Biblical Landmarks

What Would a “Spiritual” Revival Look Like?

Charles Hodge, in his history of the Presbyterian Church in the USA, written in the 19th century, was critical of the revival period known as the Great Awakening. Why? His opinion seems to cut against common acceptance that this was a mighty work of revival, and that the Holy Spirit manifested Himself in a particular way during this period.

Charles Hodge (no known relation to this writer) would not accept this view so readily. In his opinion, the church was in a worse state two years after the Awakening than it was two years earlier. Thus, he was not so ready to accept the Awakening was the work of the Holy Spirit.

His criticism, therefore, begs the question. And if you allowed yourself to dream for a few minutes, what would a spiritual revival look like to you?

I dreamed a dream. There was a spiritual revival under way.
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A Mark of Sovereignty

From time to time there are news items explaining why some people find it necessary to leave home. Taxes — property taxes to be precise.

In a period of rising house prices, it is easy to forget that with rises in prices come increasing property taxes. And property taxes can mean financial ruin for many whose income cannot rise to meet the increased tax burden.

One resident in Massachusetts some time ago was suffering when her tax bill increased from $2,200 to $3,500, while income remained fixed at $12,000 a year. The result? Sell the family home, with all its sweat and tears (it was built by the current owner and her late husband) and memories.

While the stock market may be on the move up again and there is little evidence that the real estate market is out of the doldrums, the banking fiasco in the US, together with fevered home buying, indicated personal debt was on the increase. So, too, were home prices, since a good portion of the debt went into home buying. Property prices were bound to increase — and property taxes along with them.
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I was talking this week with someone about King David from the Bible. We talked about his adulterous affair with Bathsheba, the “murder” of her husband and the death of the newborn. Then we went on to talk about the violence and deception that you find among his offspring.

I have often talked about the Biblical curses being much more about learned behavior and attitudes that are passed down. This discussion drove the point home even stronger to me.

God didn’t come down to David and say, “Because of what you did, I am now going to curse your children” nor, in all likelihood, was there a gene for violence that was passed down. What David demonstrated and did was passed down. It was something the children learned from the father.

We teach our children how to deal with situations, not necessarily through our words, but through our actions. An alcoholic has a much higher percentage of alcoholic children than a non-alcoholic. Yes there is a genetic disposition but remember the visual evidence of the addiction is most of the time nothing more than how an addict deals with and avoids life, including emotions and feelings. This same avoidance behavior is what the children learn.

This is just one example of what we teach our children. Typically it is so subtle we don’t even realize we are doing it.

The good news is it works both ways, healthy and unhealthy behaviors.

So what are you teaching your children?

When William the Conqueror established himself on the throne of England he was left with an expensive exercise. Since he could not count on the allegiance of conquered peoples, it was necessary to maintain his military forces in England. This was not popular, because his troops had burned houses during his coronation ceremony and earned an even greater hatred by the English.

This only serves to illustrate that when you desire to rule, you can expect it is necessary to find some way to enforce that rule upon an unwilling group of people.

At least since 1688, it is evident that Parliament, not the king rules. Since Americans have broken the link between the English Parliament and themselves, Congress rules. Any talk about liberty and freedom needs to be seen in that context: freedom circumscribed by whatever Congress happens to dictate.
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“Alfred declares that when Christ came to the Mediterranean World (or ‘Middle Earth’), He Himself did “approve” the “judgments” alias the judicial laws. Very far from ever having abrogated or destroyed them — He Himself therefore still requires that at least their ‘general equity’ be observed.” Dr. F.N. Lee, in his history of Alfred the Great.

R.J. Rushdoony said that the people who study history are the ones who are interested in the future.

And a study of history reveals a different view of the OT law than is popular today.

Dr. Lee has done a great service by writing this history of Alfred, for it provides the theological backdrop to our Anglo-Saxon culture. The shires (counties), hundreds courts, property rights,and much, much more. And Alfred, it should be said, was not the first. The political backdrop known as “federalism” has its roots in the Old Testament and is related to the word “covenant”. These are not popular facts today, because they put the Old Testament into a different light.

Now Alfred lived quite a few centuries before the words “general equity” made their way into the language of Christianity via John Calvin and the Westminster Confession of Faith. So it is drawing a long bow to suggest here that Alfred — the only English king ever called great — is referring to a much, much later view of the OT law. Perhaps Alfred was not referring to a “general equity thereof” but rather the “literal application thereof.” For that’s how his laws read.
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“Jesus gave a higher standard than the ten commandments . . . Jesus disobeyed the law.” Pastor Melissa Scott (Monday Night TV, March 15, 2010)

Rewind your time clock to the second century. Justin Martyr has just written a book, Dialogue With Trypho. In this dialogue, Justin attempts to address accusations that Christians, who claim they are the seed of Abraham, are not keeping the laws handed down to the Israelites.

Justin’s Dialogue leads to the conclusion that Christians don’t have to keep the Torah. Why not? Because those laws are for the Israelites in Israel, and if you’re not an Israelite living in Israel, then there’s a different set of laws for you.

Naturally you’re never told what these replacement laws are. There are some vague “motherhood” statements, but nothing specific. Only one this is certain: you don’t have to keep the laws found in the Torah.
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“The Old is deadly, because it can do nothing but involve the whole human race in a curse; the New is the instrument of life, because those who are freed from the curse it restores to favour with God.” John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book 2, Chapter 11, Section 14.

Did the title of this e-zine get your attention. I hope so. I discovered something recently by reading . . . John Calvin, in this case. I’m not sure he got it right on this occasion. In fact, I know he got it wrong.

If you are a Calvinist, this e-zine may offend you. I apologize if it does. It is not my intention to offend. It is my intention to try to understand and draw conclusions from what Calvin says.

And on this occasion, I do not agree with Calvin. Hence, the e-zine “Why I am not (always) a Calvinist.”

Calvin is at one of his weakest moments in this chapter of Book 2, when he deals with the relationship between Old Testament and New Testament. Calvin does not mince his words. He is no milquetoast when it comes to disagreeing with those who do not agree with his viewpoint, as evidenced in his polemics against the Anabaptists and Libertines.
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When a Dad Worries His Son, The Father Better Have Some Good Answers

I have four sons and a daughter, the firstborn being Matthew. He’s a thinker. And he’s trying to give his father a hard time over some of my comments. Matt’s worried that I’m putting the Torah as a higher authority than the Person of Jesus Christ as revealed in the gospels. Here’s his question:

“What role does the person of Jesus Christ play in all of this?”

Now Matthew is concerned that his father might be going off in a wrong direction, so he’s checking up on his old man to make sure. He comments further,

” Shouldn’t it be Jesus Christ that we look to as the central revolving point of the Scriptures rather than the Torah?”

Good questions. Here’s my reply:
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WHAT IS THE CANON?

This is an important question. And confusion over the answer results in some misunderstandings.

Those involved closely in the debate look at the canon from two perspectives. Both are needed.

The first perspective is that of an authority. It can be in either written or oral form. The Ten Commandments written in stone and the words of Moses were an oral and written tradition, and they were authoritative.

The second idea of canon is that it eventually “came to refer to a perpetual fixation or standardization” (McDonald, The Biblical Canon, p. 55).

A little consideration of these two ideas shows that they are not mutually exclusive. Again to quote McDonald, “the primary debate is over when this literature” took on the status as an authoritative-scriptural manner among the Jews and the Christians. Read the rest of this entry »

“No authoritarian state can tolerate those who have an absolute standard by which to judge its activities” Dr. Francis Schaeffer, in “How Should We Then Live?”

Just when you think the economy is bad enough, forcing people out of work, a new danger emerges forcing people not only from their jobs but in some cases from their houses as well.

It has become an accepted belief around the world that the government–local, state and federal–can do whatever it likes. Unfortunately, it is not just a belief, but it happens in practice as well.

As a result people have been served condemnation notices on their properties in order that the properties might become available to other businesses in the community. Under the guise of better planning, people have had to give up the right to their land and home, and often their livelihood, as the law has been used to evict them off their property in order to make way for someone else.

Under the mistaken notion of eminent domain, authorities around the world treat property as if it were their own, thus making the idea of property ownership an impossible goal for many.
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