies. With a total population of only four million people in America at the time of the Revolution, the number is staggering. The Westminster Catechism was not only a central part of the colonial educational curriculum, learning it was required by law. Each town employed an officer whose duty was to visit homes to hear the children recite the Catechism. The primary schoolbook for children, the New England Primer, included the Catechism.  Daily recitations of it were required at these schools. Their curriculum included memorization of the Westminster Confession and the Westminster Larger Catechism. There was not a person at Independence Hall in 1776 who had not been exposed to it, and most of them had it spoon fed to them before they could walk.

The Shorter Catechism begins with this notice:

Agreed upon by the Assembly of Divines at Westminster, with the Assistance of Commissioners from the Church of Scotland, as a Part of the Covenanted Uniformity in Religion Betwixt the Churches of Christ in the Kingdoms of Scotland, England, and Ireland.

and Approved Anno 1648, by the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, to Be a Directory for Catechising Such as Are of Weaker Capacity,

"Weaker capacity." Like 5-year olds.

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

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

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

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

The Bible says all believers are priests and kings:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Westminster Confession of Faith

 Vine & Fig Tree University
Chapter 1 — Of the Holy Scripture Substantial agreement.
Chapter 2 — Of God, and of the Holy Trinity Substantial agreement.
Chapter 3 — Of God’s Eternal Decree Substantial agreement.
Chapter 4 — Of Creation Substantial agreement.
Chapter 5 — Of Providence Substantial agreement.
Chapter 6 — Of the Fall of Man, of Sin, and of the Punishment Thereof Substantial agreement.
Chapter 7 — Of God’s Covenant with Man Substantial agreement.
Chapter 8 — Of Christ the Mediator Substantial agreement.
Chapter 9 — Of Free Will Substantial agreement.
Chapter 10 — Of Effectual Calling Substantial agreement.
Chapter 11 — Of Justification Chapters 10-18 are referred to as "The Ordo Salutis," or "the Order of Salvation." Without disagreeing with anything in these chapters, we find two deficiencies.
  • In the Bible, "salvation," "save," or "savior" refers to Christian Civilization, not just avoiding hell when you die.
  • Can a person be saved who says, "I believe God will impute the righteousness of Christ to my account, and I will go to heaven when I die, even though I refuse to repent of my sins."

We avoid these deficiencies by promoting a more Theonomic doctrine of "Justification" which we call "Justification by Allegiance" (as opposed to "Justification by Faith," where "faith" means "mere belief" or presumption).
Chapter 12 — Of Adoption Substantial agreement.
Chapter 13 — Of Sanctification Substantial agreement.
Chapter 14 — Of Saving Faith Substantial agreement.
Chapter 15 — Of Repentance unto Life Substantial agreement.
Chapter 16 — Of Good Works Substantial agreement.
Chapter 17 — Of the Perseverance of the Saints Substantial agreement.
Chapter 18 — Of the Assurance of Grace and Salvation Substantial agreement.
Chapter 19 — Of the Law of God This chapter is confused. It tries to embrace both Biblical Law and "natural law."
Chapter 20 — Of Christian Liberty, and Liberty of Conscience Substantial agreement.
Chapter 21 — Of Religious Worship, and the Sabbath Day || work six days This chapter is confused. The "sabbath," or seventh day of rest, is not the same thing as the commemoration of the resurrection of Christ on the first day of the week.
Chapter 22 — Of Lawful Oaths and Vows Substantial agreement.
Chapter 23 — Of the Civil Magistrate Substantial disagreement. No human being on planet earth in 2025 can credibly claim that God gives him permission to call himself "the civil magistrate" and hurt people and take their stuff, or attempt to impose his own will on others by force or threats of violence.
Chapter 24 — Of Marriage and Divorce General agreement.
Chapter 25 — Of the Church "The Church" is an imitation of the State.
Chapter 26 — Of the Communion of Saints General agreement.
Chapter 27 — Of the Sacraments In general, Vine & Fig Tree University rejects the claims of "the Institutional Church." The claims of the "church" are not always the claims of the Bible.
Chapter 28 — Of Baptism  
Chapter 29 — Of the Lord’s Supper  
Chapter 30 — Of Church Censures  
Chapter 31 — Of Synods and Councils  
Chapter 32 — Of the State of Men after Death, and of the Resurrection of the Dead In general, Vine & Fig Tree University rejects the claims of "futurists" and agrees with the claims of "preterists." The Westminster Standards reject preterism at many points, without agreeing with "premillennialism."
Chapter 33 — Of the Last Judgment

What is the Chief End of Man?

The Westminster Shorter Catechism famously begins:

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

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

God-Centered Life

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

John M. Frame writes,

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

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

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

Westminster Standards

23 Themes

0. The Bible as the Word of God

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
For the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken.

Micah 4:6
“In that day,” says the Lord,

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Words:

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

The human authors:

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

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

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

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

The God of the Words:

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

I don't use the term "free will," because secular philosophers use that term to suggest that if there is a god, such a god doesn't know what's going on, and is constantly being surprised at what the will of man does. So I would never say that I have "free will" and can do something that will catch God off-guard. God knows what I think and what I feel and what I will do because He predestined it all. But I am not a rock, or an insect, or an animal, or a robot. I am a human being created in the Image of God. Amazing.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Bibliolatry"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What the heck is wrong with us?

Westminster Standards
Chapter 1 - the Holy Scripture

The Bible as Treaty of Unconditional Surrender

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

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

Westminster Standards
Chapter 7 God’s Covenant with Man

The "Berean" Spirit

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

Acts 17
11Now The Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, in that they received the Word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.

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

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

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

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

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

audio

The Bible is our starting point

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

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

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

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

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

Third text:

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

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

Extremism

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

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

Extreme Middle of the Road Extreme
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Capitalism Apathy Tyranny
Theocracy Lukewarm Atheism
Love Indifference Hate

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

"It's a sign of mediocrity when you
demonstrate gratitude with moderation."
~ Roberto Benigni

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

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

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

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

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

That's a place to transition to the second of my propositions. I believe that if you believe in "free will," you do not believe that the Bible is the Word of God.

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

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

1. The Sovereignty of God - Calvinism/Predestination

Micah's Prophecy

"It shall come to pass"

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

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

Life as a Play

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

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

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

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

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

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

When is your birthday? Why did you choose to be born on that day? Did God ask your permission to be born on that day? Or did the Director decide when you would "enter the stage?"
There is no such thing as "free will." Darwinists will be the first to tell you this. Your DNA tells you what to do. Billions of years of evolution tell you what to do.
So you must face this question:
Were you brought into existence by the meaningless, impersonal "laws of physics," or were you brought into existence by a personal God who is Love?

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

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

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

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

Calvinism: "Liberty Under God"

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

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

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

PredestinationOnline.com

Audio

The Sovereignty of God

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

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

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

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

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

Predestination

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

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

"Arminians" call me a "Calvinist." They don't want me in their churches.
Conventional "Calvinists" call me other terms, but join the Arminians in ordering me far from their churches.

The Myth of "Free Will"

Jesus Wrote the Bible Using Human Penmen

Is God the "Author of Sin?"

This question is often asked.

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

There is a fundamental ambiguity in this question.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

God is Not the Author of Sin

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

"Free Will" is Anti-Choice

Predestination is an inescapable concept.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Westminster Standards
Chapter 3 - God’s Eternal Decree
Chapter 2 - God, and of the Holy Trinity
Chapter 9 Free Will

2. Preterist Eschatology

Micah's Prophecy
"in the last days"

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

Eschatology

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

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

Terminology

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

"Millennium"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Preterism

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

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

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

Three Principles for Interpreting Prophecy

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sanctified Imagination

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

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

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

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

The premillennialists are wrong for a number of reasons.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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:

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

and

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

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

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

Then there are other planets.

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

B. The Messianic Kingdom Grows Gradually

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

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

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

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

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

His authority shall grow continually

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

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

"Outright"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

C. Process, not Perfection

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

Isaiah 65:17-20
No longer will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days,
Or an old man who does not live out his days;
For the youth will die at the age of one hundred
And the one who does not reach the age of one hundred
Will be thought accursed.
Psalm 37:22
For such as be blessed of Him shall inherit the earth; and they that be cursed of Him shall be cut off.
Why would anyone in "the New Heavens and New Earth" be thought "accursed?" What basis would there be for entertaining such a notion, if there will be no sin? No sin, no curse.
 
Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
It is justly observed here by Mr. Scott, that “the event alone can certainly determine whether this is meant literally or figuratively; but it is evident that the universal prevalence of real Christianity would so terminate wars, murders, contentions, idleness, intemperance, and licentiousness, as greatly to lengthen out the general term of man’s life. Many diseases which now destroy thousands and tens of thousands in the prime of life, and communicate distempers to succeeding generations, would, in that case, scarcely be heard of any more; and thus the human constitution would soon be much mended, and children would generally come into the world more vigorous and healthy than they can do while vice so greatly prevails. What God may further intend in this matter we cannot determine.” Vitringa’s view of the passage seems to have been, that “there shall be no violent or punitive death in this holy city, but that all the inhabitants being holy, all shall die full of days and happy....”
 Other commentators.

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

The very popular Christian writer Dave Hunt has written:

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

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

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

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

"Perfectionism."

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

Prophecy as Law

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

David Chilton reminds us (Days of Vengeance, p. 27) of the words of B.B. Warfield: Prophecy is about Ethics, not just speculation about what will be handed to us on a silver platter in the future. It's real purpose is to cultivate obedient lives.
"We must try to keep fresh in our minds the great principle that all prophecy is ethical in its purpose, and that this ethical end controls not only what shall be revealed in general, but also the details of it, and the very form which it takes."
Benjamin B. Warfield, "The Prophecies of St. Paul," in Biblical and Theological Studies (Philadelphia: The Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Co., 1968), p. 470.
 
This is why Postmillennialists Must Be Pacifists.
• Postmillennialism
• Pacifism
Westminster Standards
Chapter 32 - the State of Men after Death, and of the Resurrection of the Dead

Chapter 33 - the Last Judgment

3. Creationism

Micah's Prophecy
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

Creationism

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1925 - 2025
A Century of Mass Death

Do you remember what happened in 1925? It was a famous court case. It received as much attention in the mainstream media as the O.J. Simpson trial. But it had a lot more social impact.

It was "the Scopes Monkey Trial" in Dayton, Tennessee. It was the focus of national attention, and symbolized the shift in American thinking from Christianity to Secularism. (The shift had begun decades before, but there was something about the Scopes Trial that crystallized that shift. Fundamentalists lost; modernists won. That's how we view it today.)

Celebrated Defense Attorney Clarence Darrow defended evolution. William Jennings Bryan, three-time Democratic candidate for President, opposed the teaching of evolution in public schools.

But Bryan was not a six-day creationist. He actually believed in billions of years of evolution. But he saw a danger in the theory of evolution. He worried that it led to eugenics, and would ultimately lead to Naziism. He was entirely correct.

This is a huge topic, and cannot be limited to the "facts" of biology and geology. It exposes a philosophical "grid" through which all facts are viewed and interpreted. One "grid" leads to Naziism, and the other "grid" leads to a peaceful “Vine & Fig Tree” society. A full discussion of the Scopes Trial and the presuppositions of both sides is found here:

Mass Formation Psychosis

It's a separate book. It contains an essay which Gary North says was the most important academic essay he ever wrote. It details the way people thought about evolution a hundred years ago. That thinking has now become the philosophical air we all breathe. It's the water we swim in. We take it for granted. Nobody examines it carefully. But that website does.

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

Jesus is the One True Archist

The New Jerusalem is a New Creation.

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

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

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

Isaiah 65:17-18
17 “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth;
And the former shall not be remembered or come to mind.
18 But be glad and rejoice forever in what I create;
For behold, I create Jerusalem as a rejoicing,
And her people a joy.
Hebrews 12
22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, 23 to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, 24 to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.
Westminster Standards
Chapter 4 Creation

4. Optimillennialism: Global Hospitality and Conversion

Micah's Prophecy
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

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

People will hear God's Word and desire to obey it.

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

It's the "good news" of the Gospel. It's why Jesus came to earth: "I will draw all men unto Me.” (John 12:32)

The Universal Spread of Christ's Kingdom

This optimism is also a duty: The World must be Christianized, and we must do our part to bring about the fulfillment of Micah's prophecy. We have a duty to convert the entire world into a global Theocracy, or "Christocracy." Prophecy is not something we passively observe.

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

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

All religions are not "basically the same."

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

"Diversity" vs. Civilization

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

Conversion of the Gentiles

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

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

Audio

Westminster Standards
The Westminster Catechisms contain more on this them than the Confession: 

Day 150: The Lord's Prayer, part 3 - "Thy Kingdom Come"

Day 151: The Lord's Prayer, part 4 - "Thy Will Be Done"

Many scholars have argued that the Westminster Standards embody an optimistic eschatology called "post-millennialism, but there isn't a separate section in the Westminster Standards on "Post-Millennialism," or as we call it, "Optimillennialism."

5. Theonomy

Micah's Prophecy
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.
And He will judge between many peoples
And render decisions for mighty, distant nations.

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

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

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

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

More on Theonomy

Audio

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

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

the implications are astounding.

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

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

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

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

Here are the next 5 themes:

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

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

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

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

The word "Theocracy" = "God Governs"

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

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

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

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

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

Westminster Standards
Chapter 19 the Law of God 

Continued below

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

Here are the next 5 themes:

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

6: Education

Micah's Prophecy
Micah 4:2

"Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD
And to the House of the God of Jacob,
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.

Focus text:

That He may teach us about His ways
And that we may walk in His paths."

neither shall they learn war any more.

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

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

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

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

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

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

There is no "neutrality."

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

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

"The Great Commission" -- make all humanity students of God's Law -- makes us all educators under Christ the Superintendent. You can't teach Christ's commands without knowing them.

Education is something all of us must do.

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

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

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

Lifelong learners / lifelong teachers

Therefore Education by Patriarchy produces character.

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

The Gulag Archipelago

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

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

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

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

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

The Education/Business Gulag Archipelago

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

Businesses educate more people than churches.

Much more could be done by businesses.

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

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

Businesses today inculcate workers with a "woke" agenda.

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

More: The Gulag Archipelago (vineandfigtree.org)

7: Character

Micah's Prophecy
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 the ability to stand against the crowd, in faith, in obedience to God.

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

Micah highlights the importance of teaching God's Law.

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

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

Ethics is more important to civilization than intelligence.

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

Character

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

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

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

In his book Christian Theistic Ethics, Cornelius Van Til spoke of "spontaneous obedience." This is a powerful concept. When you're learning to drive a car for the first time, you have to think about the gas pedal, the clutch, the steering wheel, looking in the mirrors, and other things you're not familiar with. After a while, you can do them all simultaneously. Still later, you can do all of these things without thinking while you're debating Anarcho-Theocracy. How great would it be to be able to go through life making instant decisions that lead to justice, mercy, and faith (the weightier matters of the law, Matthew 23:23), without having to look something up online, debate with yourself, hesitate, be tempted, argue with God, and run into all kinds of obstacles to being a good Christian and a decent human being. You do the right thing spontaneously. Obedience becomes a part of your character.

Step 1: Murder Your Old Man!

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

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

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

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

Chapter 22 Lawful Oaths and Vows

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

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

GAL'LANTRY, noun

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

. . .

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

8. Theocracy / Christocracy

Micah's Prophecy
Focus text: "He shall judge"

He will teach us of His ways,
and we will walk in His paths:
And He will judge between many peoples
And rebuke mighty, distant nations.

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

"Theonomy" = "Theocracy"

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

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

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

Micah is prophesying a global Theocracy.

How Does the Messiah Rebuke Nations?

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

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

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

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

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

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

Theocracy and Providence

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

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

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

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

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

This is what John Adams, later second President of the U.S., wrote in his diary on February 22, 1756:

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

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. "God governs" is the literal meaning of "Theocracy." Rushdoony says "Theocracy" is anarcho-capitalism.

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

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

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

America was originally a Christocracy.

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

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

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

America was originally a Trinitarian Christocracy.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Westminster Standards
The Law (con't)

The Holy Spirit holds Theocracy together.

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

The Westminster Confession has a chapter on God and the Trinity, on Christ as Mediator, but no chapter on the Holy Spirit.

The Sword of the Lord

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Body of Christ

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

Connection to other core doctrines:

14: Sin and the Fall of Man

16. Jerusalem vs. Athens

9. Pacifism.

10. Archistlessness

Most people find something controversial or objectionable in these Themes. Perhaps the most controversial claim we are making about this passage can be stated in four words:

Jesus is the Christ

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

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

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

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

  IS  

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. Theologians use the word "preterism" to describe an event that happened in the past. Nearly all churches believe "preterism" is a heresy.
THE

The word "Christ" 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:
  • Jesus is a "servant," which is another word for "minister," and Jesus is surely the "Prime Minister."
  • In his inaugural address, George Washington spoke of "that Almighty Being who rules over the universe, who presides in the councils of nations." The one who "presides" is the "president."
  • Jesus is our King, our Lawgiver, and our Judge (Isaiah 33:22) -- all three "branches" of government under the U.S. Constitution.

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. The desire for a creature to be our king "like all the nations" (or "gentiles") (1 Samuel 8:5,20) is the rejection of the Creator as King (1 Samuel 8:7; Isaiah 33:22; Romans 1:25). Jesus said His followers are not to be like these gentiles and their false rulers (Mark 10:42-45). The word "ruler" is the Greek word from which we derive the English word "anarchist." We are not to have any "archist" but 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."

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 of the "Boomers" do not want you to understand this.

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

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

Jesus is the Christ.

In 2025, 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. Today.

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

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

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

A favorite Christmas carol mentions this announcement:

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, 

The world revolved from night to day,

This website claims that Christians could end 99% of the remaining violence in the world in 2025.

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

Jesus is the Christ.

9. Peace / Non-Violence / Pacifism

Micah's Prophecy
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.

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

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

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

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

Jesus commands us to

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

Pacifism

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

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

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

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

Consider James 1:27

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pacifism and Enemies

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

But Jesus commands His followers to love their enemies.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you,”
Matthew 5:43-44

Jesus sacrificed Himself to save His enemies.

Christ died for the ungodly
God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son,
much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by His life.
Romans 5:6,8,10

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

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

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

"Pacifism" Defined by Christ

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Most Christians will agree with that.

But here's the kicker:

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

All pacifists are anarchists.

Anarcho-pacifism

How to Love Your Enemy

Myth:

Fact:

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

Pacifism leads to Anarcho-Theocracy

Peace is possible
Peace is inevitable

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

Audio

Capitalism is Economic Pacifism

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

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

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

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

Substitute "free market" for "Constitution."

Vengeance

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

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

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

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

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

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

Westminster Standards

10. A Stateless Economy: “Anarchism”

Micah's Prophecy
Micah 4:3

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Let's examine the word "anarchism."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

www.HowToBecomeAChristianAnarchist.com

All Pacifists are Anarchists

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

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

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

Only Jesus is a legitimate Archist.

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

Capitalism vs. Socialism
Free Markets vs. Coercive Central Planning

If we beat "swords into plowshares" (Theme 9 above) what will be the result?

To put it favorably:

To put it unfavorably:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Archistlessness

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

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

Anarcho-Preterism

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

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

Isaiah 33:22 confirms this:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Origin of "the State" ("Civil Government") - Political Philosophy 101 According to the Bible

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

The Myth of "The Civil Law"

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

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

Only Jesus is a legitimate Archist.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

www.Romans13.com

People like you and me
who are willing to beat swords into plowshares
are opposed to violence-based empires and systems of "government"
like socialism, fascism, and totalitarianism of every label.

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

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

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

Today the exceptions have become the rule.

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

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

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

www.VineandFigTree.org

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

In his diary on February 22, 1756, John Adams, later second President of the United States, wrote this:
Suppose a nation in some distant region should take the Bible for their only law book, and every member should regulate his conduct by the precepts there exhibited! Every member would be obliged in conscience,
     • to temperance, frugality, and industry,
     • to justice, kindness, and charity towards his fellow men; and
     • to piety, love and reverence towards Almighty God.
What a Utopia, what a Paradise would this region be.

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

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

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

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:

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

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

Jesus is the Christ Today

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

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

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,
That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh;
Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
Your young men shall see visions,
Your old men shall dream dreams.
18 And on My menservants and on My maidservants
I will pour out My Spirit in those days;
And they shall prophesy.
Prophets often used astronomical language to describe the "de-creation" of empires. This is political language, not "scientific" language. See Isaiah 13:9-10 [Prophesying the fall of Babylon to the Medes in 539 B.C.]; Isaiah 34:4 [prophesying the fall of Edom]; Amos 8:9 [foretelling the doom of Samaria (722 B.C.)]; Ezekiel 32:7-8 [judgment of Egypt], etc. Most Christians are "preterists" regarding those prophecies: they were fulfilled centuries ago. Politically, not "literally."
19 I will show wonders in heaven above
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,
For He is at my right hand, that I may not be shaken.
26 Therefore my heart rejoiced, and my tongue was glad;
Moreover my flesh also will rest in hope.
27 For You will not leave my soul in Hades,
Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.
28 You have made known to me the ways of life;
You will make me full of joy in Your presence.’

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,
“Sit at My right hand,
35 Till I make Your enemies Your footstool.”’

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.” 40 And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Our first text is Isaiah 33:22

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jesus prohibits "archism"
   • prohibits premillennialism (violating 1 Samuel 8)
   • prohibits rejecting God (Isaiah 33:22)

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

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

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

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

Followers of Christ are prohibited from being archists.

Westminster Standards
Chapter 23 the Civil Magistrate

11. Patriarchy

Micah's Prophecy
Focus text: "His Vine"

And each of them will sit under his
Vine and under his fig tree,]

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

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

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

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

Pierre Joseph Proudhon: Patriarchy and Agrarian Jurisprudence

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

The Bible uses “Vine & Fig Tree” imagery to describe a time when we beat our "swords into plowshares" and everyone dwells peacefully under his own “Vine & Fig Tree.” The New Testament describes Christians as "sons of Abraham" the Patriarch. Abraham and Sarah were not under the rule of any State or Empire. The desire to have a creaturely king is a rejection of God the Creator as King (1 Samuel 8; Romans 1:25). The real meaning of Easter is that Jesus is now -- in 2025 -- the only legitimate King. Every king on planet earth should immediately abdicate and get a real job in "the Private Sector." This is one reason why every government in the last 2000 years has eventually banned the Bible. Even the United States, where The Supreme Court has ruled that public school teachers cannot tell students that Jesus the King says "Thou shalt not steal" (Matthew 19:18; Exodus 20:13-16; Deuteronomy 5:17-20). Creaturely kings are "false gods" in the Bible, and they correctly view the Bible as a threat to their idolatrous reign: to them, The Bible is an "Anarchist Manifesto." According to the Bible, creaturely government is "The Most Dangerous Idolatry." It will take me a while to convince you that the Real Meaning of Easter is “Vine & Fig Tree.” I'll have to persuade you to read a lot of Bible verses through new eyes. 

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

Family = "undemocratic" says progressives

When families are functional, the State is unnecessary;
Archism is socially unapproved

John Adams: importance of mothers

Audio

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

Westminster Standards
Chapter 24 Marriage and Divorce

12. Dominion

Micah's Prophecy
And each of them will sit under his
Vine and under his fig tree,]

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

The Purpose of Man

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

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

Genesis 1:2
And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.
And the Spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

But God still gets all the credit.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Public Sector” “Private Sector”
“Government” Sector Non-“Government” Sector
Monopoly Sector Competitive Sector
Coercive Sector Persuasive Sector
Violent Sector Peaceful Sector
Parasite Sector Productive Sector
"Political Man" "Economic Man"
We are to "serve" (worship) God, and we are to serve others (Mark 10:42-45). We serve others in businesses and charities. We do not serve others by ruling over them in "governments."

Private Service Creates Public Order

"Public Service" Creates Disorder

The Blueprints of Dominion - Revisiting Theme 5

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

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

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

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

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

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

Salvation and Dominion - Anticipating Theme 15

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Two Cities

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

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

10 And the angel said unto them, “Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.
11 “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.
13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,
14 “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, among those with whom He is pleased!”

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

1. Violence

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

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

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

But man soon tires of tyranny.

2. Chaos - Meaninglessness

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

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

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

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

Is the universe a meaningless, random event?
Or does life have meaning - a meaning that reflects
the design and morality of a personal Creator?
Here is the answer of one evolutionist:

     “I had motives for not wanting the world to have a meaning; consequently I assumed that it had none, and was able without any difficulty to find satisfying reasons for this assumption.
      Most ignorance is vincible ignorance. We don’t know because we don’t want to know. It is our will that decides how and upon what subjects we shall use our intelligence.
      Those who detect no meaning in the world generally do so because, for one reason or another, it suits their [purpose] that the world should be meaningless.
      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, as, no doubt, for most of my contemporaries, the philosophy [worldview] of meaninglessness was essentially an instrument of liberation. The liberation we desired was simultaneously liberation from a certain political and economic system and liberation from a certain system of morality. We objected to the morality because it interfered with our sexual freedom; we objected to the political and economic system because it was unjust. The supporters of these systems claimed that in some way they embodied the meaning (a Christian meaning, they insisted) of the world. There was one admirably simple method of confuting these people and at the same time justifying ourselves in our political and erotic revolt: we could deny that the world had any meaning whatsoever.”
(Aldous Huxley, Ends and Means, Chatto & Windus: London, 1946, pp. 270, 273) 

The "Military-Industrial Complex" loves the dogma of purposeless evolution. It allows them to "seize political power and govern in the way that they find most advantageous to themselves...."

And we're back to tyranny.

3. Escape

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

Your Choice

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

These are the three forms of the City of Man.

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

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

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

God's Choice

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

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

God's Law: Blueprints of Dominion and Prosperity 

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

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

Christians are the sons of Abraham and heirs of the promises made to Abraham.

Of Abraham the Scripture says:

For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment; that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.
Genesis 18:19

And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed;
Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.
Genesis 26:4-5

"Theonomy" is the Gospel:

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.
Galatians 3:8

"The blessings of liberty" -- "Good News" indeed -- come only through obedience to God's Law.

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

The Ten Commandments prohibit:

1. Idolatry     more below
2. False Religion     more below
3. Swearing a false oath     more below
4. Refusal to work     more below
5. Disrespecting parents and other authorities     more below
6. Murder     more below
7. Cheating on your Wife     more below
8. Theft     more below
9. Slander     more below
10.  Covetousness     more below

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

Ten Principles for a Free Society

The Ten Commandments in a Biblical Worldview

The Ten Commandments Moral Inventory and Meditation Program

Preface to the Ten Commandments

From Rushdoony's Institutes of Biblical Law:

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

From Rushdoony's Institutes of Biblical Law:

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

From Rushdoony's Institutes of Biblical Law:

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

From Rushdoony's Institutes of Biblical Law:

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

From Rushdoony's Institutes of Biblical Law:

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

From Rushdoony's Institutes of Biblical Law:

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

From Rushdoony's Institutes of Biblical Law:

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

Family Values:

From Rushdoony's Institutes of Biblical Law:

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

From Rushdoony's Institutes of Biblical Law:

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

From Rushdoony's Institutes of Biblical Law:

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

From Rushdoony's Institutes of Biblical Law:

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

James 1:27 says

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

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

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

Revisiting Theme 1: Predestination

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

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

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

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

Calvinists build; autonomous man destroys.

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

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

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

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

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

Conclusion

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

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

The Empires are correct.

13: Agrarianism

Micah's Prophecy
Focus Text: Vine and under his  fig tree,

And each of them will sit under his
Vine and under his  fig tree,
With no one to make them afraid.
For the LORD of hosts has spoken.
Isaiah's Prophecy

Micah's prophecy in chapter 4 is found almost word-for-word in Isaiah 2. Isaiah also adds:
Isaiah 65
21 They shall build houses and inhabit them;
They shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
22 They shall not build and another inhabit;
They shall not plant and another eat;
For as the days of a tree, so shall be the days of My people,
And My elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands.
23 They shall not labor in vain,
Nor bring forth children for trouble;
For they shall be the descendants of the blessed of the Lord,
And their offspring with them.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Agrarianism vs. Industrialization

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

Psalm 15:5
He that putteth not out his money to usury, nor taketh reward against the innocent. He that doeth these things shall never be moved.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pierre Joseph Proudhon: Agrarian Jurisprudence

Environmentalism

Compare first three chapters in Genesis with last three chapters in Revelation: Edenic imagery - Garden of Eden / City of God

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

Audio

"Salvation" in the Bible means the restoration of the conditions of the Garden of Eden (Genesis 1-2).
Blessings from God are in contrast to technocracy under man.
But Man's goal and purpose is to build the Garden into the City of God. (Revelation 21-22)
If you grow your own food, you have safe, nutritious food even when the "supply chain" breaks down.
If you don't grow your own food, you're dependent on food that must be stripped of nutrition so that it doesn't spoil as it travels vast distances and sits on the shelf at Walmart.

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

Would you be willing to live for hundreds of years in the Garden of Eden with a community of sanctified people . . . but no cell phone?

14. The Fall of Man and Sin

The Bible does not speak of the "fall" of man. It was not a "fall," as in "Oops! I fell!"

It was a rebellion.

It was war against God. Man took the side of Satan against God.

The "Evolution" of Man

Satan did not describe rebellion as a "fall," but as an evolution into godhead.

Genesis 3
4  And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

"Knowing good and evil" in Genesis 3:5 carries the force of determining good and evil for yourselves. History shows that when man obeys God, life is heavenly; when man is his own god, as John Adams put it, “this world would be something not fit to be mentioned in public company — I mean hell.”

John Milton, in his work Paradise Lost, put these words in Satan's mouth:

To reign is worth ambition, though in Hell:
Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.

In other words, I choose to be my own god,
even if I have to live in dark poverty, suffering, and chaos,
rather than obediently admit that God is God,
even if that leads to enjoying paradise and utopia.

"Ye shall be as gods" (Genesis 3:5).
"gods" in the Bible refers most often to archists.

Man's basic sin against God is the desire to "be as gods."

“But his subjects hated him and sent a delegation after him, saying, ‘We don’t want this man to rule over us!’” (Luke 19:14)

An aspect of this rebellion is the desire to get something for nothing, or something without working for it. (James Jordan has argued that Adam and Eve would eventually have been allowed to eat of the Tree of Knowledge, but they were required to work for it first and earn it.)

This desire is a major motivation for forming "the State" and conquering other people. (The other one being vengeance.)

God is man's Governor. Man rejects God's Government by desiring to be his own governor. Rather than serving his neighbor, fallen man seeks to rule over his neighbor as an archist.

God punishes man for his rebellion by granting him his wishes. When man lusts for political power, God gives it to him.

Then in His mercy, God saves the repentant sinner by delivering him from the political disease.

If we obey God's commandments, we will not have war; God will not send "the sword" against us.

I will argue below that peace is possible only in a state of "an-archy," that is, the absence of "archists." This too is a "paradigm shift."

When we disobey God's Law, God sends archists as a judgment/curse against us.

We see this repeatedly in the Scripture. Israel lusts after gentile archists (like Moloch, which means "king"). God delivers Israel into the hand of these pagan archists, and Israel cries out for deliverance, and God delivers them by sending a deliverer, or "savior" or "judge" who "saves" Israel from the pagan archists.

Excursus:
Here is an "excursus" on God's "ordaining" of "the sword." It should make you an anarchist -- if you read all the verses.

Thesis 13: The Fall of Man

The Depravity of Man

The Fall of Man -- the Desire to "“To Be As Gods” -- “Knowing Good and Evil” 
To build the Kingdom of Man without working (playing God, oppressing others).

Thesis 12: The Fall Of The Angels

Westminster Standards
Chapter 6 the Fall of Man, of Sin, and of the Punishment Thereof

 

15. Salvation

Micah's Prophecy
And each of them will sit under his
Vine and under his  fig tree,
With no one to make them afraid.
For the LORD of hosts has spoken.

Micah says "no one will make them afraid."

Who are the people who make other people "afraid?"

Archists.

God says He will deliver (save) His people from archists.

We saw above how fallen man seeks to rule over other men. God sends these men as curses on those who rebel against His Law. But He blesses those who obey Him with freedom from archists; by saving them from archists.

Archists as Curse

We see this repeatedly in the Scripture. Israel lusts after gentile archists (like Moloch, which means "king"). God delivers Israel into the hand of these pagan archists, and Israel cries out for deliverance, and God delivers them by sending a deliverer, or "savior" or "judge" who "saves" Israel from the pagan archists.

Here's how Nehemiah sums up Israel's history of rebelling against God's Law and then being "saved" from the consequences of their disobedience:

Nehemiah 9:23-31
23 You also multiplied their children as the stars of heaven,
And brought them into the land
Which You had told their fathers
To go in and possess.
24 So the people went in
And possessed the land;
You subdued before them the inhabitants of the land,
The Canaanites,
And gave them into their hands,
With their kings
And the people of the land,
That they might do with them as they wished.
25 And they took strong cities and a rich land,
And possessed houses full of all goods,
Cisterns already dug, vineyards, olive groves,
And fruit trees in abundance.
So they ate and were filled and grew fat,
And delighted themselves in Your great goodness.
26 “Nevertheless they were disobedient
And rebelled against You,
Cast Your law behind their backs
And killed Your prophets, who testified against them
To turn them to Yourself;
And they worked great provocations.
27 Therefore You delivered them into the hand of their enemies,
Who oppressed them;
And in the time of their trouble,
When they cried to You,
You heard from heaven;
And according to Your abundant mercies
You gave them saviors who saved them
From the hand of their enemies.
28 “But after they had rest,
They again did evil before You.
Therefore You left them in the hand of their enemies,
So that they had dominion over them;
Yet when they returned and cried out to You,
You heard from heaven;
And many times You delivered them according to Your mercies,
29 And testified against them,
That You might bring them back to Your law.
Yet they acted proudly,
And did not heed Your commandments,
But sinned against Your judgments,
‘Which if a man does, he shall live by them.’
And they shrugged their shoulders,
Stiffened their necks,
And would not hear.
30 Yet for many years You had patience with them,
And testified against them by Your Spirit in Your prophets.
Yet they would not listen;
Therefore You gave them into the hand of the peoples of the lands.
31 Nevertheless in Your great mercy
You did not utterly consume them nor forsake them;
For You are God, gracious and merciful.

God sent Israel many "saviors." When Bible-believers think of a "savior," they think of someone who will save Israel "out of the hand of their enemies." The angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph, and said:

Matthew 1:18-23
Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins.

A first-century Jew, steeped in the Scriptures, would hear this as a promise to save "His people" from the consequences of their sins, the curses imposed on them by God because of their rebellion against His Law. John the Baptist's father "Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit, and prophesied, saying"

Luke 1:67-80
68 “Blessed is the Lord God of Israel,
For He has visited and redeemed His people,
69 And has raised up a horn of salvation for us
In the house of His servant David,
71 That we should be saved from our enemies
And from the hand of all who hate us,
74 To grant us that we,
Being delivered from the hand of our enemies,
Might serve Him without fear,
75 In holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our life.
79 To guide our feet into the way of peace.”

The Babe born in Bethlehem saved Christians in the first century from their enemies: the Jews who collaborated with Rome. Then the Rock destroyed Rome, and has filled the earth with Christian Civilization -- The City of God. The growing and filling continues.

Let's look at "salvation" from three perspectives:

Salvation in the Pages of the Bible

When most Christians think of "salvation," they think of going to heaven after they die.

The purpose of this section is not to deny that equation, but to put the word "salvation" in a more Biblically holistic perspective.

Most of the time, in most of the verses, "salvation," "save," or "savior" in the Bible does not refer to anything after death.

Consider this classic Christmas text:

Luke 2:8-20
8 Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. 10 Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. 11 For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.”
13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying:
14        “Glory to God in the highest,
              and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

What would a first-century Israelite think if an angel of the LORD announced the coming of a "savior?" They would doubtless think back to all the saviors in the [Old Testament] Scriptures. Those saviors did not just promise a ticket to heaven when everyone died. They promised to save Israel from the consequences of her sins. Those consequences included "the Sword." Freedom from the sword is one aspect of the holistic Biblical concept of Salvation, and one of the benefits of a Biblical savior. The savior brought the benefits ("blessings") of obedience upon a people who had not been obedient, but who had repented of their disobedience.

Jesus was a Savior in this Biblical tradition. He came to bring Salvation. He came to save His people from their enemies, so they could get on with the work of building the New Jerusalem.

Biblical Definition of Salvation

Read every verse in the Bible which contains the words "save," "savior," or "salvation." The vast majority of those verses are not talking about being converted and going to heaven when you die. They are talking about being delivered from archists.

"Salvation" =  “Vine & Fig Tree”  

The name "Jesus" comes from the Hebrew word Yhowshuwa', which is derived from yasha', which is the Hebrew word most frequently translated "save" or "salvation."

Here is a part of a definition of the Hebrew word for "save" [יָשַׁע yasha] from a mainstream theological text:

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.

Eden and Salvation - David Chilton

Dwell safely verses

"None to make afraid" verses

Because "Gospel" is the "good news" that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the King, Gospel = archistlessness.

A Biblical "Savior" Brings Biblical "Salvation"

"Salvation" is holistic/cultural/economic, not just a ticket to heaven when you die. We'll see this below in more detail.

  1. The word: yasha
  2. The deed: what "saviors" did -- they did just not pass out tickets to heaven when you die.

"Savior" = "Deliverer" (Deliver from evil, from enemies)

  1. evil/enemies were raised up by God as "punishment" or incentive to repent
  2. evil/enemies are the consequence of unrepentant sin
    1. idolatry - false religion
    2. political alliances with pagans
    3.  trusting in violence/archism
  3. Deliverance from evil = saved from sins (and the consequences of sin, which are God's judgments)

The Hebrew word in the Bible

Read every verse in the Bible with this Hebrew word. Read the paragraph in which the verse is found. Become acquainted with the story -- the "narrative" -- in which this paragraph is found, and walk away with a different vision of "salvation."

save 149, saviour 15, deliver 13, help 12, preserved 5, salvation 3, avenging 2, at all 1, avenged 1, defend 1, rescue 1, safe 1, victory 1; 205

avenged
1 Samuel 25:31.		 avenging
1 Samuel 25:26, 33.		 defend
Judges 10:1.
deliver
Judges 10:13, 14; 13:5.		 delivered
Judges 2:16, 18; 3:9, 31; 8:22; 10:12; 12:2, 3.		 deliverer
Judges 3:9, 15.
help
2 Samuel 10:11, 19; 14:4. 2 Kings 6:26, 27, 27. 1 Chronicles 19:12, 19. 2 Chronicles 20:9. Psalms 12:1.		 helped
Exodus 2:17. Psalms 116:6.		 preserved
2 Samuel 8:6, 14. 1 Chronicles 18:6, 13.
preservest
Psalms 36:6.		 rescue
Deuteronomy 28:31.		 safe
Psalms 119:117.
salvation
Isaiah 59:16; 63:5. Zechariah 9:9.		 save not at all
Jeremiah 11:12		  
save
Deuteronomy 20:4; 22:27; 28:29. Joshua 10:6; 22:22. Judges 6:14, 15, 31, 36, 37; 7:7. 1 Samuel 4:3; 7:8; 9:16; 10:27; 11:3; 14:6; 23:2. 2 Samuel 3:18; 22:28, 42. 2 Kings 16:7; 19:19, 34. 1 Chronicles 16:35. Job 22:29; 40:14. Psalms 3:7; 6:4; 7:1; 18:27, 41; 20:9; 22:21; 28:9; 31:2, 16; 37:40; 44:3, 6; 54:1; 55:16; 57:3; 59:2; 60:5; 69:1, 35; 71:2, 3; 72:4, 13; 76:9; 86:2, 16; 106:47; 108:6; 109:26, 31; 118:25; 119:94, 146; 138:7; 145:19. Proverbs 20:22. Isaiah 25:9; 33:22; 35:4; 37:20, 35; 38:20; 45:20; 46:7; 47:13, 15; 49:25; 59:1; 63:1. Jeremiah 2:27, 28; 11:12; 14:9; 15:20; 17:14; 30:10, 11; 31:7; 42:11; 46:27. Lamentations 4:17. Ezekiel 34:22; 36:29; 37:23. Hosea 1:7, 7; 13:10; 14:3. Habakkuk 1:2. Zephaniah 3:17, 19. Zechariah 8:7, 13; 9:16; 10:6; 12:7.
saved
Exodus 14:30. Numbers 10:9. Deuteronomy 33:29. Judges 7:2. 1 Samuel 10:19; 14:23; 23:5. 2 Samuel 22:4. 2 Kings 14:27. 1 Chronicles 11:14. 2 Chronicles 32:22. Nehemiah 9:27. Psalms 18:3; 33:16; 34:6; 44:7; 80:3, 7, 19; 106:8, 10; 107:13. Proverbs 28:18. Isaiah 30:15; 43:12; 45:17, 22; 63:9; 64:5. Jeremiah 4:14; 8:20; 17:14; 23:6; 30:7; 33:16.
savest
2 Samuel 22:3. Job 26:2. Psalms 17:7.		 saveth
1 Samuel 14:39; 17:47. Job 5:15. Psalms 7:10; 20:6; 34:18; 107:19.		 saviour
2 Samuel 22:3. 2 Kings 13:5. Psalms 106:21. Isaiah 19:20; 43:3, 11; 45:15, 21; 49:26; 60:16; 63:8. Jeremiah 14:8. Hosea 13:4.
saviours
Nehemiah 9:27. Obadiah 1:21.		 victory
Psalms 98:1.		  
"Judges" as "Saviors":
Nehemiah 9:27; Judges 2:18; 3:9-15; 1 Samuel 12:10,11; 2 Kings 13:5; 14:27; Obadiah 1:21

Salvation

Anarchist optimillennialism is a new paradigm. A new way of looking at human social organization ("government").

And a new way of looking at "salvation."

Let's elaborate a bit on the "blessings" and "cursings" which are found in God's Law (e.g., Leviticus 26).

When Israel rejected the government of God and lusted after Gentile archists, God delivered Israel into the hands of her archist lover/idol. Then Israel cried out for deliverance from these archists. This deliverance is the doorway through which we can gain a larger understanding of the Biblical doctrine of "salvation."

Most Christians think "salvation" means "going to heaven when I die." They focus on a tiny fraction of the Bible, and ignore the vast majority.

"Salvation" -- in the vast majority of Biblical texts -- means "anarchism." "Salvation" means a "libertarian" society. Some would call it an "anarcho-capitalist" society.

The Libertarian Party requires party members to affirm but one proposition:

I do not believe in or advocate
the initiation of force
as a means of achieving political or social goals.

People who will not make this pledge are "archists." They believe they have a right to impose their will on other people by force, usually by "the sword" -- political or military power.

Being an "archist" is un-Christian (Mark 10:42-45). We are not to spread Christianity with the sword. We are not to vote for archists who promise to bring salvation.

12 Key Scripture Texts

#11: Over 300 "Salvation" Verses
OK, let's just take Luke 1:71
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,

What is "Salvation" in the Bible?

Not "What is 'salvation' in the minds of most professing Christians?"

What does the Bible say?

The Hebrew word most frequently translated "salvation" or "save" is yasha'. In various derivatives it can be translated "deliverance," "victory," "safety," "security," and "welfare." (The Greek equivalent also carries the idea of "health.")

What does the government promise? We have a Department of Health, a Welfare Department, a Department of Homeland Security -- all components of the Biblical concept of "salvation." "The Government" (a.k.a. "civil government") is always a substitute for God. God is our Governor (Isaiah 33:22), and He brings salvation.

Consider again the Hebrew word for "save" or "bring salvation" -- "yasha." Consider again that very mainstream, non-anarcho-preterist scholar's definition of that Hebrew word:

Yasha and its derivatives are used 353 times. The root meaning . . . is “make wide” or make sufficient: this root is in contrast to sarar, “narrow,” which means “be restricted” or “cause distress.” To move from distress to safety requires deliverance. [T]he majority of references to salvation speak of Yahweh granting deliverance from real enemies and out of real catastrophes. That which is wide connotes freedom from distress and the ability to pursue one’s own objectives. Thus salvation is not merely a momentary victory on the battlefield; it is also the safety and security necessary to maintain life unafraid of numerous dangers.
Hartley, John E. (1999). 929 יָשַׁע ["yasha"], in R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer, Jr. & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, vol. 1, pp. 414-15.

An "agrarian" might well argue that this level of consumerism inevitably destroys marriages, fractures families, increases the power of "the State," and makes us all automatons. We'll have to postpone a discussion of this question for another day. Certainly we should not be intimidated by the "mainstream" (government, academia, media, corporations) into pursuing violent, centralized "technocratic" means to an end, rather than peaceful, decentralized "agrarian" means.

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.

As faith in God declines, votes for archists grow. As archists grow, true salvation declines. Government is bigger today than it was 50 years ago, and we are less secure and more in debt -- precisely what God promised in Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 would happen to a nation that apostatizes (forgets God and becomes "secular" [The Paradox of Deuteronomy 8).

"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.

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.

  1. Most Jews accepted Jesus as Messiah; only the corrupt upper-crust establishment rejected Jesus (Acts 2:41, 47; 4:4; 5:14; 6:7; 12:24; 19:20; 21:20; Matthew 13:31-33; John 12:24,42; 3:2; 11:45; 19:38; Colossians 1:6).
  2. Jesus' claim to be a "savior" (i.e., to forgive sins [but not to punish sins as a Messiah would]), was considered blasphemous by the Jews who rejected Jesus as Messiah (Matthew 9:2-8; Mark 2:3-12, Luke 5:18-26)
  3. Just because someone does not want Jesus to reign over him as Messiah is no impediment to Jesus (Luke 9:14,27). Jesus reigned as Messiah over the apostate Jews by directing Titus to destroy those who rejected Jesus as Messiah with the Roman legions in AD 70.
  4. There is no Biblical distinction between a "Messiah" and a "Savior."
    Most Christians today say Jesus came 2,000 years ago only as "Savior," and only when He comes again (in our future) will He reign as "Messiah." But if you look at how the Scriptures use the words "save" and "savior," you can easily see why no 1st-century Jew would have understood such a distinction. It is not in the Bible. In the Scriptures, "saviors" did the work of "messiahs." We saw above how Nehemiah says God sent many "saviors" to Israel after they became dissatisfied with their Gentile archist lovers:
    Nehemiah 9:27
    Therefore You delivered them into the hand of their enemies,
    Who oppressed them;
    And in the time of their trouble,
    When they cried to You,
    You heard from heaven;
    And according to Your abundant mercies
    You gave them     saviors who saved them
    From the hand of their enemies.     (cp. Luke 1:71,74).

    The idea that Jesus is only a "savior" but not the Messiah is not a Biblically tenable position. There is almost no hint in the Bible that any "savior" would do nothing to "save" his people in this life, but only in the next.

A "savior" brings "salvation." Doesn't that make sense? But what is "salvation?" It is not, Biblically speaking, going to heaven after you die, having lived a life without being "saved" in the holistic Biblical sense of that word. In the Bible, saviors brought freedom from archists for God's People. See the discussion of the Hebrew word for "salvation" above.

These "saviors" were sometimes called "judges." The various "kings" of Israel could also serve as "saviors" because they would "save" Israel from her oppressors (1 Samuel 9:16; 2 Samuel 3:18, etc.).

12 Key Scripture Texts

#12: Habakkuk 2:14
For the earth will be filled With the knowledge of the glory of the LORD,
As the waters cover the sea.

If they could travel through time to our day, the Prophets and the Apostles would be astonished, and would say that this prophecy has been gloriously fulfilled in the existence of Christian civilization. We are not sanctified if we are not grateful. We are not un-sanctified to yearn for more fulfillment.

Here is an excursus on Prof. Pinker's claim that human life before Christ was more violent than it is today.

And I'm always linking to the excursus on Christian civilization. Only Christian civilization is civilized.

Who decides when the knowledge of God fills the earth? Who should we ask to decide this question? Should we ask unbelievers? What if -- in some sense -- unbelievers know the glory of God -- but won't admit it? Would you think the knowledge of the glory of God fills communist China? But see the report from China by Jay Wile. Is it possible that people in Iran know God better than people in America?

There are two ways to know God:

  1. Obey Him.
    Jeremiah 22:16
    He judged the cause of the poor and needy;
    Then it was well.
    Was not this knowing Me?” says the LORD.
     
    1 John 2:3-5
    Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. 4 He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 5 But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him.

    What Does it Mean to "Know" the Lord? 
     
  2. Experience His wrath in judgment: Micah speaks of the Messiah "rebuking" the nations.
    How Does Micah 4 Fit in YOUR Prophetic Timetable?
    This "rebuke" leads the nations to "know" the Lord.

"Saviors" in the Old Testament served what we could call primarily "messianic" functions." Biblically speaking, "savior" is virtually a synonym for "messiah." And "Messiah" is a political term, that is, a term that does not have primary reference to us after death, but reference to our lives today, in their holistic cultural, social, political, civil, economic, recreational, and legal dimensions.

A "Messiah" brings political changes. A "savior" brings "salvation." But the Biblical definition of "salvation" is not just a short-term relief on the battlefield, but long-term liberty from archists. See the definition of the Hebrew word for "salvation," yasha, which we looked at above.

A true "savior" is the Messiah who brings Christian civilization, that is, "salvation" over the long haul, now over twenty centuries.  See the five books listed here: Christian civilization. (That's an important link.)

Jay Wile writes (An Interesting Observation from China | Proslogion):

Recently, I read an article by Dr. Paul Copan entitled, “Jesus-Shaped Cultures.”1 In that article, he makes the case for how faithful Christians have transformed the societies they have served. For example, he discusses the Ethiopian famine that took place in 1984 and 1985. Brian Stewart, a CBC journalist, noted that it was Christians who were on the front lines of the famine, giving aid to the suffering. Their service was such a powerful witness to him that it started him on his journey to becoming a Christian himself.

While Copan’s article is interesting, it led me to a book that I thought was even more interesting. It is entitled Jesus in Beijing: How Christianity Is Transforming China And Changing the Global Balance of Power, and it is written by David Aikman, who served as a journalist for Time Magazine from 1971 to 1994. In his role as a Time correspondent, he visited China several times and even lived in China for two years as Time’s bureau chief. He returned to China in 2002 to gather the information he needed to complete his book.

He begins the book in a dramatic way. It is worth quoting at length:2

The eighteen American tourists visiting China weren’t expecting much from the evening’s lecture. They were already exhausted from a day of touring in Beijing. But what the speaker had to say astonished them.

The Victory of Reason
Listen Now | Download

“One of the things we were asked to look into was what accounted for the success, in fact, the pre-eminence of the West all over the world,” he said. “We studied everything we could from the historical, political, economic, and cultural perspective. At first, we thought it was because you had more powerful guns than we had. Then we thought it was because you had the best political system. Next, we focused on your economic system. But in the past twenty years, we have realized that the heart of your culture is your religion: Christianity. That is why the West has been so powerful. The Christian moral foundation of social and cultural life was what made possible the emergence of capitalism and then the successful transition to democratic politics. We don’t have any doubt about this.”

This was not coming from some ultra-conservative think tank in Orange County, California or from Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia. This was a scholar from China’s premier academic research institute, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) in Beijing in 2002. (emphasis mine)

In his book, Aikman suggests that Christianity will transform China to the point where it won’t even be communist anymore. He suggests that in the next thirty years, nearly one-third of China could be Christian, making it one of the largest Christian nations in the world and a strong ally of the U.S.

2. David Aikman, Jesus in Beijing: How Christianity Is Transforming China And Changing the Global Balance of Power, pp. 5-6

See also: The Iona Institute | Christianity the reason for West's success, say the Chinese

In asking whether Habakkuk's prophecy has been or is being fulfilled, and whether the knowledge of God covers the earth as the waters cover the sea, don't ask those who should admit that they know the Lord; ask the Scriptures whether they ought to admit it. Sometimes they won't, but many times they will. Truth is truth, whether we admit it or not.

Today, the Chinese are "streaming" to Zion (Micah 4:1-2). So are people in Latin America, Africa, and even India, according to Philip Jenkins. Humanity has been flowing to Zion for 2,000 years, but the rate may be accelerating in other countries, even as it decelerates in our own country. This acceleration is not yet on the radar of American archists. It will dramatically increase when Christians become widely recognized as a community of peacemakers who resolve disputes through forgiveness and (temporary, it is hoped) excommunication (Matthew 18:15-17). Peacemaking and dispute resolution will be the result of "revival" and will exsanguinate the State.

Salvation in the Bible is Archistlessness. It means being governed by the Savior alone, and experiencing His blessings. "Salvation" is Civilization.

Conversion is from Autonomy to Theonomy. It means "the Last Adam" restores us to the Edenic position enjoyed by the first Adam, before the Fall. We are transformed from rebels to friends, and we begin the work of clearing the thorns and thistles left by the first Adam, and building the Garden-City of the New Jerusalem, the temple/palace of the Last Adam.

If God offered to bring salvation in the holistic Biblical sense -- beating swords into plowshares, millions of lives spared, living peacefully under their Vine & Fig Tree, but you would not to go heaven when you die, would you give up heaven for yourself in order to procure Biblical salvation for billions of people?

An Offer from God

16. Jerusalem vs. Athens

Micah's Prophecy
2 for the Law shall go forth of Zion,
and the Word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

5 Although all people will walk
every one in the name of his god,
we will walk in the name of the LORD our God
for ever and ever.

Micah says God's Law -- the blueprints for a  Vine & Fig Tree society -- will come from Jerusalem.

800 years later, the church father Tertullian would ask:

What indeed has Athens to do with Jerusalem?  What concord is there between the Academy and the Church?... Our instructions come from “the porch of Solomon”.... Away with all attempts to produce a mottled Christianity of Stoic, Platonic, and dialectic composition!  We want no curious disputation after possessing Christ Jesus...!
Tertullian, Prescription against Heretics (VII). 

Popular conservative writers like Eric Metaxas, Ben Shapiro, and Larry Arnn, claim that Western Civilization is the combination of Jerusalem and Athens. Unpopular conservative writers like Cornelius Van Til and Gary North contend that Jerusalem and Athens are at war, and that when Athens ascends, Jerusalem declines, and civilization along with it.

Van Til said “There is no alternative but that of theonomy and autonomy.” "Conservatives" like Leo Strauss, who claim Western Civilization is the combination of Jerusalem and Athens, but who do not agree with Van Til, end up discarding Jerusalem (Theonomy) and pursuing autonomy. "Listen to the Academy" they said in centuries past. "Listen to 'the Science'" they say today. Evolution; "wear a mask"; Climate Change.

The "Classical" Ideas of Athens

In a nutshell, Autonomy and Statism

1. Autonomy: Rebellion Against God

The measure of all things was either individual man or collective man (the Empire). This resulted in Debauchery, Superstition, and Corruption.

Romans were less civilized than Christians. As we will show elsewhere, Romans believed in the following, and the "old men" (see below) had no effective standard by which to criticize these things:

1. Pederasty. This is the homosexual union of an older married man with a teenage boy. The men often met the boys on their way to the gymnasium, the building in which the boys danced and played sports naked. The men then became the boys' lovers and teachers.

2. Demonism. The Greeks were polytheistic. Greek family life rested on a system of sacrifice to demons that masqueraded as the spirits of dead male relatives. So did clan life, which became political life. These demons also presented themselves as underground gods and spirits, who demanded sacrifices and special rituals to keep from destroying people. On this point, see the works of the early 20th century archaeologist-historian, Jane Ellen Harrison. This never gets into the textbooks, although specialists are well aware of it. (See on Socrates, below.)

3. Warfare. At the center of the literature of classical Greece was Homer's poem, The Iliad. It is the story of how Achilles' resentment against King Agamemnon raged because the king took his kidnapped concubine for himself. All the other men had concubines for the ten years they were at war. But no children are mentioned by Homer. Now that's real Greek mythology! Their wives stayed home and kept the ritual home fires burning -- to placate the family's departed male spirits. Athens destroyed itself in Pericles' needless imperial war against Sparta. Then the Macedonians conquered war-ravaged Greece. But the textbooks praise Pericles as a pillar of wisdom, reprinting Thucydides' posthumous version of Pericles' suicidal imperial oration.

4. Slavery. At least one-third of Athens was enslaved. The figure was as high in Sparta. Every household owned a slave. This provided leisure for their owners, who despised physical labor as beneath them -- servile. Slavery was a universal institution in Greece.

5. Autonomy. Greek philosophy was based on the ideal of man's mind as completely sovereign -- no personal God allowed.
(Well, not quite. Socrates claimed he was given guidance in his thinking by a demon (daimon). But rationalistic scholars, beginning with Plato, have always downplayed this. They have sometimes said this was just hyperbolic literary language. Socrates could not really have believed in a demon. After all, they don't.)

6. Welfare State. At least one-third of all male Athenians were on the government's payroll in the time of Pericles.

7. Human Sacrifice. This was a basic theme in Greek literature. It was part of Athenian religious liturgy. There was no widespread movement to decry the earlier practice. The great expert here was Lord Acton, who wrote a long-ignored essay, "Human Sacrifice," in 1864. It is online here. It is included in Volume 3 of Selected Writings of Lord Acton, published by the Liberty Fund. From the day he published it in order to refute the great historian Macaulay, historians have refused to incorporate it in their narratives. It is way too embarrassing.

8. Cyclical View of Time. The Greeks did not believe in long-term progress or a final judgment -- just endless cycles forever: rise and fall, rise and fall. According to the historian of science, Stanley Jaki, this was why the Greeks never developed science, only technologies.

9. Female Inferiority. Wives were only for procreation. They could not be citizens. They had no legal rights. A man needed a male heir to perform the ritual sacrifices to feed him after he died. Women had no political influence except as prophetesses and mistresses.

You would not want to live in ancient Greece or Rome. See also this and this. You would say they were "uncivilized." Bishop Augustine was saddened by the fall of Rome, but Salvian the Presbyter understood that real civilization is based on Christian morality: Salvian rejoiced at the fall of the Roman Empire.

2.  Government by Men rather than by God

The word "Senator" comes from the Latin word senex, meaning "old man." Old men were assumed to be wiser than the rest of us. This might generally be true -- with age comes wisdom -- but "By What Standard?" What is "wisdom?" The old men in primitive cannibalistic tribes know the best kind of human flesh to eat. They are "wiser" than young cannibals who don't yet know the difference. Will cannibalistic "senators" build a healthy and humane civilization? Who says cannibalism is wrong? Harvard's Founders knew the answer to that question; we don't.

There were in fact wise old men in Greece and Rome who could see that their "civilization" was debauched and corrupt. America's Founders often quoted these dissidents. But what standard did the dissidents use to measure Greece and Rome? Ultimately, the dissidents had no solid place to stand in order to critique their crumbling empire. They had no objective standard outside themselves and their own society. They basically had the same world-and-life-view as the most corrupt and debauched members of society.

So an important category of "classical" ideas is the idea of "government" -- the Philosopher-Kings, or the wise old men who would guide society to prosperity. Emperors claimed to be guided by demons.

Jerusalem vs. Athens
Theonomy vs. Autonomy
Biblical Law vs. "Natural Law"

James 1:27
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

James 4:4
You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

A friend of Athens is the enemy of God.

Theonomy and The State

Chapter 19 of the Westminster Confession seems to endorse "Theonomy," but it actually repudiates it, and is fundamentally flawed.

Section 4 of chapter 19 says:

4. To them also, as a body politic, He gave sundry judicial laws, which expired together with the State of that people; not obliging any other now, further than the general equity thereof may require.

This statement is a serious error. This is based on Greco-Roman categories, not the categories of Hebrew Law, or Biblical Law. We must consider four key terms:

Israel was not a "body politic" in the conventional sense of "politics." Our word "politics" comes from the Greek word polis, which can be translated "city," "city-state," or even "empire." Babylon was a city and an empire. Rome was a city and an empire. Augustine wrote a book called

This stands in contrast to "The City of Man." 

When did "the body politic" of Israel "expire?" AD 70? But didn't true, believing, Israel continue past the destruction of Jerusalem under the government of the Christ, the Messiah? 1 Peter 2:9.

Israel was not a kingdom of politicians, but a "kingdom of priests" (Exodus 19:6). Israel did not become a "political" body until 1 Samuel 8, when Israel rejected God as her King (as the text explicitly reveals), choosing to emulate the pagan nations around her. It was not God's intention that Israel "mature" from a tribe-based kingdom of priests to a polis-based kingdom of politicians. The Patriarch Abraham is our model, and it was Moses' goal that Israel become Abrahamic patriarchs again (Numbers 11:29).

The word "economics" comes from two Greek words meaning "law of the home." For Abraham, all law was economic law, no law was political law.

Abraham's priest was Melchizedek (Genesis 14:18), just as our priest is Christ (Hebrews 7). Moses gave Israel "Levitical law." When Israel disobeyed God's "economic" law, there were laws that brought cleansing, or atonement, for violations of the "economic law." The Levitical priesthood was temporary; a kind of social "training wheels." Today the Levitical laws can only be obeyed by faith in Christ, "the Lamb of God" (John 1:29).

The "economic law" reflects the unchanging moral character of God.

We could call this social system

PATRIAGORA:
Patria | Family + Market | Agora

The Bible says Abraham obeyed My Voice, and kept My Charge, My Commandments, My Statutes, and My Torah. (Genesis 26:4-5) In this entire body of laws, none could be called "judicial laws" or "civil laws." Moses gave laws for patriarchs (heads of families) not politicians.

None of God's Law in "the Scriptures" has "expired" as the Westminster Confession erroneously claims. We still have a High Priest and a Temple to attend to. We have a King who governs us. If we don't entertain guests on the roof of our house, we don't need to build a rail around the roof, but if we do have people up there, we need to follow Deuteronomy 22:8, which some today would call a "judicial law." In generations past, when Americans understood the Bible better than we do today, American juries awarded verdicts in tort cases where safety rails were not in place, based on Deuteronomy 22:8.

To say that these "expired" laws only bind governments if the government sees some kind of "general equity" is to open the door to totalitarianism. This "general equity" theory is based on Roman law, not Biblical Law. See this:

This has very important implications. This is not just about "law." This line of argument is calling for a complete re-organization of human society. "Patriarchy" is, as Gary North describes it, a "Bottom-Up Theocracy."

The Duty of Man

Q. 5. What do the Scriptures principally teach?
A. The Scriptures principally teach what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man.
(Westminster Larger Catechism)

We live in a culture that does not want to be reminded of its duties. It prefers to talk about its "rights." I don't believe in "human rights."  I don't believe in "Justification by mere belief." I believe in Justification by Allegiance.

Obedience (ethics) is more important than intelligence.

The word "Theocracy" comes from two Greek words meaning "God Governs." Our duty is to be governed by God. "We must obey God rather than man" (Acts 5:29). We've been trained in our secular schools to fear "Theocracy." But we're not tempted to accept an Islamic Theocracy, where Allah is our national god. We've been trained to reject a Christian Theocracy. We accept a Secular Humanist theocracy, where every man is his own god (Genesis 3:5).

As Augustine wrote, our job as Christians is to convert the entire planet from the City of Man -- autonomy -- into "The City of God" -- Theonomy -- a Christocracy.

So where did the Reformers get the concept of "judicial law?" They got it from Athens, not Jerusalem:

Clergy-Approved Men

The Reformed tradition in early America was not "radical" in the sense of being totally consistent with the Hebrew-Christian Scriptures. The Reformers, Puritans, and Framers of the Constitution of 1787 brought in ideas from "classical" Greece and Rome. This was a terrible mistake, and an unBiblical mistake.

Harvard's Founders wanted America to be a Christian Republic. It has turned out to be an atheistic empire. I will say this more than once on this page: During my lifetime, "my" government has killed, crippled, or made homeless TENS OF MILLIONS of innocent, non-combatant, non-white civilians around the world. The "old men" in the House and Senate voted for this. And Americans --  victims of educational malpractice -- voted for these "old men," year after year, election after election. And the Empire of Lies and Death lumbers on. For a few years more.

If citizens are corrupt, depraved, selfish, and short-sighted, they should not be trusted to vote for "old men" to rule them. These old men are in fact no different from the rest of us: corrupt, depraved, greedy, and present-oriented. But, dangerously, sometimes more intelligent.

As these words are being written, the Old Man of the U.S., Joe Biden (age 80), wants to put the Old Man of Russia, Vladimir Putin (age 70) out of office. To get Putin out of office, the old men of the U.S. have spent $113 billion. This is more than needed to prevent the starvation of nearly a billion people around the world. The old men are willing to use nuclear weapons, even at the cost of tens of millions of innocent lives. Even at the risk of human life on planet earth. There is nothing "wise" about these old men -- and the citizens who allow them to stay in power. The "senex" men are insane. They too are victims of educational malpractice.

But modern Secular Man has no objective and absolute moral standard by which to judge those who are destroying Christian Civilization.

Christian philosopher Cornelius Van Til gave this apt illustration of the "old men" of the past:

“Suppose we think of a man made of water in an infinitely extended ocean of water. No surface above, no bottom below. Infinite water. Desiring to get out of water, the water-man makes a ladder out of water. He sets this ladder upon the water and against the water and then attempts to climb out of the water.
So hopeless and senseless a picture must be drawn of the non-Christian man’s methodology based as it is upon the assumption that time or chance is ultimate. On his assumption his own rationality is a product of chance. On his assumption even the laws of logic which he employs are products of chance. The rationality and purpose that he may be searching for are still bound to be products of chance.”

A universe of random chance is ultimately a meaningless universe.

This is the universe of the modern university.

17: Property/Communism

Micah's Prophecy
Micah 4:2

we will walk in His paths

Micah 4:5

we will walk in the name of the LORD our God

"Communism" is a word like "Theocracy" -- everyone hates the word. But is there a Biblical sense of "communism?"

The English Standard Version of Acts 4:32-35 is preceded by this header:

They Had Everything in Common

32 Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common. 33 And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. 34 There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold 35 and laid it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.

If you were to try to be a Biblical Communist today, at whose feet would you lay the proceeds of your sales? Are there "Apostles" today who have the right to confiscate your wealth and distribute it "to each as any had need?"

Yet there are some Christians who practice "communism":

Some people find this attractive. I find it attractive, but have never found it compelling. Peter in Acts 5:4 says to the owners of a piece of property: "While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal?"

Billions of people have accepted communism. Yes, it was often coercively imposed, but millions have defended it. Why? Because Communist Czars promised "salvation."

The Bible is Individualist

"The Apostles Creed" begins with the Latin credo: "I believe." Each individual must believe and have an individual relationship with God.

One implication of individualism is "private property."

The Bible says "Thou shalt not steal" stuff that pertains to another individual. This means an individual possesses something and should not be dispossessed. The world "Property" comes from the Latin proprietas, from proprius ‘one's own, particular.’ Related to the word "proper." Someone representing himself in court comes before the court "In Pro Per" or In Propria Persona. Your person is your basic property.

Just as you must believe (in your vertical relationship with God), you must work (in your horizontal relationship with other individuals). If you turn a wilderness into a garden by your individual work, the garden is your property. It was wrong for Jezebel and Ahab to steal Naboth's vine and fig tree. Naboth said to Ahab, “The Lord forbid that I should give the inheritance of my patriarchs to you!” (1 Kings 21:3)

The Bible holds out the ideal of individual property free from princes and pirates. See the phrases "dwell safely" and "none to make them afraid" in the Bible. Micah says all the "hills" and "mountains" that rival God's Mountain will be reduced to nothing and their power to tempt disarmed.

But the Bible is also communitarian (or some English word that substitutes for the Greek word κοινωνία, koinōnía [Romans 12:13; Acts 2:42; Romans 15:26; Hebrews 13:16]). Christian fellowship is more than each man standing on his front porch with an AK-47 protecting his right to "private property."

The Bible says "Thou shalt not steal" but it also says "Give to him who asks" (Matthew 5:42). Individual property rights are not the only Biblical consideration.

If you turn wilderness into a garden, you "own" the garden.
But if a garden is held communally, their communism must be respected; the pirate is not permitted to say that it is not anyone's "property" because it is not held as an individual under "Lockean homesteading theory." Some American Indians used land without claiming Lockean ownership. Since Indians didn't "own" it, white man can take it and prevent the Indians from using it.

Use vs. Ownership: what would we call an economic system where "use" had a higher priority than "ownership" and "title?"

"Property" as stewardship vs. archist privilege

America errs on the side of individualism to the neglect of "fellowship," "sharing" "community," "extended family," and other Biblical concepts. Communal concepts of property must still be honored by other individuals.

Some opponents of archism are also opponents of private property. The French anarchist Pierre Joseph Proudhon famously said, "Property is theft." But he defended private property. An excerpt from that article:

Family and Property

If Rushdoony is correct in seeing the Bible as defending property and the Family as a unit,[53] Proudhon held a Biblical view of property. Rushdoony emphasizes that property is not just an individual right, but a Family right.[54] Unlike many "free market" economists, "In Proudhon's thought the key position was held, not by (individual) 'association,' but by the Family. The Family and the individual were never separated in his mind: he thought of them as one and the same.[55] His attack on State-sanctioned abuse of property is always a "vindication of the family."[56]

Property as Family Strength

In his Theorie Nouvelle de la Propriete he returns at the end of his life to his earlier ideas, and regards property as "the greatest revolutionary effort in existence that can put up an opposition to power." "The State," he writes, "is . . . capable of wiping out everything around it if it is not given some counterweight. What is this counterweight to be? Where shall we find a power capable of counterbalancing this formidable might of the State? There is no other except property."[57]

What Proudhon meant by "Property is theft" was what Isaiah likely intended: "Woe to you who add more houses to your houses and more fields to your fields. Finally there is no room left for other people. Then you are left alone in the land" (Isaiah 5:8). Some people hire archists to prevent farmers from living off the land. Accumulation without use and productivity is not the ideal. But one individual accumulating more property than others and producing more than others and becoming richer than others need not be discouraged. See Abraham, Genesis 13:2. God's creation consists of unlimited wealth. There's more than enough property for everyone.

18. Socialism/Charity

Micah's Prophecy
Focus text: the ones God has afflicted

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.

I was raised to believe that "capitalism" was better than "socialism." Unquestionably, freedom is better for humanity than centralized control and planning. State "Socialism" has resulted in poverty and mass death wherever it has been tried: Soviet Union, China, Cuba, Venezuela, etc.

But in 2025, young people who are unaware of the history of State Socialism in the 20th century have been victims of "Mass Formation Psychosis" and pay lip service to "socialism" and criticize "capitalism." What they criticize under the name "capitalism" is not freedom from archists. It is not 100% pure laissez-faire capitalism with 0% socialism. They are criticizing a "mixed economy."

Before the rise of monopoly capitalism in the latter part of the 19th and early 20th century, critics of the State were also champions of the poor, the weak, and the oppressed. These anarchists have also called themselves "socialists." 19th-century anarchists and socialists were critical of economic policies like usury (interest of any amount secured by a legal privilege), which the Bible also criticizes. In addition to usury, anarchists and socialists like Benjamin Tucker were critical of

A. The Land Monopoly
B. The Money Monopoly
C. Patents
D. Tariffs

Too often, "anarcho-socialists" have been envious of the rich, regardless of whether the rich accumulated their wealth fairly in the service of others, or by state-assisted exploitation.

We can learn from "socialist" opponents of archism if we are also discerning.

"No man is an island." Community: Serving the weak rather than the powerful | The "driven out" and "afflicted"

God "afflicts" and "drives out" using "archists."
God restores using servants.
The world's poor are best served by a division of labor under a Free Market, directed by an "Invisible Hand" who "assembles," "gathers," and "makes strong" using members of the Body of Christ.

Audio

"Capitalism," Not "Socialism"

This is the most important issue in the world today, and -- if you think about it -- it is the most important issue in the Bible. We may have to use different terms to describe the issue if "capitalism" and "socialism" are confused, as they are in the minds of many today. By "capitalism" we mean "economic pacifism." By "socialism" we mean "economic archism."

Mass Death

It is the most important issue in the world today because hundreds of millions of human beings have been murdered by those attempting to impose "socialism," and the lives of billions have been subjected to poverty and tyranny, while billions of people have had their lives improved under "capitalism" -- the freedom to live free from socialists and other archists.

Idolatry and False Religion

Biblically speaking, this is evidence of whether you believe in God or not. Specifically, whether you believe in Providence. If you don't believe Jesus is the all-powerful Messiah, then you are a deist, if not an atheist, and the god of deism is a false god.

The concept of "The Invisible Hand of Divine Providence" is personal, while deism eventually sifts out as evolutionary. Evolution is the impersonal and random soil in which socialism thrives. Evolution is a religion; an archist religion; a rival to the religion of Christ.

Idolatry is the subject of the First Commandment, it is the #1 issue in the pages of the Bible, and socialism is idolatry. Human archism is a false god. "Civil government" is an idol.

The vast majority of church-going Christians cannot understand how Jesus could be reigning as the Messiah right now -- today -- without being physically present on earth, sitting on a literal throne in Jerusalem.

It is because they do not understand this that they cannot coherently explain one of the most important concepts in our world today: Why Capitalism is better than Socialism.

Because they don't understand economics, they don't understand how Jesus can reign as Messiah without creating a police state.

Most church-goers cannot explain why capitalism has created the highest standard of living in human history, while socialism leads to poverty and mass death.

Capitalism is a pacifist economic system. Capitalism is for "Economic Man." Socialism is for "Political Man."

Church-going Christians do not understand how God governs the world.

Church-going Christians do not understand how God wants the world to operate.

Church-going Christians do not understand the Kingdom-Reign of God and our role in it.

Socialism is when your life is all about "standing up for your rights." Archism.
Capitalism is when your life is all about raising the standard of living of other people. Service.

The Bible is a capitalist blueprint for healing our world.

That's "good news."

And "good news" is the meaning of the word "gospel"

The word "Capitalism"

Some people (generally on the "left") agree with us on the moral necessity of free markets, but dislike the word "capitalism." They make good points.

Class Conflict

One of the central themes of Marxism is "class conflict." Is there a Biblical concept of class conflict?

Resources:

Chapter 5 Providence

19. The Gospel

Micah's Prophecy
and the LORD shall reign over them in mount Zion

Notice that chapter 8, "Of Christ the Mediator," is not complemented with a chapter on "Christ the Christ," that is, "Christ the King." The concept of Christ as King is in the Westminster Standards, but buried. This is good for the churchmen, who talk about conversion, but not about business and the dominion mandate, and Christ's royal dominion over every area of life.

The word "gospel" means "good news."

What is the "good news" of the Bible?

First and foremost, it is a "gospel of the Kingdom."

Christ vs. Caesar

In the days of Christ, the Roman Emperor claimed to be a "savior," and a bringer of "salvation." The empire sent "preachers" with a "gospel." Here's how an AI bot expressed this:

Based on the search results provided, the Caesars of Rome, particularly Augustus Caesar, claimed to bring "salvation" to the Roman Empire and the world:
  1. The inscription found in Priene, dated to 6 BC, refers to Augustus Caesar as being "sent to us and our descendants as Savior" and declares that he "has put an end to war and has set all things in order". This portrays Augustus as a savior figure who has brought peace and order.
  2. The inscription also states that Augustus' "birthday... has been for the whole world the beginning of the gospel (euangelion) concerning him". The term "gospel" was used in the Roman world to refer to proclamations of political or military victories. So this inscription presents Augustus' rule as a kind of "gospel" or good news for the world.
  3. The search results indicate that the Caesars, especially Augustus, were portrayed as divine figures and even "sons of god" who had brought salvation and peace through the Pax Romana (Roman Peace). This was a direct challenge to the Christian message of Jesus Christ as the true divine Savior.
  4. The Christian Gospels were written in this context, presenting Jesus as the true "Son of God" and bringer of salvation, in contrast to the claims made about the Caesars.
So in summary, the evidence shows that the Roman Caesars, particularly Augustus, did actively claim to be saviors and bringers of a new age of peace and prosperity, which the early Christians saw as a direct challenge to their message about Jesus Christ. This theological and political rivalry is reflected in the language and framing of the biblical Gospels.

This is all very accurate.

I highlighted the word "challenge." When I think of a "challenger," I think of an upstart rookie who challenges the established, reigning champion. Caesar Augustus was born 63 years before Jesus was born. When Jesus was born, Rome had invaded and conquered Israel. Rome was the reigning champion. Caesar was the lord and savior, and Pax Romana was its gospel. The imperial herald who brought "the good news" of Caesar's salvation was called a "preacher," ( κῆρυξ [Kerux] ) who made official imperial announcements ("good news") about the empire ( κηρύσσω. [kerusso] ). While Latin was used extensively in the Roman Empire, so was Greek. The Greek name for the Roman Empire is often "Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων (Basileia tōn Rhōmaiōn)," or the "Kingdom/Reign of the Romans." Caesar -- "lord" and "savior" -- promised "salvation" throughout his "kingdom."

Then, 63 years after Augustus Caesar was born, Jesus of Nazareth is born, proclaims Himself "Lord" and "Savior," and sends (apostello) imperial heralds proclaiming a new "Gospel of the Kingdom [βασιλεία (basileia)]." Christians start using the same vocabulary that Rome was using. Christians are the "challengers."

So contrary to the wording of the AI bot, Christianity challenged Rome. Christ challenged Caesar. It is not so much that Christians saw Caesar-as-Savior as a "challenge" to their message about Jesus the Savior-Christ, as that Christians were a direct challenge/threat to Rome.

R.J. Rushdoony writes about the German historian, Ethelbert Stauffer, who wrote about a direct challenge by Peter to the religious principle of the Roman Empire, from the days of Augustus on: salvation by Caesar. Before Jesus was born, the "preachers" of Rome heralded this "gospel":

“Salvation is to be found in none other save Augustus, and there is no other name given to men in which they can be saved.”

St. Peter was very bold to proclaim a new Gospel when he said of Jesus Christ,

“Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

Rushdoony says:

War between Christ and Caesar, the Christians and Rome, was thus inevitable. The state and its emperors claimed to offer salvation. The church declared only Christ does.

We are again in the age of Caesars, of political saviors. All over the world, politicians proclaim their plans of salvation....

Trusting the empire for salvation is a cult. See these comments by David Chilton, who speaks of the cult of Caesar worship, and these comments by N.T. Wright.

Not just the Roman Caesars, but all ancient rulers claimed to be divine saviors. For more on the claims to divinity made by ancient empires like Egypt, Babylon, Medo-Persia, -- the empires of Daniel's statue (Daniel 2) -- see chapters 3-6 in the important work by R.J. Rushdoony,  The One and The Many: Studies in the Philosophy of Order and Ultimacy.

Phrases like "Salvation" or "The Kingdom of God" do not point to heaven or some non-material dimension. In most cases where the words "save," "savior," and "salvation" occur in the Bible, Israel is "delivered" from pagan empires, and everyone dwells peacefully "under his vine and under his fig tree," "with no one to make them afraid" (Micah 4:1-7).

"Pax Romana" was the world peace promised by Caesar. The Bible proclaims a "Pax Christi." The Gospel is good news about a global empire of peace. Tens of thousands of verses must be ignored to classify the "gospel" as something that only applies to individuals after they die.

The Gospel of the Kingdom

There are different versions of "the Gospel."
The organized church preaches a gospel of individual "salvation" -- misery in this life, but a ticket to heaven upon death.
Jesus preached a "Gospel of the Kingdom."

Matthew 6:33 says:

But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

Gary North comments on this verse:

Jesus made it clear that seeking God's kingdom is priority number one for the individual. Not every person knows this. Most people today and in the past have not known this. This does not mean that Jesus was wrong, that seeking the kingdom is not each man's top priority. It means only that most men are in rebellion against God.

Evangelical Christians too often believe that God's top priority is the salvation of men. This is a man-centered viewpoint, a kind of baptized humanism for Christians. It makes them think that they are the center of God's concern. They are not. God is the center of God's concern. The universe is theocentric. If the salvation of men were God's primary concern, then He is surely a failure, for comparatively few men so far have been saved. The glory of God ... is God's chief priority. [This]  includes hell and the post-final judgment lake of fire (Rev. 20:15), The salvation of men is God's means of extending His kingdom in history, but building His kingdom, not the salvation of men, is God's top priority for man.

Jesus defined men's personal salvation in terms of entering into the kingdom of God. This kingdom is spiritual because men enter it through the Holy Spirit. "Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God" (John 3:5). It is also eternal (Rev. 21; 22).

Finding and then building the kingdom of God in history is the central theme of the New Testament, culminating in the fulfillment of the New Heavens and New Earth (Rev. 21; 22). This theme is an extension to the gentile world of a commandment and promise of the Old Testament: the building of God's city, Zion. This theme is ultimately a recapitulation of the pre-Fall dominion covenant: "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth" (Gen. 1:26-28). Adam, as God's agent, was assigned this task representatively for all mankind. Through their adoption by God, God's people are commanded to extend His kingdom.

God's kingdom is not limited to the church or the Christian family. It is all-encompassing. God is the creator. Everything that He created is part of His kingdom. To deny this is necessarily to affirm that Satan, through Adam's rebellion, possesses a legal claim to part of the creation. He does not have such a legally valid claim. Adam was merely God's steward, not the original owner. Adam could not forfeit to Satan what he did not own. God's kingdom is therefore co-extensive with the earth: every realm in which men work out their salvation with fear and trembling (Phil. 2:12). Wherever there is sin, there is an area fit for re-conquest.

Priorities and Dominion: An Economic Commentary on Matthew

We "build" the Kingdom as we obey the law of the King, Who says:

Matthew 5
17 Don't suppose I came to do away with the Law and the Prophets. I did not come to do away with them, but to give them their full meaning. 19 If you reject even the least important command in the Law and teach others to do the same, you will be the least important person in the kingdom of heaven. But if you obey and teach others its commands, you will have an important place in the kingdom.

The Kingdom is extended as we teach others to obey the King. This includes false kings, Pharaohs, Caesars, and Führers, who must be persuaded to repent and abdicate. The Kingdom of God is Statelessness in the eyes of false kings. This is our calling today, not in the distant future.

Anarcho-Preterism is not tangential to the Faith. It is central.

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.

Westminster Standards
Chapter 8: Christ the Mediator

20. Justification

Much of the Westminster Confession is taken up with a very narrow examination of "salvation" or "justification." It is generally related to being "converted" and then what happens to you after you die.

It is very important to be converted. We cannot remain a rebel against God and God's enemy. We must become God's servant and friend.

James 2:23
And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” And he was called the friend of God.

But then we begin, as friends of God, to a lifetime of obedient service.

R.J. Rushdoony wrote:

Let us now examine some common traits of amillennialism and premillennialism. First, both regard attempts to build a Christian society or to further Christian reconstruction as either futile or wrong. If God has decreed that the world's future is one of a downward spiral, then indeed Christian reconstruction is futile.

This points clearly to a second common aspect of these two positions: the limitation of the Christian task to soul-saving, to snatching brands from the burning. Scripture is stripped of its total message and reduced to a soul-saving manual. Matters of law respecting crime, the use of land, money, weights, property, diet, civil government, and all things else are set aside to concentrate on soul saving only. If now Christian schools are started by some of these groups, too often their essential purpose is to further soul-saving. Conversion clearly is important. So is the alphabet. We do not learn the alphabet to spend our lives majoring in the alphabet, but in order to read, learn, and grow. Conversion is the alphabet of Christian faith, whereby the whole world of God's calling and law are opened up to us. Have we learned to read if we get no further than the alphabet, and its repetition? Are we converted if we do not move beyond the conversion experience? And if not, is that experience then real? Life means growth, not paralysis, and true conversion is the beginning of life and growth.

God's Plan for Victory pp. 7-8

The Westminster Confession spends an inordinate amount of time on conversion. One-third of the Confession.

At Vine & Fig Tree University we take a "Theonomic" approach to "justification."

Justification by Allegiance

Justification is the result of repentance, a synonym of "conversion." We repent of autonomy and convert to Theonomy. We defect from the City of Man and swear allegiance to the City of God. But it is God who works repentance in us (Philippians 2:13).

God Glorified in Conversion | Roger Nicole

Justification is new citizenship, then on to dominion and service to the King.

Justification by Theocracy

Abraham was a friend of God.

To become a Patriarch like Abraham, one needs to become a friend of God.

We must convert from being a rebel (along with the first Adam) to being an adopted son of the Last Adam.

A friend of archists is the enemy of God (James 4:4).

The "Good News" is that Jesus the Creator is the King, and we are saved from humanist creature-archists (Isaiah 33:22; Romans 1:25; 1 Samuel 8:7).

Westminster Standards
Chapter 8 Christ the Mediator

Chapter 10 Effectual Calling

Chapter 11 Justification

Chapter 12 Adoption

Chapter 13 Sanctification

Chapter 14 Saving Faith

Chapter 15 Repentance unto Life

Chapter 16 Good Works

Chapter 17 the Perseverance of the Saints

Chapter 18 the Assurance of Grace and Salvation

The "Ordo Salutis" in the Westminster Standards

21. "The House of the Lord" - Ecclesiology

Micah's Prophecy
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

Come, and let us go up to
the mountain of the LORD,
and to the house of the God of Jacob;

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

If you thought "Anarchism" -- opposition to "The State" -- was a controversial theme, this theme is probably more controversial. This theme is about "the church." Your local church probably claims in some sense to be "the House of the Lord." Does Micah agree with that claim?

The "temple" was where God dwelled. The "palace" was where the king dwelled. God is our King (Isaiah 33:22). God's house (palace) is also a temple. In the Old Testament, "The House of the Lord" was the temple in Jerusalem.

But that temple was destroyed in AD 70. At the same time, the Levitical priesthood was abolished.

So what is "Mount Zion" today?

Hebrews 12:18-29
For you have not come to a mountain that can be touched and to a blazing fire, and to darkness and gloom and whirlwind, 19 and to the blast of a trumpet and the sound of words, which sound was such that those who heard begged that no further word be spoken to them. 20 For they could not cope with the command, “If even an animal touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.” 21 And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, “I am terrified and trembling.” 22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, 23 to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel. 28 Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let’s show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe; 29 for our God is a consuming fire.

So what is "the House of the Lord" in our day?

Catholics might say "the Vatican." Protestants might say "the local church."

The Apostle Paul says Christians are the new temple of God.

Ephesians 2:19-22
Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, 22 in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

2 Corinthians 6:16
And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will dwell in them And walk among them. I will be their God, And they shall be My people.”

1 Corinthians 3:16-17
Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? 17 If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.

The Westminster Standards are ecclesiocentric.

The English word "ecclesiastical" comes from the Greek word ἐκκλησία [ekklēsia], which is usually translated "church" in the KJV. In New Testament times, the ekklēsia was a civil or political body. But "church" is usually thought of as a "religious" body. Ecclesiology (the doctrine of the church) is derived from the Levitical priesthood and the "ceremonial law." In the debate in the link below, I discuss "church" attendance with a defender of the traditional concept of "church." Notice his reliance on Old Testament liturgical and priestly laws:

Most Christians reject a "preterist" eschatology because of what "the church" has taught. Martin Luther claimed that the institutional church missed a central doctrine of the Christian Faith: Justification. J. Gresham Machen claimed that liberal churches are not Christian, but an entirely different religion. Calling oneself a "church" does not protect one from error.

Edifying People = Building the Kingdom

Westminster Standards
Chapter 25 the Church

Chapter 26 the Communion of Saints

Chapter 30 Church Censures

Chapter 31 Synods and Councils

What is "WORSHIP"?

The basic meaning of the word "worship" is service. To "worship" God is to serve Him by putting every area of one's life under His Law. As The New Bible Dictionary puts it, "[T]he essential concept in both the Old and New Testaments is 'service.'" John Murray writes,

[Worship in the] generic sense is the devotion we owe to God in the whole of life. God is sovereign, He is Lord, having sovereignty over us and propriety in us, and therefore in all that we do we owe subjection to him, devotion to His revealed will, obedience to His commandments. There is no area of life where the injunction does not apply (I Cor. 10:31). In view of the lordship of Christ as Mediator all of life comes under His dominion (Col. 3:23,24).

Worship in the generic sense is thus service to God in every area of life; total slavery to Him Who is Lord of all.

In the Old Testament there was also a more specific usage for "worship," namely, the observance of the ceremonial rituals given to a Spiritually juvenile pre-Pentecost people. These ritual observances typified worship in every area of life. Animal sacrifice, the burning of incense, attendance at temple, and other rigors were imposed on the slave-like people of Egyptized Israel (Galatians 3:24 - 4:9), and were but shadows of the worship of the New Covenant.

Jesus spoke of the New Covenant form of worship in John 4. The woman at the well, having been confronted with the ethical demands of the Lord Jesus (regarding her adulterous life), attempts a "doctrinal" diversion: she asks Jesus about "worship." Putting words in Jesus' mouth, she claims that worship occurs in a certain place (Jerusalem) (John 4:20). Jesus denies it:

Woman, believe me, the hour cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship Him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in Truth.

Here is the "Mountain" of Micah 4, the New Zion which covers the entire globe (Daniel 2:35).

In the common, specific sense, "worship" means attending to the ceremonial requirements of the Old Covenant, going to a certain place (cf. Acts 8:27). But these acts only symbolized true "worship," and were necessary to prod a Spiritless people to that Christian worship which is obedience to God in every area of life.

Thus, the phrase "worship service" is quite redundant! Can you find one occurrence in the New Testament of "worship" in the ceremonial/specific sense being required of Christians? Or are the occurrences of "worship" speaking of obedience in every area of life? Do any of the Greek words used for "worship" occur in any sense requiring Christians to go to Jerusalem, or a specific "mountain" to "worship" God? Would we expect centralized ceremonial "worship" to be required in light of Micah's prophecy? (If you "attend church," have you been trained to search the Scriptures to find the answers to such questions as these [Acts 17:11], or do you need to ask your "pastor"?)

The New Testament is clear: the "worship" required of believers does not consist in ceremonial ritual. Colossians 2:18 says,

Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship . . . .

The Greek word translated "worship" is "religion" in James 1, where we are told,

If anyone among you thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one's religion is useless. {27} Pure and undefiled religion [worship] before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.
James 1:26-27; cf. Matthew 25:36

Of course, "worship" is not limited to visiting orphans and widows, but involves obedience outside the temple, outside the synagogue, outside the cathedral, in every area of life.

Our doctrine of "worship" must not be based on Old Testament "ceremonial laws," but rather on the whole corpus of Biblical Law, which applies to every area of life.

Chapter 21 Religious Worship

Chapter 20 Christian Liberty, and Liberty of Conscience

Sabbath

The Day of Rest is the seventh day. "The Lord's Day" is the first day/eighth day, commemorating Christ's resurrection on the first day of the week. The two concepts are distinct, but too often confused. It is sometimes said that Sunday, the first day, is "the Christian Sabbath." But the word "sabbath" means "seventh." The fourth of the ten commandments is to work six days and rest on the seventh. The fourth commandment does not say to work five days, rest on the seventh, and "go to church" on the eighth day. Clergymen emphasize the importance of "going to church" on Sunday, emphasizing "worship" as a series of rituals in "church," and ignore the importance of worship as service/work in every area of life Monday-through-Saturday. Work/ Business/Dominion is the main source of prosperity and government. Businesses create government because they foster habits and character which undergird order, which make profit possible.

More on "work."

The Business Covenant

Christ governs our lives not just on Sunday morning, but all during the week, including our business lives. The Sunday morning "worship service" is a holdover from Old Covenant ceremonial rituals and liturgies. If you want to commemorate Christ's resurrection on the first day of the week, go for it. Use it as a time to prepare for real life the rest of the week. Your family business is more important than re-creations of Old Covenant rituals.

Chapter 21 Religious Worship, and the Sabbath Day

The Fourth Commandment in American History

Sacraments

I don't believe in "sacraments." These Old Testament rituals were dug up and mimicked by what we call "The Roman Catholic Church." Most Protestant churches are only partially-reformed Roman churches.

What we call "the Last Supper" was Jesus observing the Jewish feast of Passover with His disciples. Jesus destroyed the temple in Jerusalem at His coming in AD 70 (see "Preterism" above).  Paul told Christians (many of whom were converts from Judaism) to continue observing Passover until Jesus comes. This made sense at the time, as Passover was closely connected with the temple.

1 Corinthians 5
6 Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? 7 Therefore  purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.  8 Therefore let us keep the feast,  not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

Luke 22
13 And they went and found it just as He had told them, and they prepared the Passover.
14 And when the hour came, He reclined at table, and the apostles with Him. 15 And He said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. 16 For I tell you I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” 17 And He took a cup, and when He had given thanks he said, “Take this, and divide it among yourselves. 18 For I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.”

1 Corinthians 10
23 For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when He was betrayed took bread, 24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it, and said, “This is My body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of Me.” 25 In the same way also He took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes.

Matthew 16
27 For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works. 28 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.”

First-century Christians continued to observe Passover until Christ came in the power of His Kingdom, in the lifetime of those who witnessed His First Advent, to take vengeance against those Israelites who rejected Him as their Passover Lamb. Jesus the Death Angel did not pass over Israel in AD 70. The old Israel was destroyed as the new Egypt:

Revelation 11:8
And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.

Jesus came in the power of a new Kingdom. The old kingdom -- the new Egypt -- was destroyed so that the New Israel -- God's Kingdom -- could be built.

"Sacraments" were a part of the Old Covenant, but not the New. John the Baptist was an Old Testament prophet who foretold the coming of the Messiah and the New Covenant. Paul said he never baptized anyone (1 Corinthians 1:13-17). The Old Covenant and its sacraments were passing away (Hebrews 8:13).

Most Christians see the practice of their faith occurring for one hour in a "church" building on Sunday morning. But the most important aspects of our faith should be occurring the other six days of the week.

Chapter 27 the Sacraments

Chapter 28 Baptism

Chapter 29 the Lord’s Supper

The Berean Spirit

The Bible praises the Bereans because they questioned the clergy in light of Scripture.

The churches want us to question what we think the Bible teaches in light of church creeds.

Three texts:

Lord Acton said "power corrupts." This includes a monopolistic "power" to declare someone to be a non-Christian; a power denied to "laymen."

What is a "church?"

It's a strange concept, when you think about it Biblically.

The institutional church makes astonishing claims.

Consider Smith, a "layman":

But Smith does not "attend church" or "worship services" with "ordained clergymen."

He is therefore "excommunicated" and publicly declared to not be a Christian.

More on "Church"

Both Protestant and Catholic are subsets within this "church" concept: the similarities are more important than the differences

This "church" concept stands in opposition to dominion and business. A mere business is not allowed to follow Biblical commands (re: teaching and koinonia) in a way that competes or substitutes for "church."

Up above we asserted that a majority of the human race claims to worship the God of Abraham -- a fact that would astonish the prophet Micah.

Some purists will object to that claim. They will say our claim includes Muslims with their Muhammad -- a false religion. But it also includes Catholics with their Pope, which some purists will say is also a false religion. It also includes Jews, who deny that Jesus is the Christ. It includes "liberal" churches. J. Gresham Machen, a "purist" we here at VFTU admire, argued that "liberal Christianity" was not Christianity at all, but a different, separate, false religion. "Liberals" become passionate opponents of Puritans like Machen, Van Til, and the old Westminster, even claiming that Van Til will not go to heaven. Both sides seem to think that the other side needs to repent and be forgiven.

But our claim includes the churches of the purists who oppose Jews, Muslims, Catholics, and Liberals. Many such purist churches oppose our "anarchism" and "preterism." They thereby deny that Jesus is the only Christ and His Law governs every area of life. I will argue that no organization which claims to be "the house of the Lord" -- a "church" -- believes that Jesus is the only legitimate Archist, and is now reigning as Christ. That's the very definition of "anti-christ."

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.

But we include antichrist churches like these in our tally of those who claim to worship the God of Abraham. As we said above, we're in the infancy of "church history." The Body of Christ is just beginning to learn how to walk. All of these errors must and will be purged as the Body of Christ matures. As the gospel of the Kingdom is preached, Jews, Muslims, Catholics, Liberals, and your own "church" will repent of their errors.

Ephesians 4 speaks of

12 the building up of the body of Christ; 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. 14 As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of people, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; 15 but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, that is, Christ,

John 17:21
that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.

1 Corinthians 14:20
Brethren, be not children in understanding: howbeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men.

1 Corinthians 3:1-2
And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.

1 Corinthians 13:11
When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

Colossians 1:28
Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus:

Psalms 119:99
I have more understanding than all my teachers: for thy testimonies are my meditation.

Philippians 1:9
And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment;

Hebrews 5:12-13 - Hebrews 6:1-3
For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe.
Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. And this will we do, if God permit.

2 Peter 3:18
But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.

Philippians 1:9
And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment;

"Church" in our day denies the Crown Rights of King Jesus. "Church" is a throwback to the Levitical priesthood and liturgies. This concept of "church" goes back to the origin of premillennialism among the "church fathers." I think the two are connected. We need to discard the Levitical training wheels and become men.

The institutional church is characterized by

22: Eternity

Micah's Prophecy
forever

Micah 4:5

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

Micah 4:7

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

When the Vine & Fig Tree world is "established" (verse 1, fulfilled in Acts 2, esp. v.36), it is said to last "forever and ever."

Isaiah 9:6-7
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.
 
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.
 
Daniel 7:14
Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom,
That all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him.
His dominion is an everlasting dominion,
Which shall not pass away,
And His kingdom the one
Which shall not be destroyed.
 
Daniel 7:27
Then the kingdom and dominion,
And the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven,
Shall be given to the people, the saints of the Most High.
His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
And all dominions shall serve and obey Him.’
 
Revelation 11:15
Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!”
 
Revelation 14:6
Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth—to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people—
(See also Ecclesiastes 1:4; Psalm 78:69; 104:5; 148:3-6)
Christ began reigning as Messiah at His Ascension. His Messianic reign is said to last "forever." No verse teaches the end of the Kingdom of God. No verse teaches that at some point in time, Jesus ceases to reign as the Christ.

So where does "the second coming" come in?

The "Second Coming of Christ" already happened.

This may be the most controversial position in "my credo." The vast majority of Christians believe Jesus will begin reigning as the Messiah (or "Christ") at His "second coming." Until then, life on earth is going to get worse and worse.

I believe life on earth has been getting better and better because Christ began reigning in His Kingdom in the past.

I believe "the second coming of Christ" already happened. It happened exactly when the Bible said it would happen: before "that generation" died out. It happened at the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 66-70.

Jesus came a second time in judgment against those who rejected Him as the Christ. The same generation that witnessed His first coming also witnessed His second coming.

It happened in the past.

The claim that Jesus is the Messiah today (not just in the future) is the claim that Jesus was made "Lord and Christ" in the past.

This is the "good news," or "Gospel."

The Antichrist, the Great Tribulation, Armageddon, and Jesus are NotComingSoon.net 

Living in Heaven

Restoring Gratitude, Joy, and Optimism (LivinginHeaven.org)

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.

Here are the key concepts in Micah's prophecy:

Micah 4:1-7

 

Vine & Fig Tree University - Review of Themes
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		   "Bibliolatry" - We teach students that the Bible is the Word of God. Micah can predict what "will come about" because God revealed it to him.

Predestination -- God knows what "will come about" because He predestined it.

Preterism -- We are not in "the last days" of the Old Covenant. The "second coming" and establishment of the "mountain" -- the reign of the Messiah -- took place in the past.

"Creationism" -- We teach students that the "mountain" of Eden actually existed. We teach students that "Evolution" is the religion of archists.
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,		 "Optimillennialism" - A majority of church-going Christians in the last century believed that the world would get worse and worse until a "rapture" took place, leading to a "Great Tribulation," the "Antichrist," and Armageddon, followed by a "Second Coming" of Christ. This was called "premillennialism." Gary North called it "pessimillennialism."
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.		   "Theonomy" --  "God's Law" -- A controversial position that sees the Bible as a blueprint for a reconstructed society.

Education: Discipleship

Character: Walking spontaneously
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.		 Theocracy -- "He [the Messiah] will judge"

Pacifism -- Elimination of the Department of Defense and the Military-Industrial Complex.

Anarchism -- Conversion of those who believe they have the right to impose their will on the rest of the planet by violent force and threats of nuclear annihilation.
And each of them will sit under his   "Patriarchy"
"Homophobia"
Vine and under his  fig tree,
With no one to make them afraid.
For the LORD of hosts has spoken.		 Dominion -- tilling the garden, serving consumers

Agrarianism

Salvation -- Who are those who would "make afraid?" Jesus delivers us from Archists.

The Fall of Man -- the desire to be as gods
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.		   Jerusalem vs. Athens

Character -- Sometimes described as the actions you take when nobody is watching, but today describes the actions you take when Big Brother is watching you, and social media is denouncing you.

"WE" will walk -- Biblical collectivism
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:		 "Socialism"

The first "anarchists" called themselves "socialists," because they fought not only for individual rights, but for social deficiencies among those who could not fight for themselves.

The first ("native") Americans did not hold land under Lockean "homesteading" theory, and the land they lived on was stolen from them by archists.
and the LORD shall reign over them in mount Zion
from henceforth, even for ever.		   Lord Shall Reign:
Gospel: A proclamation of a rival kingdom
Justification: choosing Jerusalem over Athens
Mount Zion
Church (House of the Lord on Mount Zion) - false "we"
Eternity: "forever and ever"

The typical graduate from Vine & Fig Tree University can assent to the following doctrines:

  1. I believe in God.
  2. I believe the Bible is the Word of God.
  3. I love the Lord with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength.
  4. I enthusiastically agree with the first 22 chapters of the Westminster Confession of faith. The Larger Catechism asks, 
         Q. 5. What do the Scriptures principally teach?
         A. The Scriptures principally teach what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man.
    What the Scriptures require as the duty of man is found in the exposition of the Ten Commandments in questions 91ff. I enthusiastically agree with most of this section of the Catechism, as the links in the next two points will attest:
  5. I believe God says "Thou shalt not kill."
  6. I believe God says "Thou shalt not steal"
  7. I believe God says that if someone hurts you or takes your stuff, you should leave vengeance to God
  8. I believe what the New Testament authors believed about the Second Coming of Christ.
  9. I support Capitalism, not Socialism.
  10. I believe "the Gospel"

These propositions might seem at first glance to be perfectly reasonable and perfectly acceptable to any church.

But Vine & Fig Tree University pursues these doctrines with relentless logical and Biblical consistency.

If you think about these doctrines, and practice or meditate on them with logical consistency, they are astonishing, and then they are offensive. Most pastors don't want their congregations thinking about these things too much. They want their congregations to feel good.

If you take these doctrines seriously, you will be considered a "heretic." I've been told by many people that I'm not even a Christian because I believe these things.

Let's look at some details in Micah 4:1-7.

Because Bibliolatry, Theme 0.

Micah says

1 it shall come to pass,

Question: How does Micah know what will come to pass?

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

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

Question: How does God know what will come to pass?

Answer: God is in control.

Question: When will this come to pass?

Answer:

in the last days

Perhaps Micah meant "in the distant future." But the writers of the New Testament consistently affirmed that they were living in "the last days," and the best interpretation of this phrase is that they were living in the last days of the Old Covenant.

that the mountain

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

the house of the LORD

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

shall be established

This has already happened. The new temple (God's People) was being built even before the old temple had been destroyed. The virgin-born Jesus of Nazareth was seated in His new temple as the Messiah of Israel (Acts 2:36).

in the top of the mountains,
and it shall be exalted above the hills;

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

and people shall flow unto it.
2 And many nations shall come, and say,

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

Come, and let us go up to
the mountain of the LORD,
and to the house of the God of Jacob;
and He will teach us of His ways,
and we will walk in His paths:
for the Law shall go forth of Zion,
and the Word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

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

3 And He shall judge among many people,
and rebuke strong nations afar off;
Who is "He?" It is clearly Jesus the Messiah. The first nation He judged was the nation of Israel, who murdered their King. This took place in "the last days" of the Old Covenant. Perhaps Jesus is about to judge the U.S.A., a once-Christian nation.
and they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
and their spears into pruninghooks:
nation shall not lift up a sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war any more.

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

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

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

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

This was the original "American Dream."

2 for the Law shall go forth of Zion,
and the Word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

5 Although all people will walk
every one in the name of his god,
we will walk in the name of the LORD our God
for ever and ever.

The early church father Tertullian (c. 155 AD – c. 220 AD) asked:

What indeed has Athens to do with Jerusalem?  What concord is there between the Academy and the Church?... Our instructions come from “the porch of Solomon”.... Away with all attempts to produce a mottled Christianity of Stoic, Platonic, and dialectic composition!  We want no curious disputation after possessing Christ Jesus...!
Tertullian, Prescription against Heretics (VII). 

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

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

6 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;
7 And I will make her that halted a remnant,
and her that was cast far off a strong nation:

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

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

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

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

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

Additional Edits

ceremonial law: OT priesthood as pattern/justification for "church"

Church as ekklesia = rival to state

church is always "escapist religion" -- anti-business, anti-dominion

"church" Denies Christocracy-dominion-optimillennialism, resurrects ceremonial law

"Church" or Communism? property

church or business? Abraham

give slave tools of trade upon release

Polis

"Polis" is the Greek word behind the English word "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.

Jesus, the Jews, and the Torah

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."

The Demonic Imperial Paradigm

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:

www.Romans13.com

From cover to cover, the Bible is an "Anarchist Manifesto" and urges mankind to eradicate the institution of "civil government" or "the State."

Night and Day

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?

The Weight of Glory

James Jordan writes:

More than any other metals, gold and silver show forth the glory of God. In every time, in every clime, in every land and nation, gold and silver come to be regarded as valuable. There are two points to be made concerning this.

First of all, gold and silver, especially gold, are heavy. The Hebrew word for "glory" literally means "heavy." A few years ago, in American slang anything that was impressive was "heavy," and this reflects a sound linguistic instinct. Part of the attractiveness and glory of gold, then, lies in its weight.

Second, not only is gold heavy, it is also radiant and shining. God's glory appears as a flaming fire and a burning furnace, and gold more than any other mineral ties into the human tendency to appreciate this glory. The walls of the Tabernacle and Temple were both lined with gold, creating a golden glory environment all around. Similarly, the fiery tree or lampstand in the Tabernacle - an abiding replica of the burning bush - was made of gold, as were many other items.

Gold, Silver, and Precious Stones || Part Two

Biblical Horizons » No. 3: The Weight of Being

Biblical Horizons » No. 15: The Dominion Trap

See Section III, "The Politics of Money," in Rushdoony, Politics of Guilt and Pity.

It will take approximately xx minutes for me to lay out my arguments and for you to follow them Biblically in a loving (1 Corinthians 13:5-7) way.

 

A Vision for Humanity

The first three semesters of Vine & Fig Tree University is the Curriculum of the colonial American one-room schoolhouse 2.0
It will give students a vision for a Christianized world. We are all created in the Image of God, and hard-wired to aspire to the vision described by the Old Testament Prophet Micah 4:1-7:

Click for audio
  
Micah's Prophecy

Archetype

 Controversy
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
Victory:
Christ established His Kingdom at the first Christmas
 “Predestination”
“Preterism”
Audio
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,
Globalism:
It will continue to expand until it covers the globe
 “Optimillennialism”
Audio
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.
Law:
Biblical Law will be our standard
 “Theonomy”
Audio
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.
Peace:
We will pursue God's "shalom"
 “Pacifism”
Audio
And each of them will sit under his
Family:
Beginning at home
 “Patriarchy”
Audio
Vine and under his fig tree,
With no one to make them afraid.
For the LORD of hosts has spoken.
Garden-Land:
Healing the Environment
 “Anarchism”
Audio
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.
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.
Community:
Beyond the "Rugged Individual"
 “Theocracy”
Audio

You won't agree with everything in my curriculum, but you will be a better person for having wrestled with these ideas:

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

 Audio

Let's think about these simple propositions like Bereans (Acts 17:11). You'll see why no pastor wants a Vine & Fig Tree University graduate anywhere near his church.

Micah 4:1-7 (left column) is a representative of many “Vine & Fig Tree” verses in the Bible. We can add some observations on how this passage is expressed in the VFTU curriculum (right column).

Micah 4:1-7

 

Vine & Fig Tree University
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		   We are not in "the last days" of the Old Covenant. We are in the first days of the New Covenant.

The "mountain" of the "house of the Lord" was Jerusalem, but before that it was the Garden of Eden, an elevated plateau from which flowed four rivers.

Adam and Eve were called to transform the Garden of Eden into "The New Jerusalem," or as Augustine called it, "The City of God." The establishment of this "mountain" took place when Jesus the Christ/Messiah came, 2000 years ago. Daniel 2 predicts that this Mountain-City will spread over the entire world.
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,		 Today, in stark contrast to the days in which Micah delivered this prophecy, a majority of human beings on planet earth claim to worship the God of Abraham.

Galatians 3:8
And the Scripture ... preached beforehand the Gospel unto Abraham, saying, "In thee shall all nations be blessed."

The concept of "blessing" is seen in Deuteronomy 28:1-14 and Leviticus 26:3-13. Micah would be astonished to see that in 2025, billions of human beings enjoy the "blessings" that are described in those passages. Micah could not have imagined that billions -- thousands of millions -- of human beings could live on this planet at the same time without mass starvation and total war.
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.		   Jeremiah 31:33 predicts that the Torah will be written on the hearts of New Covenant believers.
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.		 The Protestant Reformers and the Founders of Harvard missed this point. They rejected the "pacifism" which was advocated by the "Radical Reformation" a.k.a. the "Anabaptists."
And each of them will sit under his   What is a family?
What about private property?
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, college accreditation agencies, 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?

23 Themes

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

Heresy chart