T The Church is Treasonous
- 17 December 2023
It is necessary to briefly enumerate the specific failures of the modern evangelical Church and to point out that only a THEONOMIC worldview provides the necessary Christian worldview required by humble-minded saints (see Ps 16:3) to RECONSTRUCT civilisation (i.e. promote full-orbed salvation) to the glory of God in principled obedience to Jesus’ Great Commission (Matt 28:18). Accordingly, REPENTANCE is required by the Church for…
- Its abandonment of the Dominion mandate (Gen 1:28) issued primordially at creation and which has never been rescinded – but rather ratified (see Ps 8)
- Its refusal to see this world – God’s creation – as the theatre of God’s redemption (Col 1:16-20) which is NOW being renewed and made ready for resurrection (Ps 110; 1Cor 15:25) and the revelation of the sons of God (Rom 8:19)
- Its contempt for Scripture (Matt 13:9-17) and its wilful determination to subordinate serious study of Scripture beneath eating, drinking, recreational pursuits, personal aggrandizement, etc (Matt 4:4).
- Its refusal to receive Scriptural teaching for the prosecution of EVERY human enterprise (2Tim 3:16) including thinking itself! (Prov 1:9; 2Cor 10:4-6)
- Its reduction of the scope of the gospel to the saving of souls (Heb 5:12-14)
- Its consequential failure to provide, as absolutely essential, Christian education for its children aimed at nurturing a comprehensive Biblical worldview (Ps 36:9)
- Its ignorance of God’s remarkable providence throughout redemptive history and therefore its wilful neglect of its political mandate to affirm the crown rights of Christ’s authority in every social sphere – church, family and state.
- Its insistence that fidelity to Christ is simplistically gauged by fidelity to a local visible gathering and casual consent to ‘protestant popes’ who effectively restrain the sheep from fully entering God’s righteous kingdom (see Jn 10:12-13; Matt 23:13).
- Its resistance to correction through the wilful ignorance of its leadership to the messages & ministries of those God has raised up in recent years to promote a return to authentic, full-orbed, Christianity – e.g. Kuyper, Van Til, FN Lee, Rushdoony, Bahnsen, North, Schaeffer, Boot et al (see Eph 4:11-14).
- Its evident corruption and blindness in sanctioning the outrageous lies of Big Gov’t, international Deep State (Mr Global!) & mainstream media during the recent Cov-19 ‘pandemic’ (Matt 24:24; Gal 3:1; 1Chron 12:32)
- Its failure to recognise the centrality of God’s covenant as a vehicle for the outworking of the Church’s sanctification in history and the redemption of all culture (Ps 100).
For all of these failings – and for much more besides – the contemporary evangelical Church is to be indicted for its treachery. Jesus said, “Why do you call me Lord, Lord and do not what I say?” (Luke 6:46) These great truths are not obscure. Neither are they hidden beneath a quagmire of intellectual hubris. If they are hidden (see Matt 13:13) they are hidden in plain sight! All that’s required is a humble/teachable spirit and the willingness to follow on notwithstanding all earthly opposition.
Treason is a traditionally a capital crime. It arises for various reasons. Let’s try to tease some of them out:
First and foremost is our failure to recognise the virtue we possess as creatures made in the image of God. Darwinism and cosmic evolution represent a terrible lie. Quite apart from the obvious damage done to our confidence in Biblical truth, they posit a spurious metaphysics which reduces humanity to complex material machines whose raison d’etre is mere ‘survival’. There is no basis for ethical choice. Inevitably, human teleology is undermined. We capitulate to living out our lives as a stream of existential moments which we flatter ourselves possess some sort of meaning signified by the posting of our fleeting memories on Facebook or various other social media platforms.
But our high calling to subjugate the world as Christ’s stewards and for God’s greater glory is hard-wired into every molecule of our being. The infant reaching out its hand to touch the mobile turning overhead slowly in its cot reveals this basic fact. Throughout life we learn progressively to master new skills and abilities which we unwittingly put to good use by God’s common grace. Great artisans, poets, technologists, etc, do what they do in fulfilment of God’s immanent presence among them (Acts 17:27-28); St Paul tells us that all men secretly know God (Rom 1:21) but schizophrenically pretend otherwise (Rom 1:18). It is our apologetical calling to declare this metaphysical reality and to urge all men everywhere to become more epistemologically self-conscious. There will be no excuses for not knowing on Judgement Day. Our job is to call all men everywhere to repent and yield their hearts and minds to their Creator and Redeemer (Lu 13:1-5).
I stumbled upon a small booklet authored by Dr Peter Masters (Metropolitan Tabernacle – London) back in 1990. In it Masters attempts to debunk ‘the high ambition of reconstructionism’ which he cuttingly infers smacks of ‘World Dominion’ – the book’s title. The thoughtful reader is left scratching his head wondering however Masters could imagine the Great Commission Jesus left us (Matt 28:18-20) meant something different! Alas, the book lays bare the validity of these indictments. Everyone of Master’s pseudo-arguments against the robust theological polemic of Rushdoony, Bahnsen et al, represent piffle – straw-men sophistry easily debunked by any serious bible scholar. But, hey Dr Masters, bravo for at least venturing to engage with some of the issues.
I am reminded of the final words of Joshua to Israel before he was taken from them. Please read Josh 23 & 24. Joshua rehearsed briefly the way God had providentially blessed them (23:14, 24:1-13); he reminded them of God’s great promises to bless them with success for covenant faithfulness (23:5-6; 9-10); he warned them of becoming culturally syncretistic (23:7,8,11); he warned them that for treachery and infidelity to His covenant they would suffer humiliation & defeat (23:13,15-16). All of this was summarised in 24:14-25.
Now, any fair-minded follower of Christ must look upon this present season of redemptive progress and wonder why God has abandoned us to such universal folly and cosmopolitan wokeness. We have been treasonous; we have been led by turncoats; worldliness has suffocated our way of thinking. This short volume represents Joshua’s stone of witness (24:26-27). ‘If it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord’ (Josh 24:15).
