VISHAL MANGALWADI (A Couple of Interesting Videos)

The following are a few of my scribblings upon watching the Vishal Mangalwadi interview by Douglas Wilson. It’s best you watch the video for yourself, because my own interactions are interspersed among some of Dr Mangalwadi’s comments, so much so, that we wouldn’t wish him to get the blame for something I said. He provokes thought and I tend to think out loud.

Vishal mentioned that it was poetry, along with the Bible, that changed India. He mentioned Psalms 102 and 137 in particular (which, among other things, shows OT Israel’s attachment to land). He spoke of the English poets, mentioning Wordsworth and Longfellow. Longfellow is, of course, American. Therefore, is Vishal perhaps using the term English to refer to English speakers/writers as opposed to Englishmen? There is English Canada and there is French Canada. And, annoying as it is to Scots, Americans often refer to Great Britain as England. Here in Australia, I have been asked if I can do a British accent. Upon investigation I discovered that a British accent is more like an Etonian accent. Therefore, Scots and Scousers need not apply.

It is interesting that the word poet has to do with creating and making according to its Greek etymology. The word ποιητής originates from verb ποιώ (which means create). So, the Greek word for poet has to do with being a creator. God is the Creator who spoke creation into being. We are made in His image and likeness. Poets reflect Him in creating poems. (We are fallen, therefore, we are not always the best reflectors.) Wordsworth and Longfellow were Anglos in the sense that they wrote in English. Longfellow said, “All that I have is the Lord’s; not mine to give or withhold it; His, not mine, are the gifts, and only so far as I can make them mine, as in giving I add my heart to whatever is given.” “Glorious indeed is the world of God around us, but more glorious the world of God within us, there lies the land of song; there lies the poet’s native land.” The Psalms are inspired poetry. They speak of God. Wordsworth and Longfellow, though uninspired, spoke of God too. 

Vishal says that India had no concept of nationalism, until an Indian Hindu convert to Christianity began writing poetry. He was ‘inspired’ by the ‘English’ poets. Nationalism has ties to the land. It is a Jewish (OT) concept. Vishal maintains that Longfellow, Wordsworth etc. inspired Indian poets. Out of that came Indian nationalism, the concept of a nation. This came from reading English poetry and reading the Bible.

NT Greek did not have a word for nation. This has been misunderstood by American theologians and missiologists. “Go into all the world and disciple all nations (ethnoi)…” does not mean disciple people groups per se. Vishal says that though it is true that the Greeks did not have a word for nation, the (NT) Greek word needs to have the Hebrew (OT) theology poured into it to have its intended Biblical meaning, i.e., make nations great again. Vishal said that President Trump understands the meaning of the word nation much better than American missiologists do.

My own thought: Will we begin to see prayer return to the state schools and the Ten Commandments to the court buildings now that President Trump wants to give God back His rightful place, as rehearsed in the words in the pledge of allegiance “one nation under God”?

Vishal says that the idea of nation was a Jewish-Protestant idea, not Roman Catholic or Orthodox. Nation was God’s idea for peace. The Netherlands and Switzerland first and second (OT Jewish-Protestant) nations. America was third. Interestingly, there were thirteen tribes of Israel (Joseph had two sons), and America had thirteen states (or colonies). Just as the Christian Church was in the thirteen states, so the Levites were everywhere. They were the glue that held OT Israel together.

An empire is about conquest, which is bad. Imperialism is evil. According to the Bible, a great nation is something different to a mere nation. A great nation is defined as that which holds to God’s justice and law. The further any nation moves away from this, the less great it becomes.

The apostle Thomas went to India because there already was a Jewish community already there. Therefore, God had His witness in India.

American Christianity foolishly handed over education to the state. Therefore, a new encyclopedia cum university is needed. Free to everyone, K through 12. Using AI technology to bring to life Shakespeare to teach his own plays, Einstein to teach his own theories, Newton etc. (makes me think that this may be a precursor for something like Star Trek: The Next Generation’s “Holodeck”, where participants enter into the Globe Theatre or Einstein’s classroom to learn firsthand!) The world’s best curriculum, would be given away for free to home schoolers, filling the earth with the knowledge of God as the waters cover the sea. College level too, with BAs etc. offered. Editorial control would be by Christian scholars. A way to pay for it all has been anticipated. Now that the anti-Christian neo-Marxism is on the wane, the four-years Trump window of opportunity must not be squandered by Christians.

Post-DL Moody American Christianity is a defeated religion. It’s a theology in the silos. Instead of teaching all aspects of Christianity holos-bolos in universities, it now seeks only to win souls, hold little Prayer Groups and Bible Studies.  Vishal says that Billy Graham won tons of souls and lost America. The next four years can be a season for winning America back. The Church must do it, not the government.

My own thoughts: If Modernism degenerated into Postmodernism, now that Wokeism is dying, where are we now in the West with the obvious paradigm shift and new sense of optimism? Do we move back up the descending chain to Modernism or do we make our awakening nations great again? What makes a nation great? Again, as Vishal says, “that which holds to God’s justice and law.”   

FACING FACTS

 

FACING FACTS 

“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” (Gal. 2:20)

Introduction

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We live in an age where the tendency is for people to act according to feelings and not facts. The Bible has always taught that facts are more important than feelings. This is not to say that there is no place for feelings in the Church. But rather that the facts of Scripture must be our guide no matter what your feelings are. I want us to consider a couple of things that will help us in our Christian life.

We are looking mainly at Galatians 2:20, but I just want you to note that from verses 18-21, Paul uses the first-person singular at least fourteen times. In this portion of Scripture, if you listed the personal pronoun in order, you would hear Paul say, “I, I, I, myself, I, I, I, I, me, I, I, me, me, I. So, we see, then, that there is a lot of personal application of the facts going on here.

As we look at what’s going on in this portion of Scripture don’t be afraid to apply these facts to yourself – if they fit.

You Are in Christ

Paul makes an earth-shattering statement in verse 20, “I have been crucified with Christ.” “I, Paul, have been put to death along with Christ!” What does he mean? Well, he means he died, not literally, but to his former ways, his former way of life. He could write a book and call it The Death of a Pharisee. His whole way of life died when Christ died on the cross.

So how can this be? Well, he has seen how Christ on the cross represents him. You’ve seen Muslims and Marxists and what not on television burn effigies of various people. Those effigies represent real people. Well, Paul is saying that Christ on the cross represents him as a real person, as a sinner. How can he say that? Well, it was revealed to him in the Gospel.

Paul tells us elsewhere that all men are sinners in Adam, (see e.g., Rom. 5:12; 1 Cor. 15:21, 22; 1 Cor. 15:45-49). If you were to turn to the 1 Corinthians 15:22 passage you’d see Paul says, “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.” He’s saying that all those who are in Adam die but all those who are in Christ shall be made alive. In other words, Adam represents all people who die, but Christ represents all people who will be made alive. So, when Paul says, “I have been crucified in Christ”, he’s saying he has switched representatives. He’s saying that Adam is no longer his representative. Christ now is.

To be represented by Adam is to be under the condemnation of the law. But to be represented by Christ is to be free from that condemnation. “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus...” (Rom. 8:1). The condemnation came to Adam and those he represented (which is all mankind) when he broke God’s law by eating the forbidden fruit.

In order to deepen our understanding of what Christ was doing on the cross, we need to understand God’s covenant with Adam before the Fall. Adam was the representative of all mankind in this covenant. The Westminster Confession of Faith calls that covenant The Covenant of Works.

Anyway, God created Adam perfect and upright, wrote his law on his heart and gave him the outward command to go forth multiply, subdue the earth, have dominion etc. (Gen. 1:26-28). We call this The Cultural Mandate, and we are reminded that it has not been revoked by God (see e.g., Gen. 9:1-7; Matt. 28:18-20). As a test, God also gave Adam the outward command not to eat the fruit of a certain tree upon pain of death (Gen. 2:16-17). Adam, then, in the Garden, was on probation. He had loseable everlasting life. Loseable everlasting life before the fall and, (upon redemption), unloseable everlasting life after the fall. Or, if you will, he was an Arminian before the Fall but a Calvinist after it!

So then, our main concern here is to understand that all those who are in Adam are under the Covenant of Works and are condemned by it. Therefore, all those who are not in Christ are under the Covenant of Works in Adam. The conditions of that covenant still remain the same today. They have never been revoked. The conditions are perfect obedience to God’s law – just as it was for Adam before the Fall.

So, what was Paul doing before he met Christ? He was trying to keep the Covenant of Works, which is seen in his erroneous view that a fallen human being can keep God’s law perfectly. And he thought he was doing a fine job of it too. Listen to what he said, “...circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning righteousness which is in the law, blameless. But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ” (Phil. 3:5). But when Paul met Christ, he discovered that the Law of God had already killed him. It had killed him centuries before – way back in the Garden when Adam sinned. He had been seeking to uphold the terms of agreement in the Covenant of Works. But it was impossible for him to keep that covenant because he was a sinner before he even began. Why? Well, because Adam represented Paul in that covenant, Paul as a fallen human being has a share in Adam’s guilt and so do we.

Paul had been seeking to represent himself. However, as we all are, he was disqualified by God on account of his covenant representative, i.e., Adam. Therefore, in order for any of us to receive everlasting life, we need to find a new representative in the Covenant of Works. But all of mankind was condemned by Adam’s sin against God – all but One, “But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons” (Gal. 4:4). The Son of God became the Son of Adam or the Son of Man (the same thing) when He was born of a woman. He became the Second Adam – born under the law. Why? To buy back those who were under, those who were condemned by the law as a Covenant of Works.

The law of God only condemns (Rom. 8:3). Saul the Pharisee, like all Pharisees, erroneously viewed the Mosaic law as a Covenant of Works, something that he had to keep to receive unloseable everlasting life, rather than that which shows us our great need to have faith in the Saviour promised by God (see e.g., Gen. 3:15, Isa. 7:14, 9:6-7). “Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith” (Gal. 3:24). The law was not given to anyone or any party, such as the Israelites at Mount Sinai, as a means of attaining salvation through keeping it. Fallen human beings are disqualified on account of original sin.

Adam failed as our representative to keep the Covenant of Works (Rom. 5:12). But the unfallen Christ, as our representative, kept the Covenant of Works perfectly by keeping every jot and tittle of God’s law (Matt. 5:17-19). Therefore, as our representative He has received everlasting life – for Himself and for those whose faith is in Him. He has received everything God the Father promised Him! He has received unloseable everlasting life for all those He represented, yes, for all those who receive the adoption as sons – even the Apostle Paul. If you are in Christ, then like Paul, you have been crucified in Christ. This means that you have been taken from under the condemnation of the Covenant of Works and placed under the acquittal of the Covenant of Grace. Whereas, the law declares the condemnation of all, the gospel declares salvation to all who believe (John 3:16).

You are no longer in Adam but in Christ the Second Adam, as Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:47 names Him. It means that you no longer seek to be justified by keeping the Law or the Covenant of Works. Christ has done this for you. Therefore, look to Him alone for your righteousness. Look outward to Christ and not inward to your own (supposed) works.

In summary: Adam broke the Covenant of Works for all mankind. Therefore, as sinners, no one can receive everlasting life through the keeping of the law. We are all condemned in Adam. However, Jesus Christ was without sin, and He kept the Covenant of Works perfectly. As our new representative He was obedient to the law even unto death. Therefore, when you look at Christ crucified you see that you were crucified with Him. How? Because you see in His death true righteousness revealed.

As surely as Samuel hacked Agag to pieces because Agag was a sinner (1 Sam. 15:32-33), so does the crucifixion of Christ hack us sinners to pieces. The penalty for breaking God’s Law, or if you will the Covenant of Works, hasn’t been softened. The wrath of God was poured out upon Christ who represented you the Covenant breaker. To be crucified with Christ, then, is to have received the full penalty of God’s law in Christ. Just as you had received Adam’s sin and guilt, so Christ has received your sin and guilt. But He has adopted you and you have received His righteousness. That what it means when you are in Christ... 

Christ in You

Paul goes on to say, “I have been crucified in Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” (Gal. 2:20). What does he mean then by “Christ lives in me”? Well, we’ve already seen that Paul wasn’t actually crucified with Christ. It was his whole old way of thinking that was crucified. He used to think a man could justify himself before God by pointing to his own good deeds. But he became a new man when Christ with His good works was revealed to him.

Before Paul had met Christ, he had been trying to generate his own righteousness. He had been trying to keep the law, as a Covenant of Works, by his own steam. Then Christ revealed to Paul a righteousness that Paul hadn’t worked for. This righteousness is revealed in the Gospel as Paul says elsewhere to the Romans, “For in [the gospel] the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, ‘The just shall live by faith’” (Rom. 1:17).

Paul used to look inward all the time. He used to look inward all the time to see how he was going. When he was under the law, i.e., the Covenant of Works as he saw it, he was under tremendous pressure to perform. God was demanding the perfect keeping of all His commandments for justification. Not only was there the moral law, but there were all the dietary regulations. All the feasts had to be kept, all the ceremonial laws, all the judicial laws. Paul was trying to keep all of this to the letter, even to the jot and tittle. But he was trying to do so in his own strength. It was putting the cart before the horse. It was like Sisyphus pushing a huge boulder to the top of a hill only to have it roll back over him and kill him.

It’s right we examine ourselves to see if we are in the faith (1 Cor. 11:28). But the Christian looks at Christ when he examines himself (Heb. 12:2). Paul looked only at the Law, yes, as the Covenant of Works. There is no grace in the Covenant of Works after the Fall. It brings only condemnation, hardship and death. For this reason, the Lord revealed the Covenant of Grace to Adam after the Fall (Gen. 3:15). The protoevangelium, the promise of the gospel. The righteousness of Christ is revealed in the Covenant of Grace.

The Old Testament saints put their faith in the Christ to come. And we put our faith in the Christ who has come. Paul says in Romans 1:17 the same thing as Habakkuk 2:4. Therefore, the teaching of both Old and New Testament, the Bible, is that, “The just shall live by faith.” Faith in what? What is the object of the Christian’s faith? His own performance as he tries to do good works? Certainly not. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

All the Old Testament saints believed in Him and not in their own good works for everlasting life. There’s a whole bunch of Old Testament saints who believed in Christ listed in Hebrews 11, the “Hall of Faith.”

Now then, when you start talking about people believing in God’s only begotten Son, you are talking about faith. Look back in Galatians 2:20 and you will see where Paul’s faith was directed, “And the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” Faith, then, has an object. And the object is the Son of God. To believe in the Son of God for salvation means that you don’t believe in yourself for salvation. And if you are believing in Jesus Christ, it means that you have faith in Jesus Christ the Son of God.

Before the Fall Adam was promised everlasting life for his obedience, i.e., God's law given as the Covenant of Works. (God's law had been witten on mankind's heart, Rom. 2:14-15). This was still an act of grace on God’s part. God didn’t have to promise Adam anything. But the Lord told Adam he would perish if he ate the forbidden fruit. Which means, conversely, that he would not perish but have everlasting life – so long as he abstained from eating the forbidden fruit. After the Fall the way of attaining everlasting life, what we now call salvation, was different. “Whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” But up until Paul met Him, he was believing in his own good works for everlasting life. I’ve been labouring the point on purpose. I want you to see that the Christian is no longer under the Covenant of Works. The Christian has been set free from the condemnation of that covenant. The Christian is now under the Covenant of Grace.

This is where the Christian needs to be very careful. This is where you hear people quote Romans 6:14b, “You are not under law but under grace.” This is taken by some to mean that, because we’re not under the Covenant of Works but under the Covenant of Grace, the Law has no claim on us. But Paul says that Christ is living in Him. So, we have to ask the question: What is Christ doing in Paul? What is Christ doing in you and me? Well, we have to agree that Christ is at WORK in each one of us. What’s He working towards? What does He want us to end up looking like? Well, He’s showing us that we were powerless to keep the Law of God in our sinful condition. He is showing us that He has kept the Covenant of Works perfectly, not for Himself but for us. He is revealing His righteousness to us, His perfect law-keeping as fully Man. And the more we see His righteousness, the more we see the lack of our own righteousness. And the more we see the lack of our own righteousness the more we seek His righteousness. In a word, this is called Sanctification.

Sanctification is something that takes place inside of you. Whereas Justification takes place outside of you. Sanctification is a progressive thing. That’s why we call we call it Progressive Sanctification. It is progressive in that as you trust in the Saviour and His righteousness more and more, you will trust in yourself and your own righteousness less and less. It’s not a “Let go and let God” exercise. It is an exercise in which both you and Christ who is in you are engaged.

Let’s see if we can begin to tie things together. When Paul said, “I have been crucified with Christ”, he is stating in no uncertain terms that he is dead to the law as a Covenant of Works. And that He is now alive to God. And he now has faith in the Son of God to keep that Covenant in every way on his behalf. Paul is declaring then that He is in Christ. Whatever Christ has done, He has done for Paul. Paul’s old way of life has been crucified along with Christ. Paul then has been justified by faith in Christ. But with justification comes sanctification.

Christ is at work in Paul helping him subdue any tendencies to go back to his former ways. Paul has been rebuking and correcting the Galatians for going back to their former ways. They are seeking to place themselves back under the Covenant of Works. They’re under the Covenant of Grace, but they’re beginning to act as if they’re under the Covenant of Works again.

The law given to Moses as handed down by God on Mount Sinai was never given as a means of fallen human beings gaining salvation by keeping it. That was the misunderstanding and the complete distortion of God’s law by the Pharisees and now the Judaizers at Galatia. God’s law, in all its aspects, moral, civil, and ceremonial, was given to show us up as sinners in need of a Saviour, i.e., Jesus Christ, and not as a way for us to save ourselves.

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There is some confusion among some as to whether the law Moses received from God on Mount Sinai was given as a Covenant of Works. It certainly has clear echoes of the Covenant of Works. However, Westminster Confession of Faith 7:2-3, 5 states, “The first covenant made with man was a covenant of works, whereby life was promised to Adam, and in him to his posterity, upon condition of perfect and personal obedience. Man by his fall having made himself incapable of life by that covenant, the Lord was pleased to make a second, commonly called the Covenant of Grace: whereby he freely offereth to sinners life and salvation by Jesus Christ, requiring of them faith in him, that they might be saved … This covenant of grace was differently administered in the time of the law, and in the time of the gospel…” We focus on the words, “Man by his fall having made himself incapable of life by that covenant,” i.e., the Covenant of Works. Therefore, since the fall, due to incapability, life and salvation has never been attainable for sinners by keeping the law. However, the Mosaic administration of the Covenant of Grace was given as a rule of righteousness, a way to live one’s life as it pointed to the Christ to come. The Westminster Confession of Faith goes on to say in chapter 19:1-3, “God gave Adam a law, as a covenant of works … This law, after his fall, continued to be a perfect rule of righteousness; and, as such, was delivered by God upon mount Sinai in ten commandments, and written on two tables … Besides this law, commonly called moral, God was pleased to give to the people of Israel, as a church under age, ceremonial laws containing several typical ordinances; partly of worship, prefiguring Christ, his graces, actions, sufferings, and benefits; and partly holding forth divers instructions of moral duties. All of which ceremonial laws are now abrogated under the New Testament.”Therefore, since the fall, sinners can never be saved by their own keeping God’s law as a covenant of works. The Mosaic law was never given as a covenant of works, which is another way of simply saying that sinners have always been saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.    

How does all of this apply to us? Well, you are either under the Covenant of Works or the Covenant of Grace. One is about trying to save yourself by your own good works. And the other is about doing good works because you have been saved (Eph. 2:8-10). Neither the Covenant of Works nor the Covenant of Grace are about ignoring God’s Law.

The Judaizers are like those in our own day that, (sometimes unwittingly), hold to a view that it’s faith plus works for our salvation, i.e., what is called a “works righteousness”, or more technically, a semi-Pelagian or Arminian view of salvation. Whereas the Judaizers are saying that the Galatians needed to do something to gain salvation, Paul is saying that his days of doing works to earn salvation died with Christ. Works righteousness is simply shorthand for Covenant of Works righteousness, for which fallen humanity, i.e., sinners need not apply. Only Christ could qualify to do that job.   

Perhaps you’re one of those who, like the non-Christian, ignore God’s Moral Law. Some Christians seem to think that Christ cancelled the Law or Covenant of Works. But Christ only fulfilled the conditions of the Law. He didn’t cancel it (Matt. 5:17-18).

So maybe you’re one of those Christians who just does what he or she likes. Well, that would make you a lawbreaker, wouldn’t it? Then you would need to ask yourself: Why are you so comfortable with breaking God’s Law? How can you be comfortable with breaking God’s Law if the great keeper of God’s Law is in you – unless of course He’s not at work in you? And if that is the case you are condemned under the Covenant of Works. Or perhaps you’re one of those Christians who are overloaded scruples. Don’t do this! Don’t do that! – a stickler for all the little nit-picking things. “Absolutely no cigarettes, absolutely no alcohol whatsoever” – that type of thing. You are, of course, free to smoke and/drink if you wish. But some look for bits of sawdust in other people’s eyes. They follow man-made rules and regulations as if they were the Word of God. Well, these types of folks are acting as if they are under the Covenant of Works. They’re supposed to be acting in accordance with the Covenant of Grace.

Your way of life before conversion has been crucified with Christ. So why are you acting according to the former ways? Your former ways have been put to death with Christ. Therefore, face the facts and act as if this were true. Unless of course you are not in Christ. The church has always had problems with these same issues down through the centuries. 

Conclusion

If you are in Christ, you have been Justified. You are no longer under the Covenant of Works as a way of salvation. Therefore, you should stop acting as if you were.

If Christ is in you then you should be acting as one under the Covenant of Grace. You should be looking to Christ as the great Covenant keeper. And as you watch the One who kept the Covenant of Works perfectly, you should see more and more of your own imperfections. This should cause you to progressively, with the assistance of Christ in you, subdue even any notion to break God’s Law. It’s all about facing facts and then living in accordance with them.

The facts are that if you’ve been Justified you have been and are being Sanctified. And if you are being Sanctified you have been Justified. Therefore, you should be acting in accordance with this knowledge. Those are the facts, so how do you feel about that?

CONFLICT & AGRICULTURE

 

Conflict & Agriculture

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Robert Burns wrote To A Mouse, On Turning up Her Nest with the Plough, November, 1785. In the second stanza we read, I’m truly sorry man’s dominion/ Has broken Nature’s social union,/ And justifies that ill opinion/ Which makes thee startle/ At me, thy poor earth-born companion,/ An’ fellow-mortal! Burns here is alluding to the fall of man. ‘Man’s dominion’ is in reference to the Dominion Mandate God gave to Adam, as mankind’s covenant head, pre-fall (Gen. 1:26-28). As God representative, mankind was to have dominion over everything God has made. However, something went wrong. Thus, Burns’s poem.

Conflict began on Earth when Adam, as humanity’s federal representative, broke the covenant God had graciously entered into with him (Hos. 6:7; Isa. 24:5). We still have dominion, but creation tends to work against us (Rom. 8:20-22). When Adam ate the forbidden fruit, he did more than disobey that test command. He went against God’s law, (i.e., the Decalogue God had written on humanity’s heart, Rom. 2:14-15). For ‘Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness’ (1 John 3:4). This is why Jesus perfectly kept God’s law as the new Adam and covenant head of all who believe, and died to pay for their sins of breaking God’s law, to save them from God’s everlasting punishment. Therefore, any conflict we experience is on account of breaking God’s law.

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The Dominion Mandate is also called the Cultural Mandate. Adam (with Eve and all their posterity) were commissioned by God to cultivate the earth, beginning in the Garden. Adam was ‘to cultivate it and to keep it’ (Gen. 2:15, LEB). Thus, the whole world was to become an extension of the Garden. Alas! ‘Nature’s social union’ became broken. Burns, (along with the rest of us) became a mouse’s ‘fellow-mortal’. In other words, ‘The wages of sin is death’ (Rom. 6:23). ‘Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’: “Cursed is the ground for your sake; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you shall return” (Gen. 3:17-19). We may think our sins are not serious, but God begs to differ!

It's not hard to see what the Cultural Mandate has to do with Aussie-culture or agri-culture etc. It has to do with how we humans cultivate God’s creation. If we remember that sinning is the breaking of God’s law, as Christians, we ought to be searching the Scriptures to see what God has revealed about cultivating our lives as individuals, as families, churches, states, indeed, as nations. A farmer asked me how to serve God with crop planting, harvesting, raising cattle, i.e., all that farm stuff. What about shipbuilding? City planning? Food and drink? Clothing, economics, banking, architecture, art, teaching and learning, medicine, mining, weather, crime, punishment, raising children, etc., etc., – it’s all in the Bible.

Our first great need is salvation, then, to be equipped. ‘The Holy Scriptures … are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work’ (2 Tim. 3:15b-16).  

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FALLEN ANGELS & WOMEN

 Introduction

Gary Bates has written an excellent book called Alien Intrusion: UFOs and the Alien Connection. He has also released a really good movie style documentary called Alien Intrusion: Unmasking a Deception - Home

The following are just a few brief scratchings inspired by Gary Bates’s book and videos, but not necessarily always in direct reference. In other words, Gary has raised some interesting issues.

Occam's Razor

I don’t think it matters that much here whether we’re Postmillennial, Amillennial, or Premillennial. (Though the “falling away” “end times” business lends itself better to a Dispensational Premillennial view of a growing and greater demonic activity before Christ’s supposed immanent, as in any-minute-now, return. Gary also seems to hold the non-figurative “it’s all going to burn up” in the end view. See, e.g., 2 Peter 3:10).

This being said, I think Gary is very much on the right track with his aliens are demons view. Occam’s Razor. It is demonic activity. Demonic activity is usually upon invitation, upon leaving oneself open. Pre-conversion, I used to do the séance / Ouija Board thing in my teen years and could write a book of ghost stories and weird encounters and activities. The strange thing was that it all set me up to be open to the idea for the existence of God.

As to the idea of a supposed supernatural / natural dualism, I do think it all still needs to be hammered out to make clear what we mean by these things. Does material / immaterial help any? Manifestations are what we are talking about with actual physical encounters of some entities. Alien abductions are in line with demonic apparitions

I had a physical encounter with some “entity” when I first came to Australia and found myself sitting in a weird Apostolic Church one Sunday morning. It was as if a force was pressing down on my shoulders, and I was unable to stand up and leave the service. It made me feel nauseous and uncomfortable. The “force” released me when the service ended. I was terrified!

When co-authoring a book, as we got to a bit where we were writing about Satan, I mentioned to my coauthor not to be surprised if weird stuff starts happening round about that time. We had a Share Document (in which others, upon invitation, may contribute to the same document). Sure enough, we soon had a whole host of uninvited “guests” on our Share document, “watchers”, who, one at a time, then collectively (maybe ten?) showed up. We had to switch to exchanging email versions of the manuscript for safety from outside interference. I consulted a Microsoft expert who had no answers for what or how that was happening.

I don’t think that my big brother is “wandering into theological quicksand” by his creative thinking, saying, “all Creation has been rescued by the “Last” and “True” Earthling.” The Word became flesh to rescue Creation and its creatures. The redeemed creation will be resurrected along with redeemed creatures. Thus, Earth and earthlings will be restored and renewed by the Last and True Earthling. “For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust” (Psa. 103:14). The dust of Creation in the human nature of Jesus Christ is now at the right hand of God from whence He will return to Earth (Dan. 7:14; 1 Thess. 4:16).

Two Main issues

As I see it, there are two main (but related) issues going on in what we are discussing, and they both have to do with the Biblical doctrine of the two natures of Christ.

Roman Catholic and Lutheran theology believe in the ubiquity of Christ’s humanity, ascribing (incommunicable) divine attributes to His humanity. In other words, these (and others) believe that Christ’s humanness, along with the dust He is made of, is absorbed by (and therefore disappears into) His divinity. Thus, Christ's humanity can now be two places at once, yes, even everywhere at once! How so? Because His humanity has been swallowed up by His divinity! This is the “what do we need creation for if it’s all going to burn up?” misunderstanding of 2 Peter 3:10 etc., is a a lot to do with. Likewise, “what do we need resurrected bodies for if we are just going to have a “spiritual body” - like Jesus, with (supposed) the ability to pass through solid objects, closed doors, brick walls etc.?” (John 20:19; 1 Cor. 15:44; 1 John 3:3). So, you can see why, to combat these misunderstandings, we need a proper Biblical understanding of Christ’s two natures. He is our human paradigm.  

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All of Creation is dependent on Christ’s two natures forever remaining together (but forever distinct as to properties). Otherwise, even though redeemed (and presently being renewed), in this view, who we are and where we live disappears. (See e.g. Chapter 46. Christ and Our Humanity in The Unfaithful Bride & The Faithful Groom book.) Jesus cannot walk through solid doors or walls! We must not confuse His two natures. All Creation depends on Jesus remaining fully God and fully human. Creation was created for Him to dwell in forever with the people He redeemed.

Picture a Ven diagram with Creator in one circle and creature in the other. Jesus is the tangent intersection shaded bit in the middle. He is the Nexus. Creation, as it were, dangles from God above connected by the creaturely nature of Jesus to creation below. Cut away (or tamper with) His human nature and creation reverts to being tohu wa bohu (Gen. 1:2) and eventually is swallowed up, as in receding back into the mind of God. Therefore, creation is all about Jesus OUR Saviour!

“God is spirit” (John 4:24, NIV without the “a” is preferred here). Man is “spirit, soul, and body” (1 Thess. 5:23). Therefore, Jesus, (as the God-Man) is the everlasting unification of God, who is spirit, with a full Man, who is spirit, soul, and body, and remains as such unchanged forever. Jesus is one divine Person with two natures forever.

Earthlings are soul spirits with bodies. Dead people are disembodied soul spirits awaiting the resurrection of their bodies. Ghosts and spirits are how we describe them. They are ethereal, and as such, are like (but not the same as) angels and demons. (We struggle to describe the substance / essence of created spirit, using words such as immaterial and ethereal for want of better terms.)

We may be deceived into thinking they are ghosts or spirits of the dead, but demons pose as dead relatives at seances etc. “I’m your aunty Jean and all is well here…” In other words, don’t bother yourself with all that Jesus stuff. The weather’s great here! It's the same with the supposed aliens. They're coming from the stars to rescue us from ourselves. Again, it's the don't bother yourselves with all that needing Jesus as your Saviour stuff. We're coming to save you! Deception. A false gospel. Whether it’s seances or UFO sightings and abductions, it’s not flesh and blood we’re wrestling with, but forces of darkness posing as messengers of light (Eph. 5:11-12; 2: Cor. 11:14). This is why a proper understanding of the Gospel of and about Jesus Christ is so important. "But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed" (Gal. 1:8). 

A correct understanding of the Gospel is our armour, the armour of God. Christ our shield (Gen. 15:1). We must know who He is, i.e., the God-Man. Christ IS the Gospel! Everything apart from Him is a lie. He is “the truth of God” they exchanged for the lie (Rom. 1:25). To not believe in Jesus is to believe in the lie (John 14:6). Satan is the father of lies (John 8:44).

It is my humble opinion that my big brother Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh's following statement is correct: “We could say that there is an “earthling” at the right hand of God, and that “all authority in the universe” is his. Only “earthlings” are made in the image of God. The entire cosmos fell because of the sin of the first “earthling” and all Creation has been rescued by the “Last” and “True” Earthling.”

Nephilim

My fixation at the moment has to do with the Nephilim. I read the section in Gary's book (Alien Intrusion) where he deals with this. (I don't have the new expanded version, only a copy that has his signature in it! Therefore, he may have tweaked things since the May, 2005 version.)

Anywho, where I was trying to go with our God-given paradigm for measuring all things, was Jesus and the two natures of Christ. Spirit and matter? Immaterial and material? Words fail. Yes, Christ is a unique union of Creator and creature, God and Man, Earthling. I was wondering if, using Christ as our hermeneutic, we can perhaps shed any light on spirit beings from the heavens uniting themselves with human flesh, i.e., becoming earthlings, (with their added ability of supposedly impregnating earthling women!). Notice, in the following verses, that the "sons of God", whoever they were, were no invading Viking Berserkers on a rape and pillage trip!

“The sons of God saw that the daughters of humans were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose ... The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown” (Gen. 6:4 NIV). "The sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose ...There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown” (Gen. 6:2, 4 NKJV). 

Are fallen angels, fallen heavenly spirits, able to become flesh, to become incarnate as earthlings, able to reproduce themselves, or at least produce hybrid versions of themselves, by impregnating women? If so, this is where we struggle to find language to describe the unification of the immaterial spirit taking on the soul-spirit with a body of a human material being. Yes, incarnation!!! Remember, this is not demonic possession of human beings but incarnations as human beings, without any distinction between the two natures of demonic spirit and human flesh.

Gary, of course, points us to Abraham's three visitors, who ate and drank, two of whom the Sodomites desired to sodomise (Gen. 18; 19). Gary points out that there may be a difference between fallen angels and demons, which only seems to complicate things further, cloud the issue even more.  Fallen angels and demons are spirit entities. The three angels that visited Abraham were certainly not “fallen” angels, and one may even have been, Jehovah, as in the preincarnate Christ, Himself! They manifested themselves only temporarily as men to fulfill a mission. 

Demons dwell in humans and in pigs. Therefore, they do not assume human flesh. Therefore, that leaves the fallen angels, supposing that these are different from demons (or "devils" KJV). Scripture seems to be silent about the Devil, i.e., Satan, ever assuming human flesh. I'm not sure of any verse explicitly referring to Satan as an angel. It certainly is implicit though. Perhaps, the following, “Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light” (2 Cor. 11:14), he was a “covering cherub” which we take to be an angel (Ezek. 28:14.16), and maybe Lucifer, the “Morning Star” of Isaiah 14:12. Then there is all that Revelation 12 Dragon stuff that seems to portray Satan as a fallen angel. 

The defenders of the fallen angels / women reproduction idea utilise the “morning stars / sons of God (of Job 38:7 and 1:6) along with “the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode” (Jude 6) as part of their hermeneutic to arrive at the conclusion that the sons of God who “married” women were fallen angels. But back to Jesus as our hermeneutical paradigm. “...being conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost, in the womb of the Virgin Mary, of her substance. So that two whole, perfect, and distinct natures, the Godhead and the manhood, were inseparably joined together in one person, without conversion, composition, or confusion. Which person is very God and very man, yet one Christ...” (WCF 8:2). Again, we note the Creator / creature distinction here. However, it is the “without conversion, composition, or confusion” of substances that I am here interested in. 

Satan, the head devil, who is “a” spirit, never appeared as a man. Neither did any of his legion of devils / demons. The only record in Scripture is that of unfallen, i.e., elect, angels (see 1 Tim. 5:21 for "elect angels"), obedient messengers of God, appearing as men. Abraham's three visitors presumably discarded their human-like clothing after their temporary mission. The devils begged Jesus to be sent into a herd of pigs, which He permitted. They are of a different substance / essence. They didn’t become humans, pigs, or whatever. Like parasites, they indwelt their hosts, rather than unite with them, because they cannot, because they are of a different substance / essence. They are ethereal, immaterial, spirit. Unlike humans, who are soul-spirits with bodies, spirits have no bodies of their own. Therefore, they can only possess those who have a body, never mind reproduce soul-spirits with bodies in the form of hybrid fallen angels / human beings, which, in turn, are themselves supposed to be able to reproduce.

Bottom line: fallen angels and devils / demons cannot reproduce. Even if they could take on human form, (of which we have no Biblical evidence), and somehow miraculously produce offspring, like mules (i.e., hybrids of same-substance / essence parentage), they would be sterile. The Nephilim were not half this and half that creature like cyborgs in some sci-fi movie. They may have been "heroes of old, men of renown”, "giants on the earth in those days", but, like their parents and you and me, they were flesh and blood human beings, drownable in a flood. "People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all" (Luke 17:27).

Therefore, I don't think we ought to try to dodge the fact that God created a set amount of angels, who are unlike organic and reproductive humans who expand in number. Sorry, angels do not marry and have babies, not even fallen angels. What's wrong with simply taking the following verse at face value? "For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven" (Mark 12:25). Thus, angels do not marry!  

The whole sons of God marrying the daughters of men to produce the Nephilim as being half fallen angel and half fallen human makes a mockery of the Bible, especially its revelation of only man being created in the image and likeness of God. 

Rudi Schwartz and I, in our book The Kingdom: Every Square Inch offer an explanation which I've summarised in the following from pages 105-6:

After conquering cities, kings (venerated as gods) would take some young women as bounty to serve as concubines in those harems… Sons of kings succeeded their fathers and inherited their titles as “sons of gods”. The Hebrew text of Genesis 6:2 is not translation-specific and allows for, “sons of God”, to be translated as ‘sons of gods’ and may refer to the rulers along the line of Cain… Within the context of Genesis 6, “the daughters of men” might refer to the descendancy of Seth, God’s people who compromised and adulterated their faith and accepted the lifestyle and worship of the “sons of gods”.

Greek Wrestling

The Greek word ousious (more properly ousia) is what we’re wrestling with. Is Christ the same ousious or like ousious as God? It’s the old homoiousious versus homoousious argument. With or without the ioata? Perhaps instead of substance or essence etc. we should simply use the word ousia or ousious? This is what the Bible translators did with the word “baptise”, which is essentially or substantially a simple transliteration of the New Testament Greek word for baptise (and its cognates). In other words, let the Baptists and the Reformed / Presbyterians battle it out over the correct Biblical meaning of the word!

Like Herman Dooyeweerd, (see, e.g., Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh's Mouse in a Glass: Luch sa Ghlainne: Dooyeweerd: Hellenistic origins of 'body-soul' dichotomy),we’re unhappy with the Thomistic dualism and the suggested adoption of pagan Platonic, Aristotelian et al body and soul dichotomies. Speaking of dichotomies (or trichotomies) bipartite or tripartite etc., we don’t view man as any of these things when we say the man is a soul-spirit with a body. Like the Triune God, in whose image we are made, man cannot be dissected or trisected or separated into three parts. Simply, body, soul and spirit are the three main aspects of man, reflecting the Trinity. No aspect is inferior to any other aspect or facet of man just as no Person in the Trinity is inferior to or of lesser importance than the Others. Man is a whole being, a soul-spirit with a body – forever. No dualism permitted!

Back to ousious or ousia From memory, Calvin sometimes uses “substance” and other times “essence”, depending on context, to describe the sameness of Christ’s divinity with the Father (and the Spirit). Christ’s divinity has been hammered out in the doctrine of the Trinity. Each Person is equal in substance (ousious) etc. 

Now to Christ’s humanity. He is of Mary’s substance (ousious). He is fully Man. As to His divinity He is of the same substance (ousious) as God. As to His humanity, the same as Mary and the rest of humanity. Whatever was the substance (ousious) of Adam, so is the last Man and second Adam. Unlike His divinity, Jesus’ s humanity is not Omnipresent or ubiquitous. He is “fully” man. Always. Forever.

Substance (ousious). The errors of Roman Catholicism and Lutheranism lie in their views of the substance (ousios) of Christ’s humanity. Roman Catholic Tran-substantiation and Lutheran Con-subtantiation have to do with the presence of Christ at His Supper. Is He physically present, and if so, how? How can His humanity, His soul-spirit with a body, be everywhere at once? How can the bread and wine transubstantiate into His body and blood or consubstantiate and be physically present in and through the bread and wine? This is where we wrestle with, what seems to be a dualism of spirit and body, but we must not forget that it is the two natures of Christ (God and Man) we’re struggling to understand and not Plato’s human body and human soul dualism.

As was done with “baptise” let us likewise do with “ousious”. Leave it untranslated until such times as we have fully “hammered out” what we mean by “ousia”.

Conclusion

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    We struggle with the idea of spirit beings transforming themselves into fully functional human beings and marrying women because the Scriptures don't necessarily teach this. Neither does the Bible say anything about the idea of manifestations of alien crafts and creatures from faraway galaxies. However, we can test things against the Scriptures. Demons are deceptive. They play tricks with us: noises, smells, apparitions etc. They are angels / demons that have fallen from Heaven to the planet Earth and are in transit to the eternal lake of fire (Rev. 12:4-9; 20:10; 21:8).

    Alien sightings and encounters are demonic. Whether they seem to be in the seemingly physical form of visitors from outer space with big heads with giant eyes as per their usual depictions or as pretend human beings or in the preferred ghostly manifestations, they are not the real thing They are great illusionists. They are an evil force to be reckoned with and they are simply up to no good. They are liars. They have no fear of us (Acts 19:15). They fear Jesus (Luke 8:30-33). Therefore, we must call on the name of Jesus if we ever encounter these entities, and even if we don't!.

Angel, as you know, means "messenger" in the Bible. Fallen angels/demons are messengers of the chief liar, Satan. Whether the come in the form of voices and visions, spelling out words on ouija boards, apparitions as humans or aliens with messages from a galaxy faraway, they are messengers of deceit. Therefore, don't listen to them. Don't go near them.Lest they suck you in. 

    These entities can and do at times exert physical force on us as experienced by people who have been abducted and probed and those who have invisibly been pinned down by them. We cannot write off people’s actual experiences. However, to suggest that fallen angels and or demons are able to spawn children through marrying women is a step too far in my book. Oil and water don’t mix, nor do they produce any sort of hybrid liquid.

The children of God marrying the daughters of men simply refers to God’s children disobediently wedding outside their own kind. I know it's not as dramatic as incarnated fallen angels sweeping women off their feet and marrying them, but, in simple terms, and, more importantly, Biblically, Christians ought not marry non-Christians.  

Do you see how thought-provoking Gary Bates's Alien Intrusion book is? Do yourself a favour and avail yourself of a copy. You won't be disappointed.     

TRUMP & THE TRINITY

 

TRUMP & THE TRINITY

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In some ways the USA is like a great train engine. The Western nations, indeed, the world’s nations, are like the carriages the American motive power pulls. That engine had been sidetracked, nay, it had been derailed for four years with the Biden presidency. However, with the re-election of Donald J Trump, the engine is back on track and now the carriages are beginning to pull in behind.

God has been kind. Wokeism has been defeated by the ballot box. We can now talk freely once again. We can agree to disagree with the Left and their Political Correctness without them shouting us down with all their Saul Alinsky demonising tactics. They may continue to call us racist, Islamophobic, misogynistic, homophobic, transphobic names, but, because they have been sprung, their Neo-Marxist catcalling now falls on deaf ears. The world has awakened to them and their destructive strategies. The rebuilding has begun.

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Revival is no longer the domain of the giant marquees along the sawdust trails in America.  It is now in the universities and halls of government. The Leftist Bishop of the Washington DC Episcopalian Church, by lecturing President Trump and the rest of the congregation on the very things that had just decisively been defeated in the election, showed to the whole world that Wokeism was as much in the Church as in the State. Now the cleanup begins. Gospel expansion continues. The doors and tent flaps of the Revival marquees have been removed. “Enlarge the place of your tent, and let them stretch out the curtains of your dwellings; do not spare; lengthen your cords, and strengthen your stakes. For you shall expand to the right and to the left, and your descendants will inherit the nations, and make the desolate cities inhabited” (Isa. 54:2-3).

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The Serpent’s head was crushed by the Seed of the woman at Calvary. The war against evil has been won by Christ and the weapon of His cross. America and the West had forgotten this. The purveyors of Wokeism are like those jungle fighters of WWII that didn’t know the war was over. Peace has broken out once again. The Prince of Peace has won the day. Lay down your arms and bow the knee to the Saviour of sinners, swear allegiance to Him and go and sin no more.

Trump and the Trinity means that he and the Republican Party, at the federal level, have won back the State. The State is not the Nation but is only one important aspect thereof.

The following is excerpted from a book which I coauthored with D Rudi Schwartz called The Kingdom: Every Square Inch. If there are two main Bible teachings that many Christians don’t seem to know much about, they are Politics and the Trinity. Many Christians detach Politics from Christianity and, along with this, they also detach Western culture and civilization from the Trinity. The error here is in the misunderstanding and misapplication of the separation of Church and State, which in turn was left wide-open to become the Leftist mantra of the separation of God and State. See where Trump and the Trinity come in in the following:   

 

Christians ought to seek to advance the Kingdom of Christ only in accordance with God’s design (Gen. 1:26-28; 9:9:1-7; Exod. 20:1-17; Rom. 13:1-7). When it comes to nations, State Constitutions must be shaped by natural law, but need to be illuminated by the light of Scripture, especially the Ten Commandments and their ‘general equity’ applications as exemplified throughout the whole of God’s Word.

‘Sphere sovereignty’ or, as it is sometimes known by its apt description, ‘differentiated responsibility’, is a reflection of the Trinity seen in creation in the light of Scripture. Thus, the Scriptures must be studied if we are to arrive at a proper understanding of what a nation is, and how God would have that nation function.

If the doctrine of the ontological Trinity were expressed in human terms as a nation, then Family, Church, and State would interact and interpenetrate each other while each would remain sovereign in its own sphere of function. In other words, as are members of the Family, so are members of the Church and members of the State; all are members of the one nation. Like each Person in the Trinity being distinct from the Others yet all are one, it is the same for the three main pillars of the nation…

Redemption has to do with what Christ has redeemed, as in purchased, bought back. To leave the State operating according to natural law in terms of common grace, when Christ has commissioned Christians to teach the nations to obey His law, is to be disobedient, even cruel. For example, State-sanctioned abortion on demand is infanticide. What Christian in their right mind would approve of this? It boggles the mind to think that there are Christians who believe that Christ has left places in nations where Satan and those he has blinded can hide. No! Every square inch belongs to the King.     

The State owns the sword of justice and, as such, is Christ’s minister for justice. It exists to promote good and punish evil, therefore, it is a religious entity. It reflects aspects of Adam’s role in the garden, i.e., “to cultivate and to keep it.” In this way the State exemplifies the biblical concept that culture is religion externalised. Even though it wields the instrument of death, the State is to cultivate life in its nation. Thus, why the State needs also the light of Scripture. The punishment must fit the crime and not go beyond it. An “eye for eye” means equitable compensation for the victim, and not a life for an eye (Exod. 21:24; Lev. 24:17-22; see also where Jesus corrects the greedy abuse of the law of compensation, Mat. 5:38-42).

The Church owns the sword of the Spirit, yes, with the keys of the Kingdom. Just as a screwdriver or other such implement can be used to prise the lid off a paint can, so the sword of the Spirit can and must be used to lift the lid off the State’s suppression of the truth (Rom. 1:18) so that even the State is without excuse for ignoring God. “For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse” (Rom. 1:20 ESV)…

It needs to be noted, a) that hints of the ontological Trinity can be seen in natural law, glimpses of the Creator and Redeemer God which the unredeemed suppress in unrighteousness, and b) because Two Kingdom Theology eschews sphere sovereignty, wherever this aberrant form of (R2K) theology is to the fore, sooner or later the State will be seen pushing its foot in the door of the family home, and eventually marching in and trampling underfoot the God-given rights of Family. The Church, likewise, will be persecuted by unlawful State intrusion. The implementation of sphere sovereignty (by the Spirit with His Word changing hearts) will guard against this. Thus, and therefore, to advance the Kingdom, we are to take Christ’s gospel and law to the nations as per the King’s Great Commission.

The function of the State is to serve and protect the nation, i.e., its people and its borders. The State is its guardian. To withhold the fruits of Christ’s redemption from the State is akin to suppressing the real reason for its existence, and it puts that nation in jeopardy of God’s covenantal judgment upon disobedience. Like the Family and the Church, in any nation, the State exists to glorify God. We hear echoes of God’s covenant promise to Abraham in Genesis 12:3 in the following, “For the nation and kingdom which will not serve you shall perish, and those nations shall be utterly ruined” (Isa. 60:12; Zech. 14:17; Rev. 21:24). Here is one of those places that unites those purveyors of dualism such as Dispensationalism with its nation destroying separation of the people of Old Testament Israel with the New Testament Church, and Two Kingdom Theology with its sacred and secular division between Church and State. For the Dispensationalist, the Church is that spiritual entity that is going to be ‘raptured’ off the planet earth so that the Lord can once again get back to working with His so called ‘chosen people’ in the modern-day nation of Israel – as if the Church is not made up of His chosen people, both Jew and Gentile! (Gal. 3:26-29). Yes, Christians are Abraham’s offspring.

Dispensationalism has a faulty view of the Church, and Two Kingdom Theology has a faulty view of the State. However, they are united in their over spiritualising of the Church to the point that the blessings of God given to Abraham and his seed remain hidden from the nations, hidden behind the Church’s four walls. Here we see the difference between Church and Kingdom. Christ has one people, His Church. And He has one Kingdom, the good news and blessings of which are to be spread to every nation by the Church. Family, Church, and State are the three main pillars that support every nation. Get between or remove any one of these three pillars (through Rapture Theology or Two Kingdom Theology) and that nation is in grave danger of perishing. Two Kingdom Theology weakens the pillar of the State by withholding from it the spectacles of Scripture.

When we study the Mona Lisa, our eyes are always drawn to the centre of her face, her nose, with the intriguing smile underneath and above are those hypnotic eyes that follow you around the room. Natural grace, as it were, leaves you wondering if Da Vinci designed things that way. Particular grace, so to speak, explains the Fibonacci Sequence to you and how Da Vinci used this mathematical wonder of God’s creation, the “Golden Ratio”. From nautilus shells to violins to music to oil paintings, God receives His glory only when His designs in creation are utilised and He is acknowledged for them.

God has designed the State, in its own sphere of function and operation, to serve and protect the nation and every lawful sphere thereof that operates therein. To the glory of the Triune God.