“Redemption
progressively triumphs in history over reprobation”-Gentry
'He
Shall Have Dominion' is an amazing presentation of what is probably
the right theological response to the Bible. I think it is probably
not possible to overstate the magnitude of difference of practical
effects of preferring Gentry's post-millennialist viewpoint over the
amillennialist, premillennialist and/or dispensationalist.
Though
salvation is not directly affected by the choice of one or the other,
one's works may well be adversely impacted in addition to which, the
wrong choice might produce bad missiological, sociological and even
political effects Following is a quote from Gentry on the topic taken
from page 186...
quote”Redemption
progressively triumphs in history over reprobation. The resurrection
of Christ was and remains more powerful than the Fall of Adam: not
just judicially but also culturally. This understanding of the power
of Christ's resurrection and His ascension to the right hand of God
is denied by amillennialism. The amillennialist sees the fall of
Adam as by far the more powerful force in mankind's cultural
development. He sees Christ's redemption as "souls-only,
Church-only, Christian families-only." He draws the line at
culture, which is to say, he draws a judicial boundary around the
transforming power of the Gospel. This is because he has already
drawn an eschatological
boundary
around the transforming power of the Gospel.”-end
quote
The
table of contents for 'He Shall Have Domnion' can serve also as an
outline for the book.
“PART
I: INTRODUCTION
1.
The Significance of Eschatology
2.
The Purpose of This Treatise
3.
The Pessimistic Millennial Views .
4.
Introduction to Postmillennialism
PART
II: INTERPRETATION
5.
The Revelation of Truth
6.
The Covenants of Redemption
7.
The Righteousness of God
8.
The Hermeneutic of Scripture
PART
III: EXPOSITION
9.
Creation
10.
Anticipation
11.
Realization
12.
Expansion
13.
Consummation
PART
IV: SPECIFICATION
14.
Time Frames
15.
Features
16.
Characters
17.
Revelation . .
PART
V: OBJECTIONS
18.
Pragmatic Objections
19.
Theological Objections
20.
Biblical Objections
PART
VI: CONCLUSION
Concluding
Remarks .
Appendix
A: Cultural Antinomianism
Appendix
B: Postmillennialism and Suffering”
In
the 600 plus page exposition of post-millennialism (He
Shall Have Dominion)
and opposition to it largely from pre-millenialists and
dispensationalists Kenneth Gentry points out one objection such that
post-millennialism is too much like evolution theory and/or that
post-millennialism isn't doom oriented sufficiently in the
short-term. Nothing apocalyptic and exciting like a rapture or 7-year
tribulation is going to happen (it happened in the 7th
decade of the first century).
The
'thousand years' of Christ's reign
(Revelation 20:2-7)...
A
somewhat naturalistic and literal value reading of The
Revelation tends to
return a futurist and pre-millennial point of view. The false prophet
Mohammad appears to have had a pre-millennialist point of Christian
scripture. His father had been Keeper of the Ka'aba do comparative
religion ran in the family and development of a syncretist
interpretation of Judeo-Christian concepts was natural. If Muhammad
derived his eschatology from a naive literal reading of The
Revelation he wasn't the first or the last to do so.
Gentry
believes the term 'thousand years' simply means 'a long, long time',
and that it began with Jesus' victory over sin and death on the
cross. The thousand years is the period of historical time following
His earthly work, death and resurrection during which the kingdom of
God will increase generally, to eventually include a majority of
existing people.
Ladd
says (a quote taken from Gentry;s book page 52) quote;
"We must recognize frankly that in all the verses cited thus far
it would seem that the eschatological Kingdom will be inaugurated by
a single complex event, consisting of the Day of the Lord, the coming
of the Son of Man, the resurrection of the dead, and the final
judgment. However, in the one book which is entirely devoted to this
subject, the Revelation of John, this time scheme is modified.... The
theology that is built on this passage is millennialism or
chiliasm.... This is the most natural interpretation of the [Rev. 20]
passage, and it is the view of the present author. One thing must be
granted: this is the only place in Scripture which teaches a
thousand-year reign of Christ.”-end
quote
In
the midst of a persecution, the persecution of Emperor Nero described
well by Gentry in his book 'The Beast of The Revelation', the Apostle
John might well have regarded a thousand years as a vast period of
time. Even today a thousand years to the year 3015 seems difficult to
imagine in a way. What changes could happen in that distant future
are hard to foresee-maybe the U.S. federal debt will be a quadrillion
to the nth power? Would John be given a quirky number or a round
number meaning 'a
long, long time from now'?
U.S. administrations use that sort of budget date for repayment
setting forecasting all the time.
Post-Millennialism
and The Olivet Discourse
The
post-millennial approach to the Olivet Discourse requires a kind of
pedagogical sobriety rather uncommon in contemporary Christian church
education working a little counter-current to a common
synthetic-natural way of interpretation. Christians have commonly
been indoctrinated with a pre-millennial futurist context for
end-times fulfillment. When one picks up a Bible and reads about end
times knowing that one exists oneself there is a natural assumption
that the end times haven't happened yet. Thus the end times that
Jesus describes must pertain to the future, the reader's future, yet
how so? Yet the reader is given the troubling statement of Jesus that
all the things mentioned will occur before 'this generation passes'.
So
the reader is presented with what are a few dubious choices the least
harmful of which appears to be that 'this generation' means something
besides 40 years or whatever a generation is.
Instead...
a generation could mean something like an issuance of humanity per
se- homo sapiens (with an interpretation before the Obama
administration redefined the term) in the age of the gentiles and so
forth. The time extended to indefinite meaning of generation supports
the futurist account. This is quite natural in naive readings where
the reader must account for an indoctrinated futurist pre-millennial
perspective of what Jesus said.
That
brings one to the requirement of a sober pedagogy with knowledge of
first century Christian and Jewish history-something that most Sunday
school teachers and more than a few ministers may lack. Correlating
first century events with preterist hermeneutic analysis is not
something one usually learns in church. Here is a quote of part of
what Gentry wrote in 'He
Shall Have Dominion'
about preterism, the Olivet Discourse and hermeneutics (pages 161-
163).
quote-”In
Matthew 23, Jesus sorely rebukes the “scribes and Pharisees"
of His own day (Matt. 23:2f1), urging them finally to "fill up
then the measure of your fathers" who killed the prophets
(23:31-32). Christ says that they are a "generation" of
vipers (23:33) that will persecute and slay His disciples (23:34). He
notes that upon them will come all the righteous blood shed on the
earth (23:35). He then dogmatically asserts: "[V]erily I say
unto you, all these things shall come upon this generation"
(23:36).
Then,
in Matthew 23:37-24:2, Jesus weeps over Jerusalem, and declares that
its temple will be destroyed, stone-by-stone, despite His disciples'
surprise. It is of these things that the disciples ask, "When
shall these things be?" As a matter of
historical
record we know the temple was destroyed, stone by stone, in August,
A.D. 70.
Second,
its express temporal indicators demand it. We must not miss the clear
references to the contemporary expectation. Enclosing the relevant
portion of the discourse, we have Christ's own time-element
designation. In 23:36, he dogmatically asserts "all these things
shall come upon this generation." He closes the relevant portion
of the prophecy by repetition of the time frame: Matthew 24:34 says,
"Verily I say unto you, this generation shall not pass, till all
these things be fulfilled." And just forty years later Jerusalem
was destroyed! Contextually the "this generation" of
Matthew 24:34 must speak of the same idea as that of Matthew 23:36.
In
verse 34, the matter is solemnly affirmed by Christ. He is quite
dogmatic when He begins a statement with: "verily." Thus,
Christ emphatically draws the disciples' attention to what He is
about to say, just as He did in 24:2, where He made the statement
that led to the whole discourse.
In
addition, the dogmatism of His statement is further underscored. He
does not just tell them; He emphatically introduces what He is about
to say by saying, "I tell you." He has not left the
temporal expectation to them to figure out. Furthermore, the literal
rendering of the Greek reads: "Truly I tell you that by no means
passes away generation this until all these things happen." The
"by no means" is a strong, double negative (ou me). Jesus
places it early in His statement for added emphasis. He is staking
His credibility, as it were, on the absolute certainty of this
prophetic pronouncement. But what does He so dogmatically and
carefully tell them?
Whatever
the difficult apocalyptic imagery in some of the preceding verses
(e.g., vv. 29-31) may indicate, Jesus dearly says that "all
these things" will occur before "this generation"
passes away. He employs the near demonstrative for the fulfillment of
verses 2-34: these events will come upon "this generation:' He
uses the far demonstrative in 24:36 to point to the Second Advent:
"that day." The coming "tribulation" (24:21; cf.
Rev. 1:9) was to come upon "this generation" (23:36; 24:34;
cr. 1 Thess. 2:16) and was to be foreshadowed by certain signs
(24:4-8). But the Second Advent was to be at "that" far day
and hour, and was not to be preceded by particular signs of its
nearness, for no man can know it (24:-36). Preterism is
well-established in Matthew 24:3-34, as many early church fathers
recognized.”-end
quote
One
should be familiar with Gentry's philosophical perspective on the
Bible and God regarding ontology and not just his eschatological
views. This I think may be accomplished briefly with a quote from He
Shall Have Dominion
...
page
102 quote-”Since
the universe is permeated by the very presence of God (1 Kgs. 7: 17;
Jer. 23:23-24), the Christian world view necessitates that we live in
an ultimately personal universe. On the Christian view the universe
does not operate under its own internal power (naturally), but under
the constant direction of the ever-present God (supernaturally). What
scientists call "natural law" is actually "divine
providence." God governs the ebb and flow of history and
determines the purpose and the end of all things. He "works all
things according to the counsel of His will" (Eph. 1: lIb). The
universe and earth history exist for the glory of God and are being
controlled to that end. The universe exists neither of itself nor for
itself. God's omnipotence and omniscience guarantee that the ultimate
outcome of the sum total of all the events of history will conform to
His plan or counsel, despite the railings of man and resistance of
Satan. God's will cannot be thwarted.”-end
quote
I
agree with the concept, and think that it is consistent with a
spirit-creates-packets of-energy-quanta physics
paradigm for quantum cosmology in a Leibnitzian monadology kind of
way though not limited to that paradigm. Gentry takes the six days of
creation as literal while I would say that God did not exist
in days but
created them as derivatives of setting the Universe, stars and world
to evolve. I think God can evolve things according to His design and
I would guess that a billion years to God might be like a day
relativistically speaking where any given Universe is a wink in the
eye of atemporal eternity.
The Cultural Mandate
The Cultural Mandate is an
important concept in Gentry's post-millennialism. The cultural
mandate is something like an equivalent weltanshauung to that of
dispensationalism regarding how God interacts with people in history.
And where Christian are now in history as far as what they ought to
be doing and what they can expect in the future. It is a kind of
applied teleology with its methods and purposes rather plain and
drawn from Biblical exegesis.
I will quote Gentry on select
exegetical elements of the Cultural Mandate expressed in the
pre-Mosaic and early Mosaic years from pages 187-189...
quote;”
The various features of the Noahic Covenant are found in Genesis 6:
17-22 and 8:20-9: 17. In this covenant, we have a clear reaffirmation
of the Cultural Mandate, which is fundamental to the outworking of
God's eschatological purpose through man. l We also have a
continuance of God's gracious
1. Cf. the references to the
birds, cattle, etc. (Gen. 6:20; 8: 17 with Gen. 1:24, 25), redemptive relation as the
ongoing basis of the Cultural Mandate, which is likewise necessary to
eschatology. This covenant is established with God's people: the
family of Noah, who alone escaped the deluge by the grace of God.
Thus, this should not be deemed
solely a common-grace covenant, for it was directly made with God's
people (Noah's family), was established on the basis of grace and
redemptive sacrifice (Gen. 6:8; 8:20-22), and is united with God's
other redemptive covenants (cf. Hos. 2: 18 with Gen. 6:20; 8: 17;
9:9ff).
The Cultural Mandate, then, has
an especial relevance to the function of God's people in the world:
the Noahic reaffirmation of the Mandate is expressly made with God's
people, the "you" of Genesis 9:1-12. On the basis of divine
covenant, God's people are called to the forefront of cultural
leadership, with the religious aspects of culture being primary.
In the Noahic covenantal
episode, we also witness the objectivity of God's relationship with
man: the world was judged in history for its sin. The rainbow, which
signifies God's covenant mercy, is established with Noah and all that
are with him, and their seed (Gen. 9:12).4 This indicates that the
world will be protected from God's curse through the instrumentality
of the Church (the people of God). This covenant is only made
indirectly with unbelievers, who benefit from God's protection only
as they are not opposed to God's people. Because of God's love for
His people, He preserves the orderly universe (Gen. 8:20-22). His
enemies serve His people: common grace (Gen. 9: lOb).
the command to "be fruitful
and multiply" (Gen. 9:1, 7 with Gen. 1:28), and the dominion
concept (d. Gen. 9:2 with Gen. 1:28). 2. O. Palmer Robertson, The
Christ of the Covenants (Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian &
Reformed, 1980), p. 111. He refers to L. Dequeker, "Noah and
Israel. The Everlasting Divine Covenant with Mankind," Questions
disputees d'Ancien Testament, Metlwde et Theologie (Gembloux, 1974),
p. 119. 3. James B. Jordan, "True Dominion," Biblical
Horizons, Special Edition (Dec. 1990), p. 1. Cf. Robertson, Christ of
the Covenants, p. 111. 4. It seems that the rainbow did
not exist prior to this time. Apparently, the Flood was the first instance of
rain (and the rainbow): Genesis 2:5-6.
Thus we see the objective
corporate sanction of God against sin in the Flood, which also serves
as a type of Final Judgment (2 Pet. 3:4-6). We also see God's
judicial sanctions in history in His ordaining of capital punishment
(Gen. 9:6). God's objective judgment therefore finds civil expression
in the affairs of man.
His grant of legitimate
authority to the civil government to enforce capital punishment is
based on a religious principle, namely, the image of God in man (Gen.
9:6), and is given to the world through the Church (ire., Noah's
family).5 God ordains civil sanctions as a means for preserving the
human race
for
His redemptive purposes (cf. Rom. 13:1-4; 1 Pet. 2:13-14).”-end
quote
Cultural Mandate in the
Abrahamic Era
Gentry's
exegetical insight is superior. I think perhaps that before was is
overwhelmed by pre-millennial eschatology in popular society and
church that it is possible that long-time familiarity with the Bible
might instill a point of view in the reader closer to a
post-millennial perspective, yet with so much time passed since the
first century it is easy to understand how one may approach its
historical material with an incorrect viewpoint. Pre-millennialists
can consider the revelation as if it were a kind of entirely futurist
magic book of prophecy-a book like that of Nostradamus that hasn't
happened yet instead of a practical book of prophecy relevant to
first century Christians especially. The prophecies were largely
fulfilled confirming the veracity of the Apostle John as a prophet.
The post-mill perspective also gives Jesus additional prophetic,
prescient statement recognition with accuracy in sayings such as that
from Matthew 24 about the carcase and eagles in reference to
Jerusalem, the Temple and Roman eagle-bearing ensigns of the
conquerors. 24:28
:For
wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered
together.”
Following is a lengthy quote
from Gentry describing further the evolution or outline of the
Cultural Mandate in history...
from pages 289-192...
quote;
“As the scarlet thread of redemption - a non-literal metaphor- is
progressively woven more distinctively into the fabric of Scriptural
revelation and history, the eschatological pattern of redemptive
victory becomes more evident and more specific. The patriarchal and
Mosaic eras demonstrate this. fact. Here I will survey a few of the more
significant references in these eras
in order to illustrate this
truth.
In Genesis, the Abrahamic
Covenant continues the redemptive theme begun in Genesis 3:15 and
traced through Genesis 6-9. The active redemptive restoration of the
fundamental relationship of man with the God of the covenant is
greatly intensified through God's establishing of His gracious
covenant with Abra-
ham and his seed: "Now the
LORD had said to Abram: 'Get out of your country, from your family
and from your father's house, to a land that I will show you. I will
make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great;
and you
shall be a blessing. I will
bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you' "
(Gen. 12:1-3a). Here we may discern three aspects of the promise: the
promise
5. This does not mean that the
institutional Church has the authority to execute
criminals.
applies to (1) a seed,6 (2) a
land,? and (3) the nations. The land and seed promises are given
prominence in Genesis 15:5 and 18: "Then He brought [Abram]
outside and said, 'Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you
are able to number them.' And He said to him, 'So shall your
descendants
be.' On the same day the LORD
made a covenant with Abram, saying: 'To your descendants I have given
this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River
Euphrates' " (Gen. 15: 18). This promise was covenantal, for it
involved sanctions. The divine promise clearly involved temporal
blessings for
Abraham, including a seed and a
land. According to the emphatic declaration of the Scriptures,
history witnesses the fulfillment of the national aspects of the
temporal blessings of the seed 9 and the land 10 promises. ':Judah
and Israel were as numerous as the sand by the sea in multitude....
So Solomon reigned over all kingdoms from the River to the land of
the Philistines, as far as the border of Egypt" (1 Kgs.
4:20-21). "So the LORD gave to Israel all the land of which He
had sworn to give to their fathers, and they took possession of it
and dwelt in
it.... Not a word failed of any
good thing which the LORD had spoken to the house of Israel"
Josh. 21 :43, 45). "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" (Neh. 9:23).
The dispensationalist argues for a future fulfillment based on the
promise that God will give Abraham the land "forever"
(Gen. 13:15), as an
"everlasting" possession (Gen. 17:8). 32:12.7.8.Gen.
12:2; 13:16; 15:5; 16:10;
17:2-6; 18:18; 22:17;cf. Gen.20:4; 28:4, 14;
Gen. 12:2,7; 13:15,17; 15:7, 18;
24:7; cf. Gen. 28:4.Gen. 12:3; 18:18; 22:18; d. Gen. 26:4; 28:14. See
also the prophetic and New Testament era development of this
universal theme. 9. Exo. 12:37; Num. 22:11; Deut. 1:10; 10:22; 1 Kgs.
4:20; 1 Chr. 27:23; 2 Chr. 1:9; Heb. 11 :12. Notice that Christ is
the special seed, John 8:56. 10. 1 Kgs. 4:21; 8:65-66; 2 Chr. 9:26.
This argument is not persuasive,
however. In the first place, there is a common use of olam
("forever/everlasting") where it is employed of long-term
temporal situations. l l Secondly, it is evident that God's covenants
and promises are conditioned upon ethical obedience, even when this
is not specifically stated: no conditions-no covenant. "It is
the conditional nature of all prophecy that
makes the outcome contingent on
the ethical decisions of men.,,12 For instance, Jonah was clearly
told that Nineveh would be overthrown in forty days Jon. 3:4), yet
God "repented" of His determination Jon. 3: 10),13
The Abrahamic Covenant was
conditioned on the ethical obligation to "keep the way of the
Lord" (Gen. 18:17-19).14 This is why it was accompanied by
circumcision. Israel's forfeiture of the Land promised in the
Abrahamic Covenant was clearly possible, as God's Word makes
abundantly clear. Consequently, we must understand the biblical view
of the land. The land of Israel is "His holy Land" (Lev.
25:23; Psa. 78:54). It depended on His favor upon Israel (Hos. 9:3;
Jer. 2:7) and His dwelling therein
(Num. 35:34; Lev. 26), which continued as long as Israel was obedient
to Him (Deut. 4:40; Isa. 1:19; Jer. 15:13-14; 17:1-4). When Israel is
rejected by God, the promise of the Land is rejected by God:
sanctions.
11. Exo. 12:14; 40:15; Num.
25:13; 2 Chr. 7:16.
"Figuratively also the term
is applied to objects of impressive stability and long duration, as
mountains, hills (e.g. Gen 49:26; Hab 3:6)." James Orr,
"Everlasting," The International Standard Bible
Encyclopedia. James Orr, ed., 5 vols. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, [1929]
1956),2:1041. 12. Gary North, Millennialism and Social Theory (Tyler,
'IX: Institute for Christian Economics, 1990), p. 120. B. B.
Warfield, "The Prophcies of St. Paul" (1886), Biblical and
Theological Studies (Philadelphia: Presbyterian & Reformed,
1952), pp. 470ff. Sidney Greidanus, The Modem Preacher and the
Ancient Text: Interpreting and Preaching Biblical Literature (Grand
Rapids: Eerdmans, 1988), pp. 232ff. 13. Cf. also 1 Sam. 2:30; Isa.
38:1-6; Jer. 26:13-19; Joel 2:13-14. See: Kenneth Jones, ''An Amill
Reply to Peters," Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
24:4 (Dec. 1981) 333-341. 14. Cf. Gen. 17:9-14; 22:18;
26:5; Heb. 11:8. 15. Exo. 19:5; Deut. 28:15ff; 30:5-19; Lev. 26:14ff;
Josh. 8:34; 24:20 1 Kgs. 2:3,4; 9:2-9; 11:11; 2 Kgs. 21:8; 1 Chr.
28:76; 2 Chr. 7:19-22; Jer. 18.192
Furthermore, the Promised Land
served as a type of the whole earth (which is the Lord's, Psa. 24:1).
It is, as it were, a tithe to the Lord of the entire earth. As such,
it pictured the rest brought by Christ's kingdom, which shall cover
the earth (see Hebrews 3-4). "Hebrews 11
:8-16 shows that although Abraham received the physical land of
Canaan, he was looking forward to the eternal city and Kingdom of
God. Canaan is a type of the new heavens and earth that began with
the first advent of Christ, in seed form (Gal. 4:26; Heb.
12:22-29)."16 In Psalm 37: 11, the psalmist speaks of God's
promise to His people: "But the meek shall inherit the land."
But Jesus takes this promise and extends it over the entire earth in
Matthew 5:5! Abraham apparently understood the land promise as a down
payment
representing the inheriting of
the world (Rom. 4:13). Paul expands the Land promises to extend
across all the earth, when he draws them into the New Testament (Eph.
6:3). In several divine covenants, we can trace the expansion of
these Land promises: Adam was given a garden (Gen. 2:8); Abraham's
seed
was given a nation (Josh. 1);
the New Covenant Church was given the world (Matt. 28:18-20),17 But
the fundamental blessedness of the Abrahamic Covenant, like that of
the Adamic Covenant before it, was essentially redemptive rather than
political. The seed line was primarily designed to produce the
Savior; the Land promise was typological of the Savior's universal
dominion.
The Abrahamic Covenant involved
a right relationship with God, as indicated in
Genesis 17:7: "And I will
establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after
you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to
you and your descendants after you." That which is most
important in the plan of God is the spiritual relation, rather than
the relation of blood
(John
16. W. Gary Crampton, "Canaan and the Kingdom of God -
Conclusion,"
Journey 6 (Jan./March 1991) 19.
17. See my The Greatness of the Great Commission: The Christian
Enterprise in a Fallen World (Tyler, 'IX: Institute for Christian
Economics. 1990). 1938:44, cf. Matt. 12:47,50).
As Paul says, so it was even in
the Old Testament era: "[H]e is not a Jew who is one outwardly,
nor is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh; but he is a
Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in
the Spirit, and not in the letter" (Rom. 2:28-29).18
Now let us consider the
postmillennial victory expectations inherent in the Abrahamic
Covenant. The redemptive line is here narrowed from "the seed of
the woman" to the family of Abraham. It will continue to narrow
until it issues forth in the singular seed, Christ (Gal. 3:16; John
8:56; cr. Luke 3:23-38).
Nevertheless, the redemptive
promise ultimately would include"all the families of the
earth."19 The Hebrew word for "families" here is
mispachah, which includes nations. 20 Thus, the Abrahamic Covenant
will include the nations beyond Israel.
The ultimate purpose of the
Abrahamic Covenant, in keeping with the
Adamic Covenant earlier, is
nothing less than world conversion
(as
we shall point out more particularly in our next section), rather
than Jewish exaltation, as per dispensationalism. 21 This should be
expected since the Lord is King of the whole earth and desires the
world to know Him.”-end
quote
He
Shall Have Dominion goes
beyond eschatology or as Gentry says, what shall be. It also
describes ethics and especially Christian ethics. As a particular
Biblical hermaneutic may develop a particular world view, and I like
the idea of explanation drawn from John 10:9 asking if Jesus is a
literal door or has a literal pasture inside, a world view may
pre-determine ethics. Gentry presents “three
models for Christian world view”
on page 123. These are the identificationist, transformationist and
separatist.
Gentry places a Christianity and
Bible desalted with cultural relativism within the identificationist
camp. Churches might use something like an adaptive social gospel and
is quite worldly. The separatists I would guess tend to be
pre-millenialists and retreatists from worldly affairs in an ostrich
kind of way awaiting the Lord to deliver them even as the withdrawal
from cultural constructions throws accelerants onto the growing
social fires of temporal hell.
Transformationists fit within
the post-millennial camp and assent to theonomy. Gentry believes that
the tri-une unity who is God in three persons has a covenant-based
relation to mankind and that fundamentally Christians are to work to
make the world a better and Christian place in accord with the will
of God. Obviously this is an excellent theology for missiology
endeavors and I think would work fine with a more egalitarian
priesthood of believers ecclesiastical reform movement.
Gentry's description on page 128
of an ethical continuum from God within which Christians need to
cohere comprises a meta-ethical context or selection. It excludes
even non-Christian theistic ethics as having value in respect of the
right theonomous ethical ensemble. I agree though I note that
non-Christians ethics do matter to secular society and that they are
not to be entirely discounted. Gentry believes that Christians of the
reformed, post—millennial kind ought to be transformers of society
from bad to good and that would make the inference easy that
encouraging better ethics for the lost might be useful as an
intermediate step in the road to progress for a fallen world beyond
the kingdom of God.
As heroin addicts are sometimes
encouraged to use methadone to wean themselves off of the addicting
narcotic, a Christian seeking to transform the life of a heroine
addict might support that intermediate methadone ethical choice
though it is outside of a Christian ethic perhaps. It might be
difficult to transform the doper directly to sanctified redemption
with faith in God and the Lord instantly in a road-to-Damascus kind
of way though not impossible. Working to transform the social
environment closer unto God may mean improving the basic ethical,
material and environmental conditions for mankind such that pervasive
conditions of squalor, starvation, oppression, persecution, amorality
and unethical conduct are reduced. It may be easier for people to be
saved with fewer of the sharp edges of life cutting them up
demographically speaking. After being saved if a priesthood of
believers structure exists as a peer group to reinforce their
new-found Christian ethical understanding the minions of Sodom and
Gomorrah outside trading stocks and lives on Wall Street with the
support of a new imperial Caesar like populist advocating rapacious
corporate capitalism as the highest good may not have such a
withering effect upon theonomous moral development phenomenally. The
puritans had some that were post-millenialists and it was thus tested
in-the-wilderness.
Premillennialism
is comparable to stock market forecasters predicting a vast stock
market crash followed by a 7-year tribulation where the anti-Christ
rules or maybe his beast. Then the world as we know it ends with the
Second Coming of Christ who sorts things out positively. Though the
2008 Wall Street meltdown is a loose scaled-down model of some
aspects of pre-mill visions history provided innumerable other
examples of boom and bust socio-economic cycles with corrupt leaders
and corrupt morals. Post-millennialists are somewhat more optimistic.
Post-millennialists
(remaining in the stock market metaphor) are like investors who
believe the market's long term trend is upward though there may be
occasional crashes. All of the worst doom of tribulation occurred in
the 1929 crash and the stage was set for-long term increase. When the
market has fulfilled its role serving humanity the Lord will appear
to take things farther (and reward the lost with their abode in hell
and outer darkness maybe gnashing teeth).
The
market trend metaphor for long-term increase of people being saved
and a Christian social environment prevailing could be fulfilled on
or off world. Perhaps for a time amoral evolutionism woos those
desiring change to such an extent that a reprobate planetary
environment becomes normal. Maybe networks of plutocrats will crush
free expression and wars and rumors of wars will become televised or
live entertainment on the Internet or smart phones however in the
long-term Christianity will increase and at the real end time the
tares of anti-Christian sewn in the midst of the temporal association
of the kingdom of God will be gathered and burned. For
post-millennialists Jesus will return physically at the end of days
yet he is already here living spiritually in the hearts and souls of
those that have been born again in the spirit.
Gentry
quote page 128-”Man's
sanctification (moral restoration) is definitive, progressive, and
final. One God, one covenant law: through time and across borders.
The successive covenants of Scripture really record for us a gradual
historical unfolding of one overarching covenant, rather than the
successive, compartmental establishing of distinctively different
capsule covenants. This is clearly expected in the initial covenant
directive of God for history that flows out of the Genesis 3:15
curse, which mentions only one basic struggle between two seeds, the
Satanic and the Messianic. This also is clearly asserted in Paul's
argument in Ephesians, chapter 2. In this passage, Paul speaks not of
the establishing of a new and distinct community separate from
Israel, but of God's
annexing
of additional people - the Gentiles - into His one people.
He
speaks in verse 12 of "the covenants of the promise"
(Greek), which defined His singular purpose. In verses 14-16, he
speaks of the removal of the dividing wall between Jew and Gentile,
so that the Gentiles might be included in God's one redemptive
purpose. In verses 19-22, he speaks of the merging of these two
peoples into one, indivisible temple. Thus, the very unity of God's
covenantal dealings with man flows out of the unitary being of God,
as well as the explicitly revealed plan of God. These truths should
predispose us to assume continuity, as opposed to discontinuity, in
the ethical dictates of God.”-end
quote
Life
is important to the lost as well as to the saved. A right theonomous
meta-ethic is actualized with a de facto dual ethical operating
system-even a pagan and doomed one, existent outside the kingdom of
God. Christians must be as wise as serpents and gentiles as doves in
understanding that a transformational ethics needs to work
simultaneously in two realms-that of the actualizing City of God and
the contemporaneous City of Man. Secular ethics like secular food
products have various degrees of quality and it is worth while
understanding that like the difference between a modern
transportation system with super-conductors and Geo-thermal energy
that does not require roads or automobiles and creating zero
pollution is better than a seashore of granular automobiles belching
exhaust over invasive roads destroying the ecospheric health some
secular ethical practices are better than others.
For
instance it is better to have a democracy than a tyranny or
corporatist oligarchy generally though none are associated with
Christian theonomy. It is better for Ebola to be medically combated
in West Africa than to be indifferent. A Christian may have the power
to support secular ethical positions pro or con in some cases without
a relationship to a theonomous choice. If there is an element of
theonomous ethic in the choice it might be that the Christian would
seek for the good and that phenomenon is given through grace. Besides
the Christian theonomous ethical choice and ideas that arise that
seem rather evident the intellectual element of selections
in-the-world between material policy directives that a Christian
makes will perhaps be directed toward the good. One might hypothesize
that though God is the autonomous good, Christians pursuing
actualization of the good might seek after human health, human
liberty, human reason, intellectual development and ecosphere health
in order to support a sustainable platform whereat any soul may have
an uncoerced opportunity to seek after the ways of God and find the
Lord.
Gentry
notes the importance of covenants between God and man in placing a
context for human existence and end times. He pointed out where in
the Old Testament those covenants are made, quote
from page 109-
“history-structuring
divine covenants of epochal significance in Scripture are those
established with Adam (Hos. 6:7), Noah (Gen. 6:18),9 Abraham (Gen.
15:18),10 Israel (Exo. 24:8), and David (Psa. 89:3). Off in the
future from the Old Testament
perspective
lay the glorious, final, consummative "New Covenant" Ger.
31:31-34)”-end
quote.
In
the social gospel apparently the idea of progress of the Universe
through evolution or change (change to American Democrats seems to
mean 'gay') is associated with all things secular and materialist
rather than spiritual; so in some way an interpretive paradigm of the
Revelation and Christian eschatology that is comparatively optimistic
is by pre-mil default regarded as of the Darwinian condo.
One
readily discerns that issues of evolution and eschatology are not
simply of ecclesiastical or academic interest. The Presbyterian
Church U.S.A.'s June 2014 vote to doctrinally approve homosexual
marriage demonstrates slippage into apostasy that can occur with
socially natural causality. Corrupting politicians and persons may
reduce social morals to a compote useful for scientific manipulation
by elites bereft of moral concerns.
I
should say that I view the 2nd
law of thermodynamics and various interpretive time literals for the
physical cosmos as packed with subjectivism and preponderantly de
trop for finding the truth about a schedule of eschatological events
that aren't as knowable prima facie as the date of the 2030 Super
Bowl.
Space-time
and Einstein's General and Special theory parameters cohere within a
theistic absolute space that is timeless yet there may be contingent
meta-time structures or even contingent dimensional space-times
within which a given Universe may exist. Finding which one is most
suitable for associating with a given interpretation of a correct
version of Genesis to discover or infer facts about physical
cosmology seems a poetic endeavor yet a journey fun enough to make.
Rosenberg's view of Genesis and it's construction and meaning differs
from others. I would think that most pre-mill believers do not regard
Genesis as arising from a prevalent residual pre-history of the
Persian Gulf region's catastrophic flood of a proto-civilization that
was also told in the tale of Gilgamesh and perhaps elsewhere. Naive
secularists with Biblical replacement therapy policy tend to assume
the Bible implicitly has pre-mill and Usherian construction.
Eschatology
to many means a prophetic vision of the end times of either the world
or its people. Alternatively it may refer to the end of a
civilization or even the Universe. Traditionally eschatology has been
regarded as something more of a religious field -although in the
early times of mankind before vast right-wing polysyllabic words
arose that could describe with a sociological objectivity human areas
of belief such as might be regarded as religious end times
eschatology could also be said to have included a unified field of
primitive religio-philosophic-physical speculations about the nature
of the experienced world-environment. Thus Ragnarök and Brahma along
with the plain of Tilmun were out there with Janus the Door goddess
and the vast turtle of labor carrying the world upon its back. At
least like Aristarchus the idea of a rotation of the Earth or land
was a primary element of the explanation.
The
2nd
law of thermo dynamics has a highly order initial configuration of
the Universe perhaps at a singularity expanding-releasing its initial
endowment of energy and order in a dispersion that produced
particles, stars, molecules and eventually life and even sentient
life. If one thinks about that somewhat philosophically it seems easy
to realize that it would be easier to configure living beings in an
environment whereat there is a fixed initial endowment of energy that
disperses yet may cluster and cohere to build more complex and
temporally stable physical structures. If the opposite environment
prevailed where new energy was flowing into a Universe continually
from one or all possible locations that energy might tend to break-up
or radiate out existing forms making life and coherent structure more
unlikely. God might choose to configure a given environment with a
particular quantitative endowment and let it proceed. Of course the
nature of mass and energy perhaps is ultimately spiritual so in some
senses there is a continuing presence of God through the history of
the Universe though the Universe has a given material pattern. There
are limits to what a human can know directly or even through
inference of the Universe.
Humanity
never developed a comprehensive explanation for the reason that the
Universe exist nor did it find an exhaustive, unimpeachable
description of the physical boundaries. Instead it learned that time
is an implicit characteristic of matter that is itself convertible to
energy explaining rather nicely I suppose that energy can present a
time aspect when it becomes matter and loses it inversely as it
converts to energy. Cosmologists can speculate perhaps if time was
included in finite quantity at an initial singularity with alpha and
omega being equal or if energy existed at singularity or mass and if
it was a finite quantity and is so, why? Why did an initial
denouement of energy or mass filling the singularity cut off at a
particular place without having exhausted the initial supply?
Gentry
wrote on page 440 of 'He Shall Have Dominion'-“Historically,
this alleged association of evolutionary thought with post-millennial
theology has ignored the fact that both a developed
post-millennialism (e.g., the Puritans), as well as nascent
post-millennialism (e.g., Athanasius), arose well before scientific
evolutionism, which is generally dated from the publication of
Darwin's Origin of Species (1859). Historically, it may more forcibly
be argued that the evolutionist stole from the post-millennial
idea of progress rather than vice versa.”
Christian
eschatology has three fundamental fields on the reformed side of
things. One is a premillennialist belief that John's Book of
Revelation described future events that mostly haven't yet happened.
That viewpoint has some logical difficulties. One is that for the
saved Jesus lives in a real sense in their spirit in some mysterious
way. That indwelling spirit is the being born again belief and is the
first resurrection post-mills believe. Logically it might be absent
from the pre-millennialist paradigm wherein Jesus won't appear until
the end time. There is something of a different criteria for the
kingdom of God existing in part right now on Earth too.
Post-millennialists
believe along the lines wherein Jesus said that the Kingdom of God is
within you,that the kingdom of God is drawing in new believers and
that the world will gradually increase the number of Christians until
the real end times that could be soon or way down the road even unto
the distant future (when the time of the gentiles is fulfilled).
Christians in the post-mill scenario are a dampening of the doom that
results from a pagan or atheistic world that is always seeking to
increase its power. Christians should eventually become a
majoritarian polity though evil still does exist in-the-world.
One
might regard the fact that it requires just a small minority of
Bolsheviks or terrorists to throw a wrench into social stability or
establishment even when the establishment is a corrupt or oppressive
minority itself; evil minorities are historically not uncommon ruling
political powers seeking to expropriate the private property and
economic independence empirically in order to establish networking
collectives dominated by oligarchy, plutonomy, aristocracy or
dictatorship. Annihilating marriage designed to protect the poor and
middle-class interests in order to theoretically reconfigure society
to a spineless white meat boneless product increasing profits for the
rich is a usual method for turning the clock back to the year zero
socially speaking so that the timer may begin all over again to the
drummer bought and paid for by the sponsors. When these sorts of
things happen believers may look for one coming in the clouds to
change the changlings back to a less politically antipathetic form.
End
times paradigms exist thus in many contexts. Some require active
human participation, others have a deterministic fatalism such that
it is all pre-determined clockwork ticking along like a wave of bombs
biding there time until explosion. Some are of a Universal and
physical kind-a third kind one might say, without a plain
end-somewhat silly for an end-times theory I will note.
Cosmologists
with humble and uncertain origins of the singularity that started the
big band or inflaton or collision of symbolic membranes such as
occurs in the 1812 Overture may consider the end of the Universe as a
very distant future event that would be the conclusion of the highly
organized energy at the start of the Universe that expanded losing
its organizational coherence in the time-process and ran down to a
cold and low energy state with matter perhaps as energy dispersed in
powerless isolation as basic elements. Whatever it is that make up
quarks-perhaps one-dimension brains-would be equally spaced away from
each other perhaps a few trillion miles and that could be said to be
an uncertain yet probable end time.
Except
that evolution as a process of degradation of organization materially
speaking could evolve not more complex forms on the way to the cold
dead end, it could evolve non-existence at any time too. There is no
guarantee that evolution could not move molecules or quarks to some
mysterious presently yet pre-determined configuration that poofs mass
and energy into coherence again with a return to the One singularity.
Coherence is sort of an odd word as physicists use it for cosmology
and quantum affairs. They regard mass as a kind of entanglement of
energy quanta in a field that decohered from the field to take the
form of mass (matter) as if it were a sacrificial lamb found by
Abraham in a bush to take the place of a son for a sacrifice, or
better-a cosmology theory to sacrifice.
I
am not very comfortable with the idea of energy quanta existing
decohered from a meta-Higgs field yet still going through the hoops
of a singularity and expansion as degrading organization with some
life formation from complex, expensive molecule on the way-it seems a
little like having two different theories in one that makes one or
the other so contingent that it is hard to be fashionably cool. If
one knows that a particular cosmology theory is something of a
joke-or at least a little Buddhist illusion resembling yet still
real, it is challenging to take it as seriously as if it were a ninja
turtle carrying the world on its back.
Energetic
particles of quanta have existing forces such as the strong force
that keeps quarks together. It is hard to imagine how they would
break down. In a Higgs and meta-Higgs field however all things are
possible for the imagination at least.
In
the end of the universe isolated quanta would still exist in a
meta-field and might be regarded as the final phase of decoherence
before returning unto the one true field of fields. Maybe only only
in complete end times isolation could an energetic quanta be so
relativistically dissociated from other particles that it could be
considered to be matter-as-energy for-itself. Energy however seems
like an event instead of a thing. Energy must be some sort of
intrusion through micro-entanglement into the space of nothingness
that humans regard as the Universe. So when it is really run down
that field fluctuation return generally produces nothing for
observers entangled in the field to observe nor any observers either.
It makes philosophical writers wonder what is happening on the other
side of the field that yielded the entangled state of energy that
seems to be the matter of this Universe,-or perhaps, what is
happening all the time 'up there' in the heaven beyond the quanta
entangled in a steady state form that seems to be this Universe?
The
answer to what a sponsoring field is like isn't that of a myriad
Universes. A myriad Universes could be produced simultaneously or in
an order and progressive profusion however that would be beside the
point in question such that one wonders if the field progenitor of
Universes with an abundance of energy sufficient to light up a
infinite number of Universe into being has much of a concern about
how much time it takes (just kidding).
There
are some controversies about all of the various forms and potentials
for end times scenarios synthetic and given by Revelation. There are
those who trust a particular theory and desire the extinction of any
sort of rival theory of course however with the all things must pass
thought in mind the astute interpreter of end times theories may find
that though some seem to have more merit than others none are
entirely comprehensive nor even necessarily mutually exclusive and
exhaustive as the very interpretive terms and literal values of rival
theories may be in error or inaccurately understood. That amazes one
considering how God could keep track of all of the various theories
of end-times for-Himself.
Jesus
Christ as the way to renormalize the spirit unto a form acceptable
with God transcends the time whorls and relativistic networks of
space-time and potential space-time that are circumstantial
formations of the physical cosmos. Reason overcomes evolution in a
sense always transcending and surpassing its deterministic parameters
in some senses yet remains within it as a product or quality of the
field-entanglement itself. Quantum uncertainty within the field and
within the mind of an individual may be enabling conditions that let
the soul or living identity of an individual in-the-field become
within the transcending kingdom-of-God even while remaining within
the steady state decoherence of the Universe-field quanta. When the
worldly existence of an individual or of the species will end is
difficult to know exactly yet be assured that there are a number of
elements working to bring that situation to exist if unintentionally
through economically fueled mass extinctions and global warming gas
emissions. One never knows though perhaps 'we shall overcome'.
Exploring
Consequences of Eschatological Point of View to Global Warming
Response
Three
basic paradigms for interpreting end times an apocalypse for world
civilization exist in protestant Christian eschatology. I wonder how
each might interact with the best present empirical end-times
inducer: Global
Warming?
Not only must scientists and the shade tree mech. measure the parts
per million of greenhouse gases and oceanographers the temperature of
the oceans; social scientists and theologians, philosophers and
politicians must consider how to measure the body politics's
attitudes toward global warming, its relationship to economics,
theology and their willingness to change or even to understand the
public domain issues and ways the end
of days*
could effect them.
Those
Christians-largely evangelicals that believe the apocalypse is yet
ahead and will occur when and anti-Christ appears and a great
tribulation occurs at the start of which Christians will be raptured
into the sky and away from the world's doom like kids in a movie
theater transported to the snack bar during the scary scene perhaps
have a fatalist vision of greenhouse gas emission comparable to that
of people that log old growth forest and destroy ecosystems;
indifference because the world is doomed anyway and God will make a
new world later anyway.
Amillenialists
tend to view some of the events of the Revelation prophecy as having
already happened yet not entirely. Generally amillennialists are
opposed to post-millennialists who have the view that the events of
the first century during the reign of Nero unto the destruction of
the Temple in a.d. 70 largely yet nit entirely fulfilled the
prophecy. Post-millennialists believe the world should now be in an
indeterminate time of Christian evangelization, peace, harmony and
working together to make the world a better place. Amillennialists
generally dissent with that and are somewhat more of a recurrent doom
point of view with perennial struggle for Christians against forces
of evil.
Because
amillennialists have something of a culture-kampf perspective they
are perhaps too concerned with a dualistic viewpoint of good and evil
to take a side on something like global warming that is largely a
secular issue. Amillennialists like pre-millenialists tend to
discredit empirical reality in a Buddhist like manner-it is
contingent being and not too worthy of regard. One might expect
millennialism however to combat evil more so than the rather
defeatist premillennialist camp. The trouble with amillenialists is
that there view of evil is perhaps largely based upon issues
coinciding with social politics and matters of how one treats
Christian amillennialists financially. Fortune 500 descendants of
Presbyterians may treat the amillenialists rather well while Godless
evolutionists of the left don't. The left has adroitly expropriated
the anti-global warming issue for themselves from the corporate
producers that manufactured it and have thus a solid political
advantage regarding populist support. This latter fact isn't good for
Christian evangelization.
I
believe that part of the difficulty amillennialists have with the
post-millennialism viewpoint is based on over-reliance upon tradition
as well as misunderstanding of tradition and the history of Christian
thought in the church throughout history. Amillennialists tend to
use false alternative or straw man arguments about post-millennialist
beliefs in order to change meanings and to create logical
inconsistencies. Perhaps 90% of the prophecies of John were fulfilled
in the first century A.D. largely by 70 a.d., yet there will be a
second coming of the Lord down the road someday, and there will be a
decisive removal of anti-Christian elements from the world. It
doesn't mean though that the period before the end times must either
be entirely Utopian with a Christian accent or that Christians won't
have any struggles or persecutions-for assuredly we do (meaning us
Christians inclusive of the persecuted Chinese Church if Christ).
Post-millennialist
eschatological viewpoint's may be somewhat more adaptable to modern
times and yet also more accurate in analysis of the Revelation and
additional eschatological references such as those found in Matthew.
They may also be consistent with the viewpoints of reformers such as
John Calvin generally, though none should rely upon non—Biblical
sources as infallibly correct. The reformed faith is about
discovering truth rather than obfuscating it. Martin Luther said that
the Revelation had a lot of straw; that expresses his feeling that
his understanding f it wasn't right or that it differed from other
New Testament books in percent of amorphous content. Of course it
did. The Revelation referred largely to first century events that
were fulfilled and largely forgotten after the 2nd
century a.d. It is remarkable that the common sense interpretation of
the Revelation was lost to history as first century historical
viewpoints were lost to history.
In
northwest Alaska on the Chukchi Sea Arctic coast a little village
that formerly was protected by fall storm wave surges by virtue of
that fact that the sea water was frozen now suffers the storm ravages
because the sea doesn't freeze over until much later in the season.
One might take the little village of Kivalina as a global warming
index; If the premillennialists are right, even as an end-times index
for predicting when the Lord will return (as the sea level rises and
temperate regions become deserts wars and social catastrophes will
ensue and things on the radical left side of the doom index will
flourish hastening the Lord's rescue and wrap it up mission).
Of
the fifteen hottest years of global average temperatures fourteen
have occurred since the year 2000. The world is getting hotter though
there are local variations. The world oceans are warming too.
Cristian post-millennialists can take an active role in working to
moderate or halt global warming as good neighborliness and common
sense while premillennialists can only wring there hands and look to
the sky in hope that there deliverer draweth nie. Amillennialists
might think its a temporal recurrence of the doom of immoral humanity
and that a closer relation to corporatism would end the problem if
one exists outside the minds of the leftist global conspiracy.
At
Kivalina the first people's descendants -who were actually the last
to arrive in America from Sibir and raced across the continent in
record time with dogs and dog-sleds -must cross their lagoon to
escape the warm-water storms. They want a road built to a mine 60
miles away for safety instead of relocating the village beyond the
Lagoon with the seacoast frontage becoming something like Cape
Hatteras resort village for subsistence people. Yet putting more
global warming gases from SUVs at high latitudes is a way to enhance
global warming. Building one crisis highway becomes a herring bone of
new sprout roads with roadhouses, trucks and accelerated global
warming contribution.
Post-millennialists
might search to find a way to solve the storm and housing security
issues of Kivalina yet probably not pre-mills or amills. So one can
make something of a global warming index and measuring device from
the seashore village of Kivalina politically and empirically perhaps.
The human solutions to repairing damage they have caused themselves
is to make more damage. Even the churches that have sanctified gay
marriages have repeated the lie that the Apostle Paul mentioned in
reproof in the book of Romans. Jesus was the founder and sponsor of
the Christian efforts to make the social environment a better and
Godly place. It is true that humanity cannot do that without the
Lord, yet it does seem that some of the saved cannot work toward that
purpose even with.
Grammatico-historical
hermeneutic-
Gentry
writes (on page 173) that quote-
“Post-millennialists
follow the general evangelical approach to Scripture known as the
grammatico-historical hermeneutic. This view is shared with
evangelical premillennialists and amillennialists.”-end
quote.
He
goes on to say explain that he has differentiate post-millennial use
of hermeneutic from that of dispensationalists with quote-“three
critical issues in order to illustrate the reasonableness of the
postmillennial use of hermeneutics. Those issues were literalism in
kingdom prophecy, preterism regarding certain judgment passages,and
the function of Israel in Scripture.”-end
quote
I
am glad he clarified the issues. In the third part of the book Gentry
makes a positive exposition of the post-millennial hermeneutic. Here
in the city where I am living this year I believe that all of the
churches are either pre-mill, dispensationalist, apostate
(Presbyterian Church USA), odd (Mormons, 7th
Day Adventists (pre-mill I think) or Catholic. That presents
practical difficulties in attending a church service that has
something that resembles consistently valid doctrine emanating from
the pulpit. Well, I have a decent digital camera to take pictures of
the mountains and of eagles, ravens and even a couple of swans flying
about when I walk about making the difficult choice of what church
building to go in on Sunday to hear the result of inaccurate
hermeneutic and that at least is helpful.
The
Cultural Mandate
Gentry
views the cultural mandate given before the fall in the Garden of
Eden to mankind from God as continuing to exist in the present. The
Cultural Mandate was given to Adam to name all the animals of the
world and to have dominion over them. Mankind was made to act-as a
'vice-regent' of God over the Earth-not to be sovereign upon it-for
that is God's role. Sin and the fall did not change the Cultural
Mandate. In fact is the redemptive work of Jesus Christ that allows
those born again to implement the Cultural Mandate in a proper way
today. Gentry writes (paraphrasing) that where mankind errs and
wreaks cultural destruction that is an effect of failing to implement
the cultural mandate righteously.
So
human society instead of being challenged by the problems of
multi-culturalism that disestablishes existing culture ought to be
concerned about developing the one Cultural mandate of God acting
through the redemptive power of Jesus Christ.
Human
culture should become Christian culture working toward compassion,
ecospherically rational economic policy, shepherding the wild biota
to remain wild, free, plentiful and synergetically partnering with
human life on Earth and possibly beyond to exo-habitats,
full-employment, optimal use of human opportunities to exist,
contemplate, research God's creation and learn the nature of God etc.
It
is fine to study science and create technology, yet it would violate
the cultural mandate to become all spacey about it ethically and
existentially develop an atheistic tendency toward neurotic
meaninglessness with the ethical pitfalls that presents making the
harmlessness of mass destruction a viable choice if it does not
violate the principles of personal egoism, comfort and happiness.
With the supervening Cultural Mandate humanity should be aware that
it is not a distant echo of conscientiousness restraining latent
impulses to consolidate world power unto themselves as a collective
or individual-the right of rule actually belongs to God and the
Cultural Mandate is to develop along God's ethical parameters
preparing the world for the kingdom of God.
Gentry
write on page 182- quote
-“The
optimistic expectations of postmillennialism comport well with God's
creational purpose as evidenced in the Cultural Mandate. They
highlight the divine expectation of the true, created nature of man
qua man. Postmillennialism expects the world as a system (kosmos)to
be brought under submission to God's rule by the active, sanctified
agency of redeemed man, who has been renewed in the image of God
(Col. 3: 10; Eph. 4:24). In other words, postmillennial eschatology
expects in history what God originally intended for history. It sees
His plan as maintained and moving toward its original goal, but now
on the new basis of God's sovereign and gracious redemption. Hanko's
objection to postmillennialism's employment of the Cultural Mandate
is rooted in a very deep sense of the genuine fearsome power of sin.
The postmillennialist, however, sees God's continuance of the
Cultural Mandate, but upon a new principle: the very real and even
greater power of redemption in Christ.”-end
quote
A
Consequence of Dispensationalism and Pre-millennial Weltanshauung
Gentry
quotes Norman Shepherd on page 523 in writing in a chapter on
cultural antinomianism. Shepherd succinctly describes the
consequences of the pessimistic Biblical exegesis that is in error...
quote;“One
of the most insidious weapons which Satan has been able to wield
against the advancement of the Kingdom of God is the inculcation of
the belief that though the Kingdom must be proclaimed throughout the
world, the church really cannot expect that such proclamation will
meet with any significant degree of success. One prominent writer in
the field of inter-national missions has given expression to the
commonly held expectation in this way: "The New Testament
clearly predicts that in spite of great victories of the Gospel
amongst all nations the resistance of Satan will continue. Towards
the end it will even increase so much
that Satan, incarnated in the human person of Antichrist, will assume
once more an almost total control over disobedient mankind (II Thess.
2:3-12; Rev. 13)."
These
words really constitute a confession of faith. More accurately they
are a confession of anti-faith - anti-faith in anti-Christ. If we
were to find them in the anti-confession of a modern Satanist cult,
they would not surprise us. At least we cannot conceive of a Satanist
solemnly confessing that toward the end of
human
history, the Son of God, incarnate in the person of Jesus Christ,
will assume an almost total control over obedient mankind.
Why
are we as Christians so much more confident with respect to the
victory of anti-Christ than we are with respect to the triumph of
Jesus Christ? Is the worldwide dominion of Satan toward the end of
history so much more obviously and unambiguously a revealed truth of
Scripture than is the worldwide dominion
of Jesus Christ?”-end
quote
