Dominionism has wormed its way into mainstream
Evangelicalism. The erroneous views of Francis Schaeffer and others have borne
fruit. This report on the regional 'Christian' radio station exemplifies this.
While we are certainly to be Christians in all that we do,
the sweeping of streets and wiping of tables is not part of the Holy and
Redemptive (as in redeemed from the curse of sin) work of the Holy Spirit.
These tasks are not sinful, but they're not holy either.
The viewpoint expressed in this broadcast, the teaching of
Vocation basically turns the common society into the 'Holy'. The battles for
culture become the battles of the Kingdom. Babylon becomes Zion or at least
that the goal.
The Dominionist being interviewed would call me a heretic. I
would simply point out that the New Testament does not teach his doctrine and
it only arose with the titanic shift that occurred when Constantine decided to
use the cross to establish his political power and thus transformed both the
Empire and the Church forever.
It is both sad and repugnant that this fellow left work that
was probably worthy for the cesspool of the financial world. Sacralism also
bred another false and contorted doctrine...financial stewardship. The middle
class values concerning respectability and security (which Sacralism has
baptized) are contrary to the ethos and mandate of the New Testament.
The mindset of the financial planner and the social
establishment are the antithesis of Christian ethics and literally flip the
Kingdom of God on its head.
With Dominionism there is no antithesis. Sacral theology
baptizes the society and confuses legitimate and necessary work with Kingdom
work.
When you're out wiping tables you do it as a Christian with
honesty and integrity. But our Kingdom work is not tied to the building up of
profits for a restaurant (or any business) which will burn in the cleansing
fires of the Parousia. The work is not part of heaven. We're pilgrims here.
Rather you look for opportunities to speak the Gospel and
demonstrate it by your actions. You do your job to be sure, or sometimes as
Christians we are 'called' to quit a job, walk away, speak out against and reject.
The world will hate us. If we're being faithful we will never have 'success' or
'prosperity'...we will never be respectable or part of the social
establishment.
Our only vocation, our only calling in terms of the Kingdom
is to be Christians.
The ethic and calling of the New Testament does not 'market'
very well. There's nothing about it that would please the flesh. The idea that
you can market the gospel demonstrates a total misunderstanding of its nature.
We don't become Christians because we get something out of it. It's not a door
to success or a set of principles to help you work your life out.
We're Christians because the Gospel rooted in the person and
work of Christ is the Truth.
Sometimes we can speak of 'calling' in terms of:
Fred is really gifted at carpentry. That seems to be his
calling.
or,
Jane is a fantastic housewife. Domesticity is her obvious calling
in life.
But these callings and vocations are not the same as our
calling to be Christians. We approach these things as Christians, but the work
itself isn't Christian work. A pagan can do beautiful carpentry. A pagan can
change diapers, cook and sew. Sometimes pagans are much better at these things
than we are.
Sacralism teaches the work itself becomes holy. Fred's
carpentry contributes to the work of the Holy Spirit. On the contrary.
Cooking and decorating are valid and can help create a
warmer environment for the family. And as great as those things are, the work
is not holy.
As Christians our marriages are certainly holy...something
the pagan marriage is not. Why do we expect them to embrace Christian
understandings of marriage? To understand the typology you must be Born Again.
Our children are clearly holy in both the Old and New
Testaments, but the majority of the Church denies this reality both in
substance and form.
The theology espoused by this Reformed man seeks to make the
Kingdom applicable to all of life, but actually he's negating the work of the
Kingdom by confusing it with the world.
The spiritual Kingdom which calls us to take up the cross is
generally rejected. They don't want the cross, they want the glory and the
power...now.
The mindset that is generated by the theology I'm espousing
is one of detachment. We do our work but our lives are about something else.
The aspirations of our culture should be of no interest to us. In a culture as
affluent and covetous as our own, this will mean that we will seem like strange
and peculiar people, alien to the culture around us.
As I've written elsewhere these types of people would accuse
someone like me of being a 'Sunday only' Christian. Because I don't believe
that today when I was changing out a hot water tank, that that actual physical
work was contributing to the Kingdom...then I'm somehow a Gnostic who leaves my
faith behind on Monday morning.
On the contrary, the baptizing of cultural norms means that
for these people during the week they can engage in business (and the ethics of
the marketplace) which often and normatively violate Scriptural mandates. They can
hide behind 'office' or 'vocation' and ultimately sin. They can claim certain
behaviours which would be wrong for them to do in an 'individual capacity' are
okay and permitted in terms of the office they're fulfilling.
We can exploit people in the name of loyalty to the
stockholder, or an economic doctrine but if we behaved that way individually we
would be called unscrupulous.
If someone is a police officer or soldier, their 'vocation'
allows them to use violence and intimidation even though such a thing would be
worthy of excommunication if they acted like that as an individual.
It is this doctrine of vocation which allows Christians to
leave their faith behind as they go to work. If they took their faith with
them, many of these false kingdom builders would either quit or get fired. This
doctrine has given them an excuse to compromise the Kingdom.
If this Dominionist calls me a heretic (as he would the
Waldensians and certainly the Anabaptists both past and present) then it is a
label I gladly embrace. Yes, your views are antithetical to what I believe the
Bible teaches and are dangerous, destructive, and represent the same Judaizing
spirit of Rome that has plagued the Church for centuries. It is a return to the
forms of the Old Testament seeking to understand the Kingdom in terms of
political power and unified civilization, a typology that has been fulfilled
and done away with.
The Common Grace culture of the world is God's way of
restraining sin while the gospel is at work. That's our business as Christians.
The other things while valid and necessary are secondary.
My hot water tank and drywall work will not be part of the
Kingdom. Cathedrals while theologically erroneous to begin with will look like
silly tinker toy creations when we are in heaven. The works of Rembrandt will
look like a child's crayon sketch. The scales of Bach will sound like a spoon
beating on a pan.
The Dominionists who believe these things will be part of
heaven have embraced an erroneous view of God's Kingdom. These works while
perhaps enjoyable (and perhaps not) are not 'redeemed'. They are not the fruits
of the Holy Spirit.
The adherents of Vocation will say that my ethos is 'to not
polish brass on a sinking ship', to just let the world fall apart. On the
contrary, we are very involved in the world. We are truth-tellers. We are salt
and light. Our presence, our antithesis drives the world mad and is a harbinger
of the coming judgment. We are like Noah, building the ark (not the Cainite civilization)
and proclaiming the coming Judgment. We live in their civilization and it vexes
us but we don't transform it.
Like the Jews in exile, we live in Babylon, we raise our
families, build our houses and tend our gardens. But we don't take over Babylon,
we don't make it into Zion. We don't sanctify their temples or build ours in
their capitals.
The Sacralist doesn't understand the nature of the Christian
life. It is rooted in self-denial. We aren't ignoring the world, detaching
ourselves from it and treating it as of no importance. We are not monastic's or
ascetics. We live in the world but we're not of it. We bear witness and we
glorify God by maintaining our faith and worshipping Him while the world seeks
to destroy us.
Here are some links to other articles related to these
topics....