Why do I spend so much
time writing about events in history and the news? Why probe into the inner
workings and dark secrets of power and those who would seek to wield it? Isn't
this is a distraction, a waste of time?
It can be. This is the battlefield, and spending all of our
time and energy on these things can crush us and wear us down. There are times
when we need to set this aside and focus exclusively on the Word, relish in a
commentary or theological work and wrestle with profound doctrines. These
things are done doxologically, in a spirit of worship. We never seek knowledge
just for the sake of acquiring it. It all serves a purpose, it must have an end
goal in sight. We are to glorify God even in our thought-life and the knowledge
we seek to obtain.
I strive to make sure I spend a good amount of time in the
Word and thinking about Biblical doctrine and not spend all my time on the
battle. We can lose sight of the goal, lose the forest through the trees and
get swept away.
But exposing the world and understanding it has a purpose.
On the one hand the world is that which is passing away and
we, laying up our treasures in heaven are not to be troubled by wars and
rumours of wars... the struggles for power, the control of money.
Even the world seems (at times) to grasp the spiritual and
political nature of money better than many a Christian does. I am reminded of
two song lines from my younger days.
With, without, and
who'll deny it's what the fighting's all about...
And gold is the reason
for the wars we wage...
While in one sense it doesn't matter and we're not to be
concerned, at the same time we are called to bear witness. Many have erred in
thinking it is our calling to transform, to recreate the City of Man into the
City of God. The City of Man is destined to burn in the fires of Judgment. But
what we're called to do is to be salt and light and warn the world that Christ
is coming. We are to testify to the truth, expose lies, cast down the
imaginations and idolatries of man. We are called to be an element of
agitation, seasoning, to be that something in the world that doesn't let fallen
humanity just go along with what it's doing.
This is the Antithesis applied. Our task can rightly be
called Negation. We with our lives and testimony regarding the truth 'cancel
out' the world system, its lies and the false hope it proffers.
Transformationalists seek to posit so-called Christian
alternatives but there are none but the Gospel. I do not mean the Gospel
attached to a world system, what is commonly called 'worldview'. They seek to
redefine the Gospel by incorporating aspects of civilisational building. But
this framework is the child of philosophical speculation not the fruit of
exegesis and the study of the Apostolic hermeneutic. The New Testament (which
defines the Old) knows nothing of this vision. Instead we are to bear witness
to the fact that Christ is returning and we are to live our lives in light of
that.
We don't have to offer alternatives to the world's systems of
politics, economics and society. Instead we critique them. Living among them we
display truth and love and defy the wisdom of the world. The only solution we
offer is the Kingdom of Heaven, the realm in which a true 'social system' is
and will be possible. This Kingdom is only accessible through the ministry of
the Holy Spirit. It is life in the Spirit. The world can neither see it nor
comprehend it.
But like the prophets of old we don't live in a separatist
vacuum. We are set apart, separate and called to live as strangers and pilgrims
on the earth, but to bear witness we have to be in the world and thus we had
better have our eyes open, we had better have some understanding. This implies
that we are necessarily outsiders within the culture. We apply the words of
Christ and understand that which the world esteems, mammon and all the power,
security and respectability it implies are things to be reckoned as abomination
in the sight of God (Luke 16).
We live in the world, suffering, struggling and yet
spiritually flourishing. We expose the lies of the nations, which necessarily
includes everything outside of The Nation, the Covenant Israel of God, The Holy
Kingdom, the Church of Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2, 1 Peter 1).
Like the prophets who denounced Edom and Moab, we denounce
America, Britain, Russia and China and any aspect of their pagan idolatries
that enter within the Covenant context of the Church. One thinks of Samaria as
an Old Testament example of this principle. Our rejections of worldly power are
not merely tied to the nation-state. We reject all power-systems which seek to
lift up the horn, to proclaim power in the sight of God and build a pseudo-Zion
in this present age. Thus we reject economic models whether it be Capitalism or
Communism. We reject all attempts at social structure whether it be tribalism,
the clan, the social contract, the claims of monarchy, democracy and all the
lies and tyrannies they generate.
And yet, we will happily live under any of them, function
within them and flourish as the Church. We will pay the tax, obey the law, show
respect but we won't bow the knee or venerate the symbols that represent the
idolatrous claims that seek to rival Zion.
To understand the danger of syncretism we necessarily (to a
degree) must understand the world systems and how they function, what
temptations they offer and how they twist and distort the reality of the world
in order to control the narrative, to create a means to power.
We criticise them to bear witness to the truth, and to help
us to wrestle with the issues, to be conscious of the antithesis between us and
the world around us.
By exposing the corruption of power from all sides, we can
proclaim its depravity to the world and avoid the pitfalls of syncretism. We
cannot live ignorantly in the false bliss that it generates. With eyes wide
open we dive into the world and engage in the great but largely hidden spiritual
war that the bulk of mankind is ignorant of. Some think the spiritual war is
manifested in the struggle for culture. They've lost their way when they try to
sacralise (make holy) that which cannot be redeemed. They are quite literally
fighting the wrong war. The true spiritual war is between those infused with
the Holy Spirit battling the demonic forces which seek to build Babel, and even
worse coerce the Church into helping them and confusing Babel with Zion.
Like the prophets of old we sit in the sphere of the covenant
and declare truth and thus judgment to the self-destructive world.
This is the venue and milieu in which we must live and
operate. There is a spiritual war that we see obscurely through the physical
world. We see the shadows of the actual activity. The culture is the project of
Cain. It is fallen man, through demonic influence trying to build a pseudo-Zion
and that's all he will ever be able to come up with. That said, that very
culture is a means God employs to keep the world from premature disintegration.
We benefit from it, though we must always remember what fallen culture is and
what it's seeking to do.
We don't fight the earthly shadows themselves which are but
distortions and vague manifestations of what is happening in the spiritual
realm.
We fight the actual evil with the triadic swords of word,
truth and light, as well as love, prayer and faith. God will judge those who
are outside but we bear witness to that judgment. Our main battlefield is
actually within the Church itself. It is there that we must guard against the
false prophets. The New Testament is far more worried about the battle within
the Church than dealing with the outside world. If you've missed that, then you
need to revisit the New Testament.
But part of that guarding is to understand the words they (the
infiltrators) bring, the lies of the cursed world that they seek to integrate
with Biblical doctrine.
That's where the enemy can do great harm and choke the faith
of many with the riches and cares of this world. How convenient that so many
Christians have embraced a form of doctrine which teaches one's faith cannot be
choked, the ideas of endurance and perseverance are simply semantic tools and
that sanctification and mortification are more or less optional. In fact
focusing on these Biblical doctrines and literally following the words of the
text leads one to somehow detract from the grace of God! Focusing on one
eschatological aspect of Scripture and elevating human reason, they have
dangerously negated whole spheres of truth and have opened themselves up to
what can only be called a type of blindness, a theological myopia when it comes
to the true dangers of error and its ultimate end.
What is the telos, the end or purpose of studying history and
talking about what is happening in the worlds of politics, economics and
culture?
We do this to know the truth of the fallen lapsed world as it
really is, to know how to live in light of the Kingdom and to help others see
the futility of the world order.
We do it to help believers to see through the false theologies
of worldview synthesis. There is a principle of rejection demonstrated to us in
the Word. That should be all too clear. But in terms of apologetic practicality
and application it's good to see the Word applied in terms of discernment. The
more we see there is no alternative but Christ, our faith is strengthened.
Our criticisms must not be political in motivation. We're not
engaging in criticism in order to garner to power or to take over as it were.
As Christ says, his servants do not 'fight' for this Kingdom. We don't aid it,
construct it, advance it or defend it through the use of power. It's not
politics or the threat of the sword (politics applied) that helps us in this.
Christ did not come to cast down Caesar. That will happen
when He comes in flaming fire bringing vengeance on those who reject Him. Our
task is to follow the way of the cross, to imitate our Lord's earthly ministry
and pattern our lives after Him. We are to live as those who are already seated
in the heavens, but like our saviour we now dwell on the sin-cursed Earth of
This Age.
It was only a false Christianity that neither rejected nor
cast down Caesar, but instead transformed Christianity to embrace Caesar and incorporate
Caesar into the paradigm of the Kingdom and Church. This is the Christian form
of Sacralism also known as Constantinianism. This is the fruit of Dominionist
impulse, the theology that believes the Kingdom is worldly, manifested in temporal
power. This resulting syncretism is what is today also being marketed as
Christian Worldview teaching.
It isn't Christian at all. It's syncretistic and rejects the
Christian ethic, the Biblical notion of Antithesis vis-à-vis the world.
We criticise, but again our motivations are not political.
The world will hate us anyway because of the offense of the Gospel and because
we reject their false gospels and pseudo-Zion projects.
We don't judge them in the sense of possessing an implied
authority or in terms of passing and executing sentence. We proclaim the Judge
who is to come. He will judge them indeed.
We expose them, denounce them and help the Church to see the
truth, to see reality which the Bible teaches us is spiritual and only
discernible by those who are sanctified in the Spirit. We cast down their
self-exaltations and propaganda, reject their claims, and most important of all
when it comes to Christian Sacralism, we reject their ideology and
meta-narratives and demonstrate them as unbiblical and in fact historical lies.
This is why it's worthwhile to understand something of the
synthesis they work toward. We don't have to be experts. In a way our job is easy.
We do not build, we negate and destroy (2 Corinthians 10.1-6). The Spirit rebuilds and we build too but our
treasures and work are in heaven.
Through the Spirit we bring all of our thoughts into
captivity to Christ. This is not accomplished through the so-called
Christianisation of culture. This is a sham, a veneer. It creates a Pharisaic
hypocrisy and in no way fulfills or can fulfill what the Apostle is talking
about. It's not a mandate to build new 'Christianised' systems to conquer and
rule the world. It is a call to Antithesis.
The false gospel of Sacralism redefines good works and thus
is confused in its reading and understanding of the world around us. By means
of this flawed outlook, the pagans unwittingly can help in building the
Kingdom, because the Kingdom is all but defined as civilisation. Building
civilisation becomes a spiritual 'good work'.
But according to Scripture, building, laying up foundation
stones and treasures in heaven is Gospel-work, redemptive work. It's the realm
of the Holy Spirit, convicting of sin, responding in repentance, faith, worship
and prayer. It is Spirit-wrought love.
It has nothing to do with earning money, building businesses,
delving into the arts or building political frameworks. We cannot sanctify that
which the Gentiles seek after, that which serves a temporary even momentary purpose,
but will not be part of eternity.
Dominionist synthesis equates redemption with world conquest
(under the euphemism of improvement). We are to bear witness to the destruction
of this world and the hope of the New Heavens and Earth. We are groaning for
the redemption, the return of Christ. Though Sacralist Dominionism has spread
to many circles there's a reason why it is most at home in the venue of
Postmillennialism. That system does not look for the return of Christ and does
not call upon its people to live in light of that. They believe He will come, but
it's not something they look for. Until they manifest Zion on Earth, He cannot
come. Read through the New Testament and try and find that mindset. It's not
there (1 Peter 3). It's quite foreign to the New Testament because in fact it
rejects the Apostolic hermeneutic and reads the Old Testament in Judaized
fashion in a way very similar to the Pharisees.
Not all Christians are going to be inclined to study these
things out. That's between them and God. We're all at different places and stages
in life. We all have different mentalities. We have different gifts and ways of
serving the Body.
Some will be content with a casual understanding. Others want
more and to understand the patterns and systems operating in the world, for
their own benefit and toward a hope that they can truly 'discern' and help
other believers. It's not for everyone nor is it required.
But for some, some wrestling with their place in the world,
how to live, how to be faithful, then these are questions they must think
about.
This is why I read and think about these things. I write to
share my thoughts and observations and it is my hope that others will benefit
from what I have written and be provoked and challenged to think more deeply
about these questions and study the issues.