Take Christ With You (Wherever You Go)

Are those Facetime and Skype apps not just brilliant? I just had a face to face chat with my eldest brother for three hours this morning on my Ipad! He was in Scotland and it was Friday night and I was in Brisbane and it was Saturday morning.

Among other things we got talking about the finer things of Christianity. Abraham Kuyper’s “Sphere Sovereignty” came up. The following version of a Kuyper quote may help you to understand where I’m going with this blog, says Kuyper, “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, Mine!” The idea is that the Christian is to enter into every sphere of human existence and endeavour and to conquer it for Christ.

Abraham Kuyper (1837-1920) spoke of three main spheres, viz., Family, Church, and State. In any nation each of these spheres operates sovereignly in accordance with God’s Law as it applies to each of these areas. Building on Kuyper's work, Herman Dooyweerd (1894-1977) identified fifteen sovereign spheres, viz., numeric, spatial, kinematic, physical, biotic, sensitive, analytical, formative, lingual, social, economic, aesthetic, judicial, ethical, and creedal. All of Dooyweered's  law-spheres, including Kuyper's three law-spheres, are revelation of God.

Anyway, the idea is that we are to bring Christ into each sovereign sphere, because, no matter what the sphere is, it belongs to Him. However, the conundrum is that when we enter into each of these spheres we discover that Christ is already there! So, the question becomes: Why take Christ with you to a place He already is? Answer: We wouldn’t see or recognize God in any sphere of human existence if we didn’t know Him beforehand!

Calvinism is grounded in the Triune God, the Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, the One and the Many, Unity in Diversity, the Particular and the General, the Details and the Big Picture, etc. This is who God is. This is what and who we see as we begin to understand how each sphere operates. All of creation is revelation of God (Psalm 19; Romans 1 etc.).

My big brother and I spoke about Cornelius Van Til (1895-1987) and his “equal ultimacy” for all things Trinitarian, i.e., all creation and everything therein. The One does not lord it over the Many nor does the Many lord it over the One – equal ultimacy.

Therefore, when you (as a Christian) explore God’s creation in any realm or sovereign sphere make sure you take the Christ of Biblical revelation with you. Otherwise you will fail to see the revelation of God in the things He has created!  

The following is a link to an interview with Herman Dooyeweerd -  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pV2NseGmi6o&feature=youtu.be