A Dutch Reformed Reading of the Cultural Mandate and Psalm 8

Recently I was re-reading a book of essays on Klaas Schilder and on the question of Christ and Culture, NH Gootjes asks if the cultural mandate changed radically after the Fall? Psalm 8 show the opposite, he asserts. 'Man has been given dominion over the works of God's hands (v.6). Man can rule over God's creation as Joseph ruled over Egypt (Gen. 45:8, 26). The psalm reminds us of Genesis 1. Man still has the position in creation as he had in the beginning, sin notwithstanding.'*

The Covenant of Works and Mosaic Law Misapplied

https://www.douglasvandorn.com/post/a-christian-nation-or-the-covenant-of-works-applied-to-the-nations-undoing-bad-christian-argument

If it was our duty to redeem culture or apply Christian teachings to society, the end result would not be in keeping with the vision of Right-wing Republicanism. A study of Europe and the rise of Christian Social Teaching (of which Abraham Kuyper is the Reformed representative) reveal that those wrestling with these questions are just as likely to come to very different conclusions than what has emerged within the American theological and political spectrum. For these Americans, 'Biblical' turns out to be something that arose within a specifically American context and mindset.

Vocation, Dominion and The Banner of Truth (Part 2)

Cyber-security isn't 'loving others' any more than is banking, delivering mail or building stairs. Some (and only some) of these jobs can become 'loving' if they're done gratuitously. That's an aspect of ministry or Christian service.

Vocation, Dominion and The Banner of Truth (Part 1)

https://banneroftruth.org/us/resources/articles/2018/a-new-testament-professors-rediscovery-of-the-doctrine-of-vocation/

I apologise in advance to long-time readers. This interaction will probably prove redundant but I do it anyway, hoping that maybe a few new readers will be grabbed by what I'm saying and turn away from a pernicious but popular error and one of the rotten harvests of the Reformation.

Inbox: Lutheranism, Kuyper and the Two Kingdoms

In terms of the differences between the confessional Lutheran position and my own maybe I can shed a little light, but I will be brief and paint with a broad brush. I'm also throwing a variant of Reformed Theology into the mix because I think it's pertinent and may shed a little light for some readers on a seemingly obscure point of dispute in contemporary Reformed circles.

The Cultural Mandate

The Cultural Mandate or sometimes the Dominion Mandate refers to the command in Genesis 1.28 to be fruitful and multiply, to subdue the earth and to take dominion. Those that refer to it today believe it is still in effect and largely unmodified.

Two Articles on Reformed Two Kingdom Theology (II)

For some readers this is revisiting old ground. But some find it helpful to continually revisit these basic themes. These two posts are responses to two articles. The articles are fairly brief and helpful in providing a matrix for this discussion. I hope that those who are still struggling with understanding these issues can read these pieces and my responses and in the end come to a fuller understanding of just what is at stake.

 

http://www.reformation21.org/articles/the-two-kingdoms-doctrine-whats-the-fuss-all-about-part-one.php

The second piece by Tuininga is actually much less helpful and far more guilty of generalization and at times misrepresentation. But it's still worth looking at.

Two Articles on Reformed Two Kingdom Theology (I)

For some readers this is revisiting old ground. But some find it helpful to continually revisit these basic themes. These two posts are responses to two articles. The articles are fairly brief and helpful in providing a matrix for this discussion. I hope that those who are still struggling with understanding these issues can read these pieces and my responses and in the end come to a fuller understanding of just what is at stake.

American Evangelicals Beating the War Drum Against Iran Part 2

Americans view Iran as the aggressor but imagine if you will...China conquering Canada and Mexico and sailing warships along our coast, tailing our ships etc... and then in the Chinese media the United States is denounced as dangerous and an aggressor, a threat to China. Asserting the United States was in a position of aggression would of course be laughable, and the United States would be taking drastic action I assure you. The Iranians are in just such a situation.

In 2002 George Bush identified Iran as a member of the Axis of Evil...coined by an Evangelical speech writer of course. Iraq fell shortly thereafter; North Korea went nuclear and even though they've been far more aggressive toward South Korea than Iran has toward any other country....and guess what? They're left alone.

Saul's Politics pt. 2

 Today I was thinking about the law and the great importance placed upon it by those in the Evangelical sphere. They place such an emphasis on the constructs of the law, precedent and technical language in order to prove their argument that America is a Christian country, and to employ the law in shaping the culture.

Cronkrite's Kingdom: A response

Not Walter Cronkite, but we will tell it the way it is. This article was interesting. Cronkrite is considerably more thoughtful than the famous lemming with the similar sounding last name. There's a bit of a nuance in his thought, and not a little wisdom.



So close, but yet so far. An interaction with Cronkrite

National Confession and Explicitly Christian Politics sound great, but are they in accord with Scripture?

 National Confession, national repentance? How could anyone argue against that? It sounds pure and God honouring, but is it? The entire sphere of this discussion stems from a basic misunderstanding of the Bible and its teaching regarding the Kingdom of God.



The text article is below, or you can follow the link.... at Explicitly Christian Politics



My response/interaction follows.

Maurina's Critique of www.proto-protestantism.blogspot.com

Sorry some of these recent posts have been so long, but rather than divide them up I've just posted them. If you're here, you know the importance of these issues.

Here's my response/interaction with DT Maurina. This was posted over at a URCNA discussion group. I thought he was pretty fair, but that does not alleviate our significant differences which were pretty clear in the GreenBaggins exchange. They will also be clear here…….

This is yet another excellent opportunity to examine One Kingdom/Dominionist/Sacralist thought and how it perceives what people like me are saying.

The Great Commission, Dominionist Style

Dominionism embraces the The Great Commission of Matthew 28, the message of Redemption provided by Christ for those who are born again and have a saving faith in His person and work.

But, because they also believe the Cultural Mandate of Genesis 1 is still in effect and unmodified, the Church, or at least individual Christians have an EQUALLY important commission.........to take Dominion over the earth.

Some of them will openly use phrases like: the gospel is not enough........

Dominionism- What are its goals, and how does it seek to achieve them?

This is basically a summary of what this project and website are all about. Sorry this is kind of long, but since there are a lot of new readers here as of late I wanted to post this. It's nothing new to longtime visitors, but I've tried to piece together and encapsulate several of the main themes I've written about. Anything that's brought up here has already been written about in more detail in other posts.

I'm critiquing Dominionism and for my other responses and interactions to make sense, you have to know where I'm coming from. There are others out there arguing along lines that are similar, but I'm approaching this a specific way that I've not found anywhere else. So while some of what I'm saying might be familiar to both friend and foe, there are ideas I'm bringing out that will be new to some readers. Not constrained by Reformed Confessionalism and/or Reformed denominational commitments, I'm also able to speak a little more directly to what I think some of the problems are.



As a follow on, a sort of Part 2, I will respond to the critique of this website by DT Maurina. He is offering a broad critique of my ideas, so I provides a unique and excellent opportunity to interact. I already posted his text at the end of the GreenBaggins discussion post. D.V., I'll re-post the text with my comments in the very near future.

Advancing the Kingdom- (Part 6) Winning by Losing

Part six of my four part series.....

We have a joke around our house. When I call home during the day and ask if we received any phone calls or mail, if the answer is no, I always respond, "Good, we don't need any excitement." And there's a sense I truly mean that. There's a peace and solace in just living a plain ordinary life, coming home to a wife happy to see me, kids that aren't out of control. We live in a pretty quiet place with not much to do as many would reckon it. Nevertheless we are pleased with our woods, hills, and river, and the wonder of the four seasons. We are attempting to raise a godly family and honour God by doing so. I am reminded of a paragraph from Schaff concerning the youth of Christ. I think of this not from the perspective of Christ, but from the viewpoint of Joseph and Mary, a couple of regular people trying to serve the Lord, and with a most extraordinary task before them. Certainly they were honouring God, and I think of the life they provided for our Lord when he was young. Speaking of this, Schaff comments:

Advancing the Kingdom- (Part 3) The Sacralist Hybrid

 Now, these have been general outlines of the two extremes. There's actually another camp which represents probably a much larger number of professing Christians.

The only name I can come up with is Pietistic Transformationalism, a hybrid of the two. A Sacralist hybrid.

This seems to be where most American Evangelicals find themselves, though the present manifestation can be pinpointed to the late 1970's. These movements are always grounded in a specific historical context. In a later post I hope discuss an earlier historic parallel which generated a similar response from Sacralist Protestantism. Our present form has been shaped by the American context in general, but more specifically it represents a reactionary response to the cultural revolution originating in the 1960's.

Advancing the Kingdom of Christ (Part 2 of 4) The Error of Transformationalism

Transformationalism seemingly stands at the opposite end of the Christ and Culture debate, and in some sense it is, but it's built on the same foundation as Pietism.


While rejecting Pietistic subjectivism and looking at the inward experience, this camp instead looks outward and gauges the Christian life in reference to one's impact on culture. They seek to build and conquer culture and tend to despise any hint of what they call retreatism.

Common Grace Culture

updated 29 June 2012

The other day I stumbled across a blog post related to music, 'pagan beats' and its dangers. I tried to post a comment, but it won't come up. Maybe they didn't like what I had to say? I find very few Christians interested in genuine discussion. It seems like Christian news and a lot of Christian radio programs are kind of hack jobs or at the very least misleading. The way the discussion is framed you can immediately tell what conclusion they want you to come up with. I hope that's not the case with this particular website I interacted with.

Attaching the term 'pagan' to a category of beat assumes the categories of sacred and secular music are valid. I would argue they are not.

#3 Early Dissenters

Schaff's colleague John Nevin wrote a fascinating essay entitled "Early Christianity." It is available in his book "Catholic and Reformed, Selected Theological Writings of John Williamson Nevin," published by The Pickwick Press.
In this work Nevin argues the old Puritan argument of a rapid decline in the church's obedience to the Apostolic Doctrine is ridiculous. He argues that such corruptions and deviations could not have taken place during a period so short as from the death of John around the year 100AD until the time of Constantine. For the whole character of Christianty to have changed, as per the old Protestant argument, there would have been massive protest of which we have very little documentation. It's as if he's saying, "C'mon, where's the proof?"
We've always argued the proof comes from the New Testament being set next to the post-persecution church of the 4th century. Something obviously happened. Nevin would say the argument of Apostolic Tradition must have some validity. If he's right, my flesh wishes he was…then we all need to go to Rome or Constantinople. We are all outside the church. But I can say with confidence from a simple reading of the Bible that Nevin is dead wrong.