Featured Cultural Interaction pt2

This is becoming more of a distraction and quickly perverted the gospel of the Kingdom.
This book and Author [written in 2014] and 2nd edition in 2016, are taking a fresh look at what others tried to do in times past, Kuyper in the Netherlands,puritans etc, and bringing it forward to address some of the deconstructionist, and theonomists.
I looked at and rejected some of those ideas, years ago as defective, although I was sympathetic to some of the teaching and thought.

This book is looking back to what they offered, trying to correct wrong paths they were on, and calling the Church back to a biblical worldview.

 

Yes....Whatever happened to the Human race.True Spiritualality,Genesis,How should we then live? Some of His lectures are on Amazon Prime.,He saw a need to address these issues back then...this new book is trying to advance the discussion.
Did you listen to these lectures that I have posted.
They go beyond Francis Schaffer.

 

from chapter1

 

Others have commented a little bit here and there.

The Reformed Doctrine Of Scripture | Monergism

Cornelius Van Til
In saving us from sin, Christ saves us unto his service. Through the salvation that is ours in Christ by the Spirit, we take up anew the cultural mandate that was given man at the outset of history.

Whether we eat or drink or whatever we do, we want now to do all to the glory of God. Moreover, we want our fellow men with us to do all things to the glory of God. We are bound, as we are eager, to inform them of that which we have been told, namely, that we shall continue to abide under the wrath of God and eventually be cast out into utter darkness unless, by God’s grace, we seek to do all things to the glory of God. Calling upon all men everywhere to join with us in fulfilling the original cultural mandate given to mankind—which we may now undertake because of the redeeming work of Christ—is our joy each day.

The cultural mandate is to be fulfilled in our handling of the facts or events of our environment. Men must subdue, to the service of Christ, the earth and all that is therein. As the Christian constantly does so, he is constantly conscious of the fact that he is working on God’s estate. He is not himself the owner of anything, least of all of himself. He is the bondservant of God through Christ. Therein lies his freedom.

 

Two Books on the Christian Worldview

I. Calvinism a Life-system,
II. Calvinism and Religion,
III. Calvinism and Politics,
IV. Calvinism and Science,
V. Calvinism and Art, and
VI. Calvinism and the Future.

Kuyper presents Calvinism as a life-system of comprehensive and far-reaching effect, discussing its relationship to religion, politics, science, and art, and inquiring into its prospects for the future.

Kuyper developed his perspective in response to 19th-century secular liberalism in The Netherlands that had become oppressive and intolerant.
Kuyper countered it with a type of thorough-going pluralism that would allow full scope to all groupings in society to blossom on their own terms, even the secularism that he considered demonic. This was starkly different from secularism that denied others the freedom to define themselves and sought to force them to live by its definition.

Specifically, secularism invariably seeks to force religion into a straightjacket of private spirituality and individualism that restricts its expression to a so-called sphere of religion, that is, church or mosque. It seeks to reduce the scope of religion to the sphere of the subjective, while it regards secular knowledge as objective and neutral and exclusively suitable for the public square.

Kuyper's form of pluralism would allow for the unfettered development of all religions or worldviews--note the plural--on their own terms, not as defined by secularism, though including secularism.



Lectures on Calvinism - Abraham Kuyper
Kuyper posited the primacy of the religious impulse in human life. The human race is, first of all, a religious race, a race of believers. \

Kuyperianism focuses on religion as the basis of all human life, with religion seen as the point of ultimate loyalty and value in the lives of individuals and communities. .
All the other aspects are shaped by the basic categories of the dominant religion, faith, beliefs or worldview in a given society. Of course religion and the other aspects mutually influence each other, but when all is said and done, the foundation of it all is the religious or, if you prefer, faith or worldview.

Religion is not only the basis of a life, but it is also comprehensive or wholistic in nature.
Again, this is an insight that Kuyperians share with Muslims. Both traditions emphasize that religion is a way of life, not merely a slice of life or a sector that belongs to the realm of church and mosque. Kuyperians ... produce books and articles exploring the relationship between economics, politics, and other cultural aspects to their religion and regard the latter as basic to it all. They reject secularism because it seeks to compartmentalize religion and restrict it to a small area of life, to the personal and private. It squeezes religion into a narrow mold that does not fit its genius.

Kuyperianism recognizes ...an antithesis between the Christian ... and all other worldviews. There is a basic foundational difference between these religions and competing worldviews that drive them into different directions and account for the different national and regional cultures of this world. This is an antithesis between the Spirit of God and all other spirits. Both religions are keenly aware of this antithesis. Both are also aware of the fact that this antithesis can run right through the heart of so-called true believers, for all experience this battle of the spirits in their own lives when, for example, serious inconsistencies occur between their official religion or worldview and their behaviour.

However, Kuyperianism also recognizes common grace, a term referring to the Spirit of God working in and shaping truth even in philosophies and religions that reject Christianity. The basic antithesis between them remains active deep down in the foundation, but it is relativized at the surface level due to the fact that the Spirit of God reveals important truths to all religions and cultures. Because of this common grace, Kuyperianism gratefully recognizes many aspects of truths in other worldviews or faiths and is thus ready to cooperate with them.

 

A christian philosophy of work;
Gen 1:28....2:15

Work is not a necessary evil, not self-centered, not just to gather wealth, Is not less important because is belongs to the temporal rather than the eternal realm. There is not a separation of the secular and sacred.

 

In her book Total Truth;
Nancy Pearcey's conversion came when she recognized that "God had won the argument," and that her response must be to "give my life to the Lord of Truth." In other words, she came to believe that the gospel is true, and that its truth demanded obedience. "Once we discover that the Christian worldview is really true, then living it out means offering up to God all our powers--practical, intellectual, emotional, artistic--to live for Him in every area of life. The only expression such faith can take is one that captures our entire being and redirects our every thought. The notion of a secular/sacred split becomes unthinkable. Biblical truth takes hold of our inner being, and we recognize that it is not only a message of salvation but also the truth about all reality. God's word becomes a light to all our paths, providing the foundational principles for bringing every part of our lives under the Lordship of Christ, to glorify Him and cultivate His creation."

One of Francis Schaeffer's key insights was the split in the modern mind that separated "religious" truth from all other truth. This "two-story" division of truth into secular and sacred spheres ultimately undermines the Christian truth claim and leaves believers with nothing more than a claim to "spirituality" and "meaningful experiences" rather than objective truth and biblical authority.
Nancy Pearcey conducts a thorough autopsy on these deficient patterns of thought, demonstrating throughout her book that all too many Christians fall prey to this kind of thinking. She tells a story of a theology teacher in a Christian high school who drew a heart on one side of his blackboard and a brain on the other. He told his class that the heart is what we use for religion, while the brain is what we employ for science. What this teacher was insinuating is that Christianity is a matter of feeling and emotion, while science is a matter of fact and objective truth. As Pearcey laments, "Training young people to develop a Christian mind is no longer an option; it is part of their necessary survival equipment."

Too many believers, Pearcey insists, "have absorbed the fact/value, public/private dichotomy, restricting their faith to the religious sphere while adopting whatever views are current in their professional or social circles." She continues: "We probably all know of Christian teachers who uncritically accept the latest secular theories of education; Christian businessmen who run their operations by accepted secular management theories; Christian ministries that mirror the commercial world's marketing techniques; Christian families where the teenagers watch the same movies and listen to the same music as their nonbelieving friends. While sincere in their faith, they have absorbed their views on just about everything else by osmosis from the surrounding culture."

 

Preaching Heaven and Hell in the Modern Age | Monergism

BY DAVID WELLS

I want to look at two phrases in our text, Hebrews 2 (cf. Psalm 8). In Psalm 8, you get two totally difference perspectives about man. The cultural mandate in Psalm 8, a mandate never rescinded, but in fact is reaffirmed. The problem is that creation itself has been derailed, and we do not see everything being worked out in terms of the cultural mandate. Indeed, Romans 8, Paul makes striking statements about the creation, namely that creation is subjected to futility, meaning that creation is not reaching its goal for which it was created. Elsewhere, Paul says that creation is going to be set free from its bondage. Even now the creation is groaning and waiting its liberation. It is not only the creation, but we ourselves too who groan, waiting to be liberated. All of life, so it seems, is jarred loose from God. We cannot realize the purpose for which we are made.

For this rule, this redemptive rule of Christ, has been inaugurated, but it has not been consummated. We have a taste of things to come. It is a glorious taste that we do not have what awaits us. So we groan – we groan about our divided selves, sometimes serving Christ, other times serving ourselves. Celebrating the sovereignty of God in all of life, and yet sometimes we are not able to trust God in the actual circumstances in life. Seeing him as the center as the goal of all of life, and yet sometimes becoming so preoccupied with what is happening about us, so consumed that we lose sight of his centrality to all of life. What strange creatures we are! We have been redeemed in full, yet we know that we are not yet fully redeemed. We live in both worlds; one that is passing and dying, and the other which is dawning and coming. This strange hybrids that we are. Don’t we long to see more of the life to come, to be liberated from what seems to be like an anchor that ties us into a world which is so disappointing and painful? If we long for liberation, our spirits are groaning for it, what we are groaning for is heaven. What we are longing for is that time where goodness is so good, it is inconceivable. It will not be accompanied with badness.

 

Here are some reader reviews of this book;
Aug 29, 2017Luis Dizon rated it it was amazing
Shelves: owned-religious
The problem with most contemporary thought regarding missions is the tendency towards a truncated view of God’s plan for the world and Christians’ role within it. The strong focus on the salvation and transformation of individuals, and not so much on how this transformation can be externalized to communities and nations as well—a phenomenon which one Christian thinker refers to as a “flight to the interior.” This means that social thought has become monopolized by those who hold to non-Christian philosophies, who then get to frame the terms by which social thought is discussed. Even those Christians who try to articulate a social vision inadvertently borrow from these philosophies, rather than drawing from the resources of the Christian worldview.

It is good, then, that Dr. Joseph Boot has provided us in The Mission of God a comprehensive, well thought out treatise on how God’s plan does not just involve the salvation of individuals, but the transformation of the world to one that is characterized by godliness. He describes the purpose of the book as follows:

"I have endeavoured in the following pages, to further biblical faith and life through what I hope is an engaging analysis of key themes in contemporary missiology through a reformed, puritan lens. This is done, not simply out of an academic interest in missiological concerns, but because I genuinely believe that the core elements of Puritan thought must be restated with relevance in our time, as central to both the recovery of the church, and the Western world itself from the brink of disaster – a cultural auto-homicide" (p. 17).

In producing this treatise, Boot does not weave entirely news idea out of thin air, but draws upon historic Christianity, especially the Puritan movement that sprung out of the Protestant Reformation. He shows that Christianity provides a coherent social vision, that it alone can provide a stable foundation for society, and how our present societies will not be able to sustain themselves if they abandon those foundations.

The book is divided into two parts: Part One is “The Mission of God: Studies In A Biblical Perspective.” Here, Boot shows that Reformed Christianity did in the past provide a coherent framework for organizing a nation and its institutions. This framework has largely been abandoned in recent centuries as a result of the Enlightenment, as well as because of the rise of aberrant theological ideas such as Dispensationalism, which replaced the old optimistic Reformed outlook with a pessimistic one which mitigates the impetus for social transformation because the focus is instead turned to the removal of believers from this earth via a “secret rapture.” Those who still hold to some sort of Christian social vision do not rely on Biblical Law as their standard for justice, but impose extraneous ideologies to the scriptures. The most noteworthy (and radical) example given by Boot is “Liberation Theology,” which reinterprets the Bible in terms of Marxist class conflict and socialist redistribution. Against this, Boot proposes that Biblical Laws be taken in their own terms, and must be regarded not merely as the ethical code of a bygone era but as having continual relevance to the present day. The idea of the continuity of Old Testament Civil Law may be controversial in a modern Christian context that emphasizes grace over law, but Boot shows that, contrary to modern day mischaracterizations of the Law as being harsh and draconian, it provides the only reasonable standard for justice.

Part two of the book is called “The Reign of God.” Here, Boot fleshes out how a Biblical worldview applies to different areas of life. He speaks of the importance of God’s Word in framing a proper perspective on family life, as well as on the education of children. He shows how secular societies replace the family with the state in the rearing of children. This secular statism seeks to undermine the primacy of the family and fill the vacuum with its own institutions, contrary to Biblical law. He also speaks on Christian apologetics and the need to align our presuppositions with the Christian worldview, showing how modern philosophy short-circuits that a priori commitment by forcing us to commit to human autonomy. Finally, he speaks on evangelism and the church, showing their importance in God’s mission to transform the nations and bring them to obedience to Christ.

In the end, Joseph Boot shows the importance of the Christian faith and its social and ethical implications for bringing hope and justice to the world. All who seek the salvation of every nation, tribe and tongue should heed the biblical principles and injunctions he lays out throughout the book. As he writes towards the end:

"Through faith in Christ, this law and gospel is hope and victory for time and eternity. It is a covenant of hope that must be shared and declared, defended and lived. Christ promised that he would build his church, and hell itself would not prevail against it (Matt. 16:18). We must again in the Western world recover the vital mission of the church that sees its calling as applying the reign of Jesus Christ in all creation" (p. 470).

I highly recommend this book to anyone who seeks to understand our ethical and social responsibilities in light of the Christian faith, whether they are active in the realms of commerce, politics, science, the arts, or pastoral ministry. (less)

 

Mission of God by Joseph Boot | Psalter21

I am not quite finished reading it as I write but already I wholeheartedly endorse Boot’s general thesis. He argues persuasively and very thoroughly indeed that gradually, over the course of time, the contemporary Christian Church has lost its way and settled for a diluted & truncated ‘gospel’ that effectively partitions off whole sections of ordinary life from the claim of Christ’s sovereignty over it. Alas, myriads of evangelical Christians have been bewitched by this subtle satanic lie. Boot’s message is as clear as it is comprehensive – we must recover the all-embracing Christian worldview of our Puritan forbears and thereby re-establish distinctively Modern Puritanism. Regrettably, it is presently out of vogue bearing labels such as Theonomy and/or Christian Reconstruction.

 

https://www.rebelalliancemedia.com/post/read-this-next-the-mission-of-god

Read This Next - The Mission of God



Is there one book that you would recommend that sums up the views of the Reformed Rebels? Good question. I’m glad you asked. There is indeed a book like this. And it is a wakeup call. The Mission of God by Dr. Joseph Boot lays out the case for what the author calls a “new puritanism” which involves “a rigorous examination of the details of the law-word of God in both testaments, and their application to every area of life; both public and private, church and state, personal and familial, in terms of the absolute sovereignty of God” (27). The key aspect of the church’s mission for Boot is the ‘Kingdom reign of Jesus Christ and its extension throughout all creation” (531). In an age where the Church has largely retreated from its surroundings Dr. Boot defends the Church’s mission and biblical calling in our contemporary culture. In its 683 pages he touches on the major issues facing modern evangelicalism. If as a Christian you are gazing on our cultural landscape with foreboding and not quite sure what to do; this book will cure you from your paralysis. I believe it will cure you in three areas: our forgetfulness of our Christian past, our failure to cultivate a holistic Christian worldview, and the neglect of the Law of God. There is no question that many readers will find this book challenging. I would encourage you, however, to take the time and read through this book slowly and multiple times. Its riches are worth the work it takes!

The Mission of God will cure you of your cultural paralysis by calling you to remember our Christian past. One of our refrains from us here at the network is that the postmillennial hope does not preclude ups and downs in culture and the church. Though there is a general trend upward towards the knowledge and glory of Christ, there can be downturns where a culture turns away from God and is thus judged for its disobedience. Boot surveys how our culture was not always God rejecting as it is now. In fact, our heritage was shaped by Calvinistic Puritans who had an optimistic view of the Kingdom of God on earth. Boot shows that there is a Christian view of history and a heritage that has been lost even to the church. The Puritans in Old England and the colonies, along with great men like William Wilberforce and Oliver Cromwell operated under the idea that God was king and they were responsible to His covenant. Boot points out that

because Jesus Christ is sovereign king and ruler over all things and since he calls all men and nations to covenant obedience (Matt. 28:18-20), the Puritans were concerned with the advance and spread of the gospel. The whole world was progressively coming under the dominion of Jesus Christ and so Puritan civilization served as a lamp on a hill for all to see and copy. Since Christianity as a whole and especially the post-millennial outlook (as common amongst the Puritans), is future oriented and not past-bound …, God is always calling his people toward a progressive movement of covenant faithfulness in history. For the Puritan, the gospel commission was not simply an announcement of sins forgiven through the atonement (though it must begin there), but the teaching of all God’s covenant requirements. This included the whole law of God if the mission of God was to be accomplished – this alone was true liberty” (64).
The Puritans did not retreat from culture but attempted to apply to the law of God to every area of life. We have largely abandoned these ideas. Boot points out various reasons for the church’s cultural retreat such as eschatological dualism, two-kingdom theology, antinomianism and false views of justice.

 

One needs to have a full-orbed Christian worldview while doing apologetics. If one does not, they will not be able to relate the big story of salvation, the grand narrative of God. Boot emphasizes the fact that all other interpretations of reality (narratives) need to be explained by placing them under the Lordship of Christ. Christ is the glue that holds all narratives together or otherwise proves competing narratives false. This section of Mission of God will encourage you to develop a Christian worldview when it comes to sharing the gospel with our postmodern, atheist, or inclusivistic neighbors, our education, and our view of the family. These three things are extremely important in our cultural situation today. One of the greatest strengths of this volume is the fact that it speaks into our current condition in the post-Christian west. It no longer will do for the church to ignore its responsibilities in these areas. We must develop again a full-orbed view of the Kingdom of God; all of Christ for all of life.

The most useful aspect of this volume, in my opinion, is how Dr. Boot deals with the Law of God. He lays out his version of a ‘theonomic Puritanism’ and tackles some of the difficult questions surrounding how the Bible applies to law, justice, and penology. Against Two-Kingdom theology, the emergent church, Marxist-leaning social justice theology, and the broad antinomianism existent in the Church today, Boot argues that God’s Law in the Old Testament is applicable to every area of life today. Though aspects of the law, such as Israel’s ceremonial laws, has been fulfilled in Christ and the New Covenant, the church needs to apply the law to every area of life. Though it is often not a straight 1:1 application of Israel’s civil laws, we must attempt to apply the law to our own situation and culture. Boot argues that it is because our culture has retreated from its Biblical legal foundations that we have seen our cultural decline. The Bible is our only source of true justice. There is no justice to be found outside of the Word of the living God. Boot rightly points out that this problem stems from a faulty or truncated view of the gospel because

we see that at the root of the biblical truth of the gospel is a cosmic worldview relating law, justice, restitution and restoration, but when this view of reality falls out of society, restitution, justice and true judgement also begin to disappear from the social order. Where hell and judgement fall out of the church’s theology, just punishment falls out of the justice system. Where the law of God diminishes and the meaning of the cross is undermined, restitution, retribution and restoration, as the basis for criminal justice, start to vanish. This is empirically observable in our society today. Since the church is salt and light in the world, where the church fails to uphold these truths of the gospel, society will inexorably tend to lawlessness. In such a context, sin and crime will steadily flourish with growing impunity and a professional criminal class will develop. Cheap grace then has the social consequence of producing expensive law – a costly proliferation of scientific planners, therapists, correctional systems, positivist laws and various techniques to try to justify and save man by another means; not because he is a sinner (lawbreaker) whose punishment must fit the crime, but because he is sick or maladjusted to his environment, fixable by manipulation, therapy and technique. The enforcement of law then becomes a massive cost because restitution and retribution are not delivered by the courts and system of justice. Instead, a pharisaic and legalistic scientific plan of justification is offered by man’s ingenuity. Thus without the biblical gospel, people do not govern themselves in terms of God’s law but become lawless (298-299).

 

pt3;
In its views about culture and law, the church has largely lost its way. It is not just an argument the oft used clichés of ‘engaging the culture’ or the ‘culture wars’. It is the fact that there is no neutrality in any area of life.
Everyone and every culture has a theology. The laws of the land reflect that theology. The church has largely forgotten its mission to be salt and light in our world. Part of the Great Commission, of course, was Christ’s instruction for the church to disciple the nations. In the vacuum of proper theology, and in many cases its surrender of the true gospel, our culture has turned to the antithesis; an ungodly Caesar and its proposed remedies. We can’t ignore the difficult questions about the how the bible applies to law, politics and culture. This book revive a biblical view of the law and justice hopefully begin to allow the church to deal with these difficult issues.

One question this brings up then is what does the bible say about just punishment? Aren’t there outdated laws in the Old Testament against adultery, rebellious sons, slavery and the like? Boot does the church a service by synthesizing older and modern day puritans and giving us an introduction in biblical penology. He doesn’t just leave the reader with broad principles, but attempts to give many practical examples of how biblical law and penology would play out in a modern society. He especially is helpful with some of these more difficult questions surrounding the death penalty which seem harsh to our modern-day sensibilities. This section is extremely helpful for those unfamiliar with the theonomic view of penology. It would take a too long to summarize these point by point so I will quote Dr. Boot’s summary of his view of biblical penology at length:

a) All human governments are ultimately held accountable to God, in terms of his law and standards, not their own arbitrary codes. However, biblical law cannot be imposed ‘top down’ by any authoritarian structure, but must be embraced by a society (the consent of the people) committed to Christ and his covenant law. Such a people will demand righteous laws.

b) Taking into account all of Scripture, biblical law upholds the death penalty as exemplary. It is either mandatory (in cases of murder), recommended, or potentially appropriate for a number of serious criminal offenses against the sanctity of the life, the family and marriage, as well as a flagrant and contemptuous assault on God and his social order by instigation and incitement to idolatry – constituting treason. All other offenses require monetary restitution, banishment or corporal punishment. Prison is not part of biblical law except for temporary custody whilst awaiting trial.

c) The death penalty is not mandatory in all capital cases, allowing for the considerable judicial flexibility, taking into account the aggravated nature of the offense, particular circumstances and various forms of restitution. It has also been modified by further revelation for certain offenses in the New Testament era (i.e. Sabbath violation).

d) The church does not bear the sword of the state, but must recognize (as St. Paul did) the validity of the death sentence and declare it spiritually by excommunicating unrepentant capital offenders from the life of the church. As modelled by the early church, in cultures which do not execute punishment against serious offenses against the law of God, repentant offenders can be restored to the fellowship of the body, but may be barred from the communion for a significant period of time.

e) A Christian culture, similar to those seen in historical precedents like Calvin’s Geneva, Zwingli’s Zurich, Bucer’s Strasburg, Reformed Scotland (John Knox), Puritan England (Oliver Cromwell), and colonial America (John Cotton), would uphold the death penalty as exemplary (the example of maximum sentence for violation) in capital offenses; bearing in mind that monetary restitution, corporal punishment and exile are also available to judges and magistrates in cases excepting ‘first degree’ murder.

f) Because of biblical laws of evidence being purposely rigid, securing convictions was, and would be, very challenging, and because of the serious character of penalties, judges and juries who had lingering doubts in a given case would commute the death sentence, as seen in Cromwell’s England with regard to laws against adultery.

g) Capital crimes would be extremely rare in a Christian culture because the law acts as a restraint upon wickedness and because the gospel transforms lives. Where certain sexual practices God deems worthy of the death penalty were indulged, the social censure would be such that those practices would be driven underground and neither celebrated nor endorsed by society, thereby eliminating their public influence (351-352).

These points counter the usual criticisms of theonomic penology. Boot notes that biblical law can only be enforced upon a biblical and Christian society. This cannot be a ‘top down’ imposition of the state. It is also helpful in pointing out the separate spheres of sovereignty of the family, church, and state. The church does not bear the sword of the state. The Medieval church often made this mistake numerous times in its history. The death penalty is not the only thing available to judges and there would need to be overwhelming proof of a conviction; therefore the death penalty would be rare in a Christian society. Boot offers and encouraging conclusion to this topic that we will use for our closing:

whilst I do not claim in this chapter that the Puritan perspective is the only one that can call itself Christian, I am convinced it is the best, most culturally pertinent and the most biblical expression amongst the Christian perspectives on law and penology. A theonomic missiology thus argues that the weakness and decline of the modern church and its relative ineffectiveness is directly related to its abandonment of the law. This in turn has undermined justice in the courts, contributing to the growing collapse of our society. All is not lost however. Christ is still on his throne and ruling at his Father’s right hand. Faithfulness amongst God’s people now can bring great change for the future if we will take responsibility and put our hands to the plough for the sake of future generations (358).

 

A Tale of Two Kingdoms by Michael Horton

Here is s an opposing point of view.

 

11 For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,

12 Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;

13 Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;

14 Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.

on page45 Martin Luther is quoted as saying;
Whoso has Christ has rightly fulfilled the law, But to take away the law altogether, which sticks in nature and is written in our hearts and born in us, is a thing impossible and against God.

Contrast that with Adolf Hitler;
The day will come when I shall hold up against these commandments the tablets of a new law. And History will recognize our movement as the great battle for humanity's liberation, a liberation from the "curse of mount Sinai."Against the so-called Ten Commandments,against them we are fighting.

Then Joe Boot comments;
Hitler's god was not the God of scripture: his god was a lawless principle of power and pleasure.
Many people in our culture would not be particularly shocked by these words today because they agree with them [so long as Hitlers name was not attached to the reference] Stalin's Soviet Union tried to eradicate the law of God.
Our culture is swiftly manifesting a like vitriolic hatred for God's word.

 

pg47;
As goes the church, so goes the world, and so our current cultural crisis can be traced to the compromises of the church, and the private and public loss of the law-word of God by the severing of the connection between theology[religion] and every area of life.
This severance begins in the pulpit, radically affects the pew, and then spreads to the culture.

pg48;
It seems inevitable then, without a recovery of the gospel and God's total word, for church and society, without a return to the theological[religious] foundation of social order, our very freedoms and liberties, peace, justice, and truth will disappear until a faithful missionary endeavour can recover a degenerate Western culture.

 

Abraham Kuyper commented; [lectures on Calvinism]

Calvinism had its rise in all the countries of Western Europe, and it did not appear, among those nations. because the University was in its van, or because scholars led the people, or because a magistrate placed himself at their head: but it sprang from the hearts of the people themselves, with weavers and farmers, with tradesmen and servants, with women and young maidens; and in every instance it exhibited the same characteristic: viz., strong Assurance of eternal Salvation, not only without the intervention of the Church, but even in opposition to the Church. The human heart had attained unto eternal peace with its God: strengthened by this Divine fellowship, it discovered its high and holy calling to consecrate every department of life and every energy at its disposal to the glory of God: and therefore, when those men or women, who had become partakers of this Divine life, were forced to abandon their faith, it proved impossible, that they could deny their Lord; and thousands and tens of thousands burned at the stake, not complaining but exulting, with thanksgiving in their hearts and psalms upon their lips. Calvin was not the author of this, but God who through His Holy Spirit had wrought in Calvin that which He had wrought in
them. Calvin stood not above them, but as a brother by their side, a sharer with them of God's blessing. In this way, Calvinism came to its fundamental interpretation of an immediate fellowship with God, not because Calvin invented it, but because in this immediate fellowship God Himself had granted to our fathers a privilege of which Calvin was only the first to become clearly conscious. This is the great work of the Holy Spirit in history, by which Calvinism has been consecrated, and which interprets to us its wondrous energy.
There are times in history when the pulse of religious life beats faintly; but there are times when its beat is pounding, and the latter was the case in the 16th century among the nations of Western Europe. The question of faith at that time dominated every activity in public life. New history starts out from this faith, even as the history of our times starts from the unbelief of the French Revolution. What law this pulse-like movement of religious life obeys, we cannot tell, but it is evident that there is such a law, and that in times of high religious tension the inworking of the Holy Spirit upon the heart is irresistible; and this mighty inworking of God was the experience of our Calvinists, Puritans and Pilgrim Fathers. It was not in all individuals to the same degree, for this never happens in any great movement; but they who formed the centre of life in those times, who were the promoters of that mighty change, they experienced this higher power to the fullest: and they were the men and women of every class of society and nationality who by God Himself were admitted into communion with the majesty of His eternal Being. Thanks to this work of God in the heart, the persuasion that the whole of a man's life is to be lived as in the Divine Presence has become the fundamental thought of Calvinism. By this decisive idea, or rather by this mighty fact, it has allowed itself to be controlled in every department of its entire domain. It is from this mother-thought that the all embracing life system of Calvinism sprang.

 

There is no uniformity among men, but endless multiformity. In creation itself the difference has been established between woman and man. Physical and spiritual gifts and talents cause one person to differ from the other. Past generations and our own personal life create distinctions. The social position of the rich and poor differs widely.

Now, these differences are in a special way weakened or accentuated by every consistent life system, and Paganism and Islamism, Romanism as well as Modernism, and so also Calvinism have all taken their stand in this question in accordance with their primordial principle.


If, as Paganism contends, God dwells in the creature, a divine superiority is exhibited in whatever is high among men. In this way it obtained its demigods, hero-worship, and finally its sacrifices upon the altar of Divus Augustus. On the other hand, whatever is lower is considered as godless, and therefore gives rise to the systems of caste in India and in Egypt, and to slavery everywhere else, thereby placing one man under a base subjection to his fellowmen.

Under Islamism, which dreams of its paradise of houries,8 sensuality usurps public authority, and the woman is the slave of man, even as the kafir9 is the slave of the Moslim.

Romanism, taking root in Christian soil, overcomes the absolute character of distinction, and renders it relative, in order to interpret every relation of man to man hierarchically. There is a hierarchy among the angels of God, a hierarchy in God's Church, and so also a hierarchy among men, leading to an entirely aristocratic interpretation of life as the embodiment of the ideal.


Finally Modernism, which denies and abolishes every difference, cannot rest until it has made woman man and man woman, and, putting every distinction on a common level, kills life by placing it under the ban of uniformity. One type must answer for all, one uniform, one position and one and the same development of life; and whatever goes beyond and above it, is looked upon as an insult to the common consciousness. In the same way Calvinism has derived from its fundamental relation to God a peculiar interpretation of man's relation to man, and it is this only true relation which since the 16th century has ennobled social life,


If Calvinism places our entire human life immediately before God, then it follows that all men or women, rich or poor, weak or strong, dull or talented, as creatures of God, and as lost sinners, have no claim whatsoever to lord over one another, and that we stand as equals before God, and consequently equal as man to man.