Tuesday, January 8, 2013

A 7 Mt./Reconstruction/Dominionism Intro

  • Soup McGee
    ‎""R.J. Rushdoony:— The Council of Chalcedon in 451 AD declared that Jesus Christ was “very God
    of very God and very man of very man, truly man and truly God, two natures without confusion but
    in perfect union.” Now what this did was to block the possibility of any other incarnation of God. The
    most common such incarnation was in the state. The state either through its office or through its ruler
    or through a particular line was held to be divine, god walking on earth. So that the Prime Minister, like
    Joseph in Egypt, was a high priest. That’s why he married priest’s daughter. He could not be the Prime
    Minister and the high priest of Egypt without that marriage.
    “And Pharaoh ... gave him to wife Asenath the daughter of Potipherah priest of On. And Joseph
    went out over all the land of Egypt” (Gen. 41:45).
    With the Council of Chalcedon the church made clear that there could be no confusion. Jesus Christ
    is the unique Incarnation. Since then, we’ve had Hegel tell us that the state is God walking on earth.
    And whether you are a member of one of the parties on the left or right, you are Hegelian. Republicans
    and Democrats each in their own way are Hegelian.
    Then the Church has seen itself in ancient pagan terms as a continuation of the Incarnation. Protestants
    reject that doctrine, but it’s creeping into Protestantism on other grounds. The Church is the
    Body of Christ and therefore somehow the Church is God’s voice on earth. But the Body of Christ refers
    to the humanity of Christ. The regenerate of Christ are the new humanity of the new Adam, the last
    Adam, Jesus Christ. We were born in the old humanity of Adam; we are reborn in the new humanity
    of Jesus Christ.
    “The first Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit” (1 Cor.
    15:45)."
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    • Soup McGee ---from the sullivan county link below--
      "As Above, So Below

      Reconstructionism is the most intellectually grounded, though esoteric, brand of dominion theology. Its leading proponent has been Rousas John (R.J.) Rushdoony, an obscure figure within the Christian Right. Born in 1916, the son of Armenian immigrants to the U.S., Rushdoony looks like an Old Testament patriarch with his white hair and beard. At a young age Rushdoony was strongly influenced by Westminster Theological Seminary professor Cornelius Van Til, a Dutch theologian who emphasized the inerrant authority of the Bible and the irreconcilability between believers and unbelievers. A recent issue of Rushdoony's monthly Chalcedon Report noted his Armenian background. Since the year 320, every generation of the Rushdoony family has produced a Christian priest or minister. "There was Armenian royalty in the Rushdoony blood, and a heritage of defending the faith, often by sword and gun, against Godless foes bent on destroying a people of faith and works."

      With that auspicious heritage, Rushdoony founded the Chalcedon Foundation in California in the mid-1960s. One of the Foundation's early associates was Gary North who eventually married Rushdoony's daughter. North had been active within secular libertarian and anti-Communist organizations, particularly those with an anti-statist bent.

      Rushdoony and North had a falling out and ceased collaboration years ago. North started his own think tank, the Institute for Christian Economics in Tyler, Texas. Rushdoony, North, and about a half dozen other reconstructionist writers have published countless books and journals advocating post-millennialism and "theonomy" or the application of God's law to all spheres of everyday life. In his rhetorical crusades against secular humanists and against most other Christians, North is fond of saying "You can't beat something with nothing."

      North has geared his writing for popular audiences; some of his books are available in Christian book stores. Rushdoony's writing is more turgid and also more controversial. It was Rushdoony's seminal 1973 tome The Institutes of Biblical Law that articulated Reconstructionists' vision of a theocracy in which Old Testament law would be reinstated in modern society. Old Testament law classified a wide range of sins as punishable by death; these included not only murder and rape but also adultery, incest, homosexuality, witchcraft, incorrigible delinquency by youth, and even blasphemy. In the Reconstructionists' vision of a millennial or "kingdom" society, there would be only local governments; there would be no central administrative state to collect property taxes, nor to provide education or other welfare services.

      Aside from Rushdoony and North, Reconstructionism boasts only a few other prolific writers. These include Dr. Greg Bahnsen, Rev. Joseph Morecraft, David Chilton, Gary DeMar, and Kenneth Gentry, none of whom are major figures within the Christian Right. They are quoted more often in liberal reports than in the Christian Right's own literature.

      The unabashed advocacy of a Christian theocracy has insured a limited following for the most explicit of the Reconstructionists, who have also been sectarian in their sharp criticism of evangelicals. North, for example, has published a series of attacks on believers in the pre-millennial version of when Christ will come back.

      Perhaps even more than the punitive legal code they propose, it is the Reconstructionists' religion of Calvinism that makes them unlikely to appeal to most evangelicals. Calvinism is the by now almost archaic belief that God has already preordained every single thing that happens in the world. Most importantly, even one's own salvation or condemnation to hell is already a done deal as far as God is concerned. By this philosophical scheme, human will is not involved in changing the course of history. All that is left for the "righteous" to do is to play out their pre- ordained role, including their God-given right to dominate everyone else. "
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  • Soup McGee
    ‎""""In A Christian Manifesto, Schaeffer's argument is simple. The United States began as a nation rooted in Biblical principles. But as society became more pluralistic, with each new wave of immigrants, proponents of a new philosophy of secular humanism gradually came to dominate debate on policy issues. Since humanists place human progress, not God, at the center of their considerations, they pushed American culture in all manner of ungodly directions, the most visible results of which included legalized abortion and the secularization of the public schools. At the end of A Christian Manifesto, Schaeffer calls for Christians to use civil disobedience to restore Biblical morality, which explains Schaeffer's popularity with groups like Operation Rescue. Randall Terry has credited Schaeffer as a major influence in his life.

    In the 1980s, some of the younger men Schaeffer influenced joined a group called the Coalition on Revival (COR), founded by Jay Grimstead. Grimstead, a veteran of the old Young Life missionary group, had decided that evangelicals were insufficiently literalist in their reading of the Bible. Grimstead founded COR with two purposes. One was to unify pastors who differed on questions of "eschatology," which is the study of the end-times and the question of when Christ will return. Most evangelicals have held the pre-millennial belief that Christ will return before a 1,000 year reign by believers. Grimstead and others in COR are post-millennialists who believe their job is establish the kingdom of God on earth now; Christ will return only after Christians have been in charge for 1,000 years. COR's second purpose, consistent with post-millennialism, was the development of position papers, called "world view documents," on how to apply dominion theology to Christian Right activism in more than a dozen spheres of social life, including education, economics, law, and even entertainment.

    Much of the liberal writing on dominion theology and Reconstructionism has focused on COR as headquarters for a conspiracy to take over society. Grimstead and his colleagues advocated running stealth candidates in selected counties as early as 1986. But in recent years, COR has served as little more than a clearinghouse for Grimstead's position papers. As an organization, COR is largely inactive. Like the Moral Majority of the early 1980s, COR was a network of pastors, all busy with their own projects.

    If COR had any effect, though, it was in reinforcing ideas about taking dominion."""
    Like · · · · 4 minutes ago
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  • Soup McGee
    ‎"""The Dominion Process
    By Mark Pfeifer

    Definition:Dominion Eschatology is the examination of future events through the lens of the dominion mandate in Genesis 1:28 and in Matthew 28:19-20.

    It assumes the influence of the church will increase on earth until Jesus returns.This view stands against some opposing views which see the influence of the church waning in the last days.

    It does not intend to imply absolute dominion, as in a sinless earth, but a preparatory dominion, as in the earth being prepared for the return of the King.

    Thesis: There are three main points that this presentation seeks to substantiate.

    "God's purpose for humanity was to bless a people so that they could possess and bless the earth."


    (1) God's covenant people taking dominion of the earth has been the main theme of every covenant that God has ever made with mankind.The New Covenant for the church is no different with its expectation of dominion by making disciples of all nations.

    (2) The Dominion Process is two-fold.First, human beings are blessed by God.Secondly, these blessed human beings are given a mandate to take dominion of the earth for the purpose of blessing it.

    (3) The first advent of Christ was for the purpose of creating a blessed seed upon the earth - the church.The second coming of Jesus will take place after this blessed seed has completed the Dominion Process upon the earth by making disciples of all nations." Not my words...so, read this to catch up a bit: http://www.yuricareport.com/Dominionism/TheDespoilingOfAmerica.htm
    Like · · · · 5 minutes ago
    "One of the more peculiar groups among the Religious Right are the Reconstructionists. Sympathetic followers are on every major Religious Right board. The group preaches Theocracy which believes the idea of separation of church and state is a sin. They believe that a nation is only blessed that allows Biblical teaching to be the law of the land. To these people, Christianity is the official religion of America · Religious Freedom is a social wrong. The founder of Reconstructionism is R. J · Rushdoony, a one time John Birch Society member. (The John Birch Society is highly active in the South. The Mississippi State Fair used to have a Society booth on the campground · ) Rushdoony's followers have promoted slavery as a Biblical idea worth repeating · In a recent issue of Rushdoony's "Chalcedon Report", the Old South was glorified. Rev. Rushdoony believed the Old South was basically Christian and was fighting a Unitarian North. He fringes upon making the Southern cause a type of Holy War · He concedes the South lost the war for not following God's law more accurately. Rushdoony is from California but glamorizes a fictional Southern Culture. In contrast to what many considered an outdated feudal system, one author in the magazine calls attention to the fact that to some it "seems the golden era in American history was the Antebellum South instead of the once revered era of the Pilgrims and the Puritans · " The magazine reads like a journal published by the Confederates just before the war.

    Rushdoony points out how the South was as he called it, "Calvinist". This is a Fundamentalist view about predestination and conversion. Once shunned by Southern Baptist, now many Fundamentalists Southern Baptists want to make five point Calvinism a test of faith. Southern Baptist's oldest seminary has now been taken over by a president who is a Calvinist · The story keeps unfolding.

    Many political observers among the Religious Right claim the problems in the black community were brought on by the Federal government. It is a vision common to southern folklore that blacks were all right until the interventionist came South with their social programs."
    Like · · · · 2 seconds ago
    "There is plenty of reason why Mr. van Til should be concerned. Christian Reconstructionism considers democracy/freedom a heresy. Its distortion/reconstruction of American Christian traditions is used to justify its evil. Its social and religious dogma promotes genocide, enslavement, and terror to promote the delusions of a self-chosen royal race to dominion over the earth. They see themselves in religious terms as a new "master religion" whose destiny is to crush all others in the name of God.

    Except for perhaps Christian Identity, Christian Reconstructionism has to be one of the worse perversions of Christianity ever devised. It is the personal political opinions of its founders wrapped in a form of hyper-Calvinism totally stripped of anything Jesus ever said (they claim Jesus' moral teachings are for Jews only) while preaching a society stripped of all freedoms and personal choice. Every facet of society, government, family, schools, etc, would be "reconstructed" along Old Testament lines. This includes the death penalty for abortion, homosexuals, atheists and other non-believers, blasphemy, etc.

    According Rushdoony son-in-law Gary North in a letter to Paul Hill in relation to the killing of Dr. Gunn at an abortion clinic in Florida:

    "The sixth commandment reads, "Thou shalt not kill" (Ex. 20:13). The God who mandates this is also the God who ordered the total annihilation of the Canaanites (Deut. 7:16), so this verse cannot legitimately be interpreted as a defense of pacifism." "What is murder, biblically speaking? It is the slaying of a human being by someone who has not been authorized to do so as a covenantal agent ...the authorization to execute a transgressor under the Mosaic covenant was ordained by God and revealed in His law."

    So it isn't murder as long as it is for religious reasons. Everyone who doesn't submit to their perverted version of God is in fact Canaanites. This group is the driving force behind Operation Rescue and Randal Terry.

    While it is true that most Christian fundamentalists don't agree with all of their theology, they do agree with their social agenda that all functions in life, including the Constitution, Bill of Rights, and all civil law be subordinated to the Bible. All society will be run according to their version of the New Testament (as opposed to the OT, the one point they disagree) and all of those who don't fall in line will be dealt with. Its founder R.J. Rushdoony has had his books endorsed by Jerry Falwell, has appeared on the 700 Club, and is a past associate of John Whitehead of the Virginia based Rutherford Institute. (He is claimed by many to run the organization, which is denied by Whitehead.) Their influence is wide spread yet most fundamentalists try to distance themselves publicly from this group for good reasons.

    This cult is also the driving force behind home schooling, vouchers, and efforts to destroy public education. Part of their bizarre scheme is to train legions of Christian soldiers with home schooling to overthrow secular society. In their words:

    So let us be blunt about it: we must use the doctrine of religious liberty to gain independence for Christian schools until we train up a generation of people who know that there is no religious neutrality, no neutral law, no neutral education, and no neutral civil government. Then they will get busy in constructing a Bible-based social, political and religious order which finally denies the religious liberty of the enemies of God.

    So says his son-in-law Gary North, "The Intellectual Schizophrenia of the New Christian Right" in Christianity and Civilization: The Failure of the American Baptist Culture, No. 1 (Spring, 1982), p. 25. Gary North (I.C.E. Free Books) is also the biggest distributor of literature for home schoolers. They also call for an end to income taxes, end to most government functions, etc. The Christian Right agenda down the line. There is no conspiracy here, these folks operate in the open and they mean what they say.

    For more on this and Gary North see
    Dominion Theology by Sara Diamond
    There's something about Gary
    Interview with Gary North King of Chistian Economics

    As Americans we should be patriotic to our country and its laws but according to these people, "the bottom line is that at a certain point there is not only the right, but the duty, to disobey the state." (See Patriotism) Thus America, its institutions, and the very ideas of freedom are to be disregarded and the only patriotism allowed is to their perverted bible-god. The Bible clearly states we are to obey the law. This is just one of many non-biblical opinions they promote. It's no wonder so many fundamentalists hint at armed overthrow of the government.

    In a nutshell the main ideas of this cult are:

    Christian Reconstructionism is a belief that society, particularly in the United States, has seriously degenerated morally and religiously and must be totally rebuilt to Biblical standards. (Their version only.)

    Dominion Theology is derived from Genesis 1:26 of the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament): "Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, in our likeness and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth and over all the creatures that move along the ground.'" (NIV) Most Christians interpret this verse as meaning that God gave mankind dominion over the animal kingdom. Dominion theologians believe that that this verse commands Christians to bring all societies, around the world, under the rule of the Word of God. Thus DOMINION.

    Theonomy (Greek for "God's Law") is the concept that all of the non-ceremonial laws given to Moses and recorded in the Pentateuch (the first 5 books of the Hebrew Scriptures) are binding on people of all nations forever. That means the Old Testament was not done away by Jusus' death on the cross. This is why so many fundamentalists are so adament over the Ten Commandments and ignore the teachings of Jesus in Matthew/Mark/Luke."
    Like · · · · 2 seconds ago
    "The Atheist, the Pervert, the Criminal, And...

    Segregation or separation is thus a basic principle of Biblical law with respect to religion and morality. Every attempt to destroy this principle is an effort to reduce society to its lowest common denominator. Toleration is the excuse under which this levelling is undertaken, but the concept of toleration conceals a radical intolerance. In the name of toleration, the believer is asked to associate on a common level of total acceptance with the atheist, the pervert, the criminal, and the adherents of other religions as though no differences existed.

    R.J. Rushdoony, The Institutes of Biblical Law (Nutley, NJ: Craig Press, 1973), p. 294. "


    Soup McGee
    ‎"Non-Reconstructionist Christians

    All who are content with a humanistic law system and do not strive to replace it with Biblical law are guilty of idolatry. They have forsaken the covenant of their God, and they are asking us to serve other gods. They are thus idolaters, and are, in our generation, when our world is idolatrous and our states also, to be objects of missionary activity. They must be called out of their idolatry into the service of the living God.

    "Christian" man is thus doubly a sinner when he is antinomian and despises God's law: he has denied the law in Adam, and now, with consummate profanity, he denies it in the name of Christ. He thus doubly denies the everlasting covenant, and doubly transgresses the laws.

    R. J. Rushdoony, Law and Society: Volume II of the Institutes of Biblical Law (Vallecito, CA: Ross House Books, 1982), pp. 468, 316. "
    Like · · · · 2 seconds ago
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    Soup McGee
    ‎"Citizenship

    The long-term goal of Christians in politics should be to gain exclusive control over the franchise. Those who refuse to submit publicly to the eternal sanctions of God by submitting to His Church's public marks of the covenant--baptism and holy communion--must be denied citizenship, just as they were in ancient Israel.

    Gary North, Political Polytheism: The Myth of Pluralism (Tyler, TX: Institute for Christian Economics, 1989), p. 87. "
    Like · · · · a few seconds ago
    "Slavery
    The bible permits slavery. This statement will come as a shock to most people. The laws in the Bible concerning slavery have very seldom been studied, much less preached upon. But the biblical laws concerning slavery are among the most beneficent in all the Bible....

    1. Obtaining slaves. Kidnapping is forbidden as a method of acquiring slaves, and deserves capital punishment (Exodus 21:16). Basically, there are only four legal ways to get slaves. They may be purchased (Leviticus 25:44-46), captured in war (Numbers 31:32-35; Deuteronomy 21:10-14), enslaved as punishment for theft (Exodus 22:1-3), or enslaved to pay off debts (Leviticus 25:39; Exodus 21:7). We should especially note God's merciful justice here. Heathen slaves who were purchased or captured in war were actually favored by this law, since It placed them in contact with believers. They received the relatively lenient treatment of the biblical slavery regulations, and they were also able to hear the liberating message of the gospel....

    2. The care of slaves Slaves have no economic incentive to work, since they cannot improve their situation regardless of how hard they labor. Therefore the master is allowed to provide that incentive by beating them (Exodus 21:20-27). Obviously, the slave is not regarded as having equal rights as a free man. But this very fact would keep a man from entering slavery too hastily. Slavery has certain benefits (job security, etc.), but it has serious drawbacks as well. Slavery was not allowed to become irresponsible welfare or paternalism. The law limited the master, however. If he murdered his slave, he was executed (Exodus 21:20). On the other hand, if the slave survived a beating and died a day or two later, there was no punishment (Exodus 21:21); there was no evidence that the master had actually intended to murder him. Again, this risk was a serious incentive against enslaving oneself. God did not want men to heedlessly abandon their freedom, and this law would tend to keep men working hard and living responsibly in order to avoid the threat of losing their liberty and civil rights. Relatively minor but permanent injuries (such as the loss of an eye or a tooth) resulted in the slave's freedom (Exodus 21:26-27). This was also an economic incentive to keep the master from hitting the slave in the face, since a heavy blow could mean the loss of his "investment." Naturally, this law protected slaves from severe mutilation.

    David Chilton, Productive Christians in an Age of Guilt Manipulators (Tyler, TX: Institute for Christian Economics, 1981), pp. 61-62. "


    "The Cultural Mandate

    The cultural mandate is thus the obligation of covenant man to subdue the earth and to exercise dominion over it under God (Gen. 1:26-28). The law is the program for that purpose and provides the God-ordained means of improving and developing plants, animals, men, and institutions in terms of their duty to fulfil God's purpose. In every age, men have a duty to obey God and to train and improve themselves, i.e., to sanctify themselves, in terms of God's law. All enemies of Christ in this fallen world must be conquered. St. Paul, summoning believers to their calling, declared,

    (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled (II Cor. 10:4-6).

    The Berkeley Version renders verse 6 thus: "We are prepared also to administer justice upon all disobedience, when your obedience is fully shown." Moffatt brings out the force of this verse even more clearly: "I am prepared to court-martial anyone who remains insubordinate, once your submission is complete." Moffatt renders verse 5, "I demolish theories and any rampart thrown up to resist the knowledge of God, I take every project prisoner to make it obey Christ."

    St. Paul was talking about the cultural mandate. Before the fall, the task was less complicated. Now man needs regeneration. Thus, the first step in the mandate is to bring men the word of God and for God to regenerate them. The second step is to demolish every kind of rampart or opposition to the dominion of God in Christ. The world and men must be brought into captivity to Christ, under the dominion of the Kingdom of God and the law of that kingdom. Third, this requires that, like Paul, we court-martial or "administer justice upon all disobedience" in every area of life where we encounter it. To deny the cultural mandate is to deny Christ and to surrender the world to the devil.

    R.J. Rushdoony, The Institutes of Biblical Law (Nutley, NJ: Craig Press, 1973), pp. 724-725. "

    "World Conquest

    Christians have an obligation, a mandate, a commission, a holy responsibility to reclaim the land for Jesus Christ - to have dominion in the civil structures, just as in every other aspect of life and godliness.

    But it is dominion that we are after. Not just a voice.

    It is dominion we are afier. Not just influence.

    It is dominion we are after. Not just equal time.

    It is dominion we are after.

    World conquest. That's what Christ has commissioned us to accomplish. We must win the world with the power of the Gospel. And we must never settle for anything less.

    If Jesus Christ is indeed Lord, as the Bible says, and if our commission is to bring the land into subjection to His Lordship, as the Bible says, then all our activities, all our witnessing, all our preaching, all our craftsmanship, all our stewardship, and all our political action will aim at nothing short of that sacred purpose.

    Thus, Christian politics has as its primary intent the conquest of the land - of men, families, institutions, bureaucracies, courts, and governments for the Kingdom of Christ. It is to reinstitute the authority of God's Word as supreme over all judgments, over all legislation, over all declarations, constitutions, and confederations. True Christian political action seeks to rein the passions of men and curb the pattern of digression under God's rule.

    George Grant, The Changing of the Guard (Ft. Worth, TX: Dominion Press, 1987), pp. 50-51. "
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